Chapter VIII (VERSE 11 & 13) CHAPTER XVII (VERSE 23 & 24)
Akshara Brahma Yoga – The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
CHAPTER VIII
(Verse 11)
यदक्षरं वेदविदो वदन्ति विशन्ति यद्यतयो वीतरागाः ।
यदिच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यं चरन्ति तत्ते पदं संग्रहेण प्रवक्ष्ये ॥ ८-११॥
That which is declared Imperishable by the VEDA -knowers; That into which, the self-controlled and desire-freed enter; That desiring which BRAHMCHARYA is practised — That Goal I will declare to thee in brief.
This stanza, which is reminiscent of a famous Upanishadic declaration, while glorifying the goal, is promising that Krishna will, in the following verses, explain the Supreme destination of Perfection and the means of achieving it.
Worship (Upasana) of the syllable OM is frequently advised in almost all the Upanishads as a sure method of making the final adjustments in the mind-intellect equipment of the meditator, so that complete success in meditation may be assured to him. From the Pauranic era onwards, meditation with faith and devotion, regularly, upon any of the recognised incarnations, has also been found to serve the same purpose with the same efficiency.
Here, very many necessary precautions and warnings are given to the seeker, so that his spiritual pilgrimage may be comparatively easy and pleasant. The obstacles about which meditators generally complain arise from their own lack of self-withdrawal from the finite matter envelopments. It is necessary that, as a Science of Self Perfection, Vedanta should not only give the techniques of meditation, but also indicate for the seekers the possible pit-falls on the path and equip them, sufficiently early, with all instructions as to how they can get out, in case they fall into any of these jamming ruts. This verse indicates how one can be assured of an easy path while moving ahead on the track of meditation — carefully avoiding all extrovert desires that cater to one’s sensuous appetites, and by practising severe and consistent self control.
In the opening of this chapter, (stanza-3) the Supreme was defined as the Imperishable. Quoting Himself, WHAT Krishna emphasises here that the very same Imperishable Truth can be realised — they come to “enter into the Imperishable” — when they, the men of self-control, who are unagitated by desires, withdraw successfully from the changeable and the perishable in themselves.
FREED FROM ATTACHMENT (Veeta-ragah) — The entire Geeta is a Song of renunciation; not a dull-witted and uncreative renunciation, but a healthy detachment through right knowledge, which is the harbinger of all progress and development everywhere. The renunciation of desires is not a psychological suppression of the existing appetites, but that which takes place as a result of a natural blossoming of the intellect. The newly opened buds, after a time, renounce their soft, beautiful skirts and stand naked, expressing a renunciation of the gorgeous; but in nature, this happens only when the flowers are pollinated and the fruits are well in the making. The shedding of the petals may be a sacrifice or renunciation from the standpoint of a casual flower-gazer, but to the farmer who knows, it is a sacrifice or renunciation of the flowers in their newly gained maturity that has automatically made the beautiful petals fall off.
Similarly, in the Spiritual Science of India, no doubt, there is an emphasis on the necessity of renunciation, but it is not a sad and melancholy self-denial or self-punishment, which some other religions do preach and practise. A renunciation that has sprung up from the fertile lands of efficient discrimination is that which is insisted upon by the intellectual giants of the Upanishads. The term “ONE FREED FROM ATTACHMENT” is therefore, to be understood as one who has grown out of his passionate attachments to the finite, that constitute the insignificant parade of the world, in his more mature and steady understanding of the nature and the goal of his life.
Also, it is true that the more the number of desires entertained, the greater is the mental tossing, and the consequent agitation. The greater the disturbance in the mind, the lesser is the mental potentiality expressed. A meditator’s success depends upon his mental dynamism, and the only wealth that can ease the rigours of the journey is his own mental equipoise and inward peace. Therefore, as a policy, it is advised that men of least desire have the maximum chance for the greatest success in the Path of Knowledge.
(Verse 13)
ओमित्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म व्याहरन्मामनुस्मरन् ।
यः प्रयाति त्यजन्देहं स याति परमां गतिम् ॥ ८-१३॥
Uttering the one-syllabled ‘OM’ — the (symbol of) BRAHMAN — and remembering Me, he who departs, leaving the body, attains the Supreme Goal.
The practice of concentration can most effectively be undertaken and efficiently continued only when three necessary conditions are fulfilled by the meditator. These are narrated here in the verses in the sequence they have to be practised.
CONTROLLING ALL THE SENSES — Each sense-organ is an aperture in the physical body. The porous skin, the ear, the nose, the eyes, and the taste-buds are the five main gates through which the external stimuli reach the mental zone to agitate it. To shut these five doors through discrimination and detachment is the first process, before the meditator can ever hope to enter the field of meditation. These are the five inlets through which not only the external world storms in and agitates the mind, but our mind also runs out to wander among its sensuous ditches. When once these tunnels-of-disturbance are blockaded, the new flow of disturbances is shut out.
CONFINING THE MIND IN THE HEART — Even though the mind is not now directly open for any onslaught by fresh contingents of sense stimuli, it is capable of getting disturbed due to the previous impressions that it might have gathered in its past experiences in the finite world of change and pleasure.
Therefore the mind, the instrument of emotion and feeling, it is advised, is to be confined in the ‘heart.’
The term ‘heart’in Vedanta is not the pumping-organ that maintains the circulatory system in a physical structure. In the field of literature and philosophy, heart is a conceptual centre in the mind from where all positive and noble thoughts of love and tenderness, kindness and charity, devotion and surrender, constantly spring up. When once the gross stimuli are held back from entering the mind, the seeker is advised not to choke his faculty of emotion and feeling but to DIVINISE IT. Let the mind function only in the dignity and status of the heart. It has already been discussed how positive thinking brings into the mind the least amount of disturbance. Negative thoughts are those that bring into the mind stormy conditions of agitation and restlessness.
