A Vedantic shloka from the eight-verse prayer to Vaidyanatha

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Namaste all.

 

The only Vedantic shloka in the 8-shloka prayer.

 

Vedanta-vedyAya jaganmayAya

yogIshvara-dhyeya-padAmbujAya /

trimUrti-rUpAya sahasra-nAmne

shrI vaidyanAthAya namaH shivAya //

 

This simple verse, of 44 syllables, coming from Vaidyanatha-

ashhTakaM is, in my opinion, so full of Vedantic content that I have

chosen to elaborate upon it. I shall now use it as a spring-board to

float some flights of spiritual imagination, particularly on the eve

of my admission in the hospital for surgery and particularly because

this spiritual flight may give me enough food for a useful

nididhyAsana during my scheduled seven or eight-day stay at the

hospital starting from the 17th December. In fact it was my wife who

suggested to me to recite this prayer. As I was getting it by heart

during my walks I was iumpressed by this shloka by its impersonal

Vedantic content.

 

First, an elementary translation into English:

 

NamaH shivAya : Prostrations to Lord Shiva

shrI vaidyanAthAya : (known as) Shri Vaidya-nAtha, the Lord of all

doctors and doctoring, -- (who is)

sahasra-nAmne : (known by) thousands of names

trimUrti-rUpAya: and of several triads of forms

yogIshvara-dhyeya-padAmbujAya : seers of yoga – object of meditation –

Lotus feet --- that is, the Lotus Feet that constitutes the object of

meditation by yogic saints

jagan-mayAya : pervading (manifesting) as the perceptible universe;

and

vedAnta-vedyAya : the (only) One to be known from all VedAnta.

 

Now for the elaborations.

 

IN A NUTSHELL.

 

In my opinion this innocent-looking verse contains a mine of Vedantic

import. First of all the `namaH shivAya' mantra one of the foremost

mantras of Hindu religion and philosophy, is imbedded in it. I need

not elaborate on it. If we put aside also the personal

name `VaidyanAthaya' the other five (impersonal) epithets that

govern the name of the Absolute indicate the only five ultimates to

which everything may be reduced, namely, sat, cit, Ananda, and nAma

and rUpa, as a penultimate step to the final reduction to The

advaitic One and Only One. In fact, if one keeps meditating on this

shloka one can run through several concepts of advaita, including

the concept of mAyA. We shall take these one by one below. We are

going by the style of Shankara's advice in LaghuvAkyavRtti (#17) –

repeated by Vidyaranya in his PanchadashI (XIII – 83): " Thinking of

that; Talking of that; Mutually reminding one another of the same

thing; Being involved only in that – This is known as the practice

of the subject of Brahman. (BrahmAbhyAsaM). So say the Wise " :

 

*tac-cintanaM tat-kathanaM anyonyaM tat-prabodhanaM.

Etad-eka-paratvaM ca brahma-abhyAsaM vidur-budhAH*.

 

TRANSCENDENCE

 

He transcends everything. He can be known only through the

declaration of the Vedas. And they declare `ahaM brahma asmi'. It is

finally the `I' that transcends everything. That transcendent entity

is the essential common content of That as well as This. Any attempt

to know It has to be done only through the teaching of Vedanta and

the spiritual message of the Guru. It is the Ultimate Knowledge that

Vedanta directs you to. The Gitacharya makes this astounding

declaration in no uncertain terms:

 

" That which is known by all the Vedas (and by all forms of knowing)

am I. I am indeed the knower of Veda and the maker of Vedanta "

 

*vedaishca sarvair-ahameva vedyo vedAntakRd-veda-vid-eva cAhaM* (XV –

15).

 

Therefore *vedAnta-vedyAya*. It is something different from dharma

and adharma *anyatra dharmAt anyatra adharmAt*, it is different from

cause and effect *anyatra kRtAkRtAt*, different from the past and the

future *anyatra bhUtAt, anyatra bhavyAt*.

 

But does it mean then that there is nothing else to be known? What

about this visible universe which impacts on us in thousand-and-one

ways? In any knowledge of things, we cannot ignore this

perceptibility of this universe. Is it not so?

