Lakshmi-Narasimha-pancharatnam - 5 (Conclusion)

[Anand V. Hudli]

tava hitamekaM vachanaM vakshhye shR^iNu sukhakAmo yadi satataM
   svapne dR^iShTaM sakalaM hi mR^ishhA jAgrati cha smara tadvaditi |
  chetobhR^iN^ga bhramasi vR^ithA bhavamarubhUmau virasAyAM
   bhaja bhaja laxmInarasiMhAnaghapadasarasijamakarandam.h || 5 ||


  If you desire joy always, I will say something that is beneficial
  to you. Whatever is seen in a dream is unreal; remember (what is seen) in
  the waking state is likewise. O mind-bee! You roam about without purpose
  in the joyless desert of worldly matters. Worship (taste) the pure nectar
  of the lotus feet of Lakshmi-Narasimha!

   Notes:

  As GauDapAda says, "svapnajAgaratisthAne hyekamAhurmanIshhiNaH",
  the waking and dream states are said to be alike by the wise.
  The ground of inference or hetu in this case is the property of
  "being perceived" which is present in objects of the dream and
  waking states alike.

  The SarasvatI-rahasya-upanishhad states:

  asti bhAti priyaM rUpaM nAma chetyaMshapaJNchakam.h |
  AdyaM trayaM brahmarUpaM jagadrUpaM tato dvyam.h ||

  Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Name, and Form - of these
  five, the first three belong to Brahman, and the other two
  form the world (mAyA).

  Whatever is perceived either in dream or in the waking state falls
  into the category of nAma-rUpa, is mAyA and, therefore, not real.

  Whatever is perceived either in dream or in the waking state is
  not perceived before its birth (creation), is perceived from birth
  until its destruction and again, it is not perceived after
  destruction. Therefore, the reality that can be assigned to objects
  in the waking and dream states is similar to the illusory reality of
  the silver in nacre, i.e. a prAtibhAsika satya. These  do not exist
  either before or after the period of cognition. This leads to what
  is called dR^ishhTi-sR^ishhTi-vAda in advaita.

  In fact, as MadhusUdana SarasvatI points out, verse 2.28 in the GItA
  accepts this dR^ishhTi-sR^ishhTi principle.

  avyaktAdIni bhUtAni vyaktamadhyAni bhArata |
  avyaktanidhAnyeva tatra kA paridevanA     || 2.28 ||

  Part of MadhusUdana's commentary :

  Adau janmanaH prAgavyaktAni anupalabdhAni bhUtAni pR^ithivyAdibhUta-
  mayAni sharIrANi madhye janmAntaraM maraNAtprAgvyaktAni upalabdhAni
  santi | nidhane punaravyaktAnyeva bhavanti| yathA svapnendrajAlAdau
  pratibhAsamAtrajIvanAni shuktirUpyAdivanna tu GYAnAtprAgUrdhvaM vA
  sthitAni dR^ishhTi-sR^ishhTyabhyupagamAt.h | tathA cha "AdAvante cha
  yannAsti vartamAne .api tattathA" iti nyAyena madhye .api na
  santyevaitAni | "nAsato vidyate bhAvaH" iti prAgukteshcha |

  In the beginning, before birth, (these) bodies that are made of
  the elements such as earth, etc., are not perceived. In the middle,
  after birth and before death, (they) are perceived. Upon death, they
  again are not perceived. Because dR^ishhT-sR^ishhTi is admitted,
  (these bodies), like the (illusory) silver in the nacre, do not exist
  either before or after cognition, (but) exist only as an illusion, just
  as a dream, the trick of a magician, etc. And by the logic of the
  (statement of the  mANDUkya kArikA), "That which does not exist in the
  beginning and the end does not exist in the present (middle) also",
  these (bodies) do not exist in the middle too (ie. during the period of
  cognition). Furthermore, by the (GItA statement), "the unreal can never
  come into existence", (it is shown that these bodies cannot exist in
  the middle too).


  Ananda-hudalI-praNItAN^glabhAshhAnuvAdaTippaNIsahitalaxmInR^isiMha-
  paJNcharatnaM samAptam.h |

  ||laxmI-nR^isiMhArpaNamastu ||



   Anand
>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Tue May 11 09:15:47 1999
Message-Id: <TUE.11.MAY.1999.091547.0530.ADVAITAL at LISTS.ADVAITAVEDANTA.ORG>
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 09:15:47 +0530
Reply-To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: Giridhar <giridhar at CHEMENG.IISC.ERNET.IN>
Subject: Vedanta
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namaste.

                I have not received the digest for the past two days,
maybe because of email problems on my end. However, at the risk of the
issue being already addressed, I would like to state some points.

                Before we start about setting the world right, should we
not enquire as to what the world is. Is the world at any point
different from our perception ? Does everyone view the world
to be the same ? As Bhagavan says on 19-10-1945, "As about
the world, if you know your own reality, these questions
will not arise. All these differencesm the pains and miseries,
as you say, do they exist independently of you ? It is you
who sees these things and ask about them. If by the enquiry,
"Who am I" you understand the seer, all problems about the
seen will be completely solved."

