Commentary on the Panchadasi

by Swami Krishnananda

Anna prāṇādi kośeṣu suvicārya punaḥ punaḥ, ānanda vyaktim īksitvā brahma lakṣmāpya yūjujat (65). Bliss in an indication of Brahman; it is not Brahman itself. The word used here by the author of the Panchadasi is that the bliss of the causal sheath which the disciple experienced is an indication of Brahman's bliss. It is not Brahman itself. That is to say, when we enter the state of deep sleep, we are not experiencing Brahman, though maybe, theoretically, it may be equal to our landing ourselves in Brahman.

If our plane suddenly requires fuel it lands somewhere, at some airport, and we do not even know which country it is, whose airport it is. We are not very much bothered about that detail because we are in the crucial condition of fuel exhaustion. Under an international charitable feeling this kind of landing is evidently permitted, as far as I am given to understand. When the pilot cries from the plane over a wireless that fuel is exhausted, they do not ask him to quit from that place because there is a human feeling, a humanity and understanding, a United Nations dictum or whatever it is, and he is allowed to land.

If we do not even know where we have landed, and simply know that we have landed, that is something like an indirect jumping into the Brahman state. But actually, landing in sleep – that blissful experience of the condition of sleep – is not Brahman experience because we wake up from sleep into the mortal experience of the physical existence. If we had really gone to Brahman, we would not have woken up.

Therefore, the causal experience of Brahman is only an indication and not a direct experience, says the author here. This experience has been undergone gradually through the physical, vital, and other sheaths. It is a final indicator of Brahman's existence. It is a signpost which tells us that Brahman is appearing, but Brahman has not yet appeared.

Satyam jñānam anantaṁ ceti evaṁ brahma svalakṣaṇam, uktvā guhāhitvena, kośe ṣvetat pradarśitam (66). The Taittiriya Upanishad says satyam jñānam anantaṁ brahma: Truth, Knowledge, Infinity is Brahman. This is another way of saying sarvaṁ khalvidaṁ brahma: God is Brahman. If all is Brahman, what does it matter to us? It matters very much because we are not outside it. After having being told that Brahman is Truth, Knowledge, Infinity, we are instructed into a further reality of the fact of our being non-separate from that Brahman which is Truth, Knowledge, Infinity. This is how gradual instruction is imparted by the Guru to the disciple in the process of what is known as initiation.

Pārokṣeṇa vibudhyendro ya ātmetyādi lakṣaṇāt, aparoksī kartum icchan ścantur vāraṁ guruṁ yayau (67). Indra went to Prajapati four times to learn what the Atman is. Prajapati did not give the answer immediately.

There was a great yogi in Tibet, called Milarepa – a very poor boy. His father died early and left a little land, but his uncle surreptitiously swallowed the entire property and he and his mother were living in utter poverty. The little child that Milarepa was did not know that they had been duped by his uncle. He was playing with children outside, and laughing. His mother gave a blow to the child. “What makes you happy when we are really miserable?” He did not understand what the misery was. He was happy with the other children. “What is the misery, Mother?” he asked. “I will tell you what the misery is! Come. Sit. Your father had so much property. When he passed away, your uncle took away the whole thing. Until you destroy him, I cannot have peace.”

“How will I destroy him?” “Go and learn black magic.” Milarepa went to a teacher of black magic and stayed for some years. Many disciples were learning black magic under this Guru. After three years, he disposed of all the children. “Now you can go. The instruction is over.” But this boy did not go. He was persisting because he did not feel that he had understood anything. He had to apply it by destroying the uncle, and that he could not do. He did not know what the matter was. “Why are you sitting? Go. All have gone. Why have you not gone?”

“For three years I have been serving you, but what is it that you have taught me?” “What do you want to learn? All the other students have learned. All have learned and have gone. You have also learned.” “No. I have a problem. I must get rid of that problem. This is the story.” “Oh, I will not teach you such things. You want to destroy people. No, no, nothing of the kind,” the Guru said. “I am not here to destroy people, so will I teach you that kind of thing? No. Go, go, go. I have taught people something good. I will not teach this kind of thing.” But Milarepa persisted, and cried and sat; and finally the Guru taught him. Then he went.

What Milarepa generally did was to create a hail storm and destroy the crops and bury the houses of people in ice. In this way his uncle and family and all their property went. After that, the locality came to know that this boy knows this magic. Whenever they had some enemy, they would call him. “Please destroy that man. I will give you so much.” Milarepa went on doing this, and destroyed enemies of people.

Afterwards, when Milarepa grew up, he felt so bad. “What have I done? How can I now be happy that I have got the property back? I have destroyed property, destroyed people, uncle, everybody. Mother was crying, and we are still crying. I must have wisdom of the Great Reality. What is the good of this black magic?” And he found out that great Marpa teacher was the knower. He went and sat on the veranda of this great master. The master would not come out.

