Navaneetham - Guruvayoor / Guruvayur

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and tendencies. Thus, His works encompass the mind boggling range of
sUtras or commentaries on the lofty prastAna traya, namely
SrimadbhagavadgIta, Upanidhads, and BrahmasUtra at one extreme, to
the simple, catchy poetry such as ganESapancaratnam and saptapadI
stOtram at the other. But the beauty and genius of Sri Sankara’s works
lies in the fact that even in the most elementary SlOkas, He has packed
the essence of Vedanta. Thus, unlike other SlOkas, His are no ordinary
praise of the Lord.
I am far from qualified to comment on any of the myriad of
accomplishments of Sri Sankara. Scholars, Mahatmas, and Jivanmuktas
alike have written plenty of treatises on the greatness of Sri Sankara.
Nevertheless, I’d like to share a few aspects of Sri Sankara’s writings that
I have immensely enjoyed over time. In some cases, the particular
interpretations that I am sharing in these pages are those that have
occurred to me and are not necessarily based on any authoritative
commentaries. I shall, however, identify as such instances where the
interpretations are my own. I can only hope for the reader’s
understanding and ask for their forgiveness should they find my
interpretations at odds with that which is standard.
Let’s take ganESapancaratnam. Most people learn this as a young child.
Verse 4 contains the term prapancanASabhIshaNam. Literally put, it says
Lord GanESa is powerful enough to destroy the entire world. A careful
reflection reveals the possibly intended deeper purport of this term. We
learn in Vedanta that duality is an illusion born out of ignorance, which
ascribes reality to anAtma, i.e., to all things that are different from the
Self. In other words, other than the sAkshi, or the witness, the objects
and phenomena being witnessed, are not real in the sense of having
constancy over space and time. Sri Sankara Himself reinforces this with
his famous declaration drig brahma driSyam mAyA. The objects and
phenomena are in a constant flux and are thus said to be unreal. To me,
the purported meaning of prapancanASabhIshaNam is that Sri Sankara
is describing Lord GanEsa’s greatness in that He is capable of breaking
asunder the world appearance born out of dualistic illusion (in a seeker,
and consequently leading the seeker to mOkham or liberation).
Take the example of SrIrAmabhujangaprayAta stOtram. In this beautiful
stOtram, Sri Sankara sides with a devout rAmabhakta. To such a
person, why is there a need to curry the favor of anyone or anything
other than Lord Rama? Says Sri Sankara:
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