Bhagwad Gita - Post 33

Verse 64

Raagadwesha viyuktaistu

Vishayaanindriyaishcharan;

Aatmavashyair vidheyaatmaa

Prasaadamadhigacchati.

But the self-controlled man,

moving amongst objects with the senses under restraint, 

and free from attraction and repulsion,

attains to peace.

In the last shloka, Shri Krishna explained the “ladder of fall”, or how constant thinking about material objects leads to a fall from equanimity. In this verse, He explains the exact opposite scenario, where bringing the senses and the mind under control brings us to a state of happiness. Here’s the sequence of events:

Bring senses and mind under control à one becomes devoid of attraction and revulsion à he can experience the material world without any problem à his mind becomes tranquil à his intellect becomes steady à he has no more sorrow à he attains the state of happiness.

Attachment and aversion are two sides of the same coin. Aversion is nothing but negative attachment. Just as, in attachment, the object of attachment repeatedly comes to one’s mind; similarly, in aversion, the object of hatred keeps popping into the mind. 

When the mind is free from both attachment and aversion, uses only the intellect for any action outward and is inwardly absorbed in devotion to God / contemplation on the SELF, one receives the grace of God and experiences unlimited divine love / bliss of SELF. 

On experiencing that higher taste, the mind no longer feels attracted to the sense objects, even while using them. Thus, even while tasting, touching, smelling, hearing, and seeing, like all of us, the sthithaprajña is free from both attachment and aversion.

The jñānīs who propound the worship of the undifferentiated attributeless Brahman do not understand this point when they recommend giving up all attachments. However, Shri Krishna states: “Those who attach their minds to me with unadulterated devotion rise above the three modes of material nature and attain the level of the supreme Brahman.” (Bhagavad Gita 14.26)

Swami Sivananda writes on a Jivan mukta, thus:

"The sage lives forever. He has attained life everlasting. Cravings torture him not. Sins stain him not. Birth and death touch him not. Pains and tribulations torment him not. 

The Jivanmukta is freed from the trammels of mind and matter. He is absolutely free, perfect, independent. He is absolutely free from hatred, lust, cares, worries, and anxieties. 

There, at the summit of the Hill of Eternal Bliss, you can see now the Jivanmukta or a full-blown Yogi. He has climbed the stupendous heights through intense and constant struggle. 

He did profound Nididhyasana or meditation. He spent sleepless nights. He kept long vigils on several halting stages. He persevered with patience and diligence. He has surmounted many obstacles. He conquered despair, gloom, and depression. "

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 32

Verse 63

Krodhaad bhavati sammohah

Sammohaat smriti vibhramah;

Smritibhramshaad buddhinaasho

Buddhinaashaat pranashyati.

From anger comes delusion;

from delusion the loss of memory;

from loss of memory the destruction of discrimination;

from the destruction of discrimination, he perishes.

Swami Chinmayananda has described this verse beautifully. No other commentary can match his style of explaining, when it comes to this verse.

He writes,

“Like a tree emerges from a seed, the source of all evil starts from our own wrong thinking, or false imaginations.

….When we constantly think upon a sense-object, the CONSISTENCY OF THOUGHT creates in us an ATTACHMENT for the object of our thought; and, when more and more thoughts flow towards an object of attachment, they crystallize to form a BURNING DESIRE for the possession and enjoyment of the object-of-attachment. 

The same force of the motion, when directed towards obstacles that threaten the non-fulfillment of our desires, is called ANGER (Krodha). An intellect fumed with anger (Krodha) comes to experience DELUSION and, the deluded intellect has no power of discrimination, because it loses all MEMORIES OF THE PAST. 

Any one filled with anger is capable of doing acts totally forgetting himself and his relationship with all others. Sri Sankaracharya says in this connection that a deluded fool, in this mental condition, might even fight with his own teachers or parents, forgetting his indebtedness to these revered persons.

Thus, when an individual, through wrong channels of thinking, becomes ATTACHED to an object, the attachment matures into a burning DESIRE to own that object. 

Then, when an obstruction to possess that object of desire shoots him up into a fit of ANGER, the mental disturbance caused by the emotion DELUDES the intellect and makes the individual FORGET his sense of proportion and his sense of relationship with things and beings around him. 

When thus, a deluded intellect forgets its dignity of culture, it loses its discriminative capacity, which is called, in common parlance, as 'conscience' (Buddhi). 

Conscience is that knowledge enjoyed for differentiating the good from the evil, which often forms a standard in ourselves, and, whenever it can, warns the mind against its lustful sensuousness and animalism."

Let’s take an example to get more clearer on what this verse says and how the Acharya has explained the same.

A person has thoughts about sale of a most advanced laptop, and he gets attached to that laptop sale deal. He develops the desire to buy that laptop by all means. 

Now, at this point, he has purchased the laptop and is extremely attached to it.

His equanimity has already been disturbed. He is dragged back into the material world and has taken one step backwards from moksha or freedom.

So, attachment (for that laptop) has given birth to desire to own it and his equanimity is disturbed.

Let’s move forward in the sequence:

The laptop either gets conked off or it is lost. What happens then??

He is angry that it has broken down, he completely loses his equanimity, takes anger out on his wife and family environment is agitated.

Here, not only has he completely lost his equanimity, but has also caused pain to other members of his family. So, the message here is that constant pondering and thinking about objects eventually leads to moving away from equanimity, hence it is to be avoided, or at least minimized to the extent possible.

An interesting point seen here is around anger. Per the shlokas, anger is caused when one’s desire gets obstructed. Also, attachment to a concept causes continual waves of thought, anger and delusion, in other words, stress. Therefore, these shlokas provide an ancient but relevant analysis of anger and stress.

