Gita 06.26 – Overcome discouragement with the inner light and the inner map

Thank you. Here, Krishna is talking about engaging with determination.

Here, Krishna is talking about engaging with determination. In the practise of yoga, without becoming dejected, without becoming distracted, Sankalpa Prabhavan Kamaams Sankalpa Prabhavan Kamaams Sankalpa is like the resolution to do something. So here, the resolution is emerging from Kamaams, from material desires, selfish desires.

Kamaams is used to generate sensuality, not just lust. Sankalpa Prabhavan Kamaams Sarvan Asheshatah Giving this up completely. Sarvan Asheshatah So, Krishna is giving us this verse comes in the middle of the sixth chapter, which is entitled Dhyan Yoga.

And just prior to this, Krishna has given a stirring description of the process by which one can become elevated to the highest level of Samadhi. So Krishna has talked about how in the state of Samadhi one can get very profound visions. And how there, in the state of Samadhi, there is unlimited happiness to be had.

And so great is the happiness that one feels as if there is nothing more to be achieved. Yam labdhva cha aparam labham manyate na dhikam tatha ismin sthito na dukhena gurunapi vichalete Yam labdhva having gained this cha aparam labham manyate na dhikam tatha One feels that there is nothing more to be achieved. Ismin sthito na dukhena gurunapi vichalete Ismin sthito means being situated here one is no longer troubled by anything else.

One does not feel one feels as if even great troubles are nothing. One feels that they are inconsequential because one has got such great fulfilment through the practise of bhakti. Through the connection that one has established by the practise of yoga one gets such a higher connection that nothing else matters.

That everything else even the great misery seems inconsequential. Such is that perfection but because that perfection is so high up because it is not so easy to achieve so it is possible in fact probable that one does not and one is attempting to achieve something exalted one may get distracted or dejected while pursuing it. And Krishna is exalting over here to avoid such distraction on connection.

It can mean distraction in general and specifically it can mean the distraction which is caused by dejection. It is to some extent natural for us that when we pursue something we want some result to manifest. If you are putting in say hours and hours of effort and you put it around for days weeks, months we expect some tangible result from it.

So that result if you are to achieve it as in the case of yoga only at the end of this life or maybe taking even several lives then we may get discouraged Oh! I have put in so much effort and who knows whether I will succeed or not or even if I succeed what kind of success it will be? So this suppose a cyclist a long distance cyclist or a person going on a marathon has to go on that journey in the utter dark and especially if a cyclist is climbing up a mountain and doing so in the dark then there is no way for the cyclist to know how much distance I have covered and how much distance I still have to cover till there and then as the muscles start aching the mind will start tiring and one may start the body will be tiring but along with that the mind will also start feeling how much more and one may want to give up so the situation is actually may seem like this to you if cyclists don't have some inner light and some inner map inner light means the capacity to see what is happening in a the capacity to introspect and observe what is happening in one's inner world and inner map means a philosophical understanding of the trajectory that one is taking and the kind of landmarks that one will have to face in the landmarks that one will give profit now this is also talked about in the yoga texts and among the yoga various yoga paths sushukham karatmam krishna says about the 9.2 sushukham karatmam in fact this path this chapter talks largely about ashtam yoga although the principles that i discussed here apply in a general sense to all paths for example if a person is studying in school or in college there are specific subjects being studied and some of the subjects may require specific kinds of studies to be carried out there may be field studies or certain kind of experiments the biology may require experimenting with with corpses sociology may require going out and doing surveys but overall the principles of study are similar for all paths for all subjects because study is at its denominator a similar activity so in the same way the practise of yoga when we come to each path there are specifics that are there for the path but along with that there are general principles that are similar like all yogic paths require one to become progressively detached from worldly enjoyment especially anti-spiritual enjoyment more specifically how to go about that enjoyment where most yoga paths like ashtanga yoga focus on rejection and renunciation bhakti yoga focus on connection and utilisation with the detachment of those but still there is a similarity that one should not let one's consciousness stay entangled in matter and material enjoyment with that understanding when one practises bhakti which is the recommended form of yoga in the Bhagavad Gita then one can move onwards steadily towards perfection so now in bhagavatam four verses of bhakti yoga there are many books which talk about the inner journey of the bhakti sadhaka bhakti sadhaka written in bhagavatam right in its beginning that is the second chapter of the first kancho in which Prabhupada enlightened us divinity and divine service there in verses 6 to 20 in overall way more specifically from 12 to 19 the process of inner purification is depicted how by hearing one can move closer and closer to the absolute truth till one attains perfection the daaryastha modhava kamalobha dayasya anade dhum pitam sattve prasidati in the modes of passion and glory of self sight kamalobha dayasya so this is of passion and glory lust and greed there is no longer torment Anavidham. That will no longer trouble us. Siddham Sattve Prasiddhati.

