Dakshinamurthy Stotram - Post 10

Dakshinamurthy Ashtakam

After completing the Dhyana Shlokam, we are starting the Dakshinamurthy Stotram or the Dakshinamurthy Ashtakam, as it is referred to.

Verse 1

 

(The Pluralistic Universe is seen as though in a mirror, reflected in it like a city. 

Although the play is happening within in ‘Me’, the Atman. Yet, due to Maya’s power, it is seen to be produced outside ‘me’, the Jiva, just as it appears in a dream;

He who directly experiences at the time of realization, His own Atman as being one with this Universe, to that “Realized One”, 

The Revered Form of the Guru, do I offer my salutation; He is the Revered Form of Sri Dakshinamurthy.)

The verse introduces seven key Vedantic concepts that are described in later verses:

    1. Jagat – the Pluralistic Universe.

    2. Maya – the Power of Illusion which projects it.

    3. Jiva – the individual soul that experiences it.

  4. Eswara – the universal Soul that is the totality of all Jiva(s) and all inert objects.

    5. Brahman – the universal Reality, that is identical with

   6. Atman – the individual Reality. Realization of this is the spiritual goal.

    7. Guru – the Teacher who leads us to realization is himself the Reality. 

These seven concepts need to be understood clearly by the serious student. Their inter-relationships are elaborated upon in the remaining seven verses of the Ashtakam. 

The opening verse is the Vastu Sangraha Vakya or “Contents page” for the remaining verses.

The Simile of the “Mirror”

The entire world is like a city which is being seen in a mirror, but it is located within oneself.

The mirror is an excellent simile for the subject matter as it clearly demarcates the Real from the unreal, the two being on either side of the mirror. 

The first message the text delivers is that Jagat, referred  here as Viswam, the Universe of names and forms, is an unreal, illusory appearance, like any image we see in a mirror. 

In the case of an ordinary man the world is taken as real, because the presence of the mirror is not known. 

The external world is experienced through the 5 basic senses of knowledge called sense organs.  These senses are Eye, Ear, Skin, Tongue, and Nose. 

Their functioning is seeing, hearing, touch, taste and smell respectively. These senses metaphorically project its experience on the screen of the mind. 

This projection on mind is illumined by the consciousness. Thus, the external experience conveyed through the senses is known to you.

Everything you know about the world comes to you in the form of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell (through five senses). It creates the perception on the screen of your mind.

My mind always thrives in the association of something gross that my five sensory organs deliver to it. The five sensory organs bring in material things, thoughts, emotions and my mind without them cannot stay on its own. 

It craves for them and runs behind them. In this process, it becomes stained with the impressions of them. 

Awareness is for the mind to notice these happenings. Noticing or witnessing is enough to understand about the clinging. Reality in its purest form is never affected by anything. 

Just like that, awareness is also like a mirror reflecting everything and never being affected by them. When I am aware I need not worry. Realizing that I am a mirror is called awareness and thus my mind is stainless.

The immediate fact raised in the very first line is that there are two selves. 

1) There is an unreal self or “me” who is the individual, the Jiva, that is part of the world, part of the reflection. 

2) The other is the Real Self or “Me”, the Atman, who is looking into the mirror and seeing the whole world reflected in it, including the Jiva. 

In this sense, the Atman is the Witness of the Jiva and the world in front. My present experience is only of the unreal “me”, the Jiva. I do not know anything of the Atman who is the real ‘Me’. 

I, the Self, see Myself as the world. I, the seeker-Jiva, am told that this Universe which I see before me is only an illusion. These are two distinctly different ways of looking at the same world. 

My two selves see the world in two opposite ways: the Jiva aspect, ‘me’, sees the world as being different from ‘me’. 

Whereas the Atman aspect, “Me”, views the world including “me”, as its own Self!

An enlightened person is just like that mirror. They just reflect only the present and yet are not attached to it. They are not anxious of the object that must be reflected and if there is nothing to reflect upon, they just reside in the emptiness.

Relating to the mirror=mind, Author gave a session long back on Mind=consciousness. 

The enlightened seer’s mind is like that. He does not see anything except himself, the pure consciousness and hence, the mirror mind, the seen creation, the perceiving senses - he cannot differentiate these things and see them as objects, for him, there is nothing apart from him, the pure awareness consciousness.

Love.

PS- Today's post covers only the first line and in the most brief manner possible. We will be going very slow, getting into the very depth of each line and if need be, each word / expression, henceforth.