Chapter VI (Verses 16 & 17)
Dhyana Yoga – The Yoga of Meditation
(Verses 16)
नात्यश्नतस्तु योगोऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नतः ।
न चातिस्वप्नशीलस्य जाग्रतो नैव चार्जुन ॥ ६-१६॥
Verily, YOGA is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at all; nor for him who sleeps too much, nor for him who is (always) awake, O Arjuna.
When the above technique and goal are so clearly given out, one is apt to wonder at one’s own incapacity to reach anywhere near the indicated goal, in spite of the fact that one has been sincerely and constantly meditating upon it for a number of years. What exactly is the behaviour that unconsciously takes a seeker away from the grand road to success? No scientific theory is complete unless it enumerates the various precautions that are to be taken for achieving complete success. The next few stanzas warn us of all the possible pitfalls on the path of the Dhyana Yoga.
Moderation in indulgence and activities at all levels of one’s personality is an imperative requisite, which alone can assure true success in meditation. Intemperance would bring discordant and riotous agitations in the various matter layers of the personality, shattering the harmonious melody of integration. Therefore, strict moderation in food, sleep and recreation is enjoined: everything should be well-measured and completely defined.
YOGA IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR HIM WHO EATS TOO MUCH NOR FOR HIM WHO DOES NOT EAT AT ALL — – Here, the term ‘eat’ should be understood in its comprehensive meaning as including all sense enjoyments, mental feelings, and intellectual perceptions. It is not only the process of consuming things through the mouth; it includes the enjoyments gained through all the avenues of sense perceptions and inward experiences.
Drawing our conclusions from these standards, we may understand the rule to be: “Eat whatever comes to us handy, without creating unnecessary destruction to the living kingdom just for our personal existence, and intelligently consume a quantity which does not load the stomach.” This is the golden rule of diet for a successful meditator.
It is rightly said that neither ‘too much sleep’ — which unnecessarily dulls our faculties and renders the individual more and more gross — nor ‘no sleep at all’ is the right policy for a student in spiritual life. Intelligent moderation is the law.
THIS STANZA MIGHT CONFUSE THE DULL-WITTED, AND THEREFORE, THE FOLLOWING VERSE ANSWERS THE QUESTION: “HOW THEN CAN YOGA BE ACHIEVED?”
(Verse 17)
युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु ।
युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दुःखहा ॥ ६-१७॥
YOGA becomes the destroyer of pain for him who is moderate in eating and recreation, who is moderate in his exertion during his actions, who is moderate in sleep and wakefulness.
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 practice 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.”