Vivekachudamani - Post 30

  Verse 24     

सहनं सर्वदुःखानामप्रतीकारपूर्वकम् ।
चिन्ताविलापरहितं सा तितिक्षा निगद्यते ॥ २४ ॥

sahanaṃ sarvaduḥkhānāmapratīkārapūrvakam |
cintāvilāparahitaṃ sā titikṣā nigadyate || 24 ||

 

(Titiksa is the capacity to endure all sorrows and sufferings without struggling for redress or for revenge, being always free from anxiety or lament over them).

 

Describing the fourth psychological qualification in a man of true spiritual stamina, Sankara gives a full and scientific definition of the quality of silent endurance which is glorified in all the religions of the world. 

Meek surrender and silent suffering are the watchwords in all religious disciplines. This quality to endure and to suffer for a cause which has been accepted by the individual as the ideal and the perfect, finds a place in every great philosophy whether it is religious or secular. 

 

In Tatva Bodha, titikṣaḥ was defined as Sheeta ushna sukha duḥkhadi sahisnutvam. In simple language, titikṣaḥ means endurance power; the capacity to endure pain without breaking down. That endurance, physical; more than physical, it is mental is called titikṣaḥ; sarva duḥkhanam sahanam. 

 

Sahanam means endurance; endurance of all kinds of discomfort caused by adyatimikam, adiboudikam; the surrounding, caused by adidevikam, like the rain; how you all have got the endurance power to come in spite of rains; that is called titikṣaḥ.

 

At the body level, the content of the hardship is predominantly bodily discomfort and pain. The cause of this discomfort and pain is largely some external factor which we have little control over. It may be unbearable weather, either too hot or too cold; 

 

It may be deprivation of basic creature comforts due to poverty or natural calamities; it may even be living in unavoidable conditions of squalor, imprisonment or rampant crime. Whatever it may be, there is little we can do about it other than “bite our teeth and bear it”.

 

Physically, it is not possible to have all the ideal conditions. Nature gives us a “package deal” of mixed conditions, both favorable and unfavorable, wherever we may be. We can safely say that there isn’t a place on earth where everything will be perfect.

 

“What cannot be cured, has to be endured.” We should not run after ideal conditions. The conditions we live in are determined by our Karma, our Paapa and Punya. So we just have to be stoical and bear external hardships.

When Krishna displayed His divine Resplendence to Arjuna, He speaks of Himself as the Creator, the Preserver, the Gods and Seers, the illumination, strength, fame, prosperity, intelligence, receptivity, firmness, determination, the imperishable Time, all the positive forces in manifestation, 

 

He also made it clear that He also is the rod that chastises, Vasuki among serpents, Ananta among the nagas, Prahlada among the daityas, deceit in gambling, the terminator and destroyer, the rod that chastises, the all-devouring death and the World destroying Time, with terrible form touching sky, blazing with colours, with eyes glowing bight, with mouth wide open, terrible with tusks, where hosts of warriors seem to enter, some even caught between the teeth, the three worlds tremble, lack of receptivity, the illusion that conceals, bewilders, deceives, as gambling. There is nothing in creation which does not have stamp of his authority and control. 

 

Therefore, for one who is aware of the universal and all-pervading nature of the Divinity there is nothing that needs to be rejected and everything to be understood in the right perspective. He accepts things without preferring or denying, without liking or disliking without choosing and selecting as the sign of detachment from duality in samsara. 

 

In awareness, there is neither good nor bad, neither noble nor ignoble. 

 

Therefore, Krishna tells that the one who is equal to friends and foes, to honor and dishonor, to cold and the heat, who free from attachment is same in pleasure and pains, silent in speech content with everything, having no fixed attachment to any abiding place, firm in mind, that man being devoted is dear to Him.

 

Love.