The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-6. Part-8.

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6: Universal Action-8.


On what are you going to concentrate? People are very enthusiastic about meditation; they want to meditate, but on what? That is not clear because there are umpteen things in the world on which you can concentrate and absorb yourself. Here, in the language of yoga at least, meditation means meditation on the ultimate reality of things; not on the forms which are passing, not on the shapes of things which come and go, not on the illusory presentation of the phenomena of the world, but on that which lies as the background of phenomena. The noumenom is the object of meditation, not the phenomenon. What is this noumenom? In the language of the Bhagavadgita, the noumenom is referred to as the Atman of things. The selfhood or the being that is at the root of all things is called the Atman. The contemplation or the meditation prescribed in the sixth chapter of the Gita is on the Atman of things, as was mentioned in the earlier verse in the fifth chapter that we spoke about.


Self-knowledge leads to all knowledge. Meditation on the Self does not mean meditation on one’s own self; such a thing is not, because it has been mentioned already that one who has become the Self of one’s own self has also become the Self of all—sarvabhutatmabhutatma. So, to meditate on one’s Self is to meditate on all selves—the totality of selves. But one has to understand what this ‘Self’ is before one can embark on this great adventure of meditation.


Yada hi nendriyarthesu na karmasv anusajjate, sarva-sankalpa-sannyasi yogrudhas tadochyate. In one sense, without going into much detail, the Bhagavadgita tells us in this verse in the sixth chapter that one can be regarded as established in yoga, yogarudha, when certain conditions are fulfilled. A very few but very important of these are mentioned. When one is not attached to or is not clinging to any object of sense or even to the action that one performs, and abandons all initiative whatsoever, either internally or externally—that person can be regarded as having established himself in yoga. So you can imagine what yoga is from this verse, which can be considered as a psychological definition of yoga. The more advanced metaphysical and spiritual definitions will come afterwards. Here we have a purely psychological definition: not to be clinging to objects, not to cling even to karma or the action that one performs, and to also abandon the volition that is behind the mental activity of clinging, whether to objects or to actions.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...



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