VERSE NUMBERS 26, 27 AND 28 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITY

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 26:

Text in Transliteration:

atha chai ‘nam nityajaatam nityam vaa manyase mrrtam

tathaa ‘pi tvam mahaahaaho nai ‘nam socitum arhasi

Text in English:

   Or, if you conceive of Atman as given to constant births and deaths, even then, O mighty armed, you should not sorrow.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

 That there is nothing permanent is the view of the materialists. The Lord now takes this standpoint for inquiry. Granting that this view is true, even then there is no ground for grieving. A man being given to theism, atheism, agnosticism, materialism or any other belief is not of much consequence. Irrespective of his creed, he must be free from sorrowing. It is despondency that takes away all manliness from man.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Lord Krishna here, for the sake of argument, takes up the popular supposition. Granting that the Self is again and again born whenever a body comes into being, and again and again dies whenever the body dies, O mighty-armed (O Arjuna of great valour and strength), thou shoudst not grieve thus, because birth is inevitable to what is dead and death is inevitable for what is born. This is the inexorable or unrelenting law of Nature.

VERSE NUMBER 27:

Text in Transliteration:

jaatasya hi dhruvo mrtyuh dhruvam janma mrtasya cha

tasmaad aparihaarye ‘rthe na tvam socitum arhasi

Text in English:

   Death is certain of that which is born; birth is certain of that which is dead. You should not therefore lament over the inevitable.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   When a body fails to function properly it disintegrates and undergoes the modification called death. But other bodies crop up from the same modified matter. They contain inherent propelling force called desire, which drives them on to activities of life. Birth and death are thus a matter of course.

   A school of nihilism believes in an individual retaining his individuality as long as the motive power of karma lasts. His individuality continues through births and deaths. The exhausting of his karma is like the end of oil in a burning lamp. The flame then becomes extinct. Even so a man ceases to be when his karma comes to an end.

   Another school of atheism holds on to the view that a man’s assuming a body and then annihilating is a matter of course in nature, even as a lump of clay in a river continues to change its form and shape. Changes of form are called births and deaths. Mourning over this modification is meaningless, according to this school of thought.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp. “In this rotating world of becoming, what dead person does not come to life again.” (Hitopadesha). The realization of this fact will induce n us poise and proportion. ( Gautama the Huddha cosoled the mother who lost her only son while yet a child by asking her to go into the town and bring him “a little mustard seed from any house where no man hath et died.” She went and found that there was no family where death had not entered. She discovered that it is the law of all things that they will pass away.

The Buddhist nun Pataachaaraa is represented as cosoling man bereaved mothers in the following words:

Weep not, for such is here the life of man

Unasked he came, unbidden went he hence

Lo! ask thyself again whence came thy son

To bide on earth this little breathing space

By one way come and by another gone.....

So hither and so hence—why should ye weep? )

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan continues:

Our existence is brief and death is certain. Our human dignity requires us to accept pain and suffering for the sake of the right.

The inevitability of death, however, cannot justify murders, suicides of wars. We cannot desire deliberately the death of others, simply because all men are bound to die. It is so that all life ends in death, that all progress is perishable, that nothing is permanent in the temporal sense of the term. But in every perfect realization of life, the eternal becomes actualized and the development in time is only the means to this essential aim. What is subject entirely to the rule of change or time is not of intrinsic importance; the eternal plan is the central truth whether cosmic accidents permit its full realisation on earth or not.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Birth is sure to happen to that which is dead: death is sure to happen to that which s born. Birth and death are certainly unavoidable. Therefore, you should not grieve over an inevitable matter.

VERSE NUMBER 28:

Text in Transliteration:

avyaktaadeeni bhootaani vyakta madhyaani bhaarata

avyak tanidhanaany eva tatra kaaa paridevanaa

Text in English:

   Beings are all, O Bharata, unmanifested in their origin, manifested in their mid-state and unmanifested again in their end. What is the point then for anguish?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   Beings claimed as kith and kin are those that have come into being now. Persons contacted in dream had not been in existence before: they would not be after the dream breaks. Though existing in the mid-state, actually they are not. According to materialism, the so-called relatives have assumed forms in conformity with the law of nature; they will again cease to be; lamenting therefore over the temporarily appearing individuals serves no purpose.

The heterodox points of view are wound up here. The lord now returns to the orthodox ways of enquiry. (The Swamiji refers to the verses to follow from verse number 29 –added by the blogger.)

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The physical body is a combination of the five elements. It is seen by the physical eyes only after the elements have entered into such combination. After death, the body disintegrates and the five elements go back to their source; it cannot be seen. Therefore, the body can be seen only in the middle state. The relationship as son, friend, teacher, father, mother, wife, brother and sister is formed through the body on account of attachment and Moha (delusion). Just as planks unite and separate in a river, just as pilgrims unite and separate in a public inn, so also fathers, mothers, sons and brothers unite and separate in this world. This world is a very big public inn. People unite and separate.

   There is no pot in the beginning and in the end. Even if you see the pot in the middle, you should think and feel that it is illusory and does not really exist. So also there is no body in the beginning and in the end. That which does not exist in the beginning and in the end must be illusory in the middle also. You must think and feel that the body does not really exist in the middle as well.

He who thus understands the nature of the body and all human relationships based on it, will not grieve.    

Comments by the blogger:

He is the teacher in the full sense of the term who does not shy away from dealing with the unorthodox questions put by the students. If he is strong in the subject, he will not resent the student who asks questions in a so-called unorthodox manner. If a sum in mathematics is possible to be solved in the way the teacher teaches it, if the student raises an unorthodox question as to why the same sum could and should not solved in a different way, if the teacher is sure of his subject and has complete knowledge in the subject he teaches, then he would not resent the student, but show the chivalry and try to solve the same sum in the manner suggested by the student. The answer could be arrived at or not at the way and method suggested by the creative-minded student; but the hesitating teacher or the one without the enough adventurist’s spirit and has incomplete knowledge in the subject, will resent the ‘recalcitrant’ student. But the creative teacher would welcome the question and creative suggestion and come forward to solve the same some in the manner pointed out by the student. If the same answer could be arrived at by following the method suggested by the  student with innovative mind, the gifted teacher would be forthcoming with praise for the intelligence shown by the student. And if the right answer could not be arrived at as suggested by the thinking student, even then the teacher would appreciate him for his far reaching and creative thinking. The teacher, under such circumstances, would not be scoring brownie points, but show his appreciation for the different ways of thinking of the gifted student. Only the incomplete teacher, whose proper vocation is not teaching, would get perturbed by the varying suggestion of the student. For the teacher who considers teaching as his real and wonderful vocation, he would first prove the student that the right answer could not be arrived at by the steps and ways suggested by him; because he knows full well that even the wrong answer brought about by the method suggested by the innovative student is a way of reinforcing his point that his method was the right one.

Here, Sri Krishna is the Teacher of the Four Yoga. He has already stated that He taught the yoga in the beginning to Ishwaku who taught it to Manu, but owing to the efflux of time, the inexorable yoga has been overshadowed. So He is the Perfect Teacher of yoga and the deathlessness of the Atman or Self or Soul. So only, even when the gifted student does not postulate the unorthodox point of view, the Teacher volunteers not just one unorthodox view point, but he plunges into all the existing heterodox types of argument and innovatively argues his case that even if Arjuna thinks that the Atman has several births and deaths, he need not suffer on the score, for whatever is born is certain to die and whatever die is certain to be born again. And he asks Arjuna in verse number 29 “ O , Bharat, Beings are all unmanifested in their origin, manifested in their mid-state and unmanifested again in their end. What is the point then for anguish?”

Sri Krishna is the Complete Teacher who takes up the prevailing heterodox view points and use them to prove his points of teaching! He does not flinch or shrink away from the unorthodox view points about the Atman and the body and their states. He, instead, uses them to reinforce His own points of view!

Lord Krishna deals with theism, atheism, agnosticism, materialism as having been important creeds of heterodox beliefs and understanding. For the atheist, there is no God. Man and nature are the important things. For the agnosticism as founded by Lord Buddha, one need not say there is a God or there is no God. That is , the inquiry into the existence of the Sat-chit-Ananda, All-seeing, All-knowing and Omnipresent Lord of God is immaterial, irrelevant and unimportant. He neither denied nor verified the existence of God, saying he need not bother about God. Among the heterodox beliefs, Gautama, the Buddah’s agnosticism held a sway among the mass. For, he was a great rebel and rose against the crippling superstitions in the Hinduism in the name of God and he was deadly against Castes and segregation of women from studying and teaching the scriptures. Because of agnostic principles, he sought to minimise the hold of Brahminism that had grown much and sought to be wielding unending authority and hegemony. But lord Buddha’s Agnosticism itself has glaring contradictions. For, he accepted the main belief of the individual Self of Dhvaidham and the Nature and rebirths: He taught one should become completely independent of the bondage of the illusory world or Nature or Universe, as we now understand. One should do one’d duty without holding any stack in the fruits thereof. Desire and avarice is at the root of all sorrow and despondency and bondage to the Nature. According to him the Self in Its individuality is real and there are as many Souls as there are human beings. And only when a Self becomes completely free of the bondage-begetting desire, the rebirths and reincarnations stop for the individual Soul. Till then there are umpteen number of rebirths for the individual Self. The Self is permanent and It can become free of the beguiling Nature. Once an individual Self gives up and becomes free of all desires, the bondage stops and one need not be reborn, and that is a state of emancipation. And such Emancipated Souls go to the different Loka or World in the sky with a different form of consciousness. There they exist forever as perfected individual Soul. But Buddhism has no answer for why such immortal Self was tossed in to the beguiling Samsaara or the worldly life constituted of maya or illusion, kama or desire and karma or action. Who created the Self? If It is self-created, then that answers all the attributes of God. And who created this world? But the immortality of the individual Self and the keeping of its identity even after emancipation is a valid argument. 

