Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
The text under study is BHAJA GOVINDAM, song of despair of time-wasting, by Sri Adi Shankaraachaarya.
The
Guru now presses home the importance of recognising the fleeting nature of all
things…
nilnIdlgtjlmittrl<
tÖJjIivtmitzycplm!,
iviÏ
VyaXyi_aman¢St<
Laaek<
zaekht< c smStm!.4.
Nalinii-dala-gata-jalama-titaralam
Tadvajjiivitam-atishaya-chapalam,
Viddhi
vyaadhya-bhimaana-grastam
Lokam
shokahatam cha samastam ||4||
The water drop playing on the lotus petal has an
extremely uncertain existence; so also is life ever unstable. Understand, the
very world is consumed by disease and conceit and is riddled with pangs.
Again,
the teacher is not holding back! Having attempted in the opening stanzas to get
the student to focus on more correct and meaningful thinking, stating that
money and lovers are transient and, in the end, pointless, he rams home the
plain facts of the matter. We are here today and gone tomorrow. Which tomorrow,
we cannot know and much depends on the quality of the biological matrix in
which we sit. At some point or other it is likely to be compromised by disease
or accident.
The
important message, then, is that there is no time for anyone to waste. Death
rarely announces its visit.
The
use of the image of the lotus petal and the water drop goes beyond the obvious
too. Those who study advaitic philosophy for any amount of time will recognise
the symbolism.The lotus grows out of muddy water, exists in that water, is
nurtured and nourished by that water. The flower is therefore nothing but an
expression of the waters in which the seed, deep in the mud is at home. When it
fades, it returns to that very water and forms part of the nourishment for the
seed bulb to re-emerge at another time. Brahman, the Infinite, expresses as the
'lotus' of the subtle body (sukshma shariira). Existing in the Consciousness
Divine, a minute ray of It (Aatman), functioning in and through the biological
equipment, is the jiva, the individualised personality. Aatman, expressing
through the lotus of the intellect is the unsteady, over-agitated soul which,
when it is released by death, merges back into the 'waters' of Consciousness.
The
return of the drop back to the waters and the merging are suggestive of the
mahaa vaakya "tattvam asi"… That thou art.
