Page 48 - NAMAH-Apr-2018

Namah Vol. 26, Issue 1, 24th April 2018

Ācāra means action with awareness in all turbulence that clouds awareness —rāgaādiryessāmm.
circumstances. Only a mind focused on the Tamas eclipses awareness and rajas distorts
essence can act with awareness. The power of awareness. Rāga means to colour, rāga also
being focused on the essence is unimaginable. means attachment. When awareness is
Fortune will chase us and not vice versa. The distorted, we become attached to objects.
invocation in the beginning of Assttaanngahrrdayamm Therefore, in the Bhagavad Gītā, it is mentioned,
tells us how to be focused on the essence. Rajorāgātmakammviddhi. Rajas colours the
mind and creates attachment. This is the
The ideal physician is the one who has shown seed of all emotional turbulence and stress,
the way, the remedy to solve this problem: the Kāmaessakrodhaessarajogunnasamudbhavahh….
ultimate medicine for the ultimate cause of
all diseases. The physician par excellence, the The invocatory verse of the Assttaanngahrrdayamm
physician without a precedent, the physician thus points to the way to a complete and
without a second… the ideal physician is fulfilled life. Virāgata (detachment from
called as the apūrvavaidya. Such an epithet sense objects) or Vairāgya (state of absence of
has been ascribed to the ideal physician for raga, the attachment to sense objects) is the
no mean reason. The exemplary physician only way to live in the world without being
is extolled for his/her ability to eliminate affected. Without losing awareness and
forever or for demonstrating the way to initiating the cascade of stressful emotions.
eliminate forever the diseases beginning Vāgbhatta almost echoes ĀdiŚankara when
with rāga. The diseases beginning with rāga he says rāga is the basis for disease and
torment not only human beings, but all sorrow.
embodied beings. The situation is all the more
deplorable because the diseases beginning suramandiratarumūlanivāsahhśayyā
with rāga torment living beings constantly. bhūtalamajinamvāsahh,
In other words, there is no respite from this sarvaparigraha bhogat yāgahh kasyasuk
stress. Eventually, life breaks down under hamnakarotivirāgahh…. 1
this stress and the signs of impending death
are seen –autsukya (anxiety), moha (confusion) Vāgbhatta begins the Assttaanngahrrdayamm with
and arati (restlessness). the disclaimer. A warning: attachment to
objects can lead to serious illness and death.
To obtain that, by gaining which everything It’s very much like the warning issued when
else is gained, one has to focus on the essence. selling alcohol and tobacco. It is a statutory
To focus on the essence, one must have warning: smoking cigarettes is injurious to
unclouded awareness. When awareness health; drinking alcohol is injurious to health.
is clouded by emotional turbulence, then In spite of the warning, people smoke and
the focus moves away from the essence. Rāga drink. That is another thing altogether. In
is the beginning point of the emotional spite of the warning, the awareness of people

1 “Live in a temple or under a tree, wear the deer-skin for the dress and sleep with mother
earth as your bed. Renounce all your possessions and enjoyments. Blessed with such
dispassion, could any fail to be happy?”

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