Bg 18.50
siddhiṁ prāpto yathā brahma tathāpnoti nibodha me
samāsenaiva kaunteya niṣṭhā jñānasya yā parā
Bg 18.51
buddhyā viśuddhayā yukto dhṛtyātmānaṁ niyamya ca
śabdādīn viṣayāṁs tyaktvā rāga-dveṣau vyudasya ca
Bg 18.52
vivikta-sevī laghv-āśī yata-vāk-kāya-mānasaḥ
dhyāna-yoga-paro nityaṁ vairāgyaṁ samupāśritaḥ
Translation
50. How he, who has attained perfection, reaches BRAHMAN (the Eternal) , that in brief do you learn from Me, O! Kaunteya, that Supreme State-of-Knowledge.
51. Endowed with a pure intellect; controlling the self by firmness; relinquishing sound and other objects; and abandoning attraction and hatred;
52. Dwelling in solitude; eating but little; speech, body and mind subdued; always engaged in meditation and concentration; taking refuge in dispassion;
Commentary
Here we are told how to get detached from the wrong tendencies in life, and how, to that extent, we attain serenity and composure. Detachment from matter-hallucinations itself is the rediscovery of the spiritual beauty. The following few stanzas make a beautiful section of this chapter which refreshingly reminds us of the various descriptions of a Man-of-Perfection that were given earlier, throughout the Lord's Song. When we thus get purified, meaning, when the intellect becomes free from its attachments, and the mind and body come well under the control of the intellect, then alone are we fit for the "Path-of-Meditation," which is the process of accomplishing and fulfilling renunciation of the lower, base, ego-sense.
It is not possible to renounce all attachments completely, unless one experiences the Truth, and thereby becomes the Infinite Self. Our attempt now is to reduce our attachments to the irreducible minimum, leaving but the thinnest film of 'ignorance'veiling the Supreme. Krishna says here, "LEARN THAT FROM ME IN BRIEF, O, son of Kunti, how to remove this last lingering film of 'ignorance'and thereby get permanently established in that Supreme God-consciousness, which is the Self."
THE TECHNIQUE-OF-MEDITATION IS BEING DESCRIBED NOW; THIS AND THE FOLLOWING TWO STANZAS EXPLAIN WHAT SHOULD BE THE CONDITION OF THE EQUIPMENTS OF PERCEPTION, FEELING, AND THINKING AT THE TIME OF PERFECT MEDITATION:
ENDOWED WITH PURE UNDERSTANDING --- An intellect that has grown to remain without vaasanaas. An intellect that has thus purified itself of all its tendencies of joy-hunting is indicated here as pure (Vishuddha) understanding.
CONTROLLING THE MIND AND THE SENSE WITH FORTITUDE --- These two sabotage the harmony and balance in a meditator when he is at his seat of meditation. At that moment the sense-organs receive a rush of stimuli with which they can disturb the music of meditation in the mind; or, often the mind can topple down from its steady concentration, by itself remembering its own experiences of the past. By controlling both these, which were earlier described as Shama and Dama, the seeker comes to tune himself up properly. He becomes invulnerable to all such attacks.
The idea of controlling the mind and sense-organs described in the earlier epithet is clearly elucidated in the second line of the stanza. RENOUNCING SENSE-OBJECTS --- controlling the sense-organs means allowing none of the stimuli such as sound, form, touch, taste or smell to infiltrate through their respective gateways of ears, eyes, skin, tongue and the nose. When thus a complete wall-of-understanding has been built around the mind, protecting it from any onslaught from the outer world, the mind can, of its own accord, either dance in some REMEMBERED joy, or sob in grief at some EXPECTED sorrow --- because of its likes and dislikes, loves and hates. Therefore, these instinctive impulses of the mind are also to be controlled.
To summarise, a meditator is one who has: (1) an intellect purified of all its extrovert desires; (2) a mind, together with the sense-organs, brought well under the control of this intellect, so purified; (3) the sense-organs no more contacting the sense-objects; and (4) a mind that has given up its ideas of likes and dislikes. It is this individual who becomes a successful meditator.
