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BHARTRAHARI

Bhartrahari - Peter Malakoff
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Bhartrahari is known as one of the greatest Sanskrit poets of all time. Born in fifth-century India, he was a king who loved women and reveled in his appreciation of their form, and delighted in amorous play with them. Along with his well-developed eye for erotic and physical beauty, he came to realize the limitations and suffering of the sexual pleasures he indulged in, as well as the orientation of his life towards satisfaction altogether. In this way, he also came to yearn for spiritual liberation. This was a felt impulse he gained from observation and experience,

it was not derived from morality.

 

Considering the pleasures of the flesh to be opposed to the ascetic practices of a renunciate, he felt a dilemma between his desires to choose between the pleasures of erotic love and the company of beautiful young maidens or the liberation-oriented ascetic life of a renunciate in the forest. To Bhartrahari, they were mutually exclusive, and he could not have both.

His poetry celebrates the many aspects of physical and romantic love between a man and a woman and mixes the metaphors of erotic love with the yearning for liberation in the common cup of ‘desire’- the quality he found in both.

Sculpture image from temple at Khajurahao

The Poetry of Bhartrahari

Translated from the Sanskrit by Barbara S. Miller

 

I do indeed speak without bias;
this is acknowledged as truth among men.
Nothing enthralls us like an ample-hipped woman;
Nothing else causes such pain.

 

Your hair well-combed, your eyes reaching to your ears,
your mouth filled with ranks of teeth that are white by nature,
your breasts charmingly adorned with a necklace of pearls,
slim girl, your body, though at rest, disturbs me

What is supreme among visions?

The face of a fawn-eyed maiden delighted by love.

Among fragrances? The breath of her mouth.

Among sounds? Her Speech.

Among tastes? The nectar of her budlike lips.

Among textures? Her soft body.

What is most worthy of a lover's attention?

Her distraction with love in youth's early bloom.

Sculpture image from temple at Khajurahao

Cut off all envy, examine the matter,

Tell us decisively, you noble men,

Which we ought to attend upon:

The sloping sides of wilderness mountains

Or the buttocks of women abounding with passion

When I was ignorant in the dark night of passion
I thought the world completely made of women
But now my eyes are cleansed with the salve of wisdom
And my clear vision sees only God in everything

 

As long as the body is healthy and strong
as long as old age is far away
as long as your senses are still able to function
as long as you still have many years to live
you should work for your spiritual growth by
remembering the Lord

 

– Bhartrahari

 

Bhartrihari discovered that his favorite queen desired someone else;
but this queen’s lover was in love with a beautiful courtesan
and this courtesan was in love with him - Bhartrahari.

As a result of this, Bhartrahari became disgusted with life and amorous love

and he renounced the world and became a recluse and a poet.

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TIBETAN WHEEL OF LIFE:  

 

 I visited Ladakh in 2016. It is the Indian part of the Tibetan Plateau, containing many of the oldest Buddhist monasteries on the Tibetan Plateau. At the entrance of every monastery, on the right-hand wall, is painted an image called the ‘Wheel of Life,’ a comprehensive summary of Buddha’s teaching in picture form made for a predominantly illiterate culture. 

 

The Wheel of Life illustrates the co-dependently (one thing always depending on another) arising, inevitable, always and only temporary, ever alternating, ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ pleasurable and painful karmas of birth and death, youth and old age, disease and health, heaven and hell. 

The Wheel of Life illustrates the karmas (actions and destinies) of men, gods, demi-gods, demons, and animals, portraying the path of every sentient being that is bound upon this wheel. The Wheel is held in the hands of the ‘demon’ ‘Kala’ or time, a demon crowned with five skulls, representing the five elements (ether, air, fire, water, and earth) of which all and everything exists.

 

After Buddha was enlightened underneath the Bodhi tree, he thought he would not teach because what he had to say was not understood or interesting to others. In the Pali Canon, it is recorded that Buddha said:

 

“This Dharma I have realized is profound, hard to see and difficult to understand, full of peace and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle and capable of being experienced only by the wise . . . But this generation delights in worldliness (attachment), takes delight in worldliness, and rejoices in worldliness. It is hard for such people to see this truth, namely, inevitable conditionality (everything includes its opposite) and co-dependent origination (nothing has a self-nature; it is all caused by a combination of other things; there is no 'self), and it is hard to see the truth, namely; that the stilling of all desires, the relinquishing of all attachments, the destruction of craving, dispassion, and cessation is Nirvana. If I were to teach the Dharma, others would not understand me, and that would be wearying and troublesome.

Seeing his hesitation, the gods implored him to teach, if only for the sake of the few who might be prepared and to help others know the truth of Reality. It was only at their urging that Buddha acquiesced and began his teaching mission to ‘Turn the Wheel of the Dharma.’ 

 

His very first Teaching was 'The Four Noble Truths’ and the very first ‘Truth’: ’Life is Dukkha (suffering).’ Suffering was inevitable and inherent in this world, and without awakening to this Truth, no one would ever be interested in the Teaching of freedom from suffering. (This is why Buddha was hesitant to teach.) 

 

If one were not clear that every life was limited and all beings and things were bound to the wheel of cause and effect, a wheel held by time, that they were going to die and lose everything and everyone, then they would be primarily motivated to seek pleasure and/or fulfill their various desires. Buddha did not teach ‘Buddhism,’ for the sake of any kind of fulfillment of the 'self'; rather, he taught the transcendence of 'self.' Buddha taught that a person must first discover that the ‘Truth’ of life is inevitable suffering because only then, impressed with the suffering nature of all of existence, would they ever be moved to practice the Way. (See: The Cure of the Mustard Seed)

An Example from the Wheel of Life: 

The image above displays only the center of the Wheel of Life, which shows people rising up to the pure realms by doing good deeds, helping each other, giving to others, and practicing as monks. However, because the fruits of every action are limited, the fruits of their actions are eventually exhausted. Then, they fall from their exalted state. This is why it is called the 'Wheel of Life,’ it is always turning like a wheel where what was up turns into what is down, and what is down becomes up; on and on it goes. This is why there are Buddhas shown to the upper right and upper left of the image, indicating that the Buddha’s teaching is not merely a benign mortal teaching of how to succeed in life (on the wheel); instead, it is a Transcendental Teaching, and its Truth exists outside and beyond the Wheel of Life.

Everything I have written is done in recognition of this Wheel. . .

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