Siddham Sattve. One will become situated steadily in the mood of goodness. And beyond that we will move towards transcendence.

But once one is doing this goodness, the struggle against temptation will decrease substantially. Because temptations will no longer seem so tempting. And one will be more steadily connected with transcendence.

So, Evam Prasanni Namanaso. Bhagwat Mukti Yogataha. Bhagwat Tattva Vidyanam.

Mukta Sankhya Siddha Akhite. Evam Prasanni Namanaso. That with cheerfulness, with cheerful mind.

Prasanni Namanaso. Bhagwat Bhakti Yogataha. That the practise of Bhagwat Bhakti will make one prasanna.

And one will practise Bhagwat Bhakti with prasanna. Both ways, Bhagwat Tattva Vidyanam and the realised knowledge of Bhagwat Tattva of God will manifest in our consciousness. Mukta Sankhya Siddha Akhite.

Mukta Sankhya. One will become liberated from material attachments. And that liberation is described further as… Chidhyante sarva-samsheham.

Kshiyante chaasya karmam. Dhrishtayor Manishwar. Vidyate.

Prithayar. All the knots that are there in the heart, that they will go away. Chidhyante sarva-samsheham.

But one's vows will go away. Kshiyante chaasya karmam. And all karmically entangling activities will stop.

And in fact one's existence within the framework of the law of karma itself will be transcended. Kshiyante chaasya karmam. Dhrishtayor Manishwar.

And one gets spiritual perception of the soul as being beyond matter. And of the Lord as the master of matter. So this same analysis which is brief here, is given in more elaboration in Prasangana Sandhu and then in Madhubriya Kadambi.

Before we go into that, a principle to understand is that we are all striving on this path of yoga and this striving at one level can be compared to a journey of consciousness and another collaborative can be compared to a recovery of health. So when a doctor treats a patient, the doctor knows much more about the patient. Patient's maladies and how they are going to be cured.

Then there is the patient. And if the patient wants to know as much as the doctor, the patient will have to go through a medical degree. And that may take years and years.

And then the disease itself will persist and struggle for a long time, will torment for all that period. So normally when a patient goes to a doctor, the patient expects a broad understanding of the disease and an overall understanding of the process of recovery. And the patient cannot see.

Ok, I had fever, the temperature was high. So by taking this medicine, the temperature has gone down. The appetite has returned.

Whatever other symptoms were there, they are subsiding. And now there are two things in recovery. There is the subsiding of the out of the gross symptoms which are visible and which are usually what impel the patient to go to the doctor in the first place.

In serious patient diseases like cancer, one of the biggest concerns is that detection should happen in time. And for detection to happen in time, what is vital is that for treatment to happen in time, so that there is a realistic chance of recovery, detection has to happen early. And one of the challenges in detection is that initially the symptoms don't manifest, or at least don't manifest in a malignant way.

Even if there happens to be a tumour, which turns out to be cancerous, so initially it might just appear as a small extra growth somewhere. And when it appears as a growth like that, there is not much that can be done to heal it. There is not much that can be done to heal it, but there is not much that will draw attention to it.

So similarly, when people are in material existence, the gross symptoms are, Krishna says, So there are the lower modes, and these lower modes cause greed and lust. Beings in themselves are anarchists, but the culture is very materialistic. And the culture may not consider anything seriously wrong with these.

The culture may propagate the idea that how can one live without lust or greed? And in fact, if the culture is very materialistic, then increased lustiness and greediness may even be celebrated as if it were itself a sign of, as if it were a trophy. Sometimes men may boast, oh, you know, I have enjoyed so many women. A woman may claim that, you know, I have conquered so many men.

So this, when social values are so disrupted that the symptoms of the disease are treated as some kind of trophies, then the chances of recovery plummet enormously because there are very few chances left of even detection, even of recovery. Because people don't understand that this is a disease. However, even in materialistic societies, there is concern that lust can go out of control.

And when lust goes out of control, it creates serious problems. So, for example, there can be sexual abuse, there can be rape, there can be incest, paedophilia, child abuse and all sorts of terrible things can happen because of excessive lust. And similarly, with greed, even if people consider that more and more money and the drive for getting more and more money is ambition.

