It has been quite a while from the time my fascination for short story writing took firmer roots and I even started enjoying them. And ever since then, I have not felt the kind of special need – which was routine in the past -- for referring to any of my pet religious texts to relieve me of inner unrest. This was a bit of a worry as years of my upbringing had honed a kind of wariness in me about getting too carried away with anything which is not spiritual. .
A few days back, as if to re-inforce this belief, and jolt me back from this apparently comfy state, a very minor hiccup with my laptop shook me up so illogically as to make me lose all my composure. I blamed my God in no uncertain terms for even this most trivial issue. I used the choicest Punjabi expletives to describe Him to the bewilderment of a friend - who called that very moment for something urgent- and to unequivocally confirm, lest he mistook it as targeting any particular person we both knew, that these were solely aimed at that Vidhaata. I found myself saying that I was inclined to turn agnostic and throw away my “pooja”, as with His penchant for needling me for over 6 decades, I could not imagine any greater calamity visiting me, and it was perhaps time to say that “enough was enough”.
Quite surprisingly after things cooled down within the next 10 – 15 minutes, there was neither this great self-flagellation about how idiotically angry I was about my own perceptions of his “Scheme of things” nor were there any self- recriminations about this moronic outburst. To be fair to myself though; I did not miss the evening prayers. The usual ritual of watching TV till about midnight also followed. I finally went off to a peaceful sleep thereafter.
I slept well – a pleasant surprise- and woke up around 4 in the morning; the usual time by which –quite often in the recent past -- I used to doze off to sleep. I was also feeling fresh. On an impulse I took this book on “Gita” and selected a random page for reading as I had often done in earlier, times, though for different reasons.
Many a time on such occasions, I would find that the topic on the page had a direct connection to the issue that bothered me at those moments. This time was no exception. The verse that appeared was:
Yada hi na idriyaartheshu na karmasu anushajjathe, sarva sankalpa sanyasi, yoga roodah thathochyathe.
“Whenever one is able to detach one-self from prarabda driven indriya-sukha and karma-phala desires, and able to rid of all “affirmative intents”, it is said that from that moment one attains the state of “Yogaroodah” – “stoic equanimity” and thence merge with the ultimate.
It was as if I had a response which addressed the very core of my anger/frustrations of the previous night, namely “desires”. The transliteration of the verse was followed by detailed explanatory notes running to over 3 full pages. That I was hooked with the verse is an understatement. So, I read these notes, re-read them about a few times, till I felt exhausted. Since the dawn was about an hour away, I went back to bed.
In bed, I had this internal debate as to whether I should be overwhelmed with His Grace to give me some cues about the need for a detachment, or like an imbecile conclude that only anger gets me a response. After a while, I reached a kind of “samaadhanam” ; (satisfactory clearing of doubts) namely that without unduly bothering about these “whys” and the “hows” I should just “be” in awareness of His Grace, by the second, every second. Contented, I slept.
I woke up quite late around 10AM and a self- quote – I choose to term it Vichiism to go with my name -- just sprang to my mind
“Think, before you think whether thinking is necessary”.
While the quote was quirky, I found that it had some resonance with the previous night’s reading. The thrust of the Gita verse and my own understanding of it are on following lines:
1.Na Indriyaartheshu anushajjathe:
The word prarabda (meaning already begun) refers to a beginning-less chain (like say a chicken and egg kind) of “cause & effect” paradigm (similar to “you reap what you sow”), which runs its course through the senses namely word, touch, form, taste, smell as also mind. Since by its very definition, this is impermanent, one must try and avoid any deep attachment to these with expectations of favorable outcomes; be it involving acquisition of objects, or recognition of one’s name, promotions, fame etc. “These will come and go” and the “self” which is permanent cannot in any way be influenced by these, is the kind of mindset one should aspire for.
How does one however go about achieving this? First: By trying to “not exult” as and when there is a favorable outcome. For instance, once you covet an object and get it, there is happiness. Similarly when one’s wish – about any particular event that it does not turn out in a certain way- comes true, it’s again an occasion to be happy. Both are “desires”, and the requirement is not to be attached to this sentiment.
Second: Every desire has two consequences; either it is fulfilled, or it is denied. While in the latter case there is this feeling of “dependence or subservience” till it is fulfilled, in the former case also when you reflect seriously, you will realize that there is only a false notion of “freedom”; for at every moment, the fear of losing that coveted desire gives rise to the same “dependence”. “Desire” therefore is the major bogey which has to be crossed to get released from this bondage. Attachment which is a step towards desire, is akin to betrayal of our own cause for freedom and salvation.
Last but not the least, anything that you possess which is beyond your sustenance level should be given to one who is not so endowed, with the genuine belief that it really belongs to the latter. While doing this however, there should be no desire to tell him/her that “it is now his/hers”. This should be done with that true feeling that by giving away everything beyond what you require for your sustenance, you are ridding yourself of your debts.
“Na Indiriyaartheshu Anushajjathe” means therefore that one should avoid any kind of “attachment” to any object of one’s senses/desires.
2.Na karmasu (anushjjathe)
Similar to one’s attachment to sense-gratification, there are two kinds of desires in “action” also. First, there is desire in the process itself, and then later in the results of such action. There is satisfaction when the process is perfect and dis-satisfaction when it isn’t. A favorable/unfavorable result similarly gives rise to happiness/ sadness. Attachment to “doing” therefore is also in the same way avoidable.
