Śaṅkara Charitam – a re-telling – Chapter-11 – Patañjaliṃ-Gaudam-Govindaṃ

Patañjaliṃ-Gaudam-Govindaṃ

Chandra Śarmā^[1]came running into the thousand-pillared hall of the grand Thillai Natarāja Sabha of Chidambaram – the “Chit-Ambala-Sabha” – the great gathering of supreme consciousness. He saw little heaps of smoldering ash-strewn across the hall and a chill ran down his spine. What had happened? He had stepped out for only one Muhūrta^[2]and had hoped that no one would notice his absence. He had been bored listening to the voice that had spoken continuously from behind the screen and had wanted to step away to catch a whiff of fresh air. He had come back now and the scene had changed completely. He looked around and then carefully tiptoed across the hall of a thousand pillars, the Rāja Sabha – he was afraid he would step on the smoldering heaps of ash – something told him that these mounds of ash were remnants of the students who had been studying with him less than an hour ago!

He peered into the darkness and managed to discern a figure sitting, at the far end of the hall, in padmāsana. He had a white cloth covering his lower half. His upper body was mostly bare except for a strip of cloth that hung from his shoulders and a rudrākṣa-māla that adorned his neck. As he walked closer, he noticed that the figure was a sage who had his eyes closed and was deep in meditation. Not knowing what to do, the boy Chandra Śarmā sat down in front of this sage and waited patiently for him to open his eyes.

Meanwhile, the sage with his eyes closed was ruminating over all that had transpired and how things had changed in such a quick time. All his carefully laid out plans had come to nought and he worried how he would be able to set things right again. This sage was actually Patañjali Mahaṛṣi author of the Pātañjalayogasūtras and the Mahābhāṣyaṃ, an ancient treatise on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics, based on the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. He had wanted to teach the Mahābhāṣyaṃ to a thousand students at the same time. When he had sent out the message, a thousand students had gathered in a matter of a few days. Who would want to miss an opportunity to learn at the feet of one of the greatest Gurus of all time? There was one problem though. How was Patañjali Mahaṛṣi going to teach a thousand students at the same time? It would be only possible if Patañjali Mahaṛṣi reverted to his original form of Ādiśeṣa with a thousand hoods and a thousand tongues (fangs) that he could speak through.

Ādiśeṣa however, is an ugra-rūpa^[3]– few can withstand the heat of the agni emanating from his eyes or the toxic fumes from his fangs. Patañjali on the other hand was a Śānta-svarūpa^[4] of that ugra-rūpa. Patañjali therefore, came up with a compromise formula – he would assume the form of Ādiśeṣa but sit behind a curtain that would shield him from the students. He also imposed two conditions – one in the form of a terrible curse that he pronounced, a curse that would automatically come into effect if the students violated the first condition – no one must get up and walk away during the sessions being conducted by Ādiśeṣa without prior permission or outside the norms of the pre-determined and designated session-breaks – anyone who broke this rule would become a Brahmarākṣasa^[5]. The second condition imposed by Ādiśeṣa was that on no condition should the screen that veiled him from the student’s view be withdrawn or removed – the consequences would be catastrophic.

The human condition being what it is and the tendency of most human beings to defy instructions coupled with the natural curiosity that makes us all so uniquely human, could not be controlled and came into play here too. A group of particularly curious and boisterous boys spoke and whispered amongst themselves during one of the designated session breaks – one of them told the others that surely there must be some trick at play here, how was it possible for one person to be instructing a thousand students simultaneously – was it black magic or something even more devious and evil? They decided that they must find out. One of the boys volunteered to go ahead and withdraw the screen that veiled the strange being that seemed to be speaking from behind it. Therefore, when the next session commenced, this boy, egged on by his friends went ahead and pulled the screen open – immediately noxious fumes started to fill the hall and fire leapt out of the eyes of the gigantic coiled being seated within – in a matter of minutes it was all over – the mounds of ash were testimony to the tragic event that had unfolded. A grand event had been reduced to a catastrophic tragedy that had led to the death of so many young people.

