Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | The Mendicant’s Realization
3. The sharp arrows struck at vital parts of the body do not mortify a man to the same extent as the arrows of filthy abuse which evil men release at him.
4. Oh Uddhava! Enlightened men have a traditional legend of great holiness, in connection with this subject. I shall narrate it to you. Listen to it attentively.
5. Listen to this recital of a mendicant who was insulted and ill-treated by some evil men, and who put up with it, taking it all to be the result of his karma.
6. In the kingdom of Avanti, there lived a very rich brahmana engaged in agriculture and trade as the sources of his livelihood. He was ill-tempered, extremely greedy and very miserly.
7. He never welcomed even verbally his relatives or guests. In his house, empty of inhabitants, there was no proper provision to meet even his needs.
8. His sons and relatives felt oppressed because of his perversity and miserliness. Even his wife, daughters and servants were so depressed that they did not strive to please him.
9. His five ‘co-sharers’ (the agencies adored through Pancha-mahayajna, namely, Devas, rishis, manes, bhutas and men) were displeased with him, as he never cared to share his wealth with them, but only guarded it securely like a goblin (bhuta). As a consequence, he lost the prospects of his future evolution in the life hereafter as well as his welfare and enjoyment in this life itself.
10. For, the anger of the deities of Pancha-mahayajna deprived him even of that merit which had enabled him to accumulate wealth. As a consequence, his entire wealth was lost in spite of all the hard work he had put in for its acquisition and retention.
11. His relatives appropriated some of it; thieves relieved him of some; and fire, accident, bad seasons, and the exaction of the kings completed the process of his impoverishment.
12. Thus deprived of the means to perform his religious duties and meet his worldly needs, and deserted also by his relatives, he was filled with worrying thoughts.
13. As he was being mentally burnt by the sorrow arising from total impoverishment and was shedding bitter tears about his condition over and over again, there arose in him, by the Lord’s grace, a powerful fit of renunciation for all worldly values.
14. He began to think, ‘Vain has been all my hard work for the acquisition of wealth which I failed to use for religious work or worldly enjoyment.
15. The wealth of misers never turns out to be a means of happiness. Its rewards are worry here and hell hereafter.
16. Just as leucoderma mars the beauty of even a perfect form, even a little of miserliness compromises the clean reputation and the otherwise praiseworthy character of man.
17. Great effort is required to earn, augment and protect wealth. Even if it is acquired, in expending and enjoying it, great fear and worry are likely, while its loss will depress man and bring him to the brink of madness.
18-19. Wise men say that theft, slaughter, falsehood, hypocrisy, greed, anger, egotism, pride, partiality, rancour, suspicion, jealousy, sexuality, gambling, drunkenness are the fifteen vices produced in men by wealth. So, let those who aspire for liberation abandon it from afar, as artha, wealth, is really anartha, the cause of all evil.
20. Brothers, wives, parents and such close relatives so dear to one another, and living together as if they were one in body, become bitter enemies for the sake of a few coins.
21. Dispute over a trifle is sufficient to inflame them with anger and make them fight among themselves forgetting all loving relationship, and ever intent on mutual destruction.
22. Birth among the most abominable species is the dismal reward for those who, having obtained a human birth and that as a brahmana – a circumstance which is the highest aspiration even of Devas, cast it off like a trifle without striving for the attainment of spiritual freedom, which is the highest end of living beings.
23. A person does not deserve to be called human if he fails to make proper use of this embodiment as man, the gateway to heaven and liberation, but runs after wealth, which is the source of every kind of misery during the short span of life given to him.
24. Surely downfall awaits a man who accumulates wealth like a treasure-guarding yaksha without distributing it among deities, rishis, Pitris, elementals, relatives, associates and others who have claims to it.
25. Oblivious of all the higher values of life because of vain greed for wealth, my strength, my life and my wealth have all gone to sheer waste. Wise men utilize wealth as means to salvation. But what can I, an old and decrepit man, now do?
26. How is it then those even wise men, who know all these evil consequences of the pursuit of wealth, struggle for it without end in spite of all difficulties? Surely it is because that the whole world is under the spell of delusion cast by the Maya of the Lord of infinite potency.
27. For man who is already in the mouth of the serpent of death, of what significance are wealth and those who help him getting it? Of what use are enjoyment, too, and those who provide him with it?
28. Surely the worshipful Lord Hari, the embodiment of all divinities, has been pleased with me and brought me to this state of mind. He has provided me, out of His grace, with this boat of renunciation with which I can cross the ocean of samsara.
29. Whatever length of life-span is still left for me, I shall dedicate it to the earnest pursuit of the higher values of life, finding my joy exclusively in the Atman, and subjecting my body to rigorous discipline for this purpose.
30. In this effort, may I have the blessing of all the divinities who are the
rulers of the three worlds? By the Lord’s grace, the king Khatvanga attained to
Brahmaloka in a trice. Why not I, too?’
32. With his mind, senses and pranas controlled, he wandered from one place to another all over the country, entering towns and villages only for alms, completely unattached, and in no way demonstrating his past greatness.
33. Oh good friend! Evil men persecuted and insulted him in many ways, seeing him old, decrepit, untended and ill-clad.
34. Some pulled at his staff; some his water-pot and begging bowl; some at his seat; some at his beads; and some at his rags and bark-cloth.
35-36. Some gave back to him his personal effects, only to take them away again. Some wretches among them passed urine in the mendicant’s food collected by holy alms, while he was taking it on the river bank. Some others spat on his face. They tried their best to break his vow of silence; and when they failed, they thrashed him to make him speak.
