Samnyasa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c6.s8: Maitreya Upaniṣad

Saṃnyāsa Upaniṣads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation c6.s8

Language: English

Maitreya Upaniṣad

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[*107*] A king named Bṛhadratha, realizing that this body is a transient thing, became detached from the world. He appointed his son to rule over his kingdom and retired to the wilderness. There, practicing severe austerities, he stood with his arms raised gazing at the sun. Then, at the end of a thousand days, the Venerable Śākāyanya, who had the knowledge of the self, came before that sage like a smokeless fire, burning as if with splendor.

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"Arise! [*108*] Arise!" he said to the king, "Choose a boon." The king paid homage to him and said: "Lord, I do not possess the knowledge of the self. I have heard that you know its true nature. Explain it to me." He replied: "Such things used to take place in former times. Do not ask for something impossible, O scion of Ikṣvāku.¹ Choose other things you may desire." The king clasped the feet of Śākāyanya and uttered this lament:

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¹ Ikṣvāku was the first king of the solar dynasty, to which most ancient Indian kings claimed to belong.

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"Lord, this body is produced just by sexual intercourse and is devoid of consciousness; it is a veritable hell. Born through the urinary canal, it is built with bones, plastered with flesh, and covered with skin. It is filled with feces, urine, wind, bile, phlegm, marrow, fat, serum, and many other kinds of filth. In such a body do I live; you are my refuge.

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“But why speak of these when, among other things, mighty oceans dry up, [*109*] lofty peaks crumble down, the pole star swerves, the wind-ropes² are cut down, the earth is submerged,³ and gods fall from their station? I am also like that. So what purpose is there in enjoying desires within a saṃsāric existence such as this when we see that people attached to them are reborn repeatedly? So, please deliver me. In this saṃsāric existence, I am like a frog in a dark well. You, O Lord, are my only refuge.”

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² Wind-ropes are believed to tie the sun's chariot to the polar star as the sun travels around the earth. The ropes are lengthened during the sun's southern course and shortened during its northern course. See Wilson's translation of *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*, 2.8, n. 5.

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³ The reference is to the well-known myth regarding the submersion of the earth under the ocean. Viṣṇu then became incarnate as a boar and pulled the earth up from the depths with his tusk. The intent is to show how transient all things are, even those that appear most stable.

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Extremely pleased, the Venerable Śākāyanya then said to the king: “Great King Bṛhadratha, the foremost banner of Ikṣvāku’s race, you shall come to know the self and attain your purpose. You are widely known by the name Wind,⁴ and that indeed is your self.” The king asked: “What is it, Lord? And how would you describe it?” He said to him:

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⁴ Bṛhadratha is also known by the name Marut, which means wind. The wind is shown to be his self through the following equivalences: wind = breath (*prāṇa*) = self (*ātman*).

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1. [*110*] “Sound, touch, and other objects of sense are truly worthless.⁵ A soul that is attached to them recalls not the highest state.

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⁵ The author makes a pun by saying that *artha* (a term that means objects of sense as well as things of value) are in fact *anartha* ("non-*artha*"), that is, without value.

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2. “By austerity a man achieves goodness, and through goodness he takes hold of the mind. Through the mind he reaches the self, and reaching the self he comes to rest.

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3. “As a fire, when its fuel is spent, comes to rest in its source,⁶ so the mind, when its thoughts are destroyed, comes to rest in its source.

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⁶ The meaning probably is that when its fuel is burnt up a fire returns to its latent and unmanifest form. Fire, for example, is believed to be latent within the fire drill (cf. LSU 16, n. 9), which is considered the womb of fire: LSU 16.

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4. “To a mind which rests in its source and travels by the path of truth, and which is dead to the objects of sense, things within the purview of rites are false.

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5. “For the mind alone is *saṃsāra!* Let a man purify it with zeal. The mind a man possesses shapes his future course: that is the eternal mystery.

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6. “For when his mind is tranquil, he destroys good and evil deeds. His self serene, he abides in the self and enjoys undecaying bliss.

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7. “If people’s minds were as set on Brahman as they are on objects of sense, who would not be released from bondage?

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8. “Within the lotus of the heart let him cherish the supreme Lord. [*111*] He is the witness of the reason’s dance,⁷ and the object of the utmost love.

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⁷ Sāṃkhya philosophy uses the simile of a dancing girl to illustrate the activity of primal nature (*prakṛti*) that manifests itself as the phenomenal world. There the world is depicted as the dance of reason, the first product of nature’s evolution. The spirit (*puruṣa*) is distinct from nature but is enthralled by and absorbed in the dance. The recognition of its distinction from nature’s dance constitutes its liberation.

