Chapter 2, Verse 14
mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa sukha-duḥkhadāḥ
āgamāpāyino’nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
The interaction of senses and objects, O son of Kunti, give cold and heat,
pleasure and pain, transient things which come and go. Endure them, O Arjuna.
Mātrā sparśās means ‘the contact of the senses with material objects’. Whatever comes into contact with the senses, into contact with the mind – heat, sound, touch, colour, taste and smell – these are the products of the senses. Heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are always part of our experience. If one gives attention to the outside, to the sense organs, and the sense objects, one becomes bound by the opposites of duality, like cold and heat, pleasure and pain. Whoever is focused on living only in the external world, will attain only limited things. One will not be aware of the greatness, the eternity of the soul. This duality of experience, also brings joy, grief and so on. This is not for realised people. When you realise that the object is just passing by and changes, you should not allow the mind to dwell on this. It is unhealthy to dwell on this.
Describing the contact between the senses and the object which naturally comes and goes and the limitations of Nature, Prakriti, Krishna asks Arjuna to ignore this: “this will only bring pain.” He advises Arjuna to not concentrate on them, to not rejoice in them or grieve over them. Know that these experiences are there, but don’t go into them. If you start feeding them, if you feed the negative qualities, if you go into them – you are trapped. You are trapped in the drama of the mind. And the mind will make you dance to its tune. And once you are dancing to the tune of Maya, all is finished!
Here Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Overcome pleasure and pain. Go out of this drama of duality and remind yourself that you are eternal.” Again and again He is repeating the same thing: the eternity of the soul. Sometimes you have to repeat something ten times for somebody to get it. The mind is like this. Until it accustoms itself to a certain reality, that reality is easily forgotten and the mind jumps around.
In Chapter 1, again and again Arjuna is reminding Krishna of his grief and sadness and so on – he is finding many excuses not to fight. The Lord is doing the same thing with Arjuna, but in a reverse way, reminding him that, “All that you have been talking about is not real, is not the reality. It is just passing by. You are here to witness this. You are the great witness.” It is only when you realise that you are the Great Observer that you can observe life and not be trapped in the drama of it. When you are apart from it, then you observe. When you are in your sadhana, when you are sitting in meditation, who is perceiving everything? When you are doing your Atma Kriya Yoga, of course, the mind is perceiving the physical state; but when you look deeper inside, on the inside there is somebody else watching. Who is watching? That is the great Self. The great Self is always watching; the Great Observer is always watching and observing life, how life is going. Now it’s observing and hearing in this body; before it was observing and hearing in another body. And those who have not yet attained the Grace of the Lord, will later be in another body. Of course you will go through an evolution.
Bhagavad Gita
