THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 07
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
amaanitvam adambhitvam ahimsaa kshaantir aarjavam
aachaaryopaasanam saucham sthairyam aatmavinigrahah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
amaanitvam = humility: adambhitvam = unpretentiousness: ahimsaa = non-injury: kshaantih = forgiveness: aarjavam = uprightness: aachaarya upaasanam = service of the teacher: saucham = purity: sthairyam = steadiness: aatma vinigrahah = self-control.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Humility, modesty, non-injury, forbearance, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control;
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Humility is in evidence when the sadhaka does not think of himself superior to the others. Superiority-complex engenders conceit and contaminates the mind.
Modesty marks that aspirant, as its own, who does not think or speak of the merits in his activities. All excellences emanate from the Lord. Man’s laying claim to them is born of ignorance.
Non-injury is possible to him only who beholds all beings as the manifestations of the one Cosmic Being.
Forbearance is the act of not being affected by the wrong done to one by the others. An example illustrates this position. It happens that while a man speaks, his teeth hurt the lip inadvertently. For this reason the man does not think of knocking out the teeth, which are his own. He who seeks divine relationship with all, practises forbearance with those who wrong him knowingly or unknowingly.
Uprightness comes to him who harmonizes his thought, word and deed and who is intent on right conduct.
Service of the teacher is quite essential to the spiritual aspirant. An individual unconsciously imbibes the traits of the person whom he serves. By doing physical service to the teacher, the disciple gets into his holy dispositions.
Purity pertains both to the body and the mind. Bodily purity can be effected with the aid of the environment, air, water and sunlight. But purity of the mind which is more important and indispensable to spiritual life can only be effected by the mental discipline. That mind which eschews all sense-pleasures as poison gains steadily in purity.
Steadfastness is his who is not mindful of the time taken for self-culture. It may be that the sadhaka has to plod through a few births before he attains perfection in any one among the many virtues that remain to be acquired by him. Unswerving perseverance is needed to mould oneself in spirituality.
Self-control is the opposite of self-indulgence which dissipates the personality. Through rigid self-restraint, the sadhaka grows in godhood which is his original state.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
These are the qualities that constitute wisdom or lead to wisdom. These are the attributes of the man whose mind is turned towards the inner wisdom. If these characteristics are seen in a man in their entirty, you can infer that the knowledge of the Self has dawned in him.
Humility: It is the negation of vanity. It is absence of self-esteem or self-praise. The basis of pride is the consciousness of possessing something (wealth, knowledge, strength, beauty and virtuous qualities) in a larger measure than others. A proud man possesses at least something but a man of vanity possesses nothing and yet he thinks he is superior to others. Vanity is exaggerated pride. A humble man dislikes respect, honour and praise. He shuns fame and distinction. He never shows his knowledge, ability, prowess, etc. He never praises himself.
Absence of hypocrisy: Hypocrisy is the desire to appear what one is not. A Sannyasi has some virtues and a little theoretical knowledge derived from books. He pretends to be a liberated sage. This is religious hypocrisy. A man in whom this is absent is simple and modest. He never advertises his own virtuous qualities in order to get respect, name and worship from others. He will never sell his knowledge in order to achieve fame.
Ahimsa: Non-injuring of any living being in thought, word and deed. He who practises Ahimsa places his feet very carefully on the ground and avoids stepping on any living creature. If he perceives any living creature in front of him he stops and turns to the other side. His heart is full of compassion.
Kshanti: Forbearance, patience, forgiveness. This is a true symptom of knowledge. The man of wisdom puts up with everything. He is not affected a bit when others injure him. He never retaliates. He bears insult and injury calmly.
Arjavam: Straightforwardness. The man of wisdom is upright or straightforward. He does not hide anything. His thoughts and words agree. He speaks his mind openly to the people. He is as simple as a child in his speech. He has a heart as pure as crystal. He never cheats others.
