Post by radha on Sept 6, 2012 4:48:22 GMT 5.5
OM SRI GURUPYO NAMAHA:,RESPECTFUL PRANAMS TO SRI KANCHI MAHA PERIVA.
HARA HARA SANKARA,SIVA SIVA SANKARA
JAYA JAYA SANKARA HARA HARA SANKARA
Amrita means moksha (liberation). Those who attain this state do not have birth or death. Hence it has been called “death-less” state.
The body too comes into being when a person is born. The body alone is the cause of the (birth-death) disease. This position had obtained since the beginning of humanity. There have been great souls who have cured themselves from the disease-causing body by taking suitable medicine. We do need the fruit of their experience. The disease and its remedy have been set out in the time-less Vedas.
In the quotation from the Purusha Sooktam cited earlier, the word iha denotes that the death-less state can be attained even while a person has the body (i.e. is alive.) This is indeed the best path. Sri Acharya too has stated this is so. Why?
We do not know whether this state can or cannot be attained after death. Those who have so attained this state after death, would not re-attain life to narrate their experience to us; nor could they do so. The way for this state of amrita is knowledge of the self.
This birth itself is intended for assisting others. The dharma sastras also lay down that one should succor one’s relatives. At the same time one should try to gain knowledge about one’s atma (or soul) and about raising the level of the atma. It is not enough to get caught in the samsaara (the world or the constantly repeating cycle of birth and death.) Life’s attachments disturb any occasional spiritual thoughts. How far these concerns will help one, spiritually speaking?
Excessive attachment to property is the principal obstruction to one’s spiritual growth. Ajnana (ignorance or lack of knowledge of the eternal and the real) is another cause. One worries about matters not concerned with oneself. One should reduce such worries. If one gradually reduced one’s attachments to relatives and friends, the effect of various factors to cause worry for the mind and body will decrease. One should gradually cultivate the realization that this misery and loss are not one’s own. If one starts feeling that the body is not one’s own, the bodily diseases will not obstruct one’s spiritual growth.
Sri Bhagavatpada thus established that getting oneself rid of the physical body while still being with it (i.e. while still alive), is amrita or moksha (liberation) –
Tadethat asareerathvam mokshakaamyam
(Sootra Bhaashya – I, I, 4)
If one is to have death-less life, the disease (the body) has to cease to exist. God is called ananga (He who does not have physical body or shape). One should continue to look upon oneself as that God (soham). Some repeat the mere sound – incantation soham (I am He), while performing ordinary acts such as sitting down or standing up.
It will be better if one understands the meaning of this incantation and then repeats it. “I am god” – This thought would then gradually become steady in one’s mind.
Sri Sankara Bhagavatpad’s golden advice is – Happiness and misery will not affect the person who exists bereft of the physical body. This advice constitutes the medicine/remedy prescribed by Sri Sankara to enable us to conquer death. This is the exquisite teaching to attain the grand death-less state.
Sri Bhagavatpada has elaborated this advice in I, I, 4 of Brahmasootra Bhashya
Life-principle is termed as atma or jeevan (soul). Souls are generally categorized into kaunaatma, mityaatma and mukhyaatma. Kaunaatma is one who shows commiseration in a relative’s grief or misery. Love of one’s own person, face etc. and excessive pride in one’s own personality and ability is known as mityaatma.
One should realize that the body and the soul are distinct and separate from one another and that the soul is the image of the paramaatma (supreme soul or God). If this thought ripens into practical knowledge and experience, at that the stage, the Brahmam (supreme soul) becomes the atma (individual soul). This state is known as mukhyaatma.
The reader would have appreciated by now the best among the three states. One should advance beyond the first two states of kaunaatma and mityaatma and strive to approach the third state of mukhyaatma. If this stage were reached while still alive, one would have attained the grand state of death-less life. This is the ideal of those born as human beings.
“I” am Brahmam (supreme soul). “I” am the image of Brahmam – If this knowledge is attained, then relatives, misery, self-esteem and attachment to one’s own body – all these entities/qualities will disappear of themselves.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna has taught to Arjuna the way to attain the ideal state of oneness with Brahmam or Paramatma (supreme soul or God).
