32 verses
The brāhmaṇa said: Because of attachment to things considered most dear, one becomes miserable. One who gives up material desires is learned and achieves unlimited happiness.
Once a group of stronger hawks who were unable to find any prey attacked another, weaker hawk that was holding some meat. At that time, being in danger of his life, the hawk gave up his meat and experienced happiness.
The kurara was holding some meat.
I do not care for honor or dishonor. I do not worry about house or children. I sport and enjoy in the ātmā and wander in this world like a child.
He explains what he learned from a child.
In this world, two types of people are free from all anxiety and merged in great happiness: one who is a retarded, ignorant person or a child, and the other is a person who is beyond the three modes of material nature.
Once a marriageable young girl was alone in her house because her parents and relatives had gone that day to another place. At that time a few men arrived at the house, specifically desiring to marry her. She received them with all hospitality.
The story of what he learned from the young girl is now narrated. Coming out of the house with covered body, she welcomed them by offering seats of kuśa grass and water while her father and mother were absent.
O King! The girl went to a private room and began to make preparations so that the unexpected male guests could eat. As she was beating the rice, the conchshell bracelets on her arms make a loud noise.
When will my parents return? When will they prepare food? Thinking this, she began to prepare food. The conch bracelets made noise.
The young girl feared that the men would consider her family to be poor because their daughter was engaged in husking rice. Being very intelligent, the shy girl broke the shell bracelets from her arms, leaving just two on each wrist.
Because she was husking rice they would think that her family was poor. Thus she considered the noise disgusting. She was intelligent (mahatī).
Thereafter, as the young girl continued to husk the rice, the two bracelets on each wrist continued to collide and make noise. Therefore she took one bracelet off each arm, and with only one left on each wrist there was no more noise.
O subduer of the enemy! I travel throughout the surface of the earth learning constantly about the nature of this world, and thus I personally witnessed the lesson of the young girl.
I was at the house on that day. I saw all these gurus with my own eyes, not from being omniscient.
When many people live together in one place there will undoubtedly be quarreling. And even if only two people live together there will be frivolous conversation. Therefore, to avoid conflict, one should live alone, as we learn from the example of the bracelet of the young girl.
One version has vāso and another has vase. Just as the poor girl without a husband took off her bracelets to stop the sound, jñāna-yoga makes the sages who practice jñāna live alone. Just as a married princess, on meeting her husband, wears her bracelets for make sound, Bhakti-devī makes the devotees who accept her shelter associate with each other for making sounds of sweeter and sweeter nāma-kīrtana. They do not remain alone. The Lord has said:
naikātmatāṁ me spṛhayanti kecin
mat-pāda-sevābhiratā mad-īhāḥ
ye 'nyonyato bhāgavatāḥ prasajya
sabhājayante mama pauruṣāṇi
These devotees, who are engaged in service to my feet following scriptural rules, who desire only the taste of my beauty, who gathering together relish my pastimes amongst themselves, never desire to become one with Brahman. SB 3.25.34
Having perfected the yoga sitting postures and the breathing process, one should carefully fix the mind, made steady by practice and detachment, on one point.
He learned fixing the mind from the arrow maker. This is explained in three verses. The mind is unsteady because of the strength of attachment. Therefore one must make the mind steady by detachment (vairāgya) and practice of dhāraṇa of aṣṭāḍga-yoga mixed with bhakti.
When the mind attains its goal of concentration, it gradually becomes free of the desire of actions. Destroying rajas and tamas by increase of sattva, one then attains a condition of bliss, devoid of all guṇas, with no influence of the guṇas or its effects.
When the mind attains its goal, it gives up desires for action. Destroying rajas and tamas by increase of sattva, one attains a condition devoid of extraneous actions of the mind, being free of agitation and sloth, and attains supreme bliss (nirvāṇam) because of disappearance of even sattva. It is without fuel, since it is devoid of the guṇas and their effects.
Thus, when ones consciousness is completely fixed on the Lord, one no longer sees the duality of internal and external. This condition is like the arrow maker who was so absorbed in making an arrow that he did not even notice the king passing next to him.
Ātmani means the Supreme Lord. Because of complete concentration (gatātmā) to make the arrow straight, he did not notice the king walking nearby with the uproar of drums.
A saintly person should remain alone and constantly travel without any fixed residence. Being alert, he should remain secluded and should act in such a way that he is not recognized by others. Moving without companions, he should not speak more than required.
