This body is essentially an instrument for realizing the Paramatman. He who does not constantly use it for liberating himself from the bondage born of beginning less ignorance but struggles to nourish it, is destroying himself (83)
Every physical sheath, be it in the human, plant or animal life, is an instrument for its 'mind and intellect' to eke out from the world of situations a definite quota of experiences. The body provides for the time being, as it were, a locus for the mind and intellect to function from.
Identifying oneself with the body because of ignorance, one may behave as if one was the doer and the enjoyer and use the physical body to its own damnation.
Sankara thus reminds the students that the body is not meant merely for gross activities and indulgence in sensuous enjoyments but having experienced the imperfections of the world, it is also meant for striving hard for self-redemption. Having gained this wondrous instrument, if a person does not make use of it properly, he is, in effect, committing suicide.
The meaning of the verse pivots around the crucial word, ‘pararthah'. This word can be milked to yield two different and distinct meanings of which the nobler and more spiritual has already been discussed. From the same word we can coax out another meaning, 'an object that is meant for others to enjoy', is also pararthah. In this sense, we get in the single term, a beautiful summary of the biography of the body.
Mahata puṇya-panyena kreeteyam kaayanou stvaya |
Praptum bhavambudheh param tara Yaavat Na Bhidyate||
The sloka says: you have purchased a ship (your body) after paying a fortune (your excess Puṇya), with a goal of crossing this ocean of Samsara. Therefore, dear son, hurry up and cross over soon! The ship might wreck at any moment!
You have bought this wonderful physical body-boat after gaining lot of punyam; and this body-boat is meant for crossing the ocean of samsara. Therefore, make sure that you cross the ocean of samsara before the body-boat disintegrates. The body is a means, not an end; body is a means not an end.
In the womb the body grew, nourished by the mother's assimilated food; the body born in the world was fed by the milk of the mother and it grew to childhood. Till its death it is being fed, from within and without, with various nutritive diets and oil massages.
But after death the very same body, so laboriously tended, so carefully nourished, so lovingly fattened, becomes a substantial meal for the worms of the earth, if it is lucky to be buried deep enough! Else it becomes food for the wolves and dogs, the vultures and crows.
This is a timely reminder for discriminative spiritual students to realize the futility of paying court to their bodies and living a life dedicated to the health and comforts of this disgusting bundle of matter.
yatparihr ̥ tya; yat means sariram therefore one should transcend the body. Transcending the body is transcending the obsession with body. Over-worrying about the body and its looks. Parihr ̥ tya means literally giving up; here giving up of the body should not be taken literally; giving up of the obsession with the body.
And when should you do that? anuksaṇam; every moment, you have to remind yourselves; this is a means; this is a means; let me not be over-worried. And if I am not obsessed with that, I have got lot of inner freedom; mind is available for something higher as they nicely say: simple life and high thinking.
Therefore, you have got time for higher thinking and what do you accomplish by higher thinking?
Anadi avidya krita banda mokṣanam krityam;
one should commit himself to; one should dedicate himself to moksanam. So the removal of, destruction of all bandah; all the inner shackle is struggled to get rid of; that is that should be the obsession. Let body obsession be replaced by Sastra -obsession; self-knowledge obsession; moksha obsession.
Therefore banda moksanam krityam; he has to commit himself to release of the bondage. And how is this bondage caused?
Anaadi avidya kritam. The bondage is caused by anadi avidya- beginningless ignorance. Avidya means atma avidya; self-ignorance. So therefore, replace body-obsession with self- knowledge obsession.
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