Chapter II (Verse 58) & Chapter VI(Verse 4)
Sankhya Yoga – The Yoga of Knowledge
Chapter II
Verse 58
यदा संहरते चायं कूर्मोऽङ्गानीव सर्वशः ।
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ २-५८॥
When, like the tortoise which withdraws its limbs from all sides, he withdraws his senses from the sense-objects then his Wisdom becomes steady.
After explaining that a Perfect-One is: (a) ever satisfied in the Self, (b) that he lives in perfect equanimity in pleasure and pain, and (c) that there is, in him, a complete absence of attachment to rejoicing or any aversion, it is here mentioned that a Man-of-Steady-Wisdom has the special knack of withdrawing his senses from all the disturbing ‘fields of objects.’ The simile used here is very appropriate. Just as a tortoise can, even at the most distant suggestions of danger, instinctively withdraw all its limbs into itself, and feel safe within, a man-of-Perfection can consciously withdraw all his antennae that peep out through his five arches-of-knowledge, called the sense-organs.
In the theory of perception in Vedanta, the mind, bearing the consciousness, goes out through the sense-organs to the sense-objects, and, there it takes, as it were, the shape of the sense-objects, and so comes to gain the “knowledge” of the objects perceived. This idea is figuratively put in the Upanishad — the Light of Consciousness, as it were, beams out through the seven holes in the cranium, each special ‘beam’ of awareness illuminating only one specific type of ‘object.’ Thus, the ‘Light’ that passes through the eyes is capable of illumining only the FORMS and COLOURS, while that which emerges through the ears illumines SOUNDS. In the material world, we can take the example of the electric-light that expresses through an ordinary bulb illuminating the objects in the room, while the electricity, as light, emerging from the X-ray tube penetrates through the form and illumines things that are ordinarily not visible to the naked eye.
Thus, in each individual, five distinct beams of the same Awareness protrude like antennae and give him complete “knowledge” of the eternal world. These five avenues-of knowledge bring to him the innumerable stimuli from the outer world, which, reaching the mind, provide all the disturbances that man feels in his life of contacts with the outer world. If I am blind, the beauty that is passing by cannot disturb my mind; if I am deaf, I cannot over-hear criticism against myself, and naturally, it cannot reach me to agitate my bosom! The untasted or the unsmelt or the unfelt sense-objects can never bring any pang of sorrow into the bosom. Here Krishna re-assures Arjuna that a Man-of-Steady-Wisdom is he, who has the ready capacity to fold back his senses, from any or all the fields of their activity.
This capacity in an individual to withdraw his senses at will from the fields-of-objects is called in Yoga Shastra as Pratyahara, which the Yogin accomplishes through the control-of-breath (Pranayama). To a devotee this comes naturally, because he has eyes and ears only for the form and stories of his beloved Lord. To a Vedantin, again, this (Uparati) comes from his well-developed and sharpened discriminative faculty, with which his intellect makes his mind understand the futility, of licking the crumbs of joy and happiness in the wayside ditches of sensuousness, while he, in his Real Nature, is the Lord of the very store of Bliss Infinite.
Dhyana Yoga – The Yoga of Meditation
Chapter VI
Verse 4
यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते ।
सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ॥ ६-४॥
When a man is not attached to sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to YOGA.
It is the experience of everyone, and therefore, it is not very difficult for a young seeker to know the state of an aspirant (Arurukshah). It has been said by the Lord that so long as we are in the state of seeking, the Path of Self- Perfection is the highroad of selfless activity. Withdrawal from activity is to be undertaken only when you have reached the state of mental mastery (Yogarudhah). To renounce activity at an earlier stage, would be as unhealthy as to continue disturbing the mind with activities after having reached the second stage, where, we are told, quiescence is the means for gathering speed in our flight through meditation. Naturally, it is necessary for the seeker to know when exactly he reaches the second stage, indicated here by the term Yogarudhah.
In this stanza, Krishna is pointing out the physical and mental conditions of one who has broken in the steed of his mind and ridden it. He says that when one is feeling no mental attachments, either to the sense-objects or to the actions in the outer world, it is one of the symptoms of perfect mastery over the mind. This should not be overstressed to a dreary literal meaning, making it a grotesque caricature of Truth. It only means that the mind of a seeker in the meditation seat is so perfectly withdrawn from the external world of sense-objects and activities, that it is perfect in its equipoise at the time of self-application. The sense-organs can run into the channels of sense-objects only when the mind is flowing out of the organs. If the mind is kept engaged in the contemplation of a great Truth, providing a larger quota of an ampler joy in the inner bosom, it will no more go hunting for bits of joy in the gutters of sensuality. A well-fed pet dog will not seek the public dust-bins for its food.
When thus the mind is not gushing out either through the sense-channels or through the fields of its ego-centric activities, it becomes completely engaged in the contemplation of the greater truth — the Self. Here the term used to indicate complete non-attachment, is to be noted very carefully. The Sanskrit word anu-shaijate is a word-symbol created by prefixing an indeclinable anu to the verb shaj, meaning ‘attached.’ The prefix anu indicates ‘not a bit’. Therefore, the term used here forbids even traces of attachment either to the sense-objects or to the fields of activity.
When the mind has been withdrawn from the sense organs and completely detached from all its external physical activities, it is possible that it is still tossed and agitated by the gurglings of its own inner instincts of willing and wishing, desiring and earning. This power of Sankalpa can bring more storms into the bosom of a man than the disturbances his mind could ever receive from the external world. Krishna indicates here that he who has gained a complete mastery over his mind is one who has not only withdrawn himself from all sense-contacts and activities in the outer world, but has also dried up all the Sankalpa-disturbances in his own mind. Such an individual is, at the moment of meditation, in that inward state which is described here as Yogarudhah. It is clear that, to such an individual, meditation can be intensified only by quietude (Shama).