Part 8 10 2024 contsd KR IRS UPANIṢADBRAHMENDRA
*by* V. Raghavan M.A., PH.D. An account of Upaniṣadbrahmendra in this Volume is appropriate in more ways than one. Apart from the fact that the Maṭha bearing his name has its own importance in Kāñchī, there have been close contacts between the Upaniṣadbrahmendra Maṭha and the Kāmakoṭi Pīṭha in the comparatively short period during which the former had come into existence. Elsewhere,[1] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32926> more than once, the present writer has dwelt on the life and works of Upaniṣadbrahmendra. In his paper, on Upaniṣadbrahmendra in the *Journal of the Music Academy,* Madras,[2] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32927> in which, for the first time, a detailed account of this Sannyāsin-author has been given, the present writer has shown that our author was originally called Rāmachandrendra — a name found in the colophons of several of his works, as also in his commentary on the *Bhagavadgitā* — and that later he came to be called Upaniṣadbrahmendra by reason of his systematic and successful effort to write commentaries on the one hundred and eight Upaniṣads. It has also been shown in that paper that Upaniṣadbrahmendra flourished in the 18th century A.D. The cyclic year and its details mentioned by him at the end of his commentary on *Muktopaniṣad* work out to 1751 A.D. Another dated work of his is the *Paramādvaitasiddhāntaparibhāṣā* (1709 A.D.). In civil life, he was named Śivarāma and was the son of Lakṣmī and Sadāśiva of Vādhūla Gotra, of Brahmapuram on the banks of the Pālār. He was born by the blessings of God Karinātha and Goddess Śivakāmasundarī enshrined at Kṛṣṇanagarī or Śāttancheri on the banks of the Pālār; he says that it is on the prompting of this Deity Lord Śivpkāmīsa that he composed the commentaries on the one hundred and eight *Upaniṣads.* In more than one place in his works, he mentions that the place of his stay in Kāñchīpura, which is on the way of Kailāsanātha temple, was called Agastyālaya or Agastyāśrama. As a Sannyāsin, he was the disciple of Vāsudevendra. Upaniṣadbrahmendra was a bibliophile and all his writings, as also other works in Vedānta and Bhakti, were copied and preserved in his Maṭha. The present writer had occasion to examine first-hand in connection with his *New Catalogus Catalogorum* work a large number of Upaniṣadbrahmendra’s works which the present Swāmiji of the Maṭha, Śrī Iṣṭasiddhīndra, was kind enough to lend him. Manuscripts of Upaniṣadbrahmendra’s works are also found in the Madras Government Oriental Mss. Library, the Adyar Library, and the Oriental Library, Mysore; and many of them bear alternate and longer or shorter names and also the author’s own glosses. After a careful examination of all these, as also the mutual cross-references found in his own works, a complete list of his works has been compiled and presented elsewhere.[3] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32928> Some of these works have also been brought out in print by the Adyar Library.[4] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32929> On this occasion a brief analytical account may be given of his works and an appreciation of the contribution he made through his works and life. It is proper to begin with the *Upaniṣads* the ultimate basis of the two other texts of authority in the *Prasthānatraya* and also of all further expositions in Vedānta and Bhakti. The most important and sustained work of Upaniṣadbrahmendra, which gave him this second name, is his commentaries on the one hundred and eight *Upaniṣads.* all of which have been published by the Adyar Library. The author says that Kṛṣṇasūri, Rāmānanda, Īśvara, Hari and Kṛṣṇadāsa prompted him to write the *Upaniṣad-*commentaries.[5] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32930> All his works giving the author’s name as Rāmachandrendra were written before the* Upaniṣad*-commentaries and this is borne out also by his mentioning some of them in the *Upaniṣad*-commentaries. On many of his earlier works thus written, he wrote glosses later, as Upaniṣadbrahmendra. His work in the field of *Upaniṣads* is valuable particularly in regard to the minor ones, on which we have no other commentaries. A second major work of Upaniṣadbrahmendra in the *Upaniṣadprasthāna* is the collection-of one thousand and eight *Mahā-vākyas* from all the *Upaniṣads* — the *Aṣṭottarasahasramahāvāk-yāvali* — and expositions of these in a series of commentaries, the *Prabhā,* the *Lochana,* the *Vivaraṇa,* and the *Kiraṇāvali.