The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Chapter 12: Control of the Senses

A wonderful message the blessed Arjuna receives from Bhagavan Sri Krishna in a brief encounter, as it were, as a response to quandaries that beset the mind of Arjuna as we have them portrayed in the First Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Arjuna listens to all this with rapt attention and then says, “It is enrapturing indeed to hear your cosmic message, but how is it that no one seems to be in a position to make it a part of one's practical day-to-day existence? It is the same old humdrum life of toil, upset, suffering and anxiety, in spite of it being possible for any sensible person to understand and appreciate this wondrous message of cosmic solidarity that you have now bequeathed to me very briefly but touchingly.”

Sri Krishna replied, “It is not that people are unable to understand things, but there is something in the human individual which is associated with this understanding. There is a great potentiality, capacity and goodness in every person, yet there is something which is terrific about the person.”

There are two forces, we will be told when we come to the further chapters of the Gita. Everyone is involved in the activity of these two forces. We were discussing about the operation of the three gunas: sattva, rajas, tamas. Everything and everyone everywhere is constituted of these three gunas, these three forces that appear as forms, substances, objects, persons and things. Everything is threefold. But there is also another way of explaining this situation. The manner in which these three forces arrange themselves into a particular pattern, either as a form or as an action, is also a twofold operation. A threefold basic substance of all nature, of prakriti, is an impulse in two ways – the inward impulse and the outward urge. These two ways will be more elaborately described in the Sixteenth Chapter.

We have these days, in our times of scientific advancement, discoveries of an operation of forces which we may call centripetal and centrifugal. There are two ways in which one can move. Either we go inside or we go outside. Now, in a manner which is intelligible, we may identify the inward tendency to a particular aspect of the working of sattva, and the outward impulse to the working of rajas. But the inward movement becomes a function of sattva only when we are able to understand the meaning of this inwardness. We have only a prosaic and man-on-the-street understanding of the meaning of inwardness. For example, we are inside this room and after some time, we will be outside this room. Whenever we speak of inside or outside we associate this insideness and outsideness with some enclosure, being inside an enclosure or outside an enclosure. There is a limitation, and one can be within the limitation or one can be outside the limitation. But sattva is not an inwardness of that type. It is a different thing altogether. When we are in a sattvic state, when the condition of equilibrium, transparency and rationality operates, we are in an inward mood of appreciation of values, which does not necessarily mean we become introverts in a psychoanalytic sense. We do not cast our eyes within our body and look into our own inwardness of physical personality. That would be to understand inwardness as we know inwardness to be something inside the four walls of a room. Even the words 'subjective' and 'objective' are not adequate to the purpose because sometimes they carry meanings which are not appropriate to their connotations.

Now, there is a goodness in man sometimes operating in a marked way in one's life, as I mentioned, yet this goodness is to be understood in its proper sense. The goodness we speak of here is the preponderance of the sattva guna in the person. To be good is to be in consonance with the law of nature. To be good does not mean merely being condescendingly charitable to another person. It is not showing mercy to poor people. It is not putting on an air of superiority in the midst of others who are inferior. It is not a sense of doing good to others because I have greater capacity and others have less. This would be to bring a sociological interpretation into a spiritual circumstance. Therefore, goodness does not mean a socially motivated inclination of the mind in respect of people outside in society, though goodness may manifest itself in this form also.

We are said to be good only when we are in tune with Truth, and the percentage of our attunement with Truth is the percentage of our goodness. Truth is, in a way, an inwardness of fact. It is hidden in the cave of the heart. This is how we are sometimes told about it in the Upanishads and in other scriptures. The secret of dharma is hidden in the cave. The secret of virtue, righteousness, veracity, Truth or Reality is in the cave of the heart. The heart of things is the truth of things. The heart of a person is not the fleshy heart. We sometimes refer to 'the heart of the matter'. What is the heart of the matter? It is not the physical heart that we are referring to here. It is the centrality of operation, the secret, the basic route and fundamental essence of a thing that we call the heart of the matter, and in that sense also we have to understand the inwardness of things.

