|
CHAPTER SIX
krishna “Who doeth the works he hath
to do but dependeth not on the fruit of his works, he is the Sannyasin, and he
is the Yogin, and not he who lighteth not the daily fire and doeth not the
daily ritual. Know, O son of Pandou, that what they have called renunciation is
even Yoga, since no man becometh a Yogin if he hath not renounced the
imaginations of the Will. Of the sage who has yet to ascend the hill of Yoga,
works are the medium, but calm is the medium of him who sitteth already on the
hill-tops. For when a man has renounced all the imaginings of the Will and his
heart clings not to his works and clings not to the objects of the senses, that
is the true Sannyasin, that is the sitter on the hill-top of Yoga. Let a man
deliver his soul by its own strength and let him not afflict his spirit to weaken
it; for a man’s Self is its own and only friend and its own and only enemy. To
that man his Self is a friend who has conquered the Self by the Self, but when
he is not in possession of his Self it worketh enmity against him like an
outward foe. Now when he has mastered Self and is at peace, then the Self of
him is utterly at its ease, unaffected by heat and cold, pleasure and pain,
imperturbable in honour and disgrace. The Yogin whose soul is satisfied with
Wisdom and discernment, the immovable sitter on his hill-top and victor over
his senses, he alone is called the Yogin who hath the Yoga; and gold and gravel
or stone, to him all are one substance. He who hath one heart for lover, and
friend, and foe-man and those who care not for him, who maketh no difference
between the saint and the sinner, he is the truly great among men. Let the
Yogin gird his Self continually to Yoga, solitary, governed in heart and
spirit, without desires and without the sense of belongings. In a pure and holy
region let him set up his steady seat, neither very high nor very low, with
grass of; Cusha and a deerskin thereon, and on that a robe. Then with his mind
directed to one point, with a rein on the workings of his heart and senses, let
him sit on the seat he has made and betake himself to Yoga for the cleansing of
the Self within. He shall sit steady, holding head and neck and body in one
line and motionless, and he shall keep his gaze fixed on the joining point of
his nostrils, so that his eyes shall not wander over the regions; so steadfast
in the vow of abstinence and purity, with a glad and calm spirit from which
fear hath been driven out, with a mind under restraint, with a heart full of
Me, let him sit in Yoga, giving himself utterly to Me. Even if he yoke himself
so to Yoga with a governed heart, the Yogin
Page – 93
reacheth to that Peace in Me
of which cessation in the Eternal is the summit. Yoga is not for the
overeater, neither can a man get Yoga by abstaining utterly from food, nor for
him that is overgiven to sleep nor yet for him that waketh always. Whoso eateth
and playeth with his mind in God, whose striving in his works, and his sleep
and his waking is for Him, Yoga cometh to that man and slayeth his sorrows.
When the mind is wholly under government, and stands well-tamed in the Self,
when all desirable things cannot get the heart to hunger after them, then a man
is said to be in Yoga. Even as the flame of a lamp in a windless place moveth
not at all, such is the image men have handed down of a Yogin when he
practiseth Yoga with his heart under rein. Where the heart is sucked in from
its workings by the practice of Yoga, where by the strength of the Self the
mind of man seeth the Self and is wholly satisfied in the Self, where his
inward spirit knoweth that extreme and exceeding happiness which is beyond the
reach of the senses and which the reason cannot grasp, and it cleaveth to it
and moveth not from the truth of things — which when a man has won he cannot
conceive of any greater gain, to which when he holds he cannot be moved
therefrom even by the most sore poignant grief—know that for a man’s divorce
from his long wedlock with sorrow, which is called Yoga; resolutely should a
man set himself to that Yoga with a heart that will not despair. Let him
relinquish all the desires that are born of the Will’s imaginings, not keeping
one back for his comfort. He must surround with his mind and force in from
their delight the cohort of the senses; so with the understanding self held
well within the grasp of a strong control he must cabin in the mind to the Self
and think of nothing at all. Whenever and to whatever side darts away the infirm
and restless mind thou must curb it from its journey to bring it back within
the Self and tame it to obedience — for a high beatitude cometh to such a Yogi,
whose mind is calmed, whose active nature is tranquillised, who has no sin, who
has wholly become Brahman. Easily shall the Yogi whoever thus setteth himself
to Yoga put from him the stain of obscuration, easily feel the utter bliss and
the , touch divine. The soul that is set in Yoga seeth himself in all creatures
and all creatures in himself, and he hath one heart for all beings that the
world containeth. When a man seeth Me everywhere and all the world in Me, am
with him always and he is always with Me, and we are lost to each other never.
When the Yogin becometh one with all beings and loveth Me in all creatures,
though he live and move in all manner of activities, he liveth and doeth only
in Me. For him I deem to be the greatest Yogin, O Urjoon,
Page – 94
who looks alike on all
beings everywhere as if they his own self, whether it be for happiness or
whether it be for pain.”
urjoona
“Nay, Madhusudan, for the
restlessness of man’s mind I can see no sure abiding in this Yoga of
one-heartedness of which thou hast spoken. For very restless is the mind, O
Krishna, and turbulent and strong and hard of mouth, and to rein it in I hold
as difficult as to put a bridle upon the wind.”
krishna
“Surely, O strong of arm,
the mind is restless and hard to bridle, but by askesis, O son of Coonty, and
by turning away the heart from its affections, it can be caught and controlled.
Very difficult of attainment is Yoga to the ungoverned spirit, so I hold; but
when a man governeth himself and striveth by the right means, Yoga is not
impossible to attain.”
urjoona
“When a man hath faith but
cannot strive aright and his mind swerveth from Yoga, and he attaineth not to
success in Yoga, what is the last state of such a man, O Krishna? Does he lose
this world and that other, does he perish like a breaking cloud, failing, O
strong-armed, to get his immortal seat, losing his way on the path of the
Eternal ? This doubt of mine must thou solve to its very heart, O Krishna, for
I shall not find any other who can destroy this doubt, but only Thee.”
krishna
Neither in this world nor in
the other, Partha, is there for that man any perdition. None who doeth good can
come to an evil end, O beloved. But to the world of the righteous he goeth and
there dwelleth for endless seasons and then is born again, the man fallen from
Yoga, in a house of pure and fortunate men. Or else he even cometh to being in
the house of the wise, in a land of Yogins, for such a birth as this in this
world is one of the hardest to win. There he getteth touch again with the mind
he had in his former body, and with that to start him he striveth yet harder
after perfection, O delight of the Kurus. For he is seized and hurried forward
even by that former habit and askesis of his, though it be without his own
will. Even if a man’s mind is curious after Yoga, he overpasseth the outer
Brahman in
Page – 95
the Word. The Yogin
earnestly striving is purified of sin; perfected by toil of many births he
arriveth at his highest salvation. Greater than the man of askesis is the
Yogin, and greater I hold him even than the men of Knowledge, and than the men
of works he is surely greater: a Yogin, therefore, shouldst thou be, O Urjoona.
And of all that are Yogins I deem him to have most yoga who, with his inner
Self taking refuge in Me, hath faith in Me, and loveth Me and worshippeth Me.
Page – 96
HOME
|
|