Hymn to the Lord
Dakshinamurti
A Commentary by
Shri Yellamraju Srinivasa Rao
Epilogue
Completing the Circle
The Hymn to Lord Dakshinamurti now comes to an end. The problem, the solution, and the outcome have been clearly explained by Shankara. The outcome (the direct experience of the Self) is not out of human reach because it is our very nature. It is present in the beginning (before birth), in the middle (while living), and in the end (after death). Unfortunately, we forget this truth and search for it elsewhere. It is like searching everywhere for the gold chain that it is hanging on our own neck the whole time. Wherever we search for it, we will not find it. Only when we feel our neck and discover the gold chain, we will realize that it has been with us all the time. Similar effort is required for us to realize that our very own Self is the Universal Self. Caught up in the vicious cycle of samsAra, we have forgotten that the world we see is only an appearance of the Universal Self. We have unnecessarily made the world a complex problem. We now have to remember what we have forgotten. Shankara calls this pratyabhigna. A satguru, a true teacher, can facilitate such an experience of pratyabhigna in the student. Shankara is such a teacher. Having realized the Self, he has shared his Knowledge with truth-seekers like us who are thirsting for Self-Knowledge. We completed circumambulating Lord Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Self who assumed a form to teach His disciples. We have started with the Self and have ended with the Self. That is why I titled my commentary as Dakshinamurti Pradakshina (circumambulation). He is the Guru and the Self around whom we circumambulate. After performing a Hindu ritual, the worshipper offers Atma pradakshina. He circumambulates around himself three times as an offering to the Self. This Self is not the body, life-force, senses, intellect, or ego. It is the innermost Self (prayagAtma), the Consciousness that is a silent witness to every action that the body-mind perform. It is that Self that we worship. It is the Supreme Self, which manifests as jIva, jagat, and Ishwara. The circumambulation of Dakshinamurti, therefore, is the circumambulation of our own Self, which is essentially the Universal Self. This experience of the Universal Self is the great fruit that Shankara promises us as a result of sincere practice in the form of shravaNa, manana, and nididhyAsana. Sages compare samsAra to a tree, and mOksha (liberation) to its fruit. A tree grows from a seed and eventually puts out fruit. If we cut open the fruit, we will once again find the seed. Therefore, in the beginning, there is the seed, and in the end, there is the seed. In the middle, there is its expansion from seed to tree. Therefore, it is the same substance that appears in different forms in different stages. This hymn highlights this truth. It starts with the form of Dakshinamurti and ends with It. To be more precise, it starts with a form and ends with the formless. Whatever we perceive as names and forms are essentially the formless Consciousness. Forms are only Its appearance, a decoration. Like a king who continues to be a king, with or without a crown, Consciousness IS with or without a form. In this hymn, Guru Dakshinamurti, the Supreme Consciousness, assumed a form to teach His disciples that He is the formless brahman. His teaching is in silence. His form is resplendent with Knowledge. His body shines, covered in sacred ash. A luminous crescent moon adorns His head. In one of His four hands, He holds a string of alphabets. In the other two, he holds the musical instrument veena and a book. His fourth hand is held in a in a jnAna mudra. Seated in the position of a teacher, with a pleasant and tranquil face, He teaches the disciples seated around Him. Clothed in an elephant skin, a huge serpent crawling on His body, the Lord sits majestically. May the Lord bestow His Grace on us at all times. Not only is He Dakshinamurti (the Supreme Self), He is also Ishwara, the Controller. As Dakshinamurti, He is Omniscient. As Ishwara, He has His creation in His control. Since He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, He understands the suffering in the world, and shows us ways to transcend it. His beautiful countenance engenders such noble feelings in us. These are the feelings of a worshiper of a personal god. We can find such gods in any temple. We can manifest them in any form we desire. Forms with attributes belong to the relative world, not to the formless Absolute Reality. Only the Absolute Reality can liberate us from the bondage of samsAra, not a relative reality that is limited by forms and attributes. As sincere seekers, we must strive to experience the formless, attribute-less Reality. That is the only way to break the bondage of samsAra. Forms and attributes are only an appearance of that formless creative power (mAya shakti) of brahman. They are symbols that point to the formless Reality. According to mythology, Lord Shiva burned the demigod KAma to ashes and smeared those ashes on His body. There is a deep symbolism to this story. “kAma” means worldly desires. Such desires arise because we perceive the world as not-Self (anAtma), as separate from the Self, due to ignorance (avidyA). When Knowledge of the Self arises, desires and misconceptions about the world disappear. This is the symbolism of “burning of kAma” - the burning of desires, and the transformation of the individual into a desire-free person. When there is no desire, there is no action. Desire leads to action. When desire and action cease, what remains is pure Knowledge or Consciousness. The shining effulgence of Lord Dakshinamurti represents this Pure Consciousness. When all desires are burned to ashes with Self Knowledge, Self alone shines. Reality is ever serene. It is the intrinsic nature of the Supreme Self because It is Undifferentiated Infinite Consciousness. Individual Consciousness, however, is not free. What is the intrinsic nature of the Supreme Self is the goal that the limited-self strives to attain. Only with Self-Knowledge can the individual attain total liberation. Relentless practice is necessary to attain that fully liberated state of being. The effort is only in realizing that our Self