Bhagavagd Gita - Session 19- Track 1910

This is one of the most important things, where Sri Krishna says that, “Yourself is your friend, yourself is your enemy; therefore, yourself which is your enemy should be controlled by yourself which is your friend.” In this process we will find that manaḥ cañcalaṁ that, “your mind is so vivacious, so unstable”. So, Sri Krishna knows the question of Arjuna, which he has already put. By what means this mana, which is so difficult to control, how is it dragged? what is the special procedure? Is there a special procedure? So, Sri Krishna says: “Yes, there is a procedure, the whole Raja Yoga, the Dhyana Yoga is meant for that purpose. If you find that your mind cannot be controlled, if your mind is controlled easily then, this process is not necessary, it is optional. There are many people who are born yogis, and they do not need to have so much of control because they are already self-controlled. But if you find, and even those who are self-controlled, some vivaciousness remains even in those, as Sri Krishna says even Jnanis, they cannot control Prakriti fully; even Jnanis are completely dragged sometimes:

prakṛitiṁ yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣyati || (III, 33)

It is Prakriti is so powerful that even if you want to do something, Prakriti throws away all the norms, bombards everything, even hundred resolutions you have taken, ‘no I will not do this wrong thing, this lower thing I will not do but when Prakriti starts behaving, vega, the force and the power, it wants now and here the immediate fulfilment of the desire. If you have this problem then, Sri Krishna says, “This Dhyana Yoga is the process: starts with Asana, do Pranayama, and control your mind by the process of Prathyahara, Dharana, Dhyana: this is the process, which we shall see, is described in the 6th chapter quite well.

And then, when you have reached again, once again the highest, in this case the whole Raja yoga becomes a part of the synthesis of Karma yoga and Jnana yoga. Jnana yoga is not a separate thing; it is a special procedure, which is given in the Bhagavad Gita as a special means of controlling the mind, which is necessary if you want to lift yourself from where you are to reach to the highest level where you have to go.

Then, of course there are two other questions of Arjuna, which are again centred on this very question of mana. And he says that after having told everything…the same question, because Arjuna is like all of us: we have this question most prominent. So he says that “supposing you start your yoga; you start controlling yourself; ultimately you do not succeed, you fail; then, what happens? You neither remain here nor there, what happens then?” So, Sri Krishna answers that there is nothing, which is wasted: even yogabhraṣta, even when has fallen from yoga, he will take a new birth, either in a rich house, like this house where the children who have started yoga but not completed, where everything is given so easily; so mastery of things is very automatic, and they can start doing yoga. Actually all children of rich people should realise that they are in a very privileged condition, and they should make use of it properly.

Therefore, they are all blessed: many things, which other people find so difficult, they get so easily here, and therefore, they can overcome them very easily. Therefore, the parents have a very special duty: they should regard their children very specially privileged and therefore they have got a very great duty to put them on the path of Yoga as rapidly as possible.

Or, Sri Krishna says, they are born in Yogi’s families, where yoga is constantly happening, where knowledge is so very…they may not be rich physically, monetarily; but in their families there is a constant practice of Knowledge, constant practice of tapasyā, and therefore they get a very special privilege to ascend on a higher path.

Comment: For example Vyasa and Sukhdev.

Yes, born in that family where Knowledge was so automatic.

And the 6th chapter then culminates in brahmabhūta, when you become completely one with Brahman at the culmination of the synthesis of Knowledge and Action. And when you become brahmabhūta, you become identified with the Brahman Himself, and then you become also matbhaktaḥ, and you become…element of Bhakti is also introduced towards the end of the 6th chapter. It opens out the path of the further development of the synthesis of Knowledge and Devotion. But that is the end of the 6th chapter, you might say the 6 chapters are a description of the first block of Yoga, in which Knowledge and Action are synthesised, and the highest that can be achieved is given, and in order to complete that highest element, Bhakti has also to be added and synthesised.

I think this is all, in brief, 5th & 6th chapters and we shall deal upon these elements next time.

Question: Does the brahmabhūta also become triguṇātīta the culmination of the…?

That is right this is the most important question: triguṇātīta is the most important question; that is brahmabhūta; really you rise from all Prakriti, three guṇas are all transcended and you become brahmabhūta, all right?