Essence of Yoga

नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम्

 देवीं सरस्वतीं चैव ततो जयम् उदीरयेत्

महाभारत

Mahābhārata

As retold by

Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

Bhagavad-gītā 
Summary
part one:

What is Yoga?

The Essence of Bhagavad-Gita

Bhagavad-Gita forms a small chapter  in the Bhishma parva of the  Mahabharata,  a 100,000  verse Sanskrit epic describing  the  Kurukshetra war between the sons of Pandu and the sons of Dhritarashtra. This battle was supposed to have taken place some 5000 years ago in the holy place known as Kurukshetra  where over 6 million warriors had gathered. As he rides into battle,  Arjuna, the warrior king,  is filled with doubts and asks his friend, Krishna,  God himself, an avatar of divinity, to instruct him in his correct duty according to Dharma.

The Bhagavad-Gita comprises some 700 verses   in Sanskrit  and deals with questions about yoga, Dharma, karma, meditation, duty, the nature of the universe, the soul, God, and the universal laws of time and space.

Of the various commentaries on the  Bhagavad-Gita, the most important are those of Sridhar Swami, (the first commentator) Shankar  ( 5th century A.D.)  Madhva  (10th Century) Ramanuja, (11^th Century)   as well as those of Baladeva Vidyabhushana, (after Madhva) and Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura. Apart from these, the commentaries of Bhaktivinoda Thakura, (19^th century) and Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura (20^th Century) are most enlightening.

The most popular translation of Bhagavad-Gita ever published was that of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, MacMillan 1967 which sold over a million copies.

 There are of course hundreds of translations and commentaries of the Bhagavad-Gita, but the above mentioned translations follow the traditional schools of Bhagavad-Gita interpretation  made popular by millions of Hindus over the last 2000 years.

 Contents of the Bhagavad-Gita:

In his Gita-bhashya commentary Ramanuja relies on the Gita-samgraha of his teacher Yamunacharya, which summarizes the Gita as follows: 

“It is the doctrine expounded by the Bhagavad-gita that Narayana who is the Supreme Brahman, can only be achieved by means of bhakti which is brought about by observance of the dharma, acquisition of knowledge, and the renunciation of passion.”

 According to Yamuna’s version, the first six chapters of the Bhagavad-gita instruct us on gaining a well-founded position in understanding karma or action and jnana, or knowledge, where action should be dedicated with knowledge in yoga to achieve a harmonized relationship between soul and Supreme Soul.

The first chapter of the Gita is largely introductory material. As the opposing armies stand ready for battle, Arjuna is overcome, and expresses his inability to perform his duty as warrior.

In the second chapter of the Gita, Arjuna accepts Krishna as his guru or  teacher and asks his advice in his moment of doubt. Here the real teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita begin.  The teaching of Krishna is for the sake of Arjuna, who, overcome by misplaced love, compassion and anxiety about dharma and adharma, has taken refuge in God.

In the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna explains the nature of the soul or atma. This analysis of the soul or atma is called “sankhya” which means “breaking it down.” Krishna analyses the soul’s nature in relationship to the world of space and time. Krishna explains that a “sankhya” analysis is helpful in understanding our true position.       Throughout his analysis Krishna makes constant reference to the word “yoga.” Yoga has many meanings. To “yoke together” is a popular way to understand the word Yoga.

It’s important to understand this word, yoga. The idea of yoking two things together is a useful point of departure. The yoke was first used in agriculture on the  south Asian continent. India is credited with having invented this system for bringing two  bulls under control for the purpose of pulling a plow.  It is commonplace to consider yoga as a way of harmonizing with the divine. What has all this to do with pulling a plow?

The word yoga may be seen as  referring to any method which brings  opposing elements in harmony. Two bulls  tend to go off in different directions; The yoke creates a team of oxen essential for agriculture.

Our world is filled with dichotomies; the split between positive and negative,  the duality of  yin and the yan,  male and female,   space and time,  quantum relativistic worlds, the spiritual and material  aspects of our existence.

 Yoga strives for balance, harmony. When Krishna speaks of karma yoga, he isn’t referring  to a particular set of practices or techniques meant to bring about a result. In fact what he’s describing is the need to bring one’s action into balance, into harmony with one’s spiritual nature.

In the West, we’re accustomed  to think of yoga as a kind of technique for stretching. People practice yoga to bring their body into harmony so they can cope with the stress of material life. But the idea of “yoga” has a deeper purpose. We can think of the word yoga in terms of  “harmonizing” two disparate elements. Just as a conductor harmonizes a number of musical instruments into a synthetic unit, the orchestra, so we  balance the different conflicts of life in harmony through different forms of “yoga.”

