[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

teaching of the Gita that this so-called remote ideal of
perfection which was demonstrated in the life of Bhagavan
Sri Krishna is to be brought down to the level of the lowest
conceivable individualistic practical life, and reconciled with
it in a blend and harmony.
It is the beauty of the gospel of the Gita that it can come
down to the level of the lowest from the pedestal of the
highest perfection without losing the vitality of that
perfected state. This coming down of the supreme perfected
being to the level or the status of the lower does not involve a
diminution in the divinity of that perfection that one has
attained. This is the beauty and this is the difficulty, too, in
understanding this beauty. Generally, when an elevated
personality steps down to a lower level, it is usually regarded
to be a demotion, a coming-down of the very value of the
person, but here the peculiarity and the beauty is that the
significance, the value, the worth or the comprehensiveness,
the power of this perfection does not get diminished even a
whit, though it appears to have descended to the lowest of
levels.
One can well imagine how breath-taking it is to conceive
this meaning that seems to be hidden behind the teaching of
54
they are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. At one
stroke, instantaneously, we are supposed to be capable of
practising  Vairagya and  Abhyasa , not that we have to do
 Vairagya today and  Abhyasa tomorrow. There is not even
the difference of the least time duration between the one
practice and the other. They are simultaneous, and we have
to be an expert in bringing about this real yoga, or union, of
 Vairagya and  Abhyasa in our practical day-to-day life. At
every moment of life we must be experts, adepts, and adroit
in  Abhyasa as well as  Vairagya . We have to be withdrawn
and we have to be, at the same time, concentrated. This is the
meaning of the practice of  non-attachment and
 steadfastness as the principle behind this yoga of the
Bhagavadgita. It means that we have to be very vigilant. We
cannot be wool-gathering at any time. The Yogis, even those
who are only aspiring to tread this path, cannot afford to
forget the importance of this requirement. One has always to
be cautious.  Pramada or forgetfulness, or weakness, is
regarded as a great error, a blunder indeed, in this great
journey of the soul to its perfection. So, expertness in the art
bringing together  Vairagya and  Abhyasa is a necessity,
something unavoidable. And, sometimes, the Gita tells us that
this expertness in the conducting of oneself in life is itself
yoga: yogah karmasu kausalam. It is the capacity that you
exhibit in your day-to-day life, to tune yourself to every
condition, that is yoga; because every condition is a timeless
occurrence, from the point of view of the message of the Gita.
While we appear to be living in time, in a succession of
instances of duration, we are perpetually in contact with a
timeless meaning that is hidden behind this duration of the
time process in which we seem to be involved. We are never
cut off from the vitality of the timeless, so that we cannot say
that we are out of touch with the presence of God at any time,
even in our lowest of levels, even in a fallen condition. There
is no such thing as falling from God. It cannot be.
The practice of this  Atma-samyama-yoga, which is the
meaning of the Sixth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, is,
therefore, conditioned by certain disciplinary processes
58
which will make one fit to become expert in the blending
together of  Vairagya and  Abhyasa . At the very commencing
admonition of the Chapter we are given a succinct definition
of this pre-condition, this necessary discipline that has to be
the practice.
Yam sannyasamiti prahur yogam tam viddhi pandava,
Na hyasannyastasankalpo yogi bhavati kaschana.
Sannyasa is defined here as the relinquishment of an
attitude of the will or the psychological organism within. It is
something very difficult to grasp, again. Sannyasa is
described in the Bhagavadgita in a novel fashion, something
about which many would not have thought properly. You
would not have bestowed sufficient thought on this aspect of
the definition of Sannyasa.  Sankalpa-tyaga is regarded as
Sannyasa, which means the renunciation of the usual habit of
the desireful will of the individual, and a harnessing of this
potency of the will towards the practice is  Abhyasa . This is
called yoga. The withholding of the flow of the current of the
will in the direction of multitudes of perfections by which the
energy of the individual is dissipated and the harnessing of
this energy that is so conserved for the purpose of the
practice of meditation is the essence of the yoga of the
Bhagavadgita.
So you have to perform a double feat at the same time,
the withdrawal of your personality, the controlling of your
will, the renunciation of the creative habit of the
psychological organ, and the tuning of this controlled energy
thus acquired for the purpose of concentrating one s total
being on the totality which is the goal, or the aim of yoga.
This is the deep philosophical meaning of this verse referred
to above. No yoga is possible where the separatist will is
allowed to affirm itself as an isolated reality.
And the Chapter goes on in a little detail, giving us some
more information about how we can actually try to make
ourselves fit in our daily life for this unique practice. This has
been stated in some of the following verses of the very same
59
Chapter, perhaps the immediately succeeding one tells us
something very meaningful:
Arurukshor muner yogam karma karanam uchyate,
yogarudhasya tasyai va samah karanam uchyate.
There is, generally, a feeling, even among advanced
seekers on the path of the life spiritual, that, evidently there
is a vast difference between the life of withdrawal and the life
of activity in the world, an attitude which is the primary
cause behind the unfortunate problems that face mankind
today, the problem of a conflict, as it were, between religion
and social life, which is the very thing that the Bhagavadgita
tries to solve, the problem which it wishes to break through
completely. In this verse cited there is a clue to the meaning
of this technique:
At the outset, when you are starting, when you
commence this great yoga of spiritual living, which is the
yoga of living in general action is supposed to be the means,
 karma karanam uchyate ; and when you ascend higher and
reach an advanced or particularly accentuated state, serenity
is supposed to be the means, samah karanam uchyate .
These words  samah and  karma , serenity and activity,
have been variously commented upon and interpreted by
different authors, as if they mean two contradictory things
altogether, as if the Gita is going to tell you that the higher
state is bereft of the principle of action. But this is precisely
what the Gita would refute. The Gita gives us various
definitions of  karma , and while it rises from the lower to the
higher stages in a beautiful gamut of ascent, it does not
disregard the significant values of any lower stage, so that it
would be proper to hold that the yoga of the Bhagavadgita is
a growth of personality into the various degrees of
perfection, rather than an attempt which would involve a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]