Chapter 02, Text 61 - Chaitanya Charan Das, Bhagavad Gita ISKCON: Recent Episodes
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Now Krishna will describe in next verse how one can practice spiritual life, how can one get higher taste, till now He said that we should seek the higher taste.
BG 2.61tani sarvani samyamya
yukta asita mat–parah
vase hi yasyendriyani
tasya prajna pratishthita
SYNONYMS
tani — those senses; sarvani — all; samyamya — keeping under control; yuktah — engaged; asita — should be situated; mat–parah — in relationship with Me; vase — in full subjugation; hi — certainly; yasya — one whose; indriyani — senses; tasya — his; prajna — consciousness; pratishthita — fixed.
TRANSLATION
One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.
tani sarvani samyamya, tani sarvani, all the senses, samyamya, control
yukta asita mat–parah, when one is situated in this situation, it is related to the question kim asita, so Krishna is saying yukta asita.when one engages the senses and situate oneself thus how does one engage the senses? mat–parah, fixing the mind on Me, this is the first place in BG when Krishna is referring to Himself, mat–parah, this is the first drop of Bhakti in BG which Krishna has dropped till now. Till now Krishna has not referred to Himself directly and till now Krishna has been the teacher of sense control, yes we all have to control our senses,
From here onward Krishna is saying I am the object on which controled senses should be fixed (tani sarvani samyamya, yukta asita mat-parah), when you do that, vase hi yasyendriyani, then you will be able to bring the senses under your conquest. Such a person who could do it, tasya prajna pratishthita, is known as a man of steady intelligence.
Control all the sense and the fix conscious on me.
In a sense this verse is talking about 3 stages, tani sarvani samyamya, samyamya means restrain or control (we need to control when there is some opposition force). Krishna is talking about struggle so in the stage of struggle we need to have some level of control.
And this alone is not sufficient after this yukta asita mat-parah, after this one fixes consciousness on Krishna, and when one fixes the consciousness on Krishna then vase hi yasyendriyani, after that one conqueres senses.
So first is control, then concentratation and then conquest.
- So Control -> control the senses.
e.g. when practicing KC we need to control the senses we wanted to chant Hare Krishna, we wanted to go to temple and even in temple if our eyes are running here and there who has come how they are dressed then how we can experiece anything spiritual in the temple? Even in temple we will be staying in bodily consciouness looking how others are dreesed what they are doing etc. So if we wanted to experience Krishna in the temple some level of contol is required. This is not easy but this is not impossible, this level of self control every body can have.
tani sarvani samyamya, So first there is control.
- Then there is concentration
When one concentrates the mind on Krishna and after one concentrates the mind on Krishna then there is conquest.
- Conquest
So vase, in this way we conquer them.
Example of taming horse, first there is samyamya, so a horse trainer while hourse is running here and there in Stable first he tries to get a grip on the hourse by rains or somemeans, so this is samyamya, so the hourse is running wild but there is some amount of restrain.
Then afte that one trains the hourse to understand and when it behaves itself then it will get food it will get nurishment it will get love, it will be taken care of and after that the hourse becomes calm then there is Vase the hourse is conquered.
So when the mind is restless even when Krishna is in front of us as the deity as the holy name still we just can’t focus, and we look here there for norishment for satisfaction, so after control there is concentration and then there is conquest then the senses become controlled.
So Krishna is saying one who does like this such a person is tasya prajna pratishthita, such a person is well situated, and his intelligence is well situated.
Now after describing this Krishna will move forward to answer the question of Arjuna about vrajeta kim?
Of course before He goes there He tells what will happen when one fails to do this?
Krishna has done a very smooth transition so in asita, He has used the word yukta, yukta means connected to engaged, so what is that engagement Krishna will tell in 64.
So in this verse the primary point is if we are doing just conrol, control & control and fail to take next steps, concentration and conquest then control itself will fail, because how long we can control? Mind will go wild, and eventually it will knock us down.
Srila Prabhupada has quoted example of Mahārāja Ambarīṣa and Durvāsā Muni.
From the point of view of Varnaashram
Four varna -> Keshtria are 2nd Brahmana are 1st
Four Ashrama -> Sanyasi is higher than grihasta.
So both from Varna and Ashram point of view Durvasa muni was higher.
But Durvasa muni has not done mat-parah his mind was not fixed on Krishna, particulalr in this pastime his focus was I am renounciate, I am a great sage and I deserve to be honered. So his concentration is not on Krishna on the other hand Ambrish Maharaj was mat-parah and how he was this for that Srila Prabhupada has quoted series of verse from SB in the purport.
The king was able to control his senses because of the following qualifications, as mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (9.4.18–20):
sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor
vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane
karau harer mandira-mārjanādiṣu
śrutiṁ cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye
So first and foremost it begins with manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor, one fixes the mind on the Lotus Feet of Krishna, we may say that how can I fix mind on Krishna directly, at least there should be intention to fix mind on Krishna.
