A Study of the Bhagavadgita : 9 - 7. Swami Krishnananda
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Saturday, January 29, 2022. 20:00.
Chapter : 9. The Yoga of Meditation.7.
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SBG-ch-6.slo-6.
"Bandhur atmatmanas tasya yenatmaivatmana jitah
anatmanas tu shatrutve vartetatmaiva shatru-vat."
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These two verses in the beginning of the Sixth Chapter are crucial in their meaning.
Bandhur atmatmanas tasya yenatmaivatmana jitah :
The Self is the friend of the self of that person who has overcome the lower self by the higher Self. The Self is the enemy of the self of that person who has not been able to overcome the lower self by the higher. Here is a concentrated, very valuable instruction for spiritual seekers in the art of meditation, put in a little capsule.
SBG-Ch-6. Slo-11.
Huchau deshe pratishthapya sthiram asanam atmanah
natyuchchhritam nati-nicham chailajina-kushottaram(Gita 6.11), etc.
The Gita goes further into the art of practical meditation, telling you that you are to be seated in a particular posture.
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The philosophy of the Sankhya evolution that you have studied earlier will, to some extent, help you in transferring your lower consciousness to a higher one, which is the transcendent adhidaiva. You will find it difficult, no doubt. That is, you have to be something other than yourself in meditation. You cannot continue to be what you are, and then be successful in meditating. There is a little bit of otherness of yourself in a transcendent sense. If you are looking at some object, transfer your consciousness to that state which is neither you nor that object. This is also suggested in a single sutra of Patanjali where he says you become maha videha, or the larger self, by transferring your consciousness to another which is not yourself. The suggestion is that if you meditate on a tree, for instance, it is not enough if you consider the tree as something outside you and are looking at it with your sense organs. That is sensory perception. It cannot be regarded as meditation on the tree. Your consciousness has to get transferred to the very existence of that object; you have to think, as it were, as the tree thinks; and, much more than that, you have to think in terms of that which is between you and the tree, so that there is a simultaneous consciousness of what you are and what the object outside is. This is suggested in the doctrine of the evolution of the universe in terms of the adhidaiva connecting subject and object, and also in the sutra of Patanjali.
The Gita's instruction in regard to meditation is that you may be seated on some asana which is neither on the ground, nor too high from the ground : natyuchchhritam nati-nicha
Perhaps the reason is that on the ground itself some insects may crawl and trouble you. If it is too high, you may fall off the seat – so, neither too high nor too low. Something which is supposed to be a non-conductor of electricity is spread on the ground. In earlier days, we used to have a tiger skin or deerskin, but you can have grass – kusa grass, a grass mat. It is generally used for meditation.
On that you have a soft cloth : chailajina-kushottaram. Caila is a cloth. Over that you sit.
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To be continued ....
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