Bhagavatgita a detailed study chapter5-yoga of renunciation

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23. Saknothiihaiva yah soDum praakSatreeravimokshaNaath

 

kaamakroDhodhbhavam vegam sa yukthaH sa sukhee

naraH

 

The man who is able to withstand the impulses from desire and anger while being in this world before the soul leaves the body, is the true yogi and he is a happy man.

 

Kenopanishad says,

 

Iha cheth avedheeth aTha sathyam asthi

Na cheth iha avedheeth mahathee vinashtiH(Kena-2.5)

 

If one knows the supreme reality in this life itself it is true existence ;if not there is great loss.

 

Gita is the essence of Upanishads, which contain profound truth but not commonly understood without intuitive intellect. The supreme reality or Brahman, the bhagavan of the devotee, are all beyond description by words. The sages and later the saints and realized masters , out of compassion for the people who suffer in the samsara , have tried to express something which cannot be expressed in words. And as such their words are naturally relevant to the age and nature of the world in which they lived in. All their sayings are truth only and each one understands it to the limit of his intellect and mental impressions due to karma. Krishna who was bhagavan svayam, also tried to teach the meaning of upanishats in easier and lucid style.

 

Krishna says narah, man, who is able to withstand the impulses of kama and krodha is the yogi and is happy. Here he uses the word naraH which has a special significance. It is said that the life of human is attained after several births as other beings. The animals have no discrimination and act through impulse only, that is , have only sensory perception. Though they also feel sukha and duhkha they are helpless to avert it

On the other hand the devas have only sensual enjoyment and experience joy or sorrow as when they are cursed or oppressed by the demons but again they are helpless to get out of that stage because the heaven is only bhogabhoomi and not yoga bhoomi. Only in the world of men one is capable of elevating himself and attain mukthi, to enjoy eternal bliss freeing himself from the evils of transmigration. So a man alone can strive for spirituality.

 

The supreme bliss or Brahmanhood is the birthright of all and it can be sought only through human life If one wasted the divine gift of a human life through pursuing sensual pleasures that may take him to lower births due to the desire and wrath born out of such life, he is really lost. The evolution at any stage is possible only by giving up something to acquire a higher faculty such as the fish becoming a land animal by giving up its love of water and the monkeys giving up their climbing trees to become humans etc. Similarly for a man to become divine to attain immortality and enjoy brahmaanandha , he has to give up his tendencies that bind him towards the cycle of birth and death, namely, sensual attachments. This is the purpose of life and the one who realizes it is the yogi and a sukhee.

 

Of course we do not know whether it is possible for us to do it in one birth. But the effort must be made as the saying goes, `gacChan pipeeliko yaathi yojanaanaam Sathaani api; agacChath vinatheyo api padham ekam na gacChathi.' Even an ant goes 1000 yojanas by consistent movwmnt but even the Garuda does not goes even one foot by not movng. Moreover we never know haw much distance we have traveled in so many births and whether this is the last.

 

There is a story to illustrate this. Narada was going along a forest andhe came across two persons who were meditating under a tree. Thay bowed down to him and asked him where he was going and Narada replied that he was going to Vaikunta. Then they both asked him to find out from the Lord how many births they have yet to undergo. He agreed and went away. On returning that way again they both wanted to know the answer to their question. Narada told one of them to see a tamarind tree nearby and said that he had as many lives to go as there are leaves in that tree. He was very happy saying that since there is a definite number of leaves in the tree his lives will end soon. Then Narada met the other one who was some distance away from the first and told him that he had to go through seven more lives. But instead of feeling happy he cried saying that he thought he would get salvation in the same birth and got disheartened at his efforts to attain it. It is needless to say that who of the two would have been liberated earlier. The former represents the man portrayed in the above sloka. His equipoise and joy would take him sooner than he expected as promised by the Lord later `kshipram bhavathi Dharnmaathma Sasvath Saanthim nigacChathi.' He becomes saintly in a moment and gets everlasting peace.