Two books on Hindu Dharma

This post is about books that are worth reading by anyone interested in sanAtana dharma, whether they are "practicing it" or have been outsiders and want to understand it.

Hindu Dharma by Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji: The book Hindu Dharma is a series of lectures by Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji, who was the the head of the Shankara Mutt at Kanchi. He was known to be a jIvanmukta (one who is liberated while alive).



This book teaches all the basics about a Hindu life and the corrects the misconceptions that have crept in over times. These misconceptions are more dangerous to a dharma, not the least when it is attacked from other encroaching religions. It is well known that the emphasis on a spiritual orientation, even while doing their nitya and naimittika karmas (duties that are daily and obligatory) distinguishes a Hindu from these others.

In fact, I think that this book should be one of the first introductory books to Hinduism, as it tries to correct the many errors that have crept into the practice of sanAtana dharma. It is these errors, which gradually turn into corruption in the hearts and minds of the people who, which make the dharma weaker from within, thus causing a rot on which other religions can feed upon.

In particular, The key concepts should be understood by parents of raising kids, as clearly puts an onus of responsibility on them. For example, the Sage of Kanchi, never forgets to repeat the maxims (like "do a sandhya vandana regularly") that the parents who practice sanAtana dharma well will beget children who are equally good practitioners themselves.

The philosophy section of the book is very readable and mature at the same time. The Acharya takes the reader through the entire gamut of Indian darshanas (schools of thought), from the non-vaidic schools to the vaidic schools. In this aspect, it as well rivals many books written by purely academicians. Reading these sections of the book enforces the thought that philosophy in Indian schools is not one built in ivory towers, but by practitioners or seers, with the former searching for the meaning behind the Truth, and the latter explaining it. There is no problem of the reader complaining of lack of "no tears approach", as he is taken through it deftly trough the sharp bends. There are difficult sections though, which make the book a worthy for multiple readings.


There is no point putting any excerpts from the book as there are too many gems over there. If you want to learn about Hindu Dharma, first read it and put it into practice.

Radical Universalism: Does Hinduism Teach That All Religions Are The Same? A Philosophical Critique of Radical Universalism The fallacies and mistakes that this book (rather a paper) corrects are numerous. It should be read multiple times by many Hindus to really understand what they truly believe in, especially when they are explaining to their beliefs to a mostly western audience, or just trying to understand for themselves. This book is Radical Universalism subtitled "Does Hinduism Teach That All Religions Are The Same? A Philosophical Critique of Radical Universalism". The author Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D. (Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya)" is, according to the above website a well known speaker with many credentials.

Primarily there are some Philosophical questions that the book raises, which need to dealt with. The questions obviously touch upon the classical and seemingly never ending debates like: traditional vs. modern, conservative vs.liberal, meaning of scriptural statements with respect to modern age and so on. But the questions that are asked are very important and need to be thought about.

The historical section of the book raises very valid points and confirms some of the well known recent alarming trends in people understanding scriptures for themselves. None-the-less, this has been there for some time too.

Here are some excerpts from this book:

In order to fully appreciate the proper purport of the verse ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti, we need to understand the verse in terms its own inherently derived meaning, and not merely in accordance with polemically determined speculative opinion. We can do this by explicating the verse in accordance with the verse’s precise categorical status, followed by an accurate veridical assessment of its philosophical content. In order to more precisely understand the philosophical meaning of the many verses found in the Hindu scriptures, this verse included, I have developed a methodological system of explication that I call Categorical Exegetical Analysis. This interpretive methodology enables its user to more accurately understand the precise meaning of any singular unit of philosophical text from the Hindu scriptures, units ranging from a simple declarative statement to a string of verses to an entire work, and held together by one unitive philosophical or conceptual motif.

Stated briefly, this philo-exegetical method involves three sequential steps. First, we must determine whether the verse in question is making an actual philosophical statement or some other form of statement (poetic, descriptive, historical, narrative, etc.). In the case of the verse ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti, the philosophically propositional makeup of the statement, the obviously philosophical nature of the subject (sat, "Truth/God"), and the clearly unitive conceptual pattern of the verse, undoubtedly makes this a philosophical statement. Second, we need to see what category of philosophical subject matter the statement falls under by determining the precise philosophical nature of the textual unit under analysis. Is the verse saying something about ethics, about knowledge, about liberation, or about some other aspect of philosophy?

The following are the various categories of philosophical statements that the verse under analysis could potentially fall under.

a) Ontological - statements outlining the nature of the Absolute.

b) Ethical - statements concerning proper/improper behavior.

c) Soteriological - statements about the means and/or nature of liberation.

d) Social - political, economic and sociological statements.

e) Aesthetic - poetic description and/or theory.

f) Cosmological - statements on the nature of the universe and physics.

g) Cosmogonical - statements about the origin/creation of the universe.

h) Epistemological - statements concerning means of knowing.

Every propositional statement containing significant philosophical content found in the scriptures of Hinduism falls within one or more of these philosophical categories. It is impossible to determine the full scope of the intent of any statement without first discerning which category a statement falls under. This is so because of the commonsensical fact that before we can determine what a verse is saying philosophically, we first need to know what aspect of philosophy the verse is addressing. Third, after completing steps one and two, a proper philosophical explication of the verse can be done.

We will now use Categorical Exegetical Analysis to examine the famous verse from the Rig Veda: ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti. An exact transliteration of the verse is:

"Truth/God (sad) [is] One (ekam), [despite] seers (vipra) call (vadanti) [it] variously (bahudha)."

