Paramahansa

Verse 1

अथ योगिनं परमहंसं कोऽयं मार्गस्तेषां का स्थितिरिति नारदो भगवन्तमुपगत्योवाच । तं भगवानाह । योऽयं परमहंसमार्गो लोके दुर्लभतरो न तु बाहुल्यो; यद्येको भवति स एव नित्यपूतस्थः, स एव वेदपुरुष इति विदुषो मन्य...

Then Nārada approached the Blessed One and said: “Who is the yogin called a Paramahaṃsa? What is his path, and what is his state?” The Blessed One replied: “This path of the Paramahaṃsa is exceedingly rare in the world and not widespread. If there is even one such person, he alone abides as ever-purified; the knowers regard him as the ‘Person of the Veda’, the embodiment of Vedic realization. The great being whose mind ever rests in Me—therefore I too abide in him alone. Having renounced son, friends, wife, relatives and the like; the topknot and sacred thread; Vedic recitation and all rites; and having abandoned this ‘cosmic egg’ (the worldly sphere), he may take up a loincloth, a staff, and a covering—only for the maintenance of the body and for the welfare of the world; yet these are not the essential mark. If it is asked, ‘What is the essential?’—this is the essential.”

Verse 2

न दण्डं न शिखां न यज्ञोपवीतं न चाच्छादनं चरति परमहंसः । न शीतं न चोष्णं न सुखं न दुःखं न मानावमानौ च; षडूर्मिवर्जं निन्दागर्वमत्सरदम्भमदर्पेच्छाद्वेषसुखदुःखकामक्रोधलोभमोहहर्षाहंकारादीन् च हित्वा स्ववप...

The Paramahaṃsa does not go about with a staff, nor a topknot, nor a sacred thread, nor even a covering. For him there is neither cold nor heat, neither pleasure nor pain, neither honor nor dishonor; free from the six waves (hunger, thirst, sorrow, delusion, old age, death). Abandoning blame, pride, envy, hypocrisy, intoxication, arrogance, desire, hatred, pleasure and pain, lust, anger, greed, delusion, elation, egoism and the rest, he regards his own body as though a corpse. Because that body—being the cause of doubt, perverted cognition, and false knowledge—has been sublated, he is ever withdrawn from it; he is constant awareness; he is self-established. I am indeed that peaceful, unmoving, non-dual mass of bliss-consciousness. That alone is my supreme abode; that alone is my topknot; that alone is my sacred thread. By the knowledge of the oneness of the Supreme Self and the self, their difference is cut asunder—this is the sandhyā (twilight worship).

Verse 3

सर्वान्कामान्परित्यज्य अद्वैते परमस्थितिः । ज्ञानदण्डो धृतो येन एकदण्डी स उच्यते ॥ काष्ठदण्डो धृतो येन सर्वाशी ज्ञानवर्जितः । स याति नरकान्घोरान्महारौरवसंज्ञकान् ॥ इदमन्तरं ज्ञात्वा स परमहंसः ॥ ३॥

Having abandoned all desires, his supreme abiding is in non-duality. He by whom the “staff of knowledge” is borne is called the one-staff bearer (ekadaṇḍin). But he by whom a wooden staff is borne—one who eats indiscriminately and is devoid of knowledge—goes to dreadful hells called Mahāraurava. Knowing this distinction, one is a Paramahaṃsa.

Verse 4

आशाम्बरो न नमस्कारो न स्वधाकारो न निन्दा न स्तुतिर् यदृच्छिको भवेद् भिक्षुर् नाऽऽवाहनं न विसर्जनं न मन्त्रं न ध्यानं नोपासनं च न लक्ष्यं नाकाङ्क्ष्यं न पृथग् नापृथग् अहं न न त्वं न सर्वं चानिकेतस्थिति...

The mendicant is one whose garment is hope—clothed only by what comes unasked; he has no salutations, no svadhā‑rites for the ancestors, no blame and no praise. He lives by what comes of itself. For him there is no invocation and no dismissal (of deities), no mantra, no meditation, no worship; no aim to be fixed upon, no desire; neither “separate” nor “not separate”; neither “I” nor “you” nor “all.” The mendicant abides solely in homelessness. He should not accept gold and the like; he should not gaze upon the world, nor look at it with craving. If it is asked, “Who is the obstructer?”—there is indeed an obstructer: for if a mendicant looks upon gold with relish, he becomes a slayer of Brahman; if a mendicant takes gold with relish, he becomes a slayer of the Self. Therefore the mendicant should not look at gold with relish, nor touch it, nor take it. All desires that have entered the mind turn back. In sorrow he is not shaken; in happiness he does not yearn; he has renunciation even toward attachment; everywhere he clings neither to the auspicious nor to the inauspicious; he neither hates nor exults. When the movements of all the senses come to rest, he abides in the Self alone; that which is fullness—bliss—single awareness: “I am That Brahman.” Thus he becomes one who has accomplished what is to be accomplished; he becomes one who has accomplished what is to be accomplished.