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Dear
practitioner! You must be curious to know how that supreme knowledge
can be attained within one’s own self. In order to attain that you
have to well understand the method of practice of that divine path
of yoga. Only a devoted and alert person attains knowledge through
control over his senses. After attaining knowledge soon he finds
that supreme peace which is the inner demand of every individual
being.
Shraddhavanllabhate
jnanam tatparah samyatendriyah
Jnanam
labdhwa param shantimachirenadhigacchati! (Gita
4-39)
To
attain this divine knowledge which is basic to eternal peace, if a
person does not adopt the means of devotion etc., and rather
conducts himself contrary to that, then be sure, the one who has
neither self knowledge nor dedication, and he who is a sceptic, is
bound to perish; since for a sceptic there is neither this world nor
the other nor even happiness. E.g. in Shrimadbhagwadgita Lord
Krishna says:-
Ajnashchashraddadhanashcha
samshayatma vinashyati
Nayam
lokosti na sukham samshayatmanah (Gita
4-40)
With
the help of Yoga therefore, destroying all the past actions, and by
means of knowledge piercing through all the doubts, one full of
spiritual power, cannot be bound by any type of actions.
An
individual, who has made the effect of his actions fruitless through
yoga, has finished his doubts through real knowledge and has become
self-confident, having realized spiritual power, can never be bound
by any type of action e.g.: -
Yogasamnyastakarmanam
gnanasamcchinnasamshayam
Atmavantam
na karmani nibadhnanti dhanamjaya (Gita
4-41)
So
has encouraged Lord Krishna to mankind through Arjuna. “O dear brave
warrior (in life)! You destroy all the doubts (sprouting out of
ignorance) with the help of real knowledge and through the internal
urge of desireless action be ready and firm to face every kind of
situation”: -
Tasmodaganasambhutam
hritstham jnanasinatmanah
Cchittwainam
samshayam yogamatishthottistha Bharata (Gita
4-42)
The
aforesaid divine message is worth accepting and following for
everyman. Undoubtedly the man who follows the divine path of yoga as
directed by Lord Krishna will attain salvation and help in the
making of a harmonious society, thus fulfill the mission of his
life. The only need is to march forward in the light of this thought
with faith and devotion.
A
person having realized Supreme knowledge deserves eternal
peacefulness. Without the development of this discriminating faculty
i.e. the ability to differentiate the right and the wrong, even the
worldly routine of life cannot be run properly nor can be gained a
due respect in society, how can be possible a transcendental
peace.
Just
as a person even having gathered all the ingredients for preparing
meals, cannot satisfy his hunger unless and until he knows how to
prepare the dish or if he tries to prepare any eatable through mere
bookish knowledge without the proper guidance of some expert cook,
will have to face some ill effect on health through half-baked or
improperly baked eatables. Similarly man has got all the
potentialities of knowledge in himself, but without knowing and
adopting the proper method of its development and exposition, he
under the pressure of ignorance, feels restless, worried and
unhappy. Some people after having a little bookish verbal knowledge
engage themselves in the practice of Yoga, they in the absence of
some proper instructor, have to receive so many diseases and pains –
causing peacelessness – that is not good and desirable. So as
according to Lord Krishna: -
Tadviddhi
pranipatena pariprashnena sewaya
Upadekshyanti
te gnanam jnaninastattwadarshinah (Gita
4-34)
i.e.
one should go to some spiritual master with faith and devotion;
offering himself for his services with humble salutations, should
express his curiosity for the attainment of that real knowledge.
Those great philosopher saints, seers of Truth would preach you the
proper methods of attaining pure knowledge.” After that you will be
free from all the confusions and would be able to see all the
individual souls with you own and yourself with the
others.
The
practice that leads to the state of such a universal vision, along
with the complete faith and devotion needs constant keenness and
control of the senses also (Tatparah samyatendriyah). First of all,
the complete faith and devotion in the words of the holy scriptures
and the spiritual master is very necessary without that no one can
have even the touch of the knowledge of the Real self-as according
to St. Tulsidas: -
“Bhawanishankarau
vande shraddhavishwasrupinau
Yabhyam
vina na pashyanti siddhaswantasthamishwaram”
(Shriramacharita
Manas – Bal Kand)
i.e.
the practitioners – even having observed innumerous observances
cannot realize that supreme soul abiding in their own self, without
his faith and devotion been represented by Lord Shiva and Parvathi
Bhavani. The term Shraddha implies the strong faith in the words of
guru (the spiritual Master and the holy scriptures) just like in a
perceptional experience. No religious performance proves to be
fruitful without this devotion (Shraddha).
“Ashraddhaya
hutam dattam tapastaptam kritam cha yat
Asadityuchyate
parth na cha tatpretya no aha” (Gita
17-28)
i.e.
any charity, donation, austerity or ritual, performed without faith
and devotion is completely unsuccessful and wrong for this life and
for the life next even, rather that type of action is called Asat
(Improper unfair). The base of all the religious and Yogic
performance is the feeling of Shraddha (devotion). Even in “Patanjal
Yoga Darshan” (the authentic scripture of yoga) Shraddha has been
stated as the first step in the process of Yoga
practice.
Shraddhavirya-smriti-samadhi-prajna-purwaka
atresham
Again
in Geeta Shraddha has been told to be a great useful qualification
of a practitioner i.e.
“Shraddhawananasuyashcha
shrinuyadapi yo narah
So
api muktah shubhamllokan prapnuyat punyakarmanam” (Yoga-Darshan)
i.e.
even a person, who refrains jealousy, only listens the holy dialogue
with faith and devotion, is freed from all the past bad impressions
and deserves the divine abodes available to the virtuous people.
What to say more, devotion is the base of the practice. According to
Lord Krishna: -
Shraddhamayoyam
purusah yo yaccharaddhah sa eva sah (Gita
17-3)
i.e.
this individual is what ever its faith and devotion is – as a person
becomes the same about what and whom he has got complete faith and
mental inclination. Otherwise austerity or any hard practice without
devotion brings nothing except the increasement of toil, exhaustion
and feeling of egotism. But we should not forget that these aspect
faith and devotion are vitalized with the next Tatparata i.e. the
constant keenness and interest in the practice that shall be
explained with details in the
next.
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