Chapter II (VERSE 61) CHAPTER VI (VERSE 24 & 25)
Sankhya Yoga – The Yoga of Knowledge
CHAPTER II
(Verse 61)
तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्परः ।
वशे हि यस्येन्द्रियाणि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ २-६१॥
Having restrained them all, he should sit steadfast, intent on Me; his Wisdom is steady, whose senses are under control.
Since the sense-organs are thus the saboteurs in the Kingdom of the Spirit that bring the disastrous downfall of the Empire of the Soul, Arjuna is warned here that, as a seeker of Self-perfection, he should constantly struggle to control his sense-organs and their mad lustful wanderings in their respective fields. Modern psychology would certainly look down with a squint-eye upon this Geeta theory, because, according to Freud and others, sensuousness is instinctive in man, and to curb it would lead to an unnatural suppression.
According to the West, TO CONTROL is TO SUPPRESS, and no science of mental life can accept that suppression is psychologically healthy. But the Vedic theory is not pointing to any mental suppression at all. It is only advising an inward blossoming, an inner growth and development, by which one’s earlier fields of enjoyments through the senses, drop out to make room for the perception of a newer field of ampler joys and more satisfying Bliss.
This idea is very well brought out here, when Lord Krishna, as though in the very same breath, repeats both the negative and the positive aspects of the technique of Self-development. He advises not only a withdrawal from the unhealthy gutters of sensuousness, but he also gives the healthy method of doing so by explaining the positive technique of Self-perfection. Through a constant attempt at focusing our attention “ON ME, THE SUPREME,” he advises the disciples to be steady.
In this simple-looking statement of half-a-verse, the Geeta explains the entire technique of Self-development. Immoral impulses and unethical instincts, that bring a man down to the level of a mere brute, are the result of endless lives spent among sensuous objects, during the infinite number of different manifestations, through which the embodied soul, the ego in each one of us, had previously passed. It is humanly impossible for an individual to erase and transcend in his life-time, the thick coating of mental impressions gathered along his journey from life to life, from embodiment to embodiment. Naturally, this is the despair of all the promoters of ethics, the teachers of morality and the masters of spirituality.
The Rishis of old, in their lived experience, discovered for themselves a technique, by which, all these mental tendencies could be eradicated. To expose the mind to the quiet atmosphere of meditation upon the All-perfect Being, is to heal its ulcers. By this process, one who has come to gain a complete mastery over his sense-organs, is considered as one who is ‘steadfast-in-Wisdom.’
The concealed suggestion in the stanza now becomes quite obvious; no one, who, with excessive force controls his Indriyas, by sheer strength of will and sense of abstinence, has any chance of flowering into a full-blown spiritual beauty. He who has all his sense-organs, of their own accord, lying tamely surrendered at his feet, who has come to re-discover the Infinite Perfection in himself, is called a man-of-Perfection. Neither has he ruined his instruments-of-cognition, nor has he closed down the arches-of-knowledge in him. A Perfect One is he whose sway over the animal in him is so complete that the inner Satan has become, for the Sage in him, a tame Caliban to run errands and serve faithfully.
Dhyana Yoga – The Yoga of Meditation
CHAPTER VI
(Verse 24)
सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः ।
मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ॥ ६-२४॥
Abandoning without reserve all desires born of SANKALPA, and completely restraining the whole group of senses by the mind from all sides.
(Verse 25)
शनैः शनैरुपरमेद् बुद्ध्या धृतिगृहीतया ।
आत्मसंस्थं मनः कृत्वा न किञ्चिदपि चिन्तयेत् ॥ ६-२५॥
Little by little, let him attain quietude by his intellect, held firm; having made the mind established in the Self, let him not think of anything.
In the previous section the entire goal of Yoga was indicated as that state “WHEREIN THE MIND,THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF CONCENTRATION, COMES TO GET ITSELF ABSOLUTELY RESTRAINED.” Later on, we have been given a glorious word-picture of the state of enjoyment and perfection that one will get introduced into, in this state of meditation. This theoretical exposition has no practical value unless exhaustive instructions are given, as to how a diligent seeker can bring about this total mental poise, consciously, in a deliberate spiritual act of perfect self-control.
In these two brilliant stanzas the subtle art of meditation has been explained. The secrets of how to bring the mind to single-pointedness, and what to do thereafter with that mind in concentration and how to approach the Truth and ultimately realise It in an act of deliberate and conscious becoming — are all exhaustively indicated in these two significant stanzas.
