Verse 10
वयसि गते कः कामविकारः शुष्के नीरे कः कासारः ।
क्षीणे वित्ते कः परिवारः ज्ञाते तत्त्वे कः संसारः ॥ १०॥
Vayasigate kaḥ kāmavikāraḥ
śuṣke nīre kaḥ kāsāraḥ,
kṣīṇevitte kaḥ parivāraḥ
jnāte tattve kaḥ saṁsāraḥ.
(What good is lust when youth has fled? Where
is the lake when the water has dried up? Where is the retinue when the wealth
is gone? When the Truth is realized, where is saṁsāra?)
Vayasigate kaḥ kāmavikāraḥ.
Vayas is age,
and vayasigate means the passage of youth.
Kāmavikāraḥ is the expression of lust in the human
body. How can there be an expression of lust in the body when youthfulness is
no more?
There cannot be lust when youthfulness is
spent because youthfulness is a cause, and the expression of lust, an effect.
The idea is that when the cause is gone, the effect cannot remain.
śuṣke nīre kaḥ kāsāraḥ. Kāsāraḥ is a body of water, a pond or a lake. We call it a pond or lake
only when it is filled with water. When the water has dried up, śuṣke nīre, where is the pond or the lake, kaḥ kāsāraḥ? You can see this happen in India where, in the heat of summer, the
water in the rivers and lakes is reduced to a trickle.
Kṣīṇevitte kaḥ parivāraḥ. Vitta is wealth. Kṣīṇevitte, after the wealth is exhausted, kaḥ parivāraḥ, where is the family or retinue? There are people around you only when
you have something to offer them or when they have something to gain from you.
When your wealth is no more where are the
followers? Wealth here means money or power, position, or some skill. Only as
long as these things are there, will people look up to you or follow you. When
the cause is no more, the effect is no longer there as well.
Sankara has so far given the following cause
and effect expression in this verse. Youth is the cause and lust is the effect
Water is the cause and lake is the effect.
Wealth is the cause and retinue/followers is
the effect.
Going by the above flow, we would expect that
Samsara is the cause and lack of peace is the effect.
But in the last expression, Sankara turns the
table and takes us to the most positive expression by saying, when you have
realized SELF, there can be no Samsara!!!!
Jnāte tattve kaḥ saṁsāra. This is the most important segment of the
verse. We are all interested in becoming free from saṁsāra.
What is saṁsāra? Samyak sarati asmin iti saṁsāra.
The word saṁsāra is made
up of saṁ and sāra. The word sāra is derived from sr̥, to move. Sarati is the
one who moves. Sam comes from samyak, meaning constant. saṁsāra – samyak sāra, that in which there is constant movement.
What kind of motion is this?
It is motion from one birth to another, from
one situation to another, one accomplishment to another, and one becoming to
another. Man is always trying to become something. This life of becoming is
called saṁsāraḥ.
Why does this complex (dissatisfaction with
his present condition / situation) arise in the human being? It arises out of
self non-acceptance. We torture ourselves because of our various complexes,
most of which result in self-rejection. In fact, there is a constant battle
going on within us; we don’t require a battle outside. That is saṁsāra.
What is this freedom from saṁsāra that we seek? It is nothing but freedom
from this sense of self non-acceptance or self-rejection, freedom from the need
to become something. In reality, the only freedom that we have to acquire is
inner freedom, a freedom from the compulsion within, that I must change.
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya says, Jnāte tattve kaḥ saṁsāraḥ.
When the tattva or truth is known, where is
the saṁsāraḥ? What is this truth?
It is the truth of the Self. It means that my
self-non-acceptance or self-rejection is there because I do not know the truth
of myself. It is not only ignorance, but a false notion or a misconception
about my own self that brings this about.
Where does it arise from?
It arises from an ignorance of my own self, a
self-ignorance that results in self non-acceptance. I do not know who I am.
Am I this body?
If I am, I can never become an acceptable
self because this body can never fulfill my expectations regardless of what I
do with it.
Am I this mind?
This mind is also a limited equipment and I
can never be fully satisfied with this mind either.
Am I, then, this intellect?
This intellect is also a limited entity, and
therefore, I can never be satisfied even with this intellect.
I am never fully satisfied with my knowledge,
with my wisdom, or with my understanding. Therefore, as long as I take myself
to be this body, I can only see myself as a limited being suffering from all
kinds of limitations and deficiencies.
Jnāte tattve. What
is the tattva or truth of my Self?
The truth is that I am a person, a conscious
being without any attributes, strengths or limitations attached, simple, pure,
and beautiful.
When I am happy with myself, I find myself
happy with everyone else. When I find myself rejecting things in the outer
world, I must know that it is a result of a rejection of myself, a discomfort
with myself. That discomfort with myself goes when I discover my own beauty.
When the tattva or truth
of life is known, where is saṁsāra?
Thus, to become free from saṁsāra, you should eliminate ignorance, the cause
of saṁsāra. When the ignorance is gone, saṁsāra can no longer be there.
In Vedanta, a story of 10 persons is the most
often referred story to bring about the ignorance and then to describe what
happens when the ignorance is removed.
There are 10 persons who are playing on the
sea shore, swimming there and playing.
When they get tired and come out and reach
the shore, one of them says, “I think we are missing one friend somehow, I
counted the number and I find only 9 are there and the 10this
missing”.
Like this, each one of them count the heads
and they are gripped by grief of missing one dear friend who has apparently got
drowned while swimming.
A passer-by, an old wise man observes them
and understands their problem.
He asks one of them to count the heads and
once that person counts all other nine persons, the wise man takes that
person’s fingers, points out the finger to that person’s heart and says, “Here
is the 10th person’.
Now, all of them are happy that they have
found the 10th missing person!!!
The wise man here is the acharya to whom disciple walks up and prays, “teach me the truth” almost in
every Upanishad.
All the nine head counts which each one of
them were doing are the body, mind, intellect, this creation, which are not our
true identity. Only counting the nine heads is our
ignorance in believing that we are the body, we are the mind, we are the
intellect, this creation is true!
The 10thhead counted by pointing
out to one’s own self is the REAL SELF, THE ATMAN, which is the true identity.
The happiness on discovery of the 10thperson
is the Bliss experienced on realization of the Atman, our own SELF.
On experiencing SELF, ignorance is gone
exactly as the 9 friends are relieved and are happy on discovery of
the 10 th person.
Here, it is “Discovery” and not a fresh
invention or a new finding because the 10thperson is always there,
i.e., YOU ARE ALWAYS THE TRUE SELF / GOD EVER.
The entire sadhana is not to get a grand revelation
of something new but it is a travel from yourself to yourself, from
your ignorance that you are your limited body mind, to your true identity
that you are the SELF.
That is why, Taittriya Upanishad uses the
expression, “Discovering the truth of Brahman as Sathyam, Jnanam and Anantham
IN THE CAVE OF ONE’S HEART”.
It does not say, getting the truth of Brahman
by looking at the high heavens. The truth is within our heart, whether
it is Jnana of SELF or whether it is experiencing the Hrdayanivasi SAI / KRISHNA
in pour heart in the path of devotion.
O man, with the path so clear, why delay
further?
Love.
