Thus Said Vivekachudamani

Thus Said Vivekachudamani

Vivekachudamani, the celebrate d text on introspective thinking, says that five types of creatures get killed because of their attachment to a particular object of enjoyment:

1. Deer are attached to sound. Hence the hunter plays sweet notes of music on a flute; the deer come attracted to the source of music, and get trapped. Once a monk saw that a hunter was chasing a deer which ran faster than the hunter. Then keeping its bow and arrow down, the hunter took out a flute and began to play it. Mesmerized by the sound of flute, the deer turned back and came running to the hunter. Then the hunter kept the flute down and killed the deer. Sound killed the deer!

2. A moth goes after a flame, attracted by its rupa (colour and form). It does not see the burning nature of fire. It comes near the fire, touches it, and once its wings are burnt, it falls down. Moths rush to fire, without knowing that they are going to die, because they are fascinated by rupa.

3. The elephant has the wickness for the sense of touch. A bull-elephant gets excited when it sees a cow elephant. It rushes towards her, not seeing the trap of covered trench between him and her. He steps on it, falls into the trench and becomes imprisoned for life. Even though a mighty animal, an elephant loses its freedom forever, because of its weakness for touch.

4. Similarly, the fish goes after the bait and gets hooked. The fish looks at the bait as a piece of food. It goes to bite it and ends up losing its life.

5. So is the case with the bee. A bee, while enjoying the fragrance of lotus, gets inside it and remains inside it even after sunset and gets trapped in it when the petals close. And then it gets crushed to death by wild animals which happen to trample upon the flowers at night.

Each of these creatures meets its end due to its weakness to a particular sense; and then what to talk of the fate of human beings who have weakness for all the five senses! If this fact is seen and seriously meditated upon, we develop detachment towards sense objects.

Atma