Vivekachudamani-Post 45

 O Lord / Thy nectarine speech, honeyed by the elixir bliss of Brahman, pure, cooling, issuing in streams from thy lips as from a water jug, and pleasing to the ear; do thou shower upon me who am tormented by earthly afflictions as by the tongues of a forest fire. Blessed are those who have received even a passing glance from thy eyes, accepting them under thy protection. 

He Prabho vakyamr̥ taiḥ secaya; He prabho, he guro, secaya; bathe me, rinse me with what? vakya amr̥taiḥ, the waters which are int he form of your teaching; your words, your sentences; and here, the word amr̥taiḥ water the remedy is water and here the water is called amr̥taiḥ; the philosophical significance is, water will only quench or remove the pain; the heat temporary, but by using the word amrutham, not only it will remove the pain temporarily, but it will give immortality or moksha also. To indicate that duḥkha nivr̥tti, amr̥tatva prapti, and what is the glory of these words?

Brahma anandah rasa anubhuti kalitaiḥ; so endowed with the experience of the taste of Brahmanandaḥ. kalitam means endowed with the experience of the taste of brahmanandaḥ; that means what; when the guru uses the word he does not repeat like a parrot. Upanishad says Tattvamasi; and therefore I say Tattvamasi. 

Upaṇiṣad says that you are nitya suddha buddha muktaḥ; and therefore I also say. It is not parrot-like repetition of the words but it should be coming from the guru's own heart; when he says that you are Anandaḥ

So therefore when he says: You are anandaḥ; the guru must be anandaḥ svarupa. When he says you are secure, the guru's heart must enjoy security. When he says he is asangaḥ; guru's heart must be asangaḥ; in fact what he teaches, he must be.

That is why in Kathopanișad, guru is defined as ananyaḥ; a beautiful definition of guru; ananyaḥ means he is what he is teaching; he is what he is speaking; there is no difference between what he is and what he preaches. 

This is called teaching from heart; and when the words come from heart, not from lip, those words alone are live-words; like a live-wire, those words alone are called live-words. And therefore, he adds this adjective He Guro, you have those words which are endowed with the taste of brahmanandah; that means you are enjoying pūrṇatvam. And similarly, here also the waters are taste, pure, and clear waters. This is adjective No.1.

And the second adjective is putaiḥ; pavithram or śuddham; pūtham means pavithram or śuddham. 

Therefore puthaihi; sudhaaihi; seethaihi; the third adjective of word water; what is it; it is cool, with a cooling effect. And that is also applicable to both; it has got a cooling effect on a person who is scorched with heat; and also it has got the words have got a cooling effect that a student who has come with a disturbed mind, restless mind; he goes with a cool mind; he is santaḥ; samaḥ; therefore the teaching makes the student cool; santaḥ and samaḥ. The water also makes a person cool. Therefore sītaiḥ. More I will take in the next class.

And therefore Oh Teacher, with puthai, with such proper words, and suśītai, the words which are cold, which are with calmness, with śānti. So here the words cool has to be extended to both water as well as the words. Because somebody's body is scorched, you should rinse with what water. 

So suśītair; means the water is also cold and when you extend it to words, their cold means what; it has got śānthi. So when you say, a person is cool in disposition, it means he is never provoked. He enjoys śamatvam.

Love

Vivekachudamani-Post 44

अयं स्वभावः स्वत एव यत्पर

श्रमापनोदप्रवणं महात्मनाम् ।

सुधांशुरेष स्वयमर्ककर्कश

प्रभाभितप्तामवति क्षितिं किल ॥ ३८ ॥

ayaṃ svabhāvaḥ svata eva yatpara

śramāpanodapravaṇaṃ mahātmanām |

sudhāṃśureṣa svayamarkakarkaśa

prabhābhitaptāmavati kṣitiṃ kila || 38 ||

Indeed , it is the nature of the magnanimous to help remove the troubles  of others, even as the moon of its own accord cools the earth scorched by  the flaming rays of the sun.

