Entries Tagged as 'Teachings of Krishna'
December 28th, 2011
Q: You have written: “All spiritual life is self-initiated from within; we are both guru and disciple as Krishna and Arjuna symbolize in the Bhagavad Gita.” Do you believe Krishna to be a real person who came to earth, and spoke the Bhagavad Gita, or do you hold that the Gita is purely symbolical? I feel confused on the idea of what the avatars of Vishnu/Krishna really stand for. (Answer below photo.)
Certainly Yadava Krishna was a historical person as was Arjuna, and they were involved in the Mahabharata war–also a historical reality. But it is stretching it to believe that Krishna and Arjuna spoke to each other in poetic meter and that the several hundred verses of the Gita are a continuous conversation just before the battle.
We can be sure that Krishna spoke to Arjuna regarding the war and his obligations in relation to it, but it seems a bit silly to think that at that time he discoursed at length on such subjects as diet being a reflection of the predominant guna of a person, the constituents of Maya/Prakriti, and other technicalities of the sankhya philosophy.
Someone once remarked to Paramhansa Nityananda of Ganeshpuri: “In the Gita Krishna said…,” and Nityananda interrupted him, saying: “No. Vyasa said that Krishna said….” Although the Mahabharata war actually took place, Vyasa used it as a symbol of the battle that faces all serious sadhakas, and Krishna and Arjuna are symbols of the internal dialogue that takes place between the higher and lower “selves” of the individual.
The Bhagavad Gita is the supreme scripture; none are equal to it. Even the upanishads that are extensively cited in the Gita are not its equal, because they are only philosophical and the Gita is the perfect synthesis of philosophy, practical dharmic life, and yoga.
The Gita should be the daily study of the aspirant to liberation, because it not only presents the principles of truth, it also reveals the attitude, the entire psychology, of the person who is going to attain liberation. Many of the deluded and fraudulent yogis, masters, and avatars that abound in India and throughout the yoga world would not succeed if people looked at them with the perspective of the Gita on what is the real nature of enlightenment.
The rajor’s-edge path to the Supreme is extremely difficult to traverse because of the many ways in which our clouded and deluded mind can lead us astray or spoil our needed focus. The Gita alone keeps correcting us and holding us on the right path–provided that we do not approach it with preconceived, sectarian ideas.
There are two views on avatars:
- That the Absolute manifests a body through Its yogamaya power and only appears to be born and live as a human being and eventually die.
- A totally liberated jiva has attained such perfect union with Brahman that all differences (but not distinctions) have been erased between its consciousness and that of Brahman. When such a one is born–not by karmic compulsion but through its liberated will–practically speaking that jiva is an avatar. And since Krishna says in the Gita (9:15): “The countless god are only my million faces,” when a liberated being is seen to predominately reflect the traits of a “deity” he is often said to be an avatar of that god. But that should be understood psychologically, not literally.
Fortunately, authentic Sanatana Dharma is not dogmatic, so everyone is free to decide which of these two views they feel is correct. Since the real question is “Who am I?” it is a waste of time to go round and round as to who Krishna or anyone else might be.
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Tags: Q & A · Teachings of Krishna
January 21st, 2011
Q: I recently read the article posted on your site called “The Yogi’s Inner Life.” My question regards the yogi’s seat as described in the Bhagavad Gita that you comment on. You mention that the kusha grass mat and deer skin insulate against the earth’s subtle energies. Can you tell what these subtle energies are? Also, it has been found that connecting to the earth with bare feet or hands has a healthy, healing effect so I was wondering why it would be detrimental to meditate connected to the earth.
T he earth has many energies circulating in it, and they are all necessary. However, they are very material oriented and produce strong body consciousness. The base chakra, the muladhara, is a repository of these “earth currents,” so when we sit for meditation it is good for that time to minimize their flow into us. (At other times they are, as I say, necessary for health of our body, which is why it is detrimental to wear leather or any other hindrances to bioenergetic flow.)
In meditation we need to become temporarily disconnected from all the magnetic forces that pull our awareness either downward or outward. For this reason the Gita instructs us to sit upright with a straight spine so the subtle life force (prana) will begin to flow upward into the head, into the thousand-petalled lotus (sahasrara chakra) and enliven the various centers of higher awareness located in the physical, astral, and causal brains.
At the end of meditation those subtle energies return to their usual places in the body, but now they are purified and have a much higher rate of vibration, so they benefit the entire body. In yoga, as in other endeavors, there is a time and place for everything–but in their right order.
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Tags: Meditation · Q & A · Teachings of Krishna
April 30th, 2009
Many translations of the Bhagavad Gita are good and none are perfect–that is the nature of all translations from Sanskrit. Therefore a serious student should read several in order to get the complete picture of the Gita’s wisdom.
