Timeless hymns
The birthday of Adi Shankaracharya, ancient India’s celebrated saint-philosopher, falls on Vaishakh Panchami, April 26 this year. His contribution to philosophy and as a builder of institutions is unique. But even the poetry of this 8th-century saint-sanyasi, who traversed the length and breadth of India, has few equals.
His hymns or stotras are the staple spiritual diet of many Indian families. The child who has grown up listening to these immortal lyrics on grandparents’ knees is blessed indeed, for she has a fund of rousing choruses to tide her through modern life.
Adi Shankara’s philosophical writings are the preserve of academic and religious institutions but his stotras are alive in the minds and hearts of young and old in diverse regions of the country — such is the unifying power of his bhakti and the inspirational pull of his songs.
His celebrated hymn, the Bhaja Govindam, includes verses attributed to his pupils and is an intricate web of ideas and metaphors:
Sura mandira taru moola nivaasah
shaiyya bhootalam ajinam vaasah
sarva parigraha bhoga tyaagah
kasya sukham na karoti viragah
“Living near the roots of a tree in the temple precincts, with the bare earth for a bed and deerskin for clothes, having renounced all desire for pleasures, there is no satisfaction that such detachment does not confer.”
Such meaningful musings stay with the reader because the central message is simply “Bhaja Govindam” or “worship the Lord”. So even if only these two words are recalled and repeated, one experiences the effortless thrill of Shankara’s words: “kripayaa paare paahi muraare” (We seek help in crossing the ocean of samsara; save us, O Lord).
The scholar, preceptor, philosopher, critic, commentator and poet Shankara have been widely studied. But the housewife who hums “nityaananda-kari, varaabhaya-kari” (from the hymn, Annapoornashtakam) even as she acts as nourisher of her family or the devotee who finishes his prayers with “kshantavyo maeaparaadha shiva shiva shiva bho”(Shiva-aparadha-kshamapana stotram, a forgiveness-seeking prayer) also identify deeply with Shankara’s words; steeped as they are in the spirit of surrender to the Supreme Power.
In that sense, his stotras are living teachers that reflect shades of emotions. Shankara urges the listener onto the path of unswerving devotion. He takes our minds off the unbridled pursuit of wealth and power, reminds us of the ethereal nature of life and urges us to think noble thoughts and do good deeds.
Kerala’s famous son who put the small village of Kalady on the global map lived a brief but brilliant life and is believed to have been Lord Shiva incarnate.
Raji P. Shrivastava can be reached at raji_1992@yahoo.co.in
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