Category Archives: prajna

Bhagavad Gita Verse 68, Chapter 2

03 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in 2.68, chapter 2 verse 68, indriyaani, mahaabaaho, nigriheetaani, prajna, pratishthitaa, sarvashaha, tasmaad, tasya, yasya

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tasmaadyasya mahaabaaho nigriheetaani sarvashaha |
indriyaaneendriyaarthebhyastasya prajnya pratishthitaa || 68 ||

Therefore, O mighty armed warrior, one who always restrains his senses from objects, his wisdom his steady.

tasmaad : therefore
yasya : that individual
mahaabaaho : O mighty armed warrior
nigriheetaani : under control
sarvashaha : everywhere

indriyaani : senses
indriyaarthebhyaha : objects
tasya : that individual
prajya : wisdom
pratishthitaa : steady

With this shloka, Shri Krishna concludes the topic of sense restraint. Let us summarize the main points of this topic.

The senses have the power to destabilize the mind, and consequently, destroy the intellect’s capability to make proper judgements. The best way to control the senses is to practice one’s svadharma with devotion to a higher ideal. If we don’t, then even a stray thought about a material object will escalate into a chain of events that will bring about our downfall.

Changing the quality and direction of thoughts towards a higher ideal will result in a tranquil psyche, enabling us to move in the world of material objects without attachment or revulsion. And ultimately, this will result in peace and happiness.

A pictorial description of this topic was provided in the form of a rudderless ship at sea, that is blown here and there by wind. The wind represents the senses, the ship our mind, and the direction, our wisdom.

In the next shloka, Shri Krishna begins to conclude the second chapter of the Gita.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 61, Chapter 2

28 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in 2.61, aaseeta, chapter 2 verse 61, hi, indriyaani, mat, paraha, prajna, pratishthitaa, samyamya, sarvaani, taani, tasya, vashe, yasya, yuktah

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taani sarvaani samyamya yukta aaseeta matparaha |
vashe hi yasyendriyaani tasya prajna pratishthitaa || 61 ||

The disciplined individual should restrain them all and sit with devotion to me. Having brought the senses under control, his wisdom is steady.

taani : those
sarvaani : all
samyamya : restrain
yuktah : the disciplined individual
aaseeta : sit
mat : me
paraha : devoted
vashe : control
hi : for
yasya : those whose
indriyaani : senses
tasya : his
prajna : wisdom
pratishthitaa : steady

Shri Krishna begins to go deeper into the subject of how senses and thoughts impact our lives. This subject comes under the umbrella of the “sthitaprajna lakshana”, or the signs of a wise individual, and comprises the final portion of the second chapter. As a reminder, the four major portions of the second chapter are : 1) Shri Krishna convincing Arjuna that his logic was incorrect 2) providing the correct logic and understanding to Arjuna 3) providing the practical aspects of the teaching 4) describing the attributes of the man of steady wisdom. We are the the final topic right now.

In the last shloka, Shri Krishna described how the turbulent senses can ruin the mind. In this shloka, he provides a prescription to remedy the impact of the senses: set a goal that is higher than yourself, and channel your mind and your senses towards that higher goal. The senses, along with the mind, will detach from material objects only when they are shown a higher goal. They cannot detach without attaching themselves to a higher goal. Otherwise, we end up forcibly suppressing the senses, which we all know is not healthy.

This shloka also hints at the topic of meditation, which is a disciplined technique of fixing the mind to a higher goal. In meditation, an individual sits and gradually brings attention to one and only one thought. And that thought is nothing but the higher goal that we have set for ourself. The most unique thing in this shloka is that Shri Krishna uses the word “me”, in other words, he asks us to make him the higher goal.

Now, at this stage in the spiritual journey, if you feel comfortable with making devotion to Shri Krishna your ultimate goal, that is fine. Otherwise, you can set any selfless goal that is greater than you – for example, serving your parents, serving your family, serving your organization, serving the country etc.

