THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 06, DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION, VERSE NUMBER 17

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 06

DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:

VERSE NUMBER 17

Text in Transliteration:

yuktaahaara vihaarasya yukta cestasya karmasu

yukta svapnaavabodhasya yogo bhavati duhkhahaa

Text in English:

For him who is moderate in eating and recreation, temperate in his actions, who is regulated in sleep and wakefulness, yoga becomes the destroyer of pain.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Physical exercise, as much as the as spiritual sadhana (Practise), is incumbent on the yogi; but it has to be resorted to, moderately. The duties of the yogi are very consequential and they have to be discharged meticulously and as regularly as the movements of the planets. The merit in him in the midst of these activities is, he is free from body-consciousness. Meitation therefore becomes easy and spontaneous to him. pain is always associated with the diseased body and mind. But the yogi takes no note of the body and he is sound in mind. Therefore yga becomes the destroyer of pain to him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

It is not complete abstinence from action but restraint in action that is advised. When the ego is established in the Self, it lives in a transcendent and universal consciousness and acts from that centre.

COMMENTARY BY SIVANANDA:

In this verse the Lord prescribes for the student of yoga, diet, recreation and the like. The student of Yoga should always adopt the happy medium or the middle course. Lord Buddha went to the extremes in the beginning in matters of food, drink, etc. He was very obstemious and became extremely weak. He tortured his body very much. Therefore he was not able to attain to success in Yoga. Too much of austerity is not necessary for Self-realisation. This is condemned y the Lord in chapter XVII, verses 5 and 6. Austerity should not mean self-torture. Then it becomes diabolical. The Buddhi Yoga of Krishna is a wise approach to austerity. Some aspirants take asceticism as the goal; it is only the means by not the end. The nervous system is extremely sensitive. It responds even to very slight changes and causes distraction of the mind. It is, therefore very necessary that you should lead a very regulated and disciplined life and should be moderate in food, sleep and recreation. Take measured food. Sleep and wake up at the prescribed time. Sleep at 9 pr 10 p.m. and get up at 3 or 4 a.m. only then will you attain to success in Yoga which will kill all sorts of pains and sorrows of this life.

Comments by the blogger:

Yoga is a destroyer of pain.

This life is painful with a trace of happiness.

Ramana Maharishi asks who does a man go to the doctor when he gets a headache? And he answers the question that the man remembers the period of time when he was free of the same! In the previous verse we saw the quantification of the ultimate happiness of Brahma. We each of us is entitled to that ultimate happiness. So only this life is full of pain. We go through it without any complaint because we do not have an idea as to our right to the ultimate happiness. Only through yoga can we attain to that state quickly. Even otherwise we can attain to it. But it will take millions of births and deaths through which we slowly evolve in our mind. We shed very painfully slowly avarice and lust through our millennial innings. But, compared to this slow process of evolution, Yoga is like a voyage in a rocket!