Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (CHAPTER 6)

30. "From the man, who sees me as the Soul in all beings and all beings in me ( Vasudev ) , 3 I am not hidden and he is not hidden from me."

God is manifest to the man who sees Him in all beings (that all beings are imbued with his Spirit) and all beings as abiding in Him. God also knows his worshipper in the same way. This is the direct encounter between the yogi and his prompter. This is the feeling of kinship between God and man, and salvation in this case arises from the feeling of oneness that brings the worshipper intimately close to his adored God.

31. ‘The even-minded yogi (who has known the unity of the individual Soul and the Supreme Spirit ) who adores me (Vasudev), the Soul in all beings, abides in me no matter whatever he does.’’

 The yogi who realizes the unity of the individual Soul and the Supreme Spirit has risen above plurality and known the unity that binds the whole universe. With this unified vision he contemplates God and none else, for there is no one except God left for him. Whatever mantle of ignorance covered him is now dissolved. So whatever he does, he does with the thought of God.

32. ‘The worshipper, O Arjun, who perceives all things as identical and regards happiness and sorrow as identical, is thought to be the most accomplished yogi."

The man who realizes that this Self is also the Self of all other creatures, who makes no difference between himself and others, and for whom joy and grief are the same, is the one for whom there are no longer any distinctions nor discriminations. So, he is rightly regarded as a yogi who has attained to the highest excellence in his discipline.

But no sooner has Krishn concluded his discourse on the consequences of perfect mental restraint than Arjun expresses a fresh misgiving.

33. "Arjun said, ’Since the mind is so restless, I cannot see, O Madhusudan, that it can dwell steadily and long in the Way of Knowledge which you have expounded to me as equanimity.’ ’’

Arjun feels helpless. With his fickle and inconstant mind, he can foresee no prospect of a steady and constant adherence to the Path of Knowledge which Krishn has represented to him as the capacity to view all things equally.

34. "For l find restraining the mind as difficult as restraining the wind, because it is (equally) restless, turbulent, and mighty.’’

The mind is so fickle and restless (by nature it is something that chums and agitates), obstinate, and powerful. So Arjun is apprehensive that trying to restrain it is going to prove as futile as tying up the wind. Checking the mind is, therefore, as well nigh impossible as checking a storm. At this Krishn says,—

35. ‘‘The Lord said, ‘The mind is, O the mighty-armed, doubtlessly fickle and hard to restrain, but it is disciplined, O son of Kunti, by perseverance of effort and renunciation.’’’

Arjun is "mighty-armed" because he is capable of great accomplishment. The mind is indeed restless and most difficult to subdue, but as Krishn tells him, it is restrained by constant effort and giving up of all desire. Repeated endeavour to keep the mind steadily fixed on the object to which it should be dedicated is meditation (abhyas), whereas renunciation is the sacrifice of desire for or attachment to, all seen as well as heard sense-objects, which include pleasures of the world and also the promised joys of heaven. So, although it is difficult to curb the mind, it can be subdued by constant meditation and renunciation. Therefore,—

36. " It is my firm conviction that while the attainment of yog is most difficult for a man who fails to restrain his mind, it is easy for him who is his own master and active in the performance of the required action.’’

The achievement of yog is not really so difficult as Arjun has assumed. It is difficult, indeed impossible, for the man with an unrestrained mind. But it is within the reach of one who has disciplined his thoughts and feelings, and is enterprising. So, Arjun should not abandon his endeavour for yog just because of his fear that it is something impossible to achieve. Yet, he responds rather despairingly to the encouragement as we may see from his next question.

37. "Arjun said, ‘What is the end, O Krishn, of the acquiescent worshipper whose inconstant mind has strayed from selfless action and who has, therefore, been deprived of perception which is the final outcome of yog?’’’

.Not all worshippers are rewarded with success in their attempt to achieve yog, although this does not mean that they have no faith in it. The practice of yog is often disrupted by the restless mind. But what happens to men who wished to be yogis but did not succeed because of their fickle minds?

38. "Is it, O the mighty-armed, that this deluded man with no haven to turn to is destroyed like scattered clouds, deprived of both Self-realization and worldly pleasures?"

Is this man truly like scattered patches of clouds because his mind is divided and he is confused? If a small patch of cloud appears in the sky, it can neither precipitate rain nor join other clouds, and within moments the wind destroys it. Very much similar to this puny, isolated cloud appears the passive and unpersevering man who begins with an enterprise and then discontinues his efforts. Arjun wishes to be enlightened on what finally happens to such a man. Is he destroyed? If so he has missed both Self-realization and worldly enjoyment. But what is his final end?