AGAIN:
DWELLING IN SOLITUDE (Vivikta-Sevee) --- A seeker who has developed all the above-mentioned physical, mental and intellectual adjustments, must now seek a sequestered spot of loneliness. This does not mean that he must move out of a town to a jungle. The term indicates only a spot "wherein there is the least disturbance." Even in the midst of a market there are moments when it is deserted and quiet. If the seeker is sincere, he can discover such moments of complete solitude under his own roof.
EATING BUT LITTLE --- Over-indulgence and stuffing oneself with highly nutritive food is fattening the body and thickening the subtlety of one's intellectual activities. Temperance is the law for all spiritual students (VI-17).
CONTROLLING SPEECH, BODY AND MIND --- The mind cannot be subdued unless the body is brought under its command. The body is constituted of the sense-organs of perception and action. The grossest manifestation of the mind is action, and to control action is to discipline the mind. The term SPEECH used here indicates "all sense-organs-of-action and their functions"; and the term BODY represents "the organs-of-perception and all their activities of perceiving their respective objects." Unless these two sets of organs are controlled, the mind cannot be subdued.
In fact, the mind ITSELF, at the body-level, becomes the sense-organs, and the mind projected away from the body is the great universe of sense-objects. When the mind, playing through the body, identifies itself with its own projections --- the objects --- it is called PERCEPTION; and when it comes in contact with the world-of-objects seeking satisfaction and entertainment, it is called ACTION. Disciplining action and regulating perception --- in short, eliminating the ego-centric attitude in all our perceptions, in all our relationships with the world-of-objects, is what is advised here.
EVER ENGAGED IN MEDITATION --- Controlling the actions and perceptions of the mind is not possible as long as the mind is constantly flowing out through the sense-organs towards the sense-objects. Seeking sense-gratifications, the mind is in a constant state of agitation. To quieten such a mind, it is necessary that we must give it some "point-of-contemplation" wherein, as it engages itself more and more, it shall discover consummate happiness and get sufficiently disengaged from everything else. Diverting the mind from the world of sense-objects and maintaining it in a steady flow towards contemplation of the Lord in an utter attitude of identification, is called MEDITATION. To be steadily in a state of such an all-consuming dedication unto a nobler and higher ideal is the method of cooling down the mind's boiling lust for sense-enjoyments.
POSSESSED OF DISPASSION --- Dispassion is Vairaagya. It is not a mere self-denial of any object of enchantment, but it is a state when the mind rebounds upon itself from the objects as a result of its discovery that the objects contain no glow of happiness. The essence of dispassion is not in our running away from the object; from a truly dispassionate man, the objects run away in inexplicable despair.
When the old interests of a person die away and when he is ordered by new intellectual visions, new interests rise up in his mind; then the old world-of-objects around him suddenly retires, yielding place to the new set of things that he has willed around him by his newly developed mind. As long as I was a vicious man, sensuous friends and pleasure-seekers crowded my drawing-room; when I changed my way-of-life and took to serious social work and political activities, the group of idlers went away yielding their places to politicians and social workers. After a time I grew in my mental make-up, and so, in my spiritual interests, even these politicians with their power-politics, and the social workers with their unspeakable jealousies and rivalries retired, yielding their places to men of thought and spiritual benediction. This is a typical example of how, as a mind grows, it leaves its old toys behind and enters totally into a greater field of the nobler gains of life.
To sum up, a true seeker of the Higher Life must seek solitude, live in temperance, subdue his speech, body and mind, and must live in a spirit of dispassion, a true life of aspiration to heave himself towards the ideal.
THESE EFFORTS CAN BUILD UP A TEMPLE OF SUCCESS ONLY WHEN THE INNER PERSONALITY HAS A DEEP FOUNDATION UPON CERTAIN ENDURING VALUES OF LIFE. THESE ARE ENUMERATED IN THE FOLLOWING.....