This argument is very near to the Dhvaidham and Saivait Scriptures. Only there is a marked belief in the existence of God or the Primal Cause of the Universe in them, whereas in Buddhism it is conspicuous by its absence. So, Lord Buddha’s religion is a differently packaged Hinduism only. But it suffered from the main problem of having to accept the created and not accepting the Creator. How can there be Self and the World, the CAUSES, WITHOUT THE EFFECT, THE OMNISCIENT PRESENCE?

NO WONDER, IN INDIA BUDDHISM WAS SOUGHT TO BE DIGESTED SUCCESSFULLY WITH THE LORD BUDDHA HIMSELF HAVING BECOME ( RIGHTLY SO) IN THE PURANAS OF THE VAISHNAVITES AS THE NINTH INCARNATION OF THE LORD, VISHNU. While the ninth reincarnation of Sri Vishnu, is a great Rebel who turned against the false practices and hypocrisy of Hinduism, the Tenth incarnation of God is Kalki, the Great Destroyer!

Sri Ramakrishna says there is an ocean of super intelligent consciousness and a great heaving wave happens on the firmament here, It is called Sri Vishnu or Siva here, and Jesus Christ and Allah, the Great somewhere else!    

VERSE NUMBER 25 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 25:

Text in Transliteration:

acyak to ‘yam achintyo ‘yam avikaaryo ‘yam uchyate

tasmaad evam viditvai ‘nam naa ‘nusocitum arhasi

Text in English:

   This atman is said to be unmanifested, unthinkable and immutable. Therefore, knowing it as such, you should not grieve.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Atman cannot be perceived by any of the senses; and whatever does not come within the ken of the senses is necessarily unmanifested. It is very hard to conceive of a thing that cannot be perceived. Atman is therefore said to be unthinkable. The four elements—air, fire, water and earth—can be sensed. They are seen to be undergoing modifications; as such they are mutable. But the element Akasa undergoes no modification. It is ever in its original state. Like Akasa, Atman is ever in Its original state. It is therefore said to be immutable. Elemental Akasa is insentient and Atman or Chitakasa is sentient; in every other respect they are identical. Both being partless they remain immutable. It ill-becomes one to grieve over the immutable.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

 Right through it is purusha of the Saamkhy that is described here, not the Brahman of the Upanishads. The purusha is beyond the range of form or thought and the changes that affect mind, life and body do not touch him. Even when it is applied to the supreme Self, which is one in all, it is the unthinkable (achintya) and immutable (avikaarya) Self that is meant. Arjuna’s grief is misplaced as the self cannot be hurt or slain. Form may change; things may come and go but that which remains behind them all is for ever.

COMMNTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The Self is not an object of perception. It can hardly he seen by the physical eyes. Therefore, the Self is unmanifested. That which is seen by the eyes becomes an object of thought. As the Self cannot be perceived by the eyes, It is unthinkable. Milk when mixed with buttermilk changes its form. The Self cannot change. The Self cannot change Its form like milk. Hence, It is changeless and immutable. Therefore, thus understanding the Self, thou shuldst not mourn. Thou shouldst not think also that thou art their slayer and that they are killed by thee.

Comments by the blogger:

Arjunan’s problem is with the body. Sri krishna’s teaching is about the Self. Arjuna’s nerves shrink from having to slay the bodies of the kith and kin. The Lord says you’re just slaying the bodies. And the bodies and they are not identical. They have come only in this incarnation as with these bodies. You don’t know the various shapes they have taken through the sojourn or incarnations. But I know. And they are pure spirit, as you are. You too are not this body. So knowing thus the truth about the perishable nature of the bodies, don’t hesitate to slay them. Their Self can never be slayed and the Self is immutable, indestructible, inconceivable and eternal. So you’re just slaying what is essentialylly subject to mutation. Even if you don’t kill them, they have already courted bodily death by their acts and standpoints. So don’t hesitate. And don’t despair. None can put an end to their Self.

Buy putting forth time and again the truth about the immutable and ever-lasting Self, the Lord tries to assuage the despondency of Arjuna. Except a few of the opposite army, like Bhishma and Drona, most of them have courted murder and being slain by the wickedness. And the pitamaha and the acharya took the stand fully conscious of the consequences. Indeed if Arjuna were to impart Bhishma or Drona of his despondency, they would have laughed and said, “come on, play the game. The game is almost to be over. At the time of delivery of the ball, Arjuna has stopped in his stride, and asked the Lord, how can I send down a scorching delivery that deflects outside the off stump and beguile my own kith and kin. How can I send down the doosra. How can I bounce the ball, what if something untoward happens to their bodies. This is the kind of question for a born warrior like Arjuna to have asked. But no one can blame him for his nobility of the soul. Despite all the wickedness exhibited by his cousins he has that human milk of kindness. But nobility of this nature is like a same nation’s player’s despondency in the IPL cricket match to find in the opposite team, and having to send him down a leg cutter to fetch his wicket. If fetching the wicket is the rule of the game, then go for it, the Lord say. If they lose their wicket now, they will come to play a sixer of your delivery in the next match. The wicket in the present match is the body, which is perishable, but the fitness and form and eligibility and mental power and character and concentration of a batsman is his spirit, which cannot easily be slain. But these kinds of examples have their own inbuilt weaknesses. But the examples given by the incomparable Swami Chidhbhavananda and Swami Sivananda are fit enough to be memorized.   

VERSE NUMBER 24 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 24:

Text in Transliteration:

acchedyo ‘yam adaayo ‘yam akledyo ‘soshya eva cha

nityah sarvagatah sthaanuh achalo ‘yam sanaatanah

nityah sarvagatah sthaanuh achalo ‘yam sanaatanah

Text in English:

This Self is uncleavable, incombustible and neither wetted nor dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable and everlasting.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:

    Atman cannot be cleaved; therefore it is eternal. That which exists in one place and not in another cannot be called eternal, because of its absence in one place. Being eternal It is all-pervading. Like Akasa (the space), Atman is everywhere; so It is stable. That which changes places in mobile; time gains no access to atman; It is for this reason held as everlasting.

   The indescribable Atman is sought to be described in innumerable ways. Through varieties of definitions and explanations some vague concept of Him is formed in the mind. But to the extent the mind gets purified cognition of Him becomes lucid. And the cessation of misery is ever in direct proportion to one’s being anchored in the Self. Misery is an unwanted state of mind got into through ignorance. ‘Sreyas’ is not where misery is. The lord throws light on the glory of Atman in order to cure Arjuna of the despondency meaninglessly assumed by him.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANDANDA:

 The Self is very subtle. It is beyond the reach of speech and mind. It is very difficult to understand this subtle Self. So the Lord Krishna explains the nature of the immortal Self in a variety of ways with various illustration and examples, so that it can be grasped by the people.

Sword cannot cut this Self. So It is eternal. Because It is eternal, It is all-pervading. Because It is all-pervading It is stable like a statue. Because It is stable, It is immovable. It is everlasting. Therefore, It is not produced out of any cause. It is not new. It is ancient.

Comments by the blogger:

The self is so very subtle that transcends all description. The Lord Himself gives only negative explanations. Sri Ramakrishna has said that all the Scriptures are defiled by human spittle, because of the fact of their being constantly read and uttered by human tongue. But Brahman is not defiled like the rest of the scriptural Texts because nobody has pronounced It!

This does not mean that even Sri Krishna cannot give a correct description of the Self. But He makes it simple to suit our standard. To a child of five who askes his father how the aeroplane flies like a bird, the father cannot go into the physical theory of it, involving while the propellers rotate fast there is created a temperory void and the void in front of the plane is sought to be filled by the air all around, importantly from behind the plane, and this action of the air propels the plane along with the load of goods and passengers! Because we are like that five-years-old child and we cannot be expected to understand it even if pronounced by the Lord. Instead the father tells the small boy the plane is not a fly. It is not made of flesh, bones, veins and blood. There is no water in the sky for the plane to swim. But there is fuel in the tank like our car’s tank and it gives flying capacity to the plane. While no one can deny this fact, but at the same time, it is not the complete fact and explanation! But there is a form of understanding formed in the mind of the small boy, and that will stand him in good stead for the present. He can discuss it with his peers. But the full truth is and cannot be revealed by the father. Because of our FATHER’S MERCY THE FULL EXPLANATION IS NOT GIVEN. TO A CHILD WHO ASKES HIS/HER MOTHER HOW HE AND HIS SISTER WAS BORN, THE MOTHER COMMONLY TELLS A STORY HOW GOD GAVE THEM TO HER. BECAUSE MANY A TIME COMPLETE TRUTH TOLD TO THE INCOMPLETE PERSON COULD BRING FORTH THE UNDOING OF HIS SANITY AND PERSON.

 There is another criticism about the Bhagavat Gita: that the Lord repeats himself. But this criticism has no merit. Even this kind of criticism has to be repeated for the to fetch the point and make them sound very good.

