THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 06, DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION: VERSES 37, 38 AND 39

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 06

DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:

VERSE NUMBER 37

Text in Transliteration:

                                arjuna uvacha

ayatih sradhayo ‘peto yogaach chalitamaanasah

apraapya yogasamsiddhim kaam gatim krshna gacchati

                                   Arjuna said:

He who is unable to control himself, though possessed of faith, whose mind deviates from yoga,  what end does he meet with, O Krishna, having failed to attain perfection in yoga?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The sadhaka is imbued with the faith that yoga leads to perfection. But he has not got the required firmness of the mind. He has not therefore attained the goal of yoga. What becomes of him who dies foiled in the attempt?

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Arjuna’s question refers to the future of those, who, when they die are not at war with Eternal Goodness though they are not disciplined enough to contemplate the splendour of Eternal Purity. Are the alternatives eternal heaven and everlasting hell as some believe or is there a chance for such individuals to grow towards perfection after death?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

He has faith in the efficacy of Yoga but he is not able to control the senses and the mind. He has no concentration of mind. His mind wanders away when the last breath departs from his body and he loses the memory also. Having failed to achieve perfection in Yoga, i.e., Self-realisation or the knowledge of the Self, what path will he tread, and what end will such a man meet?

VERSE NUMBER 38

Text in Transliteration:

kacchin no ‘bhayavibhrashtas chinnaabhram iva nasyati

apratishtho mahaabaaho vimadho brahmanah pathi

Text in English:

Fallen from both, does he not perish like a rent cloud, without any hold, O mighty-armed, deluded in the path of Brahman?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The rent cloud does not descend on earth as rainfall; it loses its distinctiveness in the firmament. Even such is the fate of the one fallen in yoga. He has neither the here or the hearafter. Having renounced the sense-pleasures which are all of the earth, he happens to be one who has lost the here; and in not having obtained the beatitude born of the perfection in yoga he is bereft of the hereafter, the path of Brahman. This is how he becomes fallen from both. Can there be a plight more painful that this?

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Fallen from both, ito bhrastah tato bhrashtah, is he left in a no man’s world? Does he miss both this life and the life eternal? What happens to those numerous persons who have not succeeded in pursuing the extremely difficult path of yoga to its end? Are their exertions useless altogether? Is it any good beginning a course which one may not be able to complete?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Both: the path of karma or the path of ritualistic activity in accordance with the karma kanda of the Vedas on the one hand and the path of Yoga on the other.

Path of Brahman: the path by which Brahman can be reached or the way that leads to Brahman.

The Yoga taught by the Lord here demands one-pointed devotion to its practice. The aspirant turns away from the world and spurns heaven, too. Some people held that if he failed to attain the goal, he would have lost everthing for nothing. Hence the question.

VERSE NUMBER 39

Text in Transliteration:

Deign to dispel completely this doubt of mine, O Krishna; for there is none but Yourself who can destroy this doubt.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Even the Devas and Rishis come nowhere near You in dispelling the darkness; for You are the omniscient Iswara. All the intricacies of yoga are best known to none but You.

Who is whose guru? None but Iswara alone can play the role of the guru.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Nothing is impossible to the Incarnation of Iswara. The intricate problems pertaining to the Jivatman (human beings) and the Paramatman (God) are all easily solved by Him. Even a child can easily understand His teachings. He is the sun of knowledge that drives away the darkness of ignorance accumulated through the ages.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

There can be no better teacher than Thee, for Thou art the omniscient Lord. Thou alone canst dispel this doubt. A Rishi (seer), a Deva (god), or a Muni (sage) will not be able to dispel this doubt.

Comments by the blogger to verses 37, 38 and 39:

Swami Vivekananda says that a practitioner of meditation should raise himself to the level of being able to perform meditation for more than eight hours a day. And he further says with authority that such practitioner will attain Self-realisation in six years, or twelve years or twenty-four years.

Here Arjuna’s question, which is legitimate, is what will become of that man who has faith and faithfully follows the path of meditation but who lacks single-minded devotion to the practice as called for to the point of negation of this mundane world when he is unable to concentrate and dies before the attainment of beatitude. Shall he not lose both this world and its consequential enjoyment and the other world after death? Since the Lord of Yoga is his teacher, Arjuna rightly puts these questions to Krishna and tells Him rightly that He is the Only one who can dispel these doubts.