Bhagwad Gita - Post 69

Verse 1

Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:

Anaashritah karmaphalam 

kaaryam karma karoti yah;

Sa sannyaasi cha yogee cha 

na niragnirna chaakriyah.

The Blessed Lord said:

He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits of his actions—he is a Sannyasin and a Yogi, not he who is without fire and without action.

Verse 2 

Yam sannyaasamiti praahuryogam 

tam viddhi paandava;

Na hyasannyastasankalpo 

yogee bhavati kashchana.

Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts!

Verse 3 

Aarurukshormuneryogam 

karma kaaranamuchyate;

Yogaaroodhasya tasyaiva 

shamah kaaranamuchyate.

For a sage who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means; for the same sage who has attained to Yoga, inaction (quiescence) is said to be the means.

Verse 4

Yadaa hi nendriyaartheshu 

na karmaswanushajjate;

Sarvasankalpasannyaasee 

yogaaroodhas tadochyate.

When a man is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to Yoga.

Verse 5

Uddharedaatmanaatmaanam 

naatmaanamavasaadayet;

Atmaiva hyaatmano 

bandhuraatmaiva ripuraatmanah.

Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone; let him not lower himself, for this self alone is the friend of oneself and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.

Verse 6

Bandhuraatmaa’tmanastasya 

yenaatmaivaatmanaa jitah;

Anaatmanastu shatrutwe 

vartetaatmaiva shatruvat.

The self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, this self stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe.

Verse 7

Jitaatmanah prashaantasya 

paramaatmaa samaahitah;

Sheetoshna sukha duhkheshu

tathaa maanaapamaanayoh.

The Supreme Self of him who is self-controlled and peaceful is balanced in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as also in honor and dishonor.

Verse 8

Jnana vijnaana triptaatmaa 

kootastho vijitendriyah;

Yuktah ityuchyate yogee 

samaloshtaashmakaanchanah.

The Yogi who is satisfied with the knowledge and the wisdom (of the Self), who has conquered the senses, and to whom a clod of earth, a piece of stone and gold are the same, is said to be harmonised (that is, is said to have attained the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi).

Verse 9

Suhrinmitraary udaaseena 

madhyastha dweshya bandhushu;

Saadhushwapi cha paapeshu 

samabuddhirvishishyate.

He who is of the same mind to the good-hearted, friends, enemies, the indifferent, the neutral, the hateful, the relatives, the righteous and the unrighteous, excels.

Verse 10

Yogee yunjeeta satatama

atmaanam rahasi sthitah;

Ekaakee yatachittaatmaa 

niraasheeraparigrahah.

Let the Yogi try constantly to keep the mind steady, remaining in solitude, alone, with the mind and the body controlled, and free from hope and greed.

Verse 11

Shuchau deshe pratishthaapya 

sthiramaasanamaatmanah;

Naatyucchritam naatineecham 

chailaajinakushottaram.

In a clean spot, having established a firm seat of his own, neither too high nor too low, made of a cloth, a skin and kusha grass, one over the other,

Verse 12

Tatraikaagram manah kritwaa 

yatachittendriyakriyah;

Upavishyaasane yunjyaadyogam

aatmavishuddhaye.

There, having made the mind one-pointed, with the actions of the mind and the senses controlled, let him, seated on the seat, practise Yoga for the purification of the self.

Verse 13

Samam kaayashirogreevam 

dhaarayannachalam sthirah;

Samprekshya naasikaagram 

swam dishashchaanavalokayan.

Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and perfectly still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around.

Verse 14

Prashaantaatmaa vigatabheer 

brahmachaarivrate sthitah;

Manah samyamya macchitto 

yukta aaseeta matparah.

Serene-minded, fearless, firm in the vow of a Brahmachari, having controlled the mind, thinking of Me and balanced in mind, let him sit, having Me as his supreme goal.

Verse 15

Yunjannevam sadaa’tmaanam 

yogee niyatamaanasah;

Shaantim nirvaanaparamaam 

matsamsthaamadhigacchati.

Thus, always keeping the mind balanced, the Yogi, with the mind controlled, attains to the peace abiding in Me, which culminates in liberation.

Continued...

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 68

THE YOGA OF MEDITATION

Summary of Sixth Discourse

Sri Krishna emphasises once again that the Yogi or Sannyasin is one who has renounced the fruits of actions, not the actions themselves. The performance of actions without an eye on their fruits brings about the purification of the mind. 

