After Shri Krishna briefly covers Karma-yoga (Ref V2.39 to V2.53), Arjun responds with a strange question about the realized saint, the one in samadhi, the one with steady wisdom, referred as Sthitaprajña (स्थितप्रज्ञ). He wants to know more about such person. However, not knowing what to ask, he ends up asking a childlike innocent questions – “What are his traits? How does he talk? How does he sit? How does he walk?” (Ref V2.54).
Arjun wants to know how to identify the realized one. How does he establish himself, interact with the world, live his life? These are very apt questions, as for the one who has elevated his consciousness to the supreme, his identification shifted to the ātma-tattva, world will appear as an illusion. Once you know that you are in a dream, how you will live your dream life, how will you interact with your dream characters?
For a realized saint, there are two states – either he is in a transcendental reality (समाधि अवस्था), where he is not identified with his physical form, OR he is in a transactional reality, like the rest of us. Arjun wants to know his way of living in a transactional reality, once he has already elevated himself to the transcendental reality.
Why did Arjun ask this question after discourse on Karma-yoga?! Shri Krishna ended Karma-yoga stating its benefit as attaining samadhi. Arjun was anyways eager to experience that blissful silence state (and thus wanted to walk away from the war). He heard something that he wanted, so naturally the question to know more.
State of the realized saint
As a response to Arjun’s question, Shri Krishna opens up another thread of conversation describing a realized saint – the one who knows his true Self. However, he does not merely answer Arjun’s question objectively, understanding the true intent behind the question, he not only describes the state of such a person and his attributes, but also how to become one. As it is said, सिद्धस्य लक्षणानि साधकस्य साधनानि – Attributes of a Saint are Sadhana of a seeker. Thus, Shri Krishna not only describes the goal but also the path to get there.
Lord defines realized saint as the one who has given up all desires born out of his mind, and he ever stays content in his own true Self. (Ref V2.55 to V2.57). He exhibits an equanimous state of the mind in all worldly situations (Ref V2.48), whether full of sorrows, or sensual pleasures. He is devoid of any passionate attachments, fear or anger.
Sorrows can come from various sources – whether they are originated from the environment (आदिदैविक), from other beings (आदिभौतिक) or from within oneself – mental (आध्यात्मिक), when one understands the temporary nature of such experiences, he learns to rise above them (Ref: V2.14). On a similar note, pleasures too are temporary, but getting attached to them makes one crave for them when they are not available, leading to greed (लोभ), anger (क्रोध) or even jealousy (मात्सर्य).
It’s worth noting that the realized saint is not a stone hearted person who is not cheerful in joys and not sad in sorrow. He too goes through these varied emotions, experiences them, but with a full awareness as not to become slave of those. Detachment does not mean not loving, instead it means loving without any dependency or expectations, an unconditional love. Such attitude elevates him beyond any passionate attachment to people, places or objects for his happiness. Not having such external objects does not lead him to anger, jealousy or frustration, neither having them gives him fear of losing them. Shri Krishna calls such a person, the one with steady wisdom, continuously reflective and fully aware of his thoughts and feelings, as Muni (मुनि).
How to achieve such state?
As mentioned earlier, Shri Krishna does not just answer Arjun’s question objectively but also describing the path to get there – i.e. to help a seeker in his sadhana. In verses 2.58 to 2.68, Lord continues the explanation of how saints attain such state (of equanimity).
Equanimity described above is achieved through an exceptional control of mind and senses (attaining and maintaining such control in all situations). Without such control, even the best of the saint falls from the highest level of spiritual progress. Our scriptures quote various examples, sage Vishwamitra being one of them. Despite attaining the higher state, he kept falling again and again due to slippages in controlling his mind – whether getting carried away by lust (an episode of Menaka), or anger (his enmity with sage Vasishta) or jealousy (his attempt to create a separate dedicated heaven for the king Trishanku).
