Notes
Part II: “Set Out on the Journey of the Soul”
1 Certain details in this story of Valmiki strongly suggest that the bird was a Sarus Crane. The Sarus Crane is now extinct in India.
2 Since these lines were born of grief, or
shoka, this poetic form, the first of its kind in Indian literature, became known as a
shloka. There are several different redactions of Valmiki’s
Ramayana. One of the oldest, the
Rigvedic Ramayana, renders this moment in which the sage cries out in grief and involuntarily utters the first ever
shloka in text 9.73.5.
3 For instance, Narada’s despair led to Sanat-kumara’s profound teachings in Chapter 7 of the ancient
Chandogya Upanishad. Narada had a student named Vyasa. At the height of his literary accomplishment, Vyasa was consumed by a feeling of emptiness. Narada guided him out of his dark night, and the result was the
Bhagavata Purana, a twelve-volume work of astonishing beauty. Then, the despair of the Sarus Crane, reflected in the heart of Narada’s student Valmiki, led to the
Ramayana, one of India’s great epics.
4 Valmiki is known in Indian literature as
adi-kavi, the first poet, as he is the first to have composed a set of rhythmic verses in Sanskrit and placed them in sequence within an epic.
5 Thomas Moore,
Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life’s Ordeals (2011), p. 15
6 Bhagavad Gita, 15.15. The ancient texts of India explain that both the self and the Universal Teacher, the source of all wisdom, reside within the heart of all living beings, which is compared to a cave (e.g.
Katha Upanishad, 1.2.12, 1.3.1 and 2.1.7; and
Brahma-sutra, 1.2.11). The sage and mystic Narada explains that Shri Krishna, the Universal Teacher and Lord of Yoga, is sitting unseen within the cave of the heart of all living beings (
Bhagavata Purana, 10.37.10–11).
7 Bhagavad Gita, 11.4, 11.9, 18.75 and 18.78. Arjuna also addresses Krishna as “O Yogi” (
Bhagavad Gita, 10.17).
8 Edward O. Wilson,
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1999), p. 294.
9 Marcel Proust,
In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 2,
Within a Budding Grove (1992), p. 513.
10 Bhagavad Gita, 2.7. Arjuna accepts Krishna as his guide before Krishna begins explaining the yoga teachings of the
Gita to him.
11 Bhagavata Purana, 11.29.6, as well as Shrila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami,
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi-lila, 1.47 and 1.58, and
Madhya-lila, 22.47. In the Bhakti tradition, the Universal Teacher is worshipped as Vishnu, the all-pervading sustainer of all things. One of the 1008 names of Vishnu is Guru, or “Teacher”.
12 In ancient India, the inner guide is known as Paramatma. For key references to Paramatma, see
Mundaka Upanishad, 3.1.2;
Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 4.7;
Bhagavad Gita, 6.7 and 15.15; and
Bhagavata Purana, 1.2.11.
13 The remainder of this chapter is drawn from Simon Haas,
The Book of Dharma: Making Enlightened Choices (2013), Chapter 11, entitled “The Universal Teacher”. The material has been edited and adapted for this presentation on the yoga teachings of the
Bhagavad Gita.
14 Skanda Purana, “The Song of the Teacher” (
Guru-gita), 279–81. A topmost guru is known as
parama-guru or
sad-guru.
16 Skanda Purana, “The Song of the Teacher” (
Guru-gita), 44.
17 See
Bhagavata Purana, 11.3.21;
Mundaka Upanishad, 1.2.12; and Shrila Sanatana Goswami,
Shri Hari-bhakti-vilasa, 1.46.
18 Shrila Rupa Goswami,
Shri Upadeshamrita, 1.
19 Skanda Purana, “The Song of the Teacher” (
Guru-gita), 269.
20 Vishnu-smriti; quoted by Shrila Sanatana Goswami in his
Shri Hari-bhakti-vilasa, 1.45.
21 Catherine Ghosh makes this insightful observation in “Yoga in The Gita: Dynamic Participation in Your Daily Life”, Elephant Journal [website], published 11 Mar. 2012.
23 My teacher, Shrila B. V. Narayan Goswami once explained, “[T]here is nothing in all of existence from which some instruction cannot be taken. For an intelligent person, all the objects of the world will give some kind of instruction.” Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja,
Shri Prabandhavali (2003), p. 58.
24 Bhagavata Purana, 11.8.38 and 11.9.1.
26 Bhagavata Purana, 11.7.29.
27 Bhagavata Purana, 11.7.37–38.
28 Bhagavata Purana, 11.7.40–41.
29 Bhagavata Purana, 11.8.5–6. See also
Bhagavad Gita, 2.70.
30 Bhagavata Purana, 11.8.15.
31 Bhagavata Purana, 11.9.1–2.
32 Bhagavata Purana, 11.9.13.
33 William Shakespeare,
As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1.
34 According to the
Gheranda Samhita (2.1–2), there are 8.4 million
asanas, as many as there are forms of life. Of these, 84 are preeminent, of which 32 are especially useful.
35 Bhagavad Gita, 2.14–15
36 Stephen Cope, “Everything Is Already OK” in Stephen Cope, ed.,
Will Yoga and Meditation Really Change My Life? (2003), p. 291.
37 Bhagavad Gita, 6.23:
duhkha-samyoga-viyogam (“breaking the connection with suffering”)
38 For instance, see
Bhagavata Purana, 1.7.7. See also
Bhagavad Gita, 2.64–65: Krishna tells Arjuna that the self, when not governed by attraction and repulsion, attains calmness; and in such calmness, “the cessation of all one’s suffering occurs”.
39 The Oxford English Dictionary (1989).
40 For some of the benefits that spring from surrender, see Judith Orloff, “7 Habits of Surrendered People”, Dr Judith Orloff’s Blog [blog], published 26 Feb. 2014.
41 Bhagavad Gita, 18.66. The Sanskrit word
papa is usually understood to refer to the karmic results of harmful acts, but it can also be understood in the wider sense of difficulty, suffering or misfortune. This verse effectively marks the end of Krishna’s teachings, with the verses that follow being about sharing the yoga teachings with others and the benefits of hearing and studying these teachings.
42 See the verse
anukulyasya sankalpah pratikulyasya varjanam from the
Vaishnava-tantra, quoted in
Hari-bhakti-vilasa (11.676),
Bhakti-sandarbha (Anuccheda 236) and
Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita (
Madhya-lila, 22.100). The fifth attitude,
atma-nikshepa, is often translated as self-surrender. The English rendition here is based on the “Piyusha-varshini” commentary of Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura to Shrila Rupa Goswami’s
Shri Upadeshamrita, verse 1.