Bhagavadgita [13.17] - Jyotishaamapi taj jyotih

Bhagavadgita [13.17]

Sloka –

Jyotishaamapi tajjyotistamasah paramuchyate;

Jnaanam jneyam jnaanagamyam hridi sarvasya vishthitam. [B.G. 13.17]

 

Meaning -

That, the Light of all lights, is beyond darkness; it is said to be knowledge, the Knowable

and the goal of knowledge, seated in the hearts of all.

Bhagavadgita commentary by Swami Sivananda

Jyotishamapi taj jyotih (13.17): It is the Light of all lights. Na tatra suryo bhati: thousands of suns cannot stand before it. The light of the sun is like darkness before It. Tamasah param: Beyond the darkness of the world shines that supreme radiance of the Absolute. Jnanam jneyam jnana-gamyam: It is knowledge, It is the object of knowledge, and It is also the knower. All three clubbed together is that Eternity which is Brahman, the Absolute. Hrdi sarvasya vishthitam: It is in our own heart. We should not be afraid that this tremendous description is of something that is very, very far away. It is in the heart of all.

http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bgita/bgita_38.html

It is the true light – atma jyoti. Jyotiṣām api taj jyotis tamasaḥ param ucyate, jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñānagamyaṁ hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam (Gita 13.17): That majesty which you are aspiring for is seated in your own heart, like the twinkling of a star. That star has to become a conflagration.

http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bhagavata/bhagavata_5.html

Jyotiṣām api taj jyotis (Gita 13.17): It is the light behind all lights. It was mentioned in the context of the Visvarupa Darshana: thousands of suns cannot shine before it. All the brightest lights that you can think of are like shadows cast by that light.

http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/gita1/bhagavadgita_12.html

Excerpts from:

Divine Life Society publications

Sanskrit Slokha verse from http://www.sanskritweb.net/sansdocs/gita-big.pdf

 

(Aug 11,2013) Paths to Approach God – Jnana, Yoga, Bhakti, Karma

Paths to Approach God - Jnana, Yoga, Bhakti or Karma?

  The One Supreme Absolute Alone Is - The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

The faculties of knowledge and action in the human individual correspond, practically, to the functions of reason, will, emotion, and the impulse to act. We rationally and intellectually consider the pros and cons of a particular step to be taken – this is the rationality behind our way of living. Apart from pure intellectual or rational assessment, there is also a faculty in us which goes by the name of will – volition – which decides and determines a course of action or a purpose to be fulfilled. There is also a very important contributory factor in all of our engagements in life, namely emotion or feeling, and there is also the vigor which impulses to act. Practically, the human being is exhausted by these operations: reason, will, emotion, and an impulsion to vibrate as activity in some direction or the other.

The way of life of the human being is also the way in which we live a religious life. Even our practice of yoga and our concept of God, has to be cast in the mould of these endowments.

The religious life that we live is also conditioned by these principles of our psyche, and though it is true that we should harmonize the operations of all these faculties due to certain inborn traits in us, characteristics into which we are born right from the beginning of our life, we are not capable of paying equal attention to all these. There is an automatic preponderance of one or the other of these faculties, so that people are either predominantly intellectual, and the emotions do not play such an important role in them, or they are pre-eminently feelingful, touchy, sentimental, emotional and the reason does not play an important part in their life. There are others who are terribly active, they cannot sit in one place; there is always a tendency to move and do something or the other throughout the day. There are also psychic types who are accustomed to concentrate. It is rarely we see people with all these faculties in proper proportion – an integrated individual.

These faculties in the human being are the instruments of the practice of yoga. We cannot contact reality except through the apparatus with which we are endowed. These four features mentioned determine and decide our encounter with God, the Supreme Being; and the way in which we visualize the Supreme Being through these faculties goes by the names of the various yogas: jnana, yoga, bhakti, karma and the like, which adopt the techniques of reason, will, emotion and action.

Mayeva mana adhatswa mayi buddhim niveshaya; nivashishyasi mayeva ata urdhwam na samshayah  (BG 12)–"Absorb yourself in Me." This has been understood to signify a communion of the soul with the Absolute. "May your reason be united with My Being."

