Anasooya

 

Anasooya was the wife of Sage Atri , and the mother of Dattatraya in ancient Hindu literature. But this is not what this post is about.

Yesterday at the Sunday lecture series with my group from Minneapolis Prof Prasanna Kumar carried on with the second part of his talk discussing the qualities of a sthithapradnya as described in the 12th chapter of the Bhagwad Gita.

Adweshtaa sarva bhootaanaam 

Maitraha karuna eva cha …..

One who does not despise anyone 

And interacts with everyone  with an attitude of friendship and compassion 

Yasmaanno dwijate loko 

Lokonno dwijate cha yaha 

One who is not looked upon as a nuisance by people nor who looks at people as bothersome…

Samah shatrau cha mitre cha

Tatha maanaapamaana yoho 

Who treats a friend and a foe the same 

Similarly remains unperturbed when subjected to honor or insult, praise or censure 

I have deliberately highlighted some out of those described from the chapter.

These are some of the qualities that are in the context of interpersonal relationships.

At the end of the lecture during the discussion with all participants Shashikant Dada( Dr Sane) made a comment to clarify matsar and anasooya. Matsar is jealousy. To hate when someone does better than you in any way. 

Anasooya was the term that caught my attention the most out of the entire lecture. 

As Dada explained:

न गुणान् गुणिनो हन्ति, स्तौतिमंदगुणानपि।

नान्यदोषेसु रमते, सानसूया प्रकीर्तिता॥

He who does not detract from the merits of those possessing merits; praises even those of scanty worth and does not take delight in the faults of others, is said to have the virtue of Anasooya!

What a beautiful quality this is to imbibe ! 

It does not mean that we would not notice the negative traits in someone. Instead it implies that we see both good and bad, virtues and faults but we focus on the positives. Not use their faults to advance our image, to show them in poor light or in any way to embarrass them. 

Perhaps embracing just this one quality would automatically invite all the virtues that I cited above.

Interestingly in the same session one regular participant raised the issue that it all seems great to listen to the virtues we must have to become a sthithapradnya but these seem too far beyond reach. Once we get to the regular interactions with family and the world we lose patience, we get angry, we lose self control. It seems impossible to achieve the high standards set in this book.

My immediate thought to his concern was that we need to, on such occasions, practice anasooya towards ourselves too ! Don’t just highlight our missteps, our weaknesses and failings. Occasionally look at where we’ve come so far. That should give the energy to keep trying for betterment. 

Anasooya…….I found this word to live by.

October 12,2025:

Dr Sane spoke on the topic of Anasooya. Instead of creating a new post, I am simply adding a few more points to this post from 2023.

Dada narrated the story of the three Goddesses, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga( Parvati) getting together and feeling good about their virtues when the sage Narada drops in. They ask him to opine about who amongst them is most virtuous. Narada surprises them by giving his vote to Anasooya the wife of sage Atri. Stunned by the praise showered on someone else, the Goddeses send their husbands, the trinity of Bramha, Vishnu, Mahesh to investigate what makes Narada believe Anasooya is the most virtuous woman in the whole universe. They reach the home of the sage in his absence, disguised as Brahmins seeking Bhiksha. They ask Anasooya for food but with the condition that she serve them without any clothes on. She recognizes the plot and decides to teach them a lesson. With her spiritual powers she turns them into infants, herself disrobes and breastfeeds them thus fulfilling their wishes, yet circumventing stepping inappropriately out of her modesty. Thereby she validated sage Narada’s verdict that none of the Goddesses could match her virtues. The goddesses were taught a lesson to recognize another woman’s superiority and rise above petty jealousy (asooya). 

In the discussion that followed the main talk I shared a related anecdote from my recent observation. Just the day before my attention was drawn to a large billboard on one of the local roads. There was a picture of Dolly Parton the celebrated American country singer and actress alongside her quote: “Find goodness in everyone!”

The thought that arose in my mind upon reading this was that “find” is not same as “see”. See may come naturally in certain circumstances and where we don’t see, we simply move on. Find implies personal effort to enable seeing. We pause when we don’t see and actively look for it with a trust that there has to be something that is evading our eyes. Thus it is a training of our mind to search for virtues even in people whose lack thereof is glaring at us. We don’t dismiss people out of our lives.

Jealousy is a rather complex emotion which in a bid to make ourselves look better, attempts to diminish the strengths, virtues and accomplishments of others. In the process it creates a distance between two people. Anasooya ,in contrast, brings us closer to the other person. One builds walls, the other builds bridges. One fuels hatred, the other fosters love. 

Saree is a cotton, double ikat Telia Rumal weave from Telangana. Here the motifs are tied and dyed in white and indigo natural dyes on both the warp and weft yarn before being woven into fabric on a hand loom.