So, attachment - desire - indulgence in para dharma - anger on losing the object desired, all these have been observed so far in the above example.

From krodha arises bewilderment and delusion which is the mental condition where one is no longer cognizant of what action should be performed and what action should not be performed. One will foolishly do anything in this condition.

Thereafter comes dementia causing loss in memory of the process one began in order to constrain the senses and control the mind. From dementia comes loss of will power, one no longer has the drive and incentive to cultivate themselves towards obtaining spiritual realization of the eternal soul. 

Memory loss mentioned in this verse is not physical loss of memory, but it denotes loss of wisdom learnt and practiced all these years, which is lost due to delusion of mind caused due to anger.

When this happens then one perishes, with his spiritual opportunity being drowned again and again in samsara the endless cycle of birth and death in the material existence.

So, here perishing is not to be taken in literal sense that one dies, but the perishing is the losing of one's opportunity to go beyond the cycle of birth/death, i.e. Samsara!!!

How then a Stitaprajna exists, in contrast to the existence of a normal jiva explained in this verse?

Let us see in the next verse...

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 31

Verse 58

Yadaa samharate chaayam

Kurmo’ngaaneeva sarvashah;

Indriyaaneendriyaarthebhyas

Tasya prajnaa pratishthitaa.

When, like the tortoise which withdraws its limbs on all sides, he withdraws his senses from the sense-objects, then his wisdom becomes steady.

Whenever a tortoise senses danger, he withdraws his limbs into his shell. The shell is strong enough to withstand any adverse situation. And once that situation passes, he brings his limbs back into the world. 

Similarly, if we detect that an object, person or situation is about to disturb our equanimity, Sri Krishna advises us to bring our intellect into the picture, and completely withdraw our attention from that object, person or situation.

In one commentary on this topic, we learn that most animals have one sense organ as their weakness. The deer has sound, the elephant has touch, the moth has sight (fire), the fish has taste, and the bee has smell as its weakness. So, for example, if a moth sees fire, it loses all control and flies straight into the fire. 

However, human beings have all five senses as their weakness, making this technique all the more important.

Swami Rama says, 

“Very often, the senses create a serious disturbance, for it is their inherent nature to jump from one object to another, compelled by the charms and temptations of the external world. The mind is disturbed and dissipated by such input and is unable to conceive of things as they are.

Furthermore, the perceived objects are a source of distraction and dissipation; they create serious obstacles and obstructions for the sadhaka in his attempts to fathom higher levels of consciousness.

Therefore, it is important to withdraw one’s senses from the world of objects. This is not withdrawal from the world or from one’s duties. It is learning to gather one’s scattered energy. Withdrawal of the senses is an essential part of sadhana.

There is a systematic method that one can apply to purify the mind so that there is clarity in his knowing.

One can focus the mind on one single object – it can be concrete or abstract, large or small – so that the mind withdraws itself from the senses. When the mind is voluntarily isolated and under perfect control, it attains one-pointedness. And if that one-pointedness is turned inward, it becomes a useful means on one’s inward journey to another way of knowing.

The human being is a miniature world, so by turning inward and examining himself, one can examine the nature of the universe. The natural tendency of the senses is to lead the mind to the objects of the world. 

The method that we are explaining is a very beneficial and useful voluntary effort that enables one to see, examine, and verify the nature of the objects of the world.

And at the same time it makes one realize that the objects of the world do not hold any quality to charm and tempt the mind, for temptations and charms are created by the false input of the limited senses.”

Dear All,

Is it not exactly what we learnt in the Sadan talk while dealing with single pointed devotion??

1.    The whole world of objects are there before our eyes (senses) and also Krishna/ Sai is there.

2.  Both are objects in the initial stage in spiritual sadhana

3.  We have to turn away from all other objects on the world and focus exclusively on one Object- Krishna

4.  It is only possible with such a single pointed focus on Krishna that it as though all the world with its objects have come and merged into Krishna and have lost their identity.

We went further on this process which the author leaves to the readers, especially who attended the entire series of talk, to refresh their contemplation on the subsequent process in this Sadhaka- Krishna process!!!

Swami Chinmayananda says, 

“This capacity in an individual to withdraw his senses at will from the fields-of-objects is called in Yoga Shastra as Pratyahara, which the Yogin accomplishes through the control-of-breath (Pranayama). To a devotee this comes naturally, because he has eyes and ears only for the form and stories of his beloved Lord. 

To a Vedantin, again, this (Uparati) comes from his well-developed and sharpened discriminative faculty, with which his intellect makes his mind understand the futility, of licking the crumbs of joy and happiness in the wayside ditches of sensuousness, while he, in his Real Nature, is the Lord of the very store of Bliss Infinite.”

The best thing to be noted in this tortoise example is that, when danger comes to the tortoise, it does not think, it does not plan, it does not deliberate, the withdrawal of its legs to the protective shell JUST HAPPENS.

Similarly for a sadhaka, when the world with its noise and glittering temptation knocks his door, the withdrawal of his senses should happen automatically and that is why, further to the "uparati" that Chinmaya has mentioned in the above para on, in Vedanta path, the attainment of “UPARATI”, along with its other 5 virtues (sama, dama, titiksha, shraddha, samadhana) , with its preceding 2 qualifications - Viveka and Vairagya, culminating into the 4^th qualification - mumukshatva ARE PRE-REQUISITE for any spiritual aspirant even before he approaches a realized master and surrenders himself to that Master and requests the Master to teach him Brahma vidya.

These 6 virtuous qualities have been discussed in detail in the blog posts on the theme Introduction to Vedas and Vedanta. Here are the links to those posts for your reference:

Post 24

Post 25

Post 26

Post 27

Post 28

Post 29

Love.