An Introduction To India’s Universal Science Of God-Realization
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 – 1952) is widely revered as one of the pre-eminent spiritual figures of our time. Born in northern India, he arrived in the United States in 1920, where for more than 30 years he taught the ancient science of yoga meditation and the art of balanced spiritual living. His landmark Autobiography of a Yogi, along with his many other books, has inspired millions of readers. Today his spiritual and humanitarian work continues to be carried on by Self-Realization Fellowship, the international society Yogananda founded in 1920 to disseminate his teachings to the world. For information about Sri Yogananda’s teachings, visit yogananda-srf.org.
The new Spanish-language edition of The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita: An Introduction to India’s Universal Science of God-Realization by Paramahansa Yogananda is an inspiring introduction to the spiritual truths of India’s most beloved scripture, and features selections from Yogananda’s two-volume translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (God Talks With Arjuna). The book reveals the deeper meaning of the Gita’s hidden symbology and explains how the step-by-step methods of yoga meditation and right action enable us to achieve union with Spirit and ultimate liberation.
Following is an excerpt from The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita: An Introduction to India’s Universal Science of God-Realization (©2007), Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA).
Activating the Soul’s Powers Through Meditation
The pure discriminative powers [are] symbolically represented as the five divine sons of Pandu….The five Pandavas are the central heroic figures of the Gita analogy, controlling the armies of consciousness and energy (prana) in the five subtle centers of the spine. They represent the qualities and powers acquired by the devotee whose deep meditation is attuned to the astral and causal centers of life and divine consciousness. In ascending order, the significance of the five Pandavas is as follows:
Sahadeva: Restraint, Power to Stay Away From Evil (Dama, the active power of resistance, tenacity, by which restless outer sense organs can be controlled); and the vibratory earth element in the coccyx center, or muladhara chakra.
Nakula: Adherence, Power to Obey Good Rules (Sama, the positive or absorbing power, attention, by which mental tendencies can be controlled); and the vibrating water element in the sacral center, or svadhishthana chakra.
Arjuna: Self-Control; and the vibratory fire element in the lumbar center. This center, the manipura chakra, bestows the fire-force of mental and bodily strength to fight against the vast onslaught of the sense soldiers. It is the reinforcer of good habits and actions; the habit trainer. It holds the body upright, and causes purification of the body and mind, and makes deep meditation possible.
We see further why this center allegorically represents Arjuna, the most skilled of all the Pandava army, when we consider its dual function. It is the pivotal or turning point of the devotee’s life from gross materialism to finer spiritual qualities. From the lumbar to the sacral and coccygeal centers life and consciousness flow downward and outward to materialistic, sense-bound body consciousness. But in meditation, when the devotee assists the life and consciousness to be attracted to the magnetic pull in the higher or dorsal center, the power of this fiery lumbar center dissociates itself from material concerns and upholds the spiritual work of the devotee through the powers in the higher centers….
When Arjuna, the power of self-control in the lumbar center, rouses the fire of meditation and spiritual patience and determination, he draws upward the life and consciousness that was flowing downward and outward through the lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal centers, and thereby gives the meditating yogi the necessary mental and bodily strength to pursue the course of deep meditation leading to Self-realization. Without this fire and self-control, no spiritual progress is possible. Thus Arjuna, more literally, also represents the devotee of self-control, patience, and determination within whom the battle of Kurukshetra is taking place. He is the chief devotee and disciple of the Lord, Bhagavan Krishna, who in the Gita dialogue is being shown by Krishna the way to victory.
The remaining two Pandavas are:
Bhima: Power of Vitality, soul-controlled life force (prana); and the vibratory creative air (or prana) element in the dorsal center, or anahata chakra. The power of this center aids the devotee in the practice of the right techniques of pranayama to calm the breath and control the mind and sensory onslaughts. It is the power to still the internal and external organs and thus destroy the invasion of any passion (as of sex, greed, or anger). It is the destroyer of disease and doubt. It is the center of divine love and spiritual creativity.
Yudhisthira: Divine Calmness; and the creative vibratory ether element in the cervical center, or vishuddha chakra. Yudhisthira, the eldest of the five offspring of Pandu (buddhi, or pure intellect) is fittingly portrayed as the king of all discriminative faculties, for calmness is the principal factor necessary for any expression of right discernment…. The Pandavas’ chief counsellor and support is the Lord Himself, who, in the form of Krishna, represents variously the Spirit, the soul, or intuition as manifested in the states of superconsciousness, Kutastha or Christ consciousness, and cosmic consciousness in the medulla, Christ center, and thousand-petaled lotus; or as the guru instructing his disciple, the devotee Arjuna. Within the devotee, Lord Krishna is thus the guiding Divine Intelligence speaking to the lower self that has gone astray in the entanglements of sensory consciousness. This Higher Intelligence is the master and teacher, and the lower mental intellect is the disciple; the Higher Intelligence advises the lower vitiated self on how to uplift itself in accord with the eternal verities, and in fulfillment of its inherent God-given duty.
By Paramahansa Yogananda
