Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 20-5. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday, May 07,  2022. 20:00

Chapter 20: The Arising of the Concept of Unity-5.

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But what is individuality but these impulses only? 

These impulses make what we are as individuals, and who are we to control them? It is like the wave wanting to control itself. A superior attunement may be called for. We do not know what this superior attunement is. Some sort of a thing was suggested at the end of the Third Chapter where it was made out that the senses are no doubt very powerful. They are so strong that they will carry away your whole personality as a boat is carried away by a tempestuous wind. 

Indriyāṇi pramāthīni (BG 2.60): Terrible is the strength of the sense organs. They carry away even the intellect of a person.

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But the suggestion briefly made in the verses occurring at the end of the Third Chapter is, which we have already covered, that the senses may be strong, but the mind has a greater capacity than any of the sense organs. 

Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ, manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ (BG 3.42):

Reason is superior even to the sentimental and instinctive mind, but higher than that is the Atman. The suggestion seems to be that we have to resort to the Atman for support in order that the reason may stand stable. 

Yadā pañcāvatiṣṭhante jñānāni manasā saha, buddhiś ca na viceṣṭati, tām āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim (K.U. 2.3.10)  is a verse in the Kathopanishad. 

When the sense organs, five in number, stand united with the mind as if they do not exist at all, this is called pratyahara in the system of Patanjali. The sense organs melt down into the mind, and the mind is rooted in the reason, and the reason is un-flickering; this is called yoga.

How are we to resort to the Atman? Is it a possibility? Until this is achieved, we do not seem to be wholly safe in this world. Even the reason is unreliable finally if it is to stand by itself independently without any support. After all, it is an individual faculty which has no cosmic support. It has cosmic support in one sense, but for all practical purposes it seems to be tethered to our bodily sentiments. We argue in justification of our cravings, many a time. So the universal Atman is to be our root.

Succeeding in spiritual life is a miracle. We have to call it a miracle, and there is no other word for it. We cannot say it is entirely our effort. Who are we to put forth effort? Wherefrom does the strength come? We are embodied in terms of impulses only. It is said that good actions that we did in the previous birth, purva-punya samskara, the effect of meritorious deeds of the past, fructify at a certain moment of time, and then they act as accentuating factors in our onward movement in spiritual life.

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It is not logically and scientifically possible to give an answer to the question of how we succeed. 

Īśvarānugrahādeva puṁsāmadvaitavāsanā, mahadbhayaparitrāṇā-dviprāṇāmupajāyate (Avad. Gita 1.1) says Dattatreya in the Dattatreya Gita, the Avadhuta Gita. 

You do not know how the concept of unity arises in your mind. You never see unity anywhere in the world. Everywhere there is dissection, separation, isolation. How can you say that there is such a thing called unity? There is an idea, a concept, a notion, an acceptance on your part that there is such a thing called a unifying force. How did this idea arise in your mind? It is a wonder that discreet particles of physical matter and fickle thoughts which run hither and thither in different directions, which have no character of unity at all, may permit such an idea of unity. Ishvara's grace, God's grace, operates. Sage Dattatreya says that it is perhaps God's grace. We do not know. We have nothing to say except that. We have to humbly admit that it is some miracle. And the great logician Sankara found himself in this quandary when he posed this question to himself in his great commentary on the Brahma Sutras: How does knowledge arise in the individual? It cannot be said to be the effect of individual effort, because effort in the direction of right knowledge cannot arise unless there is some knowledge already. The question is: How did this knowledge arise at all? Who impelled you to move in the right direction? That impulsion in the right direction should be due to some knowledge. But how did this knowledge arise? Nobody knows. It is God's grace.

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So, the Atman is the support, finally. It has to be taken as the resort. Yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ.

There is a friend who will support us. 

Suhṛdaṁ sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati (BG 5.29):

“Know Me as your friend. You shall be relieved of all anxiety if you accept that I am your friend.” 

The great Lord gives this solace, this promise.  Suhṛdaṁ sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati.. 

We shall shed tears of joy if we are really to accept the meaning of this promise of the great Lord. “Know Me as your friend.” Who can tell you like that? Nobody in the world will say, “I am your friend; believe that I am your friend.”  But here is one who tells you, “Believe I am your friend. I shall be at your beck and call. 

I shall help you”:  Suhṛdaṁ sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati.. Also, at the end of this chapter there is, as I mentioned, a precise and concise statement of the theme of the Sixth Chapter, about which we shall see later.

Chapter End.

Next - Chapter 21.The Two Ways of Yoga

To be continued ....

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