Third Canto Chapter Twenty eight

In this chapter Kapila Maharishi teaches Ashtānga yoga (eight fold path of Yoga) to mother Devahuti.

Kapila Maharishi said, “O daughter of Manu! O Mother! I am now going to teach you the path of Yoga. The mind experiences happiness due to accomplishment in this Yoga. It will be focused purely upon God.

Sva-dharmācaraṇaṁ śaktyā vidharmāc ca nivartanam

Daivāl labdhena santoṣa ātmavic-caraṇārcanam

 O Mother! By listening to this attentively, people can obtain liberation while living (jeevanmukti). They will understand the essence of spirituality. Hence be attentive.

To the best of one’s ability righteousness (dharma) should be followed. It is imperative to distance oneself from unrighteous activities, while abiding by righteousness. Continuing those meritorious activities which grant good human birth, he should be content with whatever he earns.

This is very difficult to practice, but yet one should strive for it. It implies that whatever the person earns through his hard efforts, he should be happy and content with it.

He should revere and worship the feet of Self-realized beings. Simultaneously he should distance himself from those activities which increase inclination towards material comforts. He should have true dedication and desire towards śravana (listening) and other spiritual activities. At all times he should eat only pure food that too in limited quantities. He should practice to spend time alone in solitude”.

Here lies the catch. Often we eat impure food. It is imperative to eat pure satvik food! And in limited quantities. Only a pure satvik diet can give rise to a pure mind!

Eating stale, heavy, tamasic food only increases traits of inertia and ignorance (tamo guna). Such food propels feelings of lust and other desires. It instigates anger. The person loses control over himself. Driven by extreme desires he now eyes wealth that legally belongs to others. He devices ways in which he can acquire ownership over them. He will suffer with extreme jealousy and greed. All these are the outcomes of eating tamasic food.

The more you eat satvik pure diet, the more you become pure and clean. Here the emphasis is on both purity and limited quantity of food intake. These are the words of Maharishi Kapila, who is none other than Lord Mahavishnu.

Ahiṁsā satyam asteyaṁ yāvad-artha-parigrahaḥ

Brahmacaryaṁ tapaḥ śaucaṁ svādhyāyaḥ puruṣārcanam

 He should not inflict injury on any living being i.e. he should practice Ahimsa. He should practice truthfulness. He should not steal others’ wealth”.

People in general cannot resist from eyeing property belonging to others. They find this discipline very difficult.

“He should possess only those many comforts and materials as are needed for living”.

Coming across people who abide by this discipline is very very rare. I have just seen two or three such people in so many years. There is one gentleman in Andhra, who lives in a big house but that house is sparsely furnished. I was very happy to see this. In his house were two tiny shelves, one to keep his belongings and another for those of his wife. In his kitchen were about 20 small containers to store required grains, two vessels for cooking, 4 tumblers and 2 dinner plates. They cooked on small charcoal stove. There was one small suitcase in which other household items were stored. This was the furniture in his home! He maintained two bank accounts each of which had about Rs. 15000/-. One was for their expenses and another for their children.

When I questioned him about his lifestyle he began to explain his life’s principles. I felt he was explaining Bhāgawatam. He said that it is essential to possess only as much materials as are needed for survival. He also said that one should eat only as much as needed. He emphasized on the need for contentment and solitude. I was deeply impressed with the disciplines that this person was abiding by. After all, he was a householder, but yet he had such appreciable values. Later on he even trained his children in these principles of detachment and eventually they gave away even that home in charity.

Similarly once in Kashmir I came across a person who abided by these similar disciplines. He was a high official but his lifestyle was simple. In his house there was not even a chair. Guests were offered mats to sit on the floor. It’s amazing that even in Kali Yuga, there are such people!

Govindāya Namah.

Maharishi Kapila continued,

“Indra, together with energy to hold objects entered into His hands; Vishnu together with power of movement entered into His feet; deities of rivers together with blood entered into His blood vessels and the Lord of ocean together with hunger-thirst entered into the abdomen of the Universal Lord. But still the Universal Lord did not wake up. Moon together with the mind; Brahma together with intelligence and Rudra together with egoism entered into him but to no avail.

But when Kshetragna, the presiding deity of consciousness (chitta) i.e. the seer who perceives this body as a different entity, entered into the Universal Lord together with consciousness, the Lord instantly awakened! He arose from the waters.

