Maitreya Bhikshā

Yudhishṭhira asked Bhīshma which of three is greatest: vidyā (learning), tapas (austerity) or dāna (giving). Bhīshma answered with an ancient itihāsa, the meeting of Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa with the young ṛshi Maitreya in Vārāṇasī. Vyāsa was astonished that Maitreya’s simple gift of water to a thirsty man had earned a fruit as great as a hundred yajñas. He taught that dāna is greater even than vidyā and tapas, and that a small gift given without deceit gives a very great fruit. When Maitreya spoke further, they agreed that dāna, adhyayana (study of the Veda) and tapas are of equal worth and work together, and that the brāhmaṇa who receives dāna is as needed for dharma as the one who gives.

Chapter 120: the meeting at Vārāṇasī

Yudhishṭhira asked Bhīshma by which of vidyā, tapas or dāna a man becomes truly viśishṭa (distinguished). Bhīshma answered with the ancient saṃvāda (conversation) between Maitreya and Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana.

Once Vyāsa was moving about unrecognised. He came to Vārāṇasī and met Maitreya at the house of a svairiṇī. Maitreya knew the great muni, honoured him, and served him an excellent meal.

Vyāsa, of exalted mind, ate food so fine, so satisfying and so full of guṇa (good quality). He was filled with pleasure and showed open astonishment. Maitreya saw this and asked the reason. Vyāsa said his astonishment came from an atichedha and an ativāda, an excess of cutting and an excess of assertion. The Vedic statement says that this exalted station, which Maitreya now held through the mere darśana of Vyāsa, is normally reached only after a hundred yajñas. That statement seemed almost to be proved false by what Vyāsa now saw. Maitreya had given water to a thirsty man once, without any envy in his heart, and had earned a fruit as great as a hundred great yajñas.

Vyāsa explained that there are only three things truly worth gaining and keeping as a supreme vow. They are never to do droha (betrayal, harm), always to give dāna, and always to speak paramasatya (the highest truth). The Veda taught this triad first, and the ṛshis then upheld it. It remains the kartavya (duty) for all time.

Even a small dāna, Vyāsa taught, gives a very great fruit. It is like a drop of water that becomes a pearl: its value goes beyond its size when deśa, kāla, pātra and śraddhā-viśesha come together. These are the place, the time, the worth of the one who receives, and the strength of faith. Maitreya had given water without envy to one who was thirsty while he was thirsty himself. This gift had earned him this very darśana, a fruit as if he had won great lokas through great yajñas.

Of all pavitra (purifying) things, dāna is the best. Even where no other purifying rite is done, dāna alone is the highest purifying act. Those who set up the path of dāna are the true prāṇa-dātās (givers of life), and dharma stands firm through them. Study of the Veda without any break from the rule, control of the senses, and giving up all attachment are all of the same kind as the highest dāna.

Vyāsa said that puṇya (merit), pāpa (sin), and a third state that is neither puṇya nor pāpa make up the three kinds of conduct of men. The third is śīla (character) that comes from one’s own nature, in one who is established in Brahman. For one who stands in Brahman, only acts like droha appear as pāpa and yajña and the like appear as puṇya, while his natural conduct is beyond both. Vyāsa blessed Maitreya to rejoice, to prosper, to give dāna and to do yajñas, for the wise never think lightly of such men. (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 120)

Chapter 121: why the brāhmaṇa is needed for dāna

Maitreya, himself of distinguished lineage and learning, asked Vyāsa’s leave to give his own view. He agreed that dāna, being free from dosha (fault), is purer than vidyā or tapas. He said that this very darśana of Vyāsa was the fruit of his own natural act of giving.

He then taught that tapas, knowledge of the śāstra, and birth together make one fit to be a brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa who is satisfied satisfies both the pitṛs (ancestors) and the devas, and nothing is greater than he as a keeper of knowledge of the śāstra. Without the brāhmaṇa, Maitreya said, the whole world would fall into deep and unbroken darkness. Nothing would arise, the dharma of the four varṇas would not work, and dharma and adharma, ṛta (truth) and anṛta (untruth), would have no firm ground.

A man sows in good soil and reaps a fine harvest. In the same way the giver who gives dāna to one learned in the Veda reaps the full fruit of that dāna. If no brāhmaṇa of learning and good character can be found to receive it, the wealth of even the richest giver is wasted.

Maitreya then taught how dāna works both ways. The fool who eats food without guarding it, that is, without using it rightly, kills the food, and that same food kills him. But the one who guards the food and uses it rightly is guarded by it in turn. The killer is killed, in a mirrored sense. What is puṇya for the giver is just as much puṇya for the one who receives. Dāna and pratigraha (receiving) are, as the ṛshis understood, two wheels of the same cart. A cart with only one wheel cannot move.

Wherever brāhmaṇas with knowledge of the śāstra and good conduct live, there alone does a man gain the fruit of dāna and puṇya, in this world and the next. Those of pure birth, always given to tapas, rich in dāna and study, are always worthy of pūjā. Such sādhus have laid down a fine path on which the traveller never loses his way. They lead to svarga (heaven), they uphold the yajñas, and they are sanātana (eternal). (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 121)

Chapter 122: tapas is equal to dāna and vidyā

Vyāsa answered Maitreya that it was good fortune that he had come to understand this. The world praises the ārya-guṇas (noble qualities) above all. Those who are honoured only for looks, age and wealth do not look down on one like Maitreya, and this itself is a divine grace.

Vyāsa then taught something “greater than dāna” in its own sphere. The āgama-śāstras and all other prescribed practices follow, in due order, from the Veda. Just as Vyāsa praises dāna, so Maitreya rightly praises knowledge of the śāstra and learning (paṇḍitya). Tapas is itself the purity of the Veda and the means (sādhana) to svarga. Through tapas a man gains greatness (mahattva), and through vidyā too. A man who makes a saṅkalpa (firm resolve) and pursues tapas gains anything at all, as he does by vidyā. By tapas whatever is otherwise out of reach, unmovable or impossible to cross can be reached, moved or crossed. Such is the power of tapas.

Even a drinker of madya (strong drink), a thief, one who has killed an unborn child (garbha-hatyā), and one who has wronged his guru’s wife cross over their pāpa and reach moksha through tapas. Whoever does tapas, whatever else he may be, is held to have full sight. One who has all his senses whole is called cakshushmān (one who sees), and so too is the tapasvin, and the wise bow to both without difference.

Those whose wealth is knowledge of the śāstra, those rich in dāna, and the tapasvins are all equally worthy of pūjā. They lay down their bodies in sukha (ease) and gain great wealth, in the sense of puṇya. Those made pure by anna-dāna (gifts of food) reach both this loka and Brahmaloka. They are honoured wherever they go, and they honour others in turn. Whether or not one is formally the “doer”, one gains the place that fits one’s karma, upward (ūrdhva, that is, svarga) or downward (adhas), and goes on to one’s own loka accordingly.

Vyāsa ended by speaking to Maitreya, who was in the first flush of youth, devoted to great vratas and full of faith. He told him to take up the first and best of the duties of the gṛhastha (householder). It is this: a husband content with his wife, and a wife content with her husband. In a household where such mutual contentment lives, there auspiciousness lives. As water washes away bodily dirt and the light of fire drives off darkness, so dāna and tapas together wash away all pāpa.

Vyāsa then took his leave. He blessed Maitreya with svasti (well-being) and went to his own dwelling. Maitreya in turn bowed to him in praṇāma, walked around him in pradakshiṇa, and with joined palms wished Vyāsa svasti in return. (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 122)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 120–122