Commentary on the Bhagavadgita - 12- 1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday,  August 25, 2021. 7:09. PM.
Discourse 12 :
THE FIFTH CHAPTER CONTINUES :
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A PERFECTED PERSON : 1.
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"Yogayukto visuddhatma vijitatma jitendriyah, sarvabhutatmabhutatma kurvann api na lipyate."(5.7). 

In this verse, the characteristics of a yogi, a perfected person, are described. A person who is united in yoga is a yogayukta. Such a person is also a viśuddhātmā: his lower self has been purified in order to reflect the higher Self in itself. He is also a vijitātmā: a person who is perfectly under control of himself; jitendriya: whose sense organs have been restrained; sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā: whose Self has pervaded all beings, and the Self of all beings are in his own Self. These are the qualities of a sage which are mentioned in this interesting yoga. In the beginning, the effort is to restrain the senses; and when the senses are restrained, the person becomes a jitendriya. When a person is a jitendriya on account of the restraint exercised over the senses, he becomes a vijitātmā— ne who has conquered himself. The conquest of one’s own self is actually the conquest over the sense organs, because it s due to the activity of the sense organs that one’s own self  moves in the direction of a not-self. We find that our interest is in outside things. The world seems to be more interesting than our own selves. This happens on account of the self moving away from itself, through the avenues of the senses, towards 

the direction of the world of objects. But a person who has restrained the senses does not allow the consciousness to pervade and penetrate through the senses towards the direction of things outside. Such a person has restrained himself. It is an exercise for restraining the self. It is a restraint over the sense organs; and incidentally, it is at the same time a restraint exercised on the self itself—the lower self. A jitendriya is also a vijitātmā. 

Such a person is a viśuddhātmā whose self is pure sattva, free from rajas and tamas. The entire reality is reflected through the sattva guna, as a mirror can clearly reflect the face of a person. Turbid or shaky waters do not reflect anything dequately. Turbidity is tamas, and shakiness is rajas. The sun is reflected on the waters of a lake or a river. If the lake is muddy, and it is thick and turbid on account of dirt in the water, there will be no reflection of the sun in that water; but even if the dirt is not there, even if it is clean water but it is shaking violently, then also there will not be a correct  and wholesome reflection of the sun. Similarly, we may be 

disturbed and find ourselves incapable of reflecting the higher Self in our own personality either ecause of the tamas that is prevailing in us or due to the rajas prevailing in us. Either we are tamasic—lethargic and dark—in our mental operations, or the mind is distracted in a hundred ways, so then also there is no reflection. Free from both these defects of the mind is a viśuddhātmā who is purely sattvic, ntarnished by rajas and tamas. Such a person is united with all things at the same time; he is a yogayukta. The words used in this verse are in a descending order, whereas I have explained it in an ascending order. Yogayukta is the highest state, which is attained by the viśuddhātmā, which is attained by the vijitātmā, which state is  attained by the jitendriya. Such a person becomes a wonder in this world. 

Yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ: He also becomes sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā. He will find himself  reflected in the Self of all beings in the universe, and he will find the selves of all beings reflected in his own Self. Sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā means one who has become the Self  of all beings, and also one in whom the selves of all beings find their abode. This is a grand description of the highest state of  perfection achieved by union through yoga. 

To be continued ...

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