Service of the teacher: Devotion to the preceptor, worship of the Guru; doing acts of service to him who teaches Brahma-Vidya or the means of attaining liberation. Acharya is the Master in whom the divine wisdom is embodied. Service of the Guru enables the aspirant to attain Self-realisation. The aspirant adores his Guru as Brahman, God Himself. He worships him as Lord Vishnu. He superimposes on him all the attributes of Brahman or Lord Vishnu. He realises Brahman in and through his Guru. This is the fruit of devotion to the Guru. For a student of Vedanta devotion to the Guru is absolutely necessary. Even for a correct understanding of the scriptures, the guidance of a Guru is necessary.
Purity is of two kinds, external and internal purity. External purity is cleansing of the physical body with earth and water. Internal purity is cleansing of the mind of the dirt of attachment, hatred and other passions, by the method of Pratipaksha Bhavana i.e., by cultivating the opposite positive virtues, and by the recognition of the evil in all objects of the senses.
Steadfastness: The aspirant never leaves his efforts on the path of salvation even though he comes across many stumbling blocks on the path. This is steadfastness or firmness. No meditation on Brahman is possible with a fickle mind.
Self-control is control of the aggregate of the body and the senses. The senses and the body which naturally run externally towards the sensual objects are checked and directed on to the path of salvation. No meditation is possible in a body wherein the senses are out of control and distract attention.
Comments by the blogger:
Kshetra means this body. The very first sloka or verse has explained what kshetra means. Then in verses five and six, we saw the qualities of the kshetra. And before kshetrajna is defined by Sri Krishna, this verse or sloka and some others deal with Wisdom or Knowledge which is the product of knowing the Kshetrajna. Sri Bhagavan puts forth certain qualities and qualifications belong to the Self-culture which are important to know the Kshetrajna.
Humility: Certain people are endowed with this trait. Only a great man will show this trait. Because the ego in us will not make us bend before the weak and deprived. Whatever we do and say if all these could be done and said with humility that would amount to a great boon from the gods. In front of the world, we must be humble. I am humble and reticent by nature. But this humility has not helped me in my profession. There who is humble to a fault will be taken for granted as an empty box. But I learned humility from the Jesuit Brothers in the six years I spent with them from the standard six to eleven. Humility is a great virtue, but a lawyer has to blow his own trumpet!
Modesty: We often should think of this Universe and the orderly way the teeming number of planets and stars and various heavenly bodies ‘behave’. If there should be the slightest change in their individual course there would be hell to pay! But this Universe has much that is great and beautiful and much that is not adorned by justice. A little lamb in the forest struts out of the bush its mother showed it and is attacked by a tiger! Is there any justice? Charles Darwin must have been a theist to start with. But his great discovery about the animal kingdom and Man’s origin made him lose his faith in the Holy Bible. There is much in the universe which cannot be explained away in terms of justice and poetic justice. Why? This world is imperfect. But ours is not the position to write a critique on the Creator. We do not even speak much about our own virtues and greatness. Even when we are appreciated for the right reason by others, it should not go to our head. We must be modesty personified. But we should practise modesty without wearing this virtue on our sleeves. We should not become arrogant about our plus points and greatness. Our achievements should be laid at the feet of the Lord, our Maker, as a kind of sacrifice. But we have to practice modesty almost in secrecy in today’s world. We must become a great success in life and then show the world how modest we are. Then the world will approve of such a person. For others who have not made a spectacular success of this life, they must practise this virtue, modesty, without necessarily wearing the same on our sleeves.
Non-injury was followed to the last letter and spirit by our Mahatma Gandhiji and it stood him in good stead. Even when he went on a ‘pada yatra’ or pilgrimage to Tandi to gather salt against the White Man’s law imposing a tax on salt, the Mahatma observed non-injury. He did issue a stern order that the people walking with him to Tandi should observe non-injury. Thus even when they selected right places mostly among paddy fields the volunteers were made to clean up the grounds. And if they found any scorpions or snakes they must be captured and put away safely! In Gita, Sri Bhagavan says that He permeates the Universe. Even non-beings are filled with Him only. So if we think of that we could practise non-injury.
