Every sage-teacher, like a writer, has his own style and certain favorite expressions. Besides choosing a poetic medium, Yogeshwar Krishn has also repeatedly employed and stressed terms such as yog, action (karm), yagya, varn, varnsankar, war, sphere (kshetr), and knowledge or discrimination (gyan) in the Geeta. These words are invested with unique meanings in the context and are certainly not divested of charm by frequent repetition. The term “Yog” has been excellently clarified in different chapters of Bhagwad Geeta with metaphysical interpretations, but in today’s concept, its initial potential is getting lost due to various misinterpretations. Yog is totally a metaphysical term and any exposition other than within the limits of metaphysics, as is often seen today, is mere ignorance and baseless. Let us discuss about the real concepts of Yog as preached in Bhagwad Geeta. In very simple words, attainment to the Supreme Spirit who is beyond worldly attachment and repulsion is yog. Sri Krishn has preached in verse 23 of Chapter six: taṁ vidyād duḥkhasaṁyogaviyogaṁ yogasaṁjñitam| sa niścayena yoktavyo yogo’nirviṇṇacetasā|| ”It is a duty to practice this yog, untouched by miseries of the world, with vigour and determination, and without a sense of ennui.” That which is equally free from worldly attraction and repulsion is named yog. Yog is experiencing the final beautitude. Attainment of the ultimate essence, that is God, is yog. Engaging in this yog without a sense of monotony or boredom (ennui) and with resolution is a sacred obligation. He who is patiently engaged in selfless action is the one who succeeds in achieving yog. He adds further that it is person’s duty to sacrifice all the desires that arise from will, along with attachment and worldly pleasure, and restrain well with the mind the senses from straying here and there. The final dissolution in God comes only gradually with the practice of yog. When the mind is fully under control, the Self is united with the Supreme Spirit. However, at the beginning, when the worshipper has just set out on the path, he has to concentrate his mind patiently on, and think of nothing else except, God. The way of this spiritual enterprise is that attainment comes only with constant application. To trim the mind along with the body and senses in keeping with the goal is penance. They tend to digress from the goal but have to be pulled back and applied to it. Yog is the joining of the Soul, wandering amidst nature, with God who is beyond nature. Usually, the meeting of two objects is yog. But is it yog if a pen meets paper or a dish meets a table? Of course not, because both are made of the same five elements: they are one, not two. Nature and the Self are two entities, distinct from each other. There is yog when the nature-based Soul meets the identical God, and when nature is dissolved in the Soul. This is the true yog. So there are many who resort to a strict practice of restraint because it is conducive to this union. Nonviolent but severe austerities such as restraint, religious observance, the appropriate posture of sitting, serenity of breath, withholding of the mind along with the physical organs, retention, meditation and perfect absorption of thought in the Supreme Spirit, are indicated as the eightfold features of yog. In chapter two, verse 48, Sri Krishn preaches: yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanaṁjaya| siddhyasiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate|| ‘‘The equipoise of mind that arises from profound absorption in the performance of action after renouncing attachment and being even-minded in respect of success and failure is, O Dhananjay (Arjun), given the name of yog.” Resting in yog, renouncing infatuation for worldly ties, and looking at success and failure with an equal mind, Arjun should undertake action. But what action? Sri Krishna’s pronouncement is that people should do selfless action. Equipoise of mind is what is called yog. The mind in which there is no unevenness is full of equanimity. Greed destroys its evenness, attachments make it unequal, and desire for the fruits of action destroy its serenity. That is why there should be no hankering after the fruits of action. At the same time, however, there should also be no diminishing of faith in the performance of action. Renouncing attachment to all things, seen as well as unseen, and giving up all concern about achievement and non-achievement, we should only keep our eyes fixed on yog, the discipline that joins the individual Soul with the Supreme Spirit, and lead a life of strenuous action.Yog is thus the state of culmination. But it is also the initial stage. At the outset our eyes should be fixed on the goal. It is for this reason that we should act keeping our eyes on yog. Equanimity of mind is also named yog. When the mind cannot be shaken by failure and success, and nothing can destroy its evenness, it is said to be in the state of yog. It cannot then be moved by passion. Such a state of mind enables the Soul to identify himself with God. This is another reason why this state is called Samattwa Yog, the discipline that makes the mind filled with equanimity. Since there is, in such a state of mind, complete renunciation of desire, it is also called the Way of Selfless Action (Nishkam Karm Yog). Since it requires us to perform action, it is also known as the way of Action (Karm Yog) . Since it unites the Self with the Supreme Spirit, it is called yog. It is necessary to keep in mind that both success and failure should be viewed with equanimity, that there should be no sense of attachment and that there is no desire for the rewards of action. It is thus that the Way of Selfless Action and the Way of Knowledge are the same. He adds: buddhiyukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛtaduṣkṛte| tasmādyogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam|| “As the Soul endowed with a mind of equanimity renounces both meritorious and evil deeds in this world itself and the art of acting with equipoise is yog, the endeavour to master the way of equanimity of discrimination is Samattwa Yog.’’ Stoic minds give up both the sacred and the sinful in this life itself. They adopt an attitude of detachment to both. So one should strive for the equanimity of mind. Yog is the skill of acting with equipoise. The human body is meant for worship of God. Sri Krishn says that when mind achieves the state of steady contemplation of God, it will become changeless and constant, and then one will master the skill of even minded discrimination. He will then achieve the perfect equilibrium which is the ultimate state of immortality. This is the crowning point of yog. And the realization of this state will be manifested to the doer alone, not to anyone else, when his practice of yog has reached maturity, not at its inception, not in the middle, not externally but within his heart-within his Self. Sri Krishn preaches in verse 41 and 42 of Chapter four: yogasaṁnyastakarmāṇaṁ jñānasaṁchinnasaṁśayam| ātmavantaṁ na karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya|| tasmādajñānasaṁbhūtaṁ hṛtsthaṁ jñānāsinātmanaḥ| chittvainaṁ saṁśayaṁ yogamātiṣṭhottiṣṭha bhārata|| “O Dhananjay, action cannot bind the man who relies on God and who has surrendered all his actions to him by the practice of karm-yog and all whose doubts have been put to rest by knowledge.’’ Action cannot enslave the man whose deeds are dissolved in God by the practice of yog, whose doubts have been resolved by perception, and who is united with God. Action will be brought to an end only by yog. Only knowledge will destroy doubts. So Krishn finally says: ”So, O Bharat, dwell in yog and stand up to cut down this irresolution that has entered into your heart because of ignorance with the steel of knowledge.’’
Arjun has to fight. But the enemy-irresolution-is within his own heart, not outside. When we proceed on the way of devotion and contemplation, it is but natural that feelings of doubt and passion will arise as obstacles before us. These enemies launch a fearful assault. To fight them and overcome them, through the destruction of uncertainties by the practice of the ordained yagya, is the war that Arjun has to wage, and the result of this war for him will be absolute peace and victory after which there is no possibility of defeat. Sri Krishn has preached in verse one of Chapter four how this yog is transplanted by Yogeswar? Is it that way which is before us in present shape under modern concepts and activities? Is it so easy? He says: imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ proktavānahamavyayam| vivasvānmanave prāha manurikśvākave’bravīt|| “It was I who taught the eternal yog to the Sun- (Vivaswat), who then taught it to Manu, who taught it to Ikshwaku.’’ It was he, Sri Krishn says, who at the beginning of devotion (kalp), imparted the knowledge of eternal yog to the Sun (symbolizing righteous impulses), from whom it was passed on to Manu (symbolizing mind), son and then to Ikshwaku (symbolizing aspiration).Sri Krishn, as we have seen, was a yogi. So it is a yogi, a sage dwelling in the Supreme Spirit, who initiates the everlasting yog at the beginning or, in other words, at the commencement of worship and transmits it into the life breath. The Sun represents the way of God-realization. God is the “one light that gives light to all.”Yog is everlasting.Sri Krishn has said that the inception, the seed, of this process is indestructible. If it is but begun, it does not cease until it has achieved perfection. The body is cured by medicines, but worship is the remedy for the Soul. The beginning of worship is the beginning of Self-cure. This act of devotion and meditation is also the creation of an accomplished sage. To the primitive man lying unconscious in the night of ignorance, who has not given a thought to yog, is brought to the perfection of yog when he meets with an enlightened and totally accomplished sage-just by looking at the great man, by listening to his voice, by rendering albeit an inadequate service to him, and by associating with him. Goswami Tulsidas has also said this: “Ultimate bliss is granted to the man who has perceived God as well as to the man who has been noticed by God.” Sri Krishn says that at the beginning he taught yog to the Sun. If a realized sage just casts a glance at a devotee, the refinement of yog is transmitted into the life-breath of the lucky Soul. All beings that live are animated by the sun-by God who is subject to himself alone. Since light is life or breath, it is ordained that the Supreme Spirit can be attained only by the regulation of life-breath. Transmission of pious instincts into life breath of early man is the imparting of knowledge of yog to the Sun, after which in due time the seed of this perfection sprouts in the mind. This is how sun passes on the knowledge to Manu. After the seed has sprouted in the mind, there will arise a wish for the realization of the sage’s utterance. If the mind has something in it, there is also the desire to achieve it. This is Manu’s preaching yog to Ikshwaku. There will be a longing, or aspiration to do that ordained act which is eternal and which liberates from the bondage of action. If it is so, there is the will to act and worship is quickened. This yog, transmitted by an accomplished saint into the breath of the primitive, barbaric man, and thereafter flowing from breath into the mind, thence to longing (or aspiration), and from that to active practice, thus developing by gradual stages, reaches the royal stage and is then revealed to the seeker. Sri Krishn now speaks about the characteristic marks of the man who is blessed and purely engaged with yog. He preaches in verse seven of Chapter five: yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ| sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā kurvannapi na lipyate|| “The doer, who is in perfect control of his body through a conquest of his senses, pure at heart and single mindedly devoted to the God of all beings, is untainted by action even though he is engaged in it.’’ That person is possessed of yog, of selfless action, who has conquered the body, whose senses are subdued, whose thoughts and feelings are spotlessly clean, and who has realized his identity with God, the Spirit of all beings. He remains unblemished even though he is involved in action, because his deeds are aimed at garnering seeds of the highest good for those who lag behind. He is untainted because he dwells in the essence that is God, the fountain head of the vitality of all beings. There is nothing for him hereafter for which he should quest. At the same time, there can be no attachment to what he has left behind, because they have all paled into insignificance. So he is not engulfed by his deeds. Thus we have here a picture of the ultimate stage of the worshipper who has achieved selfless action.Sri krishn, in chapter five has preached in onwards verses about the characteristic marks who is blessed with this eternal Yog.