One may think of different schools of yoga in terms of  Hegelian dialectic:  thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Whenever two  Ideas are balanced, they produce a higher synthesis in a new idea.  Karma alone is noxious; when it is balanced with yoga it becomes sacrifice. Knowledge alone is toxic and leads to doubt one’s own self. But, balanced in yoga, knowledge, or jnana as it is called in Sanskrit,  leads to enlightenment. 

Krishna’s essential message in Bhagavad-Gita  is simple: When action and knowledge are in perfect balance, they lead to the higher synthesis of dedication and divine love.

The proper balance of understanding and action, love and sacrifice is the subject of discussion in Bhagavad-gita. Krishna and Arjuna dialogue about the different practices, forms of meditation, and strategic life-views that lead to a life in balance and harmony. Krishna concludes that the highest balance is found in dedication. This dedication to the divine principle is called bhakti and is considered a superior yoga than mere action or knowledge.

 In the second chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna  begins by explaining that the soul or atma is eternal and survives the death of the body. In fact,  it moves from one body to the next, evolving consciously from one lifetime to the next.

This temporary world has no eternal reality. As such it is an illusion, and a wise man is one who can distinguish between temporaland eternal reality. As a person puts on new clothes, leaving aside the old and useless ones, so we change bodies from one lifetime to the next.

Krishna therefore advises Arjuna to do his duty and follow the path of karma-yoga, for if he avoids his duty there will be bad karma. Duty must be done without consideration of reward. If work is so dedicated to divinity, it will become purified;  there will be no fault in any such action. Karma-yoga here has the connotation of  “sacrificial work,” or work in harmony with a higher purpose.

Arjuna is a warrior and should therefore do battle. Harmonizing action and duty will bring about the transcendental perfection called samadhi, or “perfect balance.”

Krishna goes on to describe transcendental perfection for one whose mind is fixed in meditation.  Arjuna becomes confused: he asks Krishna, “which is better: Action or meditation?” Action is called karma. Meditation here is jnana.  The word jnana  can also mean knowledge.  Arjuna is concerned whether  it is better to follow the path of action or karma yoga, or to follow the path of knowledge and wisdom which includes meditation, jnana-yoga. Krishna explains further is meant by the perfection of duty or, karma-yoga.

 So begins the third chapter. Krishna  says  that  action is unavoidable No one can avoid work.  Work without sacrifice  is sinful,  that is to say it accrues the sinful reaction in karma.  Work without sacrifice is selfish.  Selfish work has a karmic reaction, but unselfish work, or work dedicated to a higher purpose frees one from  karma.  Work dedicated to God  is purified  by sacrifice.   This is the essential message of the Vedas. 

And so in the third chapter of Bhagavad-Gita Krishna explains the need for sacrifice in accordance with the Vedas. Sacrifice may also bring some benefit, but one should not be attached to the benefits of sacrifice just as one should not be seduced by the flowery language of the Vedas. Action in sacrifice is better than worldly action or materialism. One who can free himself from ego and dedicate action to a higher power will advance to a higher plane.

Materialism is condemned. Krishna explains the psychology of attachment and maintains that the senses and mind may be controlled through intelligence. Once the intelligence is convinced about the need for sacrifice, the mind and senses can be brought under control. If work must be done, it should be done in the spirit of sacrifice or for a higher purpose and not selfishly.

 At the end of the third chapter, Arjuna still can’t understand what to do. He doesn’t really grasp the essence of Krishna’s teaching. Is he advocating meditation? Or does he recommend  duty? And what is  Krishna’s authority?  How can he say that one yoga is better than another?

 The fourth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita begins when Arjuna wants to get at the source of Krishna’s advice.  This chapter begins with epistemological considerations. How is  true knowledge transmitted?

Krishna explains that transcendental knowledge should be received from a realized soul who in turn has received that transcendental light from a higher, realized soul.  Analysis will  only get us so far.  Real progress will be made when we come in contact with a bona fide teacher. Self-realization is a nonverbal experience that may be transmitted from teacher to disciple through divine sound, or mantra, but can only be truly realized through practice. ( Sadhana)

Krishna asserts His own divinity  to Arjuna.  He assures him that his advice is sound. He explains that the avatars of God  descend whenever there is a decline in religious principle called Dharma.

Since the war is an example of the decline of  dharma in the world, Krishna has appeared to set things right.  He explains that those who understand this knowledge about divinity including the principal of avatars  need not return to the cycle of repeated birth and death (Samsara).

Krishna explains that those who devote their lives to divinity need not fear for future births and deaths. When karma yoga  is performed as an act of dedication to the supreme, there is no need to fear rebirth. But, thus performed should be free of attachment and the different influences of material nature,  sattva, raja, and tamas.

