Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 18

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Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 18

(For KMDA – 17 see #44761

This series started with #43779

 

Tamil original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural311.htm

 

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

speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

 

All Evils arise only from Desire

 

Among man's six internal enemies the first three are kAma (Desire), krodha

(Anger) and lobha (Greed). The other three are moha (Delusion), mada (Arrogance)

and mAtsarya (Jealousy). But if we think a little, it will be clear that the

latter three also arise from Desire. What is delusion? We like something and in

the extremeness of our desire we lose our mental balance and get deluded.

Arrogance also is the quality that arises from the pursuit of the self-asserted

correctness of our desire or from the egoistic satisfaction of the success of

such pursuit. Finally what is jealousy due to? We are jealous of the other man

because he has something which we don't have – maybe wealth, intelligence, power

or whatever. Because we don't have it we are jealous; actually we desire to have

it and that is what creates the jealousy. Thus all the six enemies have their

root in Desire.

 

Thus the one enemy – Desire – is torturing us all the time and as a consequence

there is a deva-asura fight going on in our system continuously. The only way

to stop it is to kill that asura of Desire. If the JIva has to have peace the

one and only way is the destruction of Desire.

 

So the Lord says: The gluttonous sinner that is Desire has to be categorised as

your hottest enemy; keep this in mind and go about your duty of fighting in the

battle. " mahAshano mahApapmA viddhyenam-iha variNam " .

 

Note that here kAma is not talked about in the neuter gender; it is being

personified as a gluttonous person. The Absolute God-Principle itself has

manifested as Krishna. In order to lift all Jivas to a higher spiritual level,

the Absolute has come with hands, feet, eyes and ears in a personified form as

Krishna. Such a manifestation of God makes it a point to call the evil power

that drags man down, also as a human. In fact He Himself is the daivic power;

and the other is asura power.

 

mahAshanaH means gluttonous eater. `ashana' is food. `ashanaH' means eater of

food. That is why Fire (Agni) is called `hutAshanaH'; because He consumes what

is offered (huta) into the fire. mahA-ashanaH means the gigantic eater. kAma

(Desire) is very demanding and consuming more and more sense-experiuences, like

a gluttonous eater of food.

 

The other expression is mahA-pApmA. `pApmA' denotes sin. When the Upanishads

want to refer to the Atman as sinless, they say `apahata-pApmA'. (Ch.U.8.1.5;

8.4.1). Just as Desire (kAma) is personified as `kAmaH', he is now referred to

as pApi (sinner) or pApAtmA. He is not an ordinary sinner; he is `mahA-pApmA' –

Great Sinner. You remember, Arjuna asked, who it is that pushes man into sin.

That person is this mahA-pApmA, Desire.

 

Know him as the greatest enemy of man in life, says Bhagavan. He uses the word

`iha' in `viddhyenam iha vairiNam'. Here `iha' denotes `this life' – not the

`para', which indicates the after-life.

 

The present fight you are about to perform is with the kauravas, for the benefit

of the world. But the fight that you have to wage for yourself is with the bad

tendencies generated, in the place of Duryodhana, by Desire. This is what the

Bhagavan says.

 

Alright, it is clear that all our difficulties are because of the Desire in us.

Desire appears to have the potential to give us all the happiness we want. It is

to attain that happiness that we attempt to fulfill all that we desire. In spite

of all these, it is Desire that is the root-cause of all the chain of unhappy

experiences that we have. The Acharya says in his Bhashyas that all the troubles

of living beings owe their origin to this Desire. When the Desire is not

fulfilled there arises anger; and then there is the greed that holds on to what

we have, takes hold of us, destroying all trace of compassion or kindness and

consequently preventing any action of charity or help; and then there comes the

delusion which is nothing but the state of losing our head in the attempt to

hold on to our possessions; or alternatively if the desire is saatisfied, that

itself generates the air of arrogance; and finally the jealousy kindled by the

desire to ha ve what the other man has. This chain of never-ending series of

sins is what drags into the mire of Naraka – all this because of the spark of

the fire of Desire in us.

 

Thus whatever way you look at it, Desire is evil. When it is satisfied it

causes arrogance. The very satisfaction of Desire generates the delusion of

possessiveness of what was obtained by that desire and also the greedy thought

that what we obtained as ours should not be used by others. Of course if the

desire is not satisfied , it generates krodha (anger) and mAtsarya (jealously).

 

Thus, all the ills of man can be traced to Desire; it is the basic Asura who

creates all the troubles for us. In other words we run after happiness but

finally end up in total unhappiness.

 

(To be continued in KMDA – 19).

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

profvk

[Guest guest]

prof vk,thank you for translating it from tamizh.you are reaching to a larger

target audience,by this noble service.

 

suresh.

 

 

> Thus, all the ills of man can be traced to Desire; it is the basic Asura who

creates all the troubles for us. In other words we run after happiness but

finally end up in total unhappiness.

>

> (To be continued in KMDA – 19).

> PraNAms to all advaitins.

> PraNAms to Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

> profvk

>