[Advaita-l] A Sloka from Sri Krishna Karnamrutam 1

[Kuntimaddi Sadananda]

PraNAms to all.
>From the pages of the forthcomingbook – Self and the Supreme – being published by the Indic Academy.
Explanation of a sloka from SriKrishna Karnamrutam of Bilvamangala Leelasuka.

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Life is a wonder. Jnaani wondersall the time, not just momentarily. Jnaani sees the wonder of creation all thetime – in every expression of Nature, in the crawling of the baby or an insecton the floor, in the movement of leaves and branches of a tree due to thegushing wind, standing in an unbearable hot sun or pouring rain, in the coolbreeze and smell following the thunderstorms- everything is a wonder. Onecannot but wonder – colorful varieties of life expressions – in beautifulvibrant colors of all different vegetables – all coming from the same mud andwater – yet expressing completely differently from one another– looking at purewhite milk made by black cow eating useless green grass, in the tastes ofvarieties of tastes with the help of tasteless water (rasohamapsu kounteya)– it is all a wonder.

Thus a jnaani sees the wholecreation itself as Vibhuti of the Lord or Leela Vibhuti– paadosya vishvaabhuutani tripaadasya amrRitam divi–says purusha suuktam. This magnificentuniverse that is seen by the human intellect, as His Leela Vibhuti, is only one-fourthof His glory, and there is other three fourth that needs to be realized that iscalled divya Vibhuti, and to see that dhi – or a trainedintellect is required, and that is amrutam or unchanging aspect in allthe changing Leela Vibhutis– it is 10 inches above the human comprehension –that is, it is untouched by a human intellect -it is not objective knowledge.To recognize that, Krishna-amrutam we need the scriptures as pramaana orelse, as Leelasuka says in the following sloka as

वरमिममुपदेशमाद्रियध्वं निगमवनेषु नितान्तचारखिन्नाः

विचिनुत भवनेषु वल्लवीनां उपनिषदर्थमुलूखले निबद्धम्||

He says I am going to revealwhere you can find the simple and absolute truth, which is difficult to graspby even the Vedic scholars who are struggling hard to find. It is like findingthe 10th man who is missing and whom everybody is searching all over in theforest of life, where the seeker himself is sought.

nigama vaneShu – Oh! Scholars, who are roaming around to find the way out forsalvation in the deep forest of the Vedas , nitaanta caara khinnaaH ! -who are going around and around in circles and become desperate in the process,(reminds me of Vivekachudamani sloka – shabda jaalam mahaaranyam cittabhramara kaaraNam – the Vedas are like dense forests and without a properguide one can get lost and will end up going round and round in circles withoutknowing a way out); To them, Leelasuka says- for your welfare, I am going togive you a way out for your problems. varam imam upadesham adriyadhvam -please listen to this small advice that can help you from your suffering.

The truth is always simple, butwe make it sound as complicated. The truth is directly seen, right here andright now; but you can find only if you have a discriminative intellect to seeproperly –Leelasuka says - The essence of all Upanishads, it is there for youto find, but – it is uluukhale nibaddham – it is tied to a mortar in, vallaveenaambhuvaneShu – in the houses of Gopikas; therefore you have to seek and findout - vicinuta – please search and find that truth. 

I was told that the above slokais ingrained in one of the walls of a mutt, reminding us all of what needs tobe done to find this absolute truth.
To be continued
Hari Om!
Sadananda