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9. “He is beyond the range of mind and speech. He is bereft of beginning and end. He is pure being, and his nature is pure light. He is beyond the scope of thought.

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10. “He can be neither seized nor forsaken. He has no common or special mark. He is immovable, calm, and profound. In him there is neither light nor darkness. He pervades, free from change or false appearance. He is knowledge that constitutes release.

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11. “The Supreme Being, who is eternal, pure, enlightened, free, true, subtle, all-pervading, unique, and an ocean of bliss—I am He, the inner essence. Of this I have no doubt.

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12. “In my innate bliss I take refuge, the ogress desire I despise, [*112*] and the illusion of the world I perceive. So how can grief overtake me, who am detached.
13. “Fools, tied to customs of class and order, get their rewards according to their deeds. Men who abandon the duties of class and the like become sated by their own bliss.
14. “Classes and orders contain subdivisions and have a beginning and an end. They are nothing but a great torment. Free from attachment to the body and to sons and the like, let a man live in supreme and endless bliss.”

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Once the Venerable Maitreya went to mount Kailāsa.⁸ Arriving there he said [*113*]: “O Lord, tell me the secret of the highest reality.” The Great God [Śiva] said:

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⁸ Kailāsa is the abode of the god Śiva.

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1. “The body is said to be a temple, and the soul is truly Śiva. Discard the faded flower offerings of ignorance. Worship with the thought: ‘I am he.’ [MU 118]
2. “ ‘Knowledge’ is to perceive no distinctions. ‘Meditation’ is to withdraw the mind from objects. ‘Bathing’ is to get rid of mental impurities. ‘Purification’ is to subdue the senses.
3. “Let him drink the nectar of Brahman. Let him beg to sustain his life. Let him become a solitary and live in a lonely and deserted place. In this manner should a wise man live; he shall thus attain release.”

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1. “Made with its mother’s and father’s filth, this body dies soon after it is born.⁹ [*114*] It is a filthy house of joy and grief. When it is touched a bath is ordained.¹⁰

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⁹ The reference probably is to the impurity associated with sexual intercourse and childbirth. See above MU 108.

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¹⁰ This and the following three verses expand on the subject of the internal or spiritual bath that consists of cleansing the mind. The body’s external impurity symbolizes the effect of lust and passion on the mind. On the comparison of the body to a house, see MU 108, NpU 144.

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2. "Built with humors, it is a great disease. Strewn with countless vicissitudes, it is an unsteady house of sin. When it is touched a bath is ordained.

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3. "By its very nature, foul secretions continuously ooze out from its nine openings. It smells foul and it contains awful filth. When it is touched a bath is ordained.

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4. "Through its mother the body is impure at birth; in birth-impurity it is born. It is impure also through death.¹¹ When it is touched a bath is ordained.

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¹¹ Periods of impurity (*sūtaka*) follow the birth and the death of a person. Although normally the impurity affects the near relatives, this verse sees it as affecting even more intensely the very body, which is subject to birth and death.

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5. "Feces and urine are 'I' and 'mine.' Removing their smell and stain is said to be true purification. Cleansing with water and soil constitutes the common type.¹²

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¹² After answering calls of nature a Brahmin purifies himself by washing with water and soft soil used much like soap. Here the true pollutants are identified as the conceptions of "I" and "mine." True purification requires their elimination.

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6. *[115]* "Washing with the soil of knowledge and the water of detachment is called true purification. It is the purification that brings purity to the mind and destroys the three tendencies."¹³

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¹³ Tendencies or mental habits (*vāsanā*) are the unconscious and latent mental impressions derived from past experiences. The three referred to here are the tendencies associated with heavenly worlds, with the body, and with the various sciences. Cf. NpU 172.

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III

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1. "To meditate on the One is almsfood and on the many is proscribed food. For almsmen is prescribed almsfood that is in accord with the directions of the teacher and of the scriptures.

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2. "A sage should leave his native land right after he has renounced. He should live far away from his own, like a thief just released from jail.

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3. "Pride is his son and wealth his brother. Delusion is his house and lust his wife. A man is freed, there is no doubt, as soon as he abandons these.

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4. "Delusion, our mother, has died. Enlightenment, our son, is born. With a double impurity at hand, how can we perform the twilight worship?¹⁴

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¹⁴ Advaita renouncers do not perform the normal rites (*saṃdhyā*) associated with dawn and dusk (cf. ĀrU 7, n. 7). The reasons for their non-performance are satirized in this and the following verse. Deaths and births in the family create periods of impurity when such rites are suspended. A renouncer is similarly impure, because his mother (delusion) has died, and a son (enlightenment) is born to him. Likewise, as the true sun of consciousness within him does not rise or set, there is no dawn or dusk for an enlightened man. Therefore, he does not have to perform the twilight worship.

