ahaMkAra-vyAghra-vyathitam

[Gummuluru Murthy]

PraNAms to all.

After a brief withdrawal from the List, I have joined back again.
My concerns about the posts on the List which led to my withdrawal
are still there. But, I recognize that withdrawal is not the
solution. I am most grateful to various list members, particularly
Shri Ravi, who have urged me in the past few days to get back on the
List.

Shri Shankara says in Viveka ChuDAmaNi (verse 518):

MahA-svapne mAyA-kr^ta-jani-jarA-mr^tyu-gahane
bhramantam klishyantam bahula-tara-tApair anudinam
ahaMkAra-vyAghra-vyathitam imam atyanta kr^payA
prabodhya prasvApAt param avitavAn mAm asi guro

[The disciple, after realization, is addressing the acAryA]  I have
been dreaming all this time a great dream and travelling in a great
forest created by mAyA, where birth, decay and death and all kinds
of troubles and pain afflicted me all the time and the tiger of ego
terrified me immensely. O Master, you have, out of sheer grace,
awakened me from that dream and saved me forever.


The tiger of ego torments all of us. Shri Shankara says this is all a
mahA svapna (a great dream) where the daily afflictions and the
tormenting by the tiger of ego are a daily feature.
Some features of this great dream are:

1. We know the last scene of this dream, i.e. killing of this tiger.
2. This dream cannot end until we kill this tiger, and the dream will
not last after we kill this tiger.

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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