Chapter 18: Moksha-sannyasa-yoga: / Verse 52

Krishna has presented a 17-limb intense pursuit, calling it the supreme wisdom discipline. Each limb has to be studied, assimilated and applied assiduously. The whole effort is to be focussed only on inward application. Here the student and teacher become one; the answerer and examiner are the same. What a beautiful, exacting and exhaustive presentation!

In Srimad Bhagavatam, Uddhava, Krishna’s closest devotee, on knowing that his Lord was preparing to leave his body, went to him and submitted: “My dear Lord, I am not able to keep away from your lotus feet even for half a second. Therefore, please take me also with you wherever you go.”

Krishna said: “I understand your problem. But none can take another while he departs from the world. The best will be for you to leave everything and everyone including Dwaraka. Go to Badarikashrama in the Himalayas, and live an austere life there, pursuing the exclusive jnana-nishha. Enjoying the cool mountain breeze and bathing in Alakananda river, spend the rest of your life in ceaseless spiritual contemplation!”

Uddhava found he was unable to leave everything due to his false identification with the body and its relations. He therefore asks Krishna to instruct him thoroughly, so that he could get rid of the shackles of his mind and intelligence and follow his Lord’s command. It is thus that Krishna began to instruct his closest devotee Uddhava about the exclusive jnana-nishtha he refers to here. It is a nishtha (discipline) where the mind and intelligence wholesomely pursue only spiritual thoughts and contemplation in solitude.

Nothing is a hardship if one takes to it as his beloved choice. Thus, to repair oneself to solitude, plunging into the inner depths, to dissolve all bodily and mental activity into its inner Source, is a fulfilling mission. For the true seeker, it can only be a very dear turn of events.

Like the other facets of sadhana, this intensified phase is also within the seeker’s reach. One does not normally come to know, much less think, of applying it to oneself. Krishna reveals it as a significant part of his wholesome instruction. Uddhava shows clearly how it can be adopted with timely resolve and dedication.

In jnana-nishtha the mind and intelligence rise to the exalted degree of spiritual attainment, resulting in the ecstasy of full freedom.

Sannyasa itself is a phase of life one adopts to commence his wholesome jnana-nishtha. It has its sovereign place, role and reward. However, real sannyasa consists in renouncing the ego, desire, greed and possessiveness. As the mind generally clings to these, so with enlightenment, it can also abandon the same and be free. It is verily a process of refinement, elevation and expansion!