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Yoga as Rejected by Arjuna
There have been many yoga systems popularized in the Western
world, especially in this century, but none of them have actually
taught the perfection of yoga. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, teaches Arjuna directly the
perfection of yoga. If we actually want to participate in the
perfection of the yoga system, in Bhagavad-gītā we will find the
authoritative statements of the Supreme Person.
It is certainly remarkable that the perfection of yoga was taught in
the middle of a battlefield. It was taught to Arjuna, the warrior, just
before Arjuna was to engage in a fratricidal battle. Out of
sentiment, Arjuna was thinking, “Why should I fight against my
own kinsmen?” That reluctance to fight was due to Arjuna’s
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illusion, and just to eradicate that illusion, Śrī Kṛṣṇa spoke the
Bhagavad-gītā to him. One can just imagine how little time must
have elapsed while Bhagavad-gītā was being spoken. All the
warriors on both sides were poised to fight, so there was very little
time indeed – at the utmost, one hour. Within this one hour, the
whole Bhagavad-gītā was discussed, and Śrī Kṛṣṇa set forth the
perfection of all yoga systems to His friend Arjuna. At the end of
this great discourse, Arjuna set aside his misgivings and fought.
However, within the discourse, when Arjuna heard the explanation
of the meditational system of yoga – how to sit down, how to keep
the body straight, how to keep the eyes half-closed and how to gaze
at the tip of the nose without diverting one’s attention, all this
being conducted in a secluded place, alone – he replied,
yo ’yaṁ yogas tvayā proktaḥ
sāmyena madhusūdana
etasyāhaṁ na paśyāmi
cañcalatvāt sthitiṁ sthirām
“O Madhusūdana, the system of yoga which You have summarized
appears impractical and unendurable to me, for the mind is
restless and unsteady.” (Bg. 6.33) This is important. We must
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always remember that we are in a material circumstance wherein
at every moment our mind is subject to agitation. Actually we are
not in a very comfortable situation. We are always thinking that by
changing our situation we will overcome our mental agitation, and
we are always thinking that when we reach a certain point, all
mental agitations will disappear. But it is the nature of the material
world that we cannot be free from anxiety. Our dilemma is that we
are always trying to make a solution to our problems, but this
universe is so designed that these solutions never come.
Not being a cheater, being very frank and open, Arjuna tells Kṛṣṇa
that the system of yoga which He has described is not possible for
him to execute. In speaking to Kṛṣṇa, it is significant that Arjuna
addresses Him as Madhusūdana, indicating that the Lord is the
killer of the demon Madhu. It is notable that God’s names are
innumerable, for He is often named according to His activities.
Indeed, God has innumerable names because He has innumerable
activities. We are only parts of God, and we cannot even remember
how many activities we have engaged in from our childhood to the
present. The eternal God is unlimited, and since His activities are
also unlimited, He has unlimited names, of which Kṛṣṇa is the
chief. Then why is Arjuna addressing Him as Madhusūdana when,
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being Kṛṣṇa’s friend, he could address Him directly as Kṛṣṇa? The
answer is that Arjuna considers his mind to be like a great demon,
such as the demon Madhu. If it were possible for Kṛṣṇa to kill the
demon called the mind, then Arjuna would be able to attain the
perfection of yoga. “My mind is much stronger than this demon
Madhu,” Arjuna is saying. “Please, if You could kill him, then it
would be possible for me to execute this yoga system.” Even the
mind of a great man like Arjuna is always agitated. As Arjuna
himself says,
cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa
pramāthi balavad dṛḍham
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye
vāyor iva suduṣkaram
“For the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O
Kṛṣṇa, and to subdue it is, it seems to me, more difficult than
controlling the wind.” (Bg. 6.34)
It is indeed a fact that the mind is always telling us to go here, go
there, do this, do that – it is always telling us which way to turn.