Our principle faculty of knowing is reason, for all practical purposes, and when the reason is dissolved in a higher reason, the individual practically is swallowed-up in the larger dimension of this Infinitude. In simple terms, it means to jump into the Ocean of All-Being, and dissolution of one's self in the All-Consuming Reality. No mortal who considers himself or herself as a human being can have the strength to embrace the ocean or the fire of God without terror for the affirming feature or the character of individuality. That is the last sacrifice that we would be prepared to do, and nothing can be more fearsome than that. And any argument that God is all things will not be adequate here. "Let God be anything, but I will not do this sacrifice."

Bhagavan Sri Krishna, a good master, psychologist and the teacher of the Bhagavadgita, seems to know this weakness of human nature.  So the teaching goes, "If you cannot so forcefully unite your whole being with Me, try by repeated practice  - abhyasa-yoga, or repetition of concentration, to establish this contact with Me and carry on this practice throughout your life."

Yamas, niyama, asana, pranyama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana are the graduated techniques prescribed for those who cannot at one stroke attain this union with the All. But we are not in a position to concentrate our minds even in this manner; it is very difficult for us. Even for a few hours of the day this type of concentration is hard, due to the power of the sense organs – the desires, the passions, the grief, the frustrations, and the many troubles to which a man is heir. Then what can be done?

Then the teacher seems to suggest that if this application of our will in the way of direct concentration becomes difficult for us for any reason, we should engage ourselves in service in His name – that is service of God through devotion to Him, maybe in the form of worship. Sravanam, kirtanam, vishusmaranam, padasevanam, archanam, vandanam, dasyam, sraksham atamnivedanam – these are the ways of devotion. See God in all, serve God in humanity, feel His presence in everything, worship Him in all visible objects, mankind or otherwise. This is the large manifestation of the Creator in the form of this universe. Through the bhavas of bhakti or the various methods of devotion, resort to this daily practice of doing such things as is pleasing to Him.

‘All our actions be for My sake’. That means to say, one is always keeping in mind the vision of the presence of God, even when one is performing one's daily routine. All the routines or duties of a devotee or a bhakta are worships of God in one way or the other, whether it is worship in a temple or atithi satkara in the house. This is what is called karma-yoga;  action performed as yoga, is somehow inseparable from action performed in the name of God.

"The abandonment of the fruits of action at least may be your way, if everything is not possible and any other thing is not practical. Neither can you reason and argue and unite your total understanding with Me, nor can you find time to concentrate on My Being. You have not got the will, nor will you be able to feel My presence, love Me whole-heartedly. Then do your duty as per your station in a human society in a particular given circumstance or environment. But this duty that we perform should be such that it does not get tagged-down to a result that we expect to follow for our own personal benefit or advantage or personal satisfaction.

There can be higher satisfaction – not necessarily a personal pleasure arising from our performance of duty, because the correct performance of duty is possible only on the basis of a higher understanding, and wherever there is right understanding, there is a great satisfaction. We cannot say that there can be only duty minus the feeling sense in it, though this feeling of satisfaction need not be connected with personality, egoism or individual affirmation, or selfishness of any kind.

So, karma, bhakti, yoga, jnana – these seem to include every possible approach of man to God.

Excerpts from:

The One Supreme Absolute Alone Is - The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

 

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(July 16,2013) Spiritual (story) Message for the Day – God – The Great Master of the World

God – The Great Master of the World

Divine Life Society Publication: The Majesty of God-Consciousness – Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

There was a Brahmin who was a great devotee of the Bhagavadgita – this is a story which touched me deeply, and perhaps it has a great meaning. He was a great devotee of this verse: Ananyashchintayanto mam ye janah paryupasat; tesham nityabhiyuktanam yogakshemam vahamyaham. He was so confident of the help that he would receive from the Almighty that he was carefree in life, poverty stricken though he was. Practically, he was living a life of begging from the neighbourhood. Yet he was so confident that he would receive what he wants because of the promise that the Almighty gives in this great ordinance.

One day he had nothing to eat; second day he went starving; third day there was nothing to eat, children were crying, the mother in the house was weeping. "Is God dead, is He alive? What is the meaning of your sloka? Throw out this Bhagavadgita," said the old mother. The poor man was flabbergasted, he wept, "Is this proclamation false? There is no truth in this statement?" Down goes the Bhagavadgita – he struck that verse with a nail. Those days, scriptures were written on a palm-leaf, not a printed paper like this. He struck with a nail the verse written on a palm-leaf, tore it up, threw it away and went out in disgust that no God exists. "We are dying and nothing comes – and yet, there is this promise."

