Dakshinamurthy Stotram - Post 32 - Concluding post

We now come to the last 2 lines of verse 10 which say, 

The Benefits gained are:

     i.            one attains the glorious state of Self-hood; 

  ii.            along with it, he gains all the divine glories. 

iii.            he gains the world of Eswara Himself;

iv.            he regains his state of perfection.

   v.            he manifests the eight-fold supernatural     powers.

vi.            he gains all divine opulence without any obstruction.

The Six Phalas of Realization

i) Sarva-Atmatwam: “Self-hood”; this is the highest attainment of Self-realization or God-realization. It is earned by the Vedantic Sadhaka who has practised Sravana, Manana, and Nididhyasana to the point of perfecting them. 

He attains the highest State, namely complete union with the non-dual Brahman. This is the pinnacle of spiritual attainment. He truly sees the Self in all beings. To him it is not just a practice anymore, but an actuality in day-to-day life.

ii) Vibhooti: “Divine glories”. There are 71 Vibhootis of the Lord described in the Bhagavad Geeta, in Chapter 10. It is also mentioned that there are an infinite number of manifested Vibhootis, and that Sri Krishna as an Avatara is the foremost Vibhooti. In the same vein, the God-realised saint is also one of the very special Vibhootis.

iii) Eswaratvam: “Ishwara-hood”; this is earned by the devout Upasaka who does the worship of the Lord with no selfish desires, but merely to please the Lord. He attains great purity, and goes to the region of Brahmaji (Ishwara), which is termed Brahmaloka.

iv) Siddhi: “state of perfection”. If one serves an artist, he will more than likely get the talent of the artist as his Phala. 

In the same way, if one serves some Deity, all of whom come under the rule of Eswara, the Creator, then he will get what that Deity represents. If he worships Eswara Himself, then he will receive “Eswara-hood”. And if he devotes himself to the contemplation of Brahman he will get the fruit of Non-duality or Oneness.

As far as the Brahma Jnani is concerned, having attained the highest that is to be attained, all other fruits come to him without his asking. 

Parinatam: This means “manifested”, which implies that these Siddhis are in the realm of Maya. They do not belong to Brahman. They are part of the Unreal. 

Hence, Jnanis give them little importance; in fact, they are positively a nuisance factor to them as it attracts the “flies” of curiosity-mongers to them.

Sant Tukaram  was approached by the personification of these Siddhis and asked if they could do him any service. They were willing to do his bidding. He said to them, “Go back to Vaikuntha, and don’t ever come back!”

Sometimes, however, the Siddhis are used by saints to alleviate the sufferings of people. There are Siddhis by which certain cures can be performed. Saints may use powers such as foretelling an event for protecting a devotee who is likely to face physical danger, if it helps the person to develop faith in God. 

But on no account will he publicize these Siddhis for the sake of popularity. Also, the siddhis come to them for a particular purpose and they use them as instrument of Lord and give no importance to the same once the purpose is fulfilled.

v) Ashtadhaa: “the eight supernatural powers”. The eight supernatural powers are:

     i.            Anima: the power to assume a very small form.

  ii.            Mahima: the power to become very large, to pervade everything.

iii.            Garima: the power to make oneself very heavy.

iv.            Laghima: the power to become very light like a feather.

   v.            Praapti: the power to attain whatever one desires.

vi.            Prakamya: the ability to go anywhere in the three worlds.

vii.            Ishitvam: the power to rule over all the three worlds.

viii.            Vashitvam: the power to control others, to make them follow your lead.

Siddhis may be earned by the Karma-Upasaka who performs various rites and rituals with a desire-motive. He attains various heavenly worlds where he can enjoy his wishes.

vi)Aishwarya: “divine opulence or excellence”. Traditionally, this is one of the six virtues possessed by ‘Bhagavan’. The other five are Veerya, Yashas, Shree, Jnana and Vairagya – i.e. valour, fame, prosperity, knowledge and dispassion.

Benefit of phala shruti

Suppose, I am a very worldly person and I pick up this Dakshinamurti Stotra. I read through all Dakshinamurti is this and that, and I am thinking what all this means to me, this is all boring. Then I get to this last part that talk about Ashta Siddhi. This seems interesting to me. I didn‟t get all of the Dakshinamurti stuff, but I like the powers. 

The text however says that this power is a result of studying this hymn. So that leads me to go back to the beginning and see what this text is really about.

So, at the very end of the hymn phala shruti says, if you study this Dakshinamurti Stotra you will get these eight powers. 

Suppose you start studying the stotra and you study it properly with a teacher and through your efforts of sravana, manana, nidhidhyasana, after a long period of time, you may discover that you don’t have these eight powers; but you have something infinitely more valuable that is Sarva-Atmatwam: “Self-hood”. 

Phala shruti uses a worldly approach to draw you in, but then the very content of the hymn will redirect you to a higher goal.

With this, we come to the end of this sacred Hymn- Dakshinamurthy Ashtakam or Dakshinamurthy Stotram.

Hari Aum Tatsat

Love.