Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Sloka 7

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

To summarize upto this , the slokas 1 to 4 is vedantic teaching, while 5 and 6 refutes other systems and misconceptions , while 7 is a reassertion of the vedantic teaching.

Shankacharya had already refuted what the common misconceptions are. Common people think the self to be deha, prana, jyanindriya , manah and so on. Buddhists claim that the self is void taking the deep sleep experience as an example. All these are inherently wrong . We have seen all that.
In this verse , he talks about how we can get to the real subject or atma. He says in this verse he says atmanubava is a continuous experience. Many people have the common notion that this experience is unique and never easy for mortals. Only realized people have seen or experienced this I and so on. But Shankacharya says no. For anyone , this is a continuous experience. He uses the word Sadah. So atmanubhava is not at all an event in time called enlightenment ,but it is an experience which is all the time present which requires zero effort. He also uses the very important term anuvartamanam. This word means continuously present. The real I is Sadah anuvartamanam,

So now the question is "why do I not experience this ?". In order to understand why this is so , we need to understand the disturbances to the real I. He says that on top of the continuous experience of the real I , lot of discontinuous and disturbing influences come. As a result various states are experienced. One distinction is they are discontinuous and even mutually exclusive while the I is continuous and always present. For example anger comes , then sympathy comes and so on. There are also various levels of avasta like Jagrat , Svapna and Sushupti which all are discontinuous and mutually exclusive. Again there are also various stages in life, like bālyam, kaumāram, yauvanam, vārdakyam and so on. As you can see there are various avastas which are never permanent or continuous. It is these cloudings on  top of the atma that has created the notion of not experiencing the atma as atma. He describes the discontinuous avastas as vyāvṛttāsu avāstāsu . But he reminds us , in and through all these avastas the I shines through.

Now we might ask, how do these avastas cloud the real I?. It comes as follows. Suppose someone asks you how are you ?. What would be your answer?. It depends on the context and condition. You might say " I am depressed" or "I am tense " or some such thing. Note the two things here . There is an ever present "I am", which has now been superimposed with a particular avasta called depression or tension or some such thing. So some attributes gets added. Here the attributes are depression , tension . You can clearly see these attributes are vyāvṛttāsu  or discontinuous. It never is continuous.
The basic "I am" is your real nature while the attribute added I is ahamkara or fake I. Why is it fake?. Because as you can see , the I has never been touched all through life by all these discontinuous avastas. So the perception that it is affected, is nothing but adding of attributes and the resulting misconception.

Let us look closely at what the basic "I am " means." I" refers to the chit or consciousness principle while the "am" refers to the sat or existence principle. So our essentially we are just Chit-Sat or Sat-Chit. However due to constant adding of discontinuous attributes we feel what we are not. So atmajyanam is nothing but removal of the attributes from the essential. Seeing the attributeless "I am" in every experience is all that is needed. So you can see it is not a new type of experience we need. It is just removal of the extra attributes from every experience that is needed. This can be seen to be a reclassification of all experiences rather than a new type of experience. I am is an ever available experience , but so is anger, fear etc. But we can see its impermanence . So separate the discontinuous from the continuous  is all that is required. Include the attributes i become a samsari, exclude it i become the absolute. Inclusion of attributes is the maya . Removal is merely realization .

Guru does not give you anything new here. He just asks you to see your experience in a different way. He is therefore not someone who is going to give you anything, rather he just gives you a modified perspective through a shift in consciousness. Any experience comes, just remove the attributes added and see. Go on doing it. That is all.

Look at how the attributes become part of you. Imagine you were a young girl going to school for the first time. Before going to school you were just a girl. No attributes added. But just after the school anubhava , you become a "I am a student " . Internally you are just a girl. Don't  you think this creates a hell lot of problems for you?. The failures , anxieties of school hood superimposed on The many many expectations you have to live upto, the relations , its complexities all . You can take any of your problems of life , you will see these addition of attributes creating all the problems.

The guru prakaṭīkaroti or reveals this simple change in perspective to all bhajatam or shishya through a non verbal gesture or chin mudra. Unless you drop these attributes of the avastas, you will continue to be in samsara. So atma jyana is nothing but moving away from them.

बाल्यादिष्वपि जाग्रदादिषु तथा सर्वास्ववस्थास्वपि
व्यावृत्तास्वनुवर्तमानमहमित्यन्तः स्फुरन्तं सदा ।
स्वात्मानं प्रकटीकरोति भजतां यो मुद्रयाभद्रया
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥७॥

( Through various stages in life as well various stages in day -night the atman shines through continuously स्फुरन्तं सदा. The atman remains free from all discontinuous states and is ever continuous and present. The guru reveals प्रकटीकरोति to all भजतां or shisya though the auspicious chin mudra. I salute that inner guru always)

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Sloka 6

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

In the fifth sloka, Shankacharya outlined how we mistake ourselves to be either the deham(body) , or prana( life force) or as chalam budhi ( fleeting mind) or even as shunya( void). Based on who we think we are, different philosophies originate. For e.g as in Charvaka philosophy it is taken as Deham only , as does modern materialistic science. In Buddhism there are various trends. Shankacharya tries to refute the most prominent among the challengers of vedanta namely Madhyamika Buddhism.

