Kingly Science Kingly Secret
by Swami Sivananda
Buy this book | Online Bookstore | Go Back | Free Preview: PDF ; HTML
Book Code: ES75
Paperback: 264 pages
ISBN: 8170520207
Book Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 320 grams
Table of Contents
| Back Cover | |
| Sri Swami Sivananda | 6 |
| Publishers’ Note | 6 |
| Preface | 8 |
| Introduction | 14 |
| 1. The Royal Science of Brahma-Vidya | 31 |
| 2. Faith is the First Step | 40 |
| 3. The Doubter is Doomed | 50 |
| 4. Scriptures are the Authority | 55 |
| 5. Bond Between Guru and Disciple | 60 |
| 6. The Caste System | 70 |
| 7. The Glory of Swadharma | 75 |
| 8. All Roads Lead to Rome | 83 |
| 9. Moderation: the Watchword in Yoga | 90 |
| 10. Purity of Food | 94 |
| 11. Seclusion is a “Must” in Sadhana | 102 |
| 12. The Mystery of Death | 108 |
| 13. A Dying Man’s Thoughts | 113 |
| 14. Spiritual Evolution | 118 |
| 15. The Saint of Tomorrow | 122 |
| 16. The Play of the Gunas | 126 |
| 17. The Technique of Karma Yoga | 129 |
| 18. Action is Thy Duty | 132 |
| 19. Evenness of Mind is Yoga | 136 |
| 20. Like Water on the Lotus Leaf | 138 |
| 21. Mind to God, Hands to Work | 144 |
| 22. The Descent of God | 146 |
| 23. The Rationale of Saguna Worship | 150 |
| 24. The Four Types of Devotees | 154 |
| 25. Bhaktas Are Above Caste and Creed | 157 |
| 26. Practice of the Remembrance of God | 160 |
| 27. The Implications of Self-surrender | 163 |
| 28. Away With Despondency | 172 |
| 29. Austerity of Speech | 176 |
| 30. Conquest of Anger | 180 |
| 31. The Power of Passion | 192 |
| 32. Real Austerity | 197 |
| 33. The Pull of the Senses | 202 |
| 34. The Art of Abstraction | 206 |
| 35. The Conquest of Raga-Dwesha | 212 |
| 36. The Pure and Impure Minds | 217 |
| 37. The Taming of the Mind | 224 |
| 38. Extinction of Thoughts is Yoga | 230 |
| 39. Pleasure is the Source of Pain | 236 |
| 40. Extinguish the Fire of Desire | 241 |
| 41. Peace Flows From Desirelessness | 245 |
| 42. The Attributeless Brahman | 249 |
| 43. The Practice of Equal Vision | 253 |
| 44. Unity of Consciousness | 259 |
| Glossary | 264 |
Back Cover
The teachings given by Lord Krishna are simply wonderful. He gives instructions on a variety of subjects, but the one ringing note is: “See Me in everything, Surrender yourself to Me. Do all actions for My sake. Cut off all sorts of attachments. Have perfect, unswerving devotion to Me. Sing my glories”.
The Lord gives you practical, wholesome guidance. Like a lotus leaf in water you should remain at work. Feel that the Lord’s supreme power does everything here. We are all His instruments. Let your hands be ever engaged in the service of the Lord in all. Let your mind be ever thinking of His glories. Let your intellect discriminate correctly. And let your soul be ever in union with the Lord. This is Yoga. A Yogi is not an idle dreamer, an inert stone. Building castles in the air is not the Yoga that Lord Krishna asks us to practise. Beloved aspirants, give up delusion. Plunge in service.
Yoga is not hidden in caves. It is not in thick, sequestered forests. It is not to be found in mountain herbs. God is not a coward to run away from towns, cities and villages. He is all-pervading.
The Gita does not want you to flee from your worldly career to the solitude of the forest. It does not bid you hide in a cave of the Himalayas for attaining the supreme peace of the Eternal. It tells you to resist unrighteousness, to develop divine virtues and try to attain Self-realisation in and through the world.
