Karl Renz - ECHOES OF SILENCE Avadhut Gita Revisited

ECHOES OF SILENCE

A VADHUT G ITA R EVISITED

K ARL R ENZ

CONCEPT BY

SANJAY INAMDAR

CONCEPT BY

MANJIT ACHHRA

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY

SANJAY INAMDAR & MANJIT ACHHRA

Once King Yadu (ancestor of Krishna) met Avadhut Dattatreya
on the way. Impressed by his enigmatic carefreeness, the
King was drawn towards him. He humbly prostrated before
Dattatreya and asked, Sir, may I know how is it that you seem
to be so happy? What is the source of your happiness, though
you appear to be like a beggar? Who are you? May I know your
whereabouts and a little of your history?

Dattatreya did not say who he was. He merely said,
I am happy because of what I am, not because of what I have.

ECHOES OF SILENCE Avadhut Gita Revisited

Copyright 2013 Karl Renz

First Edition: October 2013

PUBLISHED BY
ZEN PUBLICATIONS
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Gulmohar Cross Road No. 9, JVPD Scheme,
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author or his agents, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

CONTENTS

Other Books by Karl Renz

A Little Bit Of Nothingness
81 Observations On The Unnamable Worry and be Happy
The Audacity of Hopelessness The Song of Irrelevance
Meditation of what you are Heaven and HellAm I I AmMay It Be As It Is
The Embrace of Helplessness If You Wake Up, Dont Take It Personally
Dialogues in the Presence of Arunachala The Myth of Enlightenment
Seeing Through the Illusion of Separation

Other Books by Zen Publications

Redemption Stories: Unwasted PainA Duet of OnePursue Happiness And Get EnlightenedPointers From Ramana MaharshiEnlightened LivingA Buddhas BabbleA Personal Religion Of Your OwnThe Essence of The Ashtavakra GitaThe Relationship Between I And MeSeeking Enlightenment - Why ?Nuggets of WisdomConfusion No MoreGuru PournimaAdvaita and the BuddhaIt So Happened That The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. BalsekarSin and Guilt: Monstrosity of MindThe Infamous EgoWho Cares?!The Essence of the Bhagavad GitaYour Head in the Tigers MouthConsciousness WritesConsciousness SpeaksThe Bhagavad Gita - A Selection

P REFACE

The impossibility of satisfactorily introducing Karl Renz or whatever he says to readers was conveniently circumvented by us so far in our earlier compilations of his talks into books simply by using the facility of not doing so, leaving readers to get an unfiltered and unobjectivised taste of Karl directly.

We apologize this time, however, for the intervention as it was difficult to retain that facility in this compilation, where Karl, here, is in what he could term as good company of Dattatreya which necessitated this deviation.

While editing Karls book Song of Irrelevance, I happened to go through the Avadhut Gita (song of the free) of Dattatreya (incidentally Ramesh Balsekars copy which he had gifted me) and was pleasantly shocked to discover the complementary nature of the songs sung by these two. Discovering someone whose words resonate so harmoniously with the motor-mouth prattle of Karls empty words, (for me, a rarity matched recently only by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ranjit Maharaj, Ramana Maharishi and UG) was like a cherry on the Karl cake. Excited, I experimented juxtaposing verses from the Avadhut Gita along with selective dialogues (or more appropriately, monologues) of Karl from the books manuscript for fun. The concoction turned out to be a flamboyantly audacious and mind blowing jugalbandi (jamming session) of these two. The idea of this book took root then.

It may be noted that before discussing the idea of this book with him, Karl was unaware of Dattatreya or the Avadhut Gita. He did not concern himself in any way about the content, quality, production or post-production issues pertaining to this (or any earlier) book. About this book, Karl joked He (Dattatreya) says the same things like me, but in much fewer words. Its going make me look stupid for using so many words! Karl added, He is far more polite, unlike me!

Interestingly, Karl (name given by his parents) in German means free man, strong - not very different from the word Avadhut which, in layman terms, may be roughly understood as the free one - of the highest possible order, who has transcended both bondage and freedom.

The Sanskrit verses have been incorporated in this book to facilitate their independent interpretation, authentication and verification as a certain amount of divergence in interpretation has crept into the various available translations. For this book the translation of verses is done by myself and Manjit Achhra assisted by references to translations of Swami Ashokananda, Swami Abhayananda, Sri Jaya Chamarajendra Wadiyar, Banmali Chaturvedi and others.

Anyone familiar with the Avadhut Gita of Dattatreya would agree to the sheer audacity of this extreme Advaita text. The stunningly paradoxical proclamations found here leave little room, if any, for the reader to honestly arrive at any comprehensible imagination of Reality, striking at the root - imagination itself, which is found to be the impediment to Reality. It is perhaps this intellectually untouchable nature of the Avadhut Gita that renders this ancient scripture unsusceptible to relative interpretation, thereby retaining its eternally enigmatic and uncatchable nature- remaining forever, a double arrowed pointer to n Absoluteness Itself!

Sanjay Inamdar
September 2013

I NTRODUCTION

Lao Tzu says The Tao that can be spoken, is not the real Tao, The name that can be named is not the real name. In that sense, can we call silence as truth? No! Says Karl-Who needs to be quiet to be quiet? Silence is not sitting somewhere and not saying anything. Thats still saying too much. Thats talking too loud someone who is not saying something.

This book presents unparalleled dialogues from Dattatreyas Avadhut Gita and talks with Karl Renz. Dattatreya is an ancient Indian Avadhut encompassing the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, collectively known as Trimurti. The name Dattatreya can be divided into two words Datta (meaning given) and Atreya referring to the sage Atri, his physical father.

Dattatreya was born to sage Atri, who was promised by Shiva, that he himself would incarnate as his son. Since the Absolute subsumes all three aspects of the trimurti, Dattatreya is usually depicted with three heads, symbolising Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; past, present and future; and the three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. They also symbolize the three states of manifestation: creation, sustenance and destruction.

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