yavatpavano
nivasati dehe tavatprcchati kusalam gehe |
gatavati vayau dehapaye
bharya bibhyati tasminkaye || 6 ||
When one is alive,
his family members enquire kindly about his welfare. When the soul departs and the body falls, even
one’s wife is afraid of the corpse.
In these two verses Sri
Sankara uses human experience in old age and at death to expose how empty and
false the human relationship is, to pull one towards the spiritual goal. In this process he holds a mirror to the
facts of human life and realities of human relationships. He is not pessimistic, only realistic looking
at things straight in the eye.
As
long as one earns, family, relatives, friends, etc. are there with him showing
him all attention and affection. When
the same person gets old and is no longer capable of earning money, all those
who surrounded him and showered affection and attention slowly desert him one
by one as his savings depletes. As the physical and mental faculties deplete
with advancing age people distance from him. Even son or daughter, brother or
sister do not consult much less discuss when deciding family matters. As the ‘utility factor’ wanes, so is the
respect commanded. This is is the fact
of life which one should remember and steer the mind clear of attachments and
expectations and strive to develop one’s spiritual assets through
introspection, reflection and contemplation on the higher values of life. This verse aims to help one to choose one’s
priorities right, not allowing unnecessary concerns over people to dominate
one’s decisions and allocating time towards his spiritual well-being as well.
The theme begun in the first verse
is continued in the next verse with a graphic touch added to it, to drive home
the same point with added emphasis in respect of one’s own body to which one is
much more deeply attached. So this verse
tries to set the attitude to attachment of one’s own body in correct
perspective as the previous verse tried to set the attitude of attachment to
relations and people in proper perspective.
Knowing the limitations of the body will help one keep a healthy
attitude to one’s body and turn the mind to everlasting principles, rather than
concentrating on daily affairs only. As
long as the breath of life is there, people come and crowd around. The
departure of prana (jiva) changes the whole scene. People want to get rid of
the dead body as soon as possible. Even
wife is afraid of her husband's dead body, the body which gave her pleasure and
pain in life; which shared her joys and sorrows. So body does not have intrinsic worth of its
own and it is the human life which is very precious. The human body is the
container one has, to do Sadhana to realize God, and to that extent only
one is to be preoccupied with the body and keep the mind free to pursue
self-knowledge.
In this verse delusion arising from
overestimation of body is discussed and in the previous verse delusion caused
by overestimation of relationships was analysed. The reason why Sri Sankara is harsh in his words
for things which hold back most people from pursuing the spiritual path more
seriously is explained in the next verse, where he narrates the fact of man’s
journey of life.
Verse
7
balastavatkridasaktah
tarunastavattarunisaktah |
vrddhastavaccintasaktah
parame brahmani ko'pi na saktah || 7 ||
As a child, one is
absorbed in play. As a young man, one is attached to women (lost in women). As an old man, one is lost in worrying
thoughts. Alas! No one is attracted to
the Supreme Brahman, God.
Sri Sankara portrays in this verse the truth
about man’s journey of life and laments that one at all times is immersed in
worldly pursuits, but at no time is interested in realizing God. As a child, one is immersed in play and games
without a worry of the world. The play in childhood gives way to lust in the
youth. One’s main aim now is to attract
the opposite sex and enjoy their company.
As one gets older, one worries about
the things wrongly done and things left undone on the material side in
past life and also about one’s relatives, one’s children and
their children and also about one’s present physical and mental
drawbacks. One hardly pauses to think
about God or reflect about a spiritual goal in life at any time in one’s life. If at any time spiritual thoughts arise in
younger days, it gets postponed to the old age or to the days after retirement
from active life. The problem here is one does not know how long one will live.
Secondly even if one survives to old age, being immersed in materialism all
through, the material vasanas become so dominating that to switch over to a
spiritual life becomes well nigh impossible.
Sri Sankara’s aim in pointing out this is to make one resolve immediately
to bring God into one’s life and slowly increase gradually the time and attention for
God so that as one gets older one will be able to detach oneself easily from
mental ties and physical relationships and turn attention completely Godward, which is possible only in
human life.
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