VERSE NUMBER 64 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 64

Text in Transliteration:

raaga dvesha viyuktais tu visayaan indriyais charan

aatmavasyair vidheyaatmaa prasaadam adhigacchati

Text in English:

But the disciplined yogi, moving among objects with the senses under control, and free from attraction and aversion, gains in tranquillity.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The senses are extrovert by nature. They ramble in fields external. Those objects that are pleasing to them are hugged while those others that are displeasing, shunned. A closer study reveals that these senses are themselves instruments in the hands of the mind. As goaded on by the mind they indulge in attraction and aversion.

He is a yogi who has conquered his mind. He makes it revel in Atman. If it ever goes outward, it does so being untainted by attraction and aversion. There is purity as well as innocence in its contracting the external objects, with the result that tranquillity of the mind is not disturbed. On the other hand calmness and clarity increase. It is a form of ‘samadhi’ for the mind to be fixed in purity and calmness, while making benign use of the senses.

Sri Ramakrishna’s life exemplifies this fact. The sight of an extensive verdure below and dense black clouds above with a group of snow white cranes in flight in between, took him into the Beyond. While the make-up of Siva was going on on his person, the sense of touch with holy ash all over the body transported him into the infinite. Hearing of the divine name of the Lord was a sure means to put him in ‘samadhi.’ The aroma of the incense used in worship roused the divine consciousness in him. The taste of the sacramental food invoked his devotion to God. Thus all the five senses served him as gateways to the Noumenon. Instead of their being impediments they became instruments for the transcendental flights of the perfected mind of this disciplined yogi.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

See V,8. The sthitaprajna has no selfish aims or personal hopes. He is not disturbed by the touches of outward things. He accepts what happens without attachment or repulsion. He covets nothing, is jealous of none. He has no desires and makes no demands.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

 The mind and the senses are naturally endowed with the two currents of attraction and repulsion. Therefore, the mind and the senses like certain objects and dislike certain other objects. But the disciplined man moves among sense-objects with the mind and the senses free from attraction and repulsion and mastered by the Self, attains to the peace of the Eternal. The senses and the mind obey his will, as the disciplined self has a very strong will. The disciplined self takes only those objects which are quite necessary for the maintenance of the body without any love or hatred. He never takes those objects which are forbidden by the scriptures.

In this verse Lord Krishna gives the answer to Arjuna’s fourth question, “How does a sage of steady wisdom move about?”

Comments by the blogger:

Self-control is the sine qua non for today’s life. Without self-control one cannot move about, because of the dress culture of the people generally. Could Mahatma Gandhi’s way of dressing could give rise to any desire in the opposite sex. And the way women and small girls dress is not to be spoken of! What happened to the ancient Indian way of dressing? But, why go out, you cannot live within the four walls of your home for the presence of that idiot box. In Tamil Nadu, during MGR’s regime in the 1980s the art of Record Dance, that had nearly replaced the traditional “karagattam”, a dance form popular during village temple festivals, was banned for the dance played out live on stage to the cine songs, was banned for its over exposure and obscenity. Today’s cine songs are the transmutation of the obscenity of both the dance forms, karagattam and the Record Dance! And more! Female flesh is almost completely exposed in all movies, whether in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Hindi! And the TV channels live off these song sequences. Programmes are planned in one way or the other so that the obscene cine song sequences could be played out on the tele out of context and the children are exposed to. But what about the adults and elderly people? They too are over exposed to such cine songs endlessly.

How can we talk of self-discipline? And then there are commercials. In commercials, consumer culture, rank consumerism, and obscene sequences are mixed.

Small school boys and girls are exposed through cinema posters. And so far as the upper middle class and wealthy people are concerned, small children, in many cases, have uncontrolled access to the porno sites of the internet. A recent study reported in the Indian Express showed teenagers ‘behave’ when the parents are around and ‘misbehave’ when left alone.

Self-control is the panacea for good contented life, which is possible only if we turn our mind Godward without expectations.

But Man has to move among the objects of the senses in life. There is no other way out. But should do so with the senses in controle. And the trick is the rendering of the Ishta Moorthy’s name always. This will cure us greatly in a way unforeseen by us. There would be a sense of self satisfaction and sense of completion and contentment. The neighbours’ wealth will not affect us. The wealthy people will be looked upon by us as folks hauling an iron ball in chain. We can go through in life with the sweet thought about the Lord. And glorification of the Lord’s Greatness will rid us of all sorts of craving. We may lead a comparably better life. The spiritual culture is the need of the hour. If we cannot rise to the level of being satisfied with our Atman, we can go through life by glorifying the Creator. Here the Puranas and Itihasas and the Two Epics, Ramayana and Mahabhrata will help us in a great way.  Religious life is the need of the hour. Otherwise, the tossing of the senses among the sense objects will render tired out before we attain middle age, and when we cross that age we will be filled with a haunting sense of lack of fulfilment.

VERSES 62 AND 63 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNWOLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 62

Text in Transliteration:

dhyaayato vishayaan pumsah sangas tesoo ‘pajaayate

sangaat samjaayate kaamah kaamaat krodho ‘bhijaayate

Text in English:

Brooding on the objects of senses, man develops attachment to them; from attachment comes desire; from desire anger sprouts forth.

VERSE NUMBER 63

Text in Transliteration:

Krodhaad bhavati sammohah sammohaat smritivibhramah

Smriti bhramsaad buddhinaaso buddhinaasaat pranasyati

Text in English:

From anger proceeds delusion; from delusion, confused memory; from confused memory the ruin of reason: due to the ruin of reason he perishes.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

  What is enunciated here may be explained through a concrete example as follows:-

  A man goes to his office every day seeing on the road many people, but not taking note of them. Like mere phantoms they appear and disappear. An attractive figure one day left a faint impression in his mind. On the following day the same figure drew a little more of his attention. Subsequent sights of that lovely figure made him cogitate; it was a pretty young woman that took possession of his mind. He developed attachment to, and picked up acquaintance with her, which steadily grew into friendship. Then came in him the desire to make the charming woman his own. Rivalry now ensued between him and another young man courting her. Competition between the two changed into bitter anger.

What else is anger if it is not an obstructed desire? From the sort of anger provoked in one, the nature of desire lurking in one can easily be detected. Anger is temporary insanity. When the mind is occasionally upset it is anger, when permanently, it is lunacy. In effect both are the same; delusion ensues in either case.

In the woodlands the trees, creepers and plants are all easily discernible. But when there is a dust laden tempest the trees are tossed so much that one cannot be distinguished from another. It is a mass of confusion. Akin to this is the state of mind given to anger. It gets deluded first; next comes the loss of memory of things good and bad. A violence is resorted to indiscriminately, paving the way for self-destruction.

The prolonged bitter anger in the two wooers of the woman burst one day into a rage. A scuffle ensued in which one tried to do away with the other. They forgot in the excitement about the severe punishment that the law of the land metes out for attempted murder. Both were jailed and the woman had her own lover to marry. Loss of discrimination paves the way for self-destruction.

A minute peepal seed gets into a crack in a wall, sprouts, grows and rents the wall asunder. Similarly an evil thought germinates in the mind, develops in its own way and wrecks the man ultimately. Thought can make or mar man. Good thought mends and makes man while evil one ends him.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

A holy man was living in a temple. Nearby was the house of a harlot. Noticing how the profligate ones were frequenting her house he once called the woman and warned her against her evil ways. She lamented over her lot and prayed to the Lord for forgiveness although she could not put an end to her base profession. The annoyed anchorite now started recording her lapses by piling a pebble every time a libertine visited her. When the heap of pebbles grew large, the holy man summoned the prostitute to his presence and censured her severely pointing out to her pyramid-like enormity of her sins. The heart-broken whore died that very night appealing to the Almighty for deliverance from the debauched body. Strangely enough, that very night the holy man also departed. The defiled remains of the former was cast away as food to vultures and jackals; but that of the latter was interred with due honours. Lo, the development of this scene was quite different in Yama-loka. The soul of the prostitute was escorted to Vaikuntha while that of the anchorite was consigned to hell. The excited holy man demanded an explanation for this injustice. The reply came that inviolable justice alone prevailed in the creation of the Lord. Although living in a polluted body, the prostitute’s mind was ever fixed on the Divine, whereas the mind of the man in the holy body was always wandering on unholy concerns. While the earthly remains of both were fittingly disposed, their souls as well were assigned their fitting regions. Beware of your thoughts and everything will be all right with you.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

To the Verse Number 62

Cp. Kalidasa: “They whose minds are not disturbed when the sources of disturbance are present, are the truly brave.”

kaama: desire. Desires may prove to be as resistless as the most powerful external forces. They may lift us into glory or hurl us into disgrace.

