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Critical Appreciation of Prahasanas - Part 8

Unmattaka is redirected to give the bowl to someone worthy. While this brings in the lofty principle of charity which says to give anything only to a worthy person, from the perspective of Unmattaka what would be worthiness? Unmattaka then immediately decides that Satyasoma is the one worthy, but also calls Satyasoma as mahābrāhmaṇa which idiomatically means a vile fallen brāhmaṇa! Satyasoma again seeing the bowl literally thinks that the epithet ‘kapālin’ has come back and he is indeed worthy of that.

Prof. Sondekoppa Srikanta Sastri (Part 2)

Sastri’s students recall that he never came late for a class nor did he ever leave early. He would start off by dictating notes, which were precise and dense. Every now and then he would stop and elaborate on a point, giving explanations and clarifications. Owing to his partial deafness, he found it a challenge to listen to questions posed by students and so it appears that he cultivated the art of anticipating the question that the student would ask and answer it even as the question was being posed!

Bhagavān Vyāsa - 3

In the next verse Vyāsa describes a defining trait of great poets. He intends this as a lodestar of sorts of his work:

इतिहासप्रदीपेन मोहावरणघातिना।

लोकगर्भगृहं कृत्स्नं यथावत् संप्रकाशितम्॥ (१.९६.१०३, Kumbhakonam edition)

The great lamp of itihāsa dispels darkness in the form of stupor, ignorance, delusion. It illuminates the inner core of the world and shows it as it is.    

Moṭagānahaḻḻi Subrahmanya Shastry - A Richly Cultured Person

V Si. and Shastry always got their writings reviewed by the other. They would exchange ideas and opinions, mainly for their own clarity. Those were the years of great joy for both. V Si, in his pen portrait of Subrahmanya Shastry writes, “Whenever I recollect the discussions on literature we both had, I feel that the company of a person like him makes life light and easy…. I had never found that kind of friendliness elsewhere”.

Ch. 3 Yoga of One’s Own Dharma (Part 4)

Thus, one who leads life in the form of tapas, yajña, and dāna, does not have to hanker after mokṣa. It is readily available. By leading a life that is dedicated to the divine, he climbs above the duality caused by lust and anger. Gradually he will realize that there is something beyond worldly enjoyment and becomes eligible to see the abode of paramātmā. Then is freedom from karmic shackles.

yastvātmaratirēva syādātmatṛptaśca mānavaḥ |