* Even at the beginning of his commentary on the *Upaniṣads,* he has shown that the *Mahavākyas* are not just four, but many more. In the *Gītā-prasthāna* he has given us a lucid gloss on the *Bhagavadgītā* closely following Śaṅkara’s *Bhāṣya.* In the *Sūtra-prasthāna* , there is a short work of his in the form of an *adhikaraṇa* -index and a concordance of the *Sūtras* and topics, following Śaṅkara’s *Bhāṣya**.* In this he correlates the four chapters and the four *Pādas* of each chapter, with aspects of the *Pranava* and phases of the *Brahman,* a favourite analysis of his which he uses for the songs too which he composed in sets according to this classification. Deriving his ideas from the *Māndūkya* and Gauḍapāda’s *Kārikās,* and from the *Nādabindūpaniṣad,* he equates the four chapters of the *Sūtras* thus: *Samanvaya* *Avirodha* *Sādhana* *Phala* *Akāra* *Ukāra,* *Makāra* *Ardhamātrā* *Sthūla* (*Virāṭ*) *Sūkṣma (Sūtra*) *Bīja* *Turya* The four *Pādas* of each chapter are equated with the further sub-divisions resulting from the admixture of the phases in the second principle of classification, Virāṭ-virāt, Virāṭ-sūtra, and so on. The colophon of I. i of his index of the *Adhikaraṇas* runs: *akārasthūlāṃśākāramātrārūḍhādya- pādasyādhikaraṇasamkhyā*—11, *iti vairaje* (?) *prathamaḥ pādaḥ.* In the further colophons, we come across equations of other *Pādas* of the *Sūtras* with *Nada, Bindu, Kalā, Kalātīta, Sami* (?) *, Sāntyatīta* (?) *, Unmanī, Purī (Vaikharī* ?), *Madhyamā,* *Paśyanā* and *Parā.* Upaniṣadbrahmendra’s work on the *Brahma-sūtra* should not be judged by the above concordance alone; at the end of this short work, he says that he wrote a commentary on the *Sūtra,* following Śaṅkara’s *Bhāṣya* of course, in 3500 granthas. The manuscript of this remains to be identified and studied; it may be in the form of a commentary on the *saṅgraha* of the *Sūtra* mentioned above; it is at its end that the author mentions the commentary. *brahmasūtra-brahmatāra-siddhānta-vivṛtiḥ kṛtā bhāṣyasaṅgrahasiddhāntavyākhyānagranthasaṅgrahaḥ pañchaśato’parilasat tṛsahasramitirbhavet.* The independent Vedāntic *Prakaraṇas* of the author may now be noticed. Over a dozen of these are known, and as in the case of other works, here too the texts bear the author’s own commentaries. The *Tattvampadārthaikyaśataka* in one hundred *Anuṣṭubhs,* published in the *Adyar Library Bulletint* with an Introduction by the present writer, brings out the full implication of the great *Mahāvākya* , *tat tvam asi,* working out, step by step, the manifestation of the Brahman as the Saguṇa Brahman, the individual souls and the universe through *Māyā,* the three *Guṇas,* etc. The work may be studied on the background of the older texts, *Pañchīkaraṇa, Vākyavṛtti,* etc. The other Prakaraṇas, with his own commentaries, are - *Karmākarmaviveka* with *Naukā*, - *Tṛpāittattvaviveka,* - *Paramākṣaraviveka,* - *Paramādvaitasiddhāntaparibhāṣā,* - *Paramādvaitasudarśa*-*naviveka,* - *Bhedatamomārtāṇḍaśataka,* - *Liṅgabhaṅgamuktiśataka*, - *Sattāsāmānyaviveka* and *Vivṛti,* - *Svarūpadarśanasiddhāñjana,* - *Kaivalyāṣṭaka* and *Siddhāntaślokatraya*. >From what has been said already in connection with his concordance of the *Brahma-sūtra* and its *Adhikaraṇas,* it would be clear that our author had a fancy for correlations and equations of the different phases of Brahman, of spiritual pursuit and indeed of the texts of Vedānta with the phases of *Praṇava.* On the path of *Sādhana,* he was a worshipper of *Praṇava* and *Nāda,* which as we shall see below, led him to music. *Tāra* (*Praṇava*) and its four aspects figure all over his commentaries and *Prakaraṇas.* A certain number of works of his is especially devoted to this approach: - *Antaḥpraṇavavivṛti,* - *Bāhyapraṇavavivaraṇa,* - *Brahmasāraṣoḍaśabhūmikā,* - *Brahmapraṇavārthaprakāśaṣoḍaśabhūmikā,* - *Brahmapraṇavadīpikā,* - *Virāṭpraṇavavivṛti,* exposition of *Praṇava* and its phases as signifying *sṛṣṭi, sthiti* and *saṃhāra,* and a series of devotional formulae related to the phases of *Praṇava* which will be mentioned in a further section. The tradition of combining Bhakti towards forms of Saguṇa Brahman, with Advaita has had a long history. Many Advaitic writers have not only composed appealing *Stotras* but also written treatises on the doctrine of devotion and the efficacy of reciting and adoring the Lord’s Name (*Nāman*). Upaniṣadbrahmendra’s other works, to be dealt with now, belong to this field of Bhakti, *Nāmasiddhānta* and music compositions on his *Iṣṭadevatā. Bhaktisvarūpaviveka* is on the general doctrine of Bhakti. The *Bhāgavatasaṃgrahastuti* summarises the stories of the twelve *Skandhas* of the *Śrīmad Bhāgavatapurāṇa* in the form of a *Stotra,* comparable to the *Nārāyaṇīya.