Verse 31 continued....
गुरुचरणाम्बुजनिर्भरभक्तः संसारादचिराद्भव मुक्तः ।
सेन्द्रियमानसनियमादेवं द्रक्ष्यसि निजहृदयस्थं देवम् ॥३१॥
Gurucaraṇāmbuja nirbhara bhaktaḥ saṁsārādacirādbhava muktaḥ,
sendriyamānasa niyamādevaṁ
drakṣyasi nija hṛdayasthaṁ devam
(O devotee of the
lotus feet of the teacher! May you become liberated soon from the saṁsāra through the discipline of the sense organs and
the mind. You will come to experience the Lord that dwells in your own heart.)
In this, the first
line related to devotion to Guru, we covered in yesterday's post. Now let us
focus on the second line of the verse.
sendriyamānasa niyamādevaṁ
drakṣyasi nija hṛdayasthaṁ devam
Niyamā means control, of the indriya and mānasa, the sense
organs and the mind.
With the devotion to the teacher, the scriptures and the Lord, and with the
sense organs and mind under control, meaning focused upon the self, drakṣyasi nija hṛdayasthaṁ devam. Drakṣyasi, you will see.
What will you
see? Devam, the Lord.
Who is the Lord? That
very self. Where is he?
Nija hṛdayasthaṁ, in your own heart.
Thus, by control of the mind along with the senses, and with a heart in which
there is total devotion for the teacher and the Lord, you will see the Lord who
is in your own heart. Thus, you will soon become free from this saṁsāra.
Devotion is a very important
thing to have. Without devotion, nothing can be achieved.
Some people believe
that there are different paths, that there is a path of devotion and a path of
knowledge. They believe that sages such as Chaitanya Mahāprabhu followed
the path of devotion, and wonder what path Śaṅkarā is following.
Do you think he is
not a devotee?
Śaṅkarā who is the champion of knowledge is equally a devotee. His
devotion is evident everywhere. The devotion for the teachers, devotion for the
scriptures, and devotion for the Lord is evident in everything that Śaṅkarā writes.
Therefore, whatever
you are pursuing, the first requirement is that the heart must have devotion.
Devotion comes as a result of the grace of the Lord. We pray that we may have
devotion. Bhakti is the element that always goes along with the pursuit of
knowledge, or the performing of an action. It is the one common feature in all
that we do to achieve our goal of self knowledge.
Here, Sankara says,
may you discover in your heart, devotion for the teacher, and soon may you
become free from samsara.
By
saying the supreme Spirit is ‘seated in your heart', Sankara sends out a strong
message that God is not someone sitting up in the clouds doling out blessings
and curses but the Life-principle within each one of us. And the way to begin
is by turning inward.
Whether it is Jnana
or Bhakti, if a spiritual aspirant follows any one of these two path sincerely
and surrenders his heart totally to His chosen God in the path of devotion or
acquires the four fold qualification of Viveka, Vairagya, Shad Sampath and
Mumukshatva, seeks a qualified Guru and surrenders his ego totally at his Guru’s
feet and follows Guru’s instructions and progresses in his spiritual path step
by step, the final attainment is EXACTLY THE SAME.
It is often that
those who are in the path of Jnana feel disappointed that they are not able to
be in thoughtless, Samadhi state all the times, they are not able to transcend
mind all the time and they are not able to hold on to the state of pure
consciousness all the time.
An interaction
between Sri Rama and Hanuman in Yoga vasishta answers a sadhaka’s
predicament as to why he is not able to be ever aware that he is Atman / pure
consciousness.
Rama
asks Hanuman once, “How do you perceive me as?”
Hanuman
answered thus:
Deha Buddhya tu Dasoham
Jiva Buddhya Tvadaamsakah
|
Atma Buddhya Tvamevaham
iti me nishchita matih ||
“Oh Lord, while I identify myself with my body, I am your servant. When I
consider myself as Individual soul, I am Your part. But when I look
upon myself as the spirit, I am one with You.”
Hanuman has
experienced all the three Avasthas (conditions) when He was to
jump 100 yoganas to reach Lanka from Danuskoti, He manifested Himself as larger
showing the Samya Tattva (Equal to Brahman) in Him.
After the war with Ravana and getting back Sita Devi, Sri Rama hugged Hanuman. Here
Hanuman could experience the Ikaya Tattva (Identity with Brahman) and,
Finally at the Pattabhishekam (Coronation)
ceremony of Shri Rama, Hanuman retreats back from Samya and Ikya Tatwa to Bedha
Tattva (Difference with Brahman) and sits at the lotus feet of the Lord gazing
them.
So, the state of
consciousness manifests in different ways but it is all one and the same. When
you worship God sincerely, it is through your body / physical identity that you
seek and exist as consciousness.
When you meditate and
experience yourself as SELF, then at purest mind / intellect level, you are
experiencing the same consciousness.
When you expand in meditation
and experience the one-ness of the whole creation, then you experience the
state of consciousness beyond intellect and you merge and exist as Absolute
consciousness.
The state, the
purity, the one-ness with God is the same in all these three states. Only the
manifestation is different.
This perfectly
explains how Sankara, a core advaitin, after re-establishing advaita in Bharath
where Buddhism had gained great hold, after writing commentary on Brahma Sutras
and 10 upanishads, also went to write Bhaja Govindam, Sivananda lahari,
Kanagadhara stotram etc, which are manifestation of pure devotion to God!!!
This is the last verse and Śankara gives
us his blessing, “May you soon become free from samsara!”
May you discover that devotion in your heart for the teacher, for the
scriptures, for the Lord, and for the knowledge of the Self.
Love.
