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!
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