* Another devotional work of his is the *Śivamānasapūjā.* Upaniṣadbrahmendra’s *Iṣṭadevatā* was Rāma. In *Rāma-Bhakti* literature, he takes a conspicuous place. He wrote a commentary on the *Adhyātmarāmāyaṇa,* a treatise on Rāma’s worship called *Rāmārchanachidvidyāchandrikā*, a *Rāmārchana* embodying the meaning of the Upaniṣadic Mahāvākyas and a hymn *Rāmachandradayāṣṭaka.* On the Lord’s Name as Saviour (*Tāraka*) and its recital, he wrote the *Nāmārthaviveka* or *Upeyanāmaviveka* (text and commentary) in which, besides dealing with all the doctrines of this school, Upaniṣadbrahmendra enunciated the idea that the name Rāma is composed of the vital syllables of both the *Nārāyaṇa aṣṭākṣarī mantra (RĀ)* and the *Śiva Pañchākṣari mantra* (MA). The present writer has recently edited this work, with a critical Introduction, in the *Adyar Library Bulletin.* A sequel of this is the practice of *Bhajana,* singing songs in praise of the Lord and also formulae describing the Lord in a string of epithets and expressing devotion to the Lord, *Nāmāvalis* and *Divyanāmasamkīrtanas.* What Upaniṣadbrahmendra did in this line could be classified into three groups. While all of the compositions in this category are on Rāma, one set comprises longer poetic pieces to be rendered in elaborate music and following the model of the *Gītagovinda* of Jayadeva and the *Kṛṣṇalīlā-taraṅginī* of Nārāyaṇatīrtha, viz. the *Rāmāṣṭapadī* and the *Rāmataraṅga* with *Rāmataraṅgaślokas* and *Rāmataraṅgachandrodaya*.[6] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32931> Another comprises a number of *Rāmagītas* giving expression to his ideas on the phases of *Brahman-Sūtra, Bīja* , *Turya* , etc. The third set is represented by the *Nāmāvalis* which are found under the names *Nārāyaṇatāranāmāvali, Praṇavanāmāvali* , *Vyāvahārikapraṇavanāmāvali,* and so on. The largest corpus of our author’s compositions in this group is the *Divyanāmasamkīrtana* consisting of vocatives addressed to Rāma both as Supreme Brahman and as Saguṇa Brahman. A complete Index of this mass of Upaniṣadbrahmendra’s *Divyanāmasamkīrtanas,* with mention of the Rāgas used, is given by the present writer in his paper on our author in the *Journal of the Music Academy,* Madras, already referred to. In these, as also in his *Upeyanāmaviveka* , he says that devotion to Rāma must be done in *Advaitabhāvanā* , with the contemplation of one’s self being identical with the Supreme Being: *svānanyadhiyā tannāmasmṛtiḥ syāt; rāmo’ham ahameva rāma iti bhāvayet.* At his Agastyeśvara Āśrama, he had put up a flag, as it were, inviting everybody to step in, participate in the great *Satra* of devotional singing of the songs and *Nāmāvalis* composed by him, which was going on incessantly there, and appease their spiritual hunger. Of this *Muktisatra* established by him, he says in the beginning of *Rāmataraṅga*: *Kāñchyāmagastyeśagrihāgneyasiṃhāsanopari pratiṣṭhitam muktisatram dhvajasthāpanapūrvakam madīyasiddhasaṃkalpam jñātvā ye bhūsurādayaḥ niraṅkuśāste kurvantu mattaraṅgādikīrtanam ahanyahani satrānnabhuktitastṛptireṣyati sakṛnmatsatrabhuktyā tu saṃtṛptirjāyate sadā* (or sadī) *.* With all this activity, Upaniṣadbrahmendra proved quite an inspiration in his time to the votaries of the twin paths of devotion and music. In fact tradition current in the world of Karnatic music says that during his visit to and stay in Kāñchī, the great composer Muttusvāmi Dīkṣita (A. D. 1776-1835), who wrote his songs in Sanskrit, was asked by Upaniṣadbrahmendra to set the tunes to the latter’s *Rāmāṣṭapad.* The manuscripts of the songs of Tyāgarāja (A. D. 1767-1847), the other great Karnatic composer, and other literary materials that belonged to him, which are preserved now in the Sauraṣtra Sabha, Madurai, contain the *Śrīmukha* or call sent by Upaniṣadbrahmendra to Tyāgarāja, asking the latter to visit Kāñchī. The influence of Upaniṣadbrahmendra and his ideas and even expression on Tyāgarāja, who also adored Rāma with music, is clear, and this has been already pointed out by the present writer in his Introductory thesis in the *Spiritual Heritage of Tyāgarāja*[7] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32932> and his critical Introduction to the *Upeyamāmaviveka.