[Advaita-l] Announcing Termination of Soundaryalahari Digest

[V. Krishnamurthy]

Namaste.

This is to announce the termination of the Soundaryalahari
Digest,  with just one more post   to go. By the Grace, of
Mother Goddess, of the Mahaswamigal and of my Guru, the
task of translating in digest form, the Tamil Discourses of
the Mahaswamigal on Soundarya-lahari, has come to a
successful end.  The  study of these discourses and the
work of ‘digesting’ them in the English  language, has
been, though challenging,  very satisfying, spiritually. In
this task there are several members – scores of them --
from the advaitin group, ambaa group,  advaita-L group and 
Sadhana_Shakti group who have encouraged me and helped me
constructively. There are also friends and relatives
outside these groups who have done so. I stand indebted to
them all. The entire set of posts has also been posted by
me on my website. 

I have a confession-like personal statement to make. It is
important to note – I am sure readers of the digest would
have noted this also – that the Soundarya-lahari discourses
of the Mahaswamigal contain tons of material on the
conceptual nuances of advaita, and on the practical
application of it,  though on the face of it this may not
have been anticipated by  all. Till around June 1 of last
year I had no knowledge of Soundaryalahari  except a rote
memory of three shlokas (Nos.1, 27 and 57) and a vague idea
of their meaning. Of course I knew that Soundaryalahari was
a great work of Adi Shankara, but I had never delved into
it. Around the middle of May 2003,  when I just arrived in 
the U.S. for a long stay, I started reading Ra Ganapathy’s
book in Tamil  giving the discourses of the Paramacharya on
Soundaryalahari. It was a few weeks before that,  I had
started getting by heart the particular shloka # 17. Ever
since, I have been repeating it and using it as a
meditational aid,  with the specific prayer to ShrI MatA
that She may bless me with the proper spiritual
understanding that my great father would have been ready 
to give me, but for the fact that I was not probably ready
to receive.  In June I wrote to Shri Ram  Chandranji, Shri
Sunderji and Shri Gummuluru Murthy-ji whether anybody on
the advaitin  list  had covered Soundaryalahari with the
Paramacharya’s explanatory viewpoints and whether I can
take up the job. They immediately encouraged me. That
started my marathon venture of this ‘Digest’. As you know
the first post was on August 1, 2003 and by Her Grace, the
final post (DPDS-81) is going to  be tomorrow,  the 29th of
April, 2004. 

In the course of this one year  I have grown – I think --
not only in my understanding of advaita but also in the
‘svAnubhava’ that the practice of seeing Her everywhere can
give. Though all my life I have propitiated Goddess
Meenakshi with Lalita-sahasranamam and Trishati several
times, the symbiosis of nirguna-brahman and saguna-brahman
that the Paramacharya has built into his Soundaryalahari
discourses was only an academic matter for me until I
ventured into this project. My own attitudes have changed.
The irritation that naturally invaded me when things did 
not go my way has all but reduced now. Shloka No.27 which
had just been an ordinary component in my pUjA recitation
for several years, has now been blessed by Her to become
more comfortable. A select 27 shlokas of Soundaryalahari 
-- namely, #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23,
27, 30, 34, 35, 36, 41, 44, 57, 60, 66, 84, 97, 98, 99 and
100 --  along with the 36 shlokas of Narayaneeiyam, about
which I wrote last year, are now, word by word,  in the
mental picture most of the  the time. Seeing Her and Him in
everything makes sense. By Their Grace, the implied
discipline in the Gita shloka (VI – 30) ‘yo mAm pashyati
sarvatra ..’  and in the verse (# 6) from the Ishopanishad
‘yastu sarvANi BhUtAni ...’ seems to be not beyond 
practical reach.

I am indebted to all the members of these four groups  and
to several personal friendships who have made this venture
of mine into this project very  productive in terms of my
‘mumukshhutvaM’.

Coming to mundane matters may I also inform the members
that I expect to be away in India for about five months
from the third week of May and consequently I may not,
during that period,  have the opportunity of enjoying the
‘luxury’ of the internet  as often and as profusely as now.
What She wills, will be done!   My good wishes to every one
of you. Aum ShrI mAtre namah. 

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.
Also see the webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari :
http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/DPDS.html