The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita- 7.3 -Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday, January 31, 2023. 06:00.

Chapter 7: The Art of Meditation.-3.

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So, there is a social self. Social self means the particular person or object with which the consciousness of a person has become identified for a peculiar reason, which varies from person to person. When consciousness identifies itself with any object, that object becomes the self, because consciousness is the self. What we call ‘self' is nothing but self-consciousness. But if we are able to transfer our consciousness so intensely and vehemently in respect of a person or an object outside, that person or object becomes the self, and then becomes a centre of attraction and love. That is the so-called artificial self that is created by the identification of consciousness externally with the secondary self, or the gaunatman. There is the bodily self, called the vichataman. We identify ourselves with this body, we identify ourselves with the mind, and we identify ourselves with emotions and with various internal mechanisms. These are all our ‘selves'.

And so, yoga being the attention on the Self, it means that all these so-called selves have to be put together in harmony, one with the other. That is why great teachers of yoga, such as Patanjali, have instituted the methods of regulating our consciousness through all these layers of the self, beginning with the social self. The yama and niyama of Patanjali's yoga system are only the methods of organising the social self for the purpose of withdrawing it into the personal self, from which it has emanated as a ray, as it were. From the personal self we go higher up, gradually into the universal Self by the technique of asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, etc. The entire system of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is compressed into a few slokas in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Yogi yunjita satatam atmanam rahasi sthitah, ekaki yata-cittatma nirasir aparigrahah. In a secluded place one must seat oneself and concentrate one's whole being. Yoga is the concentration of the totality of our being on the great objective of our lives.

What is this objective? It is the higher self. The higher self also has degrees; we cannot suddenly jump to the highest Self. It is impossible to have even a conception of what the highest Self is. So we have various techniques of meditation wherein we are asked to regard a conceptual self as higher than our present self. The devatas, the deities, the bhagavans of bhakti yoga, the various angels and the digdevatas, the guardians of cosmos, the various gods that we worship in the religions of the world, are all the higher selves, tentatively accepted as necessary objects of meditation, because we have to move from the present state of our self to the immediately succeeding higher self. We cannot have the consciousness of what is beyond that.

For this purpose one has to regulate oneself with a sort of self-discipline, and yoga is self-discipline. Therefore it is necessary to put an end to all distractions, and a distraction is nothing but an agitation of the senses with respect to the objects outside, together with the similar and sympathetic attitude of the mind and the intellect. The mind, intellect and senses have all to be brought under control at one stroke. For this, a little hint has been given also in the third chapter where, in connection with the control of the emotions of the mind, the suggestion given was that: Indriyani parany ahur indriyebhyah param manah, manasas tu para buddhir yo buddheh paratas tu sah—something comparable to a similar verse occurring in the Katha Upanishad. “Above the senses is the mind, above the mind is the intellect, and above intellect is the higher Self.” So, one can control the senses by the mind, and control the mind by the intellect, and control the intellect by the Self. While there is some sort of a similarity of structure and function among the intellect, the mind and the senses, the Self stands apart from all these. The similarity of the intellect, mind and senses in their structure and function is this: they somehow or other acquiesce in their relationship with objects outside. But the Self has no object outside. That is the important distinction that we have to draw between the Self and the intellect, the mind and the senses. So, the intellect, the mind, and the senses can be subdued only by resort to the consciousness of the Self. What is the Self? The Self on which we have to meditate is that which includes the object towards which the senses are moving, and the direction in which the mind also is contemplating.

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To be continued

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