Verse 16
अग्रे वह्निः पृष्ठे
भानुः रात्रौ चुबुकसमर्पितजानुः ।
करतलभिक्षस्तरुतलवासस्तदपि
न मुञ्चत्याशापाशः ॥ १६॥
agre vahniḥ pṛṣṭhebhānuḥ
rātrau cubukasamarpitajānuḥ,
karatalabhikṣastarutalavāsaḥ
tadapi na muñcatyāśāpāśaḥ.
(Behold there
is the man who sits warming up his body with the fire in front and the sun at
the back, at night he curls up the body to keep himself warm; he receives his
alms in the bowl of his hands and lives under the shelter of trees. Even then
he has not been released from the noose of desires.)
This
verse depicts the self-denial of a spiritual aspirant / sadhu, in the hope that
it will exhaust all his desires.
Aversion, as
opposed to indulgence, is attempted. If some have discovered that
they have been fooled by indulging in desires, there are others who have been
equally fooled by making senseless efforts to deny themselves
all bodily comforts. These efforts are also doomed to failure because
they do not address the Mind, where the problem lies.
In
this verse certain torturous methods of inviting bodily discomfort are used to
check one’s desires.
A
renunciant may not have a proper home, a proper place to rest. His body is
exposed to heat of sun in the day and to the cold during the night as he sleeps
under the sky.
Swami
Sivananda writes on the extreme levels of endurance to which a sadhu puts
himself in Hardwar/ Hrishikesh.
He
even writes more extreme steps of self-denial where he describes that a sadhu,
almost naked with no cloth to wear even in extreme winter, also subjects
himself to lashes which he causes to himself with a whip in his hand.
And,
even while or after subjecting his body to such a torture / self-denial, the
purpose apparently being to rise above body consciousness, the same sadhu,
seated with his bowl / hands raised to get food from passerby, gets instantly
provoked when a beautiful female passes by and bows down to him and offers him
money / food.
All
these self-denial methods ignore the root cause of problem. The main problem is
in mind and if analyzed further, all the problems caused in one’s mind is due
to one’s ego.
A
pure mind will not think of the techniques described above. Only a Rajasic or
Tamasic mind, which does not have the power to grasp the essence of what scriptures
are trying to say, will reveal its lack of understanding by adopting such
methods of austerity.
In
this whole process, Desire remains untouched!
Sage
Sivananda seated in Ananda kutir, writes or rather sums up the essence of this
entire verse, while writing about such sadhus thus;-
“What
is required is mental nudity, not physical nudity”.
What
does this line mean?
Be
pure in your heart, keep your mind free / naked, without the attire of desires,
hatred, attachment and fear.
King
Janaka achieved this mental nudity, even while acting as King of Mithila, with
many wives, enjoying all the comforts of a King.
Dear
Readers,
If
we apply this verse to our spiritual sadhana, then what this verse reveals to
us in a subtler manner if we are able to contemplate and grasp the essence??
·
The extreme endurance described above can be compared to the
pilgrimage we undertake, the fasting we undertake, continuous loud chanting of
chosen mantra that we do, the practice of keeping awake during the entire
Shivaratri night that some of us undertake.
Readers can imagine / think of many such extreme austerities
that they undertake or they have observed some others undertake.
·
While all these austerities are not condemned at all, the purpose
behind all these austerities is to rise above desires and to arraign purity of
mind.
·
Even with such austerities, one is not able to control or transcend
one’s desires at mental level, as described in the case of a sadhu when he
happens to look at a beautiful woman, then all such austerities lose their very
purpose.
Meditation / prayers lose their sanctity if one is thinking of all
the issues that have to be solved in his office that day, fasting loses
its purpose when one forsakes main course during fasting but keeps filling his
belly with fruits, juices etc, keeping awake on a shivaratri night loses
its purpose when one switches on youtube to watch few entertaining movies so
that he can keep himself awake, then, there is no use of keeping
silence for few hours daily/during some auspicious day, if the mind is
noisy and is traveling here and there!
· Silence
is often understood as silence of words. Silence in terms of speech is only 25%
silence achieved. Real silence is silencing our mind, eliminating
or at least reducing our thought flow.
O
mind, get within. Seek the Lord within. In Tamil, we
address God as Kadavul which in essence means, Kada + Ul or Remain + Within!
For
how many more births are you going to search for peace, Bliss, for temporary
satisfaction in million things in the world.
Believe
and practice Sai’s words, “True happiness is within”.
Love.
