(Continued from page 9)

dhyAyan-stuvan-namsyamSca
meditating, praising and bowing
 

The mind that attaches to God automatically liberates. The thesis here is that such a mind is already experience the transcendental experience of bliss, it need not wait for the so-called mukti. Listen to Adi Sankara: (Sivananda-lahari: Verse no.81).

kamcit-kAlam-umAmaheSa bhavataH pAdAravindArcanaiH
kamcit-dhyAna-samAdhibhiSca natibhiH kamcit kathA-karNanaiH /
kamcit-kamcid-avekshaNaiSca nutibhiH kamcid-daSAmIdRSIM
yaH prApnoti mudA tvad-arpita-manA jIvan sa muktaH khalu //
Sometime in worshipping Your lotus feet,
sometime in meditation and concentration
sometime in offering obeisance, sometime in listening to stories about You,
sometime in looking at  Your form, sometime in singing Your praise -
he who gains such a state in exhultation, having surrendered his mind to You, O Lord,  he is verily  liberated even when alive.

Listen again to Adi Sankara from the same Sivananda-lahari (Verse No.33):

nAlaM vA sakRdeva deva bhavataH sevA natir vA nutiH
pUjA vA smaraNaM kathA-SravaNam-apy-AlokanaM mAdRSAM /
svamin-nasthira-devatAnusaraNAyAsena kiM labhyate
kA vA mukti-ritaH kuto bhavati cet kiM prArthanIyaM tadA //
O God, what is to be gained by following with effort,
gods who are impermanent?
O Lord, is it not enough for people like me to serve you
even once through making obeisance, singing Your praise,worship,
meditation, listening to stories about you or having a darSan of You?
What else is moksha other than this?
(Even if there be) what am I then
supposed to pray to you for? 

May my association be with those noble souls whose minds are pure and in whom bhakti is overflowing incessantly. By that very association I will easily cross dangerous and sorrowful ocean of samsAra, intoxicated as I will be with the nectar of the stories of Your Glory.

This sets up the tradition of sat-sangh, the association with

© Copyright V. Krishnamurthy  July 15, '99                Home  Contents  NEXT