manisha panchakam

Manisha panchakam is a set of 5 stanzas that record Adi Shankaracharya's realization of jnana. Bhakti is being devoted to the ‘One’ who protects, nourishes, be thankful to that ‘One’, submitting all our needs to that ‘One’, leaving to that ‘One’ to fulfill or not. jnAna is realizing that one is in everything and everyone including inside us, that one is the observer inside us and is also the observed. jnAna is the ultimate aim of true bhakti. jnAna comes of introspection.

Adi Shankara, who was propounding ‘advaita’ tattva was walking in the streets of kAsi. (kAsi is a metaphor here. kAsi could mean Universe, our body or any place where realization of the ‘self’ happens) Shankara had realized that all the divine manifestations are different forms of ‘brahman’ and was walking the path of bhakti, being devoted to ‘brahman’, through worship of different forms of divinities.

Shankara came face to face with someone whom he saw as an ‘uncouth person’. He asked the person to move out of the way. The encounter with this person made Shankara realize ‘jnAna’. Manisha panchakam records this realization of jnAna, which is the ultimate aim of true bhakti. https://www.vedabhasya.com/2020/11/manisha-panchakam.html