THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 12
VERSES 18 AND 19
BHAKTI YOGA OR THE YOGA OF DEVOTION:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION (VERSE 18):
samah satrau cha mitre cha tathaa maanaapamaanayoh
seetoshna sukha duhkheshu samah sangavivarjitah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
Samah = the same: satrau = to foe: cha = and: mitre = to friend: cha = and: tathaa = also: maana apamaanayoh = in honour and dishonour: seta ushna sukha duhkeshu = in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain: samah = the same: sanga vivarjitah = free from attachment:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION (VERSE 19):
tulya nindaa stutir maunee samtushto yena kenachit
aniketah sthiramatir bhaktimaan me priyo narah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
tulya nindaa stutih = to whom cnsure and praise are equal: maunee = silent: samtushtah = contented: yenakenachit = with anything: aniketah = homeless: sthiramatih = steady-minded: bhaktimaan = full of devotion: me = to me: priyah = dear: narah = (that) man.
TEXTS IN ENGLISH: (VERSE 18):
He who is the same to foe and friend and also in honour and dishonour, who is the same in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment,
TEXT IN ENGLISH: (VERSE 19):
To whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anything, homeless, steady-minded, full of devotion—that man is dear to Me.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA: (for both verses)
Day and night are inevitable on earth, but in the blazing sun, they have no place. Friendship and enmity are but natural among fellow beings, but in the fervour of the divine love of God, these differences vanish of their own accord.
An illicit love in the initial stage is mindful of shame and social decorum. But when it deepens into open familiarity all sense of shame is set aside. There is some similarity between this and the divine love of God, which pays no heed to honour and dishonour. While the former leads the fallen one to depravity, the latter elevates the devotee into the Sublime. The worldly people are flippant both in honouring and dishonouring a devotee of God. But unconcerned that he is with these passing phases, the devotee goes headlong in his love of the Maker.
To the one subject to body-consciousness, the feeling of cold and heat is natural with the change of climate. But to the one given to divine ecstasy born of Bhakti, this feeling does not come.
The feeling of pleasure and pain is concomitant with the feeling of cold and heat. When the attachment to the body is overcome, these feeling disappear as a matter of course.
A worldly man with a talent for music sings to receive the applause of the public. He derives pleasure in the praise and pain in their censure if any. But when a Bhakta sings the glory of the Lord, he is indifferent to the censure and the praise of the people. His activities are likely to be exposed to public remarks. But he remains dead to all their observations and goes his own divine way.
The devotee prefers to be silent. If at all he talks, it would be about the Lord and nothing else. His training the tongue in this way is equivalent to the practice of silence.
A person unexpectedly and hurriedly returning home on some important business, reconciles himself with any means of transport that is immediately available. He is not much worried if there be any lack of amenities and facilities in the travel. The Bhakta’s position in the world is very much like this. Communion with God is his sole concern. He is therefore content with anything worldly that comes his way in his earthly sojourn.
To a hurrying traveller sitting accommodation in any of the railway coaches is sufficient. The Bhakta, the Godward pilgrim on earth does not claim any residence as his home. He holds on to the ideal:-
“Have thou no home. What home can hold thee, friend?
The sky the roof; the grass thy bed;”
The devotee seeks nothing but God. He is therefore steady-minded. He gives himself completely to God. So he becomes the favourite of God.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Do not allow worldly thoughts and concerns disturb your mind. Discharge your duties as and when they present themselves to you. But fasten your mind ever at the feet of the Lord.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN (for both verses):
Aniketah: no fixed abode, homeless. Though he fulfils all social duties, he is not tied to any family or home. As these souls exist, not for this family or that social group but live for mankind as a whole, they do not have a settled home. They are free to move wherever their inspiration takes them. They are not chained to one place or confined to one community. They are not tied to the past or obliged to defend an unchangeable authority. The welfare of humanity as a whole is their constant concern. These samnyaasins may appear in any social group. Cp. Mahabharata: “He who is clothed with anything, who is fed on any food, who lies down anywhere him the gods call a Braahmin.”
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA: (for verse 18):
The ordinary man of the world is ruled by the pairs of opposites, honour and dishonour, cold and heat, and pleasure and pain; but a Yogi or sage or a devotee (Bhagavata) has a balanced mind. He has poise or equanimity. He who does wrong to others is a foe. He who does good to others is a friend.