Sankara compares a seer with the moon and directs our  attention to the fact that the moon alone can and with effortless  ease does cool the parched earth which gets baked in the  burning rays of the sun. Nothing else can cool the earth as satisfactorily as moonlight, also there is no chance ever of the  moonlight adding a single calorie of heat to the earth. 

The company of the wise is the surest remedy to cool down  the bosom to a state of complete peace and happiness when it is in  conflagration, fed by desires and hatreds, attachments and yearnings. 

In verse 34, we have been told that a disciple should,  having approached a true Master, please him with his service,  humility and surrender. Sankara has so far used four verses in  praise of the Masters to express the attitude of total surrender  of the disciple to the Teacher. In the following verses, we hear  a definite and pointed request to the Master to answer the  seeker's doubts, so that through his inspired discourses and  explanations, the seeker may be lifted out of the ruts of wrong  thinking.

Sankara talks about the magnanimity to remove the trouble of others. This compassion towards the sufferers is not deliberately entertained by these jnanis. It is not a willful action entertained by jnanis; only when deliberations and will are involved, there is a question of what I will get out of it. So, if it is not deliberately, willfully entertained trait, how do they have it. 

Sankaraa says; svabhavaḥ, it is spontaneous; it is intrinsic; it is natural. In fact, they are helplessly compassionate. Even if they do not want to have compassion, they find themselves having that because compassion is an expression of fullness.

And even this lokaḥ sangraḥ karma done by these jnanis like you is not with any motive but it is the very svabhava of the jnani. And therefore, in this verse, which we are seeing, student says ayaṁ svabhavaḥ. 

In fact compassion of a Jnani  is only a bye product of purṇatvam. We can never work for developing compassion. As long as one feels apurṇa, compassion will not come because compassion is directed towards the needy samsaris. 

When I require all the compassion for myself, how can I extend my compassion to others. Therefore as long as I am apurṇaḥ, we do not have direct access towards compassion love, etc. 

It is just like I can never directly work to remove the rope-snake. I can never work to remove the rope snake directly; how ever much hit the rope-snake would not die. All your effort must be in knowing the rope; snake removal is a bye-product. Compassion is a bye-product. Fearlessness is a bye product. Security is a bye-product. Love is a bye-product. So we can never work on them; we have to work only for purṇatvam; and that too how? 

jnanena purṇatvam siddhaye eva prayatnah; once purṇatvam comes, compassion comes from svabhāva; and not deliberately entertained; but naturally enjoyed; and therefore the student says ayaṁ svabhāvaḥ. Oh Guru,  your compassion is your nature.

Eṣaḥ sudhaṁsuḥ. Sudha means moon, chandraḥ; aṁsuḥ means rays; sudhaṁsuḥ means the rays of the moon; chandra rasmih. What does it do? Especially in the summer days. 

Sankara says, during summer the earth is scorched by the rays of the Sun, during the daytime; the earth is scorched by the rays of the Sun during the daytime and what does the moon-rays due during the night-time. The cool rays of the moon; that is poetic imagination; moon's rays rare considered to be sitamsuḥ; himamsuḥ; these are the words they use for the moon; cool-rayed one. 

Sun is called chandra-kiraṇaḥ-scorching-rayed Sun. Now the Sun has scorched the earth; and the moon's rays what do they do during the night whey spread their rays and they cool the earth. 

Similarly, my sun is saṁsaraḥ; and you are the moon and I have been already scorched by the samsara rays and you have to cool me by your glance; by your teaching. 

The moon's cool rays will cool the earth which is scorched by the fierce rays of the Sun and this job of the moon is not a deliberate job of the moon, it is a very nature of the moon. 

Similarly, every jnani is like a moon. Every samsari is like the earth and samsara duḥkhaṁ is like the Sun and as even the jnani comes, he cools the samsari.

Dear all,

These precious verses were written in those times when mumukshu sadhakas were at the feet of their Guru, abandoning everything else in their life, seated at their Guru’s feet in Guru’s ashram, listening to each and every words, paying attention to each whisper, each movement, each silence, each action and each inaction of their Guru who was more than God for them.

