Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 22-1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, June 20, 2022. 19:30

Chapter 22: The Integration of Sannyasa and Yoga -1.

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The concluding verses of the Fifth Chapter were under our consideration. 

Sparśān kṛtvā bahir bāhyāṁś cakṣuś caivāntare bhruvoḥ, prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsābhyantaracāriṇau (BG 5.27);

 yatendriyamanobuddhir munir mokṣaparāyaṇaḥ, vigatecchābhayakrodho yaḥ sadā mukta eva saḥ (BG 5.28). 

All this has been observed yesterday. The act of self-restraint is summarised here in these two verses. Self-restraint is shutting out all sense contact by extricating the conscious element from externalised perception and enabling it to return to itself, which is the process of pratyahara, and regulating the process of breathing so that the alternate movement of the breathing process through the nostrils gets stabilised and concentrated into a single flow, looking as if the whole body is filled with energy, as if immense strength has been pumped into the system due to the striking of a balance between the alternate currents of prana and apana, which is what is called kumbhaka.

We feel filled up and feel a satisfaction that a large content has been poured into us. Together with this experience, there is the retention of the functions of the mind. Together with the restraint of the senses, there is a spontaneous settling of the waves of the psyche. Yatendriyamanobuddhi is the expression. Yata means restraint, control, subdual, withdrawn, sublimated. It is the past participle of the very same root that is also the background of the word yama. Indriya and manas and buddhi should stand together.

This is also told in a similar manner in the Kathopanishad. Yadā pañcāvatiṣṭhante jñānāni manasā saha, buddhiś ca na viceṣṭati, tām āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim (Katha 2.3.10). Yadā pañcāvatiṣṭhante: Pañca means the five senses; that is indriya. Manasā saha: together with the mind, indriya manas. Buddhiś ca na viceṣṭati: When the apertures of the senses, which conduct energy outwardly in the direction of objects, are blocked, there is an inward flow of that energy, like water flowing in a pipe. There is a descending tendency in water, which rushes outward in a conduit pipe. It flows in the direction of the open tap, or anywhere it may be directed. If the tap is closed or if the opening is blocked, the water retains itself and goes back to the source, as it were, raising its level and thus increasing the potency of the content of water in the reservoir. In a similar manner, the energies that usually flow through the conduit pipes of the sense organs are withdrawn back through these channels. The mind is the reservoir, the senses are the pipes and the objects are the opening taps, which must be closed. Then the energy flows backwards and the mind becomes very strong. As overconsumption of electric force depletes the capacity of production in a powerhouse and the energy content there rises to a high pitch if all consumption channels are closed, in a similar manner, the powerhouse of the mind raises its capacity to think and act. Its energy rises to a high pitch, the concentration increases, the memory becomes acute, the understanding becomes perspicacious, the body become strong. All the organs act with tremendous capacity merely because our strength is not wasted in sense contact.

Much of our energy flows to the objects outside in all acts of perception. We may remember here the caution exercised by Patanjali Maharishi in his Yoga Sutras. We have two kinds perception. This is not a matter concerning the Bhagavadgita, but it is relevant to it. There are two types of perception: emotional and philosophical, rather, purely cognitional. Generally, we do not look at things without some kind of an emotional content attached. We also have a feeling attached to the act of perception of an object. We do not merely see a thing and become aware that a thing is there; we attach a value of some type to the object that is noticed. The value that is associated with an object that is otherwise merely cognised or perceived is due to the association of our emotion and feeling. “Oh, wonderful, how beautiful!” “How bad, how wretched, how ugly!” “This is good; this is bad.” “This is necessary; this is not necessary.” “This is mine; this is not mine.” These ideas of a personal association with the objects of perception are called klishta vrittis in the sutras of Patanjali, operations of the psyche which cause unnecessary trouble and sorrow. It is so because we get involved in the perception. Let the object be there; what does it matter? But it is not like that. It is not merely that the object is there. I am also there in that object, wanting to have some opinion about it, and get stimulated, stirred up in thought and action in respect of that content which may lead to attachment, aversion, and many other things. In this manner, a lot of energy is poured on the object of affection or hatred, raga-dvesha, which causes intense anxiety engendered by the possession associated with the object. There is always anxiety associated with the objects that are possessed or objects that are said to cause fear. Either way, we are kept alert in our emotions, and the emotions pump energy out in the direction of that object which is our beloved possession or our object of dislike. We cannot even sleep properly with such thoughts. We are out in a dreamland, as it were, thinking of things outside. We have meandered out of our own body and personality into the world of perception.

To be continued...

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