THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 06
DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:
VERSE NUMBER 44
Text in Transliteration:
poorvaabhyaasena tenai ‘va hriyate hy avaso ‘pi sah
jijnaasur api yogasya sabdabrahmaa ‘tivartate
Text in English:
By that very former practice he is led on in spite of himself. Even he who merely wishes to know of yoga rises superior to the performer of Vedic rites.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
A man pressingly caught up in the midst of a marching multitude, is bound to be pushed on to the destination without much effort on his part. Similarly, the yoga propensity stored up in the mind in the previous births, combined with the present favourable and augmenting atmosphere, rapidly carries the yogi on towards the goal.
Two soldiers in the war front were taken prisoners by the enemy and forced to work for him. one of the two got himself reconciled to his captivity and chose to be a careerist under the enemy, while the other earnestly studied the ways and means of his escape, in the midst of his toiling for the enemy. People of the world are like the first prisoner, intent on making the best of the earthly life. The yogajijnaasu or the enquirer of the yoga is superior like the second prisoner in as much he gives to self-emancipation. The chanters of the Vedas and those others engaged in the Vedic rites are concerned with enjoyments on earth and in heaven. Being bound to life in the senses, they are inferior. The scope of the ritualistic Vedas also is limited to the senses. The Vedas merely promote and prolong the wheel of birth and death. The enquirer of yoga gets to know of the possibilities of liberating himself from the wheel of birth and death. He is therefore greater than the earth-bound man. He who practises yoga is greater still: for, he is progressing towards perfection and liberation.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
sabdabrahma: Vedic rule. It refers to the Veda and the injunctions set forth in it. By practising the Vedic rule, we are helped to get beyond it. Cp. “Brahman is of two kinds, the sabdabrahma and the other beyond it. When a person has become well versed in the sabdabrahma, he reaches the Brahman which is beyond it.” Then faith ends in experience, tongues shall cease and doctrine shall fade away. The stimulus to religion is generally supplied by the study of holy writ or participation in a cult. This is helpful and spontaneity becomes on great and absolute as to require no indirect help. Ordinarily the study of the Veda is a quickening influence. But when once we have the awakening which is sufficient unto itself, we need no external aid and so who proposes to cross a river needs a boat, but “let him no longer use the Law as a means of arrival when he has arrived. Majjhim Nikaya, I, I35. Ramanuja takes sabdabrahma to mean prakrity.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The man who fell from Yoga is carried to the goal which he intended to reach in his previous birth by the force of the Samskaras of the practice of Yoga though he may not be conscious of them and even if he may not be willing to adopt the course of Yogic discipline on account of the force of some evil Karma. If he had not done any great evil action which could overwhelm this Yogic tendencies he will certainly continue his Yogic practices in this birth very vigorously through the force of the yogic Samskaras created by his yogic practices in his previous birth. If the force of the evil action is strong, the Yogic tendencies will be overpowered or suppressed for some time. As soon as the fruits of the evil actions are exhausted, the force of the Yogic Samskaras will begin to manifest itself. He will start his Yogic practices vigorously and attain the final beatitude of life.
Even an enquirer in whom a desire for information about Yoga is kindled goes beyond the Bramic word. i. e., the Vedas. He is beyond the entanglement of forms and ceremonies. He is not satisfied with mere ritualism.
He thirsts for a satisfaction higher than that given by the sensual objects. He who simply wishes to know the nature of the principles of Yoga frees himself from the Sabda-Braha, i.e., from the effects of the Vedic rituals and ceremonies. If this be the case of a simple enquirer, how much more exalted should be the condition of a real practitioner or knower of Yoga or of one who is established in Nirvikalpa Samadhi? He will be absolutely free from the effects of the Vedic rituals and ceremonies. He will enjoy the eternal bliss and the everlasting peace of the Eternal.
An aspirant who is desirous of obtaining Moksha alone is not affected by the sin of non-performance of action even if he renounces all the obligatory and optional or occasional duties. He goes beyond the word of “Brahman” (the Scripture or the Vedas).
When such is the case of an aspirant who is without any spiritual inclinations or Samskaras of the previous birth, how much more exalted will be the state of that student who has done Yogic practices in his previous birth, who has fallen from Yoga in his previous birth, and who has taken up Yoga in this birth, renouncing all the worldly activities?
