[[Mohan K.V 2013-06-28, 19:48:49 Source]]
सदास्वादः
कृत्याकृत्य-व्यपगत-मतिः दीन-शाखा-मृगोऽयं – सन्ताड्यैनं दशन-विवृतिं पश्यतः ते फलं किं ?
(kṛtyākṛtya-vyapagata-matiḥ dīna-śākhā-mṛgo’yaṃ – santāḍyainaṃ daśana-vivṛtiṃ paśyataḥ te phalaṃ kiṃ ?)
Meaning
“This is a poor monkey, not even aware of what must and must not be done. What pleasure could you get by beating him up and making him bare his teeth?”. “kṛtyākṛtya-vyapagata-matiḥ” is a classic compound. So who is this monkey? Read on!
Context
Today’s phrase is taken from the Ātmārpaṇa-stuti of Appayya Dīkṣita. Appayya Dīkṣita was a southern scholar who lived about 500 years ago in Adayaplam, near today’s Aarani in Tamil Nadu. He was a sage and scholar of Advaita, and was very famous even in his own time. He was a prolific writer: he is credited with nearly a hundred works, and about half of those are easily available. The majority of his works are technical – treatises on Vedānta, commentaries expounding the Advaita philosophy, and some works on literary theory (alankāra śāstra). He was very active and forceful in written debates, and has written tens of works criticizing or supporting ideas, philosophies and other works. These in turn had an active reception, in the form of stutis by devoted followers to virulent attacks by rivals, including one hilariously titled “Appayya-kapola-capeṭikā” (“A slap to Appayya’s face”) :-)
He has written a number of bhakti poems that are also popular, and the Ātmārpaṇa-stuti is one of them.
Appayya was an even more prolific teacher: he guided more than five hundred disciples, and was a veritable living legend. The only way his influence could be described is that he was a one-man university. Further, his entire family, from his grandfather to his brothers to his wife to his grandnephews, is replete with scholars of all hues, and simply recounting the anecdotes and verses about them could easily take up a decent-sized book!
He is generally considered a devotee of Śiva; in our times, this would simply be just another fact, but in the period that Appayya lived in, political rivalries could spring up simply because of a Śiva-Viṣṇu debate. Appayya made several efforts to transcend such pettiness by worshipping both and held devotees of both in very high regard (like he did Vedānta Deśika, a Śri Vaiṣṇavaite). There is a funny anecdote about this: one day, a group of Vaiṣṇavaites come to him, and tell him that they are engaged in an internecine battle with Śaivites about who is superior. They have approached him as the final authority, and request that he take their side. Appayya smiles, nods his head, and says:
शिवाद् अप्यधिको विष्णुः
śivād apyadhiko viṣṇuḥ
“Viṣṇu is superior to Śiva”
The Vaiṣṇavaites declare victory and rush off. The Śaivites approach him in panic, and ask him how he could betray his own faith! Appayya smiles again, and tells them that the Vaiṣṇavaites were an impatient bunch who didn’t listen to him fully. He adds another line:
शिवाद् अप्यधिको विष्णुः द्वयोरप्यधिकोऽस्म्यहम् ।
śivād apyadhiko viṣṇuḥ dvayorapyadhiko’smyaham |
“Viṣṇu is superior to Śiva, but I am superior to both of them.”
Not exactly perfect, but the Śaivites are satisfied with the assertion that a Śiva-bhakta is bigger than Viṣṇu. They’ll handle the greater-than-Śiva part later. But the Vaiṣṇavaites come rushing back, as if to file a consumer court complaint that they were fooled. Appayya smiles again, and tells them everyone’s too impatient these days. He asks them to call the Śaivas in a joint conference, and when they are all assembled in anticipation, he completes the verse:
शिवाद् अप्यधिको विष्णुः द्वयोरप्यधिकोऽस्म्यहम् ।
शिवस्येकं विष्णोर्दश मम जन्म सहस्रशः ॥
śivād apyadhiko viṣṇuḥ dvayorapyadhiko’smyaham |
śivasyekaṃ viṣṇordaśa mama janma sahasraśaḥ ||
“Viṣṇu is superior to Śiva, but I am superior to both of them: Śiva had but one birth, and Viṣṇu had but ten (his ten avataras), but I have had countless births! ”
In one stroke, Appayya told the in-fighters the futility of their petty squabbles, and re-oriented them to the only real philosophical issue at hand.
