"Sense objects: a trap (verses 76-82)"

 

Sense objects: a trap (verses 76-82)

 

76. The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish and the honey-bee---these five meet death because of their bondage to one of the five senses. What then is the condition of a person who is attached to all five?

 

77. Sense-objects are even more virulent in their tragic effects than a king cobra. Poison is fatal to one who swallows it, but the sense-objects kill him who merely looks at them. with his eyes.

 

78. One who is liberated from the terrible bonds of desires for sense-objects, so very difficult to renounce, is alone fit for liberation and none else, even if well-versed in all the six schools of philosophy.

 

79. Those who have only an apparent dispassion and are trying to cross the ocean of worldy existence are caught by their throats by the shark of desire which violently dragging them along, drowns them in the middle of the ocean.

 

80. He who slays the shark called ―sense-objects‖ with the sword of mature dispassion crosses the ocean of samsara unobstructed.

 

81. Know that mortality soon overtakes a foolish man who walks the dangerous path of sense-pleasures. Whereas one who walks the right path according to the instructions of well-meaning and noble Gurus, along with his own reasoning faculty—he achieves the end; know for certain this to be true.

 

82. If indeed you have a craving for liberation, avoid sense-objects from a distance as if they were poison; and with respectful reverence, daily cultivate the nectarine virtues of contentment, compassion, forgiveness, straightforwardness, calmness, and self-control.

 

Note: To those desirous of liberation, Sri Sankara in this verse first tells what needs to avoided, viz, attachment to sense gratification. He then enumerates moral virtues that need to be cultivated such as contentment, compassion, sincerity, self-control etc. Interestingly, almost same verse occurs at the very beginning of Ashtavakra Gita (1.2), albeit more directly, in which sage Ashtavakra enjoins king Janaka: "If you aspire after liberation, my child, shun the objects of the senses as poison and seek forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, contentment, and truth as nectar." This is the only verse in the entire Ashtavkra Gita that focuses on the do‘s and don‘ts of moral excellence. The rest of the book is devoted to describing the state of the realized ones.