[15] COMMENT What does the “Maitreyopanishad,[ मैत्रेयोप्निषद ] included in the Sama-Veda” say about Lord Shiva II-1. Then the revered sage Maitreya went to Kailasha. Approaching the Lord, he said: Lord, expound to me the secret of the supreme Truth. The great god said to him: शिवाउवाचा :- II-2. The body is said to be the temple; the individual Self (Jiva) is Shiva alone. One should discard the faded flowers in the form of “spiritual ignorance”, and worship God with conviction. He and I are one. II-3. True knowledge consists of seeing undifferentiated oneness in all, deep meditation consists of a clean mind, freed from thinking on sensory objects. Just as the bathing is the removal of impurity similarly the cleansing in the mind cause the controlling of the Indriyas [इन्द्रिया-Senses]. II-4. He should imbibe the nectar, Brahman [Bramh- Gyana], go about for alms to preserve the body, and becoming devoted to the one Brahman, live in the solitary place of oneness free from all duality. Thus should a wise man spend his life, he alone will attain Moksha [मोक्ष–liberation]. II-5. This body is born and it has death, it has originated from the Impure Secretions of the Mother and Father, and it is the abode of joy and sorrow and it is impure. Bathing the physical form with water, the discarding of attachments is ordained, when one touches it with the divine idea that it belongs to “One”. II-6. It is built up of primary fluids, subject to grievous maladies, abode of sinful actions, transitory and diffused with agitated feelings. Touching this body, bathing as aforesaid is ordained. II-7. It always naturally exudes, impure secretions at the appropriate time, through the Nava Dvaras [नव द्वारा - Nine apertures [eyes, ears, etc.]. Having impure matter it smells foul. Touching this, bathing as aforesaid is ordained. II-8. It is associated with the mother in impurity at birth and is born with the impurity caused by child-birth; as it is born associated with death, which for sure happens in due course, and the impurity caused by child birth, touching this body, bathing as aforesaid is ordained. II-9. Viewing the body as I and mine is smearing oneself with feces and urine in the place of cosmetics. Thus pure cleansing has been spoken of in the verses above. External Cleansing of the body with ashes [mud] and water is practiced in the world. II-10. Cleansing which purifies the mind consists of the destruction of the three inborn tendencies (Loka-Vasana, Shastra-Vasana and Deha-Vasana), and the real cleansing is said to be done by washing with mud and water in the form of Gyana [ज्ञान -true knowledge] and Vairagya [वैराग्य – dispassion]. II-11. Feeling of non-duality is the alms, which is consumed for physical sustenance, and the feeling of duality is the thing which is unfit for consumption. The receiving of alms by the mendicant monk is ordained in accordance with the directions of the Guru and the holy Scripture. II-12. After embracing renunciation of his own accord, the wise man shall move away from his native place and live far away, like a thief who has been released from prison. II-13. No sooner has the ascetic moved away from the son of ego, the brother of wealth, the home of delusion and the wife of desires, than he is liberated from the worldly bondage, there is no doubt about it. II-14-15. How shall I perform the Sandhya [संध्या - Twilight worship], when the mother of delusion becomes dead, and the son of true awakening is born, causing a two-fold impurity? How can I perform the twilight worship when the bright sun of consciousness ever shines in the sky of the heart, and it never sets or rises, because there is no twilight at all and hence there is no scope for worship? [Basically there is no more need for it]. II-16. The conviction, which is present from the words of the Guru that there is only one reality without ever being a second one, being alone is the solitude necessary for meditation, and not a monastery nor the interior of a forest. II-17. There is liberation for those who are free from doubts, there is no emancipation even at the end of repeated births for those whose minds are invaded by doubts about the non-duality of the indwelling Atman. Hence one should have faith. II-18. There is no true renunciation by discarding action, nor by reciting the holy mantras of Praises at the formal ceremony of renunciation. Renunciation has been declared to be the “Oneness of the individual self (Jiva - Atman) and the Universal Self (Param - Atman). II-19. One, to whom all primary desires such as for a wife, wealth and progeny etc., appear like vomit and who has discarded pride in his body, is entitled to renunciation. II-20. A wise man should embrace renunciation only when there has risen in his mind dispassion for all worldly things, otherwise he is fallen. II-21. He who renounces worldly life for amassing wealth, which is contributed by rich disciples of the society or for the sake of assured boarding and clothing or for a stable position like being a head of a Ashram or a Monastery is doubly fallen, as he has neither the full pleasures of worldly life nor liberation, and thus he does not deserve final beatitude. II-22. The wisest take to contemplation on the reality of Brahman, the middling ones contemplate on the scripture, low people think of the mantras, and the lowest are deluded by the efficacy of the holy places. II-23. A fool in vain takes the theoretical delight in Brahman without practically experiencing it, like the joy of tasting fruits which are found in the branch of a tree, are reflected in a lake. II-24. If a sage does not give in to delusion and holds firm upon the inward conviction of non-duality by collecting the alms from various houses as a bee does honey from flowers, the father in the form of dispassion, the wife of faith and the son of true knowledge, he is liberated. II-25. People rich in wealth, old in age and similarly those mature in knowledge, all these are but servants, of the disciples of those, who are mature in wisdom. II-26. Even learned people have their minds deluded by the Maya [माया – illusion] which is created by me, and without realizing me, the Atman, who is Omnipresent, they wander like the cows to fill their wretched belly! II-27. To one desiring liberation, the worship of idols made of stone, metal, gem and clay results only in the experience of rebirth and death, hence the sage should perform the worship of his heart alone, i.e. to contemplate on Brahman enshrined in his heart, which is the undifferentiating from the Higher Self. To prevent rebirth he shall avoid external worship of idols. II-28. He who is full inwardly and outwardly is like a jar filled in the sea, he who is empty inwardly and empty outwardly is like a jar empty in the sky. II-29. Do not become one enjoying objects of the senses, do not also become one believing in the senses. Rejecting all ideations of senses, become that which remains. II-30. Discarding the ideas of a physical seer, seeing and what is seen along with inward tendencies, may you resort only to the Atman, who is the prime source of all phenomena in the universe. II-31. That state of remaining like a stone with all ideations quiescent and freed from the different states of waking and sleeping, is the supreme state of the Self. Thus ends the instruction given by Lord Shiva as well as the second chapter of the “Maitreyopanishad [मैत्रेयोप्निषद]. Jai Ho.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 00:57:42 +0000
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