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
siddhiṁ prāpto yathā brahma tathāpnoti nibodha me
samāsenaiva kaunteya niṣṭhā jñānasya yā parā
Bg 18.51
buddhyā viśuddhayā yukto dhṛtyātmānaṁ niyamya ca
śabdādīn viṣayāṁs tyaktvā rāga-dveṣau vyudasya ca
Bg 18.52
vivikta-sevī laghv-āśī yata-vāk-kāya-mānasaḥ
dhyāna-yoga-paro nityaṁ vairāgyaṁ samupāśritaḥ
Translation
50. How he, who has attained perfection, reaches BRAHMAN (the Eternal) , that in brief do you learn from Me, O! Kaunteya, that Supreme State-of-Knowledge.
51. Endowed with a pure intellect; controlling the self by firmness; relinquishing sound and other objects; and abandoning attraction and hatred;
52. Dwelling in solitude; eating but little; speech, body and mind subdued; always engaged in meditation and concentration; taking refuge in dispassion;
Commentary
Here we are told how to get detached from the wrong tendencies in life, and how, to that extent, we attain serenity and composure. Detachment from matter-hallucinations itself is the rediscovery of the spiritual beauty. The following few stanzas make a beautiful section of this chapter which refreshingly reminds us of the various descriptions of a Man-of-Perfection that were given earlier, throughout the Lord's Song. When we thus get purified, meaning, when the intellect becomes free from its attachments, and the mind and body come well under the control of the intellect, then alone are we fit for the "Path-of-Meditation," which is the process of accomplishing and fulfilling renunciation of the lower, base, ego-sense.
It is not possible to renounce all attachments completely, unless one experiences the Truth, and thereby becomes the Infinite Self. Our attempt now is to reduce our attachments to the irreducible minimum, leaving but the thinnest film of 'ignorance'veiling the Supreme. Krishna says here, "LEARN THAT FROM ME IN BRIEF, O, son of Kunti, how to remove this last lingering film of 'ignorance'and thereby get permanently established in that Supreme God-consciousness, which is the Self."
THE TECHNIQUE-OF-MEDITATION IS BEING DESCRIBED NOW; THIS AND THE FOLLOWING TWO STANZAS EXPLAIN WHAT SHOULD BE THE CONDITION OF THE EQUIPMENTS OF PERCEPTION, FEELING, AND THINKING AT THE TIME OF PERFECT MEDITATION:
ENDOWED WITH PURE UNDERSTANDING --- An intellect that has grown to remain without vaasanaas. An intellect that has thus purified itself of all its tendencies of joy-hunting is indicated here as pure (Vishuddha) understanding.
CONTROLLING THE MIND AND THE SENSE WITH FORTITUDE --- These two sabotage the harmony and balance in a meditator when he is at his seat of meditation. At that moment the sense-organs receive a rush of stimuli with which they can disturb the music of meditation in the mind; or, often the mind can topple down from its steady concentration, by itself remembering its own experiences of the past. By controlling both these, which were earlier described as Shama and Dama, the seeker comes to tune himself up properly. He becomes invulnerable to all such attacks.
The idea of controlling the mind and sense-organs described in the earlier epithet is clearly elucidated in the second line of the stanza. RENOUNCING SENSE-OBJECTS --- controlling the sense-organs means allowing none of the stimuli such as sound, form, touch, taste or smell to infiltrate through their respective gateways of ears, eyes, skin, tongue and the nose. When thus a complete wall-of-understanding has been built around the mind, protecting it from any onslaught from the outer world, the mind can, of its own accord, either dance in some REMEMBERED joy, or sob in grief at some EXPECTED sorrow --- because of its likes and dislikes, loves and hates. Therefore, these instinctive impulses of the mind are also to be controlled.
To summarise, a meditator is one who has: (1) an intellect purified of all its extrovert desires; (2) a mind, together with the sense-organs, brought well under the control of this intellect, so purified; (3) the sense-organs no more contacting the sense-objects; and (4) a mind that has given up its ideas of likes and dislikes. It is this individual who becomes a successful meditator.
