The thought that was developed so far has indeed painted a miserable picture of the Spirit inescapably entangled in the three gunas. A student of the Geeta would, at this stage, perhaps, feel despaired at a false idea that there may be no escape at all for him. One who is standing in a running train is himself constantly on the move even though he is standing motionless! As long as he is travelling on the train, the movement of the train is also his movement. But the moment he alights and stands on the platform the train alone moves, and not he. So too, the Spirit identifying Itself with, and therefore, riding on the mind-intellect-equipment, dances to the moods of the mind determined by the three gunas. To stand apart from the mind by ending all our identifications with it, is to get complete freedom from the thraldom of our thought entanglements.
WHEN THE SEER BEHOLDS — This art of disentangling ourselves from our own thought-processes within, is the very art of meditation. A meditator, who is capable of doing so, will BEHOLD, EXPERIENCE SUBJECTIVELY, the State of Pure Knowledge, uncontaminated by the dance of the thoughts. It is called “seeing,” not in the sense one is seeing a table or a chair; God cannot be seen; He is not an “object” of our perception, or feeling, or thought. He is the “SUBJECT,” that PERCEIVES through us, that FEELS in us, that THINKS with us. But here the word “behold” is used only to indicate that the subjective experience shall be so total, so complete and so convincing, as when we have actually “SEEN” an object — that afterwards there can be no more any speculations about such an experience! Having seen a thing, no man can ever have any doubt regarding the appearance of the thing he has seen.
NO AGENT OTHER THAN THE GUNAS — The experiencer of the Self not only realises himself to be the Infinite but also understands that his ego, which was previously claiming to be the agent in all his activities, was none other than these gunas themselves. Gunas govern and direct the entire thought-life at all times in everyone of us and, therefore, gunas, here means the very SUBTLE-BODY. When we say “a crowded assembly of intelligence” we mean intelligent men. Similarly, please note carefully, gunas here means the MINDS of individuals of distinct and differing temperaments.
AND KNOWS HIM WHO WHICH IS HIGHER THAN THE GUNAS — The mind cannot function of its own accord, nor can it perceive by itself its feelings, it being a by-product of inert matter. Consciousness which functions in and through the mind, making it brilliant and dynamic must be a principle that is other than the mind. If a bucket of water looks like molten silver, it must have borrowed the brilliance from the Sun or the moon, for it to shine forth. Water in itself has no brilliance. Now, if the reflection dances or breaks up, it must be because of the nature of the water in the bucket and not because the Sun itself is dancing in the sky! The Consciousness reflecting in the mind is the “agent,” the individualised ego (jiva) in us, who suffers the sense of self-shatterings.
He who has understood that he is not “the reflection in his own mind” but that which is reflected therein — something other than the mind and therefore something higher than the gunas — he is the one who has escaped forever the shackles of all limitations, the tears of all sorrows and the sighs of all disappointments.
HE ATTAINS TO MY BEING — An individual who has thus transcended his own mind and intellect and has positively rediscovered himself to be that which was lending to his own mind the capacity to delude himself, that Man-of-Wisdom becomes the Self. Lord Krishna is not to be confused with Shri Krishna, the son of Devaki, or the Divine Flute-player of Vrindavana. He is talking here as the Life in every one of us and each student of the Geeta must understand that his own life is talking to the confused ego within himself.
A WAKER creates sorrowful situations in himself and comes to fear and weep, lose and gain, mourn and smile in his dream. All his joys and sorrows belong to the “dreamer” in himself. When awake, the dream and the dream-sorrows end, and the “dreamer” himself becomes the “waker.” If, to the “dreamer” in his sorrows, the waking-consciousness were to manifest and advise, it would have repeated this stanza to the “dreamer”: “When you, the dreamer, behold no agent other than the dreaming mind and know in yourself that which is higher than the dreaming mind, you shall attain to My being — the waking consciousness.”Similarly here, Krishna, the manifested God-Consciousness is explaining to man that his ego-centric life and activities, its sorrows and joys, achievements and despairs — all belong to the waker-dreamer-sleeper-personality and on transcending them all, he shall really AWAKE to the Truth, and there BECOME one with It. A dreamer, on waking, cannot still remain a dreamer but must himself become the waker. Similarly, Spirit entangled in Matter is man and, man disentangled from its Matter identifications not only rediscovers but also becomes the Spirit; “ATTAINS TO MY BEING.”NOW THE LORD PROCEEDS TO TEACH HOW ONE CAN ATTAIN THIS GREAT GOAL:
