🧵Just as in the world, some thief might lead a person with his eyes covered from a village(called Gandhara), and might leave him, with eyes covered and hands bound, in a forest where there are no human beings; and this person not being able to find his way calls out for
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help and just as some sympathetic person may hear his cry, then removed his blindfold & handcuffs and tells him- "Gandhara is to the north from here, go in this direction." Then having his bondage removed by the sympathetic person, goes along asking his way from village to
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village, and having been rightly advised, he reaches Gandhara. Here, two expressions are to be taken note of: The man in question would have first to secure information from some source, or other as to the path he has to follow, and secondly he must have the desire and the
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intelligence to make use of the information so gained. In the same manner, the ego is carried away by thieves in the shape of virtue, vice etc. from the Pure Being, into the forest of the body consisting of fire, water, and food filled with Vayu, bile, phlegm, blood, fat,
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flesh etc and full of all sorts of pairs of opposites like heat and cold, having his eyes covered by delusion, and fastened by the noose of a longing for wife, son, friend, cattle, relatives & objects.Then, he shouts out as "This am I',"This is my son','I am suffering pain"
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'my riches have been destroyed', 'what shall be my fate, what is my protection' - and then by a stroke of good fortune due to some of his past good deeds, he finds a sympathetic person, knowing the true Self, Brahman. This person shows him the way of recognising the
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discrepancies in this world when the ego loses all affection for worldly objects due to the removal of the bondage of illusion by means of exhortations like - 'you are not of the world,the wife,son etc do not belong to you, you are Pure Being. That thou art (तत्त्वमसि)etc.,
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then finally reaches the true Self of Being like the inhabitant of Gandhära, and becomes happy and peaceful. Adi Shankaracharya Bhagavatpada explains the whole simile in an attractive manner: The अतिजन (uninhabited woods) is the body, the real home the Atman. The bondage
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for the eyes the विषयतृष्णापाश (The noose of object craving), ब्रह्मविद् (Knower of Brahman) one loosening the bondage and showing the right path and so on. - Sri R D Karmakar
एवमेव सतः जगदात्मस्वरूपात्तेजोबन्नादिमयं देहारण्यं
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एवमेव सतः जगदात्मस्वरूपात्तेजोबन्नादिमयं देहारण्यं
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वातपित्तकफरुधिरमेदोमांसास्थिमज्जाशुक्रकृमिमूत्रपुरीषवत् शीतोष्णाद्यनेकद्वन्द्वदुःखवच्च इदं . . (छान्दोग्योपनिषद्भाष्यम् षष्ठोऽध्यायः)
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#SanatanaDharma #Sanatani #Shankaracharya #Jagadguru #Spirituality #Vedanta #Advaita #Sringeri
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#SanatanaDharma #Sanatani #Shankaracharya #Jagadguru #Spirituality #Vedanta #Advaita #Sringeri
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