Thus, control of mind (शम) and senses (दम) is the first step for a seeker on the path of knowledge. āśtānga yoga (Raja yoga sadhana) describes such control as Pratyāhār (प्रत्याहार). These are not only essential qualities in spiritual path even in worldly life. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says, without the control of mind and senses, one is like a pot with a lot of holes. No amount of water can fill it, as water keeps leaking through these holes. Similarly, no amount of effort (spiritual or worldly) can give results unless mind and senses are under sufficient control.
Senses are very powerful and turbulent. They have power to carry away mind even for the learned seeker, a normal men cannot stand in front of their power (Ref V2.60). Even fully controlled mind and senses backfire at times. Shri Krishna gives a beautiful yet simple example of tortoise to demonstrate the practice of sense control (Ref V2.58). When tortoise perceives a danger from the external environment, he immediately withdraws his limbs under the safety of his shell. Similarly, when saint perceives temptation or disturbance from the worldly environment, he withdraws his mind and senses and take refuge under his true Self. While such withdrawal is nature for the realized saint, for a seeker it helps in various ways:
- Protects the spiritual progress: In Shri Ramakrishna’s words, spiritual progress for a beginner seeker is like a small sapling. It must be fenced to protect from being grazed away by other animals. However, once it grows to become a big tree, even an elephant can be tied to it.
- Saves the effort required for purification of mind: Cleaning oneself after getting contaminated from worldly pleasures is a costly and time-consuming affair and makes one fall from his sadhana. Mahabharat advices one to keep off from the dirty filth, as one would still carry its smell despite cleaning the contamination. Even Mahatma Gandhi gave a similar message using reference of three monkeys (refrain from seeing, hearing and talking bad).
- Protects seeker’s tender and vulnerable mind: One must be careful to ensure what “food” one is feeding his mind. Patient recovering from stomach ailment, need to be careful about what he eats to protect weak and recovering stomach.
- Sensual appetite can never be satisfied: Worldly temptations are like a fire, more wood (sense objects) you put in it, more brightly it burns, eventually consuming everything. Senses can never be satisfied. One cannot even shut them down permanently as they are the only interface with the external world. They must be used correctly, with control, kept away from harmful sense object.
Lord continues to warn about taking mind and senses for granted, even when they seem controlled. When mind and senses start to settle down (may be due to prolonged practice, healthy surrounding), one should never get complacent and tempt / test them. They will get out of control at the first available opportunity. All Vāsanas buried deep inside keeps the longing alive (Ref V2.59). Such longing is a like a seed ready to germinate even after a long time when fertile ground is available.
Having said that, suppression is only a temporary solution. If used for long, it backfires. Suppressed or persecuted mind comes back with vengeance. Thus, suppression is not the path, instead sublimation is. Human mind cannot exist without an anchor. It needs some anchor to hold on to. It is up to us to decide what type of anchor we give to our mind. For the worldly effort, such anchor can be a higher goal in life – like serving a nation, fighting poverty or hunger, rejuvenating mother nature, helping the downtrodden. For a spiritual person, such anchor is nothing but a Self (Jnana path) or Ishwar (Bhakti Path). One must firmly abide his mind in supreme to prevent it from lowly distraction and direct all mental energies and ripples at a higher goal. This is intelligent sublimation. Right combination of suppression and sublimation will enable to one to achieve prolonged and sustainable control over mind and senses. Only with fully controlled mind and senses, establishing intellect in Self, one experiences the supreme, roasting the seeds of Vāsanas in the fire of knowledge (never to germinate again) and destroy all longing. (Ref V2.61)
Ladder of fall
Lord beautifully captures the “ladder of fall” to explain what happens when one fails to control his mind and senses (Ref V2.62 to V2.63). When one does not direct his mind towards higher thoughts (Ishwar, Atma etc.), such mind gets attracted towards lower thoughts. Mind, having made of five elements, naturally gets attracted to those elements (i.e. sense objects). Fall starts with continuous thoughts on such lowly sense objects, seeking pleasure, creating attachment with them, and then a strong desire for them. When such desire is fulfilled, it leads to further craving (लोभ), and when not fulfilled, leads to anger (क्रोध). Anger is the fire that burns one from within, physical health, mental peace, material prosperity or social status, everything is impacted. Such anger leads to delusion, i.e. loss of discriminatory power, loss of ability to separate good from bad, right from wrong. In the moment of heat of anger and delusion, one forgets all good values, right lessons and all that is learned throughout his life. With such a loss of memory, one’s intellect is destroyed, as intellect relies on only memory of past learnings and experiences to take the right decisions. This eventually leading to one’s destruction (of his focus, abilities and even progress – whether worldly or spiritual goals).
