Category Archives: sheeta

Bhagavad Gita Verse 7, Chapter 6

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in 6.7, apamaanayoho, chapter 6 verse 7, dukheshu, jitaatmanaha, maana, paramaatmaa, prashaantasya, samaahitaha, sheeta, sukha, tathaa, ushna

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jitaatmanaha prashaantasya paramaatmaa samaahitaha |
sheetoshnasukhadukheshu tathaa maanaapamaanayoho || 7 ||

One who has conquered himself, that serene person is steadfast in the supreme self, in cold and heat, in joy and sorrow, in praise and insult.

jitaatmanaha : one who has conquered himself
prashaantasya : serene person
paramaatmaa : supreme self
samaahitaha : steadfast
sheeta : cold
ushna : heat
sukha : joy
dukheshu : in sorrow
tathaa : and
maana : praise
apamaanayoho : in insult

In the following three shlokas, Shri Krishna paints a picture of one who has realized the eternal essence through meditation, specifically with his outlook towards situations, objects and people. In this shloka, Shri Krishna tackles the meditator’s outlook towards situations. He says that the meditator who has won over his senses and mind, won over his lower nature, his mind remains well established in the eternal essence all the time. No matter what situation he finds himself in, his mind remains even calm and peaceful – “prashaantaha”.

Now, what does it mean to remain same in all situations? Let us take each aspect of the shloka one by one. Remaining same in cold and heat refers to pleasant and unpleasant situations experienced at the physical body level. Joy and sorrow and experienced as emotions at the mind level. Praise and insult are experienced either as boosters or blows to the ego. They are experienced at the intellect level. The body, mind and intellect are part of nature or prakriti. They react to situational changes, which also happen in prakriti.

We have been conditioned to respond to some situations favourably and some situations unfavourably. Our normal response to an unfavourable situation is to impose our will upon it, to change it. But in most cases, it never works. It is like the story of the king wanting to put a carpet on top of his entire kingdom’s land, rather than wear a pair of slippers.

Moreover, two people respond to the same situation differently. A child may not take a scolding from his parents as an insult, because his ego is not fully developed yet. But a teenager will, because his ego is especially sensitive towards insults from his parents.

So therefore, one who knows that situations can only impact the body, mind and intellect, but not his self, he remains peaceful in all situations. If something good or bad happens to a person whom we have no connection with, do we feel any joy or sorrow? We do not. That is the kind of understanding a realized meditator has towards his own body, mind and intellect. He does not feel the need to enter the realm of prakriti to change anything. He remains a witness of all these changes.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 14, Chapter 2

10 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in 2.14, aagama, anityaaha, apaayina, bhaarata, chapter 2 verse 14, daaha, duhka, kaunteya, maatrasparsha, sheeta, sukha, taan, titikshasva, ushna

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maatraasparshaastu kaunteya sheetoshnasukhaduhkadaaha |
aagamaapaayinoonityaastaanstitikshasva bhaarata || 14 ||

Contact with material objects will only give joy and sorrow, heat and cold. These are transitory – they appear and disappear, so endure them bravely, O Bhaarata.

maatraasparshaaha : contact with material objects
tu : only
kaunteya : Kaunteya
sheeta : cold
ushna : heat
sukha : joy
duhka : sorrow
daaha: give
aagama : appear
apaayina : disappear
anityaaha :  transitory
taan : those
titikshasva : endure them bravely
bhaarata : O Bhaarata

The last verse gave a hint of what is this thing called the eternal essence. But since none of us have ever seen it, or experienced it, we would now like to know how can we make that happen. This verse gives us a preparatory step in that regard. It advises us to develop the capability of titiskha, or brave endurance against joy and sorrow.

Let’s examine each aspect of this verse. The first part of this verse makes the assertion that contact with material objects, or more specifically, contact of our senses with material objects, causes us to experience heat and cold.

How does this work? The senses react to external stimuli and send an input signal to the mind. The mind processes these sensory inputs and labels some as “ joy” and some as “sorrow”.  A hot coffee when it is freezing weather outside gives us joy, for sure. But the same cup of hot coffee in boiling hot summer will probably not give us joy, in fact it would probably give us sorrow.

More broadly, heat and cold in this verse represent polar opposites of stimuli received by all of our sense organs. If we take the organ of sight, then heat and cold represent beauty and ugliness. If we take the organ of touch, then heat and cold represent soft and hard.

Taking this even further, we can include words as well. If someone praises us, our ego-centred mind gets a boost, and we experience pleasure at that point. But if someone insults us, or criticizes us, our ego-centered mind feels threatened and we experience sorrow at that point.

So to summarize, our sense organs and our ego can get affected by external stimuli. But, instead of labelling each external stimulus as joy or sorrow, what if we remained steady through each of them? Instead of labelling these stimuli as “joy” and “sorrow”, could we begin to label them differently?

Let’s say your boss gave you a mouthful of criticism after your sales presentation at work. His words came through your ears, the ears sent a signal to your mind, and the mind took this criticism and labelled it as “sorrowful” or “painful”. Instead, what would happen if we labelled this as something neutral e.g. “useful information”, and used it to improve our next presentation? And if the words were not really criticism, but were veiled or direct insults, what would happen if we labelled them as “irrelevant” or “noise” or “chatter”?

Now you may say, yes, that sounds good in theory, but how do we do it in practice? The second part of the verse gives a clue in this regard. It says that any contact with material objects is temporary, it will appear and then disappear, and it has a beginning and an end. Therefore, if we know that something has an end, why should we let it bother us? Or conversely, if we know that a pleasant situation has ended, if the child’s bubble has burst, why should we grieve about it?

Again, you may say that developing this titiksha, this brave endurance, would still be difficult. Just like losing weight is not something that happens overnight, developing titiksha will also not happen overnight. You need to follow a structured, disciplined technique to do so, and the Gita will go into this topic in depth.

So then, what is the benefit of developing this titiksha? We shall see very soon.