To the Verse Number 63

Buddhinaasa: destruction of intelligence. It is failure to discriminate between right and wrong.

When the soul is overcome by passion, its memory is lost, its intelligence is obscured and the man is ruined. What is called for is not a forced isolation from the world or destruction of sense life but an inward withdrawal. To hate the senses is as wrong as to love them. The horses of senses are not to be unyoked from the chariot but controlled by the reins of the mind.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

To Verse Number 62

When a man thinks of the beauty and the pleasant and alluring features of the sense-objects he becomes attached to them. He then regards them as something worthy of acquisition and possession and hankers after them. He develops a strong desire to possess them. Then he endeavours his level best to obtain them. When his desire is frustrated by some cause or other, anger arises in his mind. If anybody puts any obstruction in his way of obtaining the objects he hates him, fights with him and develops hostility towards him.(Cf.II.64)

To Verse Number 63

From anger arises delusion. When a man becomes angry he loses his power of discrimination between right and wrong. He will speak and do anything he likes. He will be swept away by the impulse of passion and emotion and will act irrationally

Comments by the blogger:

If a man does not think of an object, the worldly life will cease so far as he is concerned. If all men and women and children of the world do not think of any object, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, commendable or degrading, the purpose of creation will come to an end!

There is a story about this. Lord Siva, in the beginning, created the SHABTA RISHIS and asked them to make a world of humanity. But, since they came directly from the Lord of Senses, nothing happened here. The Rishis spent all their time in uninterrupted meditation! After some time when the Lord came to see the sprouting of the world, there was no world whatsoever; only the Rishis. It was then he created alluring women and the story goes on like this.

So without desires this world will come to an end. If we all should be shorn of all desires, the world will cease to exist, so far as the homo sapience are concerned, within a hundred years! There would be no human being, the highly evolved of all the species.

Man should think of the objects, attachment for them should arise; from attachment desire must be born. Otherwise the world would cease to exist or become devoid of the homo sapience. Moreover the very samsaara is constituted of illusion or forgetfulness of our former original godly state and taking this transitory world for the real one, kama or desire and action or karma. For our action God needs illusion or maya  and desire or kama! Without illusion and desire, no action is possible in this world. Without expectation none will act. There is no reward for action means there will be nil- action! And without action the purpose of the Lord so far as Creation is concerned will be set at nought!

And, please understand, the Purpose of the Bhagavat Gita is not to turn all into saints and seers and sages. In actual fact the Lord Himself urges on Arjuna to take up the sword and give equal battle to the enemies arrayed opposite him! We should never mistake Gita teaches the otherworldliness. On the contrary, we are advised not to remain without action. But there should be moderation in everything.

Moreover Gita will be of use to a sanyasi as well as samsaari or the householders. We are at the varying point of inward development. So we must use Gita to do our self-ordained duty to the best of our ability, but always leaving the fruits to the Lord, if we want to reduce the number of re-births. If we love the Lord so much, the allurements of the world will be minimal. Even for the worldly people Gita is of immense use as the very knowing of a different type of conscious levels and a proper study of the Gita daily will certainly bring in us a sense of balance. When we have attained that sense of balance, we have started at the rocket speed toward the Lord!

VERSE NUMBER 61 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 61

Text in Transliteration:

taani sarvaani samyamya yukta aaseeta matparah

vase hi yasye ‘ndriyaani tasya prajnaa pratishthitaa

Text in English:

   The yogi, having controlled them all, sits focussed on Me as the supreme goal. His wisdom is constant whose senses are under subjugation.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   Mind cannot occupy itself at the same time with two conflicting thoughts. In the auto-suggestion, “I shall efface sense pleasures,” the idea of those pleasures is involved. It gets deep-rooted in the mind. In a favourable future situation this hidden idea sprouts and puts forth branches. By nipping the tender branches of the surface, the stalk and the roots below are not destroyed. On the other hand, the stem gathers strength below. The unwanted idea thrives in the sub-conscious region of the mind; it is ngatively fostered. The process has therefore to be reversed by substituting a positive idea such as, “I shall delight in the glory of the Lord.” When the wholesome idea gains strength the other gets purged away. Healthy ideas wipe out the unhealthy ones. As devotion to the Lord increases, the wild vehemence of the mind gets tamed down.  

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   No thought of any sense-indulgence crops up in the mind while noe is bitterly bereaved of a dearly loved relative. Similarly no vulgar thought crops up in the mind of the one devoted to the Divine. The turbulent senses in him become subdued soon.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

matparah: another reading is tatparah.

Self-discipline is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of will and emotions. Self-discipline is easy when there is vision of the Higest. See XII, 5. The original yoga was theistic. Cp. Also Yoga Sastra I, 24. Klesakarmvipaakakshasyair aparaamrshtah purusavisesha isvarah.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   He should control the senses and sit focussed on Me as the Supreme, with a calm mind. The wisdom of the Yogi who thus seated has brought all his senses under subjugation is doubtless quite steady. He is established in the Self. Sri Sankaracharya explains Asita Marparah as “he shouls dit contemplating: ‘ i am no other than He’.”

Comments by the blogger:

This verse speaks about a kind of meditation. It is not for ordinary people without the guidance of a preceptor or Guru. Under the guidance of a proper preceptor or Guru we can indulge in this kind of sense control. Swami Vivekananda timely warns laymen not to indulge in meditation without the guidance of a Guru. He further says that if laymen try to perform meditation, even the exercise for building concentration power could lead to unforeseen consequences. Any form of yoga involving meditation should be done only under the strict guidance of an able Guru. These days Sri Jaggi Vasudhev of Velliyangiri and Sri Sri Ravishankar and Gurus like them conduct Yoga classes. Proper preceptors come to watch over the neophytes. They are taken in the art of Meditation step by step. This kind of mass classes are the timely thing for today. We cannot have individual Gurus like in the Upanishadic period. Anyhow, Swami Vivekananda advises us to be under the watchful Guru or Preceptor. So those who want to perform and practise Yogic Meditation are advised to join any of the institutions as mentioned above. Both Jugi Vasudhevji and Sri Sri Ravishankarji are doing a yoman service. There are any number of such Gurus. Laymen are advised to seek their help. Book yogis are bound to become a disaster and court mental derangement!

That apart, to get the unruely senses under control, Sri Bhagavan and meditating on him are the only means. There is no other way.

Some self-tutoring Yogis have been here, like Ramana Maharshi. He started with various vichara or inquiry in meditation and at last came to the conclusion to put the question, “Who Am I?” and succeeded greatly. But he is one of the exceptions. People around Thiruvannamalai can go to the Ashrama even today where such yogic inquiry is taught by proper preceptors.

So never try to become a book yogi and become deranged. Yoga is a great science when it refers to meditation, but proper Guru or Preceptor’s watchful guidance is necessary to the aspirants. Come let’s all perform and practise meditation under proper guidance!

VERSE NUMBER 60 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 60

Text in Transliteration:

yatato hy api kaunteya purushasya vipaschitah

indriyaani pramaatheeni haranti prsabham manah

Text in English:

The excited senses, O son of Kunti, impetuously carry away the mind of even a wise man, striving for perfection.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANADA:

Treacherous are the senses. They are as impetuous as wild horses newly harnesse. Riding on them is risky to life,. The major portion of the spiritual discipline to which an aspirant subjects himself is actually the warfare that he carries on with the wayward senses. Innumerable are the defeats that he suffers at their hands at the initial stage. Repentance so much spoken of by a section of theologians as a means to win the mercy of the Maker is none other than the moral man chewing the cud of the rebuffs and reverses that he has had from the restive senses.

Conquest of the senses is the means for the attainment of excellence here and hereafter. The refinement of an individual or a society is measured by the yardstick of sense-control.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:

    People who live in localities infested with venomous creatures should always be alert and mindful of the danger. Even so, people intent on spiritual growth should gurard themselves against indulgent senses tainted with lust and greed.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   The aspirant should first bring the senses under control. The senses are like horses. If you keep the horses under your perfect control you can reach your destination safely. Turbulent horses will throw you down on the way. Even so the trubulent senses will hurl you down into the onject of the seinses and you cannot reach your spiritual destination, viz., Param Dhama (the supreme abode) or the abode of eternal peace and immortality or Moksha (final liberation) (Cf. III.33, V.14)

Comments of the blogger:

Though the senses are like wild horses, they can be reined even in this age. For the Kali Yuga, the marga or path is to sing the name of the Lord. This can supremely of use to not just aspirants but ordinary people too. The trick is we must not worship always the pantheon of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Choose one Name of the Ultimate Reality, whether it is Siva, or Vishnu or the Dhevi, or Lord Ganesh or Vinayaka; chant the name continuously as you go through the daily life. This is ideal for people belonging to other religions too. The Hindus may worship any number of deities, there is nothing wrong in it. All roads lead to Rome. But the trick is to choose an ishta Dhevata or deity and chant His or Her name continuosly even among our daily life. We can do it except when we are reading, or writing or sleeping! The homemakers may chant the name of their chosen God or Goddesses in the midst of their cooking and cleaning and washing and scrubbing. This is the easiest way of salvation in the Kalki yuga. We need not perform great yagyas in this yuga. Chanting is enough for the kalki yuga. Focussing the mind on the individual God or Goddesse’s name bring perfect peace and inner satisfaction, which all the gadgets in the world cannot give. We can make this innings or re-birth very useful.