Stick to your duty and to truthfulness. Do selfless service. Surrender yourself to the Lord. Have equal vision and a balanced mind in success and failure, in heat and cold, in honour and dishonour, in pleasure and pain, in happiness and sorrow. Give the mind to the Lord and hands to the service of humanity. Be firmly established in the vow of Brahmacharya. Give up selfishness, meanness, attachment and egoism. You will then be free from the wheel of births and deaths, from the bonds of Karma. You will attain supreme peace, eternal bliss and immortality. This is the message of the Gita.
SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA
Born on the 8th September, 1887, in the illustrious family of Sage Appayya Dikshitar and several other renowned saints and savants, Sri Swami Sivananda had a natural flair for a life devoted to the study and practice of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling of unity with all mankind.
His passion for service drew him to the medical career; and soon he gravitated to where he thought that his service was most needed. Malaya claimed him. He had earlier been editing a health journal and wrote extensively on health problems. He discovered that people needed right knowledge most of all; dissemination of that knowledge he espoused as his own mission.
It was divine dispensation and the blessing of God upon mankind that the doctor of body and mind renounced his career and took to a life of renunciation to qualify for ministering to the soul of man. He settled down at Rishikesh in 1924, practised intense austerities and shone as a great Yogi, saint, sage and Jivanmukta.
In 1932 Swami Sivananda started the Sivanandashram. In 1936 was born The Divine Life Society. In 1948 the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy was organised. Dissemination of spiritual knowledge and training of people in Yoga and Vedanta were their aim and object. In 1950 Swamiji undertook a lightning tour of India and Ceylon. In 1953 Swamiji convened a ‘World Parliament of Religions’. Swamiji is the author of over 300 volumes and has disciples all over the world, belonging to all nationalities, religions and creeds. To read Swamiji’s works is to drink at the Fountain of Wisdom Supreme. On 14th July, 1963 Swamiji entered Mahasamadhi.
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
This work, a compilation from the published writings of Swami Sivananda, is in the nature of a detailed commentary on select verses of the Bhagavad Gita. While many readers may be familiar with the stanza-by-stanza commentary of the holy Master on the full Gita text, in this volume they will find a considerably more detailed exposition of the implications of Sri Krishna’s instructions to Arjuna which are as valid today as they were at the time of the Mahabharata war.
The book begins with an Introduction which deals with the goal of human life and the vital role of religion and Yoga in the achievement thereof. Life without religion is a dreary waste and Yoga is but an aid in the practice of one’s own religion. Yoga is universal and the Yoga Shastra of Lord Krishna, namely, the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, is equally universal. Yoga and the Gita are open to all. The Master’s most lucid, free-flowing commentary on a wide spectrum of the Gita verses brings the secrets of Sri Krishna’s teachings to the doorstep of every English speaking household.
The stanzas chosen cover a wide range of topics that are of immediate consequence to every spiritual seeker. The compilation starts with subjects pertaining to spiritual Sadhana in general and then proceeds to cover the more important topics under Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga in that order. The living voice of Sivananda echoes and re-echoes on every page and in every line, casting a magic spell on the reader, rousing him at the same time to heightened efforts in the direction of God and Truth.
A glossary is appended mainly for the benefit of the Western Yoga enthusiasts.
It gives us genuine pleasure to invite the reader to derive inspiration and profit from the pages that follow.
The Divine Life Society
Shivanandanagar, Rishikesh, India
March 22 1981.
PREFACE
Almighty Lord, Father of mankind, God of love and grace, I pray to Thee to bless all beings with peace and joy. May all beings be free from sorrow and affliction! May happiness and welfare prevail in their life!
Beloved reader, peace be unto you. I consider it a rare blessing and a spiritual privilege to write this Preface to this inspiring book, which contains the boundless love and goodwill of the great-hearted spiritual teacher, the revered Swami Sivananda of sacred memory. The holy Master, Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh in India, was a well-wisher of the whole world. He was the compassionate spiritual Master of modern mankind. He was a benefactor of both the East and the West and of both hemispheres.
This book brings to you his wisdom teachings, his friendship and sympathy, his spiritual love and divine insight into your problems and difficulties. This book is the tangible fruit of his intense desire to help all humanity, to free it from sorrow and suffering and to show it the way to happiness and blessedness. This book comes to you filled with the holy benedictions of a saint, with the spiritual wisdom of a sage, with the light of his inner spiritual illumination, and with the inspiration and power of his penance and inner realisation. It is a rare treasure for you. Make it your life’s companion. It can be your guide, friend and philosopher. Read a little daily. It will nourish you inwardly and benefit you physically, mentally, intellectually, morally and spiritually.
