Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | The Spiritual Goal
2. For one, endowed with self-knowledge and experience, I am the final end and the means for it; I am, to him, both heaven and liberation. There is no other love for him than Me.
3. Those that are endowed with self-knowledge and experience attain to My Transcendent State. The one of self-knowledge is, therefore, the most beloved of Me. For, through knowledge, he bears Me ever in himself.
4. The attainment through enlightenment (jnana) is not through austerity, pilgrimage to holy places, recantation of mantras, charity and other holy spiritual disciplines.
5. Oh Uddhava! Knowing yourself as the Spirit – the Self, through enlightened understanding, and endowed with self-knowledge and experience, adore Me with loving devotion.
6. The sages of the past made sacrificial offering of their knowledge and realization to Me, the Master of all sacrifices, dwelling as the Self within, and thereby attained the highest.
7. The three-fold formation of the gross, subtle and causal bodies, having you
as their centre is only a passing appearance. At the beginning and the end of
the series, the bodies are not seen. Change is only a phenomenon in the middle.
As the Self subsisted prior to the series of changes and as it is bound to
subsist at the end of the series, you have to accept that the Self has been
there in the middle, too, though hidden by the changing forms that are
phenomenal. In the case of the universe, too, which comes into being, subsists
and dissolves, you have no cause to feel confused. The Universal Spirit, from
whom the series of changes that you call the world started, existed even before
the world came into being and will exist even when it is dissolved. As the
Universal Spirit existed in the beginning and exists in the end, IT must be
existant in the middle, too, though covered with the ever-changing physicality
called the phenomenal universe.
Uddhava said:
8. Oh Lord of all, having the universe as Thy form! Be pleased to explain to me in all facets the ancient gospel of knowledge supported by renunciation and realization, as also Thy path of communion through devotion, a rare gift of Thine which even Brahma and other divinities have not been able to attain.
9. Oh Lord! For men who are tortured by the heat of the miseries of physical, non-physical and meta-physical origin on their journey through samsara, I find no other shelter than the nectar-dripping umbrella of Thy holy feet.
10. Oh great one! Be pleased to shower Thy nectarine words, and lift this humble
servant that has fallen into the pit of samsara, and who, in spite of being thus
bitten by the serpent of Time, still entertains longing for the petty pleasures
of life.
Sri Bhagawan said:
11. Yudhishthira, the one without an enemy, put the same question, in the hearing of all of us, to Bhishma, the greatest among the knowers of dharma.
12. After the all-Bharata war was over, Yudhishthira, depressed by brooding over the slaughter of his kith and kin, sought relief in discussing various aspects of dharma with Bhishma. Finally, he questioned him on the way of man’s spiritual liberation.
13. I shall now tell you what I heard at that time from the mouth of Devavrata - the great teachings on knowledge, renunciation, spiritual experience, sraddha, bhakti and similar subjects.
14. I consider that as knowledge (jnana) by which one perceives, through all beings from Brahma down to an ant, the continuing persistence of the twenty five causal categories and the three gunas, and further sees that all these causal categories and their effects - the embodied beings, are interpenetrated by one Consciousness.
15. Vijnana or immediate experience is this. In jnana or contemplative experience, one sees the presence of the one Substance persisting through numerous changing modes. When the permeating Substance alone is seen to the exclusion of all changing modes apprehended as different from IT, then that understanding is called vijnana. One should perceive all these modes of gunas as originating, subsisting and dissolving in that Substance alone.
16. Only That which thus persistently continues in a series of effects passing from one to the next, maintaining continuity, and remains the same at the end of the series as it was as at the beginning, is the Sat – the Existence (the Essence).
17. The four ways of knowing the Truth – the scripture, perception, inference and traditional wisdom transmitted by the wise declare that diversity has no final basis. A wise man, therefore, renounces this world of multiplicity.
18. The man of discrimination realizes that, just as the pleasures of this ‘seen world’, the result of karma, are temporary, and finally cause misery, so are all the heavenly felicities enjoyed by the Jiva in the ‘unseen realms’ up to that of Brahma.
19. I had taught you Bhakti-yoga earlier, but out of my love for you, I shall teach you that yoga once again, together with what generates and develops bhakti.
20-21. Faith in, and reverence for, the account of My Divine activities and excellences, constant chanting of My name and glory in varied ways, steadiness in the worship of Me, reciting hymns and praises of Me, prostrating with all the limbs and offering salutations to Me, diligence in the service of My devotees, memory of My presence in all beings;
22. utilizing one’s limbs in the services to Me, devoting one’s speech to describe My excellence, dedicating one’s mind to Me, and renouncing all desires;
23. giving up wealth and enjoyment for My sake; and performing all yajnas, charities, sacrifices, repetition of mantras, vows, austerities and other sacred duties as offerings to Me. All these are disciplines for the development of bhakti.
24. Oh Uddhava! Devotees, who have by such disciplines reached the state of complete self-surrender, develop pure loving devotion, motiveless, deep-rooted and unwavering. For them there is nothing greater to achieve.
25. When the mind that is completely pure and tranquil is offered to Me, the Supreme Spirit, then all such excellences like dharma, jnana, renunciation and divine power develop in an aspirant automatically.
