Avadhuta Gita/Chapter 1 (अवधूत गीता) by Dattatreya, translated from Sanskrit

For the extended semantic field for each of the terms in this verse please refer: 1:1 semantic field. Ishvara is often glossed 'the Controller' and may be viewed as a title and epithet for many deities in the Hindu pantheon. Rather than denoting a particular deity, 'Ishvara' in this context may be read less as an absolute and fixed designation in a particular divine personality and more of a role, a position description and divine quality. The import is that the inspiration to engage in spirituality itself is given by Ishvara, that which controls. यो ह वा आयतनं वेदायतनँ ह स्वानां भवति मनो ह वा आयतनम् yo ha vā āyatanaṁ vedāyatana ha svānāṁ bhavati mano ha vā āyatanam^[2] Chandogya 5.1.5. I may change the gloss of 'sāma-advaita' in the rendering from 'non-dual wealth' to 'unitive', importantly it may also be parsed 'sāma dvaita' the wealth of duality. The blessings is what crushes the ego leaving the servant who becomes a 'shining one', resplendent. 'grave' is an adjectival play and is an amplification with value from the 'maha' inherent in 'mahadbhaya' for there nothing to fear as we never die. According to Barret (2008: p.33) Dattatreya was an not only an aghori but also an adi-deva of the Aghori Sampradaya who engaged in pastimes of the charnel ground.^[3]

yenedaṁ (yena+idam): yena (ind.) = "on which account, in consequence of which, wherefore" & idam = "present, known, now"; pūritaṁ: "filled, completed, intensified"; sarvam: "whole, entire, all, every"; ātmanaivāatman: "ātman alone is ātman"; ātmani: ātman+i which is the feminine, so the energy or essence of ātman?; nirākāraṁ: (nir+ākāra): nir = "un-, without" & ākāra = "form, figure, shape, stature, appearance, external gesture or aspect of the body, expression of the face (as furnishing a clue to the disposition of mind)"; katham (ind): "how? in what manner? whence?"; vanda: "praising, extolling"; hyabhinnaṁ (hi+abhinna): hi = "indeed, assuredly, surely, of course, certainly" & abhinna = "uncut, unbroken, uninterrupted, undivided, whole, unchanged"; śivam: "auspicious, propitious, gracious, favourable, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly, dear"; avyayam (a+vyayam): "not liable to change, imperishable, undecaying, immutable".

From an open reading of the text Dattatreya appears to be singing to and of a personal godhead whom he addresses by different terms and epithets. By memory it was Saint Thomas Equinas who defined Godhead as omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Given these three omni's or Aums, God may be all things to all people. Hence, Dattatreya's personal spiritual lexicon should not be an obstruction for any true aspirant who perceives with the awareness of their heart.

pañcabhūtātmakaṁ: pañca "five"; bhūta "elements"; ātmaka = n. "consisting or composed of" (for n. stem+ṁ = nom. sg.); viśva "all-pervading or all-containing, whole, entire, universal" (for n. stem+ṁ = nom. sg.); marīcijalasannibham: marīci = m. "a particle of light, shining mote or speck in the air, a ray of light, a mirage"; jala n. = "water, a fluid"; sannibha (sat+nibha) = sat+ "possessed of" nibha "resembling, like, similar"; kasyāpyaho: (kasya+api+aho) kasya api = "of someone") api <a particle implying: joyful or painful surprise; enjoyment or satisfaction: of fatigue, discontent, compassion, sorrow, regret)> "Ah!, Oh!, Alas!"; namas-kuryām: namas = "bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, adoration, homage"; kuryām: (‘I can do.’ ‘I might do.’ ‘I will do.’ ‘I shall do.’ ‘I must do.’ ‘Let me do.’ etc.) is a verb in the Optative (Opt) mode, the Optative incorporates the following meanings: possibility, wish, [polite] request, doubt, hypothesis and prescriptive.^[4] aham (nom. sg. 1p. pronoun, " I "); eka (final phoneme change to "O" due to case [instead of Sandhi]?). nirañjana: "unpainted, spotless, pure, simple, void of passion or emotion" (for m. stem+ḥ = nom. sg.).

