Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Na prahrishyet priyam prapya nodvijet prapya capriyam, sthira-buddhir asammudho brahma-vid brahamani sthitah (5.20).
Bahya-sparseshv asaktatma vindaty atmani yat sukham, sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma sukham akshayam asnute (5.21).
Ye hi samsparsaja bhoga duhkha-yonaya eva te, ady-antavantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah (5.22).
Saknotihaiva yah sodhum prak sarira-vimoksanat, kama-krodhodbhavam vegam so yuktah sa sukhi narah (5.23).
Yo’ntah-sukho’ntararamas tathantar-jyotir eva yah, sa yogi brahma-nirvanam brahma-bhuto’dhigacchati (5.24).
Labhante brahma-nirvanam rishayah kshina-kalmashah, china-dvaidhaa yatatmanah sarva-bhuta-hite ratah (5.25).
Kama-krodha-viyuktanam yatinam yata-cetasam, abhito brahma-nirvanam vartate viditatmanam (5.26).
Sparsan kritva bahir bahyams cakshus caivantare bhruvoh, pranapanau samau kritva nasabhyantara-carinau (5.27).
Yatendriya-mano-buddhir munir moksha-parayanah, vigateccha-bhaya-krodho yah sada mukta eva sah (5.28).
Bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva-loka-maheswaram, suhridam sarva-bhutanam jnatva mam santim ricchati (5.29).

These are the concluding verses of the fifth chapter. Na prahrishyet priyam prapya nodvijet prapya capriyam: The great sage who is established in Brahman neither rejoices on acquiring pleasant things, nor grieves when coming in contact with unpleasant things because he sees with an equal eye the substances that are the components of pleasant things as well unpleasant things.

The atomic and molecular components of substances cause the differentiation of one substance from another. Milk can become poison if one molecule is removed. All things are just compositions of uniformly spread-out substances. Their permutations and combinations make things look different – beautiful or ugly, stout or thin, necessary or unnecessary, pleasant or unpleasant. Therefore, to the Universal vision of the basic substance of all things, there is neither joy at the perception of what is apparently pleasant, nor is there grief at the perception of what is apparently unpleasant. The pleasant and the unpleasant are actually not things; they are reactions set up by our personality in respect of certain compositions of things. Thus, things are actually neither good nor bad, neither beautiful nor ugly, neither pleasant nor unpleasant. We set up different reactions due to the peculiar setup of our psychophysical individuality which can accommodate only certain things and cannot accommodate certain other things. Therefore, certain things look pleasant and certain things look unpleasant. But to the person who is non-individual or super-individual – superman, atimanav – to that person who has an equanimous vision of the cosmos, things are neither pleasant nor unpleasant because he is established in the Universal Reality. Brahmani sthitah – unshaken understanding is his, and establishment of the self is in Brahman.

Bahya-sparseshv asaktatma vindaty atmani yat sukham, sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma sukham akshayam asnute: When we are detached totally from connection with the objects of sense, when the senses do not see any meaning in the objects outside and therefore do not pull the consciousness out in the direction of objects, when consciousness does not defeat itself through perception in terms of sense organs, the energy of the person increases and the Self realises Itself. Whereas, the Self loses Itself in the perception and contact of external objects. In all perceptions there is an element of losing of consciousness. That is why in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali even the perception of an object without any element of love or hatred is called a wrong perception from the point of view of yoga because all perceptions, even if they are so-called right perceptions, are partial. For instance, this is a building and it is really a right perception; we do not say it is an elephant. To say that it is a building and not an elephant is indeed a right perception, but it is not a right perception from another point of view because the limited operation of the mind of an individual characterises certain shapes as ‘a building’, while actually, internally, we will find that which is in one thing is also in another thing.

Therefore, one who is totally unattached to things outside – bahya-sparseshv asaktatma – he rejoices in himself and enjoys a bliss which is Brahman itself. Bahya-sparseshv asaktatma vindaty atmani yat sukham, sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma: To identify the consciousness with one’s own self by freeing it from entanglement in sensory perception is equivalent to establishment in Brahman itself. The universal Brahman is in the Atman of every individual. Space is universal; but the same universal space, when we see the space only inside the vessel, may appear to be limited to a little vessel. The space inside the vessel is called pot-ether – ghatakash. The pot-ether looks very small because it is limited by the walls of the pot, and the bigger space – which is mahakasa – seems to be larger than the little space inside the pot. Thus, there appears to be a difference between the universal akasa, or universal ether, and the individual ether that in the pot – but really there is no such difference. The space has not been divided into two parts inside and outside the pot . The same consciousness is within us and also outside us.