WITHDRAWING ALL THE PRANAS, “THE VITAL MANIFESTATIONS OF LIFE THROUGH THE DIFFERENT EQUIPMENTS,” INTO THE INTELLECT means the total withdrawal of the intellect from all its identifications with the lower, gained by dissociating ourselves from all our perceptions, etc. This is accomplished through a process of totally engaging the mind-intellect in the contemplation of the Self. When the meditator’s mind, drawn away from the sense disturbances, is purified in the realm of the diviner thoughts, and when such a mind is perfectly controlled and held steady by an intellect gushing out towards the contemplation of the Self, as explained earlier, (Ibid.-9, 10) the existing mental condition is said to be “occupied in the practice of concentration” (Yoga-dharanam).
Every meditator who can make an attempt at forgetting his immediate sensual surroundings, and, surcharged with joy and contentment, can bring his mind under the total control of his discriminative intellect, can mentally chant OM with ease and enthusiasm, and observe the rising OM-waves in this otherwise silenced mind… is the student fit for the worship of OM. The following line in its amplitude of significance clearly brings out the same view-point.
HE WHO DEPARTS, LEAVING THE BODY — While chanting and contemplating upon the significance of OM, the seeker becomes so detached from all his delusory identifications with the false matter-envelopments that the ego is sublimated; this is the true death “LEAVING THE BODY.” In his single-pointed, all-out, self-forgetting contemplation upon the significance of OM — as the Substratum on which is played the drama of life and death, projected by the mischievous mind — the seeker, in Krishna’s own words, “ATTAINS THE SUPREME GOAL.”
WHAT IS OM ?
Shraddha Traya Vibhaga Yoga – The Yoga of Three Fold Faith
CHAPTER XVII
(Verse 23)
ॐतत्सदिति निर्देशो ब्रह्मणस्त्रिविधः स्मृतः ।
ब्राह्मणास्तेन वेदाश्च यज्ञाश्च विहिताः पुरा ॥ १७-२३॥
“OM TAT SAT” — this has been declared to be the triple designation of BRAHMAN. By that were created formerly, the BRAHMANAS, VEDAS and YAJNAS (sacrifices) .
Om Tat Sat — This is being declared as the triple designation (Nirdesha) of Brahman. A Nirdesha, generally given in ritualism, is that by performing which any defects that are in the sacred worship are all removed. Each action, no doubt, has its fruit, but the fruit depends not only on the action as such, but also on the purity of the intentions and motives entertained by the performer. However diligent the performer of the sacred acts may be, if the motive behind such acts be foul, they are rendered too ineffective to yield rich dividends. Actions performed by all of us, may appear similar, but the results thereof would vary from individual to individual, according to the essential quality of their intentions.
The brilliance and glory of our intentions can be heightened by the remembrance of the Lord. Dissociation of oneself from one’s Matter-envelopments is at once one’s awakening and identification with the Lord. To the extent the sacred activity is selfless, to that extent its rewards are pure. To liquidate the ego, the individual must gain the consciousness of his spiritual status.
“Om Tat Sat” is a sentence of three words, each denoting one aspect or the other of the Reality. Om represents the Transcendental and the Pure Self, the Absolute and the Unborn, which is the Infinite Substratum upon which the projections of the body, mind and intellect are maintained. The term Tat is used in our scriptures to indicate the Eternal Goal, the Changeless and the Ever-perfect. In the famous grand declaration of the Vedas, “Tat-twam-asi,” the term ‘Tat‘ indicates that from which everything has come, in which everything exists and into which everything merges back in the end. Sat means ‘existence.’ The “Principle of Existence” functioning through all things — perceived, felt, and thought of in our everyday life — is called Sat.
Thus, to invoke the thoughts of Om, which express the TRANSCENDENTAL ABSOLUTE, or to invoke “Tat,” the UNIVERSAL TRUTH, or to cherish the concept of “Sat,” the REALITY, is to tune up our instruments of action and thereby chasten all our activities in the world outside.
The Eternal Reality, indicated in the triple designation of Brahman “Om Tat Sat,” is the Source from which all castes, the Vedas and the sacrifices proceeded, even at the time of Creation. All super-impositions can only arise from, exist in and disappear into that which is their own substratum.
All human activities and endeavours can be classified under the heads: (a) activities (Ahaara) undertaken for the maintenance of the body, and (b) activities (Niyata) that nourish the culture by all co-operative activities pursued with a spirit of dedication (Yajna), all charities (Daana), and all intelligent methods of self-control (Tapas).
WHEN ARE WE TO USE THE TERM “OM“?
(Verse 24)
तस्मादोमित्युदाहृत्य यज्ञदानतपःक्रियाः ।
प्रवर्तन्ते विधानोक्ताः सततं ब्रह्मवादिनाम् ॥ १७-२४॥
Therefore, with the utterance of ‘OM’ are begun the acts of sacrifice, gifts and austerity as enjoined in the scriptures, always by the students of BRAHMAN.
The term OM is uttered while acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity are undertaken by the followers of higher life. To cherish in our minds the divine awareness and the absolute supremacy of the Infinite, as expressed in OM, is to add purpose and meaning to all our acts of sacrifice, charity and austerity. To invoke in our minds the divine concept of the Absolute is to free our personality from its limited fields of ego-centric attachments. When a mind is thus liberated from its limitations, it becomes more efficient in all austerities, more selfless in all Yajnas, and more liberal in all charities.