Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 17

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Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 17

(For KMDA – 16 see #44741.

For the first post in this series see #43779)

 

Tamil original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural310.htm

 

Note: In these discourses, `the Acharya' refers to Adi Shankaracharya. The

speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

 

Kama-krodha (Desire-Anger)

 

" What is the power that prompts the JIva into those sinful tendencies that are

characterised as asuras in the fight between the divine and demonish

characteristics? Who is that who compulsively draws man into sin? " This is

Arjuna's question.

 

And Bhagavan answers: " Two such are there " , and he describes them:

 

kAma eshha krodha eshha rajo-guNa-samudbhavaH /

mahAshano mahA-pApamA viddhyenam-iha variNaM // (B.G. III – 37)

 

" eshhaH " – This; You asked for the cause, and that is …

 

" kAmaH " – Desire. It is Desire that prompts all the bad tendencies that draws

man into sin.

 

Is that the only one? No, there is one more.

 

" eshaH krodhaH " - the other thing is `Anger'

 

These two …

 

" rajo-guNa-samudbhavaH " have originated from rajo-guNa. This rajo-guNa is the

basis for the state of turbulence with rush and passion. It is neither the

peaceful state of mind in which it is sAtvic, nor the tAmasic state of mind when

it is dull and inactive.

 

Though I have said `have originated' in the plural, the Lord uses only the

singular word `samudbhavaH'. Having said there are two, namely, kAma (Desire)

is one reason and a second one is krodha (anger), instead of saying that `they'

originated from rajo-guNa, He says `it' originated, thus using the singular. Is

it not a wrong use of language? This fault is not Bhagavan's. It is my fault. I

said that kAma is one and krodha is another. Bhagavan Krishna did not say like

that!

 

To Arjuna's question as to what pushes man into sin, He replies: " Oh, that is

kAma, that is krodha, it originates from the rajo-guNa. `kAma eshha krodha eshha

rajoguNa-samudbhavaH'. In other words, He says to the effect, what is kAma or

desire, that itself is also krodha or anger. There is no word in the text that

helps us distinguish krodha from kAma. We may take it as " the bad power which is

both kAma and krodha " . However we are in the habit of saying it as a couple

`kAma-krodha' or `like and dislike' and I think in accordance with the habit I

must have said that kAma is one and krodha is another.

 

Does that mean that kAma and krodha are one and the same? kAma is the feeling of

desire. Krodha is the feeling of hate. How can the two opposites, namely like

and dislike, be the same? It is dislike that makes one discard his svadharma. It

is liking which makes one adopt para-dharma. How can the two be the same?

 

They are the same. Think carefully, you will understand. One can understand

that anger arises when desire is not fulfilled. It is desire itself that

manifests as anger. We desire to obtain or achieve something; and it is when

that does not happen that anger arises in us. The meaning of our disliking

somebody is that we like something but he is against it. Whenever an obstacle

arises against the fulfilling of what we like, that generates a dislike. Anger

rises towards whatever comes in the way of our achieving what we desire. The

desire or wish to adopt a para-dharma (another's dharma) is what makes us

dislike and discard our svadharma, because it prevents us from fulfilling our

desire. Every desire and every hate can be analysed thus. It is desire that

takes the form of hate. If we conceive `desire' as a flow or a movememnt of a

ball, whatever wall that prevents that `flow' or `movement' sends back the ball

to us and that is what anger is.

 

The Bhashyas of the Acharya describe kAma and krodha in this way as one. KAma

itself transforms into krodha when it is `pratihatam', says the Acharya.

`pratihatam' means `knocking against something and rebounding'.

 

But we speak of like and dislike as two because they appear as opposites.

 

Bhagavan Himself at another place (2-62) says: " kAmAt krodho'pi jAyate " , that is

Anger arises from Desire.

 

We saw above that while replying to Arjuna He inroduces kAma and krodha as if

they were two but He Himself talks immediately of them together in singular.

 

At another place (16 – 21), He talks of not one, not two, but three things. What

prompts us into sin are kAma and krodha, said He as above. And what happens out

of that sin? SamsAra. And what is the most frightful experience in samsAra? It

is to live in Naraka. It is this Naraka that He mentions when He talks about

the three things.

 

" trividam narakasyedaM dvAraM nAshanam-AtmanaH "

 

Meaning, The gates that open to the Hell that is the destruction of the self

are of three kinds.

 

What are they?

 

kAma, krodha, and lobha. That is, Anger, Desire and Greed.

 

What is `Greed'? It is a part of kAma (desire) itself. Desire is of many kinds.

All the way from the love of man to woman and of woman to man to the ordinary

simple wish to relax at the beach enjoying a bunch of munchies -- there are

thousands of desires for the human species. For great holy men there is the

noblest of desires, namely, to know the Self – even this is named in the Upa

nishads as `Atma-kAma'. Among all these myriads of desires, the desire for

property or possession is called `lobha'. When someone hangs on to one's

property or possession, we call him a `lobhi'.

 

Thus, though `lobha' is a part of `kAma', Bhagavan Himself refers to kAma,

krodha and lobha as `three'.

 

(To be continued in KMDA – 18)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

profvk