Five Pure Lights is an English rending of the Panchbhuta influenced from the Bonpo Dzogchen tradition which I favour.

ātmaiva (ātma(n)+eva) ātma(n) = ibid & eva = <in its most frequent use of strengthening the idea expressed by any word> "just, exactly, very, same, only, even, alone"; kevalaṁ: "simple, pure, uncompounded, sole, one"; sarvaṁ bhedābhedo na vidyate asti nāsti kathaṁ brūyāṁ vismayaḥ pratibhāti me

So much talk of existence or non-existence and such terms are defined differently in different Dharmic Traditions. The key is to be ever-filled with wonder.

"sāra" denotes the "substance or essence or marrow or cream or heart or essential part of anything , best part , quintessence", i use pith. nirākāra is the "formless , shapeless , incorporeal, heaven, universal spirit, god". sarvavyāpī is "all-pervasive, omnipresent". Svabhava

Even though we have a sense of an individual self, defining this self in any meaningful way is nebulous and problematic. When investigating further it is clear that what our self is, is a flow of ever-changing tributaries. In a worldly sense, our self is only defined by that which it is not. All the other selves. Our personality is a construction, socialized and learned. Our personality is not our own is it? Consider the events that have shaped your experience.

"śubhāśubhaṁ" has a venerable narrative, eg. Mahabharata XII.238.10^[5]

Dharmic Traditions and the love-affair of the metaphor of Space which is unobstructed and yet enfolds, envelops and contains all and is itself uncontained - as far as popular science knows anyway. Importantly, the mind is open like space.

"You": Dattatreya now addresses the disciple to whom he is imparting he highest truth. "Night": There can be no perception of any time or condition in perfect Self-realization.

Unintercepted - See note on "Continuous," verse 10. Divide, etc. - Even the act of meditation is an expression of ignorance because it implies duality.

piśāca: "A class of flesh-eating and shape-shifting demons, first mentioned in the Veda, and ubiquitous in later Epic and Purāṇic texts. They are liable to possess human beings, and may need propitiation. The related adjective, paiśācī, is applied to various categories of things thought to be ghoulish or uncouth"^[6]

saṁyogaś ca viyogaś ca vartate na ca te na me na tvaṁ nāhaṁ jagan nedaṁ sarvam ātmaiva kevalam

Namarupa denotes more than 'name' (nama) and 'form' (rupa) it denotes the continuum of bodymind where 'nama' is the intangible mind and 'rupa' is the tangible body. In truth they are a continuum, mutually informing and interpenetrate. The body has subtle dimensions as the mind has physicality. Where attention goes, energy flows and manifestation forms.

Tat Tvam Asi and Neti neti

"Shamelessly" - One should be ashamed to meditate, because meditation pre-supposes a shameful forgetfulness of one's true nature. If one does not know The Self meditation is the way to realization. After realization one will cease to meditate.

discuss correlate in Nirvana shatakam

Nonexistent - the phenomenal aspect of being, which has now disappeared.

Stage in life - any of the four 'stages' (ashrama) into which life is divided by the Hindus, namely, those of the 'student' (Brahmacharya), the 'householder' (Grihasthya), the 'contemplative' (Vanaprastha), and the 'mendicant' (Sannyasa). The path of smoke, etc. - the two paths along which - according to Hinduism, souls travel to the invisible worlds after death.

"Free", etc. denotes one who has transcended the sense of distinction between forms ("pervaded") and the Divine Substance ("pervader"). Such a one, therefore, has constant, unobstructed consciousness of Divinity. Such a one has the dual realization of form and formless. Directly - that is to say, in the manner in which the unenlightened perceives by the sense. In the highest state of realization, sense perception is no longer distinguishable from spiritual intuition.