Often, aesthetic values of a beautiful universe confer certain pleasurable
moulds in the mind. If anything happens to destroy these values, a sense of
frustration at our failure to hang on
to them overcomes us. Sure of our competence to prevent such destruction,
we form an organization and try to prevent this with a determination. This
consuming passion to set the world right without setting ourselves right is
anger. What causes hatred, anger, a consuming passion ?
        The base emotion is fear. Whenever there is the thought of an other,
there is fear. So long as the ego exists, duality exists. When the ego
arises, the sense of separateness arises and this generates the fear which
drives us to protect ourselves from the other. However, soon it is
recognized that the self can not be separated from the society, and
universe in general.


     The solution in creating a peaceful world, in an environment conducive
to everyone lies not only in education but within ourselves. Unless we give
up the false idea of an independent self, and begin to see the creation as
an indivisible whole, we are circling the solution without ever coming
close to the center.
The peace movement must always begin in our own hearts
for it to blossom and last.

                It does not mean that we should remain unmoved by
the pain. See the answer of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi
below.

D : But we see pain in the world..Are we to call it a dream and remain
unmoved by his pain ?

     M : Till you reach the state of jnana and thus wake out of this maya,
you must do social service by relieving the suffering whenever you see it.
But even then you must do it, as we are told, without ahamkara i.e without
the sense of "I am the doer.' but feeling 'I am the Lord's tool.' Similarly
one must not be conceited, 'I am helping a man below me ...' All such
service too is for the Self, not for anybody else. You are not helping
anybody else, but only yourSelf.

Secondly, we should examine whether we are following the
dharma prescribed for everyone. The difficulties in
following them have remained the same over several
generations i.e., the difficulty is in the control of our mind
and not of external circumstances.

Finally, these words of MTV culture etc. sometimes worries
me. It seems to project an image of India, which has left
out Her cultural values. On the contrary, I find my country
to much more spiritually concerned than any other country
I have visited and stayed. For example, five lakh youngsters (i.e., 15-30
yrs) visited Thiruvannamalai on Chaitra Purnima. I could not even enter the
temple. Wherever I go,whether it is to a discourse or bhajan, I find people
of this age group dominating the group.

                30% of the TV watching community watches Jai Hanuman
and AUM namah shivaya, a still larger community watched
Mahabharata and Ramayana on TV. In US, they would kill to
get 30% ratings for any program (and only sitcoms like
Seinfeld and finals of sports could even manage close to that, not any
religious program !).

        60 years back, our grandparents felt that the values of our
parents were going to the dogs. We feel the same regarding the
next generation, but it is not true. MTV or no mtv, I would be
glad if some of the crowd kept away from discourses, temples
and watched television. Then I can get a good darshan of the
Lord in the temple. Just kidding !!!

                Thanks for listening and reading...

namaste

gm

>From  Sun May 23 12:35:09 1999
Message-Id: <SUN.23.MAY.1999.123509.0400.>
Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 12:35:09 -0400
Reply-To: ramakris at erols.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
Subject: shrI daxiNAmUrti: the symbolism and his worship - 6
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The lord has his eyes only slightly open and seems unaware of his
surroundings. Thus he cannot be said to in the jAgrat state. Neither is
the Lord dreaming or in deep sleep since the R^ishhi-s have their doubts
resolved merely by sitting at his feet. Thus the Lord shows that he is
in the turIya state. The mANDUkya upanishhad says of turIya: "nAntaH
praGYaM na bahshhpraGYaM nobhayataH praGYaM,", i.e., not conscious of
the internal world, external world or both. The wonder is that the
disciples have their doubts resolved even without the Lord speaking.
Here it is pertinent to recollect a story from the vedas, which has been
quoted sha.nkarabhagavatpAdas brahma sUtra bhAshhya. In explaining
brahmasUtra 3.2.17, he says, that when bashhkali went to bAdhva and
asked him to explain brahman, the latter remained silent. bashhkali
repeated the question and bAdhva replied that he had already spoken, but
bashhkali was unable to understand. He added that the self is
quiescence. Refer to the bhAshhya of sha.nkarabhagavAn
avachanenaiva-provAcha etc for brahma sUtra 3.2.17.

HH shrI abhinava vidyAtIrtha mahAsvAmigaL has given an analogy to show
how the silence is an effective way of imparting Atma vidyA to some
people. The ignorance of the qualified, i.e., those who have pure minds,
is like the darkness of a full moon night. There is no difficult seeing
but only difficulty in reading. However the ignorance of the unqualified
is like the darkness of a new moon night. There is no question of even
seeing, much less reading (From: Edifying Parables, published by Sri
Vidyatirtha foundation).

The snake, book and fire represent the triad of reasoning, shruti and
immediate, intuitive experience respectively, by means of which the
truth is ascertained. The example of the rope being mistaken for a snake
is well known and thus represents reasoning. The book trivially
represents shruti and the fire represents advaita siddhi, which burns
away the ignorance of the jIva. This advaita siddhi is obtained by means
of shravaNa, manana and nidishyAsana. In shiva temples in Tamil Nadu,
these objects can be clearly seen in the obligatory statue of
daxiNAmUrti. The statue found on the gopuram of the famous mInAxi temple
in Madurai offers an excellent example of this form.

(to be continued in next post)