Bg 6.27
praśānta-manasaṁ hy enaṁ yoginaṁ sukham uttamam
upaiti śānta-rajasaṁ brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam
Bg 6.28
yuñjann evaṁ sadātmānaṁ yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ
sukhena brahma-saṁsparśam atyantaṁ sukham aśnute
Bg 6.29
sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani
īkṣate yoga-yuktātmā sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ
Bg 6.30
yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati
Translation
27. Supreme Bliss verily comes to this YOGI, whose mind is quite peaceful, whose passion is quietened, who is free from sin, and who has become BRAHMAN.
28. The YOGI engaging the mind thus (in the practice of YOGA), freed from sins, easily enjoys the Infinite Bliss of 'BRAHMAN -contact.'
29. With the mind harmonised by YOGA he sees the Self abiding in all beings, and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.
30. He who sees Me everywhere, and sees everything in Me, he never gets separated from Me, nor do I get separated from him.
Commentary
As we have just indicated in the previous stanza, when an individual's mind has been arrested from its agitated roamings in the world-of-objects, and fixed consistently upon the Self, by degrees the mind gathers more and more quietude and ultimately, when the flow of thoughts ceases, the mind also ends. Where the mind has ended, there the individual is awakened to the experience of the Infinite Nature of the Self. Naturally, the Meditator (Yogin) "COMES TO THE SUPREME BLISS."
An intelligent enquirer has every right to question this assertion; for, in a true science, the scientist has no right to assert his own opinion and to expect the students to swallow it. In the second line of the verse, the reasons are given to show how and why the quietened mind becomes an open-window through which the prospect of the Self comes to our view. A mind, thus held steadily in the inner atmosphere of thrilled silence, comes to drop off all its previous vasanas; the mind gets "FREED FROM TAINT" (A-kalmasham).
In Vedanta, technically the "impurities" of the mind are called mala, and it is considered as constituted of "SPIRITUAL NON-APPREHENSION" and the consequent "MENTAL AGITATIONS." The "veiling power" (Avarana) generated by the inertia of the intellect (Tamas), creates in its wake the disturbing "agitations" (Vikshepa) in the mental zone. The agitation-nuisance in the mind is most prominent when it is under the influence of Rajo-guna. This Vedantic theory, explaining "the fall of man" into sorrow, is fully echoed in the words of the Lord here: (a) "passions quietened" (Shanta-rajasam) and (b) "freed from taint" (A-kalmasham).
An individual in whom all "agitations" have ceased, and consequently, who has become perfectly freed from his "ignorance" of the Reality, should naturally be considered as one who has regained his "Knowledge of the Self." As long as there is agitation, so long there is the mind; and the Self identified with the mind, is the ego --- the seeker who started meditating. When, as it has been explained, the meditator has exposed his mind to the atmosphere of inner peace and quietude, he comes to end completely all his mental agitations, and therefore, the ego rediscovers itself to be nothing other than the Self. This non-dual-Truth has been openly declared by the Lord through His brilliant phrase "Brahman-become" (Brahma-bhootam) in describing the man of Self-realisation.
HAVING THUS EXPLAINED THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF A TRUE MEDITATOR THE LORD EXPLAINS HOW THIS EXPERIENCE OF THE SELF CAN BE, THEREAFTER, THE CONSTANT LIFE OF THE PERFECT ONE:
Engaging himself thus in the battle for evolution and inward mastery, a meditator steadily grows out of the shadowy regions of his own spiritual ignorance and imperfections, to smile forth in luxurious extravagance into the sparkling sunshine of Knowledge. When the meditator keeps his mind undisturbed in the roaring silence within, in the white-heat of meditation, his mind gets purified, like a piece of iron in the smithy furnace. In short, as we said earlier, and elsewhere, the "halt-moment" is the frontier-line up to which human-effort can raise the mind. There it ends itself just as a balloon, as it goes higher and higher, blasts itself in the rarefied atmosphere of higher altitudes, and drops down, merging the balloon-space with the space outside. Similarly, the mind too, at the pinnacle of meditation, shatters itself, drops the ego down and merges with the Supreme. Just as the space in the balloon automatically merges with the space outside when it has exploded, so too, when the finite mind is ended, "WITH EASE IT ATTAINS THE INFINITE BLISS ARISING OUT OF ITS CONTACT-WITH-BRAHMAN."
