FLASHES OF MY LIFE 10: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE OF 2004
This is to
announce the termination of the Soundaryalahari Digest, with just one more post to go. By the Grace, of Mother Goddess, of
the Mahaswamigal and of my Guru, the task of translating in digest form, the
Tamil Discourses of the Mahaswamigal on Soundarya-lahari, has come to a
successful end. The study of these discourses and the work of
‘digesting’ them in the English
language, has been, though challenging,
very satisfying, spiritually. In this task there are several members –
scores of them -- from the advaitin group, ambaa group, advaita-L group and Sadhana_Shakti group who have encouraged me
and helped me constructively. There are also friends and relatives outside
these groups who have done so. I stand indebted to them all. The entire set of
posts has also been posted by me on my website.
I have a
confession-like personal statement to make. It is important to note – I am sure
readers of the digest would have noted this also – that the Soundarya-lahari
discourses of the Mahaswamigal contain tons of material on the conceptual
nuances of advaita, and on the practical application of it, though on the face of it this may not have
been anticipated by all. Till around
June 1 of last year I had no knowledge of Soundaryalahari except a rote memory of three shlokas (Nos.1,
27 and 57) and a vague idea of their meaning. Of course I knew that
Soundaryalahari was a great work of Adi Shankara, but I had never delved into
it. Around the middle of May 2003, when
I just arrived in the U.S. August 1, 2003
and by Her Grace, the final post (DPDS-81) is going to be tomorrow,
the 29th
of April, 2004 .
In the course of
this one year I have grown – I think --
not only in my understanding of advaita but also in the ‘svAnubhava’ that the
practice of seeing Her everywhere can give. Though all my life I have
propitiated Goddess Meenakshi with Lalita-sahasranamam and Trishati several
times, the symbiosis of nirguna-brahman and saguna-brahman that the
Paramacharya has built into his Soundaryalahari discourses was only an academic
matter for me until I ventured into this project. My own attitudes have
changed. The irritation that naturally invaded me when things did not go my way has all but reduced now. Shloka
No.27 which had just been an ordinary component in my pUjA recitation for
several years, has now been blessed by Her to become more comfortable. A select
27 shlokas of Soundaryalahari -- namely,
#s 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23, 27, 30, 34, 35, 36, 41, 44, 57,
60, 66, 84, 97, 98, 99 and 100 -- along
with the 36 shlokas of Narayaneeiyam, about which I wrote last year, are now,
word by word, in the mental picture most
of the the time. Seeing Her and Him in
everything makes sense. By Their Grace, the implied discipline in the Gita
shloka (VI – 30) ‘yo mAm pashyati sarvatra ..’
and in the verse (# 6) from the Ishopanishad ‘yastu sarvANi BhUtAni ...’
seems to be not beyond practical reach.
I am indebted to
all the members of these four groups and
to several personal friendships who have made this venture of mine into this
project very productive in terms of my
‘mumukshhutvaM’.
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