The typical Radical Universalist attempt at interpreting this verse is to view it, incorrectly, as either an epistemological or a soteriological claim. That is, this verse is usually misinterpreted as either saying that a) God can be known in a myriad of ways (thus seeing this as an epistemological statement), or that b) there are many ways or paths of achieving God (thus misinterpreting this as a soteriological verse).

It is my contention that both interpretations are incorrect. An interpretive error is committed by Radical Universalists due to not understanding the proper categorical context, and thus the proper philosophical meaning, of the statement. The mantra ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti is neither an epistemological nor a soteriological statement; but it is rather an ontological one. It is not talking about the proper derivation of authoritative knowledge (pramana), nor about the means of attaining liberation (mokshopaya, or mokshamarga). Rather, the verse is making a clear attributive statement about the essential ontological nature of the Absolute. The ontological nature of this verse is clearly known due to the fact that sat ("Truth, reality, being, God") is the singular nominative subject, which is then qualified by the accusative ekam ("one, unity"). "God is One…". Thus the primary clausal emphasis of this propositional verse is clearly placed upon explaining the ontological nature of sat (before consonant-initial endings, the t becomes d; thus sat becomes sad in this verse) being a metaphysically unified substance (ekam = "one"). The emphasis is not on the secondary supportive clause vipra bahudha vadanti. The point of this verse is the ontological unity and integrity of the Absolute, that God is one…despite the fact that this Absolute may have multiple names. The statement ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti is an ontological statement with God as subject, not an epistemological statement with wise-ones as subjects, or a soteriological statement with the means of liberation as the subject. Indeed, multiple paths of liberation are not even mentioned in the original Sanskrit of this verse at all, leaving even less reason for anyone to misinterpret this as a verse somehow supporting Radical Universalism from a soteriological perspective. In summation, this verse is not talking about multiple paths for achieving liberation (since it does not even mention "paths"). It is not talking about various means of knowing God. Rather, it is a straightforward ontological statement commenting upon the unitive nature of the Absolute, that God is one. Thus, "God is one, despite sages calling it by various names".

One interesting aspect of this book is that the book asks RSS, the uncomfortable question: "How is is that you are saying all religions are the same and still supposedly fighting for Hinduism?"


It is a great luck that we are in an age when knowledge is just a click away. But is not true that the same is statement is applicable to the all pervasive truth that is closest to one's Self (in fact, it is one's own self!). But, how many can drop the weight of one's vaasanaas to truly know it?

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Adi Shankaracharya the movie, by G.V.Iyer

Adi Shankaracharya the movie, by G.V.Iyer
Original review: Saturday, January 21, 2006
Many corrections added later.


Watched the movie Adi Shankaracharya (Amazon link) by G. V. Iyer. It was a wonderful experience to watch a movie made in Sanskrit, the language, that was enriched by Sri Shankara, who was not just an exegete, philosopher and reformer, but also a great poet and enriched the beauty of the language with his memorable works.

Background: The film begins at the time when religion in general and sanAtana dharma (Hinduism) in particular was in a state of turmoil. Buddhism had started losing its forte and Hinduism was going in the wrong direction. The big battle Shankara had to fight, was not --as this author assumed to be-- with Buddhists, but with the blind practitioners of Vedic rites (mainly the followers of pUrva-mimAMsA). For example, animal sacrifices were stopped, but sacrifices were made of animals made of dough. The Upanishadic realization of the true purport of karma-kaaNDa (in the context of parama puruShArtha) was lost. No one was concerned about the fundamental aspects of reality and truth. The holy city Varanasi, the city where Annapurna and Vishveshwara reside, the city on the holy banks of the holy Ganges, was echoing with DukRRi~n karaNe [a grammar rule], rather than shivo.aham [I am Shiva], the chant of the unity of individual self with the supreme spirit.


Shankara and his "companions/friends"

The life story in the movie begins with a narration of how Shiva Guru, Shankara's father, asks him to treat mRRityu [death] as a friend. mRRityu approaches Shankara as a boy and both become friends. At the time of Shankara's (upanayana) initiation, he meets another boy, praj~nAna [wisdom] and makes him his other friend. These two friends, "praj~nAna Sharma" and "mRRityu" grow up with Shankara and stay with him (except for brief times). Whenever the friends are together, they sing the shlokas ".... vishvam bhUta bhavya-bhavat prabhum" [He who has inner vision is the Lord of the past, present, future] by praj~nAna Sharma. mRRityu chants “AkAshAt-patitam-toyam” [every drop of water from the sky merges with the sea]. The movements of the friends are very carefully orchestrated ones.

In another scene, Shankara's friend praj~nAna Sharma moves away from Shankara when the latter says to a shUdra in Kashi, as is customary for a saMnyAsi, to move away. When Shankara realizes the truth, praj~nAna comes back to him again. The encounter of praj~nAna with Mandana Mishra's parrot, is enlightening. So is his deserting of Shankara's disciples when they become envious of Sureshwara.

[In another scene involving Shankara's friend mRRityu]
Shankara first meets mRRityu at the time of death of his father Siva Guru. mRRityu was already there when Shankara reaches home from Sringeri to meet his mother. Many times, mRRityu is angry at Shankara, as he (Shankara) laughs in a mocking fashion at mRRityu. When Shankara is ill, Shankara laughs again, observing the paradox of mRRityu taking care of his body, when actually he (mRRityu) should be destroying it.

Final embrace of Shankara and his friends: In the Himalayas, Shankara has a debate with his friend praj~nAna. When they embrace, praj~nAna merges into Shankara. mRRityu who was angry because, Shankara (always laughs at him mockingly) is also asked by Shankara to embrace him. He does after Shankara's persuasion "in spite of the fact that I laugh at you, you still have been with me. So you are my friend. So embrace me." He embraces Shankara and that is the last when we see of (mortal) Shankara.