The devotee or the sage has no attachment for objects of any kind.
SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA FOR VERSE 19:
He is neither elated by praise nor pained by censure. He keeps a balanced state of mind. He has controlled the organ of speech and so he is silent. His mind also is serene and silent as he has controlled the thoughts also. He is quite content with the bare means of bodily sustenance. It is said in the Mahabharata (Santi Parva Moksha Dharma): “Who is dressed in anything, who eats any kind of food, who lies down anywhere, him the gods call a Brahmana or a liberated sage or Jivanmukta”
He does not dwell in one place. He has no fixed abode. He is homeless. He regards the world as his dwelling place. His mind is ever fixed on Brahman. (Cf. VII.17; IX.29; Xii.17)
Comments by the blogger:
What has been enjoined on a consummate devotee in verses 18 and 19 are out of reach of ordinary devotees, like me, who only worship God with a mental list of wants and needs and for their fulfilment. For Sri Krishna’s expectations in these two verses is a tall order. These things are possible only to those devotees who worship the Lord for the sake of Devotion without any expectation. According to Srimat Swami Bhaskarananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, America, “The path of Devotion enables the emotional person to have direct vision of Personal God or Ishvara. The emotion love, which is abundantly available in everyone, is skilfully used as a means to attain God-vision. Love in human beings is usually present as ‘selfish love.’ If selfish love can somehow be sublimated and directed towards God, it becomes an effective means of God-realization.” Thus only when the ordinary and selfish kind of Devotion is sublimated and directed towards God, the Devotee can be the same to foe and friend, and also in honour and dishonour, the same in cold and heat and in pleasure and pain and can be free from attachment, and to whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anything, HOMELESS, of a steady mind and full of devotion. Not every bhakta or devotee can fulfil these tall orders.
Srimat Swami Bhaskarananda further says, “Bhakti Yoga disciplines consist of maintaining physical and mental purity (shaucha), prayer (praarthanaa), chanting of God’s holy name (japa), the singing of devotional songs (gita), and the adoration and worship of God (puja or Upasana)... Encouragement is given to developing special mental attitudes that generate a feeling of closeness to God. The attitudes are ‘shaanta’ or a serene and dispassionate attitude, ‘daasya’ or the attitude of a servant, ‘sakhya’ or the attitude of a friend, ‘vaatsalya’ or the attitude of a mother towards her child, and ‘madhura’ or the sweet attitude of a loving wife towards her husband... one should understand very clearly that in this madhura attitude the devotee is not even aware of his or her body or sex. This is entirely a spiritual relationship. Other than these attitudes, the devotee can also look upon God as his father or mother and himself as the child. With the help of these attitudes, ... the devotee’s love for God becomes more and more mature. This love gradually purifies his mind and enables him to have the vision of the Personal God or Ishvara.”
Srimat Swami Vivekananda says in his San Fransico address, “We will understand more clearly if we once get rid of the idea that religion consists in doctrines. One idea of religion has been that the whole world was born because Adam ate the apple, and there is no way of escape. Believe in Jesus Christ—in a certain man’s death! But in India, there is quite a different idea. There religion means realisation, nothing else. It does not matter whether one approaches the destination in a carriage with four horses, in an electric car, or rolling on the ground. The goal is the same. For the Christians, the problem is how to escape the wrath of the terrible God. For the Indians it is how to become what they really are, to regain their lost Selfhood...”
So, only when the simple form of love for God is sublimated and directed towards God one can fulfil the daunting tasks verses 18 and 19 have laid down.
But one should not get discouraged. Like any other Yoga prescribed in Gita by Sri Krishna, Devotion of the type described in verses 18 and 19 is a matter of evolution. I have been worshipping Lord Siva in His Linga form for more than twenty years. But I have not evolved into the kind of devotee as described in the two verses stated above. But I will come, after my death, here on to the earth’s plane as a staunch Bhakta and likewise in the course of my births and deaths, at a given point I would blossom and evolve into the kind of Devotee as enjoined by the Lord of Gita in the above-said two verses and attain Moksha. But I have no illusion whatsoever that I am too much attached to this world, though not for my own sake but on behalf of my darling wife and two nice daughters, I will have to come back here an umpteen number of times.
Everyone’s birthright, according to Srimat Swami Vivekananda, is the attainment of Moksha or that state whereupon after the attainment of that stage or state, we will not be compelled to return to the earth’s plane.
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