Dual series - such as "I and Thou" (self and God), "I and it" (self and the world), and so on. Also it means "Self and not-Self" and the series of their evolutes.

Of purified body - That is to say, the material substance of which the universe appears to be constituted is really nothing but pure Spirit/Consciousness.

Full of joy - Here "joy" is used in the sense of relative joy as perceived by the senses and the mind. Joyless - Here the reference is to transcendental Joy.

Six-limbed - consisting of six parts or steps, namely, posture, control of the vital force, self- withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and Samadhi.

Five elements - See verses 1:3 and 1:25. Anyone, etc. - When the pure Self is spoken of as disembodied, the idea of body is associated with It, though negatively. All such qualifications of the Self (or Soul) are denied in this as well as in other verses. Three states, etc. - the waking state, the dream state, and the deep sleep state: the ordinary conditions of individuals when they are ignorant of their true nature, which is usually called the fourth or transcendental state. To name the transcendental state as the fourth is itself an error, as such a designation, which makes it a correlative of the other three states, is inapplicable to the absolute Self.

Liberated - The Self cannot be "liberated", since it was never bound. Pervaded, etc. - The Sanskrit words for pervaded and pervader are vyapya and vyapaka, meaning the particular and the universal. The particular is pervaded by or constituted of the universal. The Self can be neither particular nor universal, as both these designations imply distinction, division, and limitation.

Purusa, etc. - Purusa: Soul. Prakrti: Cosmos. Ordinarily considered to be opposite principles, conscious and unconscious, they are here recognized as identical in a sublime spiritual experience.

With form, etc. - The Self, of course, is without form, but saying so implies recognition of form; therefore even the idea of the formlessness of the Self is repudiated.

Lower, etc. - apparent form

Limiting, etc. - any qualification.

Mind, etc. - The mind is not the Self.

Sexism and gendered language was written out. Further investigation and meditation will investigate whether such gendered language is natural to the text, required for a pseudo-historical reading or simply alienates and contributes to a subtle but tangible obstruction of different genders and sexualities engaging the text. Knowledge - The Absolute is spoken of as 'Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss' (Satchidananda).

'Knowledge' (jñāna), 'reasoning' (), 'time' (kāla), 'space' (), 'instruction from a teacher' (gurūpadeśḥ).Samadhi is defined differently in different Dharmic Traditions and what is meant in a given context differs. In this text Samadhi points to an internal meditative practice of quiescence. Refer verse 1:23. Dattatreya maintains that the practice of samadhi as a quiescence is not necessary because, according to him, the Self has never been bound and hence is not required to practice anything to gain knowledge of Itself. The Self, which is Consciousness Itself, can never lose consciousness of Its true nature and therefore Samadhi is superfluous. This is not to say that to engender this state of perfection where all activity and non-activity is perfect samadhi that it is not wise to practice seated meditation. Seated meditation helps clarify the mindstream.

The Nirguna Brahaman and the Sirguna Brahman: without qualities and with qualities; impersonal and personal; emptiness and form: these interpenetrate as they mutually qualify and inform. Importantly, a historicity of the relationship of the Nirguna Brahaman and the Dharmakaya and the Sirguna Brahman with the Rupakaya (which subsumes the Sambhogakaya and the Nirmanakaya) would be of value.

Thou is used in the neuter old-world inclusive sense of neither gender polarisation of "He" or "She". Further investigation will be engaged to determine whether w:pronominals are even required. How, etc. - Exterior or interior cannot be spoken of He is indivisible and infinite.

'Maya' is sometimes glossed 'ignorance' and this is appropriate but also not. Dreams aren't necessarily ignorant in the sense of mere fancy. Dreams may be lucid. Similarly Maya is also personified as a Goddess that is represented throughout Dharmic Traditions in different forms and guises. Sometimes demonized, she fulfills her function and is to be honoured. For me Maya has always been somewhat denigrated and disfavored like Lucifer, the angel of light who fell. In Persian literature, Lucifer even when fallen is held to be the greatest angel and I will narrate the story when I secure it from my archives. It forms a valuable correlate and insight into the role of Maya.

