CHAPTER VIII
1. Thou art declared to be Omnipresent A. pilgrimage towards
thee means the negation of thy Omnipresence. Thou art declared to be beyond
thought. Any contemplation of thee implies that thou art not so. Thou art
declared to be beyond speech. Any chanting of praises to thee signifies that
thou art accessible to speech.
2. One whose mind is unobessed by passions, who has subdued
sensual activities, who is gentle, pure and poor, who lives on short-meals and
is desireless, tranquil, and steady, and who has sought only my shelter, is a
sage (Muni).
3. One who has subdued all sensual activities who is
enlightened, sober-minded, courageous, un- ostentatious, capable, courteous,
compassionate and friendly, is a seer.
4. He is kind-hearted, forbearing, truthful, free-souled,
hostile to none, doing good to all and regarding all alike.
5. The characteristics of the ascetic (Avadhuta) deserve to
be known by the devotees, by the followers of the castes, by the knowers of the
secrets of the Vedas and the castes and by the expounders of the Vedas and the
Vedant.
6. The letter "a" in the word Avadhuta imports
that he is free from the net of hope, that he is free from the beginning, the
middle and the end, and that he is perpetually abiding in happiness.
7. The letter "v" in Avadhuta imports that he is
bereft of all desires, that his speech is devoid of all evil and that he abides
in all existing things.
8. The letter "dhu" in Avadhuta imports that his
body is covered with dust, and that his mind has been purged of all evil
thoughts and that he is free from all diseases and that he is above mental
concentration and meditations.
9- The letter "ta" in Avadhtita signifies that he
is obessed with the contemplation of the Reality, that he is free from all
activities causing anxieties and that he is bereft of darkness (ignorance)
and egoism.
10. The vicious man who is described as a despicable crow,
ignores the undying, and unperishing Atm& (spirit) which is bereft of all
differences and is Freedom (itself), and goes towards the hell.
(Slokas 11—25 condemn sexual pleasures. Their literal
translation is omitted here on the ground of decency.)
26- It is a great sin to drink wine. The indulgence in
sensual pleasures is equally so. The sage who has therefore abandoned both,
becomes « established in the truth.
27. The material body suffers when the mind is beset with anxieties.
When the mind is diseased the constituents of the body suffer. The mind
deserves, therefore, to be preserved in every way. It is only in a healthy mind
that all faculties thrive.
28. This book has been written by the blissful Ascetic
Dattatreya. Those who read or hear it. become immune from future births.