Mahabharata Santi Parva Chapter 240

Prev.png
Mahabharata Santi Parva (Mokshadharma Parva) Chapter 240

Vyasa said, 'O excellent son, asked by thee, I have told thee truly what the answer to thy question should be according to the doctrine of knowledge as expounded in the Sankhya system. Listen now to me as I expound to thee all that should be done (for the same end) according to the Yoga doctrine. The uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all-pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind. That Knowledge should be acquired (through the preceptor's aid) by one that is of a tranquil disposition, that has mastered his senses, that is capable (by meditation) of turning his gaze on the Soul, that takes a pleasure in (such) meditation, that is endued with intelligence and pure in acts. One should seek to acquire this Knowledge by abandoning those five impediments of Yoga which are known to the wise, viz., desire, wrath, cupidity, fear, and sleep. Wrath is conquered by tranquillity of disposition. Desire is conquered by giving up all purposes. By reflecting with the aid of the understanding upon topics worthy of reflection,[1] one endued with patience succeeds in abandoning sleep. By steady endurance one should restrain one's organs of generation and the stomach (from unworthy or sinful indulgence). One should protect one's hands and feet by (using) one's eyes. One should protect one's eyes and ears by the aid of one's mind, one's mind and speech by one's acts. One should avoid fear by heedfulness, and pride by waiting upon the wise. Subduing procrastination, one should, by these means, subdue these impediments of Yoga. One should pay one's adorations to fire and the Brahmanas, and one should bow one's head to the deities.
One should avoid all kinds of inauspicious discourse, and speech that is fraught with malice, and words that are painful to other minds. Brahma is the effulgent seed (of everything). It is, again, the essence of that seed whence is all this.[2]Brahma became the eye, in the form of this mobile and immobile universe, of all entities that took birth[3]Meditation, study, gift, truth, modesty, simplicity, forgiveness, purity of body, purity of conduct, subjugation of the senses, these enhance one's energy, which (when enhanced) destroys one's sins. By behaving equally towards all creatures and by living in contentment upon what is acquired easily and without effort, one attains to the fruition of all one's objects and succeeds in obtaining knowledge.
Cleansed of all sins, endued with energy, abstemious in diet, with senses under complete control, one should, after having subdued both desire and wrath, seek to attain to Brahma[4] Firmly uniting the senses and the mind (having drawn them away from all external objects) with gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the still hours of evening or in those before dawn, place one's mind upon the knowledge. If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained, all his wisdom may be seen to escape through it like water through an unstopped hole at the bottom of a leathern bag. The mind in the first instance should be sought to be restrained by the Yogin after the manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render that one among the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger to his nets. Having first subdued the mind, the Yogin should then proceed to subdue his ears, then his eyes, then his tongue, and then his nose.

Next.png


References

  1. ↑ [Sattwena is explained as 'by intelligence or the knowledge.']
  2. ↑ [The construction, as explained by the commentator, is Brahma tejomayam sukram; yasya sukrasya sarvam idam tasyapi Brahma rasah. The last word means sarah.]
  3. ↑ .[Both the Vernacular translators have skipped over this line. The meaning is this: Brahma opened his eyes for becoming many, as the Srutis declare, and thereupon he became many. This, as the commentator explains, Ikshana-kartritvena sarvatmakatwam gatam, or by a glance Brahma became the Soul of all things mobile and immobile.]
  4. ↑ .[The commentator explains that Brahmanah padam means prakritim. He thinks, therefore, that the last clause of the second line means 'should seek to subdue prakriti which is the layasthanam of mahattattwa.' I prefer the obvious sense of the words.]