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Sankara thus reminds the students that the body is not meant merely for gross activities and indulgence in sensuous enjoyments, but it is meant for rightly experiencing the imperfections of the world and striving hard for our selfredemption. Having gained this wondrous instrument, if one is not making use of it on proper lines, he is, in effect, committing suicide.
The entire meaning of this stanza pivots round the crucial word Parārtham, in the third line. This word, in Sanskrit, can be milked to yield two different and distinct meanings of which the nobler and more spiritual has already been indicated. Out of the same word, we can coax out another meaning; "an object that is meant for the others to enjoy" is also Parārtham. In this sense, we get, in that single term, a beautiful summary of the biography of the body.
Born in the womb, the body grew, nourished by the mother's assimilated food; the body born in the world was fed by the milk of the mother and it grew to childhood. Till death it is being fed, from within and without, with various nutritive diets, and oil massages. But after death, the very same body, so laboriously tended, so carefully nourished, so lovingly fattened, becomes a substantial lunch and dinner for the worms of the earth for a fews days, if it was lucky to be buried deep ! Else, it becomes food for the wolves or dogs, for the vultures and crows!! This is a timely reminder for the discriminative spiritual students to realise the futility of fattening their bodies or living a life dedicated to the health and adjustment of this disgusting bundle.
शरीरपोषणार्थी सन् य आत्मानं दिदृक्षते । ग्राहं दारुधिया धृत्वा नदी तर्तुं स गच्छति ॥८४॥ śärirapoșaņārthi san ya ātmānam didrkșati
grāham dārudhiya dhrtvā nadim tartum sa gachati 84.
यः - whoever, शरीरपोषणार्थी सन् - being desirous of fattening the body, आत्मानम् - the self, दिदक्षति - desises to realise, सः • he, ग्राहम • of a crocodile, दारुधिया - taking it for a log, धृत्वा - holding on to it, नदीम् - river, तार्तुम् - to cross over, गच्छति • proceeds.
