sanat

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9.karmodhaye

karmaphalaanuraagaaH

thathra anuyaanthi na haranthi mrthyum

sadharTha yogaanavagathaath samanthaath

pravarthathe bhogayogena dhehee

 

Sanatkumara

explains how the ignorant revolve in the cycle of birth and death. Those who

are desirous of the fruit of action, do the karma and get the result and hence

they do not cross over death,. That is, they keep dying and coming back. They

get attached to the sensual pleasures because they do not have the knowledge of

the identity of the self with `sath,' Brahman, but identify the self with the

body only.

 

The

knowledge of the unity of the self with Brahman alone makes one detached from

the fruits of action. Ignorance of this truth creates dhehaathma budDhi, the

notion that `I am the body,' instead of the awareness that `I am the Supreme

Self.' Hence the ignorant are carried away by the senses with their minds

running after the senses enjoying the sense objects. Thus the karma done by

them with expectation of result creates more attachment and induces more karma

as a result of which they have to

undergo endless births, which means that they have to die and born again.

 

Therefore

Sanatkumara says that they have not transcended death. Like a blind man who

rushes headlong without knowing the pitfalls in front, those who are ignorant of their real identity, rush towards

birth and death continuously and suffer the ills of the samsara.

 

The

wise who are aware of the identity of their self with Brahman, on the other

hand, conquer death because they are free from the bondage of karma and do not

enter into the cycle of birth and death anymore.

In

advaita, the term sadharTha yoga the unity with `sath,' Brahman is absolute while in Visishtadvaita it

is one of inseparable relation, aprThak sidDhi of sareerasareeribhava, as between

the body and the soul, Brahman being the inner self of all which form His sareera.

 

I

am explaining this both in terms of advait and visisghtadvaia because

santsujatheeya occurs in the Mahabharatha which extols the value of bhakthi

besides dharma and the Brahman or `sath' of the Upanishads is taken as attributeless by

the advaita of Sankara, whose commentary on this work alone is known. But Brahman of visishtadvaita

synonymous with Narayana, is the inner self of the individual self which forms

the body of Brahman. The term maya has

different connotation in advaita and visishtadvaita which we shall see in the

next sloka.