Pranam Bhartruhari’s Niti Shatakam
So, to put in simple language, Vēdic do’s + Vēdic don’ts = Dharma. They are not mere do’s and don’ts. If the local Government presents do’s and don’ts, they are not Dharma. If some medical fraternity presents some do’s and don’ts, it is not Dharma. It is because they will say Alcohol is good for heart if taken in small amounts. Therefore, the medical science gives its own do’s and don’ts. They are not called Dharma. The condition is that they should be Vēdic or to be more comprehensive, scriptural do’s and don’ts. What is the difference between Vēdic and Scriptural? Vēdic includes only those things that Vēda prescribes. When I use the word scriptural, it includes Vēda based secondary scriptures also like Purāna, Itihāsa Smruti Grandhās, etc. They all come under scriptures. Therefore, do’s and don’ts prescribed in the Purānās are also Dharma. It is about this Dharma, that Bhartruhari is going to deal. Now these Dharmās are, broadly speaking, in three different forms. The Dharama is available in three different forms. One form of Dharma is in the form of rituals and rites. All rituals and rites will come under Dharma - Agnihōtram, Sandhyāvandanam, Shrāddham, Tarpanam, Grahana Tarpanam all come under Dharma because it is prescribed by the scriptures. When a child is born, they do Jātakarma, Nāmakarana, Choula, Annaprāsana, Upanayana, Vivāha and in the end Antyēshti. All these Samskārās come under Dharma. Not only that, they talk about certain Ashoucha rules also. When a child is born, he is prohibited from doing certain things for a number of days. When somebody dies, he is not supposed to do certain things. All those Ashoucha Niyamās also will come under Dharma. It is a voluminous subject. Volumes of volumes are written on this. Therefore, rituals and rites together form one aspect of Dharma. Then, the second form or aspect of Dharma is Values. Values such as Ahimsa, Satyam, Daya, Maitri, and Dānam are to be followed. Then, the things to be avoided in the form of Kāma, Krōdha, Lōbha, Mōha, Mada, Mātsarya also come under Dharma. This is the second part of Dharma. Then, the third part of Dharma is attitudes that we should cultivate. What type of attitude we should have towards various things and beings. How should we look at our parents? Mātru Dēvō Bhava, Pitru Dēvō Bhava - that is an attitude. Āchārya Dēvō Bhava - that is an attitude.The attitude towards all animals should be - sarva bhūta hitērathāha. All animals should be seen with an attitude of respect. Above all, the most important is attitude towards the world or nature in general, as the very Vishwarūpam, the Virāt of Ēshwara which is the most unique aspect of the Vaidika Dharma. parvatānām himalayaha. This is not an ordinary H2O flowing by mistake, but it is the most scared water. People come from Southern end just to take a dip. In Kashi, scientifically they say that it is the dirtiest water in the world. In fact, we can see dead bodies and carcasses floating. And over those, crows will be sitting and pecking. In spite of all of that, they will go on Grahanam day and take a dip. So, this is the attitude towards Ganga, because of which the Āchāryās can write many verses on simple H2O. It is not an attitude casually developed. It has been coming in Indian tradition from ages. This attitude towards the people and attitude towards the world is another aspect of Dharma. Thus, Rituals + Values + Attitudes = Dharma. If you look into traditional Dharma Shāstra books, one problem that we find is that in all those Dharma Shāstra works, the ritual part will be elaborately dealt with and Values and attitudes are mentioned here and there. You read Manu Smruti or any Smruti Grandha, the emphasis is laid on the rituals and rites aspects. Unfortunately, the value for rituals varies from society to society. If we take present society, the interest in rituals is almost gone. How many people regularly do Agnihōtram? How many Brahmanās do Sandhyāvandanam? How many Brahmanās have got the scared thread on the body? A few people keep because it is handy for keeping the keys or if you want to scratch the back, ideal tool is the sacred thread. Very few people value Sandhyāvandanam, Brahma Yagnyam, and Agnihōtram, etc. Shrāddha is disappearing