prabhoda chandrodaya nataka

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 6 Nov 2001, vidya S Jayaraman wrote:

> This sanskritplay by Krishna mishra of Rajputana is an
> allegorical play devoted to the establishment of the
> supremacy of jnana as the means to mokshaa and the
> dramatis personae include viveka, sradha,karuna
> vairagya etc.The negative forces are defeated and
> jnana comes out supreme.
> Vedanta desika has written the sankalpa suryodaya on
> similar lines with bhakti coming out victosious.
>
> I read about this recently .
>
> Would Anyone have any info on the  publication or
> availability of this work in print or the net ?
>

A search of the New York Public Library catalog only showed editions from
the 19th century.

Swami Madhusudan Saraswati also wrote an allegorical play called
Krishnakutuhalam in which Bhakti _and_ Jnana are victorious. :-)  This was
published as Sarasvati Bhavan Granthmala #127.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Thu Nov  8 05:25:45 2001
Message-Id: <THU.8.NOV.2001.052545.0800.ADVAITAL at LISTS.ADVAITAVEDANTA.ORG>
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 05:25:45 -0800
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: "S. V. Subrahmanian" <svsubrahmanian at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Thought for the week
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Nov 8, 2001
                      || Om Sri lalitAmbikAyai namaH ||
                || Salutations to Divine Mother Sri Lalitha ||

yogaH karmasu kouSalam
=
Yoga is skill in action.

This is a statement in bhagavad-gItA.  It is popularly translated as I have
mentioned above.  But such a translation provides ample scope for
misunderstanding.  If by skill, as it is popularly translated, what is meant is
the mechanical efficiency with which the action is peformed, then even wicked
actions would qualify as yoga, if they are executed efficiently.  But we know
that a wicked action however well executed cannot qualify as karma yoga.  So
what is the meaning of the word "skill" in that sentence has to be clearly
looked into.  Therefore we need the help of wise men to understand what it
means.

Let us take the help of Sri Shankara to understand.  In his bhAshyam, Sri
Sankara says:

YogaH hi karmasu kouSalam svadharmAkhyeshu karmasu vartamAnasya yA
sidhyasidhyOH samatva buddhiH IsvarArpitachetastaya tat kouSalam kuSalabhAvaH
=
In the performance of actions that comprise one’s svadharma, maintaining one’s
equanimity in the face of success and failure with a mind that is dedicated to
Isvara – this is called "skill" in performing one’s action.

(Note here, that there is no mention about how efficiently (mechanical) the
action is performed.)

Highlights of Sri Sankara’s interpretation:

1.  Knowing one’s svadharma.  So as a first step, viveka is needed to know what
is one’s svadharma and paradharma.

2.  Then one should perform actions in perfect accordance to one’s svadharma.

3.  While performing one’s svadharma one should maintain an even mind towards
the nature of the result of such an action.

4.  One should dedicate one’s mind to Isvara.

It is the combined performance of all the four above, according to Sri Sankara
constitutes kouSalam or "skill" in action.  (If it results in the action also
being performed efficiently, then it would constitute avAntara-phala or
by-product or side-effect).

How do we measure how skillfully we have performed our actions?  Sri Sankara
says:

taddhi  kouSalam yat bandhasvabhAvAni api karmANi samatvabuddhyA svabhAvAt
nivartantE
=
By that very skill, those actions that have a natural tendency to bind, cease
to bind due to the evenness of mind.

So, the extent to which we are able to perform actions without being bound by
them is the true measure of our "skill" (not how many units of output we have
produced).

There is so much of meaning in this one small line in bhagavad-gItA.  We should
be wary of one-line translations in general.  They at the most translate the
confusion from Sanskrit to English.  Instead of misunderstanding in Sanskrit,
we will misunderstand in English.  Our SastrA-s are as such cryptic.  As much
as possible we should try to read translations, which elaborate on the verse,
rather than render a word-by-word translation.  Also such explanations should
be consistent in theme across the entire text.

Have a nice rest of the week and weekend.

Regards,
SVS.

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