Some quotes from the 1st chapter of Y’s voluminous commentaries on the gita
Chapter I, The despondency of Arjuna
“What did they?” – Survey of the psychological and spiritual battlefield.
Verse 1
Dhritarashtra said:
On the holy plain of Kurukshetra (dharmakshetra kurukshetra), when my offspring and the sons of Pandu had gathered together, eager for battle, what did they, O Sanjaya?
The blind king Dhritarashtra (the blind mind) enquired through the honest Sanjaya (impartial introspection): “When my offspring, the Kurus (the wicked impulsive mental and sense tendencies) gathered together on the dharmakshetra (holy plain) of Kurukshetra (the bodily field of activity), eager to do battle for supremecy, what was the outcome?”
The opposing armies of the spiritual and materialistic forces
Verse 2
Sanjaya said:
Then king Duryodhana, after having seen the armies of the Pandavas in battle array, repaired to his preceptor (Drona), and spoke as follows:
Sanjaya (the impartial introspection of Arjuna, the devotee) revealed: “After beholding the armies of the Pandavas (the discriminative qualities) in array for psychological battle (ready to fight the sense tendencies), King Duryodhana (material desire, royal offspring of the blind sense-mind) conferred solicitously with his preceptor Drona (samskara, the impressions left by past thought and actions, which create a strong inner urge for repetition).”
Verse 3
O Teacher, behold this great army of the sons of Padhu, arranged in battle order by thy talented disciple, the son of Drupada.
(King material desire, during the devotee’s introspection, adresses his preceptor Drona, Habit:)
“Behold the mighty army of the Pandavas (the discriminative forces entrenched in the spinal centers) all poised for battle under the direction of thy disciple (the calm inner light of intuitive awakening, disciple of the ‘Drona’ past habit of meditation). This son of Drupada (born of the ‘Drupada’ dispassion for material enjoyment resulting from deep spiritual ardor and divine devotion) was trained by thee to be skillful in psychological wars. He now stands against us! A powerful general of the Pandava army (a leader of the occult soldiers of discrimination).”
Verses 4-6
Here present are mighty heroes, extraordinary bowmen as skillful in battle as Bhima and Arjuna – the veteran warriors, Yuyudhana, Virata, and Drupada;
The powerful Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, and Kashiraja; eminente among men, Purujit; and Kuntibhoja, and Shaibya;
The strong Yudhamanyu, the valiant Uttamaujas, the son of Subhadra, and the sons of Draupadi – all lords of great chariots.
The divinely guided introspection of Arjuna reveals King Duryodhana – Material Desire pointing out to Drona-Samskara, the preceptor of evil and good tendencies:
“Archers of discrimination, like unto the masterful Arjuna (Self-Control) and Bhima (Life Control), mighty swayers of the bodily chariot, are all arrayed to destroy my soldiers of sense activities. They are Yuyudhana (Divine Devotion), Virata (Samadhi), Drupada (Extreme Dispassion); Dhrishtaketu (Power of Mental Resistance), Chekitana (Spiritual Memory), Kashiraja (Discriminative Intelligence), Purujit (Mental Interiorization), Kuntibhoja (Right Posture), Shaibya (Power of Mental Adherence); Yudhamanyu (Life-Force Control), Uttamaujas (Vital Celibacy); son of Subhadra, i.e., Abhimanyu (Self-Mastery); and the sons of Draupadi (the manifestations characteristic of each of the five awakened spinal centers).”
Verse 7
Listen, too, O Flower of the twice-born (best of the Brahmins), about the generals of my army who are prominent amongst ourselves: these I speak about now for thine information.
The divinely guided introspection of Arjuna, the devotee, continues: “O Learned One (Drona – Habit – common preceptor of both good and evil tendencies), having reviewed the commanding generals of the soldiers of wisdom, I, Duryodhana, King Material Desire, relate now for your information the names of the most distinguished and powerful defenders of my sense army, poised to annihilate the wisdom forces.”
Verse 8
These warriors are thyself (Drona), Bhishma, Karna, and Kripa – victors in battles; Ashvatthaman, Vikarna, the son of Somadatta, and Jayadratha.
“The leaders of my sense army are thyself (Drona, Habit or Inner Tendency), Bhishma (Inner-seeing Ego), Karna (Attachment), Kripa (Individual Delusion), Ashvatthaman (Latent Desire), Vikarna (Repulsion), Somadatti (son of Somadatta i.e., Bhurishravas, representing Karma or Material Action) and Jayadratha (Body Attachment).”
Verse 9
And numerous other warriors, all well-trained for battle and armed with various weapons, are here present, ready for my sake to lay down their lives.
“Diverse warriors of temptation and prowess, well-skilled in psychological and spiritual warfare against good, and armed with the various sense lures, are abiding in the kingdom of the body, all prepared to expend their entire vitality in fighting for me (King Material Desire).”
Verse 10
These our forces protected by Bhishma are unlimited (but may be insufficient); whereas their army, defended by Bhima, is limited (but quite adequate).
“Our forces of desires and sensory temptations, though unlimited in number and protected by the vehement power of the ego nature, may yet be inadequate because our strength is relative to the body-identified state; whereas the Pandava army, though it may be limited in number, consists of absolute principles of unchanging truth and is defended by the power of soul-guided life force; together these are capable of destroying body identification and thereby defeating our cause.”
