The Pearl of Wisdom - Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

Body, Trick and Danger ( Kaayam, Upaayam, Apaayam )

Guru: O my son, the body, the trick ( thanthric device ) and danger are three kinds of knowledge. They protect the single body in whatever way the body should be protected. They do so with great care and planning. They consider the body as indestructible.

These trickiest characters lock the spring. They look with pride upon the world, fame, children, lust, sex, beauty, enhancement of looks, dance and music. Thesethanthric devices ( tricks ) block the spring, block the breath, sing songs, search the jungles and develop the house of the body. The tricky character is carefully employed to acquire things, accumulate and keep them. They call it bliss and think it so.

Next is the knowledge of danger to the house of the body. The knowledge of thethanthric devices ( tricks) searches through cunning , tricks, black-magic, deceit, possessiveness ( mamakaram ), arrogance, keeping something inside, another outside, one in the heart, another on the lips, with falsehood, backbiting one in the eye, another in the mind and with many kinds of dancing, singing and saying “ Aah” with sickness and disease. God’s angry glance falls on such a dangerous person. He wanders about having lost everything including the two characters ( body and trick ) and all that had been acquired. He realises it is time to know God and to know Him only through wisdom within wisdom. He unsteadily calls out to his father, to his mother, to his relatives and to God, mentioning the names at random. He finally recalls the danger and yells, “Aah !”

The three characters, body, trick and danger give birth to Maya and tricks. Having accumulated dangerous things through deception, they leave them behind, shouting repeatedly in an alarming voice, “ wife, child, husband, man, woman”. They leave behind all the things they had collected on earth saying, “ No good! There is nothing in this world! My life did not experience any good! Here is danger! There is danger ! There is danger every where!” With such a noise will be his end.

Did you listen, O disciples, gems of my eyes to the fearful wonders acquired by these three characters ? Know this. Their names are land, woman and gold. These are the three characters. There are yet several other meanings. Learn about the mystery of danger with a little keenness. O disciples, gems of my eyes, these are not simple matters.

Divide them into participle by participle and realise it in an incisive manner. Everyone says that the desire for land, woman and gold is evil. It is very easy to say this, but very difficult to avoid them. Know this. Look for a mature guru and if you perform your duty with complete grace and obey him, you will be able to get rid of danger, O disciples, gems of my eyes.