Bhagavad-Gita P.11

Dedicated with affection and gratitude to my eternal Well-wisher and Master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada

Published by Centro Studi Bhaktivedanta Academic Department of Traditional Indian Sciences Via Livornese Est 172 - 56030 Perignano (PI) Tel. +39 0587 618448 – Fax +39 0587 615435 Mobile +39 320 3264838 [email protected] www.c-s-b.org

INDEX

- Foreword p.4

- Introduction p.9

- Bhagavad-gita p.11

- Background of the Kurukshetra Battle p.14

- Chapter I - Arjuna’s fear p.16 - Chapter II – Appearance and Reality p.23 - Chapter III – Action exempted from conditioning p.33 - Chapter IV e V – The Art of life - Karma yoga p.39 - Chapter VI – The mind: obstacle or precious help p.45 - Chapter VII - Consciousness p.64 - Chapter VIII – Contents of the psychic Field and Existantial Journey p.69 - Chapter IX - Revelation p.74 - Chapter X – The Immanent Divine p.79 - Chapter XI - The universal form: Arjuna facing the Numinous p.85 - Chapter XII - Bhakti: the regal way to self realization p.92 - Chapter XIII – The teaching of knowledge p.96 - Chapter XIV – The ropes of conditioners p.109 - Chapter XV – The inner voice - The function of the Symbol p.114 - Chapter XVI – The psychological type p.122 - Chapter XVII - The gunas and the human behavior p.129 - Chapter XVIII – De-conditioninf and victory of the inner-self. Bhakti: a superior synthesis p.134

FOREWORD

The precious wisdom of Hindu tradition has been discovered and appreciated by many great Western thinkers; to name only a few of the modern ones: Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hegel, Thoreau, Emerson. Their expertise in dealing with heterogeneous cultures, brought them also to the study of ancient India, from which they probably drew a number of topics such as the cosmic Principle, the veil of Maya, the infinity and consciousness of the self, the law of attraction and repulsion, the cyclic succession of great historical ages. Kant said about ancient Indians:

“Their religion was originally very pure, […] we can still see traces of a pure concept of divinity, not easily found elsewhere.”

As for Schopenhauer, he saw India as the land of primeval wisdom, the place where Europeans could trace their origin back, and the Tradition which had influenced them in a significant way. We report here some of the most pregnant opinions expressed by eminent thinkers, as a testimonial of the impact that Bhagavad-Gita, the “Hindu Gospel” and synthesis of Vedic knowledge, had on the West:

“A work which demands the highest respect.” (E. Kant)

“With Bhagavad-Gita we can have a clear idea of the highest and most practiced of all Indian religions.” (G. W. F. Hegel)

“Bhagavad-Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive compendiums ever made on Eternal Philosophy […]. It is perhaps the most systematic spiritual affirmation of Eternal Philosophy.” (A. L. Huxley)

“It’s the most beautiful book. It was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.” (R. W. Emerson)

“The most splendid and perhaps the only real philosophical poem existing in any known language.” (K. W. von Humboldt) “When delusion looks me in the eyes and, all alone, I see no sunray, I go back to Bhagavad-Gita. I find a line here and there, and I suddenly get to smile in the middle of overwhelming tragedies.” (H. Hesse)

In the course of time, the immense spiritual heritage of the ancient Indian subcontinent has slowly but surely degraded, due to many internal and external causes. However, its original point of view is still available for those who desire it, and can only be found within the tradition. A study based on Western parameters, utilizing a Greek-Latin matrix, would in fact deviate the researcher from the understanding of its correct meaning (siddhanta). Vedic literature doesn’t contain a petrified knowledge, but a wisdom which is ever valid, vital, capable of self regeneration and adaptation to various historical contexts, with renewed attention to time, place and circumstances. It maintains its immutable essence intact in time, yesterday as today, offering the opportunity to set out a high quality lifestyle and fulfill the individual’s highest aspirations. We can take advantage of this multi millenarian experience, which has come to us thanks to the exegetic work of the traditional schools (sampradayas). Whereas the West has created a disconnection between the conscious and unconscious part of the psyche, resulting in a loss of unity for the self, such process has had much less impact on Indian culture. This in fact has retained a global, all-embracing vision of man, and has imprinted a fulfilling sense of completeness on human life.

Jung writes in What India can teach us (1939):

“The civilization and psychology of India are much like its temples, with sculptures that depict the whole universe, including all possible human aspects and activities, holy or impious. This is probably why India appears much like a dream: it sends us back to the unconscious, in that unredeemed, uncivilized, original world which we can only dream about, since our consciousness negates it. India represents the other way to civilization, with no repression, no violence, no rationalism.”

Although the Western spirit has penetrated the East, and has partly modified some of its habits, mostly degrading them, it has not succeeded in eradicating such value. On the contrary:

“It is amazing to see how fragments of Western science can peacefully live with what we call, in our myopia, superstition” (Jung, 1939).

The millenarian experience of great sages proves that the scientific path and the religious-mystic search constitute a harmonic continuum, without contradictions or illogical gaps. From objective and unbiased observation, we can move to the contemplation of reality, which is to be investigated with scientific methods and instruments, in order to achieve a coherent and provable result. Through this method, the real scientist discovers quite naturally the metaphysic dimension. There is indeed no unabridged gap between real science and authentic spiritual research. The scientific process, or positive method as it is called in the West, constitutes only the first part of the path. As we proceed with an honest spirit of search, we start investigating matter very deeply, penetrating its constituent elements (sub-atomic particles). Thus, we begin to catch a glimpse on non-matter, while proceeding towards the dimension of spirit. Spirit and matter don’t negate, but rather complement each other. They are simply two different categories of energy with a common origin: according to Vedic literature, the Supreme Being, Param-purusha.

Among the many traditional Hindu texts, the Bhagavad-Gita is celebrated for the depth, extent and universality of its message. It is a remarkably spiritual, but also practical and verifiable message, which surpasses individual cultural backgrounds. For this reason, its worth extends to the entire humanity, in every time and place. From an attentive and in-depth study of this text, we can draw many noteworthy suggestions which can tangibly improve our life quality. We can get cues for psychological reflection and for a speculative, heuristic approach to the variegated and multifarious hindovedic culture. In my opinion, Bhagavad-Gita constitutes a reference point of inexhaustible, undeniable wealth, which allows man to directly approach the meaning of life, human destiny, suffering and the solutions that the Indian sages (rishis) have suggested through the centuries. The purpose of a psychological approach to the content of Bhagavad- Gita, is to explore a pattern of thought which has represented, and still represents, a coherent unity of fundamental existential values for more than one billion people over the centuries. It is thus a reference text for the understanding of life, in its physical and metaphysical totality. Modern time is distinguished by advanced communication and information, and by the increasing contact between different peoples and cultures. This creates more and more exchanges and comparisons between different socio-cultural models, although not always productive and peaceful ones. What stimulates the majority of people of our time to turn to the classics of Indian thought, is mainly the increasing need, mostly unsatisfied, to find and understand one’s position in the universe. Indeed, there arise ever stronger doubts on the self, individuality, identity, personality, relationships, destiny and life precariousness. Traditional Indian culture, fully substantiated by the sacred, aims at the harmonization of the most diverse experiences, in order to reach freedom from suffering (moksha). The socio-cosmic organization and the dialogue between

7 micro and macrocosm; the terrestrial and celestial happiness in view of ultimate Goodness; harmony with cosmic laws; all-regulating and sustaining dharma: such topics generate appreciation for a series of universal, everlasting values, and a positive tension towards Truth, Wisdom and Beauty.

INTRODUCTION

Bhagavad-Gita, like all works based on Indian thought, is an instrument meant to concretely free the individual from suffering. It does not express anything abstract, nor is its teaching valid only for a certain historical period. The conditions under which Bhagavad-Gita must be interpreted and applied to daily life may vary, but its nucleus and its essence, are suitable for any circumstance, any time, any cultural and spiritual environment. Through Bhagavad-Gita we learn to know ourselves and to gradually understand who we are. The study of this text produces a level of consciousness which, in its practical application, allows for the development of a superior understanding, a higher state of conciousness and an intuitive perception. These can be applied to daily life, and help us get rid of masks and aspects of a pseudo personality which does not belong to our ontological nature, and which generates suffering. The psychological approach to reality, which permeates the entire text, is present also in the Vedas and in the entire upanishadic and puranic literature, in the sutras and in the dharmashastras, although with different modalities. Since time immemorial, in fact, Indian sacred texts have featured a relevant amount of “scientific and psychological” contents. The Vedas, which constitute the basic heritage of Indian wisdom and spirituality, are full of doctrines explaining the origin and constitution of the universe, the structure of matter and the nature of energy, the functioning of the mind and the development of conscience, right up to full self consciousness. This knowledge is not only expressed through symbolic and mythological forms, but also through a speculative attitude and a method of inquiry which often approach the same conclusions given by modern scientists. This aspect has often been noticed and highlighted, also recently, by several researchers in the fields of astronomy, physics and biology. One of the most successful in-depth studies in that direction was made by the physicist

Fritjof Capra, who seeks to reduce the distance between Western and Oriental thought models. In his books “The Tao of Physics” and “The Turning Point”, he tries to make the ancient texts of oriental spirituality compatible with the discoveries made by contemporary physics in the last millenniums. The theoretical and epistemological assumptions of this work are therefore based on one of the main features of oriental culture, particularly of India: the holistic approach to psychology, philosophy and religion, which constitute a single knowledge, a science of the human being considered in relationship with himself and the cosmos. In the West, the evolution of thought and culture has created, since the Renaissance, a clear borderline between these fields of knowledge and experience. This was due to an increasingly secular approach to the heuristic and speculative dimension, both in human and in natural sciences. In India, however, this same process took place to a minor degree. Even today, at the threshold of the third millennium, the link between religion on the one hand and philosophy/psychology/ethics on the other, or between revealed and scientific truths, is still very strong and sound for the average Indian. Furthermore, Western methodology is analytical and inductive, whereas in India it is theoretical and deductive, the big advantage being that it never loses sight of the whole.

“Everything depends on everything; everything is tied together; nothing is separate.” (G.G. Urdjieff)

The big spectrum of thought characterizing Indian scriptures, has provided the religious man not only with a system of metaphysical beliefs, but also with a conceptual theory system, very useful towards the explanation of the physical world of appearances and phenomena. Besides, another peculiarity of these texts is that they contain constant references to daily life, and are therefore mainly pragmatic and empirical, allowing modern man to solve individual and social problems effectively.

In India, in fact, religion is not only belief or mere rituality, but rather a concrete aspect of existence which permeates the individual’s life intimately, creating an inseparable connection between the spiritual, psychological and physical dimension. Religion is conceived traditionally at the service of human evolution in its widest sense. To help such evolution, the spiritual researcher must organize his day around a series of activities that reintegrate him into the cosmic order, and harmonize all his anthropological planes.

BHAGAVAD-GITA

Thinkers such as Schlegel, Von Humboldt, Schopenhauer and Hegel consider it a text of great importance for the history of the human spirit. Undoubtedly comparable to the Christian Bible, a life manual for Gandhi, and a holy revelation for numerous traditional Hindu religions, particularly the followers of the Vaishnava, or bhagavata, monotheism, Bhagavad-Gita, ‘The poem of the Glorious Lord’ ('the Song of God')is the most widespread and well-known holy Sanskrit text in the world. In seven hundred verses, this poem celebrates the dialog between Krishna as God the Hero, and Arjuna as the warrior prince. In a fighting chariot, on the holy Kurukshetra field, transformed for the occasion into a battle camp, standing between two armies lined up and ready to face each other in a fratricidal war, Krishna, in a manner similar to Jung's image of the cosmic Self, reveals to Arjuna, Jung's limited ego, the science of life and spiritual realization by showing him the path of Dharma. The dialog is part of the Bhishama Parva ‘the book of Bhishma’, sixth book of the Mahabharata, the greatest epic tale ever conceived and written in the world. Composed of almost one hundred thousand verses, it is an endless collection of human and divine personalities, an encyclopedic poem where spiritual, ethical and social values of the Brahmin society find their expression.

Bhagavad-Gita is an authentic compendium of cosmological, anthropological and eschantological doctrines. It comprises philosophy, psychology, ethics and spirituality, as they connect to each other and to the substantial continuity between the different levels of existence and the busy round of connections between macro-cosmos and micro-cosmos. If it is true that a holy text’s value is proportional to the theoretical and practical instruments that it provides for the realization of levels of superior conscious, thus offering concepts, intuitions, and ways of life suited to face and solve existential problems of individuals and the more complex ones of society, then it is only fitting to call Bhagavad-Gita a work of everlasting value. Scholars of the religious philosophy study this book for in depth information on the most important spiritual doctrines of the Vedic and Brahmin doctrine. Sociologists find social architecture in the varna-ashrama dharma doctrine. Politicians can reflect on Prince Arjuna’s dramatic dilemmas. For economists, this work hints at the foundation of a cosmic economy that combines the human – natural/terrestrial world and the celestial one in a reciprocal relation. It represents a precious instrument for psychologists in their efforts to understand and cure unhealthy aspects of the human personality. In Bhagavad-Gita, all three traditional ways to spiritual liberation (moksha) find their place: the action (karma-marga) way, the knowledge and meditation (jnana marga) way, and the way through devotional love of God (bhakti marga). The latter represents the essential and conclusive teaching of the Gita, and it is described as the way able to conduct every individual to the rediscovery of the eternal love relationship which unites one to the cosmic Being; a way to the complete reintegration of the Self in universal harmony that enables one to gain all earthly goals and at the same time to discover one’s divine nature.

Bhagavad-Gita in fact presents the reader with an attitude far from both an illusory identification with immanence and an equally distant escapist view of an abstract and spiritual transcendence denying earthly values and despising the human body. It encourages one, however, to fully act but with detachment, effectively, but not moved by a goal of possession or success, a religious acting offered as a sacrifice in joyous devotion to God. In Taoist terminology, Bhagavad-Gita prospects a dynamic equilibrium between the contraries of action and non-action obtained through a superior knowledge that allows the individual to totally exist in space- temporal coordinates while accomplishing his duties in the world without pseudo- meditative escapes. During this process, one may open one’s self to an authentic meta-historical and meta-temporal dimension of communion with the Divine.

BACKGROUND OF THE KURUKSHETRA BATTLE

Bhishma-Parva, one of the books constituting the Mahabharata, includes the Bhagavad-gita and is preceded by five Parvas, containing many fascinating episodes, helpful in understanding the Gita itself, particularly its opening act and Arjuna’s dismay. Our text has a different aim and we cannot explain the Gita’s verses in detail and thoroughly; we will therefore limit ourselves to a very brief recapitulation which provides a preliminary framework to the book’s context. Of the two brothers Dhritarashtra and Pandu, both sons of Vyasa, generated respectively with Ambika and Ambalika, it was Pandu who became heir to the throne of Hastinapura. Dhritarashtra, in fact, was blind since birth, and therefore could not rule. Nevertheless, having Pandu left the city to live an ascetic life in the forest with his wives Kunti and Madri, Dhritarashtra took up the regent position. Dhritarashtra was married to Gandhari, who gave him one hundred male children, the Kauravas. One of them, Duryodhana, became the main opponent to Arjuna and his brothers. Pandu, on the contrary, could not procreate because of a curse, and therefore Kunti resorted to a special mantra received from a great sage, and generated her sons with some celestial beings (devas). From Dharmaraja she begot Yudhishthira, from Vayu Bhima and from Indra Arjuna. With the same system, Madri begot the twins Nakula and Sahadeva from the two Ashvins. The five children, fully recognized as Pandu’s children, were known through their patronymic name: Pandavas. One day in springtime, while in the forest, Pandu fell prey to desire and, fascinated by Madri, died while mating with her, as was predicted. Kunti, then, left the forest with the five children and returned to Hastinapura, where she lived initially under the protection of Dhritarashtra, who treated Pandu’s and his own children equally. The cousins Kauravas and Pandavas grew up

14 together and were educated in the military art by the great teachers Kripa and Drona. Soon, however, a great rivalry arouse among them. When Dhritarashtra designated Yudhishthira as heir to the throne, Duryodhana could no longer hold his envy, and hatched a plot to eliminate his five cousins. The Pandavas were saved thanks to Vidura’s warning, and went through many adventures in incognito, while the Kauravas thought them dead. In the end an agreement was reached: the Kauravas would continue to rule in Hastinapura, whereas Yudhishthira built a new capital, Indraprastha, where he ruled in a magnificent palace. With their divine qualities, the Pandavas conquered the hearts of all their people. Duryodhana, more and more tormented by his envy, dragged Yudhishthira into a fatal dice challenge which resulted into a 12 year exile plus one year of hiding for the five brothers and their wife Draupadi. When this period was over, after many alternate adventures, the Pandavas asked the Kauravas to get their kingdom back, but Duryodhana refused stubbornly. The inflexibility of the Kauravas made the armed clash inevitable. Krishna, who acted in this lila as the Pandava’s cousin and friend, offered a choice to the two main contestants, Arjuna and Duryodhana. They could have His personal support or his entire army. Arjuna, who was given first choice, favoured Krishna’s personal company, and gladly left Krishna’s army to Duryodhana. The two opposing armies lined up then on the plain of Kurukshetra, ready to fight till the end. Before the fratricidal war began, Vyasa gave Sanjaya, his disciple and Dhritarashtra’s famous counsellor, the divine ability to see every area of the huge battlefield simultaneously from his palace, thus enabling him to inform the blind king of every event taking place.

CHAPTER I Arjuna’s fears

The first chapter of Bhagavad-gita introduces the subject of suffering, which is very dear to Pan-Indian philosophy. Its scope is to free the individual from the painful conditions of the human embodied existence: birth (janma), illness (vyadi), old age (jara) and death (mrityu). In the first chapter, Arjuna finds himself experiencing a crisis of conscience. It is a moment of conflict where he must decide between what he should do and what he would like to do. His situation is a typically turbulent situation well known in both modern and antique psychology. Arjuna enters into a series of thoughts on dharma, duty, and the importance of the family because he realizes that the upcoming battle will cause the death of many people dear to him, and the death of many leaders of his society as well, and this he foresees will provoke great disorder at all levels. The unfortunate consequences of the fight, Arjuna thinks, will not be less tragic than the fight itself. Entangled in these thoughts, he becomes overwhelmed by anguish. He considers not fighting or even letting the enemy killing him without posing any resistance, thinking that death is preferable to obtaining a kingdom and becoming the emperor of the world at the cost of the loss of dear persons. Arjuna is a warrior prince, a kshatriya, a name identifying those who belong to the second varna or ‘social department’ whose members have the duty to defend and maintain order and the state law, and to protect the citizens from any harm. He is thus an action man, a practical man used to move among life’s difficulties while performing his duties. He is not an abstract philosophical spirit, a theoretical reflective one that searches the depths of the human soul. He could be described in Jung’s typology as a ‘sensory- extrovert’:

“His objective sense of the facts is extraordinarily developed. His impressions, sometimes, don’t resemble at all something that deserves the name of “experience”. His feelings are at the most his guidance for new associations of ideas. All this enters as something new in his circle of interests; it is acquired through the feelings and must serve that purpose. The more the sensorial activity prevails, thus making the subject disappear behind the feeling, the more the subconscious, from a function of compensation, is forced to assume an open opposition and are mainly the removed intuitions that are felt under the form of projections on the object. The most fanciful doubts arise. The pathological contents have a noteworthy character of unreality and often a moralistic and religious aspect. Often a sophisticated quibbling develops, a moralistic scrupulosity that borderlines to ridicule, a primitive, superstitious and magic piety that is carried out with external rituals. All these elements derive from the removed and less differentiated functions that in these contexts are clearly opposed to the conscience. Reason becomes quibbling, morale becomes empty moralism and rough phariseism; religion becomes an absurd superstition, the ability to have a foreboding, this elevated human gift becomes personal sophistication and is reduced to an exploration of any hidden corner, therefore, instead of extending its size, it shrinks to a too human pettiness (Jung, 1921, 1977).’

It is indeed for his sensorial-pragmatic temperament that Arjuna asks Krishna, his friend, and for the occasion his auriga, to stop between the two armies to allow him to look his adversary in the face. What he sees is not comforting: there is Bhishma, the best of generals, together with many other exceptional heroes and warriors who up to that moment had always been victorious. The power of Duryodhana’s army appears clearly superior to that of the Pandavas, and at the sight of that powerful army drawn in front of him ‘with belligerent spirit’, Arjuna feels the fear of the consequences that the dreadful battle will cause growing inside his heart. Arjuna is a kshatriya, and a strong person, noble and courageous. In the past, he faced and defeated many fearful opponents, even some devas,

17 therefore, in this case, we certainly cannot speak of fear of death in the most common sense. For our psychological analysis, it is however interesting to briefly stop at this deep fear that every individual must deal with, no matter how he consciously or unconsciously refuses and removes even the thought of it. The concept of death results unacceptable from both the subjective and cultural points of view; in fact, in accordance with all Vedic literature, the being is immortal. In this way, death and fear connected with it can be interpreted with what Jung defined as ‘Shadow’:

“I refer to Shadow as to the negative part of the personality, precisely the total of the hidden unfavourable characteristics and of the functions developed in an incomplete fashion, and to the contents of the personal subconscious” (Jung 1921).

As Trevi says, the ‘Shadow’ can be interpreted as

“The rejected part of the personality, the one that, in common language, is referred to as “the dark side” of an individual: the total of the tendencies, characteristics, attitudes, and unacceptable desires of the Ego.” (Trevi, 1986).

The ‘Shadow’ is what the Ego does not want to know, what it does not like, rightfully or wrongfully, what is refused; it constitutes that secondary personality that appears so unpleasant and unrelated to it but that is instead tied to it intrinsically. Back to Arjuna, he is evidently prey to an internal conflict because he must fight people who are very close to him, people he feels connected to by affection and gratitude, his teachers, his cousins and other relatives. Indomitable warrior, in this situation Arjuna shows his human weaknesses, and while facing the two armies, his and his rival cousins’, he shows some symptoms typical of the depressed. These symptoms are similar to those characterizing a panic attack: tremors, dryness of the mouth, chills, tachycardia, perspiration, tingling, physical and psychic weakness, confusion, 18 burning mind, and fear of going mad. Arjuna is anguished, lost - his spirit is clouded and all his conscience is disoriented:

My limbs fail and my mouth dries up. My whole body trembles and my hair stands on end. The Gandiva arc slips from my hand. My skin burns all over, I am unable to stand, my mind is reeling. (BG I.28-29) Having thus spoken on the battlefield, Arjuna cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down on the chariot, his heart overwhelmed with grief (BG I.46).

Caught in the deepest desperation, assaulted by denial of everything, by disgust for any action and for life itself, Arjuna rejects his duty as kshatriya:

I desire not victory, o Krishna, nor a kingdom, nor pleasures; of what avail will a kingdom be to us, or enjoyments or even life, o Govinda? Those for whose sake we desire a kingdom, enjoyments and comforts, are here on the battlefield, having resigned their lives and riches. (BG I.32-33).

Devastated by pain and overwhelmed by discouragement, he looks for support for his inner crisis, showing a series of reasoning to support his need to retreat from the battle. By showing his compassionate side, not unrelated to the heart of great warriors, Arjuna lists, in the name of dharma, a series of inauspicious consequences that inhibit him and extinguish his fighting passion and his determination. Arjuna’s doubts can be summarized as follows:

1) Compassion (for his relatives and benefactors) 2) Lay pleasures (“if I win the kingdom, who am I going to enjoy it with if the people most dear to me will no longer be here?”)

3) Destruction of dharma following the death of the family heads (without their guidance and their protection, it will be easy for young women and elderly to become corrupted, and society to be dragged into chaos). 4. Significant karmic reactions derived from the killing of so many people, among whom are great teachers and men important to society.

However, his assertions are nothing more than rationalizations based on social conventions and moral principles. Rationalization is that

“process that makes us accept on a rational basis what is not acceptable on an emotional level: we devise this way, a form of plausible reasoning that provides an explanation for our actions or our opinions to ourselves and to others, removing the connotations tied to those actions or those opinions”. (Trentini, 1993).

Arjuna initiates this mechanism without realizing that a large part of his beliefs are due to attachments which prevent him from having an objective vision and which produce a distortion of his perceptions, his ideas and his motivations.