Verse 11
All of you, properly stationed in your places in the divisions of the army, do protect Bhishma.
“All of you (Drona-Samskara, and the rest of our Kaurava army of sense inclinations and supportive allies) stand firm in your respective places on the bodily field of Kurukshetra and on the inner plains of the cerebrospinal centers, and concentrate your forces on protecting Bhishma-Ego.”
Verse 12
Grandsire Bhishma, oldest and most powerful of the Kurus, with the purpose of cheering Duryodhana, blew his conch shell with a resounding lion’s roar.
Duryodhana-Material Desire did not find immediate response from his preceptor Drona-Habit, even though he had said to him: “Let all the soldiers of the restless mind (the Kurus) get together and protect the ego consciousness (Bhishma).” Seeing that lack of response from Drona, and with the purpose of cheering King Material Desire and preventing him from getting discouraged, the all-knower Bhishma-Ego sent forth a strong vibration of pride and determination, and “blew his conch shell” or restless breath that causes body identification and disrupts the stillness of deep meditation.
Verse 13
Then suddenly (after Bhishma’s first note), a great chorus from conch shells, kettledrums, cymbals, tabors, and cowhorn-trumpets sounded (from the side of the Kurus); the noise was terrific.
After the ego creates a material vibration, reawakening the thought of body consciousness and rousing the restless breath, the senses also begin to send out their various distracting vibratory sounds in order to disrupt the devotee’s meditation. The vibrations of the senses (Kurus), which keep the devotee’s attention upon the internal sounds of the physical body, are shrill and disturbing – comparable to shattering a quiet atmosphere with the clamor of drums, horns, and cymbals.
Verse 14
Then also, Madhava (Krishna) and Pandava (Arjuna), seated in their grand chariot with its yoke of white horses, splendidly blew their celestial conch shells.
When the ego disturbs the breath during deep meditation, the soul again tries to revive the intuitive consciousness in the persevering devotee by sounding a series of astral vibrations, and illumining the inner gaze with divine light.
Verses 15-18
Hrishikesha (Krishna) blew his Panchajanya; Dhananjaya (Arjuna), his Devadatta; and Vrikodara (Bhima), of terrible deeds, blew his great conch Paundra.
King Yudhisthira, the son of Kunti, blew his Anantavijaya; Nakula and Sahadeva blew, respectively, their Sughosa and Manipushpaka.
The King of Kashi, excellent archer; Sikhandi, the great warrior; Dhrishtadyumna, Virata, the invincible Satyaki,
Drupada, the sons of Draupadi, and the mighty-armed son of Subhadra, all blew their own conches, O Lord of Earth.
In these verses reference is made to the specific vibratory sounds (the conch shells of the various Pandavas) the meditating devotee hears emanating from the astral centers in the spine and medulla.
Verse 19
That tremendous sound reverbarating throughout heaven and earth pierced the heart of the Dhritarashtra clan.
“The vibratory sounds (the conch shells of the Pandavas’ army) emanating from the activity of the astral centers, as heard by the devotee in meditation – resounding in the astral body (heaven) and the physical body (earth) – discouraged the body-bound mental and material desires and senses (Dhritarashtra’s clan.)”
The devotee observes the enemies to be destroyed
Verses 20-23
Beholding the dynasty of Dhritarashtra ready to begin battle, Pandava (Arjuna), he whose flag bears the monkey emblem, lifted his bow and addressed Hrishikesha (Krishna).
Arjuna said: O Changeless Krishna, please place my chariot between the two armies, that I may regard those who stand ready in battle array. On the eve if war, let me comprehend with whom I must fight.
Here in this field (of Kurukshetra) I wish to observe all those who have gathered with desire to fight on the side of Dhritarashtra’s wicked son (Duryodhana).
During meditation, Pandava (the soulful powers of discrimination) beholds the mind’s resentment at the devotee’s enjoyment of the music of the astral plane. The devotee then triumphantly hoists the flag of self-control with the monkey emblem, signifying man’s control over restlessness. He straightens his spine: by holding his neck straight, pulling his shoulders back and pushing his chest forward, and drawing his abdomen in. This position of the spine, curved in the front and not in the back, is called “the bow of meditation,” well strung and ready for the battle with the senses!
In all physical activities, man sends thought and energy down from the brain to the bodily surfaces, thus keeping the ego engaged in material things.
In every process of meditation, man sends thought and life energy away from the sense centers toward the brain.
Verses 24-25
Sanjaya said (to Dhritarashtra):
O descendant of Bharata, requested thus by Gudakesha (Arjuna), Hrishikesha (Krishna) drove that best of chariots to a point between the two armies, in front of Bhishma, Drona, and all the rulers of the earth, and then said: “See, Partha (Arjuna), this gathering of all the Kurus!”
Introspection (Sanjaya) revealed to the blind mind (Dhristarashtra, here reffered to as the descendant of King Bharata: common ancestor of the Kurus and Pandus; symbolically, Cosmic Consciousness):
“Ordered thus by the devotee (Gudakesha, ‘ever-ready, sleepless, delusion-defeating’), the Soul (Hrishikesha, ‘King of the Senses’) drove the best of chariots (spiritual perception) between the Pandava army of Discrimination and the Kaurava army of Material Desire, confronting the mental generals, Ego and Latent Tendency, and all the other rulers of body consciousness (earth) – the powerful ruling material tendencies – and intuitively commanded the devotee to face (acknowledge) his inner enemies.”
