The Gita and the Art of Emotional Stability

Accompany me on the journey to learn the art of emotional stability. We shall

visit an ancient battlefield and acquire wisdom from God Himself. Wisdom
which will bless you with eternal freedom and permanent serenity. And on this
most interesting journey, you shall meet creatures as diverse as the elephant and
the tortoise and learn much from them!
Crisis
The Bhagavad Gita commences with crisis emotional crisis. Arjuna, the warrior
prince, is confronted with the awful necessity of slaughtering his own friends,
teachers and relatives. Like any decent human being, he shies away from
violence. Grief overwhelms him. When you listen to Arjuna speak of his
suffering, you can straightaway identify the symptoms of acute emotional
distress
Seeing these kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed with a view to fighting, my
limbs fail, and my mouth is parched up.
My body quivers, and there is horripilation; the Gndiva (Arjunas
bow) slips from my hands, and my skin burns.
I am not able to stand, my mind is reeling, as it were, and I see, O
Keshava (Sri Krishna), adverse omens.
Gita I. 28-30
Faced with this moral dilemma, unable to choose an appropriate course of action,
Arjuna is frozen into inaction. He appeals to his friend, Sri Krishna, who is also
his charioteer, thus:
With my natural traits (i.e. courage and decisiveness) overcome by (a sense of)
helplessness and sin, and my mind perplexed regarding my duty, I ask You tell me that
which is definitely good for me. I am Your disciple; teach me who have taken refuge
in You. Gita II.7
Then ensues the greatest dialogue in all of human literature. the dialogue
between suffering man and a loving God, situated in the most dramatic setting,
the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

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Response
How does Sri Krishna respond to Arjunas plea? Does he remind Arjuna of his
duty as a Kshatriya? Does he appeal to Arjunas pride? Does he recommend
meditation? Philosophy? He does all of this and more, but, above all, Sri
Krishnas response is spiritual.
Our emotional responses to any situation depend ultimately on our reality
perception. As long as we believe that we are limited creatures subject to birth
and death, sorrow and suffering, with infinite desires and finite means, we are
bound to be tossed around by passions, by emotional turbulence. Sri Krishnas
first teaching is Do not give in to weakness sentimentality. For this weakness is
rooted in an erroneous reality perception.
What do we truly consider ourselves to be? Body? Mind? Body-mind? But this is
entirely wrong. We are not bodies, nor even minds. We are not born with the
body nor do we die with the body. Arjuna learns that he is spirit, that he has
taken many bodies in the dim past and can do so into the far future if he so
wishes. He learns of the Atman, which is pure consciousness, immortal and ever
pure. Sri Krishna alters Arjunas reality orientation by showing him that man is
neither body nor mind, but the atman - pure consciousness, existence and bliss
(Sat-Chit-Ananda). And this Atman is not only his inner reality, but is also the
reality of the entire universe. Atman is Brahman. This Advaitic wisdom is the
central philosophy of the Gita. Arjuna is urged to attain this wisdom and thereby
be transformed into a sthitaprajna a man of stable wisdom.
Sthitaprajna - The Man of Stable Wisdom
With goal of attaining the highest Advaitic wisdom shining before him, Arjuna is
naturally eager to know the characteristics of a man who has already attained
this goal.
Arjuna asked:
What is the definition, O Keshava (Sri Krishna), of a man of stable
wisdom, absorbed in contemplation? How does a man of steady wisdom talk,
how does he sit, and how does he walk? Gita II. 54

