Two saints, two songs, but one heart-beat

Two saints....separated by more than a thousand years, two completely different works and yet, the more we look at them, the more alike they seem...both in content and in wording.
Adi Shankara has a written a prakarana grantha (preliminary text) on Vedanta called Atma Bodha. In this work of 68 verses, there is one verse (verse 50) where he has used the metaphor of the Ramayana.
Sadashiva Brahmendra was a saint and composer who lived in the 18th century. One of his famous compositions, which is often sung in Carnatic music concerts is the piece "khelati mama hridaye". This composition too uses the analogy of the Ramayana.
In this essay, we want to ponder over these two poems and see the striking similarity between them. In addition, using the same framework provided in these two works, we would like to take select quotes from the Upanishads and present the story of the Ramayana...as a subjective journey that every spiritual aspirant has to go through.

First, we present the two works under discussion:

Atma Bodha verse 50:

Teertvaa moha mahaarnavam
hatva raaga-dveshaadi raakshasaan
yogi shaanti samaayuktah
Aatmaaraamo viraajatey

This verse presents the journey of a spiritual aspirant using the metaphor of the Ramayana.
"Crossing (teertvaa) the ocean of delusion (moha mahaarnavam), and having destroyed (hatva) the raakshasaas in the form of binding likes and dislikes (raaga dvesha), the yogi (the qualified spiritual aspirant) gets united (samaayuktah) with peace (shaanti) and shines/enjoys (viraajatey) as the Self (aatma raama)".

The imagery is self explanatory. The jeeva (the individual) is the Self in reality (atma-rama). Peace (shanti) is his very nature, his better-half (Sita), as it were. Ravana comes in the form of binding likes and dislikes (raaga-dvesha) and loots this peace away. Peace recedes even further...and lies imprisoned beyond an ocean of delusion (moha mahaarnavam).  Alas! The individual gropes for peace in the forest of samsara.
How must he regain his exalted, pristine status? Every seeker has to go through the story of the Ramayana as a personal, subjective journey.

Sadashiva Brahmendra's "Khelati mama hridaye":

khelati mama hridaye raamah, 
khelati mama hridaye.......
moha mahaarnava taaraka kaari
raaga-dvesha mukhaasura maari
shaanti videha suta sahachaari
daharaayodhya nagara vihaari
paramahamsa saamraajyodhaari
satya gnyaanaananda shareeri 
khelati mama hridaye.......

A running meaning would be:

Rama dances (khelati) in my heart (mama hridaye). 
He is the one who helps me cross (taaraka kaari) the huge ocean of delusion (moha mahaarnava).
He is the one who helps to destroy asuras in the form of my own raaga-dveshas.
With this, I regain peace (shaanti). Here, Sita is equated with peace. A special epithet is used for her- She is Vaidehi, "videha suta", princess of the Kingdom of Videha. (Sita's father Janaka was well known as a grihastha gnyaani. And as videha suta, Sita is an inheritor of that peace.)
There after, I shall live happily (vihaari) in Ayodhya, that city which can never be destroyed (yoddhum ashakyaa ayodhya). Where is this Ayodhya?  It is in my own heart/mind (hence, dahara ayodhya).
And what kind of place is this Ayodhya? It is a heart/mind where dharma flourishes. An empire (saamraajya) where noble people (paramahamsas/sanyasis/noble thoughts) are protected.
Finally, Rama, who helps me accomplish all this, and who dances in my heart, what is his nature? How does he look? He is  "satya-gnyaana-aananda shareeri". That Rama is my own Self, my Higher Nature, Atma whose swarupa is "satyam-gnyaanam-anantam" as the Upanishads declare.

It is easy to see how similar these two poems are. Sadashiva Brahmendra seems to have had this Atma Bodha verse in mind and he has embellished it with a few more ideas. In keeping with this presentation of the Ramayana as a personal journey, we can now take a few more ideas from the Ramayana and see how they fit into this framework.

Vana-vaasa in the Ramayana:

There is a verse in Adi Shankara's Dhanyaashtakam as follows:

"aadau vijitya vishayaan mada moha raagah
dveshaadi shatruganam aahrta yoga raajyaah
gnyaatvaa matam samanubhuuya paraatma vidyaam
kaantaa sukham vanagrihe vicharanti dhanyaah"

