Tuesday, October 25, 2016

First Anniversary of Geeta Musings blog!


Chapter 12- Bhakti Yoga Introduction

CHAPTER XII
Path-of-Devotion

Knowing full well the essential temperament of Arjuna, the royal hero, Krishna had tickled his kingly ambition at the closing of the last chapter (XI-54). To a true king, the challenge of a greater glory is too strong to resist. Wherever a vaster field, a greater profit, a more glowing resplendency is recognised, he cannot resist the temptation to fight for it, to conquer it and bring it within his ruling hand, and thereby spread his unquestioned sway over the conquered domain. Expecting this reaction in his royal friend of endless heroism, Krishna had not only exhibited the divine glory of the Lord and His cosmic-form, but also declared to Arjuna that "THROUGH SINGLE-MINDED DEVOTION CAN THIS COSMIC-FORM BE KNOWN AND SEEN AND ENTERED INTO BY ANYONE." On hearing that this Infinite glory can be his through devotion, the Pandava Prince optimistically determines to make an attempt to conquer and bring to himself this spiritual glory.
Psychologically, Arjuna was already prepared to feel this heroic urge and he had the divine inspiration to make any sacrifice necessary and to put forth all the efforts needed for the conquest of the spiritual goal. We have found in the last two chapters how Arjuna, as an intelligent man, was hesitant to accept his charioteer as Divine. The Prince demanded an analytical explanation for the Lord's philosophical exposition. "I AM NOT IN THEM, THEY ARE IN ME." This was given out earlier (IX-4) but the scepticism in the intelligent Arjuna was still too deep to be totally annihilated by a mere verbal declaration of the glory of the Divine.

Naturally, the Prince demanded a physical demonstration of the same and the Lord showed the total Cosmic-Form. Once fully convinced by the double process of analysis and synthesis --- discussion and a demonstration of the same --- Arjuna's intellect surrenders totally with an aspiration to realise and become the Spirit.

Every individual wants to become and live what he is convinced of; as the thoughts, so the man. And, one who is convinced, is a greater seeker than a man of blind faith jogging along the thorny Path of time-worn habits.

It is a fact that the subtler personality can come to assert itself only when the grosser one is completely satisfied. As long as one is hungry, one's emotional nature goes on choking one's heart. When the stomach is full, the heart has the freedom to demand its emotional satisfaction of love and affection. The intellect can come to its full play only when the physical and the emotional aspects are at rest --- or, temporarily at least, satisfied. If there is an imperfection or incompleteness, either in the physical or in the emotional personality of man, he is not capable of invoking and directing the efficient play of his emotional and intellectual abilities.

In the same way, the spiritual urge for intuitive experience in a seeker expresses itself only when all earlier and outer demands are fully satisfied. This truth is beautifully brought out to us in the discussions contained in the chapter on the "PATH OF DEVOTION." When Arjuna is intellectually convinced and emotionally satisfied that the cowherd-boy is the Infinite's own playful manifestation, his scepticism as a soldier ends and he feels an urge to seek, to discover, to conquer, to possess and to rule over the kingdom of the Spirit.

In the Form-Terrible, Arjuna had observed the endless thraldom of the PAST, passing through the avenues of the PRESENT, to reach the courtyard of the FUTURE and meet the "Lord of Time" Krishna Himself there. Similarly, in the Lord, the Infinite, he saw "here" and "there" mingling with each other, and the farthest horizons nestling in the lap of the "here"! Naturally, Arjuna raised the question as to whether he should seek, love, and meditate upon the infinite form of the Formless, or upon the manifest divinity in the Cosmic-Form of Krishna.

The previous two chapters had completely satisfied the sceptic in Arjuna through 'discussion' (Ch.-X) and actual 'demonstration' (Ch.-XI) of the Lord's Cosmic-Form. The newly converted Royal Prince now feels an irresistible urge to conquer the Kingdom Divine within himself. The secret strategy for the sure conquerer was also indicated in the concluding stanza of the last chapter; devotion and consistency of self-application, free from all ego-centric attachment to the world-of-objects is the way charted out in the Geeta, and it is assured that thereby, "YOU SHALL ENTER INTO ME, O PANDAVA" (XI-55).