The 8th of September is a blessed day to remember and rejoice upon. For, upon this day one hundred years ago, on the 8th September, 1887, a child was born to pious parents who belonged to highly religious families on both sides. This child was verily a boon and a blessing to mankind, for it was destined to become a cosmic friend, a benefactor of all humanity and a great spiritual teacher whose message of selflessness, devotion, spiritual meditation and God-realisation was soon to reach every part of the globe in this present 20th century. This child grew up to become firstly, a dedicated and compassionate medical doctor; then secondly, to become an illumined sage, a holy saint and spiritual Master of present-day humanity. Even as bees surround a fully blossomed flower, so too, sincere seekers, aspirants and devotees flocked to this man of God, who lived his simple life in a humble hermitage on the bank of the holy river Ganges in the region of the Himalayan mountains. This sage and Yogi was Swami Sivananda.
He spoke to them words of spiritual guidance, inspiration and instruction. To others, who were too far away to come to him, he wrote these teachings, radiant with the light and power of his illumination. To him it was a labour of love, full of dedication and joy. Thus, from his humble little cell by the sacred waters’ edge, his spiritual message and teachings flowed in all directions and reached countless seekers all over the world. These teachings covered all aspects of human life. They had but one motive or intention or objective, namely, the welfare and happiness of all human beings and their highest spiritual blessedness. This friend of mankind passed into the Great Beyond on 14th July, 1963. He left behind for posterity the immense treasures of his practical wisdom, to inspire, uplift and purify the reader. This book brings to you the invaluable treasure of his teachings.
To observe the 100th year of his birth, his devout disciples, followers and students are making available to the people of the present day the treasures of his wisdom, by bringing out a series of his publications under the auspices of his holy Birth Centenary. This present volume you hold in your hands is one such in this centenary publication series, prepared and published as a humble token of their love, reverence and boundless gratitude to this great Master of this 20th century.
Human society everywhere, in this present space age and technological era, is living in fear and anxiety of a possible (even if not probable!) nuclear annihilation. Insecurity and a feeling of uncertainty about how one must live and strive fill the heart of modern man. This situation arises through ignorance of the deeper meaning and higher purpose of existence. It is due to the neglect to acquire the elementary knowledge of the true goal of our life, of its end and means. It is due to the failure of modern mankind to give the rightful place in our life to noble ideals and higher values and principles that are indispensable for sane living and sane human relationship. Due to this serious error, human society has created for itself a situation of great danger and much fear and unhappiness. All sorts of solutions have been tried. Yet man is moving deeper into ever-increasing difficulties, because the entire problem is not merely social, economic or political. The real trouble which human society is facing is one of ethical and spiritual poverty. It is a malaise of the spirit of man. As such, the really effective solution is and can only be a spiritual and moral solution.
To help resolve this grave situation, the worshipful Master, Swami Sivananda, made it his life’s mission to disseminate spiritual knowledge in order to remove the darkness of spiritual ignorance and bring light upon life’s path. He strove all his life to bring about a world-wide spiritual awakening and to make man aware of the sublime goal of spiritual perfection through the manifestation of the Divinity present in every human individual. His lofty spiritual message and teachings had as their aim the presentation of the ethical ideal and spiritual goal of life by which man can liberate himself from sorrow and fear and attain peace and happiness. He did this in a compelling manner through the force of his simple, direct way of addressing the reader through the pages of a book.
People called him variously as the Yogi of the Himalayas, The Sage of Rishikesh, The Prophet of the New Age and The Acharya of the Atomic Era. Be this as it may, he was without doubt one thing for certain‑a friend of all mankind and a benefactor of humanity of our present age. Therefore it is that his disciples and followers felt that one of the most appropriate ways of observing his Birth Centenary was to bring his message and teachings to the spiritually-minded all over the world. This would indeed constitute a most appropriate manner in which to show their reverence to the great Master and to pay homage to his sacred memory.
These Centenary volumes have been made possible through the co-operative efforts of various noble friends, and particularly through the great love and dedication of my spiritual brother, the revered Sri Swami Sahajanandaji Maharaj and devotees and adherents of the Sivananda Ashram, Durban, South Africa who have been responsible for the editing, film-setting and financing of the entire project. I pray to the Almighty Lord to shower His Divine Grace upon all those associated with this publication project of which the present volume is the result.
