4.UNCERTAIN EXISTENCE:-

-

Life ever unstable:-


"The water-drop rolling on a lotus petal has an extremely uncertain existence; so also is life ever unstable. Understand, the very world is consumed by disease and conceit, and is riddled with pangs."

 
 

Death, wealth, women, in the last three stanzas, now Acharya sees human life to be as uncertain as a minute drop of water trembling/unbalanced at the tip of Lotus petal. Life is uncertain in itself, and even during its uncertain existence it is consumed by disease and conceits, persecuted by a hundred different voiceless pangs!

 

In the first half of the slokam, Swamiji is pointing the mortality of individual existence. In the second half of the stanza, Acharya  points the pain-ridden nature of the world itself.  This is a typical example of pratipaksha  bhavana upon the individual and the total life.

 
 

Since life is so uncertain, and the world is in a sense nothing but sorrow, the general import of the verse is that there is no time to waste. Death rarely announces his visit, and unannounced he enters cities and hamlets, flats and fields. He respects neither the person nor the place that he visits. Therefore, strive right now. Now and here seems to be the urgency behind the slokam. "All is misery, all is momentary, momentary."

 

Swami Sankaracharya symbolises the extreme uncertainty of life, the analogy of a drop of water shakily rolling on the lotus petal has a deeper vadantic suggestion. This is unavoidable because Swamiji was at once the incomparable Advaita teacher of the world.

 

The lotus grows in water, exists in water, is nurtured and nourished by the waters. Ultimately, it is to perish in water. Naturally, the flower is nothing but an expression of the waters, sprung forth to manifestation due to the seed that was at the bottom!

 

Brahmam the infinite, the One-without-a-second, itself expresses as the lotus of the subtle-body ( Sushma Sareeram = The inner instruments of feelings and thoughts, constituted mainly of the mind-intellect equipment) due to its own sankalpa. Existing in the infinite Consciousness, divine and all-pervading, a minute ray of it (Atma) functioning in and through the lotus-of-the-intellect, is the unsteady, over agitated individual (jiva) which, when it leaves and transcends the intellect, comes back to merge with waters of Consciousness around. Students of Advaita philosophy can easily recognise in this picture an ampler suggestion .

The return of the shaky drop back to the waters of the lake is the culmination indicated by the Maha   Vakya, "THAT THOU ART"."     

 
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O DISTRACTED ONE!

-
Image
Slokam:-13.   The entire slokam is addressed to sensuous men, and the Acharya Sankara Swamikal here calls them, the best among fools who constantly waste themselves in lascivious thoughts( O Distracted  one! )     'Why worry about wife or wealth?'     Why dissipate mentally over the lips of your lady? To worry over anything will not pay in life. To worry means to waste your mental energies,  men fail, not because the world is strong enough to break them down, but it is always only because men become weaker and thus relatively the world-of-happenings is rendered more powerful. The weak must perish is the law of nature.   To consider wife  as only a chattel for your pleasure and sense-gratification is to pull down the institution of home and sanctity of the motherhood in her   Association with the good people:-     Satsangam is the remedy, this contact will develop in us a healthy atti...
Read more

BHAJA GOVINDAM - 31. (ENDS) - Swami Sri Adi Sankaracharya.

-
Image
================================================================================= Wednesday 11, June 2025, 06:50. Final Concluding Songs  PART IV – Song 28-31  “How to Plan One’s Liberation”  BHAJA GOVINDAM - 31.  Swami Sri Adi Sankaracharya. Song 31: Surrender to the Lotus Feet of One’s Guru ================================================================================== 1  guru charana-ambuja nirbhara bhakta = Devoted to the lotus feet of the Guru,  2  samsaaraad-achiraad bhava muktah; = may you be liberated soon from Samsara.  3  sendriya maanasa niyamaad evam = Through discipline of sense organs and mind,  4  drakshyasi nija hridayastham devam. = you will come to experience the Lord that dwells in your own heart.  ================================================================================== The most important part of Sadhana has been reserved for this last verse. To the Guru who was instrumental in building our spiri...
Read more

10.WHERE THE CAUSE HAS ENDED, THE EFFECTS CANNOT CONTINUE:-

-
Image
Slokam:-10. Swami Sankara : When age and its youthfulness have passed away, where is Lust and its play?  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ Th e maddening lust of blinding passion can remain with one only so long as the skin is tight, the muscles are hard, the blood is stormy, and the individual is young and hearty. Lust springs only from the youthfulness. When the cause is removed, the effects cannot remain all by themselves. When the water has evaporated, where is the Lake? ----------------------------------------------------------------------/   When the waters are dried up, the lake can no longer continue to exist. The dried up lake or tank can only express as the bed; only waters are there, can they express themselves as the lake or tank, and serve the world as such. So long as the waters of desire are playing in the mind, the passionate youth vigorously strives to fulfill them. But when once these desires h...
Read more