Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | Krishna’s Instruction - Avadhuta’s Sermon on His Teachers - I
2. I have accomplished all the purposes of Devas for which, at the request of Brahma, I incarnated in part (with Balarama as the other part).
3. This clan of the Yadavas, doomed by the curse of the holy men, will perish through mutual strife among its members. And this city of Dwaraka will be inundated by the sea on the seventh day from now.
4. On My ascension to My abode, this world, denuded of its good fortune, will be subject to the sway of Kali, the spirit of the evil age.
5. After I have left it, do not stay in this land. For, in the age of Kali that is to follow, men will all be unrighteous in their outlook.
6. Abandoning all attachment to your own people and relatives, take refuge in Me and wander about the world seeing My Presence in everything.
7. Know this world, grasped by the mind, speech, sight, sound and other senses to be unsubstantial and transitory, like a mental projection in a magic show.
8. For the man of uncontrolled mind, there is the erroneous perception of multiplicity; a person with such perception is subject to the notion of good and evil. And for one with that notion arises the distinction among ordinary action, inaction and prohibited action.
9. Therefore, with the mind and the senses controlled, you must see the world in the Atman and the all-pervading Atman in Me, the Supreme Lord.
10. One who is endowed with the knowledge of the scriptures and enlightened, who sees the Atman in everything and is full of the joy of the Spirit, meets with no obstruction from any source.
11. Even when one has transcended the distinction between the harmful and the favourable, one avoids the harmful not because of the compulsion of scriptural injunction; nor does one promote the favourable because it is advantageous. One’s reactions are spontaneous and un-motivated, like those of an infant.
12. Illumined, peaceful and established in universal benevolence, one sees the Lord as the essence of the world, or recognizes the whole of the manifested existence as the Divine Soul, and becomes free from the travails of samsara.
Samsara is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘to wander or pass through a series of states or conditions’. It is the beginning-less cycle of birth, death and rebirth, a process impelled by karma. Taken together, samsara and karma provide a causal explanation of human differences and an ethical theory of moral retribution.
The word samsara is also applied to phenomenal existence in general to indicate its transient and cyclical nature. Samsara is thus the conditioned and ever-changing universe as contrasted to an unconditioned, eternal and transcendent state of the Supreme Self.
Samsara is generally characterized by suffering and sorrow as well as impermanence. The cause of perpetual rebirth is found usually in desire based on ego-sense for individual existence, and in ignorance of the true nature of the Reality.
As such, the supreme goal of human endeavour is considered as liberation from
samsara, that is, as release from bondage to the cycle of birth, death and
rebirth, nullifying the impressions (samskaras) of karma accumulated thus far.
15. Oh all-powerful One! The abandonment of all objects of desire is very difficult for those who are in the midst of enjoyment. I think it is well-nigh impossible for those who have no devotion to Thee, the soul of all.
16. The ignorant fool that I am, Maya has bound me with the feeling that I am the body, and all those connected with it are mine. Oh worshipful Lord! Instruct me, Thy servant, how I can achieve that abandonment of all attachments commended by Thee.
17. There are none except Thee even among the divinities who are capable of instructing me about that Atman which is the self-effulgent and self-conscious Truth. For, as far as this subject is concerned, all embodied beings including Brahma are confounded owing to Thy Maya which makes them feel that what is external alone is true.
18. Therefore, buffeted by the difficulties of worldly life and thereby filled
with disgust for the same, I seek refuge in Thee, Narayana, the friend of the
Jiva – Thou who art pure, infinite, all-knowing and the Lord of all, and art
established in the eternal Vaikuntha.
20. While even all lower creatures are to some extent capable of looking after their own welfare, man, who is endowed with intelligence and discriminative power, can surely be his own teacher. For, by observation and inference, he is able to understand what contributes to his ultimate good.
21. When a Jiva obtains a human birth, and treads on the path of knowledge and devotion, it clearly understands Me, the Supreme Spirit endowed with all powers.
22. Many are the types of bodies created – some with one, two, three or four legs, some with many more legs, and some with no leg at all. Of all these, the human body is the dearest to Me.
23. Unable to find Me, the Pure Spirit, by sense perception, earnest spiritual aspirants seek Me in this body through presumption and inference. The presumption is that the intellect (buddhi) and the other instruments functioning in the creation of knowledge are in themselves lifeless. The existence of consciousness in them can be explained only by accepting a consciousness behind them. The inference is that the intellect (buddhi) and the senses are in the nature of instruments. They must be functioning for the purpose of an intelligent agent.
24. In illustration of this, great men cite an ancient anecdote in the form of a conversation between Dattatreya, the Avadhuta of blazing spiritual power and King Yadu.
25. King Yadu, a knower of dharma, once met this Avadhuta wandering everywhere
fearlessly as he chose. He was young, and bore the signs of the highest
enlightenment.
27. Men are found to engage themselves in the observance of duties, and in pursuit of wealth, pleasures and moral values. In all this activity, they are motivated by their desire for longevity, fame and prosperity.
28. You are strong, learned, capable, handsome and eloquent. But you show no desire for anything, nor do you care to do any work. You merely wander about sometimes like a senseless man, sometimes as one inebriated, and sometimes like one possessed.
29. While all men are being burnt in the fire of sexual craving and greed, you remain unaffected like an elephant that has plunged into the waters of the Ganges.
30. Oh holy one! Kindly tell me what it is that fills your heart always with
joy, though you are without any object of sense enjoyment and are without any
companion, and alone.
33-35. There are twenty four gurus who I have had access to. From their ways and characteristics, I have learnt the lessons. These twenty four are: the earth, air, sky, water, fire, sun, moon, Kapota (dove), python, ocean, river, moth, honey-bee, elephant, honey-gatherer, deer-fish, Pingala the courtesan, Kurara (osprey), maiden, arrow-smith, snake, spider and wasp.
36. Oh grandson of Nahusha! Listen now which guru taught me what and how.
37. A man of self-control should not move away from his chosen path even when attacked by beings under the sway of their primordial tendencies, knowing it to be due to their own destiny (prarabdha). This lesson I learnt from the earth.
38. Further, a spiritual aspirant should learn from the mountains on the earth and the trees on them to strive selflessly for the good of others, and find the meaning of his existence in such striving. Becoming a disciple of trees, he should live for others.
39. The sage should be satisfied with as much of food as is required to keep him alive, his knowledge bright, and the faculties of his mind and senses intact. He should not crave for tasty food.
40. Even if a yogi happens to be in contact with sense-objects of various descriptions, he should remain like air, untouched by the good and the bad effects of such contacts.
41. A yogi, who is established in the Atman (Consciousness), even if he is embodied in a material body and performs various functions appropriate to such body, is never affected by the sense-objects, as air is not affected by the odour it carries.
42. Identifying himself with the Brahman, the sage should realize that, like the sky, the Self (the Atman) is un-circumscribed and unaffected by the body, because the Self indwells all beings moving and unmoving, and because IT is an invariable presence everywhere in all beings.
43. Just as the clouds wafted by the wind do not affect the sky, so the Atman is not tainted by abidance in the body which is a combination of the various elements like fire, water and earth into which the gunas of Prakrti evolve when stirred into activity by Time.
44. Pure, holy, naturally loving and sweet, the sage exercises a sanctifying influence on men in which respect he resembles the holy waters of the Ganges which purify men by sight, contact and praise.
45. Impressive and replenished by the fire of penance (tapas), inviolable in his greatness, having no possessions – not even a bowl but only his stomach as a receptacle for food – eating anything and everything offered, the sage, who is ever in communion with the Brahman, remains unpolluted like the all-consuming fire.
46. Sometimes hiding his identity, sometimes revealing it as worthy of worship by those desiring their own welfare, the sage consumes the food offered by house-holders in order to burn their past and future sins, as fire does with all objects put into it.
47. This world, which is of the nature of cause and effect, has been created by the all-powerful Lord by His power Maya. He has entered into it, and is manifesting Himself in different forms through the adjuncts of the body-mind, just as fire does residing in the fuel.
