[Advaita-l] A Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS - 03)

[V. Krishnamurthy]

Namaste.
Recall:  About the organization of the ‘Digest’: THE ENTIRE
EXPOSITION IS BY THE PARAMACHARYA. SO THE FIRST PERSON PRONOUN,
WHEREVER IT OCCURS, IS HIS. The ‘I’ of advaita-vedanta is always
 within quotes. ALL THE THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE
THOSE OF THE PARAMACHARYA, EXCEPT WHEN ACKNOWLEDGED OTHERWISE.  
 Additional explanations given by Ra. Ganapathi are so
acknowledged. Parenthetical remarks by him, like ‘with a smile’,
‘after a small pause’  etc. that all refer to the speaker, the
Paramacharya, are repeated, if at all, as they are in the
original, within parentheses.  My own remarks, if any, shall be
properly demarcated. And note that the Paramacharya most often
refers to Adi Sankaracharya as ‘Our Acharya’.
V. Krishnamurthy
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Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari - 3

Either She might totally eradicate your mind and give you the
peaceful state of ‘I am shiva’  (shivoham) or She might tell you
from within:
 “Look, after all, all this is My Play. The Play appears real to
you because of mAyA. I shall totally erase  that mAyA-view for
you. Then you can also be like me, with that calm non-dual bliss
inside and having on the outside a mind which is untouched by
mAyA. Thereby you can also be a witness to all this worldly
Dance. You will thus see yourself in Me and see Me in all the
worldly multiplicities. In other words instead of making the
mind non-existent, your mind will then be full of Me”
And She might make you just exactly that way. But I know your
worry. You constantly worry about the impossibility of
transcending mAyA, of eradicationg this worldly vision and of
vanquishing the mind. You keep worrying to the extent of almost
weeping over it. To such a weiling seeker She replies: 
“Why do you worry and weep like this?  You are worrying that you
cannot discard the world from your view. But you forget that the
world was not your making. This Sun and Moon, mountains, trees,
oceans, animal kingdom, and the millions of living beings and
categories – all this was not created by you. 
“When that is so, you are worrying about the little ‘you’ that
you are, and you forget that this little ‘you’ also was not your
creation. Instead of thinking all this is not only one but one
with Me, your mAyA-clouded view makes you think they are all
different and distinct. And even that mAyA-view that clouds you,
again was not your making! 
“My dear child, you are caught up in the web of the world, a
mind and a mAya-cloud  -- all this is My making. Did I not make
Krishna say to you: mama mAyA duratyayA ? (My mAyA is
intranscendable).  I have also told you there that it is ‘daivI’
(made by the Power of God).  If you had made it all, then you
could have overcome them. But it was all made by Me in the
fullness of Power. 
“You jIvas have only little fragments of that Power. So if you
cannot eradicate the world, the mind and the mAya that I have
made, you don’t have to cry over it. It is not in your Power. It
has to take place only by My Grace. Come nearer to Me through
Devotion ! I shall do the eradication in proper doses  for you. 
“That somebody is able to control his mind and is able to walk
on the path of jnAna – that again is My own Grace. It is I who 
have granted that privilege to him. What appears as  many and
different must be seen as one. To crave for that view is what is
called ‘advaita-vAsanA’. One gets it only by My Grace”.
(Now the Paramacharya, who has been talking in the words of the
Mother Goddess, continues on his own). 
There is another novelty here. Even the jnAni who has had the
non-dual Enlightenment, still enjoys the play of mAyA. He sees
the different things; but knows they are all one. Just as a
spectator of a play who is not  playing any role  in it, the
jnAni enjoys the playful novelties of mAyA and revels in his
devotion to that parA-Sakthi who is the author of it all. To be
keeping such  jnAnis in this  dual-non-dual state is also the
work of Mother Goddess. Mark it. It is not that the jnAni is 
showing Devotion just for the sake of others only. No, By
himself he is indeed thinking 
( I think the Paramacharya is here 
letting out an autobiographical tip  ! -- VK)
 
‘What a pleasure to witness this dualistic play of the
non-dualistic One ! What a multiplicity of beauty,  panoramic
variety  and continuity of Love !’ . Thus revelling in that
blissful vision, he continues to pour out his own love (bhakti)
to that Transcendental Power from the bottom of his heart. This
tribute to the jnAni has been given  by the great Teacher Suka
himself.
(Cf. Bhagavatam 1-7-10: 
AtmArAmAshca munayaH nirgranthA apy-urukrame; 
 kurvanty-ahaitukIm bhaktim itham-bhUta-guNo hariH. – meaning,
Those who revel in the Self, even though rid of all attachments,
show a causeless bhakti towards the Lord, just naturally.) 

 	On the one hand the devotee who has yet to get the
Enlightenment enjoys the devotional state for the very reason of
getting the Enlightenment; on the other hand, the one who is
already enlightened and is a jIvan-mukta shows his bhakti for
the sake of enjoyment of that bhakti and not for any other
reward or purpose.
(To be Continued).
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PraNAms to all advaitins and devotees of Mother Goddess
profvk







=====
Prof. V. Krishnamurthy
My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/
You can  access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and Practice,  and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

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