Vivekachudamani - Post 9

Verse 3

 

दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतद्देवानुग्रहहेतुकम् ।

त्रयमेवैतद्देवानुग्रहहेतुकम् मनुष्यत्वं मुमुक्षुत्वं महापुरुषसंश्रयः ॥ ३॥

Durlabham trayam eva itad devanugraha hetukam, 

manusyatvam mumuksutvam mahapurusa samsrayah. 

 

(Manhood, burning desire for Liberation, the capacity to surrender completely to a Man of Wisdom - these three things are rare indeed, and  wherever they are found, they are due to the Lord's own grace.)

 

Chinmaya writes,

 

“Earlier we were told how rare is the human birth and necessary qualifications one must have for a vital and positive living by which  one can grow in one's inner evolution. 

 

In order to emphasise to the seeker the importance of the qualities which he should have when going to a great Man of Wisdom, seeking spiritual knowledge, these qualifications are here stressed.”

 

Manushyatvam

 

Sankara says that to be born as a human being is a sign of Lord's grace. After this, to employ in life a deep discriminative understanding and to perceive the ultimate futility of all the ordinary mundane pursuits of life and thereby discover an enthusiasm to seek a nobler path of self-redemption is rarer still. 

The sacredness of human birth has been well described in the previous verse already.

 

Mumukshatvam

 

We can spend the whole life in pursuit of artha or we can spend the whole life in search of kama and we can spend the whole life in search of dharma. However, we should be able to recognise the superiority of moksha and convert moksha into the top priority of my life; that is called mumukṣutvam.

 

It does not mean that one should not pursue Artha, Kama at all. Pursuance of Artha and Kama should be subject to observance of Dharma while one leads his life. However, like the woman carrying the pot filled with water may talk, may laugh while walking but her focus is always on the pot she carries on her head and she ensures that the water in the pot never gets dropped while she may indulge in all talks.

Similarly, while a human being may pursue Artha, Kama within the boundary of dharma, internally, his mind/ his heart/ his intellect should always be focussed only on one thing- God Realization. This intense focus or intense craving is “Mumukshatvam”

 

Maha purusha samsraya

 

Here maha is not in the literal sense, here it is stotriya brahma nishta guruḥ.  He should be a realized master and also, he should be able to transmit knowledge to his disciple effortlessly and wholly. There are masters who are unable to teach/ instruct their disciples / anyone properly. 

If a mumukṣu sadhaka gets a maha purushah as his Guru, then mukti is definite.  Here "mumukshu sadhaka" is a very important expression. Even if one gets a Maha Purusha's proximity, still, if the disciple is not a Mumukshu, he has not been endowed with the Sadhana chatushtaya Samapatti, the best of the Maha Purushas, even the Lord Almighty wont be able to help such a disciple attain  Mukti. 

Kathopanișad says when a qualified sishya meets a qualified teacher, gatihi nasti; there is no way of escaping moksha. 

 

Deva Anugraha

 

Lastly, when a creature is born as a man, when he feels a gnawing sense of impatience at his own limitations, for him to find the right Master to guide him across the thorny paths of his imperfections into the soft meadows of limitless joy and bliss is the rarest.

Sankara attributes all these three rounds of seeming luck to the grace of the Almighty.

Chinmaya concludes,

“What is meant here by God's grace is only  the sum total of reactions gained through the healthy and  intelligent way in which the individual has lived through his  many previous lives of great and noble cultural pursuits.”

In the previous sloka, several stages were talked about; those stages he condenses in three stages and says successfully going through these stages is or requires Deva anugraha hetukam, Deva anugraha phalam. 

Whenever we say Easvara's grace, it means purva janma puṇya phalam. The grace he has won in the purva janma by noble karmas and upasanas. 

So therefore grace is based on the law of karma; it is not at random. 

In the previous sloka, the last line he used the word punyairvina labhyate; the very same word puṇyam in this sloka he replaces by devanugraḥ; which means puṇya is devanugraḥ; devanugraḥ is puṇya; there is no difference. So if both are identical then why use two words?

If I am planting a tree, and I am growing a tree; remember, my effort alone is not enough, so many external factors should be favourable and the unknown factor is called Isvara. If I claim as my puṇyam I may take the whole credit and I may not acknowledge other factors. 

But when I say the very same thing is the grace of the Lord, it leads to humility and acknowledgement of the role of other factors.

When I take everything as Isvara Anugraha, I will have prasada buddhi, I will have humility and therefore we say devanugraḥ phalam.

Having said that, if one leads a noble life, accumulates all punya karmas, reaches the feet of " Maha Purusha Guru" after he is qualified in Sadhana Chatushatya, takes up Shravana, Manana, Nidhidhyasana sincerely of his Guru's teachings, then he richly deserves Deva Anugraha and Easwara  is always waiting to shower His grace on such a deserving Mumukshu Sadhaka. 

Thus, getting even Deva Anugraha is very much in the hands of the sadhaka, not with the choice of Easwara.

 

Love.