Only a purified mind, a mind free from desires, can engage itself in constant meditation on the Atman. Desire gives rise to imagination or Sankalpa, which drives the soul into the field of action. Therefore, none can realize permanent freedom and tranquility of mind without renouncing desires.

The lower self must be controlled by the higher Self. All the lower impulses of the body, mind and senses must be controlled by the power of the higher Self. Then the higher Self becomes one’s friend. 

He who has perfect control of the body, mind and senses and is united with God, sees God in all objects and beings. He sees inwardly that there is no difference between gold and stone, between friends and enemies, between the righteous and the unrighteous. He is perfectly harmonized.

Sri Krishna proceeds to give various practical hints as to the practice of meditation. Fearlessness, too, is an essential quality on the Godward path. It is faith in the sustaining protection and Grace of God.

The aspirant is advised to practice moderation in his daily habits — in eating, sleeping, recreation, etc. Extremes are to be avoided as they hinder the practice of meditation. 

Living a life of such moderation and gathering up all his forces and directing them towards meditation upon the Atman, the aspirant gradually transcends the senses and intellect and merges himself in the blissful Atman. 

He finds that the bliss of the Atman is incomparable, that there is no gain greater than the Self. Having thus attained perfect union with the Self, the Yogi no more descends into ignorance or delusion. He does not relish any more the pleasures of the senses.

Arjuna wishes to know the fate of the aspirant who fails to realize the Supreme in spite of his faith and sincerity. Krishna tells him that the accumulated power of his Yogic practices will assure him a better birth in the future, with more favorable conditions for Sadhana. 

The aspirant will then be compelled to carry on his Yogic practices with greater vigor and faith and will finally achieve God-realization.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 67

Verse 22

Ye hi samsparshajaa bhogaa

Duhkhayonaya eva te;

Aadyantavantah kaunteya

Na teshu ramate budhah.

The enjoyments that are born of contacts are generators of pain only, for they have a beginning and an end, O Arjuna! The wise do not rejoice in them.

Any joy that comes through the contact of one thing with another thing cannot be regarded as real joy. There are five types of contact with external things: contact through the eye, contact through the ear, contact through the nose, contact through the skin, and contact through the tongue. The joy that we get by this kind of contact is an unreliable joy. It is a deceptive experience that we are passing through, and we wrongly come  to the conclusion that we are experiencing happiness because this kind of contact appears to be pleasant in the beginning but breeds sorrow later on.

Even at the time of the enjoyment of a sense object we are under an illusion, and it is not a real joy that we are experiencing. Why do we feel happy when we come in contact with a mango or a cup of delicious kheer or any pleasant object? 

The reason is that when the mind is not in contact with any sense object, it is restless in itself, and it goes out in search of its own food in the form of objects. The mind that is not in contact with objects moves out in search of those objects which it finds pleasant to contact.

When the mind moves in that way, the consciousness of the Atman, or the Self, also moves together with the mind — just as electricity flows through a wire. Wherever the wire is, there is also electricity. 

Swami says,

“Although Joy naturally emanates from the core of your heart, you think you are deriving joy from the sense objects and the sensory organs. But this is not so. All joy comes from within you, and you have deluded yourself into thinking  that it comes from outside”.

Wherever the mind is, the Atman also goes, as it were, due to the attachment between the mind and consciousness that is caused by karma; and when the contact takes place with the consciousness, the mind feels that there is no further necessity to move outside in search of an object, because the object has already come into possession. 

In deep meditation, the mind ceases to move outside, and comes in contact with the Self inside. Immediately there is a joy. The joy, therefore, has come from within us. It has not come from the object, yet foolishly we think that the object is painted with bliss and we are the abodes of sorrow, which is not true. 

The reverse is the case. All those who run after the pleasures of sense will reap sorrow one day or the other, for anything that has a beginning will also have an end — ādyantavantaḥ. That which has a beginning will also have an end because our pleasures, which are contact born, begin with the contact itself. Therefore, they shall end when the contact ceases. 

There is bereavement on account of sensory contact. Our relationship with this world is fragile. 

The coming in contact of beings, the friendship that we have, the community that we establish humanly, are all false in the sense that they are conditioned by the winds of cosmic powers which breed contact; and when these winds blow in a different direction, we are separated, and then we say that somebody died.

When the mind is not attached to external objects of the senses, when one is deeply engaged  in the contemplation of Brahman, he finds undiluted  bliss in the SELF within!!

Love.