May the choicest blessings of worshipful Master, Swami Sivananda, be upon all and upon you too, blessed reader! Peace be unto you and to all! May the illuminating teachings of Swami Sivananda continue to help all mankind to come out from darkness into light, from bondage to freedom, from sorrow unto happiness, and from mortality unto immortality and divine beatitude!
Swami Chidananda (President)
The Divine Life Society
Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India.
8th September, 1981.
INTRODUCTION
The baby mews. The child jumps, dances and plays with toys. The schoolboy walks along with his books. The grown-up young man gets degrees. The adolescent twists his moustache, fights, quarrels and runs after women. He tries to get name and fame. He hoards wealth. He begets children. Then he grows old, wears spectacles and puts on a dental set. He totters with a stick. Finally, he passes away with a hiccup.
A drop of water sprinkled on a heated iron piece produces a hissing sound and is immediately vapourised. Man makes a little noise during the short period called his life and disappears in a moment.
What is man? What can he become? What is the mind? What is the most desirable state? A study of these will be really profitable.
Man is a Soul
To the Westerner, man is merely a physical creature endowed with a mind and possessing a soul. To the Hindu, he is essentially a soul expressing himself through the mind, which has the body as its counterpart to function upon the physical plane.
Man is a soul having a body. Man is essentially a spiritual being. Man lives because in essence he is the spirit or soul. His innermost essence is the Atma or the Divine Spirit. His true nature is God. The physical body and the intellect depend on the soul within, about which man knows little or nothing.
Man is not this body. He is not his senses or even his mind. These are his vehicles. The body and mind are subject to change, decay and death, whereas the real man-the immortal Self or Atma-is ever abiding never ending, eternal, unborn, perfect and ancient.
You have a body but you are not the body. You have a mind but you are not the mind. The body and mind are your instruments like the tools of a carpenter. This body is an instrument or servant of the soul and not its prison.
Know that the body is the temple of the radiant and self-effulgent Spirit or Atma or Soul within, which controls and moves all the faculties of the mind and the body. Know that you are breathing the breath of the Spirit and not a physical breath.
Death does not end all. Death does not mean total annihilation. Death does not end the chain or sequence. The working agent, the Soul in the body, does not and cannot die with the death of the body. Man’s Soul is immortal. Just as a person lays aside his overcoat, so also he lays aside the physical body at death.
The body is the slough of the Soul. The Soul is the mover of the body-chariot. When the body is destroyed, the Spirit or Soul continues living. You still have your thoughts, memory, will-power and subtle body.
It is very ludicrous to believe that there is no Soul at all beyond the body. It is true that extinction is the final stage of all “organisations”, but “consciousness” is not an organisation. It is an eternal verity untouched by change and decay. Man may change his form of individuality but he cannot change the eternal awareness which is his very existence. Behind all thoughts there is a consciousness of thought and one cannot get behind this consciousness.
It is impossible that consciousness can ever come to an end. Hence there must be rebirth. Otherwise, what happens to the Jiva or individual soul after it shakes off the physical body? It must exist in a different form of consciousness suited to its further growth into greater fullness. That consciousness perishes at the time of the death of the physical body is a childish idea. Consciousness is eternal and it persists beyond death.
In man the consciousness is veiled by mind and matter. Therefore, he is not able to realise his essential, divine nature. Unless man is liberated from the bondage of mind and matter, he cannot have knowledge of the Self or Atma.
What is Religion?
The sole object of life is the attainment of Self-realisation or absolute freedom. The aim of man’s life is to unfold and manifest the Godhead which is eternally existent within him. The purpose of life is to lose all sense of the distinctive personality and get dissolved in the Lord. The attainment of Infinite Life is the supreme purpose of finite life.
Mundane life is all unreal. It is illusory and transitory. It is trifling and worthless. Its end is only dust. There is nothing but tall talk, gossip, eating and sleeping. All is illusory, all is painful. Mundane experience has no value, no reality. God alone is real.