* There are some more songs[8] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62911.html#note-e-32933> of Upaniṣadbrahmendra which show that he went on pilgrimage to the Coḻa-maṇḍala and sang on the deities at Chidambaram, Tiruvayyāru (Tyāgarāja’s place) and Śrīvāñchyam. Upaniṣadbrahmendra was thus ceaselessly active. He is one of the most prolific writers in the recent history of Advaita and Bhakti. An authentic exponent of Śaṅkara’s Advaita, he yet introduced several minor ideas and correlations; and this he worked out on the basis of what were already found in the earlier authen-tic literature, but they became a special characteristic of his writings. With his piety and spiritual exercises, he combined a practical outlook which explains not only the collection of manuscripts in his Maṭha, but also the care taken by him to mention at the end of each work of his its extent in terms of the number of *granthas.* Many of his works still remain to be studied and a connected account of his ideas will form a useful piece of research. KALIDASA *by* K. Chandrasekharan M.A., B.L. Describing Kālidāsa Śrī Aurobindo said, “He is a true son of his age in his dwelling on the artistic, hedonistic, sensuous sides of experience, and pre-eminently a poet of love and beauty and joy of life. He represents it also in his intellectual passion for higher things, culture, the religious idea, the ethical ideal, the greatness of ascetic self-mastery; and these too he makes a part of the beauty and interest of life and sees as admirable elements of its complete and splendid picture”.[1] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32934> Further, according to him, Kālidāsa, ‘in creed was a Vedāntist and in ceremony perhaps a Śiva-worshipper’.[2] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32935> The term Vedanta has become identified with Advaita, and thus great intellectuals like Śrī Aurobindo have hardly doubted in dubbing Kālidāsa an Advaitin. Any careful student of the poet will not fail to discern his deeper convictions based on Advaitic thought, though none can dogmatise his having passed through the discipline of a systematised philosophy. Advaita itself was later much developed into an unshakable system by no less a *Draṣṭā* and Master-mind than Śaṅkara. Some of the axiomatic doctrines of Advaita like *brahma satyam, jagan mithyā,* (Absolute is real; World is an illusion); or the process of elimination in arriving at Truth by the method of *‘neti, neti’* (Not this, not this), rarely receive any echo in the poet’s phraseology or philosophical dissertations. Nevertheless, one cannot escape the conclusion that no other poet of the classical age has so much elevated the spirit in man as of an indivisible part of the One Supreme Reality. The one sovereign thought ever ruling him was that of the immanence of Spirit *(sarvātmabhāva)* . Kālidāsa has picturesquely expressed what the *Chāndogyopaniṣad* has proclaimed in no equivocal terms as: *esho’ṇima aitadātmyamidam sarvam tat satyam sa ātmā.* (The subtle essence, all this is of the nature ol That. That is Truth, That is the Self). We find him, in his eulogy of Brahma, bringing home to us the idea of the All-pervading Spirit as actuating everything of the manifest Universe: *dravaḥ saṃghāta-kathinaḥ sthulaḥ sūkṣmo laghurguruḥ, vyaktāvyaktetaraśchāsi prākāmyam te vibhūtishu*.[3] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32936> (You are in liquid form as well as in the hardest material; you are perceptible to the senses as well as too subtle and beyond perception; you are light as well as heavy; you are the cause as well as the effect; you are thus manifest in everything, according to your own pleasure). Nothing in animate or inanimate nature, neither human nor animal, strikes him as of a different origin or existence from an all-powerful Reality. Hence his further elaboration of the same thought when he perceives an unity of spirit in every object and substance: *tvameva havyam hotā cha bhojyam bhoktā cha śāśvataḥ, vedyam cha veditā chāsi dhyātā dhyeyam cha yatparam*.[4] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32937> (You are the oblation as well as the sacrificer; you are the food as well as the eternal enjoyer of it; you are the aim of knowledge as well as the knower; you are the supreme object of meditation as well as the meditator), Needless to remind ourselves of a parallel passage in the *Gītā* where the Lord tells Arjuna how the same Supreme Brahman dwells in all: *brahmārpaṇam brahmahavir-brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam brahmaiva tena gantavyaṃ brahma-karma-samādhinā.