51. A father has his sons and others to save him from his financial debts , but to redeem himself from his delusions , he has to resort to none but himself.
52. Exhaustion and fatigue caused by carrying a load on the head can be relieved by others coming to one's help. But none , save one's own self can end the pangs caused by hunger and so on.
53. The patient who faithfully follows the right diet and takes the proper medicine alone is perceived to recover from his illness; no one recovers because another undergoes the treatment.
Since Chinmaya has dealt with the three verses together, the previous verse is also referred here again, though there was a detailed commentary on the same in the previous post.
Chinmaya writes,
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“In these three verses, the Master is trying to drive home the importance of self effort upon the student. Any amount of hearing, study, intellectual thinking and logical discussion cannot by themselves bring about Liberation from our misconceptions and false evaluations in life.
In order to impress this idea upon the student, the Teacher gives three verses with three different examples. These homely analogies which fall within the experience of everyone are given to remove any possible misunderstanding of the student regarding the technique of Self-realization.
All the objective sciences in the world can be mastered by merely studying them. The man who studies the law of the country with all its implications can become a lawyer; he who studies the symptoms of diseases and their cures can become a doctor.
An advocate of criminal law need not be a criminal himself, a doctor need not himself be a patient to know the science of medicine.
But Atma-vidya is gained only when it has brought about a complete regeneration of the individual who studies it. After gaining the objective knowledge there must also be a subjective achievement.
Let us see the 3rd verse quoted in today's post, verse no 53.
The Teacher, not satisfied with these two striking examples, adds yet another verse to drive home to the student the necessity for conscious personal effort. He says, 'Only those patients are cured of their ailments who faithfully follow the prescribed diet and take the right medicines themselves.'
To come back to your natural healthy condition; which means removal of the unnatural condition; your sadhana is two-fold. What are the two sadhanas?
Medicine taking is the main one to cure the disease, but as important as medicine is the pathyam (this a Tamil word) which means the discipline/diet we must observe, the Do’s and Don’ts we have to follow.
Without pathyam , medicine is useless and there is another person who observes all the pathyam, but he does not take medicine. Then also it will not work. Therefore which is important if somebody asks, I should answer both are equally important. Both are equally important.
For getting moksha also, two things are there; pathyam and oushada seva.
Medicine in the context of Sadhana
Vedanta Sravaṇa Manana Nidhidhyasana, is the medicine. Without the study of scriptures moksha is never possible; whether the scriptural study is for long time or short time; that all depends upon the condition of sickness.
But at the same time, sastra warns that any amount of sravaṇa manana nidhidhyasanam you may do, it will not give you any benefit, unless you follow the pathyam also. Without the pathyam, all your study will make you a wonderful scholar.
Pathyam in the context of Sadhana
Sadhana chatuṣṭaya sampatti is the pathyam.
What is the level of viveka? What is the level of vairagya? What is the level of sama, dama, uparama, titiksha and finally and most importantly what is the level of mumukshatva?
It is observed by the author that even after decades of sadhana, few sadhakas are unable to get closer to Self Realization.
The problem is in their pathyam- Sadhana chatushtaya
Somewhere they are lacking in viveka or vairagya. Without viveka, vairagya, mumumkshatva is impossible and without 100% tivra Mumukshatva, even after 10/20 years of sadhana, one can be pulled by Samasara, by the objective world, by relations, by attachment and the sadhaka is pulled down to zero level in their sadhana/ in their purpose of God realization.
Coming back to the three examples, Sankara has chosen such examples, that we are not acquiring anything new. We are only removing something. So therefore, hunger and thirst problem he has given. Here also our aim is what? removing the hunger and thirst and upon their removal, health is the natural condition of a person. We never acquire health.
Similarly, samsara is unnatural; or struggle is only to remove the unnatural samsara and once the unnatural samsara is removed; liberation is not acquired; you come back to your natural state of liberation.
In short, each one of us must walk the path by himself but properly guided by the instruction of the Teacher and the scriptures.
Love