Why the Lord should repeat himself? Because he is teaching yoga! He is teaching four kinds of yoga. A very dry subject to the uninitiated! He did not mean Gita for Arjuna’s purpose alone, He gave it to the whole world. He reconciles all the devious schisms in the Hinduism. And the subject needs to be retoled where ever it is important. So only, though the Lord Himself teaches and that too to the most eligible student, Arjuna, the Lord takes recourse to the fundamental rule of teaching. Important points are repeated often. It is all for our benefit. Though Arjuna is an able student, we are not able students, so we need to be told in varieties of ways as to what is what. Arnjuna is the most ideal student chiefly because of his mental suffering. None of us has gone through the compulsion of having to kill our own kith and kin, and though it becomes his duty as a warrior, he becomes despondent, and besides that, he has the merit and spiritual strength to completely surrender before the Lord. These two qualities inhering in that incomparable warrior turns him into an ideal student. But the teaching is not for his sake alone. It is for the benefit of the whole world!

VERSE NUMBER 23 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

 CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OR KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 23:

Text in Transliteration:

nai ‘nam chindanti sastraani nai ‘nam dahati paavkah

na chai ‘nam kledayanty aapo na soshayati maarutah

Text in English:

Weapons do not cleave the Atman, fire burns It not, water wets It not, wind dries It not.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHVANA:

Among the five elements, Akasa is one that is actionless. So no reference to it is made here. The actions of the other four elements do not affect the Atman. Weapons are made of the stuff which the earth is. Atman being indivisible, weapons cannot hurt it. All the four active elements are incapable of acting on Akasa which is inert. How then can they act on Atman which is Chit-akasa which transcends the inert Akasa itself?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   The Self is indivisible. It has no parts. It is extremely subtle. It is infinite. Therefore, swords cannot cut It; fire cannot burn It; water cannot wet It; wind cannot dry It.

Comments by the blogger:

Atman or soul of self is so subtle that the elements cannot affect it. Weapons made of the stuff of the earth cannot cleave it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it and wind cannot dry it. Cutting is the nature of the sword, the Atman or Soul or Self is so very subtle that the earth, as one of the elements, cannot have any sway over it. Fire cannot burn out everything, but so far the atman is concerned, it cannot burn the Atman or the Soul. The water as an element cannot wet the atman. And the very nature of the element air is to dry any wet things up. But it cannot dry the Atman.

So what is the message here? The elemental forces belong and constitute this perishable universe which is in a constant flux. And the actionless Atman does not belong to this world. That is why it enters into the perishable world embodied. The body is full of action. So the Atman or Soul is essentially alien to our perishable body too.

In the verse number 12 of this chapter (Samkhya yoga ) the Lord says to the despondent Arjuna, “Nor I, nor you, nor any of these ruling princes was ever non-existent before; nor is it that we shall cease to be in the future.”

 So we were one with the God or were individual Atmans or souls dependent on God, as per the Saiva Sitanda of philosophy, before we were sent into this world and tossed by God in his sport into the Samsaaraa, which is constituted of maya or illusion, kama or desire and karma or action. So there was an ancient time we were one with or dependent on God, in our independent pure state! No one can go against the verse 12 quoted above by any kind of convoluted arguments. In the beginning, that is, before the creation of this universe, we as individual atmans or souls were either one with God or in our independent state, dependent always with God. It was God, who in his sport, wanted us to be clothed in illusion, desire and action and tossed us into this Samsaaraa or the worldly life. The five elements, air, sky, water, earth and fire were newly created by God. They are not permanent. But the individual Atman or Soul or Self is PERMANENT! So only It is not subject to the sway of the elements. But the embodied beings or human beings have to work out their karmic effect or fate only through the agency of this world, which is made of the five impermanent elements. So far as the Atman or soul is concerned it is not subject to the sway of the elements.

In “kena Upanishad” the last chapter deal with the above question:

It goes like this; after the churning of the ocean of milk (life), in which the Dhevas or the Celestial Beings and the Asuras or wicked people, churned the ocean with the Mount Everest as the churning instrument and the Snake Vasuki as the rope; in which both good and bad came out. From out of the ocean of milk, came the Iravadham elephant which can fly and the Komatha which can give copious milk and the the great Utensil which can fulfil every individual wish of the person concerned. In this churning, the Alakala Visham or All-Killing Poison also came forth. Though in the churning of the ocean of milk, the celestials won, the poison gave them the chase. The celestials went to Sri Vaikunta and begged Sri Vishnu for saving them. He directed them to the Lord Siva or Parameshwara. Lord Siva saved the celestials from the chasing poison by taking it and drinking the poison. At this act of drinking, His Spouse, Parvati checked the descent of the poison into the body of the Lord by clutching His throat. And the poison stayed there, in the Lord’s throat, and it turned blue in hue. That is one reason why Lord Siva is called Neelakantam or Thiruneelakantam.

Thereafter the celestials enjoyed the good things of life without any detriment. But in “Kena Upanishad” it is said, after their victory over the wicked people the celestials became drunk with pride and thought they were the reason for the victory. But the Lord wanted to tell them otherwise. So he came in the form of “yatchan” a pillar or shaft of sheer fire, and the celestials were confused as to the identity of that person. They asked the god of Agni or Fire god and sent him to investigate the fact. When the Fire god, agni came forward the God of all things asked him, “Who are you?” The agni god answered, “I am the god of Fire and can scorch anything, besides understanding everything. Then the Lord in the form of yatchan asked him, “What power do you have?” and the god of fire answered he can scorch everything in the Earth. At this, the Lord in the form of “yatchan” placed a blade of grace before him and asked him to scorch the same. But the god of Fire could not scorch the small blade of grace. He went back and duly reported of what had transpired. Then the celestials sent the god of wind, and the question put by yatchan was to if he can toss the blade of grace. While he could not do that, he went back and reported his failure. Then the celestials went to the Head of the Celestials, Indiran and sent him to know about the identity of “yatchan” But when Indiran went to see the Yatchan, He disappeared. Then there appeared the Lord’s Spouse, Parvati. Indiran asked her who “yatchan” was ans she told him it was God Himself.

There is a philosophy contained in this. The celestials like god of fire, god of wind stand for our five senses. But their king , Indiran is our MIND. That was why when Indiran went to see the Lord, the Lord disappeared and Sri Parvati appeared. Because, Mind can be used to Know God, but Mind itself cannot see the Lord. It is the singular adumbration of all the Upanishads. Without Mind there would be no search for God. And the with the Mind alone we cannot see God. Indian, therefore, prostrated before the Devi, Parvati and prayed to her to show the Lord. So we should have devotion to know the Lord and that devotion for the Lord should reflect on all beings and through our all actions.

So, the Atman is the one who join this body and the mind, and when the Atman goes out the body cannot see, hear, drink, eat or digest and live. Through the Atman or Self alone everything in this body happens. Because of the universal soul alone everything in the universe happens with a rhythm.

So this atman or soul or self is all important and all-powerful. The weapons cannot cleave it, the fire cannot burn it, the water cannot wet it and the air or wind cannot dry it.

And in “Prachna Upanishad” in the verse 1.4 it is adverted that when the Lord wanted to create the universe, He went into a meditation, and the SKY AND PRANA came into being. And the Lord thought that they would create the world for Him.

Every individual thing is the result of the sky or space and the Prna or shakti or Power. Without these  fundamental element sky nothing can move. The four elements can move only because of the actionless sky, which is used by fire, wind, water and earth as an anvil and all movements are made possible! Since the sky is actionless like the atman or soul or self, it has been left out in this verse. The atman is all-knowing and all-powerful. It is not coeval with the Lord, but co-existent with the Lord Himself. That is why the verse, 12 of this chapter, as quoted above.  

VERSE 22 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 22:

Text in Transliteration:

vaasaamsi jeernaani yathaa vihaaya

   navaani grhnaati naro ‘paraani

tatha sareeraani vihaaya jeernaany

   anyaani samyaati navaani dehi

Text in English:

   As a man casting off worn-out garments puts on new ones, so the embodied, casting off worn-out bodies enters into others that are new.

COMMNTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   It is only after the procurement of new clothings that man rejects the old worn-out ones. The snake develops new skin from within and then casts off the slough. Even so the jeevatman mentally assumes a new form before dissociating himself from the old body. In other words his mental make up does not die along the gross body. It is called the subtle body and it persists with its innate tendencies and dispositions. This is the core of the Jivatman and he survives the death of the physical frame. He then chooses to develop another gross body in a womb suited to his attainments.

Swami Chidbhavananda quotes from Sri Ramakrishna as follows:

 “The snake and its slough are not one and the same. Even so the Atman and the body are different,   one from the other.”

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHKRISHNAN;

The eternal does not move from place to place but the embodied soul moves one abode to another. It takes birth each time and gathers to itself a mind, life and body formed out of the materials of nature according to its past evolution and its need for the future. The psychic being is the vijnaana which supports the triple manifestation of the body (anna), life (prana) and the mind (manas). When the gross physical body falls away, the vital and mental sheaths still remain as the vehicle of the soul. Rebirth is a law of nature. There is an objective connection between the various forms of life. Cp. Katha Upanishad I, 6. “Like a corn a mortal ripens and like corn is he born again.”

Embodiments seem to be essential for the soul. Is it then right to kill the body? The world of concrete existence has a meaning.

Comments by the blogger:

Let us start from the start! Is it only a worn-out clothes cast away by men. While the impecunious men go around in India with a loin cloth and a length of cloth to drape their midriff in hot climatic conditions, the fashionable rich buy clothes every now and then to show off, even when their wardrobes are busting with costly clothes! Thus, so many clothes lie unworn and not becoming worn-out either.

It’s not a case of nit picking. It is a philosophical question to ask if the atman or soul leaves or casts off only the old body before entering into another new body? The answer is NO! Even a little baby dies. Even a youth in his/her prime dies. Even a new-born baby dies. And there is always a case of the still-born babies! So, how to explains this at the altar of this one sloka alone?