and even the priests have become a endangered species. Therefore, the ritualistic aspect of Dharma often loses its importance as time changes. Even if we ask the people to start Agnihōtram, people don’t listen. Shankarāchāryās and Shankarāchāryās have tried and they could not change the society. On the other hand, society has changed Shankarāchāryās as they themselves feel that some kind of adjustment has to be made. The second problem with ritualistic aspect of Dharma Shāstra is that it cannot be universal because it is based on Varna and Āshrama. From Varna to Varna, the ritualistic rules differ. Even the material out of which the scared thread should be made varies from Varna to Varna. The material of the Danda which the Brahmachāris carry varies. Therefore, when you come to rituals, you cannot talk about universal rituals because it varies from Varna to Varna. In one Varna itself, it varies from Āshrama to Āshrama. That is why the ritualistic aspect of Dharma often becomes out of date or we have to present it in a capsule form. I am not saying that they are irrelevant, meaningless or they should be given up. Kindly don’t mistake me. I am not condemning the rituals or condemning their validity, but what I say is that as the time changes, the society’s attitudes towards the rituals is changed. Whereas the beauty of other two aspects, the Value aspect of Dharma Shāstra and the Attitude aspect of Dharma Shāstra are relevant and useful at all times. In which century is the value Satyam Vada valid? So, the values and attitudes are meaningful, valid, useful and compulsory at all times because most of the values are based on one fundamental principle or fundamental law of Dharma. What is a Value? We can easily find out if we apply this one law. What is that law? What you do not want others to do to you, do not do that to others. I don’t want anybody to hurt me. Then, I have got a value. What is that Value? I should not hurt anyone. I don’t want anyone to cheat me. I have got a second value. I should not cheat anyone. I don’t want anybody to lie to me. I have got a third value. I should not lie. I don’t want anybody to insult me. I should not insult any one. In a beautiful Slōka, it is presented – श्रमू तां धभत वलस्त लं श्रत्ुला िाप्मलधामतत ाभ ्। आत्भन् प्रचतकूराचन ऩयेऴां न वभाियेत्॥- लेदव्माव śrūyatāṁ dharma sarvasvaṁ śrutvā cāpyavadhāryatām | ātmanaḥ pratikūlāni parēṣāṁ na samācarēt ||- vēdavyāsa This is an exact translation of that English saying. ātmanah pratikūlāni- what I considered pratikūlam to me, unfavorable to me, uncomfortable to me, they are uncomfortable to others. Therefore, don’t do that. Some of these are universal. When I say a person doesn’t want to get hurt, to which Varna does it pertain to? A Brāhmana or a Kshatriya or a Vaishya or a Shūdra or a Brahmachāri or a Grihastha or a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or an Indian or any national doesn’t want to get hurt. Therefore, this is based on universal likes and dislikes. There are certain likes and dislikes which are universal. There are certain likes and dislikes which are individualistic. Somebody likes Hindustani Music, but somebody doesn’t like. But hurt to the body, Himsa to the body is not a particular person’s or community's or Nation’s like or dislike. It is universal. Therefore, values based on universal likes and dislikes are universal values. Most of the Dharmās are universal values called Sāmānya Dharmāha. Ahimsa, Satyam, Brahmacharyam, Astēyam, Aparigraham, Amānitvam, Adambhitvam, Ahimsa, Kshāntihi, Ārjavam, Āchāryōpāsanam are some of the Sāmānya Dharmās. Of course, there are some Vishēsha Dharmās also which will vary from Varna to Varna, Āshrama to Āshrama, etc. Similarly, most of the attitudes are also universal. I want everybody to respect me even though, I don’t deserve. Everybody knows and I also know. But still, I want to be respected. The glory of the Nīti Shatakam is that it is talking about the second and third aspects of Dharma. It is not concentrating on the first aspect of Dharma. It is dealing with second and third aspect of Dharma namely, values and attitudes, most of which are universal. They don’t deal much with the ritualistic part of Dharma. Therefore, this work has become a very