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Sri Krishnas answer to this question not only delineates the characteristics of the
person who has attained stable wisdom, but also gives clear pointers for practice
for those who have yet to attain this lofty goal. What is natural and effortless to
the perfected is attained by the sadhaka through strenuous effort. In other words,
characteristics of the perfected are practices for sadhakas; those who want to
attain stable wisdom would do well to study and emulate the man of stable
wisdom.
When a man gives up all desires of the mind, O Prtha, and himself
delights in his Self, then he is said to be a a man of stable wisdom.
He who is unperturbed in misery and free from desires amidst
pleasures, who is devoid of all attachment, fear and anger that sage is said
to be of stable wisdom.
He, who is free from affection everywhere, and who getting whatsoever,
good or evil, neither welcomes nor hates them, has stable wisdom.
Gita II. 55, 56, 57
The serenity and even-mindedness of the sthitaprajna is born of his own
infinitude. He delights in the infinity of the Atman (Self) and, as Sridhara Swami
remarks, kshudravisaya abhilashan tyajati the desire for paltry sense-objects is
easily given up. Events which would make most ordinary men miserable, leave
him unshaken, for he sees the same infinite Atman shining through (or, to put it
in other words, events, fortunate or unfortunate, have no intrinsic reality apart
from the Atman).

A profound appreciation of this spiritual reality may be gained by studying

Vedanta under the guidance of a competent teacher. It is not all that difficult to
grasp, through a process of study and reflection, what seems so contrary to begin
with that we are pure consciousness not body-mind complexes. The sadhaka
may even have some spiritual experiences mirroring this truth.
However, the journey is far from over. The sadhaka soon realizes that intellectual
knowledge is one thing and the ability to live that knowledge, to walk the talk
as the saying goes, is quite another. As Erich Fromm said, Insight separated from
practice remains ineffective. Intellectual knowledge is weak, the passions and
ingrained habits are enormously powerful. This is the great paradox, one might
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even say the great tragedy, of human life that insight is often divorced from
practice. As Duryodhana complained to Sri Krishna, I know what is good
(dharma), and I know what is evil (adharma), but (the problem is) I possess neither
the desire to do good nor the restraint to stop doing evil! Why are we unable to
practice what we know to be good? Why are we unable to restrain ourselves from
doing what we know to be evil?
The Elephant and the Rider
The psychologist Professor Jonathan Haidt has studied this perennial human
problem from both ancient and modern perspectives. He uses an ancient
metaphor, that of rider and elephant, to describe the human condition. The
intellectual self, which grasps philosophy and morality, is like the rider and the
rest of the body-mind system is the elephant. The rider has limited control over
the elephant and can tell it to walk or stop, turn left and right. But, the elephant is
mighty and has a will (tendencies) of its own. If it really wants to do something,
like snatching a bunch of bananas from a vendor, there is very little the rider can
do. Similarly, the intellectual self, is seldom able to direct the powerful physical
system.
Let alone the body, the mind itself is mostly beyond conscious control. Most
mental (and sensory) processes are automatic. We are always in the midst of a
stream of consciousness, which flows by its own rules of association, often
without the control or even awareness of the intellectual self. Self-aware action is
rare, but automatic, habitual, instinctive action is the norm. The automatic system
is the product and slave of nature. It is ruled by the genetic imperative by
pleasure or pain, by flight or fight. Its aims are security, food and reproduction.
This automatic system is the elephant and it is not very responsive to high
philosophy. The intellectual self is the rider placed on the elephants back to help
the elephant make better choices. The rider can guide the elephant towards longterm goals (purusharthas in Hindu philosophy), but the rider cannot order the
elephant against its will. Reason is the slave of the passions, and can never pretend
to any other office that to serve and obey them. (David Hume)
Haidts use of the elephant-rider imagery reminds the Vedantist immediately of
the chariot model of the Katha Upanishad. The body is the chariot, the senses the
horses, the road is the field of experience, the intellect is the driver while the self
is the passenger. Only a skillful driver and well trained horses will enable the
passenger to reach the goal (purushartha). The unregenerate body-mind system
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sabotages spiritual life, just as a foolish driver and untrained unruly horses drags
the chariot with its hapless passenger to doom.
The elephant-rider problem was well known to Indian philosophers. Sri Krishna
warns Arjuna:
The turbulent senses, O son of Kunti, forcible lead astray the mind of
even the struggling wise person. (Gita II.60)
Just as the unruly elephant can derail the rider, the intellectual self can be easily
overcome by demands of the sensory system. This process, where the rider is
overpowered by the elephant, is dramatically narrated by Sri Krishna:
For a person thinking of the sense-objects, there grows an attachment
for them; from attachment arises desire, from desire results anger, (Gita II.62)
From anger results delusion, from delusion results confusion of
memory, from confusion of memory results destruction of intelligence, and
from destruction of intelligence he perishes. (Gita II.63)
Taming the elephant is a must for stability in wisdom. Sridhara Swami comments
indriyasamyamam vina tu sthitaprajnata na sambhavati. Since without the control
of the senses it is not possible to attain stability in wisdom, therefore, during the
period of spiritual practice (Sdhan), one should struggle hard for this end.
After revealing the Advaitic wisdom to Arjuna, Sri Krishna teaches him the
secret of stabilizing this wisdom by controlling the senses. This is a secret to be
learned from the tortoise.
The Way of the Tortoise
Sri Krishna says:
And when he completely withdraws his senses from the sense-objects,
even as a tortoise its limbs (then) his wisdom is steady. Gita II.58
The tortoise has a unique defensive technique. When threatened, it immediately
withdraws all its limbs (four feet, its head and tail six in all) into its shell, thus
protecting itself from external harm. The sadhaka too must be similarly able to
withdraw his senses from sense-objects to preserve emotional stability in the face
of temptation and provocation.
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Controlling all these (senses), the self-controlled one should sit