And another thing is to leave the house in the evenings and go for a walk up to the nearby temple and spend time there with family. This may seem not possible. But if we can make it a regular practice, our senses can be reined. But those who cannot visit the temples daily may do so at weekends. Even if it is not possible, chant the name of your chosen deity, first outwardly and then it will become a habit at some point of time; then we need not chant the name outwardly, it will go on inwardly in the midst of our daily works. This is a sidhi.

TV viewing may be reduced, and the time spent on costly gadgets may be spent by memorizing the various songs of devotion written by Great Masters. Memorizing and group rendering in the family is a great thing. If it is not possible, chanting of the holy name individually will do handsomely.

Mahatma Gandhi memorized almost three quarters of the Bhagavat Gita! When he saw self-shaving took up almost ten minute every day, he used the time to memorize two stanzas every day morning at the time of shaving!

VERSE NUMBER 59 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 59

Text in Transliteration:

visayaa vinivar tante niraahaarasya dehinah

rasavarjam raso ‘py asya param drshtvaa nivartate

Text in English:

   Sense objects drop out for the abstinent man, though not the longing for them. His longing also ceases when he intuits the Supreme.

 COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   The senses of those fallen sick become unfit for indulgence; but the craving in them for sense enjoyment persists. They harbour the hope of being able to enjoy after recovery. A convict in prison is forced to abstain from sense enjoyments; but the hankering for them dwells in his heart. While the body and     the senses are under restraint, the mind wanders. The mental make up of the beginner in austerity is not far removed from that of the patient or the prisoner; subtle tendencies hover about in him.

   Sees that are burnt do not sprout any further. Similarly the vagrant mind gets vanquished once for all with the dawn of the knowledge supreme. A jnani is he in whom mentation has lost its vehemence. An aspirant is he who tries to sublimate thee senses by associating them always with the sublime.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:

A brother and sister were playing in a dense and bushy garden. All on a sudden the brother was missing. While the other was anxiously searching for him, a bear came out of a bush. The girl became stunned with fear. Finding the joke too severe for her, the brother threw off the mask of the bear and to her senses and wondered that it was all the play of her own brother. In this manner Brahman puts on the mask of the phenomenon and allures or frightens the ignorant. But the Enlightened One is no more frightened or enticed. He transcends the senses.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The author is explaining the difference between outer abstention and inner renunciation. We may reject the objects but desire for them may remain. Even the desire is lost when the supreme is seen. The control should be both on the body and the mind. Liberation from the tyranny of the body is not enough: we must be liberated from the tyranny of desires also.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

KNOWLEDGE OF THE Self alone can destroy in toto the subtle vasanas (latent tendencies) and all the subtle desires, all subtle attachments and even the longing for objects. By practising severe austerities, by abandoning the sensual object, the objects of the senses may turn away from the ascetic buy the relish or taste or longing for the objects will still remain.

Comments by the blogger:

Glorification of the villain is a method originally followed by epic writers of high merits like Kamban, the Tamil Poet who rendered Ramayana in Tamil, Valmiki, and Milton. For example, Ravana is glorified in Ramayana. There is a purpose in it. When an impression is created by the author about the Villain, great expectation is created in the readers’ mind and when such a great villain is vanquished at the battlefield by the hero, the merits of the hero becomes self-evident.

Sense objects have a tendency to lure our senses and engage our hearts and minds. But there have been, in recent times, great souls who have demonstrated they could get completely indifferent to the sense objects. First, the Sri Kanji kamakoti Sri Chandraseharendra Sarasvathy, or Maha Periyava, as he was fondly called by the devotees: once the head cook served keerai or the greenery got from a devotee’s garden. Maha Periyava said the keerai was very tasty. Thinking of it as a request to provide the same daily or just to propitiate the Great Saint of Kanchi, the headcook served keerai on two subsequent days! When asked by the Maha Periyava as to how such delicious greenery was daily available to the head cook of the Kanchi Ashrama, the head cook revealed with pride that he got them from the said devotees garden since Maha Periyava had taken a liking for the dish. That was all! Maha Periyava did not eat a grain of food for the succeeding three DAYS! The Great Seer went without food. At the Ashram everyone quacked. Nobody could know the reason. At last, the head cook or someone made bold enough to ask for the reason for abstaining totally from food for three days on the trot; and the Great Saint said, “Why did you get the keerai from the man daily. What would he think of me? I am a sanyasin. And I should not be under the onslaught of the palate and sense objects. I am not angry with anyone. But to drive home the point, I have gone without food for three days!” such was the power of the abstinence by the great master. For him no sense objects could have any sway over his senses.

Secondly, Mahatma Gandhi invited Swami Yogananda and the latter took him through the initiation of Kriya Yoga.  At lunch time, every one was served with a small ball or quantity of neem leaves paste. While yogananda gulped the unplatable paste ball, Mahatma Gandhi chewed the ball thoroughly before swallowing it. When the yogi could not do it, Mahatma had got an upperhand over his sense of taste!

But they are great people. We ordinary folks are utterely given to sense objects. The TV commercials are great enslavers. I am often talking about it. So let me stop here. The problem is, while cell phone penetration is more than 60%, the same could not be said about the internet. And people are largely addicted to TVs and the commercials have a sway over the common man’s budget. They cater to all. They know how to enslave kids. Small children want particular brands of articles and eatables! But we should never forget that a great saint of recent India went without food for a consecutive three days to drive home a point he is not a slave of his senses nor the sense objects.

For us , we should try to marvel at the great souls. That itself would bring about a sea change in our personal selections and way of life! We must teach our children the virtu of frugal living!  

VERSE NUMBER 58 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 58

Text in Transliteration:

yadaa samharate chaa ‘yam koormo ‘ngaannee ‘va sarvasah

indriyaanee ‘ndriyaarthebhyas tasya prjnaa pratishthitaa

Text in English:

When also, like a tortoise its limbs, he can withdraw the senses from sense-objects his wisdom is then set firm.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The tortoise withdraws its limbs into the shell with ease and spontaneity to protect itself against possible dangers. It then rests satisfied with the self-provided security. It is as natural as this for a man of perfection to be an introvert. This process is technically known as pratyaahaara. As a man bolts from within and sits indoors undisturbed, the jnani delights in the Self; and this is the norm with him. Just as a fish put back into water, the knower of Brahman derives bliss from the core of his being. Complete mastery over the senses is characteristic of the illumined.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Poisonous snakes fatally hurt people. But the snake-charmer handles them as if they are no creatures of consequence. More than that, he has quite a few of them coil, creep and writhe about his body. The senses, likewise, are undependable and treacherous too, in the case of the ordinary man. But they are ever tame and subservient to the knower of Atman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANADA:

Withdrawal of the senses is pratyahara or abstraction. The mind has a natural tendency to run towards external objects. The yogi again and again withdraws the mind from the objects of the senses and fixes it on the Self. A yogi who is endowed with the power of pratyahara can enter into Samadhi even in a crowded place by withdrawing his senses within the twinkling of an eye. He is not disturbed by tumultuous sounds and noises of any description. Even on the battlefield he cna rest in his centre, the Self, by withdrawing his senses. He who practises pratyhara is dead to the world. He will ot be affected by the outside vibrations. At any time by mere willing he can bring his senses nder his perfect control. They are his obedient servants or instruments.

Comments by the blogger:

The whole world is one great sense object. And at the same time it represents teeming number of sense object. It is ever full of sense objects. And our lowliness consists of the fact that we are lead by our senses. Even great munis have their likes and dislikes. We cannot escape the onslaught of our senses. We are servants of our senses. The whole world is not enough for us. We are absolutely lead by sense objects.

