THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER NUMBER 06, DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION, VERSE NUMBER 46

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER NUMBER 06

DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:

VERSE NUMBER 46

Text in Transliteration:

tapasvibhyo ‘dhiko yogee jnaanibhyo ‘pi mato ‘dhikah

karmibhyas chaa ‘dhiko yogee tasmaad yogee bhavaa ‘rjuna

Text in English:

The yogi is deemed superior to ascetics, superior to men of knowledge even; he is also superior to ritualists. Therefore be you a yogi, O Arjuna.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

It is incumbent on man to choose an ideal in life lest he should drift and deviate into an empty existence. The higher the ideal the harder is to achieve. Still, an attainable great ideal has to be fixed. The highest and best of all ideals is to become a yogi. And he is a yogi who is consciously and deliberately moving towards Divinity which is the plan and purpose of creation. As a man advances in yoga his mind gets purified and thus becomes all powerful.

An ascetic is one who undergoes a voluntary mortification to obtain celestial powers and enjoyments here and hereafter. The ritualist also has this aim in mind. But instead of self-mortification he chooses to appease and propitiate the favours of the celestials to this end. So he performs the elaborate rituals mentioned in the Vedas, putting complete faith in them. But the yogi’s case is simple, natural, direct and to the point. In and through desirelessness he comes close to the Supreme desirlessness he comes close to the Supreme Goal—Paraam Gatim. If, however, a patch of cloud of desire happens to pass through the firmament of his heart, that desire gets immediately fulfilled because of the purity of his heart. This way the yogi is superior to the ascetics and the ritualists. The men of knowledge mentioned here are those that seek enlightenment through the scriptures. But the truths revealed in the sacred books are directly shining in the pure heartr of the yogi. He need not draw inspiration from books. He is therefore superior even to men of knowledge. In becoming yogi, man achieves everything.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

What is the good of mere book learning? The learned may at best be adepts in aptly and accurately quoting from scriptures. One’s lifelong repeating them verbatim effects no change in one’s lifelong repeating them verbatim effects no change in one’s life. But what is told in the scriptures has to be applied to life and improvement brought on it. Scriptural knowledge is of no avail to the one attached to earthly life.

A worldly man may be as much informed in religion as the spiritual man; or he may even excel in learning and intelligence. He may even be endowed with the rigidity of a yogi’s life and the detachment of a Sanyasin. In the midst of these merits his life may dwindle into nothing if he utilizes them all not for the glory of the Lord but for self-glorification, name, fame and wealth.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Here the teacher is making out that the yogin here described is superior to the tapasvin, who retires to the forest for performing severe fasts and arduous practices, to the jnaanin who adopts the way of knowledge for obtaining release, with renunciation of action, to the karmin who performs the rites enjoined in the Vedas for obtaining rewards. The yoga which is said to be superior to the tapas, jnaana and karma, has the best of all the three and includes devotion also. Such a yogin pours himself forth in utter worship of the Divine seated within the hearts of all and his life is one of self forgetful service under the guidance of the Divine light.

Yoga of union with God which is attained through bhakti is the highest goal. The next verse points out that even among yogins the greatest is the devotee or the bhakta.

Jnaana here means saastrapaanditya or scriptural learning and not spiritual realisation.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

  Tapasvi: one who observes the austerities of speech, mind and body prescribed in chapter XVII. 14, 15 and 16.

Jnani: One who has knowledge of the scriptures (an indirect knowledge or theoretical knowledge of the Self).

Karmi: He who performs the Vedic rituals.

To all these the Yogi is superior, for he has direct knowledge of the Self through intuition or direct cognition through Nirvikalpa Samadhi. (Cf. V.2; XII.12; XIII. 24)

Comments by the blogger:

Here Krishna eulogises Dhyana or Meditation and asks Arjuna to become a Yogi of this sort.

We must not miss the point.

Arjuna is first asked to indulge in a violent war which is eulogised as his karma and as the war had come to the Chatriya or Warrior in him, He had said  if he dies in such a righteous war he would go directly to Heaven and if he wins the war he would become the Ruler of the mighty kingdom.

Now Sri Krishna wants Arjuna to take to meditation.

The irony is not lost.

This is what Arjuna had first desired to become, a wandering monk, meditating on the Lord and living on the alms the people or the householder would give!

At that time, Lord Krishna had tongue-lashed Arjuna. He had even asked why such a tendency belonging to a eunuch had come upon Arjuna who was a consummate warrior.

Elsewhere, Sri Krishna told Arjuna that one’s own karma was better even if one carried out it in a haphazard manner. That other’s swadharma or what is righteous to others as a duty, even if carried out to the full would just give fear and doubt. That one should carry out one’s own karma.

Now the same Lord calls upon Arjuna to become a monk of meditation!

Ostensibly it might look unacceptable.

But Sri Krishna taught Karma yoga to Arjuna who wanted to run away from the place of war and prepared to eat beggar’s bread even, and now, His student having mindful to give battle to the enemies, having become a student of Karma yoga and almost the war having been won in his mind, the Lord teach him dhyana or meditation.