Gita Chapter 6

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)?

Yogah bhavati, Yoga becomes; duhkha-ha, a destroyer of sorrow-that which destroys (hanti) all sorrows (duhkhani)-, i.e., Yoga destroys all worldly sorrows; yukta-ahara-viharasya, of one whose eating and movements are regulated- ahara (lit. food) means all that is gathered in, [According to the Commentator, ahara, which also means food, includes mental ‘food as well. See Ch. 7.26.2.-Tr.] and vihara means moving about, walking; one for whom these two are regulated (yukta) is yukta-ahara-vihara-; and also yukta-cestasya, of one whose effort (cesta) is moderate (yukta); karmasu, in works; similarly, yukta-svapna-avabodhasya, of one whose sleep (svapna) and wakefulness (avabodha) are temperate (yukta), have regulated periods. To him whose eating and movements are regulated, whose effort in work is moderate, whose sleep and wakefulness are temperate, Yoga becomes a destroyer of sorrows. When does a man become concentrated? That is being presently stated:

This and the following five stanzas are a dissertation on the fruits of Yoga and they explain what a perfect meditator can gain in life, and what his experiences are while living in this world during and after his spiritual realisation.

Throughout the Geeta, so far, Krishna has been stressing the necessity of one quality, steadfastness (yuktah). A complete and exhaustive definition has not so far been given to explain this crucial term, although sufficient hints have been thrown in here and there, to indicate the nature of the man who is steadfast in devotion and Yoga; here we have almost a complete definition of it.

When the mind is completely under control, the stanza claims, it “RESTS SERENELY IN THE SELF ALONE.” A little reflection can bring the truth of the statement into our easy comprehension. An uncontrolled mind is one which frantically gallops on, seeking satisfaction among the sense-objects. We have already been told that the mind can be withdrawn from its preoccupations with its usual sense-objects, only when it is firmly tied down to the contemplation of the Self, which is the Eternal Substratum, the Conscious Principle that illumines all perceptions and experiences. Naturally therefore, a mind that is fully controlled is a mind which has lost itself, as it were, in the steady and continuous contemplation upon the Self.

The above explanation is endorsed by the second line of the stanza which gives us an inkling as to the means by which we can fix our mind on the Supreme. “FREE FROM LONGING AFTER ALL DESIRES” — is the means that has been suggested repeatedly throughout the Lord’s Song. It is unfortunate that hasty commentators have unconsciously, come to over-emphasize the “renunciation of all desires” as the cardinal virtue in Hinduism. There is an ocean of difference between the ‘DESIRES’ and the ‘LONGING AFTER DESIRES.’ Desires in themselves are not unhealthy, nor can they actually bring about any sorrow unto us. But the disproportionate amount of our clinging to our desires is the cancer of the mind that brings about all the mortal agonies into life.

For example, desire for wealth is healthy, inasmuch as it encourages the mind to act and to accomplish, to acquire and to keep, to earn and to save. But when desire POSSESSES an individual in such a way that he becomes almost hysterical with over-anxiety, it makes him incompetent to put forth any substantial creative effort and accomplish glories worthy of the dignity of man.

A desire in itself cannot and does not bring about storms in the mind, as our longing after those very same desires does. The Geeta advises us only to renounce our YEARNINGS for all objects of desires.

Through discrimination and proper intellectual evaluation of the sense-objects, when an individual has withdrawn his mind from its usual sense-gutters, the mind comes to take hold of the subtler and the diviner theme of the Self for its contemplation. The limited and the finite sense-objects agitate the mind, while the Unlimited and the Infinite Self brings peace and joy into it. This condition of sense-withdrawal and the entry of the mind into the Self is called its condition of steadfastness (Yuktah). Such an individual has a fully integrated (Yuktah) personality.

SUCH A YOGIN’S INTEGRATED MIND IS DESCRIBED BELOW:

A yogi, nihsprhah, who has become free from hankering, thirst; sarva-kamebhyah, for all desirable objects, seen and unseen; is tada, then; ucyate, said to be; yuktah, Self-absorbed; yada, when; the viniyatam, controlled; cittam, mind, the mind that has been made fully one-pointed by giving up thought of external objects; avatisthate, rests; atmani eva, in the non-dual Self alone, i.e. he gets established in his own Self. An illustration in being given for the mind of that yogi which has become Self-absorbed:

As an efficient complement to the previous verse, this stanza explains the mind of the Yogi of collected thoughts, who is absorbed in Yoga. This explanation is given through the help of a famous simile: “as a lamp in a spot sheltered from the wind does not flicker.” The example is quite appropriate inasmuch as the mind is fickle and unsteady as the tip of a flame. Thoughts appear in the mind every second, in a continuous stream, and these constant thought disturbances — each dying, yielding its place to a new one — give us the apprehension of a solid factor called the mind. Similarly, the tip of a flame also, (it can be experimentally proved) is never steady, but the flickering is so fast, that it gives us an illusion of a definite shape and solidity.

