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.
No comments:
Post a Comment