In the Holy Gita, there are all-contained individual slokas or verses which we may take as our beacon light and form around our actions, and live by that one self-contained sloka or verse. For example, the verse number 7 of samkhya yoga or the yoga of knowledge( the present chapter) which goes like this:

“My nature is weighed down with the taint of feeblemindedness; my understanding is confused as to duty. I entreat you, say definitely what is good for me. I am your disciple. Do instruct me who have taken refuge in you.”

Arjuna begs his Lord and friend in this manner, after surrendering himself at the feet of Sri Krishna!

The commentary of Swami Chidbhavananda ends like this:

“He who seeks to make a sacred study of the Bhagavat Gita and he who desires to translates its tenets into action will do well to chant this verse every time and to evoke in himself the attitude of self-surrender seen here in Arjuna. IT IS A PRAYER COMPLETE IN ITSELF.”

There are an umpteen number of verses which are self-contained and self-explanatory, either to form our complete prayer, or to serve us a model for a new and enriched lifestyle.

At the same time, there are verses that flow one after the other and form a group to give an idea a complete view. The Truth is but one, but it is many faceted. The revolving particles inside the atom can either be seen as a streak or point of light. In both ways they have been photographed! How can one Truth be both a streak and a point of light! So, though the Truth is one, it has many faces and facets. Hence so many religions in this world! They all are about the one and only proclaimed and accepted GOD! To put it otherwise, GOD is one, but there are many religions and paths to attain Godhood for Man!

Ok, now how can we understand the new born baby’s death or the case of a still-born baby?

There is a story or anecdote I read a long time back in the WEEK magazine. An young mother of a deformed child relates her experience in public places where she wheels through the traffic and across the road with her grown up boy in wheelchair. She relates her experience that while almost all the passers by commiserate with her beautiful boy who is deformed most of them are helpful too. As and when the wheelchair has to be pushed onto the raised platform from the level of the road whenever she crosses the road in her city, generally passers by give her a hand in pushing the wheelchair. But mostly, the city folks are shy in doing it, while the village folks who have come to the city have no such trouble as shyness or embarrassment! And at one day, a holy man saw her with the boy in wheelchair and uttered, “Those with good and sound limbs have to elect and select to desist from sin. But some souls come here embodied in such crippled condition, so that they need not commit any sin, at the same time work out the balance of their karmic effect. So don’t despair on his account. He would not come here after this birth!”

This anecdote should do for the question why some people die young and in the prime of their lives. And the still-born has already attained moksha or heaven or emacipation having worked out its karma in the womb itself!

This need not necessarily the only explanation for the ones dying young. But, the body is cast off the moment it becomes useless and the embodied is ready to take the next body for furtherance of the working out of the karma.

This sloka or verse is just a continuation of the Lord’s adumbration about the eternal nature of the atman or soul and the perishable nature of the body!     

   

VERSE NUMBER 21 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

 HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 21:

Text in Transliteration:

veda ‘vinaasinam nityam ya enam ajam avyayam

katham sa purushah paarth kam ghaatayati hanta kam

Text in English:

He who cognizes the Atman as indestructible, eternal, unborn and changeless, how can he slay, O Partha, or cause another to slay?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:

   Atman is actionless. The knower of Atman is free from egoism; therefore the feeling of agency is not in him. Karma does not, for that reason, taint him. Slaying and causing to slay are apparently terrible actions. But because of the absence of egoism in an enlightened person, even such evil actions do not tarnish him. An aspirant tries to be free from egoism while discharging his duty.

Swami Chidbhvananda gives quotes Sri Ramakrishna, who tells a story about the absence of ego:

   Absorbed as a saint was, he was passing along a crowded street. Then by chance he trampled upon the foot of a wicked man. That ruffian became enraged and recklessly assaulted the holy man, until he fainted and fell down. He was forthwith carried to the Ashrama and tenderly nursed by his disciples. When he regained consciousness he was asked if he could recognise the one attending on him. “The hand that beat up this body is now nursing it”, came the reply. The knower of Brahman distinguishes not the assaulter from the assaulted.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The enlightened sage who knows the immutable and indestructible Self through direct cognition or spiritual Anubhava (experience) cannot do the act of slaying. He cannot cause another to slay also.

Comments by the blogger:

It all depends on ones consciousness. “Bragnanam Brahmam” is one of the maha vakyas or Great Sentences of the Vedas. That means “consciousness is Brhamam or God!” “Thou art that” or “you are That” or “You are God” is another maha vakya or Greate Sentence of the Vedas. Are we indeed the Brahman who is immutable and indestructible, eternal, and unborn indeed? How could it be true when it is the fact, that we have been born to our parents and we move, eat, drink, lie, with that consciousness? How could it be proved we are not born? How could it be proved we are immutable when each year adds to the senility of ours when we are past our prime?  How could it be proved that we are indestructible, while we know a strong blow with even a blunt sword should put an end to us? During the freedom struggle, occasionally there occurred fratricidal killings between Muslims and Hindus. In the book, “Freedom At Midnight” the authors write about Hindu and Muslim children at school killed each other by piercing each other in the stomach with their sharpened pencils! And still, we should believe we are immutable and eternal and changeless. Sheer docotomy, indeed! Isn’t it?

What is here spoken about is not the body but the embodied. Till we realize the fact that we are not this body but sheer Atman which is actionless and suffers no action, we are mutable, changeable, destructible, since what we take us for is just this body. Body is not the same as the embodied. The embodied treat this body just as a shirt. When the shirt becomes old and tattered, the Atman or Soul leaves this body and takes a new body to work out the further karmic accumulation! When all the karma comes to an end, we become pure soul or self and there is no action in it. It is not negative as that of a copse that lies without action. Even in a corpse there can be putrefied action. The Atman is actionless not because it is not able to act, or does not want to act, but IT IS SUPREMELY FREE FROM ACTION! We cannot remain inactive in our bodily life even for a moment.  Even when we sit idely, there is much action wrought out in our mind. Mind is the womb where all actions are born. Our imagination and thought is activated self. That is why, the practitioners of meditation, without trying to free themselves immediately free from all actions, indulge in ONLY ONE ACTION. And that is a continuous flow of thinking and concentration of God or one of His Attributes. That action is meddled with by our mind.  Thousands of thinking arise when we sit to meditate. We are advised not to fight them. We are to witness them without being an entertaining party. Thoughts will arise. But we should not give up our concentration on the object or attribute of concentration. Slowly, stage by stay, the rising of the thousands of thoughts will decrease and at one point of time we will be with only one action, that is concentration studiously on one chosen object or attribute. And at one level that attribute, for example light or truth will fill our whole being. And that is one type of consciousness of Samadhi. But before the state of super-consciousness  or the state of MAHA SAMADHI or NIRVANA we will have to attain several more arduous level of consciousness. So actionlessness is not tantamount to idleness or slothfulness. It is a supreme freedom from action. Where no action takes place, that mind is free of all actions done by the body in which it is lying. This is the state of consciousness Sri Krishna wants Arjuna to attain. When such a state of consciousness is attained, there would be no ego sense. When there is no thinking about the doer, there would be nil-action, even when the body goes through the stipulated actions with no expectations of fruits thereof. This is the state that Sri Krishna wants all of us to attain. When we attain this level, even killing will not affect our soul. Because of our total identification of the soul, we forget our body, and just go through the motion, knowing full well that it is the body that goes through the action being an instrument of God. Then, every action would become the action of Ishwara. And no such action will bind us, including the slaying of the enemies in the war!  

VERSE NUMBER 20 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLDGE

VERSE NUMBER 20:

Text in Transliteration:

na jaayate mriyate vaa kadaachin

   naa ‘yam bhootvaa bhavitaa vaa na bhooyah

ajo nityah saasvato ‘yam puraano

   na hanyate hanyamaane sareere

Text in English:

   The atman is neither born nor does It die. Coming into being and ceasing to be do not take place in It. Unborn, eternal, constant and ancient, It is not killed when the body is slain.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   To be born, to exist, to grow, to change, to decay, to perish—these are the six kinds of modifications undergone by the body constituted of elements. But the Atman remains unaffected by these changes.                 

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY SIVANANDA:

   This Self (Atma) is destitute of the six types of transformation or Bhava-Vikaras such as birth, existence, growth, transformation, decline and death. As it is indivisible (Akhanda), It does not diminish in size. It neither grows nor does It decline. It is ever the same. Birth and death are for the physical body only. Birth and death cannot touch the immortal, all-pervading Self.

 Comments by the blogger:

We often speak of the yet-to-be-tenth avatar or incarnation of Sri Vishnu, namely, kalki. What would happen when the lord decides to annihilate the entire universe? Even this universe is constituted of matter which has changing pattern of atomic structures. If the structure of the seed the of the tree that can grow up to say thirty metres in a way, the seed of the kusa grass is not of the same type. We often speak the revolution in genetic engineering. One material thing can be changed into another thing by changing the genes and atomic structure of the matter. What is not possible even on the material plane is to produce an entirely new atom. What does it mean? Well, even before the Big Bang and since then, manufacturing of new atom was and is not possible! Even shrinking of the large tree so that it could be adorning the drawing room is possible. But production of an entirely new atom in this universe is not possible. We manufacture so many things with the help of the atomic structures available, and causing modification in the genetic pattern. But to cause an increase of the weight of the universe is not possible. Likewise, even complete annihilation of a single atom is not possible! So we cannot shrink the universe or cause a diminution in its weight. This is the case with regard to the universe which is in a constant fluxing mode. And theoretically it has been proved this universe has an end. Scriptures also speak of the end of the universe at the end of a yuga or age.