O Janardana, we heard from authoritative sources that hell is the home of those who destroy the family dharma. Alas! We are about to commit a great sin, driven by the desire to enjoy royal happiness! (BG I.44- 45)

“Faced with the upcoming battle, Arjuna adopts an egoistical form of indulgence, some sort of sentimentalist self compassion, undertaking a false pacifist attitude… His reluctance to fight is not the result of the predominance of sattvaguna, but a simple effect of ignorance (tamoguna) and passion (rajaguna)” (S. Radhakrishnan, 1948, 1964).

Listening to Arjuna’s words and seeing him in the depths of compassion and sadness, Krishna addresses him, his friend, by reproaching

20 him for surrendering to such a humiliating weakness and encouraging him to fight. Thanks to His teachings, Arjuna will learn that, in regard to dharma, we must first of all adhere to our own sva-dharma (in this specific case, the one of prince-warrior) and, more importantly, to sanatana-dharma, which connects each individual to his own nature and ontological function and to the cosmic laws and to the Being from whence one comes. The battle of Kurukshetra is truly a battle that totally respects dharma because it is fought to regain the legitimate kingdom that was subtracted by deception. Moreover, Krishna’s decision in regard to the battle was already made and Arjuna must do nothing but serve it, and adhere to his superior dharma, the one that expects the loving giving of one’s self as individual soul to the Supreme Soul (Vishnu-Krishna). Oppressed, with confused ideas of the right thing to do, he is not able to understand himself nor others, nor the effective reality of the universe where he lives. He looks for a light and a guide in Krishna. As an action man, he asks for a clear rule of conduct, a route to continue to march on and to trust. Arjuna’s anguish is nothing more than the representation, in dramatic terms, of that experience of impotence and weakness that constitutes humanity’s eternal problem. Every individual reaches a moment soon or later when he is not able to face a difficult life situation alone, when he feels thrown in the darkest abyss of desperation; a moment when he is ready to give anything that he owns for a ray of hope. The darkness of the soul is an essential albeit painful step in the journey of individual development. The crises deriving from personal periods of restlessness and moments of strong physical discomfort can become the chance “to make a choice that results in a growth instead of a choice dictated by fear”. (Kopp, 1975). Such broad significance of the crisis concept was expressed for the first time by Jaspers who defined it as:

“A moment when everything undergoes a simultaneous switch, resulting in the 21

transformation of the individual, either giving origin to a new solution or going towards decadence.” (Jaspers, 1913).

Crisis is therefore a transient moment from one condition to another, a transformation, a change. It is in fact the meaning of the Greek term krisis, evidently the origin of the corresponding term in many other Western languages. The opportunity for an individual to reach a growth through crisis was, with all the existential connotations inherent to this interpretation, later explained in depth by Caplan, who developed a “theory on the crisis”. Caplan defines the crisis as:

“A condition that occurs when a person must face an obstacle that keeps him from reaching important vital objectives; this is for a certain amount of time, insuperable through the utilization of usual problem solving methods. Consequently, there is a period of disorganization, a period of confusion, when many attempts to solve the problem are undertaken, to no avail. Finally he reaches a somewhat form of adaptation, that can result more or less in the most useful solution for the individual and for whom he has near him” (Caplan, 1964).

The crisis period, therefore, implies a major vulnerability towards psychopathological developments, but offers a chance to grow, as the individual is more available for relationships with others (from whom he seeks help) and is also more willing to modify personality traits. The psychic suffering experience lived during a crisis period can push the subject to gain the courage to abandon the coward way in which he is imprisoned and undertake the warrior way. The coward way “consists in wrapping ourselves in a cocoon, where we perpetuate our usual models. When we continuously recreate our fundamental models of behaviour and thought, we never project ourselves to fresh air or to a fresh land, we instead wrap ourselves in our dark environment where the only company is our sweat. In the cocoon there is no dance: no walking, no breathing, not even twinkling our eye. It’s comfortable

22 and encourages the sleep. In the cocoon world, things like spring-cleaning are unknown. We feel that cleaning is too busy, too much work. We prefer to return to sleep… in the cocoon there is not even an idea of the light. If we initiate to analyze this comfortable darkness… we realize that it is claustrophobic. When we understand that the degrading cocoon which we are hiding into is disgusting; when we observe the suffering that exists in the world of the coward, we are inspired to go on with our journey on the warrior way. Being a warrior means being authentic in every moment of our life.

(C. Trungpa, 1975)

CHAPTER II Appearance and Reality

Starting from the profound crisis where Arjuna precipitated, Krishna begins to enlighten him on the secrets of existence, by providing him with metaphysical knowledge of universal and practical characteristics, and elaborating the fundamental principle of the immortality of the Self, the atman. Krishna is not a mere symbol; Vasudeva-Krishna reveals himself in Bhagavad-Gita as the Supreme principal origin of everything, Divine Person, Primogenital Being, immanent and transcendent, God of grace and mercy, always inclined to exchange feelings of empathy and love with his devotee. Every time dharma, justice, and mercy are declining and impiety tends to prevail, Krishna manifests Himself in the world, descending as an avatara, to re-establish order and satisfy His devotees. The doctrine related to these divine descents and the concept of God as Person or Subject, are the propaedeutic cognitive foundations for a correct, in depth, and useful comprehension of Bhagavad-Gita. This divine figure who gives knowledge described as “the supreme one among the secrets”, by not being accessible through a mere intellectual experience, presents Himself to Arjuna as a friend, a psychotherapist, a guru who, with the infinite love that He can give, succeeds in transforming His friend-patient-disciple by breaking down his false balances and taking him back to a high level of vision and conscience. The seventh shloka of this chapter represents indeed the conscientious turn of Arjuna:

My nature is afflicted by weakness and my conscience is confused about my duty. I ask You to tell me clearly what is best for me. I am now your disciple and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me (BG II.7)

Psychologically, there is a substantial change of quality, from the friend-friend relationship to the Teacher-disciple relationship. Arjuna voluntarily accepts the position of disciple in the crucial moment of his life, abandoning the one of friend. It is because of this conversion in his relationship with Krishna that he starts thinking and acquiring the knowledge that otherwise would have remained mysterious and enigmatic to him, indeed a virtually inaccessible secret. Arjuna realizes that no worldly solution (political, social, moral, economic or religious) will undo his anguish so he decides to submit to Krishna, recognizing his finite nature and imploring Him to obtain His teaching. According to Bhagavad-Gita, and Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, thanks to this letting go of himself to the Divine, he is able to ascend to the highest level of his conscience and develop a spiritual vision that will enable him to solve every problem. As we see in the preceding chapter, Arjuna’s inner crisis will thus become the launching trampoline that will turn him into the way of Self- realization (for Jung individuation). From this moment on, Krishna will speak almost exclusively; Arjuna after his initial venting will intervene very seldomly, and only to ask questions or solicit clarifications. Krishna’s argument could be related to the interpretation phase in psychotherapy. Arjuna’s attachments, however, seem to try to immediately suffocate his self-abandonment. At the end of shloka nine in fact, he states: “I will not fight.” He then becomes silent, plunging once more into discouragement.

Having comprehended the feelings of impotence and discouragement of His friend-disciple-patient, Krishna addresses him by manifesting a certain dose of optimism. From a psychological point of view, it is interesting how Krishna addresses Arjuna with a smile, benevolently, to give him self- confidence and lead him to listening and receiving what he is about to reveal to him in the best possible way. The smile means “empathy” in psychological terms. Krishna knows well that an emphatic attitude is necessary especially at

25 the beginning of a therapeutic relationship to create what Freud called “rapport”. First of all, Krishna takes Arjuna’s logic off its hinges, judging his reluctance and his anxiety as results of an untimely weakness of character, consequence of avidya (lack of spiritual awareness). His teaching thus enters immediately into the heart of supreme knowledge, and begins with an admirable exaltation of the immortality and immutability of the soul, ontologically well separated from the body:

As the embodied soul passes in this body, from childhood to youth and then to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at the time of death. The wise man is not bewildered by this change. (BG II.13)

For the soul there is never birth, nor death; he [the immortal spirit that pervades the body, atman] never began to exist, never will cease to exist; he is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. (BG II.20)

He who dwells in the body of everyone is eternal and inviolable, o descendant of Bharata! Therefore you need not grieve for any creature. (BG II.30)

It is interesting to note that in the last decades an increasing amount of respected Western researchers have reached good results in the study of reincarnation. One of them, Dr. Joel Whitton, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto Medical School, has collected significant evidence on this subject which, as for many others, due to lack of cultural familiarity, prejudices, superficiality or otherwise, still risks being neglected, considered a fantasy or refused altogether. Hindo-vedic psychology and philosophy explain the phenomena in logic terms showing, as we will see, that experiences and personal tendencies form a kind of karmic baggage which the individual takes along from life to life, greatly influencing his/her choices and character. The

26 consciousness itself of perceiving oneself as an eternal being and that the various existences under different conditions are simply stopping places of an endless life journey, brings us to considering life itself and the world in a more positive fashion than it would if we thought that we had one life only, and that we were simply born and died with the body. The difference is decisive. In fact, I believe that the psychological reflections deriving from the problem of death are such as to condition men’s behavior at its very roots throughout their lives. Each individual perceives the phenomenon of death in a different fashion, and accordingly to his/her concept of it and to how he/she lives it, his/her life takes on a certain style. The individual is then consciously or unconsciously conditioned by the concept of death that he himself retains. Superficially this thought may not be apparent, but underneath in the subconscious, it is agitated or sinks into idleness, according to the level of consciousness. Serious personality and behavioral troubles are often strongly tied to the interpretation, individual or collective, of that phenomenon of life called death. Neuroses, alas very common nowadays, are very closely related to this unsolved existential problem with the inability of finding a balance point in the universe whether in a spacial or temporal sense, but above all in a transcendental, spiritual sense. For the common people, an erroneous concept of death ends up having a decisive weight on the quality of their lives. If instead we consider another prospective, the one offered to us by Bhagavad-Gita, we begin to understand what hides beneath the layer of appearances. We have categories that help us understand apparent social injustices, for example why innocent children suffer and leave us prematurely, or why honest and gentle people shed bitter tears. The physical world, the one presented to us by the five senses, does not represent the entire reality, but is only one of its reflections. For one who observes and analyzes based on sensorial perception (pratyaksha), the unknown dilates out of proportion, and everything becomes enigmatic and a cause of anxiety.

Generally speaking, in the West, psychology altogether excludes the study of the spiritual and eternal Self and it is limited to the study of the mental structure and its reflections on the physical. Real psychology, however, is the science of the soul, atmavidya, and as such, it cannot neglect the basic component of each individual: the spiritual component. We could compare death to an immense polyhedron with endless facets; some people know only a few of these facets, some know some more, while others know even more. One who is prepared to face death in a serene way, sees it as a somewhat inconsistent event, even if this adjective seems paradoxical. Great wise men, philosophers and mystics of various religious traditions of all time have sought to solve this problem, knowing that as long as in the bottom of the Ego the fear of death remains restless, consciously or unconsciously, serenity remains an illusion. As a perfect psychologist, Krishna does not neglect even Arjuna’s social position, his place in the environment where he lives, thus reminding him of his duties as kshatriya (warrior). He cannot avoid his duties unless he wants to learn dishonor and be considered a coward:

Men will ever tell of your disgrace, and to a man of honor ill fame is worse than death! (BG II.34)

To help Arjuna understand His words clearly, Krishna shows him the ways for man to elevate himself in a systematic fashion from the material level where, misled by the illusionary energy (maya), he is inevitably bound to suffering, and to reach the spiritual level, where true peace, freedom from the cycle of birth and death (samsara), and the highest and most perfect knowledge and eternal bliss can be found. Krishna explains to Arjuna that in this evolution path of the conscious, the first step to be taken to best utilizing his intelligence, consists in acting without personal interest for an egoistical result, therefore, without greed nor

28 worries of what the outcome of his deeds will be. One’s behavior must be that of an emotionally detached observer in relation to the evolving event:

Consider happiness and distress equally, and so gain and loss, victory and defeat; then come out to fight: thus you will not incur sin. (BG II.38)

One does not reach perfection by renouncing action and abandoning the world. Krishna explains how, due to his own nature, man cannot escape action, not even for a moment. He who renounces something simply by removing it from his sight but keeps craving it inside is a hypocrite. It is useless to repress or remove the effect if we cultivate the activity of the cause. The secret consists, therefore, in developing detachment from the objects of the senses and taking up an equal attitude in order to overcome duality: birth- death, success-failure, gain-loss, pleasure-pain. To reach the real absence of egoistical desire, every action should be accomplished as a sacrifice (yajna), an offering to God. In this way, action will no longer tie its author to the consequences that normally derive from it. This principle is for everyone; even the wise man who has overcome the egoistical vision of life and has realized his spiritual identity and its full satisfaction, if he does not have particular reasons for acting or not acting, he must not abstain from action. If in fact he refuses to do what must be done, he will become a bad example for others and will disturb their minds. By acting instead with spiritual detachment, he can teach how every action can return to its original value of sacrificial and therefore pure action. In shlokas 48 and 50, we find two interesting definitions of yoga: in the first one, Krishna defines yoga as equanimity, in the second one He calls it mastery of the actions. Yoga, therefore, displays a perfect and fair action, able to free the individual from conditioning and then suffering. Since abandoning the self-deception trench, where we normally take shelter, is not an easy enterprise, it is inevitable that gaining conscience of the Shadow implies the dealing with a strong resistance. New doubts, perplexity and rationalizations rise into Arjuna’s still confused mind: 29

What are the signs of a man whose knowledge is firm, who always situated in contemplation of reality, o Keshava? How does this person of unshakable wisdom speak, sit and walk? (BG II.54)

With this question, Arjuna seems to want to add pieces to the knowledge that Krishna is displaying. By not being able to justify his refusal to fight with obsolete motivations any longer, Arjuna builds a new thesis, an additional result of the rationalizing mechanism, which is explainable with a simple syllogism:

- The wise man is the one who is steady in meditation; - I want to become a wise man; - I must therefore retreat from battle and set out for the way of ascetics in a isolated place. Arjuna was probably expecting Krishna to give him the following answer, that wisdom is conquered by renouncing all activities; but Krishna does not meet his expectations, and instead explains how important it is to renounce egotistical self-gratification:

Shri Bhagavan said, “He who abandons all sense desires, offspring of the mind, and with such purified mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, is called a man of firm knowledge” (BG II.55).

In shloka 58, Krishna reminds him to exit the vicious circle of mental behavioral automatisms and inward concentration spiraling towards outer concentration with the symbol of the turtle, which is a classic yoga phase, pratyahara, or the retreat of the senses from the sense objects:

One who completely withdraws his senses from sense objects, as a turtle draws his limbs within

its shell, is considered a wise man with a stable mind (BG II.58).

In the following shloka, Krishna explains a psychologically very important dynamic: even when the individual goes physically away from the desired object, whatever it is, if he cannot manage his desire, he cannot really remain away from that object. In the best possible case, he will distance it from his body, but he will continue to contemplate it in his mind. It is always therefore necessary to intervene at the root of the disease, at the base of the conditioning, giving a new orientation to desires and thoughts. Only in this way will it be possible to change the mental and physical dynamics. To succeed, Krishna says it is necessary to discover a superior taste which will enable you to abandon the inferior ones, which are conditioned and conditioning, and are the foundations of much suffering:

The embodied soul can keep a distance from the objects of the senses, even though their flavor remains (the desire for them). Even the flavor, however, diminishes when we experiment the supreme Reality (BG II.59).

In shlokas 62 and 63, Krishna formulates an universal psychological law in a concise way, indicating the consequences of the contemplation of the objects of the senses in a precise and scientific fashion:

If man contemplates the objects of the senses, an attachment to them initiates in him; desire comes from attachment, anger comes from desires (frustrated); anger generated illusion, from which we get memory confusion, from loss of memory the ruining of intelligence; with the ruining of intelligence, man is lost (BG II.62- 63).

A sensational discovery made by quantum physics demonstrates that, by breaking up matter into the smallest parts, we get to a point where these particles, electrons, protons, etc, do not consist in mass anymore. Matter is, 31 therefore, even in its apparently rough manifestations, ultimately energy. This finding is confirmed in Vedic literature, which describes it as such: shakti deriving from that unique source of energy that Vedas identify as part of the cosmic Being, the Supreme Lord. From ancient Vedic science, we know that every matter aggregates, every object emanates some type of waves - thin bands of psychic energy (pratyaya) which attract and condition the mind that concentrates on them, wrapping it up, compelling the individual to move in accordance with automatic and compulsory behaviors which will become his apparent nature. Through meditation, in fact, as we will see by studying the classic yoga of Patanjali, the content of the meditated object flows into the subject that is meditating on it, thereby influencing his mental field. Accurately choosing the objects to meditate on means protecting our psychic health, in a sort of practice of mental hygiene.

CHAPTER III Action exempted from conditioning

Here Krishna explains to Arjuna the karma-yoga doctrine, the science of acting. The Sanskrit term karma has its original meaning of ‘perfect action, liturgical act’; later it gained the more generic meaning of ‘action’, but in Indian philosophy it also refers to the consequences or reactions to an action, becoming therefore even synonymous to the baggage of experiences that each individual carries with himself life after life. When an action is accomplished in a pure fashion, karma takes the meaning and the value of a sacrificial action (yajna), action par excellence, the archetype of action. When instead action is accomplished with egotistical motivations, karma becomes synonymous of conditioning, because it generates samsara. Action can therefore be a means to evolving and freeing oneself from suffering, or it can feed samsara, implementing the becoming, the perpetuating of the unhealthy tie with matter from which the principal obstacles to the interior development initiate: attraction and repulsion (raga and dvesha). To obtain stability of mind, it is necessary to be fair and not let oneself get involved in attraction, nor in repulsion because, by accepting the first, one is then inexorably compelled to suffer even for the second. Distancing oneself from these two opposite feelings and transcending them (nirdvandva) cannot therefore be disregarded: Krishna mentions an equilibrium of the superior order, dynamic, always in the overcoming phase, that one obtains by breaking through equilibria at lower levels. Or as Shri Aurobindo said:

“to discover the new territory inside ourselves we must first learn how to leave the old one behind”

Krishna explains to Arjuna that it is possible to break the chain of samsara by developing detachment. This does not mean abstaining from action, but practicing interior renounciation: the renounciation from egotistical desire. Acting with detachment means moving without attachment to the results of one’s action, without being at the mercy of emotional highs and lows, and without expecting any rewards:

Action is for you, not its fruits; the fruits of your action should not be the reason of your action, nor must you abstain from acting (BG II.47).

This means acting above the dualities, doing what we must do, in the particular situation where we find ourselves. What one does with this spirit becomes a real yajna or sacrificial action. In this sense, sacrifice is not an act of deprivation or self-immolation, but a spontaneous giving of one’s self, a consecration to the Divine. In this and only in this case, what one accomplishes does not produce karmic effects. The condition were we find ourselves when we are not affected by worldly consequences of the action is called naishkarmya. Karma-yoga is therefore

“the spiritual equilibrium in victory and defeat, owned by whom is committed in the accomplishment of his duties, while however his spirit rests in God. (S. Radhakrishnan, 1948, 1964).

In the second part of this chapter, we explain the physiology of desire, how it develops, the modality through which it hurts the being and how it can be cured, overcome, sublimed and finally transcended. Arjuna does not seem totally satisfied by the answers of his Teacher; he takes into consideration only that which is most in accordance with his reasoning faculty. Subject “subconscious” selection is highlighted by the following question:

If you consider, oh Janardana, that intelligent knowledge is superior to action, why then, oh Keshava, do you urge me to perform a terrible action? You upset my heart, or so it seems, with an apparently contradictory conversation; so tell me decisively only one word that will allow me to make the best choice (BG III.1-2).

Arjuna blames Krishna for his confusion, which is instead initiated by the psychic conflict inside himself. Once again Krishna finds Himself to having to demolish his resistances throughout a series of convincing argumentations, and He does so by explaining what real wisdom is. At this point, Jung would speak of two psychological types: the introvert, whose natural tendency is to turn to searching inside life, and the extrovert, whose inclination is instead to operate in the world. In correspondence with these two mentalities and attitudes, we have the knowledge yoga (samkhya-yoga) for those whose inner self elevates ecstatically to spiritual contemplation, and the action yoga (karma-yoga) for those energetic personalities who like a very active lifestyle in the world. Knowledge and action ways are both effective means for liberation, even if suited to two distinct psychological categories of individuals. The way of devoted love to God (bhakti-yoga) is, as we will see according to Krishna, the perfect one, because it has in itself knowledge and action. Being a kshatriya, and therefore a man of action par excellence, Arjuna should set out for the karma-yoga way because it is the most consistent with his nature:

It is better to perform, even in a less than perfect way, our duty, than performing perfectly the duty of others. Even death is beneficial while accomplishing our duties; while accomplishing the duty of others only brings harm (BG III.35).

Krishna warns Arjuna of his intention to set out on a path inconsistent with his psychophysical nature and encourages him instead to start off and do his best on the one that is most functional for him. Furthermore, thinking of being able to abstain from action is pure illusion:

No one can ever, not even for an instant, remain completely inactive, because each one is driven to action, in spite of everything by the intrinsically characteristics Nature (BG III.5).

He differentiates, therefore, internal from external renunciation:

He who, by repressing his sensual organs, remains seated, contemplating the objects of his mind, deceives himself and his called a simulator (BG III.6).

He then tries to clarify for Arjuna the difference between selfish action, which ties its originator to the world, and unselfish action, performed as a sacrifice, wich frees one from material ties:

This world is tied by the bonds to action, only action, performed as a sacrifice, is the exception; perform then, son of Kunti, free from attachments, the action that has that only purpose (BG III.9).

At this point Krishna explains that it is necessary to accomplish our prescribed duties, at least as an example to offer to others to imitate. As an example He mentioned Janaka, king of Mothila, who reached transcendentalism by accomplishing his duties without selfish feelings. Finally, Krishna bring Himself as an example:

Son of Pritha, there are no duties prescribed for Me, in neither of the three worlds; nothing to

obtain that I need, however, I am committed to acting. [...] If I did not do it, these worlds would be ruined, I would cause a confusion of varna and provoke the destruction of the creation (BG III.22,24).

Krishna’s words open a gleam of hope in Arjuna’s mind. In shloka 30, the unequivocal monotheistic aspect of this work is evident as it is in the other parts of Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna in fact invites Arjuna to dedicate to Him all of his activities and to be fully conscious of Him. He seems to begin to realize the presence of a power that pushes him, almost by force, to chose the way of non-violence, thus avoiding his duties. He does not recognize its nature, therefore he asks:

Descendant of the Vrishnis, what then induces man to commit a sin despite his willingness, almost as he would be forced to do it? (BG III.36)

Krishna identifies this force with desire (kama) which, when it remains unfulfilled, transforms itself into anger (krodha), and when it takes possess of the man’s mind it generates illusion, making him a slave and a prisoner of the world and of its objects:

As fire is covered by smoke, a mirror by dust, an embryo by the amniotic membrane, similarly, by that, [the enemy of which Krishna spoke in the previous shloka, or kama] the conditioned being is covered (BG III.38).

Therefore, both desire (kama) and anger (krodha) develop from rajaguna, lethal enemy for the conditioned being. The connection deriving between desire and rajaguna provokes frustration, because desire based on illusion can never be satisfied. This is how at a certain point, anger is generated, the final part of the destructive process. Krishna will therefore

37 suggest to Arjuna to free himself from egotistical desire because it is the only way his inner consciousness can grow. Krishna asks Arjuna to destroy immediately this enemy “devastating to the conscious and to the spiritual realization” (BG III.41) , throughout spiritual intelligence, buddhi, which transforms the egotistical desire into sattvic (good) desire. This is a form of “sublimation” which allows the psychic energy to channel itself toward the superior goal, which is spiritual realization: Therefore, free of worldly attachments, accomplish the action that must be accomplished, because man who acts with detachment obtains the Supreme (BG III.19).

Krishna does not leave Arjuna alone with his sufferings by explaining an abstract theory to him, but gives him an informative guide, an instrument which will help him to become aware and to free himself from the grip of pain in which he lies:

Senses are superior to the motionless matter, but mind is superior to the senses and intelligence is superior to the mind. However, the human being, the spiritual souls, is even more elevated than intelligence (BG III,42).