Renouncing ‘all’ (Sarvan) desires ‘fully’ (Asheshatah) by the mind, control all the sense-organs from their entire world of sense-objects. Herein, every word demands a commentary, since every phrase leaves a hint which is so important in ultimately assuring the seeker a complete success. It is not only sufficient that ALL desires are renounced, but each desire must be TOTALLY eradicated. By these two terms (Sarvan and Asheshatah), no trace of doubt is left in the mind of the seekers, as to the condition of their mental equipoise, during moments of higher meditation. The term Asheshatah means that even the desire for this perfection in “Yoga” is to be, in the end, totally renounced!
“Renunciation of desire” is advised here as a very necessary and important qualification; but unfortunately, the unintelligent ignored this significant qualification, and perverted our sacred religion by acting and behaving as though it recommended a life of indolence with neither any ambition to achieve, nor any desire to accomplish. The term “BORN OF SANKALPA” is a very significant term qualifying the desires that are to be renounced totally and fully. The term ‘Sankalpa’ has already been explained earlier (VI-2) — so here the terms used mean that it is “the renunciation of all agitation-breeding desires.”
When once this renunciation of disturbing desires has been accomplished, the individual’s mind gains strength and stamina to assert itself, at first to make the wild horses of the sense-organs tame so that they run under greater control and then to restrain all the sense-organs from all sense-objects from all sides.
It is scientifically very true that our mind is not able to control our sense-organs, for it has been rendered weak and thoroughly impotent due to the permanent agitations caused by its own false desires. Once the mind gets strong, as a result of its conquest over desires, it discovers in itself all the strength and capacity to control the Indriyas from all sides. This process of quietening the mind can never be accomplished by any hasty action or by any imagination,or by any strange and mysterious method. It is clearly indicated by the very insistence that the Geeta makes in this stanza, that the seeker should “ATTAIN QUIETUDE AS A RESULT OF HIS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WORLD OF SENSE-OBJECTS, BY DEGREES.” Slowly, slowly (Shanaih-Shanaih), the mind gains more and more quietude.
No doubt, when the sense-organs have stopped their mad onrush to their respective sense-objects, a certain amount of mental quietude is gained. The methods of intensifying this inner peace have been indicated in this stanza.
“PATIENTLY, WITH THE INTELLECT THE MIND IS TO BE CONTROLLED, AND RESTED IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE SELF.” This advice is extremely important to every seeker as it gives the next item of the programme for a meditator, when he has accomplished, through the exertion of the mind during his meditation, a total withdrawal of himself from the sense world. A total rejection of the sense-world is possible only during meditation.
The mind that is thus brought to a relative quietude is next to be controlled by the still subtler personality layer in the meditator, which is his intellect. Just as the sense organs are controlled and restrained by the mind, the mind is now treated by the discriminating intellect and brought under complete restraint. The mind cannot be restrained except by fixing its entire attention on one idea to the total exclusion of all other ideas. The mind is “THOUGHT-FLOW” and as such, the constant thought of the Nature of the Self, is to be the exercise by which the mind should be restrained by the intellect. A mind that has merged in the steady contemplation of the Self becomes still, and a divine quietude comes to pervade its very substance. This is the last lap of the journey to which deliberate and conscious action (Purushartha) can take any seeker.
Krishna’s exhaustive theory, which can be practised by any sincere devotee, concludes in these two stanzas with a warning as to what the seeker should avoid at his moment of inward silence and peace; the Lord does not instruct the seeker here on what he should positively do. The Divine Flute-player says, “LET HIM NOT THINK OF ANYTHING,” when he has once reached this state of peace within.
After the “halt-moment” there is nothing more for the seeker to act and achieve. All that he has to do is to avoid starting any new line of imagination. “UNDISTURBED BY ANY NEW THOUGHT WAVE, LET HIM MAINTAIN HIS INNER SILENCE AND COME TO LIVE IT MORE AND MORE DEEPLY,” is all the instruction that the technique of meditation gives to the meditator. “Knock and thou shalt enter” is the promise; you have ‘knocked,’ and into the Supreme Presence, thou shalt enter… ere long (Achirena).
No two simple looking stanzas, anywhere in the spiritual literature of the world, including the sacred books in Hinduism, can claim to have given such an exhaustive wealth of useful instructions to a seeker, as these two stanzas in the Geeta. Even in the entire bulk of the Divine Song (Geeta) itself, there is no other similar couple of stanzas which can, in their pregnant import, stand a favourable comparison with this perfect pair.