"Not this", etc. - No formed or formless object can be considered to be the ultimate Reality.

This shares in the sunyassi stage of life. Many of the Nath are sunyassi but they are not sexually renunciate. This brings into question what we renounce when and why. Or simply live in detachment. But is that disassociation from living? A decentralization from engagement in the world? No there is outer, inner and secret renunciation. This song is being sung by a Sacred Fool who is positioned in the Absolute. This is available to all of us. Though few people aspire or would in truth would survive the spiritual rigor to yield and stabilize this stage in living. The strength to stabilize such an orientation in the absolute is the grace of the absolute.

Historically, the early codifiers of the Buddhadharma responded to Shakyamuni Buddhas sutras on 'selflessness' (anatman) which in early Enlgish discourse was often unfortunately rendered no-soul or no-self which conveys nihilism which the Buddhadharma vehemently challenges as an extreme position. Similarly, the first and second turnings of the wheel of Buddhadharma challenge 'eternalism'. But the Buddhanature of the third turning is often described with such a semantic field as is the Dharmakaya. Interestingly, 'immutable' is a descriptive of the Vajra Space, the indestructible dimension of the Dharmakaya. The Dharmic Traditions are living traditions and the Self of Advaita Vedanta and this text particularly, is more profitably embraced in the Buddhadharma as an analogue of the indivisible Trikaya.

'Sorrow' is a rendering of Duhkha a term which is of considerable importance in the first turning of the Buddhadharma.

All, etc. - Words and ideas, being finite and related to finite objects, can never reveal Truth completely.

Dissolve, etc. - become identified with the Self.

"Holy places" is a rendering of tirtha. "Chandala" (which word is here an analogue because it isn't it the verse?): one belonging to the lowest social stratum, actually outside the social stratum and considered unclean and impure from the vantage of those codified within the Varnashrama Dharma of traditional Indian society. Lost, etc. - that is to say, apparently so. The inward awareness of the yogi can never be clouded.

Having renounced all, he moves about naked. He perceives the Absolute, the All, within himself. Avadhuta - a liberated soul, one who has "passed away from" or "shaken off" all worldly attachments and cares, and has realized his identity with God.

Now this is not so easily understood. There is virtue and vice in respect to intentionality and heart-sealed purity but outer activities without being privy to this inner heart-sealed purity may neither be construed as virtue or vice with certainty.

'Mantra' is a hymn or sacred prayer. Tantra is a developmental spiritual system of rites and ceremonies. "This" denotes the truth as enunciated in the whole discourse. The intention of this needs to be made clear. The avadhuta is released from ritual observance. But there are examples of Avadhuta that sing mantra continuously in meter. The importance of this verse is the rhetoric of 'evenness' or 'sameness' and it is this same pervasive doctrine of sacredness permeating all that is that fuels the intestinal oblation of the aghori of which Dattatrya is reputed to have engaged in this sadhana as part of his pastime. Meditation on this is very important. I was first introduced to the theme of morality, ethics and cannibalism in Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors within school. This reminds me to remind you that everything that arises in your experience is purposeful. Humanity indeed all sentient beings in the 'Wheel of Becoming' (Bhavachakra) kill to live. To place a gradation of sentience upon certain types of animal species and plants, and to devalue and denigrate the aliveness of plants and other forms of supposed 'non-sentience' is to misunderstand the rite of the Ganachakra and any Mystery Rite per se. It is also non-scientific to categorically deny that which we may neither affirm nor deny, and similarly it is non-Buddhist. Aghori as carrion-eater, though there there is wrathful liberation of sentient beings within sripture that bears important reflection in relation to the mystery of the aghori and the play of 'compassion' (karuna) and 'nonviolence' (ahimsa).

Truth - Complete Truth does not exist in the plane of relative existence