Bg 6.13
samaṁ kāya-śiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann acalaṁ sthiraḥ
samprekṣya nāsikāgraṁ svaṁ diśaś cānavalokayan
Bg 6.14
praśāntātmā vigata-bhīr brahmacāri-vrate sthitaḥ
manaḥ saṁyamya mac-citto yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ
Translation
13. Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around.
14. Serene-minded, fearless, firm in the vow of BRAHMACHARYA, having controlled the mind, thinking on Me and balanced, let him sit, having Me as the Supreme Goal.
Commentary
After describing in detail the arrangement of the seat of meditation and how to sit there properly, Lord Krishna had thereafter explained what the meditator should do with his mind and intellect. He has also said that the mind should be made single-pointed by subduing all the activities of the sense-organs and the imagination. Adding more details to the technique of meditation, it is now said that the meditator should firmly hold his body in such a fashion that his vertebral column is completely erect. The head and the neck should be erect in this posture, which is geometrically perpendicular to the horizontal seat upon which the Yogi is firmly settling himself; it is pointedly indicated that he should hold his body "firmly."
This term should not be misunderstood as holding the body in tension. "Firmly" here means that the body should not be held stiffly but relaxed, it must be held in such a manner that there should not be any tendency to swing forward and backward or sideways from right to left.
The seeker, having thus made himself ready for meditation, should "GAZE AT THE TIP OF THE NOSE." This does not mean that an individual should, with half-opened eyes, deliberately turn his eye-balls towards the "tip of his own nose." There are many seekers who have come to suffer physical discomforts, such as headaches, giddiness, exhaustion, tensions, etc., because they have tried to follow this instruction too literally. Shankara, in his commentary, has definitely given us the right direction. He says that the term here means only that the meditator, while meditating, should have his attention "AS THOUGH TURNED TOWARDS THE TIP OF HIS OWN NOSE." That this interpretation is not a laboured and artificial intellectualism of the Acharya is clearly borne out by the next phrase in the second line.
NOT LOOKING AROUND --- This instruction clearly shows what was in the mind of Krishna when he gave the instruction that the meditator should direct his entire attention towards the tip of his own nose --- so that his concentration may not be dissipated and his mind may not wander all around. Where the eyes go, there the mind faithfully follows; this is the law. That is why, when an individual is confused, we find that his gaze is not steady. Many a time we judge another individual as behaving funny or suspicious, and in all such cases our evidence is nothing other than the unsteadiness in his gaze. Watch anyone who is indecisive and who is unsteady in his determination and you can immediately observe that the individual's look is definitely unsteady and confusedly wandering.
When the meditator has thus practised meditation for a certain period of time, as a result of his practice, he comes to experience a larger share of quietude and peace in his mind. This extremely subtle form of inward peace is indicated here by the term "Prashanta." This inward silence, a revelling in an atmosphere of extreme joy and contentment --- is the exact situation in which the individual can be trained to express the nobler and the diviner qualities which are inherent in the Divine Self.
A meditator invariably finds it difficult to scale into the higher realms of experience due to sheer psychological fear-complex. As the Yogin slowly and steadily gets unwound from his sensuous vasanas, he gets released, as it were, from the cruel embrace of his own mental octopus. At this moment of transcendence, the unprepared seeker feels mortally afraid of the thought that he is getting himself dissolved into "NOTHINGNESS." The ego, because of its long habit of living in close proximity to its own limitations, finds it hard even to believe that there is an Existence Supreme, Divine and Infinite. One is reminded of the story of the stranded fisher-women who complained that they could not get any sleep at all when they had to spend the night in a flower-shop, till they put their baskets very near their noses. Away from our pains, we dread to enter the Infinite Bliss!
This sense of fear is the death-knell of all spiritual progress. Even if progress were to reach the bosom of such an individual, he would be compelled to reject it, because of the rising storm of his subjective fear.
Even though the mind has become extremely peaceful and joyous, and has renounced all its sense of fear through the study of the Scriptures and continuous practice of regular meditation, the progress is not assured because the possibility of failure shall ever hang over the head of the seeker, unless he struggles hard to get established in perfect Brahmacharya.
THE ASCETICISM OF BRAHMACHARYA --- Here the phrase implies not only its Upanishadic implications, but definitely something more original, especially when it comes from Lord Krishna's mouth and that too, in the context of the Geeta. Brahmacharya, generally translated as 'celibacy,' has a particular meaning, but the term has also a wider and a more general implication. Brahmacharya is not ONLY the control of the sex-impulses but is also the practice of self-control in all avenues of sense-impulses and sense-satisfactions. Unless the seeker has built up a perfect cage of intelligent self-control, the entire world-of-objects will flood his bosom, to bring therein a state of unending chaos. A mind thus agitated by the inflow of sense stimuli, is a mind that is completely dissipated and ruined.
