Dharma, in an overnight capsule for King Dhritarashtra, Part 1

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Namaste all.

There have been several posts on 'Dharma' recently. It is in that context

that I start this series of four or five posts:

 

Dharma, in an overnight capsule for King Dhritarashtra - Part 1.

 

The episode that we shall present here goes by the name of SanatsujAtIyaM -

meaning, what was given out by Sanat-sujAta. It occurs in the Mahabharata.

The Mahabharata, though it is centred round the story of the rivalry between

the one hundred Kauravas and the five Pandavas, is actually a storehouse of

legends and discourses. The whole epic provides the simplest, most graphic

and most detailed introduction to Hindu thought, culture, religion and

philosophy. The long story is filled with many digressions and

embellishments, covering almost every field of human knowledge. Consequently

it is often referred to as a compendium of understanding on the subtleties

of Hindu Dharma. The text SanatsujAtIyaM itself is a mini-encyclopaedia on

Dharma.

 

The scene that takes us to this text occurs in the Udyoga-parva, wherein all

the negotiations between the Pandavas and the Kauravas take place through

messengers and ambassadors. King Dhritarashtra has just sent his own

personal messenger Sanjaya to the Pandava camp to find out whether they

really want war or they would agree to some terms. Sanjaya comes back during

an evening, with the answer that they would, as a minimum, be satisfied with

five villages for their ownership. But he plans to reveal this answer only

in the court the next morning. Dhritarashtra is curious, impatient and

excited, to know the answer. For he is afraid, very rightly, that once the

war starts, all his hundred sons will be wiped out, more because of the

sinful weight of the atrocities they had been committing on the Pandavas

rather than the might of the Pandavas.

 

So that night he calls Vidhura, his younger brother - born of a lower caste

woman and so not eligible to the throne, but acclaimed by all as the wisest

man on Earth coupled with an erudite scholarship - to tell him all about

justice, morals, fairplay and politics. Vidhura waxes eloquent on these

matters and this portion of the Mahabharata is called Vidhura-nIti, which is

usually studied also as an independent work on political science and ethics.

At the end of it, Vidhura concludes by saying that these do not constitute

an end in themselves. The ultimate for man is not material greatness but it

is the total release from the divine cycle of births and deaths and this is

called Immortality (amRRitatvaM).

 

The word 'amRRitatvaM' rings a bell and catches the attention of the King.

He wants to know more from Vidhura about this 'Immortality' that he is

referring to. While the war is round the corner the King is frantically

fearful of its possible consequences and so he is ready to catch hold of any

straw which smacks of 'absence of death'. Ignorant of the spiritual content

of the words of Vidhura, he thinks 'Immortality' is exactly what he wants

for his sons!

 

But Vidhura refuses to oblige; he tells the King that having been born of a

Sudra woman, he (Vidhura) is not fit to teach the Kshatriya King any subject

of Spirituality. So by his yogic powers he calls the divine sage

Sanat-sujAta from the higher worlds, to teach Dhritarashtra about

Immortality and the Ultimate Reality. Sanat-sujata arrives, and, in four

chapters, of around 130 verses, gives a gist of what Spirituality is.

Dhritarashtra is enraptured and keeps asking question after question. The

whole night is spent in this interaction between the earthly King who is

full of tamas and the divine sage who is full of sattva. The SanatsujAtiya

thus turns out to be a beautiful synthesis of the entire world of Vedanta

ShAstra, taught by the most authentic person, to the person who needs it

most!

 

The importance of Sanat-sujAtIya for spiritual evolution may be inferred

from the fact that Shankaracharya selects it as one of the only three pieces

of spiritual literature from the Mahabharata for which he ever wrote

elaborate commentaries - the other two being, Vishnu Sahasra-nAma and of

course, the Bhagavad-Gita. Note that Vishnu-sahasranama was taught by a

satva-dominated person (Grandfather Bhishma) to another Satva-dominated

person (Yudhishtira); the Bhagavad-Gita was taught by the Satva-dominated

Krishna to the Rajas-dominated Arjuna. Of course the Sanatsujatiyam was

taught by the Satva-dominated Sanatsujata to the tamas-dominated

Dhritarashtra.

 

The first question that Dhritarashtra asks of Sanatsujata is:

What is this Immortality that I am hearing about?

Is it possible to avoid death?

Sanat-sujata, without beating about the bush, goes straight into the subject

and begins his discourse with a bang. " PramAda is death " , says he, " living

without PramAda is Immortality " .

 

What is this pramAda, which Sanatsujata introduces so suddenly? 'pramAda'

comes from the root verb 'mad' to be intoxicated, to be drunk. 'PramAda'

means therefore intoxication, carelessness, negligence of duties. Shankara

in his commentary, elaborates it:

 

Man's natural state is divine. Any slipping from that divine status is a

default, slip, negligence, pramAda. From that Brahman-consciousness, which

is the natural state of man, if he slips, that becomes the seed and cause

for all knowledge of falsity, ignorance of the Self within. This is Death,

for it becomes the further cause for future births and consequent deaths and

therefore a total chaos. If one is always in a state of the opposite of

pramAda, that is, stabilised in the state of one's natural divinity, that is

Immortality:

 

Immortality in Hinduism is not in any sense a continuance in time. Time or

Eternity is an out-of-place concept in the Absoluteness of Vedanta.

Immortality means coming into its own of the Self. Very often in a Vedic

passage the words 'we have become immortal' or 'this would make you

immortal' would occur. This does not mean that they have transcended

physical death. Naive translations of such Vedic passages without an

understanding of the full meaning and significance in relation to the total

philosophy involved, have given rise, to misconceptions about Hinduism that

it promises 'immortality' through its mumbo-jumbo of mantras!

 

If Realisation of one's true status is Immortality, then surely Ignorance is

bondage and enlightenment is release. The scriptures also say: Having known

that one reaches beyond Death; there is no other path for release:

(SvetAshvatara U. III - 8).

 

If so, and if that is all there is to it, shall we not have to do our duties

and actions? Not so. A jnAni does not have to do action. He delights in the

Self and he is fully satisfied with the Self. For him there is no action: (

B.G. III - 17).

Then who has to do the works? Only an unenlightened person, only a seeker.

That is why the Lord says that he has prescribed two distinct ways: that of

jnAna yoga for the evolved ones and karma yoga for the practitioners.

But, even for the latter kind, namely, the seekers and those who are

involved in worldly actions, would not the maxim that karma (action) always

leads to bondage apply? No, not if the works are done with dedication -

IshvarArpaNa, is the word Shankara uses.

 

But why at all have they to be involved with works or action or karma? The

answer comes with the same emphasis throughout the scriptures:

(*sattva-shuddyarthaM*). That is, the mind has to be purified and so works

have to be done, and done with dedication, dedication to the Lord, and

without an egocentric desire or attachment to the fruits thereof. They

should be done just by the senses and the body, with a complete absence of

attachment or feeling of proprietorship, for the purpose of purifying the

lower self. This is the considered opinion of the Lord Himself as he winds

up in the eighteenth chapter of the Gita: Acts of sacrifice, giving and

askesis are purifiers of the wise, so they have certainly to be done but

without hankering for their fruits:(B.G. XVIII - 5, 6).

 

(To be continued).

P.S. For the Sanskrit quotes referred to above, one may go to the following

page on my website: http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/Sanatsujatiyam.html

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk