Atma Shatakam Or Nirvan Shatakam

Author(s): Shankaracharya
Publisher: B L Institute

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They say slowly
indeed very very slowly, if the Artha
and Bhava (or) are absent, but surely, these particles shall be rubbed off, by the repeated recitation of the words of the great writer. Hence the prescription against
stopping it.
Now the question is: In which language to thus repeat the verses? In English (or in any other language known best to the student), or in the language of the great writer? The Indian tradition very strongly believes that to repeat the words in any other language than that of the great writer would in the long run cloud the mearing thereof. Another pertinent question is: Why repeat it so often? Lid the great hishis of the past learn and teach the Shastras from memory only because the writing and printing facilities were not there? It does not seem so to the translator: rather, it is because, the simple, and yet immensely prefound depths of religion can never be reached by reading and understanding the Shastras intellectually-(however deeply), that they insisted on memorizing so that the knowledge has every chance to merge into the student personality. The knowledge had to be in the words of the men who were that knowledge, not those who merely knew or understood that knowledge, so that as the beginner, repeats it again and again, it slowly unfolds its depths as it applies to the student in every moment of his everyday life. This also is a reason for the translator not giving a long explanatory commentary on the translation, or adopting the methodology of a
critical translation.
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