*[5] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32938> (The oblation, the act of offering, the fire, the officiating priest every work is the same Ātman and tends towards the same goal). It is not by a process of ratiocination that Kālidāsa reaches the kernel of Advaita. He does not proceed by the established path but ever crosses to his destination by the green meadow of poetry. In the language of simile and metaphor, by imagery and example, he makes us believe in a higher existence than what meets our eye here below. Again he will not be satisfied with salvation for the individual alone but for the entire universe. Insentient beings like trees and rivers appear to him possessed of the Universal Spirit. Otherwise he would not have drawn so much upon them for enlivening our conception of the beauty of life. To him both Ūrvaśī and a gliding river happen to present the same engrossing content for decorations of his imagination: *taraṅgabhrūbhaṅgā kṣubhitavihagaśreṇi-raśanā vikarshantī phenam vasanamiva samraṃbha-śithilam, padāviddham yāntī skhalitamabhisandhāya bahuśo nadībhāveneyam dhruvamasahanā sā paṛṇatā.*[6] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32939> (The wavelets reminding quivering eye-brows, the flock of white cranes in serried flights appearing like the girdle of pearls round the waist, the foam-embroidered waters flowing back as if the frills of her skirt are withdrawn, the winding zig-zag course reminding her quick steps indicating exasperation at my lapses— all these make me believe Ūrvaśī has assumed the form of the river). Kālidāsa has here represented Purūravas, the hero, as searching for his sweetheart and mistaking the river for his partner. Apart from the beauty of the imagery, one cannot be lost to a sense of sameness in both Ūrvaśī and the river that the king entertains by this comparison. Kālidāsa could feel with as much intensity of sympathy for true lovers in their pangs of separation as he would for the Chakravāka pair lost to each other by the blinding darkness of the night. They only forcibly remind us of the poet’s expansive heart ready to embrace the entire life within him. A truer Advaitin in experience is hard to imagine. One may perhaps dismiss this as pure imagination, beautiful no doubt, but possessing nothing more in it to convey a consciousness of the Unity of Spirit in all life around. Still, one can provide stronger evidences to prove how Kālidāsa unmistakably tries to show that life around is one and the same except that it has assumed different forms and shapes. Everything proves, on ultimate analysis, to be permeated by no less a spirit than what the human beings imagine they exclusively possess. A situation is created by the poet in the play, *Śākuntalam,* when the kokil's voice is chosen in reply to the sage’s request by the forest creatures, especially trees, to shower their benediction on the young wife leaving her parental abode for her husband’s. *anumatagamanā śakuntalā tarubhiṛyam vanavāsabandhubhiḥ, parabhṛtavirutaṃ kalaṃ yathā prativachanīkṛtamebhīrīdṛśam*.[7] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32940> (Śakuntalā has been permitted to take her leave by these her kinsfolk of forest-dwelling trees; with the kokil’s sweet note, the reply of these trees has been signified). It is worthy of notice that the words used are *vanavāsabandhubhiḥ,* the forest-dwelling trees who are her kin. They certainly convey the normal attitude of the poet towards insentient beings as having very little of a difference so far as their behaviour is concerned, from that of the humans. In this context it may be fruitful to recollect the verse in the *Śrīmad Bhāgavata* where Vyāsa while chasing his son Śuka cries ‘My son’, ‘Oh my son’, which cry was replied to by the trees, which bespeaks of their identification with the sage Śuka owing to the indwelling spirit being the same: *putreti tanmayatayā taravo’bhineduḥ.