Gita Satsangh: Chapter 8 Verses 5 to 10 - Jnaneshvara's Commentary

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "ramvchandran" <rchandran@c...> wrote:

>

 

Namaste,

 

http://www.bvbpune.org/chap08.html

 

5. Whoever departs casting off his body, thinking of me alone, at the

time of death, he attains to My State without doubt.

 

What I had told you so far is known as Adhiyajna. Those who know me

as Adhiyajna from beginning to end, regard the body as a cloak and

remain in me, as the hermitage, filled with space, remains in space

(56-60). Since they have entered the room of conviction in the bosom

of experience, they do not remember wordly matters. When they become

one with me both externally and internally, the scales of the five

gross elements drop down without his knowledge. When he is not aware

of his body while dwelling in it, how will he feel pain when it drops

down? His experience remains firm even at the time of death. This

experience is cast in the image of unity, set in the frame of

eternity and so washed clean in the ocean of oneness with me that it

does not get soiled again. When a jar immersed in deep water, breaks,

does the water inside and outside of it split into two (61-65)? Or

when a snake casts off his skin or a person disrobes himself because

of heat, do his limbs get broken? When the name and form are

destroyed, Brahman remains as it is; if the intellect becomes one

with it how will it become confused? So whoever gives up the ghost

knowing me such, becomes one with me after death.

 

 

6. Whatever being a person thinks of at the end of life and abandons

his body, he attains to that very being, O Arjuna, being steeped

constantly in its thought.

 

The general rule is that when the time of death arrives, whatever he

remembers at that time, he becomes that. This is like a person,

running through fright with great speed, suddenly falls in a well (66-

70). He is not able to control himself and avoid the fall and so he

has no other go but to fall in that well. Likewise whatever thing a

person meditates upon at the time of death, he cannot avoid becoming

that in any way, whatever thing he thinks of when he is awake, that

thing appears before him in a dream when he falls asleep. So whatever

longing he has while alive, it becomes augmented when he is on the

brink of death. And so, whatever he remembers at the time of death,

he attains to that state. Therefore, you should always remember me

(71-75).

 

 

7. Therefore at all times think of fight and me. With your mind and

intellect fixed on me, you shall attain to me without doubt.

 

Whatever you see with your eyes or hear with your ears, whatever you

think of in your mind or speak with your tongue make me the object of

all that inside and outside; then you will become one with me at all

times. When this happens, you have no fear of death when you leave

the body. Then why should you feel afraid of death in war? If you

surrender your mind and intellect truly to me, you will attain to me;

this is my solemn promise to you. If you have any doubt as to how it

will come to pass, you should practice yoga and see for yourself and

if you do not succeed, get cross with me (76-80).

 

 

8. By thinking of Him, O Partha, with the mind engrossed in yogic

practice, and not wandering elsewhere, one attains to the person

supreme and divine.

 

By practicing yoga make your mind pure and strong, by adopting proper

means even a cripple can climb a mountain. Then by this yogic

practice direct your mind to the supreme self; then it matters not

whether your body remains or departs. If the mind, which runs after

different goals, is lost in the self, then who will remember whether

the body has remained or gone? When the river with its noisy currents

joins the sea, does it come back to see what happened after it left?

Never, it becomes one with the sea. So the mind also becomes one with

Brahman, which is of the nature of bliss and which puts a stop to

transmigration (81-85).

 

 

9. He who remembers the wise, the ancient ruler, subtler than the

subtle, the supporter of all, of inconceivable form, effulgent like

the sun, beyond darkness,

 

 

10. At the time of death, with a steady mind, endowed with devotion

and power of yoga, having fixed his breath between the eyebrows,

attains to the person supreme and Divine.

 

The Brahman is formless, and without birth and death, and is whole

and the witness of all. It is more ancient than akasha and subtler

than the atom. The universe starts its activity in its presence. It

creative all things and sustains the whole universe, is

incomprehensible and beyond the reach of reason. Look , as the white

ants cannot enter live coal or darkness cannot enter the sunlight, it

is not visible to the physical eye during daylight. It is like a heap

of sun's rays which looks like a dawn to those who know, and the

words 'rising' and 'setting' do not apply to it even by way of

metaphorical import (86-90). He remembers that spotless Brahman at

the time of death with a steady mind. He sits in the lotus posture,

facing the north, thinking of the joy of karmayoga in his mind and

hastens to attain the true nature of Brahman by collecting his mind

and holding it dear. Then he leads his prana through the vein known

as sushumna first into the plexus known as ajnachakra and then to the

Brahmarandhra. When the prana enters the cidakasha, he sees the

combination of body and mind as an unreal appearance (91-95). Then

with a steady mind full of devotional love, controlling him through

the power of yoga and keeping his mind steady on the center of the

eyebrows, he tries to dissolve his body and mind. Then just as the

sound of a bell becomes dissolved in the bell, or the flame of a lamp

kept under a vessel is extinguished without anybody coming to know of

it, he leaves behind his body in peace. He then attains to the

supreme self also known as the supreme person, and my highest light.

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

[Guest guest]

Namaste all,

Here is one of my favourite stories which many will

know already I suspect.

