Jayanti of the MahAperiyavA of Kanchi

“How could Adi Sankara, who preached the jnAna mArga, have promoted this work (Soundaryalahari) of bhakti? It cannot be his,” say some who profess ‘Philosophy’. But our Acharya was not a professor who isolated philosophy as a separate discipline. Having written very profoundly on advaita and its deepest implications in his several Bhashyas and the other works of his, he promoted the spiritual pursuit of the common man by writing and talking about the need to follow one’s swadharma by Karma and Bhakti. His intent was to raise the common man from his own level. For this purpose he went from one pilgrim centre to another all his life and composed hymns after hymns and also established yantras in temples.

The philosophers argue: JnAni says everything is One. But Bhakti can happen only when there is the duality of the devotee and the deity. Therefore, they say, the jnAni can never be a bhakta. These philosophers cannot themselves claim to have the Enlightenment of advaita ! But there have been those who could have so claimed, like the sage Suka, Madhusudana Saraswati or Sadasiva-brahmam. If we carefully study their lives we will know that they were devotees of God in the fullest sense of the word and have themselves written works of Bhakti. Even in our own times Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has been a great devotee of Mother Goddess and Ramana Maharishi has done works of devotion on God Arunachalesvara. Again, on the other side, great devotees like Manikka-vasagar, Nammazhvar, Arunagiri-nathar, Tayumanavar, etc. have themselves been convinced advaitins, and this is reflected in innumerable flashes in their compositions.

If a jnAni should not do a Bhakti composition, then I would say that he should not also do a work of jnAna. Why am I saying this? Let us go back to the definition of a jnAni. ‘ The world is all mAyA; the thinking of people as if they were separate separate jIvAtmAs is nothing but Ignorance’ - with such a conviction through personal experience, they have thrown away that Ignorance as well as its basic locus, the mind, and they live in the non-dualistic state of ‘ ‘I’ am everything’ – such should be the status of the jnAni; shouldn’t it be so? Such a person preaching, or writing a book, even if it be about the subject of jnAna – is it not a contradiction? Unless such a person thinks there is a world outside of him and there are jIvAtmAs outside, how can he think of ‘teaching’? Teaching whom? And when we look at it this way, all those great teachers of jnAna should really not be jnAnis ! What power will there be for such a teaching about jnAna from teachers who are not jnAnis themselves?

On the other hand what do we observe in our experience? Whether it is the teaching about jnAna in the Gita, or the Viveka Chudamani of our Acharya, or the Avadhuta Gita of Sri Dattatreya or the teaching in the Yoga-vASiShTa, or a song of Tayumanavar – even when we just read these we feel we are being taken beyond the curtain created by mAyA to some distant peaceful state of Calm. Just by reading, in one’s spiritually ripe stage, such teachings, there have been people who have renounced the world and reached the state of Bliss-in-one-Self !. If these teachings had not been written from that spiritual apex of Experiential Excellence, how could such things have ever happened?

Therefore, however much by your intellectual logic, you argue whether a jnAni can get bhakti, how the jnAni can do any preaching and so such possibilities cannot exist and so on, these are certainly happening, by the Will of the Lord which is beyond the Possible and the Impossible.

It is only the Play of the Lord that the jnAni, who is non-dualistic internally, appears to do things in the dualistic world. His mind may have vanished, mAyA might have been transcended by him; but that does not mean that the outside world of jIvAtmAs has disintegrated. What do we gather from this? There is a Super-Mind which does all this and in some mysterious way is compering and directing the entire universe. And it also means that it is the same Supra-Mind that is making the minds of men revolve in the illusion of mAyA. It is that Power which is known in advaita scriptures as saguNa-brahman or Isvara. In the scriptures devoted to shakti or Shiva , whenever they call the Actionless nirguNa-brahman as ‘Shivam’ they call this saguNa-brahman as ‘shakti’, ‘parA-shakti’ or ‘ambAL’. Just as that nirguNa-brahman exhibits itself and acts as the saguNa-brahman, so also, it must be presumed, that the enlightened jnAni also does his external actions and that again, is the work of the saguNa-brahman!

