Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

So when a yogi meditates like this what happens eventually? That is described in the next verse how the process of yoga takes one forward.

Bg 8.10

prayāṇa-kāle manasācalena
bhaktyā yukto yoga-balena caiva
bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyak
sa taṁ paraṁ puruṣam upaiti divyam

Word for word: 

prayāṇa–kāle — at the time of death; manasā — by the mind; acalena — without its being deviated; bhaktyā — in full devotion; yuktaḥ — engaged; yoga–balena — by the power of mystic yoga; ca — also; eva — certainly;bhruvoḥ — the two eyebrows; madhye — between; prāṇam — the life air; āveśya — establishing; samyak — completely; saḥ — he; tam — that; param — transcendental; puruṣam — Personality of Godhead; upaiti — achieves; divyam — in the spiritual kingdom.

Translation: 

One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and, by the strength of yoga, with an undeviating mind, engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord in full devotion, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

prayāṇa-kāle, at the time of death, manasācalena, manasa + ācala, one keeps the mind acala. Krishna has talked about and also arjuna said earlier that mind is Chancala, Arjuna has talked about this twice in 6.33 and 6.34, here it says by prayāṇa-kāle manasācalena, make the mind achala, how will that be possible bhaktyā yukto yoga-balena caiva, so with Bhakti and by the bala of yoga, so yoga-balena caiva, so actually why the Yoga Bala are required, because one cannot make the mind achala easily. One has to actually practice, one has to systematically and determinedly practice, Yoga Balena, so when we have life long practice of Yoga Bala then the mind will become achala. The mind is chanchala it will go here and there but we have to ultimately make the mind achala and how that will happen by Yoga Bal. Many times people think about meditation as a break from hard work. O I did lot of hard work now I got my job, I got my family, I got all these responsibilities and obligations agitations and now I want meditation for relaxation, I just take a break but then you come to temple and see devotees chanting aggressively or struggling then you think are you relaxing? You seems disturbed where is relaxation over here and when we are chanting we feel that this chanting gives me lot of relaxation 

so we have to understand that Bhakti will give relaxation but it will come after purification and pacification, pacification means the mind will become peaceful how the mind becomes peaceful when it becomes purified what agitates the mind is lust, anger, greed, pride and illusion so when these go away then the mind become peaceful it will become steady achala, the mind becomes chanchala because of Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Mad, Moha, Matsarya all these things. And by the practice of Hare Krishna what we are doing is we are making the mind purified, then it will become peaceful. We cannot expect mind to be pacified without becoming purified that sort of pacification will not last for long so for steady pacification we need to apply us for purification so we should not approach our chanting in the sense it is break from hardwork, actually controlling the mind and purifying the mind is hard work. So the more we expect meditation to be a break from hard work the more meditation will become hard work, why? Because our expectation only will frustrate us. I wanted to meditate and relax but I am not able to relax with relax attitude if I go we will not endeavour to fix our mind on Krishna and if I don’t endeavour to fix mind on Krishna then I don’t experience anything sublime. My meditation doesn’t lead to any spiritual experience I can’t contact Krishna, when I can’t contact Krishna then what happens? I can’t relish Krishna Consciousness so meditation actually rejuvenates us. It rebuilds us internally it strengthen us spiritually, it cleanses us emotionally but all these happens when we experience Krishna but when we are not concentrating mind we cannot experience Krishna and when we cannot experience Krishna then meditation starts feeling like a boredom, it starts feeling like a burden, why am I chanting nothing is happening? I am uttering the sound then it becomes even more hard work. So the more we expect meditation to break from hard work the more meditation becomes hard work. Instead we accept meditation as a rewarding challenge not mere break, yes it is going to be hard work but the result is going to be wonderful my mind will become pure and truly deeply peaceful that is what I want so let me apply my-self so yoga-balena caiva. Prabhupada writes that one will not be able to fix mind on Krishna just by chance we have to practice Yoga Bala now different yogis can use different method for controlling the mind but there has to be practice of some kind of yoga. And a few verses later Sri Krishna will tell that Bhakti Yoga is the best. So here He is saying Yoga Bala by the practice of Yoga and then bhaktyā yukto. So Krishna here is talking about Astanga Yogi who is trying to attend perfection who is trying to cultivate remembrance of Krishna. So we have to see connection in BG 8.7 Krishna told sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara, so always remember Me and do your prescribed duties, now how can one remember Krishna, Krishna is giving two pathways one is pathway of Astanga Yoga of Yoga Mishra Bhakti and other is a part of Suddha Bhakti Kevala Bhakti. So here He is telling that even the astang Yogi the yogis who has done practice of yoga eventually one has to use bhaktyā yukto, yes, I have to fix the mind there is Absolute Truth and absolute truth mercy I need as we discussed earlier one of the limbs of Astanga Yoga, Yama and Niyama’s sublime is ehswar Pranidhana, Eshwar Parnidhana is surrender to Eshwar. So bhaktyā yukto, one needs Bhakti, then 

bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyak

one gets Prana situated in bhruvor madhye, bhruvor madhye means in the space between the eyebrows, so one gets the Pran to raise and one get Prana within bhruva, again Krishna is referring Himself as a third person, this yogi 

sa taṁ paraṁ puruṣam upaiti divyam

that person will attain divya param purusa Krishna is using the same word Paramam Pursam Divyam which was used earlier and Krishna is using the same word here paraṁ puruṣam upaiti divyam, such a person will attain that Supreme Person. The yogi will attain the ultimate destination that Supreme Person. Now what is this point of bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya, that is get the Prana to be situated in bhruva, in between the eyebrows so here we will discuss a little bit of technicalities of astanga yoga we won’t go too much into that direction, as it is whole universe of understanding in itself, 

So there are various charas in the body, so actually these lotus in fig represent location of Chakra. So what is the Chakra exactly, actually the Prana is situated at a particular place in the body now the Pran vayu it has a particular centre as we have discussed there are five vayus, Pran, Apan, saman, udan and vayan their centre is at particular point in the body, it is called the location of the prana, that location of Prana can be elevated, so the Prana may be at the lower part of the body so in the way of analysing the path of Yoga if lower is the location of Prana it is considered lower in consciousness lesser is the spiritual elevation of the yogi, and as the prana moves upward and upward by the practice of Astanga Yoga then the Yogis is considered to become elevated, so in the Upanishad it is said that actually when the prana is in the lower part of the body and when the person dies the soul wants to exit so whichever hole is closer the soul will go out of that so if the soul goes out from lower hole it indicates that soul has gone to the lower destination which means lower species or lower planets and if soul comes out of the higher holes the Prana is upwards that provides the facility for the soul to come out of the high upper holes exact relation between prana vayu and soul is subtle here we will not go into technologies of that actually the point is soul and subtle body are very attached to each other and the prana is intimately connected with the subtle body. We have discussed this earlier how our emotions get affected by our breathing so if we are angry we start breathing fast if we breath slowly our emotions will calm down this is simple indication so subtle body is link between soul and gross body. Now the link between subtle body and gross body is found of many thing and one of them is Prana. So when the person dies at that time gross body falls and subtle body along with the soul goes to the next body. In Vedanta Sutra it is described that the Prana also goes, Upanishad describes this and Vedanta Sutra confirms this. Prana also goes with the Subtle body to the next body so when this happens, so location of Prana is important so Krishna will tell at the end of BG as devotees should not start wondering where is my Prana, is it upwards or downwards, Krishna says Nati sututi parth Gyana …He will say at the end of this chapter when who is practicing Bhakti Yoga doesn’t have to bother about these things, but we are now talking about path of astanga yoga so these are the locations with the body these are centres of power, centres of energy, energy fields, chakras these are different chaktras which are there in the body and Prana is located in one of these chakras so whole process of astanag yoga, it is also called kundalini Yoga, the purpose of the process is to lift up the Prana so that soul moves from one of the lower chakra to one of the upper chakra, so different chakras are shown in the picture and Prana has to be move upward so that ultimately it reaches head, so Krishna is telling in this verse about astanag yogi who is elevated what he should do? bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyak, so in between the eyebrows in Ajna Chakra, so when one gets Prana in Ajna Chakra then one becomes situated for getting perfection, so in fact most advance yogis they do not wait for soul to leave the body through one of the holes and try to get it out from one of the upper holes by the power of yoga they can put the Prana at the top of their head and when they wanted to leave the body by the power of Yoga the soul emerges and skull breaks apart not many yogis can do that now but skull break apart and soul goes out like that and the soul goes directly to the upper destination that is soul attains liberation that is the understanding at the path of Yoga, so Krishna is telling that by Yoga Bala by bhaktyā yukto, what should be done the Prana should be brought upward and put up in Ajna Chakra that is between bhruvor madhye when that is done then one attains corresponding destination what will be the corresponding destination that one attains paraṁ puruṣam divyam, so after one also does remembrance of Krishna, one has Bhakti and one makes the mind a achala.

End of transcription.