When this flame is well protected from the fickle breeze, it becomes steady in its upward flight. In the same fashion the flame of the mind, flickering at the whims and fancies of the passing sensuous desires, when arrested in meditation, becomes steadily brilliant although its thoughts are employed in the contemplation of the Self by a constant flow of Brahmakara Vritti. In short, repeated and constant thoughts of Brahman — Vast and Infinite, Eternal and Blissful, the Substratum for the entire Universe — is the “Yoga of the Self (Yogam atmanah).

HAVING THUS, THROUGH MEDITATION, BECOME SINGLE-POINTED, WHAT WOULD BE THE STAGES OF PROGRESS ACCOMPLISHED? THIS IS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING FOUR STANZAS:

Yatha, as; a dipah, lamp; nivata-sthah, kept in a windless place; na ingate, does not flicker; sa upama, such is the simile-that with which something is compared is an upama (smile)-; smrta, thought of, by the knowers of Yoga who understand the movements of the mind; yoginah, for the yogi; yata-citasya, whose mind is under control; and yunjatah, who is engaged in; yogam, concentration; atmanah, on the Self, i.e. who is practising Self-absorption. By dint of practising Yoga thus, when the mind, comparable to a lamp in a windless place, becomes concentrated, then-

Krishna is repeating the same idea, lest Arjuna should overlook the fact that what they call Samnyasa, the “renunciation of agency,” is itself Yoga, the “renunciation of the fruits-of-action.” Samnyasa is the state reached through Yoga, the practice; and the spiritual practice of Yoga cannot even be thought of without the spirit of Samnyasa in the bosom. The two are the obverse and the reverse of the same coin of spiritual perfection!

It is but natural that the intellectually independent thinker in Arjuna should, at this juncture, ask the question “Why?” with raised brows, seeing which, the Charioteer implicitly gives the logical reasons behind his seemingly outrageous and daring conclusion. The Lord explains that, never can one become established in the practices for one’s own cultural-rehabilitation unless one has learnt the art of renouncing all Sankalpas.

Man cannot ordinarily remain without imagining and constantly creating, in his exuberant fancy. And in his imagination he invariably tries to pull down the beautiful veil thrown over the face of the future. Ripping open this veil over the unknown, everyone of us, on all occasions, in our imaginations, fix for ourselves a goal to be fulfilled by us in the near future. Having fixed up the temporary goal, our mind plans and creates a method of achieving that hazy goal. But ere we execute our plans and enter into the field of effort to carve out a success for ourselves, the never-tiring, ever-active power of imagination in us would already have wiped clean the goal fixed earlier, and have rewritten a modified destination to be gained in the future.

By the time we prepare ourselves mentally and start executing our ideas in life, our mischievous fancy would again have wiped the distant goal clean. Thus each time the goal remains only so long as we have not started our pilgrimage to it; and the moment we start the pilgrimage, the goal fades away from our vision!

In short, when we have got a goal we have not yet started acting, and the moment we start the strife, we seem to have no goal to reach. The subtle force in our inner composition which unconsciously creates this lunatic temperament in us is called the unbridled Sankalpa Shakti.

We need no help from any great commentators to understand that no achievement, either without or within us, can be gained so long as we have not pursued, arrested, and finally destroyed this dangerous inner saboteur called ‘Sankalpa.’

To show that there is no compromise in this, Bhagawan is using a very positive term that none (kashchana) can ever reach any progress on the path of self-redemption without acquiring a capacity to renounce this self-poisoning Sankalpa-disturbance.

KARMA YOGA, PRACTISED WITHOUT REGARD TO THE FRUIT OF ACTION FORMS AN EXTERNAL AID (BAHIRANGA SADHANA) TO DHYANA YOGA. THE LORD NOW PROCEEDS TO SHOW HOW KARMA YOGA IS A MEANS TO BETTER AND GREATER MEDITATION.