Any number of zeroes have no value unless you add 1 before them. Similarly, even if you possess the wealth of the whole world, it is nothing if you do not lead a spiritual life, if you have no spiritual wealth, if you have no Self-realisation. You will have to live in the Soul. You will have to add the Atma to the life here. That is the reason why Lord Jesus says: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all else shall be added unto you”.
Religion is life in God. Religion is relationship of the three fundamental principles–God, the world and the individual. Religion gives solace to the weary pilgrim on this earth-plane, it explains life’s mystery to him. It shows the path to the immortal abode.
Religion consists in doing good to others. It consists in the practice of love, mercy, truthfulness and purity in all walks of life. Religion is practical philosophy; philosophy is theoretical religion. Philosophy is for ever searching, enquiring, questioning. Religion is ever sensing, experiencing, realising.
Religion is not dogma. It is not a creed. Creed is only broken reed. Religion is not theology. It is not merely a belief or emotion. It is not merely a little prayer which one offers when one suffers from severe intestinal colic or chronic dysentery. It is pre-eminently a life of goodness and service. It is a life of meditation. He who is loving, kind, pious and truthful, who is endowed with faith and devotion, is truly religious.
The essence of religion is not marks on the forehead, not matted locks and long beards, not standing in the hot sun or cold water, not the orange-coloured robe, not the shaven head, not ringing of bells, not blowing of the conch, not playing of cymbals. The essence of religion is goodness, purity and service in the midst of mundane temptations.
Religion means living in God. It is not mere discussion about God. Mere intellectual assent cannot make you really religious. Real religion is beyond argument. It can only be lived, both inwardly and outwardly. It is realising and becoming.
Let not personal bias, force of convention or the opinion of fanatics and sectarians blind your vision to a narrow view of religion. Do not be prejudiced by observing the religious practices of the untutored masses. Through the power of pure reason and discrimination, you must be able to differentiate the essentials from the non-essentials in religion and philosophy. Then only can you be happy. The essentials of all religions are one and the same. They all agree. Religions differ only in the non-essentials.
A religious life is a great blessing. It lifts man from the mire of impurity and infidelity. The intellect is vain if not illumined by religion. Religion does what philosophy cannot do. If you live according to the rules of religion, you will attain wisdom, immortality, everlasting peace and eternal bliss. Religion frees one from all sorrow and pain. Religion bestows everlasting peace. Religion makes one perfect and free. Religion makes one independent. Religion unites the soul with Brahman. Religion frees one from the round of births and deaths.
Religion is the foundation of society, the source of all goodness and happiness, the basis of the prosperity and virtue of the individual and, through the individual, of the entire nation. Civilisation, order, unity, morality–all that elevate man and give peace to the nation–are the fruit of the practice of religion.
Take away religion, then man lives to no purpose. He stays far, far away from the purpose of his birth. Life then becomes a dreary waste here. Really, there is no life without religion. It is only religion that makes existence valuable and fills the mind with love, devotion, serenity and cheerfulness. No materialistic force can annihilate the religious urge in man though for a time a certain kind of propaganda may serve as a deterrent.
Science and Religion
Some scientists and so-called educated persons believe that science can explain everything, can solve the riddle of the universe and all problems of life. They also think that the scientific method is the only method of finding out the truth, and that scientific training and discipline alone can build very efficiently the character of man. They ignore ethical discipline, morality and religion altogether.
One scientist came to me and said, “The Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras have not been written scientifically. I am trying to give a scientific approach to this vital subject.”
I laughed at his remark and answered, “My dear scientist-friend, the Upanishads are revelations. Brahma-Vidya is transcendental knowledge. The Atman also is transcendental. You cannot take your test-tubes and spirit lamps near Him. The conclusions of the scientists cannot approach His region. Their observations are one-sided as they concern the waking state only. Their experiences are only relative experiences.”
The scientist kept quiet, lowered his head in shame and walked away silently.
Three blind people touched three different parts of an elephant. One touched the foot and said, “The elephant is like a pillar.”
The second touched the ear and said, “The elephant is like a fan.”
The third touched the belly and said, “The elephant is like a pot.”
So also, a scientist explores the physical plane and speaks of atoms, energy and physical laws. He is also like a blind man. He has knowledge of one dimension alone. He has ignored the dream and deep sleep states. He has no all-comprehensive knowledge.