Today’s commercial culture is one cannot view a movie, a cricket match, a serial on the TV without being  exposed to variety of objects and costly home appliances, cars and all the things ordinary average Indian cannot even dream of with the help of costly girls who parade their costly things in costly costumes. A soap ad advertises the costly lady “using” the soap on her costly bare body. And the senses started to go to war!

Compared to Man, other animals are not like this. They are blessedly lead by instincts. They even have mating season. A lion or a tiger never stalks it prey unless it is hungry.

God has given us senses along with discrimination. It is for us to choose to be lead by the consumer culture or eat and drink and sleep like ordinary people. Gandhiji had needed only a length of white cloth to dress himself! And he looked like a king in that dress. It all depends on the inner person and Self-culture. Anybody can own costly gadgets, but cannot become a Mahatma.

God has given man the choice; we can choose to live like a pig, or like a Mahatma. It all depends on our discrimination. That is, how we use our discrimination. We can become a sinner or saint or progress toward one or two states throughout our lifetime. Here  lies God’s greatness. He is a great creative writer. He gives His characters all the choice to act and write their, or script their own story! He is not afraid of how the story of the individuals in his universal drama would progress or degrade. He has created the prakirity or the Nature with three gunas or natural propensities and Man also is made of such triguna. We can choose our own story. God just sports. He just stands by and listen. He is the witness. He does not interfere how we live or choose to live. But if we beg him for help he helps. Even then there is no limit to the devotees’ being subjected to various acid tests.

So the only way for us is to minimise our needs and maximise our desire to progress in the self culture and beg God for this!

Here also the principle of re-incarnations arises.

Would a God, Who all religions describe as an embodiment of compassion, give us senses that have a propensity to run wild and damn us after only one innings? The very nature of our self is deathless and ananda and all our problems arise from our identification with the sense objects and our body. Even this tendency has been created by God and He just sports. But would a God be so cruel as to give us only one chance for salvation? Re-births and reincarnation may be peculiar to Hinduism, but it happens to be the inherent fact of our existence. Otherwise why so much disparities among human beings, and how could one describe the physically and mentally challenged men and women coming into this earth’s plane? If there is an original sin it should affect all likewise, not in a discriminating way!

Think any way re-birth is a necessity. Otherwise God would be the most villainous Being. Would we give our children only one chance to prove their mettle? Could God be lesser in giving than our human parents?

Senses may enslave us. But we have umpteen number of chances before we fetch our salvation. Because salvation is our Self’s right. It cannot remain bonded for ever. At some point of millennial time each soul must become free. To precipitate this process there are sastras like the Gita which teaches us to remain completely indifferent to the onslaught of our senses. We must see that the senses go toward and indulge in sense objects, and we are pure Self. This way we can fetch salvation quickly!  

VERSE NUMBER 57 OF THE SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 57

Text in Transliteration:

yah sarvatra ‘nabhisnehas tat-tat prapya subhaasubham

naa ‘bhinandati na dveshti tasya prajnaa prratishthitaa

Text in English:

He who is unattached everywhere, who is not delighted at receiving good nor dejected at coming by evil, is poised in wisdom.   

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHVANANDA:

  This world is a  mixture of good and evil. People whoare attaché to it are bound to have joy and sorrow. They oscillate helplessly between weal and woe. But the jnani remains supremely above these turmoils. He is no creature of circumstances. From his mouth come neither words of praise nor those of censure; this is the implied answer to the question as to how he speaks.

 SRI RAMKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANAND:

For a man who sees from the peak of a hill, the tall trees, the grass, the ups and downs and everything on he plains below seem alike. The brama-jnani likewise sees divinity alone in everything. He makes no distinction between the good and the bad and between the superior and the inferior.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

Flowers bloom and the fade. There is no need to prise the former and condemn the latter. We must receive whatever comes without excitement, pain or revolt.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANAND:

The sage possesses poised understanding or evenness of mind. He does not rejoice in pleasure nor is he averse to pain that may befall him. He is quite indifferent as he is rooted in the Self. He has no attachment even for his life or body as he identifies himself with Brhman or for his or body as he identifies himself with Brahman or the Supreme Self. He will not praise anybody when the latter does any good to him nor censure anyone when one does him any harm. This is the answer given by the Lord to Arjuna’s query: “How does a sage of steady wisdom talk?”

Comments of the blogger:

Many of us cannot even form a good understanding of this. Love for all that lives. The facility to see the Lord in every one and every thing will make us simple in all activities of life. Even a loin cloth is enough and no wardrobe is needed. Even a square meal a day is enough. Stuffing the belly is not for the continent. This frugality makes the body obey and demand little. There is no craving for anyone or anything. Live on the plane of earth is not much more than a drama. And every one should end his drama. What is there in between? Just various scenes? And the Brahma-jnani opts for no role. On the other hand, he stands by and watches the panoramic human action. He loves all, not for their inability to understand and being foolish, but there is the same God in them as He is in him. He loves everything. In the present day context we don’t get to see so much of such souls. In his, “An Autography of a Yogi” Yogananda Paranhansa recounts a scen. According to it, the police are looking for a criminal. And there is information that he has entered a nearby forest. So they for a group and go into the forest. There, they slew the arm of a hermit mistaking him for the criminal. When the real identity is revealed, there is much remorse on the part of the policemen. They beg to be pardoned. But the perfected yogi smiles at them and ask them to come to the same place after a few days. With those words the hermit takes up the arm lying on the ground with the other arm and departs from there. The much intrigued policemen goes to meet the sage after a few days and fins his both arms forming part of his body with no mark of an injury on the slain arm where it connects with the shoulder. The policemen once again beg for forgivance. But smiles and blessing come forth from the serine saint!

When we read Bhgavat Gita, many a time we will find it jarring with our cherished belief and convictions. This world is just a theatre and we all are actors. Great love for the fellow human beings and the facility to see the lord in the king, Prim Minister and the wayside filthy beggar, and our adversaries, tormentors and persecutors would provide us great inner power and understanding. We can stay with the Gita. Otherwise it is very impossible to stay with the greatest Scriptural Text of the Hinduism meant  for the laymen unlike the Vedas and Upanishads.  

VERSE NUMBER 56 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 56

Text in Transliteration:

duhkheshv anudvignamanaah sukheshu vigatasprrhah

veeta raga bhaya krodhah sthitadhieer munir uchyate

Text in English:

  He whose mind is not perturbed by adversity, who does not crave for happiness, who is free from fondness, fear and anger, is the Muni of constant wisdom.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   There is no end to events in this world, which come as trials and tribulations to man. The way of the ordinary is to be afflicted by them. But the man of wisdom remains unperturbed, viewing them as unavoidable but effectless to the extent ignored. By adding fuel to fire its volume and intensity increase. Desire for happiness increases similarly in a worldly man but never in a ‘jnani’. In the midst of an ever increasing number of object of happiness, he lives entirely unconcerned with them. He is further free from fondness, fear and anger. These three traits tarnish the mind. Fondness is attachment which robs the aspirant of discrimination. Man fails to see defects in those he is fond of. Detached love is what is wanted. Man is not fond of a poisonous snake, but he rears it. Fear is born of ignorance; it deprives man of manliness; it is worse than death. Fearlessness is the message of the Upanishads; the ‘jnani’ fears nothing including death. Practice of fearlessness is imperative for not only the seeker of wisdom, but also for all who want to thrive in life. Bhima the brother immediately elder to Arjuna is one not at all attached to the kauravas and in no way afraid of them; but he was bitterly angry with them. Anger unbecomes an ethically and spiritually evolving one. It robs one of discrimination. The mind that is free from attachment, fear and anger evolves in excellence. The “Brahma-jnani” is necessarily established in these virtues.

Muni is he whose mind delights in the self as steadily and uninterruptedly as the obroken flow of oil poured from its container.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

    The mind given to envy, anger and timidity never grows in spiritual stature.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

It is self-mastery, conquest of desire and passion that is insisted on.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Lord Krishna gives His answer to the second part of Arnjuna’s question as to the conduct of a sage of seady wosdom in the 56^th, 57^th, and 58^th verses.

