A Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Saundaryalahari (DPDS - 01)

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

A few words of INTRODUCTION:

For the benefit of those who do not know about the Paramacharya

here is a brief biographical note:

Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal (1894 - 1994), also

called the Paramacharya, was the sage of Kanchi in Tamilnadu,

India, who was so simple, humble, profound, enlightened,

compassionate, scholarly and full of Grace that he naturally and

effortlessly touched the hearts of men and women, prince and

pauper, around the world. Ascending to the Headship of the

Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt at the age of thirteen as the 68th pontiff

in the line of succession from Adi Sankara, he ministered to the

needs of the afflicted and the distressed and spread the message

of compassion and of a return to the most treasured ancient

values. After a mission like this full of action for almost half

a century which included a 30-year walking pilgrimage of the

entire subcontinent of India, he laid down his headship and

devoted his time, for the next forty years, to severe penance

for universal welfare. Not one of those thousands who had his

darshan every day missed to feel the soul-stirring presence of

'the Living God' in their veins.

-------------------------

A NOTE ON THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS DIGEST:

The name ‘Digest’ itself is too much of a claim by this writer,

who is currently studying the discourses in Tamil (on

Soundaryalahari – a 100-sloka piece, in Sanskrit) of the

Paramacharya, in ‘Deivathin Kural’ – meaning, ‘The Voice of God’

– in Tamil, in the sixth volume of the seven-volume series of

that name, recorded by and, rewritten in, the inimitable

style of, Ra. Ganapathi. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, it

appears has published an English summary of this. But instead of

trying to read that English version, I decided to test myself

whether I had understood at least a part of the Acharya’s

thoughts. The best way of testing oneself is to try to

communicate to others. The advaitin group does have, in its

membership, a number of readers interested in the subject. Some

of them know Tamil and probably would have read Ra Ganapathi’s

book in the original. Some others may have read the English

version. But the purpose of this digest is TO BRING THE ADVAITA

PART (and the relevant questions that arise usually in the

discussions that are very common in the group postings) TO THE

FOCUS AND ACQUAINT OURSELVES WITH THE PARAMACHARYA’S VIEWS,

WONDERFUL ELABORATIONS AND COMMENTS ON THE SUBJECT. In

consonance with this objective, it is not the intention to

cover all the slokas even out of the 42, the only ones which

the Paramacharya himself has covered in full (he has covered

another 37 in part, another 10 just in passing, and has not

touched at all the remaining 11, which are sloka Nos.19, 32, 68,

72, 76 to 81, 85). Even within the exposition of a particular

sloka, large portions may have to be omitted by me. In spite of

all this the ‘Digest’ – contrary to the meaning of the word - is

likely to be rather long, about 50 to 60 (only an estimate as

of now) two-page postings (around 1000 words each), three times

a week, on the advaitin list. Note that the original extends

to 754 pages (pp.577 to 1331 of the sixth volume). The attempt

shall be made, therefore, to be as brief as possible. But,

wherever it is found that the Paramacharya’s already lucidly

forceful and simple explanations cannot be ‘digested through a

further precis or summary’, one will have to resort to almost

a close (or free !) translation of his words as reported by Ra.

Ganapathi. And also note that, (1) I, as the digest writer,

cannot be expected to dwell on those portions of the discourses

that are not reasonably clear to me, and (2) it may be easy to

pull out just a sentence here or there from what I write and see

wrong or absurd meanings in it; if this happens let us remember

to go back to the Paramacharya himself and try to understand his

explanations in entirety, rather than spend time at straws in

VK’s imperfect digest. With these preliminary words let me start

on this venture, which is actually a swAdhyAya-yajna, that is, a

yajna of study. May the Paramacharya himself as well as my own

Guru and father, (late) Sri R. Visvanatha Sastri, guide me in

this endeavour and see that I don’t misrepresent either the

Paramacharya or the Soundaryalahari !

 

-------------------------------

ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 'DIGEST':

The entire exposition is by the Paramacharya. So the first

person pronoun, wherever it occurs, is his. The ‘I’ of

advaita-vedanta is always within quotes. Additional

explanations given by Ra. Ganapathi are so acknowledged.

Parenthetical remarks by him, like ‘with a smile’, ‘after a

small pause’ etc. that all refer to the speaker, the

Paramacharya, are repeated, if at all, as they are in the

original, within parentheses. My own remarks, if any, shall be

properly demarcated. And note that the Paramacharya most often

refers to Adi Sankaracharya as ‘Our Acharya’.

-------------------------------

A DIGEST OF PARAMACHARYA'S DISCOURSES ON SAUNDARYALAHARI - 1

 

“How could Adi Sankara, who preached the jnAna mArga, have

promoted this work (Soundaryalahari) of bhakti? It cannot be

his,” say some who profess ‘Philosophy’. But our Acharya was

not a professor who isolated philosophy as a separate

discipline. Having written very profoundly on advaita and its

deepest implications in his several Bhashyas and the other works

of his, he promoted the spiritual pursuit of the common man by

writing and talking about the need to follow one’s swadharma by

Karma and Bhakti. His intent was to raise the common man from

his own level. For this purpose he went from one pilgrim centre

to another all his life and composed hymns after hymns and also

established yantras in temples.

The philosophers argue: JnAni says everything is One. But Bhakti

can happen only when there is the duality of the devotee and the

deity. Therefore, they say, the jnAni can never be a bhakta.

These philosophers cannot themselves claim to have the

Enlightenment of advaita ! But there have been those who could

have so claimed, like the sage Suka, Madhusudana Saraswati or

Sadasiva-brahmam. If we carefully study their lives we will know

that they were devotees of God in the fullest sense of the word

and have themselves written works of Bhakti. Even in our own

times Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has been a great devotee of Mother

Goddess and Ramana Maharishi has done works of devotion on God

Arunachalesvara. Again, on the other side, great devotees like

Manikka-vasagar, Nammazhvar, Arunagiri-nathar, Tayumanavar, etc.

have themselves been convinced advaitins, and this is reflected

in innumerable flashes in their compositions.

If a jnAni should not do a Bhakti composition, then I would say

that he should not also do a work of jnAna. Why am I saying

this? Let us go back to the definition of a jnAni. ‘ The world

is all mAyA; the thinking of people as if they were separate

separate jIvAtmAs is nothing but Ignorance’ - with such a

conviction through personal experience, they have thrown away

that Ignorance as well as its basic locus, the mind, and they

live in the non-dualistic state of ‘ ‘I’ am everything’ – such

should be the status of the jnAni; shouldn’t it be so? Such a

person preaching, or writing a book, even if it be about the

subject of jnAna – is it not a contradiction? Unless such a

person thinks there is a world outside of him and there are

jIvAtmAs outside, how can he think of ‘teaching’? Teaching whom?

And when we look at it this way, all those great teachers of

jnAna should really not be jnAnis ! What power will there be for

such a teaching about jnAna from teachers who are not jnAnis

themselves?

 

(To be continued)

 

PranAms to all advaitins

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

dear prof,

namaskarams.

you said why a jani should do bhakti. if you see even adi shankara

composed many hymns to develop bhakti in his later years after

advocating his avaita, as he knew in kaliyuga, it may not be posible

for everyone to do thapas or yoga to realise the self, and he left it

to few like ramana, kanchi maha periyaval and sadguru gnananda giri

of tapovanam to show the way to all.in his preface to ms's bhaja

govindam sri rajaji says this ''adi shankara wrote a number of

vedantic works for imparting knowledge of the self and universal

trouth. He also composed hymans to develop bhakti in the hearts of

men. One of these is the famous "BHAJA GOVINDAM". The way of devotion

is not different from knowledge or jiana.

if intelligent matures and lodges firmly in the mind it becomes

wisdom. if wisdom is integrated with love and issues out in action it

becomes bhakti. if knowledge does not get transformed into bhakti,

then such knowledge is useless itself. even if sri adi shankara who

drank the ocean of jiana as one sip water from ones hand, sang in his

later years hymns to develop bhakti it is enough to show that jiana

and bhakti are one and the same'.

i have been fortunate to be living( he is my neighbour) with sri ra

ganapathi who wrote the book on maha periyaval. iam glad you

mentioned about him.

 

pranams.

cdr bvn

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "cdr b vaidyanathan"

<vaidyanathiyer> wrote:

> dear prof,

> namaskarams.

> you said why a jani should do bhakti. if you see even adi shankara

> composed many hymns to develop bhakti

> pranams.