meditating on Me. Verily, his wisdom is steady, whose senses are under
control. (Gita II.61)
Taming the elephant is what transforms the scholar into the saint, the pandit into
the sadhaka.
Misunderstanding
Emotional stability might be misunderstood as cold-blooded emotionlessness.
There is a long and unfortunate history of motivated misreading of the message
of the Gita, mostly by Western interpreters. In a recent work, David E. Cooper
comments many western readers are chilled by those paintings, in more gaudily
illustrated editions of the Gita, which portray the serene and smiling Arjuna scything his
way through the enemy as if through a field of corn.
Now this is a gross misreading of Sri Krishnas message on at least two counts.
First, (and this is an oft-repeated calumny against the Gita), the Gita does not
support violence at all. Since the dialogue is situated in the context of a war,
some superficial commentators are quick to link the Gita with war, whereas it
only teaches karma yoga (the way of attaining God through selfless work).
Possibly, the collective guilt and psychic burden of centuries of militarism
culminating in the two world wars weighs heavily on these western
commentators and is projected into their reading of the Gita. There has been no
race as peaceful as the Hindu, even though their scripture be set in the battlefield,
and, history has rarely seen a race more violent than the European, even though
their scripture preaches peace and love above all!
Second, the ideal of Sthitaprajna the person of steady wisdom does not mean
emotionlesness but the sublimation of emotions. Emotional stability is not
emotionlesness.

The Ultimate Goal

Hearing, thinking and meditating on the advaitic wisdom in this manner, and
protecting the wisdom gained through control of the senses, the sadhaka attains
aparokshanubhuti the direct experience of non-duality and finds that the entire
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universe, including his apparent (body-mind) self has no existence apart from
Brahman, Existence Absolute (Sat) Consciousness Absolute (Chit) Bliss
Absolute (Ananda). The empirical dichotomy of the elephant and rider
disappears, no more is there danger of a fall, he is truly and permanently free,
even while living (jivanmukta).

Reference:
1. The Bhagavad Gita (Tr.) Swami Swarupananda, Advaita Ashrama
2. Shankaracharyas Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (Gita Press)
3. Sridhara Swamis Gloss on the Bhagavad Gita (Tr.) Swami
Satyapriyananda (unpublished manuscript)
4. Haidt, Jonathan Haidt The Happiness Hypothesis Arrow Books 2006.
5. Cooper, David E. World Philosophies 2003

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