Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chandrashekhar Bharti Swami, P Sankaranarayan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidyabhavan

Page 85

VIVEKACŪDAMANI
37
"When the stock of punya (of those who have gone to the celestial worlds) decreases, they are born (on earth again) as mortals". "All those who go even to the Brahmaloka are bound to come down to be born again on earth."
Thus the seventeenth chapter of Yajñavaibhavakaṇḍa of the Suta Samhita.
The slokas in the Sarvavedantasiddhāntasarasangraha beginning with 'in the womb in the midst of his mother's urine and faeces' and ending with 'who will not get vairāgya thinking of those in heaven who, on the exhaustion of their punya, with their limbs shattered are made to fall down in the form of stars' and 'in which world there is disproportion of position', are all to be pondered over on the subject of vairagya. The idea is that revulsion in respect of all that is non-atman is easy if one contemplates the subjection of men and others to disease, the absolute dependence of animals etc. on others, disabilities like dumbness etc., the harassment of devas by the rākṣasas, the fact that sense objects like sound are productive of various kinds of evil as illustrated by the case of the stag etc. Śrī Bhagavatpāda makes this clear in a later śloka beginning with 'sabdādibhiḥ pañcabhireva'.
It may be objected: The eternality of the fruits of karma is inferred by seeing śrutis like 'āpāma somam amṛtā abhūma': "We drank the soma; we are immortal", and 'akṣayyam ha vai căturmāsyayajinassukṛtam bhavati' (Taitt. Sam.): "The effect of performing cāturmāsya-sacrifice is permanent". Yet, in accordance with the rule: yat kṛtakam tadanityam: "Whatever is effectuated by an action is impermanent" and śruti, yatheha karmacitaḥ....etc. 'as here what has been gained by karma.... etc.,' the words amṛta and akṣayya quoted by the objector are to be understood as referring only to an inevitably terminable duration, however long it may be. So these śrutis are not valid arguments against our position. (Even Hiranyagarbhaloka to which all creatures go is only inferior to Brahmanubhava, however eminent he may be otherwise. The immortality in Hiranyagarbha is only apeksika, i.e., it is relative immortality with reference to this world.)
221
By this sloka the nature of sama is explained. विरज्य विषयव्रातात् दोषदृष्ट्या मुहुर्मुहुः । स्वलक्ष्ये नियतावस्था मनसः शम उच्यते ॥ २२ ॥