Gita Rahasya -Tilak
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CHAPTER V
THE CONSIDERATION OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS
(SUKHA-DUHKHA-VIVEKA) This path has been advocated as an alternative path in the Brhadaranyaka[1]; and in the Jabala, Samnyasa and other Upanisads, it has been advocated as the principal path. This idea has also been adopted in the Astavakragiti [2] and in the Avadhutagita [3]. The ultimate doctrine of this school is that the man who desires to obtain the highest happiness or Release, must give up worldly life as early as possible, and follow the path of Renunciation (samnyasa); and the path of the Abandonment of the Actions which have been prescribed by the Srutis and the Smrtis ( srauta-smarta- karma-samnyasa), described in the Smrti treatises, and which was established in the Kali era by Sri Samkaracarya is based on this principle. If there is no such real thing as happiness, and, if whatever is, is unhappiness, and that too based on Thirst, then it is clear, that all the bother of self-interest or ether's-interest will be obviated and the fundamental equable frame of mind ( santi) will be the only thing to remain, when these diseases in the shape of Thirst etc. are in the first place entirely uprooted; and for this reason, it is stated in the pingalagita in the Santiparva of the Mahabharata, as also in the Mankigita, that .— yac ca kamsukham loke yac ca divyam mahat sukham I trsnaksayasukhasyaite narhatah sodasim kalam II [4] i. e., "that happiness which is experienced in this world, by the satisfaction of desires (kama), as also the greater happiness which is to be found in heaven, are neither worth even one- sixteenth of the happiness which results from the destruction of Thirst". The Jain and the Buddhistic religions have later on copied the Vedic path of Renunciation ; and therefore. in the religious treatises of both these religions, the evil effects and discardability of Thirst have been described as above, or possibly in even more forcible terms. (For example, see the Trsnavagga in the Dhammapada). In the treatises of the Buddhistic religion to be found in Tibet, it is even stated that the above-mentioned stanza from the Mahabharata was uttered by Gautama Buddha when he attained the Buddha-hood. |
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