Science has analysed man. Man is supposed to be a creature composed of various physical and chemical substances. Yet no scientist has so far been able to assemble these constituent chemical elements of a man’s body into one homogeneous creature which lives, talks and acts like a man. And no scientist is able to comprehend the mystery of creation and the Creator and the meaning of life.
Scientists are very busy in studying the external world. They have entirely forgotten to study the internal world. Science gives you knowledge only of phenomenal appearances and not of the Reality behind them. Science has not been able to solve the important questions: what is the ultimate stuff of the world? Who am I? What is the ultimate truth?
Science tells us that the ultimate goal of everything is unknown and unknowable. But Vedanta teaches that the ultimate goal is the attainment of Brahman or the Infinite, and that It can be realised through hearing of the scriptures and through reflection and meditation.
Science has its limitations also. It does not have any instrument by which it could just collect the supersensual or spiritual data or those divine facts which exist in a subtle form and which we cannot see. The Soul is beyond the realm of physical science. It is beyond the reach of material science. It is extremely subtle. It is subtler than ether, mind and energy. Consciousness and intelligence are of the Soul and not of the body. Consciousness is evidence of the existence of the Soul. The Soul is the immortal part of man.
Science is a systematic study of facts. It tries to reduce observations or observed facts to a system. In order that a fact may be valid for science, it must be perceptible to the senses. Sensing is false knowledge. Intuition is right knowledge. Intuitive knowledge alone is the highest knowledge. It is the imperishable, infinite knowledge of Truth.
A scientist is an extrovert. He bombards the atoms. He will not find pure Consciousness there. He must withdraw the senses and rest in his own inner Self. He must dive deep into the ocean of Brahmic Consciousness.
Science is not the enemy of religion but a preparation for the latter. Science is an enemy of superstition alone. Both science and religion are engaged in the search for Truth. Their attitudes are essentially the same but the fields of application vary.
The Hindu Rishis, seers and sages have recognised the harmonious relation between science and religion. The divorce of science from religion is the cause of confusion and conflict. Science is religion as applied to the investigation of Truth in the finite Nature outside–the object. Religion is science as applied to the realisation of the Infinite, the Truth that underlies all objects–the subject.
Science interprets on the phenomenal plane the One as energy. Religion interprets the One as the Self, the Atman. Science analyses, classifies and explains phenomena while Brahma-Vidya, the Science of the Self, teaches you to transcend phenomena and attain immortality.
The scientific and the religious approaches to Truth are really complementary and not contradictory. Religion and science are twin brothers. They should harmoniously and mutually help to search for Truth. The mind and intellect are finite instruments. They cannot realise the infinite Reality but are the means to Its realisation. When the intellect has passed through the various stages of reasoning and when it has been completely purified, then revelation dawns. True religion begins where the intellect ends.
Let it not be thought that religion is dogmatic, otherworldly, a pet tradition of blind believers or irrational emotionalists. Religion is the most rational science, the science of life itself, the science of man as he essentially is, not merely as he presumes himself to be. The basis of all the secular sciences is Brahma-Vidya. Brahma-Vidya is the foremost among all sciences because through its means one attains immortality. One cannot learn this science of sciences in any university. One will have to learn it from a God-realised preceptor, after having controlled the senses and the mind.
Seek within. Stand not as a beggar before the door of science-power, which destroys more than it heals. Do not surrender yourself to the scientists. They are not able to explain anything. Science knows nothing about the origin of life, the origin of thought and the origin and destiny of human nature and the universe. There are many questions to which religion alone can give the answers and not science.
The Bhagavad Gita
The teachings of India’s ancient seers are indeed the most universal. The works of Yoga belong to the entire world. They are also practical to the core. Numerous persons are turning from a war-torn and sullied atmosphere to India and her ancient, divine wisdom which is found in the Gita, the Upanishads and the Adwaita Vedanta philosophy.
Mahatma Gandhi once visited one of the largest libraries in London and asked the librarian what spiritual book was borrowed by readers most frequently. The librarian said that it was the Gita.
The greatest gift, the greatest blessing that India has conferred upon the world, upon all humanity, is this sublime yet eminently practical, universal gospel of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. The greatest thinkers and philosophers of the Occident have vied with one another in paying their devout tribute at the shrine of the Gita. Wilhelm von Humboldt, the famous Occidental scholar, states: “The Bhagavad Gita is the deepest and most sublime production the world possesses”. Emerson, the great sage of America, had a copy of the Gita always on his table.
