Shama & dama - (Part 2 of two). Adapted from Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses

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Namaste

 

(Continued from Part 1. See #35268)

 

There is another kind of classification. Mind and the five senses of

perception only are together counted as six. In the Gita the Lord says 'I

am the mind amongst the senses' (X -22). More specifically, he says in XV -

7, 'the six senses including the mind'.

 

There are contexts where the Acharya also has the same opinion. For

instance, the indriyas are sometimes called 'karaNas' (instruments);

because, it is the instrument which implements the actions that fulfill the

will of the jIva. On the other hand, the actions of thinking, planning,

enjoying happiness and sorrow -- these are done by the mind which is

within. So mind is called 'antaH-karaNaM'. Along with the five 'karaNas'

that do work outside, the Acharya visualises that sextad as a bee and uses

the metaphor beautifully in Soundaryalahari (#90) The bee has six feet and

so the JIva with its six indriyas ('karaNas') is taken as a bee. All

movement is with the help of the legs. In life, all the movements of the

jIva take place because of these six 'karaNas'; so they are as good as

'legs' for the jIva-bee! This is the 'karaNa charaNa' of the shloka. The

creature with six legs is the bee. The bee immerses itself in the lotus

flower and remains there in enchanted forgetfulness. So also the plea of

the devotee is to be immersed in the lotus feet of Mother Goddess forgetful

of itself like a bee inside the lotus flower. That is when the mind and the

pair of five indriyas are calmed down and the JIva with shama and dama

achieved, is immersed in the Absolute. Mother Goddess (ambaaL) has in Her

hands a sugarcane bow and five arrows; the bow is to help us with 'shama'

for mind-control and the arrows are to vanquish the five senses thus helping

us achieve 'dama'.

 

In short, both mind-control and sense-control have to go hand in hand,

complementary to each other. In fact all the parts of SAdhanA have to move

in one wavefront and so are to be practised as such in mixed fashion. I

already told you they are not supposed to follow one after the other in

isolation. I have to emphasize this further in the case of 'shama' and

'dama'.

 

Sometimes the senses do act involuntarily; maybe we can say those are the

times when the mind has nothing to do with them. But generally almost all

the time, the stopping of the actions of the indriyas or of the mind, does

need the sanction and prompting of the mind from within. The movement of the

indriyas are in fact the deliberate prompts of the mind which tries to

fulfill its desires through them. Of course there may be a little

involuntary movement of the indriyas on their own. Movement, maybe, but

never the stoppage of movement. It is the mind that has to stop the movement

of the senses. Thus, not only is shama, the control of the mind, but dama,

the control of the senses, also is the responsibility of the mind.

Therefore it is that we also have to contend with shama and dama together.

 

Lord Krishna at one place talks of 'dama' as the work of mind: " indriyANi

manasA niyamya " says He in III - 7. The same structure of expression occurs

in VI - 24 where he says " manasaivendriya-grAmaM viniyamya " - that is, the

gang of senses has to be controlled properly by the mind itself. 'By the

mind itself' - 'not by oneself' is what is underscored by the words

" manasaiva " ( = manasA eva). Thus controlling, gradually and slowly

(*shanaiH shanaiH uparamet*) one should calm down, says he. In fact

'uparati' is the next in *shhaTka-sampatti* starting from shama and dama.

'uparamet' means 'one should reach 'uparati', namely the calming down of

everything.

 

The Lord usually talks about shama and dama both together. *sarva-dvArANi

samyamya mano hRRidi nirudhya ca* (VIII - 12) : Here 'sarva-dvArANi

samyamya' (damming all gates) is 'dama'; 'mano hRRidi nirudhya' (fixing the

mind in the heart) is 'shama'. The dvAras are the gates; these gates are

the indriyas, namely, ears, nose and mouth - in which the gates are visible

and explicit; and the skin, in which the gates are not visible, but we know

every hair on the skin is only a gate-like equipment, though invisible; and

finally the eyes, which we know is just a fixture in one of the openings of

the skull and further light passes through the eyes and creates all the

images that we see. So the controlling of these five gates is nothing but

the dama that controls the senses. And the process of controlling the mind

and stabilising it in the Atman is the shama described in " mano hRRidi

nirudhya " .