In this verse, Adi Shankara lays out the journey of a seeker. Like the previous verses, a seeker starts off by cultivating a life of values. As part of this, he says "mada moha raaga-dvesha shatruganam vijitya" (having won over enemies in the form of mada, moha and raaga-dvesa). This is the same as the previous two verses we saw. The seeker then enters the portals of gnyaana yoga and does atma vichara (gnyaatva matam samanubhuya paratma vidyaam). And this gnyaana/vidya sukham  (the consequent happiness) is what gives him company like a spouse (kaantaa)... even in the forest.
The vana-vaasa in the Ramayana...is as it were...condensed in this verse. The asuras that Rama killed in the forest are these "aasuri sampat" (negative traits) in our own minds. Rama and Sita lived in bliss for the first 13 years of their forest life. And that mutual happiness is likened to the vidya-sukham that a gnyaani ("dhanyaah" in this verse) derives. Hence, it is said "kaantaa sukham vanagrihe vicharanti dhanyaah". It is similar to the happiness mentioned in Yati Panchakam - "vedaanta vaakyeshu sada ramantah" (deriving happiness from the words/message of vedanta).
Vana vaasa does not have to be taken literally. It simply means that wherever a gnyaani is, he does not feel loneliness, whether in a city or in a forest.
Hence, in our subjective Ramayana, vana-vaasa can be taken as the ability to live...even in seclusion....with the happiness derived from the message of vedanta.


The "golden deer" in the Ramayana:

The Maayaavi Maareecha take the form of a golden deer. Sita is fascinated and desires to have the deer as a pet. Rama goes after the deer in pursuit. The deer leads him further and further into the forest. An exhausted Rama comes back only to find that Sita is missing. We are familiar with all this. In keeping with the idea provided by Adi Shankara and Sadashiva Brahmendra, can the "golden deer" be seen in a subjective way? Interestingly, we find a few verses related to this topic.

Why "golden" ?

The Ishaavasya Upanishad has this verse:
"hiranmayena paatrena satyasyaapitam mukham...
tat twam pushan apaavrnu....satya dharmaaya drishtaye"

The devotee looks at the sun and says that "your golden frame" (hiranmayena paatrena) is so fascinating that it has hoodwinked me and "covered the Truth" (satyasyaapitam mukham). He prays to the sun to remove this covering (apaavrnu) so that he can rediscover the Truth, his own essential nature.
Sita's fascination for the "golden" deer is similar. It covers her senses as it were and she succumbs to that temptation, only to lose the abiding Truth in her life (Rama).

In a way, her "bahir-mukhatwam" ("attention outside") led to her downfall. We are reminded of that verse from the Katha Upanishad:

"paraanchikhaani vyatrnat svayambhu....
tasmaat paraang pashyati...na antaraatman"

The creator (svayambhu) has naturally created our sense organs "turned outward" so that our attention is always on external objects (paraang pashyati)..so that the Self which is always with us (the antaraatman) is lost sight of. Consequently, like Sita, we also suffer.

The concept of "mriga trishna":

The deer in the Ramayana reminds us of the "mriga trishna" metaphor in Vedanta. The deer living on the fringes of the desert feels thirst. It sees the mirage water in the sands of the desert and runs towards it. The search must necessarily be futile. The deer is led deeper and deeper into the desert, till it dies out of sheer exhaustion. 
We are reminded of the line from the Shiva Mahimna stotra:
"Na hi svaatmaaraamam vishaya mriga-trishnaam bhramayati" - The one who revels in his own Self (svaatmaaraamam) does not get lost (bhramayati) in the vishayas of the world as the mriga-trishna does.

Why deer?

Lord Shiva is called "mriga dhara". Popular iconography of Lord Shiva shows him holding a deer on his finger tips. Sometimes, the deer is beside him and he feeds the deer (as in the image of Shiva as Bhikshaatana). The deer depicts our mind...which frolics all over. After all, as Arjuna says, "chanchalam hi manah krishna", the mind is chanchala...unsteady all the time. Like Sita, we will necessarily suffer if we ride along with our mind. Lord Shiva as the mriga-dhara comes to our aid. We surrender unto Him and allow him to tame our mind and make our mind....his!

Hanuman- the embodiment of bhakti:

If samsara is an ocean, we can never hope to cross it on our own...to find Sita, that elusive peace which lies beyond it.  Ishvara's anugraha is required all the way- to develop an interest for moksha, to develop the required mental qualifications like shama, dama etc. and to find a Guru. Ishvara's anugraha can be tapped only through bhakti. Cultivating bhakti thus becomes mandatory in our journey. And what better model for bhakti than the daasya bhaava exemplified by Hanuman?

Any number of verses can be taken for bhakti. We take a verse here from the "guru paaduka stotram" which shows bhakti towards the Guru. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to take a verse which shows bhakti towards Ishvara would be a natural question. There is a reason for this. The guru is non separate from Ishvara. As the Shvetashvatara Upanishad says "yasya deve paraa bhakti yathaa devey tathaa gurau", bhakti towards the guru is as efficacious as towards the Lord. Secondly, for the seeker who has no direct access to Ishvara, the Guru becomes a conduit as it were. Lastly, in advaita siddhaanta, there is no moksha without gnyaanam (knowledge). The guru's role in communicating this knowledge is unparalleled. Hence, the importance of guru-bhakti.

