Site menuChapter 28: Jñâna Yoga or the Denomination and the Real
(10) S'rî Uddhava said: 'O my Lord, who is it actually who carries the experience of this [changing] material existence? It is not precisely the [unchanging] soul, the seer who is self-aware, nor does it belong to the body, the seen that [changing itself] has no experiencing self of its own. (11) The inexhaustible soul, free from the modes, is pure, self-luminous and uncovered just like a fire, while the material body is like firewood that is without understanding. To which of the two belongs the experience of a material life in this world?'
(12) The Supreme Lord said: 'As long as the soul is attracted to the body, the senses and the vital force, his material existence, which carries its fruit in due course, will nevertheless be meaningless because of a lack of discrimination. (13) Even though material substance has no real existence [because of its impermanence], the material condition [as for its constituent elements] does not cease to be and one has, like in a dream contemplating the objects of the senses, to face the consequent disadvantages [compare 3.27: 4, 4.29: 35 & 73, 11.22: 56, B.G. 2: 14]. (14) That [dream] what brings the one who is not awake in his sleep many undesirable experiences, will certainly not confound the one who awakened though. (15) Lamentation, elation, fear, anger, greed, confusion, hankering and such is seen upon the birth and death of one's identification with the body [ahankâra] and does not depend on the soul [that doesn't take birth or die, see 11.22: 12, 11.23: 50-56, 11.25: 30]. (16) Falsely motivated dwelling within the self of the material body, the senses, life-air and the mind, the living being assumes his form according to the gunas and the karma. He is then, depending the way he relates to the thread constituted by the greater of nature, described with different names when he under the strict control of Time wanders about in the ocean of matter. (17) This without a firm basis being represented in the many forms of the mind, the speech, the life force, the gross body and fruitive actions, will, with the sword of transcendental knowledge that was sharpened in worship, be cut down by a sober sage who walks the earth free from desires. (18) Spiritual knowledge [entails] the discrimination [of spirit and matter and is nourished by], scripture and penance, personal experience, historical accounts and logical inference. [It is based upon] that which is there equally in the beginning and in the end of this [creation] and which is the same in between, knowing the Time and Ultimate Cause [of brahman, the Absolute Truth, see also B.G. 10: 30, 33, 11: 32 and kâla]. (19) Like gold alone being present before it is processed, when it is processed and in the final product of the processing, I am present in the disguise of the different modes [of processing] of this creation. (20) My dearest, this spirit of condensed knowledge in its three conditions [of wakefulness, sleep and unconscious sleep], constitutes, manifesting itself in the form of the modes as the causing [of rajas], the caused [of tamas] and the causer [of sattva, compare 11.22: 30], the fourth factor [the 'gold'] which as an independent variable stands for the single truth of each of them. (21) That what was absent before, is absent afterwards, and isn't there [independently] in between, is but a designation; whatever that was created and is known by something else, is actually only that something else; that is how I see it. (22) The spiritual reality of God as established in its own light manifests the Absolute Truth as the variety of the senses, their objects, the mind and the transformations. For that reason is this creation, that because of the mode of rajas is subject to modification, self-luminous, even though it is not really there [see also siddhânta]. (23) When one this way by discriminating logic has achieved clarity about the Absolute of the Spiritual Truth, one must expertly speak against and cut with the doubt regarding the Self and satisfied in one's own spiritual happiness desist from all lusty [unregulated] matters [see B.G. 3: 34]. (24) The body made of earth is not the true self, nor are the senses, their gods or the life air, the external air, water, fire or a mind only interested in food; nor are the intelligence, material consciousness, the I that thinks itself the doer, the ether, the earth, material things or the restraint. (25) What's the merit of him who properly ascertained my identity and in his concentration managed to direct his - by the modes controlled - senses perfectly? And what on the other hand would be the blame for him who is diverted by his senses? Would the sun care about being covered by clouds or a sky clearing up? (26) Just as the sky is not