GYAna Yoga in the Srimad Bhaagavatam (11.28.25-44)

[Sankar Jayanarayanan]

This is the concluding portion of the instructions in GYAna yoga given by
bhagavaan shri KrishhNa to shri uddhava in the shrimad Bhaagavatam.

shri Bhagavaanuvaacha :

For one who has properly realized My personal identity...what credit is there
if his senses - mere products of the guNas - are perfectly concentrated in
meditation? And on the other hand, what blame is incurred if his senses happen
to become agitated? Indeed, what does it mean to the sun if the clouds come
and go?

The sky may display the various qualities of the air, fire, water and earth that
pass through it, as well as such qualities as heat and cold, which continually
come and go with the seasons. Yet the sky is never entangled with any of these
qualities. Similarly, the Supreme is never entangled with the contaminations of
sattva, rajas, and tamas.

Nevertheless, until by firmly practicing bhakti yoga to Me, [after] one has
completely eliminated from his mind all contamination of material
passion(rajaH), one must very carefully avoid associating with the guNas,
which are produced by My Maya.

Just as an improperly treated disease recurs and gives repeated distress to the
patient, the mind that is not completely purified of its perverted tendencies
will remain attached to the material things and repeatedly torment the imperfect
Yogi.

Sometimes the progress of imperfect transcendentalists is checked by attachment
to family members, disciples or others, who are sent by envious demigods for
that purpose. But on the strength of their accumulated advancement, such
imperfect transcendentalists will resume their practice of Yoga in the next
life. They will never again be trapped in the network of karma.

An ordinary living entity performs material work and is transformed by the
reaction to such karma. Thus he is driven by various desires to continue working
fruitively up to the very moment of his death. A wise person, however, having
experienced his own constitutional bliss, gives up all material desires and
does not engage in karma.

The wise man, whose consciousness is fixed in the Atman, does not even notice
his own bodily activities. While standing, sitting, walking, lying down,
urinating, eating or performing other bodily functions, he understands that the
body is acting according to its own nature.

Although a self-realized soul may sometimes see an impure object or ativity,
he does not accept it as real. By logically understanding impure sense objects
to be based on illusory material duality, the intelligent person sees them to be
contrary to and distinct from reality, in the same way that a man awakening
from sleep views his fading dream.

Material nescience (aGYAnaM), which expands into many varieties by the
activities of the guNas, is wrongly accepted by the conditioned soul to be
identical with the self. But through the cultivation of spiritual knowledge,
My dear uddhava, this same nescience fades away at the time of liberation.
The eternal Self, on the other hand, is never assumed and never abandoned.

When the sun rises it destroys the darkness covering men's eyes, but it does
not create the objects they see before them, which in fact were existing all
along. Similarly, potent and factual realization of Me will destroy the
darkness covering a person's true consciousness.

The Supreme Lord is self-luminous, unborn and imperishable. He is pure
transcendental consciousness (mahA anubhUtiH) and perceives everything.
One without a second (advitIyaH), He is realized only after ordinary words
cease. By Him the power of speech and life airs are set into motion.

Whatever apparent duality is perceived in the self is simply the confusion of
the mind. Indeed, such supposed duality (vikalpaH) has no basis to rest upon
apart from the Atman.

The duality (dvayaM) of the five material elements is perceived only in terms
of names and forms. Those who say this duality is real are pseudoscholars
vainly proposing fanciful theories without basis in fact.

The physical body of the endeavouring Yogi who is not yet mature in his practice
may sometimes be overcome by various disturbances. Therefore the following
process is recommended.

Some of the obstructions may be counteracted by Yogic meditation or by sitting
postures, practised together with concentration on controlled breathing, and
others may be counteracted by special austerities, mantras or medicinal herbs.

These inauspicious disturbances can be gradually removed by constant
remembrance of Me, by congregational hearing and chanting of My holy names, or
by following in the footsteps of the great masters of Yoga.

By various methods, some Yogis free the body from disease and old age and keep
it perpetually youthful. Thus they engage in Yoga for the purpose of achieving
material mystic perfections.

This mystic bodily perfection is not valued very highly by those expert in
transcendental knowledge. Indeed, they consider endeavour for such perfection
useless, since the soul, like a tree, is permanent, but the body, like a tree's
fruit, is subject to destruction.

Although the physical body may be improved by various processes of Yoga, an
intelligent person who has dedicated his life to Me does not place his faith
in the prospect of perfecting his physical body through Yoga, and in fact he
gives up such procedures.

The Yogi, who has taken shelter of Me remains free from hankering because he
experiences the happiness of the soul within. Thus while executing this process
of Yoga, he is never defeated by obstacles.

[ The next section is on Bhakti Yoga ]