 

All the different attitudes of the beings emanate from Me, says the Lord.

And then He gives a list of the highest among them: (X - 4, 5) Intellect,

wisdom, non-delusion, forgiveness, truth, self-restraint (dama) , calmness

(shama), ... . And when he makes a list of all divine qualities in the 16th

chapter, he includes both dama and shama in " dAnaM damashca " and " tyAgaH

shAntiH " (XVI - 1, 2) . As I have already mentioned, what is obtained by

shama is shAnti (Peace) and what is obtained by dama is 'dAnti'.

 

A sannyasi is called 'yati'. The Tamil name 'Ethiraj' is only a mutilated

version of 'Yatiraja'. 'Yati' means a Sannyasi. The direct meaning of the

word is one who has the quality of control or one who has controlled. Shri

Ramanuja is usually known also as 'Yatiraja'. The words 'yama' and 'yata'

both indicate 'control' or 'discipline'. The divine Yama is one who

controls every one by fear. He takes them to his locale where they are

controlled and punished; so his locale is called 'samyamanI'. That matter of

Yama pertains to control of others. But the matter of 'Yati' is control of

the self. So the Shastras such as the Gita talk of such a 'yati' as

'yatAtmA' or 'samyatAtmA'. The forced controls take place in the city of

SamyamanI whereas the Sannyasi who has strict self-control is called

'samyatAtmA' or 'samyamI'. Here the control is of the mind and of the

senses. In other words he who has acquired 'shama' and 'dama' is the 'yati'

or 'sannyAsi'.

 

The Lord says (IV - 39) *shraddhAvAn labhate jnAnaM tatparaH samyatendriyaH*

-- the one who has, with shraddhA (faith and dedication), controlled all the

senses and thus is a 'samyatendriya', attains JnAna. Actually He has

symbiotically combined here shraddhA, shama and dama , all three occurring

in SAdhanA-chatushhTayaM!

 

In describing the attributes of a sthita-prajna, He says: " Just as a

tortoise draws its head into the shell whenever there is danger, a human

being should withdraw his senses from the sense objects into himself " and

thus emphasizes the need for sense-control, by giving this beautiful

analogy. Whenever the senses go outward helter-skelter on their own, it is

danger time for the human. The tortoise has to draw its head into the shell

only when it smells danger; but the human has always to do this withdrawal.

The Lord underscores this fact by using a simple additional word, almost

innocuously as it were, namely, the word *sarvashaH* in that verse II - 58.

*sarvashaH* means 'always and by all means' ! :

 

In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad the entire divine community gets the advice: (V

- 2 - 1) *dAmyata*, meaning, 'Keep your senses under control'. The story

goes as follows: Not only the Divines, but the Humans as well as the Asuras

- all three species went to PrajApati, their Creator to get advice. They

were told by BrahmA only a single letter " da " and were also asked whether

they had understood it.

 

Generally every one knows one's own weakness. So if somebody tells him a

message in a disguised way and asks him to understand what he needed to

understand, they will get the message in the way they think it was

applicable to them. To understand something oneself this way has also a

greater value. It will stick. One will not find fault with the fault-finder,

for the curiosity to decipher the message will win!

 

That is how, in the story of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the single letter

'da' was conveyed by BrahmA to all the three species (divines, asuras and

humans) at the same time but each one of them understood it to mean

differently. They understood it to stand for the first letter of a message

specially intended for them. The divines took it to stand for 'dAmyata',

that is, 'control your senses'. The Creator agreed with their interpretation

of the message.

 

The humans took it to mean 'datta' that is, 'Give: Do acts of charity; be

charitable'. This also was approved by the Creator.

 

The asuras took it to mean 'dayadhvaM', that is, 'Be compassionate'. Again

the Creator gave his approval of this interpretation.

 

The Acharya in his Bhashya has commented on this that the three categories

of people - divines, humans and asuras - are all of them in the human

kingdom itself. People who are generally known to be good, but still do not

have their senses in control are the 'divines'. People who have no

charitable disposition and are greedy are the 'humans' in the

classification, because man's greatest weakness is greed and the consequent

absence of a charitable disposition. People who have not even an iota of

compassion in their hearts are classified as 'asuras'. In other words, all

the three messages of advice are for humanity.

