Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | Krishna’s Instruction - Avadhuta’s Sermon on His Teachers - III
2. An osprey (kurara) that was in possession of a piece of meat was attacked by other powerful birds which had no meat. When it gave up that piece of meat, it was at peace, being free from such attacks.
3. I care not for honour or insult, nor have I the worry of family, possessing house and children. Like a boy I roam about having my sport and joy in the Self only.
4. The child without any thought and purpose of action, and the sage that has transcended the three gunas of Prakrti are alone free from worry and anxiety, and immersed in joy.
5. In a certain place, some people arrived at a house with a proposal for marriage for a girl of that house. As all the elders of the house-hold had gone out elsewhere, the girl herself received the visitors.
6. Oh King! For extending proper hospitality to them, the girl began to de-husk paddy in a solitary place. While doing so, the conch bangles on her arms made a loud sound by mutual impact.
7. The intelligent girl felt ashamed that the sound of the conch bangles – a poor girl’s ornaments, would betray the poverty of the house-hold. So she broke those bangles one after the other, except a pair on each arm.
8. Even these pairs of bangles on the arms produced noise while she continued de-husking. So she broke one more bangle on each arm. Then there was no sound, there being only one bangle on each arm.
9. Wandering as I do to learn truths directly from life in the world, I learnt the following lesson from that girl.
10. If too many people live together, quarrel will ensue. Even if there are only two, they spend time in conversation, and not in contemplation of the Atman. So I should travel alone, like the single bangle on the girl’s arm, conversing with none.
11. After gaining mastery over a sitting posture and the vital energy, one should try to fix the mind on a single object of meditation. Through dispassion, one should check all the outgoing tendencies of the mind, and through practice, its tendency to lapse into sleepy absorption. The mind should thus be held to the object of concentration with great vigilance.
12. The mind should be concentrated on that Being, by getting absorbed in which all tendencies of activity get gradually eliminated. Further, such meditation enhances sattva leading to the elimination of rajas and tamas which cause agitation and inertia in the mind. When this is accomplished, the mind subsides like the fire that has exhausted its fuel.
13. This state of mind is comparable to that of a smith making an arrow-head. His mind being fully concentrated on the arrow-head he is forging, he is unaware even of a King with his retinue passing by. Similarly, the sage whose mind is absorbed in the Atman is without any experience within and without, and of objects pertaining to such experience.
14. Like a serpent, the sage should be a lone wanderer, homeless, always vigilant, residing in caves difficult to recognize by externals, solitary and reserved in his utterances.
15. The life-span being very uncertain, it is a folly to undertake the painful task of building a house. Look at the serpent. It makes no home, but goes into the holes made by other creatures, and rests there happily. So a yogi should have no home of his own, but rest in the homes of others temporarily.
16-18. At the end of each cycle of creation (kalpa), Narayana, the sole Reality, dissolves, by means of His power of Time, the whole universe which His own Maya has created. The dissolution of the universe into the Supreme Being is the bringing of sattva, rajas and tamas – the three gunas of Prakrti into equilibrium. Narayana alone exists as the sole Reality, being Himself His own support, the substratum of all, and the Master of both Prakrti and Purusa. Transcending all relative existence, high and low, He exists as boundless Freedom and the ocean of Pure Consciousness-Bliss.
19. When the cycle of creation begins, Time, which is but His will, agitates His own Maya constituted of sattva, rajas and tamas, and manifests the Sutratman, the all-pervading Spirit known otherwise as Mahatattva.
20. He, the Sutratman formed of the three gunas, is looked upon by wise men as the Creator of this multi-faceted universe. This whole universe is threaded on Him, and the Jiva trans-migrates because of Him.
21. Just as a spider brings out its web from within itself, sports in it for a while and then withdraws it into itself, so does the Supreme Being bring out, manifest and withdraw the universe within.
22. On whatever object a person concentrates his mind, whether it be from love, animosity or fear, that person attains the state of that object.
23. The worm, placed in a hole by the wasp and continually frightened by its buzzing sound, turns into the shape of the wasp even without giving up its old body.
24. These are the lessons I have learnt from teachers. Now listen what I have learnt from my own body.
25. This body has been the teacher from whom I learnt the lessons of dispassion and discrimination. Through repeated birth and death, with incessant misery as its fruit, it has taught me dispassion. It is with the help of the body that I am able to reflect on truth and then practise discrimination. But I go about unattached to it as I am aware that this body belongs to others such as dogs and jackals that might feast on it after its death, if it is left to itself without cremation or burial.
26. Man supports his wife, children, cattle, servants, dependants and relatives with hard earned money, only to nurture this physical body. In the end, this body, nurtured with such great difficulty, perishes, leaving behind, like a tree, the seeds of future bodies in the shape of the effects of karma.
27. As a house-holder is harassed by the divergent pulls of each of his wives, man is attracted by each of his senses to its respective objects such as taste to taste-buds in the tongue, thirst to water, skin to pleasant touch, stomach to edible food, ear to pleasant sound, smell to fragrance, sight to objects of beauty, etc.
28. In the early stages of the cycle of creation, the Lord brought into existence by His power different types of beings such as trees, serpents, animals, birds, insects, fish, etc. Not satisfied with any of these forms, He felt pleased when He brought into existence the homo-sapiens endowed with intelligence suited for intuiting the Brahman – the Supreme Being.
29. This human body, which is attainable only after countless births in various species, is a very rare blessing that one could get. In spite of its impermanence, it is very precious as the knowledge of the Supreme Truth and other values can be had only through it. A wise man should, therefore, strive, as long as the body lasts, for the attainment of the ultimate good – liberation from the trans-migratory cycle. To act otherwise is a great loss, as sense enjoyments are possible in other bodies, too.
30. Learning many lessons in this way from several gurus, dispassion has dawned on me, and I have obtained the light of discriminative intelligence. So I am wandering in this world, established in the Atman, devoid of any attachments, and without any ego-sense or feeling of possession.
31. With one guru alone, knowledge may not be firmly and completely established.
For, the subject is so profound that this very non-dual Brahman has been
presented very differently by various rishis in the scriptures as acosmic and as
the cause of all causes.
Sri Bhagawan said:
32. So saying and much pleased, the sage Dattatreya, of deep understanding, took leave of the King Yadu after receiving the latter’s obeisance. As he came by chance, so he went away, with no particular destination in mind.
33. Instructed by the sage in this way, Yadu, the ancestor of my clan, became completely free from all attachments and established in equanimity.