सर्ववेदान्तसिद्धान्तगोचरं तमगोचरम् ।
गोविन्दं परमानन्दं सद्गुरुं प्रणतोऽस्म्यहम् ॥ १ ॥
sarvavedantasiddhantagocaraṃ tamagocaram |
govindaṃ paramanandaṃ sadguruṃ praṇato'smyaham || 1 ||
My salutation to Sri Sadguru
Govinda who is of the nature of Bliss Absolute, who can be known only through
the import of the essence of Vedanta and who is beyond the reach of the known
instruments of perception.
Guru means the teacher of Vedanta. The one who
does the upadesa is called guru; one who teaches anything can be called guruḥ;
and be called guruḥ. Here what type of guru; Sat gurum. The word sat refers to
pure existence Brahman. Therefore Sadgurum, the teacher of Brahman.
And then Sankaracarya describes that Guru; what
type of guru he is? Paramanandam; the one who is an embodiment of Ananda.
Supreme Ananda. Highest Ananda. Govindaṁ. Sankara’s guru's name
is Govinda Bhagavad padcharya. And what is His real nature? He is not the mere
physical body. That is superficial self. He is none other than Brahman itself.
In the first line: paramatmanam; who is none
other than the Paramatma; he is not a person born on a day and dying another
day. He is none other than paramatma.
Therefore paramatma swarūpam govinda bhagavadapadam ahaṁ praṇathaha asmi.
Paramatma is described here as agacaram.
Agocaram means what? Not available for any
regular instruments of knowledge. Gocharaha means object; agocharaḥ
means not an object of perception; not an object of inference; not an objection
of scientific experimentation, not available for human instruments of
knowledge. Why? because all the regular instruments of knowledge can collect
data from matter only because matter alone is available for observation.
Your consciousness is not available for
collecting data; therefore we can have varieties of hypothesis about
consciousness, we can never arrive at a conclusive idea about the
consciousness. Siddanta gocharaḥ means tatparyam viṣayaḥ.
And what is meant by tatparyam viṣayaḥ;
the essential teaching. Of what? Sarva vedanta; of all the upanishads. So paramatma
is that which is the essential teaching of all the upanishads. And why do you
say the essential teaching.
For the Upanishads, there are many non-
essentials; Annamaya kosa in the upanishads;
annaat vai praja a prajaai yante ... atho annenaiva jīvanthi. athai...
(40.08)
The body grows because of food, body is
sustained by food, body dissolves that into food; this idea is there in the
Taittariya upanishad.
Suppose somebody asks a person; In Taittariya Upanishad,
what is said; I have understood a very important thing; what is that; body
grows by food. For that Taittariya Upanishad is necessary? If you eat more for
some days, it is seen. So that is not essential teaching.
When the upanishad talks about Sr̥ṣhṭi,
there is no tatparya viṣayaḥ. Therefore we should study the upanishad for the sake of
cosmology; and try to compare it with the present day cosmology; that is not
the thing. Vedanta does talk about cosmology; how the perception takes place. Vedanta
talks about so many others. Therefore we should not focus on those things and
waste our time, because they are all stepping stones; use them, arrive at
consciousness; and drop everything. So the Paramatma is the tatparyam.
Spirit is the subject matter; and not matter.
Upaṇiṣhad does not want to concentrate on matter because it will
be discovered today or tomorrow; that mind is a matter.
Therefore tam agocharam means that it is not
available for science; it is available only for vedanta. One is material
science; another is spiritual science. Do not make use of one to prove the
other.
Love.
