Devanagari
यमादिभिर्योगपथैरभ्यसन्श्रद्धयान्वित: ।
मयि भावेन सत्येन मत्कथाश्रवणेन च ॥ ६ ॥
Verse text
yamādibhir yoga-pathair
abhyasaṣ śraddhayānvitaḥ
mayi bhāvena satyena
mat-kathā-śravaṇena ca
Synonyms
yama
—
ādibhiḥ — beginning with yama
;
yoga
—
pathaiḥ — by the yoga system
;
abhyasan
—
practicing
;
śraddhayā anvitaḥ
—
with great faith
;
mayi
—
unto Me
;
bhāvena
—
with devotion
;
satyena
—
unalloyed
;
mat
—
kathā — stories about Me
;
śravaṇena
—
by hearing
;
ca
—
and .
Translation
One has to become faithful by practicing the controlling process of the yoga system and must elevate himself to the platform of unalloyed devotional service by chanting and hearing about Me.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
With faith one should practice using the yoga process starting with yama and niyama, while hearing my glories with the understanding that I am real.
Elaborating on what has just been said, Kapila explains the method of attaining liberation by jṣāna. The sentence actually continues till verse 11. Practicing the path of yoga, concentrating the mind, realizing jīva and Paramātmā, one will attain non-duality which contains everything. One should think of the Lord as real (satyena). The Lord is not something false. This misconception is based on the perception that Brahman becomes variegated with forms by illusion only, and the form of the Lord is included in that illusion. The jṣānī cannot attain liberation by the offensive mentality of thinking that knowledge and bliss are different from the form of the Lord. This is understood from the following statements.
ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ
āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
Persons who are falsely under the impression of being liberated, without devotional service to the Lord, may reach the goal of the brahmajyoti, but because of their impure consciousness and for want of shelter in the Vaikuṇṭha-lokas, such so-called liberated persons again fall down into material existence. SB 10.2.32
naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ
na śobhate jṣānam alaṁ niraṣjanam
kutaḥ punaḥ śaśvad abhadram īśvare
na cārpitaṁ karma yad apy akāraṇam
Even the stage of jṣāna without the bondage of karma is not glorious because it is devoid of bhakti to the Supreme Lord. What is the use of having destroyed ignorance? What to speak of sakāma-karma which is suffering during practice and perfection, and niṣkāma-karma, when not offered to the Lord? SB 1.5.12
ya eṣāṁ puruṣaṁ sākṣād
ātma-prabhavam īśvaram
na bhajanty avajānanti
sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ
If any of the members of the four varṇas and four āśramas fail to worship or intentionally disrespect the Lord, who is the source of their own creation, they will fall down from their position into a hellish state of life. SB 11.5.3
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram
Fools deride me when I descend in the human form. They do not know my transcendental nature and my supreme dominion over all that be. BG 9.11
Purport
Yoga
is practiced in eight different stages:
yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna
and
samādhi.
Yama
and
niyama
mean practicing the controlling process by following strict regulations, and
āsana
refers to the sitting postures. These help raise one to the standard of faithfulness in devotional service. The practice of
yoga
by physical exercise is not the ultimate goal; the real end is to concentrate and to control the mind and train oneself to be situated in faithful devotional service.
Bhāvena,
or
bhāva,
is a very important factor in the practice of
yoga
or in any spiritual process.
Bhāva
is explained in
Bhagavad-gītā
(10.8)
.
Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ:
one should be absorbed in the thought of love of Kṛṣṇa. When one knows that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the source of everything and that everything emanates from Him (
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ
), then one understands the
Vedānta
aphorism
janmādy asya yataḥ
(“the original source of everything”), and then he can become absorbed in
bhāva,
or the preliminary stage of love of Godhead.
Rūpa Gosvāmī explains very nicely in
Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu
how this
bhāva,
or preliminary stage of love of God, is achieved. He states that one first of all has to become faithful (
śraddhayānvitaḥ
). Faith is attained by controlling the senses, either by
yoga
practice, following the rules and regulations and practicing the sitting postures, or by engaging directly in
bhakti-yoga,
as recommended in the previous verse. Of the nine different items of
bhakti-yoga,
the first and foremost is to chant and hear about the Lord. That is also mentioned here.
Mat-kathā-śravaṇena ca.
One may come to the standard of faithfulness by following the rules and regulations of the
yoga
system, and the same goal can be achieved simply by chanting and hearing about the transcendental activities of the Lord. The word
ca
is significant.
Bhakti-yoga
is direct, and the other process is indirect. But even if the indirect process is taken, there is no success unless one comes fully to the direct process of hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. Therefore the word
satyena
is used here. In this connection Svāmī Śrīdhara comments that
satyena
means
niṣkapaṭena,
“without duplicity.” The impersonalists are full of duplicity. Sometimes they pretend to execute devotional service, but their ultimate idea is to become one with the Supreme. This is duplicity,
kapaṭa.
The
Bhāgavatam
does not allow this duplicity. In the beginning of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
it is clearly stated,
paramo nirmatsarāṇām:
“This treatise
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
is meant for those who are completely free from envy.” The same point is again stressed here. Unless one is completely faithful to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engages himself in the process of hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord, there is no possibility for liberation.