First, The Song of God–the translation by Swami Prabhavananda
–should be read, for no translation conveys the “spirit” of the Gita as well as it does. Also, it is a very interpretive translation and makes it easier to grasp the subtle meanings found in the Gita. The Song of God should be read through several times to get the full benefit of the translation.
Next, a student should get a word-for-word translation–and the best is The Bhagavad Gita by Winthrop Sargeant
.
The translations of Swami Swarupananda
and Swami Sivananda
should also be obtained. (These are also available as PDF downloads on our Gita page.)
Whenever you want to get the full meaning of a verse, consult each translation.
There are also many other good translations you can benefit from. Experience will enable you to tell which are the best.
But when you are ready for the “graduate course” I recommend you get the two-volume translation of Paramhansa Yogananda entitled: God Talks with Arjuna
. That is a treasure beyond price for those who want the most complete understanding of the Gita.
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Tags: Recommended Reading · Teachings of Krishna
December 15th, 2008
“When the mind runs after the wandering senses, then it carries away one’s understanding, as the wind carries away a ship on the waters. Therefore the wisdom of him whose senses are withdrawn from the objects of the senses stands firm.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:67,68)
The theme of peace is being continued in these two verses of the Gita, and its imagery brings to mind the following: “When the even was come, he [Jesus] saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.…And they said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41)
Rather than being some special, unique person that we can only admire, Jesus was exactly what each one of must become. We, too, must bring peace into our stormy minds.
The storm
It is the wind and rain of the senses that “carries away one’s understanding, as the wind carries away a ship on the waters.” However much the “captain” of the buddhi grasps the wheel and tries to hold the ship steady on its course, the struggle is hopeless. This is because, as the verse literally says, the mind wanders after the senses and becomes guided by them, losing its intelligent awareness (prajnam). Caught then in the heaving waters of samsara, of constant birth and death, with their attendant anguish, each of us is carried away by the waves, lost and disoriented completely.
Swami Prabhavananda renders this verse: “The wind turns a ship from its course upon the waters: the wandering winds of the senses cast man’s mind adrift and turn his better judgment from its course.” “Better judgment” is the translation Swami Prabhavananda uses for prajnam. Prajnam means both consciousness and awareness, and includes the knowledge gained by the evolving atman. Just as Krishna has described before that we lose “memory,” the lesson of experience. It is prajnam that we lose.
The statement that we are turned from our course points out a basic truth: by nature we are all “on course,” and our drifting is unnatural. Therefore when we set our wills to recover our course, there is no doubt that we will succeed. It is inevitable. In the sixth chapter of the Gita, Arjuna will say that the wind is no harder to subdue than the mind, and Krishna will agree. But the mind must be subdued, nevertheless. That is easy to say, but how? “The wisdom of him whose senses are withdrawn from the objects of the senses stands firm.” And how do we effectively say, “Peace, be still” to the senses?
The mind
We must understand that the senses are simply instruments (indriyas) of the mind, that although they “cast man’s mind adrift” this is the reversal of the natural order, that it is the mind that is meant to “drive” the senses, the way a charioteer drives the horses that pull the chariot. Krishna surely had in mind these two passages from the upanishads:
“Know that the Self is the rider, and the body the chariot; that the intellect is the charioteer, and the mind the reins. The senses, say the wise, are the horses; the roads they travel are the mazes of desire. The wise call the Self the enjoyer when he is united with the body, the senses, and the mind. When a man lacks discrimination and his mind is uncontrolled, his senses are unmanageable, like the restive horses of a charioteer. But when a man has discrimination and his mind is controlled, his senses, like the well-broken horses of a charioteer, lightly obey the rein. He who lacks discrimination, whose mind is unsteady and whose heart is impure, never reaches the goal, but is born again and again. But he who has discrimination, whose mind is steady and whose heart is pure, reaches the goal, and having reached it is born no more. The man who has a sound understanding for charioteer, a controlled mind for reins–he it is that reaches the end of the journey, the supreme abode of Vishnu, the all pervading.” (Katha Upanishad 1:3:3-9)
The Way
“Sit upright, holding the chest, throat, and head erect. Turn the senses and the mind inward to the lotus of the heart. Meditate on Brahman with the help of the syllable OM. Cross the fearful currents of the ocean of worldliness by means of the raft of Brahman–the sacred syllable OM. With earnest effort hold the senses in check. Controlling the breath, regulate the vital activities. As a charioteer holds back his restive horses, so does a persevering aspirant hold back his mind.” (Svetashvatara Upanishad 2:8, 9)
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Tags: Meditation · Teachings of Krishna · The Mind
December 3rd, 2008
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks of the four responses human beings have in relation to teaching about the Self:
“Someone perceives this [Self] as a wonder, another declares this as a wonder, still another hears of this as a wonder; but some, even having heard of It, yet comprehend nothing.” (2:29) Prabhavananda translates this: “There are some who have actually looked upon the Atman, and understood It, in all Its wonder. Others can only speak of It as wonderful beyond their understanding. Others know of Its wonder by hearsay. And there are others who are told about It and do not understand a word.”
