Second edition,
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Texts:
Detachment
from All that is Material
Text
1
The
honorable brahmin said: 'Attachment to whatever of the
possessions held so very dear by man [house, wife, car
etc.], sure leads to misery; whoever knows that will, when
he frees himself from such attachment, thereupon achieve
unlimited happiness.
The
saintly brâhmana said: Everyone considers certain
things within the material world to be most dear to him, and
because of attachment to such things one eventually becomes
miserable. One who understands this gives up material
possessiveness and attachment and thus achieves unlimited
happiness. (Vedabase)
Text
2
Having
meat a large hawk [the osprey] was attacked by others
who were very strong and without prey; at that time giving up
the meat he achieved happiness.
Once
a group of large hawks who were unable to find any prey
attacked another, weaker hawk who was holding some meat. At
that time, being in danger of his life, the hawk gave up his
meat and experienced actual happiness. (Vedabase)
Text
3
I
myself, who like a child enjoys in the soul only, wander about
out here. In me one finds no honor or dishonor. Living with the
true self I do not know the anxiety of the one who has a home
and children.
In
family life, the parents are always in anxiety about their
home, children and reputation. But I have nothing to do with
these things. I do not worry at all about any family, and I
do not care about honor and dishonor. I enjoy only the life
of the soul, and I find love on the spiritual platform. Thus
I wander the earth like a child. (Vedabase)
Text
4
Of
the ones free from anxiety there are two types: the one
retarded who ignorant as a child has merged in great happiness
and the one who has achieved the One Supreme above the Modes of
Nature.
In
this world two types of people are free from all anxiety and
merged in great happiness: one who is a retarded and
childish fool and one who has approached the Supreme Lord,
who is beyond the three modes of material nature.
(Vedabase)
Text
5
At
the house of a young girl who wished she was a wife and of whom
all the relatives were gone to another place, once arrived a
couple of men whom she received with great
hospitality.
Once
a marriageable young girl was alone in her house because her
parents and relatives had gone that day to another place. At
that time a few men arrived at the house, specifically
desiring to marry her. She received them with all
hospitality. (Vedabase)
Text
6
Being
alone she beated the rice so that her guests could eat, and
doing so made the conchshell bracelets on her forearms a lot of
noise.
The
girl went to a private place and began to make preparations
so that the unexpected male guests could eat. As she was
beating the rice, the conchshell bracelets on her arms were
colliding and making a loud noise. (Vedabase)
Text
7
In her shyness
ashamed about that [servant-] noise, broke she,
intelligent as she was, one by one the shell bracelets from her
arms, leaving but two on each wrist.
The
young girl feared that the men would consider her family to
be poor because their daughter was busily engaged in the
menial task of husking rice. Being very intelligent, the shy
girl broke the shell bracelets from her arms, leaving just
two on each wrist. (Vedabase)
Text
8
Still there was
of the two, as she was husking the rice, the noise of course.
But after she removed one from each of the two remained only
one and could no sound be heard anymore.
Thereafter,
as the young girl continued to husk the rice, the two
bracelets on each wrist continued to collide and make noise.
Therefore she took one bracelet off each arm, and with only
one left on each wrist there was no more noise.
(Vedabase)
Text
9
O subduer of
the enemy, I, wandering around in all regions searching for the
truth about the world, personally witnessed the lesson taught
by this girl.
O
subduer of the enemy, I travel throughout the surface of the
earth learning constantly about the nature of this world,
and thus I personally witnessed the lesson of the young
girl. (Vedabase)
Text
10
In a place
where many people are quarrels will rise, even among two people
who converse alone. Therefore one should live like the young
girl's bracelet.
When
many people live together in one place there will
undoubtedly be quarreling. And even if only two people live
together there will be frivolous conversation and
disagreement. Therefore, to avoid conflict, one should live
alone, as we learn from the example of the bracelet of the
young girl. (Vedabase)
Text
11
The mind should
be steadied by detachment and a regulated practice
[vairâgya and abhyâsa] in
which one conquers one's breathing in sitting postures and
carefully concentrates on one point [the true self, see
also B.G. 6:
10-15 and
6:
46-47].
Having
perfected the yoga sitting postures and conquered the
breathing process, one should make the mind steady by
detachment and the regulated practice of yoga. Thus one
should carefully fix the mind on the single goal of yoga
practice. (Vedabase)
Text
12
Having obtained
permanence in that position one achieves with that very mind,
step by step having given up the contamination of karma,
nirvâna
because one grew strong in sattva
no longer fueling rajas
and tamas
[see also B.G. 6:
26 and
14:
6-8].
The
mind can be controlled when it is fixed on the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Having achieved a stable situation,
the mind becomes free from polluted desires to execute
material activities; thus as the mode of goodness increases
in strength, one can completely give up the modes of passion
and ignorance, and gradually one transcends even the
material mode of goodness. When the mind is freed from the
fuel of the modes of nature, the fire of material existence
is extinguished. Then one achieves the transcendental
platform of direct relationship with the object of his
meditation, the Supreme Lord. (Vedabase)
Text
13
When
one thus is anchored to the soul is one unconcerned about
whatever outside or inside oneself, just as
when the
arrowmaker being absorbed in the arrow didn't notice the king
passing nearby [see B.G. 7:
27-28].
Thus,
when one's consciousness is completely fixed on the Absolute
Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one no longer see
s duality, or internal and external reality. The example is
given of the arrow maker who was so absorbed in making a
straight arrow that he did not even see or notice the king
himself, who was passing right next to him.
(Vedabase)
Text
14
Moving alone
without a fixed residence [or temple] and exercising
restraint not being recognized in his actions a sage, being
without companions, will speak only little.
A
saintly person should remain alone and constantly travel
without any fixed residence. Being alert, he should remain
secluded and should act in such a way that he is not
recognized or noticed by others. Moving without companions,
he should not speak more than required. (Vedabase)
Text
15
Building
a home but failing to accomplish
[a spiritual life, see B.G. 4:
18] is a
miserable thing; just think of the snake that lives happily
occupying a hole that was built by others.
When
a person living in a temporary material body tries to
construct a happy home, the result is fruitless and
miserable. The snake, however, enters a home that has been
built by others and prospers happily. (Vedabase)
Text
16
The one Self,
the one Supreme Controller without a second, who became the
Foundation and Reservoir of All, is Nârâyana, the
Godhead who in the beginning by His own potency created the
universe and by His potency of Time at the end of the
kalpa withdraws His creation within
Himself.
The
Lord of the universe, Nârâyana, is the
worshipable God of all living entities. Without extraneous
assistance, the Lord creates this universe by His own
potency, and at the time of annihilation the Lord destroys
the universe through His personal expansion of time and
withdraws all of the cosmos, including all the conditioned
living entities, within Himself. Thus, His unlimited Self is
the shelter and reservoir of all potencies. The subtle
pradhâna, the basis of all cosmic manifestation, is
conserved within the Lord and is in this way not different
from Him. In the aftermath of annihilation the Lord stands
alone. (Vedabase)
Text
17-18
When by His
potency of the time factor the material powers of sattva
and so on have been balanced, exists the Original Personality,
the purusha
of the primary nature [pradhâna],
who is the worshipable Controller of the gods and normal souls,
in the purest experience of revelation that one describes as
kaivalya
[or beatitude], the fulness of the blissful state that
is free from material association [see also B.G.
7:
5 and
*].
When
the Supreme Personality of Godhead displays His own potency
in the form of time and guides His material potencies, such
as the mode of goodness, into a neutral condition of
equilibrium, He remains as the supreme controller of that
neutral state, called pradhâna, as well as of the
living entities. He is also the supreme worshipable object
for all beings, including liberated souls, demigods and
ordinary conditioned souls. The Lord is eternally free from
any material designation, and He constitutes the totality of
spiritual bliss, which one experiences by see ing the Lord's
spiritual form. The Lord thus exhibits the fullest meaning
of the word 'liberation.' (Vedabase)
Text
19
By means of the
pure potency of His Self, His own energy composed of the three
modes, manifests He the plan of matter [constitutes He the
sûtra, the thread, provides He the rule or
direction of the mahat-tattva]. He achieves that
[in the form of Time] by agitation at the onset of
creation [see also 3.26:
19]
O
subduer of the enemies, at the time of creation the
Personality of Godhead expands His own transcendental
potency in the form of time, and agitating His material
energy, mâyâ, composed of the three modes of
material nature, He creates the mahat-tattva.