He explains what he learned from the snake. The young girl is a guru for giving up even the association of other yogīs. The snake is the guru for giving up association of material people. The sage moves about alone, afraid of society, without a fixed residence, always alert. He lives alone. He is unnoticed by the public by his gait and actions. He has no companion and speaks little.
When a person living in a temporary material body tries to construct a happy home, the result is fruitless and miserable. The snake, however, enters a home that has been built by others and prospers happily.
The one form of Viṣṇu withdrew the universe previously created by his māyā through his time śakti at the end of Brahmās life, and remained alone, the support of himself and shelter of all his śaktis.
He learned from the spider how the Lord carries out creation and destruction of the universe. This is explained in six and half verses. Kāraṇārṇava-śāyī Viṣṇu, alone, without assistance other than his own śaktis, withdraws the universe by his time śakti. He alone exists since nothing exists outside of than the Lord. Nothing existed since the total universe and its parts were all destroyed. He is his own support (ātmādhāraḥ). He is the shelter of all śaktis.
parāvarāṇāṁ parama āste kaivalya-saṁjñitaḥ kevalānubhavānanda- sandoho nirupādhikaḥ
When he brought his energies such as sattva to equilibrium by his powerful energy of time, the Lord, who enjoys in himself, who is the controller of prakṛti and the jīvas, who is worshipped by liberated and conditioned jīvas, remained in the form of complete bliss, without māyā.
When his energies like sattva were brought to equilibrium by time, a form of the Lordṣ power (ātmā-anubhāvena), the controller of māyā (pradhāna) and the jīvas (puruṣa), the most worthy object of worship for liberated and conditioned jīvas, the Lord called kaivalya, remained. He is called kaivalya. He remains only with his form of bliss, since there were no actions such as protecting the universe. He is without māyā (nirupādhikaḥ) which was sleeping at that time.
sa vā eṣa tadā draṣṭā nāpaśyad dṛśyam ekarāṭ
mene santam ivātmānaṁ supta-śaktir asupta-dṛk
The one puruṣa, who glances over prakṛti, at the beginning of creation, could not see her. He, possessor of māyā, who was sleeping, and who is the possessor of spiritual consorts who were awake, considered himself non-existent without her. SB 3.5.24
O subduer of the enemies! At the time of creation the Lord by the power of his cit-śakti agitates prakṛti made of the guṇas and creates mahat-tattva.
Having shown destruction, the brāhmaṇa now shows creation. By the power of his cit-śakti he awakes pradhāna (sva-māyām), agitating it by his glance, and creates the mahat-tattva (sūtram) predominated by kriyā-śakti.
They say that this sūtra, the product of the three guṇas, creates the universe with great variety. By this sūtra the universe is pervaded, and by this sūtra the jīva takes rebirth.
Tām refers to mahat-tattvam, but it is now in the feminine gender. They say that mahat-tattva is the product (vyaktim) of the three guṇas. It creates the universe full of varieties (viśvato mukham) made of the three guṇas, through ahaḍkāra. Mahat-tattva called sūtra, the effect of the guṇas, is the cause of the universe. The universe is strung on this sūtra (thread), prāṇa in its total form, which acts as the cause of the universe. Śruti says:
vāyur vai gautama, sūtraṁ vāyunā vai gautama, sūtreṇāyaṁ ca lokaḥ paraś ca lokaḥ sarvāṇi ca bhūtāni saṁsṛṣṭāni
O Gautama! Air is sūtra. By this air or sūtra, this world and Svarga and all beings are created. Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.7.2
By this sūtra, in the form of adhyātma (senses and mind), the jīva takes repeated births.
Just as from within himself the spider expands thread through his mouth, plays with it for some time and eventually swallows it, similarly, the Supreme Lord produces the universe and then withdraws it.
Ūrnanābhiḥ means a spider. The spider produces a thread from its mouth, and after playing (vihṛtya), withdraws it.
If, out of love, hate or fear, an embodied soul fixes his mind with intelligence and complete concentration upon a particular form, he will certainly attain the form.
It is not surprising that those who constantly meditate on the Lord attain forms similar to his. This the brāhmaṇa learned from the wasp. This is explained in two verses. When the action of the mind does not go elsewhere, the jīva attains a form similar to that of ones meditation.