39. "You, O Krishn, are the most capable of fully resolving this doubt of mine because I cannot think of anyone else who can do it.’’

 The ardour of Arjun’s faith is remarkable. He is convinced that only Krishn can dispel his doubts. No one else can do it. So the accomplished teacher Krishn begins to resolve his devout pupil’s misgivings.

40. "The Lord said, ‘This man, O Parth, is destroyed neither in this world nor in the next because, my brother, 4 one who performs good deeds never comes to grief.’’’

Arjun is addressed as "Parth" because, as we have already seen, he has turned his mortal body itself into a chariot to proceed to his goal. And now Krishn tells him that the man who deviates from yog, because of his mind’s fickleness, is not destroyed in this world or in the next. This is so because a doer of good deeds, of God-related deeds, is never damned. However, what is his destiny?

41. "The righteous man who deviates from the path of yog achieves celestial merits and pleasures for countless years after which he is reborn in the house of a virtuous and noble man (or fortunate and thriving man)."

What a paradox that the man who has fallen from yog enjoys in the worlds of the virtuous satisfaction of the same desires for sensual pleasure by which his restless mind was lured away from the appointed way in the mortal world! But this is God’s synoptic way of providing him a glimpse of all he wanted, after which he is reborn in the house of a noble man-a man of righteous conduct (or a man of fortune).

42. "Or he is admitted to the family (kul) of discerning yogi and such a birth is truly the most rare in the world."

If the deviating Soul is not reborn in the house of a virtuous or affluent man, he is granted a birth which provides him admission to the family of a yogi. In the households of noble men, righteous influences are imbibed right from childhood. But, if not reborn in such houses, he gains admission not to the house of a yogi but to his kul as one of his pupils. Such were men like Kabir, Tulsidas, Raidas, Valmiki and others like them who, though not born in the houses of noble and affluent men, were admitted as pupils to the families of yogi. A birth in which the merits (sanskar) inherited from a previous life are further refined by association with an accomplished teacher, a realized sage, is indeed the most rare. Being born to the yogi does not mean being born as their physical offspring. Well might children be born to a yogi before he had given up home and regard him, out of attachment, as father, but in truth a sage has no one whom he can regard as his family. One hundred times the concern he has for his own children is the concern he has for his faithful and obedient pupils. They, the pupils, are his real Children.Accomplished teachers do not admit pupils who are not endowed with the requisite sanskar. If my revered teacher, Maharaj ji, were inclined to converting people into sadhus, he could have had thousands of disenchanted men as his pupils, but he sent all the supplicants back home, paying fare to some of them, by intimating and writing letters to families in other cases, and sometimes by persuasion. He had inauspicious omens if some of the contenders were adamant on being admitted as pupils. An inner voice cautioned him that they were wanting in the qualities that make a sadhu and so he rejected them. Smarting under unbearable disappointment, a couple of the supplicants even resorted to the extreme step of taking their own life. Notwithstanding all this, Maharaj Ji would not admit pupils he did not find spiritually equipped to receive and profit by his teaching. After learning of the suicide by one whom he had rejected, he said, "I knew he was terribly alarmed, but I did not know he would kill himself. Had I known this, I would have taken him, for what greater harm could have been in that except that he would have persisted as a sinner?" The revered Maharaj Ji was a man of great compassion and yet he did not accept unworthy pupils. He admitted in all only about half a dozen pupils about whom he had been told by his inner voice: "Today you are going to meet one who has fallen from yog. He has been groping about for several births. This is his name and this is how he looks. Accept him when he comes, impart the knowledge of God to him, and support him in his journey along the path." So he accepted only these chosen few. That his intuitions were correct may be seen from the fact that from among his chosen disciples we have now a sage living at Dharkundi, another one at Ansuiya, and two or three others who are engaged in the service of mankind elsewhere. They are all men who were admitted as pupils to the family of an accomplished teacher. To be blessed with a birth which provides such opportunity is indeed a most rare event.

43. "He naturally bears with him into his new birth the noble impressions (sanskar) of yog from his previous existence, and by dint of this he strives well for perfection (that comes from the realization of God).’’

The merits he had earned in his previous body are spontaneously restored to him in his new birth, by virtue of which he sets out to achieve the ultimate excellence, that is God.