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5. *[116]* "The sun of consciousness always shines brightly in the sky of our hearts. It does not set and it does not rise. How can we perform the twilight worship?

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6. " 'There is one alone without a second': this conviction arrived at through these teacher's words, they say, is true solitude, not a cloister or a forest's depth.

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7. "Men who doubt not attain release, while those with minds clouded with doubts are never freed birth after birth. A man should therefore acquire faith.

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8. "Forsaking rites or chanting the Call¹⁵ does not make renunciation. To meditate at twilight: 'Soul and Supreme Self are one,' is said to be true renunciation.¹⁶

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¹⁵ The Call (*praiṣa*) is the ritual formula "I have renounced" (*saṃnyastaṃ mayā*). It is recited three times by the candidate and constitutes the essential element of the rite of renunciation. Cf. ĀrU 9; Ypra 20.1.

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¹⁶ For the allegory of twilight and the unity between the individual and the supreme Self, see ĀrU 7, n. 7. The author is playing with the phonetic similarity between *saṃnyāsa* ("renunciation"), *saṃdhi* ("juncture"), and *saṃdhyā* ("twilight worship").

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9. "He to whom all desires seem like vomit, and who is rid of love for his body, is qualified to renounce.

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10. "When aversion to all worldly goods arises in one's mind, then only should a wise man renounce. Otherwise he will become an outcaste.

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11. *[117]* "He who renounces for the sake of wealth, food, clothes, or celebrity, falls from both paths¹⁷ and is unable to attain release.

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¹⁷ He falls both from the path to heaven, which requires the performance of rites, and from the path to liberation, which requires knowledge.

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12. "The best is to contemplate the truth. To reflect on the scriptures is middling. To ponder over mantras is the worst, and to think about sacred bathing spots is even worse.

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13. "In Brahman fools rejoice in vain without truly experiencing It. Their joy is like that of tasting fruits hanging at the end of a branch reflected in a water pool.

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14. "Almsfood gathered in the manner of a bee [NpU 174, n. 57] is his friend, whose father is detachment, whose wife is faith, and whose son is wisdom. If an ascetic abandons not that friend, he shall attain release.

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15. "Those who reach eminence by reason of wealth, age, or learning are but servants of a man who is eminent by reason of wisdom—and of even his pupils.

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16. "By my delusion their minds deluded, *[118]* even the learned ever roam about like crows to fill their stomachs tormented by hunger without ever finding me, the self and the fullness.

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17. "Worship of idols made of stone, metal, clay, or precious stones causes a man who seeks after freedom to undergo repeated births. A recluse, therefore, shall worship only within his heart. To avoid rebirth let him shun outward worship.

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18. "He is full within and full without, like a full pitcher in the sea. He is empty within and empty without, like an empty pitcher in space.

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19. "Think not of yourself as the perceiver or as the perceived. Abandoning all thoughts, think of yourself as consisting of what remains.

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20. "Leave behind the seer, the seeing, and the seen, along with their impressions, *[119]* and worship only the self that shines before the act of sight.¹⁸

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¹⁸ The self is revealed prior to the mental act (*vṛtti*) that precedes and causes any perception. The perception of the Self, therefore, is not dependent on mental activity.

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21. "The state that resembles a stone, the state in which all thoughts have come to rest, the state which is beyond the states of waking and sleeping, is the highest and essential state.”

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1. “I am I, but also the other.
I am Brahman, I am the source.
I am the teacher of the whole world.
I am the whole world.
I am he!

2. “I am only I, I am perfect.
I am pure, I am supreme.
I am spotless and eternal.
I am I.
I am always he!

3. [*120*] “I am wisdom, I am special.
I am the moon, I am complete.¹⁹
I am splendid, I am without grief.
I am spirit.
I am the same!

4. “From honor and dishonor,
and from qualities I am free.
I am Śiva!
From oneness and duality
and from opposites I am free.
I am he!

5. “From coming into being and ceasing to be
and from light I am free.
I shine!
I am the power of the void and the non-void,
I am both ugly and beautiful.

6. “I am free from the equal and the unequal.
[*121*] I am pure and sempiternal.

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¹⁹ The meaning is that, like the full moon, he is complete with all the parts.

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I am the eternal Śiva!²⁰
I am free from the All and the Non-all.
I have the nature of goodness.²¹
I always am!

7. “I am free from the number one,
and I do not have the number two.
I am free from the distinction
of being and non-being.²²
I am without thoughts.

8. “I distinguish not between selves,
For I embody complete bliss.
I am not I, I am not another.
I have no body and the like.

9. “I have no refuge; I am no refuge.
I do not have a support.
[*122*] From bondage and from freedom I am free.
I am pure. I am Brahman.
I am he!