In Madhyamika Buddhism or the middle way , the self is understood as the void. In fact not only the self , but everything is treated as void. The adisthanam of everything is considered to be emptiness. They make various arguments for this. One of the arguments favoring emptiness is that all things are a dependent arising. So many conditions are required for that object to exist that you can hardly call the existence as svabhavam. An existence is nothing but the totality of conditions imposed on that object. Essentially the object cannot exist on its own. When one of the conditions changes the object also changes or disappears. Note that this doesn't mean that the object doesn't exist. Essentially what this means that an object is just a bundle of causes and not an object. It resolves into nothing when the causes go. So its essential nature is nothing. When philosophers discuss some object what they are interested is not how the object appears, but on what it really is. This is why sometimes they seem a little dry and arcane.

Now deep sleep state is taken as an example by them as supporting the void. In deep sleep nothing is experienced. So our essential consciousness also should be emptiness, since it resolves into emptiness when the external dependent conditions such as sensory perception and thinking disappears. Some categories claim that there is nothing like the atma at all. All things including consciousness is just emptiness appearing as a dependent arising. It is this claim that the self is emptiness that Sankacharya tries to refute in this Sloka 6.

In order to understand this , we need to see how we experience the world in Jagrat and Svapnam. Consider this simple case. Suppose you are looking at some object. Now behind the seeing process, there seems to be a Seer, the process of seeing and the seen object collectively called the Triputi. Most importantly there is a Seer-I. What happens when we close the eyes. The Seer-I is not experienced and the triputhi vanishes. But hearing might go on. So the Hearer-I remains.
So waking state actually is a mixture of Seer-I , Hearer-I, Thinker-I and so on. In Dream state there is only the Thinker-I. When we close one organ, the I doesn't actually vanish. It is just withdrawn or that aspect of the I becomes unmanifest. But I continues. So the waking state is nothing but a mixture of various Qualified I experiences . Here Qualified I means Seer-I , Hearer-I and so on.
This is the Vikshepa shakti  of Maya . The qualified Is provide us a vision of the outside universe through its projecting power.

What happens during deep sleep?. What happens is that the Qualified Is are withdrawn, but the I remains. Then you might ask which I? There is no sense organs and there is no mind also. So what I is present?. What sankacharya says is this. The I that remains is the unqualified I .This unqualified I is not available for any vyavahara since no instruments or pramanams are there. Or the unqualified I is non -transactional I. This is much like space. You cannot do much with space. It is not available for doing anything unlike say an object. With objects you can do something. But with space you can hardly do anything. So deep sleep is like this. Consciousness remains as unqualified. But here you can see that much like space , it is a presence. Just because there are no objects doesnt mean that space doesnt exist.  Only thing is it is not available for vyavaharam. This is called the avarana shakti of maya. So here the vikshepa shakti is lost , but avarana shakti is predominant.

When the avarana shakti is predominant, only the general I is present . No qualified Is are retained. This is much like eclipsing of the sun or moon. When an eclipse goes on , the Sun is not extinguished. It is just covered with the shadow of the moon. Because it appears dark doesn't mean it is not shining underneath. It is just covered. राहुग्रस्तदिवाकरेन्दुसदृशो is what he says. Just as the sun and moon are eclipsed by the Chaya graha , the I is also covered, but the I remains shining underneath as general San-Maatrah satah. Here in the case of self, the shadow is maya or illusion. मायासमाच्छादनात्.

Now a doubt arises. If consciousness is not available for transaction , how do we say that it is still there in deep sleep. In jagrat and svapna it is understandable. However in deep sleep it is not evident. This is precisely the crux. Experiences in the world are all just perceived by the mind. Since the mind is absent , mind says it is not possible to say . So it is the mind that says I was not there. However sankacharya says the waker प्रबोधसमये realizes that I slept well. The term recognition is important. Recognition means i understand it is the same I who started sleeping who has now waken up. Recognition is the key word here. I donot feel that I was non existent. In anubhava of consciousness i feel that I was asleep. There is a continuity of me that i recognize. This is illustrated by the term प्रत्यभिज्ञायते.
So shankracharya uses the anubhava pramana to refute the claim by shunya vadha that i am non existent or emptiness. The continuity is always there. 

With this let us see the sixth sloka 

राहुग्रस्तदिवाकरेन्दुसदृशो मायासमाच्छादनात्
सन्मात्रः करणोपसंहरणतो योऽभूत्सुषुप्तः पुमान् ।
प्रागस्वाप्समिति प्रबोधसमये यः प्रत्यभिज्ञायते
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥६॥Raahu-Grasta-Divaakare[a-I]ndu-Sadrsho Maayaa-Sama-[A]acchaadanaat
San-Maatrah Karanno[a-U]pasangharannato Yo(a-A]bhuut-Sussuptah Pumaan |
Praag-Asvaapsam-Iti Prabodha-Samaye Yah Pratyabhijnyaayate
Tasmai Shrii-Guru-Muurtaye Nama Idam Shrii-Dakssinnaamuurtaye ||6||


( Just as the sun and moon are eclipsed by the Rahu or shadow planet, Maya uses it avarana shakiti to cover the self during deep sleep. However the I remains its unqualified existence which is the reason why the waking person recognizes that he himself was the sleeper . I prostrate that supreme principle which makes me understand the pure and eternal I.)