When we enage the senses it become easy to fix mind on Krishna but atleast intention has to be their, yes I want to think about Krishna. I want to fix mind on Krishna, then one starts engaging the senses also, and when senses becomes engaged naturally the mind also becomes engaged, so let us see how we will engage the senses:
vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane, so vacāṁsi with speech what we do? vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane, He describes the glory of Vaikuntha, now Vaikuntha can be referred to abode of Lord and Vaikuntha is also one of the names of Lord Vishnu. In Vishnu Shashtra Nam as well as in SB 8th canto Vaikuntha is one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu who appears, so he describes the glories of Vaikuntha.
karau harer mandira-mārjanādiṣu, so kara is the hands with hands what did he do? mandira-mārjanā, he uses the hands to clean the temple,
śrutiṁ cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye, cakārācyuta-sat-kathodaye, that Supreme Lord who is all attractive who is the essence of everything sat-kathodaye, the auspicious, the eternal, the true Katha, in this world we are hearing the Katha of so many people of this world, whole newspaper is filled with Katha of people. Katha of politicians, of cricketers of business people of scamsters of criminals there are Katha of so many people but sat-kathodaye, the true Kata is of Supreme Lord, so use the ears to hear that then.
mukunda-liṅgālaya-darśane dṛśau, so with eyes what did he do? So mukunda-liṅgālaya-darśane, so linga refers to the form so liṅgālaya like Himalaya is abode of Hima, similarly Pustakalaya, so mukunda-liṅgālaya means darsan of deity of Krishna and not just deity of Krishna but also temple of Krishna, even temple reminds us of Krishna. So that is why if we look in past temples have distinctive architecture. Temples has tall tower which reminds us of Krishna. Lord Chaitanya would offer dandavat to Nila Chakra. And of course we can go inside also take Darshan of Lord that is also very auspicious. So we see beautiful form of Mukunda and his temple
tad-bhṛtya-gātra-sparśe ’ṅga-saṅgamam, so what he would do with his body? tad-bhṛtya? His devotees. gātra-sparśe ’ṅga-saṅgamam, so when great devotees will come he will touch their lotus feet and take dust on their head so he will use his body to touch the bodies of devotees with reverence.
ghrāṇaṁ ca tat-pāda-saroja-saurabhe, śrīmat-tulasyā rasanāṁ tad-arpite,
so ghrāṇaṁ means to accept, ca tat-pāda-saroja-saurabhe, so what would he do tat-pāda-saroja, the lotus flower that was offered to Supreme Lord he will ghrāṇaṁ, he would smell those, śrīmat-tulasyā rasanāṁ tad-arpite, and that Tulsi which is offered to Supreme Lord he will relish that. Then beyond that
pādau hareḥ kṣetra-padānusarpaṇe, so pādau, he will use his feet to go to Harer Kshetra, temple, holy places, padānusarpaṇe, go around circumambulate, and reverenceally use his feet in that service .
śiro hṛṣīkeśa-padābhivandane, he will use his head to offer respects to the Lord,
So after that he will do dandavta pranam to the deties.
And after describing all these kāmaṁ ca dāsye na tu kāma-kāmyayā, yathottama-śloka-janāśrayā ratiḥ
He made all his desires his servants kāmaṁ ca dāsye, na tu kāma-kāmyayā, he did not become a desirer of desires, he did not become a servant of his desires, we will discuss Kama-Kami later on in 2.70 when same phrase will come.
yathottama-śloka-janāśrayā ratiḥ, so in this way Uathottama-śloka, that Supreme Lord, who is the shelter of all the people, in this way Ambrish Maharaj developed his rati, he has rati for the absolute truth, for the Uathottama-śloka, the Lord who is glorified by choice poetry.
If we look at this verse what do we find in it?
He is engaging all his sensory dacilities, we have five Karmendriyas and five Jayanendriys so sampling are given to indicate all of these are engaging.
Five Karmendrias:
- 2 Hands
- 2 legs
- And the speech
- Excretory organs which is used to excrete impurities can not be used in Lord’s service.
So he used his karmendriyas in the service of the Lord.
It is significant to note that Ambrish Maharaj was not a Brahmana he was a Kshetriya and generally Kshetriyas are not supposed to preach. Kshetriyas create the facility for preaching and Brahmanas do preaching. This is general but we can see Prithu Maharaj has done preaching. But the point is everyone should glorify the Lord in some way.
Similarly he used his jayanendriyas like eyes, ear, tongue, nose, skin.
It is not that Ambrish Maharaj was doing this all the time as king he was also having his worldly duties.
So we also have to do worldly duties this is an example how we have to engage our senses in Krishna’s service lifelong. In 12.8 to 12.12 we will discuss how we can perform various levels of Bhakti.
When danger came for him Ambrish Maharaj was not disturbed since he has practiced this lifelong in the time of crisis he was able to remember Krishna and take His shelter.
The verse is talking about control, concentration and conquest so here Srila Prabhupada is talking about concentration by engaging our senses.
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