Awakening to Divine Play: Inspired by Vidyaranya’s 'Panchadashi'

Vidyaranya's Panchadashi is a classical 14th-century poetic work on Advaita Vedanta. This book, authored by Devdas Menon (Professor, IIT Madras), presents Vidyaranya's profound wisdom in a unique and lucid manner-not as a verse-by-verse translation and commentary, but as a dialogue between a Guru (Vidyaranya) and an elderly husband-and-wife couple. Their questions-on life, suffering, bondage, liberation, and fulfilment-remain as relevant today as ever. Over nine weeks, they continue to raise doubts until they gain not only intellectual clarity but also, through meditation, an experiential understanding of what it means to be fulfilled and free from suffering.

Vidyaranya demonstrates, through personal example, that a Self-realised person can meaningfully engage with the world-appearance while remaining rooted in the transcendent Ultimate Reality. Through consistent self- enquiry, meditation, and "witnessing," one progresses through various stages of spiritual development- beginning with the deluded Dehatma-bhava ("I am this body") and culminating in Sarvatma-bhava ("I am the Self in all"). Thus, one fully awakens to, and joyfully participates in, the Divine Play (Lila), recognising the immanence of Divinity and becoming free from the delusions of "doer-ship" and "otherness."