THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 06, DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION, VERSE NUMBER 06

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 06

DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:

VERSE NUMBER 06

Text in Transliteration:

Bandhur aatma ‘tmanas tasya yenaa ‘tmai ‘vaa ‘tmana jitah

Anaatmanas tu shatrutve vartetaa ‘tmai ‘va shatruvat

Text in English:

 To him who has conquered his (base)self by the (divine)self, his own self is a friend: but to him who has subdued the self, his own self acts as a foe.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHVANANDA:

The base and the divine are two mutually opposing natures at work in man. When either of them predominates the other gets vanquished. Where the body, mind and senses are under perfect control, the divine nature prevails and pulls the man up. Progressively he evolves into high orders of existence. But when he submits to the base nature it ruins him completely. The foe outside hurts or attempts to hurt occasionally. Even then it is possible for the self-disciplining yogi to turn that adverse situation to advantage; every ordeal calmly handled adds to the calibre of one’s mind. The foe of the base nature within oneself, on the other hand, is constantly causing havoc. The reckless man therefore is personally responsible for the evils that he has brought on himself. He is the worst enemy of himself. The yogi is the only one who is a genuine friend of himself. He is the worst enemy of himself. The yogi is the only one who is a genuine friend of himself causing self-emancipation in all respects. Barring him, the others are enemies of themselves in varying degrees.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Both bondage and freedom are in the minds of men. “I am a liberated soul; I am the child of God; none can bind me”—if one can assume this attitude with firm conviction one becomes liberated. If a man bitten by a venomous snake strongly suggests to himself that there is no poison, he falls no prey to the bite.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

We are called upon to master the lower self by the higher. The determinism of nature is here qualified by the power to control nature. The lower self is not to be destroyed. It can be used as a helper, if it is held in check.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Conquer the lower mind through the higher mind. The lower mind is your enemy. The higher mind is your friend. If you make friendship with the higher mind you can subdue the lower mind quite easily. The lower mind i s filled with Rajas and Tamas (Passion and Darkness). The higher mind is filled with Sattva or purity.

The Self is the friend of one who is self-controlled and who has subjugated the lower mind and the senses. But the self is an enemy of one who has no self-restraint, and who has not subdued the lower mind and the senses. Just as an external enemy does harm to him, so also his own (lower) self (mind)does harm to him. the lower mind injures him severely. The highest Self or Atma is the primary Self. Mind also is self. This is the secondary self.

Comments made by the blogger:

Verses 5 and 6 should be read conjunctively. While the Bhagavan Sri Krishna is very explicite and simply superb, the commentators shed much erudite sweat by differentiating between lower and higher self. As per the text there is nothing to differentiate. We have been given a choice. And, like a baby who needs sugar coated tablets and sweet suspensions and potions, we need to make a fine differentiation. There is no such thing as higher and lower self. There is only one self. The text amply proves this. But the choice is there. Karma of the previous lives of a person defines his present life. This predetermination and certain things happening in a man’s life are called his fate. But fate does not bind a person to any particular activities by themselves. There is a question of choice always. We can choose to become a beast or a saint. It all depends upon our exercise of choice. Prakrity or Nature too does not help us to become a saint in the beginning. There is much in this world to be enjoyed by our senses. But one’s we become wary of the sensual things outside and the urge to be among them inside we tend to look at this world as a provider of imprisoning things. Once we start to draw our senses from the sense object of this world, after certain test, the same Nature paves the road for us to travel on the spiritual path.

The self is capable of both the beastly and saintly things. This is why there is a proverb in Tamil which exhorts us to not subject a saint’s life in the beginning with too nice a method of evaluation. But man is not only falls a ready prey to the sensual actions, but he is also filled with knowledge about his own self. Sri Ramana Magarishi would ask why a man who has a head ache goes to the doctor for pills. And he would answer it by this wisecrack: “Because he knew of a state of his body when there was no head ache! And he wants to revert to that state!”

Man’s essential self is angelic. All the fury and fever of action of the materialistic world tends to make and encourage him to forget his exalted position. Dr.S.Radhakrishnan says man is coeval with God.