O King! Once, a wasp forced a weaker insect to enter his hive and kept him trapped there. In great fear the weak insect constantly meditated upon his captor, and without giving up his body, he gradually achieved a form like that of the wasp.
An insect was forced by a wasp (tena) into his nest and attained a similar form, without giving up its previous body. Another version has sāmyatām. Sometimes the body of the person meditating is similar to the form of the Lord upon which he meditates, as in the case of Dhruva. But sometimes the meditating devotees give up their present bodies (and attain spiritual forms though this is not seen). The Lord shows this by his māyā in order to protect the secret of bhakti-yoga and in order to avoid destroying other opinions. Sometimes it appears that a devotee even gives up a spiritual body of knowledge and bliss. A statement concerning this is made by Nārada. This condition is produced by the Lords māyā. Giving up the body is shown in this statement:
prayujyamāne mayi tāṁ śuddhāṁ bhāgavatīṁ tanum
ārabdha-karma-nirvāṇo nyapatat pāñca-bhautikaḥ
Having been awarded a pure body befitting an associate of the Lord, I quit the body made of five material elements, and thus all acquired fruitive results of work stopped. SB 1.6.29
O King, from all these spiritual masters I have acquired great wisdom. Now please listen as I explain what I learned from my own body.
He learned from his own body as well.
My body is a guru since it teaches detachment and discrimination. The body supports creation and destruction and its final result is suffering. As much as I discern truth by the body with its senses, I engage in bhakti using the body and senses. But convinced that the body is fit for the dogs and jackals, I wander in the world without attachment to the body.
My body is a guru because it is the cause of detachment and discrimination. It is described as the cause of detachment: it maintains creation and destruction. Its final result is always suffering. For instance if the stomach cannot digest two or three days food, it is like detachment. From this one learns detachment. The body is a cause of discrimination. By this body with its senses I contemplate truth: I attain bhakti-yoga with hearing and chanting in order to attain the Lord. A great devotee with taste, relishing rasa, does not become rasa but a person completely attached to the Lords rasa becomes colored with rasa. Similarly the tongue, tasting ghee and other things, does not mix with them, but it does mix with betel nut juice since the tongue becomes red. (Thus though one uses the body, one should not become too attached to it, otherwise one falls under its control.) One should not think that the body, being a guru, is permanent. I discern that the body is meant for othersto be eaten by dogs or jackals. Pārakyam in the neuter is poetic license. Therefore I walk about without attachment to the body.
A person with a desire to please the body expands himself and nourishes wife, children, money, animals, servants, house and relatives. In the end, the body, with its accumulating wealth, then dies with difficulty, after creating karma for another body, like a tree which produces seeds and then dies.
The body, the best among all the gurus, giving bhakti-yoga, detachment and discrimination, though temporary, should be engaged in service with the greatest attachment. To do otherwise would be sign of ingratitude. Then why do you say you are unattached to the body? That is true. But the body is an amazing guru since, served with great attachment, it does not at all teach discrimination and detachment. Rather the body then throws a person into the huge blind well of saṁsāra. This is expressed in two verses. By wanting to please his body, a person nourishes a wife, children, money etc. That body, with its accumulated money, becomes devoid of the wealth of discrimination. At the end of life, the body is destroyed while enduring great difficulties. It creates karma, the seed of the next body, by which the current of repeated birth takes place. It is like a tree which produces seeds and dies.
The tongue pulls the attached person in one direction and thirst pulls him in another. The genital, skin, stomach, ear, nose and eye pull him in other directions. The action senses pull him apart just as many co-wives pull the husband apart.
Therefore one should give the guru in the form of the body food for maintaining life only, and do that without attachment. For the body, this is service to guru. But one should feed the body with great faith. Please hear the truth. The tongue pulls the person attached to his body in one direction for taste in order to degrade the person. Sometimes thirst pulls the person towards water. The genital pulls him for sex. The skin pulls him to touch. The action senses (karma-śaktiḥ) tear him apart.
The Supreme Lord, by his māyā-śakti, created innumerable species of life to house the conditioned souls, such as trees, reptiles, animals, birds, snakes and so on, but he was not satisfied within his heart. Then he created human life, which offers the conditioned soul sufficient intelligence to perceive the Lord, and he then became pleased.
