Vivekachudamani - Post 7

 

Vidvattvam

Even after gaining all these rare chances , to have steadfastness on  the path of spiritual activity as explained in Vaidika literature is yet rarer; much more so , to have a correct knowledge of the deep significances of the scriptures.

 

And after getting sadhana catuṣṭaya sampatti, what is the next stage? Vidwatvam asmatparam. Vidvatvam means vedanta śravaṇam. Vedantic learning. So first line viprataḥ came, now vidvatvam has come now.

 

Viprataḥ means dharma sastra jnanam and vidvatvam means brahma sastra jnanam.. Viprataḥ if you follow sincerely, then they can come to vidwatvam. So vidwatvam corresponds to sravaṇam.

 

Sravaṇam requires a guru. Sravaṇam is not possible without a guru. How to find out who is a guru. Scriptures say “sthoriyam Brahmaniṣṭam”, one who has attained Brahma Jnana and is also capable of imparting Jnana to his disciple. The Lord alone has to send such a Guru  out of his infinite source. 

 

To get a guru and get an opportunity to do the Sravaṇam is still rarer. Manuṣyatvam and then viprataḥ then vaidika dharma margaḥ paratha and then vidwatvam and as you go higher and higher it becomes rarer and rarer.

 

When a man-man, having developed his powers of concentration through selfless actions, studies the scriptures properly, he gains discrimination between Spirit and matter, the Real and the unreal. Soon he comes to realise that the Self in him is the Self in all and ere long he gets established in his experience of godhood. 

 

Sankara in enumerating these stages of self-development gives us in a nutshell the unwritten chapter in Darwin's half declared theory of evolution. Here we have all the various stages through which man consciously, by right living and self-progress,  climbs on to the lap of the Lord, there to merge with Him, there  to become Siva. This is called mukti - the full and final Liberation of a mortal from all his limitations. 

 

Love.