Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari(DPDS-25)

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Namaste.

FOR NEW READERS of this series, it may be worthwhile to go back

to the Introduction about the objective of this Digest and the

Note on the Organization (both at advaitin Message No.18425;

message no.5273; advaita-L message No.14046;

Sadhana_shakti message no.334).

Let us recall that the entire contents of the Digest are from

the Paramacharya’s ideas and words, including the first person

reference to himself, except for my English rendering. Wherever

he uses specific English words himself, I have drawn the

attention of the reader to that fact. Recall particularly that

‘our Acharya’ or ‘The Acharya’ in the discourses, means ‘Adi

Sankaracharya’.

V. Krishnamurthy

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A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari - 25

(Digest of pp.883-887 of Deivathin kural)

 

Note: This is a difficult part. So I have given almost

a close translation rather than a ‘Digest’. - VK

 

It is not necessary to go the Kundalini way. Whatever path you

take, whatever method of upAsanA (spiritual worship) you follow,

without having to go through the regimen of the kundalini yoga,

if you sincerely follow any one path with an one-pointed faith,

you will, when you reach a certain advanced stage, get those

breathing-in and breathing-out experiences exactly as you would,

in a yoga sAdhanA, all by itself. You may not even feel it. It

will get transformed by itself. In a still more advanced stage,

when we are in one-ness with the object of our upAsanA, the

breathing may even be stationary in the kumbhaka state.

 

In ordinary mundane activities of ours we usually exhale by the

left nostril. On the other hand, the same exhaling, if you

carefully observe it, will come by the right nostril, when you

have just had a noble elevating experience of peace like the

darshan of a deity or of a saintly sage. At a higher stage, the

exhaling will be equal in both nostrils, to the extent that, it

will then be only one step short of staying in the kumbhaka

state, but at the same time, without any tendency to suffocate,

the whole system being light and comfortable – all these changes

in the breathing will certainly occur.

And thus, at the end, one may even reach the penultimate state

to advaita-siddhi, namely, the movement of breath reaches the

top, touches the divine feet of ambaal and the nectar starts

flowing! Even in our ordinary day-to-day life, if we have an

extraordinary experiencee of happiness, we sometimes suffocate

and swoon; that is actually a reflection of the taste of

kumbhakam. That also is a fragment of a fragment of the

experience of the sprouting of the nectar at the top of the

head !

 

I am telling you all this just to point out that even in the

path of bhakti such superlative experiences do occur.

Just have a look at the great devotional songs and poems of

confirmed devotees of God, like the shaiva saints of Tamilnadu,

the vaishnava Alvars, the devotees from Maharashtra, Bengal,

North India, Sufi saints, and also of Christianity. All these

songs will only flash the many yogic experiences and spiritual

experiences of enlightenment.

 

It is not just yoga and jnAna. We should also mention the

experience of Love, premA. When we talked of fundamentals like

ichA-shakti, Kameshvara and Kameshvari, it is all very subtle

and pure Love. The word ‘kAmam’ brings to our mind various

connotations. It may be thought that the fact of a sannyasi

talking about it strikes a discordant note. But in reality, in

terms of an esoteric context there is no fault there. It only

indicates by symbols that Shakti intertwined with the substratum

of Peace is what creates ‘Creation’. There is nothing wrong

here. That is why ambaal brings the experience of premA (Love)

along with those of yoga and of jnAna, to many great people, at

the very end of their sAdhanA.

 

In the evolution of the Origin into multiplicity, the very first

thing that happens is the icchA (Wish, Desire) and the

Love-pair. So also, at the very end of the sAdhanA for the

involution of the jIva into the Source, the sAdhakA goes

through the nAyikA stage just before the last stage of the Union

with the Supreme. That is the stage of identity with Shakti.

That is when there is an anguish for union with the nAyaka, that

is, Shivam. It is in that anguish one surrenders totally with

the attitude: “I am incapable of doing anything. It is all Your

Wish”.

 

Then even that desire to merge in Shiva disappears and there

remains only the Will of the Lord. In other words, the

involution that the jIva made with deliberate effort merges in

that first evolution of Shiva. At that point, as far as that

jIva is concerned, Shiva Himself, without expanding in

evolution, involutes within Himself and receives the jIva into

Him. Think of a flood of flowing water. Put some object into

it. The waves will toss it back and forth and push it over to

the bank. This is natural. But when there is a great vortex in

the current, it takes the object into itself and consumes it.

This is what happens here also.

 

(In the above paragraph Ra Ganapathi in his Tamil version

does not use any Tamil or Indian language word

for ‘Involution’ and ‘Evolution’.

Obviously, the Paramacharya himself must have used

these english words only. – VK)

 

The first ‘wish’ of Shiva, and the last ‘wish’ of the jIva

together coalesce into a symbolic Love here! We can get

confirmations for this from the songs of great devotees across

the world and acoss religions. The songs of Manickavasagar and

Mirabhai have excellent parallels in the songs of Sufi Saints

and Christian mystics. It is all an experience of Yoga, jnAna

and PremA.

 

Though we have said that it is the ‘wish of Shiva’ and ‘wish of

jIva’ , it is all only the cit-movement of ambaal only. Only

when the complete merger has taken place it is shivam. So when

we say that He takes something into Him, that action itself is

Hers only.

 

I just talked about the highest yoga-experiences that occur in

the path of bhakti. Without going into yogic sAdhanA or tAntric

sAdhanA, if one follows the bhakti path with the attitude: “All

this is beyond me, Oh Mother, You are my Refuge”, then even the

self-pride that ‘I am doing a great sAdhanA’ will not arise. The

Mother Herself will lift up even the lowliest and grant him the

highest experience.

 

One might feel let down that he cannot get that flow of nectar

from the full moonlight-glow that occurs when the prANa-shakti

reaches the thousand-petalled lotus called sahasrAra. One need

not regret the absence of this experience.

‘pariNata-candra-vadanA’ says the sloka 7. That full-moon-face

is easy to be kept in mind. Stick to it. Think of the nectar

flowing from the graceful glance from those eyes and the nectar

of the blissful smile of that face . She gives you what you

thought about and grants you the internal light of the moon and

an internal flow of nectar.

(To be Continued)

 

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.