What is the path of jnAna? It is the effort through self-enquiry and meditation for the eradication of the mind and vanquishing of mAyA. But the other path is to dedicate oneself and all one’s thoughts and actions to that very parA-shakti (who produced this mAyA on us) with an attitude of devotion. It is like giving the house-key to the thief himself ! However much the parA-shakti may play with you and toss you and your mind hither and thither, Her infinite compassion cannot be negated. Only when we separate and rejoin, we realise the value of that union. To pray to Her for that reunion and for Her to get us back to Her in answer to our prayers – this is the great Leela of Duality wherein She exhibits Her Infinite Compassion ! So when one prays with Bhakti for such release She releases Him by giving Him that Wisdom of Enlightenment.

It is wrong to think that the goal of Bhakti lies in the dualistic attitude of being separate from God. It is by this wrong assumption that people ask the question: How can a jnAni exhibit Bhakti? In the very path of Bhakti wherein it appears there is an embedded duality, the same Bhakti would lead the practitioner to the stage where he will ask: Oh God ! May I be one with You ! This is the subtle point which the questioning people miss. When that stage comes to the devotee, the very parA-shakti known as kArya-brahman or saguNa-brahman will bless him with that jnAna that takes him to the non-dual kAraNa-brahman or nirguNa-brahman.

Jayanti of the Kanchi MahAswAmigal

A kOti namaskArams to the ParamAchArya of KAnchi.

(The concept of sannyAsa - an excerpt from Deivathin Kural)

*nishThA shAntiH parAyaNaM* comes in Vishnu-sahasranAmaM. Some names occur here in a chain, relating to each other beautifully on the same concept. There are nine names (of God) strung together like flowers in a garland, on the idea of SannyAsa.

*…. nirvANaM bheshhajaM bhishhak /

sannyAsakRt shamaH shAnto nishThA shAntiH parAyaNaM *//

*nirvANaM* is the end of jnAna-yoga. He is the same as the saguNa-mUrti VishNu.

*bheshhajaM* means medicine. He is the medicine in the form of jnAnaM for the disease of samsAra.

Muthut-tANDavar was a devotee of God Nataraja. He lived before the age of the musical trinity of Tamilnadu. When a snake bit him he considered Lord Nataraja as the only medicine and sang an extempore Tamil composition beginning with *aru-marundoru tani marundu* (meaning: the rare medicine, the unique medicine) on Lord Nataraja. He was relieved from the snake poison..

When the poison of karma invades the system the medicine of jnAnaM that is the antidote for the poison is only the Lord.

He is not only the medicine; but He is also the Doctor who gives the medicine! So He is *bhishak* (Doctor). Here in Tiruvanmiyur (in Chennai, India) the Lord presents Himself as “marundIshvara” (the Lord who is the medicine). In the town called Vaideesvaran Koil he is called “Bhava-roga-vaidyanatha swami’ meaning the JnAna-Acharya who cures the disease of samsAra. In his commentary on Vishnu Sahasranama, the Acharya says “the Doctor who gave the medicine of the Gita for all the world”.

In the Gita the Lord gave his final diagnosis and the curing medicine, which is SannyAsa. He leads us on through the path of karma yoga ultimately to the SannyAsa in jnAna yoga. In the science of Ayurveda, they first give you a laxative-type of medicine and then only they give you the medicine that is needed for the illness. So also the Lord gives first the laxative of karma yoga so that all our karma-garbage may be exhausted and then finally when he gives the medicine of jnAna, he prescribes sannyAsa. In the beginning it was he who created the four Ashramas and made Sannyasa the fourth Ashrama. So He is *sannyAsa-kRt*, the maker of SannyAsa.