Just as energy, mind, intelligence, egoism etc., fail to wake a sleeping person, no matter how hard they try, the presiding deities failed to awaken the Universal Lord, without the help of consciousness.

The human being should, with feelings of absolute devotion and through understanding of the principle of Prakriti-Puruśa, develop total detachment. Then through single focused intellect (buddhi) that arises from Yoga he should see the Lord who resides within his body in the form of individual Self.

This fundamental principle has been explained in the form of a story. Otherwise, how can God sleep? What is the meaning of presiding deities entering into Him and trying to wake Him up?

It is spiritual knowledge that should be awakened within the individual. This is the meaning of waking the Universal Lord. How should this spiritual knowledge be awakened within the individual? What is the process? How should the human being enter into every limb of his own body? This is being detailed.

The goal for the individual being is to have the darshan of the Supreme Lord who resides within him as his individual Self!

With this the twenty sixth chapter of the third canto comes to an end.

Third Canto Chapter Twenty seven

Attaining liberation (moksha) through the knowledge of Prakriti-Puruśa (Nature-Self) is being explained. The method in which illusion is destroyed through the means of Bhakti-yoga is also explained.

Kapila Maharishi continued to preach, “O Mother! The Self (Puruśa) is not subject to any transformation (changeless). He is devoid of action. He is also devoid of traits.

Just as the Sun does not associate with its reflection in the waters, this ‘Self’ does not attach himself to dualities such as joys-sorrows or merits- sins which arise from the trigunas, even though he takes shelter in this body which is created by Nature (Prakriti)!

Only when the intellect of this Self (Puruśa), due to feelings of I-ness (ahamkara), is clouded with infatuation (moha), and when he develops inclination towards the three attributes of Nature (trigunas), then the feeling ‘I am the one performing the action’ arises in him!

With this rise of I-ness, he begins to reap the results of the good and bad actions done by this gross body! He loses his freedom and acquires good, bad and mixed births. Taking on human, animal or celestial births, he gets trapped in this cycle of repeated births and laments. He distances from real happiness.

This samsāra which consists of repeated births and deaths has no real existence. Yet, the bonded soul who is totally inclined towards material comforts, cannot escape from this cycle of re-births and the suffering contained therein.

How should a spiritual aspirant behave? The rules are specified:

Ata eva śanaiś cittaṁ prasaktam asatāṁ pathi

Bhakti-yogena tīvreṇa viraktyā ca nayed vaśam

As such, the mind which is deeply attached towards these wicked sensory pleasures should gradually be brought under control through the medium of bhakti yoga and intense practice of detachment (vairagya).

The spiritual aspirant should, with love devoid of selfish expectations, listen only to My stories. Along with it he should tread the path of Yoga with disciplines such as Yama, Niyama etc.

Sarva-bhūta-samatvena nirvaireṇa-aprasaṅgataḥ

Brahmacaryeṇa maunena sva-dharmeṇa balīyasā

With feelings of total harmony towards all living beings, the spiritual aspirant should see the Supreme Lord who exists within all beings as Pure Consciousness. With such outlook he should eliminate feelings of enmity. He should develop dispassion towards worldly matters. Practice of celibacy and silence (mouna) are imperative! Without having excessive friendships, he should maintain a calm, happy mind. He should be diligent in the execution of his duties.

He should be content with that which automatically falls into his lap as a result of his past good and bad deeds. He should be moderate in eating. Contemplating upon the Supreme Essence, he should live alone.

Giving up likes-dislikes, he should love everyone equally and should have feelings of compassion towards everyone. He should firmly believe that he has attained fulfillment and should stop lamenting ‘I could not complete that action’. He should give up such fear.

The truly knowledgeable person (Jnani) who has understood the principle of Prakriti-Puruśa, frees himself from the false knowledge of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ in respect of the body or in matters pertaining to it! He realizes that waking, dream and other stages apply only to the intellect and not to the Self.  He has the understanding that there is nothing apart from Iśwara in this creation.

Sun is the presiding deity for the eyes. Just like seeing this presiding deity through the eyes themselves, the Jnani through the medium of his pure mind sees the Lord who resides as the Self within. He totally self-surrenders to Him and attains liberation!

He realizes that the individual being is nothing but the reflection of the Pure Consciousness upon the inner mind! He also understands that after leaving the body the being attains oneness with this Pure Consciousness and that this consciousness pervades the entire false universe and illumines it. He understands that it is non-dual”.

Keshavaya namah.