Bhagavagd Gita - Session 24- Track 2403

Now, let us go into the depths of this important point. If Jiva is fully conscious, if Para Prakriti is fully conscious, how did it happen that this fully conscious being got caught at all into the prison of Apara Prakriti? What is the connection between Para Prakriti and Apara Prakriti? What is the connection of Jiva with the elements of Apara Prakriti in which it gets hooked up? Once you know this, we also know the remedy: the cause, once we find out what is the cause of the bondage, we have also the means of…remedy of that cause.

Now, this is a question, which is not fully expounded in the Bhagavad Gita. How does “this” happen? Because the Bhagavad Gita is not a full-fledged metaphysical treatise; and this is what is very often not understood. The Bhagavad Gita is an answer to an immediate question, which has been raised by Arjuna, it is an episode: in an episode you have no chance to explain everything, and therefore, it is not written in a form of a treatise. It is written in a form of a dialogue: in a dialogue the questions are raised ‘psychologically’, not necessarily ‘logically’. There is a difference between a psychological exposition of a problem and a logical exposition of a problem. Psychological exposition deals with the problems as they rise in the mind of the hearer: the questions which might arise in the mind of the hearer may not be logical, but psychological. A present statement made in a given time makes a hearer very happy. But not…logically, it may not come in the right direction. But you make a statement, which is very pleasing to the hearer and the psychology of the hearer becomes very happy, and then your message is given much more easily. Now, this is one of the styles of any psychological dialogue. In a logical dialogue, whether is everything is moved, put forward in a systematic step-by-step manner would be quite different.

Now, in the Bhagavad Gita whatever answer I am going to give is contained, but you will have to dig it out. It is not as if it is stated so clearly that you can find out. If you read the whole of the Gita, you will find that there are three statements, which will explain ‘why’, and ‘how’, this Jiva has got locked up in manaḥ, buddhiḥ, and ahaṁkāra. The one word which you find very often in the Bhagavad Gita is āsakti , āsaktaḥ: ‘attachment’. It is by the process of attachment, this has been found through out the Gita, that your problem is that you are attached. Every human being’s problem is ‘attachment’. And one answer that Sri Krishna gives always is: “adopt anāsakti , you become detached”. From this you can get a clue as to how this Jiva, which is a product of the Para Prakriti, which is a product of the unifying consciousness, consciousness of unity, how this Jiva has come to be attracted and got hooked to these three elements of Apara Prakriti, of the lower nature. One answer is: by the process of āsakti .

Now, āsakti is a psychological term, which can also be translated into a logical term; āsakti is a word, which we all understand very easily because we have so many relations with so many people; and we are attached to so many people, because of our attachment. It is easier for us to understand. But in logical terms it is called: ‘the process of exclusive concentration of consciousness’. All āsakti is nothing but “exclusive concentration of consciousness”.

In the Veda and the Upanishads, there is a very important term, which is called tapas: tapas is a process of fixing with concentration upon any object. We speak of tapasyā and tapascaryā, and this regarded as a process by which we can uplift ourselves from lower to the higher. We do not usually use the word tapascaryā, when we also get downward; it is the same process. In tapasyā, the important point is ‘concentration’ with our force on one-pointed ness. Just as to rise from where we are to a higher level, we will require to concentrate on one-pointed object, similarly if you want to drop down from higher to lower you require a similar downward ‘exclusive concentration of consciousness’. So, if the question is asked: by what means does the Jiva get hooked onto the manas, buddhi, and ahaṁkāra? The answer is: it is by ‘exclusive concentration of consciousness’. This is the process by which the Jiva gets hooked to these three elements, which are of our lower nature.

Once we know the cause, you reverse it. Because you are exclusively concentrated upon manas, buddhi, and ahaṁkāra, you withdraw from it by an opposite process. Instead of concentrating upon these three elements, you begin to concentrate upon Para Prakriti, upon unifying consciousness. All movement of liberation is a movement of tapasyā, of tapas, in which you make a reversal of the ‘exclusive concentration of consciousness’. You concentrate upon unity; do not concentrate upon ahaṁkāra; do not concentrate upon buddhi; do not concentrate upon manas. But how do you do that? Once you are already hooked to these three, how will you be able to make a reversal of the process?