Beach 7: The Art and
Science of Spiritual Love
Wave 9: ADVAITA BHAKTI
THROUGH CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE OF NARAYANEEYAM
INTRODUCTION :
These pages dwell on the subject of symbiotic verbal
expression of Bhakti as understood and practised by an advaitin. For
this purpose I have selected 36 verses from nArAyaNIyaM, the great poetical work of Narayana Bhattatiri, who lived in
the 16th and 17th centuries. This work is an inimitably
faithful epitome in 1036 Sanskrit verses of Srimad Bhagavatam, in such a masterly fashion that the epitome
itself is considered as sacred as the original, which contains 18000 verses. In 1587 A.D. Bhattatiri took the
paralysis of his Guru on himself and then to get rid of his illness, he
composed the nArAyaNIyaM sitting in front of the idol
of Krishna at Guruvayoor temple, where on the 100th
day of the composition, he was blessed by the Lord with a darshan
and also a complete cure of his illness. In all the works of Bhattatiri, the Absolute Transcendental is
It is generally thought that advaita is just a philosophy and bhakti
is a way of
life. In my personal experience of having seen my father Sri R. Visvanatha
Sastri live his life, I feel that the advaitic attitude is also a way of life and (according to
me, as I understood him) THE way of life.
It is the continuing practice of
this advaitic attitude by my father that
convinced me that the expression of true bhakti has
to be advaitic in essence. In fact Adi Sankara says (Vivekachudamani–33). that
contemplative living in one’s natural state, that is the divine state, is bhakti.
‘svasvarUpA-nusandhAnaM
bhaktir-ity-abhidhIyate’.
I have seen my father practise it (perhaps) all his life – he was already 45 when
I was born, and when I was 29 he was no more.
The 36 slokas
that I have selected from nArAyaNIyaM are mostly
expressions of bhakti but, with my experience of my
father’s life, I can see how Bhattatiri must have
felt and lived. These slokas have a running thread of
the advaitic spirit and attitude. In fact Bhattatiri transforms philosophy into scintillating poetry.
His is a philosophy of advaita which is devotional,
almost like (in the devotional aspect) the one which Sankara
himself followed in his own life, though, Bhattatiri’s
understanding of the advaita concept has shades of
the Vaishnava philosophy in it. For the past five years I have been contemplating
on the thread
of these 36 slokas daily at all possible times of day
and night. The Slokas and their meanings are listed
in these posts in the order in which I have sequenced and remembered them. This
is, however, not their sequential order in the text. The sequence below is
mine. It is so because I feel that this way it gives expression to my feeling
towards the Lord and to my conviction
that it is leading me – mark it,
‘leading me’ – to that distant goal of realisation of
NON-DUALITY. The reader of these pages
may or may not resonate with this feeling of mine, but still I thought I will
share my experience.
The succeeding pages, starting from the
next, will dwell on these slokas, in my sequential
order. I am sure there can be several opinions on my selection of the
particular slokas as well as their sequencing, but
what is to be remembered is that it is a personal selection and I enjoy
contemplation on it. I consider it as a spiritual exercise in tuning my mind to
advaitic practice – my model being, my FATHER.
December 16, 2002 ©Copyright V. Krishnamurthy