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Sloka 5

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

In the first four verses Shankacharya had already summarized vedanta. If you study these deeply , you will learn a lot.
In the 3rd and 4th verses he says atma is of the nature of Sat and Chit . (formless-existence-consciousness)
In the 2nd he says all existence arises from atma just as the tree stems from the seed .
In the first verse he relates how existence through manifestations is seen by the atma.


The summary is this. You are existence-consciousness. From you the entire universe has arisen. You were there before the creation and will be there after the creation . You are the jivatma and paramatma much like roles played. If you know this truly , life would not bother you because life is just a passing show in you. So many appearances have come and gone in you. You are not only everything, but all these things have no power of disturbing you. However he says all this power that you have, only becomes useful , if you become aware  of this knowledge. For an ignorant person, this life is a suffering , much like the dreamer who suffers in his dreams without knowing it is a dream.

Ask a layman who he is , the immediate reply would be his body. Ask a slightly educated person, he would say it is a mix of body  and mind , but it is very difficult to point out what the I is . It seems as though it is experienced within, but it is not so clear. So for us , the problem of who we really are is not so well established and nobody worries too much because it is not seen as an important question.
"I have enough problems already  . So i have no time for any philosophical interludes !!" would be the common response.

Among philosophies in ancient india , there were many viewpoints . The charvakas believed that the I is nothing but the material stuff of the body. There are other group of people who believe that I is the prana. ( pranam iti viduhu) and so on. There are other versions which says I am the sense organs ( Indriyani) .

Buddhist philosophers too form various groups based on what they presume the atma is. For some branch it is the same as consciousness, however consciousness itself is changing and fleeting.  Shankaracharya says about this notion as चलां बुद्धिं( fleeting consciousness). To another bunch of Buddhists, atma is the great void or Shunyatha  and so on.

Shankacharya spent a great time arguing with philosophers other than Advaita vedanta and he used to defeat them all in tarkashastra with valid points from own experience. However he found many other philosophers to be vehemently holding onto their theories and perceptions like deluded people who believe in various superstitions.

In the fifth verse Shankacharya is addressing these gang of people who have incorrect understanding of what the atma is ( which is explained in the first four verses). But what he says is little more subtle. What he says is the ignorance of atma is the root cause of suffering. So be it ignorance due to wrong notion or ignorance due to not understanding at all, the suffering is the same.
देहं प्राणमपीन्द्रियाण्यपि चलां बुद्धिं च शून्यं विदुः
स्त्रीबालान्धजडोपमास्त्वहमिति भ्रान्ता भृशं वादिनः ।
मायाशक्तिविलासकल्पितमहाव्यामोहसंहारिणे
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥५॥
Deham Praannam-Api-Indriyaanny-Api Calaam Buddhim Ca Shuunyam Viduh
Strii-Baala-Andha-Jaddo(a-U)pamaas-tv[u-]Aham-Iti Bhraantaa Bhrsham Vaadinah |
Maayaa-Shakti-Vilaasa-Kalpita-Mahaa-Vyaamoha-Samhaarinne
Tasmai Shrii-Guru-Muurtaye Nama Idam Shrii-Dakssinnaamuurtaye ||5||

( Some say the atma is the deham, some say it is the prana and for some it is indriyani . Buddhists claim it is a fleeting consciousness or shunyata. Like a naive girl child or a blind person or a dull headed one they vehemently hold on to their viewpoints ( he says भ्रान्ता).
If the inner guru is awakened all these maya of who we are vanishes and truth prevails. I prostrate that guru who is always guiding me)

It is a simple verse, but yet asserts the importance of knowing who we are ( or what atma is ) to be the central point of our studies and life. A misconception is enough to muddle our life into confusion, anger and delusion. The important point is we fail to let go of our misconception like  a madman who holds onto his state of confusion how ever hard we try. Unless we try to kill ( Samhaarinne) this delusion (maayaa), we will continue our state of deluded separate selves.

One of the unique characteristics of vedanta philosophy is that it is not based on any belief system. It does not force you into believing any dogmas or concepts. However as the zen master said , you should always have the beginner's mind .

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Sloka 4

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

We looked at the union of jivatma and paramathma in the third verse. We saw that from the stand point of the universe or jagat , the atma is called paramathma, while from the stand point of the individual , it is called the jivatma. Actually there is no distinction between the two as Atma is existence-consciousness. It is just like two different roles you play in life. With respect to your child you are called Father or Mother, with respect to your parent you are called Child. But the real you never changes because of these roles. Both child and parent are the same person only. We can act out our life with the knowledge that we are paramathma are one and the same. No individual exists in the real sense. If I am paramathma , so is everyone and everything. There can never be anything else. The illusion of multitude is a dream which the jagrat avasta imposes on you. See how peaceful you sleep. In that we experience this union with the cosmos (though in a ignorant way). If the union is experienced in a knowledgeable way , there ends our seeking.

In the 4th verse , Shankacharya wants to point out that this atma is ever evident in all your experiences and requires absolutely no effort. Atma jyanam is not an event to be experienced in samadhi or some anubhava  as we all think when we start our spiritual journey. No time lag is there to experience it. Because whatever is self evident can never require any evidence!!!.