A question arises here; Desire for action is for the fruits it yields. The fruit itself is the satisfaction of the senses. If one were to rid one-self of any attachment to “desires”, why pray there is the need for a separate prescription of “detachment” to action. Well, while there is this possibility of “just doing” without expectation of a result, the “doing” itself has its own dynamics as it is impossible to be without action. This dynamics is also an “attachment”. This is rid when in all actions there is this feeling of “doing” for others or for the Gods.
There is of course this desire for “not doing”. These can be of two kinds; total inaction resulting in laziness, and probable mistaken judgments, leading to disasters. The second is doing purposeless things which fancy you at that moment. The former is “thaamasic” and the latter “rajasic” and both are far from “saathvic”, and therefore immensely avoidable.
“Na karmasu (anushajjathe) would also mean similarly “not to be too attached to your duty bound actions either”.
3.Sarva Sankalpa Sanyaasi.
The moment you “think” it evolves into an affirmative intent or “sankalpa”. (There is a bit of detailing on the word Sankalpa in my piece of same label in this blog, and page 90 of the book version -Verse 19, Chapter 4 of Gita). This “sankalpa” then begets a desire.
The “manushya janma” is rare and its purpose is solely to realize itself as one with the universal soul, and any other “intent” is purposeless, and is a waste of time.
While all “actions” are related to the “now”, “Intent” is connected with either the past or the future. Hence it’s prudent to discard the “intent” part, and perform all duty bound actions without attachment. (karma yoga)
There is no other “reality” than that Brahmn”. Neither the “intents” nor the gross manifest world in which we dwell have any reality, or existence in the profoundest stage. So if there is an element of “sankalpa” which creeps in, one has to only ignore or at least be indifferent to them. (Gyana Yoga)
Finally in that truism of “He is eternal” and “He is there to take me out of this bondage of birth-re-birth cycle”, where is the room for any “sankalpa”? (bhakthi yoga)
Even a desire or a sankalpa to get to that “liberation stage” is out of sync, as the moment one talks of liberation, there is an assumption of “bondage” which again in a profound sense, is merely an illusion.
Sanyaasi is one who has rid himself of all “attachments”.
“Sarva sankalpa sanyaasi” is therefore one who has rid himself of (even) all “sankalpa”, irrespective of whether one is in karma, Gyana, or Bhakthi yoga paths.
4.Yogaaroodah:
“Stoic equanimity” sums up in a way the word yoga. The word represents: A passion- less, unmoved, indifferent stage of a balanced mind in all circumstances; namely “in achievement/non-achievement (Siddhi/Asiddhi), in happiness/ sadness. Being able to be in that stage and experiencing the “self” being unattached to the gross world, etc”, perpetually is Aarodah:
The one who is in this state eternally is a “Yogaarodah”.
5. yada he……… tadochyathe.
Yada normally refers to “when”, and “yada he” should ordinarily translate to “whenever”. ”He” however has a special meaning also, which is “only”. If this meaning is implied then hen the verse would take an altogether different meaning namely “only when…….” Instead of the whenever or the moment one is able to etc…… “.
Tadochyathe … simply means “at that time it is said to be……”.
To sum up this verse would translate to,
Yada hi na idriyaartheshu na karmasu anushajjathe, sarva sankalpa sanyasi, yoga roodah thathochyathe.
“Only when one is able to detach one-self from prarabda driven indriya-sukha and karma-phala desires, and able to rid of all “affirmative intents”, it is said that one attains the state of “Yogaroodah” – “stoic equanimity” and thence merge with the ultimate.
In a nutshell while “attachment” to objects of desire is impermanent, only detachment (thence to “no desire”) is permanent. Desire-less-ness helps one to rid even the “doership” tag. Together they lead one to “Yogaroodah and the self- realization stage”.
Imagine using a fountain pen for writing. The moment the writing is over, the pen has no relevance/use. Similarly our physical body is just an aid for doing ones duty, thereafter it has no relevance. Dahyate iti dehah, shairyate iti Sharirah; the one which is burnt and one which decays is the body.
Tailpiece:
To be able to detail so much into a simple verse requires enormous “anubhavam”. The author Sri Ram Sukh Das to my mind is a delivered soul. I have taken some liberty to add bits of my own imagination here and there to understand it all better. And this makes me wanting to add a final footprint before I end this piece.
Desire is the “cause” and “prarabda” is the “effect”, and the crux of this paradigm is that it is only a game. The word “prarabda”(literally what has begun) is a misused word. While the effect can either be good or bad, it’s only when one has a bad time this term is used. When this is joyful it is termed “adrishta” (not seen). And this game is restricted to the realm of the gross manifest world.
These desires, often take the mantle of “free will” in the false notion that the universal “SELF” is subsumed into the individual self, instead of the other way around. The result therefore is the return to the game like a child’s game of Snakes and Ladders, exulting and in enthrall of its beauty, and depending on whether you are in the square where there is a ladder to climb, or one where you are in the mouth of a snake to go down, your moods swing, forgetting that it’s only a game and it’s your own prarabda running its course which has no bearing on your evolutionary stage.
One has two choices; either believe that the only free will one has is the total surrender to Him in trust, or be in the intoxicated conviction of one’s unfettered free-will, only to return again and again to the S&L board and let prarabda run its course.
The spiritual journey however starts the moment one understands that it’s a game. Believing that everything is “His will” by the way, is easy. In this belief and with a perfect sense of detachment one goes about performing every duty, to get to that and get to that “Yogarooda & merger with Him” stage.
It is then that one experiences the full import of the term “free-will”. If at this stage, if there is still some residual Prarabda remaining which has to be exhausted by another birth, this poses no problem to him/her as he/she is in Yogaroodah, and in union with Him.
Ekalavya alias Vichu
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