Sunday, August 25, 2019

Bhagwad Gita - Post 78


Verse 32

tmaupamyena sarvatra sama
Paśyati yo’rjuna,
Sukha vā yadi vā dukha
Sa yogī paramo mata:

“Hey Arjuna!
He who beholds all things as he beholds himself…”


We love all things as we love ourselves. Even the trees and the stones will respond to our call. There are no non-living or dead elements in this world. The various levels of creation such as matter, vegetable, plant, animal, human, etc., are only various stages of the expression of consciousness, but no level is totally without consciousness.

It is present even in a stone. If that were not the case, there would be no possibility of evolution. In as much as we are able to locate our Self as the deepest reality of all things, we will be able to locate the same reality even in a stone. 

Everything in the world will shine like the light of the sun, and sparks of flame, as it were, will be seen jetting forth from every atom in the cosmos. If we see solar light emerging from every atom and every electron, only then does it become possible for us to consider outside things as beloved, as valuable as our own self.


Sukha vā yadi vā dukha
Sa yogī paramo mata:

“Whether he is in a happy state or in an unhappy state, that great yogi is lodged in Me.”

This is a great promise, as it were, that the Lord has bequeathed to us in these four verses which tell us how great God is, how compassionate God can be, how near God is to us, and how easy it is to contact Him. All these aspects of our relationship with God are brought out in these four verses, which we should recite. They can be recited in any language.

A doubt arises in the mind. “Well, all this is very well. I practice yoga, and I am struggling to achieve perfection in this life itself. But suppose, in spite of my ardent struggle and striving, I do not attain the goal before the discarding of this body? 

Then all the effort in the direction of God-realization by way of yoga will also be destroyed. Years of practice will become futile. 

To this, a great consoling reply comes from the great Lord. There is no perishing of effort. The body may be discarded, but the force that is generated by our concentration, by our practice of yoga, will come with us because in death the body perishes but the mind / the effect of our actions/ sadhana,  does not perish. 

Since all effort in yoga is a mental effort, a conscious operation, our yoga practice will not be futile or a waste because the mind will take with it all its assets in the form of the great work that it has done in meditation. The power of meditation which is impregnated into the very structure of the mind will be carried with it even if we take another birth. So, we should not be afraid that if we die in the midst of the practice of yoga there will be a loss of effort. No such thing will take place. 

Because of the power of our practice, we may be born in a highly conducive atmosphere in which there is no kind of disturbance to us. Now we have a lot of disturbances—political disturbance, social disturbance, personal disturbance, communal disturbance, and all kinds of things. Due to difficulties of this kind, we cannot easily practice yoga in this world. No such difficulty will be there afterwards. 

All factors will be conducive to our practice. We will be born into such a noble family, into a royal family, as it were, due to the great practice that we have carried on in this present life. Or we may even become the son or daughter of a great yogi such as Vasishtha or Vyasa. Then what else would we require? Such blessedness is difficult to attain, but it is possible to attain it. 

Love.


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