Verse 4
लब्ध्वा कथञ्चिन्नरजन्म दुर्लभं
तत्रापि पुंस्त्वं श्रुतिपारदर्शनम् ।
श्रुतिपारदर्शनम् यस्त्वात्ममुक्तौ न यतेत मूढधीः
स ह्यात्महा स्वं विनिहन्त्यसद्ग्रहात् ॥ ४॥
Labdhva kathacinnarajanma durlabhaṁ
tatrapi pumstvam srutiparadarsanam
yastvatmamuktau na yateta muḍhadhiḥ
sa hyatmaha svam vinihantyasadgrahat
(Is there a man, who
having somehow gained a human embodiment and there having a masculine
temperament and also a complete knowledge of the scriptures, foolish
enough not to strive hard for Self-realisation? He verily commits
suicide, clinging to things unreal.)
Manushya janma itself is a rarer thing
and in that manuṣhya janma also,
developing an interest in spirituality is still rarer; and even after
developing an interest, getting an opportunity to fulfill this desire by
attaining a guru; this is the rarest thing.
And, having got such a wonderful
opportunity, if a person fails this human life by pursuing only artha and kama,
then Sankara points out that he must be the greatest fool in the world; who as
though, commits suicide, that is, who is a destroyer of
himself.
In Taittariya upaṇiṣad, there is an advice kusalanna pramaditavyam. May you not
be negligent with regard to your own well-being. Therefore if I am going to do
my duty to all, and neglect the duties towards myself that is also foolishness
and what is the duties for myself, I should spend some time for my dharma, and
my artha and my kama and ultimately my moksha .
Chinmaya writes,
How does a person commit this senseless
suicide? By his false attachments with the objects of the world, as he
looks out from the parapets of his body and his mind, forgetting his
own real nature, which is all-pervading Consciousness, he comes to misunderstand
himself to be the matter envelopments, which are nothing but thought
created encrustations around the Divine in him.
To satisfy these urges of his body and
his mind, the individual runs after the objects. Necessarily, such a
deluded person, having misunderstood his real nature, becomes the
samsarika ego centre, a victim of his own ignorance. This fall of the Self
to be the selfish ego is spiritual suicide.
From the standpoint of absolute
reality, there is no suicide; but Sankara comes down to our level to help us
discriminate between the Real and the unreal, in and through our
day-to-day life and it is in this sense that he says we commit suicide.
It is not the destiny of the Self to suffer but it is the lot of the ego,
the ego that strives in this world to be the sacred and the divine.”
We read in an earlier verse on step by
step qualities required for a human being.
A human birth is indeed rare;
To attain full manhood;
A sattvika attitude in life.
Steadfastness on the path of
spiritual activity
To have a correct knowledge of the deep
significances of the scriptures.
Discrimination between the Real and the
unreal,
A personal experience of spiritual
glory and ultimately to get fully established in the living consciousness that
the Self in me is the Self in all
In the above sequence, there are human
beings who reach up to the penultimate stage - Discrimination between real and
unreal and there, they halt, they stagnate, they are not able to take their
sadhana to the next level to experience “Self” and to abide in Self.
This failure, after having achieved all
the preceding points, is like a suicide, says Sankara.
Those who have not started off in the
spiritual journey at all, who have not realized how precious is to be born as
human, they are ignorant, they must go through several births, clear their
acute prarabdha, to proceed in the spiritual path.
Love.
