24.12.2009
CHAPTER 16
Ashtavakra says:
Achakshav shrurhu va 0tatt nanshastrarhianekshah I
Tathaapi na tav svasthayam sarvisamarhadrite II
Bhogam karan samadhim va kuru vigyah tathapi te I
Chittam nirastsarvashamartyartham rochayashayati II (1-2)
You may study all the Holy Scripture or listen to their injunctions but you will not be free till you drop brooding over this or that.
Oh Learned! You may enjoy, act or meditate but yoou shall get peace on being completely desire less.
Desire less ness can be achieved by shedding attachment and identification. Whatever is seen in this universe is transient and superimposition of self. In last chapter Ashtavakar has mentioned that thoughts and desire are mental exercise and mind does not belong to self. Merely identification of self with material nature in form of body, mind, intellect and senses has created this cobweb wherein self is trying to find out a way out but millenniums have passed, it has not succeeded in finding liberation. Desire, lust and anger are causing all this bondage.
aayasatsaklo saklo dukhi nainam janati kashchan I
anenaivouodeshen dhanyah prapnoti nirvritim II (3)
Practice of obtaining satisfaction through senses in association with their objects (three modes are Senses, doer and action) is cause of misery for all beings but no one is ready to accept this bare fact. A pure hearted soul becomes wise by merely hearing this much of message.
vyapare khidayate yastu nimeshounmeshenyprapi I
tasyalasaydhurirhasya sukham nanasy kasychit II (4)
A embodied self soul who is distressed even on eye blinking, (Acceptance of material reaction causes him discomfort) that master lazy is extremely happy.
idamkritamidam neti duvandermuktam yada manah I
dharmarthkammoksheshu nirpekshayam tada bhavet II (5)
When mind is free form dualities of this is done, this is not done and then one becomes indifferent to materialism, religion, lust and liberation.
Lord Krishna says inverse 3 of chapter 5 in Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta:
geyayah sa nitya sanyasi yo na dveshathati na kankshayati I
nidavadvo he mahabaho sukham bandhat muchayate II (5.3)
The Karamyogi who neither hates nor desires is considered renouncer. He who is free from pair of opposites is easily freed.
Lord says that the doer who has lost attachment with actions and performs them as a duty towards divine self present in all beings is devoid of hatred and love towards all beings. He sees everything full of Lord and every moment filled with his memory. Such soul is free while living in the embodiment and doing all deeds. As soul is not doer but assuming itself to be the doer, it has invited limitless bondage. Only way to get rid of this cycle is to break clutches of attachment with actions and it be presumed that all actions are being done by Lord, for the Lord and they belong to Lord and soul through this body is an instrument only.
All duties, consisting of specific rites, of those belonging to caste, creeds and other orders of life if attended with devotion to Lord become supreme and conducive to liberation.
virakto vishatdveshtha ragi vishay lolupah I
grahmokshviheenastu na virakto na ragwan II(6)
A renouncer hates sense objects and one who is attached to them always longs for them but one who neither hates nor desires them is witness neutral.
Lord Krishna says in Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta
Yada hi naindrarthesshu na karamsuanushajte I
Sarvasankalapsanyasi yogaarhuastaduchayte II (6.4)
When an embodied soul ceases to have any attachment either with sense objects or for actions and he has renounced all thoughts of world, he is stated to have climbed the heights of yoga.
Yoga is not to be confused with body exercise that may be one form to keep body fit and ready to meet any eventuality of body being inflicted with disease or a bodily attack. But renunciation is yoga when embodied soul neither has an attachment with objects of senses nor for actions and their fruit, it is complete renunciation of thoughts of world. He who has attained non-attachment for sense objects and actions is stated to have attained supreme yoga.
heyoupadeiyta tavat sansarvitapankurah I
spiriha jeevati yavadvai nirvichardashaspadam II (7)
As long as there is aspiration, there is material world out of ignorance. Aspiration enacts attachment or detachment
parvrito jayate rago nrivrite duvesh eiv hi I
nirduvandvo balbadhimanamev vyavastithah II (8)
Immoderation indulgence with sense objects causes attachment and aversion creates hatred, but wise lives like an innocent child neither hates nor desires to indulge.
Lord Krishna says in chapter 4 of Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta:
Gatsangasya muktasya gyan avasithatchetsah I
Yagyacharatah karam samagram pravaliyate II (4.23)
With all out detachment to actions, thus free from attachment with mind, senses and body, well established in knowledge of self and who works only for the sake of sacrifice, all his actions become fruitless.
Now the attachment to actions and their fruits being completely vanished from mind, self soul being free from all opposite effects like heat and cold, pleasure and pain, so many likes and dislikes, emanating from attachment with mind, intellect, senses and body, that self soul is well established in knowledge of ‘self’ even appearing to be doing all acts for the sake of sacrifice, does not actually acts and his all acts become fruitless just like burnt up seeds which cannot sprout.
This soul has attained its supreme ‘Awareness’ that I am consciousness, living entity and not this body.
It is Sat-Chit-Anand”, pure consciousness, the infinite reality.
Not the doer, which is nature and he is onlooker witness, attains self realization. Even while performing duties coming naturally, this self soul as a waked dreamer or sleeper blissfully and effortlessly abides in the awareness of the self.
