Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-22)

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For a Table of Contents of these Discourses, see

advaitin/message/27766

 

For the previous post, see

advaitin/message/28196

 

 

SEC.16. VAIRAAGYA (DISPASSION) – (Continued)

 

Almost the same thought (about renunciation and vairAgyam)

has been expressed by Sadashiva Brahmendra. In his

Atma-vidyA-vilAsaM he visualises the Sannyasi as a king

(of the spiritual kingdom) and says:

*svIkRRita-vairAgya-sarvasvaH* -- the one who has

appropriated all the treasures of vairAgyaM. He himself

was like that! Men like BhartRhari, Tiruvalluvar and

Sadashiva Brahmendra were themselves in possession of great

vairAgya. Their thoughts about vairAgya touch our hearts

-- at least for that moment! From their mouths we learn

how, though acquiring that kind of vairAgyam may be most

difficult, once we achieve it we then really have the

treasure of the bliss of the Atman, -- the treasure that

belittles as trash all those treasures that we have been

holding as great. Did not our own Acharya run away with

the utmost vairAgya at the age of eight from home, from

town and from the very mother who was treating him with

extraordinary affection as her own very soul? In fact he

has produced a panchakaM (a piece of five shlokas) where

each shloka has the ending refrain: *kaupInavantaH khalu

bhAgyavantaH* (Blessed are those with nothing but a loin

cloth). In BhajagovindaM also he asks *kasya sukhaM na

karoti virAgaH* -- Who is the one that will not get Eternal

Bliss from vairAgyaM?

 

The moment one thinks of vairAgyaM one will not fail to

recall the famous PattinattAr! He was born as an amsha of

Kubera and was doing even overseas trade. But one day there

came the boy, an amsha of Lord shiva, who left a written

message “Not even a useless needle will come along with you

on your last journey” and disappeared. As soon as

Pattinathar saw that, he renounced all his immense wealth

and left home clad only in a loin-cloth, carrying only a

begging bowl (‘Odu’ in Tamil), singing the couplet

 

*VIDu namaakkut-tiruvAlangADu vimalar tantha

Odu namakkuNDu*.

 

In course of time even that begging bowl was thrown away by

him since holding that ‘property’ was thought to be

unbecoming of a renunciate. And he sang:

 

Hometown is not permanent; nor are relatives

Neither is the name they gave you .....

 

(In Tamil: *Oorum cathamalla, uRRaar chathamalla

[uRRup-peRRa]

perum chathamalla ...*)

 

When we hear the innumerable songs he has composed,

vairAgya arises in us, even though temporarily just as one

gets after a child-birth (called *prasava-vairAgyam*) or

after visiting a cremation (called *smashAna-vairAgyam*) !

 

I told you about BhartRhari. There is a story that even he

was a disciple of this Pattinathar. BhartRhari is also

known as Bhadragiri. This Bhadragiri was a king of Ujjain;

but he renounced his kingship and came to Tiruvidaimaruthur

where he was sitting as a renunciate begging for food with

a bowl in hand. He used to get Biksha (alms of food) for

both his Guru Pattinathar and himself. It is amazing to

note that one who was an incarnate of Kubera and another

who had a kingdom to own both became renunciates with that

much of dispassion! Even then Pattinathar thought that

Bhadragiri did not have enough vairAgya! Because the latter

had kept a begging bowl for his begging! A poor man went to

Pattinathar and asked for alms. It is said that it was

the Lord Himself of the temple (Mahalinga Swami) who went

so disguised. And Pattinathar told him: “I myself have

nothing; why do you ask me? Go and ask that ‘family man’

sitting at the western gate of the temple. And tell him

that I sent you there!” When Bhadragiri heard this

statement reported to him, he realised the force of the

words ‘family man’ and in that very instant threw away his

begging bowl!

 

There are more interesting things in this story; but I am

not going to continue the story, for, then I won’t have

time to tell you about all the things I want to say about

SadhanA. When we are talking of VairAgyam I thought the

mention of these great role models of renunciation would

add to the depth of the ideas.

 

Here the one who sang *Odu namakkuNDu* (‘we have the

begging bowl’) later came to the conclusion that even one

who has the Odu (Begging bowl) is actually a family man!

There is a similar story in the life history of Sadashiva

Brahmendra. He sings in his Atma Vidya Vilasam (#46): “With

the folded hand as pillow, the sky as blanket, the bare

ground as bed, and dispassion as wife – thus sleeps a

renunciate in the blessed state of samAdhi”. Once he was

himself in that blissful pose of sleep on the ground in an

open field. A farmer girl who was passing by, remarked to

her friend, with a sarcastic smile: What a sannyasi! He

needs a head-rest for his head; what type of renunciation

is this? This made Sadashiva Brahmendra think: ‘How come I

am thinking like an ordinary man that the head has to rest

above the level of the rest of the body in order to sleep?

Unless I get rid of this attachment to the body my sannyasa

is not worth the salt. It is only Mother Goddess who has

come in the form of this low-caste woman to give me this

upadesha’. Thus thinking, he removed his hand that was

used as a head rest and lay on the ground without any

headrest.

 

But the same woman who had commented earlier passed that

way again, saw the change in the posture of the sannyasi

and again gave a sarcastic laugh followed by an equally

sarcastic comment! She said: “A Sannyasi should know things

for himself. Just to keep reacting to comments made by

passers-by does not speak well of renunciation!”

 

That was the day when Sadashiva became an

honest-to-goodness non-reacting, non-acting, non-responding

inert-like entity, Sadashiva Brahman!

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest on my website: Shrimad Bhagavatam and advaita bhakti. Introduction.

Chatushloki Bhagavatam. Vidura and Maitreya. Kapila Gita.

Dhruva charitam. JaDabharata, Ajamila Stories. Prahlada Charitram.

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/Bhagavatam_Introduction.html

 

and succeeding pages.