 Atma is the nature of consciousness and is always behind all experiences. Suppose i ask you "Are you sure that you exist and are reading this article?". What would be your answer?. You would say "Of course. Yes". Now go deeply into this answer . Don't just assume it . You will see that there are two things here . One is that so many things exist. The blog exists. The computer exists. Your body exists. Your mind exists. The cosmos exists. In short there is existence.
Second. There is consciousness of all this existence. Now the question is .What is the first thing revealed?. If we forget all different things like blogs, universe, your eye etc, we can say there is existence and then the consciousness of it. Only after this existence-consciousness does all the other things come in. In short there is a an adisthanam to the experience on which the particular things are experienced. You can see that even though all the different things are dependent on so many factors this adisthanam to which all the objects are experienced is independent of all . This adisthanam is nothing but the chaitanyam or the light.
If we look at a particular object , say a table, we can say that first comes sense impressions. We feel it , we see it and so on. Behind these sense impressions lies our mind which thinks about the table. So we can say mind illumines the sense impressions. If we look at a video camera we can see that something similar to sense impressions exist , but there is no mind illumining those impressions.
So we can say mind is our first level of illumining principle. It can illumine all sense impressions. It can illumine touch, it can illumine vision and so on. When all sense impressions are illumined by the mind the table comes into existence.
Now let us look at the mind itself. Mind itself exists in various states. Sometimes the mind is peaceful. Sometimes it is tense and agitated and so on. But how do we know this?. What is looking at the mind to determine the state of mind. How do i say " I was tense yesterday". You can see that there must be illumining principle beyond the mind. So we come to the principle of illumining pure consciousness or awareness which illumines the mind , just as the mind illumines the sense impressions. So we can see that the mind is not the actual illumining principle , but awareness or pure consciousness is the ultimate illumining one. Mind has borrowed luminosity from this awareness to lend sentience to the world.

So the purpose of spiritual life is to see this illumining principle so that we know what is real and what is unreal. Nithyanithya vasthu vivekam. We say that blessed by pure awareness, the mind shines its light on the objects, but the source remains un-perturbed  by all. So whenever i see an object i should be reminded of the mind, which in turn should remind me of the awareness which i am. So an object or any experience is actually telling about the illumining principle. So i need to shift my focus from the object itself to the illumining chaitanya or atma. Since it is evident in all experiences , there is no particular experience which would do this revelation.We say in vedanta "tam bhantam anu sarvam bhati" ( Every object is known by the light of the self luminous sun only)

So in every perception the atma is independently evident(bhanam), while the anatma or object is dependently evident(anubhanam). In the mirror and sunlight example we discussed before, we can say the Sun is independently evident when an object is seen, while the object is dependently evident if sun light or mirror is there.
Similar to this example, Shankaracharya uses a pot example in the 4th sloka. The body is assumed to be like a pot and there are 5 holes in the pot. In the center of the pot a bright light exists. The light comes out these 5 holes.5 holes stand for the sense organs. For objects which are illumined by the five beams of light , we can say that the actual illumining principle is the deepam kept inside the pot and not the five beams, We can say even if the pot breaks the chaitanyam remains . For a normal person who is ignorant of the deepam he might think the five beams to be the illumining principle while in reality it is not.

With this let us look at the 4th verse

नानाच्छिद्रघटोदरस्थितमहादीपप्रभा भास्वरं
ज्ञानं यस्य तु चक्षुरादिकरणद्वारा वहिः स्पन्दते ।
जानामीति तमेव भान्तमनुभात्येतत्समस्तं जगत्
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥४॥
Naanaac-Chidra-Ghatto[a-U]dara-Sthita-Mahaa-Diipa-Prabhaa Bhaasvaram
Jnyaanam Yasya Tu Cakssur-Aadi-Karanna-Dvaaraa Vahih Spandate |
Jaanaam-Iiti Tam-Eva Bhaantam-Anubhaaty-Etat-Samastam Jagat
Tasmai Shrii-Guru-Muurtaye Nama Idam Shrii-Dakssinnaamuurtaye ||4||

( As the light of the lamp kept in the middle of the pot with many holes shines through the holes, the atma shines through all experiences using sensory impressions.  I know he alone shines in everything in this jagat(Etat samastham jagat). To that supreme illumining principle i offer pranamam)

Just one more point . Just as electricity manifests in a fan as wind and in bulb as light, depending on the medium atma expresses itself differently. Atma is present everywhere and in all , only thing is the medium changes and its manifestation looks different. But the underlying source is the same .

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Sloka 3

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

The first verse dealt with what "You" or jivatma is . We saw the waker jivatma and the dreamer jivatma and so on. We saw how consciousness is identified with various things like the body-mind, the dreamer individual etc as a result of which you appear smaller, limited suffering and so on. But when it is realized that you are none of these , then only truth dawns. This vichara is called Tvam padartha vichara. Tvam means you. What you traditionally believe yourself to be versus the real you , you truly are.. Through atma vichara we come to appreciate that I is nothing but consciousness alone.It is none of the appearances or anatma.

In the second verse we also saw the Tat or the universe . Existence seems to manifest in various diverse forms and movements. We take this to be something external to us. But we see that if we remove the illusion of space and time , then all these diverse entities are nothing but the "Sath" or pure existence manifesting itself. Or the paramathma is himself appearing in all the diverse names and forms. If we take the essence of this , then only pure existence remains. The difference don't actually exist, just as the tree is nothing but the seed in a different form and yet when we see it in time we see them as different things. ( We even have the notion that the seed grew into a tree) . A vedantin would say tree and seed are the same because time is nothing but an illusion. Effect is unmanifest cause. To him wherever he looks he sees paramatma ( pure existence ) only. This is Tat padartha vichara.