The range of Appayya’s learning and production is enormous; and yet, he was an extremely humble, sincere devotee. For example, early on in his Varadarāja Stava, composed in honour of the deity at Kanchi, he has this cute verse:
मन्ये सृजन्त्वभिनुतिम् कविपुङ्गवाः ते
तेभ्यो रमा-रमण ! मादृश एव धन्यः ।
त्वद्वर्णने धृत-रसः कवितातिमान्द्यात्
यः तत्-तद्-अङ्ग-चिर-चिन्तन-भाग्यम् एति |5|
manye sṛjantv abhinutim kavi-puṅgavāḥ te
tebhyo ramā-ramaṇa ! mādṛśa eva dhanyaḥ |
tvadvarṇane dhṛta-rasaḥ kavitātimāndyāt
yaḥ tat-tad-aṅga-cira-cintana-bhāgyam eti |5|
“May great poets create beautiful poems on you as they please, my Lord,
but I consider someone like myself [a dullard] luckier than them.
You see, because of my extreme dullness,
I have to think of you for very long to describe you [and what could be a greater pleasure than thinking of you!]”
There’s a clear distinction between doing things for a purpose, and doing them for pleasure. Other poets want to produce a great poem with the Lord as the subject, but Appayya delights primarily in thinking of his subject. Producing a poem is a secondary aim, almost an excuse!
How we wish we could have more of this attitude towards things in our lives, where petty purpose is displacing more and more of pleasure every passing day! An anonymous quote goes, “Thus they will sacrifice what they admit to be happiness to what they claim to be progress; All evil springs from enjoying what we ought to use and using what we ought to enjoy”.
Moving on, Appayya calls on his knowledge of rhetoric for another cute verse:
यस्मिन् जहात्यतिशयोक्तिः अलन्कृतित्वम्
न्यूनोपमात्वम् उपमाः समुपैति सर्वाः |
सूक्ष्म-स्वभावकलनापि च न प्रतर्क्या
तद् वर्णयामि भवतः कथम् आभिरूप्यम् |14|
yasmin jahātyatiśayoktiḥ alankṛtitvam
nyūnopamātvam upamāḥ samupaiti sarvāḥ |
sūkṣma-svabhāvakalanāpi ca na pratarkyā
tad varṇayāmi bhavataḥ katham ābhirūpyam |14|
“In whom atiśayokti (exaggeration) is no longer just a figure of speech,
in whom all comparisons become partial ones,
in whom close observation is unimaginable,
Tell me, Lord, how am I to sing of you?”
How helpless a poet is when even his exaggerations simply turn out to be matters of fact! Next, Appayya makes a technical point about upamā – simile. An upamā is ‘full’ ‘pūrṇa’ if the object and the standard it is compared to ‘match’ well, and the standard describes the object fully. “I saw something that looked like a eagle” is a good example, because it automatically tells us that something was a bird, it was the size as a eagle, there was an element of majesty to it, it caused a certain awe, etc. and the comparison actually helps us imagine that ‘something’ and creates an emotion. But if one saw a car and said “I saw something that looked like a box”, the box isn’t even coming close to describing the car. This is a nyūnopamā, a deficient simile. Appayya complains that with his subject all similes are deficient! The last resort for a poet is keen observation and recounting fine features, but even that is unimaginable. So how is a poor poet to do his job?!