In the midst of the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Lord Krishna, during the course of His most interesting and instructive talk with Arjuna, revealed the profound, sublime and soul-stirring spiritual truths and expounded to Arjuna the rare secrets of Yoga, Vedanta, Bhakti and Karma. All the teachings of Lord Krishna were subsequently recorded by Bhagavan Vyasa as the Song Celestial or the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, for the benefit of humanity at large. The world is under a great debt of gratitude to Sri Vyasa who presented this celestial song to humanity for its daily conduct of life, spiritual uplift and Self-realisation. Only those who are self-controlled and who are endowed with faith can reap the full benefits of the Gita which is the science of the Soul.
Sri Krishna gave His Gita not merely to Arjuna, but through Arjuna, to the whole world at large. The problems that faced Arjuna face mankind in general. The Gita is the answer to the universal question of life as a whole.
To live means to fight, for all life is a battle wherein the forces of good and evil, the divine and the demoniacal, purity and passion, are ceaselessly at war. The battle of Mahabharata is still raging deep within us. Ignorance is Dhritarashtra. The individual soul is Arjuna. The indweller of our heart is Lord Krishna, the charioteer. The body is the chariot. The senses are the horses. Mind, egoism, lust, impressions, cravings, attraction and repulsion, desires, jealousy, greed, pride and hypocrisy are our dire enemies.
The Gita symbolises the solution of this eternal struggle between the spiritual and the material in every human being. It does not exclude any being from receiving its message and becoming blessed. It is entirely non-sectarian and is pre-eminently a practical gospel. It embodies in itself a solution more than just an exposition or a revelation. It embodies in itself a solution to the immediately pressing problems of man and carries a wonderful message of hope, encouragement, cheer and consolation. It is a direct appeal to divinise the entire nature of man. It has an inspiring, workable message for you, for me and for every man and woman living his or her ordinary life in the busy, everyday world.
The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita is an exact science. It is a perfect, practical system of self-culture. It is the science of right living. It has nothing to do with religious belief, colour, traditional faith, vocation or clime. Yoga is neither Eastern nor Western; it is of the world, of humanity in general. Krishna is not merely a Hindu God; He is the representative of the inner Reality, which exists in all without difference.
The Bhagavad Gita is not merely an Aryan scripture, but also a gospel of divine life. It is the scripture of the Yogi, and a Yogi one can be in every walk of life, at every step and stage. Even one who aspires for Yoga is beyond the ordinary rules of human conduct and religious practice. To become wider and deeper and more inclusive in one’s being and consciousness is the aim of Yoga; and this is the goal of human life.
Yoga is Universal
The idea of the novice that Yoga constitutes only physical exercises or mere Asanas and Pranayama is a terrible error. Yoga Asanas, Pranayama, Bandhas, Mudras and Kriyas have nothing to do with real Yoga. They are aids in Yoga practice.
Most people do not have access to Yoga beyond its physical level, because true Yoga needs intense personal discipline, coupled with deep reflection under the guidance of an able teacher. Yoga promises superphysical and spiritual blessings. It becomes unattractive to a common man who clamours for immediate fruit and worldly prosperity.
Yoga is for all. It is not a sectarian affair. It is a way to God and not a creed. The practice of Yoga is not opposed to any religion or any sacred church. It is a purely spiritual and universal science. It does not contradict anyone’s sincere faith.
Yoga is not a religion but an aid to the practice of the basic spiritual truths in all religions. Yoga can be practised by a Christian or a Buddhist, a Parsee, a Mohammedan, a Sufi or an atheist. To be a Yogi means to abide continuously in God, and to live at peace with others. Yoga is union with God. Yoga is union with all. God dwells in all.
Moral purity and spiritual aspiration are the first steps on the path of Yoga. One who has a calm mind, who has faith in the words of his Guru and the scriptures, who is moderate in eating and in sleeping, and who has intense longing for deliverance from the wheel of this worldly existence, is a qualified person for the practice of Yoga.