Atman, the spiritual self, is ontologically well above and beyond the senses, it therefore transcends them and has the complete power to dominate action, as long as it returns to being perfectly aware of its superior nature. In shloka 34, Krishna urges us to observe a spiritual discipline (sadhana); this is another important teaching of Bhagavad-Gita, because it is through this that we can transform our subconscious tendencies.

CAPTERS IV AND V The Art of Life – Karma Yoga

Knowledge, action and renunciation are the topics dealt with in these two chapters. The doctrine of action, already mentioned in the second chapter and developed in the third, reaches its accomplishment in the fourth and fifth chapters. Through the science of perfect acting, revealed by Krishna to Arjuna, the individual can free himself from his Karmic ties, from his implicit suffering, and reach consciousness of the inner self. Krishna states right at the beginning of the fourth chapter, that this is a sacred science, which can be revealed only within a disciplic line (parampara), by initiated Teachers (gurus) in the spiritual knowledge, who teach first of all with their example (acarya):

This supreme science was thus receive through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. (BG IV.2).

Krishna states that He has taught the antic way to yoga, way before Vivasvat, the deva of the sun, but Arjuna, that hasn’t yet recognized Krishna as a Divine Figure, seems to doubt His words, which display a truth, affectively unacceptable to him.

The God Vivasvat’s is senior by birth to you. How am I to understand that in the beginning you instructed this science to him? (BG IV.4).

Krishna, as evidenced throughout this text, is not an ordinary being; as Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanishads say, He is God, the Supreme Being, He, who was before the being and the not being, before the becoming, before light and darkness were manifested. In this chapter He Himself states that He was never born and is unchangeable, Lord of all living beings, appearing in this world every time the eternal dharma is threatened.

Arjuna keeps showing his confusion and asks for explicit confirmations:

Krishna, first of all you ask me to renounce work, and then again you recommedn work with devotion. Now will you kindly tell me definitely which of the two is more beneficial? (BG V.1).

Thus, Krishna’s intervention becomes direct more than ever:

Shri Bhagavan replied: The renunciation of work and work in dvotion are both good for liberation. But of the two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of work. (BG V.2)

After listening to these words, Arjuna can no longer show any doubt. Krishna continues:

One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled. (BG V.7)

In this way, He renews the concept of Karma-yoga as the way that better suits Arjuna. To make His assertions more incisive, Krishna resorts once again to a metaphor, this time by utilizing the image of the lotus.

One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water. (BG V.10). The yogis, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence and even with the sense, only for the purpose of purification. (BG IV.20).

When then, can action be equivalent to non-action? When acting is not driven by egoistical expectations or greed, but by a motivation purified from

40 any ego-centered attitude. The ties with the physical world and the deriving conditioners, do not depend in fact, so much on the action, rather on the motive for action. When action doesn’t have an egoistical substratum, acting is equivalent to non-acting, thus not generating karmic consequences. As soon as equanimity develops, we free ourselves of any dualism and we become qualified to experiment high levels of consciousness. The importance of elevating ourselves above the couples of opposites is underlined by Krishna at the opening of the fifth chapter, when He speaks of them as one of the qualities of the perfect sannyasi:

One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such a person, free from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage and is completely liberated. (BG V.3).

Due to his complete knowledge, the wise man, always absorbed in the Supreme Lord, continuously contemplates the Real; for this reason he can help others to see and discriminate. There are numerous categories of knowledge however, the one we are talking about and that Krishna is referring to in this part of Bhagavad-Gita, is the science of the inner self (atmavidya), reachable through bhakti, in the succession of Spiritual Masters, who experience it personally. Krishna determines two fundamental qualities for the spiritual researcher who, in order to acquire the science of supreme realization of the inner self, must be bhakta, ‘loving devotee’ and sakha, ‘friend’. Another quality Krishna mentions many times is anasuya, which means ‘without envy’. The absence of envy is an indispensable morale quality to receive this secret science, which would otherwise be dispelled. Envy in fact, grants access to realizations that cannot go beyond the intellectual level and generally exhaust themselves on the psychophysical level (adhibhautika), totally excluding the divine plan (adhyatmika), the only one giving access to spiritual realization.

Shlokas 36 through 39 explain that the fire of knowledge burns the ties produced by ignorance. This concept is expressed with the suggestive metaphor of fire: as fire reduces to ashes everything that comes in contact with it, the sincere person, animated by right motivations, and with the above mentioned characteristics, when in contact with the knowledge fire, burns at the roots all the errors committed while groping in ignorance. All sacrifices: material goods, physical strength, ideals, senses, objects, mind and breath (explained in-depth in chapter five) culminate in knowledge, which is the most elevated gift (here we are not illustrating ordinary knowledge, on the intellectual level, rather realization of the soul science). Love itself is substantiated by knowledge; how could we in fact love what we don’t know? And on contrary, only devoted love (bhakti) brings us to consciousness and knowledge of God. In shloka 40 we mention faith as a propaedeutic factor for the development of knowledge; doubt, instead, brings the mind to confusion and oblivion. Krishna explains that he who acts with faith, reaches perfection instead, he who acts with doubt finds many obstacles in life and prolongs the samsaric cycle.

Research and experience, when genuinely spiritual, will be praised. Krishna includes the researcher among the four categories of people that will reach perfection. The real researcher must not obviously be confused with he who is moved by blind faith or rancour, such research is harmful because it is influenced by tamas and rajas and because it brings to escape from reality; the real researcher has an implicit faith, which he sets his life in function of, and he is animated by spiritual motivations that, in fact make him live and experiment that same faith. In the seventh shloka of the fifth chapter, Krishna describes he who has become master of the senses and of the mind. In this case, even if wrapped in a body, the inner self returns to be free and lord of the whole mind-body. This person is defined maharaja, or sovereign of the ‘city of nine doors’ (the

42 body), where he rules, undisputed, without been subject to the opposition of mind and senses. The person that has reached this level of spiritual consciousness is able to act without been entrapped in the consequences of action. Senses, mind and intelligence are similar to the instruments of an airplane: in order to take off, reach and maintain the flight altitude, it is necessary for all to be perfectly under control, otherwise we have serious and multiple risks. In the same shloka, Krishna says such a person conducts himself in a benevolent fashion towards everyone, in fact, he who is satisfied and in good harmony with the Divine, not only doesn’t harm others (others means all living beings, not only human beings) but also is compassionate with suffering beings and acts to alleviate other’s discomforts and pains. The importance of mental stability is found in shloka 19, where Krishna states that he who has a steady and fair mind, therefore above couples of opposite, has already defeated birth and death because he is already placed in spiritual conscience. A mind that doesn’t stagger, that doesn’t swing anymore between attraction and repulsion, is an unmistakable sign of spiritual evolution and enables one to transcend all environmental conditioners. Shloka 22 of the fifth chapter contains a famous assertion by Krishna on the short-living nature of sensorial pleasure, which is the origin of suffering. This is another key point in Krishna’s teaching, which isn’t limited to an intellectual exposition as it even indicates practical solutions to Arjuna. The wise and enlightened men (buddhah) don’t seek short-living sensorial pleasures, produced by the meeting of the senses with their objects and characterized by a beginning (adi) and an end (anta). Temporary pleasures, caused by sensorial perception, by their own nature, are the background (yoni) of suffering. The term bhoga means the contrary of yoga. Yoga is the activity aiming to devotionally connecting oneself to the Divine, and it is in fact that which makes an action perfect and sacred; bhoga, however, means ignoring the relationship between the individual soul and the universal soul and acting

43 with the egoistical intention of satisfying the false ego, with consequent frustration and suffering. Anyone can experiment what brings happiness and what brings pain. Common people, conditioned by Nature’s influences (the three gunas), pursue the pleasure of the senses as if it was the purpose of existence, considering it synonymous of happiness, but Krishna here states exactly the opposite, that is that sensorial pleasure is the source itself of conditioning, and ultimately of pain. Anyhow, the solution to this problem doesn’t only consist in pure prohibition of pleasure, because this would provoke various types of psychological discomforts; this is well explained in Bhagavad-Gita, anticipating Western discoveries on the subject of repression by a few millenniums. In fact, as we have already seen by studying the second chapter, plain renunciation to pleasure, to objects of the senses, is not sufficient to free ourselves from desire because, even if the person doesn’t take personal ownership of the object, he can still crave it from a distance, thus generating an inner conflict that will originate various neurosis. Krishna highly advises against short-living pleasures, deriving from sensorial perception and initiated by the influence of kama, because it obstructs spiritual realization and generates future suffering; however He does not promote absolute elimination of pleasure, because real pleasure exists (ananda), it is ontologically part of the living being and without it, life itself would not be possible. On the same subject, it would be opportune to go into the doctrine of rasas or spiritual pleasures, constantly enjoyed by the soul of the enlightened man. We will find this doctrine highly developed in the system of thought acintya-bhedabheda tattva, in the literature of bhakti.

CHAPTER VI The Mind: obstacle or precious help

In the sixth chapter, Krishna takes particularly under consideration the mind and its ways of action. More than ever, He undertakes here, toward Arjuna, the role of psychotherapist. Krishna is not only Arjuna’s Teacher, He is also the Universal Teacher (jagat guru), and in the Bhagavata tradition, which Bhagavad-Gita represents, He is the original guru (adi-guru). By entirely manifesting the basic characteristics of the Teacher, in other words self-realization, mercy (karuna) and compassion (kripa), Krishna takes care of Arjuna by mitigating his anguish and his morale pain, that originate mainly from doubt (samshaya). Characteristics of the guru are also his firmness and his ability to act as a strengthening and reintegrating agent of conscience to help the disciple in his evolution, by harmonizing his deep needs and healing his inner conflicts. In this chapter, Krishna displays an authentic psychological doctrine, showing his absolute knowledge of the physiology of the though and of the interactions between the various products of the mind, such as will, doubt and uncertainty. He does it by

following Patanjali’s Yogasutra scheme. The main goal of this technique is to enhance our conscience from the ordinary status of wake to higher levels of consciousness, in order to realize our unity with the highest reality. Usually, the human mind is directed toward the exterior. Allowing the mechanical and material aspects of life to conquer us, it produces us with an imbalance from the psychological point of view. Yoga tries to explore the inner world of the conscience and helps us accomplish the integration between conscious and subconscious. (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavadgita, p.232)

Krishna desires to enhance Arjuna’s conscience to a superior level and He shows him with His example, how to implement detachment from the results of action (karma phalam), which we have already discussed in chapters IV and V, a detachment toward the vicissitudes in which Arjuna emotionally participates. The first two shlokas of this chapter define the characteristics of the yogi: emotional detachment (vairagyam) from the results of action and renunciation (sannyasa). Krishna says that there is no enlightened action without the perfect knowledge of renunciation and that we cannot speak of authentic renunciation without an enlightened action. This could probably seem unattainable, but Krishna makes it a crucial point for the accomplishment of yoga. He explained in previous chapters that yoga means acting with equanimity and detachment: he who acts in this fashion is a true sannyasi, term that in essence means indeed ‘he who abandons the results of his actions’. A Sannyasi is dedicated to renunciation (vairagya), and therefore acts without expectations. There is no sannyasi that is not a yogi as well. To come to the point, we must underline that

“Sannyasa or renunciation has very little to share with external actions: it is an inner attitude. To become a sannyasi it is not necessary to leave the sacrificial fire and the daily sacrificial practices: it is foolish to keep away from these practices, without an authentic renouncing spirit. (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavadgita, p.226)

Niragnir means ‘without fire’; in this case it refers to sacrificial fire; in Vedic tradition, acting means sacrificing, therefore, not lighting the fire of sacrifice means not acting. For Krishna therefore, action motivated by the desire to accomplish one’s duty is superior to inaction; he thus explained to Arjuna that no one can live without acting (even when one doesn’t act through his body, he does it through his mind), therefore it is much better to act according to dharma, thus accomplishing our duty.

Krishna explains to Arjuna that in the first phase of yoga the means is action however, once we are established in yoga, renunciation becomes the means. Even in Patanjali’s Yogasutra we see the concept of pratyahara: gather all the senses, withdraw them, detach them from their objects (vishaya). Following we have concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and finally samadhi, the perception of Reality. Concentration focuses the abilities of the psychic apparatus on a single point. In particular neurosis and psychosis, especially the ones pertaining to fixed ideas, we can notice some sort of concentration of thought on a certain subject or idea, this is however a personality disorder. Dharana is not a disease, rather the result of a voluntary effort. In case of psychic pathologies, the individual instead falls victim of a mental deformation that creates a compulsory concentration on a particular thought, hence becoming a fixed idea. Concentration is not however the final goal of yoga: an effort doesn’t take us per se, very far, it is successful when it allows us to achieve a superior level: the meditative one, the level where we reacquire all those potentialities that allow us to reach the spiritual sphere, the Brahman sphere, where the yogi finds himself immersed in endless bliss (ananda).

We say a person has reached the top of yoga when he doesn’t pursue the gratification of senses and doesn’t engage in egoistical activities, by renouncing every egoistical desire. (BG. VI.4)

In preceding chapters, Krishna explained that the yogi, emotionally detached from everything that’s happening, becomes aware that his actions are activated by the gunas. He puts himself in the position of witness and describes the difference between the false self (ahamkara) and the inner self, the real and eternal individuality (nitya-svarupa) of the spiritual being (atman).

As long as the subject suffers for the conditioning of illusion (maya), these two entities, the first transient, the other real, are not integrated. During the empiric experience, the ego erroneously believes to be the historical self and this conception confuses him, it drives him to wear numerous masks, which he identifies himself with, as an actor identifies himself with his role. This will create autosuggestion, suffering, fear, development of complexes and so on. Let us remember that the relationship between Krishna and Arjuna represents the exemplary relationship between a guru and His disciple which, in a certain way includes the relationship between the psychotherapist and his patient. In fact, Krishna progressively reveals to Arjuna the dynamics and modalities of how the mind works, recommending him not to fall into its typical traps, non-existent in Reality, but concrete sources of pain on the relative level.

One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. (BG. VI.5)

By aiming high our thoughts and desires, it is possible to gradually exit the egoistical sphere. The sanscrit roots of the verb to think can be cint or man, however cint, more than a simple thought, defines a concept, in fact acintya means ‘unconceivable’ more than ‘unthinkable’. Such rich and specific terminology, such precise distinguishing of various psychic functions demonstrates what a deep knowledge of the psyche the scientists of Vedic age had.

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. (BG. VI.6)

We can find a relation to what Jung writes in an actual situation of psychotherapy:

“Our worst enemy or our best friend can hide into the neurosis. If a man is sick, his disease is nature’s tentative to cure him. We can therefore learn many things from diseases themselves for our recovery and what appears to the neurotic as absolutely despicable, hides instead the most authentic treasure that we could otherwise have found.” (Jung 1934;1985;240-241).

He who knows the soul, knows the psyche as well. A yogi, as Krishna describes him, is in fact also the best of psychologists, able to reestablish others’ mental balance. As we will see ahead, and as stated by the Shastras, mental imbalance is caused in the individuals by the infringement of dharma, the cosmic order. According to Bhagavad-Gita, acting against dharma throws the mind off balance, it devastates it and makes it the worst danger for man, because it aids the development of all kinds of psychopathology. The mind is per se a neutral instrument in the hands of atman, it all depends on how it is utilized, to what extent the individual adheres to dharma; if there is adhesion to any extent, the mind becomes a friend that sustains and helps; vice versa, if the individual doesn’t harmonize himself to the laws that govern the universe, the mind can transform itself in the worse tyrant and causes inexpressible tortures for the individual.

One who has conquered the mind, and thus attained peace, has already reached the Supreme Soul. To such a person, happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same. (BG. VI.7)

Bhagavad-Gita teaches how to rationalize, how not to let ourselves be affected by the energies that surround us and the events that happen. Economy, sex, food are not problems per se; we are the ones that turn them into problems, by assuming wrong attitudes and behaviors toward them. If we 49 let these energies influence us, they became for us sources of neurosis. But if we remain in yoga, in contact with the Supreme Spiritual Reality then, whatever kind of energy or instrument we will utilize, will be an additional, precious mean to realize our inner self, that will allow the reconnection with Krishna, the Supreme Being, and the consequent enlightenment. Perfection is often identified with enlightenment; he who receives the light becomes enlightened and can therefore enlighten, giving others the gift of the endless divine light, allowing them to go beyond the barrier of appearances and thus see Reality. The sun, at his rising, enlightens and makes things visible; seemingly the enlightened not only can distinguish between the various realities and thus understand even his own spiritual nature, but can also grant the spiritual vision to others:

As the sunrays light up the sky, and allow us to see, so the wise and pure spiritualists, by contemplating the supreme abode of Vishnu, make it visible to common people. (Rigveda, I.22.20-21)

This quotation is taken from the Rig-Veda, one of the world’s most antic philosophical-religious texts. The wise and pure spiritualists are metaphorically compared to the sun rays that light the dark universe; without them, say the Scriptures, the world would be only dark and life would be an unbearable suffering. Other than seeing through the eyes, there is another way to see which, in Vedic literature, is translated as darshana, ‘inner vision’. The spiritual Teacher must give his disciple this type of vision, much more important than the one enabled by ordinary sight which, even if great help, is not sufficient to sound the depths of the mind and therefore reintegrate one’s personality. Shloka VI.10 describes the characteristics of an authentic yogi, who lives concentrated in God. The yoga practice described by Krishna to Arjuna is ashtanga-yoga, yoga in eight phases, which are so well integrated with each other that constitute a unitary system.

The yogi must find an isolated location were to gather his senses, his mind and his thoughts and begin his practice until he reaches the union with the Divine, samadhi. This phase, which in Patanjali’s Yogasutra corresponds to kaivalya, can be obtained with the complete isolation of the inner self (purusha) from what’s associated with the matter, the freedom of life from the cocoon of the matter. Krishna however, does not introduce kaivalya, the goal of the ashtanga-yoga, as the highest accomplishment to reach, nor ashtanga- yoga in its complex as the best of all types of yoga, in fact he concludes:

Of all yogis, the one with great faith who always abides in me, thinks of me and adores me with all himself, is considered by me the highest of all. (BG. VI.47)

In VI.14 the importance of the brahmacarya vow is underlined, through which one abstains himself from the dispersion of sexual energy. The semen (shukra) constitutes, in accordance with the antic medical science of Ayurveda, the support of psychic energy, therefore he who dispels it can’t find the ability to concentrate himself, to grasp subtle concepts and dynamics and, in particular, to distinguish between what is permanent, the spiritual reality, and what is continuously mutating, the phenomenal world. This is the reason why in all religious traditions, continence is encouraged, required from those who want to know the Truth, in order to avoid wasting of sexual and psychic energy in the useless research for sensorial pleasure. Krishna says mat-cittah, concentrate in Me all your mental complex (cittah) which comprises senses (indriya), mind (manas) and intelligence (buddhi).

Thus practicing constant control of the body, mind and activities, the yogi, his mind regulated, attains the peace that constitutes the peak of nirvana and that has its foundation in Me. (BG. VI.15)

In the shloka the term nirvana appears, and if we accept the Pauranic chronology, we cannot avoid observing that it is utilized twenty five centuries ahead of the conventionally established date for the appearance of Gautama Buddha, who will use it extensively, but giving it a different meaning. In the theistic context of the Gita, shanti nirvana paramam, indicates a peace that constitutes the peak of nirvana, therefore the peak of spiritual realization, or union with the Divine, that goes well beyond the extinguishment of material suffering. Shlokas 16 and 17 deal with yoga and moderation: through metaphors and direct indications, Krishna speaks of the dynamic equilibrium of the yogi, in particular referring to food, sleeping, relaxation and activities. Existential sufferings are tied to the controversial and often conflicted relationship that the living being lives with himself, or better yet with his false ego, with which he identifies himself when he is confused (samudha). These sufferings are solved by the constant practice of yoga and through emotional detachment, as we will see in shloka 35 of this chapter.

As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains steady in his meditation on the transcendent self. (BG. VI.19)

In this shloka and in the following ones (20-23), Krishna speaks of yoga saying that it consists on the dissolution (viyoga) of the ties of suffering (duhkha-samyoga). When we free ourselves from the conditioners, which generate attachments and sufferings, we enter a yoga condition, in other words: we don’t deviate anymore from the truth (tattvata), which is experimented through a superior intelligence, going beyond sensorial perception.

The man defined by Krishna as a yogi is not only at peace with himself and others, but he is already in the state of transcendence and has already overcome the dynamics initiated by material energy. In order to better define

52 the conscience and consciousness condition of the yogi, Krishna asks Arjuna to think about Him without worrying about anything else. The ‘think of Me’ from Krishna to Arjuna underlines once again the theistic aspect of Bhagavad- Gita. Arjuna addresses Krishna not as an impersonal power or energy, but as a Person, without confusing the Divine Person with the human person. Krishna has demonstrated innumerable times not to be an ordinary person and therefore not having any limitations. When, later, He will speak of ability of abstraction, He will say that the yogi, even taking everything under consideration, doesn’t worry about anything because he is totally concentrated on God, of Whom he has realized the omnipresence in creation and creatures:

A true yogi sees Me in all living beings and sees all living beings in Me. Truly, the realized person sees Me everywhere. For he who sees me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to me. (BG. VI.29- 30)

In Krishna’s words yoga is the spiritual practice through which it is possible to connect to the Supreme Reality, the way to subtract one’s mind from material activities and concentrate it on the Truth. I the view of the Gita, an activity ceases to be material in the moment when it is executed as a sacrifice to God; it becomes therefore an instrument for the connection to the Divine. In this perspective, the most dissimilar activities, if respectful to the laws of dharma, can become yoga, as long as the person is firmly connected with his conscience and actions to the Supreme Lord. Yoga is action that purifies the mind because the contact with the Supreme Being, source of purity, eliminates all residues of material desire and egoistical assertion present in the individual conditioned being. This connection to the Supreme Being is possible and direct only when a person has solved his internal conflicts, by untying the complexes present in the subconscious through the practice of yoga.

‘Spiritual life can’t be reduced to prayer or request for grace. It is profound devotion, silent meditation, the opening of one’s conscience to the intimate depths of the soul, which put the individual self immediately in relation with the Divine Principle.’ (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavadgita, p.238)

The embodied being perceives the environment that surrounds him through his senses, mind and intelligence; the practice of yoga must therefore begin with the elimination of those thoughts, activities and impressions that confuse and obscure the mind, preventing a contact with the Superior Reality.

