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!