10. “I am without mind and all such things.
I am the highest, higher than highest.
I am ever reflective thought.
Yet I reflect not.
I am he!

11. “I am the letters ‘a,’ ‘u,’ and ‘m.’²³
I am eternal.
I am beyond the meditator, meditation,
and the object meditated on.
I am he!

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²⁰ *Sadā Śiva* is the ultimate form of Śiva in which there is no duality. The entire Upaniṣad teaches the unity between the enlightened renouncer and the ultimate Śiva.

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²¹ Goodness (*sattva*), according to the Sāṃkhya philosophy, is the best of the three qualities (*guṇa*) that constitute every material entity.

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²² It can also mean “free from the distinction between good and evil.”

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²³ The letters *a*, *u* (which combine to make the diphthong *o*), and *m* (in Sanskrit called *ma*) make up the mystic syllable OM, which is considered the audible manifestation of Brahman.

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12. “My nature is replete in all.
I am being, consciousness, and bliss.²⁴
I am the essence of all sacred bathing spots.²⁵
I am the Supreme Self.
I am Śiva!

13. “I am beyond the visible and the invisible.
[*123*] I am the essence that perishes not.
I am beyond the measurer, the measure,
and the measured.
I am Śiva!

14. “I am not the world. I witness all.
I have no organs such as eyes.
I am full grown and fully awakened.
I am serene.
I am Hara!²⁶

15. “I am without any organs,
Yet every action I perform.
I find joy in all the Vedāntas.
I am always easily attained.

16. “I am called ‘Pleased’ and ‘Displeased.’
I am the fruit of all holy vows.²⁷
I am pure spirit eternally.
[*124*] I am always being and consciousness.

17. “I possess nothing at all.
Yet of the least thing I am not short.
I am free from the knot of the heart.²⁸
I live in the lotus of the heart.

18. “I am free from the six changes.
I am without the six sheaths.

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²⁴ In Advaita Vedānta these three are regarded as the essential attributes of Brahman.

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²⁵ A liberated renouncer has no need to visit these holy places, for he contains their essence; cf. JU 59–60, nn. 2–4.

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²⁶ This is another name for Śiva.

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²⁷ Specifically the vows of silence observed by ascetics.

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²⁸ Knots are things, especially doubts, that bind the soul. Cf. MuṇU 2.2.8; KaṭhU 6.15.

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I am free from the six enemies.²⁹
I am nearer than the heart.

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²⁹ According to the *Varāha Upaniṣad* (1.8–11), the six changes are existence, birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death. The six sheaths are skin, blood, flesh, fat, marrow, and bones. The six enemies are desire, hatred, greed, delusion, pride, and envy.

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19. “I am free from space and time.
Mine is the joy of the unclad.³⁰
From the thought ‘I have not,’
and from the word ‘*not*’ I am free.³¹

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³⁰ A naked ascetic does not observe the regulations regarding time and place in such matters as eating, sleeping, bathing, and other rites and duties. The joy in being so free is a prefiguring of the ultimate bliss of liberation.

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³¹ People in the world worry about lacking this or that. Naked and not possessing anything, an ascetic is free from all such worries. The word “not” (or more accurately, “have not,” because Sanskrit does not have a word for “have”) does not exist in his vocabulary.

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20. *[125]* “I have the form of undivided space,
for I possess a unitary form.
My mind is free from all the world.
I am free from the whole world.

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21. “My form consists of total light.
The light of pure consciousness am I.
I am free from the triple time.³²
I am free from lust and the like.

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³² The three times are the past, the present, and the future.

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22. “I am free from body and soul.
I am without attributes.
I am alone!
I am beyond the freed.
From freedom I am always free.
I am free!

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23. “I am free from truth, untruth, and the like.
I am none other than Pure Being.
There is no place where I must go.
*[126]* From traveling and the like I am free.

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24. “I am eternally the same.
I am calm, I am the Person Supreme.

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The man who perceives himself thus,
Undoubtedly, I am he.

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He who hears this even once will himself become Brahman; that is the secret teaching.³³

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³³ The expression *iti upaniṣad* occurs at the end of this and of all the Upaniṣads that follow, as well as after each chapter of the NpU. I have uniformly translated it "That is the secret teaching." The expression may also simply mean "Thus ends the Upaniṣad." I have opted for the former because this expression is followed in the edition and the manuscripts by . . . *upaniṣat samāptā* ("Thus concludes the . . . Upaniṣad"), which would then duplicate the other expression. It also occurs at the end of each section in the NpU.

Cites (8)

Nāradaparivrājakopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Varāhopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Maitrāyaṇīyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Kaṭhopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Muṇḍakopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Jābālopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Āruṇeyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit