Sivaanandalahari - 8

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continued from 8 (2)

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Sivaanandalahari - 8 (3)*

 

The meaning of these is the sun is reflected in the water and there is

motion in the water that makes the sun which is in the sky to look like

moving. In the same way due to jata bhuddhi people project anyadevathaas as

Parameswara. But in Paaramaarthika dhasa “kalpitha kalpithayO:

sambandhaayOgaath”, i.e. Parameswara is swadhasiddhan and how can a

projected devatha have connection with Him? To clarify further, how can a

projected snake on a rope have connection with a rope?

 

It may be asked as follows: In Geetha Sri Krishna says: “yEpyanya

devathaabhaktha yajanthE sraddhayaan vithaa:| thEpi maamEva kounthEya

yajanthyavidhipoorvakam|| Even though one does not think of Parameswara in

his worship of anyadevathaas, the worship reaches only Parameswara who is

the phaladevathaa. When such is the case why not worship anyadevathaas? Why

should those people who worship anyadevathas be denounced as mooda janas

carried away by brama? To this argument Sri Krishna assuages with the word

“avidhipoorvakam” in the above mentioned sloka in Geetha. The saasthra says:

“Shiva: Shiva: Shivaschaiva naanyadhastheethi kinchana”. If a person has the

dhruda pragnaa that it is Parameswara who is holding andacharaacharam in

respective peace and happiness, then that person would neither be a jatan

nor a braanthan. He is a parama gnaani. If a person does not have this

consciousness and if he worships anyadevathas even with sraddha the benefits

to him will be very meager and that too would not be permanent. This great

secret is given by Adhi Sankara in his Geetha Bhaashyam: “samaanE api

aayaasE maamEva na bhajanthE agnaanaath, thEna thE alpaphala bhaaja:

bhavanthi.” One may have a small doubt here. If in reality the aaraadhanas

done to anyadevathaas go to Parameswara, how can the superior phalas that

could have accrued be denied just because a person is not conscious of the

fact that his worship indeed reaches Parameswara? We reply to this with the

following example. A person lives in a house that is standing on a ground

buried with a treasure. As long as he is ignorant of this treasure he does

not have the happiness that he would otherwise have had, had he known that

he is sitting on a treasure. Again when he knows that he is sitting on a

treasure his happiness will no doubt be immense. In the same way in this

prakrthi as long as a man is not aware that all the anyadevathaas are merely

Parameswara’s vibhuthi, so long will be the meagerness and impermanence of

the phala of his worship of anyadevathaas. But as soon as he realizes that

his worship is actually the worship of Parameswara he gains Brahmaanandham

(Shivaadhanyath na kinchana).

 

Thus we have to realize the superiority of the consciousness of the worship

by understanding the Mahaavaakya “Pragnaanam Brahma” that teaches the

swaroopa lakshaNam of Parameswara. This in turn leads us to the realization

of ‘sivoham’ of our oneness with Parameswara in Sivaanandalahari!

 

Sivoham, Sivoham