Disciples of Shankara

Other than his friends, Shankara is always accompanied by his disciples.

Vishnu, the boy who accompanies Shankara at Narmada, and is assumed to be dead by him by drowning, meets him again at Kashi and is taken as a disciple. Vishnu is named Padmapada by Shankara.

Totaka, becomes the disciple in Kashi. He is so named because he composed a beautiful verse on Shankara in the toTaka metre ending with the lines sha~Nkara deshika me sharaNam.

In another scene, Shankara observes a boy, who is thought to be a lunatic by his parents. It is clear that Shankara knows the truth about the boy being an Atma-j~nAnI. Shankara asks the boy "Who are you? Where are you coming from?". The boy replies "All pervading, yet unpolluted I am Atman," and is taken as disciple by Shankara and named as Hastamalaka (hasta = hand; Amalaka = myrobalan fruit) [He can perceive the eternal truth of Self, without effort.].

Shankara is redirected by Kumarila to Mandana Mishra, a great scholar in pUrva-mimAMsA which puts emphasis on rituals, rather than renunciation leading to knowledge of Reality and Truth. Shankara defeats Mandana Mishra in a debate, takes him as disciple, and names him Sureshwara.

Ubhaya Bharathi, who acts as the judge during the debate, and declares Shankara as the winner accompanies them wherever they go. Shankara sees in her, his mother and even Sarada devi herself. When Shankara assigns the disciples places to go to establish schools, and assigns to himself bhuvana trayam (the three worlds), he asks her to be with him always.

A (brief) Transcript of the movie
[Copyright holders of this film, please see note at end of post.]

Pranava. Gayatri. Titles. The sacred words of other faiths of India: Shaivites, Jains, Buddhists. Father Shiva Guru chanting Gayatri. Aryamba, Shankara's mother watering Tulsi plant. Shankara's father Shiva Guru completing oblations.

Initial Learning: Shiva Guru knows that his time (to depart from this life) has come. Takes it with poise. Remembers the words from Bhagavad Geetha (meditate on Me at the time of death). Calls baala Shankara near him. Tells him "idam sharIram ashAshvatam, aham gamiShyAmi shAshvata padam" (This body is mortal. I am going to the eternal abode). Asks him to treat mRRityu as a friend. Asks Shankara to recite the shloka he taught him. Shankara recites:

aakaashaat patitaM toyaM yathaa gachchhati saagaram |
sarvadevanamaskaaraH keshavaM prati gachchhati ||
[A traditional prayer or a subhAshita]

Shankara meets mRRityu, the boy who asks himself to be treated as a friend. Shiva Guru breathes his last. (Traditional Brahminic) Initiation of Shankara. Shankara meets praj~nAna and makes him his friend. Introduces his friends to his teacher. Asks alms from a lady, who is too poor to offer anything but an Amalaka fruit. Recites kanaka-dhAra stotram beginning with a~NgaM hareH pulakabhuushhaNamaashrayantii to bless her with wealth. The Lady explains her husband does not hoard, even a morsel. So all she can give is AmalakAs. Shankara sees that the neighbour of the lady is hoarding. Refuses alms from him. Neighbour repents and asks his people to distribute all his wealth.

Learns from his teacher that sannyaasa is the way to equanimity. Teacher explains to him the greatness of sannyaasa, brahmacharya and the greatness of Govinda Bhagavadpaada. Shankara wants to renounce. Mother disapproves.

Shankara observes a brAhmin whom he knows, punish a coconut-thief by giving him something to eat and gifting him some coconuts. The brAhmin also makes the thief promise never to steal. When asked, the brAhmin explains to Shankara dehasya-daNDanam kShaNikam; mano daNDanam chirasthayi (Physical punishment is temporary. A teaching would go a long way in correcting a person.) The proof is in sanAtana dharma lifestyle. Teacher further explains that renunciation as explained in Upanishads is the key to understanding truth.

Is attracted to wearing the saffron cloth as an emblem of renunciation. Swims far to retrieve the white cloth he was wearing, while a crocodile catches hold of his foot. praj~nAna gets mother Aryamba to the river and she agrees for him to be a sannyAsi to be saved from death in the crocodile’s grasp. Watches the play of Nachiketa-Yama done in Kathakali style. Takes the permission of mother and leaves home. Promises to come back for her last rites.

Search for Guru: Sees how powerful death is and how people are not understanding it the right way. Sees caste prejudice. Faints. Is taken care of by tribals. Reaches Gokarna in Northern Karnataka, and meets his friend Vishnu. Vishnu follows him. They travel through Madhya Pradesh. Explains to Vishnu, who asks if Shankara is breaking the four-fold stages of life ordained by Vedas, that anyone qualified can choose to become a sannyasin after Brahmacharya. Reaches Narmada banks. Narmada takes away Vishnu. Prays and quells the power of Narmada. Reaches the cave dwelling of Govindapada.

[At the cave of Govindapada]: Meets Govindapada. Convinces Govindapada and other people at the aashram that he is a competent student. Composes the dasha-shloki – with the refrain tadeko.avashiShTaH shivaH kevalo.aham and his understanding of knowledge of Self. When Govindapada asks "With this mortal body, how can you cross the ocean of existence?" Shankara replies "body is subject to birth and death; but not Atman [dashashlokii]. The unreal has no existence; the real never ceases to be" [Gita]. Govindapada blesses Shankara: paramahaMso bhaviShyasi (may you become a paramahamsa) and takes Shankara as disciple. Shankara sees that Badarayana-Vyasa's vedanta-granthas are getting neglected as writes bhaashya for these. Using the story of Satyakama-Jabali and statements like mrittikA eva satyam, convinces other disciples that sarvaM khalvidaM brahma (from Chandogya) is the truth. Other disciples offer prostrations at his feet.

