II: 11

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 2, Verse 11

 

"Although you mean well, Arjuna,

Your sorrow is for nothing.

The wise mourn neither for the dead

Nor for the living,

For life and death shall pass away."

 

Paramahansa Yogananda [“Paramahansa”…from Wikipedia… “The title may be translated as ‘supreme swan,’ and is based on the swan being equally at home on land or water. Similarly, the true sage is equally at home in the realms of matter and of spirit.”]:

 

"In this verse, the Sanskrit word Gatasun, translated as 'dead', means literally 'one whose breath has gone'.  Breath is synonymous with mortal life.  It is the stimulator of the motion associated with life.  Yogis, who by breath-control (Pranayama) manage the vital life-force in the body, enter the breathless state of super-consciousness (Samadhi) and thus are able to subdue every ripple of restlessness.  Those resolute students who deeply practice the technique of Yoga concentration become riveted to the supreme unchangeable state in spirit.  They master the restlessness that is synonymous with mortal life, and experience consciously the calm and the silence.  From that state of consciousness comes the understanding of the nature of matter and its motions of constant change.  The wise, therefore, are not tossed by ups and downs on the waves of pleasure and pain.  They dive deeply into the spirit-ocean of joy, unruffled by the waves of change that rage upon the surface of human consciousness.  Those who look at the surface of the sea behold the birth and death of the waves, but those who seek the depths of the ocean behold one indivisible mass of water."

 

[This verse marks the beginning of a twenty-verse description by Krishna of the Self, the permanent essence of all that is.  The difficulty is that the Self is indescribable, beyond the reach of the thinking mind.  It reminds me of the way Lao Tzu begins the Tao Te Ching: “The Tao which can be named is not the eternal Tao.”  Then he goes on to describe the Tao for eighty chapters.  An intellectual understanding is helpful only if we are aware of its limitations, for when we mistake the description for the reality, we are mistaking the map for the terrain.  You can’t eat a menu and get nourished!

 

A prayer to subdue restlessness:

 

Lord God

My mind is restless

May this quality evaporate

As the river in a desert

Dries out in summer]