Samyama- the discipline of balance in life, without repression! By and large every seeker of the path of realization understands samyama in the sense of repression or renunciation. It is unfortunate that the samyama has become synonymous with repression. For Krishna, samyama has an absolutely different meaning. Looking at Krishna’s life no one can say that samyama means repression. If there has been a single person on earth who can be called utterly unrepressed, uninhibited and free, it is Krishna. This Sanskrit word Samyama is extraordinary. To me it means balance, equilibrium, to be in the middle-just. In this sense the renunciate does not have samyama, anymore than a person indulges in worldly pleasures. Both are out of balance and in need of samyama. They both are extremists; samyama means to be equidistant from two extremes. Krishna stands for that middle state where there is neither indulgence nor renunciation. We can also say that Samyama means indulgence with an element of renunciation in it or renunciation with an element of indulgence in it. Realistically, it is a state where we don’t tilt the scales to either side.
Some among us are behind money, day in and day out amassing wealth. Some among are the opposites, running away from money and renouncing the wealth. Renunciation of wealth has become the goal of some and amassing the wealth is other person’s goal. Negation of extremes is samyama. As per Krishna, a person like Janaka is samyami. Too much fasting or too much eating is not samyama, right eating goes with Samyama. Fasting amounts to tilting the balance on the side of hunger; over eating amounts to tilting the balance on the side of indulgence. Any one of us can get deviated from samyama only in two ways; one way is indulgence and the other is renunciation. Either you get attached to a thing, you cling to it, or you get repelled by it.
Krishna is neither a renunciate nor a hedonist. If we have to place him somewhere, he will be mid way between charvaka and mahavira. In indulgence he is equal to charvaka, and in renunciation he will not lag behind Mahavira, it will be Krishna. So, in terms of Krishna, all such words as samyama and asamyama will undergo a transformation. The words will be the same, but their meaning will be radically different. The meaning will stem from Krishna’s own being.
Let us understand Gita after we understand Krishna!
Dr Dwarakanath
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