Author: Candrasekharendra Sarasvati Svami
Editor(s): S Ramakrishnan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: 606
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8172762127
Description
Pujyasri Candrasekharendra Sarasvati Svami (1894-1994) must be regarded as the greatest seer of our time. This gentle saint and mystic, whose life spanned almost the whole of the 20th century, created a spiritual and moral awakening in the land and made an immense contribution to its cultural resurgence. But he stood for all human civilization and he had a message for all mankind. He richly deserved the title of Jagadguru, as one who taught in terms of the entire universe. His devotees believe that, like Adi Sanskra before him, he too was an incarnation of Siva together with Amba. In these decades of struggle and turmoil, of conflict and hatred, he stood out as a luminous figure upholding the values of tolerance and charity and friendship and showed himself to be godly in his overflowing grace and compassion, while yet remaining intensely human.
Here we have a meeting of two great minds, a meeting of two great spirits. Here we have deep calling deep. The Saundaryalahari is by Sri Sankara Bhagavatpada (Adi Sankara) and its exposition is by Pujyasri Candrasekharendra Sarasvati Svami (the Sage of Kanci, widely known as the Mahasvami). Adi Sankara is celebrated all over the world as a great bhasyakara, as a commentator of the Upanisads, the Brahmasutra, the Bhagavadgita and other texts. Here we have a bhasya of a great hymn composed by the bhasyakara and what we call an exposition of the Saundaryalahari is indeed an inspired and inspiring work, a classic in its own right.
The Mahaswami speaks with the heart of a poet, with the penetrating insight of a philosopher and metaphysician and with the vision of a mystic. There are passages that move you with their unobtrusive eloquence, passages in which abstruse ideas are explained in a masterly fashion. There is poetry in this exposition; There is the fervour of devotion as well as profundity of thought that is oceanic in its vastness and depth.
Here we have a synthesis of bhakti and jnana, of Advaita and the Sakta doctrine. When the Sage of Kanci speaks of beauty he takes you to the sublime realms of aesthetic delight. How lofty must be his mystic vision as revealed in his identification of beauty with love and compassion. He speaks of many laharis, many waves, and his own bhasya of the Saundaryalahari is a food of beauty that traverses various systems of thought: he harmonizes them as only he can, proving again that he is an acarya with rare insights and with an original and creative mind.
Contents
FOREWORD BY SRI JUSTICE B N SRIKRSNA
PREFACE BY SRI S RAMAKRSNAN
INTRODUCTION BY DR K M MUNSHI
KEY TO PRONUNCIATION
FOR THE READER’S ATTENTION
CHAPTER
The Acarya-A Divine Incarnation
Saundaryalahari-the Crest of Devotional Poetry
The Jnanin and Devotion
The Divine Origin of the Saundaryalahari
Why the drama Enacted by Nandikesvara
Three Great Devotional Hymns
The Saundaryalahari-Its Grandeur
A Divinely Inspired Poet in Two Senses
Commentaries on the Hymns
Mother worship
Acarya for Both Paths
Siva and Hara
The First Stanza: what it teaches
Portrait of Amba
Embodiment of Time
Curing Illness
The Glory of Amba’s Chastity
Dedicating One’s All
The Two Half-Moons that Changed Places
Netra and Ksetra
The eye: Abode of he Nine Rasas
Red has its Glory
Saundaryalahari: Text in Devanagri and Roman
APPENDIX
GLOSSARY
INDEX