Sringeri Acharyal's Aradhana and the role of Grace in Sadhana

[Guest guest]

Today happens to be the Aradhana day of Sri Abhinava VidyaTheertha

Mahaswamigal (current Achayal's Guru). I was thinking of saying a

few words about the Acharya first - then something I read from the

online edition of "Spiritual discourses of Sri Atmananda" caught my

attention. This describes Sri Abhinava VidyaTheertha Swamigal much

better than I can ever do.

 

// Notes on Spiritual discourses of Sri Atmananda, Page 187

 

In order to take the role of a Guru or an Acarya, one has to make

oneself sufficiently acquainted with the experiences in each of the

different paths of jnyana, bhakti, and yoga.

 

This is necessary in order that the aspirants coming with partial

and preliminary experiences, helpful or perverted, in any of these

paths might be safely directed along the paths of their own taste

and choice, and their difficulties in their own paths explained to

their satisfaction.

 

Such Acaryas are of course extremely rare, not to be found even in

the course of several centuries.

//

 

Here is an excerpt from one of Acharyal's speeches on a sloka from

Sivananda Lahiri

 

aN^kolaM nijabiijasantatir ayaskaantopalaM suuchikaa

saadhvii naijavibhuM lataa kshitiruhaM sindhuH saridvallabham

..h |

praapnotiiha yathaa tathaa pashupateH paadaaravindadvayaM

chetovR^ittirupetya tishhThati sadaa saa bhaktirityuchyate ||

61||

 

Just as it's own series of seeds reaches the

Ankola tree here, the needle the loadstone, the chaste

woman her own lord, the creeper the tree and the

river the ocean, likewise, (when) the state of the mind

having approached the two lotus feet of Pasupati,

stays there always, that (state) is said to be

devotion.

 

In Sivananda Lahiri (Sloka #61 meaning of the sloka is given

above), Sri Sankara has described the

stages of devotion and illustrated them using beautiful

similes. Initially the devotee forcibly turns his mind towards

God and holds on to His feet. The seed of an Ankola tree

sticking to its parent tree serves as an example. When the

devotee has turned his mind towards the Lord, the latter

becomes intensely favorable towards the devotee and graces

him. It is as if Ishwara is pulling the devotee towards Him

and preventing any departure from Him. An illustration for

this is a needle being drawn towards a magnet. This marks the

second stage.

 

The third stage accrues when the devotee's heart is

Completely concentrated on god and the Lord, in turn, is

extremely affectionate towards the devotee. The situation is

comparable to that of a chaste wife showering her husband with

love and the husband reciprocating her feelings of affection.

 

The devotee gradually becomes an ornament of the Lord. In

fact, but for Prahlada, the Lord might not have manifested as

Narasimha and graced the world. So in a way, the devotee adds

to the glory of the Lord. An analogy is a creeper entwining a

tree and beautifying it. On transcending this fourth stage,

the devotee attains total union with the Lord. An example of

this is the merger of a river with an ocean. Once the river

has joined the ocean, it cannot be distinguished from the

ocean. The devotee too becomes inseparable from the Lord.