(1)
The
fortunate one said: 'Not expecting anything from
working for the profit, he, who does his job as a
matter of duty, belongs to the department of the
detached and is as a person united and connected
within, but not so the one who is of no sacrifice and
of no sense of duty. (2) It is this department of the
detached by which one is linked up, o son of
Pāndu; not forsaking the selfish motive there's
no question of unifying consciousness, no question
of being an ātmatattva person. (3) Of a
beginner in this practice of wisdom one says that it
is work that connects and unites, but of those who
attained one says it is the equanimity that does the
job. (4) As soon as the person no longer serves the
sensual and has forsaken the profit motive, he is at
that time a renouncer of all material desire who is
elevated in this yoga science of uniting consciousness. (5) One must care to be mindful and
attentive and not to freak out in flippancy, thereto
keeping in mind that that mindfulness is just the same
one's enemy as one's friend. (6) To the one who has
conquered himself the mind is the best friend, but to
those who forgot about the soul the mind stays an
enemy. (7) As a champion of mindfulness having found
the peace, one is wholly of the greater Soul ruling
the individual souls, which is the same in cold and
heat, happiness and distress, honor and dishonor. (8)
Satisfied with the ātmatattva and its
wisdom a person can depend upon himself once he has
the sensual in his grip, and because of that one is
united famed for being unconcerned about the
difference between a clod of dirt, a stone and a piece
of gold. (9) Most advanced is he who is equal-minded
towards as well friends and well-wishers as to
enemies, to as well relatives who hate as to relatives
who favor, to as well those who bend the rules as to
those who are devout and faithful.
(10) In
order to be unified in yoga a person must always
remember himself from a secluded position in solitude,
in which he is fully attentive, not diverted and
unconcerned about possessions. (11-12) In a safe place
he should arrange for a comfortable seat not too high
nor too low with a pillow with a soft covering, and
thus do his yoga-postures, so that he, one-pointed of
attention, is able to clear his heart in controlling
his busy mind, senses and muscles. (13-14) Not moving
with his body and with his neck and head straight, the
practitioner of yoga must gaze at the tip of his nose
and not look elsewhere. With a calm self, free from
fear and vowed to the celibate, he must, fully
self-controlled, concentrate on the ultimate goal of
me, on that what I stand for. (15) He, who with the
practice as mentioned, liberated in the beyond thus
restraining the mind unites consciousness, will
with that soulfulness attain the peace of the
spiritual realm. (16) But, Arjuna, there's no real
unification when one eats too much, or when one
excessively fasts, and the same is true for sleeping
too much or staying awake too long. (17) But, when
one, with doing yoga, manages to regulate one's sleep
and wakefulness, one's eating and entertainment, one's
personal endeavors as well as one's working hours, all
the trouble will cease to be. (18) When one, free from
desiring with all kinds of lusty motives, with the
mind disciplined this way, becomes situated in
transcendence, one is at that time said to be
connected. (19) You may compare the person of
unification, whose mind is controlled by the regular
and constant meditation of the soul, to an oil lamp
not wavering out of the wind. (20) In the state in
which the mind, turned away from material concerns,
calms in practicing the unification, one becomes
satisfied when one, in the pure of such a mind,
realizes that one's place is found in the soul. (21)
The supreme happiness, of which one knows that it by
intelligence can be reached in the position of
transcendence, will never remove the one who reached
it from the truth. (22) And whatever else you might
realize in that position, can never be considered more
valuable than that, because you're never obscured from
within that bliss, however difficult the trouble might
be. (23) Know that in the yogic trance all the
miseries dissolve of being in touch with the material
world. (24) Thus make sure to practice that
unification diligently in not losing yourself in
guesswork that rose from your propensity for
unregulated actions; you'll be sure of the total
retreat of the mind once you've managed to settle this
for the entirety of your sensory apparatus.
(25) Not
thinking of making it any other way, one should, with
an intelligence that is carried by conviction, step by
step train the mind to retreat to the stability of the
soul. (26) From wherever the mind, so easily agitated,
flickering and unsteady, may wander, one must bring it
back under the control of this self-regulation. (27)
The one connected attains the highest virtue, when he,
freed in the spirit of the absolute, with his mind in
peace and his passion quieted, is free from
impurities. (28) Always being of the soul is so the
never ending happiness found by the one unified who,
piously in touch with the transcendental spirit, is
free from all material darkness. (29) The one
connected in the united self looks upon all with a
neutral vision: he sees the soul in all beings and all
beings in the soul. (30) To the one who, as such,
recognizes me in everything and looks upon everything
as residing in me, I never perish, nor will he ever be
lost to me. (31) If one is devoted to me as residing
in each his heart, one is situated in oneness, and
being of that vision such a one will, unified in
consciousness, always have a life with me, whatever
the circumstance. (32) That transcendentalist who, at
ease or in trouble with it, manages to match his own
self with the self that is of an equal vision
everywhere, is considered to be perfect.'
(33) Arjuna
said: 'Moved as I am at the moment, I have no clue as
to how this system of unification, you described to me
in general, o demon-slayer, would offer me any firm
ground. (34) The mind, Krishna, is so wayward,
agitating, strong and obstinate, that I think that
doing what you say is as difficult as taming the
wind.'
(35) The
one of fortune said: 'It suffers no doubt, o man of
grip, that it is difficult to curb the wayward mind,
but, o son of Kuntī, with persistence and
detachment it can be done. (36) With a fickle mind one
has a hard time to find one's way; to my opinion is
the appropriate means to achieve it found in
committing the mind to a practical approach: do
something!'
(37) Arjuna
said: 'But what is then the fate of him, o Krishna,
who fallen from his belief, with a mind missing the
perfection, strays from the path of unification? (38)
Doesn't such a one, o mighty commander, missing the
path as well as the belief, not perish like a riven
cloud, finding no hold then? (39) This is my doubt
Krishna, I beg you, drive it away completely, for
there's no one else to remove it.'
(40) The
fortunate one said: 'Dear son of Prithā, neither
in this world nor in the hereafter it is so that he
who is of a sound conduct will ever find himself going
down, how can such a one end up bad? (41) For Kuru
years having lived a life of achievement and good
deeds, the one who fell from the path of inner
unification, will reawaken in the house of the one who
is understanding and honest. (42) Or else he may find
a life in an association of transcendentalists of
great wisdom, but of course such a new life is very
rare in this world. (43) Picking up the intelligence
where he left it in his previous manifestation, o son
of Pāndu, he will thereupon again endeavor for
perfection. (44) Innerly drawn to his previous
practice he will be inquisitive about the unification
in consciousness and he will manage to reach beyond
the scripturally fixed routines. (45) Systematic in
his approach such a spiritual person will, life after
life gradually achieving the perfection, see all the
impurities washed away from his soul and thus he will
attain the position on top of the duality. (46) The
ones unified in consciousness rank higher than the
ones who are merely of a philosophy, as also higher
than the ones working for the fruit of labor only;
therefore, Arjuna, be of the former. (47) And of all
the ones unified within I consider those who
faithfully know to remember and serve me as the
integrity of it all, to be the
greatest.'
Modern
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