Krishna is here trying to make an agitated, restless, inquisitive intellect understand that positive and dynamic Reality, which can and shall be gained when the mind and intellect are transcended. Had he said 'THE SEEKER WILL BECOME HAPPINESS,' Arjuna would have hesitated to accept it, believing that in the Self there is no positive joy. To make his unprepared intellect perceive the experienceable joy of the Infinite, the Divine Cowherd has to borrow a vivid phrase from ordinary life and so he says that the meditator "ATTAINS THE INFINITE BLISS THROUGH THE BRAHMAN-CONTACT." This phrase "Brahman-contact" should be understood as "Self-contact" --- in contrast to the finite joys which we ordinarily gain in life through the "not-Self-contact."
IN THE FOLLOWING STANZAS WE GET A DESCRIPTION OF THE EFFECTS OF YOGA AND THE CONSEQUENT PERCEPTION OF ONENESS IN THE PLURALISTIC WORLD:
All religions in the world are great, but indeed, none of them is so perfect as the religion of Vedanta, if by religion we mean the "Science of Self-perfection". In this stanza, the author of the Geeta says, in unequivocal terms, that the perfect man of Self-knowledge or God-realisation is not merely one who has realised his own divinity, but is also one who has equally understood and has come to live in an intimate knowledge and experience of the divinity inherent in all creatures, without any distinction whatsoever. The Awareness in us is the Awareness everywhere in all names and forms and this Divine Awareness is the very essence in the entire world of perceptions and experience. To contact the Infinite in us, is to contact the Eternal everywhere.
To a true man of realisation, in Hinduism, there is no more a world to be addressed, even be it in divine compassion, by the disgusting phrase: "O! Ye Children of Sin!" Rama Tirtha, a Hindu Saint of Perfection, could not but address the entire living kingdom as "O! Children of Light!" This idea of the consummate revelation of "God-I am" gained by the meditator is the Peak of Perfection endorsed and aimed at by the Hindu Seers. This idea has been most effectively brought out in this stanza.
That this pluralistic phenomenon is a manifestation of and a projection upon the Immortal Truth is very well brought out in almost all the Geeta chapters. The essence in all names and forms, thus, is the same transcendental Self. Just as the mud in all mud-pots, the gold in all gold ornaments, the ocean in all waves, the electricity in all bulbs, the Self is the Essence in and the Substratum for the entire world of objects.
From the physical body we perceive the physical world, and from our emotional level we perceive the emotions in others. So too, from our intellectual level alone, can we intelligently contact the ideas in other intellects. As asserted in the previous chapter, when an individual transcends his intellect, he rediscovers his own Divine Nature, and from that Spiritual Centre, when he looks out, he finds the Self pervading everywhere. The meditator, on transcending his intellect, becomes the Self; and to the Self there is nothing but the Self everywhere. To the mud, there are no pots; to the gold, there are no ornaments separate from itself.
With this understanding in our mind, the stanza becomes quite clear when it says: "HE BEHOLDS THE SELF IN ALL BEINGS AND EQUALLY BEHOLDS ALL BEINGS IN THE SELF." Such a Perfect One, who has realised the Unity in the world of diversity, alone can afford to entertain the equality of vision in all circumstances and conditions --- "on a noble Brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a Pariah" (V-18).
NOW WILL BE DESCRIBED THE EFFECT OF THIS PERCEPTION OF UNITY OF THE SELF:
Earlier we were told that on reaching his goal, the meditator "ATTAINS INFINITE BLISS OF THE 'BRAHMAN'-CONTACT" (V-28). We explained that the term 'contact' indicates only the non-dual Reality, which is the theme of all the Upanishads. Here, in this stanza, we have Krishna's own commentary upon that term. Once having awakened to the Self, the Perfect Master thereafter recognises everywhere nothing but the Self.
HE WHO SEES ME IN ALL THINGS AND SEES ALL THINGS IN ME --- In this stanza, as everywhere else, the first person singular 'I' and 'Me' are to be understood as the Self. To one who is re-reading the stanza in the light of this annotation, this and the previous stanza together express more fully the pregnant meaning of the most famous Upanishadic declarations found in the Ishavasya.
HE NEVER BECOMES SEPARATED FROM ME --- On transcending the intellect, the experience of the ego is not that it sees or perceives or cognizes the Eternal but that it discovers itself in essence to be nothing but the Self (Shivoham). The dreamer, on awakening, himself becomes the waker; a dreamer can never see or recognise the waker as separate from himself.