Now is the moment of decision. When the good and evil in the spiritual aspirant are poised to fight, each side facing a “do-or-die” struggle for victory, the uncertain devotee begins to rationalize what such a battle really means. So his charioteer-soul – at one with Spirit – places him face-to-face with the enemies he must destroy.
Verse 26
Partha (Arjuna) beheld positioned there – as members of both armies – grandfathers, fathers, fathers-in-law, uncles, brothers and cousins, sons, and grandsons, and also comrades, friends, and teachers.
Through intuitive self-control, born of meditation, the devotee beholds his good and bad psychological relatives in the warring armies of divine discrimination and of the wicked senses. There are the psychological grandfathers, the good or evil deep-seated ego-consciousness; mental fathers and fathers-in-law, such as the paternal tendency of keen dispassion with its negative inner feminine-tendency (or daughter) of coiled life force; psychological uncles, such as pride and other delusion-intoxicating tendencies; brothers and cousins of discriminative powers and of sense tendencies; psychological children-tendencies, evolved from self-control and from other discriminative powers, and also from the sensory mind; grandsons, or interrelated offshoots of good and evil desires; friendly good and bad habits; and action-inspiring past tendencies, teachers of the soul qualities and the sensory inclinations.
When the devotee passes through the initial state of meditation and arrives at the middle state, as described in the previous stanza, he obtains this keen vision of his dear psychological relatives of good and bad tendencies gathered together on the battlefield of consciousness, ready to destroy one another.
Arjuna’s refusal to fight
Verses 27
Beholding all those relatives arrayed before him, the son of Kunti (Arjuna) became filled with deep sympathy and spoke doledully;
When the devotee Arjuna, son of Kunti, beheld his favored bad habits about to be slain by the accumulated wisdom of meditation, his positive masculine nature of fiery self-control became influenced by the inner negative feminine nature of feeling. With foolish emotional sympathy, the devotee dolefully introspects.
In every being there exists a masculine and a feminine nature. The masculine or positive side reveals itself as the powers of discrimination, self-control, exacting judgement – qualities that express or respond to reason. The negative or feminine nature constists of feeling – love, sympathy, kindness, mercy, joy. In the ideal being, these two aspects are perfectly balanced. But if reason lacks feeling, it becomes calculating, harsh, judgemental; and if feeling lacks reason it becomes blind emotion.
Verses 28-30
O Krishna, seeing these, my relatives, met together desirous of battle, my limbs are failng and my mouth is parched. My body trembles; my hair stands on end. The sacred bow Gandiva slips away from my grip, and my skin is afire. Neither can I remain standing upright. My mind is rambling; and, O Keshava (Krishna), I behold evil omens.
The devotee says to his inner soul-guide:
“Because of love for my indwelling, clashing, good and bad habits, I am reluctant to kill my kinsmen of the senses who have dwelt so long in my bodily kingdom! My limbs of will-power-to-exercise-self-control are failing me, and my mouth of spiritual intuition is dry. I am quivering with mental nervousness. My energies and thoughts shoot toward the senses. The sacred bow of self-control and of spinal perceptions is slipping away, and my mental skin (covering my consciousness) is burning with restlessness. O Soul, destroyer of evil, I cannot keep my mental balance. My mind wanders as I face the enemy-senses in meditation. I feel a premonition of impending disaster.”
This is a true description of the state experienced by devotees after they have traveled some distance on the spiritual path. The beginner yogi, in the initial stages of soul contact, is eager, happy, satisfied. With further progress, he finds that the sense desires are diehard inmates of his life; he begins to wonder, even in the midst of divine realizations, if he has been wise in his decision to kill material joys for the sake of gaining spiritual happiness. In such confusion, the devotee tries to split his allegiance – giving half his attention to the body and its sense enjoyments and half to the inner assembly of soul joys. The result of these half-measures is that the devotee’s limbs of will power become paralyzed by the disease of latent sense attachment. He feels a dying-away of the finer intuitive spiritual perceptions; the taste for material habits, like a fire, dries up the taste for the subtle spiritual perceptions.
Verse 31
O Krishna, neither do I perceive any worthwhile effect in slaying my own kinsmen in the battle. I crave neither triumph, nor kingdom, nor pleasures!
“O Soul, I do not perceive any beneficial result to be gained by slaying my intimate sense habits. My mind loathes the idea of destruction of sense pleasures. I crave nothing – neither mental victory, nor the kingdom of soul happiness, nor sense pleasures!”
In this despondent state of mental vacillation the devotee suddenly makes a negative decision. “I don’t see any use in destroying all sense comforts,” he reflects. “I do not crave an empty mental victory. I don’t want the kingdom of cosmic consciousness. I don’t want sense happiness either!”
The devotee thus turns from a torturing state of bewilderment to the state of negative definiteness. The devotee says to himself: “Down with both spiritual and sense happiness! I want nothing! I can forgo the possession of cosmic consciousness, if, to obtain it, I have to destroy the dear sense habits with whom I have long dwelt in the cozy home of life.”
Verses 32-34
Of what use to us is dominion; of what avail happiness or even the continuance of life, O Govinda (Krishna)? The very ones for whose sake we desire empire, enjoyment, pleasure, remain poised here for battle, ready to relinquish wealth and life – preceptors, fathers, sons, grandfathers, uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and other kinsmen.