Yam, that which is characterized by the giving up of all actions and their results; which prahuh, they, the knowers of the Vedas and the Smrtis, call; sannyasam iti, monasticism, in the real sense; viddhi, known; tam, that monasticism in the real sense; to be yogam, Yoga, consisting in the performance of actions, O Pandava. Accepting what kind of similarity between Karma-yoga, which is characterized by engagement (in actions), and its opposite, renunciation in the real sense, which is characterized by cessation from work, has their equation been stated? When such an apprehension arises, the answer is this; From the point of view of the agent, there does exist a simialrity of Karma-yoga with real renunciation. For he who is a monk in the real sense, from the very fact of his having given up all the means needed for accomplishing actions, gives up the thought of all actions and their results-the source of desire that leads to engagement in work. [Thoughts about an object lead to the desire for it, which in turn leads to actions for getting it. (Also see note under 4.19)] also, even while performing actions, gives up the thought for results. Pointing out this idea, the Lord says: Hi, for; kascit, nobody, no man of action whosoever; asannyasta-sankalpah, who has not given up expactaions-one by whom has not been renounced expectation, anticipation, of results;bhavati, becomes, i.e. can become; yogi, a yogi, a man of concentration, because thought of results is the cause of the disturbance of mind. Therefore, any man of action who gives up the thought of results would become a yogi, a man of concentration with an unperturbed mind, because of his having given up thought of results which is the cause of mental distractions. This is the purport. Thus, because of the similarity of real monasticism with Karma-yoga from the point of veiw of giving up by the agent, Karma-yoga is extolled as monasticism in, ‘That which they call monasticism, know that to be Yoga, O Pandava.’ Since Karma-yoga, which is independent of results, is the remote help to Dhyana-yoga, therefore it has been praised as monasticism. Thereafter, now the Lord shows how Karma-yoga is helpful to Dhyana-yoga:

Yatra, at the time when; cittam, the mind; niruddham, restrained, entirely prevented from wandering; uparamate, gets withdrawn; yoga-sevaya, through the practice of Yoga; ca, and; yatra eva, just when, at the very moment when; pasyan, by seeing, by experiencing; atmanam, the Self, which by nature is the supreme light of Consciousness; atmana, by the self, by the mind purified by concentration; tusyati, one remains contented, gets delighted; atmani eva, in one’s own Self alone-. [Samadhi is of two kinds, Samprajnata and Asamprajnata. The concentration called right knowledge (Samprajnata) is that which is followed by reasoning, discrimination, blisss and unqualified egoism. Asamprajnata is that which is attained by the constant practice of cessation of all mental activity, in which the citta retains only the unmanifested impressions.-Cf. C. W., Vol. I, 1962, pp. 210, 212. According to A.G. the verses upto 6.20 state in a general way the characteristics of samadhi. From the present verse to the 25th, Asamprajnata-samadhi is introduced and defined.-Tr.] Besides,/p>p>6.21 Yatra, when, at the time when; vetti, one experiences; tat, that; atyantikam, absolute-which is verily limitless, i.e. infinite; sukham, Bliss; yat, which; buddhi-grahyam, can be intuited by the intellect, intuited by the intellect alone, without the help of the senses; and which is atindriyam, beyond the senses, i.e. not objective; (-when one experieneces this kind of Bliss) and sthitah, being established in the nature of the Self; ayam, this person, the illumined one; eva, surely; na calati, does not swerve; tattvatah, from that Reality-i.e. does not deviate from the nature of Reality-. Further,/p>p>6.22 Labdhva, obtaining; yam, which-by acquiring which Self-attainment; na manyate, one does not think; that there is aparam, any other; labham, acquisition; tatah adhikam, superior to that; and also, sthitah,being established; yasmin, in which Reality of the Self; na vicalyate, one is not perturbed; api, even; guruna, by great; duhkhena, sorrow, as may be caused by being struck with weapons, etc.-. The yoga that has been spoken of as a particular state of the Self, distinguished by its characterisics in the verses beginning with ‘At the time when the mind gets withdrawn,’ (20) etc.-/p>p>6.23 Vidyat, one should know; tat, that; duhkha-samyoga-viyogam, severance (viyoga) of contact (samyoga) with sorrow (duhkha); to be verily yoga-sanjnitam, what is called Yoga-i.e. oen should know it through a negative definition. After concluding the topic of the result of Yoga, the need for pursuing Yoga is again being spoken of in another way in order to enjoin ‘preservance’ and ‘freedom from depression’ as the disciplines for Yoga: Sah, that; yogah, Yoga, which has the results as stated above; yoktavyah, has to be practised; niscayena, with perservance; and anirvinnacetasa, with an undepressed heart. That which is not (a) depressed (nirvinnam) is anirvinnam. What is that? The heart. (One has to practise Yoga) with that heart which is free from depression. This is the meaning. Again,

