Nirvana Satakam

…contd….

She smiled and said “yes, I know this is the reply that the Great Guru Adi Shankaracharya gave his Guru at the tender age of 8 when his Guru asked him the question ‘who are you?’ the first time they met. Later that Guru –Shri Swami Govindapada Acharya accepted him as his disciple and this Nirvana Shatakam became the basis of ‘Advaita Philosophy’ which was propogated by Adi Shankaracharya. This is also called as ‘Atma Satakam’. These lines are enough for contemplation on ‘Atma’ – the soul, and this is the basis for ‘self-realization’. This is what Ramana Maharshi simply put as ‘ask always ‘who am I?’ and you’ll be realized and still I maintain that I’ve already explained it.”

“But…” I didn’t know how to continue and was just looking at her. I wished she finished my question too for me and later answer my question too for me! As if she read my thoughts she said “ok, fine! Read one stanza at a time and I’ll explain it to you. Then you’ll recollect my explanation. Start……..”

I mumbled first stanza aloud:

“मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तानि नाहं
न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे ।
न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥१॥

And she explained “remember, I explained about ‘ego’ in I degree class. I told you all, “what I am is soul and what I am not but what I think I am inspite of not being that is ego’. This was bit vague but the way we nodded our head said “you may have explained and we vaguely remember that but we don’t remember that now and we are sure we didn’t understand it then too!”

 She continued “well, I said when I ask a question ‘who are you?’ your answer can be grouped under these heads.

1.      Physical attributes – I am the body. I am fat, beautiful, healthy, sick, woman, man etc.

2.      I am the emotions like anger, good, pious, generous

3.      I am relations – like son, father, wife, friend, teacher, etc

4.      I am my achievements like – degrees, posts, job, medals etc

5.      I am my possessions like my car, house, bank balance etc

And then I explained how all these are ‘yours’ i.e., they belong to you but your possessions don’t become ‘you’. You are the possessor and that one who is experiencing all these is the witness which is changeless, eternal and divine and so it’s ‘atman’ or ‘Siva’ – the eternal Brahman’.

...contd.....