[Advaita-l] hastAmalaka

[S.N. Sastri]

hastAmalaka

SHANKARA- Who are you? Whose child are you?
    Where are you going? What is your name? Where do you come from?
    Child, I would like to hear your answer to my questions.

 So spoke the Acharya Shankara to the child, and Hastamalaka made this
reply:

 [I will post the rest of this tomorrow; still hoping that some member of
this group may have the Sanskrit.]

 jd

The question which Sri Sankara put to the boy who later came to be known as
hastAmalaka appears in the Sankara digvijaya of SrI vidyAraNya. This is
given below:

 kastvam  kimevam jaDavat pravRttaH

Meaning: Who are you? Why is your behaviour like that of an inert thing?

The boy's answer was:

nAham jaDaH kintu jaDaH pravartate matsannidhAnena na sandihe guro |

ShaDUrmi shaDbhAvavikAravarjitam sukhaikatAnam paramasmi tatpadam ||

Meaning: I am not inert, but by my mere presence the inert functions; I have
no doubt about this, O guru! I am free from the six waves (hunger, thirst,
grief, delusion, old age and death) and from the six modifications (birth,
continuance, growth, change, decline, and destruction). I am supreme bliss.
I am the sense of the word 'tat'.

After this answer he gave the gist of the entire vedAnta in 12 verses. These
twelve verses are known as 'hastAmalakIyam'. These twelve verses in
devanAgari script with English translation and explanatory notes are given
on my website  <http://www.geocities.com/snsastri>

  S.N.sastri