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Chapter 2
- Even a little equanimity protects one from the great danger of birth and death viz., it results in salvation. As actions done with an interested motive perish after bearing fruit, in that way even a little equanimity does not perish after bearing fruit but it only leads to salvation. If virtuous actions such as religious sacrifice, charity and penance etc., are performed with a desire for fruit, their result is perishable (gain of money, wealth and heaven etc.,) and if they are performed without the desire for fruit, their result is imperishable (salvation). Thus virtuous actions such as sacrifice, charity and penance etc., can bear two types of fruit but the fruit of equanimity is only salvation. As a traveller, while travelling stops on the way or sleeps, he has not to go hack to the place from where he started his journey but he has covered the distance upto the place where he stops or sleeps. Similarly as much equanimity is attained in life, that never perishes.
svalpamapyasya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayut:-Even a little feeling of disinterest is true while fear even being great is untrue. As for a bundle of cotton, a lot of fire is not required, the cotton may be one bundle or a hundred bundles, a match stick is enough to burn it. When one match stick is applied to the cotton, the cotton itself becomes fire and helps in burning the remaining cotton. In the some way detachment is fire and the world is cotton. Being detached from the world, the world itself perishes because the world in fact has no existence at the root, so one can't be attached to it.
The least renunciation is real and the biggest action is unreal. An action ends while renunciation is endless. Therefore actions such as sacrifice, charity and penance etc., perish after giving fruit (Gita 8/28) but renunciation (renunciation of the fruit of action) never perishes—`tyagscchantiranantaram' (Gita 12112). By renouncing the egoistic notion only, infinite universes are renounced because this sense of ego has sustained the entire universe (Gila 7/5).
There may be a big heap of grass, can it face fire? It may be very dark, can it face light? If there is a fight between darkness and light, will darkness win? Similarly if there is a fight between ignorance and knowledge, will ignorance win? Can the greatest fear face fearlessness? Equanimity even if it is a little is complete and fear even if great is incomplete. A little equanimity is great because it is true and the great fear is little (without existence) because it is untrue.
What is the import of calling equanimity or the feeling of disinterestedness `a little.' The feeling of disinterestedness is great, but we understand and experience it a little, so it has been called a little. In fact our understanding is a little, equanimity is not a little. Our view has not grasped it fully, so there is defect in our view, not in equanimity. Similarly we have valued the unreal more, it does not mean that the unreal is great but value accorded by us is great. Therefore if we value the real more, the real will become great viz., its value will be realized and if we don't value the unreal, the unreal will become a little. In fact the unreal may be great or a little: it has no existence `nasato vidyate bhavah' and the real may be great or a little, its existence is ever present—`na bhavo vidyate satah'. Therefore in Upanisads the Supreme Soul has been called smaller than a molecule and the biggest of all—`anoraniyan mahato mahiyan' (Katha. 1/2/20, Svetaivatara 3/20).
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