Sankara vijayam pdf

Dying in Consciousness is what is told as dying in Kasi. Perpetually contemplating on Consciousness is contemplating on Arunachalam. Smaranam Arunachalam Sankara was always in Swarupam, the Self and he had none others in the world excepting Swarupam.

Why then this whole drama? The fact remains that in objective world, some differences are. Jagadguru Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavatpada [Shankara Vijayams] bound to be there and even a Jnani cannot escape it and he has to stage a drama sometimes on this issue.

The culture of the times has to be obeyed. Janaka, the king one day welcomed a group of Brahmins to his palace. The Brahmins brought with them, four cows, some Brahmin students and two harlots.

King Janaka sent the Brahmin boys to the Veda school inside the palace, the cows to the cowshed and the harlots to his harem. The Brahmins asked him: You are an advaita. How come, you are differentiating?

The king did not reply. Soon the lunch time came. King Janaka offered some grass to the Brahmins but not food. The Brahmins grew red in their faces. The king asked them politely: In pure advaita, the cows and the Brahmins are one and the same, why not you eat grass? Today, in Indian context, we see new classes being formed with old caste system given a go by.

So, differentiation is bound to be there. The ancient Sages therefore did not bother about the differences in the objective world. Instead, they looked within and found out the profound oneness in Heart. A Jnani can be anywhere. Yoga Vasishtam says: If you do not find a Jnani in the Brahmin street, go and look for him in a outcaste's street! Each one should search for a Jnani to be his Guru and he should show such a mighty hurry as if his head is on fire.

The Tamil classic, Periya Puranam shows only this. Many of the 63 devotees were outcastes and non Brahmins. A few were only kings. Still fewer were Brahmins. A Brahmin got drowned in the river.

He is in a hurry to save his life. Would he wait for a Brahmin to come and save him? Even if a Christian comes, he will show his raised hands and cry to save him. But on land, Brahmin and Christian are different. In Karma each one has got a different path. But in Jnana there is only one path, and that is the royal path. Sankara spent some more time in Kasi and he used his spare time to write commentaries for ten major Upanishads and Svetasvatara Upanishad.

He also wrote commentary for Vyasa's Brama Sutra. He also made a beautiful commentary for Srimad Bhagavad Gita.

One day, a Brahmin came from Sri Rangam. He was well read and his name was Sanantana. He came all the way to Kasi to find a guru for his fear of worldly life. He met Sankara, prostrated to him and said: Sir, I am terrified by this worldly life. I am in constant fear. As an ocean of grace, you should teach me the way out of misery! Sankara took him in his arms and said with abundant grace: Do not worry; I shall make you stay permanently in the Self, where there is nothing other than that.

Where is the question of fear? Fear implies duality. I shall remove the dual perception! He took him as his first disciple. This gentleman came to be called Padmapada, due to some incident that had taken place later. Sanantana was a Nrisimha Upasana. He was pleased to see young boys chanting Vedas. He met there an old man almost in his 90s, who was trying to memorize Panini's grammar for Sanskrit. He was wondering at this man's love for worldly learning. What use is this for him at such an old age?

Should he not keep up immensely Silence and ponder over the Brahman? What avail is this for him? He immediately composed the famous Bhaja Govindam song. It is also called Moha mruthukaram. Sunrise and sunset, daylight and darkness, Winter and spring time, come and go, Even the course of time is playful; Life itself soon ebbs away; But man's vain hope, alas! Goes onward, tirelessly onward evermore. Rules of grammar profit nothing, once the hour of death draws nigh. Seeking for warmth, the penniless beggar Closely crouches before his fire, Or, sits with only the sun to warm him; Nightly he lays him down to slumber, Curling up to keep out the cold.

Hungrily eats his beggar's portion Out of the bowl his hands provide him; Takes up his dwelling under a tree: Still is his heart a helpless prisoner Bound with the chains of empty of hope. Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda.