“If by killing the ego forces I attain dominion over the bodily empire, and establish therein the kingdom of God with the soul as monarch, I fear the victory would be meaningless. If all my desires – the relatives and supporters of King Material Desire – are killed by spiritual discipline, how can I be happy? Even with the kingdom of God in my possession, can I possibly enjoy it if I am bereft of all desire?”
Verse 35
Even though these relatives should try to destroy me, O Madhusudana (Krishna), still I could not want to destroy them, not even if thereby I attained mastery over the three worlds; how much less, then, for the sake of this mundane territory of earth!
“O my divine Soul, destroyer of all difficulties, though these sense desires may try to destroy my spiritual life with their temptations, still I do not wish to slay them, even if by doing so I would attain dominion over the three worlds – physical, astral, and causal. How much less willing am I to kill these my relatives for the sake of spiritual mastery over the little territory of the physical body (earth)!”
Thwarted in his efforts to delve deep into soul happiness, the devotee loses confidence in his spiritual future. He has already determined that all the golden hopes of eternal happiness pictured by inner wisdom would be empty and usesless if desire is slain. Now his subconscious habitual love for sense pleasure leads his power of reason into deeper doubt. He is momentarily not even sure there is a greater happiness beyond the senses. His irrationality asserts itself to the limit as he weighs the tangible against the Intangible:
“O Soul, I should not destroy my favorite present sense pleasures, even if the destroy my unknown future spiritual happiness. I cannot live in hopes of a perhaps nonexistent blessedness and thus lose tanglible pleasures that are entertaining me now.”
Verse 36
What happiness could we gain, O Janardana (Krishna), from destroying the clan of Dhritarashtra? The slaying of these felons would only put us in the clutches of sin.
“What strange happiness could be expected by destroying Material Desire and the other offspring of the blind sense-mind, King Dhritarashtra? The slaying of these friendly enemies, even though they have committed painful felonies against me, would leave my life dismally empty; and would be sinful according to the highest scriptures – which teach that we should live in harmony with cosmic law, and which also advocate love rather than violence in confronting one’s enemies.”
Verse 37
Therefore, we are not justified in annihilating our very own relatives, the progeny of Dhritarashtra. O Madhava (Krishna), how indeed could we attain happiness by killing our own kindred?
“O Soul, we are not justified in slaughtering our sense habits, the offspring of our own mind. How could we benefit by detroying the senses, through which alone the mind expresses itself?”
When false reasoning reaches a wrong conclusion and becomes attached to it, the intelligent loses more and more of its discriminative and intuitive powers, and instead relies on rationalization to justify its conviction. This is what has happened to Arjuna, the devotee.
Verses 38-39
Even if these others (the Kurus), whose understanding is eclipsed by greed, behold no calamity in the ruin of families, and no evil in enmity to friends, should we not know to avoid this sin, O Janardana (Krishna) – we who do distinctly perceive the evil in the disintegration of the family?
“The clan of the blind sense-mind (manas), its understanding eclipsed by greed (passionate attachment to likes and dislikes), follows its outward wanton inclinations in seeking gratification. Because this is the habitual or natural mode of expression of the blind senses when they are not guided by discrimination (buddhi), they behold no calamity in the decay of the human personality, and no wrong in their hostility to their true friends, the discriminative faculties. But we, the discriminative forces, do distinctly perceive what evil can befall the consciousness if all its faculties do not perform their functions as a united, harmonious family – so should we not turn away from the sin of this battle, which will surely destroy many members of this family?”
Verses 40-41
With the decimation of the family, the age-old religious rites of the family fade away. When the upholding religion is annihilated, then sin overpowers the whole family.
O Krishna, from lack of religion the women of the family become bad. O Varshneya (Krishna), women being thus contaminated, adultery is engendered among castes.
“By destroying the family members of sense inclinations, the age-old sense rituals, ‘dharmas,’ of the family of consciousness will fade away – because the senses, having thus lost their power to produce sense enjoyment, will cease to perform the rites of their specific duties. With the annihilation of these rites of the senses – which have been the upholding principle of conscious existence – sin (sorrow and corruption) will overtake all of the family members of human consciousness.
“If we, the wisdom forces, suspend in ecstacy the sense capabilities, then from ‘adharma’ (lack of the performance of the sense rituals) the sense perceptions (the feminine force or ‘feeling’ for material things) will become corrupted. From neglect and disuse, they will forget, and stray from, their individual functions or caste and become mixed with indifference, indolence, and confusion. All of the sense clan, and the rest of the members of the family of consciousness, following the adulterous feminine force of feeling, will similarly lose their distinctive ‘caste’ characteristics (their individualized powers and functions.”
[page 158-160]
Verses 42-43
The adulteration of family blood consigns to hell the clan-destroyers, along with the family itself. Their ancestors, by being denied the oblations of rice-ball and water, are degraded.
By these misdeeds of the family-destroyers, producing admixture of castes, the time-old rites (dharmas) of the caste and clan are annihilated.
“If the self-denial activities of the wisdom forces destroy the clan of masculine sense inclinations, then the feminine sense perceptions will become a mixture of castes – precipitated by the intermixing of the distinctive powers and functions, or caste characteristics, of the senses with dscrimination and of their outer with their inner forces. The clan-destroying wisdomforces, as well as the other remaining members of the family of consciousness, will find themselves fallen into a living hades of inner loneliness and meaninglessness. Without the stimulation of the senses, the discriminating faculties will become weak from lack of use and will not make the proper offerings to inspire the family ancestors (ego, soul, intuition) to bless their offspring (the family of consciousness).