* The consciousness of an immanent Spirit in all creatures, dumb as well as vocal, animate as well as inanimate, influenced the poet’s outlook so much that whenever an opportunity presented itself for his emphasis of it, he showed no tardiness or indifference to declare it. He did if in his own way, which is the poetic way, singularly refreshing both in its choice of subject and picture of portrayal. To add one more instance how nature and man reciprocate each other and how sympathy in joy and sorrow can be shared w *i* th each other, we can take the scene where Aja, at the sight of his queen’s sudden passing away, was plunged in the deepest gloom, while the birds in the neighbourhood were affected by his pathetic condition. *ubhayorapi pārśva-vartinām tumulenārtaraveṇa vejitāḥ, vihagāḥ kamalākarālayāḥ samaduḥkhā iva tatra chukruśuḥ. (Raghuvaṃśa,* 8-39) (When the attendants about the royal pair raised their wail of pain, the frightened birds dwelling in the nearby lotus-pools expressed by their clamorous sounds their sympathy in his bereavement). It is Kālidāsa’s own inimitable method of comparing the beauty of the human with that of other beings in nature, point by point even, and with a sense of adequacy in having comprehended all life by such a soulful survey. We know that the Yakṣa, pining for his beloved in a distant land, could not but decipher his love’s varied charms distributed, as it were, among many objects in nature. *śyāmāsvaṅgam chakitahaṛṇīprekṣaṇe dṛṣṭipātam vaktrachchhāyām śaśini śikhinām barhabhāreshu keśān*, *utpaśyāmi pratanuṣu nadī-vīchishu bhrūvilāsān hantaikosmin kvachidapi na te chaṇḍi sādṛśyam asti. (Meghasandeśa)* (Oh thou petulant one! Nowhere do I find all the different charms gathered up in a single being as in you; because the tender creepers bear only the delicacy of your figure; the deer share the tremulousness of their eyes alone with yours; the moonlight partakes the glow of your ivory cheeks; the burden of the peacock’s plumes reminds your heavy tresses, the ever dancing wavelets have caught the quiver of your brows). Unless one has experienced so great an intensity of life as to feel an absence of completeness without actively mixing in spirit with all, he could not have set a great store by the companionship and sympathy with others, even if they happened to be insentient beings. Sage Kaṇva is represented as one whose power was in no way less than that of a Viśvāmitra, if he wanted to create things. But what happened actually was, the spirits of the forest endowed Śakuntalā with costly silks, fine cosmetics and bright jewels—all because of their eagerness to participate in the parental fondness of Kaṇva for bestowing on his loving daughter, at her departure, the good things of life. Not satisfied with the gifts of the forest-spirits to the maiden whose parting caused such a wrench in the hearts of the forest dwellers, the poet would move us to the core by the rarer gift of sympathy from the mute world around, when he makes the deer swallow not their mouthfuls of grass, the peacocks complete not their dances and the creepers restrain not their tears in the falling of leaves on the ground. *udgalita-darbha-kavalā mṛgyaḥ parityaktanartanā mayūrāḥ, apasṛta-pāṇḍupatrāḥ munchantyaśrūṇīva latāḥ. (Śākuntalam,* iv-12) This is Kālidāsa in his fullest measure of comprehension of the one Universal Spirit pervading all life. May be an unimaginative critic or a stickler for accuracy will require more specific instances to show the poet’s unshakable belief in the Advaitic thought. We can satisfy all such doubters by pointing to them the many verses of his where he refers to the One indivisible and inscrutable Ātman, which yet for *t* he sake of apparent manifestation assumes the Trimūrti aspects of creation, protection and annihilation. *namo viśvasṛje pūrvam viśvam tadanu bibhrate, atha viśvasya saṃhartre iubhyam tredhā sthitātmane. (Raghuvaṃśa* 10-10) (You create the world first, then you strive to guard it against danger and finally destroy it—all these are your own triple aspects.) Again he describes the Supreme Spirit in these words: *rasāntarāṇyekarasam yathā divyam payo’śnute deśe deśe guṇeshvevam avasthāstvam avikṛyaḥ. (Raghuvaṃśa* 10-17). (Just as the rain, however tasteless, acquires varied tastes by falling on different spots of the earth, so also changeless as you are, you still assume attributes according to your own pleasure). One can perceive that this idea is not far removed from the statement in the *Kaṭhopaniṣad* (ii, 15): *yathodakam śuddhe śuddhamāsiktam tādṛgeva bhavati evam muner vijānata ātmā bhavati gautama.