Forbearance is a virtue principally by great souls like Mahatma Gandhiji. It is very difficult to withstand various acts of sadism perpetrated by the perverted persons and still practise this virtue. But this virtue will ultimately have a wonderful purifying effect in our Minds so we could come to have the necessary Gnana or Wisdom to get to know God. But it is easier said than done. My perverted persecutor, Viswanathan, has no justification to have played God to me and write my fate in this incarnation. He is an alloy of the Hunch-backed hag in the epic, Ramayana and Sakuni in Mahabharata! He has the traits of both. He is evil. His very life and lifestyle is nothing but pure evil. He is an evil genius. Some twenty years ago, he was driven out of his father’s house and had to spend a couple of years without any help from the family. He did not know where the next meal would come from. He was going from the proverbial pillar to the post. And he was always on the lookout for persons who might buy him a meal or some snacks. At this time I gave him one thousand rupees. And I needed the money some six months later and giving him two full weeks I asked for the return of my money, Rs 1000. And when he tried to evade me, I fairly persecuted him. And at last, he obtained a loan from somebody and settled my accounts. And the knave never forgot that. All these things happened some twenty years ago. Now he is on a sound financial basis whereas I am going through from the pillar to the post. The principal reason is he only. He has been persecuting me ever since and I am not able to make money in any way. But I always try to not become angry with him. yesterday was a very bad day for me. The knave has made me lose the Google AdSense Ads. But even now I am not thinking in terms of getting square with him. I am nearly sixty. And I have practised forbearance especially in relation to my enemy, the fiend, Vishwanathan. I am a diabetic. I might live for several more years before I am put beneath the earth. I never even try in my mind and think of anything bad or awkward happening to him. This is indeed forbearance on my part.
Uprightness also is a necessity for a person desirous of attaining wisdom that will facilitate a person to know the Kshetrajna present in ourselves and this Universe.
Service of the teacher was considered in those days as a sine qua none for wisdom. Nowadays nobody has time to go to a Guru and learn from him the knowledge about Brahman. There are teachers who eye the girl students with a corrupt mind. How can one serve such unscrupulous teachers? This might have been a virtue in the olden days. Indeed it was the case when I was a student. My teachers were like gods and they lived only for our betterment. But times have changed.
The purity of the mind is one of the spiritual musts, so to speak. When the Mind is purified, we may get to know much about the design of this Universe. To know the plane of the Universe is to know its Creator. When the mind gets purified the filthy and crass materialism and such lifestyle will fall away from us. All virtues are possible when the mind is purified.
Steadfastness is a virtue that needs to be practised by the sadhkas or practitioners so that they might follow the spiritual course without swerving this or that way. In the Gita, Arjuna asks the Lord of Yoga as to the fate of a man who, having started on the path of Yoga, dies before the attainment of self-realisation. And Sri Krishna answers Arjuna that such a practitioner will go to the upper world after his death and spend a long time there to enjoy all the sensual pleasures before coming back to the earth’s plane. And when he or she comes back, he or she would have a very good place in the world. He or she would be born in a family of some Yogi and thus he or she could practise meditation from where he or she had left off in the previous incarnation.
Self-control is not an easy virtue to be followed by everyone. In this sensual world wherever we turn there is much to speak about self-indulgence. And ours is a time when Asia is ruled by the West. We dress like them and try to speak like them. We have to copy the Western world and it is an in thing for us. Today’s students have to fight against this highly materialistic world and still stay the course. There are many things, like cell phones, cinemas, computers, and you name it. In the midst of shameful materialistic lifestyle the grown-ups are leading, it is very difficult for the youths of the present day to not become a wastrel and addicted to the technology and materialistic lifestyle practised by their elders.
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