We saw a lot about *shama*. That is also the form of the Lord. When the mind stills to rest that is shamaM. That is in fact the heart of jnAna yoga, its life. Right now it is unbridled in us and from this through the various stages of its control little by little, we have to go through several steps. Finally when nothing of the mind is left, it rests in the Atman; that is the destination point. That is the goal of a SannyAsi. At this place the Acharya gives a quotation which pinpoints a unique dharma for each Ashrama. It says: “For the SannyAsi his dharma is shamaM; for the Vana-prastha, his dharma is the conglomerate of tapas and vratas, all together called niyama; for the householder the dharma is charity; and for the brahmachari it is serving the guru.

*yatInAM prashamo dharmo

niyamo vanavAsinAM /

dAnameva gRhastAnAM

shushrUshhA brahma-chAriNAM //

Next comes the name *shAntaH*. He who has shama is shAntaH.

Only next to this, the word *nishThA* appears. Having become a sannyAsi, and then also a shAnta for whom the mind is totally at rest, he establishes himself firmly in the nishThA of the experience of jnAna, that state is also the Lord. This is The SaguNa Brahman who is our Lord with attributes, in His nirguNa state.

And in that state there is a total peace. Therefore *shAntiH*. And that is the supreme goal; therefore *parAyaNaM*.

Happy Mothers Day

8-30. What is that S’aktî? Which you mentioned to us before; as well by whom Vishnu is conquered? Whence is She born? What is the power of that S’aktî and what is Her nature? O Suvrata! explain to us these fully.

How was it that Yogamâyâ overpowered with sleep the Highest Deity Bhagavân Vishnu who is everlasting-intelligence bliss! who is the God of all, the Guru of the whole world, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, who is omni-present, an incarnate of purity and holiness and beyond Rajoguna; how was such a personage brought under the control of sleep? O Sûta! You are very intelligent and the pupil of Vyasa Deva; destroy our this doubt by the sword of wisdom.

Hearing this, Sûta said :--“O highly fortunate Munis! There is none in the three Lokas who can clear your this doubt; the mind-born sons of Brahmâ, Nârada, Kapila and other eternal sons get bewildered by these questions; what can I, then, say on this very difficult point! See, some persons call Bhagavân Vishnu omnipresent, the preserver of all and the best of all the Devas; according to them all this universe moving and non-moving, is created by Vishnu.

they bow down before the Highest Nârâyana Hrisikes'a Janârdana Vâsudeva and worship Him, whereas others worship Mahâdeva S’ankara, having Gauri for the other half of his body, endowed with all powers, residing in Kailâs'a, surrounded by hosts of bhutas, that destroyed the Daksha's sacrifice, who is mentioned in the Vedas as S’as'is'ekhara (having moon on his forehead), with three eyes and five faces and holding trident in his hand and known as Vrisadhaja and Kaparddi. O highly intelligent ones! There are some other persons, that know the Vedas and worship the Sun everyday in the morning, mid-day and in the evening with various hymns.

In all the Vedas, it is stated that the worship of the sun is excellent and they have named the high-souled sun as Paramâtmâ (the Highest Deity). Whereas there are other Vedavits (the knowers of the Vedas) who worship the Devas, Fire, Indra, and Varuna. But the Maharsis say, that as Gangâ Devi (the river Ganges), though one, is expressing Herself by many channels, so the one Vishnu is expressing in all the Deva forms. Those who are big Pundits, declare perception, inference, and verbal testimony as the three modes of proofs. The Naiyâyik Pundits add to the above three, a fourth proof which they call upamâ, resemblance, similitude and some other intelligent Pundits add another fifth proof called Arthâpatti, an. inference from circumstances, presumption, implication. It is deduction of a matter from that which could not else be; it is assumption of a thing, not itself perceived but necessarily implied by another which is seen, heard or proved; whereas the authors of the Purânas add two other, called Sâkshî and Aitijhya, thus advocating seven modes of proofs. Now the Vedânta S’âstra says that the supreme being (Para Brahmâ), the Prime cause of the Universe, cannot be comprehended by the above-mentioned seven proofs. Therefore, first of all, adopt the reason leading to sure belief, the Buddhi, according to the words of the Vedas and discriminate and discuss again and again and draw your inference about Brahmâ. And the intelligent person should adopt what is seen by perception as self-evident and what is inferred by the observance of good conduct. The wise persons say, and it is also stated in the Purânas, that the Prime Force is present in Brahmâ as the Creative Force; is present in Hari as the Preservative Force; is present in Hara as the Destructive Force; is present in Kurma (tortoise) and in Ananta (the thousand headed Snake) as the earth supporting Force; is present in fire as the Burning Force, is present in air as the moving Force, and so is present everywhere in various manifestations of forces.

