Bhagavad Gita Sthitaprajna lakshna - Verses 59 & 60, Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Commentary from Gita Homestudy Program.

[Guest guest]

Bhagavad Gita Sthitaprajna lakshna - Verses 59 & 60, Swami Dayananda

Saraswati's Commentary from Gita Homestudy Program.

 

Further, Krsna said:

visaya vinivartante niraharasya dehinah

rasavarjam raso'pyasya param drsva nivartate Verse 59

 

niraharasya - for the one who does not feed the sense organs; dehinah - for

the one who indwells this body; visayah - senses; vinivartante - come back

to oneself; rasa-varjam - leaving the longing behind; param - Brahman;

drsva - having seen; asya - of this person; rasah - longing; api -even;

nivartate - goes away

 

For one who does not feed the senses, the senses come back to oneself, leaving

the longing behind. Having seen Brahman (when the self is known) even the

longing goes away. There is the possibility of a doubt here. Does this

capacity to withdraw one's senses from the sense objects at will give the

person jnana-nisha? No. Even a complete fool can practice this technique. A

yogi also actively engages in this discipline of withdrawing the senses. The

sense organs can be withdrawn as a turtle withdraws its limbs. Therefore, you

cannot say a person is a jnana-nisha merely because he or she can withdraw the

senses and sit with himself or herself. Sankara presents this doubt here in

order to deal with it. Even though people may not go along with their fancies,

the taste for them will still be there. Therefore, is this not the practice of

suppression, rather than a withdrawal? We have seen how people blow up. The

senses definitely get them sooner or later - if not today, then tomorrow. Why?

Because everything is suppressed inside. When the value for something is

inside a man, he will definitely deliver himself into the hands of his senses

eventually. Because he is not their master, the senses will get him. If he

thinks he has enslaved them, he need only wait for certain situations to

present themselves. He will find himself enslaved by his senses in no time.

They will take him for a ride. In the wink of an eye, he will be gone totally.

 

THE TASTE LINGERS ON

Thus, even an ordinary person can withdraw the senses, but the taste, rasa,

and value for the fancies will still be there. Such a person feels that

certain sense enjoyments are important and without them, he or she cannot be

happy. Suppose, because this person is told that sense enjoyments are all very

painful, he or she decides not to go after them. Then he or she might begin

practising withdrawal of the senses, but find that the rasa does not go away.

Even those who already have a value for meditation and learn to withdraw the

senses in order to discover ananda in themselves, or gain inner contentment,

may continue to have a value for the enjoyments of the senses. The question is

- when would the taste, the subjective value, for sense enjoyments go? The

subjective value is an emotional value. Suppose a person is not a fool and has

viveka. He is intellectually convinced that sense enjoyments are of no use,

because they do not provide any real security or lasting pleasure. Even if

this person has no intellectual value for sense enjoyments, he or she may

still have an emotional value. Therefore, when and how will this emotional

value go? The emotional value is very important and must be recognised as

such. Emotion is a part of your life, a part of your expression. Therefore,

you cannot dismiss it, nor is it necessary to do so. And emotion does need to

be respected because it has a power that can be overpowering. We can be

completely overwhelmed by emotion and, therefore, we need to know how to

tackle it. An emotional value, which is a subjective value, is different from

an intellectual value, which is objective. Intellectually, your analysis can

be clean: 'These are all sense objects. They do not contain any joy or

security. I am insecure and remain so, whether I have sense objects or not,

whether I have money or not. Therefore, I need to discover security within

myself.' All of this you may know. But, although you know that money does not

make you secure, you still have an emotional value for it. And even if you do

not have an emotional value for money, an intellectual value will definitely

be there because you do need to buy a few things. Therefore, to say that money

has no value is not correct.

 

THE VALUE OF MONEY

That money does not give you security is a fact, but money does give you a

house, health, haircuts, and a variety of other necessities and comforts.

Money is not something that has no value whatsoever. Because it has an

objective value, it cannot be dismissed totally. With reference to its

emotional value, money is used to measure success. If someone comes to see you

in a new car and your car is battered, you find yourself wanting to have a new

car. When money is used to measure your success, there is always a feeling

that you have not made it. 'I did not do this and I did not do that' is one of

many inner tapes indicative of a subjective, emotional value that cannot be

dismissed. How can you withdraw from that rasa, that taste, that is always

there? To suppress the value is not the answer because suppression is nothing

but a volcano that blows its top one day. Whenever there is suppression, this

problem arises. Here, Krsna told Arjuna how the subjective value is dealt

with.

 

The word visayas usually means sense objects, but in the present context it

stands for the senses, the topic discussed in the previous and following

verses. Based on similar expressions found in the sastra, Sankara, in his

commentary on this verse, converts sense objects into sense organs. Here, the

sense organs belong to a person who does not take to any sense object, who

denies himself or herself sense objects, who does not have any sense pursuits,

nirahara. Ëhara means 'sense objects' and refers to that which is taken by

you. Food is called ahara because it is eaten, taken, by you. The one who

does not feed the sense organs is therefore called a nirahara. Krsna also

referred to this person as a dehi meaning one who is alive in a physical body.

