Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Samnyasa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c6.s17: Yājñavalkya Upaniṣad

Saṃnyāsa Upaniṣads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c6.s17

Language
English

Yājñavalkya Upaniṣad

c6.s17.1

[*313*] [The first three sections of this Upaniṣad are identical with sections IV, V, and VI of the Jābāla Upaniṣad.]

c6.s17.2

A wanderer who is naked, who pays no homage [PhU 50], who craves not for wife or son, [*314*] and who removes both the perceptible and the imperceptible,¹ becomes the Supreme Lord. On this there are the following verses:

c6.s17.3

¹ The meaning is unclear. It may refer to the outward marks and the inward behavior by which a renouncer is recognized. See PhU 50; NpU 154.

c6.s17.4

Homage should be paid only to a senior renouncer if he is one’s equal in conduct, and never to any other.²
One even sees renouncers who are careless, whose minds are set on outward things, who are backbiting and quarrelsome, and whose designs are condemned by the Veda.

c6.s17.5

² A senior renouncer is one who entered renunciation earlier. “Equal in conduct (*dharma*)” refers to the level of one’s renunciation. Thus, a Paramahaṃsa need not pay homage to a Kuṭīcaka, even if the latter had renounced earlier, because a Kuṭīcaka’s level of conduct is lower than that of a Paramahaṃsa. See NpU 177, n. 66.

c6.s17.6

If he abides in the non-dual and self-effulgent state that is beyond name and the like, to whom shall he, who knows the self, bow? Then rites are of no use. [Upadeśasāhasrī, 27.64]

c6.s17.7

“The Blessed Lord has entered with a portion of himself as the soul”: so thinking, let him bow even to a dog, a Cāṇḍāla, a cow, or a donkey, prostrating himself on the ground like a stick.

c6.s17.8

*[315]* What, pray, is the beauty of a woman, who is a puppet of flesh furnished with tendons, bones, and joints, within a cage of limbs moved by a machine? [Yogav 1.21.1]

c6.s17.9

Examine her eyes after separating the skin, the flesh, the blood, the tears, and the fluid, and see if there is any charm. Why are you bewitched in vain? [Yogav 1.21.2]

c6.s17.10

The same breast of a girl, on which we see the brilliant splendor of a pearl necklace comparable to swift waters of the Ganges rippling down the slopes of mount Meru, is in time eaten with relish by dogs in remote cemeteries as if it were a little morsel of food. [Yogav 1.21.5–6]

c6.s17.11

With stylish hair and painted eyes, hard to touch but pleasing to the eye, women are like the flame of sin and burn a man like straw. [Yogav 1.21.11]

c6.s17.12

Burning even from afar, sweet and yet bitter, *[316]* women indeed are the fuel of hellfire, both lovely and cruel. [Yogav 1.21.12]

c6.s17.13

Foolish women are the nets spread out by the fowler called Kāma,³ binding the limbs of men as if they were birds. [Yogav 1.21.18]

c6.s17.14

³ The term means both lust and the god of love.

c6.s17.15

A woman is the bait on the fishhook tied to the line of evil tendencies, for men who are like fish in the pond of birth, wading in the mud of the mind. [Yogav 1.21.20]

c6.s17.16

I have done forever with women, who are the chains of suffering and strongboxes for all the gems of sins. [Yogav 1.21.23]

c6.s17.17

A man with a woman desires pleasure. In a man without a woman, where is the room for pleasure? When one abandons women one abandons the world. When one abandons the world one becomes happy. [Yogav 1.21.35]

c6.s17.18

A son, when he is not conceived, long torments the parents. When conceived, he causes pain by miscarriage or in delivery. [Pd 12.65]

c6.s17.19

When he is born (one has to contend with) the influence of evil planets, illnesses, and the like. When he is young he takes to mischief. [*317*] Even after he is initiated he may not learn, and should he become learned he may not marry. [Pd 12.66]

c6.s17.20

As a young man he may commit adultery and the like. When he has a family he may become penniless. If he is rich then he may die. There is no end to the suffering caused by a son. [Pd 12.67]

c6.s17.21

An ascetic shall not be undisciplined with regard to hands, feet, eyes, or speech; controlling his senses he becomes Brahman. [Cf. VDh 6.42]

c6.s17.22

In a man of discrimination who sees an enemy, a prisoner, and his own body as one and the same, how can there be anger? Can there be anger toward members of one’s own body? [*Naiṣkarmyasiddhi*, 2.18]

c6.s17.23

If you are angry at a wrongdoer, why are you then not angry at anger itself, which fiercely opposes the pursuit of duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation?⁴

c6.s17.24

⁴ These are the four aims of human existence (*puruṣārtha*) of classical Hinduism.

c6.s17.25

Homage to my anger which quickly burns its own support, and which bestows detachment on me who am angry and reveals to me my faults.

c6.s17.26

[*318*] Where people are asleep, there the man of discipline lies always awake. Where they are awake, there the wise chief of yogins goes into a deep sleep. [SūS 5.3.40]

c6.s17.27

“There is only consciousness here. All this is pure consciousness and consists only of consciousness. You are consciousness, I am consciousness, and these worlds are consciousness”: so should you meditate. [Yogav 5.26.11]

c6.s17.28

The state of a Paramahaṃsa is the highest position that can be attained by ascetics. There is nothing higher than that, O best of sages.

c6.s17.29

That is the secret teaching.

Cites (8)