Baghawad Gita, Class 169: Chapter 13, Verse 8
Shloka # 8:
Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, for-bearance, sincerity, service of the teacher, cleanliness, steadiness, control of body and organs;
Continuing his teaching
Swamiji said, having
talked about the topics of Kshetram and kshetragna up to
shloka No.7, now from shloka no.8 onwards, up to shloka no.12, Sri Krishna
deals with the topic of Gyanam which in this context means, those virtues which
will make the mind fit for receiving the self-knowledge. And he gives a list of
20 virtues here; which has to be carefully cultivated by every person. In fact, gaining self-knowledge really does
not take time; it is relatively easier; but cultivating these virtues alone
involves time and effort.
And therefore, this is as important or more important than even Vedantic study. And therefore Sri Krishna will deal with this topic again and again. The 16th and 17th chapters are exclusively dedicated to deal with this topic. So we will deal with this again later. And now we have seen some of the virtues mentioned in the 8th shloka; that is amanitvam, adambhitvam and ahimsa.
Amanitvam is freedom from self-glorification, or humility or vinayaha; adambhitvam is simplicity and ahimsa is non-violence at the physical, verbal and even mental levels. Up to this we saw in the last class.
The fourth value is Kshanti.
Kshanti has
two aspects.
- Titiksha is
acceptance of all choice-less situations, without any resistance. While we have
freewill, unfortunately, reality is that, we have no control on many aspects of
our life.
And all such
uncontrollable, helpless situations, I call choice-less situations and in the
second chapter, Sri Krishna uses the word, apariharya artha; artha means a
situation, apariharya
means over which I do not have a control at all. And since I do not have any control over the situation, I have to only
change my attitude in such a way that I welcome, I accept the situation and
this acceptance of the situation is called titiksha.
When we look at life, the
past I cannot change; as such it is choiceless. Thus, I should accept my past;
such as my parents, my age etc; as it is. I have to accept my gray hair, my age
etc. They are all choice-less.
Present is also choice-less
as it has already arrived. So, prepare mind to accept it. This acceptance is
known as Titiksha. The more you put resistance to accepting it, the more you
get heated up. Now there are two types of acceptance: 1) Healthy acceptance and
2) unhealthy acceptance.
Unhealthy acceptance: the feeling, what cannot be
cured has to be endured. It is acceptance with bitterness; self pity, anger
towards the world and god. This unhealthy acceptance is not Titiksha. A mind with this thinking is not available
for positive action. He constantly complains. He distributes his grief to others
as well. Mind is not constructive. I
become a complaining person.
2. Healthy acceptance: I don’t allow choice-less situation to overcome and
immobilize me. I ignore the situation and work constructively. It is difficult
but possible to ignore an unfavorable situation and continue with life. When
you read life stories of handicapped people it provides inspiration. Stephen
Hawkins is an example.
This is the first aspect of
Titiksha.
Even though past and
present can’t be changed, I can change the future. Astrology can tell us our
past but it too can’t predict future as Prayaschitha can affect future. Future
is choice-full. I can use freewill and resources to improve future.
I can work for improving and transforming the future. But here also we should remember any transformation requires time. Any transformation, any growth, any Change, requires its own time.
So, I need patience. If I
have disease, I don’t have to suffer, as medical science advances every day.
When you want to change people, one can change them but it takes time. So, I
need to wait.
And
this capacity to wait with regard to the future is the second part of the titiksha called Kshama. This capacity to wait for future is called Kshama. Even in front of a traffic
signal, one needs Kshama. You can see lack of kshama in front of the traffic
signal, especially during rush hour, as people don’t have patience. Everything
takes its own time. Even a child takes ten months to grow.
Bhartrhari says, Oh Mind, why are you always in a hurry, you want tomorrow to come today itself. You want next year to come this year itself. Ask your mind to wait and be patient. The future has to unfold in its own time; and you cannot hasten the process. Let the future unfold; you face it when it comes; we will cross the bridge when it comes; not brooding over the past too much; not getting concerned over the future too much.
There is no brooding over
the past, nor be concerned about the future; develop patience in the present.
If I don’t have Titiksha (acceptance) and Kshama (capacity to wait) there will
be stresses and strains in personality.
Anayasa: means
freedom from stress. Sandhyavandanam, performed several times a day is to help
ease the day-to-day stress in life. Thus physical and mental stress makes you
irritable. You are at a flashpoint, in tamil: Mukulai Shundi (anger at nose
tip).
Dayananda saraswati says, this irritable
condition is the accumulated stress and often the children are the victims; and
previously when father is stressed out, mother was there as a cushion; now both
of them are working; therefore generally the temperature at home is above 100.
