Sri Sankaracharya, the greatest exponent of the Advaita Philosophy, has in five short verses given the essence of spiritual practice for the benefit of those seekers who are treading the path. The instructions in this 4th verse are directed towards the Sadhaka who is now in an advanced stage, as to how he should lead the rest of his life in the present body.
ORIGINAL Verse ——-
“Kshud-vyadhischa chikitsyatam,
Pratidinam bhikshaushadam bhujyatam,
Svadvannam na tu yachyatam,
Vidhivasat praptena santushyatam I
Sitoshnadi vishahyatam,
Na tu vritha vakyam samuccharyatam,
Audasinyam-abhipsyatam,
Jana-kripa-naishthuryam utsrijyatam”
a) Kshud-vyadhischa chikitsyatam-Let the disease of hunger be treated.
As the Sadhaka ascends to the higher rungs of the ladder of spiritual practice, the chances of his downfall are greater and greater, and hence, this important warning is given by the Acharya. Though during the early stages of his Sadhana, he had practised control of all the senses and the mind, there may arise in him the tendency to slowly relax especially in the case of the palate, the sense of taste. The Sannyasin is therefore admonished to consider hunger as a disease. As all diseases of the body and mind are treated with proper medicines, the Sadhaka should treat this disease of hunger also with the medicine of food and drink. It should never be left untreated, because without a healthy body, the Sadhana cannot be completed and the final goal reached. The medicine for the disease of hunger is a nourishing diet. Both overeating and starving are discouraged and the via media, the golden mean, is prescribed. Yoga is harmony. Extremes are to be avoided cautiously.
b) Pratidinam bhikshaushadam bhujyatam-Let the monk take the medicine of alms daily.
Unlike other diseases, the disease of hunger is a daily recurring one and hence treatment also should be given daily. What is the medicine for this disease prescribed by the Acharya for the Sannyasin? It is Bhiksha-food received as alms. No one takes an overdose of medicine, but takes only the minimum, just sufficient to cure the disease. Similarly, the Sannyasin is enjoined to take only the absolute minimum food to keep the body and soul together in a healthy condition, healthy enough to complete the Sadhana in this life itself.
c) Svadvannam na tu yachyatam-Let him not beg for delicious dishes.
Again, applying the analogy of the treatment of disease, no patient can for obvious reasons demand from the doctor sweet medicines. Even so, the Sannyasin is prohibited from demanding delicious articles of food from the householder whom he approaches for appeasing his hunger. For, it is considered to be a sinful act because such demand will cause inconvenience to those charitably-minded Grihasthas who give alms to them. The dispassion cultivated with great effort by the Sadhaka will give way to sense-indulgence, if he is not extremely careful in this matter.
d) Vidhivasat praptena santushyatam-Let him be completely satisfied with what he gets as a result of his Prarabdha Karmas.
This instruction clarifies the mental attitude the Sannyasin should have, when he gets food to eat, and when he gets something to drink or some old and torn garment to cover his nakedness. He should have complete satisfaction. He should not entertain a feeling of want or insufficiency, about the quality and quantity of the articles received by him. He should not murmur or curse his fate which has brought him those articles. A feeling of complete satiety must prevail in him. Even during his early Sadhana period he had been cultivating Pratyahara,withdrawal of the mind from sense-objects with great effort and of his own will, because of the discriminative knowledge that all sense-pleasures are only wombs of pain. He has subsequently renounced the world and taken to the fourth order of Sannyasa and plunged himself into Manana and Nididhyasana on the import of the Mahavakyas into which he has been initiated by his preceptor. Under these conditions, there should be no occasion for any dissatisfaction on account of the presence or absence of any sense-object. None of the objects in the three worlds should be able to disturb his mind either through its presence or absence. There is the risk of a slipping down of the Sadhaka, till the very last stage, viz., the attainment of direct realisation of the Atman-Brahman, because the pull of the senses by and towards their objects coupled with the attraction of the objects by the senses, is too strong for ordinary Sadhakas. Hence it is that the Acharya has introduced this warning even at this advanced stage of the Sadhaka’s march.
e) Sitoshnadi vishahyatam-Let him endure calmly the pairs of opposites like heat and cold.
Heat and cold, pain and pleasure, merit and sin, love and hate, Daivic and Asuric qualities, good and bad, knowledge and ignorance, etc., are pairs of opposites which are to be transcended by the Sadhaka. He has already renounced what is considered as bad, sinful, Asuric, etc. Now in the advanced stage, the Sadhaka is exhorted to avoid their opposites also like the good, the meritorious, the Daivic, etc., because the Atman, the attainment of which is the final goal of life, is that which transcends all kinds of relations and all pairs of opposites. The Sadhaka should free himself even from what is generally considered as good in this world.
f) Na tu vritha vakyam samuccharyatam-Let him not speak unnecessary words.
When all the other organs are controlled and prevented from contact with their respective objects, the organ of speech is found, in the case of many a Sadhaka, to take the upper hand and engage itself too much in activity, on the pretext of Loka Sangraha or uplift of humanity. In his over-anxiety to share his knowledge with others, the Sannyasin with the best of intentions, starts preaching to his juniors first and gradually reaches the public at large when he is unknowingly dragged into unnecessary and unpleasant controversies with others. He easily gets himself entangled in them which fact he himself comes to realise only too late. Therefore, the Sadhaka is instructed to speak only when it is unavoidable. Further, too much of speaking will entail waste of energy which he has conserved with great effort by control of mind, organs, etc., during the early stages of his spiritual practice.
g) Audasinyam-abhipsyatam-Let him desire perfect indifference to all worldly affairs.”
The Sadhaka who has embraced the order of Sannyasa, who has been initiated into the Mahavakyas and who is engaged whole time in reflection and profound meditation on their import, is advised to keep aloof from all worldly matters to avoid distraction. He is asked to keep an attitude of indifference,not the indifference of the ignorant and selfish people towards the suffering humanity, but the highest indifference of the wise which transcends all pairs of opposites. He is not expected, at this stage of the Sadhana, to mix with worldly-minded people, but if circumstances place him among them, he is advised to play the part of a witness unaffected by whatever happens around him. The Atman is described in the scriptures as the Supreme Witness in the sense that It is free from all actions and relationships and not in the ordinary sense of the term, viz., one who sees with the physical eyes. Being non-dual, homogeneous, without modification, and the eternal Consciousness, It is described by the scriptures in the above enigmatic expression that It sees and yet sees not. The attitude of the Sadhaka should be in harmony with his true nature which is the nature of the Atman.
h) Jana-kripa-naishthuryam utsrijyatam-Let him give up completely both the feelings of kindness and harshness towards others.
Though this advice is included in 4 (e), special mention is made of it again, because of its great importance and of the possibility of even the wise being dragged down, without their knowledge, if they are not extremely cautious. It is human nature to entertain feelings of kindness or cruelty or an unsympathetic attitude towards other creatures. While unkindness, cruelty, etc., are universally accepted as undesirable traits and therefore discouraged, kindness is generally considered as a great virtue which all should try to cultivate. The universal brotherhood of man is an offshoot of this virtue. In the case of the advanced Sadhaka, even this may act as a cause of his downfall from the great heights to which he has risen through long and protracted spiritual Sadhana. This is illustrated in the Srimad Bhagavatam in the life of Bharata, a very highly evolved soul, who out of compassion towards a newborn deer which had lost its mother and which was about to be washed away by the current in the river, took it to his Ashram and reared it. This compassion slowly developed into love, then into affection, and thereafter, into great attachment, so much so, the last thought at the time of his death was about the young deer. This brought him the body of a deer in his next birth. Hence, to avoid such downfalls the Sadhaka is advised not to entertain both the feelings of kindness and harshness, but to stick on to an attitude of supreme indifference which transcends all pairs of opposites.
.. to be continued in next blogs.
