Sankhya Yoga 2.15

 Verse 2.15

यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ |

समदु:खसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते || 15||

yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete puruṣhaṁ puruṣharṣhabha

sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ so ’mṛitatvāya kalpate

yam—whom; hi—verily; na—not; vyathayanti—distressed; ete—these; puruṣham—person; puruṣha-ṛiṣhabha—the noblest amongst men, Arjuna; sama—equipoised; duḥkha—distress; sukham—happiness; dhīram—steady; saḥ—that person; amṛitatvāya—for liberation; kalpate—becomes eligible

O Arjuna, noblest amongst men, that person who is not affected by happiness nor distress, and remains steady in both, becomes eligible for liberation.

Sri Krishna talks titiksha as the primary eligibility for liberation. He says Only that person who is not shaken by the dualities becomes eligible for liberation. He puts titiksha as the single most important quality that one should possess. The one who has the mind with the ability of discrimination will not be shaken by pleasure or pain and is in a mental state of equanimity at all times. He knows clearly well about the fleeting and transient nature of duality and remains unaffected. He is referred to here as dheera. This same person is referred to as pandita in verse 2.11. Since he is not affected by the dual nature of things and has fixed his mind on his own self, he is said to be qualified to moksham or amritatvam.(Moksham means liberation and amritatvam means immortality.)

The best way to live this life is to apply our discriminatory power in all our experiences, realize the real nature of duality and raise ourselves to the state of dheera. This quality will take us to liberation.

Sankhya Yoga 2.14

 Verse 2.14

मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदु: खदा: |

आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत || 14||

mātrā-sparśhās tu kaunteya śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

āgamāpāyino ’nityās tans-titikṣhasva bhārata

mātrā-sparśhāḥ—contact of the senses with the sense objects; tu—indeed; kaunteya—Arjuna, the son of Kunti; śhīta—winter; uṣhṇa—summer; sukha—happiness; duḥkha—distress; dāḥ—give; āgama—come; apāyinaḥ—go; anityāḥ—non-permanent; tān—them; titikṣhasva—tolerate; bhārata—descendant of the Bharat

O son of Kunti, the contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are non-permanent, and come and go like the winter and summer seasons. O descendent of Bharata, one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Titiksha (Tolerance)

Sri Krishna here gives an important piece of advice to a spiritual aspirant. When the senses come into contact with the sense objects they undergo various experiences such as hot, cold, pleasure, pain etc. The unacceptance of these experiences leads to distress. These experiences will come and go and they are transient. When the senses perceive sense objects the experiences come, when they don’t, the experiences go, meaning they do not materialize. The undesirable experience given by this material world to the body which is made of the same material is unavoidable. One can enjoy the summer while the winter could give him pain. He may want the summer to last for the entire year. But the laws of nature cannot be changed. The person who loves heat during winter runs away from it during summer. The same thing creates two diametrically opposite reactions in the experiencer due to the difference in situation. In matters that cannot be willfully changed one needs to practice titiksha.

What one has to do about these experiences is to bear them without complaint. Krishna does not say one should not do anything about removing undesirable situations. If one has a headache, one needs to do something about it in order to get relief from pain, such as taking a tablet. But the pain will not go away immediately after taking the medicine. One needs to allow some time before the medicine could take effect and cure the illness. This intermediate period is when one needs to practice titiksha (tolerance). Notice that Sri Krishna also asks us to tolerate sukha (pleasure), which in our opinion needs no tolerating. But for a spiritual aspirant pleasure is as much an obstacle as the pain itself. It puts obstacles subtly in the path of a spiritual aspirant. As spiritual seekers we are trying to go beyond duality. Hence we need to practice tolerance against both pleasure and pain. Titiksha is one of the qualities mentioned in the sadhana chatushtaya sampatti (the four fold qualifications of a sadhaka, the spiritual aspirant.)

