SRIMAD BHAGAVAT GITA.Chapt.5(Gita.5)
https://youtu.be/hzXqpvaoORM
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Swami Sivananda.
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita
https://youtu.be/hzXqpvaoORM
SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 5
अथ पञ्चमोஉध्यायः ।
अर्जुन उवाच ।
संन्यासं कर्मणां कृष्ण पुनर्योगं च शंससि ।
यच्छ्रेय एतयोरेकं तन्मे ब्रूहि सुनिश्चितम् ॥ 1 ॥
संन्यासं कर्मणां कृष्ण पुनर्योगं च शंससि ।
यच्छ्रेय एतयोरेकं तन्मे ब्रूहि सुनिश्चितम् ॥ 1 ॥
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
संन्यासः कर्मयोगश्च निःश्रेयसकरावुभौ ।
तयोस्तु कर्मसंन्यासात्कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते ॥ 2 ॥
संन्यासः कर्मयोगश्च निःश्रेयसकरावुभौ ।
तयोस्तु कर्मसंन्यासात्कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते ॥ 2 ॥
ज्ञेयः स नित्यसंन्यासी यो न द्वेष्टि न काङ्क्षति ।
निर्द्वन्द्वो हि महाबाहो सुखं बन्धात्प्रमुच्यते ॥ 3 ॥
निर्द्वन्द्वो हि महाबाहो सुखं बन्धात्प्रमुच्यते ॥ 3 ॥
साङ्ख्ययोगौ पृथग्बालाः प्रवदन्ति न पण्डिताः ।
एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम् ॥ 4 ॥
एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम् ॥ 4 ॥
यत्साङ्ख्यैः प्राप्यते स्थानं तद्योगैरपि गम्यते ।
एकं साङ्ख्यं च योगं च यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ 5 ॥
एकं साङ्ख्यं च योगं च यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ 5 ॥
संन्यासस्तु महाबाहो दुःखमाप्तुमयोगतः ।
योगयुक्तो मुनिर्ब्रह्म नचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥ 6 ॥
योगयुक्तो मुनिर्ब्रह्म नचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥ 6 ॥
योगयुक्तो विशुद्धात्मा विजितात्मा जितेन्द्रियः ।
सर्वभूतात्मभूतात्मा कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते ॥ 7 ॥
सर्वभूतात्मभूतात्मा कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते ॥ 7 ॥
नैव किञ्चित्करोमीति युक्तो मन्येत तत्त्ववित् ।
पश्यञ्शृण्वन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपञ्श्वसन् ॥ 8 ॥
पश्यञ्शृण्वन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपञ्श्वसन् ॥ 8 ॥
प्रलपन्विसृजन्गृह्णन्नुन्मिषन्निमिषन्नपि ।
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेषु वर्तन्त इति धारयन् ॥ 9 ॥
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेषु वर्तन्त इति धारयन् ॥ 9 ॥
ब्रह्मण्याधाय कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा करोति यः ।
लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा ॥ 10 ॥
लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा ॥ 10 ॥
कायेन मनसा बुद्ध्या केवलैरिन्द्रियैरपि ।
योगिनः कर्म कुर्वन्ति सङ्गं त्यक्त्वात्मशुद्धये ॥ 11 ॥
योगिनः कर्म कुर्वन्ति सङ्गं त्यक्त्वात्मशुद्धये ॥ 11 ॥
युक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम् ।
अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥ 12 ॥
अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥ 12 ॥
सर्वकर्माणि मनसा संन्यस्यास्ते सुखं वशी ।
नवद्वारे पुरे देही नैव कुर्वन्न कारयन् ॥ 13 ॥
नवद्वारे पुरे देही नैव कुर्वन्न कारयन् ॥ 13 ॥
न कर्तृत्वं न कर्माणि लोकस्य सृजति प्रभुः ।
न कर्मफलसंयोगं स्वभावस्तु प्रवर्तते ॥ 14 ॥
न कर्मफलसंयोगं स्वभावस्तु प्रवर्तते ॥ 14 ॥
नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभुः ।
अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तवः ॥ 15 ॥
अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तवः ॥ 15 ॥
ज्ञानेन तु तदज्ञानं येषां नाशितमात्मनः ।
तेषामादित्यवज्ज्ञानं प्रकाशयति तत्परम् ॥ 16 ॥
तेषामादित्यवज्ज्ञानं प्रकाशयति तत्परम् ॥ 16 ॥
तद्बुद्धयस्तदात्मानस्तन्निष्ठास्तत्परायणाः ।
गच्छन्त्यपुनरावृत्तिं ज्ञाननिर्धूतकल्मषाः ॥ 17 ॥
गच्छन्त्यपुनरावृत्तिं ज्ञाननिर्धूतकल्मषाः ॥ 17 ॥
विद्याविनयसम्पन्ने ब्राह्मणे गवि हस्तिनि ।
शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः ॥ 18 ॥
शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः ॥ 18 ॥
इहैव तैर्जितः सर्गो येषां साम्ये स्थितं मनः ।
निर्दोषं हि समं ब्रह्म तस्माद्ब्रह्मणि ते स्थिताः ॥ 19 ॥
निर्दोषं हि समं ब्रह्म तस्माद्ब्रह्मणि ते स्थिताः ॥ 19 ॥
न प्रहृष्येत्प्रियं प्राप्य नोद्विजेत्प्राप्य चाप्रियम् ।
स्थिरबुद्धिरसंमूढो ब्रह्मविद्ब्रह्मणि स्थितः ॥ 20 ॥
स्थिरबुद्धिरसंमूढो ब्रह्मविद्ब्रह्मणि स्थितः ॥ 20 ॥
बाह्यस्पर्शेष्वसक्तात्मा विन्दत्यात्मनि यत्सुखम् ।
स ब्रह्मयोगयुक्तात्मा सुखमक्षयमश्नुते ॥ 21 ॥
स ब्रह्मयोगयुक्तात्मा सुखमक्षयमश्नुते ॥ 21 ॥
ये हि संस्पर्शजा भोगा दुःखयोनय एव ते ।
आद्यन्तवन्तः कौन्तेय न तेषु रमते बुधः ॥ 22 ॥
आद्यन्तवन्तः कौन्तेय न तेषु रमते बुधः ॥ 22 ॥
शक्नोतीहैव यः सोढुं प्राक्शरीरविमोक्षणात् ।
कामक्रोधोद्भवं वेगं स युक्तः स सुखी नरः ॥ 23 ॥
कामक्रोधोद्भवं वेगं स युक्तः स सुखी नरः ॥ 23 ॥
योஉन्तःसुखोஉन्तरारामस्तथान्तर्ज्योतिरेव यः ।
स योगी ब्रह्मनिर्वाणं ब्रह्मभूतोஉधिगच्छति ॥ 24 ॥
स योगी ब्रह्मनिर्वाणं ब्रह्मभूतोஉधिगच्छति ॥ 24 ॥
लभन्ते ब्रह्मनिर्वाणमृषयः क्षीणकल्मषाः ।
छिन्नद्वैधा यतात्मानः सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥ 25 ॥
छिन्नद्वैधा यतात्मानः सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥ 25 ॥
कामक्रोधवियुक्तानां यतीनां यतचेतसाम् ।
अभितो ब्रह्मनिर्वाणं वर्तते विदितात्मनाम् ॥ 26 ॥
अभितो ब्रह्मनिर्वाणं वर्तते विदितात्मनाम् ॥ 26 ॥
स्पर्शान्कृत्वा बहिर्बाह्यांश्चक्षुश्चैवान्तरे भ्रुवोः ।
प्राणापानौ समौ कृत्वा नासाभ्यन्तरचारिणौ ॥ 27 ॥
प्राणापानौ समौ कृत्वा नासाभ्यन्तरचारिणौ ॥ 27 ॥
यतेन्द्रियमनोबुद्धिर्मुनिर्मोक्षपरायणः ।
विगतेच्छाभयक्रोधो यः सदा मुक्त एव सः ॥ 28 ॥
विगतेच्छाभयक्रोधो यः सदा मुक्त एव सः ॥ 28 ॥
भोक्तारं यज्ञतपसां सर्वलोकमहेश्वरम् ।
सुहृदं सर्वभूतानां ज्ञात्वा मां शान्तिमृच्छति ॥ 29 ॥
सुहृदं सर्वभूतानां ज्ञात्वा मां शान्तिमृच्छति ॥ 29 ॥
ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे
कर्मसंन्यासयोगो नाम पञ्चमोஉध्यायः ॥5 ॥
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https://youtu.be/VUF4bsy53DcV
The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
Summary of Fifth Discourse
In spite of Sri Krishna’s clear instructions, Arjuna still seems to be bewildered. He wants to know conclusively which is superior, the path of action or the path of renunciation of action.
The Lord says that both the paths lead to the highest goal of God-realisation. In both cases the final realisation of the Atman is the aim, but the path of Karma Yoga is superior. Actually there is no real difference between the two.
