[Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] Narayaneeyam selected Slokams by Prof. V.Krishnamurthyji

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Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaaya!

 

Dear Krishna Prasadji,

 

Thanks for the great posting and the wonderful site.

May Guruvayoorappan bless you!

 

Geetha.

 

--- Krishna Prasad <rkrishp99 wrote:

 

> Hari OM!

>

> Dear Gopakumarans and Gopikas,

>

> I will be posting part by part the 36 slokas as

> translated by Prof V.

> Krishnamurthyji. and it is with permission from him,

> He is a great

> Advaitin, and written lot of books, and he gives

> discourses on lot of

> Advaita Vedanta texts, and utlimately he is a great

> Bhakthan of Lord

> Guruvayurappan.

>

> This is only an Introduction.

>

> Starting from this post I intend to make 13 posts on

> the subject

> of symbiotic verbal expression of Bhakti as

> understood and

> practised by an advaitin. For this purpose I have

> selected 36

> verses from nArAyaNIyaM, the great poetical work of

> Narayana

> Bhattatiri, who lived in the 16th and 17th

> centuries. This work

> is an inimitably faithful epitome in 1036 Sanskrit

> verses of

> Srimad Bhagavatam, in such a masterly fashion that

> the epitome

> itself is considered as sacred as the original,

> which contains

> 18000 verses. In 1587 A.D. Bhattatiri took the

> paralysis of

> his Guru on himself and then to get rid of his

> illness, he

> composed the nArAyaNIyaM sitting in front of the

> idol of Krishna

> at Guruvayoor temple, where on the 100th day of the

> composition,

> he was blessed by the Lord with a darshan and also a

> complete

> cure of his illness. In all the works of Bhattatiri,

> the

> Absolute Transcendental is Krishna, the deity of

> Guruvayoor in

> the state of Kerala, India. He is usually referred

> to as

> Guruvayoor-appan by his devotees throughout the

> world. As

> sAdhakas towards the goal of advaita we should not

> have any

> qualms in conceiving of Guruvayoor-appan, (or for

> that matter

> any deity of a temple) as THE manifestation of The

> Transcendental Absolute.

>

> It is generally thought that advaita is just a

> philosophy and

> bhakti is a way of life. In my personal experience

> of having

> seen my father Sri R. Visvanatha Sastri live his

> life, I feel

> that the advaitic attitude is also a way of life and

> (according

> to me, as I understood him) THE way of life. It is

> the

> continuing PRACTICE OF THIS ADVAITIC ATTITUDE by my

> father that

> convinced me that the expression of true bhakti has

> to be

> advaitic in essence. In fact Adi Sankara says

> (Vivekachudamani–33). that contemplative living in

> one's natural

> state, that is the divine state, is bhakti.

> 'svasvarUpA-nusandhAnaM bhaktir-ity-abhidhIyate'.

> I have seen my father practise it (perhaps) all his

> life – he

> was already 45 when I was born, and when I was 29 he

> was no

> more.

>

> The 36 slokas that I have selected from nArAyaNIyaM

> are mostly

> expressions of bhakti but, with my experience of my

> father's

> life, I can see how Bhattatiri must have felt and

> lived. These

> slokas have a running thread of the advaitic spirit

> and

> attitude. In fact Bhattatiri transforms philosophy

> into

> scintillating poetry. His is a philosophy of advaita

> which is

> devotional, almost like (in the devotional aspect)

> the one which

> Sankara himself followed in his own life, though,

> Bhattatiri's

> understanding of the advaita concept has shades of

> the Vaishnava

> philosophy in it. For the past five years I have

> been

> contemplating on the thread of these 36 slokas daily

> at all

> possible times of day and night. The Slokas and

> their meanings

> are listed in these posts in the order in which I

> have sequenced

> and remembered them. This is, however, not their

> sequential

> order in the text. The sequence below is mine. It is

> so because

> I feel that this way it gives expression to my

> feeling towards

> the Lord and to my conviction that it is leading me

> – mark it,

> 'leading me' – to that distant goal of realisation

> of

> NON-DUALITY. The reader of these posts may or may

> not resonate

> with this feeling of mine, but still I thought I

> will share with

> you my experience.

>

> Each of these posts, starting from the next, will

> dwell on three

> slokas, in my sequential order. I am sure there can

> be several

> opinions on my selection of the particular slokas as

> well as

> their sequencing, but what is to be remembered is

> that it is a

> personal selection and I enjoy contemplation on it.

> I consider

> it as a spiritual exercise in tuning my mind to

> advaitic

> practice – my model being, my FATHER.

>

> (to be continued)

>

> You can know more about the author and his books and

> articles from the

> following website.

>

> 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.

>

>

>

> --

> Krishna Prasad

>

> . Yad yad aacarati sreshtah, tad tad eva itaro

> janah. As the Gita puts

> it, consistency of purpose and a spirit of

> dedication and, if

> necessary, sacrifice, should characterize the new

> spirit.

> We Must

> THE CULTURED GIVES HAPPINESS WHEREVER THEY GO, THE

> UN-CULTURED WHENEVER THEY GO!

> - Swami Chinmayanada

>

>

> Om Namo Narayanaya:

>