The mind of a sage of steady wisdom is not distressed in calamities. He is not affected by the three afflictions ( Tapas)—Adhyatmika (arising from diseases or disorders in one’s own body), Adhidaivika (arising from thunder, lightning, storm, flood, etc.), and Adhibhautika (arising from scorpions, cobras, tigers, etc.) when he is place in an affluent conditiond he does not long for sesual pleasures. (Cf. IV. 10)

Comments by the blogger:

How untimely and unseasonal the exhortations sound to be! How indeed one becomes so strong as to not to be shaken by adversity. In the verse itself there is answer. A man/woman who does not hanker after pleasure is a self-satisfied man. What he has and what comes to him by chance is enough to him and he does not chase the chimeric chances for pleasure. This imbues him with a spiritual stature known only to him and experienced only by him. He does not even boast about his supremely satisfied state. The whole world belongs to him. thus the owner of the whole world fear none, and envious of no bodies riches. Riches, for him, are hurdles in the progress of self-culture. Self is everything for him. His neighbours’ affluence and boasting do not affect him. He knows he is the owner of the universe plus his own self. He is the supreme king. Then how could he become envious of even the five-stare-culture people, corporate barons and the notoriously self complaisant film stars? He could at best pity them and their admirers! While the whole world and your Self is yours, would you renounce them for such pittance. But today’s papers, glossy magazines and just about every TV channels live off them! And the consumer culture has turned man into a pig. For pittance, we have decided willingly to forego of our ownership of the whole universe and the greatest possession of the Self! Attachments, fear, timidity, envy and other tarnishing taints do not slow down his growth in Self-culture. The steadiness of his wisdom is unshakable. And such wisdomatic persons shunning all desires can attain the Brahmic- bliss, as we saw in the previous stanza while measuring the bliss!

Being ugly is no impediment. It is a god-given gift. We won’t be followed by anyone with carnal expectations. So the ugly person can bestow his/ her time in the acquirement of self-culture.

Being poor is no problem. He or she does not have to dress for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One square meal is the panacea for all his bodily ills.

Ugly or beautiful, poor or rich, one can own the whole universe and enjoy it! One has the necessary built-in capacity. Only thing is one should try! The great state is there for the (spiritually steady) asking! 

VERSE NUMBER 55 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 55

Text in Transliteration:

                           sri bhagavaan uvaacha

prajahaati yadaa kaamaan sarvaan paartha manogataan

aatmany evaa ‘tmanaa tushttah sthitaprajnas tado ‘chyate

 Text in English:

                    The Blessed Lord said

When a man abandons, O Partha, all the desires of the heart and is satisfied in the Self by the Self, then is he said to be one stable in wisdom.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

This is the answer to the first part of Arjuna’s question.

Fire is hot; it need not go anywhere in search of warmth. Even so Atman is Bliss. It imposes the bliss within on objects outside and goes in search of those objects believing that with their acquisition happiness can be gained. This search outside for happiness is kama. The grabbing modification of the mind is kama. The waves and ripples on the surface of water obscure the sight of the sand bed below. The ripples of kama in the mind obstruct the vision of Atman, the basis. All the same, the changeless bliss within reveals itself as the happiness coming from the sense-objects outside. When the mind is pacified by relinquishing all the kamas, the blissful atman is realized in Its original glory. He is a “Brahma-jnani” who intuits that the happiness he sought for in the world outside, is in its entirety in himself. He remains self-satisfied. The aspirant who seeks to wipe out all desires and to pacify the mind is the one who practises yoga.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   He who is dead as it were when alive, that is to say, as desire-less as a corpse, becomes competent for “Brhama-jnanam.”

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Negatively, the state is one of freedom from selfish desires and positively, it is one of concentration on the Supreme.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   In this verse Lord Krishna gives His answer to the first part of Arjuna’s question.

   If anyone gets sugarcandy will he crave for black-sugar? Certainly not. If anyone can attain the supreme bliss of the Self, will he thirst for the sensual pleasure? No, not at all. The sum-total of the pleasures of the world wil seem worthless for the sage of steady wisdom who is satisfied in the self.

Comments by the blogger:

Life on the plane of earth starts with illusion, moves over to kama or desire which leads to action of the crass selfishness. If Great People like Sri Ramakrishna exhorts us to be devoid of desires as if we were nothing but dead bodies or corpses, it is very difficult for us to digest. So we say, “It is not for the householder, but wandering monks and sages. We are unable to be without action because the illusory pull of the prakrity or Nature imbues us with kama or desire. And then how could selfless action possible. Selfless action was taught by the Lord to Arjuna as a yoga or karma yoga after He taught him the samkhyam or the yoga of wisdom or the yoga about the nature of the Atman.

When selfless action itself is not possible, how could a householder remain desireless. Without desire no action seems to us to be possible. Even to vacate a seat occupied by us on a city bus-ride in favour of an elderly person is not capable for many of us. If it happens to he the long route bus and the standing elderly person is not travelling long distance, including me, none of us would vacate our seat, which might entail us to travel for hours together standing. Just how could we become as devoid of desire as a corpse? Isn’t becoming a “Brahma-jnani” a very exorbitantly costly affair. Who wants to lose everything, every kind of sensual pleasures in favour of some somnolent bliss put forth by some somnolent person.

So the crux of the problem is whether we are aware of the blessed state of a brahma-jnani.

The bliss and ananda of the Brhma-Jnani or one who is in possession of his Self is quantified for our estimation, in Taittiriya Upanishad.

The state of bliss is quantified in Taittiriya Upanishad from verse 2: 9.1 to 2: 9.10;

Verse number 2: 9.1 is roughly as follows:

Now let us see the measurement of bliss; let us take a good man with health and youth and wisdom and self-discipline with single-mindedness and valour as the basic unit. Let us further assume that that youth is the owner of this earth with all the sensual pleasures. The bliss that youth attains is one human being’s bliss. If such a human bliss is multiplied by one hundred, then that one hundred human bliss is one Gandarva Bliss. (Gandarva loka or world is a different world of consciousness with greater bliss than is possible on the earth’s plane). He who does not entertain any desire, become free of kama and wisdomatic attains this one Gandarva Bliss.

Verse number 2:9.2;

One hundred such Human-Gandharva Bliss is equal to one Dheva or the Celestial Gandharva Bliss. One who has no desire and full of wisdom attains this one celestial bliss.

Verse number 2: 9.3

One hundred Celestaial Bliss is equal to the Bliss of one forefather who had a long lifespan. That who has no desire and is full of wisdom attains this level of Bliss.

Verse number 2:9.4

One hundred such Pitru Bliss-- bliss of one forefather multiplied by one hundred—is equal to the Bliss of one Celestial Being enjoyed in the Dheva Loka or world. He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this state of Bliss.

Verse number 2:9.5

He is a Karma Dheva who has attained that state by regular action or karma. He has one hundred times of the Bliss enjoyed by the above-said Celestial Being. He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this blissful state.

Verse number2:9.6

One hundred Karma Dheva Bliss is equal to one Mukya or Importan Dheva Bliss. He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this state of Mukya Bliss.

Verse number 2:9.7

One hundred Mukya Bliss is equal to one Indiran Bliss. He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this level of Inidiran Bliss.

Verse number 2: 9.8

One hundred such Indiran Bliss is equal to one Bruhaspathy Bliss. (Bruhaspathy is the Guru of the Celestial Beings) He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this level of Bruhaspathy Bliss.

Verse number 2:9.9

One hundred such Bruhaspathy Bliss is equal to one Prajapati Bliss. He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this state of Prajapati Bliss. (Prjapati is the god of creation)

Verse number 2: 9. 10

One hundred Prjapati Bliss is equal to one Brahma Bliss. He who is devoid of desire and full of wisdom attains this state of Brahma Bliss.

Since we don’t have an idea of the Bliss available if we give up all desires and acquire wisdom on the earth’s plane. And another thing is any average ordinary person may become one with Brahma and attain HIS STATE OF BLISS! THIS NOTION ALSO PECULAIAR TO HINDUISM. WE CAN BECOME ONE WITH GOD NOT BECAUSE GOD ALLOWS THAT BUT BECAUSE, EVEN HERE WE ARE GOD ONLY. ONLY THING IS WE ARE NOT AWARE OF THIS ONE SINGULAR FACT!

If we can form an understanding of the above thing, there would be a new interest sprouting in us to give up desire and acquire knowledge of the Self. There is no possession as Self-possession and there is no knowledge as the Self-Knowledge!

Even if we cannot give up desires, the study of the Holy Gita will benefit us that we will come back as intelligent human beings to continue the study of Gita. That, in itself, is an insurance policy!  

VERSE NUMBER 54 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 54

Text in Transliteration:

                         arjuna uvaacha

sthitaprajnasya kaa byaasaa samaadhishthasya kesava

sthitadheeh kim prabhaasheta kim aaseeta vrajeta kim

Text in English:

                         Arjuna said:

What, O Kesava, is the mark of the man of steadfast wisdom, steeped in Samadhi? How does the man firm in wisdom speak, how sit, how walk?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   All the three terms, sthitaprajna, samadhistha and sthitadhi connote the same. The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman. When such a one is in ‘samadhi’ what becomes of his mind? When he projects the mind on external things, how does he behave?