Krishna further asserts that perfection can be attained and one can be established in the Atman only after the mind has been purified through the performance of selfless action. The Karma Yogi who is aware of the Atman and who is constantly engaged in action knows that although the intellect, mind and senses are active, he does not do anything. He is a spectator of everything. He dedicates all his actions to the Lord and thus abandons attachment, ever remaining pure and unaffected. He surrenders himself completely to the Divine Shakti. Having completely rooted out all desires, attachments and the ego, he is not born again.
The sage who has realised Brahman and is always absorbed in It does not have any rebirth. Such a sage sees Brahman within and without—within as the static and transcendent Brahman, and without as the entire universe. He sees the one Self in all beings and creatures—in a cow, an elephant, and even in a dog and an outcaste. He is ever free from joy and grief and enjoys eternal peace and happiness. He does not depend upon the senses for his satisfaction. On the other hand the enjoyments of the senses are generators of pain. They are impermanent. Sri Krishna reminds Arjuna that desire is the main cause of pain and suffering. It is the cause of anger. Therefore, the aspirant should try to eradicate desire and anger if he is to reach the Supreme.
The Lord concludes by describing how to control the senses, mind and intellect by concentrating between the eyebrows and practising Pranayama. One who has achieved perfect control of the outgoing senses and is freed from desire, anger and fear attains liberation and enjoys perfect peace.
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Sannyaasam karmanaam krishna punar yogam cha shamsasi;
Yacchreya etayorekam tanme broohi sunishchitam.
Yacchreya etayorekam tanme broohi sunishchitam.
Arjuna said:
1. Renunciation of actions, O Krishna, Thou praisest, and again Yoga! Tell me conclusively which is the better of the two.
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Sannyaasah karmayogashcha nihshreyasakaraa vubhau;
Tayostu karmasannyaasaat karmayogo vishishyate.
Tayostu karmasannyaasaat karmayogo vishishyate.
The Blessed Lord said:
2. Renunciation and the Yoga of action both lead to the highest bliss; but of the two, the Yoga of action is superior to the renunciation of action.
Jneyah sa nityasannyaasi yo na dweshti na kaangkshati;
Nirdwandwo hi mahaabaaho sukham bandhaat pramuchyate.
Nirdwandwo hi mahaabaaho sukham bandhaat pramuchyate.
3. He should be known as a perpetual Sannyasin who neither hates nor desires; for, free from the pairs of opposites, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he is easily set free from bondage!
COMMENTARY: A man does not become a Sannyasin by merely giving up actions due to laziness, ignorance, some family quarrel or calamity or unemployment. A true Sannyasin is one who has neither attachment nor aversion to anything. Physical renunciation of objects is no renunciation at all. What is wanted is the renunciation of egoism and desires.
Saankhyayogau prithagbaalaah pravadanti na panditaah;
Ekam apyaasthitah samyag ubhayor vindate phalam.
Ekam apyaasthitah samyag ubhayor vindate phalam.
4. Children, not the wise, speak of knowledge and the Yoga of action or the performance of action as though they are distinct and different; he who is truly established in one obtains the fruits of both.
Yatsaankhyaih praapyate sthaanam tad yogair api gamyate;
Ekam saankhyam cha yogam cha yah pashyati sa pashyati.
Ekam saankhyam cha yogam cha yah pashyati sa pashyati.
5. That place which is reached by the Sankhyas or the Jnanis is reached by the (Karma) Yogis. He sees who sees knowledge and the performance of action (Karma Yoga) as one.
Sannyaasastu mahaabaaho duhkham aaptuma yogatah;
Yogayukto munir brahma na chirenaadhigacchati.
Yogayukto munir brahma na chirenaadhigacchati.
6. But renunciation, O mighty-armed Arjuna, is hard to attain without Yoga; the Yoga-harmonised sage proceeds quickly to Brahman!
Yogayukto vishuddhaatmaa vijitaatmaa jitendriyah;
Sarvabhootaatmabhootaatmaa kurvannapi na lipyate.
Sarvabhootaatmabhootaatmaa kurvannapi na lipyate.
7. He who is devoted to the path of action, whose mind is quite pure, who has conquered the self, who has subdued his senses and who has realised his Self as the Self in all beings, though acting, he is not tainted.
Naiva kinchit karomeeti yukto manyeta tattwavit;
Pashyan shrunvan sprishan jighran nashnan gacchan swapan shwasan.
Pashyan shrunvan sprishan jighran nashnan gacchan swapan shwasan.
8. “I do nothing at all”—thus will the harmonised knower of Truth think—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing,
Pralapan visrijan grihnan nunmishan nimishannapi;
Indriyaaneendriyaartheshu vartanta iti dhaarayan.
Indriyaaneendriyaartheshu vartanta iti dhaarayan.
9. Speaking, letting go, seizing, opening and closing the eyes—convinced that the senses move among the sense-objects.
COMMENTARY: The liberated sage always remains as a witness of the activities of the senses as he identifies himself with the Self.
Brahmanyaadhaaya karmaani sangam tyaktwaa karoti yah;
Lipyate na sa paapena padmapatram ivaambhasaa.
Lipyate na sa paapena padmapatram ivaambhasaa.
10. He who performs actions, offering them to Brahman and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin as a lotus leaf by water.
Kaayena manasaa buddhyaa kevalair indriyair api;
Yoginah karma kurvanti sangam tyaktwaatmashuddhaye.
Yoginah karma kurvanti sangam tyaktwaatmashuddhaye.
11. Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform actions only by the body, mind, intellect and also by the senses, for the purification of the self.
Yuktah karmaphalam tyaktwaa shaantim aapnoti naishthikeem;
Ayuktah kaamakaarena phale sakto nibadhyate.
Ayuktah kaamakaarena phale sakto nibadhyate.
12. The united one (the well poised or the harmonised), having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the eternal peace; the non-united only (the unsteady or the unbalanced), impelled by desire and attached to the fruit, is bound.
Sarvakarmaani manasaa sannyasyaaste sukham vashee;
Navadwaare pure dehee naiva kurvan na kaarayan.
Navadwaare pure dehee naiva kurvan na kaarayan.
13. Mentally renouncing all actions and self-controlled, the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing others (body and senses) to act.
Na kartritwam na karmaani lokasya srijati prabhuh;
Na karmaphala samyogam swabhaavas tu pravartate.
Na karmaphala samyogam swabhaavas tu pravartate.
14. Neither agency nor actions does the Lord create for the world, nor union with the fruits of actions; it is Nature that acts.
Naadatte kasyachit paapam na chaiva sukritam vibhuh;
Ajnaanenaavritam jnaanam tena muhyanti jantavah.
Ajnaanenaavritam jnaanam tena muhyanti jantavah.
15. The Lord accepts neither the demerit nor even the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, thereby beings are deluded.
Jnaanena tu tad ajnaanam yeshaam naashitam aatmanah;
Teshaam aadityavaj jnaanam prakaashayati tatparam.
Teshaam aadityavaj jnaanam prakaashayati tatparam.
16. But, to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun, knowledge reveals the Supreme (Brahman).
Tadbuddhayas tadaatmaanas tannishthaas tatparaayanaah;
Gacchantyapunaraavrittim jnaana nirdhoota kalmashaah.
Gacchantyapunaraavrittim jnaana nirdhoota kalmashaah.
17. Their intellect absorbed in That, their self being That; established in That, with That as their supreme goal, they go whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.
Vidyaavinaya sampanne braahmane gavi hastini;
Shuni chaiva shvapaake cha panditaah samadarshinah.
Shuni chaiva shvapaake cha panditaah samadarshinah.
18. Sages look with an equal eye on a Brahmin endowed with learning and humility, on a cow, on an elephant, and even on a dog and an outcaste.
Ihaiva tairjitah sargo yeshaam saamye sthitam manah;
Nirdosham hi samam brahma tasmaad brahmani te sthitaah.
Nirdosham hi samam brahma tasmaad brahmani te sthitaah.
19. Even here (in this world) birth (everything) is overcome by those whose minds rest in equality; Brahman is spotless indeed and equal; therefore, they are established in Brahman.
Na prahrishyet priyam praapya nodwijet praapya chaapriyam;
Sthirabuddhir asammoodho brahmavid brahmani sthitah.
Sthirabuddhir asammoodho brahmavid brahmani sthitah.
20. Resting in Brahman, with steady intellect, undeluded, the knower of Brahman neither rejoiceth on obtaining what is pleasant nor grieveth on obtaining what is unpleasant.
Baahyasparsheshwasaktaatmaa vindatyaatmani yat sukham;
Sa brahma yoga yuktaatmaa sukham akshayam ashnute.
Sa brahma yoga yuktaatmaa sukham akshayam ashnute.
21. With the self unattached to the external contacts he discovers happiness in the Self; with the self engaged in the meditation of Brahman he attains to the endless happiness.
Ye hi samsparshajaa bhogaa duhkhayonaya eva te;
Aadyantavantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah.
Aadyantavantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah.
22. 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.
Shaknoteehaiva yah sodhum praak shareera vimokshanaat;
Kaamakrodhodbhavam vegam sa yuktah sa sukhee narah.
Kaamakrodhodbhavam vegam sa yuktah sa sukhee narah.
23. He who is able, while still here in this world to withstand, before the liberation from the body, the impulse born of desire and anger—he is a Yogi, he is a happy man.
Yo’ntah sukho’ntaraaraamas tathaantarjyotir eva yah;
Sa yogee brahma nirvaanam brahmabhooto’dhigacchati.
Sa yogee brahma nirvaanam brahmabhooto’dhigacchati.
24. He who is ever happy within, who rejoices within, who is illumined within, such a Yogi attains absolute freedom or Moksha, himself becoming Brahman.
Labhante brahma nirvaanam rishayah ksheenakalmashaah;
Cchinnadwaidhaa yataatmaanah sarvabhootahite rataah.
Cchinnadwaidhaa yataatmaanah sarvabhootahite rataah.
25. The sages obtain absolute freedom or Moksha—they whose sins have been destroyed, whose dualities (perception of dualities or experience of the pairs of opposites) are torn asunder, who are self-controlled, and intent on the welfare of all beings.
Kaamakrodhaviyuktaanaam yateenaam yatachetasaam;
Abhito brahma nirvaanam vartate viditaatmanaam.
Abhito brahma nirvaanam vartate viditaatmanaam.
26. Absolute freedom (or Brahmic bliss) exists on all sides for those self-controlled ascetics who are free from desire and anger, who have controlled their thoughts and who have realised the Self.
Sparsaan kritwaa bahir baahyaamschakshus chaivaantare bhruvoh;
Praanaapaanau samau kritwaa naasaabhyantara chaarinau.
Praanaapaanau samau kritwaa naasaabhyantara chaarinau.
27. Shutting out (all) external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalising the outgoing and incoming breaths moving within the nostrils,
Yatendriya manobuddhir munir mokshaparaayanah;
Vigatecchaabhaya krodho yah sadaa mukta eva sah.
Vigatecchaabhaya krodho yah sadaa mukta eva sah.
28. With the senses, the mind and the intellect always controlled, having liberation as his supreme goal, free from desire, fear and anger—the sage is verily liberated for ever.
Bhoktaaram yajnatapasaam sarvaloka maheshwaram;
Suhridam sarvabhootaanaam jnaatwaa maam shaantim ricchati.
Suhridam sarvabhootaanaam jnaatwaa maam shaantim ricchati.
29. He who knows Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord of all the worlds and the friend of all beings, attains to peace.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Karmasanyaasayogo Naama Panchamo’dhyaayah
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Karmasanyaasayogo Naama Panchamo’dhyaayah
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna ends the fifth discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of Renunciation of Action”
https://youtu.be/DF6zHd5j5fc
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita
by Swami Krishnananda
Discourse 11: The Fifth Chapter Begins – Knowledge and Action are One
“My Lord, what are You telling me? You say that jnana is the highest. I understand what You say. But sometimes You say, ‘You must act. All actions melt in knowledge.’ If that is the case, where comes the necessity for me to hear from You the instruction that I must act?” Sannyāsaṁ karmaṇāṁ kṛṣṇa punar yogaṁ ca śaṁsasi, yac chreya etayor ekaṁ tan me brūhi suniścitam (5.1). “Sometimes You say jnana, sometimes You say karma. Between these two, which is better for me?” This is Arjuna’s question.
Jyāyasī cet karmaṇas te matā buddhir janārdana, tat kiṁ karmaṇi ghore māṁ niyojayasi keśava (3.1). This question is raised in the beginning of the Third Chapter. If buddhi, understanding, is the root of all activity—as is mentioned in the Second Chapter where buddhi, or knowledge, is extolled as far superior to all actions—where is the need for action? Now, a similar question is being raised by Arjuna in the beginning of the Fifth Chapter. “When You say knowledge is supreme and all actions melt in knowledge, I would certainly be tempted to acquire that knowledge where all necessity to act will melt and actions will get burned.”
A disciple went to a Guru and asked, “Maharaj, who is greater, a disciple or a Guru?
The Guru said, “A Guru is greater.”
The disciple replied, “Then please make me a Guru.”
This is the kind of question that Arjuna raised after hearing the discourse on the interrelationship between yoga and sankhya, jnana and karma. In the language of the Bhagavadgita, sankhya means knowledge. It is also known as jnana. Here yoga means action, karma, or rather the application of knowledge; karma means applied knowledge. Just as there is applied physiology, applied physics, applied chemistry, etc., applied knowledge is yoga which is karma.
“What is this question you are raising once again after having heard so much that I have been telling you?” In light of what we have already studied in the Fourth Chapter, there is some repetition in the Fifth Chapter. The Fourth and the Fifth Chapters deal with the same theme, so sometimes there appears to be a repetition and an overemphasis of certain things.
The verse in the Third Chapter was lokesmin dvividhā niṣṭhā purā proktā mayānagha, jñānayogena sāṅkhyānāṁ karmayogena yoginām (3.3): “I have mentioned to you that there are two ways or approaches to Reality: jnana and karma.” Now in the Fifth Chapter Sri Krishna again speaks practically the same words. Sāṁkhyayogau pṛthag bālāḥ pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ, ekam apy āsthitaḥ samyag ubhayor vindate phalam (5.4): “Only children think that sankhya and yoga are two different things. Therefore, childish is your query whether jnana is superior or karma is superior, or whether you have to resort to knowledge or resort to action. I have mentioned to you that these two are inseparable.”
The soul is not the same as the body, but yet it is found that God is inseparable from the soul. The implied application of knowledge in the form of action may make it appear that action is different from knowledge, but it is not different from knowledge in the sense that it is knowledge itself applied in daily life. Therefore, karma, or yoga, or action is not to be considered as something quite different from the insight, or knowledge, spoken of earlier. Only children and illiterate, uneducated persons think that sankhya and yoga are two different things, that knowledge and action are different. If we are established in sankhya, we will automatically get established in yoga also. If we get established in yoga, we will automatically get established in sankhya also.
When we go to the furthest limits of the cosmos outside, as has been done by modern physics, for instance, we will find at the farthest distance of the cosmic periphery the same thing that we find in the deepest recesses of our heart. The farthest and the nearest are the same. The Atman in the deepest recesses of our heart is the same as the Brahman that we see beyond space and time. That is why modern physics has slowly found itself on the lap of the Upanishads, and tells us in its own language what the Upanishads proclaimed long before Einstein was born.
Thus, whatever sankhya is, that yoga also is. If we apply ourselves to the right action, we will find ourselves in the state of the highest knowledge that is necessary for doing that action. A person who is established in the highest knowledge is very active in the same way as, perhaps, God is active. Sri Krishna refers to Himself: na me pārthāsti kartavyaṁ triṣu lokeṣu kiṁcana, nānavāptam avāptavyaṁ varta eva ca karmaṇi (3.22). Sri Krishna is saying, “There is nothing that I have not acquired, there is nothing that I want, there is nothing that I need, there is nothing that can impel Me to do action, yet I am very active.”
God does not gain anything by being active. He is not profited by the creation of this world. No benefit accrues to God because He has created the world, yet we say He is very active in the creative process as Brahma, very active in the sustaining process as Vishnu, and very active in the transforming process as Rudra. Supreme Activity will ultimately be found to be inseparable from the Supreme Being.
Intense motion sometimes looks like no motion. If we see an electric fan moving at high speed, it looks as if it is not moving at all. We do not see any motion, though it is at the greatest speed. If we put a finger into the fan to see whether or not it is moving, we will know the answer. Otherwise, from a distance it looks as if it is at a standstill. Hence, intense activity is like no activity; and so-called activity has its visible form when individuals are the medium of movement. The smaller, grosser and more limited the individual, the more visible is the action and the more limited is its effect. But the larger the dimension of the individuality from where the action is produced and proceeds, the less is the reaction, so that when the dimension of the individual reaches the cosmic level, action becomes no action. In the levels which are less than the ultimate cosmic level, there is movement, as it were, on account of a type of individuality maintained by everything that is at a level lower than the cosmic level. Therefore, we feel that something is happening, and something is moving, and somebody is doing something, on account of the limitedness of the personality that is supposed to be the agent of action. But if the agent of action is unlimited, there is unlimited action—and unlimited action is no action.
To have everything is to want nothing. All desires melt in the state where we have all things. Ekam apy āsthitaḥ samyag ubhayor vindate phalam: If we are established in the highest form of activity, we are also, at the same time, established in the highest form of knowledge. There were great sages in India. Bhagavan Sri Krishna was one, and there were many others such as Vasishtha, Vyasa, Suka Maharishi, Jada Bharata, Vamadeva, and Dattatreya. They were all established in the highest knowledge of the Universal Reality and yet looked like ordinary individuals doing nothing at all—though in fact, everything was done by them. A tremendous velocity is assumed by the personality of the person established in knowledge, and so the one who is established in the highest knowledge may appear to be doing nothing at all.
