Vivekachudamani - Post 16

 Verse 10 

 

संन्यस्य सर्वकर्माणि भवबन्धविमुक्तये ।
यत्यतां पण्डितैर्धीरैरात्माभ्यास उपस्थितैः ॥ १0 ॥

 

saṃnyasya sarvakarmāṇi bhavabandhavimuktaye |
yatyatāṃ paṇḍitairdhīrairātmābhyāsa upasthitaiḥ || 10 ||

 

(May the wise and learned man give up all actions which are motivated by desires and start the practice of rediscovering the Self and thereby attain freedom from the bondage of birth and death.) 

 

A sage says,

 

“Here is a piece of advice given to a man who has all the necessary theoretical knowledge of the science of self- perfection. He is told to renounce all activities motivated by self-aggrandizing hopes or disintegrating desires. 

 

This renunciation of the activities of the world is not to be over-emphasized and misunderstood, as is generally done, to mean that Vedanta is calling man to a life of eating only fruits and leaves. It is only asking us to reduce overexcitement in life and to curb the wasteful expenditure of our mental and intellectual energies born out of our unintelligent desires and lofty expectations.”

 

Sarvakarmaṇi samnyasya. After renouncing all the karmas; if the karmas are formally renounced, it is called sanyasa asrama. So literally saṁnyasya sarvakarmaṇi means caturta asram swekritya; but if a person does not take to sanyasa asrama, we can do the enquiry in Grahastha asrama also; but reducing the karmas to some extent, and developing detachment. In fact finding time is easier. But getting a withdrawn mind is more difficult. 

 

For a grahastha's attempt is more than finding time, finding a quality mind, because the mind can, when time is available, efficiently do the worrying. Therefore time is not a problem but the mind, committed mind, a withdrawn mind is difficult to attain. Therefore detachment becomes more important for a grahastha than even reducing the activity. If detachment is there, minutes available would be quality time. 

 

That good and sincere work will yield noble fruits should be a sufficient direction to guarantee us a peaceful passage for our pilgrimage here. But we  expect the impossible, a noble return from a vicious or ill-planned  action instead of the painful returns of sorrow, that will yield to us  many a terrible hour of unproductive anxiety and suicidal worry. 

 

In the Bhagwad Gita, Lord says,

 

kamyanaṁ karmanaṁ nyasam sannyasam kavayo viduh, 

sarvakarmaphalatyagaṁ prahus tyagaṁ vicaksanaḥ (18.2). 

 

Sannyasa is that kind of behaviour by which the actions that are connected with desire of some kind or the other are abandoned. A person may be said to be in a state of sannyasa the moment that actions which are motivated by desire are abandoned. 

 

That is to say, sannyasa does not mean abandonment of action as such. It means abandonment of actions which are connected with a desire of some kind. If we can think of an action without any desire attached to it, that is a different matter. It is up to us to imagine if such an action is possible at all: an action with which no desire is associated, and from which we expect nothing.

 

Here, the reference is to another kind of action. Action which is charged with a motive, any kind of motivated action, is kamya karma; and the abandoning of kamya karma, or motivated action, is sanyasa. This is the definition of sannyasa given by great ancient learned ones. 

 

We also learnt in the Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahankara blog posts that actions pushed by Ahankara or chitta are bound to add to our Karma further whereas, Actions performed purely due to the instructions received by our pure intellect do not fetch us further karmas.

 

The second part of the verses insists on a seeker who is striving to integrate himself is advised to walk  the path of intelligent living. 

 

Our aim is to clearly understand this consciousness is not part of matter; it is an independent entity which is my nature. And when I have to assimilate this, the intellect raises lot of questions and therefore to answer the question and to make the intellect clearly understand, lot of thinking is involved. Therefore Sankara  says Panditah; Panditah means a logical thinker is required.

 

Pandithyam is important; dhiratvam is important. Then what is the next? Atmabhyasa upasthithai. And one should become dedicated; committed to atma bhyasaha; Self-enquiry. Atmabhyasaḥ is another beautiful word for Self-enquiry. Here abhyasaḥ means shravaṇa manana nidhidhyaśana. Thus being committed to this one should work for mokṣa. 

 

The renunciation of false values is only a negative aspect of self-making. Man-making fulfils itself in God discovery and this spiritual art of perfection is not to be gained by a negative endeavour. Sankara specifies the positive aspect by saying, 'Let him practise the various means of self-discovery.”

 

If carefully examined, this one verse is all about  Sadhana chatushtaya.

 

The first part of the verse is giving up actions motivated by desires. This is is covered in Viveka, Vairagya and the intial part of Shad Sampat - Sama, Dama, Uparati, Titiksha

 

The second part of the verse is rediscovering the Self and thereby attain freedom from the bondage of birth and death. 

 

This is all about Shraddha, Samadana and Mumukshatva.

 

 

Love.