vivekachUdAmani

[Vaidya N. Sundaram]

32)
mokshakaaraNasaamagr.hyaaM bhaktireva gariiyasii .
svasvaruupaanusandhaanaM bhaktirityabhidhiiyate ..

Among the set of means to bring about moksha, bhakti is the greatest.
Continuous contemplation of one's essential nature is said to be bhakti.

33)
svAtmatattvAnusandhAnam bhaktirityapre jaguh:

Others say that the continuous comtemplationof the truth of one's atman is
bhakti.

 By svassvarUpAnusandhAna contemplation of one's essential nature,
nidhidhyAsana is meant. (profound repeated meditation). That alone can
serve as the immediate means of direct realisation. The continuous
contemplation of sruti texts and the upadesa of t he guru, (That is Atman,
Thou art That) is the indespensable cause of realisation. This
contemplation (anusandhAna) is of the form of the exclusion of contrary
ideas and is marked by the continuous flow of accordant ideas. Sama etc.
are the cause of jnana mediated by vicAra and nididhyAsana. But
nididhyAsana is the immediate cause for it.
 Among the group of means for nidhidhyAsana, bhakti is the greatest,
because it is direct and internal means. the sAmagrI (collection of means)
refered to here is of those beginning with viveka and ending with
nidhidhyAsana.

 svAtmanah means one's own jIvAtman. the truth about its nature means the
ParamAtman indicated by the word 'That'. Its anusandhAna means though
really there is difference (between the jIvA and the ParamAtman for the
novice), contemplation of the That as o neself in the manner of
ahamgrahopAsana(*) or meditation on the jiva as non-different from the
ParamAtman. Others say, that is bhakti. Sri BhagavatpAda implies by the
words apare jaguh - others say', that this is not mukhyabhakti, as it is
preceded by a s ense of difference and is a delusion.

(*) ahamgrahopAsana is explained as a form of upAsana different from
others in that, while in the others forms of upAsana, an idol of image or
a thing like a blade of grass is invoked on it and then worshipped as
That, this ahagrahopAsana is one in which the worshipper himself is
equated with a deity as in SivO'ham or So'ham.

--
from Sri Adishankara's VivekachUdAmani with commentary by Sri
Chandrasekhara Bharati MahAswamigal of Srngeri.
--




                        Vaidya N. Sundaram

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This gross body is produced by one's karma in past life, out of the
elements which have  themselves  transformed, and is the instrument
of the  jiva's  experience.  That is its waking  state in  which it
experiences gross objects.  -- Adi Shankara in VivekacUdAmani.

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