And children becomes victims and they also get the internal stress; when they
grow up, they take it out on their wives and spouses, and thus we have a
nuclear family, ready to explode. Therefore Kshanti is an extremely important
value to avoid stress; Stress is inflicting
injury
on myself. And when the stressful person explodes it is inflicting injury on
the other people too. Therefore a stressed person is always practicing himsa, upon
himself and others. Therefore, if ahimsa has to be followed, Kshanti is required. Kshanti is the only method to develop ahimsa. And
therefore it is very important value in the shastra and it is called anayasaha;
meaning a stress free relaxed mind.
So to practice Ahimsa, Kshanti (patience) is
essential.
Aarjavam: meansalignment of threefold personality;
Kayika, Vachika and Manasika. If thought, word and deed are integrated one has
a healthy personality. If there is no alignment; where, I think one thing, say
something different and act even more differently; this causes a split
personality. This causes stresses and strains in a person. It causes disintegration
and destruction.
Like
any machine with several different parts; all of them should be in alignment.
Adjustment is required, when you install huge machinery; the mechanics have to
come and align. Even in a tape recorder, the head has to be aligned; there also
it is said ‘head’ has to be aligned and cleaned at regular intervals; otherwise
recording does not take place. Similarly your head, not only tape recorder. And
your ears, they all must be aligned; otherwise after one hour, if someone asks,
how was the class, you will say it was wonderful; what did swamiji say; that is
what I do not know. What was wonderful, I do not know?
When my organs are not integrated, then I am destroyed. Destroyed not in the physical sense, but destroyed in the spiritual sense; I cannot accomplish anything higher. And therefore integrity, or uprightness or alignment or harmonization of the personality is important. If you go to a music concert, there are many instrument players like Mridangist; gadam, violinist, ganjira, and musician. You will find that they are spending a lot of time adjusting the sruthi. Aligning of the throat and the tampura is required. If it is a north Indian music concert, they are very particular about shruti. According to them, carnatic musicians do not have shruti at all.
The
North Indians take more time to adjust the shruti than even the concert time.
So if a music concert requires alignment,
life is the greatest music, which should give happiness
to me, and which should give happiness to others. There should be no apasruti, that means my thought, word, and deed should be
harmonized. That is why we have one
of the most wonderful upanishadic prayers that say;
let me not have a split personality.
Let me not have a split personality. Let me not have a multiple personality syndrome. And Dayanada Swamji beautifully says that Ravana shown with his 10 heads, indicate his multiple personality and the best method to develop arjavam is starting with punctuality. I feel the first exercise in arjavam is punctuality. And it is one thing; we do not have at all in India, because nobody values punctuality. So, first exercise in arjavam is punctuality.
If for some reason I am not
able to make it on time, I need to inform other person. This is Aarjavam.
So being punctual and or
meeting commitments is Aarjavam. Satyam is a subdivision of Aarjavam.
Acharya Upasanam: is a very important virtue for Vedantic students. It means worship of
teacher. Here worship of teacher does not go to a person. Guru represents
Shastra Gyanam within him. He is a temple of scriptures. A question comes up as
to why I should worship Shastras or Vedas?
Why
should I worship the Veda?
This is a very important thing for us to know. The knowledge that we want to
acquire through the Shastra
is a knowledge, which can be acquired through Shastra alone. It is not a knowledge,
which can be acquired through any other source of knowledge. The Shastra is like a
sixth sense organ. Every sense organ like eye, ears, etc. is capable of giving
a unique knowledge, which the other sense organs cannot give. Eyes can give the
knowledge of color; the other four sense organs cannot give that. Similarly,
ears can give the knowledge of sound; other sense organs cannot give that. And
Veda is like the
sixth sense organ and it gives me a knowledge, which cannot be gained through
any other means of knowledge. And since it is a unique knowledge, which cannot
be gained through other sense organs, the other sense organs cannot confirm or contradict
that knowledge. Other sense organs can never verify the Vedic knowledge. So we have
to accept what vedas reveal, as
a new knowledge and this accepting capacity is called Shraddha. Shradha means learning
to accept the knowledge given by the veda as a unique knowledge which is not available for any
other sense organs to verify. And this Shraddha is an extremely difficult thing to
develop and one of the methods to develop shraddha is through worship or Upasana. Imagine
there is a person with only four sense organs. From birth he has got only four sense
organs. He does not have eyes; he is blind from birth. And he has got total
faith in these four sense organs. And, at the age of 50, I give him the gift of
a fifth sense organ called eye, and I tell him eyes are another means of
knowledge; and the eyes give a unique
knowledge which you have to accept as a fact. And suppose this person argues that he will not accept. whatever the eyes reveal; He
says I want to verify through the other four
sense organs. because I have faith only in the 4 sense organs; the 5th sense organ, I do not want to accept; therefore I want to
verify the color, which the eyes reveal with the ears. The ears can never
confirm the color; ears cannot contradict the color either. Therefore, I should
never attempt to verify the knowledge given by one sense organ with the help of
another sense organ. Then what is my attitude? Every sense organ reveals a
fact, which cannot be proved or disproved by the other sense organs and in our
tradition we say that veda
is like the sixth sense organ And that is why in our tradition right from
birth, they tried to cultivate Shraddha in the veda; learn to
look at the veda as the sixth
sense organ, so that the knowledge received from the veda, I accept as
a fact. And suppose a person says; like this blind man; I too will not accept
the eyes, if it cannot be verified by the other four sense organs; and he
refuses to accept the eyes. In this case who is going to be the loser? If I
refuse to accept the eyes, only I will not get the new knowledge of color. Similarly,
if I refuse to accept the veda
as another instrument of knowledge, I will never get unique knowledge given by
the Veda and I will
continue to strive to prove the vedic wisdom by other means, which I will never
be able to prove; that is why science can neither prove God nor disprove it. Because God can be understood only through
the sixth sense organ, called the Veda. And therefore the shraddha towards the veda should be exactly like my shraddha towards my sense
organs.