“By this disruption of the natural external activities of the faculties of consciousness, and by their ultimate suspension in samadhi, surely all the rite (activities) of the family of consciousness will be annihilated.”
Verses 44-46
O Janardana (Krishna), often have we heard that men devoid of family religious rites are most certainly committed to reside indefinitely in hell.
Alas! Actuated by greed for the comfort of possessing a kingdom, we are prepared to kill our own kinsmen – an act surely entangling us in great iniquity.
If, weapons in hand, the sons of Dhritarashtra kill me, wholly resigned and weaponless in the battle, that solution will be more welcome and beneficial to me!
“Those men in whom the sense and wisdom faculties no longer perform their accustomed rites of habitual body-bound behavior are surely consigned thereafter to a hellish life of corroding inner boredom and torturing emptiness. Yet out of greed to acquire sole possession of the kingdom of consciousness, in the uncertain hope of some future better gratification, we the discriminative forces are willing to incur the sin (unhappy existence) of killing our sense kinsmen. It would be better for me if the armed children of King Dhritarashtra (the sense inclinations of the blind sense-mind) were instead to slay me in battle, unresisting and unarmed.”
Verse 47
Sanjaya said (to Dhritarashtra):
Arjuna, having spoken thus on the battlefield, his mind disturbed by grief, flinging away his bow and arrows, sat down on the seat of his chariot.
Arjuna, or Self-Control, casting away his bow of meditation and the ignorance-piercing arrows of inner powers, remains at a standstill in the middle of the psychological-metaphysical battlefield – though not actually leaving the chariot of intuition.
It often happens that, unless the devotee has sufficient spiritual power to quiet his doubts, he feels himself to be a weakling, unfit for battle. Full of grief, and casting away his divine weapons, he indifferently settles on a piece of intuitive experience (seats himself in the chariot). The chariot represents intuitive perception, the vehiclein which the devotee’s discriminative forces engage in psychological and metaphysical battle with the sense hordes. The seat of the chariot on which the devotee settles himself in withdrawal from battle signifies the particular powerful sense perception which at that moment has been strong enough to cause his spiritual dejection and refusal to fight.
Aum, Tat, Sat.
In the Upanishad of the holy Bhagavad Gita – the discourse of Lord Krishna to Arjuna, which is the scripture of yoga and the science of God-realization – this is the first chapter, called “The Despondancy of Arjuna on the Path of Yoga.”
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Chapter II, Sankhya and Yoga:
Cosmic Wisdom and the Method of Its Attainment
The Lord’s exhortation to the devotee, and the devotee’s plea for guidance
Verse 1
Sanjaya said (to Dhristarashtra):
Madhusudana (Krishna) then addressed him whose eyes were bedimmed with tears, and who was overcome with pity and discouragement.
The Lord, who is the destroyer of ignorance, now comes to the aid of the distraught devotee, Arjuna, whose tear-bedimmed eyes plead for consolation. These tears are not only from memories of sense enjoyments lost through intense spiritual discipline – and to be forever renounced – but are also the devotee’s expression of grief for not having advanced far enough on the spiritual path to be showered with ecstatic bliss.
In this state, having gained happiness neither from the senses nor from meditation, the devotee weeps, “I gave up tangibles for intangibles; now I have nothing!”
Verse 2
The Lord said:
In such a critical moment, whence comes upon thee, O Arjuna, this despondancy – behavior improper for an Aryan, disgraceful, detrimental to the attainment of heaven?
Having felt God’s response, the devotee’s consciousness soars to the transcendent Kutastha state, attunement to the Kutastha Chaitanya (the universal Krishna or Christ Consciousness), the presence of Spirit immanent in all creation and individually manifested in each being as the soul whose voice is intuition. Spirit speaks to the devotee through that intelligible intuitive voice:
“O devotee Arjuna, prince of self-control, why are you overcome by dejection? These relatives are your fierce enemies and have but one purpose – to destroy your soul’s peace. To feel pity for them is un-Aryan (not befitting a noble saint), a disgraceful treachery to the soul, a weakness that will tie you to the nether spheres of bodily limitation and deny you the heaven of blissful omnipresence.”
Verse 3
O Partha (“Son of Pritha,” Arjuna), surrender not to unmanliness; it is unbecoming to thee. O Scorcher of Foes, forsake this small weakheartedness! Arise!
“O devotee, son of renunciation, surrender not to behavior that is unbecoming to the positive nature of your true Self, the soul. O Scorcher of Foes, use your fiery will of self-control to overcome this frail weakheartedness resulting from your attachment to sense habits. Arise! Lift yourself from the sense strongholds to the higher spinal centers of divine consciousness.”
Verse 4
Arjuna said:
O Slayer of Madhu, O Destroyer of Foes (Krishna)! How can I, in this war, direct arrows against Bhishma and Drona – beings who should be worshiped!
The rationalizing thoughts of Self-Control responded to the inner voice of Intuition: “O Slayer of the Demon of Ignorance and of Inner Temptations! How can I, in this psychological war, loose the arrows of my determination against my psychological grandparent Bhishma-Ego and my preceptor Drona-Past Habits? These are venerable mentor-tendencies, originators of my present mental states! How frightful to destroy them by spiritual renunciation and by the arrows of yoga meditation!”
