In this excerpt Swamiji explains the other meaning of the four things that make you complete: eating, drinking, dancing and laughing in Kashmir Shaivism. Here he refers to a verse from the Hymns to Shiva, Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali, Chapter 5, verse 18.
Chapter 5 (32:52)
हस्यते नृत्यते यत्र रागद्वेषादि भुज्यते ।
पीयते भक्तिपीयूषरसस्तत्प्राप्नुयां पदम् ॥१८॥
hasyate nṛtyate yatra rāgadveṣādi bhujyate /
pīyate bhaktipīyūṣarasastatprāpnuyāṁ padam //18//
O Lord, I would like to achieve that state of being where hasyate, You are filled with laughter, where You are filled with laughter, You always laugh, nṛtyati, You always dance, rāgadveṣādi bhujyate, You always eat the craving of worldly enjoyments “at” means subsiding; “eating worldly enjoyments” means subsiding worldly enjoyments).
So, in the outward world also, this real enjoyment lies in eating, dancing, and laughing.
JOHN: “Dancing” means here?
JOACHIM: Nṛtyati.
JOHN: Yes, but I mean what does it mean in the . . . ?
SWAMIJI: I will tell you. Hasyate means to laugh, laughing. Nṛtyate means when there is dance. When you are laughing always, when you are dancing, and when you are eating many varieties [of food], and when you are drinking, these four things make you complete. The completion of your life is done by these four things: when you are laughing when you are dancing . . . dancing is there, laughing is there, eating all varieties [of food] is there, and drinking Scotch whisky worth five hundred rupees a bottle [laughter].
JOHN: This has other meaning, these . . . ?
SWAMIJI: The other meaning is hasyate. Hasyate means when you laugh at the worldly people, when you laugh at/on these worldly peoples [and think], “what are they doing? They are only wasting their time in going here and there. This activity is all false activity”. So, you laugh at them.
Nṛtyate. Nṛtyate means nṛti gātra vikṣepe (this is the verbal root from nṛti). Gātra vikṣepe means “you shatter, you shatter away all of your limbs”. “All of your limbs” means all attachments. When all attachments, bodily attachments (e.g., bodily attachment is with Viresh, with John, with your master, with all your surroundings, with house, with motorcar, with swimming – these are your limbs), when these limbs are all shattered to pieces, that is nṛtyate, that is dancing, that is real dancing.
Rāgadveṣādi bhujyate, and what is “eating”? [Eating] varieties is eating, just absorbing attachment and hatred. Love, hatred, all of these things, when they are absorbed, when they are consumed inside, in God-consciousness, that is “eating”.
Pīyate bhaktipīyūṣa rasaḥ. Pīyate means “drinking”, but not that Scotch whisky. Bhaktipīyūṣa rasa, just being attached to your divine nature, when you are attached to your divine nature, that is the real drink.
Where this is being done, I would like to achieve that state of being. When shall I achieve that state?
Source: Hymns to Shiva, Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali revealed by Swami Lakshmanjoo
Copyright © John Hughes
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