15. THIS IS 'MAYA', THIS IS 'MOHA'

Man cannot get rid  of his heavy load of desires! They (desires) multiply as the body moves to the grave!!

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The 15th stanza shows the picture of a young man growing old is beautifully screened. The  sequence of the lines in the stanza is the very sequence in which age appears in man. First, the body becomes old; then grey hairs appear; then the teeth start falling off and, at last, the backbone has no more the strength to hold the body erect, and he takes the help of a walking stick to keep himself erect.  Leaning on his staff, painfully he drags himself on tottering legs---a sad and pitiable sight indeed.

Desires grow in the mind as the body grows old:-

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And the dissipated body becomes more decrepit. The capacity for enjoyment leaves the body, but the mind, which has developed habits of immortality, cruelly persecutes the emaciated body. Theoretically, it may be assumed that the old man has exhausted all passions and feels no more any hunger  or thirst for flesh and pleasure; but it is very rarely so! The bundle of desires even then leaves him not. On the other hand, it persecutes him all the more because the mind thirsts, the intellect plans, and alas, the body cannot execute!

The statement:-

Swami Sankaracharya indicates that the only way to peace is to control desires even while we are young, so that it becomes a habit. Thus, at least when the youthfulness has departed, the matured old man come to live peacefully his time of retirement in tranquillity  and inner joy.

Bhajagovindam    Bhajagovindam......................................