Yoga By S. Sankaran

Yoga

By S. Sankaran

Preface:

The purpose of the article is to bring out the tenets of yoga as explained by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

There are eighteen chapters in the Bhagavad Gita and at the end of every chapter, the title of the chapter is narrated as under: ‘Thus, in the Upanishad of the Bhagavad Gita containing the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the chapter titled ‘yoga of …..(name of the subject being mentioned)’.

By this, one can very much understand that yoga is the main link of the entire message of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is praised as the Lord of Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita.

The words – yoga, yogam and yogins – are mentioned on the whole in the Bhagavad Gita in 76 stanzas of which the maximum number of 29 stanzas is confined to Chapter 6 – Yoga of Meditation. This goes to show that yoga and meditation or to be precise – yoga and mind have a direct bearing between them. Hence, it is to be understood that yoga is mainly to control mind.

Reader, Scholar, Devotee and Critic have assembled to discuss about ‘Yoga’.

Reader: The Bhagavad Gita says about yoga thus:

Yoga means yoga of action with devotion.

Yoga of action with devotion means selfless action.

Selfless action means action without attachment to the fruits of action.

Selfless action is possible only with the evenness of mind.

Evenness of mind means evenness in success and failure, vice and virtue and it is possible only by control of sense organs by the control of mind.

Control of mind is possible by practice of meditation.

Scholar: To concise what Reader has said, is this:

Yoga means Purity, Perfection and Peace of mind and soul pertaining to knowledge, action and devotion.

Devotee: Yoga is immortal, ancient and supreme secret. Yoga was first imparted by Lord Krishna to Sun God and Yoga is to be known from the teacher as a disciple. Yoga is to be imparted only to a friend and devotee.

Critic: Practice of Yoga relieves from the bondage of action. One may like to know: What are the methods of Practice of yoga to get the bondless action?

The Bhagavad Gita gives the answer for the question as follows: Pure mind, self-disciplined, senses controlled, realization of one’s self as themselves in all beings (treating all alike). These are the qualities of the yoga to make the Karma Yogi to be not bound by the Karma.

Scholar: The body, the mind, the intellect, the ego and the senses perform karma. When the karma is performed abandoning attachment and is performed for self-purification, the performer attains the status of yoga, thus the purity, perfection and peace percolates into the body, the mind, the intellect, the ego and the senses. In that state, the yogi’s happiness is within. His delight is within. His illumination is within. Thus, he becomes Brahman and attains the Beatitude of Brahman.

Critic: What is Brahman?

Devotee: Brahman is Purushothaman. Brahman is Sat-Chid-Ananda or existence-knowledge-bliss.

Scholar: Karma is said to be the means of the muni (sage) who seeks to attain to yoga. Once he attained yoga, serenity or calmness of mind is its means. With this state of mind, one will treat alike a lump of earth, a stone, a piece of gold and he is said to attain the steadfastness in spiritual communication. Hence he is fit to attain Brahman.

Critic: In disturbed water, the image will not be visible. Similarly, God will not be seen, when the mind is disturbed by the desires and lust.

Reader: Yoga is the destroyer of pain – whether it is body or mind. Yogi is also sinless.

Scholar: Yogi is regarded as the best, when he treats pleasure and pain as the same on account of the perception of the same Atman in all. Yoga is to treat all with impartiality.

Critic: Controlling the mind is not that easy. Lord Krishna himself has confirmed this. Even if it is difficult, one should not abandon to pursue the path to control the mind. Even one has failed, his attempts will be rewarded with the re-birth in this world in a pure and prosperous family or even he may be born in a family of wise yogis. There, he regains the knowledge acquired in his former birth and strives more than before for perfection and is forced to the fold of yoga. Hence even some practice of yoga has its own permanent value here and hereafter.

Devotee: Rusted iron will not be attracted by magnet. Similarly if the mind is deluded with the likes and dislikes like rust, there will arise no devotion to God.

Scholar: The nature of the mind can be understood clearly with the following factor. The milk in the vessel will boil till the fire below is burning. Once the fire is put out, the boiling stops. Similarly, the mind of the yogi will be boiling with equanimity till the fire of yoga practices persists.

Reader: Lord Krishna declares: “One who worship Me with faith and who merge the innermost self in Me, I consider him as the best of all Yogis.”

Critic: To attain the status of Best Yogi, is not that easy due to Yoga Maya. All beings are subject to illusion even from their births due to likes and dislikes born out of desires. Further Lord Krishna is veiled in Yoga-Maya (Divine Power) and hence Lord Krishna is not revealed to all. Thus, this deluded world does not know Lord Krishna – the unborn and unchanging.

Devotee: This Yoga Maya can be explained thus: Cloud is created due to sunrays. After its creation, it hides the sun light for a while. Similarly Yoga Maya hides the greatness of Supreme God for a while. The beings should not be deluded by such Yoga Maya, which never affect Supreme Being.

Critic: Rope may be mistaken for snake due to darkness. The image of snake is imposed on the rope due to darkness of Yoga Maya. When the light comes, the darkness goes along with the Yoga Maya. Enlightenment is the answer to Yoga Maya.

Scholar: Straight stick seems to be bending, when it is immersed in the water. It is illusion or Maya and when the stick is taken out of the water, it regains its original shape. Such Maya can be overcome by practice of meditation. Sun rays, when passing through the lenses, burn the item on which they are focused. In the same way, when the mind is focused by the meditation, the power or energy is tremendous. The veil of Yoga Maya can thus be won.

Critic: Lord Krishna explains His Divine Yoga thus: ‘The beings do not dwell in Me. Myself also does not dwell in the beings, even while bringing forth and supporting the beings.’

Devotee: Why should we bother much about these obscure and abstract passages, when there is an easy method of Yoga – i.e. Yoga of Devotion? Lord Krishna has clearly stated the path of Devotion thus: 1. One should worship Me and meditate on Me as the Supreme Goal, with single-minded Yoga. 2. If you are not able to fix your mind steadily on Me, then you do practice the selfless action – i.e. selfless service to society at large. 3. Even if the selfless service is not possible, one can take refuge in Me with abandoning the fruits of all actions with the self subdued (ego less state).

Reader: Devotion to Lord Krishna is the simplest form of Yoga, which can be practised by all.

Scholar: The following narrations will enlighten the status of three stages of persons.

There are three dolls made up of salt, cloth and stone each. When the three dolls are immersed in water, the salt doll loses its form and melts with water. The cloth doll swallows water and the third stone doll is not affected by water. The first salt doll realises the supreme and reaches Him. The second is affected by the water and is like a devotee to the Supreme. The stone doll is completely ignorant of the Supreme due to worldly desires.

Devotee: Yoga is also to know the glory and power of God. Best Yoga of worship is worship of manifested God. To know Lord Krishna, practise Yoga.

Scholar: In the darkness, light focused on others reveals them, but not the holder of the light, unless the light is turned towards the holder. Similarly, God sees all and unless He focuses Himself to those devotees, He cannot be seen.