NOR DO I BECOME SEPARATE FROM HIM --- The dualists are rather hesitant to accept that Infinite Divinity is their Real Nature, for they are, as ego-centres, conscious of their own bodily vanities and sins. In no clearer terms can we more exhaustively describe the unadulterated Truth of the Essential Divinity in man. Lord Krishna here, is in no way trying to conceal His meaning that a meditator, when he has fulfilled the process of detachment from the not-Self, himself BECOMES the Eternal and the Infinite. It may be a staggering truth, but all the same it is The Truth. Those who are hesitating and wavering may well continue to disbelieve their own divine potentialities. But the intimate experience of the long hierarchy of Gurus in India and the mystic Saints all over the world has endorsed this unbelievable, yet plain Truth that, "the Self in an individual is the same Self everywhere."
At present we are divorced from ourselves; the ego is a rebel who has exiled himself from his native kingdom, the Self. On rediscovery of the Self, the ego BECOMES the Self in such a happy blending that thereafter there is no distinction between the ego and the Self. On awakening, the dreamer becomes the waker; not only does the dreamer become the waker, but the waker can never remain separate from the dreamer. In ordinary divorces either party can divorce the other, and yet maintain an emotional relationship with each other. Here the Lord says, not only does the seeker come to feel the Self-hood, but I, the Self, become homogeneously one with him.
In fact, once we understand that "Misguided God is a man," it becomes amply clear that, rightly guided, a man rediscovers himself to be nothing other than the Supreme. An actor playing the part of a beggar, is not really a beggar; the moment he drops the part he is playing, he becomes what in fact he is. In fact, even while he was playing his role, he was not a beggar. This daring declaration of Vedanta is not at all difficult to understand, but the deluded are aghast at this revelation, and in their imperfections, refuse to believe this Truth. They have not the guts to take the responsibilities of living a Godly life. Krishna's courageous statement in this stanza leaves not even a pin-hole of a doubt on this sacred conclusion of all the scriptures of the world, especially that of the immortal Upanishads.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
praśānta-manasaṁ hy enaṁ yoginaṁ sukham uttamam
upaiti śānta-rajasaṁ brahma-bhūtam akalmaṣam
Bg 6.28
yuñjann evaṁ sadātmānaṁ yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ
sukhena brahma-saṁsparśam atyantaṁ sukham aśnute
Bg 6.29
sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani
īkṣate yoga-yuktātmā sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ
Bg 6.30
yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati
Translation
27. Supreme Bliss verily comes to this YOGI, whose mind is quite peaceful, whose passion is quietened, who is free from sin, and who has become BRAHMAN.
28. The YOGI engaging the mind thus (in the practice of YOGA), freed from sins, easily enjoys the Infinite Bliss of 'BRAHMAN -contact.'
29. With the mind harmonised by YOGA he sees the Self abiding in all beings, and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.
30. He who sees Me everywhere, and sees everything in Me, he never gets separated from Me, nor do I get separated from him.
Commentary
As we have just indicated in the previous stanza, when an individual's mind has been arrested from its agitated roamings in the world-of-objects, and fixed consistently upon the Self, by degrees the mind gathers more and more quietude and ultimately, when the flow of thoughts ceases, the mind also ends. Where the mind has ended, there the individual is awakened to the experience of the Infinite Nature of the Self. Naturally, the Meditator (Yogin) "COMES TO THE SUPREME BLISS."
An intelligent enquirer has every right to question this assertion; for, in a true science, the scientist has no right to assert his own opinion and to expect the students to swallow it. In the second line of the verse, the reasons are given to show how and why the quietened mind becomes an open-window through which the prospect of the Self comes to our view. A mind, thus held steadily in the inner atmosphere of thrilled silence, comes to drop off all its previous vasanas; the mind gets "FREED FROM TAINT" (A-kalmasham).
In Vedanta, technically the "impurities" of the mind are called mala, and it is considered as constituted of "SPIRITUAL NON-APPREHENSION" and the consequent "MENTAL AGITATIONS." The "veiling power" (Avarana) generated by the inertia of the intellect (Tamas), creates in its wake the disturbing "agitations" (Vikshepa) in the mental zone. The agitation-nuisance in the mind is most prominent when it is under the influence of Rajo-guna. This Vedantic theory, explaining "the fall of man" into sorrow, is fully echoed in the words of the Lord here: (a) "passions quietened" (Shanta-rajasam) and (b) "freed from taint" (A-kalmasham).