Sankara makes the point here that the person who engages in a rigorous

discipline of sense withdrawal can be either a viveki or an aviveki. He or she

can even be deluded, a fool, m£rkhah api. In all cases, the sense organs that

are withdrawn from the sense objects come back to oneself, visayah

vinivartante. But even though the sense organs come back and sense objects are

no longer with the person, the taste for the sense objects remains -

rasa-varjam vinivartante. In other words, the subjective emotional value for

them is still there. If the person is deluded, an intellectual value will also

be there, impelling the person to perform rigorous disciplines, tapas, merely

because someone said that they should be done. The difference between a viveki

and an aviveki, then, is that the viveki will only have the subjective value,

not the intellectual value, whereas the aviveki will have both the subjective

value and the intellectual value.

 

KNOWLEDGE ALONE REMOVES RASA

In general terms, rasa is a sense and is commonly used to mean raga or liking.

Sankara describes it in the same way. Anything that is pleasing to you may be

referred to as raga or rasa. This is the value that remains inside a person's

heart and mind, even after having withdrawn the sense organs from it. This

rasa too goes away, Krsna said, when the self is known - raso'pi param drsva

nivartate. This means that when a viveki, who pursues self-knowledge and is

judicious about his or her present pursuits, withdraws the senses, there is no

suppression. The viveki is only living a life of meaningful discipline.

Whereas, for a person who practices sense withdrawal without pursuing this

knowledge, the withdrawal does amount to suppression. The literal meaning of

the word drsva is - 'having seen,' but here it is used purely in the sense of

knowing. What is to be known is 'I Am That - tat param brahma aham eva.' It is

not any other jnana. That Brahman is myself; there is no difference between

the two. Knowing that 'I am Brahman' does not imply a knower-known difference.

And in the wake of this knowledge, the rasa goes away, nivartate, meaning that

it does not take the person for a ride. How the emotional value for sense

objects can capture one's mind is explained by Krsna in the next verse. Once

you can no longer be taken for a ride by the rasa, the knowledge of sense

objects does not create any kind of craving or longing in you. It is seedless,

nirbija, and, therefore, does not sprout, meaning that it does not set you up

so that you are carried away by your fancies. However, when the clarity of

vision is not there, meaning when knowledge is not there, elimination of the

rasa is not possible. Therefore, knowledge in the form of clear vision,

samyag-darsana, has to be well established, steady, and firm. 'May you work on

gaining this vision, again and again' is what is meant here because, if you

give up working for this vision, the erroneous vision you have will not go

away. People generally plan to work for clear vision only after they have

fixed up everything in their lives, but it does not work that way. There is no

'fixing up of everything' without the vision. So, the pursuit is two-fold:

yoga, self-mastery, and jnana, self-knowledge.

 

REMOVING THE SENSE OBJECTS ALSO DOES NOT WORK

Taking the word visaya to mean sense organs, as we have just done, is the

simple way of looking at this verse. Now, we will look at it by taking visaya

to mean the sense objects. Suppose the sense objects have gone away because

you withdraw yourself from the sense world. Previously, you lived in Manhattan

and now you are living in the mountains a day and a half away from anyone. You

are completely alone. No objects will come to you - no newspapers, radio, or

people. You have not even allowed yourself a television set. Having denied

yourself all these sense pursuits, you are a nirahara. However, although the

sense objects have gone away, the taste for them will still be there. You will

find yourself wondering about what everyone else is doing. Then you will begin

to think that you should go back to the city for some time. After all, you

will say, even Freud does not condone suppression. And then there are those

who will send you letters now and then, pointing out that what you are doing

is wrong. This is the prime of your life. Everyone is making money in the

stock market and you are losing all kinds of opportunities to do the same,

something you will certainly come to regret for the rest of your life - all of

which will remind you that you are a nobody. Their comments will begin to make

a lot of sense to you because you have rasa inside. A value for money is

there, in fact, the only reason you are able to stay where you are is because

you have money. Alcohol is another example of something for which the rasa

remains. You may have given it up and all the bottles may have walked away,

but the rasa will still be there. It will only go when you have something more

intoxicating, something with more of a kick in it, something more profound,

more beautiful, and more useful. In other words, more powerful. This is why

alcoholics require prayer. Without prayer, they cannot easily get rid of the

problem. An alcoholic who turns into a sober person can be a saint because he

or she has mastered prayer and knows what it is all about. When an alcoholic

finds something more powerful than alcohol, the rasa for alcohol within the

person goes away.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACKNOWLEDGING THE EMOTIONAL VALUE

The need to acknowledge one's emotional values is seen in the alcoholic who

thinks that he or she can stop drinking at any time and who may even advance

the advantages of alcohol in terms of one's health. Of course, when you begin

to take alcohol, you are still the master. You can take it or you need not

take it. Sometimes you take it and other times you dismiss it. No problem. But

alcohol is not an ordinary substance. It is something that takes charge of you

in time, so that eventually you have no power over it. It is more powerful

than a raksasa, a demon. From here on, although you may argue that you can

stop at any time, in fact, you cannot! You are no longer talking; the alcohol

is talking.