Sankhya Yoga 2.13

 Verse 2.13 Atma is changless (atma nirvikara:) anatma is ever changing (savikara:)

देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा |

तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति || 13||

dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā

tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati

dehinaḥ—of the embodied (atma); asmin—in this; yathā—as; dehe—in the body; kaumāram—childhood; yauvanam—youth; jarā—old age; tathā—similarly; deha-antara—another body; prāptiḥ—achieves; dhīraḥ—the wise; tatra—thereupon; na muhyati—are not deluded

 Just as the embodied atma continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly, at the time of death, atma passes into another body. The wise are not deluded by this.

The definition of Jeeva:

Atma that contains mind, body and senses is called Jeeva: 

Jeeva: can be understood to have made up of the following.

Jeeva: = the self + the mind + chitabhasam

Chit means consciousness. Atma is of the nature of consciousness. Aabasam means similar to.

Chitabhasam means abasa of chit. Reflection of consciousness. Hence chitabhasam is called the reflected consciousness. Due to the relationship with the self, the mind borrows the consciousness aspect and acquires the quality of knowing. During death, the mind, along with the chitabhasam leaves the body. The mind coupled with the chitabhasam is called the soul. (Again, soul is not a proper translation here. But still this word comes real close to the tamil word uyir. Also in western theology and even in some of the eastern philosophies the soul is considered immortal and upon death it is believed either to reach heaven or hell based on its actions during its lifetime in the physical body. According to advaita vedanta soul is different from atma and it is not immortal. Though at a fundamental level of discussion it is agreed that the soul reaches either heaven or hell after death, vedanta will emphatically reject the existence of heaven or hell in the course of its teaching about the true nature of the self.) Atma is all pervading. Hence it need not move anywhere. Chitabhasam is the one which gives the feeling of existence and awareness to both the mind and the body. 

The wise are not deluded

Baghvan here mentions the three transformations that the physical body undergoes. Each transformation is different from one another. The physical modifications such as growing up and acquiring strength and vitality to become a youth from childhood or weakening of limbs and losing the ability to perform one’s daytoday functions at old age do not affect the self. It is not agreeable to argue that the person who was a child is not the same as the person who is now a youth or who will eventually be an old person. If that is the case, the person will not be able to identify himself with his childhood or youth and remember things that happened to him in the past. In every single experience of one’s life, atma is the only thing that is present as eternal substance.

The self is unaffected when an old body is dropped and a new body is acquired in the same way it was unaffected during the transformations of childhood, youth and old age in the same body. Here Baghvan states that the physical body is acquired through past karmas and when the karmas are exhausted the body drops and the jeeva takes on a new body based on his fructified karmas. A man cannot remember the first three years of his life. In the same manner, jeeva in his new body will not be able to remember his past life. Which serves well for us, because if we have the ability to remember our past lives, then we would have to hold a grudge on many people who harmed us in our past lives. Acquisition of a new physical body presents the jeeva with a fresh start. If he had not made use of his human body and achieved what could be the highest achievement by the body, he could try to do the same with a new body in his next birth. The highest achievement that a jeeva in a human body can accomplish is attaining self realization.

Atma is eternal. The jnani knows that the transformation of the physical body or the cessation of it will not affect atma that is beyond time and hence he is not deluded. The value that we should learn from this verse is that the self is eternal and the physical body is perishable. If we identify the I sense with the atma, we will not be deluded.

Sankhya Yoga 2.12

 From slokas 2.12 to 2.25 the teaching of self knowledge is given. Slokas 2.14 and 2.15 describe the anatma (non self).

Before entering the next sloka, we will see some points of atma and anatma as an introduction.

Anatma ( the non self)

The non self is the known. Drishyam. 

It consists of three main bodies (Sharira)

Sharira - sthula sharira + suskshma sharira + karna sharira

Sthula sharira (the gross body) - this is the physical body. All bodies are made of five elements (pancha boothas) namely air, fire, earth, water and space.

Sukshma sharira (the subtle body) - the subtle body is made up of the following.

Jnanendriyas (5) - the powers of eyes, tongue, nose, ears and skin. ( sense of vision, of taste, of smell, of sound and of touch.)

Karmendriyas (5) - the senses that perform action. ( hands, legs, speech, anus, etc.)

Pranas (5) - prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana.

Sukshma Sharira = jnanendriyas (5) + karmendriyas (5) + pranas (5) + mana:(mind) sankalpa vikalpathmakam mana: mind is of the nature of resolution and wavering + buddhi (intellect) + chitta (faculty of memory) + ahankara (ego).

We can say the sukshma sharira is made of the above nineteen principles. But this division is only for convenience. In other areas, Shastra may divide the constituents into a different number. We must understand that all the above principles too are considered as a sharira, and hence as the non self.

Atma (The Self)

Atma is the one who knows all the three shariras. It is called drk.

Atma is of the nature of pure consciousness. It is also called chit or chaitanyam. It is of the nature of knowledge.

Sri Krishna asks Arjuna the following questions.

1) Are you suffering about the atma of Bhishma and Drona?

2) Are you suffering because of the anatma of Bhisma and Drona?

3) Are you suffering because of the uncertainty that what you are about to do is adharma?

Krishna’s teaching is aimed at answering these questions.

Verse  2.12 Atma is eternal therefore imperishable.(Hence anatma is transient and therefore destructible)

न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपा |

न चैव न भविष्याम: सर्वे वयमत: परम् || 12||

na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ

na chaiva na bhaviṣhyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param

na—never; tu—however; eva—certainly; aham—I; jātu—at any time; na—nor; āsam—exist; na—nor; tvam—you; na—nor; ime—these; jana-adhipāḥ—kings; na—never; cha—also; eva—indeed; na bhaviṣhyāmaḥ—shall not exist; sarve vayam—all of us; ataḥ—from now; param—after

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

Krishna gives three important points here. The self is eternal; there is only one self and the physical body is only an appearance (upadi).

The self is eternal (atma is nityam)

Absence of any object in this world is experienced before its birth and after its destruction. Hence nothing in this world is eternal. Any object comes into being at one point of time and ceases to be at another. The physical body is of this kind. But we superimpose the self (the real owner of the feeling of I) on this body and celebrate birthdays for this body. But in reality what is born is only a name and a form. We do not know this. We superimpose the changes like ageing that happen to the body on the self and grieve about the change. Krishna here removes the wrong notion by providing double negatives. He says there was never a time when he, Krishna, did not exist, not only he, for Arjuna may think since he is the lord he is capable of existing at all times, nor did Arjuna himself, nor all these kings. The self is never born. So for the self there was, will  never be a time that it did not exist. Because atma is nityam (the self is eternal).

There is only one self (atma is aekam)

When Krishna says that there will never be a time where himself, Arjuna or kings cease to be, he does not say this based on their physical bodies. The bodies are only an appearance on the self. The bodies of Krishna, Arjuna and other kings are limited by time, form and attributes and are transient. Atma is not limited by any of the above and is eternal. Just as pots come and go while pot space remains, physical bodies come and go while the self remains unaffected. The pot space inside every pot is the same. In fact the same space pervades the inside and outside of a pot. The space is not inside the pot but the pots are in space. Likewise the self is the same in every physical body. In fact the self is not in the body; all bodies are in the self which pervades anything and everything. Which brings to the second conclusion. There is only one self (atma aekam)

The physical body is only an adjunct or an appearance (upadi)

उप समीपे स्थित्वा स्वीयं धर्मं रूपम् अन्यत्र अादधाति इति उपाधि:

(Upa sameepe sthithva sveeyam dharmyam rupam anyathra aadadhathi ithi upadi:)

That which lends its attributes to another which is closer to it is called upadi. I would like to roughly translate this word as adjunct or appearance.

As you can see, appearance is not a proper translation for the word upadi, hence the definition is given. When a glass prism is placed near a red rose, the glass prism borrows the red color from the flower and appears a red prism. The color red is not the inherent quality of the prism, but only an attribute lent by the flower. The flower is the upadi here. The physical body lends its attributes such as being born, growing, deteriorating, dyeing etc to the self. Hence the physical body is called the upadi. If one takes oneself as good as the body, then one thinks one is born, grows, ages and dies. Like even the glass prism only appears red and is not red in color in actuality, the self only appears to have a physical body while in reality it neither has a body nor is it dependent on it. With deeper understanding of the difference between the self and Upadi, we will be able to appreciate the meaning of this verse much better.

Sankhya Yoga 2.11

 The beginning of Gita

श्रीभगवानुवाच |

अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे |

गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिता: || 11||

śhrī bhagavān uvācha

aśhochyān-anvaśhochas-tvaṁ prajñā-vādānśh cha bhāṣhase

gatāsūn-agatāsūnśh-cha nānuśhochanti paṇḍitāḥ

śhrī-bhagavān uvācha—the Supreme Lord said; aśhochyān—not worthy of grief; anvaśhochaḥ—are mourning; tvam—you; prajñā-vādān—words of wisdom; cha—and; bhāṣhase—speaking; gata āsūn—the dead; agata asūn—the living; cha—and; na—never; anuśhochanti—lament; paṇḍitāḥ—the wise

The Supreme Lord said: While you speak words of wisdom, you are mourning for that which is not worthy of grief. The wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.

Krishna starts his teaching from this sloka. Hence this sloka is called upakrama sloka. The tradition of vedantic teaching is to provide the essence of the teaching in the beginning sloka itself. In this sloka too, the essence of Bhagavad Gita is given.

Panda means atma jnana (self knowledge). Pandita means people who have self knowledge. Krishna says pandita na anu shochanti - Wise do not grieve. This indirectly means only ignorant people grieve. Hence the journey of self knowledge is given in the following manner.

Wise don’t grieve ----> only ignorant people grieve ----> Hence the reason for sorrow is ignorance of one’s self-----> removal of sorrow is achieved by the removal of ignorance of one’s self. Hence the essence of teaching is shoka nivritti (removal of sorrow) by imparting self knowledge. Here the sadhyam (goal) is removal of sorrow. Sadhanam (instrument) is self knowledge.

What is the reason for grief or sorrow?
Is death in itself a cause for grief? Or the thinking that the one who has deceased is somehow related to me brings about grief? Bondage comes from the attitude that this is me or mine in a situation. This is called memind syndrome. Hence in order to remove someone’s grief, we do not require them to change the situation. If one changes the attitude that I am related to that situation or the things which are related to that situation are mine, the very attitude itself removes the sorrow.

Let us analyze if atma (the self) is the cause of grief or the anatma (the things apart from the self). If atma is the cause of grief then one need not bother removing grief. If atma’s nature is grief, it must be unalterable, for it is its nature. It is better to leave it alone. If jumping from one branch to another is a monkey’s nature, then we should just let nature be. We can not possibly do anything about changing it. Therefore if atma is the reason for sorrow, then that fact would not be a problem for one.

Is anatma the cause of sorrow? Anatma means anything living or inanimate apart from the self. If one or few of them become the cause of suffering, it is due to my validation of those things as mine. Only things that I consider mine can give me grieve if they are lost or damaged. The thinking mine (mamakaram) stems from the thinking that I am of a certain nature. So in order to remove sorrow one needs to do atma anatma vichara (an enquiry into self and non-self). This is the theme of Bhagavad Gita.

Who Am I?

By nature, every living being in this world has a mistaken identification about the nature of their Self. Every human being is born with ignorance about one’s own nature. The ignorance about the self has no beginning but it has an end. Ignorance once removed will never return. 

The result of ignorance is superimposition (adhyasa). For example, in the dim light, we look at something and are scared as though it is a snake, while in reality it is only a rope. We superimpose the non existent snake on the existing rope due to the dim light. In the same way, due to ignorance of the self, we superimpose the I on things that are not the self and suffer because of  wrong identification. The vedantic teaching removes this wrong identification and enables the seeker to rest his identification on his true self.  The job of vedanta is not to change situations, but change one’s attitude towards the situation. 

The foundation of yoga

The first step for yoga is indirectly taught here. Krishna says Arjuna talks like a wise man while suffering and complaining like an ignorant person. Many of us too do this mistake. We say one thing, feel something else while doing an entirely different thing. Yoga is the unity of thought, word and action. It is the duty of a seeker to keep all these three in one straight line. If this unity does not happen, then one’s energy is scattered in different directions. Hence One should start practicing the yoga of keeping one’s thoughts, actions and words in unison. Only then he attains the spiritual strength to pursue self knowledge.

Krishna says nothing in this world is worthy of grief, not even the dead, nor the living. He says wise don’t grieve. For anything. Hence it leads one to conclude that whoever grieves is not wise, but ignorant. He will be curious to know the nature of this ignorance and the ways in which one can become wise. Krishna answers these questions in the subsequent slokas. In fact, the entire Bhagavad Gita speaks exclusively about the qualifications, the path to self realization and the benefits of self realization.

Sankhya Yoga 2.10

 तमुवाच हृषीकेश: प्रहसन्निव भारत |

सेनयोरुभयोर्मध्ये विषीदन्तमिदं वच: || 10||

tam-uvācha hṛiṣhīkeśhaḥ prahasanniva bhārata

senayorubhayor-madhye viṣhīdantam-idaṁ vachaḥ

tam—to him; uvācha—said; hṛiṣhīkeśhaḥ—Shree Krishna, the master of mind and senses; prahasan—smilingly; iva—as if; bhārata—Dhritarashtra, descendant of Bharat; senayoḥ—of the armies; ubhayoḥ—of both; madhye—in the midst of; viṣhīdantam—to the grief-stricken; idam—this; vachaḥ—words

O Dhritarashtra, thereafter, in the midst of both the armies, Shree Krishna smilingly spoke the following words to the grief-stricken Arjuna.

Sanjaya says Krishna started his teaching as though smiling. Krishna’s smile can be interpreted in various ways. He is delighted that at last Arjuna has attained the mental maturity to surrender and to listen to his teaching. Or he smiled realizing that the knowledge he is going to impart in Arjuna will relieve him of his mental struggle and suffering without much difficulty. Or the knowledge he is going to impart in Arjuna has the ability to bring about ultimate pleasure in him; He smiled knowing that finally Arjuna has become a suitable reservoir for this knowledge. Another interpretation could be that Krishna smiled because Arjuna has paved a way for the knowledge to be imparted to the world and this is an opportunity for the lord to present his teaching to the world. 

We must notice that Krishna starts his teaching in the battlefield itself. This shows that if a student, with the right qualifications, surrenders to a teacher, the place, time or situation don’t matter for the teaching to happen.

Sankhya Yoga 2.9

 सञ्जय उवाच |

एवमुक्त्वा हृषीकेशं गुडाकेश: परन्तप |

न योत्स्य इति गोविन्दमुक्त्वा तूष्णीं बभूव ह || 9||

sañjaya uvācha

evam-uktvā hṛiṣhīkeśhaṁ guḍākeśhaḥ parantapa

na yotsya iti govindam uktvā tūṣhṇīṁ babhūva ha

sañjayaḥ uvācha—Sanjaya said; evam—thus; uktvā—having spoken; hṛiṣhīkeśham—to Shree Krishna, the master of the mind and senses; guḍākeśhaḥ—Arjun, the conqueror of sleep; parantapaḥ—Arjun, the chastiser of the enemies; na yotsye—I shall not fight; iti—thus; govindam—Krishna, the giver of pleasure to the senses; uktvā—having addressed; tūṣhṇīm—silent; babhūva—became 

Sanjaya said: Having thus spoken, Gudakesh, that chastiser of enemies, addressed Hrishikesh: “Govind, I shall not fight,” and became silent.

Sanjaya understood what dhritarashtra must be thinking. He must have wanted his son’s side to win the war and conquer the kingdom. By addressing Arjuna as Gudakesa (the one who conquered sleep) Sanjaya reminds Dhritarashtra that Arjuna has the control over his mind and body. He was also addressed as Paranthapa (the chastiser of enemies), which means he has the ability to destroy all his enemies. 

Lord Krishna here is addressed as Hrsikesa (The lord of sense organs). He is the controller of mind and senses. Not only that, he is Govinda, the one who knows all living beings in and out. He knows what goes on in Arjuna’s mind and he will solve the crisis happening in his mind. 

Having presented his side of the argument as to why he should not take part in war and proclaimed that he seeks solution from lord Krishna for his problem, Arjuna surrenders his horses, the chariot and his life to lord Krishna and becomes silent. Since he decided he would hear from Krishna, he kept his mouth shut so Krishna could instill some sense into his mind.