31-51. In this whole Universe, whoever he may be, all are incapable of any action if he be deprived of his force; what more than this, if S’iva be deprived of Kula Kundalinî S’aktî, He becomes a lifeless corpse; O great ascetic Rishis! She is present everywere thus in every thing in this universe from the highest Brahmâ to the lowermost blade of grass, all moving and non-moving things. Verily everything becomes quite inert, if deprived of shakthi; whether in conquering one's enemies, or in going from one place to another or in eating -- one finds oneself quite incapable, if deprived of shakthi. Thus the omnipresent S’aktî, the wise call by the name of Brahmâ. Those who are verily intelligent should always worship Her in various ways and determine thoroughly the reality of Her by every means. In Vishnu there is the Sattviki S’aktî; then He can preserve; otherwise He is quite useless; so in Brahmâ there is Rajasik S’aktî and He creates; otherwise He is quite useless; in S’iva, there is Tamasik S’aktî and He destroys; else He is quite useless. Thus, arguing again and again in one's mind, everyone should come to know that the Highest Âdya S’aktî by Her mere will creates and preserves this Universe and She it is who destroys again in time the whole Brahmânda, moving and non-moving; no one is capable to do his respective work be he Brahmâ, Vishnu, Mahes'vara, Indra, Fire, Sun, Varuna or any other person whatsoever; verily all the Devas perform the respective actions by the use of this Âdya S’aktî. That She alone is present in cause and effect and is doing every action, an be witnessed vividly. The intelligent ones call that S’aktî twofold; one is Sagunâ and the other is Nirgunâ. The people, attached to the senses and the objects, worship the Sagunâ aspect, and those who are not so attached worship the Nirguna aspect. That conscious S’aktî is the Lady of the fourfold aims of life, religion, wealth, desires, and liberation(dharma, artha, kaama and moksha). When She is worshiped according to due rules, She awards all sorts of desires. The worldly persons, charmed by the Mâyâ of this world, do not know Her at all; some persons know a little and charm others; whereas some stupid and dull-headed Pundits, impelled by Kali, start sects of heretics, Pâshandas for the sustenance of their own bellies. O highly fortunate Munis! In no other Yugas were found acts as prevalent in this Kali Yuga, based on various different opinions and altogether beyond the pale of the Vedic injunctions. Behold again, if Brahmâ, Visnu and Mahes’a be the supreme Deities, then why do these three Devas meditate on another One beyond speech, beyond mind and practise, for years, hard austerities; and why do they perform Yajñas (sacrifices) for their success in creation, preservation, and destruction?

They know, verily, the Highest Supreme Being, Brahmâni Devî S’aktî eternal, constant and therefore they meditate Her always in their minds. Therefore the wise man, knowing this firmly, should serve in every way the Highest S’aktî. O Munis! This is the settled conclusion of all the Sâstras. I have heard of this great hidden secret from Bhagavân Krisna Dvaipâyana. He heard it from Nârada, and Nârada heard it from his own father Brahmâ. Brahmâ heard this from Vishnu. O Munis it is well that the wise even should not hear or think anything to the contrary from other sources; they should with their concentrated heart serve the Brahmâ Sanâtanî S’aktî. It is clearly witnessed in this world that if there be any substance wherein this conscious S’aktî does not exist, that becomes inert, quite useless for any purpose. So know this fully that it is the Highest Divine Mother of the Universe that is playing here, residing in every being.

