Category Archives: samaasena

Bhagavad Gita Verse 50, Chapter 18

08 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in 18.50, aapnoti, brahma, chapter 18 verse 50, jnyaanasya, kaunteya, nibodha, nishthaa, paraa, praaptaha, samaasena, siddhi, tathaa, yathaa

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siddhim praapto yathaa brahma tathaapnoti nibodha me |
samaasenaiva kaunteya nishthaa jnyaanasya yaa paraa || 50 ||
 
How one who has attained perfection also undoubtedly achieves the eternal essence, learn from me in brief, O Kaunteya, that supreme devotion to knowledge.
 
siddhi : perfection
praaptaha : one attained
yathaa : how
brahma : eternal essence
tathaa : also
aapnoti : achieves
nibodha : learn
me : from me
samaasena : in brief
eva : undoubtedly
kaunteya : O Kaunteya
nishthaa : devotion
jnyaanasya : of knowledge
yaha : which
paraa : supreme
 
Shri Krishna now starts to recap the content from chapters five and six. Chapter three and four covered the topic of karma yoga, and how karma yoga gradually evolves into jnyaana yoga. Once the seeker has reduced his stock of desires, has purified his mind, and has gained knowledge about the aatmaa, the self, from a competent teacher, he then enters into the stage of sanyaasa, complete renunciation of action. Chapters five and six explain the process of entering into, and maturing of, the state of renunciation.
 
Siddhi here refers to the purification of mind obtained as a result of karma yoga. Jnyaana nishthaa, devotion to knowledge, also known as nidhidhyaasana or meditation, is the culmination of sanyaasa. If we ever wonder how monks spend most of their time, this is it. Besides doing the bare minimum needed to maintain the body, the monk is engaged in one and only one thing – constant contemplation, constant abidance upon the self.
 
For most of us, just contemplating on the self may seem a bit odd. How can such a seemingly mundane engagement result in liberation? So we need to remember that the self is already attained, there is no work that is needed to attain it. The only work that we have to do is to get rid of what is the no-self, in other words, purify our mind through karma and bhakti. Shri Krishna emphasizes this point by using the word nibodha, which means to know. There is nothing else that needs to be done in sanyaasa since it is the last stage of yoga.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 6, Chapter 13

06 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in 13.6, chapter 13 verse 6, chetanaa, dhritihi, duhkham, dveshaha, etat, ichchaa, kshetram, samaasena, sanghaataha, savikaram, sukham, udaahritam

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ichchaa dveshaha sukham duhkham sanghaataschetanaa dhritihi |
etatkshetram samaasena savikaramudaahritam || 6 ||
 
Desire, hatred, joy, sorrow, assembly, awareness, fortitude. This field with its modifications has been illustrated in brief.
 
ichchaa : desire
dveshaha : hatred
sukham : joy
duhkham : sorrow
sanghaataha : assembly
chetanaa : awareness
dhritihi : fortitude
etat : this
kshetram : field
samaasena : in brief
savikaram : with modifications
udaahritam : has been illustrated
 
Previously, Shri Krishna explained the creation and make-up of the world and the individual as comprised of 24 constituents. Now he explains how the individual comes into contact with the world. We saw in the last shloka that all of us come with a stock of unfulfilled desires or vaasanas that causes the individual to be born in this world. Shri Krishna says that the sprouting of desires or “ichchaa” causes us to approach the world for fulfillment of those desires. If we obtain what we desire, we experience joy, and if we don’t obtain it, we experience sorrow. If something repeatedly gives us sorrow, we develop a sense of hatred or “dvesha” towards it.
 
Desire, hatred, joy and sorrow are modifications or changes in the inner instrument, the antahakarana. The antahakarana always wants to create a sense of wholeness or completeness out of the diversity of limbs, hair, nerves, nails etc that make up one body. But it also wants to keep this collection of what it calls the body distinct from everything else in the world. This notion of completeness is called “sanghaata” meaning assembly, and the will to preserve the assembly and keep it distinct from the world is called “dhriti” or fortitude. All biological desires arise from this desire to maintain the body as a distinct single entity.
 
Now we come to the modification of the antahakarana that gives it the quality of awareness and sentiency, known as “chetanaa” or awareness. Though we may be tempted to think that this sentiency in the antahakarana is the soul, the aatmaa, the eternal essence, it is not. It is a borrowed kind of awareness caused by a reflection of the eternal essence in the antahakarana, just like a pot filled with water reflects the sun in it. In fact, chetanaa and the six other modifications mentioned in this shloka are variously assumed to be the eternal essence by various schools of philosophy. Shri Krishna asserts that everything mentioned in this shloka and the prior shloka is not the eternal essence. It is kshetra, the field.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 3, Chapter 13

03 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in 13.3, chapter 13 verse 3, kshetram, me, saha, samaasena, tat, yaadrika, yadvikaari, yataha, yatprabhaavaha

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tatkshetram yachcha yaadrika cha yadvikaari yatashcha yata |
sa cha yo yatprabhaavashcha tatsamaasena me shrunu || 3 ||
 
And what is that field, and of what is its nature, and what are its modifications, and from where it was born; and who is he and what are his powers, listen from me in brief.
 
tat : that
kshetram : field
yat : which
cha : and
yaadrika : what is its nature
cha : and
yadvikaari : what are its modifications
yataha : from where it was born
cha : and
yat : who is
saha : he
cha : and
yaha : what
yatprabhaavaha : his powers
cha : and
tat : that
samaasena : in brief
me : from me
shrunu : listen
 
Since we covered a lot of ground in the prior two shlokas, let us do a quick recap. Shri Krishna said that there is only one kind of knowledge that has to be known by a seeker: that there are several bodies or conditionings called fields, and there is just one knower of the field that is as though limited by these bodies due to ignorance or avidyaa. Since there is a lot more to be said about this subject, Shri Krishna lists all the relevant topics that he has to cover.
 
With regards to the kshetra, the field, we have to learn about what it is, what are its characteristics, how does it undergo modifications and what it its source. With regards to the knower of the field, the kshetragnya, we have to also learn what it is, what are its powers and what are its effects. This is the theoretical aspect of this chapter. All this will be covered in just a few shlokas, or “in brief” from Shri Krishna’s standpoint, but we will study it elaborately.
 
Another topic that will be covered in this chapter is the comparison between the individual and the world, how does the individual come in contact with the world, how does he transact with the world, and what are the means of knowledge he can use to maintain the awareness of the field and its knower throughout his life. This is an extremely practical and useful aspect of this chapter.