26. The same mind when it plunges into the world of multiplicity, runs in the world of multiplicity and runs about along with the senses among the objects of enjoyment, becomes dominated by rajas and gets engrossed with false, unspiritual values. Such a mind moves in just the opposite direction of the state described earlier.
27. Dharma is what generates devotion to Me; jnana is perception of the one
Atman pervading all; vairagya is non-attachment to worldly objects; and
aishvarya (lordliness) consists in yogic powers like anima, etc.
Uddhava said:
28. Oh Heroic One! How many disciplines are involved in yama and niyama? What is sama? What is dama? And what, Oh Lord, is titiksha (patience) and dhriti (firmness)?
29. What is dana (charity) and what is tapas (austerity)? What is saurya (valour)? What is satya (honesty) and what is rita (truthfulness)? What is tyaga (renunciation) and what is unstained wealth? What is yajna (sacrifice) and what is dakshina (holy gift)?
30. Oh Lord of Sri! What does man’s strength consist in? Oh Kesava! What is bhaga (fortune)? What is profit? What is supreme knowledge and what are supreme Hri (shyness) and Sri (beauty)? What constitutes happiness and what constitutes suffering?
31. Who is a pundit and who is an ignorant one? What is the right path and what is perverse? What is heaven and what is hell? Who is a relative and what is home?
32. Who is wealthy and who is a pauper? Who is a pitiable creature and who is
the Lord? Be pleased to enlighten me on these issues explaining both the
positive and the negative implications thereof.
Sri Bhagawan said:
33-35. Yama and niyama consist in the observance of disciplines internally and externally. Non-injury, truth, non-covetousness, non-attachment, conscientiousness, non-hoarding, faith in the scriptures, continence, moderation in speech, constancy, forgiveness and fearlessness are the twelve internal disciplines known as yama. Cleanliness, purity of mind, japa (repetition of holy name or mantra), tapas (austerity), homa (sacrificial fire), sraddha (absolute faith in spiritual matters), hospitality, worship of the Divine, pilgrimage to holy places, service to others, contentment and servitude to the guru are the twelve external disciplines known as niyama. Those who follow these disciplines attain whatever they want, either material or spiritual.
36. Apart from yama and niyama, a seeker after liberation is to follow other disciplines known as sama, dama, titiksha and dhriti. Sama is firmly to settle the mind in the Lord, and not mere calmness of mind. Dama is overcoming the senses, and not their suppression. Titiksha is the forbearance of all suffering in the discharge of one’s duties, and not mere endurance. Dhriti is to overcome the sensuality of taste and sex, and not mere avoidance.
37. The highest charity (param-danam) is the abandonment of the tendency to harm other living beings and not mere doling out of alms. The highest form of tapas is the abstinence from sexuality and not the performance of body-torturing rites like kricchra and chadrayana. Heroism (saurya) lies in the conquest of one’s animal nature and not in mere combativeness. And Truth is seeing God in everything, and not mere factual speech.
38. Great men have said that rita consists in speech that is factual and beneficial; purity (soucha) is non-attachment in work; and tyaga (abandonment) is sannyasa or renunciation of worldliness and worldly life.
39. The greatest wealth of man is dharma, not mere material possessions. The real yajna is I, the Supreme Lord, and not a mere ritual. The dakshina is the humble service to the teacher imparting knowledge, and not mere gifts of money or goods. Real strength consists in pranayama which helps one to control the mind, and not in mere muscular strength.
40. Bhaga or bhagya (good fortune) consists in becoming a participant of My bhagas or six divine majesties - lordliness, power, fame, Sri (beauty-cum-prosperity), wisdom and non-attachment. Real profit (labha) is the attainment of devotion to Me and not the gain of wealth, children and other worldly objects. Vidya is eradication of the sense of duality in the atman, and not mere knowledge. Hri or bashfulness is the reluctance to do what is evil, and not mere sense of shame.
41. True beauty arises from desireless-ness and austerity, and not by mere decoration and jewellery. True happiness consists in seeking neither pleasure nor misery, but remaining detached and unconcerned in all situations. True misery lies in seeking sexual satisfactions, and not in fire accidents and similar calamities. A really learned man is one who has a clear apprehension of the states of bandage and liberation, and not a mere learned of books.
42. The ignorant man (murkha) is the one who thinks of himself as the body only and not one merely unlearned. The true path is the path of renunciation that leads one to Me and not the ways that lead to worldly ends. The perverted way is the life of unrestricted extroversion and not merely the way of thieves. Swarga is the dawn of sattva-guna, and not a place in Indra’s heaven.
43. Naraka is dominance of the quality of tamas and not a region called hell. The true relative is the guru, and not brothers and sons. And the guru is Me. The home is the human body, and not what is made of brick and mortar. The wealthy man is one rich in virtues, and not the individual with physical wealth.
44. The pauper is the greedy man who is never satisfied with anything he gets and not one who has not much wealth. The pitiable man is one who is not able to control one’s senses. The true master is one who is free from bondage to gunas or the senses and their objects; and his opposite, the slave, is one who is attached to them.
45. Oh Uddhava! All your questions have been thus properly considered and answered. This, in brief, is the description of the good and the bad. What is the use of too long a description? To transcend the feeling of distinction between the two is real virtue.