Bodhya
Bodhya, simply known as Bodhya, Sanskrit: बोध्य, Telugu: బోధ్యుడు, Hindi: बोध्य.
Bodhya is a ṛshi who appears in the Mahābhārata, in the Mokshadharma Parva of the Śānti Parva (Chapter 178). His teaching is called the Bodhya-Gīta. He is a master of vairāgya (detachment).
Bodhya teaches King Janaka that his calm of mind comes from learning from six gurus taken from the natural world. They are Piṅgalā (the dancing girl who gave up her hopes), the lāṭukika bird, the snake, the bee (bhramara), the arrow-maker (bāṇakāra) and the maiden with bangles (kumārī). Each one teaches a lesson through its own behaviour or situation.
The six gurus of Bodhya
1. Piṅgalā
Piṅgalā was a dancing girl (nartakī) who waited for a client who never came. As the night went on and her hope faded, she turned inward. She gave up all hope of getting anything from outside. She then found an inner contentment that no outside gain had ever given her.
Teaching: true contentment comes only from giving up the bhāvanā (the longing) of getting what one wants from outside.
2. The lāṭukika bird
This small bird carried a grain in its beak. Hundreds of other birds at once gathered round it and attacked it to take the grain. The moment it dropped the grain, it was left in peace.
Teaching: possessions bring conflict. When attachment is let go, peace returns.
3. The snake
A snake lives without a fixed home. It goes wherever there is space, in old walls or in the roots of trees. It looks for no lasting home.
Teaching: the wise person needs no fixed place. He moves freely through whatever comes, with no attachment to a dwelling.
4. The bee (bhramara)
The bee takes nectar from many flowers. It harms no single flower and does not drain it. It takes only what it needs.
Teaching: live lightly on many sources and do not drain any one of them. The wise person learns from many teachers and traditions, and is not attached to any single one.
5. The arrow-maker (bāṇakāra)
The craftsman who makes arrows is so deep in the careful work of shaping the shaft that he does not notice even a royal procession passing close by him.
Teaching: one-pointed absorption in the task at hand produces a state of natural meditation. A mind fully present in what it is doing is not pulled away by outside show.
6. The maiden with bangles (kumārī)
A young woman was meeting a suitor. She was grinding grain in a room with bracelets (kaṅkaṇa) on both arms. The noise of the bangles knocking together was embarrassing. She took off all the bracelets except one on each arm.
Teaching: when there is only one, there is no noise and no clash. Among many, friction and noise cannot be avoided. In solitude (ekatva) one finds silence. The fewer the ties, the more śānti (peace). In the end, ekatva, being alone or one, is supreme.
Bodhya’s teaching to Janaka
Besides the six gurus, Bodhya gives Janaka his own standard of calm of mind in this verse:
Na me krudhyanti ye kecit na me hṛshyanti ye kecit
The meaning given with the verse is: nothing is mine, nothing is not mine.
The Bodhya-Gīta teaches that one may take the natural world itself as one’s guru, without the usual formal bond of guru and śishya (student).
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 178 (the Bodhya-Gīta)