The old man went; very interesting story for you to hear. He went weeping in the streets. The story goes that one boy came running with a bag of rice on his back and with some rations and many other things on his head – a large hoard – and threw it on the verandah of the house, but his tongue was bleeding. The mother of the house came out and asked, "Who are you? What is it that you are bringing?" "These are the rations sent by your master; the father of the home has sent this – I will go." "Thank you very much, but why are you bleeding? What happened to your tongue?" "Oh," the boy said, "I was a little delayed in bring you these things, and your man was so angry with me that he tore my tongue." "Oh, I see. What a cruel fellow! I did not know this." He vanished – the boy vanished.

After the old man came home, the lady was down upon him. "What happened, are you mad? You tore the tongue of that boy because he came a little late?" The old man said, "Which boy? I never sent any boy." Then the lady described the whole story. The old man burst into tears, cried, and then told the lady, "From today, you are my Guru, you had darshan of Lord Krishna; I had not that fortune." Who else could have brought this costly stuff, and this indication of the torn tongue shows that it was nothing but divine dispensation that so grandly operated. God is never unkind, He is never unjust, He is never cruel, He never does harm to anybody – such is God.

Continue to read:

The Majesty of God-Consciousness – Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(April 26, 2013) Science Precedes Practice

Science Precedes Practice

From Divine Life Society Publication: “The Tree of Life” by Swami Krishnananda

Many a seeker on the spiritual path is often unintelligently enthusiastic with a misapprehension of the nature of spiritual life and the way to the attainment of the goal. Sincere seekers often imagine that yoga is a practice, and they want nothing but practice, with an added notion that it will bring about an immediate experience of a supernormal reality. There is no such thing as a sudden jumping into the practice of yoga, yet they imagine that it is doing something immediately and that it will be followed up by a sudden outburst of supernal light.

I had occasion to hear from a sincere sadhaka that what he requires is immediate practice and immediate experience. This is not to be unless the mind is cleared of all its cobwebs of entanglement with phenomenal experience. The mind will not concentrate, whatever be the effort we put forth, because the mind we are contemplating is one facet of a large structure of universal psyche. Most people fail in their attempt at concentration of the mind because they think this so-called mind of theirs has no connection with other things in the world.

The Bhagavadgita is also called a Brahma Vidya in addition to its being called a Yoga Shastra. It is a science of the Eternal, and it is a scripture on the practice of yoga. Science precedes practice. There is a scientific system of the methodology of working laid out in one's own mind and, as the science of economics tells us, there are stages of the fulfilment of the program.  To build a house we have a program of making a plan, maybe a master plan. The location, the structure, the nature of the material, the persons who will be entrusted with building, the idea of the work of construction, and the final structure will depend upon the purpose for which it is raised.

Theory and practice are not bifurcated as the North Pole and the South Pole. Idea expressed is action. As water condenses into ice, thought manifests itself as activity. In the same way as water and ice are not different—it is water itself that has become ice, and they are not two different things—likewise, it is the idea that has become practice. Science becomes technology. We cannot have merely a technological organisation without the scientific concept and knowledge preceding this practice.

The ultimate realisation of the aim is the concretisation of the theoretical foundation already laid in one's consciousness. When consciousness becomes one with its content and the content does not remain something outside as a perceptional category, that state of conscious experience is called spiritual Realisation or God-realisation.

This principle is also emphasised in the Bhagavadgita. It is a Brahma Vidya, or the science of the Absolute, and by science what we mean here is the ideological structural basis for its expression as spiritual practice, which is called yoga. Thus, yoga is an external manifestation of the internal foundation of Brahma Vidya. So it is necessary that we should know where we stand. There is not to be that mistake of underestimation or overestimation of oneself. Neither are we nothing, nor are we everything. This is a great difficulty for seekers because nothing can be harder than the assessment of oneself by oneself. We cannot exactly know where we stand in this world, what our relationship is with the atmosphere in which we are living. That is why the need for a Guru arises—a teacher, a guide, a master who has trodden the path and knows the various steps to be taken and the stages to be passed through.

Continue to read:

“Severing the Root of this Tree of Life” from the tree of life by Swami Krishnananda

“The Theory of Perception” by Swami Krishnananda

“Guru-Bhakti Yoga” by Sri Swami Sivananda

“The Purpose of Life” by Swami Sivananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org