He who always evaluates happiness and distress that manifest in others as he would do for himself, Arjuna, is considered a perfect yogi. (BG. VI. 32)

Krishna here anticipates the famous evangelic teaching: “do not do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” Krishna affirmed, in II.11, that the pandita, the wise, has an impartial vision and doesn’t worry about births or deaths, rather is placed at a conscious level where he is no longer disturbed by worldly events. He can tolerate opposite and short-lived life conditions: he doesn’t get carried away by the sight of happy people, nor does he get depressed by the sight of the suffering; he isn’t influenced by transient pleasures or grieves, by the transient reality of prakriti, because he sees beyond: he contemplates the ontological position of each being and his original spiritual identity, conscious that real happiness is possible only when we reach once again the conscience of our inner self and reestablish our inalienable relationship with God. This doesn’t imply a loss of sensitivity because, among the fundamental characteristics of the yogi described by Krishna, indeed compassion and mercy surface. We read in fact, in the above cited shloka, that he who gives benefit to all creatures, by seeing

54 himself in them and perceiving himself as impartial (samah), is an elevated yogi. Indeed such a level of consciousness, must not be imitated artificially. Simulations are in fact, harmful as they encourage escapes and repressions that prevent the subject from facing and solving his problems. One of the main duties of the Teacher consists indeed in the education of his disciples, so that they may consider themselves in the most objective manner possible and commit themselves in duties compatible with their effective spiritual maturity, thus progressing, gradually but certainly, on the path of self realization. The invitation not to simulate, however, doesn’t want to be an encouragement to passivity and fatalism; Krishna in fact wants unequivocally to motivate Arjuna in overcoming his own limitations, finding ever-higher equilibriums and continuing to make efforts in view of reaching perfection. This acting aiming high is indispensable for the achievement of spiritual growth; we must think that, according to the Gita, even for the maintenance of the reached level of conscience we must uphold a constant engagement, because the embodied being (jiva-bhuta) lives in contact with the forces of Nature, which represent a constant mean for a potential conditioning and involution. The stubbornness used by Arjuna in the beginning to defend his position, after the incisive reasoning of the Teacher, gives way progressively to the fear of not being able to undertake the arduous way indicated by Krishna. He shows in fact perplexity and distrust:

Madhusudana, I can’t see how this yoga that you have described could be practiced with constancy, given the instability of the mind, which is unsteady, aggressive, overwhelming and obstinate: I consider its domination more difficult than controlling the wind. (BG. VI. 33- 34)

Arjuna’s reply finds confirmation in our daily’s experience; the mind is similar to a pendulum, in continuous oscillation between desires and 55 thoughts of opposite nature, between acceptance and rejection, between attraction (raga) and repulsion (dvesha). This continuous instability, this clashes between conflicting tendencies, excite and exhaust the individual, by depriving him of his energies. Such conflicts, when they break out at subconscious level, are particularly furious and often produce disastrous results: true titanic fights in areas of the psyche which are inaccessible by the conscientious I, determine, in a sly and not easily controllable way, the mood and behaviors of the individual; as a result, the actions of the subject appear extremely contradictory, which is a sign of deep inner uneasiness and more or less serious psychological pathologies. He who lives with psychological disturbed people, ends up being agitated and mentally unstable himself. For this reason sometimes people who work in this field, get sick, showing the same mental distresses of their patients: psychic contents, whether positive or negative, exercise a strong influence on whomever comes in contact with them. The mind, Arjuna says, is strong and turbulent; trying to dominate it is an arduous venture, even harder than controlling the wind. Let’s not forget that Arjuna is a courageous warrior, who fought against the ferocious hunter Virata, under whose clothes hid the powerful Shiva. Arjuna is not afraid of the fight, he is not a coward or one who suffers from inferiority complexes; he is an heroic prince trained to fight, therefore used to controlling his mind and concentrating it on the target; however he considers the mind a terrible opponent. After looking at such discouragement, Krishna comforts His friend- disciple by assuring him that the way to control his mind, however difficult, is feasible. The Lord of yoga (yogeshvara) in fact, after confirming what was said by Arjuna about the difficulty of dominating the mind, offers him a solution at once: constant spiritual practice (abhyasa) and emotional detachment (vairagya).

Shri Bhagavan said: O mighty-armed son of Kunti, it is undoubtedly very hard to keep one’s 56

restless mind still however, by a constant spiritual practice and by emotional detachment, one can subdue it. (BG. VI. 35)

The spiritual discipline (sadhana) must not undergo interruptions, it must be constant just as the observance of ascetic principles, because only through continuous practice one can reach perfection. However to make abhyasa possible it is indispensable to have emotional detachment (vairagya) from all that is worldly, otherwise the yogi would be disturbed by continuous interferences. It is therefore necessary to learn and tolerate some discomforts in view of spiritual realization. This shloka, one of most important in chapter six, clearly affirms that it is possible to heal the mind from its extremes, it doesn’t matter how serious; obviously the cure will be more or less extensive, according to the type of pathology and to the commitment to recovery of he who is affected by it. The objective of yoga is to make once again the human being aware of his intimate spiritual identity and of his ontological relationship with God, thus leading his mind back to an equilibrium status where the subconscious elements are integrated on a more elevated level of conscience; this enables a harmonious and extraordinarily profitable relationship between feeling and thought, intuition and reasoning, introverted and extroverted functions. The yoga taught by Krishna to Arjuna in this chapter of Bhagavad-Gita is a powerful equilibrator of the human mind.

For he who doesn’t have the rule of the mind it is difficult to realize the inner discipline, this is what I think. But for he who is in control of the mind and deeply commits himself in a proper fashion, success is assured. (BG. VI. 36)

Here one fundamental principal of the science of spiritual and psychological realization is reaffirmed. Krishna previously affirmed that, for he who falls victim of his mind, the mind becomes a strong enemy; instead, for he who can rule it, the mind becomes a strong friend. It is like saying that

57 he who has a potent energy at his disposal and can control it can do much, but he who cannot control it will be run over by it. We could even consider diminishing this energy by putting the mind to sleep, stun it, and so run less risks, but this will result in the impossibility of obtaining spiritual realization, a this requires clearness and a strong willpower, all impossible for a cloudy and foggy mind. The influence of tamoguna (ignorance, torpor) is the worse thing a spiritualist can experiment, because in order to obtain realization he must utilize all of his potentiality. The yogi learns techniques to dominate and channel the potential of the mind. Krishna explains once again the technique to Arjuna, who has not yet understood it. As a perfect psychotherapist, He considers the nth point of view and utilizes persuasion instead of charm because, if He didn’t satisfy rationality and comprehension, He would impose behaviors definable only as conditioned reflexes. Only what we have realized, understood and absorbed, which we are deeply convinced of and that allows us to understand every dynamic and to interpret deep reasons, is helpful to us instead, every conditioned reflex generates sufferings. Krishna tries to help Arjuna in his comprehension, he doesn’t simply want to defeat his resistance, He has no motivations other than doing the best for him, favoring his awakening and his enlightening; He doesn’t want to exploit him, imposing a war on him or making him do something he is not convinced of. The real Teacher transmits his knowledge with affection; if the student is not connected to his Teacher by affection, knowledge cannot be transmitted, nor flourish for long. The duties are reciprocal: the student has some toward the Teacher and the Teacher must teach him first of all by example, through his lifestyle. Only if there is compassion teachings are administered until the student has completely understood them and realized them.

Back to Arjuna, he doesn’t feel comforted by what Krishna told him and thinks about abandoning the way to self-realization however, sensing the disastrous consequences of such gesture, he asks:

Krishna, what is the destination of the unsuccessful transcendentalist, who in the beginning takes to the process of self-realization with faith but who later desists due to worldly- mindedness and thus does not attain perfection? Does not such a man, who is bewildered from the path of transcendence, fall away from both spiritual and material success and perish like a driven cloud, with no position in any sphere? (BG. VI. 37-38)

This question is very relevant; all of those who have set out for the way to transcendence have probably asked themselves about this; the spiritual way can imply the abandoning of comforts, material security, self indulging, gratifications, sometimes even superfluous belongings and mainly the reducing of the sphere of the ego with the consequent refraining from considering ourselves our own teachers. In essence, Arjuna asks: if we renounce a materialistic lifestyle and mentality to remain concentrated on the real reason of existence, but we don’t reach this transcendent goal, because of premature death or because in the long run we are unable to control our senses and mind, what will happen? Do we end up as clouds dispelled by the wind? Will we lose the spiritual path (brahmanah pathi) and wander without obtaining worldly nor spiritual satisfactions, deprived of a defined position, finding ourselves no longer on the physical level and not yet on the metaphysical one? Krishna replies by establishing an unshakeable principle of immense psychological importance: we must not despair because, in the fight for the realization of the inner self, no effort remains without reward; He reassures Arjuna by explaining to him that he who is engaged in favor of the good, will never regret it, in this or other worlds:

Shri Bhagavan said: Son of Pritha, the person you are talking about is not lost, not in this world, nor in the other because, my friend, he who sets out for the good, cannot set out toward an unhappy destiny. (BG. VI. 40)

In its complex, Vedic literature contains numerous karma doctrines, rigorous law of the cause and effect in accordance to which each one receives a reaction marked in the same way as the action accomplished. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it is affirmed that we become what we do: “He who does well becomes good, he who does bad becomes wicked.” The time difference can be extensive and, because people are not generally able to testify throughout their direct perception the relation between action and reaction, they think that there is no relation between negative thoughts and mental confusion, between committing violence and suffering it. The wise man, the intelligent person, knows however, that all he sows, he will soon or later reap. Everyone in life occupies the position to him due. The action of the yogi is for everyone’s benefit. We must therefore accomplish simultaneously one activity external and one internal to ourselves: an inner discipline in order to acquire the qualities, the mental forming, the rigor, the compassion for all creatures, the logic and the consistency that conduct to the necessary equilibrium; acting for the good of others will result then in consistency with the inner discipline practiced at individual level. If there is inconsistency between what we say and what we do, we do not obtain benefits, rather the opposite. Krishna says:

After reaching and living for innumerable years in the worlds of those who have accomplished meritorious acts, he who has not obtained the perfection in yoga, is born in a family of virtuous and well off people. (BG. VI. 41) There he finds the divine conscience reached in his previous life and commits himself to the way to perfection. (BG. VI. 43)

Krishna continues by explaining that thanks to the level of conscience reached in his previous life, this individual will be spontaneously attracted by the principle of yoga. The interest for spiritual life will present itself as an irresistible force that goes beyond rational logic. The subject, by virtue of his previous lives, finds himself pushed by the desire of spiritual research in an instinctive fashion; pushed to reconnect himself to God, he gradually transcends his limits. Krishna urges us to overcome Vedic injunctions, this exhortation must be clarified because it could sound contradictory. Krishna has often explained that he who doesn’t trust Sacred Scriptures, doesn’t obtain happiness in this world not in the subsequent one; here, he asserts that the yogi who hasn’t reached full success, in his following life will feel irresistibly inclined to reconnect himself to God and abandon the materialistic religious practices, typical of those who adhere to the injunctions contained in the karma-kanda of the Vedas. These practices, as the lowest pegs on a ladder, can in fact be helpful for the beginning of the journey, but soon after, must be gradually overcome and transcended otherwise, instead of a spiritual advancement, we would have a sudden stop and then even a step backwards, toward conditioned existence. Obviously these practices don’t belong to the kind of yoga Krishna continues to define as superior.

The yogi is considered superior to the ascetic, more elevated than the wise; he is superior even to those who accomplish religious rituals; therefore, Arjuna, become a yogi! (BG. VI. 46)

Krishna urges Arjuna to become a yogi, to transcend the turbulences caused by the mind, by remaining in the world and acting without greed for results. He doesn’t hide from Arjuna that the method that he is revealing to him entails a great commitment, which will probably take numerous lifetimes. Krishna doesn’t tell him that by maintaining his bad habits and seldom committing himself to yoga one can obtain enlightenment, but he provides him with realistic information from which we can deduct how difficult it is to 61 follow this type of path, even if we have Krishna Himself, the universal Guru, as our own guru. Indeed because Arjuna feels the difficulty in covering the ashtanga- yoga path, Krishna will show him a superior way to achieve the highest yoga level, love for God. The yogi, Krishna explains, is superior to the religious man, the philosopher, the ascetic and to the man devoted to action. Arjuna, who undoubtedly belongs to this last category, is asked by Krishna to become a yogi. In shloka 47 of this chapter, Krishna concludes by presenting Arjuna with a synoptic meaning of the preceding 46 shlokas. In the third chapter He had already explained to him that virtuous people make sacrifices to the Devas who accept them and, by turning the deriving benefits to human beings, they give them prosperity. The people who contribute in keeping alive this cosmic economic circle are dharmya instead, those who take without sacrificing are compared to thieves. Krishna however, explains to Arjuna that the sacrifice of the senses and of the objects of the senses (vishaya) is superior to the sacrifice of material goods. The sacrifices of the senses and of the objects of the senses, if offered with indomitable firmness in the forge of one’s controlled mind, represent the highest sacrifice, taking under account that the ultimate goal of every yajna is realization and knowledge of the self. Krishna began by explaining in a simple fashion the sacrifice of material goods, thus showing, as a perfect psychologist, the aspect of easier comprehension for the patient-disciple. Following, after explaining all the psychophysical details of ashtanga-yoga, Krishna develops this concept and guides Arjuna to levels of conscience ever more elevated, by giving him, gradually and with ever increasing frequency, teachings of exquisite transcendental order. The yogi is connected to the Supreme Lord; he is the one who lays in Krishna, who adores Him and serves Him, and this is the category Krishna refers to in the conclusion of the sixth chapter when He says that, among all

62 yogis, he who lives in the Supreme Soul is the most elevated one. Krishna clarifies in the second semistanza that he who is gifted with great faith (shraddavan) “adores Me”, thus revealing that He is the Supreme Soul. The preceding shlokas explained that, by reconnecting with God, it’s possible to find the solution to every problem. The method explained by Krishna to Arjuna, ashtanga-yoga, seemed to have been already known in the historical period when Krishna enunciated the Bhagavad-Gita. However when Krishna explains it, the Yoga science rises to another authoritativeness, it becomes Revelation (shruti), because in Bhagavad-Gita Krishna is defined ‘God of the Devas’; He says about himself in Chapter X.8: “I am the origin of everything, everything emanates from me.”

CHAPTER VII Consciousness

In Chapter Seven, the psychological analysis of the personality finalized to the supreme good, moksha, or freedom from the pain of the conditioned existence, through the overcoming of its human limitations continues. In this chapter, Krishna explains the concepts of jnana and vijnana, respectively knowledge and awareness. Knowledge is in effect awareness, vijnana; jnana instead means theoretical knowledge, a knowledge that adheres abstractly to the values of reality, but does not carry the experience of life within itself. This knowledge was instead experienced, realized, and made certain; and then produces shraddha, or concrete faith; a mature, tangible thing that has manifested itself at last. Even if maybe it is not possible to demonstrate to others in a scientific manner, it is in any case an aspect of subjective reality. Faith is deep persuasion, “what lies deep within the heart”, hrid; it is influenced by the deep psychic contents which one can evidence only by constant and complex work on one’s personality. In shlokas four to seven, Krishna describes the elements that constitute the physical and psychic world as they spring from His “inferior” or external nature; and the living beings that instead participate in His “superior” or internal nature. The relationship between the living beings, the world, and God puts us in front of a trinity: the Creator, His creatures, and His creation. Krishna explains that creation, prakriti, the matter that is neither conscious nor aware of itself is octuple (ashtada); in fact it consists of five rough elements and three subtle ones, “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and false ego; these eight elements, separated from Me, constitute My material energy” (BG VII.4). Krishna states that this octuple energy is separate from Him: this means that He is not touched by the effects of karma, under which instead lay

His manifestations in the phenomenal environment (where the jivabhuta are found). It is interesting to note from this shloka that the mind, manas, is in the category of matter and is therefore not a subject, but an object; an instrument that made of material energy, something changeable, transeunt, not to be confused with the ontological reality of the self, “The senses, the mind and the ability to discriminate (Indriya, Manas, Buddhi) belong to the inferior nature, the material one, because, according to the Samkhya psychology, accepted by the Gita and the Vedanta, they realize the contact with the objects and the conscience raises only when the spiritual subject, Purusha, lights them up. Ahankara performs the fallacious identification of the body with the spiritual subject thus producing the sentiment of I and mine” (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.257). The entire psychophysical world ruled by the three constituents of Nature, the Gunas, is illusory; not because it is unreal or non- existent, but simply because it is changeable and different from the way our sensorial perception shows it to us:

I offer my obeisances to Shri Krishna, son of Vasudeva, Who is God, the almighty Supreme Person. I meditate upon Lord Shri Krishna, the Absolute Truth, first cause of all causes of creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. He imparted Vedic knowledge unto the heart of the first living being, Brahma. For His will, this world, simple mirage, takes a tangible aspect even for great sages and celestial beings. For His will, material universes, illusion products of the three influences of the Nature, appear as the image of reality itself. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Shri Krishna, Who is the Absolute Truth, eternally present in His spiritual abode, forever free for the illusory representations of the material world (Shrimad Bhagavatam, I.1,1).

The mind, therefore, as part of prakriti is the most subtle part of matter; it works as a sort of filter or lens through which one perceives the world inside and out. From the Vedic prospective, that is well apt to metaphorically explain the conditioners, in that individuals live as if in cocoons built by their conceptual screens, mental grills that condition them from birth to death. These grills cannot be overcome by human strength alone. In fact, Krishna Himself, states in shloka 14 of this chapter that His “inferior” energy, albeit still divine (daivi), is impossible to transcend unless one turns to Him with love and devotion, in an effort to re-harmonize one’s self through bhakti.

Certainly, this divine Maya of mine, which is constituted of the gunas is hard to overcome. The only ones that transcend it are the ones that abandon themselves to me (BG VI.14).

In shlokas eight through twelve, Krishna describes His attributes in poetic terminology by associating them with the very essence of His natural powers, meanwhile indicating a method to reach Him symbolically and remember Him even in the world of elements:

Son of Kunti, I am the flavor of the water, the splendor of the moon and of the sun, the syllable Om in all the Vedas, the sound in space, the virility in men, the native fragrance of the hearth, the heat of the fire, life in all beings and the rigor of the ascetics (BG VII.8-9).

Krishna also states that He is lust, kama, that is not subversive in relation to dharma. Even if in this term the sexual meaning is very strong, it is not the only one; kama refers to greed in an broad sense as well, that desire to accumulate, to possess, to enjoy that is found in everyone. And for what purpose does the conditioned individual move under these strong impulses? He simply hopes to eliminate his fears and find a little happiness, a little

66 pleasure. Krishna represents the pleasure that does not break order and in fact constitutes the foundation of cosmic harmony. In accordance with the Bhagavata doctrine, pleasure is an integral and inalienable part of the individual whose characteristics are sat-cit-ananda: eternity, consciousness and beatitude. This pleasure, however, is not ordinary, it is not a pleasure with a beginning and an end, often bound to change into pain. This is the highest happiness, from which an ever-increasing bliss (ananda) springs. Krishna continues by speaking of two categories of people, one made of the impious and confused, the other of the virtuous:

The evils, the foolish and the cowards do not abandon themselves to me; illusion kidnaps their conscience and they belong to a demoniac nature. Virtuous who adore me are of four kinds, Arjuna: those who suffer, those who have the desire of knowing, those that pursue a goal, and the knowledgeable, oh bull of the Bharata! (BG VII.15-16).

The four types of virtuous people are listed below:

1) artah: the unhappy, suffering being who turns to God seeking help; 2) jijnasuh: the positively inquisitive, curious being who, upon hearing of a superior reality, desires to learn more and tries to approach God with a sincere heart, even if still possessing egoistical motives; 3) artha-arthi: one who has a worldly goal to achieve, often a sattvic one. Even in this case, the individual turns to the Supreme to satisfy necessities and desires; 4) Jnani: the knowledgeable who has no egoistical motives, but ideally desires to know the Absolute without a secondary scope.

All four of the above categories, even though they approach God with different motives, are part of the virtuous group. However, Krishna reveals to Arjuna that:

Among them, the best one is the knowledgeable who, always connected to Me, loves Me only: I’m dear to him, and he is dear to Me (BG VII.17).

Krishna then refers to the cult of the celestial beings, or devas, emphasizing that, since all divine forms are His manifestations, whatever figure one chooses to venerate, it is ultimately Krishna to whom all obeisance goes; and it is always He who in the end fulfills all desires. Krishna, therefore, does not condemn the worship of the celestial beings, but simply considers it useless. Those who dedicate themselves to this type of worship act like a man watering the leaves and the branches of a tree instead of the roots. In shloka 27, Krishna describes the typical situation of conditioned beings: Descendant of Bharata, misled by the illusion of the opposite couples, illusion which comes for desire and repulsion, all the being in this world are subject to deception, oh victorious over the enemies (BG VII.27).

But soon thereafter He states another fundamental moral principle, an aspect of the implicit order (dharma), pole on which the entire manifested universe rotates: one dedicated to good can transcend the opposite couples, since meritorious acts free one from illusion: However, those who operate the good, whose fault is completely dissolved, free from the illusion generated by the opposite couples and perseverant in their vows, adore Me (BG VII.28).

CHAPTER VIII Contents of the Psychic Field and Existential Journeys

At the beginning of the eighth chapter, Arjuna seems to be in better psychological conditions; his attitude is not in contrast with Krishna’s teachings. He in fact desires to deepen what he has heard in reference to Krishna’s statement about being the principle of elements, of celestial beings, and of sacrifice. In the Vedic tradition, sacrifice is the only instrument through which the cosmos regenerates itself and through which living beings obtain what lacks. Krishna’s affirmation in the fourth shloka of this chapter is confirmed in the Vedas where Vishnu is identified as the Supreme Beneficiary of sacrifice and indeed sacrifice itself (yajna purusha).

In the following shloka, Krishna reveals the crucial importance of remembering Him at the time of death; in this way, the atma can transcend the material universe and reach the residence of God:

He who, at the moment of death, abandoning his body, leaves with his thought turned to Me only, obtains my nature; there is no doubt on this (BG VIII.5).

The doctrine explained here is important even from a practical point of view because each one of us, soon or later, will live this dramatic experience. It appears evident that in order to reach a state in which the mental field is totally enlightened by the presence of God, one must consider not only those final acts accomplished in life but also the thoughts or the images present in the mind at the moment of departure of the being from the body. As one usually lives this moment as a painful condition of agony and extreme difficulty, all of the impressions on which for a long time life nourished itself constitute the deep affective source of things, and have a strong influence in

69 this final representation which, according to Vedic literature, determines the conditions of one’s subsequent rebirth. If remembrance of God, His teachings, His qualities, His spiritual games, and His forms has been practiced constantly during the course of one’s existence, some extreme positive impressions will have been produced. Then according to Bhagavad-gita, there is a good chance that these divine memories will pervade the mind even in the most critical instant, thereby determining the exchange of paradigm and taking one off to a new existential dimension: freedom from the cycle of death and birth, and a life of eternal knowledge and beatitude in the immensity of the spiritual universe in the company of God, “it is not, that is a fortuity fantasizing of the last minute: it is the constant behavior of the entire life that determines the future” (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.275) The Vaishnava tradition believes that this verse is an authoritative confirmation of the substantial importance of a spiritual practice which is very ancient and precious: the remembrance of God’s Names, nama-smarana, as legitimized and authorized in Bhagavad-gita. Since the names of God are pure spiritual energy, the concentrated reciting of them, individually (japa) or collectively (sankirtana), purifies the mental field in both depth and width. This practice is not about the annulment of the psychic and conscientious sphere, but about a precise elimination of all those wastes that block the mind and prevent the consciousness from perceiving itself as it is. When the practice of nama-smarana is practiced steadily, in deep concentration and purity, it allows one to operate directly from the plain of Reality. In shlokas 11 to 16, the attitude and the way to reach the ultimate and Supreme destination after death are described in many Upanishads, for example in the Katha, as in the Vishnoh Paramam Padam. In the sixteenth shloka in fact Krishna states, “When you have reached me, son of Kunti, there is no other rebirth”. Here Krishna speaks of yogis who, in the perfect domination of their senses, leave their bodies with their thoughts fixed on Him and ultimately reach His spiritual abode. Similarly, in the second chapter

Krishna affirms that the wise person does not become upset at the moment of passing. Obviously this is not a general condition, but the special one of the person who during the course of his existence has operated in respect of divine cosmic laws, favoring his own evolution and that of others as well. To reach this level, it is necessary to plan one’s life and not act casually, pressed by passions. In fact, planning means acting with consciousness, functioning in a responsible way that considers how we “move” things and people around us. We can do it in accordance with three dynamics: with our thoughts, with our words, and with our deeds; acting in person or through others leads to the same consequences in the end. Action begins from desire (kama), sometimes it develops in the verb (vac), and generally it concludes in the physical action (karman). In the Sacred Texts of ritualism, the term karman usually indicates the action par excellence, the sacrificial one; that action which, if executed perfectly, already contains in itself the desired result. When instead the acting is accompanied by insufficient consciousness, low consciousness, or even happens in a confused mental state, the results will be produced in any case, but it will be distorted, unexpected, not in the right direction, and perhaps even in an opposing one. To plan one’s future, one must know however the implicit order (dharma) that governs the material universe and its energies very well, as one must know the science of action which includes knowledge of the numerous reactions. Embodied life conditions the living being to suffering, growing old, getting sick, dying, and being born again. Wise men have wondered since ancient times what the action par excellence truly is; action fit to purify one from its inevitable consequences. This perfect acting is magnificently represented by the act accomplished for divine love (bhakti), as is well explained by Krishna in Bhagavad-gita. Detached action motivated by love of God is not comparable to the one generated by love of the world motivated by kama: lasciviousness, lust, instability, and intense egoistical desire to enjoy the ephemeral. In the Vedic literature, the term bhakti means devout love; it

71 refers to God and to the Spiritual Teacher, and consists of an elevated and deep sentiment of faith, love, and devotion in equal amounts. In this regard, in the Shretashvatara Upanishad, it is found that spiritual knowledge is revealed to those great souls who put the same supreme loving faith (parabhakti) in God and in the guru. The art of action is, therefore, as has already been partially seen, full action that is detached from worldly passions and, at higher levels of consciousness, inspired by a sort of falling in love with God, the Creator, the Supreme Friend and Lover. Some may refer to God as Universal Harmony, Supreme Conscience, Good, the Ultimate Truth, but it is always the same Entity being evoked. God is described in the Vedic literature with endless names: Brahman, Paramatma, Bhagavan, Ishvara, the God of grace and mercy, the God of love, and the Supreme Person. The human body is a work of art; its psychic structure is a jewel, a sophisticated instrument of high technological value that potentially allows for exceptional cognitive experience. It is however relatively frail and does not last long in comparison to our apparent needs. Knowledgeable of this, intelligent people dedicate themselves to the science of spiritual realization and transfer themselves to safer conscience levels before the storms arrives - as it always does, ever punctual - as infirmity, old age, and death. Some hope to avoid sickness; it is more problematic to escape old age, and death is inevitable. As Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, only he who permanently connects himself to the Supreme Lord has a chance of reaching the immortality shores and ending all of his suffering

Once they have reached me, the great souls which have obtained the supreme perfection are no longer going to be born in this world, transient home of sufferance (BG VIII.15)

In the last shloka of this chapter, Krishna again emphasizes the superiority of the true yogi, the spiritualist, in comparison with the worldly

72 religious zealots who are often moved and conditioned by egoistical motivations. In fact “The phases of the spiritual realization resulting form the study of the Veda, the sacrifices, the penances and the offerings are lower phases that must be overcome by the yogi who wants to elevate himself above them, to the supreme purpose” (radhakrishnana, Bhagavad-gita, p.284).

