Avanti Brahmana and Bhiksu-Gita

Chapter 23

Krishna narrated the story of a brahmana from Avanti who was plagued by greed and miserliness, and later found himself being exploited by his very own family members. Aside from them, his wealth was snatched away by thieves, governments, time and ultimately the will of providence. In that dire condition, stripped of everything, left poverty-stricken and alone, a deep feeling of renunciation developed within him.

In an outpouring of spiritual realisation, he described the evils that arise with the acquisition of wealth; one loses their character and their relationships, spiralling into more and more misery. He concluded that the time had come to embrace detachment, and thus entered the sannyasa order of life. Begging from door to door, he was often verbally and physically attacked by ignorant persons unaware of his spiritual calibre. The Avanti brahmana, however, was completely fixed. In one celebrated verse, he described how the mind is the cause of all distress, and in another famous verse, known as the ‘sannyasa-mantra,’ he described how one can cross the insurmountable ocean of the material world through unbreakable determination in devotional service.