THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER 06
DHYANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF MEDITATION:
VERSE NUMBER 10
Text in Transliteration:
yogi yunjeeta satatam aatmaanam rahasi sthitah
ekaakee yatacittaatmaa niraasir aparigrahah
Text in English:
A yogi should always try to concentrate his mind living alone in solitude, having subdued his mind and body and got rid of desires and possessions.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
It is in solitude that the mental worth of one is truly seen into. When an aspirant shuts himself up in a room, he knows that there are people in the other rooms and they know that he is confined to a particular room. A setting like this does not fulfil the condition of the sadhaka (practitioner) being alone in solitude. Others should not know about his whereabouts and he should have none but God to commune with. The thought of food rushes to the forefront when one chooses to fast. Akin to it, the untrained mind becomes more turbulent when placed in solitude; suppressed desires would then try to gain ground. But if the mind chooses to commune with the Divine, instead, it augurs well for it. That is really the state of desirelessness. It is by being alone in solitude that one’s mind can truly be assessed by oneself.
He is not a good chauffeur who has not learnt to apply the brake properly and stop the moto-car. The human body may be likened to a car. People have learnt ever to drive it on, but they do not know how to suspend its activities voluntarily. Instead of being masters of the body, they are slaves to it. He is a yogi who has learnt to make proper use of the body and to keep it quiet at his will. Quieting down the body and mind is meditation.
Minimizing the bodily requirements is imperative for spiritual advancement. He is a yogi who has reduced his bodily needs to the bare minimum. And no thought whatsoever is to be given to the possession of those few things, lest they should interfere with his meditation. Relinquishment of possession and idea of possessions, is a prelude to good meditation.
SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
The truly virtuous man is he who commits no sin even when he is all by himself. That is no virtue which is practised for fear of public opinion. He alone is established in self-control who does not lustfully think of a woman in privacy or in public. He alone is established in self-control who does not cast a covetous eye on the gold coins that he comes across even in deserted house. That alone is virtue which is practised quietly and unostentatiously.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
Here the teacher develops the technique of mental discipline on the lines of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Its main purpose is to raise our consciousness from its ordinary waking condition to higher levels until it attains union with the Supreme. The human mind is ordinarily turned outwards. Absorption in the mechanical and material sides of life leads to a disbalanced condition of consciousness and helps to integrate the conscious and the subconscious.
We must divest our minds of all sensual desires, abstract our attention from all external objects and absorb it in the objects and absorb it in the object of meditation see B.G., XVIII, 72, where the teacher asks Arjuna whether he heard his teaching with his mind fixed to one point, ekaagrena cetasaa. As the aim is the attainment of purity of vision, it exacts of the mind fineness and steadiness. Our present dimensions are not the ultimate limits of of our being. By summoning all the energies of the mind and fixing them on one poin, we rais the level of reference from the empirical to the real, from observation to vision and let the spirit take possession of our whole being. In the Hook of Proverbs, it is said that “the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” There is something in the inmost being of man which can be struck into flame by God.
satatam; constantly. The practice must be constant. It is no use taking to meditation by fits and starts. A continuous creative effort is necessary for developing the higher, the intenser form of consciousness.
Rahasi: in solitude. The aspirant must select a quiet place with soothing natural surroundings such as the banks of rivers or tops of hills which lift our hearts and exalt our minds. In a world which is daily growing noisier, the duty of the civilized man is to have moments of thoughtful stillness. Cp. “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closest—and shut the door. We should retire into a quiet place and keep off external distractions Cp. Origen’s description of the first hermits: “They dwelt in the desert where the air was more pure and the heaven more open and God more familiar.”
ekaakee; alone.the teacher insists that the seeker should be alone to feel the genle pressure, to hear the quiet voice.
Yatachittaatmaa; self-controlled. He must not be excited, strained or anxious. To learn to be quiet before God means a life of control and discipline. aatmaa is used in the sense of deha or body, accorking to Shankara and Sridhara. It is no use entering the closet with the daily paper and the business file. Even if we leave them outside and shut the doors and winows, we may have an unquiet time with all our worries and preoccupations. There should be no restlessness or turbulence. Through thoughts we appeal to the intellect; through silence we touch the deeper layers of being. The heart must become clean if it is to reflect God who is to be seen and known only by the puree in heart. We must centre down into that deep stillness and wait on the Light. “Commune with your Father which is in secret” the Living Presence of God is revealed in silence to each soul according to his capacity, and need.
