Upanishads

PARAMAHAMSA UPANISHAD

Shuklayadurveda

The Path of the Mendicant Monk Paramahamsa.

One day the sage Narada, [respectfully] approaching the Lord (Narayana), asked Him: "What is the path of the Paramahamsa yogis? What is their life (life path)?" The Lord replied to him, "The path of Paramahamsa is rare in this world and not many [follow it]. If there is even one person here who becomes it, he is truly pure, he is the Purusha [glorified] in the Veda (Vedapurusha) – so the wise say. He is [truly] a great person whose mind always abides only in Me. Therefore I am also faithful to him. Retiring away from his children, friends, wife, relatives and others, giving up the bun, the sacred thread, the study of the scriptures and all worldly affairs and [thus] renouncing the world, he may have only a loincloth, a bamboo staff and a cloak, taking care of the maintenance of his body in a minimal way, and renders service to the world. But these things are not so important. What is important is the main thing [namely, that he renounces the world].

The Life of the Mendicant Paramahamsa.

[Following the initial stage], the Paramahamsa moves without a bamboo pole, a topknot (Vaishnava), a sacred thread, or a cloak; he thinks nothing of cold or heat, happiness or suffering, honor or dishonor. Free from the six human defects [hunger, thirst, etc.] and having renounced judgment [of anyone], pride, intolerance, religious hypocrisy, arrogance, desires, hatred, pleasure, grief (regret), passion, anger, greed, delusion, schadenfreude, envy, egoism (narcissism), etc., he regards his body as if it were a corpse (dead). Since the body is the cause of doubts and false knowledge [of reality], he refrains from [attachment to it]; knowledge of the eternal (primordial) (Brahman) is [nothing but] abiding in the natural (primordial) state as the Self [uncontaminated by bodily self-identification] and the conviction that he is truly the bliss of Consciousness non-different from the Self and which is calm (peaceful) and indestructible (immortal); this is the supreme existence, this is the bundle, this is also the sacred thread. By realizing the identity of the transcendental Self and the [individual] soul, the differences [seen in the state of ignorance] are destroyed. This is service during the time of transition (sandhya) [and not libation of water sanctified by mantras].

Having abandoned [worldly] desires, he realizes himself in the non-dual transcendental state. He who possesses the staff of true knowledge is said to be the only one possessing a single staff [among ascetics] (ekadandin). He who carries only a wooden staff, eats all kinds of food, and is devoid of true knowledge, endurance, wisdom, equanimity, tranquility, and other virtues, and who lives alone, begging for alms, is a sinner and a stain on the life of [true] ascetics. He who [only] carries a wooden staff, eats all kinds of food, and is deprived of true knowledge, endurance, wisdom, equanimity, tranquility, and other virtues, and who lives alone, begging for alms, is destined for the terrible hell called Maharaurava.

Knowing this difference [between a false and a true ascetic], the Paramahamsa, clothed in the sky (i.e. naked), does not prostrate himself before anyone, does not utter "svaha" (tribute to the ancestors) [since he does not serve the gods], unaffected by praise or blame and content with things as they are. Such an ascetic does not invoke the gods and does not part from them, he has no mantras, no meditation [on the gods] and no service [to them]. He has neither goal nor lack of goal, neither [the perception of] separateness [of objects separate from the Self], nor the opposite [of this]. He has no [permanent] abode, [but] has a steady mind. Such a mendicant monk should never accept [as a gift] gold, he should not have an organization of disciples, and he should not accept wealth. If it is asked whether any harm will come from accepting all this, the answer is: Yes, it will. For if a mendicant monk looks at gold with lust, he makes himself a killer of Brahman (a great sinner). If a mendicant monk touches gold with a strong desire [to acquire it], he degenerates into a chandala (paulkasa, an outcast). If a mendicant monk takes gold with a strong desire [to acquire it], he becomes a killer of the Atman (soul). For this reason, a mendicant monk should never look at gold with lust, touch gold with lust, or take gold with lust. Then all the desires lurking in his mind disappear, and [therefore] he is beyond sorrow and does not crave happiness; he develops detachment from sensual pleasures. He is neither attached to good nor to bad, neither to hatred [of the unpleasant], nor to inclination [to the pleasant]. The outward focus of all the senses diminishes in one who constantly abides in the Atman alone (his higher Self). Thus, conscious only of the fullness of bliss, he realizes himself with the conviction "I am the one Brahman." Truly, thus he realizes himself (attains the end of his desires).

Such is the Upanishad.