Day 221

Jagrata.. Jagrata Hymn—for Meditation

Adi Shankaracharya attained Brahma Jnana at a very tender age and thereafter undertook many activities to strengthen and propagate Sanatana Dharma , the results of which we can see even today..

In almost all his works, one can see the emphasis on the ephemeral nature of the world and the need to be ever prepared to leave this phenomenal existence…Man's greatest fear is  about death... though everyone certainly knows that it is chasing all born entities as a shadow...

Acharya wanted to help the people to understand the reality and dispel this pointless FEAR of  all beings...

One of  his works on this theme is called Jagrata , Jagrata… beware..beware or alert … alert… these  eight slokas are meant for Meditation than for  mere chanting… hence , in the following few blogs each sloka is covered  separately for reflection….

The meaning is indeed very simple… hence it is all the more  necessary to contemplate on them deeply…. for long… mere reading is not intended/sufficient…
‘

माता नास्ति पिता नास्ति

 नास्ति बन्धुः सहोदरः।

अर्थँ नास्ति गृहँ नाति

तस्मात् जाग्रत जाग्रत॥-1

There is no mother, no father, no relations or brother/sister as also there is no  wealth  or house for me. Therefore always be alert… alert…

• One may think that Acharya over exaggerated by his denial of close relations in life… Did he? What is the reality?… let us ponder a moment…  
•  how many are cases (1)where couples separated at different stages of marriage, father -children got into bad blood, sibling  rivalries, where children have deprived of parents of their own houses/property etc., relations ditched people..(2) Where the total wealth/life got destroyed as in cyclones , earthquakes, tsunami, pandemic, wars, terrorism, poll violence, partition. riots, accidents ?… for each of these hundreds of case can be easily listed…. 
• Is it necessary to do that for any  thinking person ? COVID alone took some 3 M life in the last 2 years ( Country lost some 4 Lac  lives)……
•   Acharya was, therefore, dead on target…. 
• Ask those who have suffered  from such  invited or uninvited calamities-in life…..

Only one who has realized the truth about Brahman can  think   on the above lines as stated by the great Acharya…. As we are now confined to body awareness/consciousness… such an exalted thought will be difficult to entertain/come about…. at least initially…

Let us rise above the literal meaning and dive into the inner meaning... covered here... hence the need for Meditation...

Those who are on the Vedantic path will be able to “know" what the Acharya  intended by the sloka…

Let us meditate …. on its import…. slowly and deeply….

 वन्दे मातरम्

 ॐ शान्ति: 

8 30 AM