This stanza plans the life, living which, Yoga can be more successfully cultivated. Moderation in eating and recreation, in sleep and activities, is the prescription that has been insisted upon for Yoga by the Lord.
In indicating the blessed life of temperance and self-control, Krishna has used such a select vocabulary that the words have the fragrance of an ampler suggestiveness. An ordinary seeker takes to some sacred work in a misguided belief that “selfless work” will create in him more worthiness for his spiritual life. Many seekers have I met, who have, in the long run, fallen a prey to their own activities because of this false notion. In this stanza, we have a clear direction as to how to avoid the victimization of ourselves by the work that we undertake.
Not only must we be temperate — discriminately careful in choosing the right field of activity — but we must also see that the EFFORTS that we put into that activity are moderate (cheshtasya). Having selected a divine work, if we get bound and enslaved in its programme of effort, the chances are that the work, instead of redeeming us from our existing vasanas, will create in us more and more new tendencies, and in the exhaustion created by the work, we will slowly sink into agitations and, perhaps, even into animalism.
When Krishna wants to indicate the Absolute necessity for moderation regarding sleep and wakefulness, the phrases which he uses are very significant. ‘Swapna’ is the term used for indicating that total conscious life of the ego’s active experience in the world. Elsewhere, in the Upanishads also, the entire life’s experiences have been classified under the ‘state of sleep’ (the non-apprehension of Reality) and the ‘state of dream, (the mis-apprehension of Reality) wherein the waking state is also included.
The term Avabodha, used here, echoes the scriptural goal explained as Absolute Knowledge. To all intelligent and serious students of the Upanishads, the term, as used here, carries a secret message; that the meditator should not over-indulge either in the life of mis-apprehensions nor in those deep silent moments of pure meditation — the moments of Avabodha. Krishna indicates that Sadhakas, during their early practices, should not over-indulge in the world of their perceptions nor try to practise meditation for too long and weary hours and force inner silence.
In the same stanza, by two insignificant-looking words, Krishna has conveyed to all generations of Geeta students, an indication why Yoga is to be practised at all. “IT IS CAPABLE OF DESTROYING ALL MISERIES.”
WHEN DOES ONE BECOME A SAINT PERFECTLY STEADFAST (YUKTAH)?