Since the Lord created the human body for attaining liberation, one should not use it to go to hell. The Lord created many bodies (purāṇi). He then created the human body in which intelligence gives one direct vision of the Supreme Lord. Śruti says puruṣatve cāvistarām ātmā: the Lord manifested as the human being.
tathā tābhyo gām ānayan tā abruvan na vai noyam alam iti tābhyośvam ānayan tā abruvan na vai noyam alam iti | tābhyaḥ puruṣam ānayattā abruvan sukṛtaṁ bata
He brought the devatās a cow. But they were not satisfied. He brought them a horse but they were not satisfied. He brought them the human being, and they accepted the human.. Aitareya Upanisad
Having attained after many births the rare human body which is temporary but of value, the intelligent person should immediately strive for spiritual life as long as the body lives, because the body dies after being born. Material enjoyment is available in all forms of life.
The human body is temporary but full of value, since by the human body one can attain what is eternal. One should thus endeavor for the highest benefit as long as the body lives because the body is temporary: after being born, it dies. Material enjoyment (viṣayaḥ) is possible in all bodies such as dogs.
Having learned from my gurus, having developed detachment and seeing through realization of Paramātmā, I wander the earth without attachment or false ego.
The King had said tvaṁ tu kalpaḥ kavir dakṣaḥ: you are capable, learned, and expert, but are inactive. (SB 11.7.29) The avadhūta answers the Kings query in this verse. I see through spiritual realization of Paramātmā (vijñānālokaḥ).
Although the Lord is one without a second, the sages have described him in many different ways. Therefore one may not be able to acquire firm and complete knowledge from one guru.
It is said mad abhijñaṁ guruṁ śāntam upāsīta: one should worship a peaceful guru who knows me (SB 11.10.5) and tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam: the inquisitive person should surrener to the superior guru. (SB 11.3.21) From these statements it is understood that one should accept only one guru. Śvetaketu, Bṛgu and others did not accept many gurus. And true, I also have accepted one guru who gives instruction on mantra. But considering things which act as examples of what is favorable or unfavorable for performing worship, I have made those things my gurus. They are my śikṣā-gurus, teaching by negative or positive example. Śrīdhara Svāmī has supplied this verse:
kapota-mīna-hariṇā kumārī-gaja-pannagāḥ |
pataḍgaḥ kuraraś cāṣṭau heyārthe guruvo matāḥ ||
madhukṛn madhuhartā ca piḍgalā ca dvayos trayaḥ |
upādeyārtha-vijñāne śeṣāḥ pṛthvy-ādayo matāḥ ||
The pigeon, fish, deer, young girl, elephant, snake, moth and kurara bird are gurus teaching what to avoid. The bee, honey collector, and Piḍgalā teach what to avoid and what to accept. Other items such as the earth teach what should be accepted.
There can be many śikṣā-gurus who generally strengthen ones knowledge. That is explained in this verse. Should we accept śikṣā-gurus who have knowledge? That is true, but because knowledgeable persons have many philosophies, where will I find someone with the same philosophy as mine? Brahman which is only one is glorified in many waysimpersonal and personalby the sages. It is also said nāsāv ṛṣir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam: a person is not a sage if he does not have a different opinion. (Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 313.117) Therefore I have accepted common objects as my śikṣā-gurus.
The Lord said: Having thus spoken to King Yadu, the wise brāhmaṇa accepted obeisances and worship offered by the King. Pleased, he took permission and left exactly as he had come.
The brāhmaṇa was Dattātreya, for it has been said:
atrer apatyam abhikāḍkṣata āha tuṣṭo
datto mayāham iti yad bhagavān sa dattaḥ
yat-pāda-paḍkaja-parāga-pavitra-dehā
yogarddhim āpur ubhayīṁ yadu-haihayādyāḥ
The Lord, satisfied, said to Atri who desired a son, I have given myself to you. Thus he was called Datta. Those purified by the dust of Dattatreyas feet, such as Yadu and Haihaya, attained perfection of yoga for enjoyment and liberation. SB 2.7.4
He left as he had come, by his own will.
O Uddhava! Hearing the words of the avadhūta, the saintly King Yadu, who is the forefather of our own ancestors, became free from all material attachment, and began to see everything equally.
Thus ends the commentary on Ninth Chapter of the Eleventh Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
In the Ninth Chapter, seven gurus are described starting with the kurara bird, as well as the body, the eighth guru. This makes a total of twenty-five gurus. He explains what he learned from the kurara bird in two verses. From attachment to what is most dear, one suffers. He who is without desire is learned and attains unlimited happiness.