Verse 17
कुरुते गङ्गासागरगमनं
व्रतपरिपालनमथवा दानम् ।
ज्ञानविहीनः
सर्वमतेन मुक्तिं न भजति जन्मशतेन ॥ १७॥
kurute gaṅgāsāgaragamanaṁ vrataparipālanamathavā dānam,
jñānavihinaḥ sarvamatena
muktiṁ na bhajati janmaśatena.
(One may go on pilgrimage, observe vows, and
give away wealth in charity. Yet, devoid of the knowledge of the Self, nothing
can give freedom even in hundred lifetimes.)
After describing about the austerities and
self denial in the previous verses, Sankara describes the proverbial ‘good'
person in this verse. A person may go for pilgrimages to the banks of the
Ganga, maintain vows and engage in charitable activities.
There is no doubt that what they are doing is
good in itself. There is nothing wrong or harmful in what is being described
here. Indeed, the scriptures themselves have suggested these methods for people
at certain stages of their spiritual life.
The truth that desires have to be rooted out
in the mind is escaped even in this method. It is conveniently bypassed by
focusing on all the external purificatory means given in the Shastras. All the
pilgrimages, all the vows, all the charity will not avail if one does not
educate the mind to give up its habit of seeking pleasure in outer objects and
shall not bestow mukhti, liberation even in a
hundred years if he or she is jnana viheena, does not have knowledge of the
Self.
Truth or Jnana
Sankara says, “jnaana vihheenah sarvam - atena” i.e., “All authorities are equivocal
that without the experience of Truth”
What is this TRUTH or JNANA which is referred
in this verse or any vedantic treatise?
Swami says,
“….When gold is melted in the crucible, it
shines with a strange yellow glory. Where did that light emanate from? From the
gold or the fire? What happened was only the removal of the dross by the fire;
the effulgence belonged to the gold itself; it is its very nature.
The fire is only an instrument for the
removal of the dross. Nothing has been added to the gold by the fire in the
crucible!
If fire could give the splendor, then why
doesn’t a stick or blade or pebble placed in the fire become as shining as
gold? One has to conclude that the splendor came not through fire but out of
its own inner nature.”
(Extract from Jnana Vahini)
Taking the fire and the gold example given by
Swami, The fire is the spiritual sadhana or the Enquiry into “Who am I” in the
path of wisdom and once, through the sadhana, all our impurities, our ignorance
(about the fact that we actually are the Gold, The very Atman) is removed, then
we exist as the TRUTH, the SELF or the ATMAN or DIVINE, which we ever have
been.
Swami clearly says, “If fire could give the
splendor, then why doesn’t a stick or blade or pebble placed in the fire become
as shining as gold? One has to conclude that the splendor came not through fire
but out of its own inner nature”. This inner nature of each human being born in
this creation is THE DIVNITY WITHIN.
The mukti that this verse speaks of is
liberation from the clutches of EGO. The only way out of our constricted
existence is to exhaust our desires. When we engage in charitable activities,
go on pilgrimages and maintain vows as an end in themselves rather than a means
to an end, we are unable to exhaust our EGO (and desires born out of our Ego).
These practices are excellent to develop
discipline and take one further on the spiritual path when performed with the
right attitude. But this verse is only cautioning us against getting lost in
activities such as these.
Spiritual practices are meant to take us
towards our goal of Self-Realization, the state of desireless-ness. If we
follow these practices without this focus we grow to a limited extent beyond
which we cannot progress on the spiritual path.
The most common criticism raised against
Vedanta is that it talks only about esoteric things like Self-Realization while
the rest of the world dies of poverty and hunger. Such views are misplaced.
Vedanta encourages us to do charity, to expand our circle of concern and reach out
to others.
However, if these activities are performed
without dedicating them to a spiritual goal to reduce our burden of desires, we
get caught in a loop of desire.
We hear of so many persons saying, “for me,
spirituality means, BE GOOD, DO GOOD. Engage in charity and service to others”.
And thanks to Google, they can also pick up a
line of Sai in the context of Seva where he says, “Leave all meditation if you
can and rush to serve others, Manava Seva is Madhava Seva”
As the author has repeated 1000 times in all
his writings, if SAI’s instructions have to be understood, then we must read
and take in all His instructions, all His vahinis WHOLLY and not in
parts, surfing google, taking only those lines which appeals to our approach,
our way of looking at spirituality.
This way, having a limited understanding of
spiritually, we remain as far away from our goal as the persons described in
the two previous verses. Examine the situation closely. Our goal is to reduce
the number of desires. If we lose sight of our goal, we get lost in
these ‘good' activities and create desires to engage in ‘good' activities.
On the other hand, if we remain focused on
our goal and understand that these spiritual practices are a means to an end,
we do not pick up more desires. The pilgrimages, charity and vows become an
offering at the altar of our goal of Self-Realization.
Love.
