GEMS FROM THE
Beach 2: First steps in the Ascent to the Divine
Wave 6: An Overnight Capsule of Dharma
The episode that we shall present here goes by the name of SanatsujAtIyaM – meaning, what was given out by Sanat-sujAta. It
occurs in the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata, along with the Ramayana, are the
two historical epic poems (itihAsas) of the Hindu culture. The Mahabharata, though it is
centred round the story of the rivalry between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, is
actually a storehouse of legends and discourses. For the background of the epic story of the
Mahabharata go to itihAsas.
The Mahabharata provides the simplest, most graphic and most detailed introduction
to Hindu thought, culture, religion and philosophy and consequently it is often
referred to as a compendium of understanding on the subtleties of Hindu Dharma.
The text SanatsujAtIyaM is a mini-encyclopaedia on
Dharma.
The scene that takes us to this text occurs in the Udyoga-parva,
wherein all the negotiations between the Pandavas and the Kauravas take place
through messengers and ambassadors. King Dhritarashtra has just sent his own personal
messenger Sanjaya to the Pandava camp to find out whether they really want war
or they would agree to some terms. Sanjaya comes back during an evening, with
the answer that they would, as a minimum, be satisfied
with five villages for their ownership. But this answer he plans to reveal only
in the court the next morning. Dhritarashtra is curious, impatient and excited,
to know the answer. For he is afraid, very rightly, that once the war starts,
all his hundred sons will be wiped out, more because of the sinful weight of
the atrocities they had been committing on the Pandavas rather than the might
of the Pandavas.
So that night he calls Vidhura, his younger brother – born of a lower
caste woman and so not eligible to the throne, but acclaimed by all as the
wisest man on Earth coupled with an erudite scholarship – to tell him all about
justice, morals, fairplay and politics. Vidhura waxes eloquent on these matters and
this portion of the Mahabharata is called Vidhura-nIti, which is usually studied also as an independent
work on political science and ethics. At the end of it, Vidhura concludes by saying that
these do not constitute an end in themselves. The ultimate for man is not
material greatness but it is the total release from the divine cycle of births
and deaths and this is called Immortality (amRRitatvaM).
The word ‘amRRitatvaM’ catches the attention of the
King. He wants to know more from Vidhura about this ‘Immortality’ that he is
referring to. While the war is round the
corner the King is frantically fearful of its possible consequences and so he is
ready to catch hold of any straw which smacks of ‘absence of death’. Ignorant of the spiritual content of the
words of Vidhura, he thinks ‘Immortality’ is exactly what he wants for his
sons!
But Vidhura refuses to oblige; he tells the King that having been born
of a Sudra woman, he (Vidhura) is not fit to teach the Kshatriya King any
subject of Spirituality. So by his yogic powers he calls the divine sage
Sanat-sujAta from the higher worlds, to teach Dhritarashtra about Immortality
and the Ultimate Reality. Sanat-sujata arrives, and, in four chapters, of
around 130 verses, gives a gist of what Spirituality is. Dhritarashtra is
enraptured and keeps asking question after question. The whole night is spent
in this interaction between the earthly King who is full of tamas and the
divine sage who is full of sattva. The SanatsujAtiya thus turns out to be a beautiful
synthesis of the entire world of Vedanta ShAstra, taught by the most authentic
person.
The importance of Sanat-sujAtIya for spiritual evolution may be
inferred from the fact that Shankaracharya selects it as one of the only three
pieces of spiritual literature from the Mahabharata for which he ever wrote
elaborate commentaries – the other two being, Vishnu Sahasra-nAma and of course, the Bhagavad-Gita.
The first question that Dhritarashtra asks of Sanatsujata is:
What is this Immortality that I am hearing about?
Is it possible to avoid death?
Sanat-sujata, without beating about the bush, goes straight into the
subject and begins his discourse with a bang. “PramAda is
death”, says he, “living without PramAda is Immortality”.
