Atyahara
Srila Bhakivinoda Thakura has written twelve essays on the six items favorable and six items unfavorable for devotional service from the second and third verses of the Upadesamrita. I was reading it recently and wanted to share it here in short episodes.
Today’s post will be on Atyahara or Overeating or too much collecting
Many people may think that the word atyahara refers only to overeating but this is not so. It is explained in the first verse of Upradesamrita
vāco vegam manasah krodha-vegam
jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etān vegān yo visaheta dhīrah
sarvām apīmām prthivīm sa śisyāt
‘A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.’
In this regard, the urge to the tongue is the desire to taste food stuffs. The urge of the stomach is the desire to overeat. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that if we see both the meaning as overeating then there is repetition. We need to understand the word atyahara is used in a grave sense by Rupa Goswami..
Although bhojana means eating, it also means enjoying the objects of five senses. All long as the senses are there this enjoyment will be there. As soon as the living entity gives up sense enjoyment, he leaves this body.
Therefore, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, giving up sense enjoyment is only a figment of imagination.
But if such activities giving pleasure are performed for Krishna as devotional service, then that is Bhakti Yoga. The conclusion Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives is to tolerate the urges of the tongue and the belly by cultivation of devotional service.
Today’s post will be on Atyahara or Overeating or too much collecting
Many people may think that the word atyahara refers only to overeating but this is not so. It is explained in the first verse of Upradesamrita
vāco vegam manasah krodha-vegam
jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etān vegān yo visaheta dhīrah
sarvām apīmām prthivīm sa śisyāt
‘A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.’
In this regard, the urge to the tongue is the desire to taste food stuffs. The urge of the stomach is the desire to overeat. So Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that if we see both the meaning as overeating then there is repetition. We need to understand the word atyahara is used in a grave sense by Rupa Goswami..
Although bhojana means eating, it also means enjoying the objects of five senses. All long as the senses are there this enjoyment will be there. As soon as the living entity gives up sense enjoyment, he leaves this body.
Therefore, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, giving up sense enjoyment is only a figment of imagination.
But if such activities giving pleasure are performed for Krishna as devotional service, then that is Bhakti Yoga. The conclusion Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives is to tolerate the urges of the tongue and the belly by cultivation of devotional service.
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