Post No. 13,551
Date uploaded in London – 16 August 2024
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Sixty years ago, I used to attend Sunday Bhajans conducted by Swami Sivananda’s DLS (Divine Life Society) inside the world famous Madurai Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. We used to finish the Bhajan (group singing prayer) with
Sankaraya Sankaraya Sankaraya Mangalam
Sankari manoharaya saswataya Mangalam
(more lines are there)
Today I wanted to repeat it when I finish my Research Notes on VC .
580 slokas in VC (Viveka Chudamani) are a vast resource of Advaita (monism) Vedanta.
It has lot of repetitions which Sankara himself admits.
In Bhagawad Gita , Lord Krishna took the role of a FRIEND and in VC, Sankara took the role of a FATHER.
He says,
सकलनिगमचूडास्वान्तसिद्धान्तरूपं
परमिदमतिगुह्यं दर्शितं ते मयाद्य ।
अपगतकलिदोषं कामनिर्मुक्तबुद्धिं
स्वसुतवदसकृत्त्वां भाव्यित्वा मुमुक्षुम् ॥ ५७५ ॥
sakalanigamacūḍāsvāntasiddhāntarūpaṃ
paramidamatiguhyaṃ darśitaṃ te mayādya |
apagatakalidoṣaṃ kāmanirmuktabuddhiṃ
svasutavadasakṛttvāṃ bhāvyitvā mumukṣum ||VC 575 ||
VC 575. I have today repeatedly revealed to thee, as to one’s own son, this excellent and profound secret, which is the inmost purport of all Vedanta, the crest of the Vedas – considering thee an aspirant after Liberation, purged of the taints of this Dark (Kali) Age, and of a mind free from desires.
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We know that teachers and parents repeat messages so that the listener would never forget them.
Sankara took his Snake/Rope, Pot/sky similes till the end. They are his favourite imageries.
Snake- rope gave us the picture of Maayaa (illusion)
Pot broken- sky merged with sky- meant man’s soul merges with Brahman, the God.
Towards the end he repeated umpteen times his messages: ‘Ekam EvA dviteeyam’
(There is one without two (brahman)
and
‘Brahma satyam, jagat mithya’ “Brahman is the real reality, the world is deceptive”.
सर्वाधारं सर्ववस्तुप्रकाशं
सर्वाकारं सर्वगं सर्वशून्यम् ।
नित्यं शुद्धं निश्चलं निर्विकल्पं
ब्रह्माद्वैतं यत्तदेवाहमस्मि ॥ ५१३ ॥
sarvādhāraṃ sarvavastuprakāśaṃ
sarvākāraṃ sarvagaṃ sarvaśūnyam |
nityaṃ śuddhaṃ niścalaṃ nirvikalpaṃ
brahmādvaitaṃ yattadevāhamasmi || 513 ||
513. I am verily that Brahman, the One without a second, which is the support of all, which illumines all things, which has infinite forms, is omnipresent, devoid of multiplicity, eternal, pure, unmoved and absolute.
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani/d/doc144947.html
The reason I wrote this series is , I have made marginal remarks from Tamil poems and Sri Ramakrishna Stories when I first read it in 1994. Normally they are not available in many English commentaries by great scholars.
I missed some more similes, analogies, metaphors such as building castle in air, soldiers, mirage, shade, corpses, cockroach, eclipse, thief, sandal etc in the VC. Hope you read VC in full and enjoy them.
I made more comparisons with Tamil Veda Tirukkural and Bharati Poems which will suit Tamil audience. So I avoided them as well.
Somewhere I read that Sri Ramana Maharishi has chosen ten important slokas/ couplets from the VC. Those who want the gist may read it.
If one reads this or the simplified version –his Bhaja Govindam, that will provide immense knowledge of Vedanta (end of Veda; the conclusion of Vedas).
Please go to wisdomlib.com for anything in Sanskrit and go to Project Madurai websites for any poem in Tamil. They are free and No Cookies.
–subham—
Tags- VC 43, Sankaraya Mangalam, last part, Father, Sankara.
Tamil and Vedas 