Kashi: Sees that people are reciting and analyzing rules of Panini grammar on the banks of the holy Ganges. Takes Vishnu as disciple and names him as Padmapada. People respect Shankara in Kashi. Takes Totaka as disciple. Recites Bhaja Govinda shloka to the scholar who was reciting grammar rules. The words bhajagovindaM bhajagovindaM govindaM bhajamuuDhamate reverberate in Kashi. Is paid respects by the King of Kashi. Meets his friends praj~nAna and mRRityu again at Kashi.

Chandala incident. Shloka 2 of maneesha panchakam which goes as

brahmaivaahamidaM jagachcha sakalaM chinmaatravistaaritaM
sarvaM chaitadavidyayaa triguNayaa.asheshhaM mayaa kalpitam.h |
itthaM yasya dR^iDhaa matiH sukhatare nitye pare nirmale
chaaNDaalo.astu sa tu dvijo.astu gururityeshhaa maniishhaa mama || 2||

I am quite convinced that he is the great Master, be he a Brahmin or an outcaste, who, dwelling on the pure and infinite Brahman thinks of himself as that very Brahman, of whose manifestation the whole Universe is,though apparently the Universe is assumed to consist of different things, due to ignorance and the three Gunas (Satva, Rajas and Tamas).

Praises Kashi that dispelled his ignorance.
kaashyaa.n hi kaashyate kaashii kaashii sarvaprakaashikaa .
saa kaashii viditaa yena tena praaptaa hi kaashikaa .. 4..
[kAshi pa~nchakam]


Takes Hastamalaka as disciple. Meets an old scholar (said to be Badarayana-Vyasa himself) and they both discuss Brahmasutras Meets Kumarila who is immolating himself as a penance for 'deceiving' the Buddhist monastics to learn their philosophy. Kumarila cannot comment on Shankara's work. Story of how Kumarila defeats Buddhists and why he has to perform immolation. Kumarila however, sees the work of Shankara, approves it, and asks Shankara to go to Mahishmati (on the banks of Narmada) to meet Kumarila's disciple Mandana Mishra.

Mahishmati, on the banks of Narmada: Reaches Mandana Mishra's place. Begs for a debate. Debate begins. praj~nAna observes that the parrot of Mandana Mishra is bound in a cage and eats only pepper. Offers sweet grapes to the parrot and frees it. Shankara defeats Mandana Mishra and takes him as a disciple. Sees his mother Aryamba Ubhaya Bharathi, the wife of Mandana Mishra, and says "experience is more important than knowledge". Camps at Sringeri with disciples.

Sringeri: When Sureshwara questions about the futility of ritual Vedic rites, Shankara sees he is mature and assigns him the task of writing commentary on his work on Brahmasutras. Other disciples get envious and Wisdom walks away from them. The others feel that the task should be given to either Padmapada or, Hastamalaka the brightest one. Shankara laments, if he cannot keep unity among his devotees, how can he do the same over Bharatavarsha? Shankara explains that he made the decision based on "experience is better than seniority or scholarliness". Disciples still show reluctance. Bharathi devi laments. Sureshwara gives back the Bhashya Granthas. Shankara asks Padmapada to write commentary and Padmapada realises his mistake and asks Shankara to make Sureshwara do it. Shankara instead says Padmapada should do it.

As Ubhaya Bharathi is serving them food, Shankara and his disciples recite Annapurna Astakam.

nityaanandakarI varaabhayakarI saundaryaratnaakarI
nirdhuutaakhiladoShapaavanakarI pratyakShamaaheshvarI .
praaleyaachalava.nshapaavanakarI kaashIpuraadhIshvarI
bhikShaaM dehi kR^ipaavalambanakarI maataa.annapuurNeshvarI .. 1..


Oh! Mother Annapurna! renderer of the support of compassion, the bestower of eternal happiness, the donor of gifts and protection, the ocean of beauty, the destroyer of all sins and purifier, the great goddess, the purifier of the family of Himavan, and the great deity of Kasi, (thou) grant us alms.

Shankara wants his four disciples to start schools (pITham) at Dwaraka, Badri, Puri and Sringeri. He assigns himself the three worlds (bhuvana trayam).

Back to home: praj~nAna wants to see mother Aryamba. Shankara agrees and both immediately leave. mRRityu was already there when both reach their home. Aryamba dies. Shankara asks to do final rites. Brahmins around object to that and expel him. He realizes the illusory nature of everything. Sees he still has his friends with him. Remembers the brahmin-(who-punished-the-thief) and Govindapada who were lamenting on the lack of Dharma in the Veda BhUmi.

Conquest: Reaches Kanyakumari. Prays to Goddess Kanyakumari. His disciples start to chant the prayer, and everywhere there is the echo, of the beautiful call (nay thunder) from Mahanarayana Upanishad about Renunciation being the lone means of obtaining Knowledge.

na karmaNaa na prajayaa dhanena tyaagenaike amR^itatvamaanashuH .
pareNa naaka.n nihita.n guhaayaaM bibhraajate yadyatayo vishanti ..
vedaantavij~naanavinishchitaarthaaH sa.nnyaasayogaadyatayaH shuddhasattvaaH
te brahmaloke tu paraantakaale paraamR^itaaH parimuchyanti sarve
dahra.n vipaapa.n varaveshmabhuuta yat puNDariikaM
puramadhyasa{\m+}stham.h
tatraapi dahre gagana.n vishoka.n tasmin yadantastadupaasitavyam.h
yo vedaadau svaraH prokto vedaante cha pratishhThitaH .
tasya prakR^itiliinasya yaH paraH sa maheshvaraH
[14-17]


Reaches Kanchipuram. Makes more people his disciples. Story of Raikva (of the Upanishads). Feels how great each of his four disciples are. Ugra Bhairava comes and asks Shankara to become a sacrifice to Kali for the purpose of nirvana of kaapalika. Shankara follows. A Lion (the vaahana of the devi) kills Kaapalika. Shankara prays to Goddess. Reaches Somnath, Marble rocks of Narmada river, Prayag, Benares, Devaprayag (Himalayas). Has conquered India.

