Advaita from scratch - Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses - 20

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Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaitam

 

KMDA – 20

(For KMDA – 19 see #44811

This series started with #43779)

 

Tamil original starts from http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/part4kural315.htm

 

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

speaker is the Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

 

Man perishes by all his five senses

 

`Viveka-Chudamani' is a magnificent work of spirituality. It was written by our

Acharya. In one of its shlokas this matter of the five senses occurs. He refers

to the fact that there are five non-human beings, each one of them meets with

its end because of the excessive desire through one of these five senses,

whereas the human being allows himself to be clouded and overpowered by all

these five senses and thereby perishes. He not only warns us, but feels very sad

for us.

 

The deer perishes by the sense of sound. The hunter plays a horn-like

instrument. The desire of listening to the music which enraptures the deer,

makes it stand in a dazed inactivity and the hunter makes hay.

 

The elephant invites its captivity by the prospect of the sense of touch. In

the forests of Mysore, known as Khedda, they dig up ditches big enough to hold

elephants, and then cover the ditch up by thick vegetation. The male elephant

that is to be caught comes from one side of the ditch and on the opposite side

they have a cow-elephant which they have already caught. The male has a dire

desire to feel and enjoy the touch of the female. In that delusion, not

recognising the ditch below the vegetation, the elephant runs on it and falls

into the ditch by its own weight. And it is caught.

 

The moth voluntarily meets its end by the attraction of `form' – the form and

glow of a flame of light. The fish courts death through its desire to bite the

bait in the fish-hook. The bumble-bee on the other hand imprisons itself in the

folds of the big champak flower, because the scintillating smell of the flower,

which captivates even us human beings, attracts it into the inside of the

flower.

 

Thus these creatures attain their `panchatvam' (= death) by one of the `pancha'

(= five) senses – a beautiful punning by the Acharya in his Viveka-chUDAmaNi

shloka:

 

" shabdAdibhiH panchabhireva pancha panchatvam-ApuH svaguNena baddhAH /

kuranga-mAtanga-patanga-mIna-bRungA naraH panchabhir-anchitaH kiM // "

 

`kuranga' is deer. `mAtanga' is elephant. `patanga' is moth. `mIna' is fish.

`brunga' is bumblebee.

 

`naraH': Man, `anchitaH' has been captivated `panchabhiH': by all the five

(senses). The question `kim?' indicates the helpless situation in which man is

entrapped by all the five senses, whereas just each one of the senses has been

the cause of the extinction of a creature.

 

I was talking about Desire and Happiness and that led me on to talking about the

complete extinction of man at the hands of the senses.

 

Permanent Happiness will not arise through Desire

 

But we should not conclude so pessimistically that this is what always happens.

I only wanted to show to you that it also happens like this many times. We

always see happiness and misery occurring in a mixed fashion. Even if one is

addicted to drinking, which affects his intelligence, family life and his own

health, we have to note that there may be a certain happiness for those few

moments of his drinking. A restaurant may also serve something very tasty and

enjoyable; but even then when one sees the bill and the after-effects for the

health of unhygenic food, one gets into the mode of unhappiness more than the

happiness. At a music concert when the performer is at his best we feel that we

really had more than the worth for the money we have spent; here the happiness

and unhappiness balance each other very well. If the performer had bungled for

some reason, our unhappiness will be more. If he had performed exceedingly well

then the happiness is more than the unhappiness. And when we get a free pass for

the concert and the vidwan had done exceedingly well, then it is pure happiness

unsullied by any unhappiness!

 

Alright. But did this happiness remain for ever? One went for the concert to

get over the mood of dullness and depression that one had in the family living.

And one certainly enjoyed the concert and the happiness was hundred percent.

Because even the entry was free. And one returns home with all those good

thoughts of the musical evening; in fact one is hoping to expatiate on that

enjoyment at home to all the other members of the family. But what happens at

home? A censure is awaiting him for arriving so late in the night for dinner and

all the happy mood thereby changes over to one of unhappiness! And, in fact, if

it happens after food that the bedroom is stuffy, with no cool air and also a

lot of mosquito bites, one actually goes to the extremes of depression, in spite

of the happy evening of a musical feast.

 

Pepople go to the Races and also win a lot of money. But when the prize money

is in one's hands is the happiness permanent? By the very posssession of that

money new problems and worries arise. In fact many of man's miseries and unhappy

moments arise from his possession of money and property. Of course there are in

this world people with money who never go through any misery, live happily and

die. But God knows, they also have to answer in the other world for whatever

they did in this world to acquire that money – maybe they had to be unfair to

somebody, maybe they had to pay bribes for their professional uplift, maybe they

had to chase away people who came for charity or donation. Some way or other,

desire for money and property does not leave a man unhurt in the long run.

 

Even a happiness, with no mixture of sorrow or pain, that arises from a desire

fulfillment is only a temporary happiness. The hot shower is comforting for some

time but after some time the same begins to torment us. A vidwan may be sending

you into raptures of good enjoyment of music, but how long can you hold on to

it? You will be bored after, say, five or six hours of the same.

 

The drink known as BadAm-khIr (an almond milk-shake) is certainly a very tasty

and enjoyable drink. But how many glasses will you take. After the first few

glasses, you will run away from it. Any such pleasure is time-bound. But desire

for such pleasure never satiates. One goes on desiring for more and more of

the pleasure. Even a voracious reader of books stops at some time from his

reading and `wants' to do something else. But there is another point. The

boredom or distaste that is generated is not itself permanent. The next day we

want the same thing the same way!

 

(To be continued in KMDA – 21)

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

PraNAms to Kanchi Mahaswamigal.

profvk