The concluding eighteen stanzas in this chapter are devoted to the definition of a “Brahma-jnani.” Those who want to improve their handwriting choose to copy the model letters and alphabets. And this method is invariably adopted in all fields. In picking up the language, painting and singing the perfect ones are imitated; there is no other way of acquiring knowledge and art. “Brahma-janam” is no exception to this. While the illumined one established in perfection is being defined, the method and the means to attain that state are also contained in that definition. The goal and the paths thereof are simultaneously presented. A diligent enquiry into them and an ardent practice are wanted to achieve the ideal.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

In the Hindu scheme of life, there is the last stage of samnyaasa where the ritual is abandoned and social obligations surrendered. The first stage is that of student discipleship, the second that of the householder, the third that of retreat and the fourth and the last is that of total renunciation. Those who abandon the household life and adopt the homeless one are the renouncers. This state may be entered upon at any time, though normally it comes after the passage through the other three stages. The samnyasins literally die to the world and even funeral rites are performed when they leave their homes and become parivrajakas or homeless wanderers. These developed souls, by their very example, affect the society to which they no longer belong. They form the conscience of society. Their utterance is free and their vision untrammelled. Though they have their roots in the Hindu religious organization, they grow above it and by their freedom of mind and universality of outlook are a challenge to the corrupting power and cynical compromise of the authoritarians. Their supersocial life is a witness to the validity of ultimate values from which other social values derive. They are the sages, and Arjuna asks for some discernible sings, some distinguishing marks of such developed souls.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Arjuna wants to know from Lord Krishna the characteristic marks of one who is established in the self in Samadhi; how he speaks, how he sits, how he moves about.

The characteristic marks of the sage of steady wisdom and the means of attaining that steady knowledge of the self are described in the verses from 55 to 72 of this chapter.

Steady wisdom is settled knowledge of one’s identity with Brahman attained by direct realisation.

Comments by the blogger:

Sitting, speaking and walking are the most ordinary day-to-day activities of even mundane world’s worldly people. A grocer and a banker spends his lifetime mostly in sitting. The lawyers are notorious for non-stop talking. One should talk whether one knows anything about it, like this blogger blogging about the Gita! If you say something about Gita, I can’t sit still nor can I maintain silence of the decent people. Nor can I talk like a decent and cultured person. I would be talking quite shamelessly as though I were the ultimate authority or a man possessed. Such is the spirit I seem to have for the Gita though erroneously. For I am no pandit. Sri Kanji Kamakoti Chandrasekarendra Sarasvathy or popularly known to all as “the Maha Periyavaa” did not write a commentary on Srimad Bhagavat Gita. Whereas I am blogging! Such is the shallowness and temerity of the idiots who rush where angels fear to tread in!

That apart, even in ordinary life, we see people who sit, chat and walk in an admirable manner. The greatest talker is he who knows when to keep silent. The greatest person who rests his body, if he is restful and not restless in his inner self, can inform and inspire just by the deportment of sitting calm-collectedly. He would not be shifty. And while walking, the careless walk of the Maha Periyava comes to the mind.

Even in ordinary life, we see satvic people who speak only a little and that too only when it matters most. The deportment of sitting and standing look in some people as though they were the lines of a lyric!

Here, Arjuna, who has been taught both samkhyam and yogam has now almost shed his despondency and evinces keen interest even in knowing the deportments of the sthitprajna or the one who has become that!

Sri Krishna is the ideal teacher, if Arjuna is the ideal student, and answers these simple questions in 18 stanzas. And he teaches through the next 16 chapters, too!

VERSE NUMBER 53 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 53

Text in Transliteration:

srutivipratipannaa te yadaa sthaasyati nischalaa

samaadhaav achalaa tadaa yogam avaapsyasi

 Text in English:

   When you intellect, tossed about by the conflict of opinions, has become poised and firmly fixed in equilibrium, then you shall get into yoga.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   It is but natural for man to pay heed to conflicting view and to get confused over them. But nobody raises the query, “Am I alive or dead?” and nobody’s opinion is sought in this matter. Man’s existence is self-evident to him. when mentation ceases in equilibrium, it is called ‘samadhi’ or spiritual illumination. Atman is Its Original Splendour is then realized. Yoga reaches its culmination here. This state of pure-consciouness is the goal of life.   

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

srutivipratipannaa:

bewildered by the Vedic texts. As different schools of thought and practice profess to derive support from the Vedas, they bewilder.

Samadhi is not loss of consciousness but the highest kind of consciousness. ( It is what Plato means when he exhorts the soul to “collect and concentrate itself in its self.” Phaedo 8, 3A)  The object with which the mind is in communion is the Divine Self. Buddhyoga is the method by which we get beyond Vedic ritualism and do our duty without any attachment for the results of our action. We must act but with equanimity which is more important than any action. The question is not what shall we do, but how sall we do? In what spirit shall we act?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   When your intellect which is tossed about by the conflict of opinions regarding the pravritti Marga (the path of action) and the Nivritti Marga (the path of retirement or renunciation) has become immovable without distraction and doubt and firmly established in the self, then thou shalt attain Self-realisation or knowledge of the Self ( atma-Jnana).

Comments by the blogger:

Sruti is that body of scriptural literature which contains the “revelation of Truth” through great minds of the ancient Hindu Sages. Literally Sruti means what is heard. Thus the four Vedas, Rig-Veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-Veda and the Athervana –Veda are called the “Sruti”. Vedas consist each of four parts, namely, i) samhitas or mantras or hymns; ii) Braamanas or explanatory treatises on mantras and rituals for various sacrifices; iii) the Aaranyakas or meditations in the forest and iv) the Upanishads or mystic and philosophic treaties revealing the most profound spiritual truths and suggesting the ways of realizing them. Upanishads are many, some say there are as many as 108. But 12 of them are considered important. They are,--Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittireeya, Chandogya, Brhadaaranyaka, Kaushitaki and Svetaasvatara Upanishads. Thus the four Vedas and the Upanishads are called “Sruti”.

Apart from them, there are “Smiriti” and they are human compositions. Manu, Yaajnavalk and Paraasara are the important Hindu law-givers. They codified Dharma. And their books are called Dharma-saastras. They are changeable according to the various periods of time and notions and understandings peculiar to them. But the authority of the “smiriti” is always subordinate to the “Sruti” or the four Vedas and Upanishads. All the teachings of the Upanishads were systematized in the form of Brahma-Sutra or Vedant-Sutras. Since these aphoristic rendering is isoteric and not readily understandable. So great souls like Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhava rendered elaborate commentaries on the Brahma-sutras or Vedanta-sutras originally rendered by Baadaraayana. Out of these commentaries various rose various schools or thoughts or Vedanta darsanas.

Each school of thought or Darsana tries to correlate, systematize and develop various parts of the Vedas, and these Darsanas are: 1 Nyaaya, 2 Vaisesika, 3 Saamkhya, 4 Yoga, 5 Mimamsa and 6 Vedanta.

The ideas put forth by these Darsanas are quite bewildering. Though they have the Vedas as their principal and basic tenets they are bewildering in their attempt to systematize and justify their own views on the Four Vedas.

This verse number 53 is rendered in English by Swami Sivananda in the following words:-

When thy intellect, which is perplexed by the Veda text, which thou hast heard, shall stand immovable and steady in the self, then thou shalt attain self-realisation.

Darsanas show different and differing paths and justify their ways by logic many a time irrefutable to ordinary mind. But the problem is the essence, the Self, is sought to be lost sight of the argumentations and submissions of logic exuberance by various Darsanas.

But the essence is Self. In the quest for the logical establishment of a stated opinion, the buddhi or mind is susceptible to lose sight of the essence. In the previous sloka, or verse, the Lord exhorted the attainment of indifference to what has been heard and what has yet to be heard. In this verse the same is put in a different way, but this verse directly deal with the bewildering disputations and philosophic mentations of the Darsanas. The Lord wants to always not to lose sight of the essence, which is Self.

Self knowledge is the highest knowledge and the possession of Self is the highest possession that include and pervade all.      