CHAPTER IX Revelation

By offering to Arjuna a vision ever more clear and explicit of His divine and infinite shakti, Krishna reveals to him “the supreme secret and the supreme knowledge”, which will enable him to free himself from the conditioned existence. As Arjuna becomes more receptive, Krishna’s teaching becomes more confidential by revealing fundamental aspects of the spiritual knowledge:

This knowledge is a supreme science and a supreme secret, sublime instrument of purification; one can attain it by direct experience, it is in conformity with the morale order, very easy to practice, inalterable.(BG, IX.2)

Krishna defines the divine knowledge as raja-vidya and raja-guhyam: vidya means ‘science’, realized wisdom, not theoretical, something already concretized, of which we have the knowledge and the experience. Guhyam means ‘secret’, something to reveal only under specific and determined circumstances; this terms underlines the discretion, which is a peculiarity of this supreme knowledge:

Shri Bhagavan said: to you who you are devoid of envy I will reveal this highly confidential knowledge, which is also consciousness, which will enable you to free yourself from evil.(BG, IX.1)

In shlokas 7 through 10, Krishna reaffirms the existence of the material energy, Prakriti, which constitutes the Nature, the phenomenal universe of which He is the origin.

The Vedic scriptures, in particular the Samkhya and the Bhagavad- Gita, inform us of the existence of two energies: paraprakriti or “superior energy”, where the human beings participate in, and aparaprakriti or “inferior energy”, which is not conscious of the self. They both derive from Krishna, the Supreme Spiritual Entity and they don’t form a dichotomous entity, but two complementary dimensions of a unique Reality. Even though the superior energy is immutable and transcendent and the inferior one is subject to a continuous alteration, in both cases it is energy of Divine origin (shakti), which, in its higherst variety, moves under the supervision of the Supreme Being. The fact, however that the Divine energy pervades everything, doesn’t allow for a pantheistic conception, because it is not equivalent to saying that everything is God. In His teachings, in fact, Krishna

“is not inclined to pantheism, which states that everything is God, but to panentheism , which teaches that everything exists in God; the cosmic process doesn’t represent a complete manifestation of the Absolute. No ended process can ever, in a definite and complete way, express the Absolute, even though it is true that this world is a living manifestation of the Divine Reality.” (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.289)

Therefore, if on one side everything exists and moves in virtue of the omnipresent divine presence, on the other the Lord transcends the material world and remains always in His original position:

Son of Kunti, at the end of a cosmic cycle all the beings reenter the prakriti, which belongs to Me, and at the beginning of a cosmic cycle they come from me again. (BG, IX.7) Those actions don’t condition Me, oh conquer of wealth, because I remain detached, with a neutral attitude. (BG, IX.9)

In shlokas 12 and 13 Krishna briefly anticipates what He will describe in deep fashion later, in chapter XVI. It is about two categories of people: asura and sura or mahatma, the evil ones and the generous ones. We will clearly see how the individuals’ nature is not something casual, but causal, or the exact consequence of what the individuals themselves have activated, with thoughts, desires, words and actions. Even in relation to this we will see better in chapter XVI how the different visions of the world of the various individuals reflect themselves in every aspect of life, even in the psychological, religious, and spiritual ones. After in fact having described those who, “firm on their vows” adore Him with devotion, Krishna adds:

Others, through the sacrifice of knowledge, adore Me, their faces turn everywhere and contemplate Me as the Only, but at the same time Differentiated Truth. (BG, IX.15)

A wide category of spiritualists delineates itself. They adore the Supreme Being, unique, in different ways, in fact, according to their guna- karma, their conscience level, each subject will chose a manifestation of the Divine and his related form of worshiping that is more congenial to him. As we have already seen in the seventh chapter, those whose desire is to satisfy their material desires, worship the devas or the celestial beings, and each individual performs it exactly “guided by his nature.” In shloka 16 and 19 Krishna, as he had already done in chapter VII, affirms that He is a series of multiple realities. He is, for example, all that is sacred: not only sacrifice itself, but also the desire to offer, the ingredients of the offer, the fire, which will burn the offer, the smoke, which will take it with him in that last more subtle form. Krishna is the friend, the comfort, but also the death; it depends on the attitude one uses to address Him: for he who desire to establish a loving and friendly relationship with Him, Krishna will be the Lover or the Friend however, for he who wants to violate the cosmic law, the Dharma – of which He himself, as he will say, is the foundation – He will manifest Himself as death which destroys everything. 76

In shloka 21 Krishna explains that those who, due to pious activities, have reached the celestial planets to enjoy their pleasures, all they obtain is a “back and forth”. These people have not exit the samsara therefore, when they exhaust their meritorious activities, will be compelled to return to the intermediate planets. In the following shloka Krishna states that to His Devotees instead, who adore Him constantly, He grants “that certain possession, which is beatitude”. The religious practices, as the motivations and desires of any nature, direct one toward a precise result. Krishna confirms this in shloka 25:

Those who worship the devas, go to the devas Those who worship their ancestors go to their ancestors and those who offer sacrifices to the spirits go to the spirits; similarly, those who offer their sacrifices to Me, come to Me. (BG, IX.21)

This shloka is of relevant importance because it explains the indefectible law of the fruition of the action, which is also valid for the modalities of worshiping. He who worships his ancestors goes where they reside; he who worships immaterial beings; ghosts, phantoms, those beings that for various reasons haven’t obtained a physical body yet and wander imprisoned in a psychic bubble, goes to them, and he who turns to the Supreme Lord, certainly goes to Him. Event the following shloka is very important; we could even define it revolutionary for the times when it was enunciated:

If with lovely devotion someone offers Me a leaf, a flower, a fruit or some water, I enjoy the devotional offer of an abandoned soul. (BG, IX.26)

With this assertion Krishna ruins some sort of “trade with the Divine”, at times monopolized by the sacerdotal caste, because it establishes that he 77 who wants to reach Him is not bound to commission complex and expensive sacrifices, by paying groups of religious professional people; it suffice that he offers little water, a leaf, a flower, as long as he does it with devotion and sincerity. We underline how motivation is once again highlighted: humble and easily available items gain the maximum value if offered to God with sincere and loving devotion (bhakti). Even shloka 27 is fundamental: Krishna returns on a concept amply discussed and once again suggests to Arjuna, this time in a more than ever explicit and direct manner, the method to perform an action detached from karmic returns, by transforming every action in a Yajna dedicated to Him:

What you do, what you eat, what you offer in sacrifice, what you donate, what you practice as ascesis, Son of Kunti, do it as an offer to Me. (BG, IX.27)

Action accomplished as duty and aimed to the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, not only allows one to orient ones’ life in an enlightened and positive fashion, but it allows its author not to be reborn in the world of conditioned existence. What happen then to those who cannot do it, to those who have not overcome envy and the sense of possession, to those that have not burned down their tendency to err? Even in this case Krishna is very encouraging:

Even a person that conducts himself in an extremely evil manner, if he adores Me and turns his devotion to no one else, must be considered a saint, because he is placed with determination on the right path. (BG, IX.30)

For he who turns to Krishna and loves Him, for he who, even though he has a long way to go, sincerely desires to modify his course, for he who is still willing to modify his habits to escape the material conditioning, the

Divine Grace will make change possible, he can absolutely transform his tendencies, his personality and his character. With the last shloka of this chapter Krishna highlights that the only way to escape the net of material conditionings, to live serenely in this world and obtaining the supreme goal, is to connect the human mind to the Divine One, transforming our emotions into total love for God; on the action level transforming our actions into a sacrifice to the Lord of the worlds, and our mind into a donation of ourselves to Him only, by turning our entire being toward God in total communion:

Turn to Me your thought, to Me your devote love, to Me your sacrifice, pay your homage to Me; that’s how by achieving your union with Me, your highest goal, you will certainly come to Me. (BG, IX.34)

This is one of the pillars of Bhakti and the essence of Bhagavad-Gita: devotion and divine love, in every culture and nature. Knowledge, works and deep aspirations reach to a supreme unification, reconciling any conflict.

CHAPTER X The Immanent Divine

Krishna speaks to Arjuna of His powers and glories, by describing multiple divine manifestations on which he can meditate. In this chapter, we may find, therefore, many suggestions on how to concentrate our minds in God and remembering Him by recognizing His spiritual energy in everything. Krishna says that neither the celestial beings, or the great sages know His origin because they come from Him.

Nor devas, nor great sages know My origin, because I am, under any circumstance, the beginning of the first as well as the last. (BG, X.2)

This can be logically explained because no one in this “create” can have an overall experience of the Creator. Krishna Himself said in a famous shloka of this chapter:

I am the origin of everything, everything comes from me. By knowing this, the wise men adore me with great fervour. (BG, X.8)

From the seventh to the eleventh shlokas, Krishna reveals His supreme position and explains how who really knows Him, “truly” will reconnect to Him:

He who truly knows the manifestation of my greatness and my mystical power, is firmly connected to me; there is no doubt on this. (BG, X.7)

Here we can capture an implied invitation to coherence, an appreciated quality, which is indispensable for exiting the maze of conditioners. He, who

80 has a certain level of knowledge, should act at that same level. The individual that doesn’t comply with this is bond to developing internal conflicts, sense of guilt and inadequacy. If these problems are not solved (by harmonizing the practical level with the intellectual one), after time, they will prevent the individual from pursuing his self-realization, causing serious psychopathologies such as alienation and personality splitting. In this shloka, Krishna says that he, who knows Him as He is, acts consequently, because the experience of the Divine, the authentic transcendent experience, doesn’t leave the conscience as it is, but it deeply transforms it. It allows the individual to develop a high perception of spiritual reality, which therefore has an impact on his relationship with worldly and daily things. In the tenth shloka Krishna says that he will give the intelligence necessary to reach Him to he who turns his mind to him. He gives buddhi- yoga, the consciousness yoga, which allows one to connect the individual intelligence to the cosmic one by discriminating between sat and asat, good and bad, eternal and temporary, what makes us evolve and what makes us regress. Krishna, Himself rushes to aid he who turns to Him as He says in shloka eleven:

It is indeed because of compassion toward them that I, living in their hearts, destroy the darkness, which has risen from ignorance, with the bright torch of knowledge. (BG, X.11)

At this point, evidently, Krishna doesn’t address Arjuna as a man, cousin, or friend, nor as his auriga; he poses Himself as the Supreme Teacher, the origin of everything, the Supreme Divine Being. Evidently, Arjuna is in a very elevated conscience status, undergoing ecstatic feelings, which he expresses with the following words:

You are the supreme Brahman, the supreme home and the supreme instrument for

purification, the eternal and divine being, the original God, never born and omnipresent. (BG, X.12)

Krishna shows Himself in an apparent paradoxical, yet transcendental and immanent fashion. He who is conscious of this can recognize and receive the Divine everywhere, thus avoiding to dwelling upon the trivial daily self- identifications. He who can detach himself and refrain form exercising his own will and power will be open to this knowledge and, as Krishna says in the third shloka of this chapter: “Doesn’t get lost and is freed from all sins.” This requires an elevated level of surrender because anxiety comes from self – identification with the phenomenal reality, which is rationalistic and exploitable. We could translate the word sin, which gives a strong moralistic idea, with error or “conscious and guilty limitation of our energy to achieve non- essential objects.” These objects obscure the universal vision and the opening toward the infinite and the everlasting. This knowledge of the infinite mystery has an energetic power, which is also infinite and gives a new orientation to the limited perspectives, thus assigning them the right position and creating a sort of hierarchy of the various investments. These investments will then evolve from their limited status to an additional one. The individual, therefore must open himself, giving himself up, not in a passive, destructive or negative fashion, but constructively, thus enlarging and empowering his energy, instead of reducing it, which will be the result of his worldly identifications. The individual then will feel satisfied and will create in himself the disposition to become enlightened, to receive a sparkling buddhi and bhakti, the Divine Love. For he who has experience it is evident how:

Bhakti or devotion aims at the destruction of ignorance and the rising of enlightening. When ignorance is destroyed, God rises and manifests Himself by revealing Himself to the human spirit. When love and the wise knowledge rise 82

in an individual, he realizes the eternity. (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.312)

Krishna is not speaking of a closure or of a formal and dull devotion; this devotion and this love are realities which will enable the self-overcoming and self-transcendence. This procedure implies the gradual freeing oneself from all those small things, that, however insignificant, if projected with our will and power, will become negative. This is also true for certain pseudo- religious attitudes, which in reality hide worldly attachments. Arjuna freed himself form his dreads, initial fears and the layers of ignorance generated by his previous inability to open himself by suppressing all his hesitations. At one point, however he gives himself up completely, allowing the flow of the divine energy in him, thus generating the “recognition”. Arjuna’s “recognition” lives in everyone’s heart as the Supreme Soul (Paramatma). As previously done in chapter seven and upon request from Arjuna, in shlokas 19 through 39, Krishna speaks to His friend-disciple of His worldly manifestations by presenting Himself as the best in every category of things and people. The Divine manifestations, transcendent and immanent at the same time, appear once again suited for the comprehension by multiple levels of conscience. In fact, accordingly to the individual situation, one will capture an expression of the Divine rather than another, in a conscious or unconscious fashion. At this point, Arjuna is waking up, he is enlightened and has reached a good level of comprehension, so Krishna goes even deeper in His revelation. Asrjuna is no longer in the initial position and doesn’t ask any more questions that almost contradict Krishna’s will. During Bhagavad-Gita, he abandoned himself to God and began to recognize Krishna’s supreme transcendence, he understood that Krishna is incomparably above, thus different from all the people that he knew and has nothing to share with masks or social roles. He

83 experimented that what Krishna says is true to the highest level and that he is receiving very confidential teachings. Krishna shows kindness to him and ends His teachings in this chapter with the following:

What kind of service can this knowledge give you, Arjuna? With only a fragment [of my power] I pervade and sustain the entire universe. (BG, X.42)

In our common experience, a fragment is a piece, part of something, therefore distinguished from the whole, but the fragment addressed by Krishna is a sparkle of His splendor, sufficient to itself and inconceivably absolute, even if this could appear paradoxical to the conditioned minds. As spiritual beings we are also eternal and absolute, however, at the same time we come from the Whole as His “expansion”, this is what Bhagavad-Gita and Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad state. In the conditioned state, our wholeness is covered by avidya, the cosmic maya, which limits our vision, our perception and our actions. The Self, which, ontologically, is never subjected to becoming, nor to the karmic laws or to conditioners, returns to the consciousness of His completeness and bliss in the very moment when He reconnects Himself to the Supreme Beings, by the means of love.

CHAPTER XI The universal form: Arjuna facing the Numinous

In this chapter, we can capture various hints which attribute new meanings to the space-time, mind and spirit concepts. We can sense how the expansion of the conscience leads to the ascertainment that the sentient physical world, at least as it is generally perceived and portrayed, is only a reflection of the real world. The tri-dimensional instrument that we call physical body is only an instrument and a residence for something infinitely more essential and transcendental in its relation with the body: the inner self. This reflection suggests that there are at least two realities: one in which our bodies appear tangible and have a precise placement in time and space; the other, where our real self seems to exist as a shining energy, conscience and bliss, whose placement in space and time is quite enigmatic. Arjuna, at this point, asks to contemplate Krishna’s cosmic form, vishvarupa. The word vish means “everything”, therefore it is the divine form which comprises everything, thus by seeing it we see everything. Krishna grants the wish of his disciple because he, as previously told, is privy of envy. Arjuna asks to see the Divine in His omni pervadent aspect, origin, the sustainer and re-absorber of all that exists, the God of powers, of vibhuti; God as foundation of the cosmic manifestation. This special form through which Krishna pervades and sustains the worlds, in which all that exists is contained, cannot be seen by Arjuna through his psycho-sensorial structure, therefore Krishna gives him a divine faculty of vision. The experience of the Divine is always original, unmotivated, unique and personal, not referable to anything different than the self. It’s an experience that includes the fascinas and the tremendum and, inconceivably, it transcends both of them, by harmonizing the opposites, to include the

85 principle of attraction-repulsion. The show witnessed by Arjuna is simultaneously wonderful and terrifying, it causes intense emotions, which include the opposite of ecstatic astonishment and dismay. He is in fact trembling, frightened, even anguished, and he prostrate himself with reverence at that infinite and sparkling aspect of the Lord. In that universal form, whose shining splendor exceeds the sparkling of thousands of suns, Arjuna sees all the innumerable universes, at once, all the celestial beings, in an infinite types of forms, eyes, mouths, arms, bellies, as far as the eye can see. He even sees the commanders of the enemy army (the sons of Dhritarashtra with their allied kings) and some of his more eminent warriors annihilated by inflamed mouths and squashed by monstrous teeth. Arjuna asked with sincerity and abandonment to contemplate the cosmic form of Krishna and Krishna decided to satisfy him, so, in an instant, the mental field of His warrior-disciple is overwhelmed by a myriad of lights and images. He sees beings partly human and partly animal in one big living universe, these worlds that manifest themselves and consume themselves out of his usual optic angle, beyond all the limits of his precedent perception capability. The brightness of this form which comprises everything, has no high or low, no right or left, no above or under, no front or back, no before or after, causes in Arjuna a heavy sense of disorientation and helplessness. Finding himself out of his ordinary time-space parameters, gives him chills of intense pleasure, but also fear. He was satisfied and saw even too much, living through emotions that have deeply upset him. Arjuna, brave and invincible, man of great experience and good culture, a psychologically normal and well-adjusted individual, realizes, at the vision of the Whole, that he is totally inadequate to face of the almightiness of the Divine. Arjuna did not suffer of hallucinations, instead, in an amazed ecstatic-mystic condition, he visited another level of reality, completely different, where all is one and comes from God.

The following is a handbook definition of ecstasy in accordance with psychology.

The subject in ecstasy feels like he is carried to an inaccessible world. He expresses bliss and stops his communications with his habitual environment. Mysticism is a cause of ecstasy, however, some ecstasies are only pathological.

The mystical ecstasy: broken voice, weaken respiration. The subject has a feeling of cooling of his body and his extremities. Sensitiveness diminishes or disappears. Some strange phenomena might arise, such as: bright aureola, emanation of scent. This ecstasy reveals a state of intense abduction, a total harmony with God. The true mystic, while in ecstasy, retains a very high morale level; his physical state remains unchanged. Clearly, these phenomena must be examined with high objectiveness.

The pathological ecstasy: it is connected to hysteria in some psychic handicapped, in some forms of hallucination. Religion and eroticism are often mixed. This form of ecstasy reveals sexual exaltation; the ill individual doesn’t obtain any profit from his mysticism. In this false ecstasy the ill demonstrated great joy and remains in an absolute stillness, with no reaction to the surrounding world. He can be burned or stabbed without feeling any pain. (P. Daco, What is Psychology, B.U.R., 1998, p. 473)

Arjuna never loses the awareness of his identity, but he finds himself disoriented. All of his logical capabilities have suddenly and temporarily dissolved because, in experiencing vishvarupa, there are no chances for orienting oneself by using human experiences. Such an omni pervading vision, without limitation, nor frontier, extraordinary, wonderful, yet fearful,

87 disengages the modus operandi of Arjuna’s mind. Krishna grants him a special visual power, which, however, must sustain itself on a psychic complex (citta), constituted by his senses, his mind and his intellect, neither of them adapted to this task. The emotion raised by this vision is evidently too much for Arjuna who implores his Friend Krishna to return to the previous form, which is psychologically more reassuring.

Having seen (the universal form) never seen before, I am happy, but my mind is shaken by fear, I beg You, Lord of the devas, Shelter of the universe, grant me Your grace and show me (the other) divine form. (BG, XI.45)

Arjuna, sits on his chariot with his heart in turmoil. As we have seen in previous chapters, he, sometimes, finds himself arguing with Krishna, at times not understanding or showing his satisfaction for the received teachings. Sometimes he is perplexed, doubtful, and we can observe by noticing how he explains what he has understood, that his comprehension is not complete. Krishna, as his Guru and perfect Teacher continues to deepen his teaching level, tackling it from different angles and, when satisfying Arjuna by giving him what he asks for, He gives him a further significance, thus stimulating him to move forward. This is one of the principal qualities of a Teacher, which stimulates His disciple to constantly overcome himself, by praising him for the results obtained, but also encouraging on his research and leading him to higher levels of comprehension. In contemplating vishvarupa, we find ourselves, as Prof. Rudolf Otto would say, facing a numinous experience. Arjuna has been gradually prepared to receive a certain amount of numinous, however, his psyche is not ready to perceive the experience. What does Arjuna see? He sees an image that conciliates and unifies simultaneously and instantaneously. Reasoning unifies as well: for example, by seeing numerous horses, the horse concept can become abstracted by reasoning. Numerous horses, which are all real and complex individual

88 beings, with which each of us can have a relationship, are transformed by our reasoning to a unity of an abstract concept. The concept of horse, however, even if unifying in the mental field the innumerable characteristics of various horses, in fact forgets their individuality as empirically existing beings. In Arjuna’s vision, instead, he sees the One and its multiple aspects and, therefore, he sees all these aspects in their infinite variety. There is no intellectual abstraction procedure but also the experimentation of the inconsistency of the separation between the past and the future with an instant and immediate catch. One that is at the same time many and many that are at the same time One. One reaches an immediate identity that at the same time transcends itself, therefore becoming a mystery, hard to express in rationale terms. It is a vision of the coincidence of the opposites, a typical numinous vision. Arjuna is not ready yet. This numinous experience is not liberating in a final sense, but necessary to move him from one level of conscience to a superior one, detaching him from his conditioning by defusing those egoistical layers that permeate and limit his conscience. Krishna takes this opportunity, with His usual benevolent helping spirit, to help Arjuna in his exit from the cocoon of his ego. As we approach the end of this chapter, we find a strong statement from Krishna:

It is not possible to see Me as you saw Me, nor by studying the Vedas, nor with ascesis, not by practicing charity, nor by sacrificing. You can know Me and see Me as I am only though pure bhakti; that is the only way to penetrate (the mystery of my person), Arjuna. (BG, XI.53-54)

This statement is interesting because Krishna previously stated that without practicing ascesis, without giving and without the studying of the Vedas, it was impossible to gain the knowledge. Now, He however specifies that the highest truth (tattvam) is not accessible with these practices, thus not 89 depreciating them, but simply putting them into perspective. These pious activities, in fact, lead the individual to a material virtue maximum evolution, called ethics. At this point, however, it is necessary to move forward, with the aid of bhakti: love for God, which leads to the perfect existence, as Krishna refers to at the end of this chapter:

He who acts for me by considering me the supreme purpose, he who is my devotee and is privy of attachments, he who is benevolent to all beings, this individual will come to Me, son of Pandu. (BG, XI.55)

This is the meaning of the latest teaching. Krishna doesn’t want to charm Arjuna by showing him the shining form of suggestive images that fascinate and paralyze the will. Krishna wants to stimulate him to obtaining the highest level of conscience, through the process of gradually increasing dynamic equilibriums. Such process is facilitated by bhakti, the loving and spiritual serving devotion, the will to share oneself with someone (God), not for selfish reasons or curiosity, but to become part of His nature. We experiment the pleasure of giving in worldly love too, but this love is stained by the sense of possession, in most cases by the concept of giving to obtain. Bhakti is a giving condition that grants a pleasure extraordinarily stronger than receiving, it is a high sentiment, therefore rare and cannot be confused with any worldly love form. Here Krishna specifies that the real knowledge of the Absolute, the ultimate truth, develops when the relationship between the individual looking for knowledge and the object of this knowledge are bond by love. Bhakti is the divine love. This sentiment, once identified and experimented, depreciates all others, not by dissolving them, but by making them instrumental in incrementing this Vaishnava traditional only real divine love. Other sentiments, in comparison, are like shadows or distorted reflexes.

