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VEDANTA
without-a-second,” here he gives devout praise to the "second" - Māyā, Mother of the World-and with all sincerity; cxpressing the mode of divine dualistic experience on the plane of bhakti, where the devotce regards and understands himsell as the creature and servant of the dcity-in-human-form.
Thou who bearest the manilold world of the visible and the in
visible; Who holdest the universe in Thy womb! Who severest the thread of the play we play upon this earth! Who lightest the lamp of wisdom; who bringest joy to the heart
of Thy Lord, Śival ( Thou, Queen Empress of holy Benares! Divine Bestower of Food
Inexhaustible! Be gracious imto me and grant ine alms.232
Other poems of Sarikara transport the spirit, however, beyond the sphere of the Holy Naine and Blessed Form to the very brink of the experience of Nirguna Brahman. These were composed to serve as meditations to press or draw the mind through the final barrier of thought. The collection, "Morning Meditations" (prātaḥ-smaranam-stotram), opens with the lines:
"At dawn I call to mind the essence of the Self shining forth self-effulgent in my heart, the fourth (turīya), which is existenceeternal, pure spiritual consciousness, and bliss-the goal and salvation of the 'Highest Swans.' 293 The being that regards the states of dream, waking, and deep sleep-that supreme essence
282 Stanza from the "Hymn to Annapurna" ("the one overflowing with food"); translated by Swami Nikhilānanda, Self-Knowledge (ilmabodha), New York, 1946, p. 185.
233 Paramahamsas: the Vedāntic ascetics, roaming through the world in homeless freedom, are compared to wild swans, or ganders; for these are at home in the trackless losty sky as well as in the waters of the lakcs of the land, just as saints are at home in the formless sphere devoid of attributes as well as in the garb of the human individual, seemingly moving among us in the phenomenal sphere of bondage.
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