Talk On Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chinmayanand Swami
Publisher: Chinmay Publications Trust

Page 15

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Full manhood, a burning desire for liberation, capacity to surrender completely to a man of wisdom, these three things are indeed rare and, wherever they be, they ought to be considered as products of the Lord's own grace.
Earlier, we were told how rare indeed are the human birth and the necessary qualifications for a vital and potential living by which one can grow in one's inward evolution. In order to emphasize upon the seeker the qualities, which he should have when coming to a great man of learning seeking for the spiritual knowledge, we have here another stanza.
Sankara says that to get a chance to be born as a human being is but a sign of Lord's own grace. Having been born as a man, to come to exhibit in life a deep discriminative understanding and a perception of the ultimate futility in all the ordinary pursuits of life, and, therefore, to discover an enthusiasm within oneself to seek a nobler path of selfredemption is rarer still. Lastly, when a creature is born as a man, when he feels a gnawing sense of impatience at his own limitations, for him to find the right master to guide him across the thorny paths of his own imperfections into the softer meadows of limitless joys and bliss is still rarer; and Sankara here attributes all these three cases of luck in any life to the grace of the Almighty.
The Grace of the Almighty as expressed in Vedanta-is not to be understood as the blessings of God, a Sultan of the sky, sitting amidst the clouds showering down special packets of grace on chosen individuals!! What is meant here by God's grace is only the sum-total reactions gained during the healthy and intelligent way in which the individual had lived through his many lives of greater and nobler cultural pursuits.
लब्ध्वा कथंचिन्नरजन्म दुर्लभं तत्रापि पुंस्त्वं श्रुतिपारदर्शनम् । यस्त्वात्ममुक्तौ न यतेत मूढधीः
♬ aca zá fâfâgrereaquar. |18||| labdhva kathamcinnarajanma durlabham tatrāpi pumstvaṁ śṛutipāradarśanam yastvātmamuktou na yateta mudahdhih sahyātmahā svam vinihantyasadgrahāt 4.