Yatra, when, at the time when; vetti, one experiences; tat, that; atyantikam, absolute-which is verily limitless, i.e. infinite; sukham, Bliss; yat, which; buddhi-grahyam, can be intuited by the intellect, intuited by the intellect alone, without the help of the senses; and which is atindriyam, beyond the senses, i.e. not objective; (-when one experieneces this kind of Bliss) and sthitah, being established in the nature of the Self; ayam, this person, the illumined one; eva, surely; na calati, does not swerve; tattvatah, from that Reality-i.e. does not deviate from the nature of Reality-. Further,

Labdhva, obtaining; yam, which-by aciring which Self-attainment; na manyate, one does not think; that there is aparam, any other; labham, acisition; tatah adhikam, superior to that; and also, sthitah,being established; yasmin, in which Reality of the Self; na vicalyate, one is not perturbed; api, even; guruna, by great; duhkhena, sorrow, as may be caused by being struck with weapons, etc.-. The yoga that has been spoken of as a particular state of the Self, distinguished by its characterisics in the verses beginning with ‘At the time when the mind gets withdrawn,’ (20) etc.-

These four verses together give a complete picture of the state of Yoga and Krishna ends with a very powerful call to man that everyone should practise this Yoga of Meditation and self-development. In order to encourage man and make him walk this noble path of self-development and self-mastery, Bhagawan explains the goal which is gained by the meditator. When the mind is completely restrained, as explained in the above four stanzas, it attains a serene quietude and in that silence gains the experience of the Self, not as anything separate from itself, but as its own true nature.

This self-rediscovery of the mind, that is in fact nothing other than the Divine Conscious Principle, is the State of Infinite Bliss. This awakening to the cognition of the Self can take place only when the individual ego has smashed its limiting adjuncts and has thereby transcended its identifications with the body, mind and intellect.

That this bliss is not an objective experience such as is gained among the pleasures of the world, is evident by the qualification that it “transcends the senses” (Ati-indriyah). Ordinarily we gain our experiences in the world outside through our sense-organs. When the spiritual masters promise that Self-Realisation is a State of Bliss, we are tempted to accept it as an objective goal, but when they say that it is beyond the senses, the seekers start feeling that the promises of religion are mere bluff. The stanza, therefore, has to clearly insist that this Bliss of Self-recognition is perceivable only through the pure intellect.

A doubt may now arise that when, as a result of these almost super-human efforts, an individual has at last, come to experience this transcendental Bliss, it may provide only a flashy moment of intense living, which may then disappear, demanding, all over again, similar super-human efforts to regain one more similar moment of Bliss-experience. To remove this possible misunderstanding, the stanza insists: “ESTABLISHED WHEREIN, HE NEVER DEPARTS FROM HIS REAL STATE.” The Geeta repeatedly endorses that the experience of the Self is an enduring state from which there is no return. Even supposing one has gained this Infinite Bliss, will he not again come to all the sorrows that are natural to every worldly being? Will he not thereafter feel as great an urge as anyone else to strive and struggle, to earn and hoard, and thirst to love and be loved, etc.?

All these excitements which are carbuncles upon the shoulders of an imperfect man, are denied to a perfect one, as the following stanza (VI-22) explains the Supreme Truth as “HAVING COME TO WHICH NO ONE CAN CONSIDER ANY OTHER GAIN AS EQUAL TO IT, MUCH LESS EVER ANYTHING GREATER.”

Even after these explanations the Lord Himself raises the question which a man of doubts may entertain. It will be quite natural for a student, who is striving to understand Vedanta purely through his intellect, to doubt as to whether the experience of Divinity can be maintained, even during moments of stress and sorrow and in periods of misery and mourning. In other words: is not religion a mere luxury of the rich and the powerful, a superstitious satisfaction for the weak, a make-believe dream-heaven for the escapist? Can religion and its promised perfection stand unperturbed in all our challenges of life: bereavements, losses, illness, penury, starvation? This doubt — which is quite common in our times too — has been unequivocally answered here with a daring statement that “WHEREIN BEING ESTABLISHED ONE IS NOT MOVED EVEN BY THE HEAVIEST SORROW.”

To summarise: when by the quietude of the mind, gained through concentration, one comes to rediscover one’s own Self, his is the Bliss Absolute, which cannot be perceived through the senses and yet, can be lived, through a ‘pure intellect,’ and having reached which there is no more any return; having gained which there is no greater gain to strive for; and which is not shaken even by the lashings of the greatest tragedies of our existence. This is the wondrous Truth that has been indicated as the Self by the Geeta, the goal of all men of discrimination and spiritual aspirations.