And
how to develop that shraddha;
it has to come from birth itself and that is why they kept acharya upasana, as part
of our culture. Veda
is another form of eye called Veda
Chakshu; and
therefore acharyopasanam is the
capacity; the attitude towards Veda, as a pramanam. This is extremely important.
Shaucham: Cleanliness
and or purity of surroundings. Keep surroundings clean. Keep dress clean and
simple; keep body clean; keep speech clean, Vaktapas. Then there is
cleanliness at the thought level. And that means ultimately all those virtues, which
will keep my mind healthy. And what are those virtues, which keep the mind healthy.
Amanitvam, Adambhitvam,
Ahimsa, Kshanti, Acharyopasanam, etc.
they are called mental hygeine, which will lead to mental health.
These virtues lead to
mental hygiene, which leads to clean thoughts.
And,
the opposite of each one of them are: Amanitvam’s opposite is manitvam. Adambhitvam’s opposite is dambhitvam. Ahimsa’s opposite is
himsa. Anarjavam’s
opposite is arjavam. The
opposite of each one of these virtues is mental un-hygiene if that quality is
there; which will cause mental sickness and therefore enjoyment of a healthy
mind by cultivating all the virtues prescribed here is called Shaucham.
Sthairyam: And the next virtue
means sthiratha. It includes, Will
power; Perseverance, Commitment, all is called Sthiram. When we start any
pursuit, certainly there will be obstacles and setbacks. Some of them are
actual obstacles and some are imaginary obstacles. And because of the actual or
imaginary obstacle, if I withdraw from my pursuit, it is asthirathvam.
Sthirathvam means any type of obstacle may come, but I will continue.
Brthrahri,
in his niti shastra, says there are three types of people.
Lowest
level person is one, who does not start anything, as he is afraid of failure.
The second level person is one who starts but at first sign of obstacle stops.
The third level person, Uttama person, is one who continues despite obstacles;
or as saying goes, when going gets tough, tough get going.
Stories
such as Bhagirtaha prayatnam; Samundra manthanam; are all examples of tenacity.
It is an important virtue for spiritual seekers.
AtmaVinigraha: The next one
is atmavinigraha.
Atma vinigraha
means
self-mastery. Being the master of my own equipment or instruments. We have seen
in Tatva bodha, we have got seventeen organs. pancha jnanedrianis, karmendriyanis five are
there; pranas, five are
there; mind, the emotional faculty and buddhi, the intellectual faculty;
seventeen instruments, we have got inbuilt in us and through these instruments
alone, I have to accomplish any goal in life. And before using any instrument,
I have to make sure that instrument is healthy and the instrument is under my
control. In Kathopanishad,
we saw the example of the chariot, the horses, the reins, the driver, etc. The
horses are like the sense organs; and so are the reins and they are controlled by
the mind and intellect is comparable to the driver. We required an informed
driver and we require the controlled steering or reins and the horses must be
tamed and obedient, then alone I can reach the destination. In the same way, we
have the body, senses, the mind and the intellect. Unless I can manage myself,
there is no question of managing a company.
Ashtanga
Yoga is to help us with Atmavinigraha.
Asanas
help us control the body; Pranayama helps control pranamaya kosha; Pratyahara
controls the mind; Then they got dharana, dhyana
and samadhi, that
provide mastery over the mind, developing attention span, developing focusing
capacity. For developing these faculties the three exercises are: dharana, dhyana and samadhi, or absorption.
Swami Chinmayanda used to tell that the student must be so absorbed in the
class that even if the ceiling comes down, student should not know what is
happening. Otherwise, if someone comes late, we will be watching his movements,
what dress, color, etc. That the I should die to the world, that is samadhi, the absorption
capacity.
Take away:
Titiksha:
And since I do not have any control over the situation, I have to only change
my attitude in such a way that I welcome, I accept the situation and this
acceptance of the situation is called titiksha.
Kshama: So to practice Ahimsa, Kshanti (patience) is
essential.
Shradha means learning
to accept the knowledge given by the veda as a unique knowledge which is not available for any
other sense organs to verify.
With Best Wishes,
Ram Ramaswamy