A thing becomes inward in the spiritual sense when it is in harmony with Truth, as I told you. So the indication of the character of Reality or Truth may be said to be the nature of the inwardness of approach. The more are you friendly with Truth, the more are you inward. Now, 'truth', the word, has to be borne in mind carefully. The truth of things is not inside anywhere. It is not inside something. It is a ubiquitous, all-pervading, operative existence. Inasmuch as it is an all-pervading, controlling principle, it is in the heart of all things. Now in this sense we have to understand the heart of the matter. That which is pervading all things is also in the heart of all things, but it is not inside things in the sense of there being nothing outside it. The question of outside does not arise here because Truth is not something contained in space. It is not to be contained in space, and also it is not outside space. The question does not arise here because it conditions even our understanding of space and time. So inwardness, when it is associated with the reality of things, is to be understood as the specific feature of an all-encompassing something.

Our minds are not so made to comprehend what this could be. A child's mind is indeed the mind of every one of us. Spiritually we are illiterate, though we may be very literate in a political, social or practical view of things. The understanding of spiritual circumstances, the appreciation of spiritual values, a gaining of insight into what spirituality means, is an education by itself. It is necessary to reorient our thoughts and entirely change the very framework of the operation of our understanding. We have to become different persons altogether, as it were. For some time it appears we have to cease to be what we are now in order to be what we ought to be in the light of Truth, and then we may be able to appreciate what it could be to be good and inward in one's evaluation of values, while it is at the same time a collaboration with the truth of the whole universe. This is how sattva operates as the reflection of divinity in all things. It is, in a way, the mirror in which is reflected the total picture of the truth of the cosmos. The whole truth is not capable of being contacted by any means available to us, but it is reflected in some way, in some degree, in some measure, macrocosmically as well as microcosmically.

So this is a tendency present in everyone. Every one of us, every created being, has this basic tendency to motivate in the direction of the finality of things. At the very root of all roots, we may say, there is essentially goodness pervading in the cosmos. The quintessential basic fundamentality of things is goodness, not evil; therefore, it is impossible for anyone not to be good at least some time in the process of evolution. When it becomes possible under certain given circumstances to work in tune with this inwardness, out of which everything has come, we become good persons, saintly persons, sages, Godmen even.

But we have another tendency also. That other tendency is the outwardness characteristic of rajas. It is true that we are capable of being very good; why not? We have the capacity and the potentiality to be immensely, wonderfully good. But we have also the capacity to be wonderfully devilish. That is because we live in two worlds, as it were, at the same time. Again I will repeat the same words – the centrifugal world and the centripetal world are both our worlds. We are sometimes said to be in a world of empiricality. We say this is a phenomenal world. This is what philosophers many a time tell us. We say this is a relative world. Now, what do we mean by saying that this is a world of phenomena and relativity?

The meaning is twofold here again. There is nothing absolutely and permanently valid in this world. Everything seems to be justifiable under conditions only, and nothing can be justified unconditionally. There is nothing unrelated in this world. Everything is related to something else. There is a tentative permanence of everything. An absolute permanence of anything is not seen anywhere. Now, when we speak of things in this way, when we say things are relative, transient, impermanent, not long-lasting, we imply thereby that in our understanding of the relativity of things we have already made a reference to the nonrelative, without reference to which, even the relativity of things cannot be understood or noticed. Our observation of the relativity of things is possible only on the stand of a nonrelative reference. We have some connection with a non-phenomenal and non-relative reality. If that were not with us as a point of reference, a standard of reference, we would not have even known that things are passing. The phenomenology and the relativity of the world is recognisable with reference to something which is not phenomenal and not relative. So we are, in one sense, living in a relative world of space, time and causal relations, perishability, transiency and impermanency. This is very, very true. But we are also secretly, at the bottom of our being, rooted in something which is not transient, not relative, not phenomenal, not extrovert. So we live in two worlds: a world of invisible operations, and a world of visible activity.

Where are we actually standing now, inward or outward? Sometimes we are pulled inward, sometimes outward. Now, mostly viewing things in the light of what we see in humanity at this moment of the twentieth century, we may say there is an extroversion of attitude, an impulsion to evaluate everything in life in terms of outward appearance and external arrangement. There is no inclination of any person to view things in terms of an inwardness of values.

