The first section of the Anugita is a discussion between Kashyapa a learned Brahmana and a Siddha that is a Spiritual Master. It commences with Kashyapa requesting for instructions about rebirth and the way to attain liberation from cycle of births. The Siddha at the outset points out that the rituals performed by humans at best lead to the short-lived pleasures of celestial abode (swarga). They are not the right means for escape from the cycle of births.
Kashyapa then desires to know how the soul departs from the
body; and then how the body is produced. The Siddha in reply comments on the
irregular living habits of the humans. Thanks to merits inherited from previous
births, a person is blessed with health, fortune and fame; but soon he throws
away those benefits by his irregular living.
“He eats sometime to excess, sometimes nothing. He eats
highly spiced meal and sleeps all day long. He catches lethal diseases. An
unhealthy heat generated in his body, kindled by irregular heavy breathing,
hinders the body functions and blocks the vital forces (winds). As the compact
association of the five elements is broken up, the life, tormented, leaves the
body.”
The Siddha continues his lesson on the future of the soul
which either goes up to heaven or goes down to hell, until it becomes an
embryo: “Just as melting iron takes the shape of the mould, the soul slips into
the embryo. Just as a lit lamp lights a room, the conscience lights the body “.
One has to break that chain by cultivating a discipline of
renunciation from attachment to senses, to objects, to opposites and to
excesses. One should look upon this universe as transient, like an Aswath tree,
always full of birth, death, and old age. Restraining the senses, one should
fix the mind, as a lamp, on the Spiritual Principle (mahat).
“The jiva sees the self come out from the body; and
abandoning his body, he perceives the Self, — holding it to be the immaculate
Brahman,—with, as it were, a mental smile. Then depending upon it thus, he
attains final emancipation in me. “
Anugita is spread over 34 chapters (from 16th to 50th) of the Ashvamedha Parva.