As previously cited, the various characters mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita symbolize the different psychological states with which a devotee is identified. When the devotee is identified with the restless mind, he is spoken of as being in the desireful “Duryodhana state,” very difficult to control. The state in which the devotee is concentrated on the human instincts and the prenatal tendencies (samskaras) born of past-life habits is said to be the “Drona state.” When the devotee forgets his true soul nature and is identified with all the circumscriptions of the mortal body, then he is in the ego or “Bhishma state.” During meditation, when the life force and the mind are withdrawn internally, this partially interiorized state of Self-realization is spoken of as the “Arjuna state,” or state of self-control.
Verse 5
Even a life of beggary would be more salutary for me than a life marred by slaying my high-souled preceptors! If I do destroy these mentors who are intent on wealth and possessions (the objects of the senses), then surely here on earth all my would-be enjoyment of material happiness will be dreadfully bloodstained!
“I would feel better as a conscience-free beggar than as a king who has destroyed his preceptors, Ego and Prenatal Habit-instincts! If I annihilate these chief inmates of my mental kingdom, then for the remainder of my life whatever wealth of glory, sense comforts, and fulfilled desires I have will be ‘blood-stained’ – I shall see them as permeated with evil vibrations that will repulse me from anu enjoyment of my hard-won psychological and spiritual victory. It would therefore be better to live by begging pleasure from the senses than for the sake of an otherworldly spiritual kingdom to destroy my lifelong masters – Ego and Past Habits, who have guided and shaped my destiny throughout incarnations.”
In ordinary consciousness, the ego is the guiding principle of thoughts, feelings, and aspirations; it molds desires and ambitions according to the influence of habits. The ego and the bodily habits are thus the preceptors of all human activities.
Verse 6
I can hardly decide which end would be better – that they should conquer us? Or that we should conquer them? Confronting us are Dhritarashtra’s children – the very ones whose edath would make our life undesirable!
The devotee thinks:”I do not know the right standard for decision – is it better for the sake of my happiness to surrender to the senses? Or to conquer them by soul discrimination? Destroying the desire-children of the mind will leave nothing to live for.”
Verse 7
With my inner nature overshadowed by weak sympathy and pity, with a mind in bewilderment about duty, I implore Thee to advise me what is the best path for me to follow. I am Thy disciple. Teach me, whose refuge is in Thee.
“Weak thoughts of commiseration with the senses have so overpowered my real nature that I do not know whether my duty lies in leading a self-controlled existence by destroying my sense kinsmen, or in making the senses happy. I implore the Spirit within me to tell me decisively, a duty-confused individual, what is for my highest good. O Lord! I am Thy shishya (disciple), taking refuge in Thee!”
Verse 8
I behold nothing that will do away with this inner affliction that pounds my senses – nothing! Not even my possession of an unrivaled and prosperous kingship over this earth and lordship over the deities of heaven!
“I am unable to see anything in my spiritual vision by which I can become free of this haunting mental affliction of attachment to sense pleasure; it pounds away at the sense organs and stimulates them to incessant activity. I feel that even if I gained a prosperous and adversary free kingship over this earth (the body) and mastery of the inherent subtle forces of life (the ‘deities,’ or heavenly astral powers that enliven the body), still I would not get rid of attachment to the senses, and could not without devastating sorrow even think of relinquishing their pleasures.”
In the previous stanza, the devotee expressed his desire and need for divine guidance. He continues by emphasizing his feeling of being hopelessly bound by attachment to the senses, seeing no way to be free of them. He is saying, in effect, “It cannot be done! Even if I possess a bodily kingdom that has no enemies and is prosperous with health and well-being, I will still be attached to the senses; for without them, such a ‘perfect’ kingdom would be virtually inanimate, devoid of both perception and expression. As long as I dwell in the body, I would have to communicate and experience through the senses. I would thereby continue to be dependent on them, and thus to enjoy the pleasure they give. Why, then, do I have to engage in a battle against these, my dear supportive relations and friends?”
Verse 9
Sanjaya said (to Dhritarashtra):
Having thus addressed Hrishikesha (Krishna), Gudakesha Parantapa (Arjuna) declared to Govinda (Krishna): “I will not fight!”; then remained silent.
This stanza reveals a peculiar psychological state in which the devotee is sufficiently developed to behold Spirit as the Lord of the Senses, and is far enough advanced to be spoken of as the “Conqueror of Ignorance” and “the Tormenter of the Sense Enemies through the Fire of Self-Control” – yet has not attained an unshakable determination to subdue the senses. He remains mentally inactive, neither advancing spiritually nor going backward.
Verse 10
O Bharata (Dhritarashtra), to him who was lamenting between the two armies, the Lord of the Senses (Krishna), as if smiling, spoke in the following way:
The advanced devotee – who has found himself in an uncompromisable position between the sense soldiers of the ego and the discriminative warriors of the soul, who is lamenting the necessity for renouncing sense habits, and who has therefore become indecisively inactive, surrendering himself passively to the Infinite – beholds the Spirit, come to dispel the gloom of doubt with the gentle light of his smile and His voice of wisdom heard through intuition.
