Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam (Study)
by Sadhu Gyanananddas | 2021 | 123,778 words
This page relates ‘Diksha (3): Relaxation in the Observance of Niyamas’ of the study on the Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam in Light of Swaminarayan Vachanamrut (Vacanamrita). His 18th-century teachings belong to Vedanta philosophy and were compiled as the Vacanamrita, revolving around the five ontological entities of Jiva, Ishvara, Maya, Aksharabrahman, and Parabrahman. Roughly 200 years later, Bhadreshdas composed a commentary (Bhasya) correlating the principles of Vachanamrut.
9. Dikṣā (3): Relaxation in the Observance of Niyamas
The Svāminārāyaṇa tradition is firm but not inert. For example, on the day of a fast, one has to renounce water and food strictly, but the śāstras permit one who is seriously ill to eat on the day of a fast. This indicates that all the religious norms are to help humans, not against them. These relaxations of duties are prescribed by the śāstra for absolute emergencies only. This is known as āpad dharma. This is the dharma allowed in periods of great difficulty. One should never relax in the performance of one’s duties in the face of very normal difficulties.[1]
The Mahābhārata instructs,
“Āpad dharma should be resorted to only in the face of death. Once the calamity has cleared, then one should observe the normal rules of dharma.”
In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, there is a story of Uśasti Ṛṣi. Uśasti did not get food for many days. He was about to die. On his last breath, he went to a mahāvat (elephant rider), who was at that time eating putrefied black lentils and asked for some food. The mahāvat gave him the half-eaten food from his dish, which Uśasti ate. Subsequently, the mahāvat offered him water.
Uśasti said,
“No, I can stay alive with the black lentils for now. I shall not drink the water from which you have already drunk.”
This should be recognized as the appropriate practice of āpad dharma. Today, the observance of dharma has deteriorated because people have started treating minor problems as āpad dharma.[2]
Bhadreśadāsa also comments on the Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII:
“evamanena prāṇātyayasaṃkaṭe sarvānnānumitirāpaddharmācaraṇavivekaścopadiṣṭau |” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII 1/10/4, p.53)
“Thus, an act of āpad dharma is permitted only at the face of death. But it should not be accepted as a routine habit. This wisdom is preached here.”
The Brahmasūtras also describes this fact in the form of a sūtra:
sarvānnānumatiśca prāṇātyaye taddarśanāt[3]
The Bhāṣyakāra explains that:
sarvabhakṣaṇānujñā na sarvakālikāpi tu prāṇātyaye prāṇasaṃkaṭalakṣaṇāpatkāle eva | (Brahmasūtra 3/4/28, p.370)
“The act of accepting the food which is tasted by another person is permitted only at the face of death.”
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
APM 4/53/35
[2]:
Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII 1/10/1-4
[3]:
Brahmasūtras 3/4/28