An Advaitic Allegory: Nāndī and Prastāvanā

Nāndī

Ānandarāya Makhin in this allegorical play opens this Advaitic aspect of the drama in the second Nāndī verse.

The complete and normal health throughout the life of every human being is the first and foremost requirement not only for mundane day to day life, but also, for spiritual practice. Begetting a human body, and a healthy one itself is due to the meritorious deeds of yester births of the soul.

Therefore, protecting the physical health is the first and foremost concern of the human being; through a prayer to lord Śiva the author establishes these ideas successfully thus (I.2):

prāgjanmīyatapaḥ phalaṃ tanubhṛtā prāpyeta mānuṣyakaṃ tacca prāptavatā kimanyaducitaṃ prāptuṃ trivargaṃ vinā |
tatprāpterapi sādhanaṃ prathamato deho rujāvarjitastenārogyamabhīpsitaṃ diśatu vo devo paśūnāṃ patiḥ ||

Prastāvanā

Following the second Nāndī, in the Prastāvanā portion, during the course of conversation, a few basic requisites of understanding Advaita philosophy are given when the stage-manager extols the qualities of the learned audience who were to witness the play with such a unique theme.

The stage-manager declares that association with great people eradicates completely the ignorance from the mind and knowledge of ordinary men. As a result the mind gains multi-faceted intelligence by which happiness is automatically obtained by ordinary people.

By this mental strength people gain courage to withstand any untoward situation like the severe attacks in the form for various powerful diseases (I.14):

jāḍyaṃ bhinatti janayatyadhikaṃ paṭutvaṃ sārvajṣamāvahati saṃmadamātanoti |
vidveṣivargavijayāya dhṛtiṃ vidhatte kiṃ kiṃ karoti na mahadbhajanaṃ janasya ||

The body gets cleared of the diseases and becomes healthy. As the body becomes healthy, the mind is free to involve deeply towards the goal of total liberation for the soul which is mentioned here as happiness—‘Bliss’.

To bring out successfully the Advaitic philosophy dealing with eternal Bliss/liberation, Ānandarāya Makhin aptly chooses the various concepts of Advaita as characters:–

(1) The kingdom is the human body; the hero, the king is Jīva Rājā (jīvātmā); his consort is queen-Buddhi (intellect of man); her attendant is Dhāraṇā (one of the eight aṅgas of yoga);

(2) The two ministers are Vijñāna Śarma (scientific knowledge)and Jñāna Śarma (the Eternal knowledge);

(3) Vidūṣaka the hero’s friend is personification of ignorance;

(4) Prāṇa (Vital Air) is the door keeper of the hero’s palace, i.e. heart; (5) Vicāra the analytical mind is the city (body) police man;

(6) Śivabhakti–devotion to the Lord–(psychological oriented dedicated feeling of divine affection) is the helper to Jīva to rise himself up from saṃsāra towards mokṣa;

(7) Śraddhā (faith) and Śmṛti (remembrance) are her (Śivabhakti’s) companions assisting her in the efforts in uplifting the Jīva;

(8) Kāla and Karma (Time and Action), important Advaitc concepts are witnesses;

(9) Finally Parameśvara and Parameśvarī, the Divine Couple who are the bestowers of Eternal Bliss.