Setting a higher goal is the only way that your senses and your mind will come under control. It also ensures that your ego does not puff up thinking that it has controlled the senses.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 58, Chapter 2

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in 2.58, angaani, ayam, cha, chapter 2 verse 58, indriyaani, indriyaarthabhyaha, iva, koormah, prajna, pratishthitaa, samharate, sarvashaha, tasya, yada

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yada samharate chaayam koormangaaneeva sarvashaha |
indriyaanindriyaarthabhyastasya prajna pratishtitaa || 58 ||

When, just like a tortoise withdraws its limbs from all sides, he withdraws his senses from objects, his intellect is steady.

yada : when
samharate : withdraws
cha : also
ayam : he
koormah : tortoise
angaani : limbs
iva : like
sarvashaha : all sides
indriyaani : senses
indriyaarthabhyaha : sense objects
tasya : his
prajna : intellect
pratishtitaa : steady

So far, Shri Krishna gave us a checklist of factors that could disturb our equanimity: joy, sorrow, gain and loss. Let’s say, we detect that one of these factors has presented itself to us. What should we do? He gives a beautiful example from the world of nature to address this point.

Whenever a tortoise senses danger, he withdraws his limbs into his shell. The shell is strong enough to withstand any adverse situation. And once that situation passes, he brings his limbs back into the world. Similarly, if we detect that an object, person or situation is about to disturb our equanimity, Shri Krishna advises us to bring our intellect into the picture, and completely withdraw our attention from that object, person or situation.

In one commentary on this topic, we learn that most animals have one sense organ as their weakness. The deer has sound, the elephant has touch, the moth has sight (fire), the fish has taste, and the bee has smell as its weakness. So for example, if a moth sees fire, it loses all control and flies straight into the fire. However, human beings have all five senses as their weakness, making this technique all the more important.

The most practical application of this technique is dieting. If we have a sweet tooth like we saw earlier, and we see a large slice of black forest chocolate cake in front of us, we have to apply the “tortoise technique” and move some steps away from that cake. It also means that we do not keep large stocks of chocolates, cakes etc. in our house because we may be tempted very easily.

Here’s another related point. In India, many aspects of spiritual practices are embedded in our customs, but sometimes we do not realize their significance. We may have noticed a sculpture of a tortoise outside many Indian temples, which is an instruction to withdraw our worldly matters and enter the temple with a devotional mindset. But instead of doing so, we tend to whisper about worldly matters into the tortoise’s ear, which is exactly the opposite of the original intent.

Footnotes
1. The example on 5 animals and their weaknesses is from Vivekachoodamani by Adi Shankarachaarya

Bhagavad Gita Verse 57, Chapter 2

24 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by in 2.57, abhinandanti, anabhisneha, ashubham, chapter 2 verse 57, dveshti, na, praapya, prajna, pratishthitaa, sarvatra, shubha, tasya, tat, yah

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yah sarvatraanabhisnehastattatpraapya shubhaashubham |
naabhinandanti na dveshti tasya prajna pratishthitaa || 57 ||

He who remains without affection everywhere, is not elated in gain, and is not dejected in loss, his wisdom is steady.

yah : he who
sarvatra : everywhere
anabhisneha : without affection
tat tat : those
praapya : receive
shubha : gain
ashubham : loss
na : not
abhinandanti : elated
dveshti : dejected
tasya : his
prajna : wisdom
pratishthitaa : steady

In the prior shloka, we saw how a person of steady wisdom responds to joyful and sorrowful situations that he encounters in life. In this shloka, Shri Krishna points out how that person responds to beneficial and adverse outcomes of his expectations.

This shloka uses an interesting word “anabhisneha”, which means without affection. The root of this word is “sniha” which means “to stick”. Most of us tend to get stuck to objects, people and situations that we encounter in our lives. And it is that stickiness which gets us into trouble.

An example from the corporate world would be a consultant who is hired for a 3 month assignment verses a full time employee who is given a similar assignment. The consultant comes in, does what she is supposed to do, submits her report and moves on to the next assignment, without getting entangled in office politics. Whereas the employee gets “stuck” to the job and gets entangled in all kinds of office politics, who he should align himself with, etc.

So therefore, if one remains unattached and works towards a goal, he gains the objectivity to remain the same whether he succeeds or fails in accomplishing that goal. He knows that he was there before that success or failure happened, he was there during it, and he will be there after it as well. Therefore whatever happened can be easily dealt with. In no way does he let any adverse outcome demotivate him.

How can we apply this practically? For example, if we worked hard for a project and someone criticizes us, internally we should remain steady and evaluate whether the criticism is valid or mean-spirited. If it is valid, we take the feedback positively. If it is mean-spirited, we ignore it. But if we are too attached to the work, we will lose our equanimity each time someone criticizes us.