It is intriguing to see how the number four has significance in many ways in the scriptures of India. We usually think of seven as the mystic number (and it is), but four also comes into the picture many times, especially in considerations of the development of consciousness.
For example, there are four castes based on the level of the individual’s consciousness. (The present-day “caste system” is an unfortunate degeneration based on just about everything but the individual’s state of evolution.) The solar system is said to pass through four ages (yugas) in which the general consciousness of humanity ranges from only one-fourth to four-fourths of its potential. This numbering is the most important of all considerations, because it deals with the unfoldment of consciousness, consciousness itself being the nature of the Self.
Even in the life of Jesus we find this fourfold categorizing of spiritual consciousness. Toward the end of his public ministry, in response to his prayer God spoke in a great voice from the heavens. In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John we are told that those present reacted in four ways: 1) some knew it was the voice of God, 2) some thought it was the voice of an angel, 3) some did not hear it as words or a voice, but thought it was thunder, and 4) some did not hear a thing. If we analyze these responses will we find exactly the psychology of the four castes being expressed. But let us return to Krishna.
According to Krishna there are four states of awareness in relation to the Self: 1) direct knowledge, 2) deep faith and conviction–an intuition of the Self’s reality, 3) intellectual comprehension of the “theory” of the Self, and 4) complete non-comprehension.
“There are some who have actually looked upon the Atman, and understood It, in all Its wonder.”
In the ultimate sense, to know something is to be something. Although we are always our selves and incapable of being anything else, because we have fallen into the pit of delusion we are aware of and “know” just about everything but our selves. This is an awesomely horrible plight. But Krishna tells us that there are those who have actually regained their self-awareness, “seen” themselves in atmic vision and comprehended what they saw, coming to know the Self in the fullest sense.
“Others can only speak of It as wonderful beyond their understanding.”
Since we are the Self, we obviously know all about it on the real level of our being. Evolution consists mainly of development/elaboration of our body vehicles, including the mind, but it also entails a refining of those vehicles, a transparency in which intuition comes more and more into play. It is this which is the real transcendence of the mind (intellect) and entry into true knowing. As a prelude to the direct knowing of the Self, the intuition of the Self arises and increases, leading the sadhaka onward to that knowing.
“Others know of Its wonder by hearsay.”
Before intuition arises, the intellect is developed through evolution and becomes capable of grasping the concept of the Self–insofar as it can be intellectually grasped. No small degree of evolution is required before genuinely intelligent (buddhic) apprehension of the Self is possible. Therefore to simply have an intellectual comprehension of the incomprehension of the Self–to wonder at the truth of the Self–is itself a mark of significant spiritual development.
- Uncomprehending ignorance
“And there are others who are told about It and do not understand a word.”
This is not a matter of intelligence only, but also a matter of evolution of consciousness. I have met highly intelligent people who just could not comprehend even the simplest of the principles set forth in the upanishads or the Gita. No matter how I tried to make them clear by restating them in different ways they remained incapable of even a glimmer of understanding.
For example, one very mentally active and intelligent man was thoroughly flummoxed by my statement that as long as we see life with the two eyes of duality we will wander in confusion and delusion, but as soon as we begin to see with the one eye of spiritual intuition we begin to understand our life and our selves. Again and again he asked me to explain, but he never got it in the least. He was very frustrated, at least realizing that I was making sense and the lack was on his part, but he never managed.
On another occasion one of the sadhus of our ashram was speaking to a Fundamentalist Protestant minister. The sadhu told him that we believed everyone could become exactly what Jesus was. Over and over he asked the sadhu to explain–not that he was rejecting the idea; he just could not grasp it. And he never did. It was a matter of evolution in both cases, for non-comprehension is even lower than a mistaken understanding.
Of course sometimes incomprehension is a matter of negativity. The Tibetan Buddhists say that stupidity is “daughter of hell.” Evolution of intelligence is a requisite, but it is certainly true that without purification of the intellect, however evolved, no understanding of higher spiritual realities is possible.
The four castes
Returning to the subject of caste, we can now realize in the light of Krishna’s exposition, that Shudras are those who are servants to materiality and ignorance, Vaishyas are those who have an intellectual understanding of the possibility of their betterment, Kshatriyas are those who, being close to apprehension of the Self, are able to intuit the truth of the Self while aware of their limitation, and Brahmins are those who see and know the Self. This is the sum of the entire matter.