Himalayas: Disciples observe that Shankara is ill. Prays to Himalayas Shiva and Ganges (lalATaM lAvaNya-dyuti-vimalaM AbhAti tava yat dvitIyaM tan-manye makuTa-ghaTitaM candra-shakalaM / Saundaryalahari #46)

Prays to Ganges. Shankara encourages his disciples. All walk towards Himalayas.

[The voice over and Shankara.]

[The Supreme Truth is one, which is the all-pervading Self, True knowledge of Self leads to liberation. He who know the Self controls the gross, living, mental, rational and supra-rational being.

Shankara is the Sun of the spiritual sky
Before the rays of knowledge, the ordinary Sun is pale as moon
I bow to the sun of knowledge, in thought, word and deed.]

As Shankara is walking to the top of a mountain top, the other faiths --represented by Jainas, Buddhists, (possibly) Shaivites, (possibly) Kaapalikas-- fall behind.

Final Debate: Shankara alone reaches the top of the mountain. Wisdom asks him if there is anything more to be achieved. Shankara and praj~nAna debate on how can the humans torn by sorrow and ignorance be liberated. praj~nAna feels that the theory that Shankara proposes is subtle and complicated. praj~nAna feels that Ishwara anugraha mixed with devotion alone leads to Advaita in humans and asks him to not lament about the realization of humans. Shankara says that he is not lamenting and is sure everyone will be liberated. In the meanwhile, mRRityu comes and says time is up. Shankara declares to mRRityu that he is Brahman. mRRityu gets angry and leaves him. Shankara explains to praj~nAna the oneness of reality. praj~nAna accepts the reasoning. After the debate, Shankara embraces praj~nAna. praj~nAna merges into Shankara. After some persuasion by Shankara, mRRityu also embraces Shankara. Disciples lament and then console themselves that Shankara Acharya will always be in their intellect.

Praise be unto Him who conquered other philosophies: Sankhya, Yoga, Naiyayika, Vaiseshika, Purva Mimamsa and became the master of Uttara-Mimamsa. He is the King of Spiritual world.

Voice of Shankara: I accept every faith. he who has no attachments is verily the Self, the Universal Self.

I bow down to the Self which is pure knowledge.
Who with pure intellect and fortitude controls this sensual body.
And shuns sensation will be free from attachment
He whose mind is unattached, subdued in thought, desire-free,
and free from action, through renunciation, attains perfection

Ego-free, free of false conviction of Bravery, free of thoughts of anger and lust humble and pure, then he is worthy of becoming Brahman. Madhuram, Manoraharam, Anandam. [Charming, Pleasant, Blissful] Come along all of you.


(aakashaat patitaM toyaM saagaraM prati gachchhati |)

puurNamadaH puurNamidaM puurNaat puurNamudachyate |
puurNasya puurNamaadaaya puurNamevaavashiShyate ||
OM shaantiH shaantiH shaantiH ||


I bow down to Shankara, the master of Advaita!

Memorable moments:

• The identification shlokas of the friends of Shankara are played everytime they are in action.
  
  
• The Nachiketa play done in Kathakali, the traditional dance form of Kerala.
  
  
• Punishment" of the thief by the Brahmin.
  
  
• Kumarila: Story of Kumarila, a great scholar of Kashi, who wanted to learn the secrets of Buddhists so that he can defeat them. He achieved his objective of defeating Buddhists. Kumarila laments to Shankara that when the Buddhists pushed him off an abyss, he should have said "Let the eternal Vedas save me" instead of saying, as he said, "If Vedas are eternal, let me be saved". This resulted in him being saved, but he got blinded in an eye. By the time Shankara meets him, Kumarila had defeated his Buddhist master, and is immolating himself because he broke the Buddhist tradition of not respecting the master.
  
  
• Hastamalaka: The entire episode of Hastamalaka is very moving. Shankara sees a young boy who acts like a mad person. It is Shankara's keenness which makes him observe that the boy is laughing at the fish that are living in the water and dying when they land on the bank. The boy is clearly amused at the futileness of the whole existence in this dualistic world. If he is laughing at the highest fear, namely death, he should be staring at the greatest truth. This is what is shown when he is playing and stares at the Sun (a representative of the Brahman) directly. The interplay introduces his parents who are worried about him and explain him his situation. The funny part is, they are explaining their own ignorance is mis-apprehending the boy's illumination. Shankara asks the boy "who he is". The boy replies "he is the eternal Atman". Shankara asks the parents to give the boy to him and gives him the ochre robe.
  
  
• The release of Mandana Mishra's parrot: In Maahismathi, Shankara meets Mandana Mishra of the pUrva-mimamsa fame. Mandana Mishra has a parrot that recites that Vedic rites are the final authority. The parrot, of course is a symbolism for Mandana Mishra himself. While Shankara and Mandana Mishra are debating, praj~nAna finds out that the parrot eats only pepper and chooses to remain in a cage. While Shankara and Mandana Mishra are debating, praj~nAna offers the parrot sweet grapes. The parrot says that it likes the sweet grapes. At the same time, Shankara is gives the winning argument. praj~nAna offers the parrot why he wants to remain in a cage, rather than being free. praj~nAna says that ants will take many life times to climb a mountain, while a parrot with wings can fly over to the top immediately. Shankara at the same time, asks Mandana Mishra why he chooses to take the slow path of Karma, when renunciation will make him free immediately. praj~nAna frees the parrot and at the same time, Mandana Mishra accepts defeat. Shankara takes Mandana Mishra as disciple and names him Sureshwara.
  
