वयसिगते कः कामविकारः
शुष्के नीरे कः कासारः ।
क्षीणेवित्ते कः परिवारः
ज्ञाते तत्त्वे कः संसारः ॥

What good is lust when youth has fled? What use is a lake which has no water? Where are the relatives when wealth is gone? Where is samsara, the world, when the Truth is known?

Who is a Brahmana? A Brahmana is the one who learns from his life. Can anyone say with 100% commitment that he or she is satisfied with what has been achieved? Even a highly accomplished person also has some dependency and craves for something.

Pareekshya lokan karmachidan brahmana: nirvedam ayat asti
What I wanted to say is Vedanta is addressed to one who is suffering from samsaritwa i.e. limitation and bondage, and who wants to get released from that.

All the Upanishads say, it is ignorance of self that binds one and removal of self-ignorance, liberates him from his feeling of bondage.

It is because of self-ignorance, the jiva suffers from all notions about itself and about others. So think again and again what you have achieved. Has what you have achieved given you satisfaction? One who learns from life experiences and knows about the limitations of life and has grown out of it, is the real brahmana.

The viveka choodamani says that

Pathanthu sasthrani, yajanthu devan, kurvanthu karmani, bhajanthu devathaa, athma aikya bodhena vina vimukthi: na sidhyathi brahma shatha anthare api

• Vayase gathi ka Kama vikara? – When the old age has come, where is the need for to keep enjoying pleasures? Do we really think we can be as active as we are when were in school, college or keep talking about the old days when you are 50, 60 or 70. Come on grow out of this as you cannot live in the past and has to see what you can do in the remaining of your life to know the truth. It is not practical, right for one to be immature and still holding on to things for pleasure.

• Shushke nire ka kasara? – When there is no water at all, still will you call it as a pond or river? Nire Shushke means after the water is dried up, what is the use of calling the pond as full of water? Similarly when you are old, it is not mature to hold on to worldly pleasures. It is meant here that naturally by now you would have grown out of the desires. If it is not, then you are not mature enough and still there is a desire in you to keep enjoying pleasure even when you are old, your body cannot support, your mind is not active. Dispassion involves maturity, but hatred involves immaturity.

• Kshine vitte ka parivara? If you don’t have wealth, do you think your relatives will come after you? No. People need you as long as you have something to give them. If you don’t have anything to give, c/o platform, beggar would the person have a family? Think hard

• Jnate tattve, kaha samsara? When the truth is known, where is samsara? In the wake of knowledge the samsara is gone and no longer exists.

Verse 11

मा कुरु धन जन यौवन गर्वं
हरति निमेषात्कालः सर्वम् ।
मायामयमिदमखिलं हित्वा var बुध्वा
ब्रह्मपदं त्वं प्रविश विदित्वा ॥ ११॥

Do not boast of wealth, friends, and youth. Each one of these are destroyed within a minute by time. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of Maya and attain the timeless Truth.

• Janah – means a human being
• Ma kuru – may you not do or not have
• Garvam – pride
• Dhanam, yavanam – pride of wealth, and youth.
• Harathi – means you lose
• Nimeshath kalam sarvam – any minute, any time
• Maya mayamidham – this whole thing is an illusion
• Akhilam hithva – free yourself from this illusion
• Brahma padham tvam – by you understanding the truth of Brahman
• Pravisha vidhithva – you attain the timeless truth or enter into the timeless area.

We should slowly get rid of the Kartrtva buddhi from our mind. Here Adi Sankara says that let’s not take pride in wealth, progeny or youth. All these are temporary and they come and go. You can never be rich all the time, nor be with your children ever or be ever young. You can do all sorts of things, but these things are of lower nature and materialistic. Hence these are bound to decay and wither away. But by understanding the limitless Brahman that you are, you enter into the era of where time is not there anymore. Time is within Brahman but Brahman is not within time.