VERSE 52 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 52

Text in Transliteration;

yadaa te moha kalilam buddhir vyatitarishyati

yadaa gantaasi nirvedam srotavyasya srutassya cha

Text in English:

When your understanding transcends the taint of delusion, then shall you gain indifference to things heard and those yet to be heard.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   After transcending the taint of delusion, the yogi is able to understand and distinguish between Atman and ‘Parkriti’, the Real and the unreal, the Being and the becoming. The Truth in Itself is realized. The phenomenal existence is then evaluated for what it is worth. The inquirer evaluates the dream. He does not attribute one value to the dream that he has heard already and waits to attribute another value to the one that remains to be related to him. A Brahma-jnani hears of the scientific discoveries that have been so far made. He classifies them all as the various modifications of the phenomenal universe as cognized by the intellect which is itself a phase of the fleeting phenomenon. The new discoveries that remain to be recounted to him will also be brushed aside with the same remark. Events like the Mahabharata war present themselves as great and consequential to ordinary people. But the Brahma-jnani views them with utter indifference. The evolution and involution of the universe itself are meaningless to him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

   Scriptures are unnecessary for the man who has attained the insight. See II, 46; VI, 44. He woh attains the wisdom of the Supreme passes beyond the range of the Vedas and the Upanishads, sabdabrahmaativartate.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

                        The mire of delusion is the identification of the Self with the not-Self. The sense of discrimination between the Self and the not-Self is confounded by the mire of delusion and the body is taken as the pure Self. When you attain purity of mind, you will attain to indifference regarding things heard and yet to be heard. They will appear to you to be of no use. You will not care a bit for them. You will entertain disgust for them. (Cf. XVI.24)

Comments by the blogger:

A seventy-five years old advocate who has seen all in the profession sits with total indifference when, in the bar, a few neophytes argue a question of fact or law. Of course, he is ready to explain the same if he is approached, otherwise, he shows total indifference. A ninety-year-old man sits with total indifference to the property disputes going on among the young sons of the opposite house where the father has died recently.

Total indifference is attained even here by ordinary average persons of long experience.

If there is a dispute and quarrel going on between two motor bike drivers, there comes a crowd of onlookers to the place, but the petty shop owner on the roadside is totally indifferent. Because he has seen umpteen number of accidents in that corner and he could not care the less if the quarrel degrades into a free for all.

Saint Sri Ramakrishna once went to attend a ceremony. He had to pass a few minutes there. The worldly conversation between two persons felt like pouring poison on his ears. He was a saint always immersed in deep Samadhi, and all that was spoken about the world and all that is yet to be spoken have no relevance or interest to him! He later said that it was very difficult to be a witness to such a worldly conversation.

To a person who has attained self-knowledge even the Vedopanishadic utterances will not be of any interest. When deep samadhi is attained, things heard and yet to be heard about this worldly life has no value whatsoever.

Something like this has already said by the Lord that to a Brahmin who has attained self-knowledge, all the Vedas would be of the same use as the well at a place inundated with water everywhere.

The Lord puts the same thing, the Greatness of the attainment of the knowledge about one’s Atman in various words and various alluring ways. He is a Great Teacher indeed.

Once again, let it be said, this kind of speaking for Great men and the Lord is possible only in the Hinduism. Not any one of the worlds religions has declared the time and stage at which when the Scriptural utterances of that religion becomes indifferent to the practitioner! This is because of the strength of knowledge and courage of conviction indeed! 

VERSE NUMBER 51 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 51

Text in Transliteration:

Karmajam buddhiyuktaa hi phalam tyaktvaa manishinah

janma bandha vinirmuktaah padam gacchanty anaamayam

Text in English:

   The wise, imbued with evenness of mind, renouncing the fruits of their actions, freed from the fetters of births, verily go to the stainless state.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   The yogi views all forms of karma alike, imbued as they are with misery in varying degrees. He converts the misery-laden karma into the misery-freed one. It is characteristic of karma to perpetuate the wheel of birth and death. But the yogi in his wisdom renders it effectless in this respect. Converting evil into good is the best of all dexterities. Lord Siva converts the world-destroying poison into the world-saving nectar. The yogi walks the way of Siva. He handles the bondage-producing karma in such a way that it becomes the freedom-yielding one; yoga is the panacea of all evils in the world.  

COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

Even when alive, they are released from the bond of birth and go to the highest state of Vishnu called moksha or liberation, which is free from all evil.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

   Clinging to the fruits of actions is the cause of rebirth. Man takes a body to enjoy them. If anyone performs actions for the sake of God in fulfilment of His purpose without desire for the fruits, he is released from the bonds of birth and attains to the blissful seat or the immortal abode.

   Sages who possess evenness of mind abandon the fruits of their actions and thus escape from good and bad births.

  Buddhi referred to in the three verses 49, 50 and 51 may be the wisdom of the sankhyas, i.e., the knowledge of the Self or Atma-Jnana which dawns when the mind is purified by karma yoga.

Comments by the blogger:

It is only the wise who can become indifferent to the fruits of one’s actions. And they are wise because they are freed by the same karma that bounds others. Thus, the wise ones, carrying out the actions here on the earth plane without any expectation whatsoever, are freed from the fetters. What are the fetters? The bondage of re-birth-producing fruits of one’s actions becomes fetters indeed, because it bounds the soul to the body anew again and again. They are fetters condemning ourselves to having to take any number of unending re-births. But the stainless state is the freedom from re-births. Thus the souls become one with the Lord or almost attain that state.

But the question I am preoccupied is that our youths become coy when someone speak about our Scriptures, especially when things like the bondage of re-births are mentioned. It is as though they have to bear this yolk; being looked down by others as superstitious for this purpose. Hello, there is no superstition or idle thought in the belief of re-births. Today man has attained a state of scientific   and technological stage that make the Hindus become shy in front of their European or Western Colleagues.

Time and again let me tell our youths that it is one of the Gifts of Hinduism to the world, like the yoga. Even like the yoga can be practised by one and all to the same results, this belief in re-births is one of the original gifts of our Saints and Sages. So, please, have faith in them and in their wisdom. Already the world is ridden with too much that is not good and Man has become a hypocrite so far One’s religion is concerned. If we and our youths too lose faith in the timelessness of the wisdom of our meditative Saints and Sages, it is the world which will ultimately pay the price. This pursuit of shamelessly open materialism is not good for us or our succeeding generations.

 The Romans, despite their superiority of thoughts, had become so vulgar that they used to have vomiting chambers. After filling their bellies by a multi-course meal, they would retire to this   chamber and vomit what they ate so their stomachs would become empty again for them to eat again! This kind of unbridled materialism eventually killed a great culture.

Now the world has been turned into a vomiting chamber, so to say. When cars were necessary it used to be a good scientific invention. Now when five out of ten own cars with the remaining five wanting to own cars like death, the very invention has become a vomiting chamber. We no longer travel for necessity or knowledge, we mainly travel for pleasure these days. We no more dress ourselves to safeguard our modesty, but to satisfy our insatiable ego and the self-killing wants to show off. Like this we no longer do or speak anything because it is very necessary, but just to boost our ego. And there is no end and when we fuel our ego the needs would become endless.

With the result the world has been turned into a vomiting chamber; one great chamber to just eat and vomit and eat and vomit; use and throw; use, even when there is no necessity for the same. Almost seventy percent of what the normal modern Man possesses is nothing but excess. But the scheme of the Universe will not tolerate this. We have successfully torn up the ozone layer. And the results intolerable hot weather and flood. The climatic change is indeed the new invention of the Modern Man.

When our ancient Seers and Saints invented the systems of yoga! They discovered the scheme of the universe. They discovered the bondage-begotten nature of action. They wanted us to use our wisdom, and make use of the yoga of wisdom to turn the bondage-begotten action into Freedom-Giving action. They showed the way to end the number of births, and modern man has invented how to increase the bondage of re-births by the hundreds in just a few minutes’ living. Cine stars rule the world. Corporate barons, the tobacco barons, the gun barons rule the world.

We should let our Saints to rule our hearts and mind. Otherwise we would be the manufacturers of the Kalki yuga when all will come to an end.

So, let the Hindu youths become proud of their Scriptural Revelations and beliefs such as in re-births. 

VERSE NUMBER 50 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 50

Text in Transliteration:

Buddhiyukto jahaatee ‘ha ubhe sukrta duskrte

Tasmaad yogaaya yujyasva yogah karmasu kausalam

Text in English:

The one fixed in equanimity of mind frees oneself in this life from vice and virtue alike; therefore devote yourself to yoga; work done to perfection is verily yoga.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   Karma is classified as good or bad based on the result it produces. Good karma is as much the cause as the bad one, for the continuity of the wheel of birth and death. But the karma-yogi is not affected by karma of any kind. This is due to his being fixed in equanimity—the state free from likes and dislikes, attachment and aversion. A surgeon cuts and operates on the body of a patient. The sick man’s surviving the surgery or succumbing to it, does not make the doctor virtuous or vicious. He does his duty very well for duty’s sake. If the patient dies while being operated on, the doctor does not feel guilty of murder. He goes through the series of operations calmly because of his equanimity of mind. But this very doctor dare not operate on his own ailing son; he seeks the help of another surgeon. This diffidence is born of attachment leading to in-equanimity of mind. Detached performance of duty adds to efficiency and the required equilibrium is maintained perfectly.