This Self is to be known. The means of knowing this goal, as well as the state of its experience, is called “Yoga” in the Geeta. (VI — 23). Here we have one of the noblest, if revolutionary, definitions of Yoga.

We have explained earlier how the Geeta is an incomparable re-statement of the declaration of the Upanishads, in the context of the Hindu-world available at the time of the Mahabharata. The old idea that Yoga is a strange phenomenon, too difficult for the ordinary man to practise or to come to experience, has been remodelled here to a more tolerant and all-comprehensive definition. Yoga, which was till then a technique of religious self-perfection available only for a reserved few, has now been made a public park into which everyone can enter at his free will and entertain himself as best he can. In this sense of the term, the Geeta has been rightly called a revolutionary Bible of the Hindu Renaissance.

Apart from the divine prerogative of one who is an incarnation, we find a brilliant dash of revolutionary zeal in Krishna’s Godly personality both in His emotions and His actions. When such a divine revolutionary enters the fields of culture and spirituality, He could not have given a more spectacular definition of Yoga than that which He has given us here: “Yoga — a state of disunion from every union-with-pain.” This re-interpretation of Yoga not only provides us with a striking definition but at the same time, it is couched in such a clapping language of contradiction that it arrests the attention of every student and makes him think for himself.

The term “Yoga” means “contact.” To-day, man in his imperfection has contacts with only the world of finite objects and therefore, he ekes out of life only finite joys. These objects of the world are contacted through the instruments of man’s body, mind and intellect. Joy ended is the birth of sorrow. Therefore, life through the matter vestures is the life of pain-Yoga (dukha samyoga).

Detachment from this pain — Yoga is naturally a process in which we disconnect (Viyoga) ourselves from the fields of objects and their experiences. A total or even a partial divorce from the perceptions of the world of objects is not possible, as long as we are using the mechanism of perception, the organ of feeling, and the instrument of thinking. To get detached from the mechanism of perceptions, feelings and thoughts, would naturally be the total detachment from the pain-Yoga — (Dukha-Samyoga-Viyoga).

Existence of the mind is possible only through its attachment; the mind can never live without attaching itself to some object or other. Detachment from one object is possible for the mind only when it has attached itself to another. For the mind, detachment from pain caused by the unreal is possible only when it gets attached to the Bliss, that is the Nature of the Real. In this sense, the true Yoga — which is the seeking and establishing an enduring attachment with the Real — is gained only when the seeker cries a halt in his onward march towards pain, and deliberately takes a ‘right-about-turn’ to proceed towards the Real and the Permanent in himself. This wonderful idea has been most expressively brought out in the phrase which Bhagawan employs here, as a definition of Yoga — (Dukha-Samyoga-Viyoga).

A little scrutiny will enable us to realise that in defining Yoga thus, Sri Krishna has not introduced any new ideology into the stock of knowledge that was the traditional wealth of the Hindu scriptures. Till then, Yoga was emphasized from the standpoint of its goal, rather than from the exploration of its means. This over-emphasis of the goal had frightened the faithful followers away from its salutory blessings. And the technique of Yoga had sunk to become a mysterious and a very secret practice meant only for a few.

This Yoga is to be practised, insists Krishna, with “AN EAGER AND DECISIVE MIND.” To practise with firm resolve and an undespairing heart is the simple secret for the highest success in the practice of meditation, as the “Yoga with the Truth” is gained through a total successful “Viyoga from the false.”If we feel uncomfortably warm by being very near the fire-place we have only to move away from it to reach the cool and comforting atmosphere. Similarly, if, to live among the finite objects and live its limited joys is sorrow, thento get away from them is to enter into the Realm of Bliss which is the Self. This is “Yoga.

“FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING YOGA ARE NOW CONTINUED AFTER THE ABOVE SHORT DIGRESSION. MOREOVER:

Vidyat, one should know; tat, that; duhkha-samyoga-viyogam, severance (viyoga) of contact (samyoga) with sorrow (duhkha); to be verily yoga-sanjnitam, what is called Yoga-i.e. oen should know it through a negative definition. After concluding the topic of the result of Yoga, the need for pursuing Yoga is again being spoken of in another way in order to enjoin ‘preservance’ and ‘freedom from depression’ as the disciplines for Yoga: Sah, that; yogah, Yoga, which has the results as stated above; yoktavyah, has to be practised; niscayena, with perservance; and anirvinnacetasa, with an undepressed heart. That which is not (a) depressed (nirvinnam) is anirvinnam. What is that? The heart. (One has to practise Yoga) with that heart which is free from depression. This is the meaning. Again,