 

The answer is: No. The perceptibility of the universe is only a

transitory phenomenon. Its transitoriness is exactly what makes it

less real than the substratum of Brahman on which it is

superimposed. This is where we go to the next epithet: jagan-mayAya.

 

But before we do that, note that the concept of transcendence is the

*vyApakatvaM* that the Upanishads are never tired of speaking

whenever they refer to the Absolute. Of the two processes by which we

have to convince ourselves about the concept of the Absolute, this is

the vyatireka process, meaning, the aloofness of the Effect from the

Cause.

 

Incidentally this is the `sat' aspect of the five fundamentals

mentioned earlier. The next one is the `cit' aspect.

 

IMMANENCE

 

*jagan-mayAya*: The universe is full of Him. It is He that shows

Himself as the universe. So learn to see Him in the universe. *yo

mAm pashyati sarvatra* ( He who sees Me everywhere and in everything

…) says the Lord (VI – 30). He who sees only the elephant in the

wooden elephant (Recall the classic quote in Tamil of Tirumoolar) is

only a child in the spiritual plane. The world appears; but it only

appears. The elephant appears in the wooden structure; but if you

look carefully and take off the elephant appearance from the wood,

slowly, gradually, steadily and concentratedly, you will only see the

wood. The wood is not now seen `behind' the elephant, not seen as

the `substratum' but seen as the only substance that is there. It

requires conviction and concentration to get the view of the wood to

the exclusion of `the elephant'. This is what every advaitic seer

wants us to see. And they say: *yaH pashyati sa pashyati*. He who

sees (thus), sees!

 

To see this, at least intellectually, the Kapilopakhyanam of Srimad

Bhagavatam gives a telling example. The reflection of light on a wall

from a pool of water or a glass, takes our attention to the source of

the reflection, namely, to the pool or the glass. But that source

itself has an original source, namely the sun in the sky. In the

same way the consciousness of the I-sense that we all have must first

be traced to the source,the JIva. But that again is not the final

source. The ultimate source is the Bundle of Consciousness, that is

Brahman.

 

This is the immanence that the Vedas repeatedly emphasize. What is

emphasized is that what we see is not a transformation of Brahman

like what was milk earlier is now the curd that we see and taste.

The universe is not the result of a *pariNAma* of Brahman. Brahman

never undergoes any change. It is Brahman itself that is appearing as

the universe. The rope appearing as the snake.

 

The immanence is the antaryAmitvaM that the Upanishads speak of very

often. Of the two processes by which we have to convince ourselves

about the Absolute, this is the anvaya process, meaning, the

continuity of the Cause in the Effect.

 

Brahman appears as the Universe. Brahman also appears as JIva. In

both cases the reality of the substratum gives an apparent reality to

what is superimposed on it. But the two appearances, when the

Ignorance vanishes, do not vanish the same way. When Ignorance

vanishes, what appeared as the Universe is now known to have been

Brahman only. So the Realisation comes that the Universe was only an

appearance. On the other hand, when the JIva realises its Brahman-

hood, the Jiva appearance does not vanish; the Jiva still remains

but now remains as Brahman.

 

Well, it all seems to be too academic. How do we really `experience'

it? Only by resorting to the Lord for guidance. And so we go to the

next epithet: *yogishvara-dhyeya-padAmbhujAya*.

 

VEDANTIC MEDITATION

 

Throughout the vast literature of Vedanta, resort to the Lord's help

is a sine qua non. Without the Lord's Grace Ultimate mokshha is not

going to happen. It is not the Effort of Man but the Grace of the

Almighty that brings mokshha. His Lotus Feet has to be meditated on

and nididhyAsana done with His Grace will open the Gates of

Realisation. The `Gate of Realisation' is only another way of

saying `Ignorance has ended'. Ignorance whose origin is shrouded in

mystery – and will ever remain so, in spite of all our erudition,

scholarship and logic – has a definite end. That is the end to which

we are all striving. The sure way to strive is to hold on to the

padAmbhuja (Lotus feet) of the Lord. *mAm-ekaM-sharaNaM vraja* says

the Lord as the final message of the Gita.

 

This is the Ananda aspect because Meditation itself is Bliss.