Worship Govinda, foolish one? Rules of grammar profit nothing once the hour of death draws nigh. But when his ageing body falters, nearing the time of dissolution, none, not even his nearing kin, Will think to ask him how he fares, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, foolish one!

Seeing the Truth revealed before them, still the deluded see It not. Rules of grammar profit nothing, once the hours of death draw nigh. All this fear of the king of death. Feeble has grown the man's body; Toothless his gums and bald his head; But there he goes, upon his crutches, Cringing firmly to fruitless hope!

Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Rules of grammar profit nothing once the hour of death draws nigh. Lost in play in the carefree stripling, Lost in sweetheart's charms of youth; the old man broods upon his sorrows; none there is, alas!

Birth unceasing! Death unceasing! Ever to pass through a mother's womb; Hard to cross is the world's wide ocean; Lord, redeem me through Thy mercy! Day follows day, night follows night, New moon, full moon, ever returning; Summer and winter see the planet Ever inclining on its axis; Year follows year unfailingly.

But, through a changeless law of recurrence Grips the world in relentless sway. Youth being fled, what good is passion? Water gone, what use is the lake? Where to be found our friends and kinsmen once the money is all exhausted? Where is the world, when Truth is known? Lust at the sight of a woman's body Springs from ignorance, springs from error; inwardly reason, over and over, Bodies are flesh and blood and fat. Who am I? And who are you? What is the place from which I come? Who is my mother?

Who my sire? Pondering thus, perceive them all as fancies only, without substance; Give up the world as an idle dream. Everyday recite from Gita; Chant the thousand names of Vishnu, Cherishing Him within your heart, Take delight to be with the body. Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, foolish one, Rules of grammar profit nothing once the hour of death draws nigh.

He who yields lust for pleasure, Leaves his frame a prey to disease; yet, though death is the final ending, none forswears his sinfulness. Rags cast off along the highway Serve as a garment for the monk; Freed from vice and freed from virtue, Onward he wanders; in his sight nor I nor you nor the world exists.

Why, then, so give way to sorrow? The phrase Moha mruthukaram, means breaking the mountain of delusion with a iron log. Sankara advised the old Brahmin to go for prayers and meditation, instead of reading grammar and memorizing the sutras at such an age. The death is always coming behind us. The urgency is. When Rama left for jungle, Bharata followed him and wept and asked him to return.

Rama said that only death is following us for ever. One cannot follow life's pleasures to attain salvation. When some one asked Bhagavan Ramana: How to remove attachment? Bhagavan Ramana said: Understand that the Self is ever attached. Then all the attachments will automatically go. Nothing is permanent.

Health fades away. Senility comes in. Death stares at us. One forgets everything in life, how to wear a trouser or comb the hair in senile age. Frederick Nietzshe was having some brain dysfunction. He was lying in bed. He read Thus Spake Zarathustra a classic by Nietzshe written when he was hardly 35! Nietzshe heard for some time and asked his friend: Who has written all these?

If that be the case, how can the old man memorize Panini's grammar at that senile age? Soon Sankara left Kasi and went further towards Himalayas. Sanantana went with him. He came to Badrikasramam via Rishikesh and Hardwar. In Rishikesh he found the image of Yagnanatha.

He knew immediately that it was not the original image. He sits for meditation and found that the original image had been thrown away by some miscreants into Ganga. He identified that place and recovered and installed it. He then came to the Lakshmajula where Vidhura had done penance. He then mentally remembered Vidhura's noble life and meditated there for a few days.

Sankara then came to Devaprayag, where Mandakini joins Ganga and Bhagirathi and becomes one confluence. Beyond Devaprayag, it is called Deva bhoomi, the place of gods. One day, when Sankara was on the other side of the river, he called Sanatana for some teachings. Sanantana, took to his orders immediately and he simply walked over the river and reached Sankara! The other disciples were dumbstruck to see that as Sananatana walked on the river, there appeared a lotus under each of his step!