“So Arjuna, I am now going to answer your question, after having told you something as an introduction. This is the truth of the matter. Having known everything, yet we cannot live according to what we know, and the reason is this. Mostly people who are phenomenally involved are conditioned by phenomenal impulses.” What are the phenomenal impulses? They are vehement subjection to the requirements of objective existence which psychologically goes as desire, greed, hatred, and anger: Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajoguṇa samudbhavaḥ, mahāśano mahāpāpmā viddhyenam iha vairiṇam (BG 3.37). Mostly, there is a vehemence of outward approach in the human individual. We always see outside. There is no other tendency in us, presumably. We wake up in the morning and start looking outside. All our engagements are outside. Our fears and longings and expectations are outside. Everything is outside. There is nothing but outsideness in this world. We are sold, as it were, to this world of externality. Well, literally we may say we are just what Christ describes in his great statement: We have gained the world and lost our souls. We have lost our souls because we do not even believe we have souls. We have no time to think that we have souls at all. Why think of souls? We do not have time to think that we exist at all. Only others exist. The world exists, problems exist, relationships exist, occupations exist, troubles exist; all are existing except myself. I have lost myself, drowned myself in that which is outside, as if I am not there at all. My existence is completely sold out to that which is totally outside. The world is an externality. Hell is nothing but an extreme of externality, and heaven is a tendency to internality.

Now, this difficulty of the reason why you cannot put into practice in your daily life this wondrous message of the need to participate in a cosmic purpose arises due to there being kama, krodha and lobha in everyone – desire, anger and greed. There is a susceptibility to long for things, though we may not be always longing for things in an obvious manner. For instance, we are seated here. We are not going on thinking of some object of longing. We may not be even aware of what we are wanting at all, but it does not mean that the tendency is absent in us. A particular atmosphere presented now in this little room is not permitting the manifestation of submerged longings of the mind. But as seeds grow in the field when the atmosphere is conducive, the potentialities for expression outside as desire, greed and anger rise up into action and become large trees, as it were, when conditions become favourable.

Having desire, anger and greed need not necessarily mean that these forces are operating in us perpetually, day in and day out. To be desireful, a person need not go on shouting, “I want, I want, I want!” And we need not go on attacking somebody in order to be angry. It is not necessary to go on shouting, “I have this desire! I have this desire!” There is no need to say all these things. But without announcing our propensities, even without knowing sometimes that these are present at all in us, they shall be present. Our propensities, traits of this character, sometimes lie hidden and latent within us, without external manifestation, due to the pressure of circumstances. If longings do not manifest themselves openly in daylight, it is because the conditions of outer life do not permit their expression. If sometimes we are unable to give vent to our anger, it does not necessarily mean that we are not angry. It only means conditions outside do not permit the ventilation of that anger. So is the case with any trait or impulse.

Even the potential, latent, hidden impulse of this kind will act as a screen preventing the insight into our real association with the universal operation of things. Here is the answer why we cannot put into practice this open truth that we are necessary participants in the cosmic operation. Individuality is no more to be seen in this world. Nothing in the world is individual. Everything is a part of something else, but we cannot understand this. Even the reason is not permitted to think in this manner because impulses which are irrational overcome even rationality many a time. Reason fails when irrational instincts gain an upper hand.

Irrational behaviour is a temporary state of loss of reason, and at that time we cannot know how a person will behave. When irrationality preponderates and puts down all rational possibilities, a person will start behaving like a wild cyclone which does not know where to move or what to do. When thick clouds are hanging in the sky, wind is blowing from all sides and there is a downpour of rain, even midday can look like midnight, as if the sun is eclipsed totally and does not exist anymore. We will not be able even to cognise the presence of rationality in the world. We will become temporarily mad if instincts gain an upper hand. And instincts have many levels of manifestation.

