Krishna, the Yoga therapist – part 2

The Vision of Yoga Therapy in the Bhagavad Gita

 

2.70  apuryamanam acalapratisham

samudram apah pravishanti  yadvat

tadvatkama yam pravisanti sarve

sa shantim apnoti na kamakami

 

Arjuna is looking for healing and wants to know what the very essence of that healing involves.  He has communicated to Krishna that he is willing to give up the world of action and become a renunciate, somehow believing that giving up the world will be a solution to his problems. In this verse, Krishna defines the essence of healing as a sense of wholeness based in self-knowledge that is so deep and so complete, that nothing can disturb it.  It is like an ocean: rivers run into it, storms rage across its surface, waves flow across it, fish swim within it, and yet the ocean is whole, full, deep and complete, at all places and all times. Krishna encourages us to become like that Samudra, the vast, open, deep sea.

 

 

3.17  yastvatmaratireva syad

atmatrptashca manavah

atmanyeva ca samtushtas

tasya karyam na vidyate

 

What does this healing and wholeness look like in reality? And once this wholeness is found, how do we maintain our connection with it? Krishna points out that self-knowledge is an end in itself; and that through knowledge of the true Self, a sense of inner satisfaction arises and inner contentment.  Through this sense of self-knowledge and inner contentment, stress is eliminated and health at all levels is cultivated. Beyond this, nothing needs to be done.

 

 

3.20  Karmanaiva hi samsiddhim

asthita janakadayah

 lokasamgrahamevapi

 sampashyan kartum arhasi

 

And as we become healed along the journey, what is our mission? Krishna has already made it clear to Arjuna that renouncing the world is not the answer, at least for him. In this verse, Krishna outlines Arjuna’s mission saying that complete success on the path will come through action in the world, and that many great people have achieved liberation while setting an example for others and providing service. The word Krishna uses, lokasamgraha, has special significance. Loka means “the world” and samgraha means to “bring together”, so that through our actions we bring the world toward that same wholeness that we are cultivating within ourselves. This is done in Yoga therapy sessions, individually or with a group.

 

Read Krishna, the Yoga therapist – part 1