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Sri Swami Krishnandaji
One aphorism in the Brahma Sutras is very intriguing,
which no commentator has explained properly. This sutra is based on the
following concluding passage in the Chandogya Upanishad: "One who
has studied the Vedas from the teacher according to rule, in the time
left over from doing service to the teacher, he, who after having come
back, settles down in a home, continues the study in more detail, who
concentrates all his senses in the Self, who practises non-hatred to all
creatures, he who behaves thus throughout his life, reaches the world
of the Creator," "Kritsnabhavat-tu grihinopasamharah" (III.4.48)
is the sutra used to explain the life of a householder.
The meaning of the sutra is that the life of a householder is integral.
Unfortunately, all the commentators on the Brahma Sutras are sannyasins
(renunciate). No sannyasin will accept that a householder is leading an
integral life. They will say sannyasa is higher. They write only two lines
according to the Upanishads-the householder's life is considered integral,
and pass on. In ancient days it was believed that a person would live
for a hundred years, and that there are four gradational achievements
for the development of the person.
In the beginning it is conservation of energy, which
is called brahmacharya. The study of holy scriptures, service to the guru
and maintaining self-control are the duties at this stage. Ancient brahmacharins
were great and powerful persons; if they uttered a word, it would immediately
materialise. Brahmacharins are feared, one cannot irritate or play jokes
with them. They are a magazine of energy.
After that one enters married life and fulfils the duties
of a householder. The duties of a householder are interesting to note.
It is not attachment to family; that would be far away from the truth.
In Indian culture, attachment is never allowed. Duty is emphasised as
the very purpose of life. The fulfillment of the means of personal and
social relationship is the duty of a householder. In the stage of brahmacharya,
he is concerned only with himself. However, it is not possible to be living
only by oneself, because there is society also. There are impulses of
self-restraint and also impulses of social relation. There are impulses
of acquiring wealth, there are impulses of seeing beauty, and there are
impulses of being charitable to people. This is why the sutra says the
householder's life is integral. He is a highly respected person, not because
he has a family, but because he is engaged in doing his duty. The integral
life is a life of non-attachment on one side and freedom from hatred on
the other side. It is difficult to find such a person nowadays.
When the social relationships are well fed and taken
care of and the needs of living a family life have also matured systematically,
the householder retires. Retirement means the freedom from the necessity
to have any social relations. Up to this level, people were individuals.
Brahmacharis are individuals of one kind, the householder is an individual
of another kind. But now, there is a concept of the super-individual,
who dedicates himself to unite his mind with universal relations. This
stage has nothing to do with any kind of dress or gesture. One must be
careful and impartial in thinking, be highly dispassionate and true to
one's conscience. There is a grandeur in universal relations. All that
the brahmachari did in his individual capacity, all that the householder
did in his social capacity are transcended in the super-mental operation
in terms of universal relations. That is vanaprastha, a stage staggering
to thought.
Then comes sannyasa. A sannyasin does not just mean a
person who is wearing ochre cloth, which is again a social restriction,
a social distinction. A person whose mind is centred in the Universal
Absolute, that person is more than a super-individual, he is a cosmic
individual, known as jivanmukta. Sannyasins are respected as God Himself,
not because they have a shaven head and have put on the cloth, but because
their minds are centred in the Absolute Being.
Here is the commentary for this intriguing sutra, difficult
to understand. Even an understanding of the Brahma Sutras will purify
the mind. We are not what we are thinking ourselves to be. We belong to
another kingdom of eternal values.
Truly understood, the ideal householder's life is almost
a miracle. He conserves energy like the brahmachari in a more widened
way. The self-restraint of the brahmachari is personal and individual.
The householder's self-restraint is more difficult because he has to maintain
self-restraint personally and in family relations and the wider human
society by restrained behaviour of non-attachment coupled simultaneously
with duty towards everyone in every field. He feeds the brahmacharis and
sannyasins and guests with love, even sacrificing his own meal when necessary.
He takes care of animals around, does not hurt even ants in the house
by leading them out peacefully. He worships God like the sannyasin, reads
the holy lore like the brahmachari and is detached from emotional contacts
like the vanaprasthi. His life is a continuous sacrifice. Rightly, the
Brahma Sutra mentions him especially as the one whose life is perfectly
integrated.
The scheme detailed above is a scientific system which
frees a person from psychopathic reactions and turbulence of emotion that
may result from overdoing things, erroneously asking for double promotion
in one's spiritual search, ending in anger, disgust, vengeance, vindictiveness
and hatred towards everything. The mentioned scheme avoids these pitfalls
and healthily enables one to rise to the level of a veritable God walking
on earth. The attempt to overstep the householder's duties and seek the
universal aspirations of a sannyasin directly from the brahmacharya stage
is, indeed, a highly ambitious and laudable enterprise. But here is also
a danger. The universal will reject the entry into itself of any element
alien to its nature. It is difficult to believe that the individual sense
of the brahmachari can suddenly bloom into the universal longings of the
sannyasin. People mostly suffer shipwreck here and turn into arrogant
specimens due to conjuring up a false imagination of high achievements,
while there are actually none. Great things require a great price in the
form of determined meditations.
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