विषया विनिवर्तन्ते निराहारस्य देहिनः ।
रसवर्जं रसोऽप्यस्य परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते ।। ५९ ।।
यततो ह्यपि कौन्तेय पुरुषस्य विपश्चितः ।
इन्द्रियाणि प्रमाथीनि हरन्ति प्रसभं मनः ।। ६० ।।
तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्परः ।
वशे हि यस्येन्द्रियाणि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ।। ६१ ।।

viṣayā vinivartante nirāhārasya dehinaḥ |
rasa-varjaṁ raso’py-asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate || 2.59 ||
yatato hy-api kaunteya puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ |
indriyāṇi pramāthīni haranti prasabhaṁ manaḥ || 2.60 ||
tāni sarvāṇi saṁyamya yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ |
vaśe hi yasyendriyāṇi tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā || 2.61 ||

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Sensory sublimation - how ?

Krishna’s instruction clearly reveals the quick succession of inner turbulence and the consequent loss of wisdom and memory sure to befall one who lacks sensory restraint and makes a mockery of the Yogic path and pursuit. In this context, Krishna makes significant statements about two points :

Restraining therefore all the senses alike, sit restfully to get Self-absorbed, resigning yourself completely to Me. For, the consciousness of one whose senses are fully under restraint will alone be stable.

So, the primary effort of the seeker must be to learn to sit restfully and build up spiritual strength in his mind through buddhi to have the sense-restraint. How can this be done? Krishna makes a timely hint. “Matparah” - develop fondness for me considering me as the Supreme. What does this mean?

So far Krishna was speaking as a third person, observing and analyzing life, like any Teacher would before his students. Now, suddenly, he pronounces, commands, that seeking Arjuna (student) must have supreme loyalty and devotion towards him (the Teacher). How do all these become relevant so suddenly?

A spiritual seeker’s interest in seeking and knowing is directly depending on the value and esteem he holds for the pursuit. This inevitably means that he must have supreme regard for those who represent the life of seeking and Knowing, because Knowers alone are the incarnations of Knowledge. Knowledge by itself cannot incarnate before any one. You must first have a Knower before you in flesh and blood to expose to you the existence and merits of Knowledge. The only source, support, proof and demonstration for spiritual knowledge is the Knower.  If Krishna had not accompanied Arjuna as his charioteer, what would Arjuna have done on encountering his doubts, emotional conflicts and weakness?

Some one should be there to lift up one who has fallen,  and is unable to rise to his feet. The child needs his father’s finger to begin walking. He listens to his parents closely and then only learns to speak. Without such direct personal interactions, in this case with the beloved Knower, how can the Knowing process set in at all?

If you listen to a talk on the Soul or supreme Reality, like any other subject, and go back home forgetting all about the Exponent, then your interest in the pursuit is only shallow and superficial. If you love the subject of Reality, that love will equally be towards the Exponent, the Teacher, as well. Ultimately, any knowledge, when well-imparted and imbibed, will make the student himself like the imparting Teacher. Knowledge ultimately makes one a Knower. This will be possible only through deep unwavering fondness for the Teacher and his teaching.

It is this ‘matparatva’ that Krishna emphasizes more and more eloquently in the later chapters, especially from the 7th onwards.

When the mind picks up a superior fondness for wisdom and hence for the Knower also, it becomes fully receptive to the lessons and restraints needed in the new front. To sit in a place, be devoted to the practice of self-observation, gain purity and the allied attunements, thus become natural and easy for the seeker. And such a spiritually oriented mind will naturally bring in sensory regulation and restraint.

Krishna shows how supreme is the role of sensory restraint, by stating that whoever has his senses under restraint, his prajna (consciousness) alone will become steady (sthita). Such a one alone can be considered a Sthita-prajna, not any other. In other words, Krishna equates sthita-prajnata with sensory restraint to show its indispensable nature in spiritual life, its supreme place in sadhana.

Krishna equally wants to remove a basic delusion which seekers in general suffer from. The restraint, as such, of the senses is not just a matter of physically disciplining them at the bodily level. Senses by themselves cannot force an indulgence. For every sense to go outward and meet its object, the inner mind has to link itself with it. Think of a sleeping person. Even if his eyes are opened by another, will they result in vision? So the mind’s linkage with the senses is inevitable for gaining any outer perception.

The discipline on this account has to be first and last in the mind itself. That is why Gita begins its discussion with viveka and vairagya, both of which are for the buddhi and the mind to absorb and actualize. By physically denying the senses their indulgence or the freedom for it, restraint will not be gained. Suppose you starve or fast, eat less and weaken the senses, will it help restraint fully? Some measure of selection, like satvic food, is immensely helpful, but not starving or fasting.

The objects of pleasure seemingly recoil from one who sternly abstains from sensory enjoyments, but they nevertheless leave in him their deep–rooted taste. This taste will also recede from him only when he gets a full glimpse of the supreme blissful Self.

When the tongue becomes heavily quoted, as in Typhoid and other diseases, the whole taste for food vanishes.  But when the health becomes normal, the taste returns with an added measure of craze for food. Likewise, when a criminal is imprisoned and kept in restraint, he will remain harmless. But on getting released when he becomes free to move and act the way he likes, even a greater unrestrained behaviour may follow. So a mere denial, either by one’s own option or because of a control exercised by another, will not sublimate or moderate the senses. Any such physical restraint or control will always leave behind in the mind a ‘taste’ for the pleasure outside. This indulgence to pleasure has to be eliminated by a purely mental process.

The disinterest that grows when the senses become weak or the body is treated with lesser nourishment or fasting, is not wholesome. Krishna uses the word rasavarjam to indicate that the inward longing for the objects will still be there. To extricate this, or to eliminate it at its very source, the way is to spiritually sublimate the mind and intelligence. Sthita-prajnata counts supremely in this account. When the mind, withdrawing from the senses, delves completely into the depth of the Soul, and the Self-elixir is repeatedly tasted, the object tastes  naturally vanish. In fact, whether it is the pleasure of the objects or the joy of the Self, both equally originate from the Subject. This fact when recognized through sthita-prajnata, the mind definitely turns indifferent to the sensory indulgences and the pleasures arising from them.

Thus the spiritual yogic inward culture and sublimation, for which contemplation and sthita-prajnata are inevitable, is the right way to tone down the senses and rise above outward cravings. A mere bodily outlook, by dint of which many yogic practitioners try to train their body by lying on hot sand-beds or dipping in ice–cold water and the like, will be of no consequence in achieving spiritual wisdom and fulfillment.