Excerpts from Sri Sankara Digvijaya
6 years ago by SVBF
Srinivas Mallapragada
Jagadguru Sri Adi Sankara Bhagavatpada, India’s most celebrated saint-philosopher, the founder Acharya of the four Āmnāya peethas including the Sringeri Sarada Peetha and the author of numerous scriptural commentaries, Vedanta texts, stotras and other philosophical and devotional works – needs no introduction. Various facets and incidents from the great Acharya’s life have been well known for several generations. The basis of this knowledge has traditionally been through a series of literature known as “Sankara Digvijayas” depicting the Acharya’s life events in great detail.
Various versions of the Sankara Digvijaya literature have been authored and re-authored by many scholars over the course of the last few centuries with widely varying details with respect to the dates and incidents in the Acharya’s life. While these discrepancies have been the subject of many scholarly discussions and debates, they are of little consequence to a seeker-devotee whose interest is in learning life-transforming lessons from the teachings of the great Acharya.
So, without paying much attention to the historical validity and veracity of the literal events, we shall, in the course of the next few issues, examine a few experiences from the Acharya’s life and attempt to draw valuable lessons that can help us evolve in our spiritual quest. We will take the version of Sankara Digvijaya authored by Madhava-Vidyaranya Swami, the Sankaracharya of Sringeri Peetham from 14th century, as our reference.
The first event we will delve into is the encounter of the Acharya with Lord Shiva at Varanasi.
Summoned by his guru Sri Govinda Bhagavatpada to go on a world mission to clarify through teaching and writing, the spiritual truths revealed by the Vedas, the Acharya arrived at Varanasi. One day, the Acharya, surrounded by his disciples, walked to the river Ganga when he was approached by Lord Shiva in the guise of a chandala (an outcast) with his pack of four dogs.
When the Acharya asked the chandala to move away, considering him to be ignorant about the knowledge of the Self, the chandala responded and held a long conversation with the Acharya about the distinction of Atman and Anatman and how a sannyasin should see the whole world as Atman. The ensuing conversation led to the Acharya vocalizing his incredible encounter and the resulting knowledge in 5 famous verses known as the “Maneesha Panchakam”, the essence of which is “All objects presented to Consciousness are false and, therefore, unreal; what is left after this elimination is Pure Consciousness alone; and that Pure Consciousness is the ‘I’. A man established in such an awareness is, indeed, a Guru to me.” Following this, outcast appeared in front of the Acharya as Lord Shiva himself and blessed the Acharya.
Maneesha Panchakam is a well known set of verses and many knowledgeable commentaries are available on the same, so we will not investigate it much here. Instead, let us focus on the following verse said by the Acharya after Lord Shiva appeared in front of him:
दासस्तेऽहं देहे दृष्ट्यास्मि शम्भो
जातस्तेऽम्शो जीव दृष्ट्या त्रिदृष्टे
सर्वस्यात्मन्नात्म दृष्ट्या त्वमेवेत
एवं मे धीर्निश्चिता सर्व शास्त्रैः ।ि
The Acharya said to the Lord: “Oh Shambho Mahadeva! Salutations to you. When I consider myself to be this body (deha drishti), I am your servant (dāsaḥ). When I consider myself to be the limited/personal soul (jīva dṛṣṭi), I am a part of you (amśaḥ). When I consider myself to be the unlimited/boundless soul (ātma dṛṣṭi), then I am verily you (tvam). This is the essence of all the scriptures (sarva-śāstraiḥ) I have learnt and ascertained by serving my guru and listening to his words.”
While offering his salutations to the Lord and exhibiting his incomparable Advaita jnanam (knowledge of the non-dual Self), the Acharya, through this verse, is also imparting a great lesson to all the seekers on how to approach the path of Salvation or Moksha.
Here, the Acharya is talking about त्रिदृष्टि, the tri-fold view or approach, through which a seeker can gradually and incrementally qualify himself or herself for atma jnanam or self-knowledge which gives moksha.
The first drishti or view is deha dṛṣṭi, the initial stage, in which the seeker considers himself to be the body, distinct from others, distinct from the surrounding world and distinct from God. He considers God to be the creator, sustainer, destroyer and the ultimate master of the universe and himself to be God’s servant, worshiping Him, praising Him, being devoted to Him and seeking God’s grace in all transactions undertaken by oneself. This is also the first aspect of Karma Yoga taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, called sakāma karmā. An evolution in this path is niśkāma karmā, in which the seeker performs his work, as directed by the scriptures, without selfish expectations and does so only as an offering to God (Īśvarārpaṇa buddhi) and accepts all outcomes with equanimity as grace of God (Prasāda buddhi).
With the grace of one’s Guru, then the seeker gradually advances to the next stage in which he develops the second drishti or view, i.e. the jīva dṛṣṭi. In this stage, the seeker, in addition to being devoted to God, also recognizes the divinity in the entire creation. He advances from the view point of “God DOES creation”, to the view point of “God IS creation”. He recognizes himself to be an integral part (amśaḥ) of God’s creation, and thereby, as an integral part of God and strives to develop divine qualities in himself, in addition to being devoted to the Lord. These divine qualities are described again by Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita as daivī-sampat, as part of Upasana Yoga. These include qualities like fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness of mind, control of the senses, sacrifice, study of scriptures, austerity, harmlessness, truth, absence of anger, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness, compassion towards beings, freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty, forgiveness, fortitude, absence of hatred, absence of pride etc. By gradually developing these divine qualities and recognizing the spark of divinity inside oneself, the seeker becomes qualified for the third and final stage of his spiritual journey, namely ātma jñāna.
Upon developing the above divine qualities and other attributes like intense dispassion, and upon receiving the benevolent grace of the Lord and one’s Guru, the seeker establishes himself in the third and final drishti or view, i.e., the ātma dṛṣṭi. He thus advances his understanding of God, the self and the creation. From the view points of “God DOES creation” to “God IS creation”, he now proceeds to the correct understanding that “God APPEARS as Creation”. He realizes the profound truth that the same consciousness (ātman) shines both in himself and the Lord (Tat Tvam Asi) and when viewed from this perspective, there is no difference between himself as jīvātman and the Lord as paramātman. This is the Self-Knowledge, the Ultimate Realization which is also called Moksha or liberation. Lord Krishna refers to this in his Jnana Yoga and describes it in the Bhagavad Gita verse:
क्षेत्र क्षेत्रज्ञयोरेवमन्तरं ज्ञानचक्षुषा |
भूतप्रकृति मोक्षं च ये विदुर्यान्ति ते परम् ||
Thus, within one small verse addressed to Lord Shiva, the great Jagadguru, with his infinite grace, has taught us all the right way to perceive and experience divinity and ultimately reach the epitome of human life – i.e., Moksha via a gradual progression through the right Karma, Upasana and Jnana.
In the next issue, we will try to examine another event from the Jagadguru’s journey and draw a valuable life lesson from it.
References :
Shankara Digvijaya of Madhava – Vidyaranya by Swami Tapasyananda , Ramakrishna Mutt
Shri Shankara Vijayam of Swami Vidyaranya by T. Shivacharanam , Vyasasramam
Vedanta discourses by Swami Paramarthananda, Chennai
Sankara Charitam – Upanyasam by Sri Sengalipuram Anantarama Dikshitar