Once somebody went to Ramana Maharishi and asked, “Why are you not doing some good work for people, instead of sitting here?”
Ramana Maharshi replied, “How do you know that I am not working? The highest knowledge is the highest action; therefore, those who are established in the highest knowledge may appear to be doing nothing while they are engaged in the highest action.”
I mentioned the other day about the vibrations set up by that idiot-like Jada Bharata. Dacoits dragged him to the temple in order to offer him to Kali by beheading that poor man. He was the worst of people in the eyes of men because he would do nothing. He sat as if he was sleeping—most lethargic, as it were, to all outside perception. He was completely inactive. Neither would he move at all, nor would he talk. But he was such a vibrant action inside that it touched the very gods in heaven and pulled Durga—Mahakali—from that stone image. He looked like a nobody, and people despised him as a good-for-nothing, but the lords in heaven were conscious of his existence. He had the ability to pull the powers of nature into himself by the tremendous velocity of his internal activity, which looked like no activity on account of his knowledge having expanded to the dimension of cosmic levels.
Yat sāṁkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṁ tad yogair api gamyate, ekaṁ sāṁkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati (5.5). Whatever one attains through knowledge in the manner knowledge has been described in the Gita, that very thing is attained by those who are engaged in action in the manner action is described in the Gita. One who knows in identity the goal reached by sankhya and yoga, or knowledge and action, in the end, such a person really sees the truth of things. Others only look at things but do not actually see the truth of things.
Sannyāsas tu mahābāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ, yogayukto munir brahma nacireṇādhigacchati (5.6). The word ‘sannyasa’ is used here, implying the characteristics of sankhya, or jnana, while ordinarily sannyasa means renunciation. The highest knowledge calls for the highest renunciation. Now Sri Krishna mentions here that without yoga we cannot have sannyasa. We cannot have renunciation without the practice of this yoga that I have described to you up to this time.
The renunciation of the world implies a mastery over the world. A mastery over the world implies total desirelessness for anything in the world. Can we imagine what renunciation, sannyasa means? He has not abandoned anything that is real. The sannyasin has abandoned only the wrong notion that he had earlier entertained in respect of the world outside. Nobody can renounce the world unless he has renounced himself first, because we are inseparably connected with the structure of the world. We are a part of the structure of the universe. Hence, a person who tries to renounce the world as a whole cannot but renounce himself also. But by wrongly construing the meaning of sannyasa, one may erroneously imagine that renunciation is the abandoning of the physical relationship with the objects of the world while keeping one’s own physical individuality intact. That is not possible. A sannyasi is not physically intact while he has renounced the world. The intactness goes together with the renunciation of the world. When he has renounced the world, he has renounced himself also. When he does not want anything from the world, he also does not want anything from his body. Therefore, it is difficult to practise renunciation, or sannyasa, without a kind of yoga that has to be there together with it—namely, union of ourselves with the Ultimate Reality in some form—either through sankhya, or through pure activity, as described.
Sannyāsas tu mahābāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ. In this sense, we may say that a sannyasin is not an inactive person, because here sannyasa is the same as knowledge that has been described earlier. It is highest renunciation on account of the attainment of the highest knowledge. It is not possible to renounce the world unless there is equally a great knowledge or insight. The greater is our insight into things, the greater is our power to renounce them. If we have an attraction to things, they will control us rather than us controlling them. Hence, sannyasa is referred to here as, on the one hand, the process of renunciation of attachment to things that are apparently looking outside the consciousness; and, on the other hand, it means establishment in great knowledge—the highest kind of knowledge.
Sannyāsas tu mahābāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ, yogayukto munir brahma nacireṇādhigacchati: If we are established in this kind of yoga where jnana is identical with action—sannyasa, or renunciation, is the same as activity—to be in the world is the same as being in God Himself, and we see no distinction between God and His creation. We see the world as God Himself would see the universe. How does God see the world? At that time, in this state of knowledge that is described here, in this great sankhya and great yoga, we will visualise the universe as the Creator Himself visualises it. Therefore, we have attained Brahman. In an instant, as it were, we have attained the Absolute with this practice.
“My Lord, what are You telling me? You say that jnana is the highest. I understand what You say. But sometimes You say, ‘You must act. All actions melt in knowledge.’ If that is the case, where comes the necessity for me to hear from You the instruction that I must act?” Sannyāsaṁ karmaṇāṁ kṛṣṇa punar yogaṁ ca śaṁsasi, yac chreya etayor ekaṁ tan me brūhi suniścitam (5.1). “Sometimes You say jnana, sometimes You say karma. Between these two, which is better for me?” This is Arjuna’s question.
Jyāyasī cet karmaṇas te matā buddhir janārdana, tat kiṁ karmaṇi ghore māṁ niyojayasi keśava (3.1). This question is raised in the beginning of the Third Chapter. If buddhi, understanding, is the root of all activity—as is mentioned in the Second Chapter where buddhi, or knowledge, is extolled as far superior to all actions—where is the need for action? Now, a similar question is being raised by Arjuna in the beginning of the Fifth Chapter. “When You say knowledge is supreme and all actions melt in knowledge, I would certainly be tempted to acquire that knowledge where all necessity to act will melt and actions will get burned.”
A disciple went to a Guru and asked, “Maharaj, who is greater, a disciple or a Guru?
The Guru said, “A Guru is greater.”
The disciple replied, “Then please make me a Guru.”
This is the kind of question that Arjuna raised after hearing the discourse on the interrelationship between yoga and sankhya, jnana and karma. In the language of the Bhagavadgita, sankhya means knowledge. It is also known as jnana. Here yoga means action, karma, or rather the application of knowledge; karma means applied knowledge. Just as there is applied physiology, applied physics, applied chemistry, etc., applied knowledge is yoga which is karma.
“What is this question you are raising once again after having heard so much that I have been telling you?” In light of what we have already studied in the Fourth Chapter, there is some repetition in the Fifth Chapter. The Fourth and the Fifth Chapters deal with the same theme, so sometimes there appears to be a repetition and an overemphasis of certain things.
The verse in the Third Chapter was lokesmin dvividhā niṣṭhā purā proktā mayānagha, jñānayogena sāṅkhyānāṁ karmayogena yoginām (3.3): “I have mentioned to you that there are two ways or approaches to Reality: jnana and karma.” Now in the Fifth Chapter Sri Krishna again speaks practically the same words. Sāṁkhyayogau pṛthag bālāḥ pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ, ekam apy āsthitaḥ samyag ubhayor vindate phalam (5.4): “Only children think that sankhya and yoga are two different things. Therefore, childish is your query whether jnana is superior or karma is superior, or whether you have to resort to knowledge or resort to action. I have mentioned to you that these two are inseparable.”
The soul is not the same as the body, but yet it is found that God is inseparable from the soul. The implied application of knowledge in the form of action may make it appear that action is different from knowledge, but it is not different from knowledge in the sense that it is knowledge itself applied in daily life. Therefore, karma, or yoga, or action is not to be considered as something quite different from the insight, or knowledge, spoken of earlier. Only children and illiterate, uneducated persons think that sankhya and yoga are two different things, that knowledge and action are different. If we are established in sankhya, we will automatically get established in yoga also. If we get established in yoga, we will automatically get established in sankhya also.
When we go to the furthest limits of the cosmos outside, as has been done by modern physics, for instance, we will find at the farthest distance of the cosmic periphery the same thing that we find in the deepest recesses of our heart. The farthest and the nearest are the same. The Atman in the deepest recesses of our heart is the same as the Brahman that we see beyond space and time. That is why modern physics has slowly found itself on the lap of the Upanishads, and tells us in its own language what the Upanishads proclaimed long before Einstein was born.
Thus, whatever sankhya is, that yoga also is. If we apply ourselves to the right action, we will find ourselves in the state of the highest knowledge that is necessary for doing that action. A person who is established in the highest knowledge is very active in the same way as, perhaps, God is active. Sri Krishna refers to Himself: na me pārthāsti kartavyaṁ triṣu lokeṣu kiṁcana, nānavāptam avāptavyaṁ varta eva ca karmaṇi (3.22). Sri Krishna is saying, “There is nothing that I have not acquired, there is nothing that I want, there is nothing that I need, there is nothing that can impel Me to do action, yet I am very active.”
God does not gain anything by being active. He is not profited by the creation of this world. No benefit accrues to God because He has created the world, yet we say He is very active in the creative process as Brahma, very active in the sustaining process as Vishnu, and very active in the transforming process as Rudra. Supreme Activity will ultimately be found to be inseparable from the Supreme Being.
