Perfection of Yoga, Bhagavad-Gita passages

The Bhagavad-Gita points out that all of our miseries are due to false identification with the body.

We can not perceive our soul with our physical senses so we often deny it.

The soul is part of the Supreme Being – the embodiment of knowledge, bliss and eternity.

A drop of ocean water has all the properties of the ocean itself and we, although a small part of the Supreme Being, have the same energetic properties of the Supreme.

“ As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong mind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence.” Bg 2.67

Actual pleasure is of the soul – not the body. Bodily and material pleasure is temporary.

Knowledge is temporary. Everyone learns and compiles information and knowledge for enjoyment. People learn chemistry or biology or politics or the arts. Everyone knows something of everything and everything of something and this is generally known as knowledge. But as soon as we leave the body all of this knowledge is vanquished. In each lifetime we start again, forgetting everything we’ve learned in past lives.

“For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends. But for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be his greatest enemy.” Bg 6.6

“For one who has conquered the mind, the Supersoul is already reached, for he has attained tranquility. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same.” Bg 6.7

“A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogi (or mystic) when he is fully satisfied by virtue and aquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything – whether it be pebbles, stones or gold – as the same.” Bg 6.8

“A person is said to be still further advanced when he regards all – the honest well-wisher, friends and enemies. The envious, the pious, the sinner and those who are indifferent and impartial - with an equal mind.” Bg 6.9

When one has transcended and is actually learned, he does not see everyone as his friend or enemy or father or mother. It is like a great drama or play with different characters – mother, father, children, friend, enemy, sinner, saint, whatever, but off-stage all the actors are friends.

From the Perfection of Yoga by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

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