Sankara became quite happy and started calling him Padmapada. The One with lotus on his foot. We shall also call Sanantana as Padmapada hereafter. Sankara treated Padmapada as his first disciple. We can take that the disciple mentioned in Vivekachoodamani is Padmapada. This touch of the great sound makes any Jnani to write his teachings in verse and prose. Sankara also composed here Sri Dakshinamuthy Stotram, the quintessence of Advaita.

Padmapada was the first one to listen to this great work. Devotees in the Hall used to recite it every day. Bhagavan, in fact, wanted to write a great commentary on Sri Dakshinamuthy Stotram. However, He did not pursue this. Bhagavan Ramana says that this song is only for the Uttama adikaris, the high level spiritual aspirants. It is noteworthy that Bhagavan Ramana says that the same Sankara who composed the poem abides in Him! Jagadguru Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavatpada [Shankara Vijayams] I am giving below the translation of Arthur Osborne: Bhagavan's Invocation: That Sankara who appeared as Dakshinamuthy to grant peace to the great ascetics Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatkumara and Sanatsujata , who revealed his real state of silence, and who has expressed the nature of the Self in this hymn, abides in me.

The Hymn: 1. To him who by maya as by dream, sees within himself the universe which is inside him, like a city that appears in a mirror but which is manifested as if externally to him who apprehends at the time of awakening, his own single Self, to him, the primal Guru Dakshinamuthy, may this obeisance be! To him who like a magician or even like great yogi displays, by his own power, this universe which at the beginning is undifferentiated, like the sprout in the seed, but which is made differentiated under the varied conditions of space, time and karma and posted by maya to him, the Guru Dakshinamuthy, may this obeisance be!

They who know the 'I' as body, breath, senses, intellect, or the void, are deluded like women and children, and the blind and the stupid, and talk much. To him who destroys the great delusion produced by ignorance, to him who removes the obstacles to knowledge, the Guru Dakshinamuthy, may this obeisance be! To him who, by means of the hand pose indicating illumination manifests in his devotees like his own Self that forever shines within as 'I', constantly, in all the inconstant states such as infancy, etc.

To the self, who, deluded by maya, sees, in dreaming and waking, the universe in its distinctions such as cause and effect, master and servant, disciple and teacher, and father and son, to him, the Guru of the world, Dakshinamuthy, may this obeisance be!

He is only the Guru with hand pose and nothing else. This is in fact the formless Sivam Consciousness or Brahman.

There is no form worship at all. The song gives room for many interpretations. Suresvara, about whom we are going to read later, has written a beautiful commentary called Manasa Ullasa, the Bliss of Mind, on Sri Dakshinamuthy Stotram. Padmapada was the first disciple who heard this great song as recited by Sankara in Vyasa Guha. Each one is a stone, obtained from various rivers and Siva is in the form of Linga from Nardmada river. Sankara recommended this for all sects of Hinduism and they can keep the stone of their Ishta Devata in the centre of the five pieces.

For example, Vaishnavites can keep the stone for Vishnu in the middle and the rest four on all quarters on a silver, or copper or wooden plate and do puja. While this has been accepted by all subsects in Sankara's time, Sri Vaishnavites later disregarded this system.

He was by now 16 years old and he wanted to leave his body, as per the destiny. He was in total silence and in Samadhi, waiting ready for the call of the divine. At this time, one very old Brahmin came to see Sankara. Sankara did namaskaram to him. He sat before the old man. The old man asked him: Can you explain me the Brahma Sutra commentary written by you? I would like to debate on that.

Sankara readily agreed and the explanations lasted for a whole week. Sankara said: "Brahman is without form. Only Jnana path can lead one to the realization of Brahman within. All the other paths like bhakti and karma are only sublanes to go to the royal path of Jnana. The other paths can give higher birth after the death, and perhaps Heavens but not definitely the deliverance.

For a Jivan mukta there is no need to leave the body, he has realized the Self even while alive. The leaving of the body can take place when the Prarabdha is completed. Padmapada who was nearby was trying to guess who the old man was. He understood through meditation that he was none other than Vyasa. He sang. Vyasa smiled at him. He then told Sankara: You are given another 16 years of life, because there are many more work you have to undertake. First you go to Kasi and meet Kumarila Bhatta and Mandanamisrar.

Sankara then prostrated before him and sang his Maneesha Panchakam once more. Sankara then walked down to Kasi. He found on the way many many people rushing to Kasi on the banks of Ganga and Prayag. They told him: Kumarila Bhatta is sitting on a burning heap of husk to leave his life.

We are all going to see him. Sankara also literally ran to Kasi and met Kumarila Bhatta. He asked Kumarila Bhatta to come out. Kumarila Bhatta refused and narrated his story to Sankara.

He wanted to win over Buddhists there. He went to their Math and debated with them. Since Kumarila had only Vedas as reference point, and since Vedic reference was not acceptable to Buddhists, he could not win over them. He then wanted to embrace Buddhism, only to find out their philosophy and then again debate with them for proving his point.

He was taken to their Math and he learnt Buddhism thoroughly, and found that Hinduism and Buddhism are telling the same Truth in different fashions. What Buddhists call Sunya is Bliss for Hinduism; as other wise, there was no difference between the two approaches. He was ready to commence the debate. The Buddhist monks knew his trick and pushed him down a hill. As he fell down, he was telling: If Vedas are true, let me saved.

He was saved but for injury in and loss of one eye. He was wondering. Then, he understood that he had said, "If Vedas are true"; he did not say "Vedas are true.

After falling down the hill, he regretted his foul play and decided to kill himself on a fire over a heap of husk. The fire was slowly burning the husk and he was being killed slowly suffering every inch of pain and misery. Sankara looked at Kumarila Bhatta.

The latter was quite happy and he found in Sankara the sublimity of Jnana. In one second, he understood that it is Jnana that would confer liberation. And Jnana is common to all religions. In total Jnana there is no difference between Buddhism and Hinduism. All fights are due to karma marga. Did not Gaudapada say in his Karika: "We have no other religions against us.

We have only friends. This is the final Truth. Relationship is not through reading and discoveries. Relationship is due to priyam, love, feeling only love and not differences. This priyam or love is the grace of Brahman or Sivam. Only a Jnani could shower unbiased love on others.

Kumarila Bhatta then said to Sankara: "I have no life left to listen to your bhashyam, commentaries. Please tell me briefly. A, U, m and the soundless conclusion. A is Waking, U is sleep, m is deep sleep and the soundless conclusion is tuirya. This is the famous Pranava dhyana panchakam. This is not readily available. We can take it that it is explanation of Arunachalam, for the present.

Kumarila Bhatta then left his body. Kumarila Bhatta is said to be the avatar of Skanda. The name Kumara also denotes Skanda, as per Amarakosam.

Kumarila Bhatta came to establish Karma path. He is the author of Tantra Vartika. Tiru Jnana Sambandha came to establish path of devotion. His Tevaram, about verses in Tamil, is all about devotion. Bhagavan Ramana came to establish Jnana path. Tiru Jnana Sambandha was fed by Uma near the temple tank of Seerkazhi. Both called Siva as their father. Sri Ramana Gita says in Chapter Verse He is a reincarnation of Kumarila Bhatta, praised by assemblies of scholars, the author of Tantra Vartika, elixir of Vedas, briliant with various ingenious ideas.

In this birth, however, He elucidates the teachings of Vedanta alone. Verse This is the third appearance here on earth of the God who pierced the Krouncha Hill. And now he has come to quell the darkness of mere logic by providing a living example of abidance in Brahman, the pure being. Sankara then came to Mahishmathi, the town where Mandanamisrar was living. Padmapada was with him. He came to the Brahmins' street and listened to the Vedic chanting by young boys from every house.