Another nice one brings in the eternal tussle between emotion and intelligence:
उच्छेदम् एकविशयात् कथयन्ति बोधात्
मोहस्य ये खलु कथम् न मृशावदास्ते |
लावण्यम् ईष तव यन् नयनैः निपीय
तत्रैव मोहम् अधिकम् दधते तरुण्यः |21|
ucchedam ekaviśayāt kathayanti bodhāt
mohasya ye khalu katham na mṛśāvadāste |
lāvaṇyam īṣa tava yan nayanaiḥ nipīya
tatraiva moham adhikam dadhate taruṇyaḥ |21|
“When philosophers say that ‘moha’ (infatuation, delusion) is removed by true knowledge, how can we not think them to be liars?
Anyone who drinks in your beauty,
can only become more infatuated.”
Bhakti is entirely about the strong, sincere emotion of love, and is the farthest removed from logic and rationality of philosophy. And yet, the paradox is that Bhakti is seen as an easier way to the very same goals as philosophy’s.
Because of Appayya’s fame, there are a number of legends surrounding him and his works. The Ātmārpaṇa-stuti was supposedly written by him when he was intoxicated, and he had no conscious recollection of composing it. It is a set of 50 verses of Bhakti poetry, and today’s verse is the 33rd:
एतावन्तं भ्रमण-निचयं प्रापितोऽयं वराकः
श्रान्तः स्वामिन्! अगतिरधुना मोचनीयः त्वयाहं ।
कृत्याकृत्य-व्यपगत-मतिः दीन-शाखा-मृगोऽयं –
सन्ताड्यैनं दशन-विवृतिं पश्यतः ते फलं किं ? ।33।
etāvantaṃ bhramaṇa-nicayaṃ prāpito’yaṃ varākaḥ
śrāntaḥ svāmin! agatir adhunā mocanīyaḥ tvayāhaṃ |
kṛtyākṛtya-vyapagata-matiḥ dīna-śākhā-mṛgo’yaṃ –
santāḍyainaṃ daśana-vivṛtiṃ paśyataḥ te phalaṃ kiṃ ? |33|
“This poor wretch has wandered around for long,
and is tired, directionless, and wants release. Please help, Lord!
This is a poor monkey, not even aware of what must and must not be done. What pleasure could you get by beating him up and making him bare his teeth?”
This is quite a common idea in Bhakti circles, but forcefully put here. The Kannada poet DVG has a remarkably similar idea expressed in his Mankutimmana Kagga, often called the Bhagavad-Gita of Kannada:
ellelliyum mōha-saṃbhrāntigaḷa kavisi
sallada kumārgadoḷu ninna tāṃ naḍasi .
gellalillavanā parīkṣeyoḷagendu vidhi
sollipudu sariyēno – mankutimma .36.
“First creating ignorance and delusion everywhere,
Then making you go down the wrong path,
And then accusing you of not passing his test –
Is it fair for Vidhi (Fate) to do this?”
ṭagareraḍa beḷasi kobbisi keṇaki hurigoḷisi
jagaḷavāḍisi daiva-jīvagaḷa pesarim .
nagutaliruvanu nōḍi – parabommanēṃ binadi
bigiyadiru nīṃ bīgi – maṃkutimma .162.
“He raises and fattens two rams, and provokes them.
Then makes them quarrel, giving them names like “Human effort” and “Fate”.
And enjoys the fight with great glee.
Don’t buy into this! (literally, ‘Don’t swell up and go tight at this’)”
Don’t we find ourselves in such a situation so many times, when we are not even sure what is expected of us, and someone far more aware and powerful than us appears to be amusing themselves with us? :-)
Thought for today
Appayya has his own Vairāgya śataka with gems like this:
नीतिज्ञा नियतिज्ञा
वेदज्ञा अपि भवन्ति शास्त्रज्ञाः ।
ब्रह्मज्ञा अपि लभ्याः
स्वाज्ञानज्ञानिनो विरलाः ॥
nītijñā niyatijñā
vedajñā api bhavanti śāstrajñāḥ |
brahmajñā api labhyāḥ
svājñānajñānino viralāḥ ||
“You can find scholars of morality, seers of the future,
pandits of the Vedas and ācāryas of all Śāstras.
You can even find Brahma-jñānis, but
Someone who is aware of his own ignorance is very rare”
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