Will The Corpse Move?

Anecdotes

oi-Staff

By Staff

Friday, January 9, 2009, 17:41

Once Adi Shankara emerging out of the Ganges after His bath came upon a widow seated by the corpse of her dead husband on the river bank. Shankara who was reciting a slokam on the oneness of creation was taken aback spotting a corpse blocking His way.

Shankara said to the woman thus : " Please remove the corpse as its blocking the way"

The woman replied, " Holy Sir please request the corpse to give way yourself and please leave me out of it"

Shankara retorted " Are you gone crazy? How could a dead body move just because I asked to? Had it the energy it would have been alive"

The woman replied " Does energy require to move for such a short distance"
Shankara further argued that an insentient corpse would not move on its own.

The lady in turn said that it is in the nature of things to change and move. " If insentient nature is capable of changes and movements in things without under the control of anything conscious, then a dead body is capable of giving way"

Adi Shankara was wonder struck at the words of the widow. It soon dawned on Him that every other form created is nothing but the manifestation of the same Brahman. Further the Brahman is responsible for all the movements and the modifications. Hence this force acts as the controller, which is the base or the substratum of universe.

As the cloud in the mind of Shankara cleared with clarity reigning it, the corpse and the widow suddenly disappeared from His sight. Realization dawned on Him that it was none other than the divine mother in Her inherent infinite grace who had appeared to provide the finishing touch to His Advaita philosophy or Non-dualism.