VIVEKA CHUDAMANI
VIVEKA CHUDAMANI
Swami Madhavananda Part 4
31. Among things conducive to Liberation, devotion (Bhakti) holds the supreme place.The seeking after one’s real nature is designated as devotion.
32. Others maintain that the inquiry into the truth of one’s own self is devotion. Theinquirer about the truth of the Atman who is possessed of the above-mentioned means of attainment should approach a wise preceptor, who confers emancipation from bondage.
33. Who is versed in the Vedas, sinless, unsmitten by desire and a knower of Brahmanpar excellence, who has withdrawn himself into Brahman; who is calm, like fire that has consumed its fuel, who is a boundless reservoir of mercy that knows no reason, and a friend of all good people who prostrate themselves before him.
34. Worshipping that Guru with devotion, and approaching him, when he is pleasedwith prostration, humility and service, (he) should ask him what he has got to know:
35. O Master, O friend of those that bow to thee, thou ocean of mercy, I bow to thee;save me, fallen as I am into this sea of birth and death, with a straightforward glance of thine eye, which sheds nectar-like grace supreme.
36. Save me from death, afflicted as I am by the unquenchable fire of this world-forest, and shaken violently by the winds of an untoward lot, terrified and (so) seeking refuge in thee, for I do not know of any other man with whom to seek shelter.
37. There are good souls, calm and magnanimous, who do good to others as does thespring, and who, having themselves crossed this dreadful ocean of birth and death, help others also to cross the same, without any motive whatsoever.
38. It is the very nature of the magnanimous to move of their own accord towardsremoving others’ troubles. Here, for instance, is the moon who, as everybody knows, voluntarily saves the earth parched by the flaming rays of the sun.
39. O Lord, with thy nectar-like speech, sweetened by the enjoyment of the elixir-likebliss of Brahman, pure, cooling to a degree, issuing in streams from thy lips as from a pitcher, and delightful to the ear – do thou sprinkle me who am tormented by worldly afflictions as by the tongues of a forest-fire. Blessed are those on whom even a passing glance of thy eye lights, accepting them as thine own.
40. How to cross this ocean of phenomenal existence, what is to be my fate, and whichof the means should I adopt – as to these I know nothing. Condescend to save me, O Lord, and describe at length how to put an end to the misery of this relative existence.
