LESSONS FROM THE WORLD

Swamini Shraddhanand  Saraswati

      The king next talks of the avadhuta's merits by which he was capable of accomplishing several laurels in life. First and formost he was physically in a fit condition. He was also learned and skillful. He was blessed with a very attractive and majestic personality and above all a sweet tongue and great communication skills. The king expresses his surprise that inspite of possessing such rare qualities this young sanyaasi was not encashing any of them to achieve things in life. The avadhuta did not seem to desire anything at all and this is impossible without an extreme sense of fulfillment. From the worldly angle it would seem that the person is dull and unintelligent because one is considered to be successful only when one commercially taps one's abilities. In the world people are seen to be happy only because of some external factors like wealth, children or possessions. Here was a person who was happy for no reason and such a reasonless enjoyment is attributed to either children or mad people. Since gyanis enjoy such reasonless happiness they are often compared to mad people. Another comparison for gyani is the semblance with ghosts and spirits who appear anywhere at anytime without pre-set plan. A parivraajaka avdhuta also appears and disappears without any prior plan or without any agenda.

                                    Next the king uses a very apt analogy to differentiate the avadhutas who are unlike the common, worldly people. Just as the forest fire spreads violently and uncontrollably so also the common people also are burnt by the intense fire of ever growing desires and greed. Desire are never satisfied by fulfillment but are only fanned by by their fulfillment and assume the ugly form of greed burning the minds of people and so people are seen running helter - skelter desperate to put out the forest fire of desires. The avadhuta is however free from these inner forest fire of desires and is therefore cool, calm and peaceful. Just as an elephant standing in the cool waters of the Ganga is saved from the harsh heat of Sun, so also the avadhuta is cool and satisfied by the rejuvenating waters of wisdom.

( The next part will be continued for the next post.)