He found the brilliance of sacrificial fire from every portal. Sankara then asked one of the young boys playing on the street, "Where is the house of Mandana Misrar? There is a house, where parrots will be telling, Vedam Pramanam.

Veda is the Reference and Truth. That is the house! There were smoke from the sacrificial fires and mantras were heard. He entered. Mandana Misrar asked him: What do you want?

Sankara: I want Bhiksha! Please wait. Let the ceremonies be over, you can eat! Sankara pursued: I have come for Vadha Bhiksha. The food of debate! Mandana misrar looked at the great saint and grew a little nervous. He said: Fine, please eat first. Let the ceremonies be over. There is a story that Mandana misrar asked Sankara: Where from this tonsured head comes? Sankara said: The tonsured head comes from the neck! There was dinner.

Then Mandana Misrar said: Who can we appoint as Judge? My colleagues and disciples are all steeped in karma path. You may not like them to be Judge. Who can. Sankara said: Anyone you like. Mandana Misrar thought for a while and said: Let my wife Ubhaya Bharati or Sarasavani be the Judge, if you have no objection!

Sankarar looked at Ubhaya Bharati as Mother. She is Ubhaya Bharati, an exponent in two margas, both Karma and Jnana. Only for her husband's sake she has adopted Karma marga.. Ubhaya Bharati brought two garlands and asked them to wear.

The debate started. The debate continued for 18 days! Sankara was generously fed by Ubhaya Bharati after each session. She is Uma, she is Lakshmi, she is Saraswati. Everyday she was feeding Sankara delicious food, as Annapurna. There can be only good Mothers, never bad. Sons can be bad or good.

When a man develops matrutvam, he becomes graceful and full of mercy to other living beings. Jnanis have exhibited this quality. Sankara went into raptures and sang the famous Annapurna Ashtakam. O benign Mother, who pours out upon us Everlasting Bliss! You, the Ocean of Beauty! Bestower of boons and fearlessness! O Supreme Purifier, who washes away all the sins!

You, the visible Ruler of the world, the sanctifier of King Himalaya's line! O You, the Queen Empress of holy Kasi! Divine Annapurna! Be gracious unto me and give me alms! You whose apparel sparkles, sewn with innumerable gems! Who wears a golden sari to heighten your unsurpassed loveliness!

You whose comely bosom reposes a necklace of many pearls! Who breathes forth a fragrance, being anointed with saffron and sandal paste! O benign Mother! You whose form is soothing to the eyes! O You, the Queen Empress of Kasi! Bestower of yoga's bliss! Destroyer of the foe! Fulfiller of wealth and righteousness! You who appear like waves of light, or the radiance of sun and moon and fire!

Protectress of the three worlds! Giver of wealth and of all things wished for! O Gouri! O Uma! O Sankari! O Kaumari! You who has your dwelling in the cave of sacred Mount Kailas! You who reveal the meaning of the holy Vedas! Who are the very embodiments of mystic syllable Om! Who opens the gates of Liberation! Be gracious unto me and grant me alms!

You who bear the manifold world of the visible and the invisible; Who holds the universe in Your womb! You who sever the thread of the play we play upon this earth! Who lights the lamp of wisdom, who brings joy to the heart of Siva, your Lord! Be gracious unto me and grant me alms. O Bhagavati! You are the Sovereign of the world! O Mother, Annapurna!

O Supreme Deity! Ocean of mercy! You, whose long tresses, falling to your knees, Ripple restlessly like a river's current and sparkle like a blue gem!

Mother, ever eager to give us food and bless and all good fortune! You who reveals all the letters, from the first to the last! Mother of the cosmos, gross and subtle, and of its Lord as well! Ruler of earth and heaven and the nether world, Who embodies in Yourself the waves of creation, sustenance and dissolution!

Eternal, uncaused Cause, who are the thick darkness of the cosmic dissolution! You who brings desire in the heart of man, who bestows on him the well bring of the world! You who hold in Your right hand a ladle of gold studded with jewels, And in Your left hand hold a pot of delicious food! You Giver of good fortune, who fulfills the wishes of your worshippers! And brings about their welfare with a mere wink of your eyes! You, the Queen Empress of holy Kasi!