   This principle applies to all activities in life. It is yoga to maintain equilibrium in the midst of all of them. Work is  executed very efficiently in poise only. Attachment and aversion take away the efficiency from man. Bhisma fought for the wicked to the best of his ability, but because of his complete detachment he was not ainted by his action. As the Mahabharata has it, a woman that served her husband dispassionately rose in yoga superior to an ascetic who gained by austerity, the psychic power to burn an intruding bird to ashes. A butcher also, in his turn, became a greater hogi than this ascetic by discharging his seemingly ugly duty without attachment and aversion.

Equanimity of mind comes to one free from likes and dislikes, attachment and aversion. He is a yogi. No new karma accrues to him. the momentum of the old karma wanes away. He gains in perfecting the mind.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

 A yogi seated in a Himalayan cave allows his mind to wander on unwanted things. A cobbler in a corner at the crossing of several busy roads of a city, is absorbed in mending a shoe, as an act of service. Of these two, the latter is a better yogi than the former.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

He rises to a status higher than the ethical with its distinction of good and evil. He is rid of selfishness and therefore is incapable of evil. According to Shankara Yoga is evenness of mind in success or failure, possessed by one who is engaged in the performance of his proper duties, while his mind rests in God.     

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Work performed with motive towards fruits only can bind a man. It will bring the fruits and the performer of the action will have to take birth again in this mortal world to enjoy them. If work is performed with evenness of mind (the yoga of wisdom, i.e., united to pure Buddhi, intelligence or reason) with the mind resting in the Lord, it will not bind him; it will not bring any fruit; it is no work at all. Actions which are of a binding nature lose that nature when performed with equanimity of mind, or poised reason. The yogi of poised reason attributes all actions to the Divine Actor within (Ishvara or God)

Comments by the blogger:

   It all depends upon the grade or level of maturity in spirituality we individually have come here with at this innings—in this re-birth. In the same family of five children, all are different in how they look at material things and they have also different level of spiritual leanings or some one of them none at all. If father is highly materialistic, the mother has no time to share with his activities and is steeped in spiritual matters.  

If some of are, as is sure to be, are poised with perfect equanimity that even birds and beasts don’t feel threatened if they go within the dangerous zone, they are like Arjuna, who can become food for thought of this world temporarily; those great souls are highly evolved; and they should try their level best to shed the body-soul union which is nothing but a bondage.

But most of us are at the varied and varying stages of spiritual level. We should stick to Gita as dear life. That’s one thing. And the next thing is to form an ardent desire to shed desires of all types. This will stimulate the evolutionary process.

Man cannot cause increase or decrease in the five elements. The three guna of the prakirity cannot be caused to lose volume or increase likewise. We can, at best, turn one thing into another or joine several ingredients and make an amalgamation thereof. And SAMSAARA is filled with illusion, desire and action. We are action-oriented. Even the little ants are as active as a young sportsman and sportswoman or sportsperson! We cannot elect inaction like Arjuna does. But the moment action starts, its fruits and the expectation also starts. And the SAMSKAARA , the basic Brahmic unit of measurement measures automatically the good or bad fruits of the actions and we can never gain that kind of mental equanimity like the King Janaka, whose kingly splendour did not weigh down his soul.

So what is the best thing for us. We can easily shun evil actions and kill the evil in us by entertaining always goodness and good thoughts. By the good we can first modestly attempt to shun all evil mentations in us and by gradation, give up authorship for the good actions too. Let it take its own time. But we can easily shun from indulgences and become simple in food, clothes and activities and the way we treat others. We can take time off for the scrupulous study of Gita. And leave the rest to the scheme of the universe. 

VERSE 49 OF THE SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 49

Text in Transliteration:

daarena hy avaram karma buddhiyogaad dhanamjaya

buddhau saranam anviccha krpanaah phalahetavah

Text in English:

Motivated karma is, O Dhananjaya, far inferior to that performed in the equanimity of mind; take refuge in the evenness of he mind; wretched are the result seekers.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

A porter carries the luggage of a railway passenger from one platform to another. A co-passenger also carries for him one or two bundles of his, with a helpful attitude. Though the action is the same for the porter and the co-passenger their attitudes differ widely. The one works for a wage and the other for love. The wage-earner remains a cooly while the other evolves in mind. The majority in the world work like the wage-earner and make themselves wretched. But a few work for duty’s sake expecting nothing in return. They ever assume the role of a giver and never that of a grabber. The more the water from a well is bailed out, the more fresh water sprouts in it. The more a man acts for duty’s sake seeking nothing in return, the more he grows in yoga.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Action done with evenness of min is yoga of wisdom. The yogi who is established in the yoga of wisdom is not affected by success or failure. He does not seek fruits of his actions. He has poised reason. His reason is rooted in the Self. Action performed by one who expects fruits for his actions, is far inferior to the yoga of wisdom wherein the seeker does not seek fruits; because the former leads to bondage and is the cause of birth and death.

Comments by the blogger:

In both the verses 48 and 49 the Lord addresses Arjuna as Dananjaya or conqueror of wealth. There is a marked reason for it. The Lord exhorts continuous action in both the verses, but they should not be motivated by expectation of fruits thereof. Arjuna has already indulged in such actions. He conquered many small kings and plunder the locked up treasure and used them for the common wheel. So, Arjuna is not a stranger to such buddhi yoga or action of wisdom or wisdom in action. So only, in both verses the Lord makes him remember Arjuna’s ability and worth. He has the capacity to and spiritual calibre to indulge in such yoga.

Ok, now, to the mundane question: can’t a guy work honestly for his and his family’s sustenance? Is it a sin? Should one always look out for others? Can every body act and live like Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi?

Nope! Never is the answer.

But the scheme of the universe is that one need not one’s all wakeful time in self aggrandizement and can easily live like a sparrow. The sparrow never ploughs, never sows seeds, never waters, never wheedles and yet it gets it’s share of food for self and the mate and the chicks. This is the law of the universe. We need not try to live like the corporate barons and the cine stars. But the King Janaka lived a renounced life. A butcher could live selfless life and lead a spiritual life. The universe is wired much as our body. Not one individual cell of our body is extraneous to it. The blood flows for the benefit of all the individual organs, limbs and tissues and cells. The whole universe is wired that way. Whether we agree or not we derive greater piece of mind and inner happiness when we take time to work for others. That kind of happiness is just a drop in the ocean of ‘ananda’ or immortal and everlasting happiness one derives by living solely for others like the above said great souls. By gradation we are moving toward that state of existence only. Even selfish action is better than non-action, according to the previous verse. But any action stained with selfishness is limited in its power to sustain us and lead us toward our salvation.

So, though we might not live like a Mahatma Gandhi, we might try to help as often as we can toward the common wheel. A doctor can easily prosper by leading his life as the servant of humanity at the same time earn wealth. But the limited amount of wealth will be worth every penny in sterling pound. But even at this stage, the same doctor must come back to this earth after his death to give to the society much more than he had given at the last innings.

A lawyer could lead a service-minded life and at the same time earn moderately and live peacefully and happily. An engineer build for love and affection, and in the same breath, earn money. That would be worth in tons of gold in heaven. But he too must come back to this earth after spending much time in heaven to pick up the thread of selfless service.

This is what great commentators like Swami Chidbhavananda mean that evolution on physical plane might have come to an end, but man should continue to evolve in his mind and until the complete salvation is attained, the individual human beings continue to evolve in mind through thousands of rebirths.

This idea of rebirth is unique to the Hinduism. This is the scheme of the universe. God is full of kindness. We will not give just one chance to our children to prove their worth in their play. Then how could God, who is full of compassion, give us just one innings and expect us to evolve completely, or be damened in Hell for ever. No, God gives us the choice to do this way or that way and the number of rebirth is solely in our hands. Having tossed us in the SAMSAARA  He stands aside and looks on, and with the choice we play our life, and the Lord just looks on, and if we pray, He gives us what we deserve. Even for the atheists and agnostics the Nature and this Universe has been wired in such a way, that if we seek we will attain our seeking. But devotion comes easily and when a devout person seeks, his seeking gets reinforced by the Nature or prakrity according to the scheme of this universe. The prayer is nothing but a powerful thought. Any powerful thought, even when not direct at our Lord, is capable of fetching the results.

But living for the others solely comes to us as a way of life at some point of time in the millennial management of the Universe by the Lord. And all of us, willy-nilly, move towards that state of consciousness only. The question is when we will, at which number of re-birth, we will, individually evolve into such persons.

So it is only a question of millennial time!