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The 7th and 8th Sutras are generally taken together to understand the Rāga Dveṣhas. These two words are very familiar, entire spiritual sādhana, all the various types of practices, keep on insisting to come out of this bondage of rāga and dveṣha, generally known as likes and dislikes.
Bhagavad Gita goes elaborate descriptions about rāga dveṣhas — how to come out of it, how to conquer it, how to win over them. Even in Karma Yoga, Sri Krishna tells that working in a Karma Yoga way is a solution to master or to transcend rāga dveṣhas. So the two Sutras are there.
Sutra 7 is सु॒खा॒नुश॒यी रागः ॥ २.७॥ Sukhānuśayī rāgaḥ.
8 is दुः॒खा॒नुश॒यी द्वेषः ॥ २.८॥ Duḥkhānuśayī dveṣaḥ.
Sukhānuśayī rāgaḥ, Duḥkhānuśayī dveṣaḥ.
Common word is anuśayī. Anuśayī is as related consequence. As a related consequence. Rāgaḥ is attachment, a liking, a fondness. Duḥkha is misery, sorrow, pain. Dveṣaḥ is hatred, of course repulsion. So sukhānuśayī rāgaḥ. Rāgaḥ is a result of pleasure. Dveṣaḥ is a result of misery. Duḥkhānuśayī dveṣaḥ.
So when one is familiar with the pleasure now and he has a memory of it. When experience and anubhava of rāgaḥ, anubhava of pleasure, sukha is there. That memory of experience of sukha. Sukha anubhava smṛti. Memory of experience of pleasure.
That stays in the mind. And a person who has that anubhava, sādhaka, his eagerness for that pleasure, for that experience, or for the means to it — how that experience came, the vehicle of that experience, the object of that experience — that eagerness, that thirst, that greed, that desire, that is called as rāgaḥ.
Suppose somebody eats a dish of choice. The experience of eating, what the experience one gets, that makes an impression, a tendency, a saṁskāra. And to repeat that experience, to have that experience, that eagerness to have — or that experience came because of the particular object, may be a sweet — that eagerness to have that, that is called as the rāgaḥ.
A very subtle and deep and important understanding to have. So rāgaḥ is defined in this sutra as an attraction which one feels towards any person, any object, when any kind of pleasure or happiness is derived from that person or object — an attraction.
It is natural for us to get attracted in this manner because the real of me, the soul in bondage, having lost the direct source of ānanda within, then it gropes, searches after the ānanda in the external world. And anything which provides even a shadow of this in the form of ordinary happiness or pleasure becomes dear to it. The reason was it lost the direct source of happiness and is in search of it.
If you are attracted to any person or any object, you shall always find on scrutiny that attraction is due to some kind of pleasure — may be physical, may be emotional, or even mental. We may be addicted to a particular kind of food because we find it pleasant. We may be attached to a person because we derive from him some kind of pleasure — may be physical and emotional. We may be devoted to a particular pursuit because it gives us an intellectual satisfaction.
But you should remember, same thing applies for the dveṣaḥ — hatred. Because if misery is there, we avoid it. Anything which gives sorrow, we avoid it. Anything which gives pain, we avoid it. Because identified that that particular one gives us pleasure, we identify and have a wrong confirmation, a wrong decision, that this particular object gives me misery, this particular person is an object of sorrow for me. We avoid it — dveṣaḥ — because of misery.
Rāga and dveṣa. These two kleśhas, namely rāga and dveṣa, are the emotions in the form of kleśhas which cause trouble in our day-to-day activities, day-to-day life. They are easy to understand. And so, the tanūkaraṇa, kleśa tanūkaraṇa, or carving of the kleśa, kleśa can easily and practically be started with trying to control these two in our daily life.
In fact, the best way in our worldly life to bring down the kleśhas is to start controlling these two disturbing emotions. Very easy. Once rāga and dveṣhas are coming under control practically, we will be really progressing in the sādhana. No doubt, even these can be curbed through the practice of, of course, Kriyā Yoga is there — tapas-svādhyāya-īśvara-praṇidhāna.
So rāga is a result of pleasure. Dveṣa is a result of misery. Sukhānuśayī rāgaḥ. Duḥkhānuśayī dveṣaḥ, it is said. Anuśayī is a common word, which means that — that related, out of the consequences.
So that saṁskāra, the experience, anubhava, and that related eagerness to repeat that experience in case of pleasure, and that object which was felt to be the cause of the pleasure — that eagerness towards the object and the eagerness towards the experience, sukha anubhava and sukha viṣaya. Similarly, dveṣa against duḥkha anubhava and duḥkha viṣaya. That is the rāga and dveṣa.
Let us take up this as a challenge in our sādhana and try to be free from rāga dveṣhas by Kriyā Yoga, especially Īśvara praṇidhāna. Let us see the further sutras.
Oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ.
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः||To Be Continued.. ----------------------------------------
These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji. Audio Link - https://youtu.be/a-vk_uKNLVM?si=68kiANaYLwPYRrvA
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
