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VIVEKACŪDAMANI
Samsara itself is a forest-fire as it spreads in all directions and scorches. It is inextinguishable except by the jñāna springing from the guru's upadeśa. When the forest-fire is aided by the wind, the flames spread out and scorch in all directions. The winds here are said to be duradṛṣṭavātaiḥ, i.e., winds of misfortune: sins. They are unfavourable winds. dodhüyamānam: trembling greatly again and again. If the wind is favourable, it carries the person away from the flames. If it is unfavourable, either it carries him into the fire or blows the fire on him. It is with the idea that the man suffering from the heat of the forest-fire will be rescued from it by the downpour of the nectar that reference is made in the previous sloka to the shower of the amṛta of guru's compassion by the expression, atikāruṇyasudhābhivṛṣṭyā making it an adjective of dṛṣṭya and the whole being taken as a bahuvrihi-compound. Instead, it may also be taken as a tatpurușa-compound. dṛṣṭya: by your glance, atikāruṇyasudhabhivṛṣṭya: by the downpour of infinite compassion through it. The purport of the śisya's appeal is : "If I obtain ātmajñāna by your grace, death in the form of the exit of the vital airs from my body will not happen to me". The śruti also says: na tasya pran utkrämanti atraiva samavaniyante (Brh.): His (ātmajñānin's) prāņas do not go away; they get stilled (acquire laya) here itself. (That is, the man does not die as ordinary people do by their vital airs going out of the body at death.) As whatever is dead must be born again (dhruvam janma mṛtasya ca), and as the atma jñānin does not die in the usual sense of the word, it is clear that in the absence of death (by the ordinary way), there will be no birth again. And so, the śisya prays: 'By your grace I shall be rescued from the succession of birth and death which is saṁsāra'.
54
By saying 'I know none else in whom to seek refuge', the śişya submits to the guru that he is without any such other refuge. 'Apart from you, I know none else who can protect me. I have no other refuge; so I must not be treated with indifference.'
39, 40
By the following two ślokas, it is shown that the compassion of the guru towards the śisya is absolutely unmotivated.
शान्ता महान्तो निवसन्ति सन्तो वसन्तवल्लोकहितं चरन्तः । तीर्णास्स्वयं भीमभवार्णवं जनानहेतुनान्यानपि तारयन्तः ॥ ३९ ॥ अयं स्वभावस्वत एव यत्परश्रमापनोदप्रवणं महात्मनाम् । सुधांशुरेष स्वयमर्ककर्कशप्रभाभितप्तामवति क्षितिं किल ॥ ४० ॥