Times changed, man changed, perceptions changed and now, sadly, that kind of dedication and surrender to Guru ( Guru tatwam, not guru’s form) is  not there anymore. 

A guru, when He is realized, continues to fulfil each and every description in these sacred treatise about the nature of a Guru, even now. 

He exists with His spontaneous compassion exacly as  given by Sankara in this verse.

But those who come to him, have changed. They listen to Him but choose to use their own mind/intellect to interpret. They come to Him, stay for sometime and leave. 

The Guru Sishya Parampara has lost its sanctity. There are very few ideal Guru Sishya Parampara in today’s world.

Even while  going through these verses and writing on such verses, it pains to realize how less relevant these verses have become in today’s  world.

Love

Vivekachudamani- Post 43

शान्ता महान्तो निवसन्ति सन्तो
वसन्तवल्लोकहितं चरन्तः ।
तीर्णाः स्वयं भीमभवार्णवं जनान्
अहेतुनान् यानपि तारयन्तः ॥ ३७ ॥ 

Santa mahanto nivasanti santo
vasantavallokahitaṃ carantaḥ |
tirṇaḥ svayaṃ bhimabhavarṇavaṃ janan
ahetunan yanapi tarayantaḥ || 37 ||

(There are peaceful and magnanimous saints who live, like the spring season, for the good of humanity. They have crossed the dreadful ocean of finitude through their own efforts and with no ulterior motives; they  also help others to cross it.)

On understanding the essence of Truth in ourselves, we gain a freedom from the sense of finitude which was ours so long as we identified ourselves with the body, mind and intellect. 

Since these  disturbances can no longer affect a Man of Perfection, it is one of the surest symptoms of knowledge and saintliness if we can observe an individual who is under all provocative circumstances, infinitely at peace with himself and with the world. Therefore, a santa is a man of true broadmindedness which is the natural outcome of kindness, tolerance and so on. This is the flag of Realisation. 

Santah mahantah. So the jnanis are mahantaḥ; they are generous people that they live in the world purely for the sake of rescuing and helping others. Just like when there are flood all over, there are rescuers with boat and other things and they go around and put the people into the boat. 

Svayaṁ bhīmabhavārṇavaṁ tīrṇāḥ; they have themselves crossed over the ocean of saṁsāra; they are free that is the essence; they have crossed bhava arnavah; bhavaḥ means samsara; arṇavaḥ means ocean; bhavarṇava arṇavaḥ means saṁsāra sagara ārṇavaḥ; and what type of ārṇavaḥ; bhīma ārṇavaḥ; 

Literally Bhima means bayamkara aarṇavaḥ; bibeti asmaat iti bhīma aarṇavaḥ; It is derived from the root bhim; to cause fear. So from this frightening waters of samsara; it is not like the swimming pool where you can enjoy; but it is frightening waters of samsara; this samsara; svayam tirṇaḥ; they are free.

A Man of Realisation instinctively becomes a lover of the whole universe. Like spring, his is a love which demands no cause to flower into a wealth of blossoms. 

Living as he does in this intimate understanding of oneness, he cannot but love others as his very own Self.  This can be brought within the understanding of the laity through a comparison. 

Sankara gives us an inimitable example when he compares the mahatmas and the touch of joy they lend to the world, with the spring season. When spring comes, it does not court every tree to  bring forth its flowers nor does it reach the world and canvass the moon to be brighter, the sky to be clearer and cleaner, the grass  to be thicker and every heart to be more joyous. 

Similarly, it is for the Mahatma to spread knowledge and  cheer around him and whenever true seekers reach him, they  are irresistibly drawn into his orbit to bask in the warmth of his  personality. 

janan tarayantaḥ; for what purpose; ahetuna; without any reason; without any motive; anyan with go with janan; anyan janan ahetuna tarayantaḥ; motivelessly they help other people cross the samsara. taryati; tarati means cross; tarayati means help other people cross.

Love