Dakshinamurthy Sthothram 4

(slokas 7-10)

Sloka 7

Balyadishvapi jagradadishu tatha sarvasvavasthasvapi
vyavrtta svanu vartamana mahamityantah sphurantam sada |
svatmanam prakatikaroti bhajataṃ yo mudraya bhadraya
Tasmai Sri gurumurtaye nama idam Sri Dakshinamurtaye || 7 ||

He, whose existence in humans as Athma is changeless throughout the various states of the body (like old, young etc) and the mind (waking, dreaming etc), and who reveals the greatest knowledge of Athma by Chinmudra - to that Lord Dakshinamurti, who is embodied as the greatest Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

In this verse Sri Sankara is restating the Athma Swarupam.  Athma, the Real Self, is ever-experienced in the body-mind-complex as “I am” in all the four stages of life balyam, kaumaram,yauvanam and vardhikyam i.e. childhood state, youth state. adult state and old age state. And also in the three states of experience in all stages of life i.e. in the waking state, dream state and deep sleep state.  That continuous "I am" experience is Athmanubhava and this Athmanubhava is there all the time, with attributes in the waking and dream state and without attributes in the deep sleep state,   'I' refers to Chit, the pure Consciousness , 'am' refers to Sat, the pure Existence principle in “I am”. Consciousness is continuous; Existence is continuous.  Seeing the ever experienced continuous Chit and Sat as Athma is called Athma Jnanam i,e seeing the attributeless “I am” as the Athma is called Athma Jnanam or in other words seeing the ever experienced continuous “I am” as Athma is called Athma Jnanam.   Therefore Athma Jnanam is not a new experience; but it is a new perception of the ever experienced “I am”, excluding the attributes;  guru does not ask the disciple to work for a new experience, guru clarifies that  when attribute is added to “I am”, “I am” stands for only the empirical-ahamkara and free of all attributes the plain “I am” stands for absolute-Athma.  Exclusive of atttributes, as Aham, one can claim “I am Brahman”.  And it should be noted one has not become Brahman for one has only claimed the Brahman that one was, one is and one ever will be. This new perspective is the teaching of the guru.  Lord Dakshinamoorthy communicates this teaching to the student through the auspicious hand gesture called Chinmudrah, explained in the blog on Dhyana slokas of Dakshinamurthy Sthothram.

Sloka 8

Visvaṃ pasyati karyakaranataya svasvamisambandhatah
sishyacharyataya tathaiva pitr putradyatmana bhedatah |
svapne jagrati va ya esha purusho maya paribhramitah
Tasmai Sri gurumurtaye nama idam Sri Dakshinamurtaye || 8 ||

He, whose power of Maya makes one to experience the world as  cause and effect, as master and servant, as teacher and disciple, as father and son, and so on during both the waking and dream states - to that Lord Dakshinamurti, who is embodied as the greatest Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

This verse explains that the differentiations one sees in the world as cause - effect, master – servant, teacher – disciple and as father – son etc are all differentiations within the  Athma only, seen in waking or dream state. In the previous verse Sri Sankara has pointed out that aham or “I am” alone without attributes must be taken as the Real I, the Sat, Chit Athma. When attributes are added to one’s notion of I, I stands for ahamkara I.  The persons who have not gained the Jnanam of Brahman are ones with ahamkara I under the influence of Maya.  For them the differentiations are real as much as the world is real.  One who has gained Athma Jnanam is aware of the mithyathvam of the world and the various phenomenons associated with the world and his vision is not influenced by Maya. For Him everything in the world including world itself is only a projection of his Real Self due to Maya. Lord Dakshinamurthy is the Brahma Vidya Guru who unfolds this knowledge for His disciples and is the greatest teacher to whom salutations are offered.

Sloka 9

Bhurambhamsyanaloaniloambara maharnatho himamsuh puman
Ityabhati characharatmakamidaṃ yasyaiva murtyashtakam |
Nanyatkinchana vidyate vimrsatam yasmatparasmadvibho
Tasmai Sri gurumurtaye nama idam Sri Dakshinamurtaye || 9 ||

He, whose eight-fold manifestation is this moving and unmoving universe of earth, water, fire, air, space, sun, moon, and conscious beings and beyond whose all-pervasive nature there exists nothing else for wise persons to that Lord Dakshinamurti, who is embodied as the greatest Guru, I offer my profound salutations.

With the previous eigth verse, the actual teaching part of this work is over.  So this work is also called Dakshinamurthy ashtakam. For one who cannot grasp the fact that the external world is not real, it is suggested in this verse to see the world as the manifestation of Brahman. This attitude when developed will prepare the mind to achieve the subtlety to accept the mithyathvam of the world at a later date. Towards that end Sri Sankara describes Lord Dakshinamurthy as visvarupa Isvara.  Lord Dakshinamurthy has been described as eka rupa Iswara in Dhyana sloka; as arupa Isvara, Nirguna Brahman in the course of the Sthothram and now as Ashtamurthy Isvara, the eight aspects encompassing the entire Universe. Just as Lord Siva is described as visvarupa Isvara Siva in Rudram and Lord Krishna in 11^th chapter of Gita as Visvarupa isvara Krishna, Lord Dakshinamurthy is here described as Visvarupa isvara Dakshinamurthy, Ashtamurthy representing Visvarupa and the eight factors are the pancha bhuthas, namely earth, water, agni, vayu and akasa, and Sun and the moon and all sentient beings (chetana Jivas).  The mandha, madhyama adhikaris who have difficulty in understanding Vedanta can look upon the world as as Ashtamurthy Dakshinamurthy and for them this is a sloka for Upasana. For the uttama adhikaris, the wise people who have studied the scriptures and who have understood that there is no world other than Lord Dakshinamurti, this is a sloka for Nitidyasana.

Sloka 10 

Sarvatmatvamiti sphutikrtamidam yasmadamushmin stave
Tenasva sravanattadartha mananaddhyanaccha sankirtanat |
Sarvatmatvamahavibhuti sahitam syadisvaratvam svatah
Siddhyettatpunarashtadha parinatam chaisvarya mavyahatam || 10 ||

By the recital, contemplation and meditation (Srvanam,mananam, dhyanam) and parayanam (sankirthanat) of this sthothram which clearly points out the all pervasiveness of Athma (sarvathmabhava), one attains the state of oneness with Athma (Brahman) and realizes his unity with the universe, thus becoming the very essence of the eightfold manifestation.

This is the last verse of the sthothram which is written as phala sthuthi. In this verse Sri Sankara has pointed out that this sthothram explains Sarvatmatvam.   Sarvatmatvam  stands for sarvam Athma eva i.e. everything in creation is athma alone and other than Athma there is nothing. The so-called anathma is mithya and has as its content Athma only.  Taking this together with Jiva Brahma aikyam, we have the Advaita Vedanta doctrine “Jagan mithya; Brahma Sathyam; Jivo Brahmaiva na para”, which is the teaching of prasthana triam i.e. Brahma sutras, Upanishads and Geetha.  So Sravana, Manana and Nitidyasana of this sthothram will give one the Ikya bhava with Ashtamurthy Dakshinamurthy i.e oneness with Isvara.  To Sravana, Manana, Nitidyasana Sri Sankara has added sankirtana, which means parayanam or singing as Bhajan the sthothram regularly will render the mind of even the worldly-minded people subtle and mature to absorb this teaching in course of time.

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