An individual in whom all "agitations" have ceased, and consequently, who has become perfectly freed from his "ignorance" of the Reality, should naturally be considered as one who has regained his "Knowledge of the Self." As long as there is agitation, so long there is the mind; and the Self identified with the mind, is the ego --- the seeker who started meditating. When, as it has been explained, the meditator has exposed his mind to the atmosphere of inner peace and quietude, he comes to end completely all his mental agitations, and therefore, the ego rediscovers itself to be nothing other than the Self. This non-dual-Truth has been openly declared by the Lord through His brilliant phrase "Brahman-become" (Brahma-bhootam) in describing the man of Self-realisation.
HAVING THUS EXPLAINED THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF A TRUE MEDITATOR THE LORD EXPLAINS HOW THIS EXPERIENCE OF THE SELF CAN BE, THEREAFTER, THE CONSTANT LIFE OF THE PERFECT ONE:
Engaging himself thus in the battle for evolution and inward mastery, a meditator steadily grows out of the shadowy regions of his own spiritual ignorance and imperfections, to smile forth in luxurious extravagance into the sparkling sunshine of Knowledge. When the meditator keeps his mind undisturbed in the roaring silence within, in the white-heat of meditation, his mind gets purified, like a piece of iron in the smithy furnace. In short, as we said earlier, and elsewhere, the "halt-moment" is the frontier-line up to which human-effort can raise the mind. There it ends itself just as a balloon, as it goes higher and higher, blasts itself in the rarefied atmosphere of higher altitudes, and drops down, merging the balloon-space with the space outside. Similarly, the mind too, at the pinnacle of meditation, shatters itself, drops the ego down and merges with the Supreme. Just as the space in the balloon automatically merges with the space outside when it has exploded, so too, when the finite mind is ended, "WITH EASE IT ATTAINS THE INFINITE BLISS ARISING OUT OF ITS CONTACT-WITH-BRAHMAN."
Krishna is here trying to make an agitated, restless, inquisitive intellect understand that positive and dynamic Reality, which can and shall be gained when the mind and intellect are transcended. Had he said 'THE SEEKER WILL BECOME HAPPINESS,' Arjuna would have hesitated to accept it, believing that in the Self there is no positive joy. To make his unprepared intellect perceive the experienceable joy of the Infinite, the Divine Cowherd has to borrow a vivid phrase from ordinary life and so he says that the meditator "ATTAINS THE INFINITE BLISS THROUGH THE BRAHMAN-CONTACT." This phrase "Brahman-contact" should be understood as "Self-contact" --- in contrast to the finite joys which we ordinarily gain in life through the "not-Self-contact."
IN THE FOLLOWING STANZAS WE GET A DESCRIPTION OF THE EFFECTS OF YOGA AND THE CONSEQUENT PERCEPTION OF ONENESS IN THE PLURALISTIC WORLD:
All religions in the world are great, but indeed, none of them is so perfect as the religion of Vedanta, if by religion we mean the "Science of Self-perfection". In this stanza, the author of the Geeta says, in unequivocal terms, that the perfect man of Self-knowledge or God-realisation is not merely one who has realised his own divinity, but is also one who has equally understood and has come to live in an intimate knowledge and experience of the divinity inherent in all creatures, without any distinction whatsoever. The Awareness in us is the Awareness everywhere in all names and forms and this Divine Awareness is the very essence in the entire world of perceptions and experience. To contact the Infinite in us, is to contact the Eternal everywhere.
To a true man of realisation, in Hinduism, there is no more a world to be addressed, even be it in divine compassion, by the disgusting phrase: "O! Ye Children of Sin!" Rama Tirtha, a Hindu Saint of Perfection, could not but address the entire living kingdom as "O! Children of Light!" This idea of the consummate revelation of "God-I am" gained by the meditator is the Peak of Perfection endorsed and aimed at by the Hindu Seers. This idea has been most effectively brought out in this stanza.
That this pluralistic phenomenon is a manifestation of and a projection upon the Immortal Truth is very well brought out in almost all the Geeta chapters. The essence in all names and forms, thus, is the same transcendental Self. Just as the mud in all mud-pots, the gold in all gold ornaments, the ocean in all waves, the electricity in all bulbs, the Self is the Essence in and the Substratum for the entire world of objects.
From the physical body we perceive the physical world, and from our emotional level we perceive the emotions in others. So too, from our intellectual level alone, can we intelligently contact the ideas in other intellects. As asserted in the previous chapter, when an individual transcends his intellect, he rediscovers his own Divine Nature, and from that Spiritual Centre, when he looks out, he finds the Self pervading everywhere. The meditator, on transcending his intellect, becomes the Self; and to the Self there is nothing but the Self everywhere. To the mud, there are no pots; to the gold, there are no ornaments separate from itself.
With this understanding in our mind, the stanza becomes quite clear when it says: "HE BEHOLDS THE SELF IN ALL BEINGS AND EQUALLY BEHOLDS ALL BEINGS IN THE SELF." Such a Perfect One, who has realised the Unity in the world of diversity, alone can afford to entertain the equality of vision in all circumstances and conditions --- "on a noble Brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a Pariah" (V-18).
NOW WILL BE DESCRIBED THE EFFECT OF THIS PERCEPTION OF UNITY OF THE SELF:
Earlier we were told that on reaching his goal, the meditator "ATTAINS INFINITE BLISS OF THE 'BRAHMAN'-CONTACT" (V-28). We explained that the term 'contact' indicates only the non-dual Reality, which is the theme of all the Upanishads. Here, in this stanza, we have Krishna's own commentary upon that term. Once having awakened to the Self, the Perfect Master thereafter recognises everywhere nothing but the Self.
HE WHO SEES ME IN ALL THINGS AND SEES ALL THINGS IN ME --- In this stanza, as everywhere else, the first person singular 'I' and 'Me' are to be understood as the Self. To one who is re-reading the stanza in the light of this annotation, this and the previous stanza together express more fully the pregnant meaning of the most famous Upanishadic declarations found in the Ishavasya.
HE NEVER BECOMES SEPARATED FROM ME --- On transcending the intellect, the experience of the ego is not that it sees or perceives or cognizes the Eternal but that it discovers itself in essence to be nothing but the Self (Shivoham). The dreamer, on awakening, himself becomes the waker; a dreamer can never see or recognise the waker as separate from himself.
NOR DO I BECOME SEPARATE FROM HIM --- The dualists are rather hesitant to accept that Infinite Divinity is their Real Nature, for they are, as ego-centres, conscious of their own bodily vanities and sins. In no clearer terms can we more exhaustively describe the unadulterated Truth of the Essential Divinity in man. Lord Krishna here, is in no way trying to conceal His meaning that a meditator, when he has fulfilled the process of detachment from the not-Self, himself BECOMES the Eternal and the Infinite. It may be a staggering truth, but all the same it is The Truth. Those who are hesitating and wavering may well continue to disbelieve their own divine potentialities. But the intimate experience of the long hierarchy of Gurus in India and the mystic Saints all over the world has endorsed this unbelievable, yet plain Truth that, "the Self in an individual is the same Self everywhere."
At present we are divorced from ourselves; the ego is a rebel who has exiled himself from his native kingdom, the Self. On rediscovery of the Self, the ego BECOMES the Self in such a happy blending that thereafter there is no distinction between the ego and the Self. On awakening, the dreamer becomes the waker; not only does the dreamer become the waker, but the waker can never remain separate from the dreamer. In ordinary divorces either party can divorce the other, and yet maintain an emotional relationship with each other. Here the Lord says, not only does the seeker come to feel the Self-hood, but I, the Self, become homogeneously one with him.
In fact, once we understand that "Misguided God is a man," it becomes amply clear that, rightly guided, a man rediscovers himself to be nothing other than the Supreme. An actor playing the part of a beggar, is not really a beggar; the moment he drops the part he is playing, he becomes what in fact he is. In fact, even while he was playing his role, he was not a beggar. This daring declaration of Vedanta is not at all difficult to understand, but the deluded are aghast at this revelation, and in their imperfections, refuse to believe this Truth. They have not the guts to take the responsibilities of living a Godly life. Krishna's courageous statement in this stanza leaves not even a pin-hole of a doubt on this sacred conclusion of all the scriptures of the world, especially that of the immortal Upanishads.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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