Apart from this meaning, which is essentially indicative of the goal, or rather, a state of complete detachment from the mind's courtings of the external world-of-objects, there is a deeper implication to this significant and famous term. Brahmacharya, as such, is a term that can be dissolved in Sanskrit to mean "wandering in Brahma-Vichara." To engage our mind in the contemplation of the Self, the Supreme Reality, is the saving factor that can really help us in withdrawing the mind from external objects.
The human mind must have one field or another to engage itself in. Unless it is given some inner field to meditate upon, it will not be in a position to retire from its extrovert pre-occupations. This is the secret behind all success in "total celibacy." The successful Yogin need not be gazed at as a rare phenomenon in nature, for his success can be the success of all, only if they know how to establish themselves in this inward self-control. It is because people are ignorant of the positive methods to be practised for a continuous and successful negation and complete rejection of the charms of the sense-organs, that they invariably fail in their endeavour.
Naturally, it becomes easy for the individual who has gained in himself all the three above-mentioned qualities to control and direct the new-found energies in himself. The inward peace, an attribute of the intellect, comes only when the discriminative faculty is relatively quiet. Fearlessness brings about a great control over the exhausting thought commotions in the mental zone. Brahmacharya, in its aspect of sense-withdrawal, lends a larger share of physical quietude. Therefore, when, by the above process, the intellect, mind and body are all controlled and brought to the maximum amount of peace and quietude, the 'way of life' pursued by the seeker provides for him a large saving of mental energy which would otherwise have been spent away in sheer dissipation.
This newly-discovered and fully availed-of strength makes the mind stronger and stronger, so that the seeker experiences in himself a growing capacity to withdraw his wandering mind unto himself and to fix his entire thoughts "in the contemplation of Me, the Self."
The concluding instruction in this most significant verse in the chapter is: "LET HIM SIT IN YOGA HAVING ME AS HIS SUPREME GOAL." It has been already said in an earlier chapter that the meditator should continue meditation, and ere long (achirena), he will have the fulfilment of his meditation. The same idea is suggested here. Having made the mind tame, and keeping it away from its own endless dissipations, we are instructed to keep the single-pointed mind in contemplation of the Divine Self and His Eternal Nature. Immediately following this instruction is the order that we should remain in this attitude of meditation, seeking nothing else but "ME AS THE SUPREME GOAL." Ere long, in the silence and quietude within, the withering mind and other equipments will exhaust themselves, and the seeker will wake up to realise his own Infinite, Eternal, Blissful and quiet Nature, the Self.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
samaṁ kāya-śiro-grīvaṁ dhārayann acalaṁ sthiraḥ
samprekṣya nāsikāgraṁ svaṁ diśaś cānavalokayan
Bg 6.14
praśāntātmā vigata-bhīr brahmacāri-vrate sthitaḥ
manaḥ saṁyamya mac-citto yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ
Translation
13. Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around.
14. Serene-minded, fearless, firm in the vow of BRAHMACHARYA, having controlled the mind, thinking on Me and balanced, let him sit, having Me as the Supreme Goal.
Commentary
After describing in detail the arrangement of the seat of meditation and how to sit there properly, Lord Krishna had thereafter explained what the meditator should do with his mind and intellect. He has also said that the mind should be made single-pointed by subduing all the activities of the sense-organs and the imagination. Adding more details to the technique of meditation, it is now said that the meditator should firmly hold his body in such a fashion that his vertebral column is completely erect. The head and the neck should be erect in this posture, which is geometrically perpendicular to the horizontal seat upon which the Yogi is firmly settling himself; it is pointedly indicated that he should hold his body "firmly."
This term should not be misunderstood as holding the body in tension. "Firmly" here means that the body should not be held stiffly but relaxed, it must be held in such a manner that there should not be any tendency to swing forward and backward or sideways from right to left.
The seeker, having thus made himself ready for meditation, should "GAZE AT THE TIP OF THE NOSE." This does not mean that an individual should, with half-opened eyes, deliberately turn his eye-balls towards the "tip of his own nose." There are many seekers who have come to suffer physical discomforts, such as headaches, giddiness, exhaustion, tensions, etc., because they have tried to follow this instruction too literally. Shankara, in his commentary, has definitely given us the right direction. He says that the term here means only that the meditator, while meditating, should have his attention "AS THOUGH TURNED TOWARDS THE TIP OF HIS OWN NOSE." That this interpretation is not a laboured and artificial intellectualism of the Acharya is clearly borne out by the next phrase in the second line.
NOT LOOKING AROUND --- This instruction clearly shows what was in the mind of Krishna when he gave the instruction that the meditator should direct his entire attention towards the tip of his own nose --- so that his concentration may not be dissipated and his mind may not wander all around. Where the eyes go, there the mind faithfully follows; this is the law. That is why, when an individual is confused, we find that his gaze is not steady. Many a time we judge another individual as behaving funny or suspicious, and in all such cases our evidence is nothing other than the unsteadiness in his gaze. Watch anyone who is indecisive and who is unsteady in his determination and you can immediately observe that the individual's look is definitely unsteady and confusedly wandering.
When the meditator has thus practised meditation for a certain period of time, as a result of his practice, he comes to experience a larger share of quietude and peace in his mind. This extremely subtle form of inward peace is indicated here by the term "Prashanta." This inward silence, a revelling in an atmosphere of extreme joy and contentment --- is the exact situation in which the individual can be trained to express the nobler and the diviner qualities which are inherent in the Divine Self.
A meditator invariably finds it difficult to scale into the higher realms of experience due to sheer psychological fear-complex. As the Yogin slowly and steadily gets unwound from his sensuous vasanas, he gets released, as it were, from the cruel embrace of his own mental octopus. At this moment of transcendence, the unprepared seeker feels mortally afraid of the thought that he is getting himself dissolved into "NOTHINGNESS." The ego, because of its long habit of living in close proximity to its own limitations, finds it hard even to believe that there is an Existence Supreme, Divine and Infinite. One is reminded of the story of the stranded fisher-women who complained that they could not get any sleep at all when they had to spend the night in a flower-shop, till they put their baskets very near their noses. Away from our pains, we dread to enter the Infinite Bliss!
This sense of fear is the death-knell of all spiritual progress. Even if progress were to reach the bosom of such an individual, he would be compelled to reject it, because of the rising storm of his subjective fear.
Even though the mind has become extremely peaceful and joyous, and has renounced all its sense of fear through the study of the Scriptures and continuous practice of regular meditation, the progress is not assured because the possibility of failure shall ever hang over the head of the seeker, unless he struggles hard to get established in perfect Brahmacharya.
THE ASCETICISM OF BRAHMACHARYA --- Here the phrase implies not only its Upanishadic implications, but definitely something more original, especially when it comes from Lord Krishna's mouth and that too, in the context of the Geeta. Brahmacharya, generally translated as 'celibacy,' has a particular meaning, but the term has also a wider and a more general implication. Brahmacharya is not ONLY the control of the sex-impulses but is also the practice of self-control in all avenues of sense-impulses and sense-satisfactions. Unless the seeker has built up a perfect cage of intelligent self-control, the entire world-of-objects will flood his bosom, to bring therein a state of unending chaos. A mind thus agitated by the inflow of sense stimuli, is a mind that is completely dissipated and ruined.
Apart from this meaning, which is essentially indicative of the goal, or rather, a state of complete detachment from the mind's courtings of the external world-of-objects, there is a deeper implication to this significant and famous term. Brahmacharya, as such, is a term that can be dissolved in Sanskrit to mean "wandering in Brahma-Vichara." To engage our mind in the contemplation of the Self, the Supreme Reality, is the saving factor that can really help us in withdrawing the mind from external objects.
The human mind must have one field or another to engage itself in. Unless it is given some inner field to meditate upon, it will not be in a position to retire from its extrovert pre-occupations. This is the secret behind all success in "total celibacy." The successful Yogin need not be gazed at as a rare phenomenon in nature, for his success can be the success of all, only if they know how to establish themselves in this inward self-control. It is because people are ignorant of the positive methods to be practised for a continuous and successful negation and complete rejection of the charms of the sense-organs, that they invariably fail in their endeavour.
Naturally, it becomes easy for the individual who has gained in himself all the three above-mentioned qualities to control and direct the new-found energies in himself. The inward peace, an attribute of the intellect, comes only when the discriminative faculty is relatively quiet. Fearlessness brings about a great control over the exhausting thought commotions in the mental zone. Brahmacharya, in its aspect of sense-withdrawal, lends a larger share of physical quietude. Therefore, when, by the above process, the intellect, mind and body are all controlled and brought to the maximum amount of peace and quietude, the 'way of life' pursued by the seeker provides for him a large saving of mental energy which would otherwise have been spent away in sheer dissipation.
This newly-discovered and fully availed-of strength makes the mind stronger and stronger, so that the seeker experiences in himself a growing capacity to withdraw his wandering mind unto himself and to fix his entire thoughts "in the contemplation of Me, the Self."
The concluding instruction in this most significant verse in the chapter is: "LET HIM SIT IN YOGA HAVING ME AS HIS SUPREME GOAL." It has been already said in an earlier chapter that the meditator should continue meditation, and ere long (achirena), he will have the fulfilment of his meditation. The same idea is suggested here. Having made the mind tame, and keeping it away from its own endless dissipations, we are instructed to keep the single-pointed mind in contemplation of the Divine Self and His Eternal Nature. Immediately following this instruction is the order that we should remain in this attitude of meditation, seeking nothing else but "ME AS THE SUPREME GOAL." Ere long, in the silence and quietude within, the withering mind and other equipments will exhaust themselves, and the seeker will wake up to realise his own Infinite, Eternal, Blissful and quiet Nature, the Self.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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