The infallible formula for attaining the Eternal
Krishna explained the ‘higher wisdom-pursuit’ (parā jñāna-niṣṭhā) and how it leads the seeker to verily become the imperishable Brahman. This actually means that the seeker has to become conscious of his Immortal nature. With this pursuit, the sense of mortality forged by the ‘plural world’ will end.
Generating sama-darśana (equal vision) or evenness of the mind, coupled with parā bhakti (the higher devotion), the jñāna-niṣṭhā paves the way for a full, direct entry or merger into God’s own being, said Krishna so lucidly.
Such being the fruition of spiritual sādhanā, Krishna now discloses a set of exclusive formula or propositions for the seeker to spiritualize and divinize his life. The principle is universal and does not distinguish between activities on the basis of their kind and quality. This is a point the seeker should not fail to note.
Generally, one’s sādhanā is piecemeal – time-bound and place-bound. Thereby it becomes limited. To enable the seeker to get over such constriction, Krishna brings the principle of all-foldness, to generate a new note of wholesomeness and continuity. If the sādhaka cares to understand and reflect upon the proposition in all its depth, loftiness and attunement, he will surely know where lies the true focus of devotion and spirituality.
By undertaking all activities with wholesome reliance on the Supreme, thereby acquiring the grace of the Supreme, one attains the eternal, imperishable abode.
With discernment and astuteness, the sādhaka should perform all secular and other activities, without any exception whatsoever. While doing so, all that he has to ensure is that his mind completely rests and relies upon the Supreme. He should recognize that such reliance has the greatest sublimating effect. It has the inherent power and potential to look after all his needs. It will also safeguard, may be mysteriously, against any possible slips and errors he may incur any time, either in performing the activities or in assimilating their impacts, thereafter.
How does this work? The seeker may wonder: Is it not necessary to think every time about right and wrong – the desirability and undesirability – of every action? The doubt is quite relevant. But a right understanding of the whole process will set aside all such doubts and questions.
It is a fact that all activities originate in and from the mind. Their impacts and effects too are in the mind alone. So, in avoiding any wrong action, taking to the right action, and assessing the virtuous and vicious, the mind and intelligence alone are the tools. What activity one takes up or what he avoids, verily depends upon the mind and its purity, the intelligence and its discretion.
The inner, wholesome restfulness on the Supreme will inevitably instill into the mind the subtle note of purity, sublimity and refinement. The intelligence gains clarity and thereby derives the distinct note of rationality and discrimination. After all, it is the association and interaction with the plural world that results in impurity and corruption of the mind and intelligence. Wherein then lies the true redress for these?
Dissuading the mind and intelligence from the plural world and infusing the sublimity of the transcendental Supreme is the best safeguard to ensure that only good actions are propelled and the right evaluations arrived at.
To regulate and refine activities, the stress is not so much on anything external. The mind and intelligence are the factors, first and last, to be touched up and elevated. They will imbibe the best of sublimation and enrichment by their wholesome attunement to the Supreme. Do not miss this point.
In fact, this is what Krishna meant in the 12th chapter, when he said: “mayi eva mana ādhatsva mayi buddhim niveśaya – fix your mind and intelligence on the supreme Reality” (12.8).
Developing total reliance
How to develop this total reliance? Reflect upon the nature and magnitude of the Supreme, so that the meaning and relevance of wholesome reliance will become clear and forceful. Is not the supreme Reality supremely intelligent, supremely powerful and supremely pervading? Will not reliance and dependence on such a source be far better than the reliance on any of the external perishable object sources? Which of the two will imbue the mind with greater potential, possibilities and outcomes?
When the mind remains anchored to the Supreme, the very source of the whole Creation, it is bound to become most qualitative and pure. Mind implies memory, thoughts and emotions. These give rise to many attitudes, which can be benevolent as well as harmful. Hence, the struggle in human life is to have timely memory, healthy thoughts as well as right emotional responses. How to facilitate these, is always a big question. Without going into the genesis of emotional responses and attunement, people get steeped in utter chaos and indecision.
In such a background, Krishna’s exhortation for inner wholesome attunement is greatly relieving, assuring and rewarding. The sādhaka should not worry about the kind, quality and purpose of whatever he does. For, any such considerations will only lead to confusion, diffidence and fear, as it happened in Arjuna. In order to rise above any such plight, the best way is to provide the mind a comprehensive support and security. This is what Krishna compels by his call for wholesome attunement to the Supreme. As long as such attunement is there, the mind will irresistibly become stable, sublime and confident to go forward in any situation.
All are engaged in their activities and interactions goaded by the world of variety. At least this is what everyone thinks and feels. Krishna also has already made it clear earlier that rāga and dveṣa (attraction and repulsion) are seated on every sensory object (3.34). Apart from this, the mind and intelligence too have their own share to contribute in the matter. The mind is filled with memories and emotional urges, while the intelligence has its own discrimination and preference, however unjust and incomplete these may be.
Thus, everyone thinks that all activities along with their motivations result from a combination of external and internal factors. But is it true? This position is completely set aside by Krishna’s exhortation. The world, which is but a display of the Supreme, cannot produce an urge, besides what the Supreme itself wills. A mind established in the Supreme, despite the externalities, will surely have the proper inspiration to undertake any mission.
Doubt, fear or anxiety as to what may happen – whether the actions would be right or wrong, successful or otherwise – simply loses its meaning and relevance in the context of all-fold reliance and restfulness. So, should one strive to make external selections, or should he be attuned to the Source by which he will always be led to the right selection?
