THE DASBODHA BY: SADGURU SHREE SAMARTH RAMDAS ...

According to the medieval tradition of the Indian writers who used to
write on Vedanta, Shree Samarth has praised and called for the attention of Shree Ganesha (the
elephant God), Sharada (the Goddess of knowledge), Saints and the Guru. He has also praised the
Poets, the audience, the human body and spiritualism in general.
THE FIRST SAMAS – GRANTHARAMBH (BEGINNING OF THE EPIC BOOK)
This samas is like the preface of a book. Shree Samarth tells about
the purpose behind writing the book, the various subjects discussed in the book, the gains of
reading it, the basis of the hypotheses laid down in the book etc.
In the beginning the audience asks, “Which is this book? What does
it contain? And what will accrue to them after reading it?” Shree Samarth answers that, “This is the
Dasbodha. It is in the form of a dialogue between the Guru and the disciple and it describes the
various aspects and facets of the path of worship”.
The Dasbodha tells about nine types of worships, the knowledge of
the Parbrahma and deliberates over the feeling of being distant from everything except the truth.
There are also explanations about the knowledge about the self. The primary hypothesis of the
Dasbodha is that if you go on the path of worship you will definitely be unified with the God and
the Parbrahma. It deals with all the ingredients of the worship and the fruits it accrues in terms of
pure knowledge. In a gist it can be said that the book honestly, candidly and truthfully tells us about
the real me inside the visible me! It discusses the origin of Maya (The primary illusion), the five
basic elements of life and their role in day to day as well as spiritual life and above all who created
this universe in clear words and terminologies. Many doubts and illusions are cleared as well as
many objections to the stated path and the questions therein are wiped.
The Dasbodha is divided in to 20 Dashakas, each of which contains
10 Samasas. Shree Samarth has based the book on not only the opinions formed from his own
experiences but also on the Upanishads, Vedas and Brahma Sutras. Yet he finally depends upon the
self realization. Despite this many people criticize it forgetting that they are criticizing the basics of
the Hindu religion.
While writing this book Shree Samarth has first decided the form of
the subject using his wisdom. Then he has taken the help of various religious books for his
hypotheses.
Shree Samarth has said that one should take from Dasbodha (i.e. the
preaching) only up to the extent to which he can understand and follow it. Yet he firmly tells that
this should be done only after one has got rid of his pride.
Then Shree Samarth describes the fruits that will accrue after reading
this book. One who reads this book and acts accordingly is metamorphosed. He has no doubts
about anything, he finds the easier way of getting to the God and the Parbrahma through
spiritualism which no longer remains difficult, he gets the real knowledge and gets rid of all types
of myths and unhappiness, and he is never enchanted by anything. He gets wiser and this wisdom
helps him to cross the obstacles in daily as well as spiritual life by being astute in his judgment.
Fools may get a new lease of life; one can easily predict the behavior of the trouble mongers and
the goons. He knows how to utilize the faculty of thought and hence knows about the troubles
forthcoming. Idle people become industrious, sinners and atheists become pious and those who
were hitherto mocking the path of worship suddenly make a U turn and become ideal worshippers!