The Eternal, Trancedental Nature of the Soul
Verse 11
The Blessed Lord said:
Thou hast been lamenting for those not worth thy lamentations! Yet thou dost utter words of love. The truly wise mourn neither for those who are living nor for those who have passed away.
“Your heart is shedding tears of blood for those whose death merits no grief! You justify your sorrow with arguments from the lore of ages. But the truly wise, endowed with celestial knowledge, do not allow their discernment to become besmirched with foul delusion of viewing as reality the restlessness called life, and the seemingly endless sleep in the gloom of the grave, called death.”
Verse 12
It is not that I have never before been incarnated; nor thou, nor these other royal ones! And never in all futurity shall any one of us not exist!
Verse 13
As in the body the embodied Self passes through childhood, youth, and old age, so is its passage into another body; the wise thereat are not disturbed.
The ego is continuously conscious of itself in childhood, youth, and old age; the embodied soul is uninterruptedly conscious, not only in infancy, adolescence, and old age, but also of its series of “lives” and “deaths” – the ego’s alternations between the physical and the astral worlds. The soul perceives all the bubbles of sttes of consciousness floating in the past-present-future river of time.
The ordinary man, without severing his sense of “I-ness” or ego consciousness, gradually perceives the state of infancy, youth, and old age; a sage perveices the series of lives and deaaths to be different experiences in an uninterrupted consciousness of soul perception.
Verse 14
O Son of Kunti, the ideas of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are produced by the contacts of the senses with their objects. Such ideas are limited by a beginning and an end. They are transitory, O Descendant of Bharata; bear them with patience!
When the frail senses wantonly consort with sensory objects, a motley throng of pain and pleasure, of warmth and chill, dances wildly through the temple of life. The individual dualities in these troublesome crowds revel or sigh for a while, then finally die, leaving traces of confusion in the sanctum of the soul. Fear them not, however strong and perdurable they may seem; they come and go, like bubbles on the sea of time. Ignore them, or bear them with a brave, cheerful heart and an even mind!
“O devotee, as you are the son of Kunti, born of nature, striving to call forth the power of renunciation and divine ardor, the feminine quality of feeling still grips your consciousness, making it susceptible to dualities. But within you, awaiting divine arousal, is the positive masculine power of cosmic consciousness, your ancestral inheritance as a descendant of Bharata (Spirit) – your true manliness of unconquerable equipoise and transcedence.”
Verse 15
O flower among Men! He who cannot be ruffled by these (contacts of the senses with their objects), who is calm and evenminded during pain and pleasure, he alone is fit to attain everlastingness!
That blessed being who is unchanged like the anvil under the hammer stroke of trails, the one who is evenminded during both cloudy winterdays of pain and sunny springtime days of pleasures, the one who calmly absorbs trails into himself as the sea quietly swallows rivers, he is ordained by the gods to attain the eternal kingdom!”
Verse 16
Of the unreal, there is no existene. Of the real, there is no nonexistence. The final truth of both of these is known by men of wisdom.
The senses say that the flower that was never born has shed no fragrance; things that were never real have ever been nonexistent. But the garden rose, by its fragrance, and the stars, by their twinkle in the sky, proclaim their reality. The seers of truth, however, know them all to be equally unreal; for the rose will fade away, and many a distant star whose glimmer dots the heavens has long since ceased to be. Could something become nothing? Possessors of wisdom perceive as real only That which changes not – the Essence that became the star and the idea of the flower in the poet’s mind. The wise alone know the mystery of the real and the unreal.
The ocean can exist without the waves, but the waves cannot manifest without the ocean. The ocean is the real substance; the waves are only temporary changes on the ocean, and therefore “unreal” (in themselves they have no independent existence). The ocean, in essence, does not change whether it is calm or restless with waves; but the waves change their forms – they come and they go. Their essence is change, and therefore unreality.
Verse 17
Know as imperishable the One by whom everything has been manifested and pervaded. No one has power to bring about the annihilation of this Unchangeable Spirit.
The One Life that breathes into existence all temporal things, forming them out of His own one Being, is indestructable, everlasting. Though all changeable objects of creation melt away, nothing affects the immutability of God.
Verse 16
Reagarded as having a termination of existence are these fleshy garments; immutable, imperishable, and limitless is the Indwelling Self. With this wisdom, O Descendant of Bharata, battle thou!
“The Divine Indweller, the Ever Youthful One whom the fingers of decay dare not touch, the One whose home is the region without boundaries, the One who can never be invaded by destruction – he it is who wears many costumes of flesh. Though his bodily garments decay, he himself is imperishable! Equiped with this armor of wisdom, O Arhuna, descendant of brave Bharata! Boldly enter the arena of inner battle!”
The devotee, while still contending with the strong inner persuasion of delusion – attached to the body, afraid to relinquish the senses and identification with mortal consciousness – is a bird of eternity locked in a little cage. Man, as an eagle of immortality, at home in eternal space, should not be fearful to rise above the body from which, in any case, he will be ousted at the call of Death.
Krishna therefore tells Arjuna: “Concentrate on your Inner Self, the image of the Eternal Spirit, which, like It, is immortal! Fear not to fight the senses and to destroy the attachment to the body! This, sooner or later, you will be compelled to do!”
Verse 19
He who considers the Self as the slayer; he who deems that it can be slain: neither of these knows the truth. The Self does not kill, nor is it killed.
