Gita 05.21 – Give up outer pleasure and seek inexhaustible inner happiness

Bhagavad gita 5.21 bahayasparsheshva saktatma vindatyatmani yathsukham so here the brahmana here lord krishna is speaking and is describing how the spiritually advanced soul experiences great happiness how does that person live the person who has acquired knowledge and is situated in the spiritual platform bahayasparsheshva saktatma bahayasparshya sparshya is contact touch so with contact with external things asaktatma asakta asakta is attached asakta is detached asaktatma soul is detached bahayasparsheshva saktatma being detached from external pleasures vindatyatmani yathsukham vindati such a person delights in what atmani yathsukham in inner spiritual happiness in inner happiness so brahma yoga yuktatma so brahma so that person on brahma on the brahma spiritual reality yoga yuktatma such a person yuktatma is yoga yukta is connected with the brahman through the practice of yoga that means through connection yoga essentially means connection so is connected with brahma yoga yukta by the practice of yoga yoga yuktatma sukham akshayam ashnute and by this connection what happens such a yogi akshaya sukha now the word akshaya sukha is significant because in this world all the sukha is kshaya just like if somebody brings a delicious say cake or a delicious pot of kheer then with every morsel that we eat the pleasure is becoming kshaya it is getting it is declining it is exhausted similarly with any form of pleasure even when a person enjoys sense gratification the body's capacity to enjoy is limited and with every little enjoyment that one gets the sukha is getting kshaya and eventually when people stop sense gratification it is not because they are satisfied but it is because the body's capacity to enjoy is exhausted so the happiness also ends because the body's capacity to enjoy happiness ends or the external object with which we enjoy that all gets exhausted or both get exhausted whichever way it is suppose we say that there is so much sweet rice that you can eat as much as you want even our body doesn't allow us to eat our body itself won't allow us to eat as much as we want we stop eventually eating because our capacity gets exhausted so akshaya sukha so the happiness which we get in this world at the bodily level is always kshaya sukha that is the nature of material happiness but spiritual happiness the happiness which is being got over here is akshaya sukha now sukham akshaya vashnute it is such a wonderful conception the happiness that will never get exhausted that's spiritual happiness in fact Chaitanya Mahaprabhu talks the exact opposite saying that not only the happiness is not going to get exhausted rather the happiness will get expanded so he says that anandam budhi vardhanam anandam budhi so the ocean and happiness is like an ocean the ocean is going to vardhanam expanded so it's huge so like that it is akshaya sukha so now Krishna uses the word akshaya sukha since it's related with the word that will come in the next verse 5.22 which will come to the next session where the happiness is limited but how do we get this akshaya sukha Krishna is talking about in its ABC lines first thing Krishna says bhaya sparsheshva sattatma become indifferent to external pleasures no longer be attached to external pleasures we need to focus just as we can't both be moving upwards and downwards just as we can't be moving both forwards and backwards so similarly we cannot be both going outwards and inwards so if we want inner happiness then we have to give up our attachment to the things that drag the consciousness outwards and what drags the consciousness outwards the most forcefully is the hope for pleasure so when one decides I'm no longer going to seek pleasure outside then what happens such a person becomes detached from external pleasures so bhaya sparsheshva sattatma detached from external pleasures then what happens vindatyatmani yathsukham so now we cannot live without pleasure so if somebody says just don't bother about pleasure it's not going to work so the next step is ok you're not looking for external pleasure where do you look for pleasure then internally one starts delighting atmani yathsukham one starts delighting in inner happiness so now we may say that I don't know what do you mean by delighting in inner happiness do I look down at my chest and try to see if I can get some happiness how do I actually look for inner happiness so there is a process for that that is actually the process of yoga so now in bhakti yoga the inner becomes outer for Krishna who is present in the heart of the super soul manifests the deity outside manifests the scripture manifests the holy name so in that sense it becomes much easier for us to move towards Krishna but still the point is we have to withdraw atmani yathsukham so delight in inner happiness now brahma yoga yukta atma and for that purpose one has to be yoga yukta atma the person's soul has to be yoga yukta which yoga to practice that will vary according to person to person literally physically sitting down in one place and engaging in yoga is talked about also in the Bhagavad Gita and in general in the yoga tradition that is ashtanga yoga path and Krishna will talk about ashtanga yoga in the next chapter he will give a prelude for that in 5.27 and 5.28 and he will elaborate on that in the sixth chapter but even in karma yoga one becomes more and more internalized in the consciousness and even in bhakti yoga also one becomes more and more introspective when there are manifestations of Krishna outside in the person things of Krishna outside also but otherwise one turns inwards and that is also important so now brahma yoga yukta atma one practices yoga engages in yoga to connect with brahma to connect with the spiritual reality that is there within oneself and by doing so one attains vimshnute so there is a process to experience the happiness that will never get exhausted that will be imperishable first is don't give up attachment to outer pleasures things that draw and drag the consciousness outwards vayasparsheshva saktatma and then start seeking happiness inwards vindati atmani yad sukham and then for seeking happiness inwards concentrate so brahma yoga yukta atma one of the key principles in the process of yoga whichever yoga it may be is concentration the most spiritual happiness we can't experience it just by first perception of course sometimes we may look at the deities and the deities may look so beautiful that even first perception is captivating but then there is when we concentrate then there is such a deeper experience of a connection with Krishna and that deeper connection is much more enriching so when we start studying shastra sometimes we feel oh this is all the same thing coming again and again and again but then once we start going deep into the subject oh this connects with this this connects with this this connects with this so wonderful so we need to focus and concentrate our consciousness on the spiritual reality and when we do that then sukham akshaya mashnute so by giving up by turning away from external pleasures by seeking happiness within and by concentrating inwards through the practice of yoga a person can relish unlimited happiness thank you.