Sankara Jayanti

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Dear Lalit,Chandrashekarji,Ramanarayanji,RK Da and Group, Some information on Sankara Jayanti and the philosophy of Shri Sankaracharya Regards, aavesh Dear friends and devotees, Bhakti is eternal, 13a. Sankara Jayanti (Vaisakha Sukla Panchami) Radiant Atman! We will observe the Jayanti (birthday) of Adi-Sankaracharya, one of the greatest of Self-realised souls and philosophers this world of ours has produced. Leaving home, in a spirit of renunciation and aspiration to realise the Reality, at the tender age of eight years, he completed an unbelievable mission in the span of just a few years, passing away in his 32nd year. During that period he did what is known, as digvijaya (conquest of the quarters), carrying the banner of Advaita Vedanta, the supreme philosophy of absolute monism, into the four, corners of India and overcoming all lesser schools of philosophy through his convincing, irrefutable arguments. His incredible work remains dynamically living, active and ever progressive even to this day, more than 1200 years after

he propounded his doctrine. The quintessence of Advaita Vedanta is to affirm the truth and reality of your essential, eternal, divine ide ntity and to resolutely reject the error of thinking of yourself as a finite human creature having a name and form, beginning and end, and subject to changes such as birth, death, old age, disease, decay, pain, sorrow, suffering, etc. Resolutely rejecting this error and simultaneously affirming your eternal, unchangeable divine identity is the centre of Advaita Vedanta sadhana (practice). They call it affirming and rejecting, pushtikarana and nirakarana-neti, neti. Sankara's most popular work, Vivekachudamani, is a call to discrimination between the Self and the non-Self-atma-anatma viveka. Atman is sat (existence absolute). Anatman is appearance only, temporary in time, limited in space, perishable; it is kshara purusha (perishable being). Atman is akshara purusha (imperishable being)-ajo nityah sasvato'yam purano na hanyate hanyamane sarire (Unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, the Self is not killed when the body is killed). Thus the Vivekachudamani is a discourse, a treatise and a sadhana on discrimination between the Self and the non-Self. And a second work of his, Atma Bodha, is a light upon what the Self is. As you discriminate between the Self and the non-Self, you get

a good knowledge of what the non-Self is, so you can reject it; you will not be deluded by it. You can free yourself from the veil of delusion by knowing the nature of anatman. And then, to be rooted in the Reality, to be fixed in it firmly, to be able to think, reflect and meditate upon it and to awaken the correct awareness within your consciousness, a thorough study of what the Self is of great importance and value. To that end, Atma Bodha can be the way that God can gradually answer your prayer, "tamasoma jyotir gamaya" and "dhiyo yo nah prachodayat" ("From darkness lead me unto light" and "May He illumine our intellects"). To avoid that which is wrong, we have to get knowledge of what wrong is; and to pursue and practice that which is right, we have the need

to have a knowledge and a grasp of what right is of what Reality and Truth is. Thus both the negative and positive aspects of Vedantic admonition are of equal importance in making the mind aware of its error and to make the intellect grasp the truth. When Brahman is the reality to be attained, why unnecessarily know about the world, prapancha, samsara? The answer is that because you want to free yourself from the delusion of the world, you must know the tricks of this deluding appearance. Indeed, you must know everything about it, because it comes in numerous subtle ways. We think the world is outside us, but, by and large, the world or prapancha or samsara is within us. We have to understand that. What is it within us that makes us regard prapancha to be real and makes

us move towards it, get attached to it, get bound by it? What is it within us? That has to be rooted out, eradicated first. Thus the study of avidya or maya within is the key to freeing ourselves from delusion and rising from darkness to light. Gurudev again and again reiterated: "Thou art immortal Soul. Thou art means neither this body nor this mind. They are upadhis, limiting adjuncts temporarily added on to you. They are there as part of your lesser personality, your earth consciousness, but you are also there far beyond them, transcending them, a divine personality, a superhuman spiritual reality, untouched by time and space, not bothered by pain, sorrow and suffering." This, then, is to be heard, reflected upon and meditated upon. May you direct all your attention to the practice of this truth which shall make you free. It is this truth that arouses in us our kinship with the eternal, universal reality and paramatma. May the grace of the Lord grant you success in this sadhana of being what you really are and of resisting the pull of the lower mind to make you imagine that you are something other than this Reality. Constantly you have to reject the, attempts of the mind and its age-old, inveterate tendencies to keep itself tied down to a lower level of ignorance and mistaken identity. It should be given no

quarter. By the strength of your will-power, your positive, awakened consciousness and your resolute and determined sankalpa (thought) to attain realisation in this very body, you must keep this process up. You must shine with an effulgent inner awareness of your own essential, immortal and imperishable divine identity. Your interior should be a mass of effulgence, of jnana prakasa. There should be a state of jnana bodha within, a state of wakefulness within-no slumber. For this you must pray, and for this you must practice. May the Sankara Jayanthi day be permeated by the spirit of Jagat Guru (world teacher) Adi Sankaracharya, the Advaita Acharya, and may it have the effect of successfully lifting up your consciousness from the present, ordinary, humdrum human level of

earth consciousness into a lofty, sublime higher spiritual level of a divine spiritual consciousness! (By Swami Sivananda) With love and regards, Sastry. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

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[Guest guest]

Dear Aavesh,

 

This is an excellent article.

 

Chandrashekhar.