Just as light reflected through a prism breaks into different colors, our experience as conditioned souls in the material world is colored by these three influences. Sattva is the influence of truthfulness, Raja, passion and creation, Tamas, survival. Our psychology is tinged by these, and depending on the concentration of sattva, rajas, or tamas, our character may be molded. Just as pure water is rare, pure sattva, pure goodness, is difficult to find. 

This is a more subtle analysis than the Manichean universe of goodness and evil, where God and the Devil are at war. The version of good and evil found in Bhagavad-gita is not a question of sin and purity, darkness and light. It has more to do with color theory than black and white. The black and white world of good and bad is, in fact, an alien concept in the Mahabharata itself. The idea that we have only one life to live and that it must be lived in sin or in purity is not the version given by Krishna to Arjuna.

The soul passes from one body to the next in an endless chain of birth and death, broken only by spiritual realization. The karmic influences that drag us and  down lift us up are not creations of the devil or any other malevolent supernatural being.  Our inability to get from from birth and death results from our own attachments to the world. These attachments are not questions of sin and purity. Our lives are not black and white cases of heaven and hell, but more subtle permutations of our own egoistic involvement in the world of exploitation.

And the world of exploitation is a product of our own ego perception, a symphony of colors and influences that captivate us birth after birth. Insanity is a question of repeating the same action again and again, expecting a different result. And so like the donkey, fooled by the carrot on a stick, we march on and on in an illusory world of our own perception in ignorance, passion, and goodness.      Here again we meet the Hegelian dialectic: the Vedic universe is not a world of black and white, but one with gradations and hues. The modes of material nature are not black demons who seduce us into wrong action as opposed to white angels who would lead us into salvation; the gunas or modes are products of our own egoistic determination to exploit, to continue our karmic voyage.

So, not black and white, but a world of colorful influences, modes, gunas. Three colors produce the myriad of hues perceived by our eyes. In the same way the interchange of influences color our world. Is an action good or bad? It’s hard to say. In every act there’s an touch of goodness, a shade of darkness, a tone of compassion. Even the mode of goodness is rarely free from impurities, just as a tiny drop of ink turns a glass of milk to black.

Arjuna’s dilemma is to decide on a course of action: good or bad, right or wrong, action or inaction. Krishna tells him that even great sages and saints are baffled in trying to understand the difference.

And so, the need for divine guidance, a teacher, a guru, one who knows the path, one who has been enlightened or at least knows someone who has seen the light.

Because attachment is born from the influences of material nature, one should try for detachment, freedom from the influences of material nature. A good way to become from from attachment is through sacrifice. 

Here,  In the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna gives a more elaborate explanation of what he means by sacrifice. And his concept of sacrifice is not merely limited to the physical plane; sacrifice may have a psychological dimension. One may sacrifice not only one’s actions ( karma), one may also achieve sacrifice through meditation and concentration on the divine (jnana- yoga)  or even through the eightfold path published on the yoga, following the system of asana, yoga-postures, yama, self-control by accepting positive practices, niyama self-control by avoiding negative practices, pranayama, breath-control, pratyahara, renunciation, dharana, surrender, dhyana, meditation, and samadhi, perfect self-balance. Above all,   it is important to seek the truth by approaching a bona fide spiritual master or guru,  a teacher who can lead one from darkness. A real guru is one who can impart the truth on the basis of his own personal realization, and in accordance with what has been given in the Scriptures by realized saints as well as the previous avatars. 

Blind following  and absurd inquiry are both condemned.  One must approach the guru who is genuine with a submissive attitude of service and make real inquiry into the purpose of life. By such knowledge one cannot only understand the essential nature of all living beings but their relationship with the absolute.

Krishna says that this transcendental knowledge  is the mature fruit of all mysticism. Now that Arjuna understands clearly the nature of work, karma, or action, the importance of knowledge in detachment, and work and sacrifice, he should come to the proper conclusion.

Armed with transcendental knowledge about proper conduct and sacrifice it is time for him to act. Arjuna should fight, both as  duty and  sacrifice.  He should fight  as an act of dedication,  free from attachment.  His attachment to family and society is mundane.  His compassion is misplaced. Free from the influences of ego and materialistic religious duty Arjuna must fight.

So ends the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita.

 And yet, Arjuna is still not satisfied.  He doesn’t understand the difference between karma, meditation, and yoga. If self-realization is so important, then why should he fight  at all?  Wouldn’t it be better for him to renounce everything and go off into the forest  as a yogi?  What has violence to do with self-realization?  Why does Krishna speak about meditation and yoga and renouncing the world if he is supposed to act and create the worst sort of karma by killing friends and relatives in a bloody war? How can this possibly be the best of duties?