* (O Gautama, as pure water poured on pure water becomes verily the same, so also does become the Self of the man of knowledge who understands). If Advaita postulates the supreme merit of knowledge as by itself the goal of all life’s strivings, then Kālidāsa unerringly suggests such an achievement. When he wrote of Raghu campaigning against the Persians and leading his army by the land-route, he observes: *pārasīkān tato jetum pratosthe sthalavartmanā, indṛyākhyāniva ripūn tattvajñānena saṃyamī*. (*Raghuvaṃśa,* 4-60). (Then he set out to conquer the Persians by the land-route even as a disciplined person would seek to conquer his senses by the power of reasoning and deliberation). Mark the word *tattva-jñānena,* (by knowledge of Truth) used by the poet. No greater indication is required to prove that the path of knowledge *(vichāramārga)* was preferred by the poet. Apart from the knowledge of geography he had, the fact of the existence of perhaps a sea-route also to reach the same place gives the further emphasis of a choice by him of the route which was less risky or more advantageous to travelling. Captivated by solitude and environmental tranquillity, the poet never tires of taking his kings to the forest for a life of rest and meditation after they had had their fill of worldly enjoyment and material comforts. Moreover fascinated by yoga as a sure disciplinary method for the attainment of liberation, he invariably talks of some of the monarchs resorting to the practice of yoga for attaining ultimate release from all earthly bonds: *anapāyipadopalabdhaye ragkurāptaiḥ samiyāya yogibhiḥ. (Raghuvaṃśa,* 8-17) (For securing the timeless life, Raghu sought the company of Yogis of genuine calibre). One can trace a suggestion in the *Pañchadaśī* of Vidyāraṇya, that Yoga may be equated to an *upāsanī* tor reaching the *Nirguṇa-Brabman* (Formless One). *nirguṇabrahmatattvasya na hyupāsterasaṃbhavaḥ, saguṇabrahmaṇīvātra pratyayāvṛttisaṃbhavāt.* *(Upāsanā* is not impossible because of its application to nirguṇa Brahman. For, as in the case of Saguṇa, *Upāsanā* can be practised, but only by the method of frequent and repealed dwelling upon it.) For obtaining self-knowledge, Śāstra requires the seeker to attempt first total destruction of all *pūrva-saṃskāras* (past deeds) by the fire of one’s own knowledge. Kālidāsa very pertinently points out how Raghu tried to have himself purified in the fire of his own thought. *itaro dahane svakarmaṇām vavṛte jñānamayena vanhinā. (Raghuvaṃśa* 8-20). (The other [Raghu] attempted to bum out every bit of his accumulated past *saṃskāras* in the fire of his knowledge). One has only to remember the *Gītā* verse in order to be convinced of the accuracy of the poet’s observation. *yasya sarve samāraṃbhāḥ kāmasaṃkalpavarjitāḥ, jñānāgnidagdha-karmāṇam tamāhuḥ paṇḍitam budhāḥ* . (4-18) (One whose actions have all no personal motives of self-advance and whose past deeds have all been burnt in the fire of knowledge, him alone would the wise call a sage, the best-equipped). The road to salvation is not a smooth one. It is beset with many a pitfall. The traveller needs poise of mind and a balanced judgment if he has to tread it with safety and sureness of purpose. The mind of a Sthitaprajña has been deemed as of utter need if one wants even in this life the satisfaction of Realisation. For that he must strive to be unaffected by both joy and sorrow, gain and loss, pleasure and pain. Kālidāsa has made a *Sthitaprajña* of Raghu by his constant reminder of the idea of gold and mud as of no different consequence to him. *raghurapyajayat guṇatrayam prakṛtistham samaloṣṭakāñchanaḥ, (Raghuvaṃśa,* 8-21). (Raghu with equal disdain of both gold and a clod of clay, conquered the three *Guṇas by* adopting a changeless outlook). Perhaps it may be said that Kālidāsa felt sannyāsa-āśrama as of dire need for a seeker of the Immortal Self. Otherwise he would not have referred to the king’s taking to sannyāsa: so *kilāśramamantyamāśrito nivasannāvasathe purādbahiḥ, (Raghuvaṃśa* 8-14) (Having entered upon the last āśrama [sannyāsa], he began staying away from the city outskirts). We are not sure whether Kālidāsa shared the view of some of the Advaitins who have chalked out a course of preparation wherein Sannyāsa occupies prominence for attainment of liberation. *ātmajñāna-śeṣatvāchcha saimyāsasya sarvatrātmajñānaprakaraṇe sannyāsasya vihitatvāt śravaṇādyaṅgatayā cha ātmajñānaphalatā sannyāsasya siddhā. (Vivaraṇa,* Calcutta Sanskrit Series, p. 694) (It is affirmed that for Self-realisation in its context the efforts of listening, contemplating, etc., will have their fulfilment only through sannyāsa). One senses even a crowning thought in Kālidāsa towards the state of *Brahma-bhāva.