These are explained in greater detail in the sutras of Patanjali. We have a potential condition; we have a tentatively thinned-out, weakened condition; we have a sleeping condition; and we have an obviously manifest condition. Four conditions of instincts are mentioned in Patanjali. So when instincts do not obviously and actively operate outside like a soldier fighting in the field, it need not mean they are not there. They can be sleeping. A sleeping snake is nevertheless a serpent. A potential thief is a thief, though he is not actually thieving at this moment. There can be an emaciated snake. An emaciated snake which has not eaten for months has the capacity to be what it is when it is fed well. There is a submerged condition, things lying in ambush waiting to find an opportunity to come up.

So our instincts need not necessarily be visible to us. In our conscious life we may not know that they exist at all. I am very fine. What is wrong with me? But the disturbances in the mind, that which we call the tossing of the mind, the inability to concentrate, a feeling of fatigue even in sitting for a while calmly in meditation and an inward restlessness that one feels are outer indications of an inward presence of these potential instincts which are irrational. These prevent us from putting this knowledge into practice.

But there is a way out. All problems are meant to be solved. Every difficulty has to be overcome. This is the picture I have presented before you of things as they are. But things have to be something else. The way out is to put forth effort in the right direction, in the right manner, with the guidance of people who have trodden the path. Gradually these irrationalities, these impulses, have to be subdued. Just as restive horses which will not easily bend and will not listen have to be controlled slowly by operating the reins in the required manner, the higher should control the lower.

Now, when we say that the higher should control the lower, it need not necessarily mean that that we should go to the highest place of support at once. The immediately higher position can be a support. The mind is superior to the sense organs. The mind is filled with instincts, no doubt, yet it is the reservoir of the force which is supplied to the senses for their actions. So you can diminish the supply of power to the senses by blocking the avenues of this supply, which is what we call austerity, tapas, and a life of discipline, abstemious living in a controlled atmosphere. Sadhana, as it is called, is one way of subduing these otherwise very strong impulses.

One has to live an austere life. Do not be too indulgent. Do not pamper your sense organs; do not feed your body beyond the limit. Even animals in a circus are very carefully managed. They are fed to the extent it is necessary; neither are they allowed to die, nor are they allowed to be ferocious. After all, the sense organs are operations within you. You cannot kill them in the name of austerity, but you also cannot allow them to be ferocious and go out of your hand. That state should not take place. The Arab has to control the camel, and the camel should not kick the Arab out of the tent.

So yoga, according to the Bhagavadgita, is not killing the senses. It is also not indulging in the senses. It is harmony that the Bhagavadgita teaches. You are not over-friendly with your sensory irrational instincts, nor are you inimical to them. You are a good teacher, a schoolmaster, as it were, a medical man, a psychologist who is not angry with the patient but understands the condition of the patient.

So here you have to be very cautious in applying a harmonious yardstick of measuring the present condition of your irrational behaviour, potential or otherwise, and your higher reason has to be applied even to subjugate the mind which supplies the energy to the senses. The manas is superior to the indriyas, or the senses, and the buddhi is superior to the manas.

How are you going to use the rationality in you? You know how you can live a life of reason. Your friendship with people, the company that you keep, the books that you read, the atmosphere in which you live, will also tell you the kind of rationality that is permitted in your daily behaviour. Who are your friends? Make a list of all these people. What kind of people are they? Sanga, company is a very important determining factor in our behaviour, conduct and inner operations. While satsanga is good, dissanga is not good. While we condition the behaviour of other people by the emanation of forces from us, we also may be conditioned by such emanations from other people. Hence it is said that your company should always be good. Always keep company of people who are helpful to you spiritually, at least rationally. Do not be friendly with irrational minds who are instinct-ridden and brute in behaviour, who are physically oriented rather than rationally oriented. And study elevating literature which will rouse up the higher potentiality in you. Do not read trash, rubbish, journals, magazines, etc., which will distract your attention and make you earth-earthly, more and more bound. And, finally, inwardly offer prayers to the Almighty Himself, like the prayer that is given to us in the Gayatri mantra: May my intellect be directed properly. You summon the rays; you will draw sustenance from the higher powers. Finally, the great God of the universe is with you. Believe in this, and His support is always with you. “You shall succeed, my dear friend Arjuna. Don't cry,” says Bhagwan Sri Krishna to Arjuna, and to every one of us.