यतिवर दूरीकर्तुम् वांछसि किम् ब्रूहि गच्छ गच्छेति
Yativara dūrīkartum vāṃchasi kim brūhi gaccha gaccheti
Notes from Swami Paramarthananda’s talks
Shankara was touring all over India bare foot. He went to Kashi. He bathed in Ganga and was walking towards the temple when Lord Shiva comes in the form of a low caste person or a chandala. A chandala is a person of mixed birth (no advantage by virtue of birth) and whose habits are wild. He is uncultured and animalistic. He is a prakruta purusha (as opposed to samskrata purusha). It is said that Lord Shiva wanted to test Adi Shankara to see if he has actually transcended deha abhimana.
The story goes that Adi Shankara for a moment forgot this wisdom and got identified with this body as a superior Brahmana. His immediate reaction was ‘gaccha’ ‘gaccha’, don’t come in my way. Then Lord Shiva asks him two questions:
Q1. When you say, you go away, which ‘you’ are you talking about? Is it ‘you’ the body should go away from ‘me’ the body? Are you talking about the separation of the bodies of ours?
OR
Q2 Whey you say, ‘you’ go away, are you referring to the atma part of ours? Do you want ‘my’ atma to go away from ‘your’ atma?
In short do you want to go away from the deha or dehi? Are you talking from the anatma point of view or from atma dristhi?
Then the Lord himself says either way you answer you are wrong.
If you say you want to separate this body from that body I would say it is not a good thing because, all bodies are made up of same material. It is a bundle of chemicals (scientifically) or pancha bhuta (scripturally). Impurity, disease, old age & foul smell are common in all bodies. Therefore you cannot differentiate these two bodies.
If you are talking about the separation of the atma chaitanyam then it is wrong since there is only one chaitanyam. Thus neither the body not the consciousness can go away. Then why are you saying ‘gaccha’ ‘gaccha’.
The moment Adi Shankara heard this he knew this person is not an ordinary person. He realized that this person has only come to invoke the knowledge that I have, which, I have temporarily forgotten. This temporary forgetfulness is the compliant of every Vedantic student also. This problem is universal.
Adi Shankara is shaken up. He wakes up to his wisdom and declares these five verses. He says whoever has this wisdom is adorable and hereafter I will not say ‘gaccha’ ‘gaccha’. This is the background given in the first two verses.
Manisha Panchakam – Question 1 – MP – Intro 1-Annamayādannamaya – In Sanskrit with English Transliteration, Translation and Meaning – Adi Sankaracharya – manisha-panchakam-Q1