Love or Leave Bhartuharis Dilemma

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

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asked the cause, he replied: 'It is the place where one performs meritorious actions, and it is designed for the dwelling of those who keep the moral precepts (şila). Now passion already predominates within me, and I am incapable of adhering to the excellent Law. Such a man as myself should not intrude into an assembly of priests come here from every quarter.' Then he returned to the position of a lay devotee (Upasaka), and wearing a white garment continued to exalt and promote
the true religion, being still in the monastery." 13. Noteworthy in this context are the verses appearing at the end
of the Vākyapadiya, the second book of the Trikāndi: Prajñā vivekan labhate bhinnair ägania-darsanaih/kivad vā sakyam unnetum svatarkan anudhāvatā // tal rad utprekşamānānāṁ purāņcir agamair vină / anupāsita-vrddhānām vidyā nātiprasidati // "One's intellect acquires discernment through the diverse views found in the inherited branches
knowledge. (After all) how much can one figure out if one follows (only) one's own reasoning ! The knowledge of those who conceive of this or that without (recourse to) the inherited branches of knowledge that have come down from antiquity and who do not sit neat the elders (to learn) does not gain much perspicuity."
The verses might have been composed by BH or by a student of his. In either case, the thoughts expressed in them are borne out by the Trikāndi and can be accepted as a statement of BH's philosophy
of life. 14. This statement should be confused with statements like the following
which are sometimes made in speaking of BH, the poet: (a) The Niti, Smgära and Vairāgya collections of stanzas reflect, in that order, the stages through which BH's own life passed. (b) Although BH speaks of worldly wisdom and amorous life, the message he really wishes to convey as something he learned from life is that of renunciation. Of course, (a) amounts to simplistic historiography. Kosambi's textcritical work precludes it, as well as (b). It was not BH himself who collected the stanzas known as Sataka-traya in the form of three groups. The Vairāgya-śataka constitutes the textually least stable group of stanzas. Furthermore, the stánzas cited in this essay will bear out thin the attraction to the sensuous infiltrates even many of the renunciation
anas 15. It should be noted that Kosambi 11948:Introducton pp.1.66,78-79) does not low these stanzas as definitely inauthentic. His textual investigation leads him to label these stanzas as samsavita, nol as praksipta