And that is the fuel for the economy to keep moving. Still, even at a material level, the results of gross exploitation and the huge difference between the haves and the have-nots, that can lead to even materially grossly visible differences and that can lead to social upheavals as they happened at the time of the French Revolution when people got tired of living in poverty and they rebelled against the nobility and the royalty. In fact, many of the members of the royal family, including the king and the queen, as well as the nobles of the court, they were gullible.

They were beheaded in a very brutal way. So, the point is that sometimes the effects of lust and greed are manifested in a gross way, in a harmful way, with the harmfulness being visible even at the material level. And even individually also, people may have some pangs of their conscience when they feel, what have I become? What am I doing with my life? The result of excessive indulgence in anarthas is that one starts feeling lost even after having achieved one's destination.

Normally, we feel lost when we don't know where to go and we are unable to get there. We are going to a church and then we lose the map or whatever. But suppose we reach some place and say, what's the point of coming here? Was this where I was supposed to be? Was this what I was supposed to achieve in life? That sort of feeling comes when one lives a life only of materialistic pursuits.

So, now, while living like this, the challenge is that one may mistakenly imagine that getting more of these things is what is going to make me happy. So, achieving material things in the past does not make me happy. But now if I achieve them more, I will become happy.

Then one will stay still submerged in the darkness of materialism. But if one is fortunate and one starts thinking, there must be something higher to my life, then one may be able to start exploring spiritually. But relevant to our point, we took this ritual to stress the point that there are symptoms of the disease and once we recognise those symptoms to be a disease, to be undesirable, that socially they can be damaging and in the individual and the race they are disorienting.

We even may follow what lust or greed impels us to do. It leaves us with nothing at the end. The sense of having achieved nothing and the sense of having stayed lost.

Now, moving onwards in our inner track, Krishna explains, what Krishna has pointed to here very briefly, that most specifically with respect to bhakti, bhakti is talked about by the Vaishnava Acharya, who was Swami Bhakti Samanda Sandhu and Madhuban Shah Chakraborty Thakur in Madhurya Palambi. So, now, moving onwards, these words that Krishna will become technical, but let's focus here on the principles. The principle is that scriptural study provides us the inner map and internalisation of the teaching of the scripture provides us the inner light.

I gave you the example of a cyclist climbing up a mountain or riding up a mountain in the dark. So, one may have a map, but if one does not have light, then the map alone will not be of much use. So, the light, the map is like scriptural gyanam and the inner light is like the vijnanam, is our realisation.

The realisation of how scripturalist we are like, the realisation of how the scriptural truths are demonstrated in my life, how to connect the life experience with the scriptural teaching and how to deepen my conviction about the scriptures. So, we may study scripture ourselves and to some extent we may get an understanding of the map, of the contours of the inner territory and an understanding of what kind of landmarks to expect. But just the map alone is not enough.

Along with that, we need territory, we need eyes, the inner eyes and that usually comes by associating with devotees who are also going on a similar journey and those who have gone further on the journey and have realised certain things. So, by sharing those experiences, you can recognise that, okay, this is what happened to this yogi, this devotee, this is what is happening to me, I can relate with this, I can relate with that. And in that way, one can cross-check, as if you share notes and learn better, learn deeper.

So, gradually we will move towards perfection and the perfection will involve realisation of our own spiritual identity and the realisation of Krishna. bhagvat-tattva-vijnanam That we will understand the truth about Krishna and because Krishna is the source of everything, he is not just God, he is the absolute truth. As Sri Prabhupada differentiates in his introduction to Srimad Bhagavatam, so he is the source of everything, so we are all intrinsically connected with him, we all have a relationship with him and when we understand Krishna, we understand ourselves also properly, we understand our place, position and purpose properly when we understand Krishna and thus we move towards fulfilment in our inner journey.

Now, during this trajectory, as the closer we go to Krishna, the closeness is not so much a geographical distance as an emotional distance. That means, Krishna is right there in our heart and although at one level, the spiritual world is a place which is beyond the material world, which is beyond the 14-planet resistance and beyond the universal coverings, but at the same time, the spiritual realm is not physical. So it's not exactly like a physical map and a physical journey, although it's sometimes depicted like that for the sake of representation and for us to get some general understanding.

But essentially, our distance from Krishna is due to emotion because we are far more interested in other things than Krishna. That's why we are far away from him and the more we become interested in him, the closer we will go to him and the more we become absorbed in him, the more we start feeling his presence and if we are not looking for anything other than Krishna, then we can relish bhakti during the stage of process itself or to speak of the result. If we are looking for, if we get caught up in other things, then the essence of bhakti is the remembrance of Krishna.

Just as for life, the essence of life is breathing, the breath of life, we could say. When a person stops breathing, more or less, death is coming closer and closer. There are many symptoms of life.

