Gita Acharan

K rishna says, “That which is night to all beings is wakefulness for the self-mastered; that in which beings are awake is night to the divinely perceptive sage” (2.69). This verse brings out metaphorically, the idea of being physically awake but spiritually asleep and vice versa. It also offers literal interpretations. There are two ways of living. One, where we are dependent on indriyas (senses) for our pleasures. The other is where we are independent of indriyas and they remain under our control. For those in the first category, the second way of living would be an unknown world and darkness/night is the metaphor for this ignorance. Secondly, while we are using one sense instrument, our attention is elsewhere implying that it’s used mechanically but not with awareness. For example, while having food, our attention is very often not on eating. It might be on some screen, a newspaper or a phone conversation as we believe in the elusive idea of multitasking. That’s why...

K rishna says that wisdom gets established when one completely withdraws their indriyas (senses) from sense-objects, like the tortoise withdrawing its limbs (2.58). This is continuation of the emphasis on controlling the senses, and this verse offers practical advice. Krishna lays emphasis on indriyas as they are the gateways between our inner self and the outer world. He advises that we should withdraw our indriyas when we see ourselves getting attached to sense-objects like the metaphorical tortoise withdrawing its limbs when faced with danger. Each sense has two parts. One is the sense instrument like an eyeball and the second, that part of the brain (controller) which controls this eyeball. Sensory interactions happen at two levels. One is between the ever-changing outer world of sense-objects and the sense instrument like the eyeball. This is purely automatic where photons reach the eyeball and interact as per their physical properties. The second is between th...

  A t the very beginning of the Gita (2.14), Krishna says that the meeting of the indriyas (senses) with the sense-objects causes polarities of pleasure and pain. He tells Arjuna to learn to tolerate them, as they are transient. In the contemporary world this is expressed as, ‘This too shall pass’. If this is inculcated at an experiential level, we can transcend these polarities to find them equally acceptable. There are five indriyas (senses) viz. vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Sense perception happens through a combination of a physical part and a controller part. The physical parts of the senses are eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. The controller parts are those parts of the brain which process the sensory inputs of the respective physical parts. However, the physical parts of the senses have a lot of limitations. For example, the eyeball can process only a particular frequency of light which we call visible light. Secondly, it cannot process more than 1...