Bhagavagd Gita - Session 35- Track 3507
What is partially perceived in the beginning, in the field of ignorance whether it’s a lot of ignorance the perception starts, that is the beginning of śraddhā, a perception in the darkness of the night which has the power and force to push you forward, until that perception becomes a luminous sun of knowledge: that is śraddhā.
So (XII, 2), śraddhayā parayopetāḥ te, so it is not merely Bhaktas but perception which pushes itself towards it sun of knowledge, me yuktatamā matāḥ, and those who are supremely united, yuktatamā, they are better. So, it is very clear that Bhaktas as defined in this form, they are better, their Yoga is better. Now the other ones:
ye tv akṣaram anirdeśyam avyaktaṁ paryupāsate |
sarvatragam acintyaṁ ca kūṭastham acalaṁ dhruvam ||3|| (XII)
This sentence is incomplete; it is completed in the fourth one,
sanniyamyendriyagrāmaṁ sarvatra samabuddhayaḥ ||
te prāpnuvanti mām eva sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ ||4|| (XII)
“The other ones, akṣaram, those who move towards the immutable, anirdeśyam, the indefinable, avyaktaṁ, immutable unmanifest, sarvatragam acintyaṁ, which is abroad everywhere, acintyaṁ, unthinkable, kūṭastham, that which is the deepest, acalaṁ dhruvam, that which immobile but always permanent; that which is being worshipped or which is approached, sanniyamya, by controlling, endriyagrāmaṁ, all the senses, sarvatra samabuddhayaḥ, with the power of the intellect which is established in samatva; te prāpnuvanti mām eva, they also reach Me; sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ, even they who are constantly engaged in the welfare of all the people.”
Now, even here you will see that although emphasis is upon knowledge, upon silence there is sarvatragam, it is that which is everywhere, so it is not only immutable, but that which is also that which is found everywhere and those who are sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ, those who are dynamic and who are engaged in the activities for the whole world; so even there, integrality is maintained, although the emphasis is upon the process of Buddhi, the process of concentrating upon the Immutable, but “Even they ultimately reach Me”. So, both the paths ultimately take the individual to the same goal; whether you start with knowledge, then you come to integral knowledge, through you arrive to the action, sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ, and there also you see sarvatragam, “you also see Me everywhere”, dynamically also present, but the beginning is, starting point is: attention to silent Self. In the other one, earlier one, starting point itself is integral, you start on the three wheels of the chariot as it were. And Sri Krishna says that those who start with that one, with three wheels is the swiftest road, easiest road, better road and they arrive at the best results, although this one also reaches the same goal.
But, (XII, 5), He now points out what is the difficulty: kleśo. That is however difficulty, if you just try to approach the silent Self directly it is kleśo, there is a lot of difficulties; ’dhikataras, greater difficulty than the other ones, there also are difficulties, but here the difficulties are much greater: teṣām avyaktāsaktacetasām |, those who are proceeding to realise the Immutable, for them the kleśo, the difficulties are much greater; avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate ||5||, those who are embodied, for them, the gati, the movement of this Yoga is duḥkhaṁ, is full of suffering.
What is the reason for this? That in this process, where you approach first by going to the Immutable, you are required to concentrate only upon one faculty, namely Buddhi; even Buddhi is to be controlled and to be fixed upon the silence. Now, normal tendency of the Buddhi and Manas is ‘chanchala’. Now to bring that Buddhi constantly on the silence itself is a very difficult process, particularly when you do not allow any kind of activity at all: you have to withdraw from all movement of will, all movement of emotions: so will, emotions and intellect, intellect also is to be renounced excepting one part, to concentrate upon the Brahman, the silent Brahman. So you are allowed to do only one activity.
Question: The rest is like a vacuum.
Now, imagine the condition within which activities are withdrawn from you, emotions are withdrawn from you, all relations are withdrawn from you, even intellectual activities are to be thrown out excepting intellect, concentrating upon the silent Brahman. You can see that difficulties you come across if you do this process. Many do it, some do it. Secondly, to remain without activity is in fact, as Sri Krishna had explained earlier also, that even ‘breathing’ is an activity, ‘eating’ is an activity and if you don’t eat even the body will go away then who will do the Yoga. So He says devahat bihi, those who are embodied for them this process is extremely difficult. If you stop your activities of all kinds, then logically you should stop even eating, breathing even: therefore, it is kleśo.
But now the other one…Now, Sri Krishna says, in comparison to this how the other one is swifter, much better, easier:
ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya matparāḥ||
ananyenaiva yogena māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate ||6|| (XII)
teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṁsārsāgarāt ||
bhavāmi na cirāt pārtha mayy āveśitacetasām ||7|| (XII)
na cirāt, very quickly, that is swift method. This is a very important word: na cirāt, (cirā means that which takes long), na cirāt means that which does not take much time, very quickly. Very quick is the process of ananyenaiva yogena, the Yoga that I am giving is not only Bhakti Yoga. Many People think that this is only Bhakti Yoga, but it is ‘ananya’ Bhakti Yoga, (‘ananya’ Bhakti Yoga is this ananya yoga, the 12th chapter is actually called ‘Bhakti Yoga’, Bhakti which is ‘ananya’ Bhakti ). It is not an ordinary Bhakti because already in the 11th Chapter Sri Krishna has explained four levels of Bhakti.
And then integration of that problem of Bhakti with the knowledge which is integral and with action which is integral, it is this Yoga, it is the process of this integral Yoga, instead of following only the process of concentrating upon the Immobile. Now, here you take a much more wide base in which all activities are accepted; even the most difficult activities are accepted; all relations are accepted, all emotional movements are accepted; all kinds of activities of mind and of the heart and intellect are accepted on one condition: mayi sannyasya matparāḥ. “You turn all of them to Me”. Even all activities are not to be thrown out, only ‘turn them to Me’. So, as opposed to the other movements where all activities are to be thrown out, which you cannot normally: all relations to be broken, which is not very easy to do, all activities of the mind to be renounced, that also is not easy to do.
Whether here there is an easier method: you continue all your life movements with one change (which is very difficult of course), but all Yoga is somewhat difficult, but in the other one it is adhikataraḥ klesaḥ, the other one is also much more difficult. But here if you do all activities and while doing all activities, you see the Divine in all, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, Vasudeva is everywhere therefore you see the Divine in every movement: my father is the Divine, my mother is the Divine, my son is the Divine, every activity and relationships all are the Divine. You see all and the Divine also manifest Himself in the same way: as you approach the Divine, so the Divine approaches you, this is the proposal of the Bhagavad Gita: ye yathā māṃ prapadyante tān tathaiva bajāmy aham, “As they approach Me, so I also approach in the same way”. If you look upon the Divine as a friend, He will be your friend.