A Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS - 03)

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Namaste.

Recall: About 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. ALL THE THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE

THOSE OF THE PARAMACHARYA, EXCEPT WHEN ACKNOWLEDGED OTHERWISE.

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’.

V. Krishnamurthy

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Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari - 3

 

Either She might totally eradicate your mind and give you the

peaceful state of ‘I am shiva’ (shivoham) or She might tell you

from within:

“Look, after all, all this is My Play. The Play appears real to

you because of mAyA. I shall totally erase that mAyA-view for

you. Then you can also be like me, with that calm non-dual bliss

inside and having on the outside a mind which is untouched by

mAyA. Thereby you can also be a witness to all this worldly

Dance. You will thus see yourself in Me and see Me in all the

worldly multiplicities. In other words instead of making the

mind non-existent, your mind will then be full of Me”

And She might make you just exactly that way. But I know your

worry. You constantly worry about the impossibility of

transcending mAyA, of eradicationg this worldly vision and of

vanquishing the mind. You keep worrying to the extent of almost

weeping over it. To such a weiling seeker She replies:

“Why do you worry and weep like this? You are worrying that you

cannot discard the world from your view. But you forget that the

world was not your making. This Sun and Moon, mountains, trees,

oceans, animal kingdom, and the millions of living beings and

categories – all this was not created by you.

“When that is so, you are worrying about the little ‘you’ that

you are, and you forget that this little ‘you’ also was not your

creation. Instead of thinking all this is not only one but one

with Me, your mAyA-clouded view makes you think they are all

different and distinct. And even that mAyA-view that clouds you,

again was not your making!

“My dear child, you are caught up in the web of the world, a

mind and a mAya-cloud -- all this is My making. Did I not make

Krishna say to you: mama mAyA duratyayA ? (My mAyA is

intranscendable). I have also told you there that it is ‘daivI’

(made by the Power of God). If you had made it all, then you

could have overcome them. But it was all made by Me in the

fullness of Power.

“You jIvas have only little fragments of that Power. So if you

cannot eradicate the world, the mind and the mAya that I have

made, you don’t have to cry over it. It is not in your Power. It

has to take place only by My Grace. Come nearer to Me through

Devotion ! I shall do the eradication in proper doses for you.

“That somebody is able to control his mind and is able to walk

on the path of jnAna – that again is My own Grace. It is I who

have granted that privilege to him. What appears as many and

different must be seen as one. To crave for that view is what is

called ‘advaita-vAsanA’. One gets it only by My Grace”.

(Now the Paramacharya, who has been talking in the words of the

Mother Goddess, continues on his own).

There is another novelty here. Even the jnAni who has had the

non-dual Enlightenment, still enjoys the play of mAyA. He sees

the different things; but knows they are all one. Just as a

spectator of a play who is not playing any role in it, the

jnAni enjoys the playful novelties of mAyA and revels in his

devotion to that parA-Sakthi who is the author of it all. To be

keeping such jnAnis in this dual-non-dual state is also the

work of Mother Goddess. Mark it. It is not that the jnAni is

showing Devotion just for the sake of others only. No, By

himself he is indeed thinking

( I think the Paramacharya is here

letting out an autobiographical tip ! -- VK)

 

‘What a pleasure to witness this dualistic play of the

non-dualistic One ! What a multiplicity of beauty, panoramic

variety and continuity of Love !’ . Thus revelling in that

blissful vision, he continues to pour out his own love (bhakti)

to that Transcendental Power from the bottom of his heart. This

tribute to the jnAni has been given by the great Teacher Suka

himself.

(Cf. Bhagavatam 1-7-10:

AtmArAmAshca munayaH nirgranthA apy-urukrame;

kurvanty-ahaitukIm bhaktim itham-bhUta-guNo hariH. – meaning,

Those who revel in the Self, even though rid of all attachments,

show a causeless bhakti towards the Lord, just naturally.)

 

On the one hand the devotee who has yet to get the

Enlightenment enjoys the devotional state for the very reason of

getting the Enlightenment; on the other hand, the one who is

already enlightened and is a jIvan-mukta shows his bhakti for

the sake of enjoyment of that bhakti and not for any other

reward or purpose.

(To be Continued).

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PraNAms to all advaitins and devotees of Mother Goddess

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.