  
• Kerala Style Vedic recitation, as well as many Upanishadic passages rendered beautifully.
  
  
• Shankara and his disciples reciting annapoorna ashtakam is very moving.
  

Explicit References from the Upanishads: The movie is full of upanishadic allegories, and every dialogue questions the fundamental aspects of perception and reality. Explicitly, it shows the following references from Upanishads: Two birds from Mundaka, Nachiketa from Katha, Satyakama-Jabali and Raikva. Chanting in the background from Isha Upanishad and of course, the Gita.

Possible anachrony: The teacher of Shankara and is making them recite vAgarthAviva sampR^iktau shloka, which is the first shloka from Raghuvamsham, written by Kalidasa. I thought that Kalidasa was preceeded by Shankara, not otherwise.

Postscript correction (Not an anachrony): A couple of searches reveals that Kalidasa is a 5th-6thcentury poet. Since Shankara is generally ascribed to the time 7-8th century, the use of the shloka may not be an anachrony.

General comments about the movie:

Miracles: Traditionally Shankara's story is associated with many miracles, like the experience with the Amla devi, Padmapada's lotus, the fading of garlands when he is debating with Sureshwara, he taking another form to argue kaamashAstra with the wife of Mandana mishra etc. The movie does not have any of these. Maybe G.V.Iyer felt that the dramatization that comes with showing miracles may alter the way the teachings of Shankara are shown.

Acting: Sarvadaman Banerjee was very good as Shankara. He also acted later, as Sri Krishna in the T.V. serial by Ramanand Sagar and also as Sri Krishna in G.V.Iyer's Bhagavad Geetha. Bharat Bhushan as his father and the friends praj~nAna and mRRityu, the four disciples and Ubhaya Bharati act well. G.V.Iyer himself acts as Veda Vyasa.

Music: The direction of music for the movie was by Manganampalli Balamurali himself, who even sang some songs with his melodious heavenly voice. There are names of other doyens, like Nookala chinna Satyanaraya among others in the initial credits list. The first raaga of the movie, of course, had to be Sankara Bharanam [Adornment of Sankara]. Shankara and his disciples singing Annapoorna astakam was memorable. The background score is by B.V.Karanth, who does a good job.

Dialogues: The dialogues for this Sanskrit movie were penned by a noted Madhwa scholar Dr.Bannanje Govindacharya from Karnataka. He won the 2009 Government award Padma Shri. (Thanks to Shri Subbu-ji for the reference in the comment!).

Awards: This film was made in 1983. and won the national awards for "Best Feature Film", "Best Screenplay", "Best Cinematography" and "Best Audiography". The script, screen play, production and direction of the movie was by G.V.Iyer himself (the producer of the film was G.V.Iyer himself, rather than Subbarami Reddy, as advertised on the DVD. Subbarami Reddy, to his credit, did produce G.V.Iyer's later movies.). The awards were enriched by the movie, thanks to the committee.

DVD details: There are some minor errors in continuity. The movie is around 2:40 hours, rather than 2:00 hours as written on the cover of the DVD. The dialogue is available in Sanskrit as well as Hindi (which I did not opt for). The subtitles are in English (as well as French, which I did not opt for) which is good, with minor errors. The great part of the subtitles is that they go into narrative mode when mantras are recited, instead of transcribing mode, which could be thought of as disrespecting the tradition.

Later works by G.V.Iyer: Ganapathi Venkaramana Iyer (born 1917), from Karnataka. It seems in 1992, G.V.Iyer made a film on "Bhagavad Geetha", that was again appreciated by critics. To watch that movie. Also, a brief look at the filmography of G.V. Iyer reveals that G.V. Iyer's 1983 move was no flash in the pan. He followed it with films like: Madhavacharya (1986), Ramanujacharya (1989), Bhagwat Geeta (1993), and Vivekananda (1994).

To watch them!

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Note to the copyright holders of the film: I have really loved this movie and thanks (more than a trillion times) for making it. I have put up the transcript for the (educational) benefit of myself, and for my friends, who may not have access to the movie. If you have any objections to me making the transcription available on the web, please let me know and I will remove it from the web.

Note to the readers: I sincerely appreciate the help of Shri Sunder-ji who helped me in making numerous corrections to this. The remaining faults in the review, of course lie with me. I also appreciate the readers who made pointers to this review and appreciated it and wanted it to be corrected. It was my fault that it was not done in time!

Shri Ramaraju Bhaskar is writing the review in Telugu. Parts of it are vailable at the following link.


sarvaM sha~NkaraarpaNamastu |
sarvaM keshavaarpaNamastu |
parabrahmaarpaNamastu |
shriichakrapuranivaasinii raajaaraajeshvarii lalitaa parameshvarii devyai arpaNamastu |
shrii raamaarpaNamastu |
shriikRRiShNa parabrahmaarpaNamastu | Read the rest of this entry >>

Arvind Sharma's book on Sleep as a State of Consciousness

Thanks to a request of a dear friend of mine, I could read parts of this book again and write this review.
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This post, and the ones following it, are on the book Sleep As a State of Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta by Arvind Sharma. As the title explains, Prof. Sharma delves deeply into the avasthatraya aspect of Advaita. Prof. Sharma says in the introduction that "understanding this aspect of Advaita is the first, and possibly most important aspect of Advaita".

