Parāśara Gītā

The Parāśara Gītā is a teaching of nine chapters (Chapters 290–298) in the Mokshadharma Parva of the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata. Parāśara Maharshi gives it to King Janaka of Videha. Janaka is a true seeker of moksha (liberation).

The teaching covers varṇa-dharma (the duties of each varṇa), the dangers of household life, the rules of war, the working of karma, the three guṇas in the intellect, and the picture of the person as a chariot.

Who tells it and who hears it

Bhīshma tells this teaching to Yudhishṭhira as an itihāsa, a history of a talk between a teacher and a student. The teacher is Parāśara, the son of Śakti, the grandson of Vasishṭha and the father of Vedavyāsa. The student is King Janaka of Videha, a king of great authority and deep spiritual understanding. The teaching runs through nine chapters (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 290–298).

Varṇa-dharma and the path of the śūdra

In the opening section Parāśara tells how each varṇa reaches śreyas (the highest good). He says that sevā (service) to the other three varṇas is itself the sādhanā (practice) of the śūdra. It is not shameful. It is the path by which a śūdra can rise to greatness. A dark cloud still holds lightning inside it. In the same way a person of a lower varṇa who follows his dharma with devotion becomes bright through that practice.

Parāśara gives the picture of a white cloth. Whatever colour it is dyed with, it takes that colour. In the same way, whatever company a person keeps, that quality enters him. So Parāśara urges sattva-saṅga, the company of people of sattva (goodness), at all times (Chapter 291).

Rule and giving: dāna and theft

Parāśara sets a strict standard for a king. A king who takes the cattle and wealth of his people and gives a small part away as dāna (gift) is not a giver (dātṛ). He is a taker. His few gifts do not wash away the stain of the much larger taking. True dāna is giving from wealth honestly earned, and giving up the fruit of the act. A small act of dharma, done in the right way, brings more blessing than large acts done by impure means (Chapter 293).

Household life and its dangers

A long part of the teaching (Chapters 294–295) speaks of the dangers of the life of the householder (gṛhastha). Parāśara gives the steps in order:

  1. A person begins with the natural attachments of family life.
  2. Attachment brings rati (the search for pleasure).
  3. Rati brings lobha (greed).
  4. Greed drives a person to take what is not rightly his.
  5. Wrong taking brings guilt and worry.
  6. Worry grows as the family and those who depend on him grow.
  7. Love for children brings pain when they fall ill or die.

This is the round of household life. In the end it brings vairāgya (detachment) through the losses and suffering a person has met. So vairāgya that comes out of worldly pain, bitter as it is, is a true door to liberation. Parāśara does not blame household life. He shows how it works: lived faithfully, it is the very stuff of saṃsāra, and it makes a person ready to go beyond saṃsāra (Chapters 294–295).

Tapas: the path of the renunciate

After showing the dangers of household attachment, Parāśara describes the path of tapas (austerity). The vairāgya that comes from worldly loss leads to jijñāsā, the wish to know the self. Jijñāsā leads to the study of the śāstras. The study of the śāstras shows tapas as the highest means.

The path of the tapasī (one who practises tapas) is a cleansing from within. The same chain of rāga (liking), dvesha (dislike) and moha (delusion) that bound the householder is loosened step by step by tapas. At the end the inmost ātman shows itself as always free (Chapter 295).

The three guṇas in the intellect

Parāśara teaches how each of the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas) shapes the buddhi (intellect) of a person (Chapters 296–297).

  • Tamas in the buddhi: it brings dullness, confusion, sleep and the inability to tell dharma from adharma.
  • Rajas in the buddhi: it brings craving, fierce and competitive action, pride, and a ready acceptance of wrong means to reach what one wants.
  • Sattva in the buddhi: it brings clarity, the power to discriminate, truthfulness and the ability to ask about moksha.

The teaching says that the road to moksha is the slow mastery of tamas and rajas in the buddhi by sattva. They are not wiped out, which can happen only at moksha itself. During sādhanā they are held below sattva.

The rules of war

A special section of the Parāśara Gītā (Chapter 297) tells who may be killed in battle and who may not. It is one of the clearest teachings on yuddha-dharma (the dharma of war) in the Mokshadharma Parva.

Not to be killed: a man who is tired, frightened or unarmed; one who has dropped his weapon; one who is weeping; one who has turned and fled; one who has no attendants or battle gear; one who is ill or wounded; a child or an old man; and one who begs for his life.

May be killed: a man who is fully armed and is fighting, who is equal in strength or stronger; a prince who has made himself ready for battle.

Killing should take place only between equals who have both chosen to fight. Killing an enemy who is retreating or unarmed is called pāpa-bhūyishṭha (full of great pāpa, sin) and a cause of naraka (Chapter 297).

The chariot of the mind

The well-known picture of the mind as a chariot (mano-maya ratha) is given in Chapters 297–298. Parāśara describes the person as a ratha (chariot):

  • The body is the chariot.
  • The senses are the horses.
  • Manas (the mind) is the reins.
  • Buddhi (the intellect) is the charioteer.
  • The jīva (the ātman in life bound to the world) is the passenger.

The work of the sādhaka (one who practises) is to bring the horses, the senses, under the control of the reins, the mind. He must also see that the charioteer, the buddhi, is awake, full of sattva and turned toward liberation and not toward the pleasure of the senses. When the charioteer loses control, when rajas or tamas overpower the buddhi, the chariot runs into adharma (Chapters 297–298).

Karma-vipāka

Parāśara also teaches karma-vipāka, the ripening of karma. He takes up the question whether karma decides everything or whether human effort can override it. His answer is that karma sets the wide limits of a person’s experience. Within those limits, effort in line with dharma does two things: it fulfils the person’s duties, and it makes the buddhi pure for the path to moksha. A person who acts in the knowledge that the fruits of action belong to the field of karma, and acts without personal attachment, gathers no new binding karma. The results of past karma do not bind him either (Chapter 298).

The father as the highest guru

Among the particular teachings of the Parāśara Gītā is the statement that for a human being the father is the highest guru. He is higher even than the teacher who teaches the śāstras. The father is the first teacher of dharma in daily life. The debt to the father (pitṛ-ṛṇa) is the most basic of the three debts. The highest aim is freedom from all duties, the debts included. But within the world of duties the father’s claim comes first (Chapter 297).

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 290–298 (Parāśara Gītā), including Chapter 291 (varṇa-dharma and the path of the śūdra), Chapter 293 (rule and dāna), Chapters 294–295 (household life and tapas), Chapters 296–297 (the three guṇas in the buddhi), Chapter 297 (the rules of war and the father as guru), Chapters 297–298 (the chariot of the mind) and Chapter 298 (karma-vipāka)