Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chandrashekhar Bharti Swami, P Sankaranarayan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidyabhavan

Page 18

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VIVEKACŪDĀMAŅI
rous followers since his time have borne testimony to the validity and value of his teachings and, even in our day, we see amidst us walking verifications of the verities that he preached.
It is our firm belief accepted from tradition that he was no ordinary mortal. It is the habit of the Indian mind to worship whatever is excellent in the world as of divine essence.
yadyad vibhūtimatsattvam śrīmad ürjitameva vä
tattadevāvagaccha tvañ mama tejo'rśasambhavam 11 So declared the Bhagavān in the Gītā. But in respect of Sri Samkara, we hold that he is not merely an amśa of divinity, but divinity itself. Those who beheld the young samnyāsin of austere beauty, radiant with spiritual light, clad in the orange garb of soothing grace, and carrying the anchorite staff to chase away the myriad ills which ache the human heart saw in the youthful Preceptor of the aged pupils the replica of the cosmic Guru who, sitting on Himalayan heights, His gaze southward bent, dispels the darkness in the caves of ignorance by an initiating look which utters the unspoken word. They had no doubt in their minds when they exclaimed:
ajñānāntargahanapatitān atmavidyopadeśaih
trātum lokān bhavadavaśikhātāpapāpacyamānāni muktvā maunam vațavițapino mūlato nişpatanti
sambhormürtiścarati bhuvane saṁkarācāryarūpā 11 If Śiva, whom we adore as Dakşiņāmūrti is the eternal Teacher of all the worlds seated in supreme silence under the ageless banyan tree, Śrī Samkara is the dynamic edition of that static splendour who walked abroad delighting in the sustenance of his vādabhikṣā speaking words of Vedāntic wisdom, to rescue erring mortals from the tormenting fires of life in this vale of tears. The eternal sambhu became the historical Samkara.
In the realm of religion, Sri Saṁkara is a great revivalist, hailed as şanmatasthāpanācārya, who re-established the six ways of worship of the Godhead, purifying them of excrescences that had gathered round them. In the process, he also established the non-difference
1 यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्व श्रीमदूजितमेव वा। __ तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोंशसम्भवम् ।। 2 r i far rafaelliset:
नातं लोकान् भवदवशिखातापपापच्यमानान । मुक्त्वा मौनं वटविटपिनो मूलतो निष्पतन्ती
शंभोर्मूर्तिश्चरति भुवने शंकराचायरूपा ।।