 

The joining together of the two extremities – the Feet of the Divine

with the head of the devotee – is what is esoterically symbolised by

the joining of the palms in the traditional Hindu way of worship. The

right palm denotes the feet of the Divine and the left palm denotes

the head of the devotee. Succession of poets over the centuries have

not only sung the greatness of the Divine Feet, but have sung greater

glories of the dust under the Divine Feet (cf. Soundarya-lahari #2:

tanIyAmsaM pAmsuM tava caraNa-pangkeruha-bhavaM …) and even of the

sandals of the divine feet. Tulsi waxes eloquent on the divine

sandals: " they are the two syllables of the tAraka mantra – Rama – to

ferry humanity across the ocean of samsAra " (*Akar jug janu jIv jatan

ke*) (Ram Charit Manas, Ayodhya kand, #316)

 

Tri-mUrti-rUpAya

 

The Lord is in three forms: the standard elementary meaning is, they

are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But the Vedantic tenor of this shloka

reminds us that it is not just the conventional meaning of tri-mUrti

that is implied here but an esoteric intrpretation of everything that

is three-fold. The three guNas, Satva, Rajas and tamas – all the

combinations of which give you the entire world of experience;

the three states of awareness, jAgrat, svapna and sushhupti which

together give us all our world of experience but still not the

Absolute state;

the three facets of activity, by the body (*kAyena*), by the speech

(*vacasA*) and by the mind (*manasA*) but still the Absolute is not

accessible to any of these;

the three portions of time, past (*bhUta*), present (*bhavat*) and

future (*bhavya*);

the three syllables that make up the mystic word *Aum* that

represents Brahman itself;

the three giant strides that the Lord took to measure all the three

portions of universal space;

the three yogas, Karma, bhakti and jnAna

the three Vedas that spend all their words on Him but still fail to

show Him to us, though it is The Absolute that is the bottomline of

all the Vedas!

 

Recall Bhattatiri's verse (98 – 9) in this connection. Also Kamba

Ramayanam: Iranian vadaip-paDalaM Verse 251 beginning with *mUnru

avan guNangaL ..*

 

Sahasra-nAmne

 

The thousand names that try to describe Him do not complete the

delineation; because it can never be completed. He is *acintyaM*

(not delimited by thought-process), *aprameyaM* (not delimited by any

counting or measuring process) *avyapadeshyaM* (not indicatable by

any indicator), *avyavahAryaM* (not relatable) . The word `sahasra'

only indicates the non-enumerability of His names and qualities. He

actually has no name and that is why any name fits Him! Each name

says something its content about the Absolute. Since there are

infinite things to say about the Absolute, the count of names is

endless. The power of each name has been extolled to the skies. But

the power comes from the fact that the name represents the Absolute.

In the standard prayer that one recites from the Vedas while doing

the ritual of daily bath, one has the statement " aham asmi brahma

aham asmi " meaning I am Brahman, Brahman am I. Without resorting to

this ultimate statement of Existence no power, human or divine, can

wash off the sins of the human mind. The jnAnAgni – Fire of Self-

Wisdom – is what extinguishes all the actions and their imprints.

 

Well, this post has become too long. I think this is enough for an

eight-day nididhyAsana. I thought I will share this with you all.

God Willing, I shall get back to you probably in early February,

2009. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year to all and a Happy Pongal to

the Tamils!.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

[Guest guest]

H.N.Sreenivasa Murthy

Pranams to all

 

advaitin , " V. Krishnamurthy " <profvk wrote:

>

> Namaste all.

>

> The only Vedantic shloka in the 8-shloka prayer.

>

> Vedanta-vedyAya jaganmayAya

> yogIshvara-dhyeya-padAmbujAya /

> trimUrti-rUpAya sahasra-nAmne

> shrI vaidyanAthAya namaH shivAya //

 

Dear Sri Krishnamurthy,

 

My reverential prostrations to you again and again for having

blessed us all with this simply beautiful commentary to that SlOka of

vaidyanAthAShTakam. Tears of Bakti welled up in eyes my eyes when I

was going through the posting of yours.

 

I thank you for this wonderful gift .

 

With warm and respectful regards,

Sreenivasa Murthy