48. The changes that Time, the inscrutable, brings on an individual from the time of conception to the events at the cremation ground, affect only the body and not the atman, just as the waxing and the waning of the moon are only of its digits and not of the moon itself.
49. The extraordinary speed of Time is, every moment, affecting the birth and death of the bodies that the Atman assumes, while the changes involved are not noticed, just like the emergence and subsidence of tongues of flame in a raging fire.
50. Just as the sun absorbs water with its rays and releases it in proper time as rain, so a yogi accepts objects of the senses with the senses, not for his own enjoyment, but to release them to the needy at proper time.
51. When the Atman abides in Itself, no difference is experienced; when IT abides in adjuncts, gross-minded people think IT as many. It is just like the one sun reflected in different adjuncts like pots of water, looked upon as many and diverse.
52. One should not have intense love for or attachment to anyone. Otherwise one will be subjected to excruciating suffering like the afflicted bird kapota of the story.
53. On the branch of a tree in a forest, a kapota had built its nest and had been staying in it with its consort for sometime.
54. Following the ways of householders, the kapota couple was bound together by intense love, their eyes and limbs, and thought closely united.
55. Ever inseparable in lying, sitting, moving about, standing, playing and eating, they merrily spent their time in sporting amidst the trees, without the least suspicion of any danger overtaking them.
56. Catering to the pleasures of and loved by its consort, the female bird had all its needs fulfilled, even under difficult circumstances, by the male kapota who, for want of self-control, was a slave to the female kapota.
57. When the time came for that faithful female bird to lay eggs for the first time, it did so in its nest in the presence of its consort.
58. In due time, thanks to the working of the mysterious power of Sri Hari, lovely fledglings with charming limbs and feathers came out of those eggs.
59. The fond parent birds brought them up with proper care, lost in love on hearing their chirpings and in distinct twitterings.
60. Those parent birds derived the highest delight to see their fluttering soft wings, their sweet sound, their immature movements, and their eager advance to meet them when they returned to the nest.
61. Infatuated by the Lord’s Maya, and bound together by strong bonds of love, they anxiously nourished their offspring.
62. One day they had gone out into the forest to collect food for their fledglings, and were away for a long time from their nest.
63. A fowler who was moving about in the forest happened to see these infant birds fluttering about their nest. He thereupon cast his net and caught them in it.
64. Thereafter, the kapota couple, ever enthusiastic about nourishing the offspring, returned to their nest with food for feeding the infant birds.
65. Seeing its young offspring crying, entangled in the fowler’s net, the female bird rushed to them, screeching in great distress.
66. Bound by cords of love by the Lord’s Yogamaya, the sight of her endangered offspring made the female bird doubly desperate with sorrow. Forgetful of the danger posed by the net and in spite of seeing its offspring’s condition, it rushed in only to be entangled in the net.
67. Seeing the perilous condition of its consort whom the male bird loved as much as itself, and of its offspring who were dearer to it than life, the male bird began to bemoan its fate.
68. It said: ‘Alas! Look at the great danger that my luckless, unfortunate self is in. I am not yet satisfied with the pleasures of life, nor have I gained the means for spiritual enlightenment in life henceforth. And now my home which is the means to attain virtue, wealth and pleasure is threatened with total destruction.
69-70. When my consort, so well-matched, obedient and faithful, has chosen to leave me alone in an empty home in order to go to heaven with its dear offspring, why should I live, alone and grief-stricken, in the empty nest devoid of my consort and offspring?’
71. Seeing them all entangled in the meshes of the nest and struggling in the throes of death, that male bird, senseless and grief-stricken, threw itself also into the net.
72. Having thus got all the birds, the kapota couple and the fledglings, the cruel fowler went home with them, fully satisfied.
73. Thus, a householder, whose senses are uncontrolled and mind restless, who is always engaged in the concerns of the family, runs the risk of perishing with the whole family like the kapota couple and its fledglings.
74. A person who, having attained human birth in which the doors of the mansion of salvation (mukti) lie open to him, still continues to be wholly attached to his home and worldly concerns like the birds mentioned above, is looked upon by great men as one who falls down into a bottomless abyss, after attaining to a great height.