> cdr bvn

 

Namaste, vaidyanathierji,

I think you are too soon jumping to conclusions. First of all I am

only summarising what the Paramacharya said, as reported by Ra.

Ganapathi.So no thought is mine, unless so acknowledged (Please read

my 'Organization of the Digest'). Secondly, this is only the first

of 50 to sixty postings that I have planned. In fact the

Paramacharya is going to elaborate (as you will see in the

succeeding posts) all the points you have raised. Therefore, please

wait until you have seen the further postings in this series. Thank

you.

praNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

[Guest guest]

Dear Professor,

 

Thanks for embarking on this digest. I will follow along as

schedule permits as this is very interesting to me.

 

--- "V. Krishnamurthy" wrote:

 

<< If a jnAni should not do a Bhakti composition, then I

would say that he should not also do a work of jnAna. Why am

I saying this? Let us go back to the definition of a jnAni.

‘ The world is all mAyA; the thinking of people as if they

were separate separate jIvAtmAs is nothing but Ignorance’ -

with such a conviction through personal experience, they

have thrown away that Ignorance as well as its basic locus,

the mind, and they live in the non-dualistic state of ‘ ‘I’

am everything’ – such should be the status of the jnAni;

shouldn’t it be so? Such a person preaching, or writing a

book, even if it be about the subject of jnAna – is it not a

contradiction? Unless such a person thinks there is a world

outside of him and there are jIvAtmAs outside, how can he

think of ‘teaching’? Teaching whom? And when we look at it

this way, all those great teachers of jnAna should really

not be jnAnis ! >>

 

So there is an inherent contradiction in teaching nonduality

since the concept of teacher plus student is itself

dualistic.

 

<< What power will there be for such a teaching about jnAna

from teachers who are not jnAnis themselves? >>

 

I'm not sure where Paramacharya is going at this point.

 

It seems logical that most people "cannot know for sure" if

a person is a jnAni. I cannot read your mind (or lack

thereof). Children were mesmerized by Maharshi but children

are also mesmerized by circus clowns (no disrespect

intended, emphasis on what mesmerizes).

 

It appears that a jnAni cannot teach without acknowledging

the "relative realm" she came from. I suppose some folks

have a radical experience of the egoless state and never

come back to share.

 

thanks,

dave.

[Guest guest]

Pranams Professor-Ji.

 

You have embarked on a very commendable effort and chosen the subject

I love most. Best of luck.

 

I haven't had the good luck to read the work you are referring to. I

go by the interpretation of a Malayalee scholar, Sri Kandiyur

Mahadeva Sastrigal. Certain parts of his scholarly analysis are

still beyond me. However, I find his work most stimulating and may

like to quote him as you go ahead with your on-coming posts. I hope

I will have his permission and grace to do so.

 

As an advaitin, I consider the differentiation expressed by most

between bhakti and jnana most unfortunately confounding. It is a

confusion that all of us can do without as bhakti and jnana are the

two sides of the same coin - or, in other words, just the same.

Sankara certainly was wholly in his advaitic mode, therefore, when he

authored the beautifully intoxicating verses. He was in fact dealing

with the advaitin's Consciousness. The forms and attributes are just

incidental if we can discern that Consciousness pervading

everything. If everything is just me, then where is duality, where

is a devotee and where is a deity? We are then in love with

everything - fully immersed in an overpowering intoxication where

differentation fears to tread. Isn't that advaita?

 

I am, therefore,looking forward to reading your interesting posts on

the subject.

 

Pranams once again to all advaitins.

 

Madathil Nair

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

Few years back, one of our list moderators, Sri Gummuluru Murthy

posted a series of postings on Soundarya Lahari with transliterated

verses along with a translation. Members who want to review his

postings can revisit the archives. The first posting appear in

October, 1999 and message reference is shown below:

 

advaitin/message/2518

 

The entire verses along with translation are also available at the

site:

 

http://www.ambaa.org/saundarya/saundarya1.htm

 

A quick review by the members will help them to appreciate ProfVK's

compiled digest of Paramacharya's discourses. We are quite fortunate

to get Paramacharya's vision of Saundaryalahari through the pen of

ProfVK.

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

advaitin, "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk>

wrote: