Category Archives: matparaha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 57, Chapter 18

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in 18.57, bhava, buddhiyogam, chapter 18 verse 57, chetasaa, macchitaha, matparaha, mayi, sanyasya, sarvakarmaani, satatam, upaashritya

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chetasaa sarvakarmaani mayi sanyasya matparaha |
buddhiyogaamupaashritya macchitaha satatam bhava || 57 ||
 
Mentally surrender all actions to me, designate me as the supreme goal, fix your mind on me by depending upon the yoga of intellect.
 
chetasaa : mentally
sarvakarmaani : all actions
mayi : to me
sanyasya : surrender
matparaha : me as supreme goal
buddhiyogam : yoga of intellect
upaashritya : depending upon
macchitaha : mind fixed on me
satatam : always
bhava : make
 
Shri Krishna summarizes karma yoga and bhakti yoga in this shloka. As we saw in the previous shloka, we need to continue performing our duty, and not to worry too much if we inadvertently perform a prohibited action, and to consider Ishvara as the one and only one aashraya, the ultimate refuge. How does this actually work in practice? A step by step approach towards karma yoga and bhakti yoga is enumerated in this shloka for the convenience of the seeker.
 
First, the seeker should fix Ishvara as his ultimate goal. This is mat paraha, one who is completely oriented towards Ishvara. Next, such a seeker should surrender all his actions to Ishvara. In the ninth chapter, Shri Krishna had said – whatever you do, whatever you consume, whatever you offer or donate, and whatever penance you perform, submit it to me. This is sarvakarmaani sanyasya. Nothing is done for selfish ends such as wealth, power, position, vanity and so on. All is done for Ishvara only.
 
Now, when the seeker faces challenges in life, he needs to have a method to deal with them. Equanimity is the answer. All actions are performed with full awareness and knowledge, as an offering to Ishvara. No action is perform haphazardly. Once the action is complete, the seeker should neither be attached to success, nor to failure. Such an attitude will only develop as a result of accepting every object, person or situation encountered in life as a gift or a praasada from Ishvara. This is buddhi yoga, as described in the second chapter.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 14, Chapter 6

16 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in aaseeta, brahmachaarivrate, chapter 6 verse 14, macchittaha, manaha, matparaha, personality, prashaantaatmaa, saiyamya, sthitaha, vigatabheehi, yuktaha

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prashaantaatmaa vigatabheerbrahmachaarivrate sthitaha |
manaha saiyamya macchitto yukta aaseeta matparaha || 14 ||
 
One whose personality is calm, fearless and established in the vow of renunciation, with a restrained mind, the seeker should sit with his mind focused on me, regarding me as supreme.
 
prashaantaatmaa : calm personality
vigatabheehi : fearless
brahmachaarivrate : vow of renunciation
sthitaha : established in
manaha : mind
saiyamya : under restraint
macchittaha : mind focused on me
yuktaha : the seeker
aaseeta : should sit
matparaha : regarding me as supreme
 
This shloka continues the topic of the method of meditation. Once we have made all the physical preparations and are ready to begin meditation, the question comes up: what do we meditate upon? What should be the object of our meditation? Shri Krishna has a simple answer. He says – meditate upon me. He asks us for two things: to focus our mind on him, and to regard him as the highest goal to be attained.
 
For beginning seekers, the notion of meditating upon the abstract aatmaa or self is difficult. To that end, he asks the seeker to choose any one form of Ishvara that the seeker takes delight in. Unless the seeker learns to take delight in one form of Ishvara, he will need a lot of effort to focus his mind on Ishvara. The seeker needs to put effort in making Ishvara his goal. This is why Shri Krishna repeatedly urges us to detach from sense pleasure and attach ourselves to something higher. Otherwise, if we love food for example, we will begin to meditate on food since it will be the first thing that pops into our mind when meditating.
 
What are the other prerequisites of a meditator? His personality or aatmaa is prashaanta. In other words, he is a calm, quiet and deep person. Only when the seeker’s mind becomes extremely quiet is meditation possible. In fact, if the mind is disturbed, even worldly things such as studying for an exam cannot be accomplished. Even though the mind is not quiet throughout the day, the meditator should take care that the mind is quiet at least during meditation time. It will take 10 minutes or so for the mind to calm all its thoughts, hence the meditator should plan on sitting for at least 15-20 minutes.
 
The next prerequisite is that the meditator should be vigatabheehi which means fearless, one from whom fear has completely gone away. The biggest fear that the meditator harbours is that he will lose his worldly identity, that he will drop his worldly life. That is why the meditator has to have prepared himself, following the instructions given so far, to give up his individuality. Another way of looking at this is that we fear of duality. We are scared to think that we are separate from other people, objects and situations. But one who has learned to see the sameness in everyone has eliminated this fear, because he sees his self in everyone.
 
Another prerequisite is that the meditator should be established with the vow of renunciation. Colloquially, the word brahmachaari means celibate. Here it means one who casts off all roles and dons the role of a seeker when he sits for meditation. He has no other pursuits in mind, no other roles in mind. He is not someone’s boss, employee, son, husband, brother and so on. If he associates with any of these roles, thoughts associated with that role will enter his mind during meditation. The only role to be assumed is that of a saadhaka or a seeker.