The story of Adam and Eve: a Vedic origin

Religious and philosophical truths are often explained through parables, stories, so that ignorant people can understand them easily. Since metaphysical concepts are difficult to grasp, either they have to be told in the form of a story or they have to be given the form of a ritual, that is they must find expression as religious acts.
It is likely, though, that, with the passage of time, some stories or rites will become far removed from their inner meaning. Or, it may be, the inner meaning will be altogether forgotten. So it must be that, when new religions took shape abroad, after the lapse of thousands of years-religions not connected with the Vedic faith that is the root-the original Vedic concepts become transformed or distorted.
You must be familiar with the story of Adam and Eve which belongs to the Hebrew tradition. It occurs in the Genesis of the Old Testament and speaks of the tree of knowledge and God's commandment that its fruit shall not be eaten. Adam at first did not eat it but Eve did. After that Adam too ate the forbidden fruit.
Here an Upanisadic concept has taken the form of a biblical story. But because of the change in the time and place the original idea has become distorted-or even obliterated.
The Upanisadic story speaks of two birds perched on the branch of a pippala tree. One eats the fruit of tree while the order merely watches its companion without eating. The pippala tree stands for the body. The first bird represents a being that regards himself as the jivatman or individual self and the fruit it eats signifies sensual pleasure. In the same body (symbolized by the tree) the second bird is to be understood as the Paramatman. He is the support of all beings but he does not know sensual pleasure. Since he does not eat the fruit he naturally does not have the same experience as the jivatman (the first). The Upanisad speaks with poetic beauty of the two birds. He who eats the fruit is the individual self, jiva, and he who does not eat is the Supreme Reality, the one who knows himself to be the Atman.
It is this jiva that has come to be called Eve in the Hebrew religious tradition. "Ji" changes to "i" according to a rule of grammar and "ja" to "ya". We have the example of "Yamuna" becoming "Jamuna" or of "Yogindra" being changed to "Joginder ". In the biblical story "jiva" is "Eve" and "Atma" (or "Atman") is "Adam". "Pippala" has in the same way changed to "apple". The Tree of Knowledge is our "bodhi-vrksa" . "Bodha" means "knowledge". It is well known that the Budhha attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree. But the pipal (pippala) was known as the bodhi tree even before his time.
The Upanisadic ideas transplanted into a distant land underwent a change after the lapse of centuries. Thus we see in the biblical story that the Atman (Adam) that can never be subject to sensual pleasure also eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. While our bodhi tree stands for enlightenment, the enlightenment that banishes all sensual pleasure, the biblical tree affords worldly pleasure.

(From the book Hindu Dharma by the Sage of Kanchi)

Shankara Jayanti

Greetings to all on the occasion of Shankara Jayanti.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA


Adi Shankara is Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva wears a snake around his neck.
The answer to the perplexing question of what constitutes Advaita
lies in seeing Lord Shiva with the snake around his neck.

No man can see the Truth of Advaita. Only Lord Shiva Sees It. The
eyes of mortal beings open and close in the Third Eye of Shiva that
is always Open. That Eye alone sees Advaita.

Adi Shankara's words are a double-edged sword. It is both this way
and that way. Seeing any one way is not seeing what Shankara Sees.

To see the Truth of Advaita, the sword of discrimination has to
pierce the Twilight-Junction where the Day meets Night to reveal the
Splendorous Sun that never rises and sets. In the Sunlight all things
are Seen and nothing is lost.

Adi Shankara speaks in riddles. A riddle presents a contradiction.
The comfort of having an established Advaita philosophy does not
exist. It can only be as Adi Shankara has given it to us - both this
way and that way. By its very nature, the articulation of Advaita is
a riddle.

The comfort of having established philosophies that are either this
Way or that Way is found in Visistadvaita and Dvaita among many other
Ways. It is not the Way of Advaita that has no Way that may be spoken
about. Those who cross swords with Advaita cross swords with the
illusions of their own making.

The glint of the Sword flashes in the brilliance of the Sun and it
blinds the eye. The path lies however on the razor's edge of the
Sword flashing in the Sun. It is the Sword of discrimination that
cuts across all riddles to unriddle all that has been riddled. There
is nothing lost in it except the knots of the riddles.