The verse in question talks about samudra taranam. It reminds us of Hanuman's bhakti and his heroic deeds in the story.

"ananta samsaara samudra taara 
naukayitaabhyaam gurubhaktidaabhyaam
vairaagya saamraajyada-pujanaabhyaam
namo nama shri gurupaadukaabhyaam"

Our prostrations to the sandals (paaduka) of our guru. The sandals assume the role of a boat (nauka) and ferry us across the ocean of samsaara (samudra taara). And what is the benefit of this worship? We get vairaagya (contentment) and moksha saamraajya (empire of moksha) itself.
Since we are relating everything to Ramayana, the word "saamraajya" immediately takes us to Tyagaraja's song: "Raama bhakti saamraajya"!


Setu-bandhana in the Ramayana:

Rama built a bridge over the ocean, all the way to Lanka, conquered Ravana and won back Sita. Surprisingly, we find references to the "bride over the ocean" (setu) in the Upanishads too.
The Mundaka Upanishad says:

"yasmin dyau prithvi cha antariksham
otam manah sah praanaishcha sarvaihi 
tameva ekam jaanatha aatmaanam
anyaa vaacho vimunchatha
amritasya esha setuhu"

"Know that aatma, which is One (tameva ekam jaanatha aatmaanam). That is the bridge (setu) to cross the ocean of samsaara and claim immortality (amritam), which is our very nature."

Atma gnyaanam is pointed here as the bridge to cross the ocean of samsaara. The Hanuman Chalisa says: "prabhu mudrika meli mukh maahi...jaladhi laanghi gaye achraj naahi". How did Hanuman get the strength to cross the ocean? He had "prabhu mudrika" with him- Rama's signet ring. It can be taken as the power of Rama nama or Atma gnyaanam itself (like the Upanishad says above).

Rama, the dhanurdharah:

"Raamah shastrabhrtaam aham" - Krishna says. "Of all the wielders of the bow, I am Rama, the best  amongst archers." How can we relate to the metaphor of Rama, the archer, in our subjective journey?
We are reminded of the "archer imagery" in the Mundaka Upanishad.
"pranavah dhanu" (Omkara is the bow), "sharah aatma" (the jeevatma is the arrow), "brahma tan lakshyam" (the target is Brahman/the Self)...and what is the result upon releasing the arrow? "sharavat tanmayah bhavet" (the arrow gets inseparably lodged (tanmayah) in the target...so too, the jeeva, the individual, discovers his intrinsic identity with Brahman, the total).

Ravana- the senses running amok:

Ravana, the ten-faced demon denotes our sense organs running amok. We have "five gnyaanendriyas" (organs of knowledge) and "five karmendriyas" (organs of action) making it a total of ten. Each one pulls us in a different direction, leading to our eventual doom. And backing these ten organs is a disoriented "mind" (manas) and a fickle "intellect" (buddhi).   
We are reminded of the famous "chariot metaphor" from the Katha Upanishad.

"yastu avignyaanavaan bhavati 
ayuktena manasaa sadaa
tasya indriyaani avashyaani
dushta ashvaa iva saarathehe"

If the intellect is uninformed (avignyaanavaan) about the lasting goal of life, if the mind is loose (ayukta), if the senses run riot (indriyaani avashyaani), then the chariot is certain to crash by the wayside. This is Ravana- our own false values dragging us to the edge of the precipice and the inevitable fall!

"man se raavan jo nikaale, raam uske man mein hai":

A student of Vedanta sees Vedanta everywhere...sometimes, in the most unexpected place. Our subjective interpretation of Ramayana takes us to a song from the Hindi film "Swades"! It says "man se raavan jo nikaale, raam uske man mein hai". This line is most appropriate and had to be a part of this essay. In our subjective Ramayana, as this song says, Ravana and Rama are actually found in the same locus, in the same mind.
The Upanishad talks about two birds present on the same tree (samaaney vrikshey): One noble and stately (the Self) and the other (the ego) which needlessly suffers (aneeshaya shochati). But when the ego identifies itself with the Self, it becomes free (veeta shokah).

So too, our false values create a Frankenstein, a Ravana as it were, and in the very same mind, now ridden of these false elements, we recognize Rama. After all, doesn't the Upanishad say "yo veda nihitam guhaayaam" That Truth has to be recognized in one's own mind (guhaa) ?

This essay can go on! For now, with these select ideas, we close this topic! It is our privilege to have had the opportunity to think of Adi Shankara, Sadashiva Brahmendra, the Ramyana and the entire body of vedantic literature!