ANUGITA
CHAPTER IV
Page1
He who becoming placid 1, and thinking of nought, may become absorbed in the one receptacle 2, abandoning each previous (element), he will cross beyond (all) bonds. A man who is a friend of all, who endures all, who is devoted to tranquillity 3, who has subdued his senses, and from whom fear and wrath have departed, and who is self-possessed 4, is released. He who moves among all beings as if they were like himself 5, who is self-controlled, pure, free from vanity 6 and egoism, he is, indeed, released from everything. And he, too, is released who is equable towards both life and death 7, and likewise pleasure and pain, and gain and loss, and (what is) agreeable and odious 8. He who is not attached to any one, who contemns no one, who is free from the pairs of opposites, and whose self is free from affections 9, he is, indeed, released in every way. He who has no enemy, who has no kinsmen, who has no child, who has abandoned piety, wealth, and lust altogether, and who has no desire, is released. He who is not pious and not impious 10, who casts off (the merit or sin) previously accumulated, whose self is tranquillised by the exhaustion of the primary elements of the body 11, and who is free from the pairs of opposites, is released.
Footnotes :
1. We now begin, as Nilakantha points out, the answer to the question put above by Kasyapa about the emancipation of the self. Placid, Arguna Misra renders to mean 'silent, taciturn.' supra.
2. The path of knowledge, says Arguna Misra; the Brahman, says Nilakantha. Abandoning each element = absorbing the gross into the subtle elements, and so forth, Nilakantha,; abandoning each elementary mode of worship till one reaches that of contemplating the absolute Brahman, Arguna Misra.
3. This, in the terminology of the Vedanta, means keeping the mind from everything save 'hearing' &c. about the Brahman.
4. One who has his mind under his control. But see Gita.
5. Cf. Gita.
6. I. e. the desire to be honoured or respected, Arguna Misra. Cf. Sanatsugatiya.
7. Who does not care when death comes.
8. Cf. supra.
9. Cf. Gita for all this, pp. 101, 103, 125, &c.
10. Cf. Katha.
11. Nilakantha says this means the constituents of the body. Arguna Misra says, 'Prana or life-wind,' &c. They are seven. See gloss on Khandogya-upanishad, infra.
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