Among the means and conditions necessary for liberation, bhakti alone is considered most efficacious and this is cultivated by constant contemplation of one’s real self. Many of Adi Sankara’s devotional hymns celebrate the various forms of bhakti that the devout have practised to attain the Lord. In a verse in Sivanandalahari, the acharya drives home the point that devotional experience is to be nurtured through long and arduous sadana and that Siva’s grace alone can confer pure and staunch devotion, pointed out Swami Budhidananda in a discourse.
There is no doubt that human birth is a great fortune since it affords one the chance to aim for salvation from the cycle of birth; but there is no guarantee that all are able to tread this path. The main hurdle to self realisation is the tendency to think one is the body, mind, intellect etc. Since, right from childhood, achievement is seen as reaching worldly goals, one’s entire lifetime is focused on status, standing, birth, scholarship, penance, austerities, etc. One hardly pauses to reflect on the reality that there is an undying self within the body that needs to be recognised and cared for. That self is the essence of eternity, consciousness and bliss. It is independent of the body but because of past karma, this association with the body has resulted.
In the verse, the acharya speaks of the various forms, human, celestial, animal, bird, insect, worm, etc, drawn from the innumerable species available in creation, that one is likely to be endowed with in every birth since this is the result of an individual’s past deeds, good and bad. His prayer to the Lord is to grant that he remains totally devoted to Him. Devotion assumes wholesomeness when one renounces his identification with the body.
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