Thus the within-ness of ours, the selfhood that we enjoy, the bliss that comes out of the detachment of consciousness from objects of sense, is the same as the bliss of Brahman – the Universal Reality emanating, rising up from our so-called little-self. The Universal Reality rises up into action the moment the so-called little-self in us withdraws itself from contact with things and does not concern itself with anything that is external – sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma sukham akshayam asnute.

Ye hi samsparsaja bhoga duhkha-yonaya eva te, ady-antavantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah – any joy that comes through contact of one thing with another thing cannot be regarded as real joy. There are five types of contact with external things: contact through the eye, contact through the ear, contact through the nose, contact through the skin, and contact through the tongue. The joy that we get by this kind of contact is an unreliable joy. It is a deceptive experience that we are passing through, and we wrongly come to the conclusion that we are experiencing happiness because this kind of contact appears to be pleasant in the beginning and breeds sorrow later on.

Even at the time of the enjoyment of a sense object, we are under an illusion, and it is not a real joy that we are experiencing. Why do we feel happy when we come in contact with a mango or a cup of delicious kheer or any pleasant object? The reason is that when the mind is not in contact with any sense object, it is restless in itself, and it goes out in search of its own food in the form of objects. The mind that is not in contact with objects moves out in search of those objects which it finds pleasant to contact. When the mind moves in that way, the consciousness of the Atman, or the Self, also moves together with the mind – just as electricity flows through a wire. Wherever the wire is, there is also electricity. Wherever the mind is, the Atman also goes, as it were, due to the attachment between the mind and consciousness that is caused by karma; and when the contact takes place with the consciousness, the mind feels that there is no further necessity to move outside in search of an object because the object has already come into possession. The mind ceases to move outside and comes in contact with the self inside. Immediately there is a joy. The joy, therefore, has come from within us. It has not come from the object, yet foolishly we think that the object is painted with bliss and we are the abodes of sorrow, which is not true. The reverse is the case. All those who run after the pleasures of sense will reap sorrow one day or the other, for anything that has a beginning will also have an end – adyantavantah. That which has a beginning will also have an end because our pleasures, which are contact born, begin with the contact itself. Therefore, they shall end when the contact ceases.

There is bereavement on account of sensory contact. Our relationship with this world is fragile. The Mahabharata tells us that just as two logs floating on the surface of the ocean  may come in contact with each other due to the prevailing wind,  we come in contact with each other and become  relatives,  friends,  a community; but if the wind blows in a different direction, the logs move away from each other, as if they  have no connection. So when the wind of the cosmic force blows in a different direction, you will be taken to  one place and I  to another,  as if we had not been born here at all.

The great sage Vyasa has written in the Mahabharata yatha kashtham cha kashtham cha sameyatam mahodadhau, sametvicham yateyantam tatvad bhootasamagamah:The coming in contact of beings, the friendship that we have, the community that we establish humanly, are all false in the sense that they are conditioned by the winds of cosmic powers which breed contact; and when these winds blow in a different direction we are separated, and then we say that somebody died. “I have lost someone. My brother is dead” – and we cry in bereavement. Why did we come in contact at all in order that we may cry afterwards? Hence, contact with objects has a beginning and it also has an end. Therefore, all joys that are born of contact are poison in the end, though they look like honey in the beginning. Adyantavantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah: Wise people do not rejoice in objects of sense.

Saknotihaiva yah sodhum prak sarira-vimoksanat, kama-krodhodbhavam vegam sa yuktah sa sukhi narah: Blessed is that person who is able to restrain himself from desire and anger even before the dispatch of his body. The vehemence of anger and the vehemence of desire is actually the vehemence of the mind which runs in terms of sense objects. Therefore, he who longs for blessedness and does not want to perish in this samsara, in this worldly existence, works very hard – kama-krodhodbhavam vegam. Sa yuktah – such a person is united with Reality.