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Tags: Teachings of Krishna · The Mind
November 24th, 2008
Just because something is the truth does not mean that we can easily grasp or accept it, however sincere we may be in our truth-seeking. How many years can go by without our fully grasping that someone we dearly love has left their body–they are so living to us. Sometimes we experience intense grief at their departure and absence, and at the same time really cannot feel that they are no longer with us. After all, we are in this earth plane because we are completely irrational–especially on the subconscious and emotional levels.
When my miracle-working grandmother died, I grieved and shed tears over the loss every single day for one year, and yet only on the anniversary day of her departure did I fully come to realize that she was gone! In my heart I could not believe that I would not find her in her house if I would just go there.
So an intellectual understanding about birth and death does not help a great deal. If the facts will not take root in our minds, then we at least need a better perspective on things. So Krishna is now explaining to Arjuna how he should consider these matters even if he cannot take in the truth that birth and death are mere appearances only. He continues:
“And moreover even if you think this to be eternally born or eternally dead, even then you should not mourn for this.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:26)
Even if we consider birth and death to be real (which they are, as impressions in the mind), even then we should have no sorrow because:
“For the born, death is certain; for the dead there is certainly birth. Therefore, for this, inevitable in consequence, you should not mourn.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:27)
The wisdom of Buddha
When we hurt, we want it to stop. That is the way with human beings, and when we lose something we want it back–no matter how obviously impossible that often is. So we demand miraculous intervention by God or His saints. When that happens we are happy, and the miracle gets written up in praise of God or the miracle-worker and everybody seems satisfied. But can they be, when the truth has simply been postponed or avoided? Truth is our very nature. How long will we violate it with more illusions?
How rare are those who never conceded to human demands for more fantasies to make them “happy”! Buddha was one such, and even after these thousands of years there are still many (including some who call themselves Buddhists) who consider that his utter realism was pessimism or indifference to people’s feelings. One incident that is not popular is his dealing with this subject of death and grief.
A young woman whose infant had died came to Buddha and begged him to bring her child back to life. Buddha told her to go into a nearby town and bring him some rice from a family in which no one had ever died. She hastened into the town and spent the day going from house to house with her request. Everywhere she was told the same thing: death continually came to members of the family. In the evening she returned to Buddha and, bowing, thanked him for showing her the folly of her request. Having understood the universality of physical death, she saw that her grief and her request were based on ignorance–ignorance which was now dispelled.
In the West, the brilliant Stoic philosopher Epictetus counseled his students to study their lives and environment and determine what lay within the scope of their power to influence, produce, or eliminate. Having done this, they should put everything else out of their minds as things they should not even worry about. Birth and death are certainly major elements to cultivate indifference to.
Swami Kaivalyananda, a disciple of Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri, once told Mukunda Lal Ghosh, later to be Paramhansa Yogananda, about miraculous healings done by his guru. But in conclusion he stated: “The numerous bodies which were spectacularly healed through Lahiri Mahasaya eventually had to feed the flames of cremation.” So in the end it was all the same: death had its way.
We only torment ourselves with the desire and attempt to postpone or cancel the inevitable. Years ago I heard about a hillbilly who spent the entire day in a theatre, watching the same film over and over. When asked why he did this, he answered that he did not like the way it came out and so was waiting for it to end differently. It was his incomprehension of the nature of motion pictures that gave him such a foolish hope. And so it is with us.
Earthly life
“Beings are such that their beginnings are unmanifest, their middles are manifest, and their ends are unmanifest again. What complaint [lamentation] can there be over this?” (2:28)
Like the hillbilly we either do not know the truth about this evanescent life of earthly incarnation or we refuse to face it. Our appearances on this earth are but a part of our life history. For aeons beyond number we never came into material manifestation at all. Then we began doing so, like actors entering a theater and moving over the stage in a brief play and then leaving to return home until the next performance. Not only are our “appearances” but a fraction of our relative existence, they are fundamentally unreal.
As Krishna implies, life on this earth is completely unnatural for us. It is natural to be out of the body, not in it. Yet we irrationally cling to it and to our memories of it, even trying to make each life duplicate the one before it, not even wanting the drama to develop, to evolve. And we insanely identify with the ever-changing temporary states, totally forgetting the unchanging eternal state that is the only thing real about us.
Many metaphysically-mind people begin heaping up even more folly through striving to remember their past lives and attributing full reality to them. Rare are those who utilize the memory of past lives to illuminate the problems of the present life so that they all can be let go of in order to pass on to higher life beyond any births.
All our “lives” are really deaths–descent into the worlds of change and decay, dreams caused by the fever of samsara, a disease whose cure we must vigorously seek and even more vigorously apply. Only when we come to know that we have never been born and have never died will we have peace and the cessation of sorrow.
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Tags: Teachings of Buddha · Teachings of Krishna
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