You can see how we proceeded. First we see the diverse names and forms, then take what is common to all of them and find that there is something essential which is common to all. If we continue in this vein , we can combine what is common to pure consciousness and pure existence . Consciousness lends its adisthanam to existence. Existence manifests in consciousness as diversity. Diversity is only an illusion created by space-time. So if we remove that , we see existence is also ONE just as consciousness.
The universe ( including your body-mind everything ) existed potentially unmanifest in consciousness.
 So instead of thinking them as separate concepts ,
 We try to see them as a single idea or Existence-Consciousness.This is what the upanishads told us in many Mahavakyas. In the chandogya upanishad we have the famous Mahavakyam
Tat - Tvam asi. ( Thou art that  ) .

The third verse of Dakshina Moorthy sthothram is trying to express this idea of Tat-Tvam Aykyam.


यस्यैव स्फुरणं सदात्मकमसत्कल्पार्थकं भासते
साक्षात्तत्त्वमसीति वेदवचसा यो बोधयत्याश्रितान् ।
यत्साक्षात्करणाद्भवेन्न पुनरावृत्तिर्भवाम्भोनिधौ
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥३॥
Yasya-Eva Sphurannam Sada[a-A]atmakam-Asat-Kalpa-Arthakam Bhaasate
Saakssaat-Tat-Tvam-Asi-Iti Veda-Vacasaa Yo Bodhayaty-Aashritaan |
Yat-Saakssaat-Karannaad-Bhaven-Na Punaraavrttir-Bhavaam-Bho-Nidhau
Tasmai Shrii-Guru-Muurtaye Nama Idam Shrii-Dakssinnaamuurtaye ||3||

( The world of appearances or the mithya jagat is supported by pure existence or the paramathma. However pure existence is only experienced indirectly as objects, not as itself. This is not possible also, as you yourself are that pure existence lending existence to the world. The famous Tat-Tvam Asi is experienced directly if you listen to the inner guru. Knowing this , you are liberated from the delusion of the worldly sea of manifestation and unmanifestation. I prostrate to that supreme principle)

In this third important verse , Acharya is trying to bring out the important Mahavakya of all time namely Tat-Tvam-Asi. Tat refers to the Paramathma(परमात्मा). Tvam refers to he Jivatma.( जीवात्म).Many upanishads present Tat as Brahman itself or the very existence itself. What is this Existence ?. Let us define it like this. Existence is something that is independent of the object under consideration and yet the object is dependent on it . So the object exists because of it, but when it is destroyed, existence is not destroyed, it just becomes unmanifest. If you remember our discussion on consciousness , you remember the same principle. The body is dependent on consciousness , while consciousness is not dependent on the body. Body comes and goes, while consciousness remains, maybe in a unmanifest form. Just like that when the object is there existence is there , but when the object goes existence still is. So how can we see this pure existence?. The verse says we can't . Why existence is always revealed as a particular existence namely the world of objects. It never reveals itself in its pure form. why ?. Because that pure form is YOU !!!!!.

We will try to understand this with a fictitious example. Suppose a vedanta class is going on and one of the disciples is Sunlight .!!. Suppose the guru is trying  to explain the concept of sunlight to all . He says sunlight is that which illumines all objects and yet never requires illumination. It is swayam prakashitham and so on. Remember sunlight is one of our disciples. As the class goes on, sunlight tries to understand concept of sunlight. But we can immediately see the problem sunlight has. It has never experienced sunlight. Wherever he goes he sees objects. However hard he has tried, he has never experienced sunlight. That is why he has come to this vedanta class. Maybe this guru will help me in experiencing sunlight. But then the guru tells 
" You will never experience sunlight . You will experience only objects. ". So sunlight asks the guru "why this is so ?"   Then the guru says "Tat-Tvam - Asi"  or You are that . So however hard you try or whatever sadana you do , you will never have the sunlight - experience because you yourself are that. All your experiences are sunlight experiences only, and yet you don't appreciate that. You are illumining all the objects and yet, you are trying to search for the illumining principle. 

 Just as this , our own world is full of mithya objects or Asat-Kalpa-Arthakam. Kalpa means imagined or false. All objects are as good as unreal. Why are they unreal?. Because they are different name and form given to the pure existence from which they are manifest. We dont understand the supreme principle of existence or paramathma appearing as all these forms. Paramathma is refered in this Yasya-Eva Sphurannam .  Sadaatmakam means all existence. What the first line says is this. All manifestations are supported by the supreme principle of pure existence  . But it is not possible to see what this pure existence is because YOU are that pure existence itself.

In the upanishads it is often advised to do a meditation like this. Imagine what happens when all objects are removed. Empty space. When objects are removed what remains?. You might say that empty space and objects are not the same. But consider this. Can you really really destruct an object. What you may destruct is its form. Consider a cardboard box. Suppose you burn it completely. Have you destructed it ?. No. The form is lost no doubt. But the constituent molecules remain in another form. In the form of ashes. When it is returned to the mud, one of the molecule may be absorbed into a tree. One into the air and so on. So you see the form is lost . Existence remains in other unmanifest forms which later can be manifest . So empty space is not actually not empty. It is full of potential objects. The idea behind this meditation is to develop a sense of essence of something. Essence of all objects as potential existence. 

