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Bhishma-stuthi-1

From the Bhakti List Archives

M K Sudarshan • June 3, 1997 


srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha
sri vedanta guravE namaha

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s",

Hasn't it struck some of you as singular that SriVaishnavism has so much to
say on "antima-smriti" ("reflection on the Lord in the moment of final
departure of the soul from the body") ?

Personally, I've never ceased to wonder at the copious references in the
literature of our "sampradAya" dealing with those final moments a man spends
in this world before he passes away to the other.

For instance, the Upanishad, while listing the 32 "bramha-vidyA-s" or
"techniques of salvation-seeking" clearly gives pride of place to
"antima-smriti" as an excellent expedient to secure spiritual liberation. 

In Ch.VIII.10 of the 'Bhagavath-Gita' the Lord, too, makes mention of
'antima-smriti' in very pointed terms:

"prayaNa-kAlE manasA-chalEna, bhaktyA yuktO yOga-balEna chaiva;
  bhruvOr madhyE prANamAvEshya samyaksa tam param purusham upaiti divyam".

(Translation : One who, in the moment of death, engages himself in devotedly
remembering the Supreme Lord will certainly attain to Godhead.)

Periya-Alwar in one of his oft-quoted "pasUram-s" ("appOdhikku-ippOdE
sollivaiythEn...".etc) graphically paints the picture of the mortal struggle
an ordinary soul puts up in the agonising moments before clinical death
occurs and of the mixed reactions of kith and kin who stand by helplessly
watching its final exit from this world.

Swami Desikan, too, in one his celebrated verses (#12) from the
"gOpala-vimshati" has poetically dealt with "antima-smriti" :

  aDharAhita charu vamsha nALA:
   makutalambi mayUra pincha mAlA:
  harinILa shilA viBhanga nILA:
   pratiBhA: santu mamAntima prayANE !!


(My free, non-literal translation):  May the Effulgent One,
                                     Whose lustre does exceed
                                     The lovely hue of blue-diamonds ...
                                     
                                     One with a Crown 
                                     All gilded with peacock finery ...
                                     
                                     One with His lips curled 
                                     In eternal kiss 
                                     Around a tuneful reed... 
                                     
                                     May that One, I pray, 
                                     Yea, that One alone,
                                     Reveal Itself to me
 
                                     In the fleeting moments 
                                     My journey ends ....


Now, reading all the above passages and references, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s",
I could not, sometimes in the past, help asking myself some UNCOMFORTABLE
questions relating to "antima-smriti" :

A) Is SriVaishnavism, as religious faith, obsessed with "dying" and "death"
in the, more or less, morbid way of some present-day "spiritual-cults" of
the world and which, reportedly, preach or prescribe, in one form or the
other, their own brand of human responses to "Doomsday" or the day of the
imminent "apocalypse" ?

B) Is pre-occupation with "antima-smriti" some sort of "death-wish" ?

C) In the parlance of modern pychology, would "antima-smriti" be regarded as
a symptom of the clinical condition known as "acute anxiety-syndrome" ?

D) When stressing that "antima-smriti" is a condition of mind which all
adherents of the Faith should desire to achieve in the final moments of
life, is Sri Vaishnavism not actually inducing "anxiety" in the hearts of
men and filling it with that most primal of human fear -- the fear of death  ?

E) If one is constantly pre-occupied with "antima-smriti" is there not
danger of he/she being afflicted with "pathological anxiety" ("bheethi")? If
one, therefore, goes through life in perrenial anticipation of the final
moments of "antima-prayANE", couldn't one be said then to possess a "sick
attitude" to life .... a sort of spiritual hypochondria ?

F) Does one's carefully cultivated yearning for "antima-smriti" make the
prospect of "dying" any less bleak and painful than it otherwise appears ?

G) If one were to cultivate a yearning for "antima-smriti" and adopt such
yearning as a life-long attitude in life (as described in the above verse
from the "gOpAla-vimshati") then does such attitude promote a cheerful
outlook in life? Or is such an attitude, which is basically "death-centred",
bound to make one's outlook in life depressive and doleful ?

These and other related questions on "death" and "antima-smriti" used to
agitate my mind, dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s", many years ago.

Then one day I sat listening to my "manaseega-guru", the revered
U.Ve.Sri.Mukkur Lakshminarasimhachariar recite and explain 11 simple
"shlOkA-s" from the "bhisma-stUthi".

I believe it helped me acquire a slightly deeper, more meaningful insight
into what SriRamanuja "siddhantam" really means by "antima-smriti".

None of us ordinary "sAdhakA-s" can, of course, claim complete knowledge of
the "brahmha-vidya" called "antima-smriti". Still, a little understanding,
or enlightenment acquired from learned and devout souls like Sri Mukkur
Swamy is surely better than none. Hence, I made an effort to seriously study
the "bhisma-stuthi" to the best of my ability. 

If you all don't mind, dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s", and with the Grace of the
Lord of the YadavA-s who appeared before Bhishma in his dying moments, I
would like to share with you all a portrayal of the "bhishma-stUthi".

srimathE srivan satagOpa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha
sudarshan