Pāvakādhyayana

The Pāvakādhyayana (the purifying teaching) is in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 321. In it Vyāsa teaches his own son, Śuka Maharshi, about saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death), the danger that time brings, and the dharmas that lead to moksha (liberation). Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma how Śuka came to vairāgya (detachment), and Bhīshma tells him what Vyāsa taught.

The teaching uses strong comparisons. The body is a water-bubble. Life is a horse whose parts are units of time. Time is a wolf that hunts those who live without urgency. Vyāsa then lists ten dharmas and describes the terrible narakas that wait for those who break them, and he urges the listener to act now, before death comes.

Yudhishṭhira’s question

Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma how Śuka reached vairāgya. Śuka was born already knowing all the Vedas and already detached. Bhīshma answers by telling what Vyāsa himself taught Śuka. This teaching is called the Pāvakādhyayana because, like fire (pāvaka), it purifies.

The body as a water-bubble

Vyāsa begins with the shortness of the body’s life. The body is like a jalabubbudha (water-bubble). It rises for a moment on the water, trembles and bursts. The body has no more lasting form than a bubble. Everything a person gathers, wins, guards and loves for the sake of the body is as short-lived as the body.

Life as a horse

The most unusual teaching of the Pāvakādhyayana is that a whole human life is like the body of a horse:

  • Kalā and kāshṭhā, the smallest units of time, match the limbs and body parts of the horse.
  • Pakshas (fortnights) match the eyes of the horse.
  • Months match the limbs more broadly.

The horse is already running. Time does not wait. The jīva (the living being) who sits at ease on this horse and does not see that it is already galloping toward death will be caught unready. Time is not an idea. It is a body in motion that does not slow down for anyone.

Time as a wolf

A second comparison is time as a wolf (kāla-vṛka). Time chases the unready person as a wolf chases an animal that has left the herd. The person who is careless, who puts off practice, who says “I will begin tomorrow” is that animal, and he does not know the wolf is already close.

The wolf shows no mercy and hears no plea. A human enemy may be calmed or bargained with, but kāla (time) goes its way and answers no argument. The only safety is not to be the unready animal: to have already begun the practice that makes one’s awareness safe from the end of the body.

The warning about nāstikas

Vyāsa warns against the nāstikas, those who deny karma, rebirth and the moral order of the world. Their mistake is more than a mistake of belief. This human birth is the karma-bhūmi, the realm that is made for doing karma that prepares moksha. The nāstikas miss the whole purpose of human life.

In svarga (the heavenly realms) the results of earlier karma are enjoyed, but new dharmic karma is not gathered. In the lower realms beings are too crushed by suffering to practise. The human realm is special: one can enjoy the fruits of past karma and make new karma at the same time. To waste this chance by denying it is a mistake that cannot be undone.

The ten dharmas

Vyāsa names ten dharmas as the base of the path to moksha. They are the five yamas and the five niyamas.

The five yamas (restraints)

  1. Ahiṃsā: not harming, in thought, word and act.
  2. Satya: truthfulness.
  3. Asteya: not stealing.
  4. Brahmacarya: self-control, keeping the vital energy.
  5. Aparigraha: not grasping and not hoarding.

The five niyamas (observances)

  1. Śauca: purity of the body and of the surroundings.
  2. Santosha: contentment.
  3. Tapas: austerity, the heat of practice.
  4. Svādhyāya: study of one’s self and of the sacred texts.
  5. Īśvara-praṇidhāna: giving oneself to Parameśvara, turning all action toward the Supreme.

Vyāsa does not offer these as extras. They are the base of a life that aims at moksha. He speaks with the urgency that comes from knowing the wolf of time: they must be practised now.

The narakas

To show what breaking the dharmas costs, Vyāsa describes particular narakas (the places of suffering after death) that wait for those who break the ten dharmas.

  • Asipattravana: the forest of sword-leaves, where the wrongdoer is driven through trees whose leaves are sharp as swords. It is linked with great violence and harm.
  • Vaitaraṇī: the river of blood and pus that the wrongdoers must cross. It is linked with those who were cruel to people who depended on them and did not protect those in their care.
  • Paraśuvana: the forest of axes, where beings are cut again and again. It is linked with breaking ahiṃsā and the protecting work of dharma.

These descriptions are not only threats. In a world where karma works exactly, each naraka is the result of a certain kind of wrong, and what a person has done to others he lives through in a stronger form.

The urgency of the teaching

What sets the Pāvakādhyayana apart from general teaching is its urgency. Vyāsa speaks to his own son, who is already unusually mature, and he speaks as a father who sees time running out. Bhīshma tells it to Yudhishṭhira because the urgency can pass on to the listener: the teaching is pāvaka (purifying) because it burns away the ease that keeps people from practice.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 321