And there is a great riddle in Shankara Himself:

Shankara shows the Truth. Shankara hides the Truth. Shankara both
shows and hides the Truth. One aspect of Shankara is Rudra. The
Shakti of Rudra is called Raudri. Raudri is the power that prevents
one from seeing the Truth.

Sri Madhvacharya said that Sri Shankaracharya is Rudra who had come
to confuse people. Sri Madhvacharya does not speak an untruth. It is
true that Shankara prevents one from seeing the Truth. It is also
true that Shankara is the supreme revelation of Truth. It is the very
nature of Shankara to wear a snake round His neck. It is the very
Nature of Lord Shiva. It is the very Nature of Truth that It is such.
It is the Nature of Advaita, the Vision of Lord Shiva.

Brahman created all these beings. After creating them, Brahman
entered them. The words of Advaita are the words of Brahman directed
by Brahman to Brahman when Brahman is ready to exit what Brahman has
entered. He exits in the same manner as He enters. The man that He
once entered and is now exiting is left behind in the ashes of the
funeral pyre. It is all the Leela of His Eternal Existence.

To that Lord Shiva, who came in the form of a sanyasin as the Jagat-
Guru, Adi Shankara, I pray that I may be able to offer my head so
that the man who can never see the Truth may be burnt to ashes. Only
Lord Shiva is always Seeing.

[This is reproduced here with the kind permission of Shri Chittaranjan-ji, from the advaitin E-list.
Shri Chittaranjan is a wonderfully gifted and erudite Vedantic scholar, currently residing in Mumbai.]

Prátah smarámi hrdi samsphuradátmatattvam

saccitsukham paramahamsagatim turiyam

yatsvapna jágarasussuptamavaiti nityam

tadbrahma niskalamaham na ca bhutasañghah

At dawn I remember the Reality which is the Self, shining brilliantly in the heart, existence-consciousness-happiness, the goal of Paramahamsa sasannyasins (sages), the Fourth; That which knows always the states of dream, waking and deep-sleep, that Brahman which is partless I am, not the cluster of elements.

Pratarbhajámi manasám vacasámagamyam

vaco vibhánti nikhilá yadanugrahena

yanneti neti vacanair nigamá avocam

-stam devadevamajam acyutam áhur agryam.

At dawn I sing the praise of That which is unattainable by mind and speech, but by the grace of which all words shine. That which the scriptures declares through the words `not this', `not this'- That God of gods, they say, is unborn and un-changing.

Prátarnamami tamasah paramarkavarnam

pürnam sanátanapadam Purushottamakhyam

yasminnidam jagadasesam asesamurtau

rajjvam bhujamgama iva pratibhasitam vai.

At dawn I bow to that which is called the Highest Self which is beyond darkness, of the hue of the Sun the ancient goal which is the plenum - That, the residuless form (i.e. the whole) in which the entire universe is made manifest like a serpent in a rope.

thought of the day

MayA's function of hiding things is called 'tirodhAnaM'. Right now the
real Brahman that we are is *tirohitaM*, that is, hidden from us. The
hidden thing comes out by the dhyAna of ParamAtmA - so says BrahmasUtra,
but immediately, lest we may think it is an automatic consequence, it
adds, clearing up any confusion, "This hiding as well as the bondage
(caused by the hiding) are both by Ishvara. When we do nidhidhyAsanaM,
the removal of the hiding, the manifestation of the Truth and the grant
of mokshha, all are again the work of Ishvara". (III - 2-5). When the
Acharya writes the BhashyaM on this, he says, more explicitly, "This
manifestation will not happen automatically or naturally for all and
sundry. Only to that rare person who makes effort to do intense
nidhidhyAsana it happens by God's Grace". *na svabhAvata eva sarveshhAM
jantUnAM* -- 'Revelation' does not happen naturally for everybody.
*Ishvara-prasAdAt samsiddhasya kasyacit eva Avirbhavati* -- 'By God's
Grace It reveals only to that rare person who has the highest
achievement'.

The Sage of Kanchi