PramAdam vai mRRityum-ahaM bravImi. sadApramAdaM amRRitatvaM bravImi
What is this pramAda, which
Sanatsujata introduces so suddenly? ‘pramAda’ comes
from the root verb ‘mad’ to be intoxicated, to be drunk. ‘PramAda’ means
therefore intoxication, carelessness, negligence of duties. Shankara in his commentary, elaborates it:
Man’s natural
state is divine. Any slipping from that divine status is a default, slip,
negligence, pramAda. From that Brahman-consciousness, which is the natural
state of man, if he slips, that becomes the seed and cause for all knowledge of
falsity, ignorance of the Self within. This is Death, for it becomes the
further cause for future births and consequent deaths and therefore a total
chaos.
prachutiH svAbhAvika-brahma-bhAvAt tam pramAdaM mithyA-jnAnasyApi
kAraNaM AtmA-anavadhAraNaM AtmAjnAnaM mRRityuM janana-maraNAdi sarvAnartha-bIjaM
ahaM bravImi.
If one is always in a state of the opposite of
pramAda, that is, stabilised in the state of one’s natural divinity, that is
Immortality:
sadA apramAdaM svAbhAvika-svarUpeNa avasthAnaM amRRitatvaM
bravImi
Immortality in Hinduism is not in any sense a
continuance in time. Time or Eternity is an out-of-place concept in the
Absoluteness of Vedanta. Immortality means coming into its own of the Self.
Very often in a Vedic passage the words ‘we have become immortal’ or ‘this
would make you immortal’ would occur. This does not mean that they have
transcended physical death. Naive translations of such Vedic passages without
an understanding of the full meaning and significance in relation to the total
philosophy involved, have given rise, to misconceptions about Hinduism that it
promises ‘immortality’ through its mumbo-jumbo of mantras!
If Realisation of one’s true status is Immortality,
then surely Ignorance is bondage and enlightenment is release. The scriptures
also say: Having known that one reaches beyond Death; there is no other path
for release:
tameva
viditvA ati-mRRityum-eti,
na anyaH
panthA vidyate ayanAya – SvetAshvatara U. III – 8.
If so, and if that is all there is to it, shall we
not have to do our duties and actions? Not so. A jnAni does not have to do
action. He delights in the Self and he is fully satisfied with the Self. For
him there is no action:
yastvAtmaratir-eva syAt Atma-tRRiptascha mAnavaH /
Atmanyeva
ca santushhTaH tasya kAryaM na vidyate // B.G. III – 17
Then who has to do the works? Only
an unenlightened person, only a seeker. That is why the Lord says that
he has prescribed two distinct ways: that of jnAna yoga for the evolved ones and karma yoga for the practitioners.
But, even for the latter kind, namely, the seekers
and those who are involved in worldly actions, would not the maxim that karma (action) always leads to bondage apply? No, not if the works are done with dedication
– IshvarArpaNa, is the word Shankara uses.
But why at all have they to be involved with works
or action or karma? The answer comes with the same
emphasis throughout the scriptures:
*sattva-shuddyarthaM*.
That is, the
mind has to be purified and so works have to be done, and done with dedication,
dedication to the Lord, and without an egocentric desire or attachment to the
fruits thereof. They should be done just
by the senses and the body, with a complete absence of attachment or feeling of
proprietorship, for the purpose of purifying the lower self. This is the
considered opinion of the Lord Himself as he winds up in the eighteen th chapter of the Gita:
Acts of sacrifice, giving and askesis are purifiers
of the wise, so they have certainly to be donebut without hankering for their
fruits:
Yajno
dAnaM tapashchaiva
pAvanAni manIshhiNAM /
etAnyapi
tu karmANi sangam tyaktvA phalAni ca /
kartavyAnIti me pArtha nishcitaM matam-uttamaM // B.G. XVIII – 5, 6.
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June30, 2005 Copyright Ó V. Krishnamurthy