THE [VaiRAGYASATAKAM on THE HUNDRED VERSES ON RENUNCIATION BHARTRHARI SWAMI MADHAVANANDA ADVAITA ASHRAMA, 5 Dust ExratyeROAD Catcurta 700 018Pablsed by So, a oe Mavavany, Privonacan, HiALsyas A Rigs Reserved Seventh Eaton, Augut 1976 Moe ‘x Be wove Pung, 16, AMANAY ADUICARE LANE, fo SMCUTEA 700012, ies 35-9706 \ i ‘Tue Veiragya-Satakam is one of the three series of Ihundred verses which have come down to us undér the title of Swbhisitaitti (lit. “The heppily worded three Centuries’) and associated with the name of the post Bhartchari. 1a some manuscripts, these verses exceed ‘the number implied in the above name, but we have followed the authority of an edition published by the Nirnaya-sagar Press of Bombay, which maintains the exact original aumbe ‘Tradition attributes the authorship of these verses to Bhartyhari, the elder brother of the most renowned King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Controversy has not yet settled the point as to which Vikramiditya was the brother of the poct and when exactly he reigned at Uijain ‘The fact, it seems, that Bharizhari belonged to a royal family ‘and renounced the world later on in life to become a Yogt, forms the most reliable nucleus round which growing, and sometimes conflicting, traditions Ihave continued to gather. A cave is still pointed out near Ujjain, bearing his name, where Bbartrhari is said to have practised austerities. A book called the Natha- ‘limrta_ recording from hearsay stories about the cele- bites of the Natha sect of Yog's contains an account of Bhartrhar’s Ife in a loose, legendary style. Bur it is easy to make out thet, when all clue to authenticity ‘about the real facts of Bharichar’s life became lost to tradition, the memory of a career so stimulating to {imagination was not allowed to go down so hopelesslyCiv) denuded of facts, and the process of adding limbs and features to the stump of an older tradition naturally went on. Add to this process such floating legendary ‘materials as the story about a gift made to one’s ber loved proving her infidelity by changing hands ‘ill it reached the donor again, or the miracles with which the then famous sect of Yogis used to be credited and so on, and you hope to get a fairly good biography of Bharty- hha such as gradually guined currency in tradition The verses, composed—may be, with stray excep- tons—by Bhartyheri himself, cannot be made to give any clue to his individual life, for his poetry seks to create effect through style and sentimeat too conven tional to yield themselves to such use. But still his tite Jong lessons from experience and observation must have been reflected jn their peculiar trend and emphasis in the movements of sentiment through the verses; and it may be possible for a reader of penetrative intellect to trace ‘out from such nico shades the bare outline of u deeper Wife of hard-fought strugales and late-won victory. A nature, straightforward, possessed of noble faith in itself, ‘unambitious of high distinction among men, but deeply susceptible to the beauties and charms of sentiment, seems to have been involved once ina tangle of sensual fenjoyments too heavy to leave it the sustained strength for wielding the sceptre, til from alife of such weak- ress and contequent dependence, if gradually rose through resctions, deep and incisive, toa wonderfully enriched sense of worldly vanity and an effective steength of renunciation. The verses composed by Bhartrhari tend to present to view the background of oo) $0ch a ature stil holding in contol lower sucepibili- ties, once indulged, bythe dawaing posites of» ile of Yous. And though i is dificult to ascertain how far this fe of Yous had advanced. behind the role of the poet representing diferent stages of wisdom, it is fait presumptive the the poets vce gradually merged in the silence of the bight sical restiatons ‘The hundred verses of the Vairagya-Satakam are vided into ten groups under the following tn heading condemnation of desire Freanfesrtfrerar, file effors to give up semseobjecs; — argneraRTTR, condemnation of the poverty of a supplicant atitude; sitting, delineation of the evanescence of enjose ments ; spremfenrqrizg description of the working of Time, of the principle of change; afaqafetareacia, comparison ss to how a monk stands to a king arrsdrenfaaran, contol of mind by stimulating wisdom init; Pemfiecaegi@are:, discrimination of the immutable realty from the mutable; farfam, worship of Siva; aRORTUGE, (be way of life for an Avadhita, or asett realized ascetic characterized by the highest spi freedom, With thee few remarks of a prefatory nature, we send for this English translation of an important Poctca production of Mediaeval India into the world of modern readers. The translation has been made father too clotely literal, specially 10 suit the con- Yenience of those readers who want to follow the Original Sanskrit with its hep. 1a} Semaine