You whose radiance burns a million times more bright than sun and moon and fire; For whom the light of the moon is but the shadow of Your lips! You, the Supreme Empress, who in your four hands hold rosary and book and goad and dice! Protectress of the ksatriya line! Giver of utter fearlessness!

Sri Ramana Maharshi also translated the verses to Tamil with some nuances that further make the Self-Knowledge self-evident. Since these three works present the true nature of the Self so clearly, the English translation of the three works is being presented in this book. The book starts with the story of Hastamalaka and flows into the hymn of Hastamalaka.

It consists of twelve verses that succinctly reveal the Knowledge of the Self, proclaiming the identity of this eternal Knowledge and the Being of the Self. The hymn is addressed to Vishnu, the all-pervasive, the sustainer of the manifest world. The Sanskrit, English transliteration, and English translation of the verses are presented in the book. Also included in the present volume are an English translation of the Tamil version of the text by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi and an English translation of Hastamalakiya-Bhashyam, which is the Sanskrit commentary by Adi Sankara upon these verses by his disciple.

Score: 4. But only in that precarious exilic Bloomsbury, London. It is impossible not to Music and Society, Bloomsbury, London. At the same time, global commodity Said, Edward W.

The infant mortality rate going to treat myself to this pleasure no was the highest in the world, estimated at matter what the consequences.

This early union strikes and military coups in these encounter with colonial injustice and inequal- years. The root of the disease was rocks to dislodge some wild fruit and some political. These encounters with the systems of army, and working towards the emancipation oppression where a father was arrested, in of women. He was deeply troubled by the nist-inspired political praxis that emphasises gap between the people living in relative lux- holistic social transformation through the ury, whose primary concern was leisure, and permanent dismantling of neo- imperial those living in uncertainty, whose primary structures of dispossession.

According to concern was food. The struggle for dignity Sankarist tradition, this emancipatory social and sustenance would remain at the centre of transformation is possible only through the his political project. There he witnessed the popular uprising of students, farmers, and labourers against the French-appointed Biography leader Philibert Tsiranana. In an interview with Swiss that would become the foundation for his journalist Jean-Philippe Rapp in , he revolutionary leadership, including Marxist reflected on his experiences growing up dur- political economy and development theory.

At the age of 33, Sankara had risen as a mili- He vividly remembered how, as a child, he tary leader in the Upper Volta army. He was appointed minister of hood children was allowed to use: information in , but quickly resigned after exposing high-level corruption to local The other children dreamed about this journalists Harsch For the next four dren attended.

In response, Sankara launched African continent. His contributions to and the State in the post-colony was needed. He did not replicate colonial population lived in poverty. He abandoned or patriarchal power dynamics by profess- the use of wealth and status symbols, which ing to speak for women. Instead, he spoke had become a component of the post-colo- with them, reflecting his abiding respect for nial African elite, stipulating that his minis- the dynamic and diverse roles of women in ters must drive modest vehicles rather than social and political life.

It is a basic necessity for the revolu- portrait on display. Faso Dan-Fani, was made from materials He implemented a national day of solidarity woven in Burkina. This was a radical shift in con- mitment to the emancipation of women was sciousness for a post-colony that continued a radical contribution to Pan-African politics, to draw upon the colonial education system, one that named patriarchy and male privi- in which ideas of African selfhood were lege as detrimental to the struggle for African shaped and narrated through the colonial empowerment.

At the 39th Session of the colonial language, and in Western cultural, United Nations General Assembly in New York political, and social ontologies and episte- in , for example, Sankara described the mologies.

A week later, he was assassinated by emancipation and empowerment for every machine-gun fire. On 15 October each of his speeches. International change, and to draw inspiration and hope for political elites, including Guy Penne in France, a better future.