Prakruthiya paata - Part 1
Uddhava Geethe
There are three ‘Geethes’* rendered by Lord Krishna. The Bhagavad Geethe addressed to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra needs no introduction.
*Discourses referred to as songs
After composing the epic Mahaabhaaratha (containing the Bhagavad Geethe), Veda Vyaasa wrote the Srimad Bhaagvatha, which contains the Uddhava Geethe. Uddhava Geethe, is considered to be a sequel to the Bhagavad Geethe, and is addressed to Uddhava, a friend, cousin and ardent devotee of Krishna. Also called Hamsa Geethe, it is lesser known, much longer and more complex, than the Bhagavad Geethe. It is Krishna’s final message to mankind.
Avadhuta Geethe
An avadhuta is a realised and spiritually evolved person who owns nothing and is free from worldly attachments and societal constraints.
Within the Uddhava Geethe is a seemingly simple, but very profound episode, wherein Yayaati’s* son Yadu** came across an avadhuta clad in nothing but a loincloth, but more joyous and free from worry than anyone he had ever met.
His interest piqued, Yadu asked the avadhuta to reveal the secret of his joy and who he learnt it from. The avadhuta replied that he had not learnt to be joyous from any human ‘guru’, for it is the nature of humans to experience sorrow and worry.
The avadhuta told Yadu that since all worries and sorrows stem from a single source:- desire; he learnt his life’s lessons from Prakruthi or nature which is the embodiment of joy, experiences no sorrow, which only ‘gives’ without getting anything in return, that is, has no desire or expectation.
He proclaimed that he had not one or two teachers but 24 teachers in all – the soil, the wind, the sky, water, fire, the sun, the moon, a pigeon, a python, the ocean, a moth, a bumblebee, a honey extractor/collector, elephant, deer, fish, a prostitute, a kingfisher, a baby, a young girl, a hunter, a snake, a spider and a wasp.