 

The moral of all this is that even those who have many good qualities do

lack the quality of self-control. This is because the attractions of

sense-objects have power to draw man into the vortex of MAyA. So the

process of getting out of those attractions can be very difficult. 'dama and

shama' -- it is not necessary to separate them as two things; even for the

divines the control of both the mind and the senses was what was advised -

this control is what should be achieved with great effort. One should not

leave off the efforts after a few failed attempts. One should not have a

feeling of let-down by defeats in this effort. Trust in God and persistently

make the efforts. Keep the practice without losing heart.

 

Even when the objects in the outside world though perceptible to the ears,

the eyes, and the tongue, are not within the reach of these senses, the mind

may be thinking all the time about the experiences pertaining to those

objects. The control of these thoughts is what is called control of the

mind. It is not at all easy to be achieved. What is to be successfuly

attempted at first is, even though the desires in the mind do not vanish, at

least in the outer world of activity the indriyas may be restricted not to

graze around - in other words, dama (control of the senses of action). A

vrata, a fast, a starving of the eyes from objectionable sights, avoidance

of sense-pleasures on certain days - such are the efforts that must be

practised with some persistence. This will lead to the mind being trained

for the paractice of shama and becoming a little more mature. When the sense

objects are not around, it may be possible to control the mind from thinking

about the experiences with them and the mind may remain at rest; but once we

come out from that solitude to the outside world, immediately the ears will

long for movie music from the radio and the tongue will yearn for that tasty

coffee or other drink it used to have. Thus each indriya, without even the

prompting of the mind, will run after its old vAsanA. Independent of the

reins the horses now are ready to run! Now again the 'weapon' of 'dama' has

to be used. Thus controlling the indriyas from running after the external

objects, inspite of their availability around, the other weapon of 'shama'

of the mind has to be applied so that the mind also does not run after them.

Thus the processes of 'dama' and 'shama' have to be used alternately as well

as simultaneously until one is really sure that one has achieved the needed

control of both kinds. The finishing line is of course the total peace that

one obtains at the fulfillment of 'shama'.

 

Thus what can be somehow accomplished is the process of 'dama'. In the

Mahanarayana Upanishad, with great sympathy, it prescribes 'dama' regimen

for a Brahmachari and a 'shama' regimen for the renunciate muni who has

renounced everything. " The Brahmacharis hold that 'dama' is supreme, and

revel in the implementation of that; whereas the dwellers in the forests

(the munis) hold that 'shama' is supreme and revel in the implementation of

that " (Narayanopanishad: 78 - 3,4). The intended meaning is that both 'dama'

and 'shama' are to be started right from the Brahmachari stage so that when

one gets to the stage of sannyAsa, one can attain the total fulfillment of

'shama'.

 

Where the mind finally calms down and settles, that is the Atman. When the

mind stops, the Atman shines. Even in the previous stage, the senses would

have stopped running involuntarily and the mind would have of its own

volition controlled the senses. Thereafter the residual vAsanAs of the mind

would be the ones still to be eradicated. This eradication happens when

'shama' is totally achieved. Such a complete cessation of the mind will

generate the realisation of the Atman. Thus it is that 'shama' is the final

calming down. That is why we say " shAntiH shAntiH shAntiH " and also refer

to it as " Atma-shAntiH " . The word 'dAnti' (controlled mind and senses) is

also of the same kind. The controlling action implies a force, whereas what

follows is 'shAntiH'. In other words it is not 'control, then shAnti'

but 'control, that itself is shAnti'.

 

All the great people pray mostly for the controlled calm of the mind. Lord

Krishna also advises us in (VI - 26) By whatever prompting this wavering

and unsteady mind runs outward towards objects, from each such prompting

shall the mind be pulled back and drawn into the confines of the Atman,

says the Lord. The use of two words 'chanchalaM' (wavering) and 'asthiraM'

(unsteady) to describe the turbulent nature of the mind is significant.

 

PraNAms to the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk