CHAPTER SIX

krishna

 

“Who doeth the works he hath to do but dependeth not on the fruit of his works, he is the Sannyasin, and he is the Yogin, and not he who lighteth not the daily fire and doeth not the daily ritual. Know, O son of Pandou, that what they have called renunciation is even Yoga, since no man becometh a Yogin if he hath not renounced the imaginations of the Will. Of the sage who has yet to ascend the hill of Yoga, works are the medium, but calm is the medium of him who sitteth already on the hill-tops. For when a man has renounced all the imaginings of the Will and his heart clings not to his works and clings not to the objects of the senses, that is the true Sannyasin, that is the sitter on the hill-top of Yoga. Let a man deliver his soul by its own strength and let him not afflict his spirit to weaken it; for a man’s Self is its own and only friend and its own and only enemy. To that man his Self is a friend who has conquered the Self by the Self, but when he is not in possession of his Self it worketh enmity against him like an outward foe. Now when he has mastered Self and is at peace, then the Self of him is utterly at its ease, un­affected by heat and cold, pleasure and pain, imperturbable in honour and disgrace. The Yogin whose soul is satisfied with Wisdom and discernment, the immovable sitter on his hill-top and victor over his senses, he alone is called the Yogin who hath the Yoga; and gold and gravel or stone, to him all are one substance. He who hath one heart for lover, and friend, and foe-man and those who care not for him, who maketh no difference between the saint and the sinner, he is the truly great among men. Let the Yogin gird his Self continually to Yoga, solitary, governed in heart and spirit, without desires and without the sense of belongings. In a pure and holy region let him set up his steady seat, neither very high nor very low, with grass of; Cusha and a deerskin thereon, and on that a robe. Then with his mind directed to one point, with a rein on the workings of his heart and senses, let him sit on the seat he has made and betake himself to Yoga for the cleansing of the Self within. He shall sit steady, holding head and neck and body in one line and motionless, and he shall keep his gaze fixed on the joining point of his nostrils, so that his eyes shall not wander over the regions; so steadfast in the vow of abstinence and purity, with a glad and calm spirit from which fear hath been driven out, with a mind under re­straint, with a heart full of Me, let him sit in Yoga, giving himself utterly to Me. Even if he yoke himself so to Yoga with a governed heart, the Yogin 

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reacheth to that Peace in Me of which cessation in the Eternal is the sum­mit. Yoga is not for the overeater, neither can a man get Yoga by abstain­ing utterly from food, nor for him that is overgiven to sleep nor yet for him that waketh always. Whoso eateth and playeth with his mind in God, whose striving in his works, and his sleep and his waking is for Him, Yoga cometh to that man and slayeth his sorrows. When the mind is wholly under government, and stands well-tamed in the Self, when all desirable things cannot get the heart to hunger after them, then a man is said to be in Yoga. Even as the flame of a lamp in a windless place moveth not at all, such is the image men have handed down of a Yogin when he practiseth Yoga with his heart under rein. Where the heart is sucked in from its work­ings by the practice of Yoga, where by the strength of the Self the mind of man seeth the Self and is wholly satisfied in the Self, where his inward spirit knoweth that extreme and exceeding happiness which is beyond the reach of the senses and which the reason cannot grasp, and it cleaveth to it and moveth not from the truth of things — which when a man has won he cannot conceive of any greater gain, to which when he holds he cannot be moved therefrom even by the most sore poignant grief—know that for a man’s divorce from his long wedlock with sorrow, which is called Yoga; resolutely should a man set himself to that Yoga with a heart that will not despair. Let him relinquish all the desires that are born of the Will’s ima­ginings, not keeping one back for his comfort. He must surround with his mind and force in from their delight the cohort of the senses; so with the understanding self held well within the grasp of a strong control he must cabin in the mind to the Self and think of nothing at all. Whenever and to whatever side darts away the infirm and restless mind thou must curb it from its journey to bring it back within the Self and tame it to obedience — for a high beatitude cometh to such a Yogi, whose mind is calmed, whose active nature is tranquillised, who has no sin, who has wholly be­come Brahman. Easily shall the Yogi whoever thus setteth himself to Yoga put from him the stain of obscuration, easily feel the utter bliss and the , touch divine. The soul that is set in Yoga seeth himself in all creatures and all creatures in himself, and he hath one heart for all beings that the world containeth. When a man seeth Me everywhere and all the world in Me, am with him always and he is always with Me, and we are lost to each other never. When the Yogin becometh one with all beings and loveth Me in all creatures, though he live and move in all manner of activities, he liveth and doeth only in Me. For him I deem to be the greatest Yogin, O Urjoon,

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 who looks alike on all beings everywhere as if they his own self, whether it be for happiness or whether it be for pain.”

 

urjoona

 

“Nay, Madhusudan, for the restlessness of man’s mind I can see no sure abiding in this Yoga of one-heartedness of which thou hast spoken. For very restless is the mind, O Krishna, and turbulent and strong and hard of mouth, and to rein it in I hold as difficult as to put a bridle upon the wind.”

 

krishna

 

“Surely, O strong of arm, the mind is restless and hard to bridle, but by askesis, O son of Coonty, and by turning away the heart from its affections, it can be caught and controlled. Very difficult of attainment is Yoga to the ungoverned spirit, so I hold; but when a man governeth himself and striveth by the right means, Yoga is not impossible to attain.”

 

urjoona

 

“When a man hath faith but cannot strive aright and his mind swerveth from Yoga, and he attaineth not to success in Yoga, what is the last state of such a man, O Krishna? Does he lose this world and that other, does he perish like a breaking cloud, failing, O strong-armed, to get his immortal seat, losing his way on the path of the Eternal ? This doubt of mine must thou solve to its very heart, O Krishna, for I shall not find any other who can destroy this doubt, but only Thee.”

 

 krishna

 

Neither in this world nor in the other, Partha, is there for that man any perdition. None who doeth good can come to an evil end, O beloved. But to the world of the righteous he goeth and there dwelleth for endless seasons and then is born again, the man fallen from Yoga, in a house of pure and fortunate men. Or else he even cometh to being in the house of the wise, in a land of Yogins, for such a birth as this in this world is one of the hardest to win. There he getteth touch again with the mind he had in his former body, and with that to start him he striveth yet harder after perfection, O delight of the Kurus. For he is seized and hurried forward even by that former habit and askesis of his, though it be without his own will. Even if a man’s mind is curious after Yoga, he overpasseth the outer Brahman in 

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the Word. The Yogin earnestly striving is purified of sin; perfected by toil of many births he arriveth at his highest salvation. Greater than the man of askesis is the Yogin, and greater I hold him even than the men of Know­ledge, and than the men of works he is surely greater: a Yogin, therefore, shouldst thou be, O Urjoona. And of all that are Yogins I deem him to have most yoga who, with his inner Self taking refuge in Me, hath faith in Me, and loveth Me and worshippeth Me.

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