'There was a man who had setteled in the forest to

leave the attachments of the world and attain moksha.

He was regular in his practices of study and rituals

and he was content. One day a young deer, whose

mother had been killed by hunters, wandered into the

glade where he lived. Seeing the needs of the young

creature he took it in to his life and cared for it.

In time he came to love it greatly.

At last came the moment to leave his body but his mind

was still enthralled with the deer so he was reborn as

a deer. However, because his love of the deer arose

through service he found himself as a deer living near

to the hermitage of some wise men chanting the Vedas

continually. It was through this graceful birth in

the presence of the sound of the Vedas that he finally

was granted Moksha so he realised Atman through the

form of the deer.'

 

Verse 8. With a mind that strays not towards anything

else, but constantly engaged in yoga-practice and

meditation, one goes O Partha, to the Supreme Purusha,

the Divine (Trans. V. Panoli)

 

Further to the 'remembering without remembering'

phrase there could also be a 'practising without

practising' parallel. There is a danger in 'trying to

fix the mind' based in the ignorance that 'I am the

doer'. As the story above relates the underlying grace

will be an easier path.

 

Shankara's commentary on this verse reads at the

start:

'mayi chittasamarpaNvishyabhte ekamin

tulyapratyayAvR^ittilakShano vilakShaNpratyAnantaritaH

abhyAsaH sa cha abhyAso yogah tena yuktaM tatra eva

vyAvR^ittaM yoginaH chetaH tena'

 

(Apologies for any ITrans errors)

 

Panoli translates this( as well as the next part) as:

'Abhyasa ( practice) is the state of repeatedly

concentrating on Me....the One and only object on

which the mind (chitta) can be set...undisturbed by

any other thought. The abhyasa is also yoga. The mind

of the yogi which does not go towards the other

sensory objects rests in that alone. With such a mind,

tempered with adherence to the teachings of the

scriptures and the teacher, the yogi attains to

Transcendental Purusha abiding in the solar.'

 

My question is now going to return to previous

discussions with Swaminarayan on this site but what is

chitta in this context?

This is an extension to my question on memory in the

last posting.

 

many thanks

 

Ken Knight

 

 

 

 

 

Health - Feel better, live better

http://health.

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Here is my 2c worth:

 

chetasA would mean with/throughevery 'component' of

consciousness, i.e. antaHkaraNa [chitta, manas, buddhi, aha~NkAra],

and chitta in this context would mean antaHkaraNa, a part used to

denote the whole.

 

chitta usually denotes the cauldron of accumulated thoughts,

or the storehouse of memories [the unconscious].

 

manas usually denotes the surface consciousness of the

'cauldron'.

 

Cross-references to other verses in the Gita would serve as examples

for the nuances with which these terms are used in different contexts:

 

For example,

 

indriyaaNaaM manashchaasmi....

 

manasaa smaran...........

 

ananyachetaaH satataM yo maaM smarati nityashaH.....

 

yatroparamate chittaM niruddhaM yogasevayaa..........

 

tatraikaagraM manaH kR^itvaa yatachittendriyakriyaH.........

 

manaH sa.nyamya machchittatto yukta aasiita matparaH.................

 

aatmasa.nsthaM manaH kR^itvaa na ki.nchidapi chintayet.h..........

 

etc.

 

["What the Sankhyas call 'mahat' is called 'chitta' (mind-stuff) in

the Yoga system." S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, A Sourcebook,

Princeton University Press, 1957.

 

chitta has been used with different meanings in other systems!

J.Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy, 1996, SUNY Press]

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

 

 

advaitin, ken knight <hilken_98@Y...> wrote:

>

> >

> Verse 8. With a mind that strays not towards anything

> else, but constantly engaged in yoga-practice and

> meditation, one goes O Partha, to the Supreme Purusha,

> the Divine (Trans. V. Panoli)

>

> Further to the 'remembering without remembering'

> phrase there could also be a 'practising without

> practising' parallel. There is a danger in 'trying to

> fix the mind' based in the ignorance that 'I am the

> doer'. As the story above relates the underlying grace

> will be an easier path.

>

> Shankara's commentary on this verse reads at the

> start:

> 'abhyaasayogayuktena mayi chittasamarpaNavishhayabhuute ekasmin

tulyapratyayAvR^ittilakShaNo vilakShaNapratyayAnantaritaH

abhyAsaH sa cha abhyAso yogaH tena yuktaM tatra eva

vyApR^itaM yoginaH chetaH tena'>

>

> Panoli translates this( as well as the next part) as:

> 'Abhyasa ( practice) is the state of repeatedly

> concentrating on Me....the One and only object on

> which the mind (chitta) can be set...undisturbed by

> any other thought. The abhyasa is also yoga. The mind

> of the yogi which does not go towards the other

> sensory objects rests in that alone. With such a mind,

> tempered with adherence to the teachings of the

> scriptures and the teacher, the yogi attains to

> Transcendental Purusha abiding in the solar.'

>

> My question is now going to return to previous

> discussions with Swaminarayan on this site but what is

> chitta in this context?