Srimad Bhagavatam
Chapter 9 Skandha 11
Uddhava Gita : Chapter 4
Uddhava Gita Chapter 4: ( Summary)
Avadhuta talked about lessons learnt from Earth , Vayu , Water , Fire, Sky, the moon, the sun , the Pigeon, the Python, the Ocean ,the Moth , the Bee , the Elephant, the Honey gatherer , the Deer , the Fish and the Courtesan Pingala .
In Chapter 4, the Avadhuta talks about the lessons learnt from the Kurura Bird, the Child, the Maiden , the concentration, the Snake , the Wasp and the Body.
Thus having having instructed King Yadu on the lessons learnt from the twenty Four Gurus the Avadhuta left .
" The acquisition of anything that men hold as dearest leads to misery. He who knows this and gives up all possession attains endless bliss!!"
Uddhava Gita
Chapter 4
The Avadhuta Brahman describes the remaining Gurus beginning with the Kurara bird:
Avadhuta tells the King that once a group of hawks who were unable to find any prey attacked another weaker bird holding some meat. At that point, being in danger of life, the weaker bird , namely the Kurara Bird, gave up the meat and experienced intense happiness !!. The lesson learnt from the “Kurara” bird is that attachment creates misery, and the person who is unattached and has no material possessions is bound to achieve unlimited happiness.
Avadhuta continues:
“O King! I am not worried about honor or dishonor, nor worried about a house and children. I take pleasure in self and wander about like a child. Only two people are free from anxiety and immersed in supreme bliss. One is the child that knows nothing and the other is the one who has learned to be above the three gunas namely Satva, Rajas, and Tamas. Being free from the three gunas he is above the need for material gains. On the other handto be free from anxiety you must be child like!! ”
Avadhuta continues,
“Once upon a time a maiden had to receive persons who came to her house to ask for her hand in marriage. There was no body else in the house.In the absence of her relatives she was husking paddy for their visitors. Then the bracelets on her wrist made great noise. The young girl fearing that the visitors would consider her family to be too poor because their daughter is engaged in the task of husking rice, removed all the bracelets leaving only two on each wrist. As even these two were making noise, she removed one each leaving a single bracelet on each hand and there was no sound there after.”
“O King, Roaming over the world with a view to know the ways of men I learnt a lesson from her. Where many dwell there is a quarrel. And even between two people there is chance for frivolous disagreement. Therefore to avoid conflict one should live alone like the single bracelet on the maiden's hand”.
Thus the lesson received from the young girl who ultimately kept a single bracelet on each wrist was that one should remain alone to keep the mind steady”.
Avadhuta continues
“O King! Conquering posture and through that controlling the breath, one should hold mind steady by detachment and steady practice. Being steady the mind becomes free from desires. Thus the Satva guna increases in strength, and the Tama and Rajas become pacified. In turn mind becomes free from desires. Having the mind thus fully controlled, the man at that time knows nothing external like the arrow maker who did not even notice the King passing by the side “
Thus Avadhuta received the lesson in concentration from the arrow maker who is so absorbed in making arrow that he did not notice that King was passing right by him on the road.
Avadhuta continues
“O King! A Saintly person should remain alone and constantly travel without any fixed residence. Being alert he should act in away such that he is not recognized or noticed by others. Moving without companions he should not speak more than required. The construction of a home leads to unhappiness. The snake however enters a home build by others and prospers happily “.
Thus Avadhuta learnt from the Serpent that a sage should wander alone and should not live in any prearranged place. Sageshould always be careful, grave, not reveal his movements, should take assistance form no one and should speak little.
Avadhuta continues:
“The Lord of the Universe Narayana is the God worshipped by the entire Universe. Without a second, the Lord creates the Universe by his own potency and at the time of annihilation the Lord destroys the Universe. Thus his unlimited self is the shelter and reservoir of all potencies. As a spider spreads it web through the mouth and after playing with it swallows it again so does the Lord with the Universe.”
“Thus what I learnt from the spider that spins its web and withdraws the same is that the Supreme Lord creates the universe similarly and winds it up himself “.
If out of love or hate an embodied soul fixes his mind with intelligence and complete concentration upon a particular form, he will certainly attain the form that he is meditating upon.
“Once a wasp forced a weaker insect to enter his hive and kept him there. In great fear the weak insect constantly meditated upon his captor and gradually achieved the same state of existence as the wasp. Thus one achieves a state of existence according to ones concentration”
“From the weak insect who assumed the same form as the wasp, the Avadhuta learned that the living entity under the sway of affection attains in his next life the identity of the object upon which he fixes his intelligence”.
“O King I have learned all these things for all these teachers. Now, O King! Listen to what I have learned from my own body “
“The body is a teacher of mine, being the cause of dispassion and discrimination, and being subject to birth and death .With the help of this body I reflect on the ultimate principles. Knowing that it belongs to others I wander without attachment.
“The Lord through his power created various abodes such as trees, reptiles, and beasts, birds, insects and fish. But he was not satisfied. Then he made a human body and endowed it with desire to know Brahman and he was delighted.
“The wise man having obtained a human life should strive for liberation before the body falls for the sense enjoyment which is possible in any birth”.
“With my dispassion roused thus and with illumination as my light I roam over this world established in myself, free from attachment and egoism”.
Saying this Avadhuta begged for leave. After being saluted and worshipped, the Avadhuta went away just as he has come.
Finally seeing that the body is subject to birth and death one who is sober should become devoid of material attachment to the body and should use the rare gift of human life in pursuit of knowledge.
Om tat sat
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"Hearing the words of Avadhuta that progenitor of our forefathers was rid of all attachment and acquired equanimity in thought"