* Speaking of a later monarch of the Raghu line by name Kauśalya, he writes describing his final resolve to become a *Brahmaniṣṭha* by pursuing meditation and tapas. *yaśobhiḥ ābrahmasabhaṃ prakāśaḥ sa brahmabhūyaṃ gatimājagāma. (Raghuvaṃśa,* 18-28) (With his fame reaching even the Brahmaloka, he followed the path to become actually one with Brahman). Detachment and selfless action which alone can lead one gradually to the acquisition of the true spirit of Advaita are frequently dwelt upon by this national poet of India. In two epithets he describes Dilīpa, the earliest king of the Raghu line, thus: *agṛdhnuvādade so’rtham asaktaḥ sukhamanvabhūt (Raghuvaṃśa,* 1-21) (One who earned wealth without avarice and enjoyed life without attachment). He feels detachment is the only passport to the shining land lit by the eternal sunshine of Ānanda. Unique as was Kālidāsa’s perception of love, his sense of values did not abandon him even in a situation of conflicting ideals. It is evident, from his narration of the love-episode of Śiva and Umā having its summation in a spiritual union, how the moorings of his culture aided him on to prefer purity to the appeal of the flesh, constancy to the lure of passion. At the same time he was not for renunciation and austerity without the necessary preparation of a mature mind. In a verse of his where Vaśiṣṭha counsels Aja to get reconciled to the inevitability of fate’s workings, there is an intriguing thought expressed by the poet in the line: *tadalabdhapadaṃ hṛdi śokaghane pratiyātamivāntikamasya guroḥ.* (His heart crushed under the sorrow did not receive the words of consolation; they [the words of advice] returned, as it were, to the preceptor himself). Evidently Kālidāsa was amused at the sage advice of Vaśiṣṭha without his finding out whether premature consolation would work its way into the heart of the king, lacerated as it was by grief. Further, it is clear that the poet wants to impress on his readers that however wise Vaśiṣṭha might be, he could not really comprehend the depth of true love practised as a Yoga by both Aja and Indumatī. Otherwise the poet would not have ended their love episode as having its culmination in their regained union in the halcyon bowers of svarga. The purpose of Kālidāsa in presenting the picture of Aja’s love may be to remind us that mere austerity and renunciation by themselves will not always take one to any great Understanding. There may be other paths such as that of love which should not be forgotten by those who pin their faith on Knowledge. Tolerance has, according to him, a place in any scheme of striving for the higher life, especially to one imbued with the spirit of Advaita. Even as Vālmīki and Vyāsa before him had conceived of a greater glory awaiting man treading the straight path of Dharma, Kālidāsa harped on the significance of a full life, which would not discard intense living and yet would care for the watch-word of ‘Ripeness is All’. Ānandavardhana, the arch-priest of literary criticism, has not in vain placed Kālidāsa along with the two epic poets. It is true Kālidāsa like Shakespeare lifts his head to the Heaven of heavens and only “spares the cloudy border of his base to the foiled searching of mortality”.[8] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32941> In appreciating Kālidāsa we cannot forget the culture in which he was born and brought up. Dr Radhakrishnan recalls the culture that was given to Kālidāsa thus: “This culture is essentially spiritual in quality. We are ordinarily imprisoned in the wheel of time, in historicity, and so are restricted to the narrow limits of existence. Our aim should be to lift ourselves out of our entanglement to an awareness of the real which is behind and beyond all time and history, that which does not become, that which is, absolute, non-historical being itself—The end of man is to become aware by experience of this absolute reality”.[9] <https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/preceptors-of-advaita/d/doc62912.html#note-e-32942> No other poet known to us in Sanskrit had so well benefited by this culture. No other thinker ever has enabled generations after him to ruminate with profit on this superior culture which gave Kālidāsa insight into a world that is seemingly diversified, yet remains One. K RAJARAM IRS 81024 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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