A thing existing in the outside world may sometimes be veiled from our perception because we need certain favourable conditions for its full perception. In order to hear a sound, the sound produced must have the necessary frequency and the sound waves must also reach the ear-drum of the listener. Similarly, it is not sufficient that an object be in front of the eyes to give us the perception of it; it must be bathed in a beam of light, and only then can the eyes recognise it.
If I am groping in the darkness for a key that is on my table, and somebody switches the light on, I can say that he, with his kindly act, has brought me to the key. It is absurd to assume that the light has CREATED the key.
Following this analogy, the Self that is already existing in us, now ducking, as it were, behind conditions not favourable for its cognition, gets unveiled when these unfavourable conditions are removed. This negative atmosphere in our bosom that screens the Self is indicated here by the term “THE DARKNESS BORN OF IGNORANCE.” Even in the darkness of ignorance, remember, the Self is abiding; only it is not available for our intimate subjective experience. When the seekers who have established themselves in the above-mentioned “constant awareness of the Supreme,” master the Buddhi yoga, they become fit for the final experience of their real identity with the Self.
Earlier, we mentioned that Buddhi yoga amounts to the Samadhi-experience, even though there is yet a thin film of ego-centric experience-of-Bliss. In this stanza, we have a description of how, from the Savikalpa, the seeker is transported, unaware, as though by the intervention of some Divine Grace, into the consummate Nirvikalpa experience of the Infinite. In fact, upto the Savikalpa alone is the realm of conscious self-effort, and even the Buddhi yoga comes “from above” — meaning, it comes not as a result of any deliberate action, but is a spontaneous “partial revelation” when the density of the mist between the ego and the Self is thinned. The final phase experienced when the mist of ignorance is completely lifted is Self-revelation which comes in Its own Light.
A radium-dialled watch is kept on the table in a dark room. In the enveloping darkness I am searching for the watch. As I remove the various papers and books that have accumulated on the table, suddenly I come to recognise, by its own light, the watch so earnestly sought. The self-effulgent Truth, when hidden behind the fumes of ignorance, may, for the time being, appear as though non-existent. When the enveloping ignorance is removed, Its own Self-effulgence is sufficient to illumine it.
When the “DARKNESS OF IGNORANCE IS DESTROYED BY THE LUMINOUS LAMP-OF KNOWLEDGE,’ the Self stands revealed in its own glory as THE One-without-a-second, All-pervading, and All-full. This act of Self-revelation is undertaken and performed by the Lord, the Self, who ever “ABIDES IN THE HEART OF HIS VERY DEVOTEES.” This kindly act of revealing the Self is undertaken “in a spirit of compassion” — in fact, towards Itself. When I am tired of walking, I sit on the roadside in my pilgrimage — out of compassion for myself.
This compassion cannot be directly invoked unless the seeker pays the price for it. In day-time, when I open the windows of my room, the sunlight, “out of compassion,” illumines the room for me; and, we know that the sunlight has neither the freedom to withdraw this compassion so long as the windows are open, nor has it the capacity to show its compassion before the windows are opened. In short, the sunlight is invoked the moment, the object which obstructs the sunlight is removed.
Similarly, when a seeker, through the above-mentioned processes, comes to deserve Buddhi yoga, and practises it diligently, he succeeds in removing from himself all the veils of ignorance which are nothing but his own mental agitations caused by the cloudiness of his intellect. The self-effulgent Self then spontaneously reveals Itself, in Its own light. Lightning needs no other light to illumine it when it passes from one mass of clouds to the neighbouring clouds.
The instruction-portion for the highest vocation in life, viz., self-development and Self-realisation, concludes here, and yet, Arjuna is not satisfied, and is raising his doubt here requesting the Lord to help him gain a confirmation through actual experience.
HAVING HEARD THUS BOTH THE VIBHUTI AND YOGA OF THE LORD, DESCRIBED SO ELABORATELY IN THE FORE-RUNNING VERSES, ARJUNA ASKS:
