Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara – Thanks to Shri Suresh P for the FB Share and Shri Srinivas for the Whatsapp share. Ram Ram
“The One remains, the Many change!”
There was a discussion with Swamigal about how famous English poets like Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson had expressed the principles of Vedanta in many places! I showed Swamigal an example of how Keats, though considered to be a Romantic poet, had spoken about Adwaita.
Swamigal replied: “Keats and Shelley should not be dubbed solely as ‘Sensual Poets’ (phrase used by Him). You gave an example of Keats. Has Shelley also spoken about Adwaita?”
I started to think but could not recollect.
Swamigal gave me a clue, “How about Shelley’s work in the poem Elegy?”
I still could not recall!
Swamigal Himelf continued, enjoying the beauty of Shelley’s words:
“The One remains, the Many change
Heaven’s Light forever Shines, Earth’s shadows Fly
… Life like a dome of many-coloured Glass
Stains the White Radiance of Eternity!”
“Is there a better way to explain the Adwaitha’ Oneness and the Illusion of Dwaitha’s Divisions?!”, said Swamigal.
*****
Narrated by the Supremely Blessed, Ra Ganapathi Anna.
224th birthday of that famous poet Percy Shelley who was born on August 4th in the year 1792 in England.
Shankara.
Categories: Devotee Experiences
Awesome! Other than Our Kanchi Maha periva nobody else could correlate Adwaita philosophy to English poems.
At one stroke, this post makes us bow our heads in reverence to Maha Periyava, Anna Sri. Ra.Ganapati and Nature poets like Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth. Mindless consumerism and forgetting simple living draw us away from realising the Truth. Maha Periyava only should Guide us and bring us back from doom. Maha Periyava ThiruvadigaLe CharaNam! Hara Hara Shankara, Jaya Jaya Shankara!
Amazing episode.
Also wonderful comments from Sri R Nanjappa
All Rounder our Periyava. Really Astonishing
Mahaperiyava is stunning in the lines He cites and the quotations He gives in any language. The above lines of Shelley are no exception.
These lines occur in the long poem “Adonis” which was an Elegy in tribute to Keats on his premature death.
The so called English Romantic poets, beginning with Wordsworth were reacting against the new kind of civilisation ( Call it ‘Progress’) that was rising, based on reasoning ( as against intuition ) , urbanisation ( as against rural values,), industrialisation ( to the denigration of agriculture and neglect and destruction of Nature } and formalised religious forms ( to the neglect of the true religious or spiritual emotion and effort.) These poets [ Wordsworth, Keats, Coleridge, Shelley, Blake, etc] turned away from these trends and celebrated Nature as the expression of God- Supernaturalism, a connectivity with Nature based on intuition which for them conveyed a high religious sense.
However, such expressions were occasional, rather like flashes of Cosmic Consciousness and were not truly/ steadily Adwaitic. Or, they failed to pursue such intuitions to the logical end..This does not detract from their merit, since as poets they were warning against the mindless plunge into a life of endless change in the name of progress based on mere reason. In this respect these poets were really ” Kavis” = Jnanis in the Indian sense, and not mere word-turners, as modern poets are,. Consider these lines:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
(William Blake ) Or
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
(Wordsworth )
This is what exactly we see in India today: a rising trend of empty rationalism, mindless consumerism seizing hold of the younger generation, life complicated in the name of science, technology and progress! We have simply forgotten to be simple, and enjoy the spontaneous joys where nature has its play! India is doing today what England did nearly two hundred years ago! The poets’ warning has been in vain!
How well Mahaperiyava reminds us!
Hara Hara Sankara Jaya Jaya Sankara.What a memory and scholarship in English,really surprised.Only Sri Maha periyava can be termed as mahagnanai. Janakiraman. Nagapattinam