YSP Study Group – Sutra 2.35

अहिंसाप्रतिष्ठायां तत्सन्निधौ वैरत्यागः॥३५॥

ahiṁsā-pratiṣṭhāyaṁ tat-sannidhau vairatyāghaḥ ॥35॥

ahiMsaa=nonviolence; pratiShThaayaaM=upon the establishment; tat=that; sannidhou=in the presence; vaira=enmity; tyaagaH=giving up of

Sw. Satchidananda

"In the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease."

When a person is fully established in ahimsa in word, action and thought, he emits harmonious vibrations. Other people in the vicinity also give up their harmful tendencies. In the ancient times, sages, firmly following ahimsa, would live in the forest harmoniously with wild animals. Even a cow and a tiger would live peacefully together in their presence. Some known famous people who followed and advocated ahimsa are Mahatma Gandhi, St Francis and Gautam Buddha.

Bryant

"In the presence of one who is established in nonviolence, enmity is abandoned."

One who is established in nonviolence can influence the minds of others and make them also ‘sattvic’ such that they don’t display violent behavior prompted by ‘rajasic’ or ‘tamasic’ thoughts. Even natural enemies such as cat and mouse or mongoose and snake give up mutual enmity in the presence of a yogi who has given up violence. In an episode from the life mystic Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he caused the deer and tigers to dance together while he recited the holy name of Krishna.

Discussion

I am reminded of a scene in a movie depicting the life of the great eighteenth century saint of India, Swaminaryana. At the young age of 11, Nilakantha (who later became Swaminarayana) sets off barefoot in search of truth and spreading the message of peace. When he arrives in one of the villages on his journey, the local priest and the villagers urge him to spend the night indoors. They told him that a ferocious lion comes to the village at night and eats away any human or animal that he finds outside. Nilakantha, who was obviously established in ahimsa, was totally fearless and insisted on spending the night under a tree, rather than going inside a house or the temple. As expected, the lion came at night and moved dangerously toward the young boy. However, on nearing the boy, he suddenly became calm and spent the night sitting at the feet of the boy. In the morning he just left the village quietly. The villagers, on finding out what had happened, realized that this young boy was no ordinary child but a great mystic soul.

(Commentary by Kailasam Iyer)

YSP II-35 Enmity is sacrificed in the presence of non-violence.

This is the beginning in the YSP, after a long philosophical treatment, of putting the teachings in practice and what can be expected. It’s to our advantage to briefly recapitulate three concepts. Bryant equates Samskaras (1) to the activators of thoughts in our minds. Subhash has talked and written about the mind/body/spirit complex (2) in us. Sankhya philosophy describes the cycle (3) as follows: Sense organs bring information to the mind field. The mind supplies information from “memory” to the mix. Tanmatras interpret the mixture for the I-sense and project an image of the Universe. The action organs deal with the Universe according to the projected image. The discrepancy between the image and the actual is fed back to the processing field and on and on. The escape from this cycle and perception of the “actual” are facilitated by dissolving the interpretation part which makes living difficult, to say the least. A better approach is to totally immerse the mind in Satva which releases the SPIRIT. Ahimsa is integral to Satva.

Ahimsa is a mind/body intentionality which triumphs over bad samskaras; not made once and forgotten thereafter but constantly and vigilantly practiced. Ahimsa in practice makes fear disappear and that’s the key.

The Sanskrit words in this sutra were all in common colloquial usage in Tamil Nadu when I was growing up. Prathishtai and Sannidhi have divine and devotional connotations. Ahimsa and Thyag are words Mahatma Gandhi made clear to everybody in his time by example. Giving up self interest is implicit in Thyag. On holy days, the puja in the house begins by the making and “establishment” of an idol, invoking the spirit, and worshipping it. When a temple is built an idol is “established” in it to make the building a temple. In front of the “established” idol is the sannidhi where the devotee is granted dharshanam by the grace of God.

Ahimsa as an idol established in the mind is an intentionality guiding the action organs in their dealings with the environment. While that idol is in command enmity is sacrificed even to the detriment of one’s own body sometimes. In the language of WWJD ( What Would Jesus Do), turn the other cheek; talk about prathipakshabhavanam!

If one considers all the different ways in which the action organs can affect the environment ( beings and spaces), one gets a fair idea of the determination it takes to not do so adversely. The mind is an organ with dual capacity; it receives signals and it supplies thoughts and memories to the mindfield.

Vyasa, in his commentary, deals with three concepts in one elegant sentence. 1) Practice of ahimsa prevents unrighteousness from happening. 2) “Wealth” is created in Yogis. 3) The indication of the attainment of this “wealth” ( Siddhisuchakam) is the absence of enmity in Yogi’s mind. Beings who come close to him become loving and benevolent. Some commentators went on a curious journey of how tigers and poisonous snakes become benign. I will stick to people, aggressive people who become benign in this presence. I submit that this does not happen instantly. It takes a very long time and many trials and tribulations. Public opinion of a sense of human decency forces the aggressor to ameliorate his ways. In many instances it doesn’t happen at all ( Churchill and Gandhi or J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King Jr.). But that’s not Vyasa’s point in my opinion. The transformation is in the mind of the practioner. The benignity is noticeable in the I-sense towards the personhood. Absolute ahimsa frees the mind and engages the environment with absolute openness. The picture in the attachment is an ideal. Lamb as a Yogi is fearless; lion as a Yogi is gentle.
Many commentators have made much of not eating meat as part of ahimsa. I wish to stay out of this line of thinking. I know many meat eaters who are symbols of kindness and compassion. I also know many pure vegetarians who will cut your throat for a nickel.
I leave you with Isaiah XI 6-9.