WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 13,535

Date uploaded in London – 11 August 2024                 

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan

xxxx  

What Sankara said in two slokas of Viveka Chudamani (VC) is explained beautifully by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (RKP) in one story. Tamil saint Tirumular in his Tirumanthiram and the greatest Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar in his Tamil Veda book Tirukkural, also use the Tiger to teach us Hindu principles

Tiger Parable in Sri RKP

It’s the story of a tigress who attacked a flock of sheep. As she sprang on her prey, she gave birth to a cub and died. The motherless tiger cub was adopted by the sheep and brought up by them to speak their language, to emulate their ways, eat their food, and in general to believe that he was a sheep himself.

Then one day a king tiger came along, and all the  sheep scattered in fear. The young sheep-tiger was left alone to confront him, afraid and yet somehow not afraid. The king tiger asked him what he meant by his unseemly masquerade, but all that the young one could do in response was to bleat nervously and continue nibbling at the grass.

So the tiger dragged it to a near by pond where he forced him to look at their two reflections side by side and said

Look your form is similar to mine. You are also a tiger like myself. When this failed, he offered him his first piece of raw meat. At first the young tiger recoiled from the unfamiliar taste of it. But as he ate a little more he began to feel it warming his blood, the truth gradually become clear to him.

Now the old tiger said to him,

Have you understood that you are the same as myself? So come along with me to the forest.

In the same way if one has the grace of the Guru, there is no fear. The Guru will open your eyes and tell you who you are and what your real self is.

Now let us look at slokas/ couplets from VC:

महास्वप्ने मायाकृतजनिजरामृत्युगहने
भ्रमन्तं क्लिश्यन्तं बहुलतरतापैरनुदिनम् ।
अहंकारव्याघ्रव्यथितमिममत्यन्तकृपया
प्रबोध्य प्रस्वापात्परमवितवान्मामसि गुरो ॥ ५१८ ॥

mahāsvapne māyākṛtajanijarāmṛtyugahane
bhramantaṃ kliśyantaṃ bahulataratāpairanudinam |
ahaṃkāravyāghravyathitamimamatyantakṛpayā
prabodhya prasvāpātparamavitavānmāmasi guro || VC 518 ||

518. O Master, thou hast out of sheer grace awakened me from sleep and completely saved me, who was wandering, in an interminable dream, in a forest of birth, decay and death created by illusion, being tormented day after day by countless afflictions, and sorely troubled by the tiger of egoism. VC 518

https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani/d/doc144952.html

My comments

Egoism is tiger. When the Guru removes it, we see Brahman/God.

व्याघ्रबुद्ध्या विनिर्मुक्तो बाणः पश्चात्तु गोमतौ ।
न तिष्ठति छिनत्येव लक्ष्यं वेगेन निर्भरम् ॥ ४५२ ॥

vyāghrabuddhyā vinirmukto bāṇaḥ paścāttu gomatau |
na tiṣṭhati chinatyeva lakṣyaṃ vegena nirbharam || 452 ||

452. The arrow which is shot at an object with the idea that it is a tiger, does not, when that object is perceived to be a cow, check itself, but pierces the object with full force.

My comments

Here Sankara says that the arrow is like Praarabda Karma (accumulated from previous births) . It will do its job whether you are a saint or a sinner.

This is another lesson Sankara gives us by using tiger.

xxxx

Now look at Tirukkural

வலியில் நிலைமையான் வல்லுருவம் பெற்றம்

புலியின்தோல் போர்த்துமேய்ந் தற்று.–குறள் 273

As if a steer should graze wrapped round with tiger’s skin,
Is show of virtuous might when weakness lurks within.

Couplet Explanation:

The assumed appearance of power, by a man who has no power (to restrain his senses and perform austerity), is like a cow feeding on grass covered with a tiger’s skin.

My comments

One is pretending to be a Sanyaasi (ascetic) by wearing Kaavi vastra (saffron cloth)

It is in the Aesop’s fable The Ass in the Lion’s skin.

The moral of the story is

clothes may disguise a fool, but his words will give him away.

 La Fontaine’s Fable 5.21 (1668) also has similar story . The moral La Fontaine draws is not to trust to appearances, because clothes do not make the man.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing is an idiom from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. It warns against individuals who play a duplicitous role. The gospel regards such individuals (particularly false teachers) as dangerous.

All great people warn the people about fake saints and false appearances.

xxxx

Tiger in Tirumular

ஆனை துரக்கிலென் அம்பூடு அறுக்கிலென்

கானத்து உழுவை கலந்து வளைக்கிலென்

ஏனைப் பதியினில் என்பெரு மான்வைத்த

ஞானத்து உழவினை நான்உழு வேனே. 5

 Plough the Field of Jnana

What thought the elephant pursues,

What though the arrow pierces,

What though the wild tiger surrounds,

Deep I plough the field of Jnana

In the Other Land,

Lord has me allotted.

xxx

பத்துப் பரும்புலி யானை பதினைந்து

வித்தகர் ஐவர் வினோகர் ஈ ரெண்மர்

அத்தகு மூவர் அறுவர் மருத்துவர்

அத்தலை ஐவர் அமர்ந்து நின் றாரே. 23

2888: How the Body is

Ten the tigers big,

Ten and Five the elephants,

Five the learned

Ten the jesters,

Three that are upright

Six the physicians,

Five the lordly ones,

There they all stand.

The animals are used to mean symbolically dasa naadi, dasa vayu, senses sense organs, three gunas etc.

My Comments

Animals including tigers are used to convey various things, mostly bad things.

Like snakes they have negative or bad connotation.

Animal symbolism is used more in Hinduism than any other religion.

We see Sankara using Snake, Python, Crocodile, Shark, Butterfly/Cocoon, Cockroach, tiger, birds etc to illustrate and elucidate his message.

—subham—

Tags- Tiger, animal symbolism, Sankara, Valluvar, Tirumular, Tiger parable in Ramakrishna ; Aesop, Jesus, My Research Notes on VC -38