Now we have two kinds of essences. One is when i remove all things other than consciousness.(removing all anatma)  The other one is when i remove all things other than existence. So we have pure consciousness and pure existence. And yet this is only ok as far as theory is concerned . I have never seen or experienced both these pure existence or pure consciousness. There must be some reason for this . The guru gives you the answer . Tat-Tvam asi. The reason why you cannot experience both pure consciousness or pure existence is because you are that. (remember the sunlight example)

There are two kinds of teaching. One is called direct teaching where the teaching is immediate. there is also indirect teaching. Suppose the guru tells you about Badrinath temple. When he tells you about the temple, it is only a concept in your mind. You have not experienced it . Unless you go to the temple , you will not have a direct experience of Bardrinath. This is called Indirect teaching. Words of Badrinath stand for some reality that need to be experienced later. But in the case of Tat-Tvam-Asi principle , the teaching is not indirect. It is direct. This is the meaning of the term साक्षात्तत्त्वमसीति. साक्षाth means direct. It is not referring to a later experience . It is referring to the current experience or all experiences. When i am talking about you , how can you experience it later!!!.

So to summarize, i lend existence to all objects or sath. and  lend consciousness to the body or chit. But I am not any of these , but i create this imaginary world just as in a dream, creating a world out of myself and knowing this world myself. What is the big thing about this knowledge?.

The third line tells you the greatest truth about vedanta. It says , you are liberated from the sea of samsara by this sakshatkara. यत्साक्षात्करणा means परमात्म साक्षात्करणात्. The sea is characterized by appearances and dissolving of manifestation. By transcending it , with knowledge we are liberated from all punarjanma worries. For a Jnani , there is no birth in the first place, so there never arises a question of rebirth. Every birth is just manifestation of existence-consciousness into a form, which later becomes unmanifest . How can we be perturbed by this?. What is the meaning of भवाम्भोत, nidhau means reservoir and therefore āmbhonidhau means reservoir of water. The term Bhava we already have seen. It is the world of samsara or of becoming and unbecoming.

With this crucial understanding , the upanishad teaching is revealed of who you are . You are neither any of the objects that you experience. You are neither of the knowing. You never come and go. Only thing is you temporarily are functioning through this body-mind. But so are you in so many bodies and mind. All is one paramatma only. To this teaching i offer my pranam.

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram sloka 2

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

In the first sloka , Shankaracharya was dealing with the Tvam padartha or the jivatama and thereby telling us about the pure consciousness that we are. Using the examples of mirror image and the dream world , he explained that the world as it appears is dependent on consciousness for its existence and in fact what the world appears, is nothing but a modification of consciousness into names and forms. However when we dream or even when we are in wakeful state (without this knowledge) we live as though all the mithya forms are real and continue to be affected by them. A woken up one sees स्वात्मानमेवाद्वयं ( everything is me the consciousness only).

In the second sloka , Shankaracharya wants to tells us about the paramatma or the Tat padartha. So who is paramathma or who is Brahman?. In all scriptures Brahman is described as Jagat Karanam or the ultimate cause of the universe. Universe is the effect or Karyam, while Brahman is the cause or Karanam. Usually in all cause -effect relations , a cause undergoes a series of transformations by an intelligent intruder to produce the effect. For e.g. A goldsmith uses gold ( karanam) and works on it producing the ornaments( karyam). Here the gold is called the material cause(upadana karanam) while the goldsmith is called the instrumental cause(nimitta karanam). Normally both these karanams are distinct . But in the case of the world it is the same. Brahman is both the upadana karanam as well as the nimitta karanam like the web created by the spider  from his own body.

If we understand this simple principle that the Brahman itself as the cause of everything , then we will not have difficulty understanding the second sloka. However this principle of a single cause is not so easy to grasp, as normally we associate some doer taking some raw material and creating something . Creation is always associated with this kind of an intelligent intervention. All systems of philosophy use this analogy in the creation of the universe also. What Shankaracharya wants us to understand is , this is not how creation is . In fact the word creation itself is not correct . There is nothing actually created. There is only a transformation.

In order to understand this, consider this simple fact. Before the ornament is made, did the necklace exist?. Consider a piece of pure gold. It is a formless one. No beautiful form is there. Is the necklace existing in it or not?. If you say that it is there , it would be wrong , because then making of necklace is not true . If you say it does not exist, then in the necklace there must be something that is not there in gold. But we see only gold. So we can see a non existent necklace can never emerge from gold, nor can an existent necklace emerge from it. So we see an important conclusion. Existence cannot be created. Existence of something is always there in a potential form. It just becomes manifest when it is a necklace, un-manifest when it is gold. So creation is not producing new things, but manifesting existence in a new form. Manifestation appears to us as creation, while un-manifestation appears as death.

Take the example of this blog, even before it was written it must have existed in potential form as conscious energy. Only thing is it was not manifest. So we can never say blog was written. Blog post became manifest from a potential form. Putting it simply, effect is cause in a new form. There are not two things, one being created from another. We can say cause is avyakta avastha while effect is vyakta avasta and this transformation is what is seen as creation. This is a very important conclusion. Just as we understand all ornaments to be just gold , we can understand all the universe as Brahman manifesting in different vyakta avasta.