How could this kind of gigantic universe be changed or destroyed by God as he shows in the Gita itself by showing the Vishwrupa? Well, all God has to do is to withdraw or annihilate a single atom. The whole universe would be subject to the rippling effect like the splitting of the atom. And the annihilation of the single atom would cause the changing of the course of the planets, and the holocaust would start. And this is shown in allegorical terms by Vishnu in the Gita as slurping up the entire universe and its beings!

Ok, it sounds very creative! But even on a theoretical plane, why should the withdrawal or annihilation of a single atom should bring about the annihilation of the universe? The answer is in the Gita itself. Both the animate and inanimate things are permeated by God’s self. There is close affinity between human beings irrespective of religious and national barriers. And what is more, there is a close affinity between Man and other flower and fauna. Each individual, whether he is a beggar or a millionaire, a sinner or a Raja Yogi, a wastrel or a wonderfully creative person; there is a close affinity between Man and each and every tree and sapling in this world! There is close affinity between Man and each and every animal in the animal kingdom. Even harmful virus and bacterium is related to Man in a way the child in the womb is related to the mother through the ambilical card. This close affinity extends between all flower and fauna and the course of the planets. As they say, the even before Nuton, the scientist discovered the theory of attraction of the Earth at the falling of the apple tossed into the air, the attraction was there very much, this affinity has been always there whether we discover it or not. There is a close affinity with each of the planets, even those we are yet to find out, and Man. This affinity is born of the Self or Soul of the Universe and its affinity with the individual Soul of the flower and fauna and the insentient things like earth or rock. There is close affinity between the flower and fauna and the insentient things and the five elements, air, water, space, fire and the Earth, of the Universe. By Earth all the planets are indicated and included. The planets form one of the five elements of the universe. When a single atom is destroyed or withdrawn, this affinity is marred and there should be a void as not known to us and different from the void as known to us now. Even the void and the atmospheric space is one of the five elements. But the void absolute that would be created by destroying a single atom would amount to destruction of the close umbilical affinity that exist between beings and non-beings as afore said. And this destruction or disruption of the affinity would destroy the universe. This destruction or disruption cannot be made by the human effort. When Nirbhaya was raped and killed there was a disruption but there was no destruction of the atom. And that disruption gave rise to some samskaaraa ( the basic Brahmic unit of measurement of the action and reaction of the beings) and the rapists should take several births and deaths as beasts and other things before once again come into the world as human beings. So, even the act of raping and cruel killing of Nirbhaya did not destroy the close affinity between her and her rapists! We cannot, by our acts or non-action, create the disruption of this affinity. Likewise there is close affinity between the flower and fauna and the other worlds of pitru or forefathers and the heaven and hell. This is the scheme of God, and He only can cause a destruction or disruption of this affinity, and then there would be an annihilation of the universe at the end of the yuga or age of the universe as found out by the Vedopanishadic saints and sages. Till then the earth and other planets would stay in course and the flower and fauna would continue to be born and die and attain salvation or different worlds or planes of consciousness till salvation or self-realization.

 And there can be no increase or decrease in the universe and its mass and weight is self evident. How can an atom, which has God’s Atman or Soul could be annihilated? It can only be split to produce energy. That can be don by human action. But when a single atom is completely withdrawn or destroyed, there would be a wholesale annihilating disruption in the plan and scheme of the universe and that would be the yuga of Kalki or the wholesale annihilation of the universe which even a million of trillion atom bombs could not produce!

The same is the case with the energy. If the mass and the weight of the universe cannot be increased or decreased, but can be changed the name and form thereof, there can be no increase and decrease in the energy and power of the universe. It also is a proven fact. When human ingenuity can change one form or energy into another form, destruction and manufacturing new energy is totally impossible.

Likewise all matter could be reduced to the ash. But the ash is irreducible, so for as name and form is concerned.

Ok, to annihilate the universe what are the other options available for God?

The five elements were originally created by God and the three gunas ( or temperament, to put it roughly) like satvic, rajas and tamas were created by God in the beginning. And there was perfect equilibrium between them. And creation started with the Big Bang only when this perfect equilibrium was disrupted. God can bring about the perfect equilibrium to annihilate the universe and send it back to the stage when Big Bang had not happened! According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, even the Big Bang was part and parcel of the evolution of the universe which had been making itself progressively conducive for the ushering into of the single-cell organism into the universe.

So God can annihilate His universe either by destroying a single atom and thereby cause the disruption of the universe, or bring about a perfect equilibrium between the gunas and the five elements!

So, even destruction or creation of a single atom is not possible to our human ingenuity. We can change the mass and form and name of matter. We can increase of decrease the mass of any one article, taking from a pencil to the rocket we send into the air. But we cannot create a new atom or destroy an already existing atom.

If this is the case of the universe constantly in a flux, which is seen both as a maya or thought by God and matter, what should be the nature of God’s Soul that permeates this world? Can we case an increase or decrease of the same? The soul is immeasurable, timeless and extant and all-pervading. 

VERSE NUMBER 19 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 19:

Text in Transliteration:

ya enam vetti hantaaram yas chai ‘na manyate hatam

ubhau tau na vijaaneeto naa ‘yam hanta na hanyate

Text in English:

He who holds Atman as slayer and he who considers It as the slain, both of them are ignorant. It slays not, nor is It slain.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY CHIDBHAVANANDA:

“I am ruined”, laments the man who suddenly loses his very much loved fortune. Though he is different from his wealth, identification with it drives him on to this deluded position. Attachment to the body makes one feel that physical death is death to the Atman. But the immortal Self remains unaffected by all bodily changes. As the sky is ever itself in the midst of clouds coming and going, the Atman is changeless while the bodies change.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The author is discriminating between the self and the not-self, purusha and prakriti of the Samkhya.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY SIVANANDA:

The self is  non-doer (Akarta) and as It is immutable, It is neither the agent nor the object of the act of slaying. He who thinks “I slay” or “I am slain” with the body or the Ahamkara (ego), he does not really comprehend he true nature of he Self. The Self is indestructible. It exists in the three periods of time. It is Sat (Existence).  When the body is destroyed, the Self is not destroyed. The body has to undergo change in any case. It is inevitable. But the Self is not at all affected by it. Verses 19, 20, 22 , 23 and 24 speak of the immortality of the Self or Atma. (Cf. Chapter XVIII, 17.)

Comments by the blogger:

He who slays and he who is slain, does or suffer the action, only in body and not in Self. For Self or Arman knows no action. But the body including the mind and discrimination added with the Ahamkara or ego, (the faculty of attachment of the Self or Soul with the body) identifies the Self or I- ness to be the doer or sufferer. The pure Atman is witness to whatever is going on in the mind and the body. And the universal self is witness to what is going on in the whole of the universe. And emancipation or salvation is all about the knowledge of one’s self which is part of the universal self! For this we have to take hundreds of thousands of births and die hundreds of thousands of times! Ahamkara or ego is different from what we ordinarily think by the term egoist or egotistical. Ahamkara is pure ignorance of identifying the body with the self.

Everything that happens in the body and mind has to be witnessed and taken into account. For that the Atman or Self inheres in the body. But, by its very nature, it is incapable of any action. The universal self also takes notice of the course of the planets and other activities. Nothing escapes the witness both in the body and the universe.

This is where the Rig-Vedic saints and sages and the sages of the ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome score over the modern scientists and their scientific knowledge. The universal self inheres and pervades the whole universe. The universe is in constant flux. And it is full of action. And what we want is there readily parcelled up to be delivered to us. All we have to do is ask. Asking is not just a transitory wish. The asking must be like the crying babies asking for its mother’s milk. If we can know the art of asking we can get the whole universe. The Rig-Veda is full of hymns and sacrificial tenets and the hymns eulogise various elemental gods. That is enough to make us prosper and wealthy and honest. They knew the art of asking. The universe is full of supplies and we are full of needs. We can literally ask for the moon and get it if only we know the art of asking. The worship of elemental gods is nothing short of pure genius. It is not superstitious action. Unless they got what they prayed for, that much stress on proper conduct of various sacrifices might not have been dealt with in such great detail and laid down for the benefit of the future generation. We are what we think. We get what we ask for. We live the life of what way we want. And when we know this, we would only ask for wealth and knowledge. Wealth will take care of this world’s needs, while knowledge will guide us toward self-realization.

The witness in the body is described in the “Mundaka Upanishad” as distinguished with the body with the help of a story: there are two birds in a tree. One bird is eating various fruits of the tree. Some fruits are sweet and the bird delights at the sweetness. And some fruits are bitter, and the bird suffers. But the bird goes on eating the fruits of the tree. But the other bird does not eat any fruit. It just WATCHES the eating bird eat and enjoy and suffer. This universe is the tree with fruits bitter and sweet, and this body is the bird that eats various fruits of the tree and suffers or enjoys them. And the non-eating and non-acting bird is our Arman or Soul or Self.

