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Essence of Vedanta

CHENNAI : Philosophers of the different systems of Vedanta who have expounded the Absolute Reality through their extensive commentaries and independent treatises have also summed it up in pithy hymns and digests. The reason for writing such wide-ranging texts is as much as to whom it is intended for as to why it was undertaken because the enterprise of such men of wisdom is never without reason. Adi Sankara's hymn Dasasloki falls in this category. To the laity it is one of the several hymns of this saint-philosopher, which enables them to approach the study of Advaita with relative ease. But, at a deeper level the verses are so pregnant with meaning that perusal of this succinct work alone can give mastery over the fundamental concepts of Advaita.

In his discourse, Sri Goda Venketeswara Sastri said the Dasasloki had a singular status among Sankara's works in that it was addressed to his Guru (preceptor) Govinda Bhagavatpada when he met him for the first time. Sankara was an eight-year-old boy then and ever since the incident (when a crocodile caught hold of his legs while bathing in the river and he escaped death when his mother allowed him to renounce the world as it meant rebirth), which led to his renunciation, he was in search of his Guru. Though he had formally embraced an ascetic's life and mastered the scriptures, he had not yet received initiation, which alone can enable one to experience the Self (Atman). This composition thus reiterates the esoteric significance of the relationship of the Guru and the disciple.

Sankara met his preceptor on the bank of River Narmada. Govinda Bhagavatpada was the disciple of Gaudapada and was a great Yogi. Learning about his greatness from the people there the young lad approached him and as is customary he asked Sankara who he was. Sankara's identification was totally with the Self that he immediately burst into a rapturous description of the Atman and summed up Vedanta in 10 verses: "I am not the earth, neither fire... The One, the residue, the auspicious only One am I." The saint understood his spiritual stature and initiated him immediately.

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