Kanchi Maha Periva Thiruvadigal Saranam
HARA HARA SANKARA,SIVA SIVA SANKARA
JAYA JAYA SANKARA HARA HARA SANKARA
Amrita means moksha (liberation). Those who attain this state do not have birth or death. Hence it has been called “death-less” state.
The body too comes into being when a person is born. The body alone is the cause of the (birth-death) disease. This position had obtained since the beginning of humanity. There have been great souls who have cured themselves from the disease-causing body by taking suitable medicine. We do need the fruit of their experience. The disease and its remedy have been set out in the time-less Vedas.
In the quotation from the Purusha Sooktam cited earlier, the word iha denotes that the death-less state can be attained even while a person has the body (i.e. is alive.) This is indeed the best path. Sri Acharya too has stated this is so. Why?
We do not know whether this state can or cannot be attained after death. Those who have so attained this state after death, would not re-attain life to narrate their experience to us; nor could they do so. The way for this state of amrita is knowledge of the self.
This birth itself is intended for assisting others. The dharma sastras also lay down that one should succor one’s relatives. At the same time one should try to gain knowledge about one’s atma (or soul) and about raising the level of the atma. It is not enough to get caught in the samsaara (the world or the constantly repeating cycle of birth and death.) Life’s attachments disturb any occasional spiritual thoughts. How far these concerns will help one, spiritually speaking?
Excessive attachment to property is the principal obstruction to one’s spiritual growth. Ajnana (ignorance or lack of knowledge of the eternal and the real) is another cause. One worries about matters not concerned with oneself. One should reduce such worries. If one gradually reduced one’s attachments to relatives and friends, the effect of various factors to cause worry for the mind and body will decrease. One should gradually cultivate the realization that this misery and loss are not one’s own. If one starts feeling that the body is not one’s own, the bodily diseases will not obstruct one’s spiritual growth.
Sri Bhagavatpada thus established that getting oneself rid of the physical body while still being with it (i.e. while still alive), is amrita or moksha (liberation) –
Tadethat asareerathvam mokshakaamyam
(Sootra Bhaashya – I, I, 4)
If one is to have death-less life, the disease (the body) has to cease to exist. God is called ananga (He who does not have physical body or shape). One should continue to look upon oneself as that God (soham). Some repeat the mere sound – incantation soham (I am He), while performing ordinary acts such as sitting down or standing up.
It will be better if one understands the meaning of this incantation and then repeats it. “I am god” – This thought would then gradually become steady in one’s mind.
Sri Sankara Bhagavatpad’s golden advice is – Happiness and misery will not affect the person who exists bereft of the physical body. This advice constitutes the medicine/remedy prescribed by Sri Sankara to enable us to conquer death. This is the exquisite teaching to attain the grand death-less state.
Sri Bhagavatpada has elaborated this advice in I, I, 4 of Brahmasootra Bhashya
Life-principle is termed as atma or jeevan (soul). Souls are generally categorized into kaunaatma, mityaatma and mukhyaatma. Kaunaatma is one who shows commiseration in a relative’s grief or misery. Love of one’s own person, face etc. and excessive pride in one’s own personality and ability is known as mityaatma.
One should realize that the body and the soul are distinct and separate from one another and that the soul is the image of the paramaatma (supreme soul or God). If this thought ripens into practical knowledge and experience, at that the stage, the Brahmam (supreme soul) becomes the atma (individual soul). This state is known as mukhyaatma.
The reader would have appreciated by now the best among the three states. One should advance beyond the first two states of kaunaatma and mityaatma and strive to approach the third state of mukhyaatma. If this stage were reached while still alive, one would have attained the grand state of death-less life. This is the ideal of those born as human beings.
“I” am Brahmam (supreme soul). “I” am the image of Brahmam – If this knowledge is attained, then relatives, misery, self-esteem and attachment to one’s own body – all these entities/qualities will disappear of themselves.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna has taught to Arjuna the way to attain the ideal state of oneness with Brahmam or Paramatma (supreme soul or God).
Kanchi Maha Periva Thiruvadigal Saranam