II v. Drop the race, claim the gift of grace (2.64-65)

raagadveshavimuktestu vishayaanindriyeShcharan
aatmavashyervidheyaatmaa prasaadamadhigachhati(2.64)

prasaade sarvaduhkhaanaam haanirasyopajaayate
prasannachetaso hyaashu buddhiparyavatiShThate(2.65)

Moving among the desirables
free from the craving:
the feverishness to get it
and free from aversion:
the feverishness to run away
Operating the senses
from inside out,
Celebrating, honoring and cherishing
the voice beyond the audible
and the sight beyond the eyes,
the sense beyond the sensible
the source beyond the cognition

When the inner life,
who you truly are
takes over ...
proficiently governing the senses
rather than being consumed
wisely moving them toward
the self, the life inside
in a few quiet moments
one arrives at the gift of bliss,
an inner music of joy
immeasurable, unmatchable
by the fleeting pleasures
of petty sensory delight

That present of presence,
that joy, the nectar of life
welling up from the fountain inside
in just moments annihilating grief, all plight

free from misery,
such a blissful mind,
reveling in the thrill of life,
such an intelligence, shining with insight
and a bursting smile
is unable to hide
that its supreme blossoming
has to its culmination
arrived!

Dr. Ramanand Prasad's version
A disciplined person, enjoying sense objects with senses that are under control and free from likes and dislikes, attains tranquility. (2.64)

All sorrows are destroyed upon attainment of tranquillity. The intellect of such a tranquil person soon becomes completely steady. (2.65)

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Weekly Knowledge #108	Quebec Ashram
02 Jul 1997	Canada

THE GOLDEN VEIL

Craving comes from encouraging the thought of pleasure.

The actual experience of pleasure may not be as pleasurable as the memory.

Georgia: That 's why we spend so much time in our minds!

Whether you encourage a worldly thought or a Divine thought, they both bring you pleasure. Worldly thought leads to indulgence, which brings you down from pleasure to disappointment and dejection. Divine thought takes you up from pleasure to Bliss, Intelligence, and progress in life. Worldly thought brings pleasure only as memory, whereas Divine thought comes as Reality.

Question: What is a Divine thought?
Sri Sri: "I am not the body; I am bliss, satchitananda; I am unbounded space; I am love; I am peace; I am light."

Question: What is a worldly thought?
Sri Sri: It is about money, sex, food, power, status and self-image.
Truth is hidden by the golden veil of the mundane.
Pierce through the glittering sheath and know you are the Sun.
P.S. In the world everybody is after GOLD; some are after GOOD; but only a few are after GOD. Transcend GOLD, transcend the GOOD, and reach GOD.

Jai Guru Dev

II u. Chasing the sensory, resulting in Nonsense! (2.62-63)

dhyayato vishayaanpunsa sangasteshupajaayate
sangaatsanjaayate kaamakaamaatkrodhobhijaayate (2.62)

krodhaatbhavati sammoha sammohaatsmrutivibhramah
smrutibhramshaat buddhinaasho buddhinaashaatpraNashyati (2.63)

the more you brood,
running to or from
the engulfing charming targets
luring audio-visual
fragrance-taste
or touch-embrace...
deeper gets the vicious, cyclic link
between the object, the feeling and the sensation
the link leading to yearning desire
and desire fulfilled can multiply
or unfulfilled
leaving one infested
with grumbling or frustration,
discontentment or rage...

and blindening rage, the sure source
of despairing delusion
gripping the memory
the recollections of words,
feelings, intentions, perceptions distort...
fractured, tainted memory
destroys the clear intelligent-thought
loss of intelligence...
surest shortcut to disaster!

The feverish pursuit
wishful window shopping, daydreams!
hankering on and on
on these objects of the body-sense
such a quick and queer trap
amazingly and tiringly endless cycle
vortex of wasteful and disastrous,
utter nonsense!

Dr. Ramanand Prasad

One develops attachment to sense objects by thinking about sense objects. Desire for sense objects comes from attachment to sense objects, and anger comes from unfulfilled desires. (2.62)

Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down (from the right path) when reasoning is destroyed. (2.63)

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Weekly Knowledge #347 Rishikesh 06 Mar 2002 India

The True Yagya

Rage has no ears, nor does it have vision.
It only leads to reaction.
And reaction leads to regret.
Regret causes frustration.
Frustration clouds the reason.
Unreasonable acts provoke rage, and start a vicious cycle.
Self Knowledge and Devotion alone can free you from this vicious cycle.
In the fire of Knowledge, when rage and revenge are offered,
the warmth of the blemishless Self shines forth.

This is the true Yagya.

II t. Return to the source(2.58-2.61)

A tortoise though an unlikely guide
illuminates a path
slow and deliberate in stride

An unhurried pace
reveals a time for reflection
Within
A place to retreat
A place of true protection

Exploring oneself
instead of chasing endless enjoyment
Knowing your Self
instead of your desires

The lure of possible,
hopeful satisfaction
The thrill of the taste
Sight, smell and embrace

Still there is no perfection
A cosmic incomplete reflection
That beautiful knowledge
It only exists
In the center of
Your inner self
~ Gayatri, Youth teacher, Art of living foundation

Sanskrit
yadaa samharate chaayam koormongaaneeva sarvashah
IndriyaaNeendreeyaarthebhyastasya pragnaa pratiShThitah (2.58)
vishayaa vinivartante niraahaarasya dehinah
rasavarjyam rasopyasya param drushTva nivartate (2.59)
yatato hyapi kaunteya purushasya vipashChitah
indreeaaNi pramaatheenee harati prasabham manah (2.60)
taani sarvaaNi sanyamya yukta aaseeta matparah
vashe hi yasyendreeyaaNi tasya pragnaa pratishThitaah (2.61)