How to engage with the world?
Having painted a grim picture warning about ladder of fall, question then arises – how one must interact with the world of sense objects using mind and senses?
Similar to the realized saint, one must continue engage with the world without any attachment or aversion, not seeking any fulfillment from it, but with the mental attitude of performing his assigned duties. (Ref V2.64 to V2.65).
Shri Ramakrishna gives yet another wonderful example of cutting a jackfruit. When one cuts jackfruit, it sticks to hands and remains stuck for days. However, the wise ones apply oil on hands before cutting it. Thus, the saint applies the oil of non-attachment in all his interactions with the world, leaving no after-effects (Vāsanas). This leaves his mind always in a serene and equanimous state. With such steady mind, his intellect naturally abides in Self. Unsteady mind can never abide in Self and thus do not experience supreme bliss of Self. The one whose mind always follows senses (and senses following sense objects), is like a boat in the wavy waters of ocean, being carried around by winds. Such boat can never reach its destination (Ref V2.66 to V2.67).
Shri Krishna gives a beautiful example citing how waters of all rivers of the world, cannot make ocean feel more fulfilled that what it already is. The realized saint whose all desires are dissolved, stays steady and peaceful like an ocean. (Ref V2.70) Ignorant individuals are like a small pond, depend on experiences of the world for their happiness These experiences increase or decrease their happiness. Realized saint is like an ocean filled with waters of happiness. Nothing can complete him, as he already is complete and fulfilled in himself. No amount of addition or removal affects his state of peace and joy.
Difference between the Realized and Ignorant
Shri Krishna covers the difference between the realized saint and an ignorant man in a beautifully poetic but philosophically deep way. (Ref V2.69). He says, what appears as the “day” for all beings, is the “night” for Muni, and when all beings are sleeping when they perceive the “night”, it is the “day” for him. Saint, using light of his knowledge sees the Truth beyond its manifestations, whereas an ignorant man takes manifestations as the truth. What ignorant considers as a day (visible world of name and forms), saint treats them as night, ignoring them as temporary, illusionary and ever changing. Instead, he focuses on a common underlying, unchanging, eternal, real substratum of one true Self and treat that as a “day” which the rest of the world is ignorant of, unaware of and remains blinded to (and thus the experience of night). Mirage in the desert appears true for the ignorant. Only the one who knows the dessert, it is an illusion.
Delusion (मोह) is of two types a) the belief that “the world is the truth” (My-ness) and b) belief that “I am this body” (I-ness). Lord advices to outgrow all worldly desires and moves about in the world without any longing. Such a man who without my-ness and I-ness, attains the supreme peace (Ref V2.71). Thus realization (the state of the realized saint) can be attained by doing our duty, with the attitude of Karma-yoga. Once such state of oneness (with supreme) is attained, one never gets deluded again (Ref V2.72).
At this junction, Shri Krishna attempts to concluded Gita upadeśa, having given the “theoretical knowledge” (ब्रह्मविद्या) and its “practical application” (योगशास्त्र), expecting Arjun to get up and take up his duty.
श्रीकृष्णार्पणम् अस्तु ।
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