Nothing disappears: affection, the capability of showing the entire scale of feelings, thoughts, creativity and imagination, all those characteristics of the human feelings, when placed by bhakti in a transcendental level, are fully re-qualified and become extremely fascinating and moving touches. In the next chapter, we will see how this interior development doesn’t produce abstract love, but a pervading and satisfying love sentiment at all anthropological levels because it is constituted of tastes (rasa) related even to the tangible level.

CHAPTER XII Bhakti: the regal way to self-realization

This chapter has a particular value because it represents the heart of Bhagavad-Gita: here, Krishna and Arjuna discuss the most profound subjects, specifically in relation to divine love (bhakti). Krishna enforces the concept that love is the key to understanding the meaning of worldly life and of the final destination. He teaches that the purpose of our worldly life is learning how to love and forgive. Bhakti, the pure love for Him, consists in the supreme gift. Why learning about love and its various evolution levels is so important in life? The answer is that we are all part of an immense living universe of which God, the Supreme Soul of all beings, is the Creator. Only by replacing egoism with love we can survive biologically, be psychologically satisfied and, by supreme grace, approach the divine love and be loved in return. This chapter begins with one of Arjuna’s crucial questions:

Arjuna asked: among the Bhakta, who, always connected with You, adore You, the Unchangeable, the unmanifested, which ones are the best in the yoga science? (BG, XII,1)

Krishna then explains that the best yogis are those who adore Him and are perennially spiritually connected to Him. However, those who adore Him under an impersonal form, reach Him as well, even if through a longer and more difficult journey.

For those whose mind is attracted by the unmanifested, the difficulty is greater, because, for embodied beings, the unmanifested destination is reached only through great efforts. (BG, XII,5)

This is an interesting principle: the human mind has difficulty in concentrating in something that doesn’t have defined edges, a certain form, a certain color, a certain dimension, something which doesn’t follow a space- time connotation. Patanjali defines dharana (concentration) as “deshbandhashcittasya”, a phenomena when the entire psychic complex “connects itself to a place” or fixes itself on a point. The object of meditation can be internal or external, however it absorbs the entire capability of concentration of an individual. The following effort, which leads to meditation (dhyana), consists in maintaining that object as long as possible in the mental field. In this chapter, in shlokas eight through twelve, Krishna shows to Arjuna an entire sequence of methods, through which it is possible to reach perfection. It is important, even from a psychological point of view, that Arjuna be given several options, all connected to the destination ahead of him. Krishna doesn’t put him on a spot; you act this way or you fail; He, instead, offers him four different options, from which he will be able to chose in accordance with the level of his conscience:

Fix your mind on Me and engage your intelligence in Me, then, no doubt, you will always live in Me. Oh conqueror of richness, if you can’t fix your mind on me in a stable fashion, try then to reach me through yoga discipline which consists in a constant [spiritual] practice. If you can’t concentrate in the constant [spiritual] practice, dedicate your action entirely to Me, because, by acting for Me, you can obtain perfection. However, if you can’t even do this, take shelter in My yoga [bhakti-yoga] and, by placing yourself in the inner self [with spiritual awareness], sacrifice to Me the results of your actions. Knowledge is the best constant practice, but meditation is better than knowledge. Forgoing the results of your actions is even better, because it is how you obtain peace. (BG, XII,8-12)

In accordance with the antic text of Indo-Vedic wisdom, everyone can evolve from his current psychophysical condition. There are methods and disciplines for each one, different ways in accordance with different capabilities of the individual. All give a tangible chance to evolve gradually and to reach the peaks of knowledge and consciousness. In this tradition, the ad personam relationship between the Teacher and the disciple is essential because, for the many discomforts and obstacles existing in the path to perfection, there are many therapies to be applied with the aid of a Teacher. For an individual, who can be compared to a planet with his own history and orbit, to begin a balance journey, from his current point, it is necessary to be deeply known by he who must administer the cure (teachins). On the last of the above-mentioned shlokas, Krishna says that knowledge is higher than constant and assiduous practice (abhyasa). However, if abhyasa is combined with an attitude of authentic emotional detachment from worldly things, it is necessary for the development of knowledge. In fact, without an assiduous and constant practice, generally it is not possible to elevate ones mind thus obtaining the realized knowledge which is a deep consciousness, very different from a theoretical and abstract knowledge. Contemplation is higher than knowledge. It is the meditation on the Supreme Reality, the Divine Person, on which consciousness is based. Awareness in forgoing the results of ones actions, tyaga, is higher than contemplation. Krishna already explained to Arjuna that, if he wishes to be serene, he must act without egoistical expectations from the results of his actions. The results must be offered as a gift to the Lord, making every action a vajna or sacrifice. On contrary, selfish actions condition and contaminate their author. From shloka thirteen through twenty, Krishna leads Arjuna to approach the comprehension of what he should really reach and of which virtues he should be blessed with at the highest level. Krishna, in fact, lists the qualities and characteristics of the bhakta, the yogi mostly dear to Him.

In these writings, we can understand unequivocally that Krishna reciprocates love offered to Him. The awareness of this reciprocity is very important, crucial, because it reveals the existence of a privileged and personal relationship between two people or subjects. It is not indeed a virtual relationship, nor a reflection on oneself. Among the various qualities of the bhakta we find compassion, benevolence toward all creature, self-control, purity, abandonment of the erotic senses. Krishna gives a particular relevance to equanimity, the capability of transcending the couples of opposites (nirdvandva), which is a concept that is repeated various times in various way throughout this entire text. He, who can conciliate and transcend the opposites, can dissolve danger and the negativity contained in those opposites, by placing himself at a superior level where they harmonize in a positive form. It is not about negating or eliminating the couple of opposites, but dissolving them and reconstructing them at a higher level. This is based on an inevitably dynamic principle, which feeds itself on the breaking of inferior equilibriums and their continuous reconstruction at higher levels. If this dynamic equilibrium is not maintained, the individual falls under the entropy principle, in which everything, inevitably, deteriorates itself. The path of love, bhakti, however, remains the queen of every virtue. It is the devotion for God, which, par excellence marks the highest spiritualist, as Krishna says in the twentieth and last shloka of this chapter:

Those who, with faith, and total devotion to me, firmly believe in these words of immortal wisdom and tenderly dedicated to Me, are highly dear to My heart. (BG, XII,20)

CHAPTER XIII The teaching of knowledge

Chapter thirteen is of great relevance because Krishna explains the meaning of knowledge and describes the difference between the body and the inner self. “Field” or kshetra means body. If we compare it to an action field, it is the laboratory where the subject, the inner-self experiments. In this context, however, we consider body, not only the rough physical body, which consists in bones, muscles, blood, etc, but also the subtle or psychic body (linga sharira), which includes mind, intelligence and the conditioned self. In the laboratory metaphor, each experiment has its genesis in the psychic field and only later it becomes explicit in the physical one. For our analysis purpose, it is therefore fundamental to understand and remember that the psychic apparatus is not the subject, nor the individual, but an instrument, however sophisticated, at the service of the soul. It is constituted of prakriti, matter privy of conscience and bond to sustain the structured influxes of gunas, time and space. The “field expert” or kshetrajna, is atman, the spiritual being that lives in the body. Krishna makes a statement on this subject, which is described in other terms in the following chapters:

Know that I am the field expert of every field, oh descendant of Bharata, and what I consider real expertise is indeed the field expertise of the field expert. (BG, XIII,2)

This statement is of vital importance for two reasons: first because Krishna maintains that He is present in every body as Paramatma or Supreme Expert and Witness, as it is confirmed in the Vedic literature, for example in the Mundaka Upanishad:

Two birds, close friends, are both on the same tree. One is busy eating the sweet fruits, the other one is carefully observing and not eating. When the individual soul conditioned and suffering soul, sees the Supreme Soul, the Supreme King, in all His brightness and majesty, he rid himself of every pain. (Mundaka Up., 3.1-2)

Secondly, Krishna established unequivocally that real knowledge is the ability to distinguish between the body and the inner-self, between the object and the subject, between the matter and the spirit. All distorted perceptions and illusions, leading to consequent painful delusions, rise due to an eventual confusion between these ontological categories. Samkhya philosophy describes very well the two principles of prakriti and purusha, substance and essence, basically matter and spirit. By being a combination of these two energies, both of divine origin, the human being could appear as a paradox when moved by deep interior aspirations and sometimes opposed by compelling physical needs. The difference between the inner-self and the body, where the inner-self lives, must be constantly acknowledged. When the individual identify himself with something that he is not (from an ontological view point), he is subject to false conceptions which lead him to fundamentally wrong actions that afflict his mind and cause him great suffering. With a short look at this chapter we can recall what Krishna states in reference to the inner-self and the body:

As ether cannot, with its subtle nature, mix with anything, even though it (ether) is everywhere, the inner-self cannot mix with the body, even if it (inner-self) is situated in it. (BG, XIII,33)

Descendant from Bharata, as the sun lights the universe all by itself, so the owner of

the field [the inner-self] lights [with its conscience] the entire field [body]. (BG, XIII,34)

When people unbalance the weight of their attention excessively toward the exterior (extroversive action), the internal universe dissolves. When the external world becomes primary and appears ever more important, defined and concrete, even complete, the subject is bond to experimenting a painful inner emptiness and an intimate failure. The same thing happens when the introverted function is the dominating one and the world with its contents is devaluated. Perfection in life consists in maintaining a perfect equilibrium of these two spheres, by avoiding contrasts, making them helpful to each other, thus creating a condition for overcoming them (nirdvandva). The body and Nature in general, with all of their elements, must not be negated, nor despised; they must be appreciated and maintained with great care, as they are precious instruments which allow for an easy and upward existential journey. This journey should aim to the knowledge and overcome of samsara, the cycle of death and re-birth. In the Bhagavata tradition, psychic and physical bodies are important, as long as the individual doesn’t identify himself with them. He, instead must contextualizes them, understand their function and purpose and utilize them consequently, in respect of their potentiality as instruments to gain immortality. The Vedas identify three levels of conscience: adhibhautika, adhidaivika, adhyatmika. Adhibhautika is the psychophysical elements level. Adhidaivika is a higher level, the cosmic one, which informs and organizes all that exists. Adhyatmika is the highest level, the deepest inner-self one and the spiritual level, from which everything emanates. Every perception, emotion, action, choice, based on which the individual structures his life, places itself in one of these three levels. If it situates itself in the body level, the individual acts on the adhibhautika level. If the element touches the mental level, which is also individual or cosmic, we

98 have a conscience expression of adhidaivika. If instead it comes from the comprehension of the deep inner-self then it is a manifestation of the atman, which is the conscience at the adhyatmika level. Only at this last level, the perception is correct, the feeling is accomplished, the acting wholesome and the choice an aware one. When one acts in this world with pure and clear intelligence and awareness of atman, he perceives those ties, which connect every element of the cosmos. He sees every part of the universe as the expression of the One from which everything emanate. In the fifth shloka, Krishna lists the five rough elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether) and the three subtle ones (mind, intelligence and conditioned ego, the (samsarico) sense of the historical ego), which constitute the prakriti. Prakriti is the (mondo del divenire), thus all the psychophysical complex of the living being. Throughout the sense of the historical ego, ahamkara, the individual performs a sort of temporary identification between the inner-self and the ego. The peculiar perception of the inner-self as historical ego is elaborated by the subtle body, sukshma sharira, which determined the conditioned conscience. As an elaboration of mahat, ahamkara originates the different psychophysical typology of the individuals, which in life undertake many diversified attitudes, depending on gunas influences. The entire teachings of Krishna in this chapter aim to make Arjuna understand the difference between the matter, continuously changing, and the spirit, purusha, which is eternal and immutable. When the individual thinks he is the author of his action, he shows mental confusion, moha. When, instead, he is aware that his action is the confluence of the dynamics activated by the gunas, then he has true knowledge. As we have already highlighted, this is hard to understand for a western mind because most of the Western thinking is concentrated on ahamkara, which identifies the inner-self with the historical self. Krishna explains that peace and perfection become reachable when the self reenters the inner-self and the inner-self regains the energies lost in

99 the self. The original integrity of freed while in his life, juvan mukta. In this case one acts in the world with a sense of duty and responsibility, but he is aware that he doesn’t belong to it. He wears his physical body, but doesn’t identify himself with the atoms of which it is composed. From the eighth to the twelfth shloka, Krishna explains which comprehensions and actions constitute knowledge:

Humbleness, modesty, non-violence, tolerance, honesty, worship of the Master, purity, constancy, self-control, detachment (emotional) from the objects of the senses, absence of false-ego, the perception of that discomfort which is the suffering inborn in birth, death, old age and disease; the absence of unhealthy attachment toward our children, our wife, our home and everything related to them, the constant equanimity in pleasant and unpleasant situations, an uninterrupted devotional love relationship with Me, achieved through an internal discipline free of hidden purposes, living in solitary locations and total disinterest in locations too frequented, the perseverance in self realization and the philosophic research for the absolute Truth. This is knowledge. The contrary is ignorance. (BG, XIII,8-12)

Humbleness and modesty: The conditioned ego manifests itself as pride and presumption, which are generated by a limited and fragmented perception of reality. By this perception, the individual identifies himself with a body, a skin color and with all the attributes of that historical reality which shows him the difference between “his” fragment and the rest of the universe. This is where pride generates. Pride of speaking a certain language, having a white skin, being young, strong, rich, powerful, well educated, and so on. Why is pride generally indicated as a defect? Because it creates conflict and pain, and because it bases itself on something ephemeral and temporary. The Vedas teach that, at the moment of death, no material good can follow us. That’s why Krishna mentions modesty right after. Because, by 100 feeling and conducting ourselves in a modest fashion, even though we have great potentials, allows us to deactivate our pride and the false reflected ego, which is the origin of all the conflicts between individuals and also inside the individual himself. What we perceive on the outside is only a reflection of what we have inside. Non-violence: It is one of the fundamentals of the Indovedic ethics. He who is violent towards others ends up receiving the same violence. Only a foul can unload his violence and think that this violence will not be returned to him. We have learned from the antic Vedic text and from our own experience in this world that we cannot live without generating violence. It is however our faculty and duty to reduce it to its minimal expressions and cultivate tolerance, harmony and love. Tolerance: It comes from the consciousness that all the phenomenal is temporary. It allows one to be above the couples of opposites: hot-cold, success-failure, joy-pain, and so on. First of all we must be tolerant toward ourselves when, for example we cannot concentrate in the infinite area of conscience where everything is beatitude. Generally, he who is intolerant toward others is very intolerant toward himself, thus damaging himself. This doesn’t mean, however, that we must favor our bad habits or the ones of others, it means that we must follow harmonically the dynamic of things without expecting that everything radically change in a second. Honesty and rectitude: It is found in one’s attitude and behavior and allows one to live serenely. Acting dishonestly could be comfortable and convenient, at first, just as a shortcut, but later we discover that life complicates itself endlessly. An individual’s personality is the result of the food ingested, his breathing, his thoughts, his desires, his actions and, mainly, the impressions generated by his company. The dishonest individual finds himself isolated and blocked. His thoughts don’t even have the chance of been corrected because correction happens though communication, which is inhibited by the dishonest individual. This is how everything turns, from inside to outside, against he

101 who doesn’t apply the law of dharma, providing great damage to the psychophysical health of the single individual and their community. Following honest criteria is the natural fashion to avoid stress and useless complications. It is evident that these rules must not be limited to a simple matter of etiquette, but be applied to our daily life, thus elevating the quality of our existence. Approaching an authentic Spiritual Master, asking questions and serving Him: This is a focal point which is found in all of the greatest texts of the Vedic literature: the Shastras teach that one cannot decondition itself. To reach moksha and directly contemplate the absolute truth, the Vedic Rishis, and, in this case, Krishna Itself, remind us that it is indispensable to approach a wise spiritualistic individual with firm faith, knowledge and competence who, with his teachings, can lead us out of the ocean of conditioners. Our mind constantly feeds the river of our memory, our thought, our desires and our fears. This psychic flux, which articulates itself in the past, present and future, conditions the individual and prevents him from seeing beyond the elements, which constitute the physical world. An authentic Spiritual Mater has the capability to show the way and to provide a method for the reorganization of life, with the intent to re-approach Reality. Purity: It is of great importance because all of our problems derive from the contamination of our mind. We must remember that each individual sees the world through the mental filter, therefore, if this filter is dirty, the vision will not be clear. Lets use the example of the glasses. If the lenses are colored or deformed, they allow us to see a pseudo-reality. A Vedic aphorism states: “purity is strength”. He who pollutes his psychic field loses the vision of reality and, along with it, in the long run, loses enthusiasm, energy, vigor, etc. All Indovedic schools teach that, to evolve it is necessary to accurately avoid everything impure: food, company, thoughts, actions and words. The term used in the slokha is shaucam, which not only translates into “purity”, but also “cleanliness”. Even in this case, we are not speaking of etiquette only,

102 but of rigorous coherence which is a science of acting, aiming to gaining access to a higher level of knowledge. If we don’t take care of body cleanliness and don’t follow ethical rules, it will be very arduous to dedicate ourselves to the more complex internal purification. Firmness: It is fundamental to erase our mental automatisms and modify our old habits into new ones more propaedeutic for the spiritual awakening. The repetition of positive and constructive actions and a rigorous adherence to these actions, allows us to integrate and strengthen the will of the individual. This is indispensable for reaching any goal and mostly for reaching elevated goals such as the realization of the inner-self. In chapter VI.35, Krishna explained to Arjuna that, to dominate his mind, he needs emotional detachment and constant spiritual practice. This is the only way to reach permanent results. Self-control: In reality this refers to the control of the senses and the mind because the inner-self is immutable and perfect. The atman is already perfectly placed in constant equilibrium and not affect by what happens to the body and the mind. Its conscience however is sometimes contaminated by the impurities of the mind. Self-control is the result of a series of continuous efforts, aimed to reinstate the vivid light of intelligence, which is able to foresee the consequences of action and provide the right orientation to the senses and the mind. Then, why sometimes the senses and the mind seem to insist in taking the wrong direction, indifferent to any direction from the ego, just as mad horses? Every experience leaves behind a trace that compels the individual to repeat certain actions, thus creating a more or less deep psychic furrow, which is extremely hard to exit from. In the samsaric wandering, the individual is accompanied and conditioned by his psychic structure, in which all his emotional history is inscribed. The tendencies resulting from an individual’s karmic load reactivate themselves from birth to birth, as soon as the time is favorable and this happens independently from the individual’s will. Self-control consists in fact in effectively facing the unconscious

103 instincts, not by removal or support, yet by correct orientation and sublimation at a higher level through yoga disciplines. In this case, bhakti-yoga is recommended. Is instinct then something to negate or banish? Certainly not, however, before we can count on a healthy instinct, we must abide to some rules and reestablish our psychophysical apparatus. Detachment and renounce to the objects of the senses: the Sanskrit term tapas, other than ascesis, means ‘rigorous coherence’. Tapas generates tejas, psychic energy, strong character and vitality. This is why the wise renounces ephemeral pleasures; not to be cruel to himself, but to gain a higher level blessing. Though the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita and through life experiences we can understand in a non-fideistic way how every thought and every action produce consequences. To reestablish the psychic equilibrium and consequently the physical one, we must avoid not so much the possession of something, but the unhealthy sense of possession and the egoistical motivation that hides behind it. As per the teachings from Bhagavad-Gita and Sutras from Patanjali’s yoga, both attachment to pleasurable things and repulsion from painful things, generate conditioners and ultimately, suffering. A healthy emotional detachment from the objects of the senses produce equilibrium, clearness and serenity which allow for a relatively pleasant life and eventual prosecution on the way to self-realization. Krishna teaches in Bhagavad-Gita that as long as the mind remains emotionally hooked on the objects of the senses, the individual will swing endlessly between the opposite poles of attraction and repulsion. This will produce, from time to time, excitement and depression, which prevent the maximum concentration of energies and make realization and achievement of the purpose of human life, impossible. With a few tangible precautions, aimed to harmonize the extrovert and introvert functions of an individual, Krishna teaches how, by virtue of bhakti, it is possible to enjoy an entire scale of affectivity. This will not collide with Dharma, will make the project to enhance quality of life feasible and will allow for perfection.

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Birth, death, old age and sickness are evils to fight: when the ego mask dismantles itself and falls, the individual perceives that birth and death, with their interludes of sickness and old age, are to be avoided. First of all one must avoid any attachment that compels him to be born, die and be re-born. These attachments, as we have seen, are the result of experiences that generate ever more desires. Desires must not be repressed or removed because they will only be reinforced. Desires must be oriented, sublimed, purified from all of their contaminations and, as Bhagavad-Gita teaches, placed at the service of God, thus lived on the spiritual level. Sickness is the answer to suffering. A continuous suffering, at psychic level, dissatisfaction, frustration, fear, anxiety, are the signs that we are doing something wrong and that our modus vivendi must be seriously reconsidered. The principle of holistic healing is founded on the consciousness of the inner self. Only by developing this it will be possible, according to the Vedic wisdom, to free ourselves from the cycle of birth and death. Jung says: “He who doesn’t reach a good religious level cannot really be healed.” In open contradiction with Freud he stated: “Religious and spiritual instincts constitute essential and irreplaceable elements in human nature, therefore, neurosis derives from repression, censorship or neglecting of this unsuppressable longing of the soul.” Lack of attachment toward the spouse, children, house and other belongings: as previously explained, we must avoid not the ownership, but the longing for this ownership. This is in fact what ties and conditions us by making us slaves of something or someone which, in the end we will not be able to keep forever. Self-consciousness helps us to exit the materialistic optic, which is loaded with pain. It also gives us the knowledge that the subject is a spiritual being, not the physical body and that all that surrounds us, family, food, money, social environment and nature are sustained and pervaded by a divine energy which is perceivable. From this vision the correct utilization of anything will derive and this will allow us to live in a complete and serene fashion.