Intense motion sometimes looks like no motion. If we see an electric fan moving at high speed, it looks as if it is not moving at all. We do not see any motion, though it is at the greatest speed. If we put a finger into the fan to see whether or not it is moving, we will know the answer. Otherwise, from a distance it looks as if it is at a standstill. Hence, intense activity is like no activity; and so-called activity has its visible form when individuals are the medium of movement. The smaller, grosser and more limited the individual, the more visible is the action and the more limited is its effect. But the larger the dimension of the individuality from where the action is produced and proceeds, the less is the reaction, so that when the dimension of the individual reaches the cosmic level, action becomes no action. In the levels which are less than the ultimate cosmic level, there is movement, as it were, on account of a type of individuality maintained by everything that is at a level lower than the cosmic level. Therefore, we feel that something is happening, and something is moving, and somebody is doing something, on account of the limitedness of the personality that is supposed to be the agent of action. But if the agent of action is unlimited, there is unlimited action—and unlimited action is no action.
To have everything is to want nothing. All desires melt in the state where we have all things. Ekam apy āsthitaḥ samyag ubhayor vindate phalam: If we are established in the highest form of activity, we are also, at the same time, established in the highest form of knowledge. There were great sages in India. Bhagavan Sri Krishna was one, and there were many others such as Vasishtha, Vyasa, Suka Maharishi, Jada Bharata, Vamadeva, and Dattatreya. They were all established in the highest knowledge of the Universal Reality and yet looked like ordinary individuals doing nothing at all—though in fact, everything was done by them. A tremendous velocity is assumed by the personality of the person established in knowledge, and so the one who is established in the highest knowledge may appear to be doing nothing at all.
Once somebody went to Ramana Maharishi and asked, “Why are you not doing some good work for people, instead of sitting here?”
Ramana Maharshi replied, “How do you know that I am not working? The highest knowledge is the highest action; therefore, those who are established in the highest knowledge may appear to be doing nothing while they are engaged in the highest action.”
I mentioned the other day about the vibrations set up by that idiot-like Jada Bharata. Dacoits dragged him to the temple in order to offer him to Kali by beheading that poor man. He was the worst of people in the eyes of men because he would do nothing. He sat as if he was sleeping—most lethargic, as it were, to all outside perception. He was completely inactive. Neither would he move at all, nor would he talk. But he was such a vibrant action inside that it touched the very gods in heaven and pulled Durga—Mahakali—from that stone image. He looked like a nobody, and people despised him as a good-for-nothing, but the lords in heaven were conscious of his existence. He had the ability to pull the powers of nature into himself by the tremendous velocity of his internal activity, which looked like no activity on account of his knowledge having expanded to the dimension of cosmic levels.
Yat sāṁkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṁ tad yogair api gamyate, ekaṁ sāṁkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati (5.5). Whatever one attains through knowledge in the manner knowledge has been described in the Gita, that very thing is attained by those who are engaged in action in the manner action is described in the Gita. One who knows in identity the goal reached by sankhya and yoga, or knowledge and action, in the end, such a person really sees the truth of things. Others only look at things but do not actually see the truth of things.
Sannyāsas tu mahābāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ, yogayukto munir brahma nacireṇādhigacchati (5.6). The word ‘sannyasa’ is used here, implying the characteristics of sankhya, or jnana, while ordinarily sannyasa means renunciation. The highest knowledge calls for the highest renunciation. Now Sri Krishna mentions here that without yoga we cannot have sannyasa. We cannot have renunciation without the practice of this yoga that I have described to you up to this time.
The renunciation of the world implies a mastery over the world. A mastery over the world implies total desirelessness for anything in the world. Can we imagine what renunciation, sannyasa means? He has not abandoned anything that is real. The sannyasin has abandoned only the wrong notion that he had earlier entertained in respect of the world outside. Nobody can renounce the world unless he has renounced himself first, because we are inseparably connected with the structure of the world. We are a part of the structure of the universe. Hence, a person who tries to renounce the world as a whole cannot but renounce himself also. But by wrongly construing the meaning of sannyasa, one may erroneously imagine that renunciation is the abandoning of the physical relationship with the objects of the world while keeping one’s own physical individuality intact. That is not possible. A sannyasi is not physically intact while he has renounced the world. The intactness goes together with the renunciation of the world. When he has renounced the world, he has renounced himself also. When he does not want anything from the world, he also does not want anything from his body. Therefore, it is difficult to practise renunciation, or sannyasa, without a kind of yoga that has to be there together with it—namely, union of ourselves with the Ultimate Reality in some form—either through sankhya, or through pure activity, as described.
Sannyāsas tu mahābāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ. In this sense, we may say that a sannyasin is not an inactive person, because here sannyasa is the same as knowledge that has been described earlier. It is highest renunciation on account of the attainment of the highest knowledge. It is not possible to renounce the world unless there is equally a great knowledge or insight. The greater is our insight into things, the greater is our power to renounce them. If we have an attraction to things, they will control us rather than us controlling them. Hence, sannyasa is referred to here as, on the one hand, the process of renunciation of attachment to things that are apparently looking outside the consciousness; and, on the other hand, it means establishment in great knowledge—the highest kind of knowledge.
Sannyāsas tu mahābāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ, yogayukto munir brahma nacireṇādhigacchati: If we are established in this kind of yoga where jnana is identical with action—sannyasa, or renunciation, is the same as activity—to be in the world is the same as being in God Himself, and we see no distinction between God and His creation. We see the world as God Himself would see the universe. How does God see the world? At that time, in this state of knowledge that is described here, in this great sankhya and great yoga, we will visualise the universe as the Creator Himself visualises it. Therefore, we have attained Brahman. In an instant, as it were, we have attained the Absolute with this practice.
--==
Discourse 12: The Fifth Chapter Continues – The Characteristics of a Perfected Person
Yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ, sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā kurvann api na lipyate (5.7). In this verse, the characteristics of a yogi, a perfected person, are described. A person who is united in yoga is a yogayukta. Such a person is also a viśuddhātmā: his lower self has been purified in order to reflect the higher Self in itself. He is also a vijitātmā: a person who is perfectly under control of himself; jitendriya: whose sense organs have been restrained; sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā: whose Self has pervaded all beings, and the Self of all beings are in his own Self. These are the qualities of a sage which are mentioned in this interesting yoga.
In the beginning, the effort is to restrain the senses; and when the senses are restrained, the person becomes a jitendriya. When a person is a jitendriya on account of the restraint exercised over the senses, he becomes a vijitātmā—one who has conquered himself. The conquest of one’s own self is actually the conquest over the sense organs, because it is due to the activity of the sense organs that one’s own self moves in the direction of a not-self. We find that our interest is in outside things. The world seems to be more interesting than our own selves. This happens on account of the self moving away from itself, through the avenues of the senses, towards the direction of the world of objects. But a person who has restrained the senses does not allow the consciousness to pervade and penetrate through the senses towards the direction of things outside. Such a person has restrained himself. It is an exercise for restraining the self. It is a restraint over the sense organs; and incidentally, it is at the same time a restraint exercised on the self itself—the lower self. A jitendriyais also a vijitātmā.
Such a person is a viśuddhātmā whose self is pure sattva, free from rajas and tamas. The entire reality is reflected through the sattva guna, as a mirror can clearly reflect the face of a person. Turbid or shaky waters do not reflect anything adequately. Turbidity is tamas, and shakiness is rajas. The sun is reflected on the waters of a lake or a river. If the lake is muddy, and it is thick and turbid on account of dirt in the water, there will be no reflection of the sun in that water; but even if the dirt is not there, even if it is clean water but it is shaking violently, then also there will not be a correct and wholesome reflection of the sun. Similarly, we may be disturbed and find ourselves incapable of reflecting the higher Self in our own personality either because of the tamas that is prevailing in us or due to the rajas prevailing in us. Either we are tamasic—lethargic and dark—in our mental operations, or the mind is distracted in a hundred ways, so then also there is no reflection. Free from both these defects of the mind is a viśuddhātmā who is purely sattvic, untarnished by rajas and tamas. Such a person is united with all things at the same time; he is a yogayukta. The words used in this verse are in a descending order, whereas I have explained it in an ascending order. Yogayukta is the highest state, which is attained by the viśuddhātmā, which is attained by the vijitātmā, which state is attained by the jitendriya. Such a person becomes a wonder in this world.
Yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ: He also becomes sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā. He will find himself reflected in the Self of all beings in the universe, and he will find the selves of all beings reflected in his own Self. Sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā means one who has become the Self of all beings, and also one in whom the selves of all beings find their abode. This is a grand description of the highest state of perfection achieved by union through yoga.
All processes in this universe—evolution, involution, activity of any kind—are said to be taking place on account of a peculiar propensity in the gunas of prakriti. Therefore, the Supreme Lord is not supposed to be directly responsible for either what we call creation or destruction, or for any kind of activity taking place. His participation in creation is secondary, just as the sun, the solar light, is responsible for everything—life and death in this world—and yet the sun is not directly connected. This is a very interesting verse in the Bhagavadgita: na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ(5.14). The Supreme Being, the Lord, does not directly bring about the relation of cause and effect, in the same way as the sun does not directly interfere with the activities of the world. Agency in action is kartṛtva. Action is karma. Neither agency in action nor the action itself are something that is created directly by God. That is to say, the defects of the human being are not to be attributed to God. Otherwise, the Supreme Reality, being inclusive of all the individuals in the universe, the total, would be a mass of ignorance, full of distractions. The total of all mankind would be nothing but a heap of distraction and incapacity to perceive correctly.