Plato’s Meno begins with the question, “Can you tell me, Socrates, is virtue to be taught?” The answer of Socrates is, that virtue is not taught but “recollected”. Recollection is a gathering of one’s self together, a retreat into one’s soul. The doctrine of “recollection” suggests that each individual should enquire within himself. He is his own centre and possesses the truth in himself. What is needed is that he should have the will and the perseverance to follow it up. The function of the teacher is not to teach but to help to put the learner in possession of himself. The questioner has the true answer in himself, if only he can be delivered of it. Every man is in possession of the truth and is dispossessed of it by his entanglement in the objective world. by identifying ourselves with the objective world, we are ejected or alienated from our true nature. Lost in the outer world we desert the deeps. In transcending the object, physical and mental, we find ourselves in the realm of freedom.
niraashi free from desires .Worry about daily needs, about earning and spending money, disturbs meditation and takes us away from the life of the spirit. So we are asked to be free from desire and anxiety born of it, from greed and fear. The seeker should try to tear himself away from these psychic fetters and get detached from all distractions and prejudices. He must put away all clinging to mental preferences, vital aims, attachment to family and friends. He must expect nothing, insist on nothing.
Aparigrahah; free from longing for possessions. This freedom is a spiritual state, not a material condition. We must control the appetite for possessions, free ourselves from the tyranny of belongings. One cannot hear God’s voice, if one is restless and self-centred, if one is dominated by feelings of pride, self-will of possessiveness. The Gita points out that true happiness is inward. It invites our attention to the manner of our life, the state of human consciousness, which does not depend on the outward machinery of life. The body may die and the world pass away but the life in spirit endures. Our treasures are not the things of the world that perish but the knowledge and love of God that endure. We must get out of the slavery to things to gain the glad freedom of spirit.
COMMENTARY OF SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The yogi who treads the path of renunciation (Nivritti-Marga) can practise meditation in a solitary cave in the mountains. He should renounce all possessions.
A householder with Yogic tendencies and spiritual inclination can practise meditation in a solitary and quiet room in his own house or any solitary place on the banks of any holy river (during the holidays or throughout the year if he is a whole-time aspirant or if he has retired from service).
The practice must be constant. Only then can one attain Self-realisation surely and quickly. He who practises meditation by fits and starts and for a few minutes daily will not be able to achieve any tangible results in Yoga. The Yogic aspirant should be free from hope, desire and greed. Only then will he have a steady mind. Hope, desire and greed make the mind ever restless and turbulent. They are the enemies of peace and Self-Knowledge. The aspirant should not have many possessions either. He can only keep those articles which are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of his body. If there are many possessions, the mind will be ever thinking of them and attempting to protect them.
If you are well established in the practice of pratyahara, Sama and Dama (withdrawal of the senses, control of mind and the body respectively), if you have the senses under your full control, you can find perfect solitude and peace even in the most crowded and noisy place of a big city. If the senses are turbulent, if you have not got the power to withdraw them, you will have no peace of mind even in a solitary cave of the Himalayas. A disciplined Yogi who has controlled the senses and the mind can enjoy peace of mind in a solitary cave. A passionate man who has hot controlled the senses and the mind will only be building castles in the air if he lives in a solitary cave in a mountain.
He who has reduced his want, who has not a bit of attraction for the world, who has discrimination and burning aspiration for liberation, and who has observed Mouna (the vow of silence) for months together will be able to live in a cave.
You should have perfect control over the body through the regular practice of Yoga Asanas before you take to serious and constant mediation.
Aparigraha means “non-covetousness”, “freedom from possessions”.
The spiritual aspirant need not bother himself about his bodily needs. Everything is provided by God. Everything is pre-arranged by Mother Nature. She looks after the bodily needs of all very carefully in a more efficient manner than they themselves would do. She knows better what the requirements are and provides them then and there. Understand the mysterious ways of Mother Nature and become wise. Be grateful to Her for Her unique kindness, grace and mercy.