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Equanimity toward pleasant and unpleasant events: what happens, good or bad, happens to the bodies, not to the soul, as Krishna explains to Arjuna in the second chapter of Bhagavad-Gita. By knowing the immortality and immutability of the soul, detachment becomes possible in every situation. It will take a certain level of spiritual realization, not a simple intellectual knowledge. This is why experience shows our real progress and measures our development in our spiritual realization. As in every other type of school, even in the school of life we must pass some exams: the loss of our dog, our health, our wealth, our parents, our youth or one of our friends. Other than the knowledge of our spiritual nature, which is very different from our body and all that derive from, another factor will help us in overcoming these exams. It is the knowledge that everything that happens to us we have activated ourselves directly or indirectly, willingly or unwillingly, therefore we must work within ourselves to gain a correct management of our action thus transcending the opposites. This is explained in the doctrine of the rigorous return from every action (karma). A love steady relationship with Me: It is the strongest rope, which allows for the climbing to overcome all the conditioners. Only when the spiritual being can handle the difficulty of changing, he will be healed. The main recommendation is to reenter the self by regaining the knowledge of the inner-self and, according to the Shastras, this will be best done through the practice of the devotion to God. It is in fact among religious fervor that the majority of spontaneous remissions (the so called miraculous healings) are witnessed. Even the most conditioned individual can successfully practice the bhakti way. Other forms of yoga, instead, rarely allow this access to he who is not at least at a certain level of consciousness. In the bhakti prospective, the reciprocate love relationship, which is the essence of the bhakti, constitutes the regal way toward freedom, as it is confirmed by Patanjali in his Yogasutra. Through bhakti, everyone, independently from his mental or physical condition can evolve and progress spiritually. Obviously, various individual conditions will influence the speed

106 or smoothness of the path, however, in this path, the highest spheres of the conscience are not precluded to anyone. Lives in deserted locations and is disgusted by crowded locations: this is to help concentrating and avoiding distractions from the fundamental purpose of existence and to free oneself from conditioners that cause birth, suffering, illness and death. We must not, however, think that the spiritual researcher must live isolated, instead, particularly in the vaishnava tradition, the wise and enlightened man has the duty to bring light to the world. He must give to others and to all that desire it, the comprehensions he had obtained. (The other in this tradition is the Epiphany of the absolute). The so called disliking for too frequented locations doesn’t mean the bhakta doesn’t feel pleasure while meeting others, it points out his deliberate wishing not to mix with those who are still interested in things that conflict with self realization. These individuals are not ready, nor interested in comprehension and practices aimed to the dismantling of their conditioners. Perseverance in the knowledge of the inner self and vision of the destination reached through the knowledge of the truth: we have already seen how consistency and firmness are indispensable to reach the objective. Here, Krishna repeats and reinforces this concept, by saying that we should never lose the awareness of our objective, which in this case is tattva-jnana, the knowledge of the Truth. This consciousness allows us to maintain the aim in the right direction and to continue on the path that we have established, despite all storms in life. Shlokas 12 through 17 echo some of the Upanishads passages, particularly Shvetashvatara, Isha and Mundaka. These passages explain how the Brahman can be at the same time near and far, divided and undivided, privy of sensorial organs (of prakriti nature) however possessing any perceptive power. These apparently incompatible visions of the same supreme Reality depend on the conscience level of an individual and on his motivation. Krishna clearly explains in a very important shloka, no. 21, that good and bad (sat-asat), therefore favorable and unfavorable births, are produced by the contact between the being with prakriti, which is the way jiva

107 poses itself to it. In accordance with how purusha connects with prakriti, accordingly with its material desires, it will have to be subject to a particular guna (tamas, rajas, sattva), which will compel hi to act in a certain way and to see the world under a particular prospective. The same influence, which forges the individual character and his personality, determines also the quality of his future birth. In fact Krishna says in the sixth shloka of the eight chapter, that what occupies the mental field at the time of death, will determine the conditions for the following re-birth. Many times Krishna encourage Arjuna to free himself from the influence of the guna because, that is the way to free himself from conditioning and suffering and gain moksha, freedom.

He who sees all actions performed by prakriti (guna) only, not by the inner-self, can really see. (BG, XIII,30) He who, with the eye of knowledge can clearly differentiate between the “field” and the “expert of the field”, can also understand how to free himself from the worldly prakriti and reach the supreme destination. (BG, XIII,35)

This is how Krishna introduces chapter XIV subject, which specifically deals with guna, the elements that constitute the prakriti.

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CHAPTER XIV The ropes of conditioners

This is another important chapter where Krishna describes the Gunas, which are archetypical forces that constitute the tangible world and the elements that constitute Nature (Prakriti). We have already studied the two principles called by the Samkhya philosophy Prakriti and Purusha. These are Nature and Spirit, substance and essence, lower energy (Divine, however), and higher and spiritual energy. In the Bhagavad-Gita optic, the Gunas activate themselves in Prakriti trough a divine energy. It is the supreme Purusha that activates these constitutional elements in the Prakriti at the moment in which it observes it. This will take away the equilibrium between the two, which become separate entities and begin to interact and give origin to the variety of living beings. These three elements constitute Nature. Whether it is hearth, water, fire, air, mind, sense of the self or of the five senses or of the intellect, everything that belongs to the phenomenal reality is driven by these three energies. Krishna explains in shloka twenty that the Gunas are the “origin of the body”. Here as elsewhere, He refers to the physical and psychic body. If we can assimilate the doctrine of the Gunas, we can understand the world around us, looking at it with a different consciousness and find ourselves in a much more favorable condition. We wouldn’t have to suffer for the heavy conditioning of these constituents of Nature, who’s influence is extremely strong, and learn to recognize their functioning method which allows for an armless interaction with them. In our context, the main meaning of Gunas is “rope”. In fact these “bio-energies” are comparable to laces that oblige the embodied being, jivabhuta, to remain in a low status, bound and tied to the body, to the objects of the senses and the results of his actions, which are the conditioners. Before beginning with a detailed description of their characteristics and their 109 psychological influences, Krishna mentions them by describing their binding character:

Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, Gunas originating from Nature, tie to the body the unchangeable spirit that lives in it, oh hero with big arms. (BG, XIV,5)

Let’s describe the characteristics of the three Gunas, beginning with Tamas: Tamas means darkness, immobility, oppressive heaviness, dullness of the conscience, torpor. It is the Guna, which narcotizes, hypnotizes and numbs one to a lower level of perception. Rajas means motion. It compels one to acting, desire, tension and pressing compulsion to acting, which brings anxiety, excitement. This will then transform itself into depression and causes the subject to collapse in the darkness of Tamas. Rajas and Tamas can be considered antithetic, opposing and strongly conditioning entities. There is, however, a third entity or energy, which is constituted by Satva. It is equilibrium and it infuses luminosity, lightness, wideness of vision, capability of prevision, intuitiveness, goodness and harmony. It is undoubtedly the most positive Guna, but it is as source of conditioning as the other two.

Among them, Sattva, the most pure one, is enlightening and beneficial, but it is just as binding by giving attachment to happiness and knowledge. (BG, XIV,6)

People, in fact, is not conditioned only by Tamas, which produces inertia and ignorance, nor only by Rajas, which produces a chaotic and excited action but, paradoxically, they are conditioned by Sattva which manifests itself as attachment to well been. If Sattva is not transcended and carried to its status of effective purity (pavitram) through bhakti, it can result in an obstacle

110 in the way to perfection. We can also commit actions formally sattvic, but spoiled by motivations and egoistical interests. Even though Sattva-guna is subtly conditioning, the development and cultivation of a lifestyle prominently satvic is nevertheless the first important step to take to elevate our quality of life in every sense. This will help avoiding, among other complications, physical and psychic pathologies. As we live sattva-guna, anxiety, fear and discomfort disappear and the ego masks begin to fall allowing one to see the real inner-self. To reach equilibrium and serenity, which allow us to proceed on the spiritual realization way, it is necessary to place ourselves on a solid sattva-guna platform. This is not the destination, however it constitutes the level of conscience from which it is possible to elevate our spirit and free ourselves from the stickiness of prakriti, to practice pure Bhakti and reach the final freedom from the samsaric cycle. In chapter XVII we will see how our relationships, feeding ourselves and choosing our religious life relate to the Gunas. We can therefore ascertain that spirituality doesn’t derive from some organization or clergy institution, but from the spiritual interior universe, which is perceivable in accordance with the Gunas influence on an individual. In fact, we will see that, through the knowledge of these influences, we reach the most ancient theorization of psychology. This refers to the so-called psychological type and it is a fundamental concept for this course, which must be clearly understood.

To overcome the three Gunas dimension, we must first achieve the Savta norm. We must achieve the ethic world before we can completely achieve the spirit. (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.262)

From shloka 6 to 9 Krishna shows Arjuna the nature of the three Gunas. From the tenth to the eighteenth, he describes the characteristics of the destiny of those, who are mainly influenced by one of the three archetypal energies.

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Sometimes Sattva prevails by undertaking Rajas and Tamas, descendant of Bharata. At other times the same happens to Rajas in relation to Sattva and Tamas and to Tamas in relation to Sattva and Rajas. (BG, XIV,10)

In accordance to the Vedic psychology, the so-called psychological types are the result of the prevalence of a Guna over the others. This creates almost endless psychophysical characteristics, which distinguish an individual from the others, even between monozygotic twins, which are physical identical, but psychologically different. The prominence of one of the three Gunas in a certain percentage, determines the individual personality, his vision of the world, his acting and, consequently, his destiny. Therefore there are three variables and the quality and quantity of combinations among each of other are endless.

If an embodied been reaches his end under the predominant influx of Satva, he will reach the pure worlds of those who know the Highest. If he reaches the end while Rajas prevails in him, he returns among those who are attached to action (in the human world) and, if he dies while Tamas prevails, he returns in the wombs of those who are victim of illusion. (BG, XIV,14-15)

Yet, in this same life, Krishna explains to Arjuna, accordingly to the prevailing Guna, therefore the desires and actions activated by the subject, he will find himself collecting results of various nature:

The pure result of Sattva is the one deriving from the meritorious action. The result from Rajas is instead sufferance. The result of Tamas is ignorance. (BG, XIV,16)

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Krishna says that it is by transcending the Gunas influences that an individual can see Reality and place himself once again in his ontological position. What does this elevation consists of? What does liberation consists of? Freeing oneself from the grip of the Gunas, which compel an individual to think and act in a certain fashion, keeping him enslaved by these conditioners. Once again, Krishna shows the way of equanimity as the privileged one. This is how we can understand, for example, that he who is free from the influence of the Gunas doesn’t see the world divided into friends and enemies. This is not because he who has reached that level of consciousness has lost all his ability to discriminate, on the contrary, he has it more than ever and can see beyond the physical matter and its appearance, thus understanding Reality. When we learn how to search beyond this layer, we discover that everything consists in a diffused sense of peace and serenity and we can enjoy immortality, friendship and love. This vision and special sensitiveness is achieved only by never living under the sattvaguna standard. Free ascesis for the tamorajasic connotations are in fact an extraordinary instrument for reaching dimensions of conscience otherwise unreachable. The bhakti way is definitely the most privileged way. This loving and active surrender to God allows one to better transcend Nature’s binding forces, as described in Bhagavad-Gita VII.14.

He who dedicates himself to me through devotional service and lives with me in a constant love relationship by transcending these Gunas, reaches the level of Brahman [obtains the full spiritual consciousness]. (BG, XIV,26)

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CHAPTER XV The inner voice – The function of the symbol

Krishna begins this chapter with a famous metaphor about the ashvatta tree, which represents the conditioned worldly life and samsara.

Its branches extend upward and downward and are made luxuriant by the Gunas. Their sprouts are the objects of the senses. Down, in the human world, their growing roots are the consequences of human actions. (BG, XV,2)

Subject tree is upside down: its roots go upward and its branches go downward, sinking into the human world. The branches, made prosperous by the Gunas and having as sprouts the objects of the senses (vishaya), evidently symbolize the karmic ties which hold the living beings rooted toward the lower level. This is the psychophysical world, in which these ties constantly compel the living being to conditioned action, thus prolonging the samsara cycle. The conditioned acting feeds and enlarges these branches-roots by giving essential nourishment to the ashvatta tree, in other words, to the prakriti existence in the conditioned world.

In this world it not possible to perceive the [real] form of this tree, nor its end, its beginning, or its base. One must cut this deep- rooted ashvatta with the weapon of detachment. (BG, XV,3)

Still using the metaphor of the tree, Krishna implicitly underlines that the conditioned senses and mind don’t allow the human being to see reality as it is. They show it instead as an illusionary form, which is upside down in hits finality. Bhagavad-Gita explains how reality which surrounds us, the phenomenal world, which is here metaphorically represented by the tree, is 114 not an illusion because it doesn’t exist, but it is illusory because it is immutable and it is not as we can perceive it through our senses. Therefore, as long as the subject lives in the tree, among its branches and eating its fruits, lives like in a world of deforming mirrors and distorted reflexes. The deformed mirrors are the senses and the mind, which represent a distorted vision of reality to the self and induce it to perform continuous wrong actions. These actions falsify the perception and make the subject a prisoner of the world of the mirrors, or, by using the metaphor used by Krishna, a prisoner of the labyrinth, which is constituted of the intricate branches of the ashvatta tree. The labyrinth, according to Bhagavad-Gita, is like a gigantic living organism, which throbs in unity with the Supreme Lord, of which it constitutes the vital essence, the soul. When we lose sight of this connection or divine origin and essence of the world, it becomes a prison from which it is not possible to escape with our own means. The metaphors express an excess of sense, where a person is stimulated to reflecting and going beyond the merely literal or logical-rational interpretation. We must understand, however, what the world demolition means in the shloka mentioned above. The tree, first of all, as we have seen, represents the world of conditioners. This cannot be demolished without the help of the spiritual realized knowledge, which requires the interception of divine mercy. In the beginning, the religious life feeds itself with the tree’s leaves, which, as Krishna explains, are the Vedic hymns and the rituals aimed to obtaining happiness in the tri-worlds. Later, however, the spiritualist must transcend all of the selfish actions, to reach the purpose of his existence, which is pure love for God. The tree can therefore be covered downward, stimulated by the greed for its fruits, but also upward, toward the knowledge, stimulated by a new spiritual consciousness. In fact:

“Since the tree has its origin in God, we say that its roots are above; but, because it extends itself

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in the world, its branches reach downward.” (Radhakrishnana, Bhagavad-gita, p.390)

The worldly experience is therefore conceived, in the Indovedic eschatology, as an experience that has the purpose to take the subject back to the meaning and purpose of life. Therefore he, who will not fall entangled in the tree branches because of his attraction to the colorful language of the Vedas and will understand the meaning and the origin of this tree, will be able to sharpen the sword of his emotional detachment through his acquired knowledge. Cutting this tree before having developed adequate knowledge and emotional detachment could be quite dangerous. In this case, the subject, which has not developed a solid level of consciousness of a higher reality, would find himself in mid-air and privy of a grip. Even the world, therefore, of which the mind is an integral part, must be first known, then gradually overcome and transcended. Of the demolition concept, we must say that it is symbolic. Its purpose is not destructive or annihilator because the tree-world is a shelter anyhow. It is the home of many people, which in their psychophysical coordinate, at the moment, cannot see beyond it. The tree-world is like a huge precious laboratory, in which the conditioned beings experiment various lifestyles. Through the experiences of joy and pain, which are the results of right or wrong behaviors, they finally reach emancipation from the opposites and begin to see the real purpose of the game of existence. As the subjects, through Divine Grace, transcend the influence of the three Gunas, the material universe disappears and they find themselves in a spiritual dimension. The world itself doesn’t disappear, it remains intact to allow everyone to reach emancipation. Krishna explains to Arjuna that the wise man or realized person moves with deep delicacy and deep discrimination, without upsetting he, who is not ready for the qualitative leap. It is not about physically knocking down the tree, but about transcending it.

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What are the characteristics of those who have been successful in transcending their mind and their body and overcoming the conditioners of their embodied life? What is their destination?

Those who are privy of pride and illusion, have conquered the trouble of attachment, are fixed in self consciousness and have renounced egoistical desires by freeing themselves from the duality of joy and pain, without getting lost, reach the unalterable purpose. (BG, XV,5)

The ontological condition of the living being is therefore unalterable and immortal. It remains this way even when the jiva is a juvabhuta or embodied being and is capped in the psychophysical elements. In this position, the living being generally lives in a sort of a psychopathology because he is not aware of his true nature:

The living being in the world of the conditioned life is one of my eternal fragments, however he must fight against his senses and his mind, which are situated (generated) in the prakrti. (BG, XV,7)

The battle of the jiva against the senses and the mind is furious, especially when, caused by repeated wrong actions, which break the cosmic order (dharma), the mind doesn’t limit itself to representing a distorted reality, but transforms itself into a mysterious entity. This entity works against the conditioned individual and becomes its fierce enemy. In this case, the living being falls trapped in a prison constituted by the Gunas and in the net of his senses and his mind and is compelled to wear, birth after birth, numerous physical and psychic bodies which are respectively called sthula-sharira and linga-sharira. This will continue to feed his samsaric becoming. If instead the living being turns upward and acts consequently, by understanding that he and all of the creatures are a reflection of God, he frees himself from his

117 conditioners and discovers his nature by harmonizing with his own self and with the world:

Jivatman represents a multiple center of the divine and expresses an aspect of the Divine Conscience. Jiva belongs (temporarily) to the world of manifestation and derives from the One. Atman is the unity, which is at the base of manifestation. The accomplishment of jiva consists in the intrinsicalness of its natural characteristics (the spiritual and ontological ones). By adopting toward the Divine the proper attitude, the nature of the jiva purifies itself from those influxes that devalue and distort it and clearly heighten the reality of the personality to which it belongs. While the individuals are essentially one with the Divine, in the manifested world each one is a partial manifestation of the Divine. Each one of us is a ray of the divine conscience, in which our self can transform itself, if we allow it. (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p. 393)

To favor a correct comprehension on the relationship between God and the living beings, we must mention Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s philosophical-theological doctrine. This doctrine’s name is acintya bheda- abheda tattva because it studies the inconceivable (ancintya) difference (bheda) and non-difference (abheda) between God, the creation, and His creatures, which all together constitute Truth (tattva). According with this doctrine, in fact, the living beings, which are metaphorically sparks deriving from a great fire, are equal to God from the qualitative point of view, but infinitely inferior in their power. It is very interesting what Krishna explains in the two following shlokas, which is also confirmed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: in the trespassing from one body to another, the living being gathers his senses and takes them with him developing, according with his forma mentis, a particular sense of hearing, smell, sight, and so on. The multiple typologies of the physical and mental bodies and therefore of the types of human beings, with 118 their peculiar sensorial apparatus, which are sophisticated instruments, orbit around the psychic body. They form themselves in accordance with the mentality, which the individual has developed in the past, to include during his previous lives. The physical and mental bodies are multiple and the conditioners are various, but they all will end in the moment when the jiva will free itself form its limitations and egoistical separations. The jiva will then see the metaspace of the heart of the world of light and beatitude, the spiritual principle, atman, the self and the cosmic Atman, God and the supreme Being, which is the origin of everything, as often affirmed by the Upanishads.

Persevering in their efforts, the yogis see (the Supreme Being) places in the bottom of their heart, but those who are not capable of meditation and lacking their spiritual realization, despite their efforts, cannot see it. (BG, XV,11)

In Chandogya Upanishad we read:

(The master says) “Well, in the (body), which is the city of Brahman, there is a little nymphaea flower which is a home (the heart), with a little hollow space inside. What is inside, that we must look for and truly try to know. (…) The space inside the heart is as big as the exterior space. Inside there truly are the sky and the hearth, fire and wind, sun and moon, lightning and stars and everything that belongs to everyone and everything that doesn’t belong to anyone. Everything is inside it. (Ch. Up., VIII.1.1-3)

Here we state that the cavity in the heart is the home of atman, the transcendent world. The world heart, however, must not lead us to thinking of the cardiac muscle. In this case it refers to logos, not a location, the mostly real and deep part of every living being. It is an internal “space no-space”, as

119 the Vedic scriptures explain, which contain and encloses even all the external universe. In shlokas 12, 13 and 14 Krishna provides Arjuna with more elements and examples so he can see His presence even in the physical world, as He had already done in chapters VII and X. We reach therefore a hinge shloka of Bhagavad-Gita, where Krishna, the cosmic Soul, states:

I reside in the heart of every being, and memory, knowledge and oblivion derive from me. I am He who all the Vedas reveal. I am the author of Vedanta and the expert of the Vedas. (BG, XV,15)

In accordance with this statement, which is theistic, no doubt, the Divine lives in the heart of every living being. He takes the role of Friend, Witness and Guide. It is the Supreme Soul that, in accordance to how the individual soul relates to It, gives memory and knowledge, or only oblivion. This memory belongs to our spiritual nature and to our eternal relationship with God. It is knowledge really meant as a method to regaining possession of our superior mental faculties and retuning to the consciousness of our ontological qualities. For those who desire to postpone their waking up, oblivion is the answer. In Patanjali’s yoga, memory (smritaya) is not always something enlightening, regenerating and positive. In many cases it is the contrary. It is one of the five vrittis or conditioners, which sometimes it is the source of deep psychic suffering. In this context, however, it is evident that Krishna refers to a memory that gives consciousness, enlightens and leads one to the right path. The relationship, therefore, is both ways. If jiva desires to participate in the game by respecting its rules, it will receive more information, vision, and comprehension to exit the labyrinth and free itself. If, instead, it desires to play on its own, by inventing the rules and stepping over the rights of others, then it will only see the labyrinth and will not find the way out.

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In this shloka, Krishna says that He is the final Object of the Vedic knowledge and the Vedic study, the highest Person, the absolute True, which is longed by the philosophers. He is the supreme Spiritual Principle, researched by religious, and confirms that the Vedas are also of divine origin. The Vedic tradition, in fact, describes the Vedas as apaurusheya, “non human”. Therefore, there are innumerable individual purushas that are subject to the conditioning on the Gunas, the senses and the mind and a supreme Purusha, which is above this conditioners and from which everything originates:

There is a supreme Purusha, called Paramatma, the inalterable Lord who, by living in the three worlds, sustains them. (BG, XV,17)

Even in Patanjali’s Yoga-sutra we find this same concept of Supreme Purusha or vishesha purusha, the infallible. We reach freedom from our conditioners when the individual purusha reestablishes its relationship with the Supreme Purusha. When the individual mind harmonizes itself with the Supreme Mind and the individual intelligence follows the footprints of the Supreme Intelligence. When such harmony is not there, however, the individual’s conscience becomes fragmented and reduced, it slowly disappears and this will produce anxiety, diseases and pain.

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CHAPTER XVI The psychological types

The content of this chapter is tightly interconnected with the principal subject of Chap XIV and the topic explained in Chap XVII. Krishna explains how the Gunas forge the character of a person and determine his nature, which is eminently healthy, however pathological. In accordance with the Bhagavad-Gita’s teachings, when the spiritual soul enters the body, it is conditioned by the material nature. The material nature manifests itself through its three elements called Gunas, which determine two great psychological typologies of universal value: divine nature beings, daivim and evil nature beings, asurim. Between these two poles, we have a great intermediate group of individuals characterized by endless psychophysical shades and by a great scale of colors and formae mentis, based on how a Guna predominates on the others, which constitutes each persons’ peculiar mask. In the modern psychological culture, various authors have tried to define the different psychological types: Schiller, Goethe (in his Faust), Nietzche (the Apollonian and the Dionysiac tipes) and Jung.

“In Indian religious symbolism, the distinction between devah, spirits of the light and asurah, titans, sons of the dark, is antic. In the Rig Veda, we have the battle between the gods and their dark adversaries. Ramayana reproduces the same conflict between beings that represent an elevated civilization and beings that represent wild selfishness. The Mahabharata tells of the fight between the Pandavah, faithful followers of Dharma, law and justice and the Kuruidi (Kauravah), power thirsty individuals. Historically, humanity can be still easily classified in the same fashion and today we have as at Mahabharata’s times (to which Bhagavad- Gita belongs) some beings divinely good and others diabolically corrupted, while others are 122

shamefully indifferent.” (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.400)

Moving from one lecture of a literal-symbolic kind to a psychological kind, we can affirm that every individual has deva and asura inside. He has luminous parts and instincts that push him upward, and dark sides, instincts that push him downward. Inside every subject there are daily titanic fights between good and bad. In fact, everything is predisposed toward the good, but the conditioned being cannot completely and correctly read reality, therefore, because of his distorted vision, he allows ill dynamics, which weaken even more his level of consciousness, to transport him. The science of life, which is exposed in this text, teaches that in every instant of our existence, with thoughts, words and actions, each of us makes a choice upward or downward. This choice will soon or later take a definite way, with all of its consequences. At first, Krishna only speaks of the condition of the Jiva-bhuta, the spiritual being capped in prakriti. In the sixteenth chapter he makes however a precise distinction between the two great categories of Jivabhuta, between the one of the divine nature beings, which are going upward, toward evolution, and the one of the evil ones, whose actions make them sink ever lower, directing them to degradation, thus causing great suffering not only to those individuals, but also to those around them. In shlokas 1 through 4, Krishna lists to Arjuna the psychological peculiarities of the two psychological types by underlining their different modalities of thinking and acting, which can be luminous or dark, thus conducting to opposite directions:

The divine nature leads to liberation, the evil one leads to slavery. Don’t be afflicted, son of Pandu, you were born with divine nature. (BG, XVI,5)

Let’s stop one more time on the fact that Krishna’s intention is not to pass merely moralistic judgment, but to affirm that, by thinking and acting in

123 a certain way, we can sink to degradation, desperation and suffering, instead, the luminous thinking and the conscious acting lead upward to well being. Two terms chosen by Krishna In this shloka are meaningful: freedom and slavery. Individual acting can fee one from conditioners or tie him to them in an ever tighter and suffocating way. Through honest acting, with respect to Dharma, the cosmic law that sustains everything, we can untie the karmic knots that tie us to the conditioned existence. By acting contrarily, the subject will find himself imprisoned in a thick web of actions and reactions from which he cannot free himself. With a universally valuable and admirably synthesized explanation, Krishna defines the characteristics of evil:

Men of evil nature don’t know what must be done, nor what must not be done. There is no purity in them, nor honest behavior or truthfulness. They affirm that the universe is unreal, privy of fundament and of a Lord, and there is no other cause for it than desire. (BG, XVI,7-8)

The Sanskrit terms pravritti and nivritti, here translated as “the activity and inactivity way”, refer to this shloka, not only for the way of action in this world or the way of renunciation of this world, but to the acting and non- acting, thus what we must do and what we must not do. The clouded mind individual cannot discriminate between good and bad, between what is beneficial for him and others, therefore it must be done, and what is evil and must be avoided. For such individual, this world doesn’t have a support, an order or and Ordering and the only motivation-power is kama or desire. We cannot avoid recalling the libido theory of Freud, which states that everything moves because of the power of the sexual desire instinct. The Sanskrit word kama, however, even though it’s main meaning is sexual desire, is not limited to it but it also refers to the egoistical desire in all its aspects.

