Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 22-2. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, June 26, 2022. 05:30

Chapter 22: The Integration of Sannyasa and Yoga -2.

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Not merely that, which is bad enough, but even a philosophical cognition of the reality of an object outside, the acceptance of a so-called outsides in things, is also considered as an obstacle in the intentions of yoga practice. So it is certainly necessary for us to be emotionally detached from all objects. I see a garden, I see a tree, I see a person, I see this, I see that, but I should be undisturbed by the perception of that, as if it matters not whether it is there or it is not there. But mostly we are perturbed by the presence of something, in some way or another. This is emotional content getting directed outwardly to that particular given object.

But yoga is still superior to even emotional detachment. Even if we are emotionally detached, we may not be in a state of yoga. Yoga is, as we have noticed earlier, a more advanced attunement of ourselves with fact. Yoga leads to samadhi. Finally that is the aim: communion, and becoming so united with the object that it is not there as an outside something. This is the aim to which we shall be taken finally. So the sutra of Patanjali in another context tells us that emotional determination and evaluation of an object is very bad because it shows that we are an attached person, an involved person, which is, of course, a matter of great concern; but even if we are free from such kinds of crude emotional involvements in things, we may still believe in the reality of the world outside. “This world is there. I may not be perturbed by it, but I believe it is there.” Even this belief that it is really there outside is an obstacle. Yoga is a transcendence of that.

So after the senses are inwardised and the flow of the current of energy through the sense organs is turned inward by reversion of this strength, and having made the mind intensely strong – which is a great achievement indeed, hard to achieve normally – yet, there is something more to be achieved. The mind has to contemplate on pure intelligence. It should not brood over the objects of sense. Even if the senses are not actually in contact with the objects, mental contact of the object is also a contact although physical contact may not be there. Actually, physical contact is not the source of bondage. It is mental contact that matters. Our connection with an object is not necessarily physical. There may be something sitting on my lap, yet I may have no mental contact with it. But I may have intense connection with it even if it is a thousand miles away, for another reason altogether.

Thus, contact referred to here in the field of yoga practice is not only physical contact. Actually, that is the least aspect of the matter. The more serious aspect of it is the association of the mind with the juxtaposition of the object in some way. We may be really attached to something even if the thing is far, far away or invisible to the physical eyes, and that is bondage. So the mind and the reason, the buddhi and the manas, should stand together, like the President and Prime Minister working in unison without any kind of difference of opinion among them. The apparatus of management, the Cabinet, is the sense organs, and when the Cabinet, the Prime Minister and the President are thinking one thought only, it will be a very powerful government. Such a thing is to be attained in yoga.

To be continued .....

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