Barahmaarparham baraham havirbarahamagno barahamarha hutam I
Barahamev tein gantavyam barhamkaramsamadhina II (4.24)
In practice to see Braham (Supreme Self) every where as a form of sacrifice, Braham is the spoon (wooden ladle with which oblation is poured in fire) etc; Braham again is the oblation; Braham is the fire, sacrificer is Braham; Braham constitutes the act of pouring oblation into the fire; Braham is the goal to be reached by him who is absorbed in Braham.
The self soul has attached itself with cause and effects of nature.
Supreme soul is not knowledgeable like any transitory object.
It is not perceptible with eyes like a green leave or taste able with tongue or hearable with ear nor it can be caught by hands, it can’t be reached by foot or any vehicle but it can be felt within one self
These are unreal things and are constantly under the scanner of death overlooking on all beings.
Herein lies the wisdom of the wise, and cleverness of the intelligent, that in this very birth they attain ‘self’, the real and immortal, by means of something that is unreal and mortal
Hatumichhatib sansaram ragi dukhjihayasa I
Veetrago hi nirdukhastasminapi na khidyati II (9)
A person involved in material world desires renunciation to get rid of its miseries but wise being freed from attachment transgresses effect of miseries.
Lord Krishna has repeatedly told in his divine message that self soul is my eternal fragment and he also says that as life, as consciousness he is seated in the heart of all beings as witness. He is no attachment with actions of creating, sustaining and destruction of world.
He confirms in chapter 4 of Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta:
Na mam karmarhi limpanti na mei karamfale spriha I
Eti mam yoabhijanati karambhirna sa badhayate II (4.14)
Since I have no craving for the fruit of actions, actions don’t pollute Me. Even he who thus knows Me in reality, is not bound by actions.
Actions, as earlier enunciated by the lord, have no binding force in themselves, rather they liberate the self soul from bondage, but it is the attachment which tends to bind the self soul to nature causing an unlimited cycle of life and death. To end this imbroglio, the self soul has to act in nature, but without attachment. Lord in process of creation, maintenance, and destruction of universe, puts nature in action and he neither acts nor he attaches himself to these works of creation, maintenance and destruction. But the conditioned self soul identifies itself with acts of nature and desires fruits of these actions. Being ‘doer’ it has to under go transmigration to cleanse itself.
Doing actions and sacrificing them to lord is the salvation. The self soul when comes to know the truth that he is soul and is not the doer he is free from bondage.
Evam gyatva kritam karam purverapi mumukshubhih I
Kuru karmaiv tasmattuavam purvtaram kritam II (4.15)
Having known thus, actions were performed even by the ancient seekers for emancipation; you also take to actions like those performed by ancients.
Those who wanted liberation they did performed their duties without attachment. They, thereby, were liberated. They knew the principle of non attachment. With their past deeds having exhausted their fruits in the form of actions, they were liberated self souls. They attained eternal bliss of union with ‘supreme self’ Lord Krishna.
Actually self soul is free and even seated in every embodiment.
Yasyaabhimano moksheapi deheapi mamata tatha I
Na ch yogi na va gyani kawalam dukhaabh gasso II(10)
He who claims himself to be free and is also loves his body, he neither wise nor he is liberated but he deserves to undergo his own miseries.
Haro yadiupdishta te hari kamaljoapi va I
Tathapi na tav svasthayam sarvavisamrarhadrite II (11)
Unless you attain stillness of mind, you can not liberate despite being bestowed either by Lord Shiva or Lord Krishna or even by
Brahma.
Ashtavakar has directly hit the root of disease. Desire once cropping in mind creates ripple and chain of desires. The desire or aspiration in mind is the root cause of this transitory material world which is not the real abode of self soul. It is servitor of Lord Krishna, it is awareness. It is not body. Body is a bag full of mishaps which tale plays at an opportunate time even if one does not desire.
Mind is the root cause of this world which self has created by attachment with nature by way of its three qualities.
By self control of mind and senses, they attain knowledge of self by experiencing it within their heart.
The self is always within this embodiment but human beings are not experiencing it, why?
One desires to be happy but one is not happy because one has mind full of desires and expectations. One works for freedom but freedom is elusive. Freedom and happiness are what one wants but in over whelming desires for those elements they slip away. Happiness is being sought from satisfaction of senses. These senses are never satisfied. Freedom and happiness co exist. It is freedom from desire, lust and anger.
One can see the foolishness of desires.
Mind wants what is not there, as dissatisfaction is its nature.
Self is desire less but its identification with mind has caused happiness looking a distant dream.
Self is all happy and is witnessing what is happening. Body has to undergo happiness and sufferings.
Even great sages have met with grief but their self never suffered. Lord residing in all beings cannot suffer. If one is able to distant one self from desires, the happiness and freedom for witness ever exist as they were already there.
If now outward happiness and distress comes, it may effect a body but not the self. These yogis learn to see the witness and not the witnessed, by being desire less by control of mind and senses.
See the witnessing consciousness, without any desire, now one can see that it is full and complete. From this fullness one starts living life.
If now happiness comes, it comes out of fullness and not for fullness
(Here ends chapter 16)
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