famous. In any school or college, if there is Sanskrit as subject, Nīti Shatakam will appear in one place or the other. Thus, this Nīti Shatakam is very famous with many quotable quotes. I don’t propose to take all the verses occurring here as many of them are repetitive. Therefore, I have selected some 50-60 verses from this text and divided them into five topics. The first topic is SāmānyaNītihi, certain general do’s and don’ts useful to all. General values, general rules of conducts are called Sāmānya Nītihi or Sāmānya Dharmaha. The second topic that I have chosen is Sajjanaha. What are the signs of a noble person? What are the traits of the noble people, so that we can know whether we belong to one of them at least, by mistake? Then, the third topic I have chosen is Mūdha Janaha. The fourth one is Vidhihi, fate or destiny or God’s will. Bhartruhari very strongly writes about Vidhi. If we read those verses, we will almost become fatalistic. We may even get converted and begin to argue that there is no free-will at all. They are such powerful verses. Then, he writes on Purushārtha, the importance of free-will. Which means that he accepts free-will, self-effort, self determination. He does emphasize them. Thus, SāmānyaNītihi, Sajjanaha, Mūdha Janaha, Vidhihi and Purushārtha are the five topics that I have chosen and I have culled verses from all over. Therefore, there will be no serial order because the verses are mixed up here. We will see the topics one by one. We will take as many verses as possible and there afterwards, continue it in some later camp. Before going to these verses, as per tradition, Bhartruhari writes a beautiful Mangala Slōkawhich reveals his Vēdāntic knowledge. He is not a mere literally poet, but he is well versed in Swami Paramarthananda’s Lectures on Bhartruhari’s Niti Shatakam ददक्काराद्यनलच्छिन्नानन्तचिन्भात्रभूततमे। स्लानुबूत्मेकनाभाम नभ् ळान्ताम तेजवे ॥ १ ॥ dikkālādyanavacchinnānantacinmātramūrtayē | svānubhūtyēkanāmāya namaḥ śāntāya tējasē || 1 || Here, Bhartruhari offers his Pranams to Paramātma - paramātmanē namaha. The first line is one single word. It is a long word. What type of Paramātma? chinmātra mūrtihi. Mūrtihimeans Swarūpam. chinmātra mūrtihi means chinmātraswarūpāya, the one who is of the nature of pure awareness, pure consciousness. Mātra means pure. Chit means Chaitanyam. Chinmātra means pure consciousness. He cannot write this unless he is well versed in the Upanishad - Satyam Gnyānam Anantam Brahma. What type of chinmātra mūrti? Ananta Chinmātra Mūrtihi. It is the nature of pure consciousness which is limitless. Anta means limit and Ananta means limitless. Why is it limitless? - Because it is anavat chinnaha. It is not conditioned, circumscribed by anything. Avachinnam means conditioned, walled, and fenced. So, it is not fenced by, delimited by, conditioned by anything. Normally, the conditioning or limiting is done by three factors. Anything can be conditioned by or limited by three factors called Dēsha, Kāla, Vastu. Dēsha is spatial conditioning like the walls of the hall. It limits the hall spatially. That is called Dēsha Avacchēdaha and the hall is Dēsha Avacchinnaha. Similarly, it is conditioned by time because a few years before, it was not there. It has a beginning and it will have an end also. That means it is conditioned by time. Therefore, this hall is called KālaAvacchinna. The third one is Vastu. Vastu means property. Hall is limited by hall-ness. Therefore, it is not a tree, it is not a man, and it is not a woman. It is only a hall and hall alone. Therefore, it is called limitation by hall-ness. Man is limited by man-ness and woman is limited by woman-ness. So, it is called ‘ness’ limitation. Our consciousness is not limited by all these three. The details we will see tomorrow because our class is limited by time. ॐ ऩूणतभद् ऩूणतचभदं ऩूणातत्ऩूणतभुदछमते ऩूणतस्म ऩूणतभादाम ऩूणतभेलालचळष्मते॥ ॐ ळाच्न्त् ळाच्न्त् ळाच्न्त् ॥ om̐ pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṃ pūrṇātpūrṇamudacyate pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate || om̐ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ || KR IRS 29522 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZop6sA0nqCc%2BtFht8W4S8PyRLow6uaBeJvmhNQy%3DPwYr9A%40mail.gmail.com.