(Vedabase)
Text
20
To
that [thread] that turns
out to be the cause of the three modes that create the
different categories of the manifestation, so one says, is this
universe, by which the living being undergoes its existence,
strung and bound [see also B.G. 7:
7].
According
to great sages, that which is the basis of the three modes
of material nature and which manifests the variegated
universe is called the sûtra or mahat-tattva. Indeed,
this universe is resting within that mahat-tattva, and due
to its potency the living entity undergoes material
existence. (Vedabase)
Text
21
Just as the
spider, expanding the thread from within himself, by his mouth
with that thread enjoys [his meal] and eventually
swallows that thread, the Supreme Controller operates the same
way.
Just
as from within himself the spider expands thread through his
mouth, plays with it for some time and eventually swallows
it, similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands
His personal potency from within Himself. Thus, the Lord
displays the network of cosmic manifestation, utilizes it
according to His purpose and eventually withdraws it
completely within Himself. (Vedabase)
Text
22
On whatever the
conditioned soul fixes his mind out of love, hate or fear, that
particular state he will, because of the full concentration of
his intelligence, reach thus [see B.G. 8:
6].
If
out of love, hate or fear an embodied soul fixes his mind
with intelligence and complete concentration upon a
particular bodily form, he will certainly attain the form
that he is meditating upon. (Vedabase)
Text
23
O
King, a wasp larva meditating on the fully grown wasp that has
put him in the hive, keeping to its own body, reaches the same
state of being fully grown.
O
King, once a wasp forced a weaker insect to enter his hive
and kept him trapped there. In great fear the weak insect
constantly meditated upon his captor, and without giving up
his body, he gradually achieved the same state of existence
as the wasp. Thus one achieves a state of existence
according to one's constant concentration. (Vedabase)
Text
24
This
is what I know from taking instruction from all these gurus.
Now please o King, hear from me what I have to say about the
knowledge I acquired learning from my own body.
O
King, from all these spiritual masters I have acquired great
wisdom. Now please listen as I explain what I learned from
my own body. (Vedabase)
Text
25
With
one's body one always has to suffer because of the inevitable
burden of its maintenance and future destruction. I contemplate
the truths of the world with it and thus is the body, even
though it is there for the service of others, to me a teacher
of renunciation and discrimination who convinces me to wander
about in detachment.
The
material body is also my spiritual master because it teaches
me detachment. Being subject to creation and destruction, it
always comes to a painful end. Thus, although using my body
to acquire knowledge, I always remember that it will
ultimately be consumed by others, and remaining detached, I
move about this world. (Vedabase)
Text
26
The body is
bound to the mission of pleasing all the categories of the
wife, the children, the animals, the servants, the home and the
relatives. Before it has to die it has expanded by begetting a
likewise
body and for that purpose it went at lengths to achieve a
favorable financial position. In that sense the body is like a
tree that before it dies produces its see ds.
A
man attached to the body accumulates money with great
struggle to expand and protect the position of his wife,
children, property, domestic animals, servants, homes,
relatives, friends, and so on. He does all this for the
gratification of his own body. As a tree before dying
produces the see d of a future tree, the dying body
manifests the see d of one's next material body in the form
of one's accumulated karma. Thus assuring the continuation
of material existence, the material body sinks down and
dies. (Vedabase)
Text
27
From one side
the tongue distracts thirsty the cherished body at times, from
the other side the genitals do so, the sense of touch acts
thus, the belly demands attention, the ears lead elsewhere, the
smell goes or the fickle eyes are leading elsewhere; and so all
parts of the body like co-wives pull the head of the household
in many directions.
A
man who has many wives is constantly harassed by them. He is
responsible for their maintenance, and thus all the ladies
constantly pull him in different directions, each struggling
for her self-interest. Similarly, the material senses harass
the conditioned soul, pulling him in many different
directions at once. On one side the tongue is pulling him to
arrange tasty food; then thirst drags him to get a suitable
drink. Simultaneously the sex organs clamor for
satisfaction, and the sense of touch demands soft, sensuous
objects. The belly harasses him until it is filled, the ears
demand to hear pleasing sounds, the sense of smell hankers
for pleasant aromas, and the fickle eyes clamor for pleasing
sights. Thus the senses, organs and limbs, all desiring
satisfaction, pull the living entity in many directions.
(Vedabase)
Text
28
After
the Supreme Lord had created the trees, venomous insects,
mammals, birds, snakes and all other sorts of material bodies
by means of His bewildering potency, created the Lord, not
satisfied with it, the human being He endowed with an
intelligence fit for envisioning the Absolute Truth and
achieved He thus happiness.
The
Supreme Personality of Godhead, expanding His own potency,
mâyâ-s'akti, created innumerable species of life
to house the conditioned souls. Yet by creating the forms of
trees, reptiles, animals, birds, snakes and so on, the Lord
was not satisfied within His heart. Then He created human
life, which offers the conditioned soul sufficient
intelligence to perceive the Absolute Truth, and became
pleased. (Vedabase)
Text
29
After
many births having attained this human form that is so
difficult to attain and which, even though it is not eternal,
awards great value, should a sober person as long as he,
subject to death, has not fallen [in his grave],
without delay in this world endeavor for the ultimate
liberation that is always within reach in all conditions of
sense-gratification.
After
many, many births and deaths one achieves the rare human
form of life, which, although temporary, affords one the
opportunity to attain the highest perfection. Thus a sober
human being should quickly endeavor for the ultimate
perfection of life as long as his body, which is always
subject to death, has not fallen down and died. After all,
sense gratification is available even in the most abominable
species of life, whereas Krishna consciousness is possible
only for a human being. (Vedabase)
Text
30
Thus
[with all these twenty-four masters] carrying the
vision of the Soul I wander, fully having developed
renunciation and wisdom, the earth being freed from attachment
and false ego.
Having
learned from my spiritual masters, I remain situated in
realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and, fully
renounced and enlightened by realized spiritual knowledge,
wander the earth without attachment or false ego.
(Vedabase)
Text
31
Assuredly
can the knowledge of a single teacher not be very solid or
complete [see 11.3:
21];
the Absolute Truth without a second is by the sages thus
defended from many perspectives.'
Although
the Absolute Truth is one without a second, the sages have
described Him in many different ways. Therefore one may not
be able to acquire very firm or complete knowledge from one
spiritual master. (Vedabase)
Text
32
The Supreme
Lord said: 'The so very wise brahmin [who in fact was Lord
Dattâtreya,
see 2.7:
4 and
**]
after he thus had spoken to king Yadu and properly was honored
by the king offering his obeisances, bid farewell and went
away, just as contented as he had come.
The
Supreme Personality of Godhead said - Having thus spoken to
King Yadu, the wise brâhmana accepted obeisances and
worship from the King and felt pleased within himself. Then
bidding farewell, he left exactly as he had come.
(Vedabase)
Text
33
Having
heard the words of the avadhûta found Yadu, the
forefather of our ancestors, liberation in a consciousness
equal to all.'
O
Uddhava, hearing the words of the avadhûta, the
saintly King Yadu, who is the forefather of our own
ancestors, became free from all material attachment, and
thus his mind was evenly fixed on the spiritual platform.
(Vedabase)
*:
Considering verse 3.25:
34
stating that devotees do see k company to associate for
Krishna, do the âcâryas after this verse say
that that single mindedness for the Lord, not speculating as
jnânis, is the same as being alone not to land in
quarrels [see pp. 11.9:
10].
**:
The paramparâ [pp. 11.9:
32]
confirms: 'This verse [2.7:
4]
mentions that Yadu was purified by contact with the lotus feet
of Dattâtreya, and similarly the present verse states,
vandito sv-arcito râjñâ - King Yadu
worshiped the lotus feet of the brâhmana. Thus,
according to S'rîla S'rîdhara Svâmî,
the avadhûta brâhmana is the Personality of
Godhead Himself, and this is confirmed by S'rîla
Vis'vanâtha Cakravartî
Thhâkura.'
