Commentary on the Panchadasi

by Swami Krishnananda

Vairagya, bodha and uparati were considered as important qualities that can be seen in a jivanmukta purusha. Vairagya is detachment, bodha is knowledge, and uparati is cessation from activities. Each one of them has a cause, a nature, and a result. This we studied yesterday.

Brahmaloka tṛṇīkāro vairāgyasyā vadhir mataḥ, dehātmavat parātmatva dārḍhye bodhaḥ samāpyate (285). What exactly do we mean by vairagya? It is obviously known as a kind of not getting attached to things. But here the author gives a definition of non-attachment in a superior way: The joys not only of this world but also of the other world should not attract us.

According to Patanjali's Sutras, dṛṣṭa ānuśravika viṣaya vitṛṣṇasya vaśīkārasaṁjñā vairāgyam (YS 1.15): Vairagya, or non-attachment, is to be in respect of all those things which are seen with our eyes and also which are only heard of through the scriptures – like the joys of heaven. One should not engage oneself in sacrifices, yajnas, etc., for the sake of going to heaven, because anything which is reachable is also perishable. That which is visible is destructible. Anything that we can conceive in our mind also is a kind of object. The joys of Brahmaloka are also not to be aspired for.

The joy of Brahmaloka is indescribable. No words can tell us what the bliss of Brahmaloka is. It is what they call the Kingdom of Heaven, usually speaking. We may call it the Kingdom of God. The words ‘bliss’, ‘joy’, ‘satisfaction’, etc., are poor apologies for the tremendous experience that Brahmaloka is. Not to have attachment even to that, and to concern oneself only with the pure, Universal existence is supposed to be the height of vairagya, or detachment. Brahmaloka tṛṇīkāro vairāgyasyā vadhir mataḥ, dehātmavat parātmatva dārḍhye bodhaḥ samāpyate.

What is knowledge of Brahman? Do we know how intensely we feel that we are the body? Let each one close one’s eyes for a few minutes and think how intense is the feeling that the body is myself. It is not merely the body is myself; the body is I. The body has become me. Such is the intensity of the identification of consciousness with the body, and vice versa.

If such an attachment as is seen between consciousness and this body can be there between consciousness and the Absolute, then moksha is there in our hand, even if we don't want it. This is the height of wisdom. The height of vairagya is the rejection of even the joys of Brahmaloka. The height of knowledge or bliss, perfection, the height of wisdom, is the identity of consciousness with the Universal as intensely as one feels identity with one's body.

Supti vad mismṛtiḥ sīmā bhavedupa ramasya hi, diśānayā viniśceyaṁ tāratamya mavāntaram (286). The parakashtha, or the end result of cessation from all activity, is complete oblivion as to what is happening in the world. Let the world be there or let the world not be there, it makes no difference. Events are taking place in this world; events are not taking place. Certain events are taking place; certain others are not taking place. All these do not affect the person – just as a person who is asleep is not concerned with what is happening outside in the world. To be totally unconcerned with the events in the world as if one is fast asleep is the parakashtha, or the highest reach of the consciousness of cessation from activity.

This is an indication, briefly given, in order that we may be enabled to know where we stand in our spiritual life. Each one has to check oneself. What is the stage of evolution which one has reached? The attachments are the main touchstone. Bodily attachment is so intense that the less said about it the better. And the author says we should have such attachment in our consciousness to the Absolute Brahman.

Such attachment to Brahman also may be practicable provided we spend all our day in meditation on the Absolute only and think not an external thing. The whole day, throughout the conscious hours of the lifetime of a person, whenever there is a respite from work, one should try to keep at the back of one's thought the Brahman consciousness upon which one rests. These indications are enough for a good seeker.

Ārabdha karma nānātvāt buddhānā manyathā’nyathā, vartanaṁ tena śāstrārthe bhramitavyaṁ na paṇḍitaiḥ (287). Yesterday I mentioned that there are varieties of jivanmuktas. All are not of the same type. They do not behave in a uniform manner. We should not have a set rule that the jivanmukta should behave in this way only and if we find somebody behaving in that way, we can say he is a jivanmukta. That is not the case.

Each individual is unique in character, and that uniqueness is because of the fact of prārabdha karma nānātvāt – due to the variety in the functioning of the prarabdha karmas of the persons, whose body continues as long as the prarabdha continues, even if they are jivanmuktas. The difference in the function and the nature of the prarabdha karmas of people make them appear or look different from one another. Internally, they are one and the same.

Therefore, ignorant people should not start judging great people because no one who has not delved into the mysteries of this reality, the structure of the world and God and Ishvara and jiva, can have the competency to make a judgement of this kind.

Savasva karmā nusāreṇa vartantāṁ te yathā tathā, aviśiṣṭaḥ sarvabodhaḥ samā mukti riti sthitiḥ (288). Let them behave in any way they like. Let one behave like Lord Krishna or Shri Rama or Jadabharata or Janakaraja or Vasishtha or Shuka or Vyasa. Let anyone behave in any manner whatsoever; that is immaterial to the consciousness which they are maintaining in themselves.

Knowledge and power are equal in the case of all these jivanmuktas. What one can do, others also can do. What one feels inside, others also feel; and what one is experiencing inside, another also experiences. But outwardly, they are different because the bodily behaviour is conditioned by differences in prarabdha karma.

Jagac-citraṁ sva-caitanye paṭe citra mivār pitam, māyayā tadu pekṣaiva caitanyaṁ pari śeṣyatām (289). In this chapter, which is called Citradipa – that is, illustration by the analogy of a painted picture – the unreality of the world finally in relation to the Supreme Brahman has been explained in all detail. Having known this, let consciousness fix itself in Brahman only, the background of all experience, and let not the consciousness run after the varieties of movements of shadows. And let not anyone be carried away by the picturesque presentation of ink on the canvas, but habituate oneself to the background of the presentation – the pure cloth, in the case of the painted picture, and Brahman Universal here in the case of the illustration.

Citra dīpa mimaṁ nityaṁ ye’nu sandadhate budhāḥ, paśyanto’pi jagac-citraṁ te muhyanti na pūrva-vat (290). Here the author gives us a great promise: Whoever daily studies this sixth chapter and contemplates its meaning every day, such people, even if they behold the world with their own eyes, will not again be attached to the world as they were earlier. The delusion that was earlier will not pursue them again, provided deep contemplation is bestowed on the meaning of this chapter, Citradipa, which has been explained in great variety of detail.

Citradipa, the sixth chapter of Panchadasi, here concludes.