[Advaita-l] Sivaanandalahari - 8

[Anbu sivam2]

Sivaanandalahari - 8 (3)The meaning of these is the sun is reflected in the
water and there is motion in the water that makes the sun which is in the
sky to look like moving. In the same way due to jata bhuddhi people project
anyadevathaas as Parameswara. But in Paaramaarthika dhasa “kalpitha
kalpithayO: sambandhaayOgaath”, i.e. Parameswara is swadhasiddhan and how
can a projected devatha have connection with Him? To clarify further, how
can a projected snake on a rope have connection with a rope?

It may be asked as follows: In Geetha Sri Krishna says: “yEpyanya
devathaabhaktha yajanthE sraddhayaan vithaa:| thEpi maamEva kounthEya
yajanthyavidhipoorvakam|| Even though one does not think of Parameswara in
his worship of anyadevathaas, the worship reaches only Parameswara who is
the phaladevathaa. When such is the case why not worship anyadevathaas? Why
should those people who worship anyadevathas be denounced as mooda janas
carried away by brama? To this argument Sri Krishna assuages with the word
“avidhipoorvakam” in the above mentioned sloka in Geetha. The saasthra says:
“Shiva: Shiva: Shivaschaiva naanyadhastheethi kinchana”. If a person has the
dhruda pragnaa that it is Parameswara who is holding andacharaacharam in
respective peace and happiness, then that person would neither be a jatan
nor a braanthan. He is a parama gnaani. If a person does not have this
consciousness and if he worships anyadevathas even with sraddha the benefits
to him will be very meager and that too would not be permanent. This great
secret is given by Adhi Sankara in his Geetha Bhaashyam: “samaanE api
aayaasE maamEva na bhajanthE agnaanaath, thEna thE alpaphala bhaaja:
bhavanthi.” One may have a small doubt here. If in reality the aaraadhanas
done to anyadevathaas go to Parameswara, how can the superior phalas that
could have accrued be denied just because a person is not conscious of the
fact that his worship indeed reaches Parameswara? We reply to this with the
following example. A person lives in a house that is standing on a ground
buried with a treasure. As long as he is ignorant of this treasure he does
not have the happiness that he would otherwise have had, had he known that
he is sitting on a treasure. Again when he knows that he is sitting on a
treasure his happiness will no doubt be immense. In the same way in this
prakrthi as long as a man is not aware that all the anyadevathaas are merely
Parameswara’s vibhuthi, so long will be the meagerness and impermanence of
the phala of his worship of anyadevathaas. But as soon as he realizes that
his worship is actually the worship of Parameswara he gains Brahmaanandham
(Shivaadhanyath na kinchana).

Thus we have to realize the superiority of the consciousness of the worship
by understanding the Mahaavaakya “Pragnaanam Brahma” that teaches the
swaroopa lakshaNam of Parameswara. This in turn leads us to the realization
of ‘sivoham’ of our oneness with Parameswara in Sivaanandalahari!

Sivoham, Sivoham