Impelled by the strong desire for liberation he practises rigorous Sadhana or practice in this birth. He is constrained, as it were, by the force of the good Samskaras of his previous birth to take to Yogic practices in spite of himself.
In this verse the Lord lays stress on the fact that no effort in the practice of Yoga goes in vain. Even the smallest effort will have its effect sooner or later in this birth or another. Therefore there is no cause for disappointment even for the dullest type of spiritual aspirant.
Comments by the blogger:
This verse has two easily divisible parts. One: by that very former practice he is led on in spite of himself. Two: even he who merely wishes to know of yoga rises superior to the performer of Vedic rites.
As for the Number One, we have already seen that it is the Universal Law of inexorable quality that every action has an equal opposite reaction. It is the same thing as for every force. Now, the Lord of Gita has been rephrasing the eulogy of Yoga and Yogi and He is anxious to put at naught the doubt and fear arose in Arjuna’s mind when he asked Him that what would be the case a of man who has given up this world in favour of Yoga and Meditation but fallen from yoga and dies that way; wouldn’t he have lost both this world and the Next.
That is why Sri Krishna’s pitch is so high; even he who merely wishes to know of yoga rises superior to the performer of Vedic rites. This is also to assuage the angst in the mind of Arjuna.
Coming back to Number One of Sri Krishana’s statement, I would like to say He has merely reiterated and rephrased the Law of the Universe.
For all Yogi and non-yogi and even that man/woman who does not perform the rituals laid down in the Vedas, LIFE IS A YOGA OR FORM OF YOGA!
While the Yogis who meditate on the Lord or Self having given up the worldly thoughts, the perform yoga in life consciously, others, the average ordinary persons like you and me perform yoga in an unconscious way.
How?
Sri Yogananda Paranhansa of, “An Autobiography of a Yogi” ‘s fame soundly argues that while a conscious yogi travels towards the Infinity or Godhood in jet set speed or travels like a rocket toward the Lord and eternal joy and liberation, an average ordinary man/and woman travels on a bullock cart through countless rebirths!
The Great Yogi and exponent of Kriya Yoga says that a person in his normal life achieves a number a kriyas indeed. For a Yogi, one kriya is one intake of life breath and one exhalation of the same, during which time the life breath travels one round in and through the spinal cord. This one inhalation and one exhalation is equal to an ordinary man’s many years of life and exertion!
By this explanation, we can form an idea about the high efficacy of Yoga or Meditation. It goes without saying that in chapter Six the Lord means by Yoga meditation only.
This is why even he who merely wishes to know of yoga rises superior to the performer of Vedic rites.
In that period, even after the Principal Upanishad’s had come into being, there was a tendency to argue that there was nothing more important than the Vedic rights. The cult of Mimamsa and its exponent completely avoided all forms of meditations and swore by the Karma Kanda of the Vedas. For him, life in this world and enjoyment in the Heaven was the ultimate. Even Lord Buddha who had come very near to the Upanishads stated there was no need to while away one’s time in pursuit of God. In the same stroke, he admitted the countless births one had to take before sidhi or freedom from rebirth!
In this background, Lord Krishna openly came out against the tendency to stress overly on the efficacy of the Karma Kanda in the Vedas. That was why elsewhere He has stated that for a liberated Brahmana or Brahmin Vedas are of the same value as for a man the benefit of a well who sees all around the lands surrounded by water! This tendency gets repeated here also.
This is not to belittle Vedas and their efficacy. After all, all the four maha Vakyas or Great Sentences are housed in the Vedas only. And the four Vedas are the basis for all the Upanishads, and for Bhagavan’s Bhagavat Gita and the Brahma Sutra. So we can never belittle Vedas. Vedas is the fountain and homeland for all the Hindu Scriptures.
But unfortunately, though the mimamsaka exponents lost all their influence directly and there is no particular sect answering to them, we, the ordinary people or the majority of the middleclass people in India have a tendency to put much premium on the Karma Kanda and appoint prohits or Priests to propitiate many a God and Goddess to the level of utter indifference to the Bhagavat Git and other Upanishads and the Brahma Sutra. This is the tendency even today after such proclamations in the Gita. Man wants to live the life of flesh to the total exclusion of the Spirit.
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