VERSE NUMBER 66 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNWOLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER 66

Text in Transliteration:

naa ‘sti buddhir ayuktasya na cha ‘yuktasya bhaavanaa

na chaa ‘bhaavayatah saantir asaantasya kutah sukham

Text in English:

There is no wisdom in the fickle-minded; nor is there meditation in him. To the unmeditative there is no peace. And how can the peaceless enjoy happiness?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHVANANDA:

Yoga is the science of self-culture. He who devoutly practises it is called a yukta; but he who is indifferent to it is an ayukta. It is by the practice of self-culture buddhi or right understanding is developed. It makes the mind profound, which state being known as bhavanaa. The one devoid of profundity does not get at saanti—the serenity of mind. How can there be happiness to one with a disturbed mind?

Excellences such as deep discrimination, benign mentation, solemn bearing and unbroken joy emanate from the practice of yoga. He who is indifferent to this soul-elevating science paves the way for self-annihilation.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Clay allows itself to be moulded into any fine form; but baked clay is of no use for this purpose. Mind burnt by profane desires is incapable of taking divine moulds.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The man who cannot fix his mind in meditation cannot fix his mind in meditation cannot have knowledge of the Self. The unsteady man cannot practise meditation. He cannot have even intense devotion to Self-knowledge nor can he have burning longing for liberation or Moksha. He who does not practise meditation cannot possess peace of mind. How can the man who has no peace of mind enjoy happiness?

Desire or Trishna (thirsting for sense objects) is the enemy of peace. There cannot be an iota or tinge of happiness for a man who is thirsting for sensual objects. The mind will be ever restless, and will be hankering for the objects. Only when this thirsting dies, does man enjoy peace. Only then can he meditate and rest in the self.

Comments by the blogger:

There is no knowledge of the Self to the those who are not steady. And to the unsteady no meditation is possible. If we cannot practise meditation, there can be no peace of mind. And, the Lord asks, to the man who has no peace of mind, how can there be happiness?

Here we should examine yoga, the peace of mind and happiness.

Yoga is a term used in different sense at different place by the Lord. Any great and sound thing done correctly and scientifically, it would seem, is yoga. In verse number 53 of this chapter, the Lord of yoga utters, when your intellect, tossed about by the conflict of opinions, has become poised and firmly fixed in equilibrium, then you shall get into yoga. Here He calls mental equilibrium as Yoga. On the contrary, in verse number 50 of this chapter, He utters, “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. In the verse 48 of this chapter He says, “Perform action, O Dhananjaya, being fixed in yoga, renouncing attachments, and even-minded in success and failure; equilibrium is verily yoga.

Thus sometimes work done to perfection is called yoga. Sometimes mental equilibrium is called yoga. And in the present verse, meditation is called yoga! Because the Teacher is the perfect one, and the student, Arjuna is a perfect student despite his initial tossing of senses. So the Lord is not afraid of using the same word, namely, yoga at one place to mean action and at the other place pure act of meditation.

In the modern world, serious pursuit of meditation may not be possible for all the aspirant. But that doesn’t matter indeed. If one form of yoga is not possible, there is other forms of yoga available. And the beauty is that the result is the same. The same level of attainment as described in the verse number 66 is possible to a yogi of devotion and also a yogi of action. We should not forget that Arjuna’s despondency and hesitation was called yoga!

So, don’t ever lose heart, and always bear in mind that the Lord would use a word like yoga at one place to mean one thing and at another place to highlight some other thing. Have faith in the Lord. All the four types of yoga, namely bhakti yoga, karma yoga, Raja yoga and Jnana yoga has individual capacity to lift us from out of the quagmire of crass materialism we are immersed, and we can hope for salvation.

Hinduism is the only form of religion where different types of people are taken into consideration and different kinds of remedy is made available. To the sentimental, there is bhakti yoga, and to the man of action, there is karma yoga, and to the man of inquiry there is the Janana yoga and to the meditative people there is Raja yoga! Each type of yoga gets eulogized at each context. That is a matter and form of teaching, having full confidence in the students’ capacity to discriminate and understand. This is why, the men of action, have never taken to any terroristic form or militant form of religion in Hinduism. If you are imbued with ceaseless action and purely action oriented, then you need not try to form an Islamic State or go about the world, house to house preaching about the arrival of the kingdom of God, and use all means to convert. Are you action oriented? Well, that’s fine; do and practice karma yoga!

What a beautiful way of life is the Hindu way of life!

But the thing is, it is under threat now! To ward of the threat we need not and should not take up the sword, we must turn to our religion and allow it to become our inward culture, and teach our children the greatness of our way of life!

Next thing is the peace of mind:

This is possible to all the practitioners of yoga.

And happiness is the birth-right of a meditating saint as well as the devotional soul and people like Mahatma Gandhi, who is principally known for his karma yoga and bhakti yoga!