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The offering of wisdom is better than any material offering, Arjuna; for the goal of all work is spiritual wisdom.
As the heat of a fire reduces wood to ashes, the fire of knowledge burns to ashes all karma.
Those who take wisdom as their highest goal, whose faith is deep and whose senses are trained, attain wisdom quickly and enter into perfect peace. 40 But the ignorant, indecisive and lacking in faith, waste their lives. They can never be happy in this world or any other.
Though Krishna acknowledges here that this way of sannyasa can lead to the goal, he recommends the path of selfless action or selfless service as the better way.
the Gita was the first Hindu scripture to introduce the novel idea of combining karma yoga with the pursuit of Self-knowledge.
The true goal of action is knowledge of the Self.
is essential in karma yoga that the selfish ego not expect gratification from the work.
When meditation becomes very deep, breathing becomes slow, steady, and even, and the windows of the senses close to all outward sensations. Next the faculties of the mind quiet down, resting from their usually frantic activity; even the primal emotions of desire, fear, and anger subside. When all these sensory and emotional tides have ceased to flow, then the spirit is free, mukta – at least for the time being. It has entered the state called samadhi.
Those who know this truth, whose consciousness is unified, think always, “I am not the doer.”
But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do.
They see the same Self in a spiritual aspirant and an outcaste,
They are not elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad.
But those who overcome the impulses of lust and anger which arise in the body are made whole and live in joy.
Closing their eyes, steadying their breathing, and focusing their attention on the center of spiritual consciousness, 28 the wise master their senses, mind, and intellect through meditation.
Self-realization is their only goal. Freed from selfish desire, fear, and anger, they live in freedom always.
the word yogi often has a more modest definition: it can mean a person who does his or her job with detachment from the rewards (6:1),
yoga means “integration of the spirit.”
Karma yoga, he says, is the path for those who wish to climb the mountain of Self-realization; for those who have reached the summit, the path is shama, the peace of contemplation.
climbing this mountain, willpower, self-help, intense personal effort, are absolute essentials.
“one should lift oneself up by one’s Self”
One’s self is thus one’s friend or one’s own enemy.
Only those who have genuine self-discipline, who are “self-conquered,” live in peace.
samabuddhi, “of equable mind.”
How is this self-conquest to be made? Very simply, the Gita teaches that the mind must be made one-pointed through the practice of meditation.
Meditation is an internal discipline to make the mind one-pointed, absolutely concentrated.
comparing the mind to a steady flame. By its very nature the untrained mind is restless, constantly wandering here and there in trying to fulfil its desires. It flickers wildly like a flame in a storm – never blown completely out, yet
at the mercy of the wind. Wherever it
wanders, Krishna says, it must be brought back to its source; it must learn to rest in the Self. Once it is at home in the depths of contemplation, the mind becomes steady, like an upright, unflickering flame in a windless place. In this deep meditation, and only there, can the human being f...
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no attempt to improve his spiritual condition could possibly be a wasted effort.
The general Hindu belief is that Self-realization requires many, many lives of spiritual discipline.
aspirants who want to climb the mountain of spiritual awareness, the path is selfless work;
who have ascended to yoga the path is stillness and peace.
Reshape yourself through the power of your will; never let yourself be degraded by self-will.
To those who have conquered themselves, the will is a friend. But it is the enemy of those who have not found the Self within them.
They live in peace, alike in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, praise and blame.
They are equally disposed to family, enemies, and friends, to those who support them and those who are hostile, to the good and the evil alike. Because they are impartial, they rise to great heights.
When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. 20 In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the Self reveals itself.
Wherever the mind wanders,
train it to rest in the Self
When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.
Even one who inquires after the practice of meditation rises above those who simply perform rituals.
vijnana could mean to know intensely or to a greater degree.
“One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana, ignorance. One who has seen fire has jnana. But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana.”
Sankhya recognized two fundamental principles underlying all things: prakriti, the principle of mind and matter, and Purusha, the principle of pure spirit.
In Sankhya, the goal of Self-realization is seen as the final freeing of the spirit (Purusha) from its flirtation with mind and matter (prakriti).
the spiritually ready soul makes the journey of the northern route while those who have only practiced rituals take the southern.
toward that state of being. 7 Therefore,
There is merit in studying the scriptures, in selfless service, austerity, and giving, but the practice of meditation carries you beyond all these to the supreme abode of the highest Lord.
The purpose of life is to realize God, and until this is done, the soul cannot escape creating more karma which has to be worked out, however many lives it might take. The choice to turn toward Self-realization is always open.
whatever a person deeply desires – whatever he or she worships – will eventually be attained, in some life or other.
