AVADHUTA GITA

Contents

·        Introduction

·        The Story of Dattatreya

·         The teachings of Avadhuta Gita

·        Conclusion

Introduction

Avadhuta Gita is the song of the Avadhuta. The Avadhuta referred to here is Dattatreya and the Gita represents Advaitha Vedanta or Non Duality. In the Nath Sampradaya Dattatreya is considered as an avatar of Lord Shiva. He is considered as Trimurti, a combination of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in Hindu mythology. He is the Adi Guru or the first spiritual teacher who bestows divine knowledge to his disciples. The Avadhuta Gita is said to be sung by Dattatreya to Lord Subramanya or Kartikeya.

The Story of Dattatreya

Some sources claim that Dattatreya was born near Amarnath in the Kashmir jungles. As a youth he began roaming in search of the Divine and attained realisation. The song describing this is said to be the Avadhuta Gita which was recorded by two of his disciples Kartika and Swami. His path is said to embrace all traditions and he is said to have incarnated to preach the principles of truth and universality of religions. He is considered to be the Eternal Supreme Saviour of all mankind and any seeker of Truth irrespective of caste, creed and sect could follow the doctrines that he preached. There are many Datta peethas and all of them worship God as Divine Mother, the Supreme Energy Shakti. He is considered as the Avadhuta or Supreme Philosopher. He is said to be ever existent giving advice and succour to his devotees at all times guiding them in worldly and spiritual affairs. From Vedic times till date he is said to have sixteen avatars which according to the Gurucharitra in Marathi has Dattatreya as the fifth avatar. It is said that the Attributeless, Nirguna, formless Parabrahman manifested itself as Dattatreya to guide and enlighten people. Figuratively he is depicted as having three heads. He exists as pure consciousness and is also said to depict the divinity in all beings. He is thus also said to be a Divine and Eternal principle which is existing from the beginning of time until eternity, the Teacher Principle, the Friend who will guide mankind onto the right path back to the source from where they have come. He is a synthesis of the three Gods representing Creation, Preservation and Destruction. He is said to be the Friend of Friends, the Master of Masters, the Embodiment of Knowledge dispelling ignorance and granting freedom from illusion.

In the Nath Sampradaya he is considered the Adi Guru and the Guru of Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath. In the Srimad Bhagavat Puran he is considered as one of the 21 Avatars of Lord Vishnu. In Kali Yuga he is said to be the wandering ascetic uplifting mankind and always living, deathless Guru.

Teachings of the Avadhuta Gita

The Avadhuta Gita is a book of eight chapters with 288 verses by Lord Dattatreya on non dualism and the principles of Advaita Vedanta along with themes which are common to Buddhist and Shaivite tantras and Vaishnava Agamas and principles of yoga.

The Chapters emphasise on Ishwara, svabhava, renunciation, yoga principles, bhakti and Vedanta. One’s own self is one’s chief Guru. Everything in the universe including the five elements teaches important principles and virtues. The world is an illusion and through knowledge, devotion and grace of the Guru one can pierce through the veil of ignorance and attain the Ultimate reality which is Pure Unsullied Bliss.

Dattatreya mentioned the 24 gurus that he learnt his lessons from-

1. Earth- The qualities of patience and always doing good like the Earth which inspite of being exploited and ravaged only does good in return by giving rise to new crops, giving metals, minerals etc.

2. Water-The quality of purity. Just like pure water is healthy and cleanses everyone a saint who is pure and free from all the enemies of anger, greed, lust, pride, jealousy and egoism purifies everyone who comes in his wake.

3. Air- The quality of non attachment. To move around like air everywhere but to never get attached to any of them.

4. Fire- The quality of luminescence. To shine brightly with the fire of knowledge and power of meditation.

5. Sky- The quality of all pervasiveness. Just like the stars, sun, moon etc are all contained in the sky but is not affected by it nor comes into contact with any of them so too realise that the Atma or the soul is all pervading.

6. Moon-The quality of perfection. Just as the moon is by itself perfect inspite of appearing to increase or decrease the Atma is always unchanging and perfect and it is only illusion which appears to give the impression of change.