This universe is full of fruits of actions. Whatever we seek we can get. The only thing is we should ask. But to become one with the other, non-eating bird, we have to do various things: for those who are sentimental, there is bhakti yoga or the yoga of devotion, and for those who are action-oriented, there is karma yoga or the yoga of right action. In Bhakti yoga we not only pray to god, and supplicate before Him and offer as naivedyam or offerings various fruits and other things, we ultimately, at the acme of devotion, offer our own self to God! In the yoga of right conduct or action, the action oriented are indulging in actions preordained to them as self-duty or swadharma and carry out the all actions without any expectation of fruits thereof. For the people who have discrimination and power of inquiry is Gnana yoga of yoga of knowledge. They do not worship any form, like the Mohammadans. He worships knowledge and dedicates his life to inquiry. And those people who are non sentimental, there is Raja yoga, by which they meditate on that Single Being, the Causeless Cause and obtain wisdom to realize their self. Sri Krishna gives unto this world all these four kinds of actions to the people of the world according as their orientation and guna or bhava or preponderating nature.

We do these actions only with our body and bodily equipments like mind and discrimination. The Atman in us does not indulge in any action. It just watches our doings and even thinking and imagination and watch over and be the witness of our bodily actions, both voluntary and involuntary. While this being the nature of the body and self, O, Arjuna why do you hesitate to slay your enemies’ bodies only. By which act you cannot touch their Atman!

VERSE NUMBER 18 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 18:

Text in Transliteration:

antavanta ime dehaa nityasyo ‘ktaah sareeririnah

anaasino ‘prameyasya tasmaad yudhyasva bhaarata

Text in English:

   These bodies of the Indwelller, who is eternal, indestructible and immeasurable, are said to have an end. Fight therefore, O Bharata.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY CHIDBHAVANADA:

The ocean is ever itself. A portion of the water in it changes place forming waves on the surface and currents below. Elsewhere it freezes as icebergs. Changes of this kind take place in nature; but Atman does not undergo any change whatsoever, It being eternal. All the water in a pond evaporates and disappears. Even so, the body of an individual disintegrates and disappears. But Atman is not exposed to this kind of destruction; it is therefore indestructible. Body can be cognized and described; but Atman is beyond the domain of the mind and speech; so it is immeasurable.

Because of delusion over earthly relationship and over things earthly, Arjuna chooses to recoil from the righteous war. It ill-behoves him to abandon his duty. So the Lord exhorts him, “Fight therefore, O Bharata.” This exhortation can be found again and again, as the burden of the Gita.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

“sareeri” here refers to the self of the individual as in the phrase “saareeraka mimaamsaa”, which is an enquiry into the nature of the individual self. It is incomprehensible because it is not known by the ordinary means of knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY SIVANANDA:

Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna the nature of the all-pervading, immortal Self in a variety of ways and thus induces him to fight by removing his delusion, grief and despondency which are born of ignorance.

Comments by the blogger:

The embodied soul is eternal, immeasurable and indestructible. But the bodies are subject to modifications, and destructible and is indeed a limiting adjunct. The Self or Soul is eternal, because it is not subject to Time. It exists outside Time. Therefore It is eternal. There can be no increasing or decreasing in the atman or soul or self. It is indivisible and extant and all pervading; so it is immeasurable too. These are the attributes of the changeless soul. But the very essential nature of the body is change. Because it exists in Time! The whole universe exists in time. Anything and every little or big thing, every being and non-being existing or staying in Time is subject to change. Death and destruction is a form of modifications. Death is one of the essential attributes of the body. Here the question is two-fold: Arjuna knows full well that the majority of the persons in the opposite army are not good, but thoroughly bad, and they have written their own death warrant and signed sealed it. But he hesitates because the bad ones are his own kiths and kin. Lord Krishna reminds him of the essential nature of the bodies he is going to slay. And also that, even if he wants to, he cannot slya or destroy their atman or soul! When this kind of self knowledge dawns on Arjuna, then, as he is a proven warrior of great mighty, the slaying of the evil persons in the opposite army and thereby cleansing this world of the wicked people when their number become sizable, becomes easier. And that is why the lesson about the indestructibility of the atman and the essential modification of the body!

Therefore fight o Barata is described as the burden of Gita by swamy chidbhavananda. Barata is the appellation that relates to the kind of pure blood that is coursing through Arjuna’s veins. And his despondency and confusion is only temporary. Therefore fight is not just for Arjuna but to all of us. Indeed even a person committing suicide is fighting against the onslaught and pulls of the maya or illusion. Even animals fight to the end. We ordinarily fight to the end. But we should not fight like a cornered animal. Even a cornered bandicoot and cat can fight like a king cobra. That is the basic instinct in all of us. At the same time we give ourselves unto the maya or illusion we fight too. But, the point is to not fight like a cornered animal which has no way of escape. Arjuna seeks an escape through the route of sanyasa. He wants to renounce the world instead of having to fight against his own kith and kin even if they are essentially wicked! This is not fighting. This is escapism. But, the saving grace is, he is a Bharata of high pure and caste blood of intensely intrinsic merit. Lord Krishna does not want him to seek the route of renouncement. And at the same time, he does not want his cheela or disciple to fight like a cornered animal. Instead, he should fight with the right knowledge as to his true duty and knowledge about the destructibility of the bodies and the eternity and indestructibility and immeasurableness of the atman or soul or self. That would behove him as an able and good and noble kshatria or warrior!

Thus we have to fight till the very end; not like a person seeking the route of suicide or giving up oneself to habits like drinking. We should fight with the knowledge of the indestructibility of the self and the destructibility of the body. So, even the death in the family should not shake us. Even the loss of the best of our friends should not shake us. Even the loss of job, or the lifetime achievement in the form of wealth should not shake us. We should continue from the scratch. We are empowered to fight alone, and never to seek its fruits. But inaction will not do. Wrong action like addiction or suicide also is a foul game. We should fight from where we are left off from the onslaught of maya or fate, individual or familial.

Knowledge is strength. And self-knowledge or the knowledge about the indestructibility of the self is the ultimate strength. Krishna derides elsewhere, this world is not for the weakling. Then how could he get to the swarga or attain moksha or salvation without strength!  So we should always fight, no matter what, with strength born of self-knowledge. This is the burden of Gita. And this should become rule of our game, the life!                

VERSE NUMBER 17 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 17

Text in Transliteration:                     

avinaasi tu tad vidhi yena sarvam idam tatam

vinaasam avyayasyaa ‘sya na kaschit kartum arhati

Text in English:

   Know that to be verily indestructible by which all this is pervaded. None can effect the destruction of the immutable.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   Space is all pervasive and infinite. Clouds appear all on a sudden in it; but their presence does not cause division in space. It is possible for clouds to change in magnitude. But akasa or space remains ever itself. Akin to Akasa, Awareness is the substratum of the manifested universe, which appears and disappears. No addition or subtraction can be effected in Awareness. It is the eternal witness.

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

“tatam”, pervaded. See also VIII, 22, 46; IX, 4; XI,38 and Maha Bharata, XII, 240, 20. Shankara uses “vyaaptam”

   Not even Ishvara, the Supreme Lord, can bring about the destruction of the Self. Its reality is self-established, “svatassidha”. It is not unknown to anybody. The scriptures serve to remove the “adhyaaropana” or superposition of attributes alien to the Self and not to reveal what is altogether unknown.

Ramanuja means by “aatmatathva” the qualitative unity and equality in the midst of numerical plurality.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY SIVANANDA:

Brahman or Atma pervades all the objects like ether. Even if the pot is broken, the ether that is within and without the pot cannot be destroyed. Even so, if the bodies and all other objects perish, Brahman or the Self that pervades them cannot perish. It is the living Truth, Sat.

Brahman has no parts. There cannot be either increase or diminution in Brahman. People are ruined by loss of wealth. But Brahman does not suffer any loss in that way. It is inexhaustible. Therefore, none can bring about the disappearance or destruction of the Self. It always  exists. It is always all-full and self –contained. It is Existence Absolute. It is immutable.

The comment by the blogger:

Sri Krishna juxtaposes the non-self and the Self. In the verse number 14 He says that the contacts of the senses with the objects which cause heat and cold, pleasure and pain, have a beginning and an end. Here He describes the nature of the Self. While non-self is a passing show and cannot exist in itself without a perceiver the self can and always exists in itself. So one should bear the pleasure and pain of this universe, He advises in verse number 15. In verse number 16 the nature of the non-self and the self is directly juxtaposed. And the present verse is a continuation of  the juxtaposition, but in a different way; here, Sri Krishna speaks only about the nature of the Self. It exists in itself. No one can bring a mutation in it. While Swamy chidbhavananda cites the case of the Akasa or space which does not get changed when it forms the basis of all actions by other elements, Dr.S. Radhakrishnan cites the words of the saints that even the Supreme Ishvara cannot bring about the mutation or destruction of the Self. And, Swamy Sivananda invokes, “gatakaasam” or the space within the mud pot. There is space within and without the pot. And when the pot is broken, there is no mutation in the space. It exists as before. So names and forms cannot bring about even one of the five elements, sky, and if so, how could the quintessentially immortal Self can experience mutation.

So, Arjuna, by slaying the teachers and the pitamaha and the kinsmen, you are only destroying the perishable body, which have to be destroyed as per their own previous actions. It is purely a case of cause and effect. But you cannot destroy their immutable soul which does not inhere in the cause and effect universe as a dependent. It is ever independent of this universe and it is Truth or Sat. That which is subject to change, like the body, is “asat” and “untruth”. The untruth is just a passing show. The war has come to you unsought and, you being a kshsatriya, is duty-bound to embrace this opportunity and engage in this holy war which is going to be waged for the destruction of the evil persons and upholding of the righteous ones. So, indulge in your swadharma and slay their bodies, fully knowing it is their fate manufactured by their own actions, and you can never slay their individual soul which is an immutable “Sat” or “Truth”.

