Upadesa Panchakam of Shri Adi Shankara

[Vaidya N. Sundaram]

        Upadesa Panchakam (Pentad of Advices)
                It is said that, when Sri Sankara was about to
disappear in the Himalayas at the close of his advent on earth,
he was requested by the disciples to favour them with a final
message which they themselves could treasure and broadcast to all
earnest aspirants in the march towards the final goal of life
and that it was in gracious response to this request that this
set of five stanzas was given. But every stanza contians within
itself eight injunctions arranged in a logical and ascending
scale and so this small work really contains forty injunctions.

        "Let the Veda be constantly repeated. Let the activity
enjoined by it be performed well. Let the worship of good be by
that (proper performance of activities prescribed in the Veda).
Let the motive thought in desireful activity be dropped. Let the
accumulation of sin be dispersed. Let the defect in ephemeral
happiness be pondered over. Let the longing quest for the self
be steadied. Walk out of (what you think) your house completely
and soon."
        "Let association be with the good. Let deep devotion to
the Almighty be well planted. Let mental peace and so one be
more firmly and in all respects accumulated. Let activity be
abondoned whithout dealy and altogether. Let a Knower of
Sat(Truth) be approached with respect. Let his sandal be served
every day. Let Brahman(the Absolute)which is ever one and
undecaying be asked for. Let the Upanishad passage be well
listened to."
        "The import of the (Upanishad) passage must be enquired
into. (In doing so) the standpoint of the Upanishad must be
strictly struck to. There must be complete cessation of
using(misleading or fallacious) reasoning. Logic approved by
(which is in consonance with) the Veda must be cogitated upon.
The concept of "I am Brahman" must be deeply contemplated upon.
Day by day pride(the sense of egoism) must be left behind. The
senses of 'I' in the body must be thrown off. Polemics with
learned people must be eschewed."
        "The disease known as hunger must however be treated.
Every day, the medicine, namely the food obtained must be taken
in. But tasty food must not be asked for. One must be well
content with what is got by force of fate. Heat and cold and
others(pairs of opposites) must be well borne with. The state of
indifference must be ardently wished for. The senses of pity and
censure in people must be given up"
        "Sit comfortably in a lonely place. Let the mind be
fixed firmly on the Highest. Let the Ever Full Self be well
and clearly perceived. Let this fleeting universe be realised as
negatived by that (the ever Existent Self). Let the results of
all previous actions be completley dissolved by the force of
knowledge. Let not those which come later(the actions
performed after the attinement of knowledge) attach
themselves(and yield fruit). Let however the store of actions
which have begun to bear fruit be exhausted by their fruit being
experienced here and now itself(when the embodiment subsists).
Afterwards (when that store has worked itself out and the
embodiment ceases to be) stay as the ever inherent Highest
Brahman."