A Study of the Bhagavadgita : 56 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday 10, November 2024, 06:30.
A Study of the Bhagavadgita:
Chapter 9: The Yoga of Meditation - 6.
Swami Krishnananda
Post-56.

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Thus, here is something interesting for you in a single slogam of the Gita: 

Uddhared atmanatmanam: raise the self by the Self; 

natmanam avasadayet: never deprecate yourself; 

atmaiva hy atmano bandhur: the Self is the friend of the self; 

atmaiva ripur atmanah: the Self is also the enemy of the self. 

The Self is the friend of the self because the lower self has surrendered itself completely to the requirements of the higher Self. It will certainly take care of you. God never ignores any person, provided there is real surrender. Otherwise, it will look as if the higher Self is not cooperating with you. How will it cooperate with you when yourself is conditioned by so many physical and social associations? 

Therefore, be brave – vira, as the Upanishad puts it.

Bandhur atmatmanas tasya a jitah, 

anatmanas tu satrutve vartetatmaiva satruvat (Gita 6.6). 

These two slogas 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.

The Gita goes further into the art of practical meditation, telling you that you are to be seated in a particular posture. 

Sucau deSe pratishthapya sthiram asanam atmanah, natyucchritam natinicam cailajinakusottaram (Gita 6.11), etc. 

These are all in the scriptures. It is not that you should go away somewhere for the purpose of meditation. You can be in your room if that is convenient. Otherwise, for atmospheres of this kind you can sit in a forest, under a tree where it is cool, not in the hot sun, etc. Wherever it is, as is convenient, well-ventilated by a breeze and not suffocating, be seated calmly and read these slogas of the Gita and see to what extent you can raise yourself to a higher consciousness.

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.

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Continued

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