There is a story about this. Indeed it comes as a common man’s ballad in Tamil; “Nanda vanathil or aandi/ Avan naalaaru maadhamaai kuyavanai vendi/ kondu vandhaan oru thondi/ adhai koothaadi koothaadi pottudaithaandi!”

It can be roughly translated as follows: “There was a monk in the park/ He brought a mud pot after begging the potter for four-six month/ Then the wandering monk started to dance with the mud pot and ultimately broke it into pieces!”

The “aandi” or the wandering monk spent more than four months ( naalaaru maadhangal= four-six months) in begging the potter for a pot. There was no need for the wandering monk for a pot. He has no individual needs. But he studiously begged for a free gift of the pot, and then danced with it in intense ecstasy and ultimately tossed the pot on to the hard ground, because of which the pot was broken into pieces! In actual fact, the ecstatic monk wanted to demonstrate the space within and without does not suffer mutation because of the broken pot. The space is not broken in to a hundred pieces like the new mud pot. And if it were the case of one of the five elements of this perishable universe, what would be the case of the Atman or Self or Soul? That was the truth the wandering monk wanted to experiment with and demonstrate to the onlookers. In which act the wandering monk attained ecstasy!

When it is said, even Ishvara or the Supreme Lord cannot cause a destruction of the Self, it is a way of reinforcing a point. In actual fact, this question would never arise. The Supreme Ishvar Has and Could Have NO reason what so ever to cause mutation in the Sat or Self. So it must be taken as an argumentative and demonstrational point, and should not be taken literally. The supreme Lord Has No need to destruct the self. Sometimes some questions could never be postulated. Even then it is often don both by the believers and the non-believers. For example, some persons, the God-Deniers, would argue that there are some things even God cannot do. Having said this, they would say that suppose you do a thing on Friday, God cannot demonstrate that you did it on Saturday! So there are some things even “your so-called God” cannot do! Then how could you call him as an Almighty. This type of questions will never arise. Because, this question is postulated within the parameters of this changing universe which acts according to TIME! But to God there is no Time Factor. Such limiting adjuncts are not suffered by the KALESHVARAN OR KAALATHEESHWARAN. Kalam or Kala or  Time exists only for man and other beings and this universe, and never for God. Likewise, time does not exist of the Sat or Self too.

These same types of empirical postulations are resorted to by not only believers, but by the great saints like Swamy Vivekananda!

For, he says, if, after you have realized your self, you become one with God, and so what God can do you could also do. For example, he would argue, that if you want the sun to change its course, it should obey your dictate! Because you are God!

This kind of argument is only to reinforce an empirical and eternal point. But, once you become one with God, would you want to interfere with the course of the sun or ask other planets that are rounding the sun to change course? That is a million dollar question. Because becoming one with God would tantamount to accepting His Great wisdom for this universe.

So only is the Tamil proverb to the effect; kandavar vindilar and vindavar kandilar, which roughly translates as, “those who found the Truth did not speak about It, and those speak about It did not find It!

And time exists in God. Beings also exist in God. God does not exist neither in Time nor in Beings. In a different verse, Sri Krishna says that the prakrity or Nature exists in Him and He does not exist in Nature. Time is for us. Timelessness is one of His basic attributes. And the same is the case of the individual Atman or Individual Soul or Self.         

VERSE NUMBER 16 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 16:

Text in Transliteration:

na ‘sato vidyate bhaavo naa ‘bhaavo vidyate satah

ubhayor api drshto ‘ntas tv anayos tattvdarsibhih

Text in English:

   The unreal has no existence; the real never ceases to be. The truth about both has been realized by the seers.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   Tatva-darsana is seeing into the reality of things. Beings are seeking to have a correct understanding of things about them. To the extent their understanding of things is perfect their adjustment to get at the permanent in preference to the impermanent. A man is attracted by a panoramic plot of land on a river bank and he decides to put up a beautiful house there. But on investigation he finds out that the land is liable to inundation during the rains. Though the plot happens to be ideally situated it has to be rejected for valid reasons. Many things in nature are unreal and unreliable while seeming to be real and reliable.

   The seers of truth behold the body and the pleasure and pain associated with it as unreal. Our bodies were not existent in the distant past; they will not be in the distant future. Though they are now, their existence is equivalent to non-existence—“abhaavam”. The pleasure of wealth enjoyed in dream is unreal even while enjoying it.

    The body is devoid of bhaava and therefore unreal. It was not in the past; it has come into being now; it will not be in the future. What seems to be real now is only a modification of the elements. It is therefore to be discounted as non-existent. The man of understanding should not be affected by pleasure and pain which are all born of identification with the body.

    Atman is Existence; it is Real; it is “bhaava” which means awareness or pure consciousness. Awareness remains untouched by time, space and causation. States of mind such as wakefulness, dream and sound sleep do not affect Atman. Modifications which are characteristics of things phenomenal do not take place in Atman. It is ever Itself. “Prajgnaanam Brahman” –Awareness is Reality. This is the finale of the definition of the Absolute Reality. This is the finale of the definition of the Absolute Reality.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

“sadaakhyam brahma” Shankara defines real (sat) as that in regard to which our consciousness never fails and unreal (asat) as that in regard to which our consciousness fails. Our consciousness of objects varies bt not that of existence. The unreal which is the passing show of the world veils the unchanging reality which is for ever manifest.

According to Ramanuja, the unreal is the body and the real is the soul.

Madhva interprets the first quarter of the verse as asserting duality, vidyate-abhaavah. There is no destruction of the unmanifest (avyakta) prkriti. Sat, of course is indestructible.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY SIVANANDA:

   The changeless, homogeneous Atma or the Self always exists. It is the only solid Reality. This phenomenal world of names and forms is ever changing. Henc it is unreal. The sage of the Jivanmukta is fully aware that the Self alwys exists and that this world is like a mirage. Through his Jnanachakshus or the eye of intuition, like the snake in the rope, after it has been seen that only the underlying Essence in all the names and forms, viz., Asti-Bhati-Priya or Satchidananda or Existence-knowledge-bliss Absolute. Hence he is a Tattvadarshi or a knower of the Truth or the Essence.

   What is changing must be unreal. What is constant or permanent must be real.

Comments by the blogger:

Truth is simple as well as multilayered and convoluted. We simply call “mother”. That is the first word we learn in any language. Because she is constantly with the baby and (at least in those days, in the West) breast feed the baby. Mother is the simplest of the vocabularies the child learns. But the motherhood is not so simple, and it is multi-layered and convoluted. For, mother is not simply mother; she is a wife, too. In that capacity the child should not understand what was don to bring the child into the world. Not only convoluted, but Truth could be harsh to the extent we are steeped in maya or God’s illusion. We see the world; we see the things, the beings, the trees, the flower and fauna and the buildings, gadgets; we see food, the implements that are required to produce food, rice or paddy of wheat or beef, pork etc., we see beautiful things and we see ugli things. Like the baby which sees the mother and calls her mom or mommy or amma, should not understand any extraneous things about her. The baby should and could see just the mother in the woman who was party to the lovemaking. And what was the thing going on at the exact time of conception of the child, it should decide the nature of the soul that enters the womb along with the man’s semen. That soul was dependent after shedding the former body for a fresh one according as its present needs. What were and are the needs of the woman who is called the baby’s mother? Who knows that? Even the husband cannot know, then how could the child know? Thus the simple word mother is very very complicated and convoluted and beyond the pale of the real and complete understanding.

We use food; various ingredients go into the making of it. We might know the recipe too, but do we know the chemical properties each ingredient is made of. And do we know about it atomic structure. We say I love you, how far do we understand when we actually propose to our sweethearts? We only see her now in her present state of body, and after twenty-five years she might have developed ugly limbs and contracted one or two diseases. We know generally. Do we know fully to the point of being acutely conscious of what is in store in the future and how would we react to it, to the one that we propose! We say, “I love you!” What do we exactly love; her hands, legs, breasts, torso, or other parts? We simply say, “I love you!” like we said some scores of years ago to another woman, “I love you, mom!”

How far a child understands its mother? And how far do we know each other when one proposes to the other?

So, not the body alone! Ok, the child likes the mother because she feeds the baby milk from her own body and always cuddles the baby, calls drippy names. The child like the mother, and her milk, her sweet words, her body smell and above that there is some umbilical thing that connects the mother and the baby.

Likewise, there is something umbilical in the relationship and the chemistry between two individual beings for them to fall in love.

But ask the baby what mother means. Can it tell? Likewise, we cannot tell what drew us to our sweet heart. Ok, the milk is there for the baby, the body is there for the man and woman. But so also the woman next door has milk in her breasts to feed her baby. So, what’s so special about this particular woman? There are any number of girls, any number of men; but one does not fall in love with every one! What’s so special? But there is something special, ok? We simply call it chemistry. Or the body chemistry. And what is the chemistry for the child? Milk and drippy names? Beyond all these things there is something in one’s mother and one’s man and woman, ok? And, we don’t understand our food beyond the recipe. Do we know its atomic structure? A man can drive a car if he has the money to buy a car. But does he have to be a car mechanic to own one. Now a nine-years-old child has smartest of phones. At ninety too we have smarty phones. What exactly do we know about the electronic and mechanical things about the smart phones? We need not know, ok?

The baby does not know everything about the woman who is its mother. But the chemistry works for it and for its mother too. The lovers need not know the atomic structure of each other, and genetic facts. The eater of food need not know the stuff and nonsense it is made of. The smart phone owner can flaunt it as though he invented it, without knowing many things about its use and utility even. So?

Where is the truth in the word, “mother”?

Where is the truth in the word, “lover”?

