SHREE SAMARTH’S VIEW OF LIFE


The view of life in general which Shree Samarth has advocated in the Dasbodha is that of a singular existence of the body and the God or the Parbrahma. He has profoundly refuted the theory of the dual existence because by definition the duality is temporary, deals with the day to day affairs and is time bound whereas singularity is endless and is not bound by time. These two are popularly known in the Hindu religion and the Vedanta as Singularity and Duality. Only for the sake of fighting the foreign rule he gave some concession to duality to be practiced as singularity as people understood it, would have forbidden the people from fighting against the then rulers. This may seem to be a paradox, but though it was against his basic philosophy he had to painfully allow it as the common man took a very long time, sometimes a lifetime, most of the times never to really understand the hypothesis of either singularity or duality or had nothing to do with it, such was the pathetic state of affairs of the prevailing social environment which he very much yearned and longed for to change.
While explaining the hypothesis of singularity Shree Samarth utilized the contemporary mindset while explaining the day to day affairs he gave new meanings to the old imageries. Some part of the Dasbodha refers to the time period during which Shree Samarth lived, but it is very short yet one can get a fair idea about the society and its ways of living during those times. The main gist of the Dasbodha is full of principles which are endless, encompassing everything, truth, applicable to all the times, situations, very minutely meaningful, and based on real life experiences which helps in making anyone’s life complete in all the senses regardless of his/her times or the place of living. On one hand the hypothesis of the singularity and duality is fitted in the worship of the deities and on the other it is woven like a craftsman in the fields of morality and the correct ways of leading the best possible day to day life by him in the Dasbodha. To understand the philosophy of Dasbodha everyone should constantly remember the so called ten commandments of the Hindu religion.
1) Shree Samarth wasn’t an author from the mould of self proclaimed wise pundits. He was a saint who had acquired the ultimate knowledge through yeoman efforts, had unified with the Parbrahma and had vast experience in all facets of life. Therefore while explaining what he wanted to convey, he gave highest importance to realization of the self. His writing should be read not on the basis of the deduction by thought process but by going beyond that i.e. many a time you have to read between the lines also.
2) His philosophy about the human life was finally decided before he started writing the Dasbodha. Despite this he had gone through most of the books written by other philosophers. He has very honestly told this in the beginning of the Dasbodha.
3) His philosophy resembles that of those who believe in the hypothesis of singularity. This doesn’t mean that he formulated his opinions after reading the literature of those who also believed in the same. His hypotheses are based on his own derivations coming out of his vast experience.
4) Dasbodha is a dialogue between the Guru and the disciple. In each of the Samasas Shree Samarth has answered one or more queries of the disciple. He has through his own genius guessed what the disciples can ask pertaining to the topic of discussion and then solved those questions. He knew that he was at times repeating what he had written earlier but he permitted himself this liberty for the benefit of the mankind, as it was necessary to stress those points again and again for the achievement of the final goal.
5) The prime reason for which Shree Samarth wrote Dasbodha was to explain what is Parbrahma, Atman, God, Maya or the illusion, manifestations of the Maya, the visible universe, the cycle of time, life, cycle of birth, death, rebirth and how to avoid it, real and ultimate knowledge, worship and all the facets of life on this earth and the interrelationships between all of these.
6) He has strongly advocated worship as the main and the best path to be followed leading to the God but at the same time his worship and faith is never blind, on the contrary it is strongly based on wisdom which incorporates spiritualism with the correct way of leading the day to day life.
7) Shree Samarth’s stress on wisdom and common sense in his philosophy is very rarely seen in the writings of the philosophers of not only his times but those before and after him also. Only Spinoza who was his contemporary from Europe also stressed on the same things which was amazingly coincidental. Shree Samarth literally tore off the existing ideas about the God and the Saints who were doing more harm to the society than good. He taught the society to depend upon real life experiences than preformed ideas. His most favorite hypothesis was, “With the help of wisdom and common sense anyone can expand his spectrum of vision thus becoming more kind as an end result which will ultimately yield the real knowledge and Moksha”.
8) Shree Samarth had reached the highest pedestal of spirituality, yet he looked at the level of the common man very sympathetically which is quite evident in Dasbodha. Common man aspires to get to the God without compromising on his family life and money. Shree Samarth therefore has told ways of attaining that without disturbing the life of anyone.
9) Many a critic has tried to find out the reasons why the Indian society has lagged behind. Shree Samarth has given two reasons for it after deep thought. The first one according to him is inept thinking and the other being lack of efforts. He believes that lack of wisdom and idleness has led to this state of affairs whereas application of wisdom and untiring hard work are the ways to remedy and correct the ways of the society going astray hitherto. The great Yogi Aurobindo also has the same opinion.
10) He fully knew the worth and the power of literature. He says that those who will read Dasbodha and employ the ways told in it will shed all illusions, desires, grief and gain in real knowledge apart from becoming wiser. Those who were bound by the body and its pleasures or otherwise will be freed from them. Fools will know how to at least protect themselves, atheists will become staunch worshippers, the downtrodden will have a taste of piety, and all in all they will have everlasting peace and bliss and will become the fittest candidates to attain Moksha. History is witness to the fact that all that Shree Samarth prophesized literally got translated in to truth. Many have achieved the ultimate in spirituality thanks to Dasbodha.