Gita 06.24 – Determination means rejection of dejection

Thank you so here Krishna and this actually in the sixth chapter Krishna does a sort of ascent descent alteration between the sadhana stage and the siddha stage and in each of these alterations he takes the description of the siddha stage higher and the explanation of the sadhana stage deeper so for example when initially he starts he is talking primarily about external go and sit in a particular place secluded place and sit in an asana and from there he goes from the 10th verse to the 15th verse he goes to the perfection where he says that that in my nature so this is like at one level that he manages that is one level of yogic perfection or one phase of the description of yogic perfection and from there Krishna goes back again to the sadhaka stage and he talks about how one has to be regulated about sitting, sleeping and other things and from there he moves onwards to the state of perfection of yoga which is described till the 23rd verse where I have achieved this, there is nothing more to achieve now again Krishna is in one sense going down to the sadhana stage therefore one should act with determination with nishchaya, determination and from here Krishna will go to the perfection stage and when he goes to the perfection stage it will be a much more devotionally explicit perfection stage where very direct devotional words will come in in 6.30 so essentially Krishna by this alteration due to two things, he is going deeper in his description of the sadhana and he is going higher in his description of the sadhya, let's see so how this happened, first he talked about in the first description of sadhana he talked more about externals, just go to this place and sit create mekas and things like that then afterwards he talked about more of habits that one should have, habits of the body eat regulatedly, sleep regulatedly now Krishna is going to talk about again for the sadhaka stage, more of managing the inner battle, of course this has been talked about earlier also but here Krishna's focus comes more explicitly on that therefore yoga should be practiced with without any nirvinna can refer to dejection or it can refer to distraction so of course distraction can dejection can also be a form of distraction, distraction can be of various forms so now it means don't get distracted, practice yoga with with determination so why may one get distracted, because there are so many distractions in this world and there are so many distractions in the mind also and also apart from that there is also a dejection that can happen because when one tries to practice yoga the path of yoga is not very easy to follow and one may meet with failure, disappointments and if the disappointments happen repeatedly then one may become dejected also, Krishna is saying don't become dejected like this now if we connect this with the previous thought that was mentioned these two could also become one continuous verse then also we see a nice meaning here Krishna gives the same, he gives the perfection of yoga, one level of perfection of yoga is that that yoga will actually give disconnection from the connection with misery that will give end of misery so now end of misery is definitely a glorious goal especially for one who is miserable just like a person who is sick with a serious disease and is in pain and the doctor says follow this treatment properly and you will become free from disease and three months down the line you will be free from this disease and therefore don't get dejected so do this, this, this, like that in the previous state Krishna stated that this will happen and therefore because that is going to happen therefore engage yourself in determination and determination determination means rejection of dejection determination means that we say no to saying no I can't do it often when we become dejected then we know it's too difficult too many I have too many conditions in my circumstances there are too many obstacles or whatever I can't do it so determination means to say no to no I can't do this treatment I know I can't do it, I will not say like this I will never become dejected I will keep my consciousness I will not let my consciousness get dejected what is the basis for the determination at the end there is the end of sorrow there is the end of misery that you are going to get it's definitely a worthwhile goal and just like when we know that what we are going to achieve is worthwhile is glorious then we are eager to pursue it so like that Krishna is telling over here to Arjuna that that please pursue this because you are going to achieve something glorious by this you will achieve the cessation of misery and therefore be determined and then what does that determine now what does that overcoming that distraction or dejection entail that he mentions in the next part of the verse sankalpa prabhavan kamams tyaktva sarvanasheshata so sankalpa prabhavan kamams so kamams are material desires desires for worldly enjoyment sankalpa prabhavan so the desire for enjoyment when it translates into an intention for enjoyment then it becomes nearly reversible because once we decide to do something that means the internal guards against our wrong doing have already been devastated intelligence is our inner guard against wrong doing but when we decide to do something wrong that means that inner guard has been devastated just like if an enemy is going to attack and the enemy in a fort there is one particular wall which is meant to hold the enemy back but if the enemy has come to the second wall that means the first wall has already been penetrated so like that our intelligence is the wall between is the guarding wall between temptation and intention we feel tempted to do something but then it's not that we have to do it we can say no to it but when we say yes to it and then we decide to do it that is the level where temptation becomes intention and Krishna is telling over here that don't let the desires for enjoyment become sankalpas don't let them become intentions rather when they are about to become intentions before that itself give them up give them up without any exception without any exception without any exception Krishna earlier talked in the second chapter about how even one of the senses can cause fall down even one of the senses if it is roaming that can cause the person to be carried away so like that Krishna is saying here even one desire can cause distraction therefore give up all desires for worldly enjoyment now for a yogi a yogi has decided to give up the world and turn towards the other world naturally the desires have to be given up for us as bhaktas we don't we give up the sinful desires those desires which are devotionalizable which can be doted with devotion means that the mind all the senses carefully keep them under control with the mind control the senses on all sides in all ways on all sides so don't let the senses engage in sense gratification so now in one sense Krishna in the previous line of this is there is also the whole scope of the sense of on all fronts is conveyed in this by and the previous half of those is conveyed by what is Krishna saying over here from the mind don't let there be any desires and that is internal cleansing with the mind control the senses so that there is no outer indulgence also so just like when we are fighting a war and say the there are invaders outside a fort if they can just break down one gate and come in that can prove fatal because once they get in they can devastate the fort is the defense so here by this statement Krishna is pointing out that there should be no don't leave any holes for the enemy to exploit just do it just to make sure just do it in the sense that just be thorough in ensuring that there are no opportunities don't keep desires internally and so in this way by the more the less we leave the possibility for fall then the less is the probability of fall you don't leave the possibility only then the probability becomes zero so that way Krishna is saying that one can avoid rejection so the flow of the verse is that in the previous verse it said that yoga is so glorious that it will free you from all misery therefore practice it with determination and without distraction or rejection whatever causes distraction or rejection that is the desires internally give them up and what causes distraction is the senses which receive images and objects and trigger desires control the senses also externally and all of this on all sides so in this way by being vigilant in guarding the territory of our consciousness from intruders who are actually invaders in terms of desires or in terms of sensory perception that will stimulate desires so by that the we as seekers can stay fixed on this devotional path on the spiritual path and ultimately attain spiritual perfection.