Dharma, in an overnight capsule for King Dhritarashtra, Part 2

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Namaste all.

 

Dharma, in an overnight capsule for King Dhritarashtra - Part 2

(Continued from Part 1: See post # 35240 )

 

Sanatsujata now anatomises how pramAda can be considered as death.

He says (I - 11): First the whole thing starts with abhidhyA, that is,

contemplation on sense objects. That kills you first. Then Desire and anger

take hold of you. These take you, who are now a puppet in their hands, down

the alley of Death. But a self-composed man (*dhIraH*) transcends death by

his courage and composure.

 

The word dhIraH is a very important word in scriptural literature, pregnant

with meaning. Ordinarily it means just 'a brave soul'. But the etymological

derivation gives: *dhiyaM Irayati iti dhIraH* The verb Irayati means:

agitates, excites, confirms. The intelligence is convinced and confirmed

about the real Truth and this Truth Shankara says is the oneness of JIvAtmA

and ParamAtmA. Therefore a dhIra is neutral and unattached to all duals:

pleasure and pain, favour and disfavour, cold and heat, blame and praise,

profit and loss, victory and defeat, happiness and suffering, joy and

sorrow, friend and foe, success and failure, good and bad, likes and

dislikes, honour and humiliation. Refer also to the characterisation of

dhIra that the poet gives in two immortal lines in his famous epic-poem

Kumara-sambhavam:

 

VikAra-hetau sati vikriyante yeShAM na chetAmsi ta eva dhirAH.

 

'Those whose minds are not perturbed even in the presence of causes for such

agitation, excitement or distraction - only they, are the dhIras'!

Blessed are these brave souls! They see what is within! The meaning of the

word dhIra given will be confirmed if we note that the only three times that

Krishna uses the word in the Gita he uses them only in this connection!:

B.G. 2-13: As the soul passes physically through childhood, youth and old

age, so also it passes on to another body; this does not blind and disturb a

dhIra.

B.G. 2-15: The man whom these (material touches) do not trouble or pain,

that dhIra, who is equanimous in pleasure and suffering, is the one who is

ear-marked for immortality.

 

Note that Sanatsujata is also talking of dhIra in answer to the King's

question as to who attains immortality! While talking of the great man who

transcends the three guNas, in (14-24) of the Gita, the Lord also uses the

epithet dhIra for him " who regards happiness and suffering alike, gold, mud

and stone equanimously, to whom the lovely and the unlovely, praise and

blame, honour and insult, are equal things "

 

The Kathopanishad also uses the word dhIra in the same connotation and in

the same context with reference to Immortality!. (II - 1 - 1) " The

Self-Existent Lord made the senses turn outward; accordingly man looks

towards what is outside and sees not what is within. It is the rare dhIra

who, longing for immortality, shuts his eyes to what is without and beholds

the Self within " .

 

(Incidentally, the verb that the Upanishad uses for 'made' in " made the

senses turn outward " is *vyatRNat* which means also 'punished' thus giving a

beautiful meaning that the senses were 'punished' not to be able to look

inward. One is also reminded of the words of curse in the Old Testament cast

by God on Adam and Eve.)

 

'Thou art That' as anAdi-yoga.

 

Dhritarashtra now and then intercepts the discourse and asks very

interesting questions. One of the earliest questions he asks is: Who is it

that directs this Soul, what is it that it achieves by so doing? The answer

comes from the highest spiritual point of view. In Hinduism a question has

sometimes more than one answer depending upon from which level of evolution

you are talking or to which level you are answering. The simple answer to

this question of Dhritarashtra could have been that the paramAtmA who is the

indweller of all, directs each soul in its ways and the purpose is to take

the soul upwards in evolution - this is the answer which will be understood

by the neophyte. But Sanatsujata prefers not to compromise on such

fundamental issues. He replies: " Default will arise, we will be making a

Himalayan blunder, if we make a distinction between the Supreme reality and

the individual soul; everything happens by what may be called anAdi-yoga.

The Sanskrit word 'Adi' means, original, the source, oldest. The word anAdi

means that which has no source, is the most original. So anAdi-yoga means

the yoga or technique that has been in vogue from time immemorial. This

anAdi-yoga therefore refers to the composite existence of PrakRti and

PuruSha from the infinite past. The Gita uses the same word anAdi in

reference to PuruSha and prakRti. (B.G. 13-20/21).

 

The concept that one should not distinguish between the individual soul and

the Supreme Reality is an echo from the Taittiriyopanishad. The theme there

is: Brahman is without multiplicity; even the smallest difference between

Brahman and JIva is not to be accepted. ( Taittiriya U. II - 7) : 'The

individual soul becomes fearless only when it obtains firm and peaceful

ground in that invisible, selfless, undefined, nameless, supportless

Reality; whenever it assumes the tiniest difference in that state of

identity, then it has fear. That is why even a wise man has fear when he is

not reflective'.

 

The Kathopanishad says: (II - 1 - 10):

What is within us is also without. What is without is also within. He who

sees difference between what is within and what is without goes evermore

from death to death.

 

Sanatkumara himself tells Narada in Chandogya Upanishad (and note that there

is the same connotation with Immortality here): (Ch.U.VII - 24 - 1)

Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, cognises nothing else, that

is Infinite. Where one sees another, hears another, cognises another, that

is finite. That which is infinite is immortal That which is finite is

mortal.

 

(To be continued)

P.S. For the Sanskrit quotes referred to above please see the following page

on my website:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/Sanatsujatiyampage2.html

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk