Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | Krishna’s Instruction - Avadhuta’s Sermon on His Teachers - II
2. Whatever food comes to one by chance, whether it is tasty or not, adequate or inadequate, one should partake of it like a python without making any effort to obtain it.
3. If the seeker fails to get any food sometimes, he should not make an effort for it. Considering it as his prarabdha (destiny), he should lie quietly like a python making no search for it.
4. Though endowed with all powers of the senses, mind and body, the seeker should not engage in action, but lie quiet in his place, with his mind awake and vigilant in respect of his ultimate goal in life.
5. The muni (sage) should be like the ocean, still, calm but deep and profound, unfathomable, inviolable, boundless and unperturbed.
6. The sage whose mind is absorbed in the contemplation of Narayana is neither exhilarated by the plentiful supply of the objects of enjoyment, nor dejected in their absence, just like the ocean that keeps in its bounds, neither overflowing nor shrinking, irrespective of whether water flows in or evaporates.
7. At the sight of woman, the Lord’s instrument of delusion, the man of uncontrolled senses, attracted by her charms, falls into the blinding darkness of ignorance, just as the moth attracted by the glow of fire falls into it and perishes.
8. Woman, gold, ornaments, clothes, etc, the creations of Maya offer attraction to man as objects of enjoyment. Their infatuation deprives him of his discriminative vision and generates in him intense attachment to them. He thus becomes a victim to the sense objects as moths to fire, and perishes.
9. Following the way of the honey-gathering bee, the sage may collect small quantities of food from house to house, just enough for the upkeep of his body, without being a burden on the house-holders.
10. An intelligent man seeks the essential teachings of all scriptural texts of varying importance, just as a honey-bee sucks the essence only of flowers.
11. An ascetic should not store food secured as holy alms for the evening or for the next day. His palm should be his receiving plate and his stomach the preserving vessel. He should not accumulate food like the bee.
12. A mendicant should not store anything for the morrow. For, if he accumulates, he is likely to perish like the bee with the accumulated belonging.
13. An ascetic should not allow even his feet to be touched by a young woman. He should not allow even a wooden image of a woman to touch his feet. By such contact, he will get bound, as a male-elephant is entrapped through physical contact with a female-elephant.
14. A wise man should not go for intimacy with a woman as she may turn out to be the cause of his death at the hands of a more powerful rival, just as in the case of an elephant competing with another for a female.
15. The wealth accumulated by a miser without himself enjoying it or making charitable gifts of it is knocked away by someone who knows about it, just as the honey gathered by bees is taken away by the honey-collector.
16. The first portion of what a house-holder cooks with things procured with great difficulty for his household purposes is to be consumed by ascetics, just as the honey gathered by bees is first consumed by the honey-gatherer. For it is the duty of the house-holder to give the best portion of what he cooks as offering (bhiksha) to ascetics. An ascetic need not, therefore, worry about his food.
17. A forest-dwelling ascetic or a sannyasin should not listen to vulgar music, lest he should thereby get entangled. This he should learn from the example of the deer which is captured through the hunter’s imitative cry of the doe.
18. The Rishi Rishyasringa, the son of Mrigi, was enslaved by women and became a mere toy in their hands, because of witnessing their sensuous dances and listening to their songs and instrumental music.
19. Just as fish perish by trying to swallow the angler’s baited hook, so do men perish through the attraction of the palate which causes intense excitement to the mind.
20. By abstinence, wise men conquer all the senses except the palate whose craving becomes only intensified by such abstinence.
21. Even if a person has gained mastery over all the other senses, he cannot be considered a conqueror of the senses until he has subdued the palate. If the palate is conquered, all the other senses are as good as conquered.
22. Oh Prince! Once there lived a well-known courtesan named Pingala in the city of Videha. I learnt a great lesson from her. Listen.
23. Once dressed in all her finery, this libertine of a woman stationed herself outside the door, ready to receive any customer who wanted her service in privacy.
24. Viewing the passers-by, this greedy woman thought that some among them, beautiful and capable of paying handsomely, would come seeking her.
26. Potential clients came and went away, as that woman, whose livelihood came from purveying sex, always expected the arrival of some man still more wealthy and capable of making her a still more handsome payment. Motivated by greed, she used to wait outside, go in, and come out, again and again, thus foregoing sleep till midnight.
27. To her, thus despondent and downcast with unfulfilled greed, a great feeling of revulsion against worldliness came suddenly, making her thoughtful, and full of peace.
28. Hear from me the song that Pingala sang at the dawn of her renunciation, showing how dispassion proves to be a sword that cuts the bonds of desire in man.
29. Oh King! Just as one without illumination will not abandon the feelings of
‘I’ and ‘mine’, so also a man without dispassion will not give up, nay even
desire to give up, the feeling that he is the body and nothing but the body.
31. Lo! Giving up the delighting and bounteous Lover seated closest to me in the heart, I, an ignorant woman, have been running after petty creatures that cannot fulfill my wants, but only purvey sorrow, fear, worry and delusion.
32. Alas! Vain and vile has been my struggle in life to gain a livelihood through prostitution – the most detestable way of life in which, by selling my body to lustful, miserly and despicable males, I hoped to gain wealth and pleasure.
33. Who else but a fool like me would approach as a lover, this hutment of a male body, having a bony ridgepole of a spine, rafters of ribs and pillars of limbs; roofed with a mantle of skin, hair and nails, rent with nine perpetually leaking bodily orifices, and filled with excreta, urine and other dirty things!
34. In this holy city of the Videhas, I, an impure woman, am the only fool who has been after objects of love other than the Supreme Lord Achyuta who gives Himself over to those who are devoted to Him.
35. The Supreme Being Achyuta is the friend, the inner-most essence, and the dearest of the dear of all beings. I shall dedicate my body, mind and soul to Him, and just like His consort Rama, seek delight in Him.
36. The delights of sex-life, as well as the men and Devas through whom these satisfactions are derived, are subject to origin and decay, and are at the mercy of hustling Time. What pleasures or protection have such beings conferred on women who satisfy their lust?
37. By virtue of some good and pious work done in the past, the Lord Vishnu has now been gracious to me. Otherwise how can I, who have been greedy and vicious, now attain this spirit of non-attachment and renunciation which has conferred on me great joy!
38. If I were really an unfortunate woman devoid of the Lord’s grace, this misfortune of not getting handsome remuneration would not have befallen me, generating renunciation. It is through renunciation that man breaks the bonds of home, wealth, relatives, etc and attains to supreme peace.
39. Accepting the great blessing He has conferred on me, I give up here and now all my hankering after sense-pleasures and take refuge in Him, the Lord of all.
40. Satisfied with whatever I have and having unfailing faith in the Lord, I shall delight in the company of this Lover who is none other than the Atman.
41. Who else, except the Supreme Lord Mahavishnu, can lift up and save the Jiva that has fallen into the deep pit of transmigratory existence with its vision of discrimination blinded by sense-objects, and caught in the jaws of the serpent of Time?
42. One should realize that this whole universe is in the jaws of the serpent of
Time. When, with this awareness, one becomes alert of one’s real situation in
life, one develops renunciation. Then one’s own higher-self, the Paramatman
becomes one’s saviour.
44. Desire is the source of the most poignant of sorrows, and desireless-ness of the most intense delight. Here is the example of Pingala as to how, on giving up her desire for customer-lovers, she could sleep happily.