Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 28-1. Swami Krishnananda.

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 Chinmaya Mission

Being organized since 2016, the celebrations of  Karthika Deepotsavam 2022 by Chinmaya Mission, Kadapa is going on at the Municipal grounds of Kadapa since 31st October to 8th November 2022.  

In 2019, the event witnessed Swami Swaroopananda explain the significance of the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra leading us to the light within. 

This year the audience has been witnessing and participating in spiritually empowering processes such as the Rudrabhishekam, Maha Deepa Prajwalanam and Shri Maha Ganapati Kalyanotsavam amongst others.

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Saturday, November 05, 2022. 08:30.

Chapter 28: Sitting for Meditation-1.

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 (BG 6.12): 

"Tatraikāgraṃ manaḥ kṛtvā yatacittendriyakriyaḥ,

upaviśyāsane yuñjyād yogam ātmaviśuddhaye ." 

For the purification of the self, one should engage oneself in yoga by concentrating the mind on a single chosen ideal. What is the single chosen ideal on which the mind is to be fixed? There is not much discussion in the Bhagavadgita on the details concerning the nature of the object of meditation because it is to be assumed that we have a practically appreciable knowledge of the nature of things of which this world is constituted, and also of the way in which we seem to be placed in this vast world of God's creation. When there is this satisfactory insight into the structure of the universe and our relation to it, we would know how to adjust our mind, our attitude, in the light of this vast universal structure and our placement in it.

What is thought, after all? It is the manner of our being aware of the conditions in which we are living. These conditions come as reactions from outside through the sense organs, through the nervous system, through the muscles, through the entire body, through our mind, through our emotion, through our reason, through everything that we are. We react, and the world reacts in return. There is a mental adjustment or, to be more precise, it is a reaction of our whole being in respect of the entirety of the environment in which we are placed. This looks like thinking. There is all variety of thinking – conscious thinking and unconscious thinking. Even the body may be said to be doing a sort of unconscious thinking when it feels cold and heat and adjusts its temperature for the temperature outside, and maintains a balance of the physiological system irrespective of changes that take place outside in nature.

One adapt oneself to circumstance, and so our thoughts change according to the nature of the condition inI mentioned yesterday that the word ‘prehension', which is a scientific manner of expressing subtle operations in nature, makes out that there is no unintelligent bit of matter in the universe. Even the cells of the body are intelligent; they react, and because of a necessary adaptation to environment, in which even the body is engaged constantly, we are able to live in this world. Otherwise, if we cannot adapt ourselves to the environment outside, we will perish in three days. So there is a feeling which is keeping every part of us vigilant in respect of what is happening outside, and the mind, or thinking, is a subtle form of this total reaction of ourselves in response to the reaction of the world of nature from outside. Hence, to think would be t which we are placed. Since we are not always in a uniform condition either outwardly or inwardly, we cannot be maintaining a uniform thought always. There is a multitude of thoughts due to a multitude of responses evoked from our side in respect of conditions of every blessed type prevailing outside.

Anyway, taking all this into consideration, a total preparation of oneself is to be undertaken in yoga. The concentration of mind that is referred to here in the context of yoga meditation is a complete army-like preparation, as if we are soldiers active in the field. It is not enough if only a little of the soldier's personality is active and the other parts are lingering or sleeping. That would not be a proper attitude. It would not be a workable method of action. Yoga is also a kind of battle. Perhaps some such thing was in the mind of the famous Bhishma when he spoke a sentence to Yudhisthira. Evidently the verse occurs in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata: “There are only two persons who are eligible for moksha. Only two persons can break through the orb of the sun and attain to salvation: the yogi who leaves his body in deep meditation, and the soldier who dies in battle. These two attain moksha.” Well, we have to take this statement in the spirit in which it is spoken, and also the spirit in which the sannyasin is understood or the soldier is understood. The idea is that there is a welling up of the whole being of a person in total action. The soldier is total action, and meditation is total action in a similar manner. There is a total encounter to a total situation in army action. In meditation also there is a total occupation of the total personality to a total situation which is the whole universe.

Hence, meditation is not mere wool-gathering, thinking something idly, as we may be gazing semi-consciously at a tree when we have no work to do, looking at the sky. This is also a kind of thinking, but this is not yoga thinking. Yoga is union, a communion of everything. Therefore, there should also be a communion of all the parts of the mind into a totality. There is a modern psychological term, evidently a German term: gestalt. It is a new school of philosophy which considers that the mind is a total operation. There is no such thing as a fractional operation of the mind. Never does the mind work with one leg. It is the whole of it that operates. It is a particular wholeness of consciousness projecting itself through the avenue of a given situation; therefore, when you think, you think entirely, at least in proportion as required under a given condition, even if it be a very insignificant condition or not a very conspicuous situation.

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To be continued 

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