96. शङ्काद्रिभिदुरोपमः Śaṅkādri-bhiduropamaḥ

One who was like a thunderbolt to the mountain of doubts

Śaṅka, doubt, is a formidable obstacle to progress towards knowledge. It is hence presented here as analogous to adri, a mountain. No explosive milder

254 96. Śaṅkādri-bhiduropamaḥ than a bhidura, thunderbolt, is capable of blasting this mountain to smithereens. His Holiness was bhidura-upama, equivalent to a thunderbolt, to the mountain of doubts. This unequivocally asserts that He was Himself beyond doubts and was eminently capable of dispelling others’ doubts.

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On many occasions, His Holiness spontaneously said something that put a disciple’s doubts to rest even before the disciple posed any question to Him.

A disciple who was translating into English Śrī Sadāśiva Brahmendra’s gloss, Yoga-sudhākara, on Sage Patañjali’s Yoga-sūtras, came across a verse in it that means, “Having dissolved Prakṛti in its entirety in a sequence which is the reverse of that of its origination, one must contemplate on the residual entity, which is pure existence, consciousness and bliss.”²⁴⁸ He wished to have His Holiness’s clarification regarding this.

That evening, His Holiness was seated on a rock in a coconut grove in the Shankara Math at Bengaluru and the disciple sat near Him on the ground. No one else was present there. Not wanting to disturb Him, the disciple did not pose his doubt to Him. His Holiness closed His eyes for a while and then melodiously chanted a verse of Bhagavatpāda’s Brahmānucintana, which means, “Pṛthvī (earth) should be dissolved in āpas (water), āpas in tejas (fire), tejas in vāyu (air) and vāyu in ākaśa (space). Ākaśa should be merged into avyakta (the subtlest material cause); avyakta, in its turn, must be merged in the pure Absolute (Brahman). I am the Absolute, the dissolver of all.”²⁴⁹ The disciple was delighted to note that His Holiness had taken up a verse that paralleled the verse that he had in mind.

Of His own accord, His Holiness began to expound the import of what He had cited. He said, “One starts with something gross, say pṛthvī (earth). Then one analyses, ‘Pṛthvī has no existence apart from its material cause, āpas (water), just as a pot has no existence apart from its cause, mud.’ This is the ‘dissolution’ of pṛthvī in āpas. One proceeds in a similar manner till one reaches avyakta. One then reflects, ‘This too has no existence apart from the Ātman, just as a snake that is misapprehended in the place of a rope has no existence apart from its substratum, the rope.’ This is the intended merging of avyakta into the Supreme. Finally, only the Supreme remains. There is no question of dissolving It in anything and one meditates that one is this Ātman.”

By His Holiness’s spontaneous exposition, He fully clarified what the disciple had wished to know from Him.

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Sri Ramasubramanya Iyer of Tirunelveli recollected, “By virtue of His deep insight and mastery over the scriptures, His Holiness could resolve the doubts of disciples in a trice. My personal experience bears testimony to this. I once got a doubt with regard to a verse of the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. Though I went through the commentary with care and also pondered over the import for long, there appeared to be a dichotomy in the teachings contained in the verse. Unable to resolve the issue, I sought His Holiness’s clarifications. He lent me a patient ear. Then He smilingly remarked, ‘The issue is quite simple, for both saguṇa and nirguṇa aspects have been spoken of.’ The reply might appear terse to others, but to me it was a revelation. The doubt vanished and I saw the verse in a new light.”

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