Verses 6.36–6.40
असंयतात्मना योगो दुष्प्राप इति मे मति: | वश्यात्मना तु यतता शक्योऽवाप्तुमुपायत:
asaṃyatātmanā yogo duṣprāpa iti me matiḥ / vaśyātmanā tu yatatā śakyo vāptum upāyataḥ / / 6.36
For one whose mind is uncontrolled, it is difficult to attain yoga in My opinion. But, it is practical to achieve control over the mind by appropriate means.
अर्जुन उवाच | अयति: श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानस: | अप्राप्य योगसंसिद्धिं कां गतिं कृष्ण गच्छति
arjuna uvāca ayatiḥ śraddhayopeto yogāc calita mānasaḥ / aprāpya yoga-saṃsiddhiṃ kāṃ gatiṃ kṛṣṇa gacchati / / 6.37
Arjuna says: O Kṛṣṇa, if a person is engaged in yoga with faith but does not attain yoga because of the wavering mind, what destination does he achieve
कच्चिन्नोभयविभ्रष्टश्छिन्नाभ्रमिव नश्यति | अप्रतिष्ठो महाबाहो विमूढो ब्रह्मण: पथि
kaccinnobhayavibhraṣṭaś chinnābhramiva naśyati / apratiṣṭho mahābāho vimūḍho brahmaṇaḥ pathi / / 6.38
O mighty-armed Kṛṣṇa, does the person who deviated from the path perish, torn like a cloud without any position?
एतन्मे संशयं कृष्ण छेत्तुमर्हस्यशेषत: | त्वदन्य: संशयस्यास्य छेत्ता न ह्युपपद्यते
etanme saṃśayaṃ kṛṣṇa chettumarhasyaśeṣataḥ / tvadanyaḥ saṃśayasyāsya chettā na hyupapadyate / / 6.39
This is my doubt, O Kṛṣṇa and I request You to dispel it completely. Certainly, there is no one to be found other than You who can remove this doubt.
श्रीभगवानुवाच | पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते | न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद्दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति
śrībhagavānuvāca pārtha naiveha nāmutra vināśastasya vidyate / na hi kalyāṇakṛtkaścid durgatiṃ tāta gacchati / / 6.40
Bhagavān says: O Pārtha, the person engaged in activities for good does not meet with destruction either in this world or the next life; he never faces degradation.
Kṛṣṇa continues to declare in this verse that it is possible to achieve Self-realization by stilling the mind if one intensely practices the appropriate techniques. Here, Kṛṣṇa explains that it is possible to achieve control over the mind. and to also stay in that state where we are in control of the mind. Actually, having an experience of Sātori or the first glimpse of bliss is not a big thing. It is easy to get a taste of enlightenment. But to stay in that same state, the same consciousness, needs preparation of the body and mind. To express that high energy through the body and to radiate Dhyāna Yogaḥ Look In, Be Complete Before Any Conclusion 483 that experience of bliss requires that our body and mind be prepared.
Preparing the body and mind for enlightenment is what yoga is all about. This is what sage Patañjali created yoga for. The problem is that only the verbal language of Patañjali remains, but the body language is absent. That is why so much confusion and mutated forms of yoga are around today. How much can words convey? Only a person in the same space, in the same consciousness as Patañjali can convey what He wanted to convey. This is what Nithya Yoga is all about. Nithya Yoga is my offering to the world. It is the science, the formula, that will give others the same experience of Enlightenment which happened in me.
It is yoga taught by an Enlightened being who can convey the body language and experience of Patañjali, because he is in the same consciousness as Patañjali. The whole purpose of Nithya Yoga is to prepare the body to experience, to stay in and radiate eternal bliss. Its purpose is to ‘Unclutch’ and enlighten. I can say it is a direct means to Enlightenment. Here, Arjuna again asks the questions we all will have in our minds. What happens if we start with faith but somewhere, we fail in controlling the mind? Be very clear, this situation will happen. When we start off, we will face failure in our attempts to control and complete with the mind.
If we don’t experience this, we should check ourselves because we may be fooling ourselves with whatever we are doing! Enlightenment is Possible for All Arjuna wants Kṛṣṇa to give an assurance that Enlightenment is possible for all kinds of people; that even if a person starts practicing intensely but fails due to the wavering mind, it is still possible to attain the Divine Consciousness, Brahman. Actually, at the very root of Arjuna’s question is the mind that is generating the fear and making him believe that it is hard to find the no-mind state. The mind does not want to lose its existence. The mind always looks for a reason to convince us that we cannot carry on our lives without it.
In our day-to-day life we face the situation that Arjuna faces here. Even with activities that we have carried out successfully many times in the past, we feel nervous when we start again. Will we succeed? What will happen if we fail? Even before we begin, we start imagining the worst. Actually, it is okay to imagine the worst. I tell people that to overcome fear and face fear, it is good to imagine the worst-case scenario. Visualize it fully, relive such an experience consciously, taking it to its logical conclusion, and the fear will disappear. However, if all we can do is to think and brood over the worst things and continue with our fear unconsciously, we will be in the same situation as Arjuna—totally confused!
The future is not ours to see. The goal as we imagine it does not exist. There is no purpose to life. The meaning of life is to live. That is all. If only Arjuna was comfortable with just practicing the techniques that Kṛṣṇa has already outlined for him, trusting Kṛṣṇa and enjoying the path shown to him, he would not be asking such questions. Arjuna still does not believe Kṛṣṇa. He has heard and intellectually understood the meaning of what has been said, that is all. He has not fully listened and internalized the Master and His words. Arjuna has yet to learn. Kṛṣṇa assures Arjuna by saying that there is no destruction either in this life or the next life for one who is on the right path, the path of yoga.
He provides the assurance that Arjuna is looking for, since he knows how frail Arjuna’s state of mind is. Kṛṣṇa is giving a wonderful assurance for all of us that even a small amount of practice of this yoga will save us from the cycle of birth and death. Any yoga practiced will give us tremendous benefit. The very intent to practice yoga itself means that we have gained knowledge about the problem of the mind. Listen, any movement of the body with a strong intention will cause that intention to get deeply inscribed into our bodies and muscles. If the intention is wanting to become one with our true identity and wanting to drop our false identity, it will get deeply inscribed or recorded in our body and will remain there and automatically the body will start moving towards that one goal.
If we move our body with the thought of bliss, the Dhyāna Yogaḥ Look In, Be Complete Before Any Conclusion 485 bliss emotion gets ingrained in our system. If it is anger that moves our body, the anger emotion gets ingrained. This is such an important and beautiful truth. Don’t miss it! Understand, the basic quality of life is reproduction and expansion. Therefore, it is possible for us to replicate happiness, joy and bliss as well. It is up to us to choose what type of emotion we want to allow in our bodies, what emotion we want to be ingrained in our system. All that we need to do is to intend to be joyful and joyful cells will keep reproducing.
This process cannot stop. We will be full of joy. We can try this when we meet people we do not like. Just smile at them. Not the plastic smile that only covers the lips, but a smile from our heart with warmth, so that the smile spreads to our eyes. See what happens. All our negativity will disappear. In addition, any negativity that we create in others also will disappear and they will respond with the same smile. Spread that love around and you will find that the negative emotions of people who approach us with anger, fear or jealousy will be consumed by the energy of love that we unleash. Rare Birth Of A Yogi