So then the question arises, what gives the diversity to the universe. We see many things all around, different objects, different systems and so on. Shankaracharya says, all this diversity is created by the illusion of  space and time. When the space has split up the form, we see two or more objects. When time manifests itself the form move and change even in the same place. If we mentally remove these distinctions or illusion of space and time, we can see one basic thing viz Existence  or Sath, He compares the creation of this illusion as something similar to a magic show created by a stage magician or a Maha yogi creating a world . What he wants to convey is this. An illusion is not a fact , it has an underlying explanation. Only thing is we don't know what it is. When a magic trick is performed , we believe it to be true while the show goes on. But deep down we know there must be an explanation. Similarly when we understand that the space time illusion is nothing but an illusion to create diversity where there is none we tend to understand it better.


With this prelude let us look at the second sloka
बीजस्याऽन्तरिवाङ्कुरो जगदिदं प्राङ्गनिर्विकल्पं पुनः
मायाकल्पितदेशकालकलना वैचित्र्यचित्रीकृतम् ।
मायावीव विजृम्भयत्यपि महायोगीव यः स्वेच्छया
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥२॥

The world (जगदिदं) is like a sprout (appearing from a seed (बीज). The world existed in its potential form in the brahman. Due to the illusion of space and time all diversity (वैचित्र्य) appears. This is much like a magic show or a world created by a mahayogi. Salutations to him who teaches us this supreme knowledge through silence.

We have seen many examples of this principle. Shankaracharya here uses the example of the seed and the sprout. Is the sprout created ?. Or did it exist in the seed in a potential un manifest form?. You can see that even modern science tells us that in the DNA , the way in which an organism evolves is encoded. So the seed actually contains all the essentiality of the sprout . Only thing is, when we look at the seed , it hardly looks like the tree it would grow into. We can never say the tree was created here. The tree becomes manifest through a process . All ingredients are there in the seed for this.  A seed is a tree only . You can see time playing its illusion of growth of a tree making us believe that a tree was created. In the timeless spaceless understanding the seed and the tree are one and the same.

All these are examples. What is the cause of the universe ?. It is pure existence or Sath. So Sath here plays the role of the seed. Existence is the seed from which the material universe is created in names and forms. All objects in the world exists in the potential form in something called pure existence or Sath. This pure existence or the seed is what is called the Brahman or the Paramathma. This is the meaning of the part जगदिदं प्राङ्गनिर्विकल्पं ( world exists in the potential form before it appeared). Nirvakalpam means in unmanifest form.

So from the first verse we saw that how the world appears in consciousness using the mirror example, while here we see how the world itself is manifest from pure existence using the seed example. The first verse speaks about jivatama while the second speaks about the paramatma. The next verse is going to establish the equivalence of these two. 

Dakshina Moorthy Sthothram Sloka 1

सदाशिव समारम्भाम् शंकराचार्य मध्यमाम्
अस्मद् आचार्य पर्यन्ताम् वंदे गुरु परम्पराम्

We have seen the dhyana slokas . So let us move onto the first sloka of Dakshina moorthy sthothram.

विश्वं दर्पणदृश्यमाननगरीतुल्यं निजान्तर्गतं
पश्यन्नात्मनि मायया बहिरिवोद्भूतं यथा निद्रया ।
यः साक्षात्कुरुते प्रबोधसमये स्वात्मानमेवाद्वयं
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥१॥

Vishvam Darpanna-Drshyamaana-Nagarii-Tulyam Nija-Antargatam
Pashyann-Aatmani Maayayaa Bahir-Ivo[a-U]dbhuutam Yathaa Nidrayaa |
Yah Saakssaat-Kurute Prabodha-Samaye Sva-[A]atmaanam-Eva-Advayam
Tasmai Shrii-Guru-Muurtaye Nama Idam Shrii-Dakssinnaamuurtaye ||1||

( The world or jagat is like a city reflected in a mirror. The reflected city is an illusion supported by the mirror never having independent existence apart from the mirror. This is also similar to the dream world experienced within the state of dream sleep. In the dream everything we experience , appears outside and unreal things appear real which when we wake up all resolve into the atman. I salute that gurumoorthy within me which is ever showing me this truth through his silence.)

In all advaita,the concept of non-duality is emphasized through various examples and explanations. You can see that  the non dual principle is not easily comprehended because of our avidya. In Dakshinamoorthy sthothram, the concept of tat-tvam asi is dealt with. The first three verses deal with this equation. What seemingly looks like two is actually one. On the one side we have tvam padartha or the universe or jagat. On the other side we have the tat padartha or the individual. These are equated using the asi vichara or equality principle. 

One of the hindrances to understanding this is the following. We don't have the vivekam or discrimintory power to understand the atma and the anatma. For us , the I is nothing but the body-mind complex. This shows that, what we comprehend and transact as I is nothing but anatma. Whenever we come to a satsang class or read something spiritual , we tend to understand that there is some problem with this. But back to our home , we are once again with the former understanding. Unless we start to see this on a continuous basis that what i regard as atma or I is wrong, we wont be able to appreciate the teaching.So what exactly is the I ?. It is the experiencer. The experiencer has the nature of consciousness. To the experiencer or I , three kinds of anatma are experienced. One is the world or the jagat. Second anatma is the body. Third is a slightly sophisticated and subtle form of an object called the mind. So the I is there as pure consciousness, while the world, body and mind are there as anatma. 

