Gita 06.07 – The controlled mind disregards dualities and discovers the Supersoul

Thank you this is Bhagavad Gita 6.7 Krishna is speaking here jitaatmanah jitaatmanah the mind is controlled prashantasya one becomes peaceful shanta is itself peaceful prashanta is extremely peaceful jitaatmanah prashantasya paramatma samahitaha paramatma the atma the paramatma the atma is the soul the paramatma is the great soul the supreme soul this usually refers to the super soul samahitaha is attained sheeth, oshna, sukha, dukha, kheshu sheeth, oshna, heat and cold sukha, dukha the tha, mana, pamanayo and honour and dishonour samahitaha means samahitaha it is actually well situated the supreme soul is already attained and such a person becomes equipoised in the dualities so let's go from backwards Krishna is talking about three levels of dualities towards which the person who has conquered the mind becomes equipoised sheeth, oshna is the duality the physical level sukha, dukha is the duality at the mental level and mana, paman is the duality at the egoistic level and Krishna says one becomes equipoised towards all of them how? by jitatpanah how? the mind is the magnifier of things quite often small problem the mind makes it into a big problem small pleasure the mind makes it a very big pleasure and that's how we get tossed by the dualities in this world if we get if we want some pleasure if we get some pleasure or we want some pleasure the mind makes it such a big pleasure, you must have it how can you live without it actually even if we get that pleasure it's not all that great because in material world even the best material enjoyment is at best unexciting it doesn't last for long and it usually turns out to be an anticlimax so the mind makes us unnecessarily unduly excited about worldly pleasures and similarly the mind makes us unduly unnecessarily disturbed about worldly pains and by this we get trapped we are trapped in just the pursuit of trapped in the trapped in trying to avoid pleasure and trying to get pain and because both of these are at the material level so our consciousness is trapped at the material level and thus we deprive ourselves of the steady lasting spiritual fulfillment that is actually ours that is what we are meant to relish but when the mind is conquered then it cannot subject us to these dualities the dualities will be there even a great devotee will be respected can be sometimes disrespected a great devotee can face physical pain or go to places where the temperatures are extreme so these dualities will be there but when the mind is controlled then we don't when we have controlled the mind then we don't let the mind exaggerate the dualities yes it is there yes this person insulted me but why do you have to worry for too long for this come it's gone forget it I'll go on with my life so yes there may be some feeling of stress but we don't get too caught up in it you know it will come it will go it's like if we are going in a train and there is a nasty smell in the area through which the train is passing so we know that this nasty smell is there we can't wish away the smell we can't imagine the smell is not there it is there but by knowing the train is passing through it and that place will pass away we can avoid getting too agitated by that so like that once we understand that at the material level things are changing and whatever is there now is temporary so we don't get too excited by the dualities then in this way we avoid the mind's hyper agitation over worldly things then prashantasya the mind becomes situated in peace not just the mind becomes situated in peace we become situated in peace prashantasya it's very deep level of peace Krishna will talk about this word prashanta again in the same chapter of the Gita twice he will talk about it prashantatmavigatabhir brahmacharitate sthitah will come in 6.13 and then prashantamanasamyaenam yoginamsukham uptamam that will come in 6.27 so prashanta it's a very deep kind of peacefulness Krishna is saying here that this prashanta when does it come when the jitatman when the mind is controlled when the mind is conquered tatmanah prashantasya he says that actually the super soul is right next to us so we are divorced from the super soul we are disconnected from the super soul because of our misdirection misdirection of consciousness towards matter there is a famous example from the Upanishads comes in Katha Upanishad and other Upanishads also that actually we are like there are two birds sitting in a tree samanavakshepurushonimagno nishayashojyutimuhiyamana yushta nishapashyadapashyatyanamesh masyamahimana mitivitashyokaha so it is stated that samanavakshepurushonimagno the same tree, two birds are there but one of the birds is nishayashojyutimuhiyamana it is muhiyamana, it is deluded and it is lamenting why? because it is pecking at different fruits on the tree and feels happy when it gets good tasting fruits and feels miserable when it gets bad tasting fruits but if it just turns towards the other bird and it understands its glories asyamahimana if it understands the mahima of this other bird then mitivitashyokaha it will become free from misery so what this metaphorical two bird metaphor indicates is the tree is the body and the soul is like the bird which is eating various fruits and the super soul is the other bird which is observing so now when we turn from the soul to the we are now trying to peck at the various sense objects in this world and trying to get some pleasure but we may occasionally get some pleasure but overall what we get is misery and if we just turn towards Krishna if we turn towards the super soul in the heart and then when we understand his glory then we naturally fall in love with him and we fall in love with him then the root cause of our misery is our love for material things but when we learn to love Krishna then that attraction to Krishna causes our consciousness to become absorbed in him and absorption in him, remembrance of him is source of great fulfillment so mitivitashyokaha become free from misery when we understand Krishna's glories so now what it is saying, this verse is saying is jitatmanah prashantasya paramatma samahitaha when we control the mind at that time we attain the paramatma paramatma samahitaha and when we attain the paramatma thus then what we have attained is so great that means our consciousness has become fixed on the super soul so that absorption in the super soul is so fulfilling that nothing else remains consequential thereafter so the soul has become deeply conscious of the super soul has become the main thing distracting the soul from the super soul is the mind the mind tells watch this, watch that watch that, watch that but when we control the mind then we can fix our consciousness on the super soul and when we relish that then the fulfillment therein is so great that then the worldly dualities no longer matter just like if a person if a beggar gets a five rupee coin the beggar is very happy of course now currency is devalued so much that five rupee coin may not be very valuable but still for a beggar who is utterly starving we can say five rupees, ten rupees or fifty rupees whatever, the beggar will be happy if he gets money and if the beggar will be if the say the coin falls off his hand, the beggar will be agitated oh where is it fallen off but if that same beggar now becomes a millionaire and has millions of rupees and five rupees if he loses the five rupees he gains it will be not very consequential because he knows that actually I have got something so much higher why do I have to worry about this particular thing so now of course every material metaphor has its limitations here we are putting both of them in the same category both are considering money comparing to money but just saying that the million rupees is far more than five rupees now it is true in one sense that the spiritual happiness is far far more than material happiness but the difference between spiritual happiness and material happiness is not just in the greatness of the quantity of the happiness but it is also in the superiority of the quality of the happiness so spiritual material happiness is peripheral to our being it is just a sensation that occurs on the body which is peripheral to who we are which is just the dress that we wear and that's why qualitatively material happiness can at best be only titillating whereas qualitatively spiritual happiness is connected to the core of who we are it is connected with us and our relationship with Krishna and that's why spiritual happiness is quantitatively and qualitatively superior to the material happiness quantitatively we can understand in terms of that once we are connected with Krishna in terms of time it can just go on and on and on because the connection with Krishna can just go on and go on because Krishna is the source of all happiness no connection with any sense object can go on and on and on like that so in this way then the soul is experiencing spiritual happiness now of course at this stage in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna is not talking about bhakti and Krishna has not introduced himself so he is not aham it's not paramatma samahita so the ecstasy in remembering Krishna is definitely the personal manifestation of Krishna that's much higher than the happiness that is experienced in remembering the super soul but even in fixing even when the conscious is fixed on super soul that also brings sufficient level of happiness that makes material pleasures or material dualities the appearance of the material pleasure and the loss of the material pleasure it makes both of them not so consequential it makes both of them insignificant and therefore one can say steady and move onwards in one's spiritual journey.