The Ideal Disciple
Swami Vidyananda, in the Hindi address which he read just now, welcomed me to this Nainital, describing its beautiful scenery and praising its climate. Well, that is taking me to be an outsider, who has to be formally invited and welcomed. I am in your satsang, for wherever the Geeta is studied, I am and will be present. I do not care for the external beauty of nature as much as the beauty of character and of conduct, which you are seeking to acquire by the constant study of the Geeta. I came to the Geeta satsang to see all of you because I bless all efforts by man to raise himself by study and sadhana. "Madbhaktah yatra gayante, tatra tishtami Narada," is the declaration, "Wherever my bhaktas sing of me, there I install myself." Why, the Lord is always there and everywhere, whether you sing of him or not. The singing only makes him manifest, like the radio receiver which catches the tune from the ether when it is switched to the correct wavelength. The current is flowing ever; when you fix the bulb, you will get the light.
The Bhagavad-geeta is a textbook for all humankind, giving the secrets of spiritual science in clear and simple terms. But, it will be useful only when the reader has as much detachment as Arjuna had when Krishna started the discourse. If you have as much vishadam (despair) as Arjuna had, you have the adhikaram (competence) to get the teaching which removed the grief. Only a patient ailing from a disease is entitled to the specific, which will cure it. What business have others with it? What profit can they draw from it? The Geeta will act on the mental system, only when the symptoms of vishadam (grief) are strong.
Spiritual Surrender Will Get God’s Response
Arjuna, the greatest bowman of those days, anxious since years to destroy the wicked Kauravas, who had angered him by merciless and systematic vendetta, suddenly gets disinterested in everything that he thought precious until that moment! "Of what avail is a victory in the field of battle?" asks this hero of a thousand encounters! "Nor do I see any good from killing kinsmen in battle," says the warrior, who had vowed to wipe out the Kuru clan! "I do not wish to kill them, though they may wish to kill me; I shall lay down my arms; I shall die unresisting," wails this foremost Kshatriya (warrior); "I would rather beg from door to door and live on alms," says this scion of an imperial line. In short, his mind had become ripe for the illumination. He has the Lord himself as a guru, by his side and he knows it. He asks him, "I am struggling in ignorance; I am confused; I do not know what is dharma and what is adharma." He seeks disciplehood and lays himself at the feet of Krishna, in self-surrender!
Anyone anywhere, who reaches that stage of spiritual surrender, will get the response from Krishna and he will teach the Geeta from the chariot, which is driven by him, that is his own heart.
End Delusion And Gain Recognition Of The Self
The purpose of the Geeta is to remove the moha (delusion), which overwhelmed Arjuna and made him feel that he was the doer, whereas the truth is he was but an instrument. So, Krishna asks him at the very end of the discourse, "Has the delusion born out of ajnana (ignorance) been fully destroyed in you?" For, like a good teacher, Krishna is evidently quite willing to resort to some other means, or discourse a little longer, to make the pupil understand the teaching. But, Arjuna is a good student; he declares, "Destroyed is the delusion (Nashto mohah). I have gained recognition." Now, what is the recognition he has gained? The recognition of the self or atma. He has seen himself as basically atma, and he has seen the world and all objects as superimpositions on the atma, due to ignorance or maya.
An emperor, while sleeping, dreams that he is a beggar; he wears tattered clothes and cries piteously before other people’s doors, for a morsel of food; no one listens to his clamour; he can no longer contain his sorrow. He weeps aloud and wakes up his mother. She comes and wakes him up from that dream. Now, the mother need not tell him, "Listen to me; you are the emperor. You are not a beggar." He knows it as soon as he awakes. The recognition of the self happens as soon as the delusion goes, the delusion that this dream-world is real!
A prince, who falls into the hands of a forest tribe while yet a child and behaves like one of them, does not thereby lose his princehood. Rescue him, and he knows he is a prince. So too, Arjuna says, "Smritir labdhva," - "I got back my memory. I have gained recognition. I know myself; I am thyself!"
The study of the Geeta must end in this result; your satsang must have this consummation as your goal. Do not be enamoured of the skill exhibited by some pandit, who can recite the Geeta in record time, or write the whole of it on a postcard, or repeat it upside down, or reel off commentaries. A man walked on the beach, played with the waves, and had a dip in the water; his feet are wet! No, there is no miracle in this. This is what happens to many a scholar, who wades in the sea of the Geeta. In the Darbar hall, when the Maharana is arriving to seat himself on the throne, the courtiers call out his polysyllabic titles, but in daily conversation, his short name is used; his principality is but a tiny state. Similarly, the pandit may have great pomp before others, but to himself, in the secrecy of his own conscience, he is a small man indeed. Greatness depends upon the sadhana (spiritual discipline) and the success achieved in it, in anushthana (the practice of religious austerities) and nishta (ethics and firm adherence to it).
Geeta Is The Greatest Harmoniser Of All Yogas
"Awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached," it is said, "Uttishthata, jagrata, prapyavaran nibodhata." But, one need not march towards the goal. It is not someplace, where you have to go. It is just the opening of the eye, the removal of the veil, the waking from the dream, the lighting of the jnana-deepam (light of spiritual wisdom).
To get this fruit of Geeta-parayanam (discourse on Geeta), ekagrata (one-pointed concentration) is essential. Krishna asks Arjuna, "Has this been heard by you with an attentive mind? Have you heard it without distraction?" For, the battlefield, where they were, had plenty of distractions to disturb the concentration of Arjuna’s mind, from the invaluable lesson he was receiving from Krishna. It is really admirable that Arjuna, seated in the chariot between the two armies, manages to master his mind and rid it of all the passions, with which it was filled when he rode in for the fray! Truly, he is an ideal disciple. You should thank him for eliciting the Bhagavad-geeta for humanity.
There are people, who argue that the Geeta teaches this yoga more than any other; that shows only their partisan nature. Once you begin to practise the Geeta, such ideas as trying to exhibit your superior scholarship, by propounding a new theory or meaning, will vanish. The Geeta is the greatest harmoniser of all yogas. As a matter of fact, once the Geeta is made the guiding star of your life, the way you act will be karma-yoga, the way you feel will be bhakti-yoga, the way you reason will be jnana-yoga. It will become automatically so. What you do must be in line with dharma; what you feel must foster prema; what you think must reveal satyam. Then, this satsang will be blessed with shanti, with even prashanti.
Geeta satsang: Nainital, 24-6-1961