Verse 69
Yaanishaa sarvabhootaanaam
Tasyaam jaagarti samyamee;
Yasyaam jaagrati bhootaani
saa
Nishaa pashyato muneh.
That which is night to all
beings, then the self-controlled man is awake; when all beings are awake,
that is night for the sage who sees.
The
sage lives in the Self; this is day to him. He is unconscious of worldly
phenomena; this is like night to him. The ordinary man is unconscious of his
real nature. So, life in the Self is like night to him. He experiences
sense-objects; this is day to him.
Swami
Sivananda says:
“That which is real for the worldly-minded
people is illusion for the sage? and vice versa. The sage lives in the Self.
This is day for him. He is unconscious of the worldly phenomena.
They are night for him? as it were. The
ordinary man is unconscious of his real nature. Life in the spirit is night for
him. He is experiencing the objects of sensual enjoyment. This is day for him.
The Self is a non-entity for him; For a sage this world is a non-entity.
The worldly-minded people are in utter darkness
as they have no knowledge of the Self. What is darkness for them is all light
for the sage. The Self? Atman or Brahman is night for the worldly-minded
persons. But the sage is fully awake.
He is directly cognizing the supreme Reality?
the Light of lights. He is full of illumination and Atma Jnana or knowledge of
the Self.”
The worthy disciple of the Sage Sivananda,
Swami Krishnananda, says:
“For us, this world
of sense perception looks like bright daylight with every kind of clarity
before it, and all things seem to be very well with us; but actually, we are in
darkness in view of the fact that the truth of the universe is not as it is
presented to us through the sense organs.
The daylight of the sense organs is the
darkness of the spirit. The true spirit, which is universal, is sleeping, as it
were, while the senses are awake and are active in the daylight of their
activity.”
Sri
Aurobindo writes on this verse:
“The status he reaches is the Brahmic condition; he gets to firm standing in the Brahman, brāhmī sthitih. It is a reversal of the whole view, experience, knowledge, values,
seeing of earth-bound creatures.
This life of the dualities which is to them
their day, their waking, their consciousness, their bright condition of
activity and knowledge, is to him a night, a troubled sleep and darkness of the
soul; that higher being which is to them a night, a sleep in which all
knowledge and will cease, is to the self-mastering sage his waking, his
luminous day of true being, knowledge and power.”
Dear All,
“Where all beings are awake that is the night for the sage
who sees the Self”: This refers to the physical day light as compared to
the spiritual day light for the sage.
Majority of us are awake during day time. It is the time we are
involved in various activities that bind us to the world around us. During the
physical daytime, the sage is spiritually living in night because he is not
attached to the world around him. He is totally immersed in the “Atman”
and does not see the world around him. (living in night.)
Physically awake – spiritually ignorant:
Conditioned by the time of the day and immersed in worldly
activities, majority of us are unaware of the Atman within and all around.
Physically sleeping but spiritually awake to the Atman within
and all around: this is the way of living of the realized soul.
To sum up, A stitaprajna or a Jivanmukhta is asleep (unconcerned)
to all those objects / worldly desires to which the world is awake (indulgent)
and He is awake (awakened to the spirit, the atman that He verily exists as) to
which the world is asleep (ignorant, filled with avidya, existing far away from
their own real identity, the Atman)
Love
PS - With this, we come to the end
of Second chapter. We will take up important verses from the 3rd chapter
from the next post onwards.
