February 14, 2020
yadᾱ te mohakalilaṁ buddhir vyatitariṣyati
tadᾱ gantᾱsi nirvedaṁ śrotavyasya śrutasya ca (II-52)
śrutivipratipannᾱ te yadᾱ sthᾱsyati niścalᾱ
samᾱdhᾱv acalᾱ buddhis tadᾱ yogam avᾱpsyasi (II-53)
II/52. When thy intellect crosses beyond the mire of delusion,
then thou shalt attain to indifference as to what has been
heard and what has yet to be heard.
II/53. When thy intellect, perplexed by what thou hast heard,
shall stand immovable and steady in the self, then thou shalt
attain self-realization.
Swamiji's Commentary
The mind is filled with wrong thought-forms – the traditions, dogmas, preconceived ideas, prejudices – all from the dead past. We have dead, crystallized and fossilized ideas of good and evil. We want to do what is regarded as good, at least to win the favor of society! Completely unselfish, desire-less or egoless spontaneous action is, therefore, meaningless to us!
This delusion will not disappear when we utter a magic formula. We hear the truth from the great ones, and then hear it again and again. (Reading is a form of hearing through the eyes!) As truth slowly sinks in, delusion gets shaken.
But what is heard does not produce yoga any more than removing the bandage from your eyes creates the sun in the sky! As the Zen Buddhists, in particular, believe: truth shines as a flash of lightning of its own accord, not in response to any action on our part. When the mind is ‘shocked’ by the understanding that all the thoughts entertained so far were false and others which may arise now and later are equally false, it is perplexed and becomes still. That stillness is samādhi. That is yoga. There is no more need to hear.
The young girl buys a number of books on obstetrics. She has read a few. A few are still on the shelf. In the meantime, she has a baby. She knows now. There is no need to read those books!