is Pure Consciousness. Lord Dakshinamurti is described as wearing crescent moon on his head. The moon represents the mind, thoughts, perceptions, and feelings that are triggered by the external world. The world is made up of the five basic elements, and the permutations and combinations of the these basic elements make up the fifteen attributes of the object world we perceive. There is a sixteenth one called sAdAkhya. While the fifteen attributes are transitory in nature, the sixteenth one is not transitory. It is the Supreme shakti of the Lord, the creative power that is inherent to the Supreme Self. The nature of the Lord or the Supreme Self is prakAsha (effulgence, the Self-shining light of Pure Awareness). The nature of His shakti is vimarsha (the reflective power of Awareness). When shakti is still and unchanging, It is permanent. When shakti keeps changing, manifesting forms, it is transient. It is called vritti, a thought-modifications of the mind. As long as the mind is trapped in vritti-s, it perpetuates the feeling of a separate self, a jIva. When the mind transcends thoughts and remains still, it experiences Itself as the Supreme Self. When all attributes dissolve, unchanging shakti alone remains, Infinite and Immutable. From the perspective of Ishwara, this is His shakti. From the perspective of the jIva, it is brahmAkAra vritti (the vritti of brahman). What is the significance of the jnAna mudra, and the garland of letters the Lord holds in his hands? The mudra (thumb and index finger held together) symbolizes shakti, the intrinsic creative power of the Lord or Consciousness. The garland of letters also symbolize shakti. They indicate the movement of the undifferentiated para (Consciousness) into pasyanti, the manifested world. Prior to manifestation is the Self, Pure Consciousness (para). After manifestation, is the not-Self, the insentient world. Manifestation of Pure Consciousness into the not-Self is pasyanti. The garland of letters, from the first letter in the alphabets to the last letter, symbolizes the wheel of samsAra, the endless movement from para to pasyanti to para, from the Self to the non-Self, and back to the Self; from the unmanifested to the manifested and back to the un-manifested. The musical instrument, veena, symbolizes the third stage in the manifestation called madhyama. Veena symbolizes sound. Sound symbolizes expansion. While pasyanti is the slight movement in Consciousness, an intention to manifest, madhyama is the process or journey towards manifestation. Because it is at the mid-point between the intent to create and the creation itself, it is called madhyama (middle). When the divine sound energy expands, solidifies, and expresses Itself in myriad forms, it is called vaikhari. It is this vaikhari form of Consciousness that appears as this Universe. This is the fourth stage in which the un-manifested shakti manifests as the world. The book that the Lord holds in His hands represents this stage. In this manner, the four hands and the objects held in them represent the four stages in the process of the pure un-manifested shakti appearing as the world - para, pasyanti, madhyama, and vaikhari. The fact that the Lord holds these objects in His hands means He has them in His control. Consciousness wields its creative power at Its will. When the individual experiences the great truth, aham brahmAsmi, (I Am That), he too will have shakti in his control. Such a realization is possible only when individual Consciousness is completely unified with the Supreme Consciousness. This is yoga. Such a yoga, complete union with shakti, is natural to Ishwara. It is not natural to us. If we continue to contemplate and meditate on that Supreme Consciousness without a break, if not this lifetime, in the next lifetime at least we will attain that state of Supreme Consciousness. This in essence is the teaching of the Lord Dakshinamurti. Surrounded by Sages Vashista, Vamadeva, and others, seated in the position of a teacher, Lord Dakshinamurti offers the greatest teaching. He personifies the Truth that Consciousness alone is Real. Silently, through the jnAna mudra, He inspires us to experience this Truth for ourselves, and share It with other seekers. Only then we experience Purity – Self uncontaminated by time, space, and objects projected by mAya. There is Peace only when we view these impurities caused by mAya as an appearance of the Self. While Peace is the very nature of Ishwara, it is a goal for seekers like us to strive for. When we attain such Peace, like Ishwara, we too will transcend mAya shakti. The crawling serpent on the Lord Dakshinamurti’s body symbolizes kAla or time, which moves continuously. When the immovable Consciousness moves, it creates time. The snake also represents the goddess kAli, the inherent creative power of Ishwara. When shakti flows continuously, it solidifies and appears as the world. The elephant skin draped over the body of the Lord represents the world. The world, a projection of mAya, veils the Lord, who is Pure Consciousness. Since the Lord wields the power at His will, He has it in His control. But this is not the case with individuals like us. We succumb to the power of mAya, instead of transcending it. We are caught up in samsAra (bondage), and struggle to break out of it. Only Ishwara can free us from this bondage. We must constantly remember His glory. He is the Lord Dakshinamurti, the formless Pure Consciousness. As long as we are held captive by mAya, we will not be able to free ourselves from this disease called samsAra. Instead of abiding in our true nature as Infinite Consciousness, we suffer in bondage. To fully abide in our Self at all times, we must experience everything as the Self - sarvAtma bhAva. Such an experience of Oneness is samAdhi. We can experience such Oneness, only if we have complete faith in Dakshinamurti, the formless, Immutable, Infinite Consciousness, which is our very nature. Since we have distanced ourselves from our true Self for life times, we have become attached to mAya. We must now reverse the process - get attached to the Self and distance ourselves from mAya. We must enter the temple of Lord Dakshinamurti. That means we enter into the sarvaAtma bhAva (feeling of Oneness with everything) and abide in It firmly.