Breathing is one of the primary symptoms, especially in the human condition. Similarly, remembrance of Krishna is the essence of bhakti and the more we become purified, the easier and more natural it becomes for us to remember Krishna and to relish his remembrance. So therefore, if we don't go into bhakti with other expectations, that we don't need, say, things like years of ecstasy or the ashtasattvika vikar.

Yes, they will also come in a devotee's life, but they are secondary in the sense that as long as a devotee experiences remembrance of Krishna, that devotee is rapidly on the path of spiritual growth, steadily and confidently on the path of spiritual growth. So, if we become too destination conscious, say, if people are going on a long flight, say, from New York to Mumbai, then they will become very restless. Oh, what should I do? What should I do? When will I reach Mumbai? When will I reach Mumbai? Now, of course, people have virtual media things with them.

So, they may play with their phones or with some gadgets and they may try to pass their time. But often, the idea is, the journey is something which is just to be endured so that the destination is the real thing. Now, if we have that conception in the process of bhakti, then we may open ourselves to unnecessary dissatisfaction.

Because, even for a devotee, there is no certainty, at least from the advanced point of view, from the point of view of knowing about one's individual journey. A devotee cannot know, OK, when exactly am I going to go back to Krishna? What exactly is going to happen and when? So, we have the overall understanding, but specifics we do not know. So, unlike, say, if we are going, if we are coming from America to India and we are going to meet our loved ones in India, we are eager to meet them.

And that anticipation is the fuel at one level for our journey. And there is, of course, the physical fuel that is there for the petrol, the petrol or whatever for the plane. But, that plane is going, but why we are going along that plane, why we are spending the money and the time to go is because we want to meet our loved ones.

So, that is, of course, true with respect to Krishna also. Devotees are eager to meet Krishna. But if we have a more philosophical and experiential understanding of Krishna, then we understand that Krishna is not just situated at the end of the journey.

Krishna is like a relative who is there with us on the flight also. But it is just that we don't recognise him so clearly while we are in the flight. But when we come back home and in the home we are there and then our relatives are there and then that relative is there.

You know this? Oh, you are that person. You were there with me in the flight also. I didn't recognise you that time.

So, like that, Krishna, when we experience ecstasy, when we experience solace, when we experience strength in the practise of bhakti, we need to recognise that all that is the experience of Krishna itself. So, it is Krishna who is there. Just like a baby who is small, very, very small, may feel the embrace of the mother, will feel the protection and the warmth that comes when, say, the mother puts a blanket on it and he sees that my baby might become cold.

So, now during this time, the baby is so small that the baby doesn't understand at that time, oh, this is my mother and my mother is expressing her love for me. But as the baby grows up, that baby starts understanding, oh, this blanket provided me such comfort. It did not come by chance.

It came from my mother. And here is my mother who loves me so much. So, as the baby grows and starts recognising, so like that, as we grow up spiritually, we are eager to meet Krishna, the Supreme Person.

But along with that, we also understand that the experience of ecstasy in bhakti is also an experience, not just ecstasy, where in the sense of we are dancing and singing and we are getting, we may occasionally get tears or ecstasy usually connotes the idea of some exuberant emotion. But we don't necessarily need exuberant emotion to feel the presence of Krishna, to sense the presence of Krishna. Even the simple acts of devotion, such as the solace and security that we feel in the remembrance of Krishna, that also characterises Krishna's presence.

So, by the gradual purification coming from bhakti, we increase, we increasingly sense Krishna's presence and that sort of thing. Thus we realise that Krishna is always there with us. So, if we are getting discouraged, nirvina, during our spiritual journey thinking, Oh, I want to attend Krishna, we can just look at the various spiritual experiences that we have had during our own life.

And those spiritual experiences will convince us that, Oh, actually I have experienced Krishna. And if we see from that point of view, even our life has been substantially transformed. We may have been wasting so much time, so many godless indulgences in the past, which we now have given up.

So, if we feel discouraged, then we should look at how far we have come. Because if we just focus on how far we have to go, we will naturally end up discouraged. But instead of focussing on how far we have already come, and we can ask ourselves, if we look at our life here, there are so many times when we may not have been so sincere and serious, but still Krishna has been there through it all, guiding us, helping us move onwards.

And if despite our lack of seriousness, if despite our distractedness, Krishna has been there with us through all this, then surely Krishna will be there for us in the future too. And thus, we can, by our experience of Krishna, by our understanding of the message of Krishna, overcome dejection and move onwards in our inner journey with determination. Thank you.