Monday, October 08, 2007

Kaupina Panchakam and Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi

Koupina Panchakam, a short composition by Adi Sankara is a beautiful stotram on the glory of a sanyasi established in the Self, wearing only a kaupina (loin cloth) and living on alms. This composition applies so well to Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi.

The dispassionate one wearing a piece of loin cloth — who is roaming in the thoughts of Vedanta (Upanishad), who is satisfied by a meagre portion of begged-food, who is meditating in his inner-self without grief — is indeed blessed.1

The dispassionate one wearing a piece of loin cloth — who is sitting at the roots of a tree, who is eating unmeasured (meagre) food with his two hands, and who is disregarding wealth like a patched-cloth — is indeed blessed.2

The dispassionate one wearing a piece of loin cloth — who is elating and satisfying in his own thoughts, who is keeping quiet and curbing his sensual desires, and who is roaming day and night in the thoughts of Brahman — is indeed blessed.3

The dispassionate one wearing a piece of loin cloth — who is witnessing his body changes, who is seeing self as the aatman, and who is not remembering either the end, or the middle, or the outside one — is indeed blessed.4

The dispassionate one wearing a piece of loin cloth — who is reciting the Brahma-syllable, who is is existing with the thought ‘I am Brahman’, and who is wandering in directions for alms — is indeed blessed.5
-Adi Shankaracharya-

1 comment:

vp said...

Soo beautifully describes bhagavan ramana. Thought I was the only one thinking about him this way, but, there soo many devotes better than me in constant smarna of him