The book is organized as to how various philosophers of ancient and moden India --who have cast their long shadows on Advaita-- have thought of, and reasoned about the aspect of avasthatraya(the trichotomy of states), in Advaita.

In concrete, the contents of the book are as follows:

sleep in Prasthanatraya

sleep in Mandukyacharica (or Mandukya Upanishad)

sleep in Sankara Advaita

sleep in Later Advaita

sleep in Moden Advaita

Prasthanatraya is the three texts: Upanishads, Brahmasutras and BhagavadGita. The Mandukya Upanishad is one of the Upanishads, on which Gaudapada who preceeded Sankara (to whom Sankara originally wanted to be a disciple of?), is said to have a written a commentary, which in turn had a special influence of Advaita. Sankara of course, is the exegete from 8th century who cast, possibly the longest shadow on Advaita, Vedanta, Sanatana Dharma, and other Indic religions.

The later Advaita is about the points of view of Sureshwara, Padmapada --who were famous disciples of Sankara and set up the Vivarna school-- and Vacaspati Misra of the 9th and 10th century --who set up the rival Bhamati school-- and others. The two schools differ on various aspects: (1) "where does ignorance originate from": According to Vivarna, Brahman-Atman is the locus of avidya. Bhamati, on the other hand holds that jiva is the locus of avidya. (2)The other difference is the question of "the preexistence of Brahman vis-a-vis the creation" (did the creation of Brahman preceed the creation? If so how?). Another major later-Advaitin is Vidyaranya of the 14th century, who arguing about the characterizations of bliss experienced by human beings, explained on the blissful nature of dreamless-sleep. The chapter has points of views of other later-Advaitins, namely: Sadananda and Dharmaraja.

In the modern Advaita, the discussion is mainly about Swami Krishnananda (of the Divine Life Society), Ramana Maharishi.

In the introduction itself, Prof. Sharma asks,

This monograph deals with the question of sleep in Advaita Vedanta. But the theme presupposes that the phenomen of sleep is an issue of some kind for Advaita Vedanta in particular, or Indian philosophy in general. For the reader who does not share this presupposition, such questions as the following will naturally arise: 'why should philosophers be concerned with sleep as an epistemological or religious problem? Why are Indian philosophers concerned with it? Why do Advaita philosophers view sleep as an important philosophical dilemma, and why are they losing sleep over it?'

Giving a reply to the above question, Prof. Sharma smartly makes an analogy of Advaita with Physics and Chemistry. In Physics, the material world is reduced to either matter or energy. Chemistry on the other hand, reduces substances to the periodic elements. In a similar way, Prof. Sharma says, Advaita reduces the multiplicity of human experience into the avasthatraya, so that some "reasonable analysis" could be done. Prof. Sharma points out that this classification is extremely rational and experiential and not necessarily revelational or scriptural. (My posts on Prof. Sharma's other books: on his book on Advaita Vedanta and on his book on the experiential approach to Advaita.)

from the Sankhya yoga of Gita:

II.69: What is night to all beings, therein the self controlled one is awake. When all beings are awake, that is the night of the sage who sees.

To be continued... Read the rest of this entry >>

Arvind Sharma's book on Experiential Dimension of Advaita Vedanta

Reading the book, The Experiential Dimension of Advaita Vedanta, by Arvind Sharma.

This book is dedicated to Eliot Deutsch.



The preface itself is good. Sharma says that no word other than the sanskrit word "Advaita" is necessary to understand the concept of experiential advaita. To prove this, he claims to use only five previously unknown words in the book: Advaita Vedanta, Sankara, Ramana and Nisargadatta.

Sharma answers the question of "why is the concept of experience important or relevant" by saying that experience is something everyone can feel for themselves. This is to differentiate it from scriptural over emphasis someone may find in such an exposition.

A similar thought is given his other book titled "Advaita Vedanta", which seems to be written later. This is my post on that book (also contains the amazon link to that book). That book is divided into three main chapters: scriptural, rational and experiential aspects of Advaita. This is my post on the third part of that book.

Whose experience are we talking about? To disambiguate the term experience, as to who's experiences and which experiences, Sharma divides the term experience into the four categories:

ordinary experiences of ordinary people,

extraordinary experiences of ordinary people,

ordinary experiences of extraordinary people, and

extraordinary experiences of ordinary people.

In the introduction, Sharma says that Sankara is the leading expositor of doctrinal Advaita and Ramana is the leading expositor of experiential Advaita.

The first chapter titled "what is normal experience". At the end of chapter, Sharma raises 11 points and sub-points about how people give primacy to waking, over those of dream and dreamless sleep. This is even among among people who agree that all three are just states of consciousness and should be comparable.

In the second chapter titled "critique of normal experience" gives the counter arguments that Advaita provides to each of the 11 points and sub-points raised in the first chapter. Some significant conclusions seem to be in point 3.vi, where to answer the question 'If a contradicting experience is superior to a contradicted experience, is not waking state superior to dreaming?'. Sharma admits that a contradicting experience is superior to a contradicted experience. However all three states are capable of contradicting each other [How can dreamless state contradict any of the other? Ans: we experience pain when awake. When asleep, we donot experience it. So pain characterizes not the body but the body-consciousness as it comes and goes with it.]. For example, a rich man may dream that he is poor, which is a contradiction when he is in dream state. So, the fact that a state can be a contradicting some other state enforces our view that the contradicting state can be contradicted.

The third chapter titled "Conclusions on the critique" makes some conclusions. The important being that the three states contradict each other in terms of reality in each of them. None of these three states represents reality by itself. What is common between all three? The being I is common all three states.