Verse 20
This Self is never born nor does it ever perish; nor having come into existence will it again cease to be. It is birthless, eternal, changeless, ever-same (unaffected by the usual processes associated with time). It is not slain when the body is killed.
The soul, in essence the reflection of Spirit, never undergoes the pangs of birth nor the throes of death. Nor having once been projected from the womb of immortal Spirit will Prince Soul, on return to Spirit, lose its individuality; having entered the portals of nativity, its existence will never cease. In all its bodily births, the Spirit-soul never felt birth; it exists everlastingly, untouched by the maya-magic fingers of change. It is ever the same – now, past, future – as it has always been; ageless, unchanged, since its immermorial beginnings. The deathless soul dwelling in the destructible body is ever constant through all cycles of bodily disintegrations; it does not taste death even when the body quaffs that fatal cup of hemlock.
[...]
The difference between soul and Spirit is this; The Spirit is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new omnipresent Joy; the soul is the individualized reflection of ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy, confined within the body of each and every being.
Verse 21
How can he who knows the Self to be imperishable, everlastingly permanent, birthless and changeless, possibly think that this Self can cause the destruction of another? O Partha, whom does it slay?
That person whose vision is in his spiritual eye beholds the true nature of the soul; and thus, through direct perception, is absolutely certain that the Self is immutable – above birth and death, change and annihilation. Such a yogi sees the indestructible Beam of Spirit as the Cause of the formal life and death in the cosmic dream pictures of being, and thus cannot consider himself as the extinguisher of life or even as the indirect cause of extinction of life in another.
Verse 22
Just as an individual forsaking dilapidated raiment dons new clothes, so the body-encased soul, relinquishing decayed bodily habitations, enters others that are new.
As it is commin practice for a human being during a lifetime to change his attire many times, so it is a habit of the eternal soul, during its wanderings on the path of delusion and mortal desires, to cast off karma-worn bodies for new ones. As a person is glad to throw away worn-out, useless clothes for new garments, so should an individual rejoice and feel it just as natural to change a disease-torn or karmically outdated body for a new one.
Verse 23
No weapon can pierce the soul; no fire can burn it; no water can moisten it; nor can any wind wither it.
Verse 24
The soul is uncleavable; it cannot be burnt or wetted or dried. The soul is immutable, all-permeating, ever calm, and immovable – eternally the same.
The mysterious soul abides forever, changing never, even when the bubble of cosmos melts in the spatial Ocean of Infinity. The subtle soul secretly sleeps in every blade of grass, in every nook of creation. The soul hides in the honeycomb of atoms. Thoughts cannot ruffle it. It loves to live in the grottos of change, ever steadfast and immovable. It never dreams aught but eternity.
In the previous stanza, the Gita proclaims that no outside objects, whether weapons, fire, water, or wind, can affect the soul. It now further explains that the soul itself possesses those mysterious qualities of self-conscious existence that are not vulnerable to any phenomena.
Verse 25
The soul is said to be imponderable, unmanifested, and unchangeable. Therefore, knowing it to be such, thou shouldst not lament!
Before the sparks of creation blinked their luminous eyes, before the cosmic dream took form, the soul resided ever awake and unmanifested in Spirit. Before the Spirit spumed Its thought waves, the soul remained in Its bosom unthinkable by thought, undisturbed by change. And when Spirit cast forth Its dreams of universes, and the soul dreamed dreams of body-covered forms, still the soul remained the same. Anyone who – espousing this truth – knows the soul to be the image of immortal Spirit should not behave in a contradictory manner and foolishly lament, thinking the Self to be vulnerable and destructible with the afflicted and perishable body.
Verses 26-27
But if thou dost imagine this soul incessantly to be born and to die, even in that case, O Mighty-armed, thou shouldst not grieve for it. For that which is born must die, and that which is dead must be born again. Why then shouldst thou grieve about the unavoidable?
“But if delusion’s dream makes you think of the Self as constantly modifying itself with its change of mortal residences, even then, O devotee Arjuna, you should not allow yourself to sorrow! You who are mighty-armed with mental power and self-control should perceive the useslessness in lamenting what is unavoidable – a fate of one’sown making. For the deluded Self that is enamored of its cosmic-dream bodily residence must be prepared to undergo, through the magic potion of karma, the nightmares of bodily births inevitably pursued by bodily deaths, and dreams of physical dissolutions followed by physical manifestations!”
Verse 28
The beginning of all creatures is veiled, the middle is manifested, and the end again is imperceptible, O Bharata. Why, then, lament this truth?
The source of the dancing stream of lives is secretly hidden behind mists of delusive ignorance; the end of the same silvery stream is also shrouded in mystery. Only the middle part is visible to humanity’s myopic vision. Why, then, grieve over a matter no mortal can solve?
Verse 29
Some behold the soul in amazement. Similarly, others describe it as marvelous. Still others listen about the soul as wondrous. And there are others who, even after hearing all about the soul, do not comprehend it at all.
Verse 30
O Bharata, the One who dwells in the bodies of all is eternally inviolable. Grieve not, therefore, for any created being.
As the dreamer remains unchanged even though he nightly witnesses himself participating in different dream fantasies, so the invisible soul, dreaming the bodies of many incarnations, itself remains unchanged. Knowing that the bodies of all creatures are spumescent bubbles on God’s cosmic dream-ocean of creation, there is no cause to lament when any cosmic-dream-manifested body is withdrawn into the Infinite Dreamless Dreamer.