Transcendent is God, though He is also immanent. Water pervades every fibre of a cloth that is dipped in it. When a cloth is dipped in a bucket of water, every fibre becomes wet. That is, the water pervades the whole cloth; it is immanent in the cloth. The water is almost inseparable from the cloth, because when we touch the cloth we can see the wetness and the dripping of water; yet, the water is not the cloth. There is no connection between the cloth and the water. The pervasion of God through the universe, through every little thing in the world, even the littlest atom, does not mean that God has involved Himself in the defects of life, the limitations of things, the locations of bodies, the ignorance characterising individuals. These are not part and parcel of the Supreme Being.
The transcendence that is the real nature of God frees Him from every kind of defect that is otherwise seen in the effects which He pervades and in which He is immanent. That is why it is said here that agency in action—the consciousness of one’s own individuality being responsible for work—is not created by God. It is due to the defect of the ego that one feels that one is doing some action. The action itself is a process that is engendered by the movement of the gunas of prakriti and, therefore, that also does not come from God. He is not responsible for anything whatsoever. God is responsible for everything, and yet He is responsible for nothing. It can be put either way. God’s responsibility for everything lies in the fact of His being immanent, and His freedom from any kind of involvement arises on account of His supreme transcendence.
Na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ, na karmaphalasaṁyogaṁ: The fruit of action that accrues through actions performed with a motive for fruit, this also is not done by God Himself. He is not thinking of giving us something. Neither does He take anything, nor does He give us anything. An automatic action takes place on account of the very structural pattern of the universe. Whether we go to heaven or to hell or we are reborn, we cannot say that God is thinking that we should be thrown somewhere or that we should be made to take rebirth. It is nothing of the kind. The universe is an automatic system of operation, and does not require an outside interference from God. Actually, God is not an outside thing, and is not an extra-cosmic reality. Nor is God capable of being identified with the cosmos itself. The divisions, the mutations, the limitations and the spatiotemporal conditioning which are the characteristics of the world cannot be attributed to God. In a sense, we may say there is nothing in the world which can be found in God; but in another sense, everything can be found in God because the values that we see in this world arise from a transcendence which is invisible to the eyes and uncognisable to the mind.
It is like the analogy of the snake and the rope. The snake is not the rope and, therefore, we cannot say that the rope has become the snake; and yet, the snake would not be there if the rope was not there. The rope is responsible for the snake, yet the rope is not responsible for the snake. The rope has never become the snake; therefore, we cannot say that the rope is responsible for appearing as the snake. Yet without the rope, the snake would not have appeared in it. Likewise, God is not responsible for anything that is happening in the world, yet nothing can happen in the world without God’s existence. God maintains a very crucial position: God is doing everything, and yet doing nothing at all.
Na karmaphalasaṁyogaṁ svabhāvas tu pravartate: The natural tendency of existence itself is responsible for what we call action and motivation in any direction. Nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ, ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ (5.15): God does not take our sin or our merit, because merits and sins are meaningful only in individualised existence where consciousness works through the body and sense organs; therefore, sin and merit cannot be attributed to consciousness that is not working through the sense organs and the individual apparatus of the mind. Universal Existence does not think through the mind and does not perceive through the sense organs. Hence, the characteristics which are of the mind and the senses cannot be attributed to God.
Therefore, what happens to our meritorious karmas and our sins, and so on? Is nobody punished for their sins? People are punished by their sins. The sin itself punishes us; somebody else, like a judge sitting in the court, does not punish us for our sins. A sin is a peculiar dislocated, maladjusted situation that an individual occupies in this cosmos; this maladjustment itself is the sin. The sin itself punishes us, and there is nobody else from outside to strike a rod on our heads. That is, a self-complete organism occupies a self-complete situation in itself, and its health and disease depend entirely upon the manner in which the components of the organism work. There is no third reality, no extra-physical reality coming and interfering with the wrong actions or the right actions of a person.
This is why it is said that the actions performed in the highest state of yoga cannot be called either merit or demerit. Karma suklakrishnam: Karmas are either black or white. But karmas are neither black nor white for the yogi. The blackness or the whiteness corresponds to the wrongness or the rightness of perception. What we call sin is nothing but the solidification, the condensation of wrong actions continuing for a long time; and punya, or merit, is the condensation of good actions that we have performed. To repeat once again what I said, a good action is that tendency in our consciousness which moves in the direction of larger and larger dimensions of itself, and a sin is a contraction of consciousness which moves more and more in the direction of the physical body; and the worst sin is to have consciousness lodged in the body itself, and think that one is only the body.
Nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ, ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ: Due to a cosmic ignorance, all individuals suffer. Their suffering or their pleasures are not products emanating from God. The transcendence of God precludes all connections with the mutations of prakriti, though without Him prakriti cannot move: ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ.
Tadbuddhayas tadātmānas tanniṣṭhās tatparāyaṇāḥ, gacchantyapunarāvṛttiṁ jñānanirdhūtakalmaṣāḥ(5.17): One can attain to this state of utter perfection free from the goodness or the badness of things, or the qualities of prakriti, by intense concentration on the transcendence which is God. God is untarnished because of there being no change, no mutation, no difference, no physicality, and no externality in God. Meditation is to be conducted by the consciousness of the seeker on a universal transcendence of its own self, freed from the clutches of whatever the world may appear to be.
Tadbuddhayaḥ: They are tadbuddhayaḥ who are centred in their intellect, and through their intellect are centred in That; their understanding is rooted in That.
Tadātmānaḥ: Whose self is perfectly lodged in That. Our existence itself is Its existence, and Its existence is our existence; this state of affairs is called tadātmānaḥ. Tadātmānaḥ is the uniting of the self with the Self. That is, the individual self unites itself with the Universal Self. That state is called tadātmānaḥ. Those who are established in their understanding have also their self rooted in that Supreme Being.
Tanniṣṭhāḥ: Whose main occupation is establishment in that Supreme Being. Our daily activity, our professions, our occupations, whatever we do, is a preparation for the establishment of ourselves in That. It does not mean that our daily routine is contrary to God-realisation. The activities of people, the daily routine of anybody, should be so conducted and so refined and harmonised that it stands perfectly in order in respect of that Supreme Being, Who is perfect order. It does not mean that when we move to God, we move from wrong to right. It is a movement from the lesser right to the higher right. It is also not moving from falsehood to truth. It is a movement from the lesser truth to the higher truth.
Therefore, those people whose Atman, the Self, is pre-eminently established in the Supreme Self find that all their daily routine also is so immensely affected by this union that the otherwise distracting and dividing form of human activity becomes a manifold emanation from the Self that is at the back of all activity, in the same way as rays emanate from the sun. The rays of the sun may be said to be the activities of the sun in some way; but this activity of the sun in the form of the emanation of rays is not independent of the existence of the sun. Therefore, the light and the radiance of the sun are also to be seen in the rays. The action of the sun is identical with the existence of the sun. Similarly, our activities should be spiritual in their nature; they should be completely conditioned by the nature of consciousness. Or, every work is nothing but a movement of the Self; consciousness is moving in the form of activity. Thus, activity is not any more a bondage. It is our own Self that is moving in the direction of itself, partially inwardly, partially externally, as waves are activities of the ocean; and yet they are not activities of the ocean, as the activity itself becomes one with the ocean. Tanniṣṭhāḥ: That is establishment of oneself in that Supreme Being. Niṣṭhāḥ is establishment, rootedness.
Tatparāyaṇāḥ is always eager to attain That. Day in and day out we brood over the possibility of this supreme attainment: “When shall I get it, when shall I get it, when shall I get it?” You can go on chanting this mantra: “When shall I get it, when shall I get it, when shall I get it, when shall I get it?” This little sentence is also a recipe for bringing the mind back to the point of concentration on That. Eagerness to receive that Being into ourselves, eagerness to unite ourselves with that Being is tivra vairagya, intense detachment towards the world of objects. It is tivra samvega, or intense ardour to unite oneself with God. This is a word used in Patanjali’s sutra—tīvrasaṁvegānām āsannaḥ (Y.S. 1.21): God is near to you to the extent you are eager to attain Him. Tatparāyaṇāḥ means one who is intensely eager to reach That, and his ardour is burning like a flame.
Gacchantyapunarāvṛttiṁ: Such persons, having attained immortality, will not return to this world of mortality.
Jñānanirdhūtakalmaṣāḥ: On account of their being purified through the highest knowledge, they do not get reborn into this world of bondage and limitations. Immortality is attained.
Ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ, nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ (5.19): One may be said to have attained God here itself, just now, provided one is free from kama and krodha, desire and anger. These are the obstacles that prevent us from a consciousness of our proximity to God, and create a wrong notion that God is away from us. Rebirth is conquered by people just now, here itself.
Ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ: Those whose minds are perfectly harmonised inwardly as well as outwardly, and who live in a state of perfect balance within themselves as well as in relation to the outside world, are free from loves and hatreds; and, therefore, there is nothing in them which will cause rebirth. In that sense, we may say, they are selected for immortality. They shall not be born again.
Ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ, nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ: Spotless is the Supreme Absolute; the highest purity is God Almighty. That being the case, those who are perfect in their purity of consciousness, those who are free from the distractions characterising the mind, are automatically established in Brahman. The attainment of God is not a future possibility. It is an eternal acquirement just here and now. God is not in time and not in space. Therefore, there is no distance between us and God. Therefore, there is no tomorrow for God. God’s actions are instantaneous actions, and God-realisation is also an instantaneous event. Sudden is the occurrence of this so-called event we call God-realisation: nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ.
Vidyāvinayasaṁpanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini, śuni caiva śvapāke ca paṇḍitāḥ samadarśinaḥ (5.18): The high and low look equal to the harmonised vision of the sage. If he sees a learned person or sees a fool, it makes no difference to him. He sees the same underlying reality in both that are considered as superior and inferior by the eyes of the world. Whether it is a learned sage or an animal—a cow or an elephant or a dog—the vision of the sage sees only the underlying reality, just as a goldsmith sees only the quality and the weight of gold in an ornament. The goldsmith is not interested in the shape of the ornament; he sees only the weight and how much gold is in it, in the same way that a tiger sees only flesh in its victim and it does not note what it is that it is pouncing upon. Whether the tiger pounces upon a great saint or a little child or an animal, it sees only its diet there. Just as the ironsmith sees only iron and the goldsmith sees only gold, the great sage sees only consciousness everywhere. Sarvataḥpāṇipādaṁ tat sarvato’kṣiśiromukham (13.13), etc., as we will be told in a future chapter.
Paṇḍitāḥ samadarśinaḥ: Those who are learned in spiritual lore, who are endowed with the insight into the reality of things, see oneness everywhere.
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Discourse 13: The Fifth Chapter Concludes – The Characteristics of the Sage Who is Established in Brahman
na prahṛṣyet priyaṁ prāpya nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam
sthirabuddhir asaṁmūḍho brahmavid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ (5.20)
bāhyasparśeṣvasaktātmā vindatyātmani yat sukhamsa brahmayogayuktātmā sukham akṣayam aśnute (5.21)
ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te
ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ (5.22)
śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ prāk śarīravimokṣaṇāt
kāmakrodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ (5.23)
yo’ntaḥsukho’ntarārāmas tathāntarjyotir eva yaḥ
sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṁ brahmabhūto’dhigacchati (5.24)
labhante brahmanirvāṇam ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ
chinnadvaidhā yatātmānaḥ sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (5.25)
kāmakrodhaviyuktānāṁ yatīnāṁ yatacetasām
abhito brahmanirvāṇaṁ vartate viditātmanām (5.26)
sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṁś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ
prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsābhyantaracāriṇau (5.27)
yatendriyamanobuddhir munir mokṣaparāyaṇaḥ
vigatecchābhayakrodho yaḥ sadā mukta eva saḥ (5.28)
bhoktāraṁ yajñatapasāṁ sarvalokamaheśvaramsuhṛdaṁ
sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati (5.29)
sthirabuddhir asaṁmūḍho brahmavid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ (5.20)
bāhyasparśeṣvasaktātmā vindatyātmani yat sukhamsa brahmayogayuktātmā sukham akṣayam aśnute (5.21)
ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te
ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ (5.22)
śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ prāk śarīravimokṣaṇāt
kāmakrodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ (5.23)
yo’ntaḥsukho’ntarārāmas tathāntarjyotir eva yaḥ
sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṁ brahmabhūto’dhigacchati (5.24)
labhante brahmanirvāṇam ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ
chinnadvaidhā yatātmānaḥ sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (5.25)
kāmakrodhaviyuktānāṁ yatīnāṁ yatacetasām
abhito brahmanirvāṇaṁ vartate viditātmanām (5.26)
sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṁś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ
prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsābhyantaracāriṇau (5.27)
yatendriyamanobuddhir munir mokṣaparāyaṇaḥ
vigatecchābhayakrodho yaḥ sadā mukta eva saḥ (5.28)
bhoktāraṁ yajñatapasāṁ sarvalokamaheśvaramsuhṛdaṁ
sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati (5.29)
These are the concluding verses of the Fifth Chapter. Na prahṛṣyet priyaṁ prāpya nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam: The great sage who is established in Brahman neither rejoices on acquiring pleasant things, nor grieves when coming in contact with unpleasant things, because he sees with an equal eye the substances that are the components of pleasant things as well unpleasant things.
The atomic and molecular components of substances cause the differentiation of one substance from another. Milk can become poison if one molecule is removed. All things are just compositions of uniformly spread-out substances. Their permutations and combinations make things look different—beautiful or ugly, stout or thin, necessary or unnecessary, pleasant or unpleasant. Therefore, to the Universal vision of the basic substance of all things, there is neither joy at the perception of what is apparently pleasant, nor is there grief at the perception of what is apparently unpleasant. The pleasant and the unpleasant are actually not things; they are reactions set up by our personality in respect of certain compositions of things. Thus, things are actually neither good nor bad, neither beautiful nor ugly, neither pleasant nor unpleasant. We set up different reactions due to the peculiar setup of our psychophysical individuality, which can accommodate only certain things and cannot accommodate certain other things. Therefore, certain things look pleasant and certain things look unpleasant. But to the person who is non-individual, or super-individual—superman, atimanav—to that person who has an equanimous vision of the cosmos, things are neither pleasant nor unpleasant because he is established in the Universal Reality. Brahmaṇi sthitaḥ: Unshaken understanding is his, and establishment of the Self is in Brahman.
Bāhyasparśeṣvasaktātmā vindatyātmani yat sukham, sa brahmayogayuktātmā sukham akṣayam aśnute: When we are totally detached from connection with the objects of sense, when the senses do not see any meaning in the objects outside and, therefore, do not pull the consciousness out in the direction of objects, when consciousness does not defeat itself through perception in terms of the sense organs, the energy of the person increases, and the Self realises itself, whereas the Self loses itself in the perception and contact of external objects. In all perceptions there is an element of losing consciousness. That is why, in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, even the perception of an object without any element of love or hatred is called a wrong perception from the point of view of yoga because all perceptions, even if they are so-called right perceptions, are partial. For instance, this is a building, and it is really a right perception; we do not say it is an elephant. To say that it is a building and not an elephant is indeed a right perception, but it is not a right perception from another point of view because the limited operation of the mind of an individual characterises certain shapes as ‘a building’, while actually, internally, we will find that which is in one thing is also in another thing.
Therefore, one who is totally unattached to things outside—bāhyasparśeṣvasaktātmā—he rejoices in himself and enjoys a bliss which is Brahman itself. Bāhyasparśeṣv- asaktātmā vindatyātmani yat sukham, sa brahmayogayuktātmā: To identify the consciousness with one’s own self by freeing it from entanglement in sensory perception is equivalent to establishment in Brahman itself. The Universal Brahman is in the Atman of every individual. Space is universal; but the same universal space, when we see the space only inside the vessel, may appear to be limited to a little vessel. The space inside the vessel is called pot ether—ghatakash. The pot ether looks very small because it is limited by the walls of the pot, and the bigger space—which is mahakasa—seems to be larger than the little space inside the pot. Thus, there appears to be a difference between the universal akasha, or the universal ether, and the individual ether that is in the pot—but really there is no such difference. The space has not been divided into two parts, inside and outside the pot. The same consciousness is within us and also outside us.
Thus the within-ness of ours, the Selfhood that we enjoy, the bliss that comes out of the detachment of consciousness from objects of sense, is the same as the bliss of Brahman—the Universal Reality emanating, rising up from our so-called little self. The Universal Reality rises up into action the moment the so-called little self in us withdraws itself from contact with things and does not concern itself with anything that is external—sa brahmayogayuktātmā sukham akṣayam aśnute.
Ye hi saṁsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te, ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ: 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. 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. 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 Mahabharata tells us that just as two logs floating on the surface of the ocean may come in contact with each other due to the prevailing wind, we come in contact with each other and become relatives, friends, a community; but if the wind blows in a different direction, the logs move away from each other as if they have no connection. So when the wind of the cosmic force blows in a different direction, you will be taken to one place and I to another, as if we had not been born here at all. The great sage Vyasa has written in the Mahabharata: yathā kāśṭaṁ ca kāśṭaṁ ca sameyātāṁ mahodadhau, sametya ca vyatIyātaṁ tadvad-bhūtasamāgamaḥ. 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. “I have lost someone. My brother is dead,” we cry in bereavement. Why did we come in contact at all in order that we may cry afterwards? Hence, contact with objects has a beginning, and it also has an end. Therefore, all joys that are born of contact are poison in the end, though they look like honey in the beginning. Ᾱdyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ramate budhaḥ: Wise people do not rejoice in objects of sense.
Śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ prāk śarīravimokṣaṇāt, kāma- krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ: Blessed is that person who is able to restrain himself from desire and anger even before the dispatch of his body. The vehemence of anger and the vehemence of desire are actually the vehemence of the mind which runs in terms of sense objects. Therefore, he who longs for blessedness, and does not want to perish in this samsara, in this worldly existence, works very hard—kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ. Sa yuktaḥ: Such a person is united with Reality.
We cannot be free from the desire for external things unless we are united with the Universal Being. Unless we have an element of universality in our experience, it is not possible for the mind to be free from the objects of desire. So there is no use in merely trying to dispatch objects outside, throw them away, bundle them into the Ganga, and imagine that we have no desires. We cannot be free from the longing for something unless we have realised and obtained something greater. The object will no longer torment and tantalise us when there is something greater than the object which we have realised in our own self. When we have the ocean itself within us, we do not run after a cup of water.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon every student of yoga to work hard, and not merely negatively by restraining the sense organs through fasting, not sleeping, not speaking, and physically being away from things. This method alone is not adequate because we cannot starve consciousness. Consciousness wants food; therefore, we must give it the food of universal experience, in any degree of expression. It may not be the highest universality, but it should be higher than ordinary individuality. Only then will the desires spontaneously cease. If we have a million dollars, we do not mind losing one dollar; but if we have only ten dollars, one dollar looks very good. Similarly, we would not mind losing the whole world through sense contact if the Absolute is realised in our conscious experience. Only a person who has realised his universality can be free from desire and anger.
Yo’ntaḥsukho’ntarārāmas tathāntarjyotir eva yaḥ, sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṁ brahmabhūto’dhigacchati: Who is blessed in his own Self, who delights in his own Self, who rejoices in his own Self, who takes rest in his own Self, who finds life in his own Self—such a person has attained Brahman. Yontaḥsukh: whose satisfaction is inside, within himself; antarārāmaḥ: who is reclining and whose abode is within himself only; tathāntarjyotir eva yaḥ: whose illumination, whose light, whose guide is also inside; sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṁ: he merges into Brahman because he has become Brahman. Brahmabhūto’dhigacchati: The Universal is nothing but Brahman, and Brahman is nothing but the Universal. Therefore, the attainment of Brahman is the same as the requirement of the largest dimension of our own consciousness, our own individuality expanding itself to cosmic levels until there is nothing external to it. Thus, Atman becomes Brahman, the individual becomes the super-individual, the veritable Universal—sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṁ brahmabhūto’dhigacchati.
Kāmakrodhaviyuktānāṁ yatīnāṁ yatacetasām, abhito brahmanirvāṇaṁ vartate viditātmanām: The Brahman that we are seeking is just under our nose here, provided we are free from desire and anger. Yogis who are self-restrained persons, who are free from kama and krodha—kāmakrodhaviyuktānāṁ yatīnāṁ yatacetasām—whose minds are united with the Self, to such people Brahman is here, and not in some distant place. It is just here and now. Abhitaḥ: Everywhere is Brahman for that person. There is no distance between himself and Brahman, and there is no futurity of attaining Brahman; it is an eternal presence that is experienced as brahmanirvāṇa: sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṁ brahmabhūto’dhigacchati.
The entire yoga is described in two verses towards the end of the Fifth Chapter, and the Sixth Chapter is a long commentary on them. What is meant by yoga is elaborately detailed in the Sixth Chapter, but the seed of that long commentary is sown in these two verses towards the end of the Fifth Chapter: sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṁś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ, prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsābhyantaracāriṇau; yatendriyamanobuddhir munir mokṣaparāyaṇaḥ, vigatecchābhayakrodho yaḥ sadā mukta eva saḥ.
Sparśān kṛtvā bahiḥ: Cutting asunder the contact that is external, by means of the methods described in the earlier verses. Sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṁś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ: Not looking at things with open eyes, but closing the eyes to some extent as if we are looking at no one, or gazing at the spot between the eyebrows. In one place in the Sixth Chapter we are told that it will look as if we are gazing at the tip of the nose. Now it is said that it will look as if we are concentrating on the middle of the eyebrows, as the case may be.
Sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṁś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ, prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā: Equalising the breathing that is apana and prana, and not exhaling or inhaling heavily or with difficulty. When we run fast, we breathe in an unusual and abnormal way. There is gasping, a tremendous pushing of the prana outside, and also a tremendous desire to push the prana down. Too much physical exercise which will push the prana out and exhaust the body is not very conducive to yoga practice. Yoga asanas are better than ordinary physical exercise because when we run while playing sports we perspire, energy goes out, we feel tired and breathe heavily, exhausting ourselves; but in yoga asana there is a calm and quiet bending of the prana inside. Even if we do the asanas for a long time, we do not feel exhausted, we do not perspire, and our breath does not heave as it does when we run or jump. It is an internalisation process taking place in the yoga asana. The externalisation of prana takes place in ordinary games. Hence, yoga asanas are superior to the Western type of physical exercises. The pranas and apanas—the breathing that is inside as well as outside—should be equalised in such a way that they will be conducive to the concentration of the mind.
The breath and the mind are connected to each other. As each cog in the mechanism of a clock is connected with the hands which show the time, there is a connection between the mind and the prana. The prana is like the hands of the clock. It can be seen, but the mind is inside and cannot be seen. It is said that the prana can be restrained in two ways, just as there are two ways to stop a clock from working. One way is to hold the hands still; then the clock stops, but there is still the pressure of the wheels inside to make the hands move. Similarly, merely holding the breath when there are still desires in the mind is not conducive to stopping the prana. Rather, it is highly deleterious. Nobody should do pranayama and kumbhaka if there are submerged desires in the mind, because the prana can suddenly burst out, like a bomb, and cause illnesses of various kinds. If a desire-filled, emotionally torn individual starts doing pranayama, there can be a collapsing of the body rather than a strengthening of it. Thus, the prana can be controlled by restraining the mind by freeing it from desires, just as a clock can be stopped by stopping the inner mechanism; or the pranacan be stopped externally by holding the breath.
Prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsābhyantaracāriṇau: In the highest stage of the equalisation of the breath, the prana and apana, which move through the two nostrils, are supposed to operate only inside the nose. They do not come out, which is contrary to what generally happens in our daily life—nāsābhyantaracāriṇau.
Yatendriyamanobuddhih. Yata means restraint, held in check; indriya means the senses, mana means mind, and buddhi means intellect. He who has restrained, held in check, the operations of the senses, the mind and the intellect in terms of external things is called a yatendriyamanobuddhih.
A muni is one who is calm, quiet, and silent in himself, and who does not announce himself or parade his knowledge or glory, being satisfied with himself, asking not for satisfaction from anybody else. Such a person is a muni who has restrained his senses, mind and intellect, and is calm and quiet in himself, devoted entirely to the liberation of the spirit—munir mokṣaparāyaṇaḥ—and is intent on the liberation of his soul. Day in and day out he prays that the soul will be liberated from his body, that he will attain brahmanirvāṇa, that moksha will be his blessedness one day or the other. Day in and day out he broods over the possibility of attaining liberation, and sees nothing else except moksha—such a person is mokṣaparāyaṇaḥ. Being entirely free from any kind of desire—vigatecchābhayakrodaḥ—neither is there iccha, nor longing, nor fear of anything. Krodha, or anger, is of course far away from him. Whoever he is—sadā mukta eva saḥ—such a person is liberated in this life.
Such a person who is liberated even while apparently living in this body for some time is called a jivanmukta. He becomes a videhamukta, or discarnately liberated when the body is shed, but he also may be liberated even while the body is there if the sattvic vrittis, sattvic karmas, take an upper hand and the rajas and tamas in him are completely subjugated. When the rajas and tamas are completely obliterated and only sattva predominates in a person, he becomes a jivanmukta—verily a god moving in this world. But when even the sattva guna is transcended—he becomes entirely free from the clutches of prakriti even through sattva—he drops the body and becomes universally present everywhere. A jivanmukta becomes a videha mukta—sadā mukta eva saḥ.
Bhoktāraṁ yajñatapasāṁ sarvalokamaheśvaram, suhṛdaṁ sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati.The Lord says, “Realising that ultimately I am the enjoyer and the actor, all sacrifices are directed towards Me, all activity in this world is motivated by Me. All austerities, all tapas are possible only on account of My grace because I am the Lord of the three worlds and the Lord of all the fourteen worlds. I am the friend of all people, of everyone in any realm of existence. I am the dearest friend of all people living in any realm of existence.” Nobody except God can be called a friend. Knowing this truth, one attains peace.
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