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Following is the comment of Prof. R. Safaya on this subject:

The twentieth century has seen the birth and development of psychoanalysis. The discovery of the subconscious was a milestone in the history of the western psychology. Freud tried to explain the behavior of people in terms of repressed desires accumulated in the subconscious. For the Indians, who recognize the importance of samskara and are aware that all the mental apparatus (citta) accompanies the transmigrating soul, there is nothing new in the theory of the subconscious. When Freud, Adler and Young performed additional analysis on this field, they reached different visions, mostly incomplete, and this is the reason why there are still numerous problems. The biggest limit of psychoanalysis is that it cannot sound deeply enough the subconscious to reveal the inner-self and clearly distinguish it from the ego.”

“1. Freud gives to much importance to sex by attributing all the subconscious behaviors to the sexual impulse, and this is unacceptable. 2. He interprets all dreams in a sexual key and this is unlikely. Prof. McDougall, after having put his dreams under Freud’s analysis, affirmed that Freud’s interpretative formula can be real only for certain dreams, but not for all of them.

Freud prospected as a solution the full expression of the sexual stimulus, and this has worsen the problem instead of solving it. Because of the actual tendency of giving too much importance to sex in art, theater, literature and society, immorality is increasing. In certain ways, Freud could have been right on his diagnosis, since he gained his conclusions after having observed a sample of cases taken from the moralistic European society in which sexual attraction, exhibitionism, immorality, and burning desire for sexual pleasure are very strong. We must not generalize, however. An excessive emphasis on sex and free play of

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sexuality constitute a threat to society because free expression of sexual instincts, without self- control, is dangerous and devastating. (A.W. Watts, The Supreme Identity, p. 89-90)

In the Yoga Psychology, one of the subjects of this course of study, we will study in detail the principles of mental hygiene, which are proposed by the indovedic psychology, together with the techniques for “sublimation” and “reorientation”. Here we limit ourselves to anticipate that the psychophysical energies, which are indispensable for the evolutionary journey toward transcendence, must not be wasted, negate or repressed, but utilized in a correct way, which is beneficial and propadeutical to the development of ones personality. With the exception of the first three shloka, Krishna addresses the characteristics of the evil personality through the end of the chapter. The evil person is first of all a victim of ignorance and illusion and of a distorted vision of himself and the world. His incorrect and repeated habits develop in him unhealthy tastes and tendencies, making his conditioners an insuperable barrier. Egoism, presumption, obsessive research for sensual enjoyment at all costs, lack of respect for others and for themselves, delirium for power (which is a true psychopathology) mark these individuals, Krishna says.

In the following one another of the samsaric cycle, I continuously throw them in demonic wombs! (BG, XVI,19)

The adverb “continuously” must be clarified. In the Bhagavad-Gita prospective, as in the entire Indovedic tradition, the concept of eternal and irreversible damnation doesn’t exist because, birth after birth, the individual is given the chance to redeem himself, reacquire his consciousness and turn toward harmony and wellness. As we have already seen and underlined, particularly in shloka 22 of chapter XIII, it is the way of which the individual poses himself toward Nature that determines good or bad(sat-asat) for his next life. It his therefore 126 the persistent mentality of a certain kind that keeps the individual stagnating in difficult and painful conditions. Once this mentality is changed, purified and transformed, the subject proceeds in his evolutionary journey, because his block was only temporary. In shloka 21, Krishna lists the three main ways to degradation:

The door to hell, which takes to the confusion of the inner-self is of three kinds: greed, anger and avidity. Man must abandon such triple door! (BG, XVI,21)

We find here greed and morbid sense of possession, avidity (lobha), wish of enjoying what we have obtained (kama) and anger (kroda) which, as Krishna explains in the second chapter, arises when kama doesn’t find a way out and desire becomes frustration. Does this mean that we must give free play to our desires? We have just seen as this doesn’t represent the solution of the problem. The Indo-Vedic psychology explains that by leaving the valve of desire open, doesn’t calm the desire itself, instead it produces the opposite result. If supported without an opportune discrimination, certain impulses provoke clouding of the conscience, confusion, frustration and suffering. They enslave the individual to ephemeral concepts, identities and emotions and destructive instincts of pathological character, which develop in him more neurosis and psychosis. The science of yoga is geared to the opposite: making the person conscientious of the inner-self and capable of thinking and acting for his own good and the good of others. The practice suggested by the antic Indian wise- men is the one of sublimation and redirection of the instincts. The Bhakti- yoga science teaches that it is possible not only to eliminate the self- destructive subconscious drive, but also to reintegrate it on the level of pure conscience. This happens naturally when the individual reconnects himself permanently with his deep and spiritual nature and hears and follows that inner voice that pushes toward the light:

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“The urge of desire must be readdressed by the conscience of straight acting. However, when the supreme target of freedom of the spirit is achieved, the individual doesn’t act instinctively, nor according with a certain authoritative norm, but based on a deep intuition, which is life spirit itself. We usually act in accordance with our personal desires and we adapt our behavior in accordance with social codes. Lastly we reach a deep understanding of the meaning of life itself and we act according to our inner guide.” (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad- gita, p.108)

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CHAPTER XVII The Gunas and the Human Behavior

In the seventeenth chapter, Krishna explains how the archetypical energies, which structure the universe and are essential forces that constitute the material matter (to include the psychic structure), appear explicitly in the individual character, in his desires, tendencies, etc. These classify various types of faith, cult, food intake and practical activities of various levels based on balance, action or inertia. It is virtually impossible to find individuals ruled exclusively by Sattva, Rajas or Tamas. We can delineate three main categories, but the psychological types are endless because, a minimal change of the influence from one or the other Guna causes a different psychological shade. Even though we can find affinities among different categories and among different individuals, reality is that each individual is a planet with his own orbit. As for everything else, it would not be feasible to postulate only one faith, because, for the reasons stated above and for Nature forces it cannot be possible. Other than rare enlightened wise men, ordinary people would see the Unique Divine Principle like through a kaleidoscope and would see it under different forms, which sometimes will appear incompatible with each other. The Gunas compel the individual to move in accordance with schemes of automatism and in a more or less compulsive manner, thus generating behaviors, which become the apparent nature of their perpetrators. As we will see, however, to whom who abandon himself to Him, Krishna shows the cure, by giving him the theory and the method that allows him to overcome these otherwise ineluctable forces. In this chapter Krishna defines the three great anthropological areas, which determine a great part of human life: faith, food intake and sacrifice. Every activity in these three areas can be Tamasic, Rajasic or Sattvic.

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Shri Bhagavan said: according to their nature, the embodied human beings are of three kinds: Sattvic, Rajasic or Tamasic. Listen: the faith of each individual matches his intimate nature, oh descendent from Bharata. Man is made of faith: he is just like his faith. (BG, XVII,2-3)

Virtuous people adore the Devas or celestial beings, Krishna says. The more the Sattvic influence is purified from influences of the other Gunas, the more the individual worship is turned “upward”. In Bhagavata Purana, for example, we read that he who is characterized by pure truth adores Vasudeva, the Supreme Being. The Rajasic individuals turn their worship toward powerful people in a worldly sense, which in return are influenced by the same Guna and therefore pursue mainly egoistical purposes. Some of these subjects are or became mythic-maniacal, which are individuals suffering from a psychosis called “megalomania”. As we saw in the preceding chapter, people belonging to such category believe that there is no Ishvara, or Creator, Lord, nor a project or order in the universe, but that everything is the consequence of an egoistical desire. Bhagavad-Gita explains that, in reality, the frantic research for sensorial pleasure (suckha) ends in the exact opposite (dhukha). Those who are under the influence of Rajoguna, however, tend to obtain the liking of people that are often assigned to important positions in society, to achieve their ambitions and satisfy their desires. A great part of the neurotics belong to this category. These individuals, to hide their inferiority complexes, target the conquering of the exterior aspects of superiority: money, high positions, nice clothes, nice homes, cars, etc… Those who live under the influence of Tamas lack psychophysical strength and bright conscience. To overcome their psychic asthenia they often use chemical psychoactive substances (drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, etc..). By doing this, however, they dull themselves even more, sliding, after the initial excitement, in a depressive state where the level of their conscience and mental energy is even lower than the precedent one. Often these individuals become victims of cyclothymia (which is frequent among the Rajasics): 130 neurosis, or in the worse cases, psychosis maniac-depressive in which we have periods more or less lengthy of excitement and others of deep depression. These people don’t worship the celestial beings, not the powerful humans, they worship spectrums and the spirits of the dead, Krishna explains. Even the choice and consumption of food have a great influence on the character of an individual. Together with the food for the mind, which is mainly constituted of impressions, the food for the body plays a fundamental role in forming the individual’s personality. Krishna says, in fact that even the choice of one’s food is determined by the conditioners of the Gunas:

The food preferred by those situated in Sattva increase longevity, health and Joy; they are tasteful, sweet, pleasant and nourishing, thus giving strength and determination. He who is dominated by Rajas prefers bitter, sour, salty, spicy, sharp tasting and burning food, which cause suffering, pain and diseases. Food, which is stale, tasteless, smelly and deteriorated, left over, and not suited for a sacrifice, is favored by the individual influenced by Tamas. (BG, XVII,8-10)

After having explained that even the accomplishment of the sacrificial act is subjected to the influence of the Gunas, Krishna describes the three types of acesis (tapas) which is practiced by the virtuous and is related to body, word and mind:

Adoring God, the brahmas, the Spiritual Master and the wise men, purity, honesty, chastity, non-violence: all of this is called ascesis of the body. The conversation that doesn’t cause agitation, that is truthful, pleasant and beneficial, and the constant practice of the studying of the sacred scriptures: this is call the ascesis of the word.

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Contentment, gentleness, seriousness, self-control, tendency to purity: this is called ascesis of the mind. (BG, XVII,14-16)

Thought, word and action are the three stages of acting. Action is first of all desire and thought. Subsequently, it often becomes a word, and at the end it is concretized in an action. In our psychological analysis it very helpful to pause on this point, because the three types of ascesis described by Krishna in this shloka are absolutely interdependent. We can even affirm that the quality of our thoughts is the consequence of our acting: actions determine the mental contents, which influence the behavior and the psychophysical health of an individual. Through the individual’s neurotransmitters or neuropeptides, the emotional and physical conditions are transmitted to all the cells of his organism. The functioning of the body’s organs is therefore affected by the nature of ones thoughts and emotions. Expecting to control our actions without a previous accurate selection of our desires and thoughts is pure utopia, as we learn from the Indo-Vedic psychology and our practical experience. Structuring ones life according to healthy and disciplined habits, such as going to bed early, getting up early, eating at regular time, practicing good body, word and mind hygiene, help preventing and curing numerous diseases. It is of great benefit thinking positively, feelings empathy, friendship and solidarity toward all living beings, thus avoiding destructive instincts such as concupiscence, envy, anger and rancour. Positiveness should not be confused with fatalism. An individual must not be abstractly positive, but he must be actively engaged in acting toward progress. Positive thinking means seen problems and visualizing their solutions, thus being able to really work on ones character with enthusiasms and patience toward happy and constructive perspectives. Bhagavad-Gita underlines that the development of a positive mentality (manah-prasada) is not expected, nor guaranteed. We must predispose ourselves to the best and cultivate those habits that favor control and a correct use of the psychic

132 apparatus. The three shlokas cited above offer, in reference to this, the essence of the cure, which passes through an internal and external (body-mind system) process of purification. Even giving or donating, is visibly influenced by Nature constituents and it can be Sattvic, when the donor doesn’t expect anything in return and gives in proper ways and circumstances to rightful and deserving people. The Rajasic gives reluctantly and in view of an egoistical profit. The Tamasic gives with contempt, doesn’t respect time, place or people, or, instead of giving, he negligently dissipates. After this last detailed description divided among the influences of the three Gunas, Krishna draws His conclusions:

The absolute is the purpose of all the devotional practices and It is designated with the word Sat. The practice of sacrifying, ascesis and charity can be considered good only if its purpose is Sat (God). However, if sacrifices, ascesis and charity are performed without faith in the Absolute, they produce only temporary benefits. This is called asat, oh son of Pritha, and it is of no benefit in this life, nor in the following one. (BG, XVII,27-28)

Such conclusion can be found in Bhagavad-Gita 1.28 and in other passages of the Shastras, to confirm that for the Vedic tradition man, the concept of good is tightly connected to the taste for the Divine, there is for eternity, consciousness and beatitude. When our thinking, our acting and our self finds harmony with the Superior Reality, the results will be wonderful and lasting. Vice versa, they will soon or later clash with the objective limitations that characterize the world: birth, illness, old age and death (jamna, mrityu, jara, vyadhi).

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CHAPTER XVIII De-conditioning and victory of the inner-self Bhakti: a superior synthesis

Arjuna asks Krishna to clarify two fundamental concepts: renunciation (sannyasa) and detachment (tyaga). Krishna, being close to concluding His teaching, answers this question by explaining that pure renunciation is abstaining from action and detachment is renunciation of the results of an action. Krishna agrees with those wise men that think that sacrificial, charity and ascesis acts must never be given up because, if accomplished without attachment to the results, they purify even he who is already living in an elevated level of conscience. It is very difficult for the embodied being to renounce to act. From life to life the results of the actions, whether “desirable, undesirable or mixed”, wait for their author, unless he had acted beyond the samsaric becoming, thus transcending them. In shloka 14, the word daivam means ‘destiny’, or “combination of predispositions determined by the results of the actions accomplished in the preceding lives”. We know, in fact, from the Vedic philosophy and psychology, how strongly samskara and vasana condition the individual. The latent impressions, conscious and subconscious, of the experience accrued during ones preceding lives, accompany the jiva in two ways. One is vasana, which means tendencies, propensities, tastes or interests. The other one is samskara, which, as seeds of multiple activities of mix nature, more or less guilty or meritorious, follow the individual when he trespasses from one body to the other. These samskara fructify at the opportune time in accordance with the rigorous law of remuneration of the actions (karma), crating therefore, for the individual, pleasant and beneficial situations and conditions, or the opposite.

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The individual, therefore, as Bhagavad-Gita explains creates his own destiny with his own hands. He owes his conditioned status to himself, because it is determined by his thoughts, words and actions. He always, however, holds the chance to elevate himself by contrasting and reorienting his negative vasana or tendencies which are destructive for his personality, by building a modus vivendi that will deeply modify his psychophysical characteristics. In shloka 15 we see that action, whether in accordance with dharma or against it, is explicated through the body but it is generated through the mind and the word. As we have already seen, in fact, the genesis of action is in the thought, and the physical action is the consequence. In shloka 17 Krishan returns on a concept already discussed in chapter two: what differentiates an action is motivation. Even if apparently engaged in a same activity, two individuals stimulated by different motivations, will obtain very different results.

“The freed man accomplishes his duty as instrument of the universal Self, aiming to the preservation of the cosmic order. He can even accomplish fearful actions without any egoistical purpose or desire […] This doesn’t by all means signify that we can perform unpunished offenses. He who lives in a superior conscience of the reality of the spirit will not feel the need to cause harm. The evil acting comes from ignorance and separating conscience. From the conscience of unity with the Supreme Self only goodness can arise.” (Radhakrishnan, Bhagavad-gita, p.428)

Krishna has touched this point even in chapter XVII, by affirming that even the sacrificial act, when accomplished without faith, doesn’t provide any benefit. As a continuation of the tripartition based on the Gunas, Krishna shows Arjuna the three kinds of knowledge and action:

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Action performed as duty and without attachment, attraction or repulsion, by he who doesn’t desire an egoistical compensation is called sattvic. It is called rajasic when it is accomplished, with much effort, by he, who aims to obtaining what he desires, thus initiating it with an egoistical impulse. Action accomplished under illusion, with no regard to the consequences, ruin and pain that will derive from it [who’s principles are established] by man, is called tamasic. (BG, XVIII,23-25)

Even intelligence, will and happiness belong to the three categories determined by the Gunas influences. Will, which allows for determination, comes from intelligence and is the result of good psychophysical health. He who is privy of it, or has it only partially, will be slow, drowsy, absent-minded and shows a structural lack of self-confidence. When such distrust takes possession of the subject, he becomes ill with lack of willpower (asthenia). People with this characteristic are often late, have no quickness of reflexes, nor a brilliant intelligence. They constantly put obstacles on their own and other’s paths and constantly find excuses to procrastinate their duties. This designates a person with tamasic influences, for whom any kind of task is cause of fatigue and stress. The rajasic type, instead, can make any task a success, but only for a short period of time, then the project enters a critical phase and sinks along with its creator and sustainer, thus causing great suffering to everyone. At the end, a sattvic person is capable of constant determination, which allows him not only to reach an object, but also to maintain it. Sattvaguna is in fact the maintainer par excellence and Vishnu is not casually the Deity that traditionally represents it. The so-called pleasure is explained in shlokas 37 through 39. According with which guna’s influence, it can begin by tasting bitter and ending as sweet as ambrosia (this is the sttvic case); vice versa, for the rajasic, it presents itself sweet as ambrosia, but it ends up revealing itself as bitter as 136 poison. If under the influence of tamoguna, it is only one of the many chances to lose oneself. Once again the extraordinary power of the prakriti constituents is underlined. No one on earth, not even on the superior planets, among the luminescent devas is free from these gunas, which come from prakriti. (BG, XVIII, 40)

Even the duties of the four varna or “social compartments” distinguish themselves for the quality sown by the individuals performing the duties according to the three influences of the material nature. It is then necessary to specify that, throughout the millenniums, this social subdivision was ideologically adulterated by those that were thought as the depositary of the tradition, the smarta brahmana (caste brahaman). Their rigid and restrictive interpretation of the right of birth (jati), with the purpose to obtaining and maintaining privileges, among which the ones coming from the monopoly of the religious ritual, degenerated the whole Indian system to an instrument of oppression for the weaker classes. This is the situation found in India by the early European travelers and studious in the early XV century. By confining the phenomena in the latest millenniums and erroneously mistaking it with the original model of divine matrix described by Bhagavad-Gita (varshashrama- dharma), they divulgated it in the West under the name of “system of the casts”. In reality, the four varna and the four ashrama (stadiums of life), are naturall based on the influences of the gunas and guarantee harmony and reciprocal legitimation of the diversified individualities. These allow everyone, in accordance with their tendencies and experiences (guna-karma) to place themselves at their best in society and to progress by expressing, at their best, their potentialities. In perfect coherence, Krishna in fact says that only by

Dedicating oneself with joy to ones duty, man will obtain perfection. (BG, XVIII, 45)

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It is better to accomplish, even in an imperfect fashion, ones duty than to accomplish perfectly the duty of others. By accomplishing his own action, man doesn’t incur into any fault. (BG, XVIII, 47)

In shlokas 51, 52 and 53 Krishna echoes some of His fundamental teachings already given to Arjuna in the preceding chapters, by returning to the concept of controlling ones senses, practicing virtues and inner discipline. All of this is indispensable for emancipation from passions and ties to the matter. If the subject is successful on this constant practice, he can “re-become” Brahman. He can therefore reacquire full consciousness of his spiritual nature and completely re-harmonize the various anthropological spheres, by returning in contact with Reality:

Become Braham [by reacquiring the consciousness of his spiritual nature], with inner satisfaction, he doesn’t complain or long for anything; he is equal toward all living beings and obtains My supreme love. (BG, XVIII, 54)

When the individual becomes totally conscious of his Self, he reaches the level of Brahman or spiritual conscience. He doesn’t complain anymore for what he has lost, doesn’t harbor any desire for anything he would like to obtain and he is completely satisfied. This is an inner satisfaction, related to the inner self, from which it spreads and allows the individual to become completely satisfied in his senses and his psyche. It is natural therefore, that when we reach the level described in this shloka, from a reflex, even intelligence, mind, senses and body are satisfied and the individual becomes equal to all living beings. Without this satisfaction, we cannot have equanimity. This is why Krishna gives this description for the freed person, by describing him as a completely self-satisfied person (atmarama). At this level, the individual being rediscovers and restores his eternal relationship with the Supreme Being. On this subject, this shloka is very important because it

138 underlines the unique and personal relationship between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul (atma-Paramatma). After having exalted the saving power of the Divine Grace, Krishna urges Arjuna to free himself from himself and the consequent identifications and asks him to turn to Him all of his attention and his psychic field (citta). Perfection, Krishna reminds, is not about renouncing to action because the strength of the gunas compel the individual to act anyhow. It is however, about accomplishing the action with detachment and dedicating it to the Supreme Lord, this acting in harmony with the cosmic intelligence:

Renouncing all actions in your heart and offering them to Me and being absorbed in Me through yoga, which is made of knowledge, always maintains your thoughts toward Me. (BG, XVIII, 57)

In shloka 61 we revisit the concept of the divine presence in the heart of all individuals. By recalling the extroverted senses, it is toward that inner space well described in the Upanishad literature that the individual must turn to find the “Supreme Peace”. Shlokas 65 and 66 constitute, as Krishna Himself says, the final and definite teaching:

Turn your mind toward Me, become My devotee, offer your sacrifice to Me, offer Me your obeisance and you will certainly come to ME. I truly promise you this because you are dear to Me. By abandoning every norm of the acting, take shelter only in Me. Do no fear, I will free you from any fault. (BG, XVIII, 65-66)

In this last shloka Krishna invites Arjuna to totally letting himself go by suggesting him to transcend every dharma, every rule, every duty. This doesn’t mean that one must relinquish all religious duties and become 139 immoral or neglect one’s duties, but that he must transcend in a natural way that “infrastructure” that is necessary to reach that level of spiritual consciousness and awareness. For example: he who, after an accident, regains the use of his legs and can again walk, doesn’t need the crutches anymore. In the same way, he who has realized his ontological position and his relationship with God and everything that He is: create, creature and Creator, doesn’t need any more schemes, unless he uses them as an example for others. “Relinquish any duty and let yourself go to me” means: “put me above and beyond any other duty of yours”. By doing this, action will be privy of error and suffering, Krishna ensures. He concludes by saying that His teaching, which is secret and high is not for he who doesn’t live an ascetic life, doesn’t feel loving devotion for Him, doesn’t desires to listen about Him and feels dislike toward Him. Arjuna is finally free from doubt because he has found his equilibrium and a correct vision. He reached the end of an evolutionary path during which he lived a deep transformation that undoubtedly was of psychological fashion too. At the end of the process he had regained his knowledge and consciousness and he has harmonized and transcended all his internal conflicts. Free from his initial affective blocks he is now determined and ready to acting in accordance with Krishna’s teachings. The various spiritual paths shown by Krishna in this work address many levels of conscience of different people a their diversified intuition of the supernatural. However, the being that doesn’t accept God’s call, according to Bhagavad-Gita, falls victim of an entropic and self-destructive process by dispelling his psychic energies in the ephemeral thus paralyzing, for an unknown amount of time, his vital needs for self-overcoming and evolution toward the consciousness of his eternity and his sharing of love with God.

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