THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 08
AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN:
VERSE NUMBERS 09 AND 10
Text in Transliteration:
kavim puraanam anusasitaaram
anor aneeyaamsam amusmared yah
sarvasya dhaataaram achintya roopam
aadiyavarnam tamasah parastaat
10
Prayaanakaale manasaa ‘chalena
Bhak tyaa yuk to yogabalena chai ‘va
Bhruvor madhye praanam aavesya samyak
Sa tam param purusam upaiti divyam
Text in English:
The omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler, Minuter than an atom, the Supporter of all, of Form inconceivable, Effulgent like the sun, and Beyond all darkness; he who meditates on this Resplendent, Supreme Purusha, at the time of death, with a steady mind, devotion and strength of yoga, well fixing the entire Prana in the middle of the eyebrows, he reaches Him.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
These are the fit states of the mind and praana or life energy, when the yogi finally renounces the body and re-enters Brahma-nirvaanam or the Cosmic Consciousness, Constant practice or abhyaas-yoga is the sure means to achieve this sublime end. The eight-fold glory of the lord has to be deeply meditated on daily so that the mind and intellect be cast permanently in that divine mould. The eight super-mundane distinctions of Iswara are:-
Kavi—the Omniscient. One can discern the presence of intelligence as the background of the functioning of the entire cosmos. The personal intelligence of all beings is derived from this Cosmic Intelligence. Attuning one’s personal understanding to this Pure Consciousness is meditation.
Puraana is the Ancient One. Prior to Him there is nothing. The Original Stuff of everything sentient and insentient is He.
Anusaasitaa is the Ruler. He designs the structure and carries out the working of the entire cosmos. Everything is included in His regime.
Anoraneeyaan is the Subtlest of the subtle. There is naught finer than Pure Consciousness. It persists because of Its subtlety.
Sarvasya Dhaataa is He who is the Support of all. As the ocean is the support of the waves that have come out of it, so is Brahman the Support of the universe that has come out of It.
Acintyaroopa is what is Incomprehensible to the unrefined mind. It can be grasped only to the extent the mind gets purified.
Aadityavarna is the Effulgence of the sun which is ever the same. The sun never rises nor sets though it seems so to us, in relation with the revolving earth. Paramatman undergoes no modification even as the sun does not.
Tamasah parastaat is the state of the Paramatman being supremely Above the darkness of ignorance exactly as the sun is not affected by a patch of cloud seeming to hide it. The Effulgence of Iswara is ever itself, untouched by the modifications of prakriti.
Acala-manas, bhakti, yoga-balam—these three divine gifts are interrelated. That mind which does not waver for any reason whatsoever, but is ever steady in its godly pursuit is endowed with the first gift. As it grows in purity, the devotion which is the second gift spontaneously manifests itself in the sadhaka or practitioner. The practice of yoga being a part and parcel of his life, he steadily rises in spiritual stature, the physical, mental and moral strength accruing from it stands him in good stead. He evolves into a sterling personality.
A man endowed with spiritual strength is fully equipped for the battle of life. Knotty problems of life are all solved by him as a matter of course. Death is no terror to him. He puts it on a par with life and faces both with the same equanimity. The yogi is ever himself, both in life and death.
Praana or life-energy of the ordinary man leaves the body at death through the apertures. But it goes out differently when the yogi departs from the body. It gets concentrated between the eye-brows and exits through the skull. This last event is also the outcome of the strength of yoga.
COMMENTARY OF DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
For Verse 09
See Svetaasvatara Upanishad., III, 18
Kavi: seer. It is taken to mean omniscient.
Here is a description not of the relationless, immutable Absolute but of Isvara, the Personal God, Seer, Creator and Ruler of the cosmos. He is the light opposed to darkness.
For Verse 10
Apparently, this practice is possible only for those who choose the moment of death by the power of yoga.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
For Verse 09
Kavim: The sage, seer or poet, the omniscient.
The Lord dispenses the fruits of actions of the Jivas (individual souls). He is the Ruler of the world. It is very difficult to conceive the form of the Lord. He is self-luminous and He illumines everything like the sun.
For Verse 10
The Yogi gets immense inner strength and power of concentration. His mind becomes quite steady through constant practice of concentration and meditation. He practises concentration first on the lower Chakras, viz., Muladhara, Svadhishthana and Manipura. He then concentrates on the lotus of the heart (Anahata Chakra). Then he takes the life-breath (Prana) through the Sushumna and fixes it in the middle of the two eyebrows. He eventually attains the resplendent Supreme Purusha (Person) by the above Yogic practice.
This is possible for one who has devoted his whole life to the practice of Yoga.
Comments by the blogger:
This is how the thorough-bread Yogi chooses his last moment on the planet.
Verse 9 gives us the Supreme attributes of the Personal Lord or Iswara. He is a kavi. Purana or He is the Ancient one. Anusaasitaa or He is the Ruler of the Cosmos. Anoraneeyaan in other words, He is the Subtlest of the Subtle. Sarvasya Dhaataa is He who is the support of all. acintyaroopa is what is Incomprehensible to the unrefined mind. aadityavarna is the Effulgence of the sun. Tamasah parastaat is the state of the Paramatman who is above the darkness.
We should know these attributes of God our Master. Only then we may, while in prayer, think deeply of these attributes of the Lord masterly listed out by Swami Sidbhavananda. I think so I am. If we continuously think of the Supreme attributes of the Lord, in course of time, a modicum of those attributes would become ours. That is why we should allow time for daily prayer. Chanting the name of the Lord has its own virtue. Apart from this, we should think of the Lord’s ineffable attributes. Whatever we think constantly we, in course of time, become that. For this Swami Sivananda has given the example of the wasp biting the caterpillar daily so that it would think constantly of the wasp. And in course of time, the caterpillar would become a wasp! What we constantly are thinking of we become that! This is purely psychological.
Then the way a consummate yogi gives up his life is described in stanza 10. We may ask ourselves why should I know this? I’m no yogi! No, we are yogis practising mainly the yoga of devotion. All the four kinds of Yoga bring the jivas or beings to the Supreme Brahman only. And if we, I mean most of us have the yoga of devotion in our system. We have been brought up by our parents to be that way. Moreover, many of you may be consciously karma yogis. While others may be that way even without knowing the fact! So the yoga of devotion and the yoga of action are good for us. But there is nothing wrong in knowing the other two methods of Yoga! everything must first be conceived in the mind. We must form a conception of the other two kinds of Yoga and the great Yogis who practise them. By this our understanding grows deep.
Not everyone can become a Yogi of the type who chooses his moment of death and takes his Prana or Breath to the point in between the two eyebrows and leaves like a Royal Maharaja. We have to experience the leaving of our life force through one of the nine gates of this body. But let us know that there are Yogis who leave their body by taking their breath up so it leaves between the eyebrows. At some moment of our birth or rebirth, we too are going to go like that!
No comments:
Post a Comment