So there is only one Experiencer(atma) but there are many experienced objects(anatma). When i say one, we should understand this as the one and only atma. There is no separate atma for each one of us. 

Now comes the question. What is the relation between this atma and the various anatma?.

This is what the first three verses deal with. First let us look at the first verse which says what the anatma called the jagat is when compared to the atma.We have already seen atma is consciousness while anatma is matter. The world is matter , the body is matter , the mind is subtle matter. Atma on the other hand is just consciousness which has no boundaries or form. Sankaracharya tries to point out what is the relation between this consciousness and the matter . 

He uses two examples for this. One example uses the mirror-image analogy. The second example uses dream world analogy. Each example needs to be understood in its context. If we extend the example too much we may get the wrong notion. If i say someone has a heart of steel, i just mean he is very resolute and tough. But if you question where is the steel inside his heart , i wont be able to show. When we say steel we get some idea of the toughness. When we say heart we get some idea, combining this we get some idea of a resolute individual. In exhibiting his characteristical behavior he is as tough as steel, never rusting or bending. It is in the same way we should interpret the verse example. 

The first example says the universe is like a city reflected in the mirror. Now in order to understand this example well, just consider that the original city is not there. Just look at the mirror and the image of the city only. If we need a better example, we can use the screen and the cinema. In the cinema example, the original shooting is no longer there. Only the scene and the screen is there. Just like that in the reflected city ( darpana nagari) just take the image of the city and the mirror. What are the characteristics?.

1) The image is dependent on the mirror for its existence. The mirror provides the adisthanam or substratum for an image. It sorts of supports the image. This relation is called adisthanam-adeya sambadah or supporter -supported relation. supporter is the mirror while the image is the supported.

2) The image never has any independent existence of its own, while the mirror can exist without the image. This fact can be called satyatvam. An image has only a relative reality(mithya) while the mirror has absolute reality(satyam). 

3) The next thing is an interesting aspect. Whatever happens in the image it never can affect the mirror. This fact is called asamgattvam. If there is a fire in the image the mirror still is the same, if there is flood in the image it is still dry . 

4) Next point. There are lot of image objects but they are all mithya existence only. The only countable thing is the mirror. This is called the advaityam of the mirror. There is really only one thing the mirror that will exist. All the reflections will be there impermanently and it will resolve into the mirror. 

By understanding the relation between the image and the mirror we are also understanding the relation between atma and the anatma. The mirror stands for the atma here, while the anatma is the image  in this example. So through this example we are grasping the atma-anatma sambadah.

In order to make us understand this even better , he uses another example. The relation between dream world and the waker. While the dream world consists of various objects , everything is supported by me the waker. So me the waker is the adisthanam while the dream world is the adeya, just like the images in the mirror example. The dream world has no separate existence just as the images in the mirror. So the waker is satyam while the dream is mithya. The third aspect is also true.Whatever happens in the dream the waker is unaffected. This is asamgattvam. Lastly the waker is one , while dream is many. All the dream objects resolve in to waker who is only one . This is the advaitatvam. So we can see all the aspects of the mirror example is also there in the waker-dream example.

In the third line, Sankaracharya also tells us the dream world is a result of waker being ignorant about his waker nature. So we can see that dream is waker nature avidya. When he wakes up, this avidya is lost , and he realizes his truth. There are great yogis who can know that they are dreaming, in which case their ignorance about the dream world is not there. 

Similar to  this even in our waker state , there is a awakened state avidya. We are not conscious of our true nature which is not the wakeful state. 

He also points out two very important aspects of dream state. In the dream state , there are two things happen

1) Whatever is inside us, seem to be outside. We go to different places, we fight, we run and so on as though we are in the external world. 

2) Lot of unreal things appear to us as real.

So we can see that because of waker avidya , we see our own inner world as outer dream world which is all made up of our own waker nature. Just like this in our wakeful state also what we see as the jagat is also a result of our own ignorance only. All the real things are basically projections from our consciousness. This projective power of our ignorance is called maya. Just as when we realize our waker nature all dream objects resolve into me, on waking up from your waker state only will you realize that all the jagat is a projection of our own consciousness. So all anatma basically is atma projected. It appears as many because of avidya . This is  how the atma anatma are related. Anatma appears as real and varied, while atma is not seen at all.The truth is the converse. It is by virtue of the atma that the whole jagat is present or existent. 

In science terms also , whatever is described here makes sense. In the usual scientific parlance matter was considered more fundamental and important while consciousness was an aspect of matter resulting as a consequence of evolution of matter. But now many physical sciences especially Quantum Mechanics etc have challenged this world view. With the pure matter model it is rather difficult to explain the strange world of micro cosmos of atoms, electrons etc. Even though it is not main stream, many scientists are trying to picture consciousness as primary and matter as a manifestation of consciousness. Human consciousness is only an aspect of matter reflected from the absolute consciousness. In this world view what we see is not the actual thing as the example of dream shows us. Anything perceived may not be the fact. There may be a fundamental thing out of which the perception is coming or emerging from. 

It is this fundamental adisthanam, advaita chaitanyam which is called Dakshina moorthy here. It is the embodiment of silence because it doesn't produce the noise of names and forms  of the mithya jagat.