Thus the sum and substance of the yoga system is to control the
agitated mind. In the meditational yoga system the mind is
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controlled by focusing on the Supersoul – that is the whole purpose
of yoga. But Arjuna says that controlling this mind is more difficult
than stopping the wind from blowing. One can imagine a man
stretching out his arms trying to stop a hurricane. Are we to
assume that Arjuna is simply not sufficiently qualified to control
his mind? The actual fact is that we cannot begin to understand the
immense qualifications of Arjuna. After all, he was a personal
friend of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is a highly
elevated position and is one that cannot be at all attained by one
without great qualifications. In addition to this, Arjuna was
renowned as a great warrior and administrator. He was such an
intelligent man that he could understand Bhagavad-gītā within one
hour, whereas at the present moment great scholars cannot even
understand it in the course of a lifetime. Yet Arjuna was thinking
that controlling the mind was simply not possible for him. Are we
then to assume that what was impossible for Arjuna in a more
advanced age is possible for us in this degenerate age? We should
not for one moment think that we are in Arjuna’s category. We are
a thousand times inferior.
Moreover, there is no record of Arjuna’s having executed the yoga
system at any time. Yet Arjuna was praised by Kṛṣṇa as the only
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man worthy of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. What was Arjuna’s
great qualification? Śrī Kṛṣṇa says, “You are My devotee. You are
My very dear friend.” Despite this qualification, Arjuna refused to
execute the meditational yoga system described by Śrī Kṛṣṇa. What
then are we to conclude? Are we to despair the mind’s ever being
controlled? No, it can be controlled, and the process is this Kṛṣṇa
consciousness. The mind must be fixed always in Kṛṣṇa. Insofar as
the mind is absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, it has attained the perfection of
yoga.
Now when we turn to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the Twelfth Canto
we find Śukadeva Gosvāmī telling Mahārāja Parīkṣit that in the
golden age, the Satya-yuga, people were living for one hundred
thousand years, and at that time, when advanced living entities
lived for such lengths of time, it was possible to execute this
meditational system of yoga. But what was achieved in the Satya-
yuga by this meditational process, and in the following yuga, the
Tretā-yuga, by the offering of great sacrifices, and in the next yuga,
the Dvāpara-yuga, by temple worship, would be achieved at the
present time, in this Kali-yuga, by simply chanting the names of
God, hari-kīrtana, Hare Kṛṣṇa. So from authoritative sources we
learn that this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa,
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Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare is the
embodiment of the perfection of yoga for this age.
Today we have great difficulties living fifty or sixty years. A man
may live at the utmost eighty or a hundred years. In addition, these
brief years are always fraught with anxiety, with difficulties due to
circumstances of war, pestilence, famine and so many other
disturbances. We’re also not very intelligent, and, at the same time,
we’re unfortunate. These are the characteristics of man living in
Kali-yuga, a degraded age. So properly speaking, we can never
attain success in this meditational yoga system described by Kṛṣṇa.
At the utmost we can only gratify our personal whims by some
pseudoadaptation of this system. Thus people are paying money to
attend some classes in gymnastic exercises and deep-breathing,
and they’re happy if they think they can lengthen their lifetimes by
a few years or enjoy better sex life. But we must understand that
this is not the actual yoga system. In this age that meditational
system cannot be properly executed. Instead, all of the perfections
of that system can be realized through bhakti-yoga, the sublime
process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, specifically mantra-yoga, the
glorification of Śrī Kṛṣṇa through the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. That
is recommended in Vedic scriptures and is introduced by great
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authorities like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Indeed, the Bhagavad-gītā
proclaims that the mahātmās, the great souls, are always chanting
the glories of the Lord. If one wants to be a mahātmā in terms of
the Vedic literature, in terms of Bhagavad-gītā and in terms of the
great authorities, then one has to adopt this process of Kṛṣṇa
consciousness and of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. But if we’re content at
making a show of meditation by sitting very straight in lotus
position and going into a trance like some sort of performer, then
that is a different thing. But we should understand that such show-
bottle performances have nothing to do with the actual perfection
of yoga. The material disease cannot be cured by artificial
medicine. We have to take the real cure straight from Kṛṣṇa.
The Perfection of Yoga TWO
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