Gita 06.08 – Realization brings satisfaction and equal vision

Thank you Bhagavad Gita 6.8 this verse speaks about how the person who has controlled the mind was mentioned in the previous verse so how that person becomes situated at quite a high level of perfection there is knowledge there is realization of that knowledge at that time the person becomes satisfied so the soul becomes satisfied now knowledge that I am not the body but I am the soul or knowledge that I am Satchitananda that in and of itself is uplifting because we understand that I am not destructible that I am beyond the body's vulnerability and imperishability but still this is theoretical but when one understands the one's own identity to be that not just in an intellectual sense but in an experiential sense that is called as a realization so realization means that which is a reality we accept it to be the reality when we accept something to be the reality at that time it becomes a realization so now we may say I have already accepted that I am not the body I am the soul yes we may have accepted the intellectual sense but not in an experiential sense we have not experienced ourselves to be the soul or at least not on a regular basis occasionally we may have had something which we may call as spiritual experiences but here we are talking about getting that personal experience so realization means that which is a reality we accept it to be a reality so once we accept as a reality that the soul that I am the Satchitananda soul then we understand that actually I don't need to do anything except live according to my nature to be happy as a soul I am Satchitananda and if I just realize that nature and I live according to that nature now the soul is a part of God so living according to the nature of the soul also means living in loving service to God once we do that then satisfaction is a natural result so when there is only Jnan without Vijnan then there can often be confusion and delusion which is caused by seeming contradictions in knowledge one has which is caused by the distances between various perceptions of reality which are given in scripture and which are got by various seekers and which seem contradictory so we need Vijnan to become Truptam we need to become realized then we will become satisfied at the same time we cannot get realization if we don't have any knowledge unless we have some knowledge initially and methodically then even if we get the benefit we will not understand the benefit just like if a person is unconscious and is sick the person unconscious person is given administered the medicine and the person becomes better but because there is no Jnan there is no Vijnan there is no knowledge oh this medicine is meant to cure me so there is no Vijnan oh this medicine has cured me this medicine is good so we certainly need to internalize and realize the knowledge that we have but that does not mean that we should minimize the acquisition of knowledge stress on realization of knowledge does not mean that there has to be a minimization of the acquisition of knowledge no the acquisition of knowledge is foundational to its realization and often acquisition of knowledge is also an impetus for its realization oh there is so much knowledge there is so much to learn and I learn much better if I realize it so then it inspires us to apply it also just like if a medicine has cured many many people the more we come to know about how many people have been cured by it the more we feel inspired to take that medicine similarly the more Jnan we have that about how we are the soul the more philosophically logically scripturally we understand it then the more we feel inspired to realize it in experiential become satisfied by that and is one who is situated fixed in knowledge just like a bird like an eagle sits high up on the tree and it is almost in the sky barely touching the earth at the point from the earth there is something like a very tall tree situated high up on a tower so like that the person was acquired and realized spiritual knowledge is situated above material existence although may be in material existence still above material existence which a person has conquered the senses actually the senses if they are uncontrolled they drag us down to the level of sense gratification and once they drag us down to sense gratification then that is coming to sense gratification itself an illusion and because of that it also fosters a further illusion so the desire to indulge in the sense gratification is an illusion the indulgence is an illusion and indulgence furthers the illusion therefore the person who has acquired knowledge and realization does not fall into this illusion because he knows that this pleasure is actually temporary and illusory such a person is yukta now yukta is a variant of the word yoga so yoga, yogi, yukta they all come from the same root and have similarity one who is yukta is a yogi this might seem like a tautology one who drives is a driver one who sings is a singer so one who is engaged in yoga is a yogi what is the point of saying something like this it is a self evident thing which is not need mentioning also but Krishna is doing something deeper over here he is saying that yukta does not just here mean engaged in yoga yukta means connected, harmonized linked, linked with what linked with a particular conception of reality, linked with a particular conception of the world which is described in the previous part of this verse as well as the previous verse so the person who is situated like this is called as a yogi uchyate yogi and the last part describes the vision of indifference a person has an equal vision towards gold towards stone and towards pebbles kanchana is gold asma is stone and loshtra is pebbles stone pebbles are on one side and kanchana is on the other side, stone may have some value because stone can be used for some may be shaped into some tiles or used for some walls but pebbles are relatively useless so pebbles are practically the most useless we just kick them away, stones are of some use and kanchana, gold is of the greatest value but the utterly valueless, usually less valuable and the immensely valuable all these three are seen equally by the realized person what is this equal vision that none of these can give me happiness I am a soul and as a soul a soul cannot get happiness from anything material only the spiritual can give happiness to the soul and therefore the soul who has realized who has become situated at the level of the soul does not become attracted to anything material knowing that none of the material things can give me any happiness, of course a devotee's vision is not being described over here a devotee also sees at one level a devotee also knows that none of this can give me happiness but a devotee knows that the things of this world can be used in the service of the lord and if something has great value in the service of the lord, the devotee appreciates that value and uses that in the service of the lord in fact Srila Prabhupada described in the Leela Amrit that when he was constructing a temple in Vrindavan, the cement bags which he had got, he valued them as if they were gold because at that time cement was very difficult to get and after great struggle the devotees got the cement and Prabhupada had a devotee guard the cement at night.

The idea is that something is usable for the service of the lord and that should be considered immensely valuable so that devotional vision will be talked about later in the Gita at this stage the emphasis is being stated that a person should be equipoised towards material things entirely so that person doesn't get attracted and captivated by illusion that this material thing will provide me happiness and therefore I should pursue it. So what is the equal vision that is talked about for things in this verse will be talked about for people in the next verse which we will discuss.