He was an omniscient man. He knew the black magician; he would not impart wisdom to him. After some time he came out, and kicked him with his boot. “Get out from this place.” “I have come for this purpose.” “Go.” The persistence of the disciple Milarepa is really wonderful to hear. He would not go like that. He persisted. “You kick me, cut me, do anything. I have surrendered myself to you. You may even remove my head; I have no objection. But once I have surrendered myself to you, the great master, I am your property. You have kicked me, and my head may also go, but I am sitting here at your door. I am not going.”

Many days passed like this. Milarepa had not eaten anything. Wounds started developing on his back; worms, maggots were growing. “Go. Go from here and build a house for me on the top of a hill. Carry up the material yourself.” It was very difficult. He had not eaten for days together, and had wounds on his body. Anyhow, the order of the Guru is really to be obeyed. He carried the stones. When the other disciples saw this torture, they thought that it was an awful thing. How could this boy carry stones like that? So they helped him. They all helped him, and somehow or other, after one or two months, the house was built with the help of many other disciples of Marpa – which was done without his knowledge because if he knew, he would not have permitted it.

Then the disciple came, “Master, the house is ready.” “Is it ready? Let me see it. Oh. Who helped you in building it? You could not have done it yourself.” “It was done with the help of other disciples.” “Did I tell you? Break it, and take all the stones back down, and again build it, with your own effort.”

Anyway, I will make the long story short because the whole story of Milarepa is a big volume by itself. It is a Tibetan text translated into English by a great Oxford scholar called Dr. Evans Wentz. He was a great Tibetologist, an Oxford man. The biography of Milarepa written by Dr. Evans Wentz is worth reading by every disciple.

Marpa would not give initiation to Milarepa even after this torture of building the house a second time. His mother felt pity. When the Guru went away on a tour without uttering a word, Milarepa’s mother stealthily called him to the back door and gave him some buttermilk so that he would not perish, because only torture was going on and no initiation was taking place.

The mother felt that the Guru would not teach and the boy would die, so she forged a letter with the signature of the husband to carry in a shawl which was worn by the master, and addressed that letter to the nephew of this master who was also a competent Guru who could initiate people into the wisdom. The letter said: This is my right hand disciple. I am sending him to you for the purpose of initiation because I am very busy with other work. You please initiate him. As a token of my letter, I am also sending my upper cloth. She put the signature of the husband. Now the boy thought the work is done. He ran from that place.

Milarepa saw the nephew master giving a discourse. When he showed the letter, the nephew was very surprised that he could not initiate him. “But I heard that you are a black magician.” “No,” he said, “Don't say that about me. I have come for initiation.” “But no, I want to see how you kill people with your black magic. Kill all these birds. There are so many birds and sparrows sitting on the tree. Kill all of them with your mantra.” “No, I will not do it. It is a sin.”

“Sin! No sin.” And that Guru said “Shuk!” Instantly, all the sparrows fell dead in one minute. Again he said, “Shuk!” and they rose and flew again. “So where is the sin?” he said. “Why did you say so? It is a sin only if you can only destroy and cannot create. Only destroy? That is sinful. But if you can also create, where is the sin? See, I have killed them, and I revived them once again and they flew. Anyway, come.”

When he was about to make arrangements for the initiation, the the real Guru came to know what was happening. “Where is the dog?” he told this mataji. “Where is the dog?” he said, referring to Milarepa. “You have insulted him, you have penalised him, you have tortured him, poor boy, how long can he live? He has run away from this place.” He closed his eyes and found out by his intuition what the mother has done. He scolded her, “Some mischief you have played.”

The nephew Guru actually initiated Milarepa. The other Guru had already initiated him. “On the third day you will have this experience, on the fifth day you will have another experience, on the seventh day a third experience. I will personally come to you and verify the experience.” The third day was over, but no experience came. The nephew Guru came. “What experience have you had? No, I cannot believe it. I gave you initiation properly. Let us see.” He came on the fifth day. “What is the experience?” Nothing. “There is something wrong,” he said. “My initiation is correct.” On the seventh day also there was no experience, and he said, “Now I suspect something. You are not a genuine boy. There is some mischief behind this. Perhaps the permission from the real Guru has not come. Some hanky-panky is there behind this.”

While he was saying this, a letter came from the real Guru, “Please send the dog back.” The nephew Guru realised something was amiss. “Hey! He is calling you a dog. What is the matter? Tell me the truth.” Milarepa trembled, and told him the truth. “Go from here. Don't look at my face again. Go.” He went.

Milarepa went and sat outside on the veranda, and when the Guru came, he would not look at him. He simply went away – gave one blow to him and went. It is a very long story.

The graduated technique adopted by Gurus in teaching disciples varies from person to person, from individual to individual, and from one state of evolution to another state of evolution. And this case of Varuna teaching Bhrigu to pass through all these stages of Brahman being immanent in the five sheaths, and experiencing the final bliss of Brahman as it is manifest in the state of sleep, is one category of graduated instruction by the Guru to the disciple.