The fourth chapter titled "Advaitin Experience and its relationship to Normal Experience", Sharma makes some interesting points. He answers the question, how does an Advaitin experience reality (and dualities like pleasure and pain) different from normal people. He says that

...
the realized person, however, in a sense experiences less than the ordinary person; in another sense experiences more than the ordinary person; and in another sense experiences the world differently from an ordinary person.
...

He says the following about the differences in experience of dualities by the realized and ordinary person.

The realized person experiences pain and pleasure but does not experience it in the same way as an ordinary person. ... In a sense it might be said that the realized person feels physical pain but nor mental pain. It could be said that the difference between a realized person and an ordinary person does not lie not so much in what the realized one experiences and the ordinary one does not but rather in what the ordinary person experiences and the realized one does not. The realized person and the ordinary person both experience sugar as sweet and wormwood as bitter, both see and smell and walk and talk. But the ordinary person also experiences anxiety, fear, suffering, hope, diappointment etc. These the realized person does not experience.

The eight chapter is titled "Some accounts of Advaitin Experience". It is mainly about the experience of Ramana, of his 'disciple' Paul Brunton and of Nisargadatta. [Paul Brunton wrote the book "Search in secret India". This is the Amazon link.]

Sharma concludes the book with the following:

There is starkness [emphasis mine] about Advaita Vedanta when presented in its experiential dimension. This starkness some find compelling and some repelling and others remain unaffected by it. All, however, would perhaps want to know: Does it have anything to offer?

The question was put to Ramana whose virtual nakedness symbolized, as it were, the starkness of the experiential dimension of Advaita Vedanta. He was once asked by a somwehat cynical seeker: 'Do you have anything to offer to me?'

'Yes', Ramana is supposed to have said, putting aside the comic book he was reading. 'But do you think you can take it?'

Read the rest of this entry >>

Arvind Sharma's Experiential Approach to Advaita Vedanta

The third part of the book covers Advaita Vedanta in an Experiential approach. Sharma asks, why an experiential approach? Are not the usual scriptural and rational approaches enough? He answers the question, giving an example of the the three states in which human beings can exist are waking, dreamin and deep-sleep. It seems that the
scriptural approach ==> deep sleep
rational approach ==> waking
experiential approach ==> dreaming state

If you ask most people, to group two of these as close together and the third as different, most people would give the configuration {waking}, {dreaming, deep-sleep}. This is because, the states in the second set are "without activity". Advaita notes that the following division is more appropriate: {waking, dreaming}, {deep-sleep}. This can be substantiated from the famous examples from Janaka dreaming that he was a beggar. Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly. Incidentally, it was Chuan-Tzu, not Lao-Tzu who dreamed so. He is said to be second only to Lao-Tzu as a representative of Taoism. Read the rest of this entry >>

Arvind Sharma's book on Advaita Vedanta

Reading the book "Advaita Vedanta: An Introduction" by Arvind Sharma. The Amazon link is this. In the book, he takes a simple introductory approach to the subject. The book seems a little verbose at places, but has summaries at the end of large paragraphs. It may be useful for someone to read this book prior to reading to Deutsch's rather terse book(Amazon link). Arvind Sharma takes a tri-fold approach to explain the concept of Advaita Vedanta: They are (1) the Scriptural, (2) the Rational and (3) the Experiential approach.



Shri. Sharma, in the introduction of the book, begins by stating that both philosophy and religion try to pose the fundamental question "What is real?"
The book begins with how the Hindus wanted to attain liberation in this world itself (jivanmukti) rather than, postponing it to a later time, either death or on the judgement day, as in Christianity and Islam.

The introduction explains the six systems of Indian philosophy nicely. My notes from Dasgupta's book on the same subject is here. Both agree nearly. Sharma orders the astika systems as (Nyaya, Vaiseshika), (Samkhya, Yoga) and (Mimamsa, Vedanta). The first pair, he notes, are closer to naastika systems, while the second pair accept Vedas a-posteriori. Sharma also notes that Mimamsa and Vedanta take a very close approach to how the Vedas are interpreted, i.e., both the schools base themselves on the Vedas. They are based on the "anta" part of the Vedas. Though, as in some other religions, Hindus accept that the Vedas were received, Hindus also recognize the limitlessness or infinity of Vedas. This also means that Hindus attribute no specific time or place or persons -- either cosmic or human -- for the "receiving process" of the Vedas.
Also he explains the four parts of each Veda as (i) Mantras or Samhitas: the hymns in praise of gods, (ii) Brahmanas: the prose explanations of the ritual use of these hymns (iii) Aranyakas: reflections on the significance of the ritual and (iv) Upanishads: Secret texts meant to communicate the highest mysteries which go beyond ritual into the realm of spiritual knowledge.
In the explanation of the first Mahavakya Aham Brahma Asmi (I am Brahman), Sharma nicely notes that though everything "is" Brahman, the way in which Maya (or the universe) "is" Brahman is not the same as Atma "is" the same as Brahman.

The conclusions has the following translation of the famous verse on the main tenet of Advaita:

The non-duality of the Brahman,
The non-reality of the world
and the non-difference of the Atman from the Brahman
These constitute the teachings of Advaita

Considering that one of Mr. Sharma's books is dedicated to Eliot Deutsch, It is surprising that the book does not to cite Deutsch's book.

On another note, Arvind Sharma's experiential approach to Advaita seems to be unique and special. This is partly because, one of the primary questions of Advaita is "What is Real?". This question has to arise in the seeker's mind, after he feels that some of his experiences are not real!

A reader on the advaitin mailing list had recommended strongly, the book "The Rope and the Snake" by him. This is the Amazon link.

Read the rest of this entry >>