Chapter Highlights

THEMATIC ESSENCE OF UDDHAVA-GÉTÄLesson 18: The Song of the AvantéBrähmaëa—Bhikñu-gétä(SB Canto 11, Chapter 23) Carucandra Dasa

Chapter Highlights This chapter on the historical account of a mendicant sannyäsé, the Avantébrähmaëa,teaches us how to tolerate insults of others: • As a dishonest and miserly person, he lost all his accumulated wealth (1-25) • He was then severely insulted by the miscreants (26-41) • What really causes material happiness and distress?—Bhikñu-gétä(42-61) Carucandra Dasa

1) As a dishonest and miserly person, he lost all his accumulated wealth (1-25) • Krsna responds to Uddhava’s question in the previous chapter (22.60) by recounting an historical account of a mendicant sannyäsé, the Avantébrähmaëa. • “Sharp arrows which pierce one’s chest and reach the heart do not cause as much suffering as the arrows of harsh, insulting words that become lodged within the heart when spoken by uncivilized men.” (3) Carucandra Dasa

The brähmaëa had amassed great wealth out of his farming business. But he was a miserly person—lust, greedy and very prone to anger. • As a result, his wife, children, relatives, and servants were deprived of all necessity and thus lost all affection towards him. • One’s family, who appear previously bound with love, can immediately become unaffectionate due to dispute over even an insignificant sum of money  turn into enemies • However, in due course of time, thieves, family members and providence took away the sum total of his wealth. Carucandra Dasa

Artha, or the accumulated wealth, which breeds 15 types of anarthas, or undesirable qualities (18-19) • Theft • Violence • Falsehood • Duplicity • Lust • Anger • Quarrel • Madness • Competition • Enmity • faithlessness • Arrogance • Attachment to women • Gambling • intoxication Carucandra Dasa

There are 5 presiding deities of the 5 family sacrifices. • If the demigods, sages, forefathers, human beings and other living entities do not receive their respective shares of sacrificial performance, they become angry at a materialistic fruitive worker. • As a result, one loses all accumulated piety and soon become bereft of his hard-earned wealth. • The wealth of misers never affords them any happiness torment, anxiety and, after death, ends up in hell Carucandra Dasa

Being bereft of all his possessions and abandoned by everyone, the brähmaëa began meditating and analyzing on how all these happened. He then became renounced. • “Those who are actually intelligent are able to utilize their money, youth and strength to achieve perfection. Unfortunately, I have squandered these assets in the useless endeavor for accumulating wealth. Now that I have become an old man, it is too late for me to do anything auspicious.” (25) Carucandra Dasa

2) He was then severely insulted by the miscreants (26-41) • On introspection, the brähmaëa could realize that the Supreme Lord had somehow become satisfied with him. • He concluded that all this apparent misfortune was really the Lord’s mercy upon him so that he could come to the platform of renunciation. • His suffering condition actually enabled him to become detached. Carucandra Dasa

In fact, he became joyful and understood that his so-called misfortune was actually the Lord’s mercy. • He realized that perfection through dharma, artha, käma and mokña is futile. Rather, he must take shelter of ds unto lotus feet of the Lord. • In this condition, he determined to engage the duration of his life in the worship of the Lord and thus accepted the renounced order of tridaëòi-sannyäsa. Carucandra Dasa

H became free from all bad association by remaining aloof from those who desire material enjoyment and liberation. Began to maintain himself by begging alms from door to door. • However, “upon seeing him as an old, dirty beggar, uncultured people taunted and insulted him with many harsh words.” (33) • They tormented him through physical, verbal and mental abuses to severest possible extent. • “In this way, the brähmaëarepeatedly suffered the threefold material miseries—adhyätmika,adhibhautika, and adhidaivika—understanding them to be allotted to him by providence, and therefore unavoidable.” He simply tolerated all this. (40) Carucandra Dasa

3)What really causes material happiness and distress?—Bhikñu-gétä(42-61) • After careful deliberation, with the use of his intelligence and firm determination, he realized that neither those miscreants, nor any of the 6 possible explanations, who were the cause of his distress. • Rather, it is the mind in false ego that overwhelms the soul in falsely experiencing either happiness or distress, although that has no relationship with oneself—Bhikñu-gétä(42-57) Carucandra Dasa

It is the powerful mind, when materially absorbed, that functionally manifests the 3 modes of material nature—mode of goodness, passion and ignorance • In goodness, he considers cultivating knowledge and happiness. • In passion, one’s attachment to family and material possessions becomes prominent. • In ignorance, he thinks gratification of the senses is all that matters. • Does this mean only the mind that suffers or enjoys in material existence, and not the soul? The answer is NO! Carucandra Dasa

The Supersoul, who is the controller of the mind. full of transcendental knowledge, and the best well-wishing friend of the soul, is unaffected by the mind. • However, the spirit soul accepts the subtle body of the mind, intelligence and false ego, as the self  becomes conditioned by the mind and its resultant actions • To become free from this illusion, the control of the mind by fixing it on the Supersoul is the goal of all yoga practice. Therefore, anyone who controls his mind becomes the master of the senses. Carucandra Dasa

Attachment and repulsion, as well as friendship and enmity, are conceptions within the materially conditioned mind. • The soul in bodily conception of life  materially contaminated mind  bewildered intelligence  thinks in terms of “I” and “Mine”  maintains such duality • Constitutively thus, experience of happiness and distress are the result of the soul misidentifying the self with the corrupt mind and senses CarucandraDasa

He could thus logically refute the 6 possible causes for his distress • The miscreants: All living beings are the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and thus non-different from each other. Analogy: “If someone bites his tongue, who can he blame for his pain?” One cannot retaliate against his own teeth! • The demigods: They are the presiding deities and the controllers of the mind and senses. However, this has nothing to do with the spirit soul. • The spirit soul himself: He should consider happiness and distress to be his nature  cannot blame others Carucandra Dasa

The planets: They affect only the things that have taken birth (the physical body and not the soul) • One’s karma or the fruitive work: These are performed by the soul in illusory consciousness (false ego) hence these activities are also illusory and have no factual basis either in the body or the soul—the false ego is the knot that ties matter and spirit • Time:Both the living entity and the time are the manifestation of the Supreme Lord’s spiritual potency (Analogies: Snow cannot feel the cold; the flame cannot be burnt by the heat of the fire) Carucandra Dasa

“When one gives up seeing things in terms of material duality, due to cultivating an understanding of the Absolute Truth, one can realize himself as the eternal servant of the Supreme Lord. In order to cross over the formidable ocean of birth and death, the AvantīBrähmaëa became determined to accept the path of devotional service to the Supreme Lord that had been traversed by the previous äcäryas.” (BSS’s comments to verse 57) Carucandra Dasa

Lord Krsna said: “My dear Uddhava, fixing your intelligence on Me, you should thus completely control the mind. This is the essence of the science of yoga.” (60) • Çruti-phala: “Anyone who listens to or recites to others this song of the sannyāsī, which presents scientific knowledge of the Absolute, and who thus meditates upon it with full attention, will never again be overwhelmed by the dualities of material happiness and distress.” (61) Carucandra Dasa

Chapter Highlights