Lessons from Bhavad Gita - 61

(from the discourses of Pujya Sri Swamiji)

Compiled by Swami Datta Pada Renu

What is the final achievement of Yoga? He who has attained perfection in Yoga has a mind which is always at peace. He has destroyed the Rajas element in him. As such he has conquered the desire for sensual enjoyments. It is on account of the impulse of Rajas that desire for lustful enjoyments are born in a man. One who has the Rajas element in him pacified has a nature free from desire, anger and greed. As such, his mind is tranquil and full of peace. The Yogi with such a taintless mind ever applying himself to Yoga easily wins the highest happiness in the form of contact with Brahman. Therefore the Lord says, "The Yogi, freed from sins constantly engaging the mind thus, easily achieves the infinite Bliss of the contact with Brahman". (28-IV)

The Yogi by constantly engaging his mind in the contemplation of the Self eliminates all sinful thoughts and tendencies from his mind. Constant remembrance of God destroys all his sins. His mind becomes pure and tranquil such a mind becomes united with the Supreme Self, that is, Brahman and enjoys the infinite bliss of contact with it.

One who has his mind absorbed in Yoga beholds the Self in all beings and all beings in the self through Yoga has the vision of sameness everywhere, i.e., in all the divergent objects of the world. He sees his own self existing in everything and everything unified in his own self. As such he looks upon everything with an even eye. Or, in other words, all unequal beings, right from the Creator Brahma to a blade of grass, are to his vision the same or undifferentiated on account of his realisation of the truth that his own self is dwelling within all beings and all beings are dwelling within his own self.

He who sees the Lord, the Supreme Self in all beings and all beings in the Lord, who is the self of all, is not lost to the Lord because he always lives in the Lord. All beings in the world live in the Lord and the Lord lives in all. The world and the Supreme Being are one and the same. That is the truth. Therefore he, who sees the Lord all alike in all living beings, that means, who sees the Lord’s supreme self-essence everywhere. Is not different from the Lord. Such a person and the Lord are one. They are not lost to each other.

The idea is, when a Yogi realises the presence of the Supreme Self everywhere and in everything, he can be never separated from It because of the identity between him and the Supreme Self.

Restating the sense of the preceding verse that the seer of the unity of the Self of all is not different from the Lord. The result of that realisation is spoken of in this verse. The Yogi who has realised the oneness of all beings by perceiving the Lord as the inner reality always lives in the Lord. Such a Yogi even while carrying out dealings of all sorts abides ever just in the Lord Himself. He may be a merchant, a government official, a soldier, a musician or a physician or he may have any other profession or work, but he always dwells in the Lord and has no idea that he is a separate individual different from the Lord. One who has attained to that Supreme state is not affected by any external mode of living. This is the idea.

When the Yogi comes to realise that the self is the reality in all beings how would he behave and conduct himself in the world? The answer is that he would love all creatures and try to help them because he sees his own self in them. He views all beings as himself. Keeping this vision in his view, he performs all actions fallen to his lot in this world.

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