If you want to retire into solitude for the practice of meditation, and if you are a householder with thirst for intense spiritual Sadhana, you cannot all of a sudden sever your connection with your family. Sudden severance os worldly ties may produce intense mental agony in you and shock in them. you will have to break the ties gradually. Stay for a week or a month in seclusion to begin with. Then gradually prolong the period. They will not feel the pangs of separation from you.
As your will has become very weak, as you had no religious discipline or training in schools and colleges when you were young, and as you are under the sway of materialistic influences, it is necessary for you to go in for seclusion for some days or weeks (during the Christmas, Easter or other holidays) to practise rigorous Japa and meditation and to develop your will-power.
Those who have fixed up their sons in life and who have retired from service, and who have discharged their duties as householders can practise intense meditation and Tapas (penance) for self-purification and Self-realaisation. This is like entering a university or postgraduate course of study. When the Tapas is over, and when they have attained to Self-knowledge, they should come out and share their knowledge of the Self with others through lectures, conversations, discourses or heart-to-heart talks according to their capacity and disposition.
How can sense-control be tested in a lonely forest where there are no temptations? The Yogic student living in a cave should test himself after he has sufficiently advanced, by coming into the society of people. But he should not test himself every now and then like the man who removed the young plant daily after watering it to see whether it had struck deep root or not.
Comments by the blogger:
The yogi must first subdue his mind and body and get rid of desires and worldly possessions. Then he should go to a place like the forest or Himalayan cave and observe solitude or live in solitude. This is the conducive atmosphere for him to concentrate on his Self or the Maker.
Then only he can realize his soul.
Human brain has trillions of cells. A child uses one cell to memorise one thing, colour, sound, emotion, etc.
Even a healthy man who is highly erudite and lives a hundred does not use more than a quarter of his brain cell. Thus trillions of cells remain empty and unused till death. Only a yogi who has completely realised himself could be said to have used all the cell of the brain! The greatest of the twentieth century scientist like Albert Ainstine could be safely said to have used up and filled up at least half the number of his brain cells! Such is the power of the yogi. Such is the power of the realisation of one’s self!
Each human being is endowed with trillions of brain cells! This goes to prove all of us are fir for God-realisation. We are but tiny expression of God. When we realise our Self we become coeval with the Lord. Thus each man is endowed with the power of Self-realisation!
Now, coming to the solitude, why should we shed all possessions and go into the forest and sit in a cave and live in solitude before concentrating on the Self?
Solitude has a propelling power which intensifies and facilitates the concentration of a practitioner.
This may be expressed through an example.
The aerodynamics involved in the flight of an aeroplane is well-known. The great blades of the aeroplanes’ propellants revolve at high speed. They are curved in such a way that when they are in operation, they push the air in front of them for many metres; thus they create a temporary but absolute void in front of the Plane at flight. When this absolute void happens, all the volume of air at the back of the plane rushes with awesome force to fill up that void. The body and tail and the wings of the planes are so formed that they harvest this phenomenal force to push the plane forward with tremendous power. As the blades of the propellants of the plane are in continuous rotating action, the plane is pushed forward and it is enabled to fly like birds but at great speed.
The solitude at the Himalayan cave works as the void created by the blades of the propellants. The worldliness is surrounding the man both inside and outside. We are nothing but five senses till we realise our Self’s power and nature. Our senses are always living among the sense objects of the nature. Now the prakriti or nature will encourage us to indulge in sense objects to the full. Only when we realise our real nature which is coeval with our Maker, we try to pull ourselves away from the sense objects. There is a choice given by the Maker. Despite the repelling forces of our individual fate, we can exercise this choice given by our Maker and studiously avoid from becoming a slave to our senses. A yogi is called upon to leave the society and live alone in solitude. This solitude works as the “void” created by the propellants of the aeroplanes. This enabling void or silence works great miracle in enabling us to indulge in deep concentration on the Self or God for longer hours every day. Gradually the yogi sheds all the worldliness and becomes a realised soul.
The greatest twentieth century Tamil poet, Subramaniya Bharathi has written that there is much essence in solitude.
The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, observed silence for a full day every week. On the days of silence he would only write out notes on pieces of papers in important matters. He is a great exponent and given a great testimony about the intense purifying effect of silence.
When this silence happence in solitude absolute, the yogi is enabled to concentrate.