From the mind proceed all activities and in the mind alone their outcomes finally rest. This is a fact to be remembered and heeded every time. Can any act be separated or disconnected from the mind? Activities are but outward expressions of the mind’s own urges, wishes and will. The intelligence too adds its share. When in the mind-level, through exclusive restfulness and reliance on the Supreme, the necessary purity and attunement irresistibly grow, they will in turn, bring about all the necessary sublimation and enrichment in all activities and responses. This kind of inner wholesome reliance on the Supreme gives a saving touch to all activities and interactions, ensuring the necessary filtration, selection and weaning. But people invariably fail to grasp this point.
That the correction, safeguard and enrichment for all that one thinks, speaks and does, are to be brought about inwardly, in the causal level, namely that of the mind, is something that eludes even staunch seekers. As a result, a grave lack of coordination prevails between the intelligence, mind and the senses. Seekers get worried more about the right and wrong, virtue and vice divisions than the inherent keenness of the mind to avoid all possible wrongs at the very source level.
Ask the question: Is it better to bestow the mind with an all-time persuasion to always engender the right actions? Or, should one depend upon individualized, piecemeal considerations every time? The answer cannot be both!
What is Krishna’s pronouncement about the reward for preserving such an inner wholesome attunement? Once this inward reliance is there, Krishna says, the seeker irresistibly becomes a receptacle for the ceaseless grace of the Supreme. By dint of that, the seeker will attain the undecaying abode (padam avyayam) of divinity.
Is not such a reward, fruition, far above all transitory, earthly gains and glories? If the mind shifts from the external dependences, and instead wholesomely rests on the Supreme, that will itself pave the way for eternal safety, security and crowning glory of human life. The whole process is one of the mind and heart. Mind is far above matter. The glories it can bring are verily ineffable!
Understanding the glory of the Supreme
How can the mind be trained or led to take to this kind of inner reliance and restfulness? The question is quite relevant.
The answer is that the seeker must have a proper evaluation of what the Supreme denotes. People are generally given to devotion as a cultural heredity, and it is in this background that they think about God. But that in itself does not seem to make the mind wholesomely divine or spiritual!
The reason is that all interactions are with the world and its constituents, and every time these worldly interactions fill the mind with worldly thoughts, reactions and imaginations alone. As against these worldly accretions, thoughts or imaginations of God are pitiably less. How can such a worldly mind take to anything like a wholesome reliance on the Supreme?
This plight should change structurally. That is why, though Krishna began to expose the Imperishable Soul to Arjuna at first, he very soon entered into an extensive discussion of the supreme Reality, its sovereign potential and splendour. He then described briefly the vibhūtis (excellences) of the Supreme and also displayed them to an extent in the Viśvarūpa-darśana.
The more the seeker dwells upon the magnificence of the Supreme, the more will his mind be led to think of and rely exclusively upon It. The natural climax of such a shift will be to abide in wholesome reliance upon the Supreme.
Epic narrations, the picturesque descriptions of Divine Incarnations (avatāras), the stories of lofty devotees and the like have the sole purpose of inundating the human mind with divine feelings and imaginations, which, on becoming powerful and deep, would be able to overwhelm worldly dominance. In fact, it is a deft process of enticing the mind towards the splendour and glory of Divinity, to make it (the mind) rest and rely upon the Divine exclusively!
Krishna’s earlier elaborate discussion about what all constitute the aggregate of God (7.4,5,6) – the transcendental power which sustains the entire Creation – has thus unique relevance and importance.
The Supreme is supreme indeed in every way. When the mind learns to rely on It exclusively, all corrections, improvements and enrichments are sure to follow. It is ego and selfishness that cause disruption and bring corruption. Between the mind and the body, know clearly that the mind is the factor to be purified and embellished. The body is but an instrument for the mind to function and gain its experiences. Thus our focus before, during and after every activity must be truly on the mind. And for this, the most safe and beneficial position will be to take to a full-fold reliance on the Supreme.
Here Krishna speaks of the full reliance on the Supreme as the single factor to gain supreme felicity for the seeker. Earlier, he spoke of the overwhelming quality of asaṅga (dis-attachment) as the one factor bestowing supreme fulfillment (3.19). Whether it is asaṅga (disattachment) then, or vyapāśraya (total dependence) now, it all denotes the indispensable overriding spiritual enrichment that should adorn the human mind, making the seeker rise above transitory attractions of the world and lodging himself in the Imperishable Soul within. The words and phrases may differ, but their essential content and import are ever the same.
To summarize, Krishna’s exhortation is:
1. Do not take the trouble of differentiating your activities and interactions, categorizing them with various details and consequences.
2. What should instead be done is to subject all of them alike to the all-fold reliance on the Supreme. This inner reliance will act as a constant sublimation, enrichment and attunement. As everyone will, in any case, be doing his activity, there is no additional exertion or involvement in heeding this formula. So, be enriched by it!
3. What will follow such a course? The Grace of the Supreme will lead the seeker to the interminable supreme abode. What more will be there, then, to be aspired for?
4. This supreme inner reliance is to be striven for and attained by the mind, with the help of the intelligence. It is to facilitate the intelligence in its effort to support the mind that all our spiritual texts and compositions came to be. The art and process of the whole matter is something that calls for deep evaluation and appreciation.
5. The verse, with its import, stands independently. It is supreme in itself.
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(From Essential Concepts in Bhagavad Gita - Volume 6)
