Sankara's Viveka Chudamani:
Bhakti: Firm and Deep(Verses 31)
Ø Among the instruments and conditions necessary for liberation, bhakti alone is supreme. A constant attempt to live up to one'sown Real Naure is called single-pointed devotion .(31)To him, making this appeal and seeking help, scorched by the flame of the world's fire, the Great Soul beholding him with eyes most pitiful brings speedy comfort. (31)
Courtesy of Approach and Questioning(32-40)
Ø Other say that Bhakti means a constant enquiry into the Real Nature of one's own Self....one who has the above mentioned qualifications and and is anxious to know the Self must ,therefore, devotedly serve a Teacher, well-established in knowledge, for redeeming himself from bondage.(32) Serving the Teacher with devotion and aspiration for the Eternal, and finding harmony with him, seek the needed knowledge of the Self.
ØHe, who is well-versed in the scriptures,sinless,unaffected by desires,a full knower of the Supreme ,who has retired into the Supreme, who is as calm as the fire that has burnt up its fuel,who is a boundless ocean of mercy that needs no cause for its expression and who is an intimate friend of those who have surrendered unto him (33)Here, Sankara exhausts his list ofadjectives in enumerating the qualities of the true Guru to supplement his declaration that the Master should be well-established in the Supreme Consciousness.
- Worshipping that Guru with deep devotion, when he is pleased with your surrender,humility and service,approachhim and askhim to explain what you must know,(34)Ø The great good ones dwell in peace, bringing joy to the world like the return of spring. Having crossed ocean of the world, they ever help others to cross over. For this is the very nature of the great-souled ones (Mahatmas)—their swiftness to take away the weariness of others. So the soft-rayed moon of itself soothes the earth, burned by the fierce sun's heat.(38)
O Master, O friend of those who reverentially surrender to thee,thou ocean of mercy, I salute thee; save me, fallen as I am into this sea of change, with a direct glance from thy eyes which rain nectarian Grace Supreme(35)
I am being roasted in the blazing infernal fire of change; I am being tossed by the cruel storms of misfortune; I am terrified (without and within)...O Lord! save me from death; I seek refuge in thee,for I donot know of any other harbour wherein to seek shelter(36)
There are peaceful and magnimanous saints who live like... the spring season...for the good of humanity. They have crossed the dreadful ocean of finitude through their own efforts and with no ulterio rmotives, they also help others to cross it.(37)
"Sprinkle me with your nectar voice that brings the joy of eternal bliss, pure and cooling, falling on me as from a cup, like the joy of inspiration; for I am burnt by the hot, scorching flames of the world's fire. "Happy are they on whom your light rests, even for a moment, and who reach harmony with you. "How shall I cross the ocean of the world? Where is the path? What way must I follow? I know not, Master. Save me from the wound of the world's pain." (39)
How to cross the ocean of relative existence?What is tobemyultimatedestination? Which of the many means Ishouldadopt? Iknow nothing of these. OLord! Save me and describe in all etail how to end th emisery of this life in the finite.(40)
Ved Prakash
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