As a practical man-of-action, Arjuna is no idle philosopher, seeking a vain satisfaction in mere bookish erudition and profitless scholarship. He was not at all charmed by the theory as such. The warrior was impatient to enter the field of strife and bring under this sway the realm of glory demonstrated by his Charioteer. Therefore, the chapter starts rightly with a question that means business.

As a student of the Vedas, from his childhood, Arjuna was taught that the Absolute is Formless and Nameless and beyond the perceptions of the sense organs, feelings of the mind, and comprehensions of the intellect. But the Prince had a vivid first-hand experience of Krishna and His Cosmic-Form. Naturally, the doubt is raised by him as to whether it is more profitable to meditate upon the Truth as unmanifest or as manifest --- like the one shown by Sri Krishna.

The question raises a very moot point in religion. From time to time, Prophets and Masters had appeared to support, or to condemn, the worship of the God-Principle in and through a Divine-Form. Can the ocean be fully realised through the knowledge of the waves, or will the knowledge of the waves obstruct our comprehension of the ocean? In short, is idol-worship justified? Can it provide a helpful prop for the meditative mind to swing on and dive into the Infinite? If it can, what exactly is the technique? The entire chapter is dedicated to answer this question.

For its scientific thoroughness and for its wealth of details, the Geeta can always stand a good comparison with any of the modern text-books on secular sciences. Lord Krishna is ever conscious that He is talking to a man-of-action, Arjuna, a brainy sceptic.

|| Chapter-12 ||

Source: The Holy Geeta

Monday, October 24, 2016

Chapter 11 concludes: October 24, 2016

Bg 11.52

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

su-durdarśam idaṁ rūpaṁ dṛṣṭavān asi yan mama
devā apy asya rūpasya nityaṁ darśana-kāṅkṣiṇaḥ

Bg 11.53

nāhaṁ vedair na tapasā na dānena na cejyayā
śakya evaṁ-vidho draṣṭuṁ dṛṣṭavān asi māṁ yathā

Bg 11.54

bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakya aham evaṁ-vidho ’rjuna
jñātuṁ draṣṭuṁ ca tattvena praveṣṭuṁ ca paran-tapa

Bg 11.55

mat-karma-kṛn mat-paramo mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ
nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava

Om tat sat iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsu upaniśadsu 
brahmavidyāyām yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasamvāde 
viśvarūpadarśanayogo nāma ekādaśodhyāyaha


Translation

The Blessed Lord said: 52.   Very hard, indeed, it is to see this Form of Mine which you have seen. Even the gods are ever longing to behold this Form.

53. Neither by the VEDAS, nor by austerity, nor by gift, nor by sacrifices, can I be seen in this Form as you have seen Me (in your present mental condition).

54. But, by single-minded devotion, can I, of this Form, be 'known' and 'seen' in reality, and also 'entered' into, O Parantapa (O scorcher of your foes)!

55. He who does actions for Me, who looks upon Me as the Supreme, who is devoted to Me, who is free from attachment, who bears enmity towards none, he comes to Me, O Pandava.

Commentary

The Universal-Form of the Lord is no easy experience for anyone, and it can be gained neither by study of the Vedas, nor by austerities, nor by gifts, nor by a sacrifice. Even the gods, the denizens of heaven, with their ampler intellects, longer lives, and harder endeavours, are unable to behold this Universal-Form, and they keep on longing for this experience.

And yet, Krishna has shown this Form, mighty and wondrous, to His friend through His Grace, as He Himself admitted earlier.

We may wonder what makes the Lord shower His grace upon one, and not upon another. It CANNOT be a haphazard distribution of an Omnipotent, who does things as He likes, arbitrarily, without any rhyme or reason! For, in that case the Lord will be accused of partiality and arbitrariness.

HERE, IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA, WE GET THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF WHAT COMPELS THE LORD TO SHOWER HIS SPECIAL FAVOURS UPON SOMEONE SOMETIMES, AND NOT UPON ALL AT ALL TIMES:

Regarding devotion Shankara says: "No doubt, of the means available for liberating ourselves, the most substantial hardware is Bhakti; and identifying ourselves with the Self is called Bhakti."