The One explained:

like the cautious turtle
retreating
totally into its shell
one who can skilfully
recede the senses
from the sensations
or their external cause
reposing in the inner source
know their intelligence as unwavering

When the body is malnourished or unwell
the senses hardly run
toward fun
owing to lack of energy
and yet the impressions,
cravings of the sensory remain...
Just one moment is enough to make them retire
-the moment of insight
of the supreme essence

the crazy pleasure drives
of the unruly mind
even carrying away
the wise sometime

regaining their restraint
skilfully resorting in
the ONE, the source
innately free - beyond constraints
such are the smart ones
driving the senses masterfully
instead of being driven around
by their restless nonsense

Dr. Ramanand Prasad:

When one can completely withdraw (or restrain) the senses from the sense objects as a tortoise withdraws its limbs (into the shell), then the Prajna of such a person is considered steady. (2.58)

The desire for sensual pleasures fades away if one abstains from sense enjoyment, but the craving (for sense enjoyment) remains. The craving also disappears from the one who has seen (or known) the Supreme. (2.59)

Restless senses, O Arjuna, forcibly carry away the mind of even a wise person striving for perfection. (2.60)

Having brought the senses under control, one should fix one's mind on the Self. One's Prajna becomes steady whose senses are under control. (2.61)
Sri Sri Ravishankar:

Weekly Knowledge #135	Milano
07 Jan 1998	Italy

You Are Pure Electricity

Desires for sense pleasure are electric in nature and they get neutralized as they move towards the objects of senses. If, by your skill, you could move them within you towards the centre of your existence, another dimension of everlasting pleasure, thrill, bliss, and undying love will all be yours. Lust, greed, power and jealousy are also powerful because they are nothing but energy and you are the source of it - the pure electricity. Dedication and devotion keep the purity of your electricity and they move you upward.

Realizing you are pleasure or electricity yourself your craving subsides and serenity dawns. Remembering that you will die makes you alive now, free from cravings and aversions. The wise is always careful not to get entangled and dizzy in the mind.

II s. The insightful one (2.54-2.57)

Arjun uvacha

Sthitapragnasya kaa bhaashaa samaadhistasya keshava
sthitadheeh kim prabhaasheta kimaaseetavrajeta kim (2.54)

Shree Bhagavaan uvaacha

Prajahaati yadaa kaamaan sarvaanpaartha manogataan
aatmanyevaatmanaa tushTah sthitapragnastadochyate(2.55)

duhkheshvanudvignamanaah suhkheshu vigataspruha
veetaraagabhayakrodhah sthitadhirmuniruchyate (2.56)

yah sarvatraanabhisnehastattatpraapya shubhaashubham
naabhinandati na dveshTi tasya pragnaa pratishThita(2.57)

Arjun queried...
couldnt but ask....
about the way to glory,
through intelligence vast...

"How can intelligence be in equanimity
One who is steady in that
how does he walk, talk,
how is his mind's quality?"

The One smiled,
and playfully said

They who can
again and again
let go
of every desire big and small
that rises and falls
through the little mind

being totally with themselves,
content,
centered in the awareness of the blissful self
they are called the realised ones
having a clear, insightful intellect.

unconflicted mind
even amidst toughest times
free from suffering, misery, excuses or complain
amidst even deepest sorrow or excruciating pain

nor fluttered by feverish excitement or greed
amidst even lavish, pleasureful gain
untormented by fear, anger,
craving or disdain
with an intelligence
established in serenity
such alone is the
one steadfast in quietness,
smiling in insightful equanimity

Neither charmed by the worthy
nor repulsed by the ominous
neither attracted
nor averse
to anything-objects, situations, people
that intelligence
is established in the honorable.
previous

Mahatma Gandhi's version

54. What, O Keshava, is the mark of the man whose understanding is secure, whose mind is fixed in concentration? How does he talk? How sit? How move.

The Lord Said:

55. When a man puts away, O partha, all the cravings that arise in the mind and finds comfort for himself only from Atman, then he is called the man of secure understanding.

56. Whose mind is untroubled in sorrows and longeth not for joys, who is free from passion, fear and wrath—he is called the ascetic of secure understanding.

57. Who owns attachment nowhere, who feels neither joy nor resentment whether good or bad comes his way—that man's understanding is secure.

Dr. Ramanand prasad's version

Arjuna said: O Krishna, what is the mark of a person whose Prajna is steady and merged in superconscious state? How does a person of steady Prajna speak? How does such a person sit and walk? (2.54) (Prajna means consciousness, mind, intellect, judgment, discrimination, and wisdom.)

The Supreme Lord said: When one is completely free from all desires of the mind and is satisfied in the Self by the (joy of) Self, then one is called a person of steady Prajna, O Arjuna. (2.55)

A person whose mind is unperturbed by sorrow, who does not crave pleasures, and who is free from attachment, fear, and anger; such a person is called a sage of steady Prajna. (2.56)

Those who are not attached to anything, who are neither elated by getting desired results nor troubled by undesired results, their Prajna is deemed steady. (2.57)

Weekly Knowledge #118	Bangalore Ashram
10 Sep 1997	India

How To Get Centred

Shifting the awareness from the experience to the experiencer; since all

the experiences are on the circumference and they keep on changing.

The experiencer is at the centre.

Again and again come back to the experiencer.