affected by the coming and going qualities of the air, fire, water and earth or by the qualities of the seasons [of heat and cold], is likewise the Imperishable Supreme elevated above the influence of the natural modes of sattva, rajas and tamas that are responsible for the fact that he who takes his body for the true self is caught in the material world [see also 1.3: 36, 3.27: 1, B.G. 7: 13]. (27) Nevertheless, until by firmly being rooted in My bhakti-yoga one has banned the impurity of the mind of passion, one must eliminate the attachment associated with the qualities that belong to the deluding material energy [see B.G. 7: 1, 14 and **]. (28) The same way as a disease that was imperfectly treated turns back time and again and brings a man trouble, the mind that was not purified of its
contamination of karma will torment the inexperienced yogi
who still is of all kinds of attachments. (29)
Imperfect yogis who are commanded by impediments in the form of the
human beings [family members, disciples etc., see e.g. S'rî S'rî S'ikshâshthaka-4] sent by the thirty gods [see tridas'a] will, on the strength of their perseverance
in their previous life once more [in a new life] engage in the practice
of yoga, but never again be entangled in fruitive labor [see also 11.18:
14, B.G. 6: 41-42]. (30) A normal living being who has to experience
the consequences of his fruitive labor, remains, impelled by this or
that impulse, in that position until the moment he dies. But someone
intelligent is, despite of being situated in the material position, not
that [fickle], because he with the experience of the happiness he found
gave up his material desire. (31)
He whose consciousness is fixed in the true self doesn't give it a
moment's thought whether he is standing, sitting, walking or lying
down, urinating, eating food or doing whatever else that manifests from
his conditioned nature. (32)
Someone intelligent doesn't take anything else for essential. Whenever
he sees the not really [independently] existing things of the senses,
he from his logic denies them their separateness, so that they are like
the things of a dream that lose their value when one wakes up. (33) Material ignorance which under the influence
of the modes of nature assumes many forms is by the conditioned soul
taken for an inextricable part of himself, but the ignorance ends by
simply developing His vision, My best one. The soul on the other hand
is not something one accepts or leaves behind. (34) When the sun rises is the darkness in the
human eye expelled, but that rising is not creating the things that are
seen then. Similarly a thorough and adroit search for the true of Me
puts an end to the darkness of someone's intelligence [while that
search itself is not the reason why his soul exists]. (35) This selfluminous, unborn, immeasurable
Greatness of Understanding who is aware of everything is the One
Without a Second in whom words find their closure, and by whom impelled
the speech and the life airs move. (36)
Whatever the notion of duality the self might have is but a delusion to
the unique soul, as it indeed has no basis outside of that very self
[compare 7.13: 7]. (37) The
dualistic, imaginative interpretation [in terms of good and bad, see
also 11.21: 16] by
so-called scholars of this in names and forms perceivable duality which
unmistakably consists of the five elements, is in vain [see also 5.6:
11].(38) The body of the yogi who with a lack of experience tries to engage in the practice of yoga, may be overcome by rising disturbances. In that case is the following the prescribed rule of conduct: (39) Some disturbances may be overcome by postures [âsanas] combined with concentration [dhârana], penance [tapas, see ***], mantras and medicinal herbs. (40) Some of the inauspicious matters can be overcome step by step by constantly thinking of Me [Vishnu-smarana], by the celebration of My names and such [japa, sankîrtana] and by following in the footsteps of the masters of yoga [see also B.G. 6: 25]. (41) Some [yogis] make their self-controlled bodies suitable by fixing themselves on the youthful with the help of various methods and try that way to be perfect in their material control [siddhis]. (42) By the ones who enjoy a good condition that is not honored though, convinced as they are that such an endeavor is quite useless, because the body, like the fruit of a tree, will perish anyway [see also 11.15: 33]. (43) Someone with a devoted mind does not value it highly to practice yoga regularly with the purpose of realizing a healthy body, he who is devoted to Me gives up on the yoga [for that purpose, *4]. (44) The yogi following this process of yoga will, freed from desires having taken to the shelter of Me, not be disheartened by obstacles and [thus] experience the happiness of his soul.'