AGAIN:
DWELLING IN SOLITUDE (Vivikta-Sevee) --- A seeker who has developed all the above-mentioned physical, mental and intellectual adjustments, must now seek a sequestered spot of loneliness. This does not mean that he must move out of a town to a jungle. The term indicates only a spot "wherein there is the least disturbance." Even in the midst of a market there are moments when it is deserted and quiet. If the seeker is sincere, he can discover such moments of complete solitude under his own roof.
EATING BUT LITTLE --- Over-indulgence and stuffing oneself with highly nutritive food is fattening the body and thickening the subtlety of one's intellectual activities. Temperance is the law for all spiritual students (VI-17).
CONTROLLING SPEECH, BODY AND MIND --- The mind cannot be subdued unless the body is brought under its command. The body is constituted of the sense-organs of perception and action. The grossest manifestation of the mind is action, and to control action is to discipline the mind. The term SPEECH used here indicates "all sense-organs-of-action and their functions"; and the term BODY represents "the organs-of-perception and all their activities of perceiving their respective objects." Unless these two sets of organs are controlled, the mind cannot be subdued.
In fact, the mind ITSELF, at the body-level, becomes the sense-organs, and the mind projected away from the body is the great universe of sense-objects. When the mind, playing through the body, identifies itself with its own projections --- the objects --- it is called PERCEPTION; and when it comes in contact with the world-of-objects seeking satisfaction and entertainment, it is called ACTION. Disciplining action and regulating perception --- in short, eliminating the ego-centric attitude in all our perceptions, in all our relationships with the world-of-objects, is what is advised here.
EVER ENGAGED IN MEDITATION --- Controlling the actions and perceptions of the mind is not possible as long as the mind is constantly flowing out through the sense-organs towards the sense-objects. Seeking sense-gratifications, the mind is in a constant state of agitation. To quieten such a mind, it is necessary that we must give it some "point-of-contemplation" wherein, as it engages itself more and more, it shall discover consummate happiness and get sufficiently disengaged from everything else. Diverting the mind from the world of sense-objects and maintaining it in a steady flow towards contemplation of the Lord in an utter attitude of identification, is called MEDITATION. To be steadily in a state of such an all-consuming dedication unto a nobler and higher ideal is the method of cooling down the mind's boiling lust for sense-enjoyments.
POSSESSED OF DISPASSION --- Dispassion is Vairaagya. It is not a mere self-denial of any object of enchantment, but it is a state when the mind rebounds upon itself from the objects as a result of its discovery that the objects contain no glow of happiness. The essence of dispassion is not in our running away from the object; from a truly dispassionate man, the objects run away in inexplicable despair.
When the old interests of a person die away and when he is ordered by new intellectual visions, new interests rise up in his mind; then the old world-of-objects around him suddenly retires, yielding place to the new set of things that he has willed around him by his newly developed mind. As long as I was a vicious man, sensuous friends and pleasure-seekers crowded my drawing-room; when I changed my way-of-life and took to serious social work and political activities, the group of idlers went away yielding their places to politicians and social workers. After a time I grew in my mental make-up, and so, in my spiritual interests, even these politicians with their power-politics, and the social workers with their unspeakable jealousies and rivalries retired, yielding their places to men of thought and spiritual benediction. This is a typical example of how, as a mind grows, it leaves its old toys behind and enters totally into a greater field of the nobler gains of life.
To sum up, a true seeker of the Higher Life must seek solitude, live in temperance, subdue his speech, body and mind, and must live in a spirit of dispassion, a true life of aspiration to heave himself towards the ideal.
THESE EFFORTS CAN BUILD UP A TEMPLE OF SUCCESS ONLY WHEN THE INNER PERSONALITY HAS A DEEP FOUNDATION UPON CERTAIN ENDURING VALUES OF LIFE. THESE ARE ENUMERATED IN THE FOLLOWING.....
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