 

First, the person takes the bottle and then, after some time, the bottle

calls the person. If it is six o'clock, the time set-aside for 'Happy Hour,'

and the person is elsewhere, the bottle calls: 'Where are you?' He replies, 'I

am here in the office working.' Then the bottle says, 'This is not the time to

be in the office. Come here!' Faithfully, the person goes. 'Come and sit

down,' the bottle says, and the person sits down. 'Pick me up!' it says. Once

the bottle is in his or her hand, it says, 'Come on, tilt!' Then the person

tilts - everyday! There was a time when he or she took the bottle; now the

bottle takes the person. All decisions about where to go and what to do are

made by the bottle, not by the person. Where, then, is there any question of

taking alcohol being your decision? This is no longer the case. You lost this

freedom a long time ago. The only way to stop drinking is to accept that you

have no power over alcohol. You have to know that. The acknowledgement alone

is the beginning. There is no other way. Once you acknowledge that alcohol has

a power over you, there is a chance of you regaining this freedom - provided,

of course, that you really decide to stop drinking. You need to acknowledge

that you are not going to drink any more. And once you stop taking alcohol,

the bottles you have in your cupboard will go away. You will not want to keep

them and will therefore distribute them to those who want them. But the smell

of alcohol, the craving for it, will still be there in your head, which is

where support groups come in. Otherwise, you may start drinking again and lose

yourself totally, after which there is no chance.

Only when people find themselves secure, when they know that they are

everything, do the rasas lose their hold. Then, the world can no longer take

such people for a ride. To understand what Krsna was saying here, we need not

alter the meaning of the word visaya to mean sense organs. It can be looked at

from the perspective of sense objects also.

 

yatato hyapi kaunteya purusasya vipascitah

indriyani pramathini haranti prasabham manah Verse 60

 

kaunteya - Oh! Son of Kunti; hi -because; yatatah - of the one who makes

effort; api - even; vipascitah - of the one who sees clearly; (api - even;)

purusasya - of the person; indriyani - sense organs; pramathini - very

powerful; haranti - take away; prasabham - forcefully; manah - the mind

 

Because, the powerful senses of even the person who makes effort, who sees

clearly, forcefully take the mind away, Oh! Arjuna. A person who has given up

sense pursuits does not feed the sense organs. By using the will, he or she

simply does not pursue sense objects. Only when the senses are with the

person, meaning under his or her control, can steadiness in self-knowledge be

accomplished. Thus, in the beginning, the will is used to keep the senses in

one's own hands. Anything that is within your control or power is called

sva-vasa or atma-vasa the word vasa meaning 'within one's hands.' The money in

your own pocket that you can spend as you wish is sva-vasa. If however, your

money is in the hands of someone else, it is para-vasa. Naturally, you do not

have the freedom to spend it as you would like. The other person must give it

to you first. Thus, anything in the hands of another is called para-vasa and

the one who delivers himself or herself into the hands of someone else or

something is called para-vasa. For example, a person who is totally

overpowered by emotion or who is completely controlled by another person is

para-vasa. He or she has no freedom. Still discussing how one becomes a

sthitaprajna, one who is steadfast in the knowledge, Krsna said that, first,

one's mind and senses have to be with oneself alone. Even though a person is a

viveki and has certain knowledge, there is still something to be taken care of

because the rasa, the taste, for sense objects is still there. If these are

not taken care of, the person will deliver himself or herself into the hands

of raga-dvesas.

 

The word yatata-h in this verse means, 'of the person, purusa, who is making

effort.' One may make effort and be a fool, m£rkha, but this is not the person

being discussed here. The person who makes effort is one who has viveka, who

sees things clearly, vipascit. Even this person's mind is not steady. But his

or her mind is not the mind of an ordinary person, but one that is in the

hands of the senses and fancies. He or she is not an armchair viveki. This

person has a commitment and makes efforts in order to gain firmness, nisha, in

the knowledge. This, then, is the kind of mind that is being discussed here.

The sense organs can be turbulent, vicious, and very powerful. They can really

shake you up. In this verse, Krsna told Arjuna that the sense organs can even

take the mind of a viveki away, meaning that they can take charge of his or

her mind. Why? Because rasa, the taste for sense objects is still there inside

the person. As long as the rasa is there, the sense organs will continue to

take charge of the person's mind. As we saw earlier, the sense organs imply

the various fancies that one has because he or she still has a value for sense

objects. Thus, when we say that the sense organs take the mind away, we mean

that the rasas rob the person of his or her viveka. By the time the person

realises what has happened, the sense organs, meaning the rasas, have already

taken him or her for a ride! The use of the word 'hi' in the verse indicates

that all of this is very well-known. The appetites that are there do not ask

for any sanction; they forcefully, prasabham, take care of you! Therefore,

what should you do? The only answer for these rasas is to gain steadiness,

sthairya, in this knowledge. In the next verse, Krsna told Arjuna that this is

done by contemplating upon what is.