Talk On Vivek Chudamani

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

Page 77

दुर्वार संसार दवाग्नितप्तम् - being roasted in the blazing infernal fire of change', दोधूयमानम् - being tossed, दुरदृष्टवातैः . by the storms of misfortunes, wah - terrified, 5974 - seeking refuge, (as I am), परिपाहि - save me, मृत्योः - from the death process, शरण्यम् - abode of refuge, अन्यम् - another, यद् - because, अहम् - I, न - not, जाने - know.
I am being roasted in the blazing infernal 'Fire of Change'; I am being tossed in the cruel storms of life; I am terrrified (without and within)-0 Lord! save me from the deathprocess; I seek refuge in thee; for, I do not know of any other harbour wherein to seek my shelter.
A comparison of the rhyme and tune of this stanza with the previous would certainly give us an insight into the mastery of Sankara with his pen in poetry. If the former is a melodious flow of peaceful tranquillity, a flow that removes all the cloggings of the heart and allows it to move freely into molten love and liquid surrender, this stanza in its brisk trot-movement exhibits in its very rhythm and sound an irresistible impatience and a pressing urgency.
The first line in the stanza explains the dangers to which the seeker is exposed; while in the second line, we have an indication of the dangers that he has realised which are besetting him from his within. In the outer world of his contact with things, he is overwhelmed by sorrows of an over-changing pattern, while in himself he recognises an endless storm caused by his likes and dislikes, his loves and hatreds, his hopes and disappointments. In short, these two lines beautifully summarize the experience of finitude which is the lot of all seekers before he enters the Hall of Wisdom.
It is only when an individual comes to develop his sensibility, so subtle as to recognize these weaknesses in life that he comes to feel such a pressing urgency for liberation as it is expressed herein. When he comes to experience thus a burning desire for liberation he comes to demand of the Guru a safety and shelter from the threatening songs of death with its poisoning evil experiences in him in life. Here we should not construe death to mean only the experience