In the previous stanza extreme emphasis was placed on practice. But what constitutes the spiritual practice (Abhyasa) was not indicated, even indirectly, in that verse. A scientific book that leaves missing links, either in its arguments, or in its logic, is no text-book at all. In the stanza under review, Krishna is giving a direct clue to what He means by the term ‘practice’ (Abhyasa).
He declares that the uncontrolled, and therefore, the totally dissipated person, cannot bring into the field of religion the necessary amount of dynamic vigour and vitality to sustain him till he reaches the peak of his Self-rediscovery. It is therefore said: “Yoga IS HARD TO BE ATTAINED BY ONE OF UNCONTROLLED SELF.”
An individual who barters himself away to slave among the sense-objects according to the mad dictates of his flesh — or he who dances to the death-tunes sung by his sensuous mind — or he who roams about endlessly to fulfil the tyrannical demands of a drunken intellect — such a one has neither peace of mind nor the strength of sustained aspiration to goad him on towards the Temple-of-Truth within himself.
As long as the sense-organs are not properly controlled, ‘the agitations of the mind’ cannot be pacified. An agitated mind is no instrument, either for listening or for reflection or for meditation — and without these three, the ‘veiling power’ cannot be rolled up. The agitations (Vikshepa) and veiling (Avarana) are caused by ‘activity’ (Rajas) and ‘inactivity’ (Tamas), and we have already found that, without controlling these two temperaments, the ‘un-activity’ (Sattwa) cannot come to predominate in the seeker.
It is natural, in a discussion, that you have to present your own arguments against a team of opposite arguments so that the discriminative intellect of the listener may, by contrast, easily judge the acceptability and logic of your view-point. Krishna uses here this commonplace technique of every drawing-room, when He, in the second line, explains as a contrast, how “THE SELF-CONTROLLED, STRIVING HARD, BY RIGHT MEANS, CAN OBTAIN IT.” Self-control, achieved through the process of total withdrawal of the sense-organs from their respective objects, is the beginning of spiritual life… and this is never possible until we learn to turn our minds to the Higher Truth.
Even in ordinary life, when he wants to achieve something solid, the man-of-the-world will have to live to a large extent in self-denial. The life of a candidate during election time, that of a student before examinations, or of an actor or a dancer before his first performance… are all examples wherein we find that the individuals deny themselves all their idle preoccupations in their anxiety for success in their respective fields. If, for material gains and flimsy ephemeral glories, we have to deny ourselves, how much more should we deny ourselves the joys of the world outside in order to win the glories of the Eternal and the Permanent, the Infinite and the Absolute Bliss of the Self!
It is not that the seeker should deny himself all sense-objects. This seems to be the general misunderstanding among almost all seekers in India to-day. In the name of religion or spiritual practice, many seekers, at least for some years, live seemingly in self-denial and self-punishment, shamelessly insulting themselves and carelessly persecuting their own physical urges and even biological needs. This sort of a devilish and suicidal self-condemning tyranny of oneself, always ends in an outburst of Satanic forces from within the very seeker.
Lest the student of the Geeta also should fall a prey to such a misunderstood and misconceived spirituality, Bhagawan indicates here, that the self-controlled seeker can, “STRIVING RIGHTLY, OBTAIN IT.” Not going to a cinema and not visiting the playgrounds are not, in themselves, assurances that the students will pass their examinations. The time wasted in such merry-making must be properly utilised in intelligent study, which alone can vouchsafe for them a success in their examinations. Here too, if a student appearing for an examination in mathematics, were to read the whole night geography text-books, he cannot hope for any glorious success; he must STRIVE RIGHTLY in order to gain true success.
Similarly, when through self-control, a seeker has conserved in himself energies which would otherwise have got dissipated in the gutters of sensuality, he must know how to direct those energies into the right channels, whereby he can get himself detached from his misconceived self-projections and ultimately realise for himself his own Self-hood. That such an intelligent seeker “CAN OBTAIN IT” is the optimistic philosophy of this ever-smiling God of the Hindus, Lord Krishna.
With these two verses, Krishna exhaustively answers the question raised by Arjuna, and what follows clearly indicates that the Pandava Prince has been convinced by the Lord’s reply.
THE QUESTION YET REMAINS OF WHAT WOULD BE THE LOT OF ONE, ‘SELF-CONTROLLED, AND STRIVING HARD THROUGH RIGHT MEANS; WHO COULD NOT YET FULFIL AND REACH THE GOAL:
