C L Kaloo
In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord Krishna says that,” I am the source of everything.” (10-8 B.G.) Thus, “Ekam sat” – only one exists. In the Vedas, the cosmos is said to evolve like a spider’s web out of God’s being. The Lord is the Divine Thread (sutra) or verifying essence running through all experiences and all expressions of life and matter. According to Vedic thought, the true doctrine of omnipresence is that God appears with all His parts in every moss and cob web.
However, the Lord tells us how constantly we can remain devoted to Him and enlightens us with regard to modes of performance of spiritual practices, both physical and mental in this shloka. (10.10 BG)
“Tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatatam priti-purvakam
Dadami buddhi-yogamtam yena mam upayanti Te”
Means: To those who are constantly devoted and in loving ecstasy to serving ME, I give the real intelligence i.e. Understanding by which they attain ME.
The Lord lays stress in this shloka on “Buddhi-yoga.” Buddhi-yoga itself is action in God-consciousness that is the real intelligence. In other words- Buddhi yoga is the process by which one gets out of entanglement of the material attachments. Thus, when a person knows the goal of life but as a natural sequence is addicted to the fruits of activities, he is acting in KARMA-YOGA.
When he knows the goal but takes pleasure in mental speculations to understand the Lord, he is acting in “JNAN-YOGA.” When knowing the goal and constantly perform devotional service with love to the Lord in consciousness of the presence of Lord, he is acting in “BHAKTI-YOGA” or “BUDDHI-YOGA”, which is the complete yoga in the sense that it is easier to achieve progress in day-today’s life. Thus, the lord says in this “shloka” that after achieving highest perfectional stage of life through “Buddhi-yoga”, HE gives him a chance to make a progress and ultimately attain to Him. A devotee or an aspirant, if not intelligent enough to make progress on the path of self realization but is sincere and devoted, the Lord makes it easier for him and give him the required understanding for achieving the ultimate goal, and this path through “Bhakti-yoga” or “Buddhi-yoga” as the Lord describes, is slowly but progressively traversed. It may be stated here that a person may have a bonafide spiritual master or guru and may be attached to a spiritual organization, even suggesting and advising various canons of religious philosophies to know the Absolute, but if he is still not intelligent enough to make progress, then the God from within gives him instructions so that the aspirant or such type of devotee, may ultimately come to Him, without difficulty.
According to Vedantic thought as well, we reach the same goal by adopting four different paths, for achieving the ultimate goal as described in the Bhagavad Gita- viz those of work- karma-yoga; love, extreme love for God say Bhaktiyoga, psychology- a mechanical meditative practice; say Dhayana yoga and knowledge of the Absolute. But these divisions are not very marked and quite exclusive of each other. These divisions are made in accordance with the type or the tendency that may be seen to prevail in a human being.
We, ultimately find that all these four paths and worship lead ultimately to one and the same goal viz freedom- means living freedom (jeevan mukti) as the Vedantists call it. Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom from the atom to the man from the insentient lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. Freedom is the one goal of all nature sentient or insentient and consciously and un-consciously, everything is struggling towards that goal. Though it is so hard to reach the goal, yet even our smallest attempts are not in vain. We know that nothing is lost. In Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Lord Krishna,” Those who fail in attaining perfection in yoga in this life, are they destroyed like the clouds of summer.” Lord Replies,” Nothing, my friend, is lost in this world. Whatever one does that remains as one’s own, and if the fruitation of yoga or devotion does not come in this life, one takes it again in the next birth. Otherwise, how do you explain the marvelous childhood of Jesus, Buddha, and Shankara? In this context, Swami Vivekananda says, “In fact, breathing, posturing, praying etc are no doubt help in yoga, but they are merely physical. The great preparations are mental. The first thing necessary is a quiet and peaceful life. He who desires a comfortable and luxurious life and at the same time wants to realize the self is like the fool who wanting to cross the river caught hold of a crocodile, mistaking it for a log of wood. Let us put forth all our energies to acquire that which never fails- our spiritual perfection. We shall make mistakes but they may be angels unawares.”
Thus, the greatest help to spiritual life is meditation (Dhayana). In meditation, we divest ourselves of all material conditions and as a natural sequence, feel our divine nature as every soul is potentially divine. We, therefore, do not depend upon any external help in mediation. The touch of soul can paint the brightest color even in dingiest places; it can cast a fragrance over the vilest thing. It can make the wicked divine. This according to the Bhagavad Gita (6-5&6 B.G), Lord Krishna says when the physical ego (the active consciousness) has become spiritualized and united to the soul, it is able to keep the unintelligence, mind and senses under control i.e., the self (ego) has been conquered by the self (soul)- then the soul is the friend, the guide and the benefactor of the active physical consciousness.
Appropriately, the Lord explains in the Bhagavad Gita (6-6 B.G)that the soul “inimical” to the ego withholds its blessings of peace and lasting happiness while the ego, behaving ignorantly as it is own enemy, sets in motion the misery- making Karmic forces of nature. Therefore, the Lord says that one who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy and thus his life and its mission are spoiled. As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice and illusion etc. But when the mind is controlled and conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictates of the Lord, who is situated within the heart of everyone as parmatama.
Therefore, we have to reflect, meditate, ruminate and enquire deeply, and to make great mental preparations to overcome mental eruptions and disruptions coming-up in the process of controlling and purification of the mind, in order to realize ultimately the truth that every soul is potentially divine. Concludingly, to say that the diverse modifications of the God’s Nature is that everything in the cosmic dream proceeds from the mind of God, because HE is the creator of cosmic nature- with her dualistic principle of delusion (Maya) and her triple qualities of “Satva”, “Rajas” and “Tamas” – the lord is responsible for all good and evil, for all contrasts and contradictions and relativities in the unfoldment of the human mind and the human destiny.
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