DakshiNa-mUrti ashTakam Verse 9

[Guest guest]

Verse No.9

 

bhUr-ambhamsy-anilo'nalombaramahar-nAtho himAmSuh-pumAn

ityAbhAti carAcarAtmakam-idam yasyaiva mUrtyashTakaM /

nAnyat-kimcana vidyate vimRSatAM yasmAt-parasmAd-vibhoH

tasmai SrI-guru-mUrtaye nama idaM SrI-dakshiNA-mUrtaye //

 

Translation

 

To Him who appears as the moving and unmoving universe consisting of Earth,

Water, Fire, Air, Space, the Sun, the Moon and the Individual Person, to Him

beyond whom, supreme and all-pervading, there is nothing else how much you

may search, to Him of the form of the Guru, (full of Grace and Peace) the

blessed Dakshinamurti, is this prostration.

 

Commentary

 

The delusion caused by mAyA can be removed only by the Grace of the Lord.

The Realization of the Absolute can be obtained only by the Grace of the

Lord who appears in the form of the Guru. In the Saiva Agamas there are 36

fundamental principles, have been enunciated. Of them the only ones which

are understood by a direct experience are the five elements, Sun, Moon and

the Self.

 

(Note that 'Space' the most subtle of the five elements is also included

here as subject to direct experience; because, every time you open your

eyes you know that space is enveloping you).

 

That is why the Lord is said to be of the eight-fold form (mUrty-ashTakaM)

consisting of these eight. Probably this is the reason why this hymn is

called dakshiNA-mUrti-ashTakaM even though it contains a total of ten

verses. (ashTakam - means a hymn of eight verses).

 

'Beyond whom, supreme and all-pervading, there is nothing else, however much

you may search' - is in fact the bottom line of all the scriptures. Cf.

vedaiSca

 

sarvair-aham-eva-vedyaH /(bhagavad-gItA XV - 15) I am the One to be known

from all the vedas. Also: yasmAt-paraM na-aparaM asti

kimcid-yasmAn-nANIyo'sti na jyAyo'sti kimcit (nArAyaNopanishat) meaning:

That beyond which there is no supreme, there is no greater, no smaller.

 

There is a piece of four chapters, of about 130 verses in the mahA-bhArata,

which gives a list of what Spirituality is. It is narrated to King

Dhrita-rashtra by the divine sage Sanat-sujata, the mind-born son of Creator

brahmA. It turns out to be a synthesis of the entire vedanta

made by the most knowledgeable person, who got his own spiritual insight by

a direct inspiration from the dakshiNA-mUrti form of Siva, the form itself

being a manifestation for the very purpose of giving, not only the

knowledge of brahman, but the state of being brahman (cf. Knower of brahman

is brahman). In this synthesis by Sanatsujata, there is an interesting

analysis of vedas versus knowledge. The question is raised: What is the

result of mastery of the vedas? The answer is scholarly. Truth

is One. That is all what the vedas are supposed to reveal. The root word

vid, from which the word veda is derived has several connotations; to be, to

exist, to know, to be conscious of, to enquire, to gain. The One that exists

is the Ultimate Supreme Consciousness. The thing to know is that One without

a second. This is the bottom line. That has to be enquired into. And by that

enquiry you reach the highest gain, namely, moksha. This is all there is to

know from the entire vedas. Instead of learning this single

lesson from the vedas one keeps on going round and round the truth. Thus the

vedas become a vast ocean of words. Truth does not need so much scholarship.

Those who possess scholarship of the vedas are called brahmins.

But the real brahmins are those who are firmly established in that One

Truth. There is no single knower of all the vedas. By knowing the vedas one

does not know what is to be known. The knower of the vedas knows only what

the vedas say. But the knower of Truth is different. By studying the vedas

one gets to acquire knowledge but neither these knowers nor the vedas

themselves know the Reality. Even then, it is the vedas which point to that

Reality for the knower of the vedas to become the knower of brahman. The

vedas cannot make you the knower of brahman. Let us not confuse

understanding with a larger vocabulary. Like the branches of a tree which

help to indicate the direction in which to look for the archlike streak of

the moon two days after new moon, the vedas only show you the way. Only when

your conviction of Truth is not just in your brain but also in your Being

can you vouch for its validity. Let us just quote two verses in this

analysis: (Chapter II: 42,43):

 

na vedAnAM veditA kaScid-asti vedena vedaM na vidur na vedyaM / yo veda

vedaM sa ca veda vedyaM yo veda vedyaM na sa veda satyaM //

 

None of the vedas know Him (who is of the nature of the Knower). For the

vedas do not help us to know Him nor the known (The World). One who knows

the Knower knows also the known. But one who knows only the known knows not

the Truth. //

 

yo veda vedAn sa ca veda vedyaM na taM viduH veda-vido na vedAH / tathApi

vedena vidanti vedaM ye brAhmaNA veda-vido bhavanti //

 

One who knows the vedas, knows the knowable. But neither the knower of the

vedas nor the vedas themselves know That. Yet those seekers of brahman who

become the knowers of the vedas know brahman with the help of the vedas.

 

Commentary and translation by Prof V Krishnamurthy

The website is at:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/gohitvip/63page15.html