What is the nature of truth in the word, ”eater or consumer”

What is the status of the man owning costly things and gadgets vice a vice its making and structuring?

So?

Without knowing the basics, we can go through life, ok?

Without knowing the basics of the universe we can live a beautiful life, ok?

Without knowing anything about the creator of the universe we can live a full and beautiful life, ok?

We can, apart from not knowing the creator, live an excellent life by denying the existence of God and calling the devotees all sorts of bad names, ok?

Everything is True!

But everything is multilayered and complicated and convoluted!

And, of all things is the one that holds that this universe itself is a beautiful thought by its creator!

The baby has something in it that enjoys the relationship with its mother.

The lovers have something in each of them to enjoy each other.

The eater of idlies and dosas have something in them to enjoy the food without even understanding any thing in the nature of recipe even, much less the atomic structure thereof!

The gadgets can be operated by complete fools and congenital idiots even!

So there is something in all of us to enjoy this universe. What is that?

And to enjoy this universe we need the medium of the body!

Not a complete and stable one, but even like that of the famous scientist, Stephen Hawk.

We need not have a complete body; even a disabled body will do!

And we are all the enjoyer of this universe!

And the food makers enjoyed inventing a recipe. And the gadget makers enjoy making them. Inventing them.

The same goes for the discoverers. They enjoy doing that.

So everything is for enjoyment. But who is the enjoyer.

The baby’s mouth, or stomach or mind or any other things?

The eater of food enjoys through the tongue alone?

The owner of gadgets enjoy through the mind alone? Then why has he got to flaunt it? Even if he does not have the compulsion to flaunt it, how does he enjoy it?

If we catch cold, we suffer? Or our nose?

If we contract some disease, who suffers? The particular body part alone?

The nice woman having the breast cancer should not suffer after the breast has been removed. But does that happen. Who feels the loss?

Who feels the joy?

Who feels the pain?

Who feels the loss?

Who feels virtuous?

Who suffers in one’s private self for one’s wrongs or sins?

So, even though there is this universe, it being a cause, there should be an effect, ok? And we would not become small if we call him God, ok?

And this universe is full of enjoyments and sufferings, ok?

We go through both, ok?

We love so much that it hurts, ok?

So, who is the enjoyer in the baby, eater, lover and car owner?

 If there is an enjoyer, there is nothing wrong to give it a name, ok?

So, this is how the “atman” or “self” or “soul” got to be identified and named. But mind you, no one of us invented it. We can only realize it. And that too not in one breathe. Not in one birth. Not in ten births. Not even in a hundred births.

The seers of the Truth, so, don’t take this world and its pains and pleasures seriously.                     

VERSE NUMBER 15 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 15:

Text in Transliteration:

yam hi na vyathyanty ete purusham purusharshabha

sama duhkha sudham dheeram so ‘mrta tvaaya kalpate

 Text in English:

    That man, o the best of men, is fitted for immortality, whom these do not torment, who is balanced in pain and pleasure and steadfast.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY CHIDBHVANANDA:

   The indweller in the Puri—in the body looked upon as a city—is called Purusha. Pleasure and pain occur inevitably in the body because of the contact of the senses with their objects. He who identifies himself with the body is bound to be grieved. But his mind does not waver who gets fixed in the Self, he is all calmness. Remaining unruffled by the evanescent events, reveals the clarity of his understanding. He therefore becomes the man of steady wisdom. He is thus fit for immortality.   We have come into this world to avail ourselves of all the happenings here and thereby discipline ourselfves for enlightenment. Cessation of misery corresponds to the removal of ignorance.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

   External life is different from survival of death which is given to embodied being. It is the transcendence of life and death. To be subject to grief and sorrow, to be disturbed by the material happenings, to be deflected by them from the path of duty that has to be traversed, “niyatam karma, shows that we are still victims of avidyaa or ignorance.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMY SIVANANDA:

Dehadhyasa or identification of the Self with the body is the cause of pleasure and pain. The more you are able to identify yourself with the immortal, all-pervading Self, the less will you be affected by the pairs of opposites (Dvandvas, pleasur and pain, etc.)

Titiksha or the power of endurance develops the will power. Calm endurance in pleasure and pain, and heat and cold is one of the qualifications of an aspirant on the path of Jnana Yoga. It is one of the Shatsampat or sixfol virtues. It is a condition of right knowledge. Titiksha by itself cannot give you Moksha or liberation, but still, when coupled with discrimination and dispassion, it becomes a means to the attainment of immortality or knowledge of the Self. (Cf. XVIII. 53)

Comments by the blogger:

In the verse number 14, the Lord declared that the contacts of the senses with their objects create feelings of heat and cold, of pain and pleasure. They come and go and are impermanent. One should bear them patiently. In this verse, that man is fitted with immortality whom these donot torment, who is balanced in pain and pleasure and steadfast.

So what is the problem? Whether which ever way we choose we are susceptible to get pain and pleasure, heat and cold. This is the basis and one of the conditions of human life. We cannot choose otherwise. When the saint Ramakrishna got a cancerous growth on his hand, he said the suffering disciples that there were two being inside this body. One is permanent, and that is the mother Kaleeshwari, and the other was his body, and the suffering is only to the body and not to the mother inside him! Whether we like it or not, what ever card we choose to play, we get pain and pleasure. Sometimes without our being agent to it! How? The ISI man kills the victim in coldest of blood, and we get to see it on the TV, the whole day we suffer intensely! Even weeks later, whenever we think or speak of it, we get pain in unvarying intensity. But, apart from watching the damned scene that was brought into our drawing room, in which way were we party or privy to it? But we suffer as though we were directly involved in it. A photograph of a small boy washed ashore the Mediterranean sea changed the course of the European World history and till then the countries like Britton, France and Germany who were unwilling to allow the surge of the Syrian refugees and refugees from other suffering countries readily allowed the Muslim refugee influx. One photograph did the trick. What was the reason? The collective soul of the humanity suffered at the way the small angelic boy was lying on the fringe of the sea shore face down in that blood curdling manner! We all felt the pain. As though we had produced, or privy to, the refugee crisis! The world leaders had to respond to that one photograph in a manner that was exemplary. Woven into it was another source of pain that, under the garb of fleeing refugees, hundreds of ISI recruits and trained soldiers had entered the European countries. And the beasts were boasting about the same. Daily the opening of the newspaper and watching a news bulletin gives us pain and pleasure. The impoverished auto driver who took time to find out the address of one of his passengers that day who had left his fat wallet or a gold ornament gives us intense pleasure, as though it was not the auto driver, it was we who did the act. But, a group raping being repeatedly beamed in news bulletins, and the story of a mother killing her own daughter who “misbehaved” and wanted to marry her own brother born of her mother’s another husband, gives us for a month, day after day, such intense pain. We get to lose hope in the redeeming feature and scheme of the universe. The Nirbhaya case reportage raped each and every one of us personally. The five ,  three, even two-years-old child is raped and killed!

But apart from this, the least promotion gives us such intense pleasure that is almost unbearable. I love him/her so much that it hurts is our own fashion of acquiescing to the pulls and pressures of the maya or illusion! Whether we want it or not, the world and our lives in this world is filled with shine and rain, shadow and light, pain and pleasure. This world is nothing but that, it would seem. There is a method in this madness. There is a method in this mad mad world! I thought, so I am. How do we take a thing, even a death in the family is in our own hands! We could elect to wallow in self pity like the valiant Arjuna and howl for years together inside of our private self. Or we can come to be reconciled with God’s plan and the concerned, deceased individual’s own working out of karmic effects and find piece in an essentially a rather unbearably personal sorrow! It is all in the hands of ours. Titiksha is forbearance. The Lord expects us not to just give us in to sorrow or give us up to a happy incident. There should be moderation in everything. Forbearance is declared as yoga in another verse by the Lord.

Since we cannot change the world and the essential scheme of things behind it, we have to develop forbearance. It will give us great spiritual or inward power which could be channelized in other ways to obtain salvation. When India was getting its independence at midnight, it ‘s author, Mahatma Gandhiji was in elsewhere to stop the sheerness of the fratricide by the sheerness of his emasculated physical presence. Because he had developed that kind of inner power like a saint and with frail and failing limbs the old man could stop the fratricide in Nowhalli. But he was not at the place where he should by right be. He had declared it would be more time till India would really become independent. Till a beautiful wench decked in gold ornaments should be allowed to go to her house from work in the dead of the night. Till then Ramrajya shall not have come. That india should get economic freedom. There was so much suffering around. While the few have more, more wither without even the basic necessity. The people needed to be educated. Till then we cannot consider ourselves as belonging to an independent nation, he had declared. And Pandid Nehruji’s own Priyadharshini saw to it it would take a millennial years for India to get that kind of freedom. Now, even a nose picking by the Prime Minister in his private chamber becomes editorial material for the “valiant” media barons, who had had their tails safely tucked between their buttocks and crawled when they had been asked by Srimati Indira Gandhi just to bend!

National freedom depends much upon the personal freedom of the subjects. Hinduism does not preach to a nation or a group or to the whole world; it preaches to the individual man on the street. It says have titiksha or forbearance, for part of the scheme of this material world is full of pains and pleasures, and giving up oneself to any does cause the rise of samskaaram which binds us individually. And we will have to come back again to enjoy the fruits. Those who deride Hinduism look pathetic now. While the Mohammedanism is looked upon with fear by others, even the catholics in the Vatican churches are not ready to observe the sabbatical day in the true spirit. Mohammedanism has created a fear psychosis. Except in India, the Christians and Muslim in other countires cannot be readily said to be truly following their individual Scriptures en mass.