 

aavesh t wrote:

 

 

Dear Lalit,Chandrashekarji,Ramanarayanji,RK

Da and Group,

 

Some information on Sankara

Jayanti and the philosophy of Shri Sankaracharya

 

Regards,

 

aavesh

 

 

 

 

 

Dear friends and devotees,

 

Bhakti is eternal,

 

13a. Sankara Jayanti

 

(Vaisakha Sukla Panchami)

 

Radiant Atman! We will

observe the Jayanti (birthday) of Adi-Sankaracharya, one of the

greatest of Self-realised souls and philosophers this world of ours has

produced. Leaving home, in a spirit of renunciation and aspiration to

realise the Reality, at the tender age of eight years, he completed an

unbelievable mission in the span of just a few years, passing away in

his 32nd year. During that period he did what is known, as digvijaya

(conquest of the quarters), carrying the banner of Advaita Vedanta, the

supreme philosophy of absolute monism, into the four, corners of India

and overcoming all lesser schools of philosophy through his convincing,

irrefutable arguments. His incredible work remains dynamically living,

active and ever progressive even to this day, more than 1200 years

after he propounded his doctrine.

 

The quintessence of Advaita Vedanta is

to affirm the truth and reality of your essential, eternal, divine ide

ntity and to resolutely reject the error of thinking of yourself as a

finite human creature having a name and form, beginning and end, and

subject to changes such as birth, death, old age, disease, decay, pain,

sorrow, suffering, etc. Resolutely rejecting this error and

simultaneously affirming your eternal, unchangeable divine identity is

the centre of Advaita Vedanta sadhana (practice). They call it

affirming and rejecting, pushtikarana and nirakarana-neti, neti.

 

Sankara's most popular work,

Vivekachudamani, is a call to discrimination between the Self and the

non-Self-atma-anatma viveka. Atman is sat (existence absolute).

Anatman is appearance only, temporary in time, limited in space,

perishable; it is kshara purusha (perishable being). Atman is akshara

purusha (imperishable being)-ajo nityah sasvato'yam purano na hanyate

hanyamane sarire (Unborn, eternal, changeless and ancient, the Self is

not killed when the body is killed). Thus the Vivekachudamani is a

discourse, a treatise and a sadhana on discrimination between the Self

and the non-Self.

 

And a second work of his, Atma Bodha,

is a light upon what the Self is. As you discriminate between the Self

and the non-Self, you get a good knowledge of what the non-Self is, so

you can reject it; you will not be deluded by it. You can free yourself

from the veil of delusion by knowing the nature of anatman. And then,

to be rooted in the Reality, to be fixed in it firmly, to be able to

think, reflect and meditate upon it and to awaken the correct awareness

within your consciousness, a thorough study of what the Self is of

great importance and value. To that end, Atma Bodha can be the way that

God can gradually answer your prayer, "tamasoma jyotir gamaya" and

"dhiyo yo nah prachodayat" ("From darkness lead me unto light" and "May

He illumine our intellects").

 

To avoid that which is wrong, we have

to get knowledge of what wrong is; and to pursue and practice that

which is right, we have the need to have a knowledge and a grasp of

what right is of what Reality and Truth is. Thus both the negative and

positive aspects of Vedantic admonition are of equal importance in

making the mind aware of its error and to make the intellect grasp the

truth.

 

When Brahman is the reality to be

attained, why unnecessarily know about the world, prapancha, samsara?

The answer is that because you want to free yourself from the delusion

of the world, you must know the tricks of this deluding appearance.

Indeed, you must know everything about it, because it comes in numerous

subtle ways. We think the world is outside us, but, by and large, the

world or prapancha or samsara is within us. We have to understand that.

What is it within us that makes us regard prapancha to be real and

makes us move towards it, get attached to it, get bound by it? What is

it within us? That has to be rooted out, eradicated first. Thus the

study of avidya or maya within is the key to freeing ourselves from

delusion and rising from darkness to light.

 

Gurudev again and again reiterated:

"Thou art immortal Soul. Thou art means neither this body nor this

mind. They are upadhis, limiting adjuncts temporarily added on to you.

They are there as part of your lesser personality, your earth

consciousness, but you are also there far beyond them, transcending

them, a divine personality, a superhuman spiritual reality, untouched

by time and space, not bothered by pain, sorrow and suffering."

 

This, then, is to be heard, reflected

upon and meditated upon. May you direct all your attention to the

practice of this truth which shall make you free. It is

this truth that arouses in us our kinship with the eternal, universal

reality and paramatma. May the grace of the Lord grant you success in

this sadhana of being what you really are and of resisting the pull of

the lower mind to make you imagine that you are something other than

this Reality.

 

Constantly you have to reject the,

attempts of the mind and its age-old, inveterate tendencies to keep

itself tied down to a lower level of ignorance and mistaken identity.

It should be given no quarter. By the strength of your will-power, your

positive, awakened consciousness and your resolute and determined

sankalpa (thought) to attain realisation in this very body, you must

keep this process up. You must shine with an effulgent inner awareness

of your own essential, immortal and imperishable divine identity. Your

interior should be a mass of effulgence, of jnana prakasa. There should

be a state of jnana bodha within, a state of wakefulness within-no

slumber. For this you must pray, and for this you must practice.

 

May the Sankara Jayanthi day be

permeated by the spirit of Jagat Guru (world teacher) Adi

Sankaracharya, the Advaita Acharya, and may it have the effect of

successfully lifting up your consciousness from the present, ordinary,

humdrum human level of earth consciousness into a lofty, sublime higher

spiritual level of a divine spiritual consciousness!

(By Swami Sivananda)

 

With love and regards,

 

Sastry.

 

 

 

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with

Mobile. Try

it now.

 

 

Meet people who discuss and share your passions.

Join them now.