THE HOLY GITA. CHAPTER NUMBER 07, JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION, VERSE NUMBER 29

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 07

JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:

VERSE NUMBER 29

Text in Transliteration:

Jaraa marana mokshaaya maam aasritya yatanti ye

Te brahma tad viduh kritsnam adhyaatmam karma chaa ‘khilam

Text in English:

Those who take refuge in Me and strive for deliverance from decay and death, they realize in full that Brahman, the individual self and all karma.     

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The mind of man may take its own time to be delivered from the delusion of the pairs of opposites. But there are two other factors in life which are ever staring at man. Decay and death are the two factors unwanted by him. But he can never escape from their clutches. To lose one’s hard-earned vigour and to become a prey to death—are these the end of human life? To do deeds of rarity, to achieve the impossible and then to quit the world as if in banishment—is this the reward of life on earth? Death drives man to the necessity of raising questions of this type. Death does not allow him to be dormant. It gives him rude knocks and wakes him up to realities with which he is not acquainted. When the right enquiries are thereby made, the sadhaka or practitioner comes to know of the truths about Brahman, about himself and about karma.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

When a man wants to eat a fruit, he discards its shell and seeds and helps himself to the pulp. But when he wants to purchase that fruit or make a study of it, he has to take into account the shell, the seeds, the pulp and all the contents of the fruit. Very much like this, the seeker of God negates the world and goes to Him. But after God-realization he concludes that it is Brahman that puts on the appearance of the universe and the beings in it.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

They attain to the full knowledge of the Self or perfect knowledge of Brahman. They attain to the Brahma or the Highest or the Unconditioned. All their doubts are totally destroyed. They fully realize now, “All is Vasudeva. All indeed is Brahman. There is no such thing as diversity”

They are not reborn here and have thus conquered old age and death. They are liberated here and now.

Comments by the blogger:

Most of the people of the present times have no time to stand and think of one of the most profound questions of life. It is the irony of LIFE that every striving and question leads up to DEATH! Will the Scientists be able to find a solution for aging; aging in the proper sense of the term, I mean! Not these creams that are touted to be having the power of aging. Plastic surgery is one way to keep young for quite some time. One Hindi actress has undergone such a surgery, they say. And she has been treated with the tissues of the umbilical cord and placenta when she delivered a baby. They say she is insulated from cancer, the treatment and crafting of tissues are said to be capable of bringing in its wake. Let her keep her real beauty for a hundred years. Then what?

It is common to human beings to fall in love with one’s figure and face. And the psychiatrist would tell you that you must have self-worship. That if you lose self-worship, that would lead to depression. Well, it is a fact too. Our mirrors know our weakness. Our mirror at home is witness to our over-loving of ourselves. And the next fact is, howsoever beautiful we might be, we have to use facial cream and resort to facial massage and other things that prolong our beautiful look for some more time.

All these small frailties of human beings are all right. But great yogis never bothered about their looks. For example, when Swami Vivekananda was in America, he was to attend a meeting and give a speech. When he arrived at the building, the venue of the meeting, just as he was passing along the passage he found a full-length mirror and saw his beautiful figure reflected in it. Then he made to proceed further along the passage. But he could not. For he found himself coming back to the mirror and take a good look at his figure reflected back. When this practice went on for four or five times, a curious lady had come up to him and asked, “Is it really true that even great Swami like you cannot help appreciating his looks?” Well, that lady was not a hypocrite. She had come up with the first question that had popped up in her mind. After all, the handsome Swami was caught by her red-handed! But the Swami did not have to cut a sorry figure if you don’t mind the pun. Far from saying anything far-fetched and philosophic to throw the question back at the woman, the Swami exclaimed like a child to the woman, “Ma’am it wasn’t I was appreciating my looks. But every time I saw myself in the mirror something odd happened. I saw myself! But the moment I leave the mirror I seem to be forgetting how I looked!”

So that was the reason the great Yogi examined himself in the mirror so many times.

Nothing is wrong in our liking our own looks. Instead of being or becoming a depressed person, it is good we have healthy feelings and appreciation about our own looks.

But we fully know all this will not last forever. Yet this illusory world binds us.

When as a boy, Ramana Maharishi thought once that everyone around him and himself would go one day, he left the house with some rupees in hand and caught the next train to go where he had not known. That is the attitude only really great souls can have. Or we can say that they had evolved over the centuries to become attuned to God and God alone.

We can’t ape a Vivekananda or a Ramana Maharishi.

But at least we may have a healthy feeling and thinking about Death. One day we won’t be here and life would be the same for millions of people. All we thought, spoke and lived for would be forgotten within two generations even in our own families. Our spouse would think of us after we are gon till her or his death. Our children would often think of us. But when they themselves grow old and tottering, they would have little or no time to think of us, except for the yearly rites to our (departed) soul’s benefit. After that, our grandchildren’s child would have no time to think of us even as a young man or woman. SO, EVEN IN OUR OWN FAMILIES, NOT EVEN TWO THREE GENERATIONS WOULD THINK OFTEN OF US. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG IN IT, YOU KNOW? FOR HOW MANY TIMES DID WE THINK TODAY OF OUR DEPARTED GRANDPARENTS? SO... IT IS THE WAY OF THE WORLD, OK? SO NOTHING WRONG IN IT.

But for our own soul’s sake, how beautiful it would be if we could think of God, our millennial Master for a few times in between our work! Just try to chant the name of your favourite Deity for a hundred times a day as when you take a regular morning walk or some other times and see the liveliness it fills you with. The chanting of the Lord’s Name would be our way of withstanding our daily tension in life. Over the years it would become a habit for us. And chant Narayana or Namahshivaya as you prefer. But the result is the same. We can withstand any kind of pressure. We should cultivate the art of taking refuge in the Lord, our Master.