37. Some tried to frighten him shouting that he was a thief, while others proceeded to bind him with cords.
38. Still others insulted him declaring him a hypocrite, who, having lost all his belongings and being deserted by his friends, had assumed this mendicant’s role only to deceive people.
39. Some said, ‘Possessed of great strength of mind and endurance that will do credit to a mountain, this man remains silent like a crane with determination, and achieves his purpose. It is most remarkable indeed!’
40. While some made fun of him as stated above, others passed dirty wind at him, and still others bound, imprisoned and treated him like a pet animal or bird.
41. Whatever sufferings came to him in this manner from external, supernatural or mental sources, he put up with them all with the thought that he was bound to suffer them all, as part of his prarabdha.
42. Though evil men thus tried their best to shake him from his swadharma by
persecution, he remained steadfast in his sattva-guna and his swadharma.
44. The powerful mind generates the modes and movement of all the senses. Senses give rise to actions of the nature of sattva, rajas or tamas. Out of actions, according to their nature, arise embodied celestials, men and creatures.
45. Though perceived as associated with the active mind, the atman, charged with self-consciousness, never acts but is the witness to the modes of the mind and the activity of the senses. But the Jiva identifies itself with that mind whose activity projects the samsara on the atman. Through this imaginative identification, the Jiva appears to be subject to the pleasures and pains resulting from the activity of the mind.
46. Charity, disinterested discharge of one’s duties, tranquility of mind and the senses, study of scriptures, various rites and vows stated in the scriptures have the objective of controlling the mind. Transcendence of the mind is samadhi, being established in total peace. It is the highest yoga.
47. If a man’s mind has already attained tranquility and is established in the Supreme Being, of what further use are charity and other spiritual disciplines for him? Equally, of what use are charity and other spiritual disciplines for him if his mind continues to run after sensuous pleasures, or is immersed in torpor and lethargy?
48. All the senses are subject to the mind, but the mind is not subject to any. This formidable entity called mind is more powerful than any other centre of power. He, who has been able to conquer it, is the true master of all the senses.
49. One’s own mind is one’s invincible enemy which works with unimaginable speed, and pierces all the vital parts. Without conquering or making an effort to conquer it, a fool enters into vain quarrels with others looking upon them as friends, foes or indifferent.
50. Subject to the delusion of considering his body, a product of his mental construction, as himself, a person with a clouded mind looks upon him and others as entirely different beings, and thus entangles himself in the darkness of the endless samsara.
51. For the sake of argument, if it is accepted that it is others that make one happy or miserable, how does this affect the atman which is metaphysical - a spirit and not the body? What is done by others to the body cannot affect the atman. If it is said that the pain and pleasure caused by others, even if it be to the body, are even felt by the atman, where is the scope for being pleased or annoyed with others as the atman in everybody including the enemies is the same?
52. If it is said that the agent inflicting suffering and the subject undergoing suffering are the deities presiding over the corresponding limbs, even then it is of no consequence to the immutable atman. It is like one limb of one body striking at the limb of another body raising the question ‘who is to be angry and at whom?’ For, the deities in the limbs of both the persons are one and the same.
53. If it be the contention that the atman, in the course of its self-caused evolutionary process, brings on itself happiness and suffering, then at whom can one be angry, as that suffering is natural being self-caused? If it is said that it is caused by another, it may be that there is no ‘another’, the atman being the sole existence. The ‘another’ is only an appearance and not a reality. As there is no cause outside the atman, there can be neither joy nor sorrow brought about by another.
54. If the planets are the cause of happiness and misery that attach only to the body, of what consequence is it to the atman that is eternal and immutable?
55. Some say that karma is the cause of happiness and misery of one. But as the atman, by nature, is without action, how can karma affect one? Besides, karma may affect only something that is inert and yet conscious. The atman (spirit) is always conscious and the body (matter) is always inert. So, there can be nothing that it is both conscious and inert at the same time. Such a postulation is self-contradictory. In such an event, there can be nothing like karma, too, much less enjoyment and suffering arising from it.
56. If the cause of enjoyment and suffering is said to be Time, how can it affect the atman? For, the atman is Time itself. Fire does not burn up its flames that are only its part. Nor does coldness destroy or melt its products like pieces of ice. The atman is beyond the pairs of opposites such as enjoyment and suffering. Who then will one be angry at?
57. It is the ego-sense, the experiencer of the cycle of birth and death that is attracted to the pairs of opposites such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain, virtue and vice, etc. The atman, the I-consciousness, is the spirit within and beyond the pairs of opposites. It is only such person that has not awakened to this truth that is subject to the fear of others.
58. Adopting the discipline leading to total absorption in the Supreme Self
following the sages of the past, and taking to the service of the feet of the
worshipful Mukunda, I shall soon get across the limitless expanse of the
darkness of ignorance’.
60. This samsara, giving rise to happiness and misery, and the distinction of friend, foe and the indifferent, is a delusion of the mind; it is entirely a product of ignorance.
61. Oh Uddhava! Therefore, equipped with a mind entirely dedicated to Me, put in your best effort to rein in and transcend it. This is the sum and substance of all yoga.
62. Whoever listens, with faith and devotion, to this song (brooding) of the mendicant relating to being established in the consciousness of the Brahman, or makes others listen to and brood over it, will no longer be overcome by the contradictions of life.