 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Forty-six–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 The Will of the Wise
We hear a great deal about will–willpower, free will, etc.–and are told it is the key to everything, that anything can be accomplished through the will. This is nonsense, but for some reason in the West this is a favorite myth. Not that the will is not a cardinal faculty of the human being–it is–but it is the wielder of the will that is real key. Krishna knows this, so he says to Arjuna:
“What is man’s will and how shall he use it? Let him put forth its power to uncover the Atman, not hide the Atman: man’s will is the only friend of the Atman: his will is also the Atman’s enemy. For when a man is self-controlled, his will is the Atman’s friend. But the will of an uncontrolled man is hostile to the Atman, like an enemy.”
In the Sanskrit original Krishna speaks of uplifting “the self by the self” and suchlike, meaning the two selves, the lower and the higher. Prabhavananda has wisely used “will” in place of references to the lower self to avoid confusion. So I will comment accordingly.
The will is absolutely neutral, only an instrument. It inclines neither one way or the other–that is the function of the mind and its desires. Therefore Krishna urges us to use the will to reveal the truth of ourselves rather than continue to cover and smother the Self with lies. Sadhana is the only way to free the Self from its prison formed of illusions and delusions. Since the practice of sadhana is a matter of willpower, the will is said to be the Self’s only friend or enemy. Also, in the inner makeup of the human being, the will is a power of the etheric level (anandamaya kosha), which is the closest to our Self. It comes the nearest to touching the untouchable Self. Devotion: will
Real devotion to God is a matter of the will, not the emotions as is commonly thought. In fact, real love, spiritual love, is centered totally in the intelligence (buddhi) and is expressed through the will. Devotion means dedication, and that, too, lies in the province of the will. There is a story in India that illustrates this.
A man was continually hearing about the need to love God, yearn for God, and even the need to weep for God. Since emotionality was not his natural way, he felt that he might never find God. To remedy this, he got some red chili powder and began tossing it into his eyes. As the tears flowed out, triggered by the pain, he fixed his mind on God and attempted to feel that he was shedding tears for love of God. Fortunately a great saint was staying nearby and through his intuition knew what was happening. He hurried to the man’s house and ran to him. “Stop this!” he cried, seeing the man’s eyes all swollen and in agony. “Don’t you understand that anyone willing to undergo such pain in order to love God is really loving Him already? Who but a great devotee would be willing to suffer for love of God in this way? I tell you: you love God far more than the singers and dancers and weepers. They enjoy their antics–it is no sacrifice for them. You are the real devotee, not people like them.” Tranquility
“That serene one absorbed in the Atman masters his will, he knows no disquiet in heat or in cold, in pain or pleasure, in honor, dishonor.”
Peace is also a matter of the will. Never will our life be free from the pairs of opposites, from ups and downs and changes of all kinds, pleasant and unpleasant. If the will is in peace, in the Self, then the sadhaka will be in peace. This is a very high and subtle state, and many think they have attained it merely because they have developed a kind of Stoic numbness in relation to their life. (This prevails in India.) But this is not so.
The serenity spoken of by Krishna comes from identification with the immutable Self. Two examples of this in modern times are Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and Swami Ramdas of Anandashram. They were often seen to be happy and peaceful in adversity and good fortune, and especially in honor and dishonor. Swami Ramdas’ autobiography, In the Vision of God, illustrates this many times. The supreme example of this peace was seen in Sri Ramakrishna. He was hated and denounced by those were jealous of him and those whose materiality rendered them incapable of understanding him. Always he was cheerful, even when physically mistreated by such ignoramuses. The same tranquility was observed in him when a large council of scriptural scholars unanimously declared that he was an incarnation of God (avatar). Actually, he only smiled and quietly remarked: “Well, I’m glad to know I don’t have some illness.” Divine peace does not preclude a sense of humor. Even-mindedness (samadarshana)
“For when a man’s heart has reached fulfillment through knowledge and personal experience of the truth of Brahman, he is never again moved by the things of the senses. Earth, stone and gold seem all alike to one who has mastered his senses. Such a yogi is said to have achieved union with Brahman.”
“When a man’s heart has reached fulfillment through knowledge and personal experience of the truth of Brahman….” The human race seems gripped in the delusion that if a thing looks like something–then it is that. Even worse: that if someone acts like they are in a certain state, they have that state. I vividly remember seeing Alan Watts pretending (very poorly) to be in the state of satori (enlightenment) as he rubbed away on an ink slab (!?). At that very moment he was an alcoholic and some time after he committed suicide–not the state or the action produced by enlightenment. People think that if they act kindly then they are kind, if they act generously they are generous, and if they act like aristocracy they are aristocracy. Not so.
Swami Sivananda cleared up the whole question by four little words he formed into a motto that he even had printed on pencils: Be good. Do good. First we must be; then we can do. We do not have measles because we have red spots on our skin; rather, we have red spots on our skin because we have measles. This is incredibly simple, but how few people, especially in the West, grasp it. They also get cause and effect reversed, thinking an effect can become a cause. “If I act like it, then I will become it.” This is philosophically translated into the absurdities of Positive Thinking. “If we just hold that good thought it will come about…We will just know that everything will be all right.…” and other nonsensical platitudes. Thoughts may be things, but things are not inner states. “Knowledge and personal experience of the truth of Brahman” are absolute requisites.
When Brahman is experienced, then the fluctuations of the senses are no more than driftwood on the vast ocean of Spirit. All that which men prize and despise are both seen as the same: dreams. Sri Ramakrishna tested his mind by holding a lump of clay in one hand and a rupee in the other. Saying “Rupee is clay and clay is rupee, clay is truly rupee and rupee is truly clay,” he tossed them into the Ganges, affirming their sameness –for all things must in the end merge into Brahman.
“He who regards with an eye that is equal friends and comrades, the foe and the kinsman, the vile, the wicked, the men who judge him, and those who belong to neither faction: he is the greatest.” For he sees all in Brahman as Brahman.
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 6:5, 6 [Go back]
2) “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.” (Isaiah 26:3) [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 6:7 [Go back]
4) Bhagavad Gita 6:8 [Go back]
5) Bhagavad Gita 6:9 [Go back]
|
