THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 06, DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION, VERSE NUMBER 45

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 06

DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:

VERSE NUMBER 45

Text in Transliteration:

prayatnaad  yatamaanas tu yotee samsuddhakilbisah

aneka janma samsiddhas tato yaati paraam gatim

Text in English:

The yogi who strives with assiduity, purified from sins and perfected through many births reaches then the Supreme Goal.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Learning and wealth cannot be acquired in a day or two. One has to apply oneself to them constantly. But one is held to be learned in a measure even while in the process of studying. Similarly, one is also held as a man of means even while yet earning money. A man is likewise beheld as a yogi even when he is assiduously practising it. Learning, wealth and spirituality developed by these several individuals never go to waste. Spirituality in particular persists and progresses in the yogi through successive births. As he gets purified from sins he ceases to be affected by the inevitable fluctuations in the earthly life. Constancy of the ideal in the midst of all eventualities is his characteristic. His serenity steadily evolves into Beatitude which is the Supreme Goal. Whereas the man given to the Vedic rites oscillates and merely speculates about his future prospects here and hereafter.

Yoga being hard to achieve, what is the harm in the ordinary man having recourse to any other ways of accomplishing the desired ends? The sovereignty of is extolled in the next verse.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The new born calf totters and tumbles down several times before learning to frisk about. Similarly, the sadhka or practitioner has to struggle much before he meets with success.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNA:

Though he may fail through weakness to reach the goal of perfection in this life, the lessons of his effort will abide with him after death and help him in his progress in other lives until he attains the goal. God’s purpose will not be accomplished until all human beings are redeemed by forgiveness, repentance and healing discipline and restored into communion with the Supreme. Every soul will be won back to God who created him in His own image. God’s love will finally restore into harmony with itself even the most rebellious elements. The Gitaa gives us a hopeful belief in the redemption of all.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

He gains experiences little by little in the course of many births and eventually attains to perfection. Then he gets the knowledge of the Self and attains to the final beatitude of life.

Comments by the blogger:

The Supreme Goal is the realization of the Self or attainment of Salvation. For this, the yogi should strive with assiduity. Thus he will be purified from sins and perfected through many births.

What is a Sin?

Some actions by itself cannot be segregated sinful while others bringer of salvation.

To use one of the examples of Swami Sidbhavananda, the fire in the lamp is neither sinful nor sinless. But the purpose for which the lighted lamp is used makes it sinful or otherwise. One person may use the fire in the lamp for the purpose of reading Bhagavat Gita while another person uses the light to forge a document. The fire in the lamp in itself is neither sinful nor otherwise. Only the purpose for which it is made to use makes it so.

Coming back to sin, no act by itself is sinful.

Indeed there is no such thing as sin.

Everything that enables one to obtain salvation is good and every thing that increases the number of births and thus comes between the self and the Lord is called as sinful.

Thus what is sinful for one could be perfectly dutiful for another.

For example, taking a life is known as sinful. Because it makes the killer to come back here as a beast or a beastly person and his cumulative karma get extended and the time he is joined with the Lord is extended for ever. But in Arjuna’s case, the taking of lives is shown to be his duty and swadharma or his righteous action.

Thus, we should understand that anything that extends the time before we join the Lord and become one with Him is dubbed as sinful. And those actions that help a person to obtain his salvation in a few number of births are known as righteous.

Swami Vivekananda says a yogi could attain salvation in six years or twelve years or twenty-four years. It all depends on the fervour with which the yogi takes to the daily practice or sadhana. Even if a yogi is not able to attain salvation in one birth, verses 40 to 45 are devoted to explaining what will happen.

So the long and short of it is that the person falling in yoga and dying need not necessarily consider his life here and hereafter as wasteful. Salvation is a sure thing for him also. But a little more time and fewer more births are consumed by him before he finds his Lord Master.