Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 29-1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Chinmaya Mission :

Inauguration of Chinmaya Milan

Manila, Phillipines

24th November 2022 was the auspicious day that all members of Chinmaya Mission Manila were waiting for all through the Pandemic for a formal inauguration of their new centre Chinmaya Milan by Swami Swaroopananda, Global Head Chinmaya Mission. 

Invoking Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda and offering Paduka puja the centre was declared open for all public events and programmes of Chinmaya Mission. 

The centre also welcomed a new Sevak Brni. Satrupa who studied in the 18th batch Vedanta Course and will be serving the communities of Chinmaya Mission Manila.

The centre has a multi purpose prayer hall that can accomodate 200 people with the altars of Shri Rama and Hanuman and Gurudev, 5 classrooms for Bala Vihar, CHYK and Study Classes, a bookstore and 2 resident teachers living quarters.

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Saturday, November 26, 2022. 07:00.

Chapter 29: The Yoga of the Bhagavadgita -1.

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 Chinmaya Milan, Manila, Phillipines

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"Praśāntātmā vigatabhīr brahmacārivrate sthitaḥ, 
manaḥ saṃyamya maccitto yukta āsīta matparaḥ." (BG 6.14): 

One should devote oneself to yoga in a state of mind well subdued, not agitated by expectations of any kind, because all expectations which have an ulterior character smack of a desire and expectation for fruits to be yielded by our works. Fearless, therefore, should one be when one sits for meditation. There should be no fear either from any possible eventuality from outside, nor should there be any fear of doubt lurking in the mind as to the very utility of one's engagement.

Here is a subtle point which may come into our minds: What is the utility of my meditation? Even well-intentioned, good-natured, sincere students will have these difficulties. “What have I obtained after years of struggle on this path?” To ask a question like this is to again expect the fruit of action, which has been ruled out already. 

Karmaṇyevādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana (BG 2.47): 

You are here but to do, and not to question why. This is difficult because, very unfortunately, the expectation of a result from what we do, even religiously and spiritually, is part of our nature. This attitude of the mind to expect some result to follow from what we do is a part of the structure of the mind itself; therefore, to be told that we should not so expect would mean that we have to go against the very grain of our own internal makeup. We have to conquer our own self, as it were, in yoga. There is nobody else whom we have to conquer in this world. Yoga is self-conquering, self-mastery. This was the suggestion given to us in the earlier verse that the self should be subdued by the self.

Years of practise will show no indication of any event taking place. 

But nehābhikramanāśosti pratyavāyo na vidyate (BG 2.40): 

Not even the least good that we do in this world can go without being recognised. Even the least good, even a modicum of the proper thing done by us, will be properly recognised at the proper place, and at the proper time. That it will be manifestly recognised at the proper time only, and not just now when we demand it, is the unpleasant part of it, at least from our point of view. Today I sow the seed, and tomorrow I want to reap the harvest. This is our expectation. It is difficult to have a satisfaction that our duty has been done in the manner it is to be done, because the spiritual seeker's anxiety that twenty or thirty years of meditation have yielded no tangible results will certainly have an impact upon the ardour of the practice. This impact may be cooled down. All enthusiasm may receive a wet blanket because of a subtle suspicion that perhaps something has gone wrong in our practice. 

There will be an unintelligible agony felt inside caused by many factors such as the laws of all earthly amenities, to which condition one has betaken oneself in the hope that one will receive a rain of celestial nectar. That rain has not started, and many problems harass the student. These problems are listed in a sutra of Patanjali, and they are important matters needing attention. Physical illness sometimes tortures the student of yoga to such an extent that he feels that he would better leave the practice than fall ill. Sickness of the body, anxiety of the mind, and many other pressures coming from outside as well as from inside will unsettle the whole issue. This is not a situation in which only a few find themselves. The majority of seekers unwittingly land themselves in this difficulty. Later on a lethargic attitude supervenes, a sense of enough with everything that one has done. This sense of enough arises not because of a satisfaction of having achieved something but because of a dissatisfaction that nothing has been achieved.

Then doubts which are more subtle in their nature insinuate themselves into the mind. “Perhaps I am not for it. I am unnecessarily straining myself, losing the here and also losing the hereafter at the same time. I am not fit for the hereafter. Maybe I have to take several births.” This kind of sorrow will also be gnawing into the vitals. And the sorrow will have another adverse effect upon the whole practice, namely, remission of effort. The tenacity of purpose with which one took to the practice in the beginning will cool down and there will be a break in the middle. 

“After twenty years of tenacious continuation of the practice, I have got nothing, and if I stop doing it for one day, what do I actually lose?” Then the continuous sessions get discontinued and the chain breaks. Sometimes there are medical prescriptions given by physicians. These medicines have to be taken at particular intervals for several days, and the number of days and the intervals are all very important. If the intervals are not taken notice of, there will be a break in the chain of action of the medicines that are taken. “For three days I have taken it; on the fourth day, what does it matter?” This kind of idea should not come to the patient's mind.

Hence, the cumulative force which was generated by practice will get dampened by a remission of effort due to the despondency of spirit caused by helplessness, which again is brought about by the feeling that, after all, nothing is coming. “Why should I not go back to my old pleasures of life? After all, they are concrete, available, real things. What for is this pursuit of the will-o'-the-wisp, the phantasmagoria of a God which may be there? Even if it is there, it is not for me.” And so this pramada, or heedlessness in practice, catches hold of the person.

Also, I mentioned a kind of lethargy, and not actually sticking to the principles of a methodical routine. The stability of the mind in yoga practice can be maintained only by a methodical routine. If there is no method, the structure may fall. There is a precise arrangement of the material of a building in order that the building may stand erect. If the arrangement is not precise, if it is imprecise, then it is possible that the building may fall. Hence, the strictness with which the practice commenced should be maintained; but it is really hard to maintain it because the senses, which have been controlled by the vigour of aspiration in the beginning, will now whisper from inside, “You are a fool. 

You have denied us our diet, thinking that a gorgeous meal will descend from the heavens. How foolish you have been! Thirty years have passed and you have got nothing. We are here to serve you. Even now it is never too late to mend. We have not left you, though you have deserted us. You are an ungrateful man, but we are still ready to serve you. We shall be with you. Give us what we want, and we shall give you what you need.” The senses speak like this even after forty years. And why not listen to this good advice of a real friend rather than hang on some imaginary friend who may be there or may not be there, who has actually given nothing even after years of austerity, starvation, sorrow and suffering?

*****

To be continued

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