Patañjali let out a long and painful sigh that was a combination of annoyance, anger, despair, and sadness. His carefully laid out plan to build a large team of subject matter experts in the field of Sanskrit grammar and linguistics by transferring all of his knowledge through the Mahābhāṣyaṃ had been reduced to ashes, quite literally. He slowly opened his eyes and was surprised to see the young boy Chandra Śarmā sitting there and looking up into his eyes with an expression that was a combination of fear, awe, amazement, and expectation. He realized that his prayers had been answered in a way – there was at least one boy who had survived the tragedy – in defying condition one of Patañjali in the form of Ādiśeṣa, the boy had incurred the curse of becoming a Brahmarākṣasa but had survived the fiery death the other 999 students had endured by sheer luck and the play of fate – a play that would redefine the very course of history and Dharma!

This boy Chandra Śarmā had traveled thousands of kilometers from the Bengal region of what used to be called “Gauda Deśa” in ancient times. Typically, in the olden days, Bhārata had been divided into two halves with the Vindhyas as the dividing line between the two halves. The region above the Vindhyas was called Gauda Deśa and the region below the Vindhyas, Drāvida Deśa. Furthermore, both Gauda Deśa and Drāvida Deśa had five divisions each – Pañca-Gauda consisting of the Sāraswats originally from Kashmir, the Kanya Kubjas of UP, Punjab etc., the Maithilās of the Nepal and Bihar regions, and Uthkalas of Orissa – apart from these four, those that remained were the pure Gaudas which referred to the Bengalis of the Bengal region – the boy Chandra Śarmā came from this region of Bengal and would later come to be known as the great Gauḍapāda, the Guru of Śaṅkara’s Guru – Govinda Bhagavatpāda. The Pañca-Drāvidas refer to the regions and the people coming from the regions of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.

Patañjali looked at the boy Chandra Śarmā once again and realized that the boy wasn’t very bright and it would take a long time for him to teach him and there wasn’t enough time now. A lot of time had already been wasted. The only solution that would work now was a “transfer of knowledge” from Guru to Śiṣya through the process of “Anugraha Śakti” – the transfer of Jñāna and Tapo-Baḷa from Guru to Śiṣya by the Guru.

Śaṅkara

Meanwhile, the boy Śaṅkara, who had been walking for several weeks was now approaching his destination. He was exhausted and little rivulets of sweat traced a path through the dust and sand that covered his body. Something told him that he was close to his destination, he observed the deer skins and ochre robes hanging from the trees and gathered that he had reached a hermitage. He sat under the cool shadow of the trees that lined the path to the hermitage and then bathed in the cold waters of the Narmada. He then made enquiries among the ascetics living around the area and gathered that he was indeed close to his destination and that he had to walk a little further along the same path to a cave whose mouth was only a cubit in width – roughly the length of an adult forearm, anywhere between 18 to 20 inches in length – the sage he was looking for lived deep within the bowels of this cave.

To be continued…

Postscript

In chapter-1, the prevailing state of adharma at the time of Śaṅkara-avatāra was discussed and the rationale and need for an avatāra-puruṣa were clarified. In chapter 2 the prelude to Śaṅkara-avatāra and Śaṅkara’s parents were covered and in chapter-3 the promise of the descent was detailed. Chapter-4 was about the victory of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa. Chapter-5 is about Maṇḍana Miśhra and Bhārati’s love for each other and the descent of Śaṅkara. Chapter-6 is about the death of Śaṅkara’s father and the marriage of Maṇḍana Miśhra and Bhārati. Chapter-7 is about the genius of Śaṅkara and how as a five-year-old he composed the Kanakadhārā stōtram. In chapter-8, events preceding and foreshadowing Śaṅkara’s Saṃnyāsa are covered. In chaper-9 continues the process of Śaṅkara’s Saṃnyāsa and also summarizes the different types of Saṃnyāsa and how it is taken up depending on the context. In the Chapter-10, Śaṅkara starts his life as a saṃnyāsi and takes his first steps toward his Guru, his destiny.

Go to the links below to read the chapters:

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[1] Adapted from “The Voice of God”, Volume-5. Pages: 396-400.

[2] Muhūrta: Unit of time. It works out to approximately 48 minutes or one-thirtieth of a solar day

[3] Ugra-rūpa – literally fearsome form of a deity

[4] Śānta-svarūpa – the benign and benevolent form of a deity

[5] Brahmarākṣasa – A group of beings similar to Paisāchas and belonging to the Rākṣasa-Jāthi. Usually, a Brahmin who has completed his Veda adhyayana (studies) but has now fallen into evil ways. These beings move around in disguise and beguile and fool other Brahmins, lead them away and then kill and feed on them.