THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 6, DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION, VERSE NUMBER 05

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 6

DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:

VERSE NUMBER 5

Text in Transliteration:

uddhared aatmanaa ‘tmaanam na ‘tmaanam avasaadayet

aatmai ‘va hy aatmi ‘va hy aatmanao bandhur aatmai ‘va ripur aatmanah

Text in English

Let a man raise himself by his own self; let him not debase himself. For he is himself his friend, himself his foe.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

One is oneself responsible for one’s distinction or debasement. The contributions that others make in these respects are secondary. It is but usual that one complains that one’s enemy has done havoc to one. But no one can be hurt without oneself contributing to it. It is possible for a sadhaka or practitioner to avail himself of a wrong done to him by his enemy for self-purification. Because of misunderstanding and maladjustment man paves the way for self-debasement. And by doing so he becomes his own enemy. On the other hand, by right understanding and right conduct he elevates himself and thereby becomes his own friend. One is one’s own arch-friend or arch-foe. The one that understands this fact, learns an invaluable lesson for life.

No one courts enmity; friendship alone is sought after by all. That being the case, how shall one choose to be one’s true friend? The solution is offered in the next verse.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp. Dhammapada: “The Self is the lord of the self:” “the Self is the goal of the self.”

The Supreme is within us. It is the consciousness underlying the ordinary individualized consciousness of every-day life but incommensurable with it. The two are different in kind, though the Supreme is realizable by one who is prepared to lose his life in order to save it. For the most part we are unaware of the Self in us because our attention is engaged by objects which we like or dislike. We must get away from them, to become aware of the Divine in us. If we do not realize the pointlessness, the irrelevance and the squalor of our ordinary life, the true Self becomes the enemy of our ordinary life. The Universal Self and the personal self are not antagonistic to each other. The Universal Self can be the friend or the foe of the personal self. If we subdue our petty cravings and desires, if we do not exert our selfish will, we become the channel of the Universal Self. If our impulses are under control, and if our personal self offers itself to the Universal Self, then the latter becomes our guide and teacher. Every one of us has the freedom to raise or fall and our future is in our own hands.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Practise yoga. Discipline the senses and the mind. Elevate yourself and become a Yogarudha. Attain to Yoga. Shine gloriously as a dynamic Yogi. Do not sink into the ocean of Samsara ( transmigration). Do not become a worldly-minded man. Do not become a slave of lust, greed and anger.Rise above worldliness, become divine and attain Godhood.

You alone are your friend; you alone are your enemy. The so-called worldly friend is not your real friend, because he gets attached to you, wastes your time and puts obstacles on your path of Yoga. He is very selfish and keeps friendship with you only to extract something. If he is not able to get from you the object of his selfish interest, he forsakes you. Therefore he is your enemy in reality. If you are attached to your friend on account of delusion or affection,  this will become a cause of your bondage to Samsara.

Friends and enemies are not outside. They exist in the mind only. It is the mind that makes a friend an enemy and an enemy a friend. Therefore the Self alone is the friend of oneself, and the self alone is the enemy of oneself. The lower mind or the Asuddha Manas (impure Mind) is your real enemy because it binds you to the Samsara, and the higher mind or the Sattvic min (Sudha manas or pure mind)  is your real friend, because it helps you in the attainment of Moksha.

Comments by the blogger:

This verse is one of which, in the Gita, Sri Krishna, reiterates the self-effort by individuals.

Many tend to think that the Hindus are absolutely superstitious and their karmic theory allegedly takes care of every happening and incident in the present incarnation. In otherwords, the Western people tend to think that since the theory of karma and that the notion that everything is predetermined by the events and effects that took place in the former incarnation, one’s fat takes care of everything. Hindus and their sages and saints are taken for simple-minded folks who put and define everything in terms of the past karmic effect, namely fate.

And the Westerners tend to take pity of the Hindus whose actions and happenings in this incarnation are taken care of and defined simply on the happenings and the effects forming the fate.

As such, the simple-minded Hindus have nothing to do except giving their will and submit themselves to the inexorable working out of the fateful karmic effect. Thus Hindus and their four-thousand years old philosophy are taken for granted and thoroughly pitiable. They think the Hindus have no individual choice to make in life.

In this regard Dr. S. Radhakrishnan’s view about the Universal Soul and the personal soul’s freedom by becoming a channel to the flow of the Universal Consciousness should be given important place.

Universal Soul, when you think deeply, is nothing but the sum total of pracrity or Nature.

If we are in tune with the core of the Natural upward pulls as different from its downward pull exerted on week minded persons, then Man becomes not just the channels but the possessor of Self. Of all possessions in this world, Self-Possession is the thing and absolute freedom to be aspired for.

The individuals are given the choice to go away from God or toward Him.

There is definitely this choice being available to all, which is a curse in disguise! This is the choice given by our Maker to everyone. Since He has everything and there is nothing unattainable in the three Lokas or the World, He wants something He does not possess! Since self-glorification is not there, though He is well aware of his Nature and Prowess and Omnipotence, He glorifies them who glorify Him! If we take one step toward Him, He takes ten steps toward us. But prakrity or Nature of this word exerts an opposite pull in the initial days. This is what Ramakrishna Paranhansa describes as the schooling of Nature. Nature schools us. Nature beguiles the Seeker of Knowledge of God or God Himself, in the initial days, and pulls him in the opposite direction! This pull is understood by the Christianity and Mohammedanism as Satan. They say Satan works against God and tries to debase His devotees and encourages to go against the individual Scriptural Utterances. If God could have an enemy who has been in existence from the time of Creation, the plenipotentiary which is He has to be brought into to question.

So, the Westerners need not pity a Hindu and try to pull them to their individual religion!

The Vedopanishadic Sages have shown the way for all the world and its people for ever.

To do right or wrong is inbuilt in man. When his senses move among sense objects, if he is careful in using and enjoying those elemental things in an elementary manner and not give himself up to stark materialism, after some initial negative pulls exerted by the Lord’s pracrity in the opposite direction, it promotes his seeking and facilitates his enthusiasm.

And thus man realizes himself which is tantamount to realising God.

So personal choice is their and one can become one with the Lord or thoroughly debase himself and come back to this earthly plane repeatedly. This is estrangement with our Maker. And that is why we are not really happy till our attainment of our Self.