An aspirant on the path of Yoga should have faith, energy, cheerfulness, courage, patience, perseverance, sincerity, purity, absence of despondency, dispassion, concentration, aspiration, serenity, self-restraint, truthfulness, non-violence and non-covetousness. An austere and simple life is indispensable for the practice of Yoga. The foundation of Yoga is self-control. Discipline is the essence of Yoga, the discipline of the body as well as of the mind.
Sri Krishna’s Teachings in the Gita
The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita is an art. You should be ever active and at the same time feel inwardly that you are the non-doer and non-enjoyer. You should take a deep interest in everything. And yet you should be perfectly unattached.
Sri Krishna asks man to consider himself a doll in the hands of God. He asks man to think of himself as a soldier, with God as his general and his worldly acts as duties under orders. He asks man to act in the faith and belief that whatever he does is the work of God. He asks man to act, but to act only with devotion to Him and without desire for fruit.
The teachings given by Lord Krishna are simply wonderful. He gives instructions on a variety of subjects, but the one ringing note is: “See Me in everything. Surrender yourself to Me. Do all actions for My sake. Cut off all sorts of attachments. Have perfect, unswerving devotion to Me. Sing My glories”.
The Lord gives you practical, wholesome guidance. Like a lotus leaf in water you should remain at work. Feel that the Lord’s supreme power does everything here. We are all His instruments. Let your hands be ever engaged in the service of the Lord in all. Let your mind be ever thinking of His glories. Let your intellect discriminate correctly. And let your soul be ever in union with the Lord. This is Yoga. A Yogi is not an idle dreamer, an inert stone. Building castles in the air is not the Yoga that Lord Krishna asks us to practise. Beloved aspirants, give up delusion. Plunge in service.
Yoga is not hidden in caves. It is not in thick, sequestered forests. It is not to be found in mountain herbs. God is not a coward to run away from towns, cities and villages. He is all-pervading.
The Gita does not want you to flee from your worldly career to the solitude of the forest. It does not bid you hide in a cave of the Himalayas for attaining the supreme peace of the Eternal. It tells you to resist unrighteousness, to develop divine virtues and try to attain Self-realisation in and through the world.
Stick to your duty and to truthfulness. Do selfless service. Surrender yourself to the Lord. Have equal vision and a balanced mind in success and failure, in heat and cold, in honour and dishonour, in pleasure and pain, in happiness and sorrow. Give the mind to the Lord and hands to the service of humanity. Be firmly established in the vow of Brahmacharya. Give up selfishness, meanness, attachment and egoism. You will then be free from the wheel of births and deaths, from the bonds of Karma. You will attain supreme peace, eternal bliss and immortality. This is the message of the Gita.
O man! you have been corrupted by wrong education. God can be neither examined in a glass tube in a laboratory nor cut open by a surgeon’s knife. No one can prove God by means of logic. You cannot meet God without devotion.
You are proud because of your boasted intellect and try to prove that God does not exist. You take pride that you are Godless. What a vain, Godless man you are! You live in vain. You have wasted your life. Open your eyes now. Wake up from your long slumber of ignorance. Take refuge in Gita’s Lord, Sri Krishna. Still there is hope for you. He is all-merciful. He is ready to bless you. Study the Gita daily and live in the spirit of this divine scripture. You will soon attain eternal bliss and immortality.
Worship the Srimad Bhagavad Gita as a holy scripture. Study a chapter of it daily. Concentrate upon some of the verses or themes of the book. But do not stop at that. Live in the spirit of its teachings. Mere talk and lecturing will not help you in any way. You may know the whole of the Gita by heart; you may deliver lectures on it for hours together; and yet you may not have a ray of the wisdom that the Gita propounds.
What is wanted is regular practice of the teachings of the Gita. Become intensely practical. Let this holy scripture guide your thoughts, prompt your speech and rule your actions. Then your whole attitude towards life will gradually change. You will become a God-man with God-vision. You will no more be affected by success or failure, pleasure or pain, loss or gain. You will attain courage, strength, peace and bliss in this very life, right where you are.
Glory! Glory to the Gita! Glory to Lord Krishna who has given it to the men of this world for attaining liberation! May His blessings be upon you all! May the Gita be your centre, ideal and goal! Blessed is he who studies the Gita daily! Twice blessed is he who lives in the spirit of the Gita! Thrice blessed is he who has attained Atma-Jnana or knowledge of the Gita!
—Sri Swami Sivananda