May 3 – Bhagavadgita Chapter 6; Verses 6.03-6.04 (Day 124) Adyatma Yoga, Yoga of Meditation

 Lesson 6.2 (Verses 2-9)

The Pathway and the Goal

May 3 – Day 124

Verse 6.03-6.04

आरुरुक्षोर्मुनेर्योगं कर्म कारणमुच्यते ।

योगारूढस्य तस्यैव शमः कारणमुच्यते ॥ ६-३॥ 

ārurukṣhor muner yogaṁ karma kāraṇam uchyate
yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śhamaḥ kāraṇam uchyate (3) 

ஆருருக்ஷோர்முனேர்யோக³ம் க¹ர்ம கா¹ரணமுச்¹யதே¹ |
யோகா³ரூட⁴ஸ்ய த¹ஸ்யைவ ஶம: கா¹ரணமுச்¹யதே¹ || 3 || 

3. For a sage who wishes to attain to Yoga, action is said to be the means; for the same sage who has attained to Yoga, inaction (quiescence) is said to be the means. 

Commentary: For a man who cannot practice meditation for a long time and who is not able to keep his mind steady in meditation, action is a means to get himself enthroned in Yoga.  Action purifies his mind and makes the mind firm for the practice of steady meditation.  Action leads to steady concentration and meditation.

For the sage who is enthroned in Yoga, Sama or renunciation of actions is said to be the means.

The more perfectly he abstains from actions, the more steady his mind is, and the more peaceful he is, the more easily and thoroughly does his mind get fixed in the Self.  “For a Brahmana there is no wealth like unto the knowledge of oneness and homogeneity (of the Self in all beings), truthfulness, good character, steadiness, harmlessness, straightforwardness, and renunciation of all actions.”  (Mahabharata, Santi Parva, 175.38) 

यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते ।

सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ॥ ६-४॥ 

yadā hi nendriyārtheṣhu na karmasw anuṣhajjate
sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī yogārūḍhas tadochyate (4) 

யதா³ ஹி னேன்த்³ரியார்தே²ஷு ந க¹ர்மஸ்வனுஷஜ்ஜதே¹ |
ஸர்வஸங்க¹ல்ப¹ஸன்ன்யாஸீ யோகா³ரூட⁴ஸ்த¹தோ³ச்¹யதே¹ ||4|| 

4. When a man is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to Yoga. 

Commentary: Yogarudha: “he who is enthroned or established in Yoga”. When a Yogi, by keeping the mind quite steady, by withdrawing it from the objects of the senses, has attachment neither for sensual objects, such as sound, nor for the actions (Karmas, Cf. notes to V.13), knowing that they are of no use to him; when he has renounced all thoughts which generate various sorts of desires for the objects of this world and of the next, then he is said to have become a Yogarudha.

Do not think of sense-objects.  The desires will die by themselves.  How can you free yourself from thinking of the objects?  Think of God or the Self.  Then you can avoid thinking of the objects.  Then you can free yourself from thinking of the objects of the senses.

Renunciation of thoughts implies that all desires and all actions should be renounced, because all desires are born of thoughts.  You think first and then act (strive) afterwards to possess the objects of your desire for enjoyment.

“Whatever a man desires, that he wills;

And whatever he wills, that he does”.

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.5

Renunciation of all actions necessarily follows from the renunciation of all desires.

“O desire! I know where thy root lies.  Thou art born of Sankalpa (thought).  I will not think of thee and thou shalt cease to exist along with the root”. 

– Mahabharata, Santi Parva, 177.25

“Indeed desire is born of thought (Sankalpa) and of thought, Yajnas are born”.

– Manu Smriti, II.2 

Commentary by Swami Venkatesananda: 

Indeed, there are stages in the seeker’s life when he should be involved in certain external practices and there are stages when he becomes engaged in internal practices. In the highest stages, however, the sage is completely quiescent, at rest in the self which is cosmic consciousness.

Until the state which is known as yoga is reached, one should not renounce external practices, for premature renunciation would prevent progress. This is true even of worldly objects and duties. It is more sensible and wiser to cultivate the proper attitude to them and to establish in oneself the correct scale of values, so that the objects drop away, their values deflated, and the ‘duties’ are seen in their true Light as the ego’s excuse to cling to the world. The ego does not initiate action. Action comes from somewhere else. Correct scale of values, the correct sense of proportion is itself ‘saṁnyᾱsa’, usually translated as ‘renunciation’. Physically pushing the world away might only drive it deeper within oneself, psychologically.

Yet this should not be interpreted to mean undue emphasis on action. A stage comes in the life of every seeker when the external and later the internal action is no longer necessary; then, resting in the peace of the self he realises that that is both the doer of all actions and the witness of all passing phenomena! This is not a state to be presumed; it has its own criteria – complete non-attachment and the absence of selfish desires and worldly (and heavenly!) dreams and schemes, which are inwardly and actually ‘seen’ as haunting phantoms. At that stage a false sense of duty or the need for demonstrative practices drop away unnoticed. 

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