Identification is the truest measure of Love. The devotee, forgetting his own individual existence and, in his love, identifying to become one with his beloved Lord, is the culmination of Divine Love. The Vedantic student who is the seeker of the Self, is spiritually obliged to renounced all his abject identification with his matter vestures and to discover his true nature to be the Self.

Only those who are thus capable of identifying themselves with the One unifying Truth that holds together, in its web-of-love, the plurality, can experience, "ME IN THIS FASHION" --- in my Cosmic Form.

The three stages in which realisation of Truth comes to man are indicated here when the Lord says, "TO KNOW, TO SEE, AND TO ENTER." A definite intellectual knowledge of the goal and the path is the beginning of a seeker's pilgrimage --- TO KNOW. Next comes the seeker's attempt to masticate the ideas intellectually understood through his own personal reflections upon the information which he has already gathered --- TO SEE. Having thus 'known' and 'seen' the goal, thereafter, the seeker, through a process of detachment from the false and attachment to the Real, comes to experience the Truth as no object other than himself --- TO ENTER. By the term 'entering,' it is also indicated that the fulfilled seeker becomes the very essence of the sought. The dreamer, suffering from the sorrows of the dream, ends it all, when he no more sees, but "enters" the waking-state, himself to become the waker.

HOW? ... I SHALL EXPLAIN, SAYS THE LORD AND ADDS:

When he heard that anyone can, through undivided devotion, not only recognise the cosmic might of the Lord but also experience that glory in himself, the Pandava Prince's face must have reflected an anxiety to acquire this status. As an answer to this unasked question from Arjuna, Krishna explains here how one can grow towards this great fulfilment in life.

The Krishna-plan, for finite man to gain the stature and strength of the Cosmic, seems to consist of five distinct schemes. This is clear from the conditions required of a seeker as given in this verse. They are: (1) whose work is all dedicated to the Lord, (2) whose goal is the Lord, (3) who is a devotee of the Lord, (4) who is free from all attachments, and (5) who is devoid of all sense of enmity towards everyone.

In these five schemes, we find the entire line of self-discipline summarised. Detachment from all activities, whether physical or mental or intellectual can take place only when one is constantly thinking of the Self. Enmity is possible only when one considers the other as separate from oneself. There cannot be enmity between my own right hand and my left hand. The awareness of the Oneness should be experienced through the vision of the same Self everywhere and then alone can the total avoidance of enmity with any creature be fully accomplished.

Total detachment is an impossibility at the mind-and-intellect level. The mind and intellect cannot live without attaching themselves to some thing or being. Therefore, the seeker, through God-dedicated activity, learns first to withdraw all his attachments from other things, and then to turn his mind with the fervour of devoted attachment to the Lord. In accomplishing this, all the schemes explained earlier are, indeed, very helpful.

Thus, when the whole scheme is re-evaluated, we can find in it a logic quite acceptable and perfectly psychological. Each subsequent item in the scheme is beautifully supported and nourished by the previous one. From the stanza, it is evident that the spiritual seeker's great pilgrimage starts with God-dedicated activities. Soon, that God-principle Itself becomes his very goal in life. He will develop, in himself, a consummate liking for this glorious goal. Naturally, all his other finite attachments with the world-of-objects will end, and at last, he will come to contact the Self. Having become the Self, he recognises himself everywhere, in everything, and so, in him there cannot be any sense of enmity at all.

LOVE FOR ALL AND HATRED FOR NONE can be considered the Geeta 'touch-stone' to know the quality of realisation and intensity of experience a seeker has gained through his Sadhana.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad-Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the scripture of YOGA, in the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, the eleventh discourse ends titled:

THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE UNIVERSAL FORM

The Chapter is rightly named as the vision of the Universal-Form. In Sanskrit scriptural terminology, it is pointed out that the term Vishwa Roopa used here is actually the Virata Roopa. The Self, identifying itself with an 'individual physical body,' experiences the waking-state happenings, and in this condition the Self is called in Vedanta as Vishwa. When the same Self identifies Itself with the total-physical-gross-bodies of the Universe, in that condition the Self is called the Cosmic-Virata. Here the Lord showed His Cosmic-Form but the Chapter is titled as Vishwa-Roopa.

Om Om Om Om Om

Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta