Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity :30.1 Swami Krishnananda.
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Friday, December 16, 2022. 08:30.
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita
Chapter 30: Communion with Eternity-1.
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yadā viniyataṃ cittam ātmany evāvatiṣṭhate,
niḥspṛhaḥ sarvakāmebhyo yukta ity ucyate tadā (BG 6.18).
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yathā dīpo nivātastho neṅgate sopamā smṛtā,
yogino yatacittasya yuñjato yogam ātmanaḥ (BG 6.19).
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yatroparamate cittaṃ niruddhaṃ yogasevayā,
yatra caivātmanātmānaṃ paśyann ātmani tuṣyati (BG 6.20).
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sukham ātyantikaṃ yat tad buddhigrāhyam atīndriyam,
vetti yatra na caivāyaṃ sthitaś calati tattvataḥ (BG 6.21).
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yaṃ labdhvā cāparaṃ lābhaṃ manyate nādhikaṃ tataḥ,
yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇāpi vicālyate (BG 6.22).
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taṃ vidyād.h duḥkhasaṃyogaviyogaṃ yogasaṃjñitam,
sa niścayena yoktavyo yogonirviṇṇacetasā (BG 6.23).
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saṅkalpaprabhavān kāmāṃs tyaktvā sarvān aśeṣataḥ,
manasaivendriyagrāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ (BG 6.24).
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śanaiḥ śanair uparamed buddhyā dhṛtigṛhītayā,
ātmasaṃsthaṃ manaḥ kṛtvā na kiṃcid api cintayet (BG 6.25).
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yato yato niścarati manaś cañcalam asthiram,
tatas tato niyamyaitad ātmany eva vaśaṃ nayet (BG 6.26).
Here, in a capsule, is a description of the blessedness of yoga experience. When the mind subsides, it is like the child returning to the lap of its mother. It finds its own source, rejoicing in the ecstasy of having possessed what it had lost, like the returning of the prodigal son in the biblical story. Squandering all the wealth of the loving father, the foolish son wanders far, far away from the source of protection and replenishment. The wealth that is God-given is squandered by mortal enjoyment. When all the wealth is exhausted and there is nothing to call one's own, there is a sense of weariness and a sense of enough. One sees to the corners of the earth and finds that in its dark caves of promised joy there are only cups of poison hiddenly kept for the enticement of the desiring soul. Knowing this, the mind comes back like a tired bird that flies higher and higher in search of its prey, going above in the skies throughout the day and returning to its own little place of rest in the night.
Plato, in his great work The Republic, describes an analogy of the cave to illustrate the kind of bondage in which we are. Imagine that prisoners are shackled in a dark cave, their hands and feet and neck tied firmly by iron chains so that they can see only a wall on which is cast the shadows of objects moving behind them outside in the world of sunlight. They cannot see the objects, but only their shadows, because of the fixity of their necks. They get accustomed so much to the reality of the movement of the shadows on the wall that they imagine that real life is present in the shadows, because they move. Anything that moves must have life, and shadows do move; therefore, they must have life. The prisoners read significance and meaning and all value into the movements of these shadows. These prisoners may live a family life in this condition. They may have children, all born in this dark cave, but conditioned to live in a dungeon of darkness, forced to see only the shadows and never allowed to turn their heads back to the light of day. Ages may pass like this when it is impossible for anyone to imagine that there can be anything anywhere except these movements. And they are in the realities. They speak, they dance and they gesticulate. They have life, and these are the denizens of the cave. But suppose after ages they are released from the prison; their shackles are loosened and then they are brought back to the reality of waking life and they see the originals. Will they not be surprised? They will not know what they are seeing. Their eyes cannot see the light. They will be dazzled. They would not be able to recognise the people who were casting the shadows in the cave. They will think they are in a new world altogether which they cannot recognise, appreciate or understand. Long is the description; I am briefly stating the meaning of this illustration.
We are the prisoners in the cave of this world where all that we see before us is the dancing of the shadows, and the movements of objects in front of us is actually the movement of reflections cast by the originals. The originals are not in this world. We are only shadows, you and I included. That is very important to remember. It is the shadow seeing the shadow. The originals are not in this world.
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To be continued
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