7. Sun-Quality of changelessness. Different pots reflect the sunlight in different ways depending on their nature and material similarly Brahman appears different depending on the conditions reflected by each individual.

8. Pigeon- The quality of unattachment. Once Sage Dattatreya saw a hunter capturing many baby pigeons in the net. The mother pigeon was attached to the young ones and was heartbroken and did not want to live so she allowed herself to be caught. The father pigeon was attached to the mother pigeon so he too fell into the net and was caught. Thus Dattatreya  realised that attachment was the cause of bondage.

9. Python- The quality of contentment. The python always lies in one place and does not move about for its food. So one should cultivate contentment and be unmindful of the food one gets.

10. Ocean-The quality of changelessness. Just as the ocean is unaffected even if thousands of rivers fall into it similarly the wise man should be unaffected by desires, temptations and troubles.

11. Moth-The quality of one pointedness on the Self. Just as the moth is attracted to the brilliance of the light and falls into it and is burnt up similarly passion and attraction leads to ruin so the sight must be fixed only on the goal which is the Self or Brahman.

12. Black Bee-The quality of not being burdensome on others. Like the bee which flits from flower to flower sucking nectar, the Guru goes from house to house seeking bhiksha or food, taking little from each house without being a burden to anyone.

13. Honey Gatherer-The futile quality of hoarding things. Just like how the honeygatherer takes away all the honey which has been carefully stored by bees for a long period of time, people hoard money carefully only to have it all snatched away at the time of death.

14. Elephant-Destruction due to lust. The male elephant is said to be attracted by an image of the female elephant and falls into a pit covered with grass and is captured and tortured. This teaches humans to eschew passion and lust.

15. Deer-To be unattracted by sensuousness. Just as the deer is lured and captured with music by the hunter so too man is lured by passionate and lewd music which should be avoided.

16.Fish-The greed for food should be destroyed. Just as the bait with food traps fish similarly the greed for food destroys us hence we should never be greedy.

17. Pingala the dancing girl-The quality of contentment. Once there was a dancing girl named Pingala who one night was very disappointed that she could not get customers of noble descent. Suddenly it struck her that she was wasting her life instead of aspiring for the divine lover and that night gave up her desire and got sound sleep. Thus the abandonment of desire led to contentment.

18. Raven-Abandonment of sensual pleasures. Once a raven had a piece of flesh in its beak and was mercilessly followed and poked at by other birds. The moment he dropped the flesh he attained peace and rest. Thus abandonment of sensual pleasures leads to peace and harmony.

19. Child- The quality of cheerfulness. The child who sucks milks wants nothing else and is free from other anxieties and worries and is always cheerful.

20. Maiden-The necessity of solitude for an ascetic. Once a maiden was husking the grain when a party of guests came to her house. She realised that her bangles were making noise against each other and her guests would detect the work she was doing so she broke all her bangles except one. Thus one could avoid discord and strife if one were alone.

21. Serpent-The quality of non ownership. The snake never makes a home of its own but always dwells in the holes of others. Even so an ascetic should possess nothing and accept what is offered by others to avoid possessiveness.

22. Arrow maker-The quality of one pointedness and concentration of mind. An arrowmaker was sharpening his arrows and did not even notice when a king and his entire retinue passed his hut.

23. Spider- To avoid entanglement in life. Just as the spider spins its own web and eventually gets entangled in it so too does man spin his web of desires and eventually gets entangled in it. He should avoid all entanglements and fix his mind on Brahman alone.

24. Beetle-The quality of constant contemplation of the divine. It is said that when a beetle stings a worm, the worm constantly thinks of the beetle and its sting and gradually becomes a beetle itself. So man should constantly contemplate on the Divine and he will attain moksha or liberation, as ’What one thinks, so one becomes’- Yad bhavam thad bhavathi.

Conclusion

Thus the term Avadhuta refers to one who is free from bondage, cast off all fetters and has returned back to the Cosmic source. The individual entity now becomes a Universal Spirit or rather the Universal spirit moves through the vehicle of a human incarnation. The avadhuta is a mystic free from ego consciousness, who has risen above duality, ego and body consciousness and helps mankind in his quest for freedom.