lessons

[sadananda]

>                                       Hari Om
>
>Namaste!    Request members (interested) to briefly explain the meaning of
>following statements.   It will definitely help in understanding what Iam
>trying to understand.  I have that faith!
>
>"Abhyasa Vairaghyabhyam tannirodhaha"
>
>"Abhyasena tu Kaunetya Vairagyena cha  gruhyate"
>
>
>                                                                Nagy

Nagy I donot know where you got the first sloka from.  If you provide the
whole sloka, one can unravel the contents.
The second one, I am familiar.  It comes from the 6th Ch. of B.G. When
Krishna is glorifying the process of meditation- how one should keep the
mind concentrated on the higher, being a practical man, Arjuna questions
the feasibility.
He says:
        chancalam hi manaH Krishna pramaadhi balavad dRiDham|
        tasyaaham nigraham manye vaayoriva sudhushhkaram||

Hai Krishna! what you suggest is almost impossible.  The mind is chanchalam
-  oscillates all the time, it is extremely powerful to control.  Trying to
catch hold of the mind that runs all the time and to control it is like
trying to catch hold of the powerful wind and control it. (The Florida
people can appreciate this example)

Well, Krishna being a greatest psychologist, answers when confounded by an
student who in the form of question makes a conclusion, that what Krishna
advises to do is worthless since it is almost impossible to follow.

        asamshayam mahaabaaho mano durnigraham chalam|
        abhyaasena tu kounteya vairaagyeNacha gRihyate||

In the first line he agrees with Arjuna addressing him as mahaabaaho -A
mighty armed one - What you say is absolutely right.  - After elevating
Arjuna's ego first, so that he is now calm to listen carefully, Krishna
gives him back to him saying that it is difficult but not impossible.

It can be done by constant practice, abhyaasa but that abhyaasa has to be
reinforced with viaraagya. Mind wants to run into sensuous enjoyments.  It
has be pulled out first from its sensuous enjoyments by developing
vairaagya.  This  actually is the sanyaasaa part of it that you keep
criticizing.  Every one has to take up sanyaasa (not as an ashrama) but
withdrawing the mind from running after pleasure hunting pursuits - this
has to be done not by force, but by developing viveka and the 6-fold
qualities, shama, dama etc. Thus Krishna says by constant practice and by
detachment one can catch hold of the mind from its dissipating pursuits and
redirect it in the contemplation of the truth.
What is that practice - he has already stated in few slokas before -yato
yato nishcharati manaH chanchala masthiram, tatastato niyamyaitat atmanyeva
vasham nayet||
mind being fickle, whenever whenever it runs away without being stable,
then and then itself (ones one has became conscious or aware of the running
min)  it should be brought back and redirect surrendering to oneself.
Whenever we are seriously learning something we do this all the time -
bring the running mind back and concentrate - Once the goal is fully
appreciated the vairaagya automatically comes.

Arjuna is quite familiar with the power of abhyaasa - He started learning
to shoot in the dark by constant practice.

People complain - why they are unable to meditate and what they need to do.
Krishna has given solid recipe for all of us in this sloka.
This is the essence of yoga shastra.

Your first quote is also essentially the same
With abhyaasa and vairaaghya one has to overcome that (tat nirodha)- what
is that tat must have been explained in the rest of the sloka that is
missing.

Hari Om!
Sadananda


K. Sadananda
Code 6323
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington D.C. 20375
Voice (202)767-2117
Fax:(202)767-2623