1. Strength is important on the
inside, do everything even renunciation from a position of strength. Do nothing
out of weakness.
2. Fear nothing, have extreme
fearlessness and extreme compassion, be gentle. Don’t fear anybody or anything
and let no one fear you.
3.”Bear with them”, remain
equanimous to external factors, control mind.
4. Soul cannot kill nor can be
killed.
5. Action and meditation, both
are important, internal and external.
6. Make continuous effort to move
or transform from Tamas to Rajas to Sattva state.
7. Beings come from the unknown,
live in the known and go back into the unknown. So what is there to be worried
about?
8. Make pleasure and pain, gain
and loss, conquest and defeat, the same. Work with balanced attitude, calm
attitude, then, you will achieve great results.
9. Be a Yogi, be equanimous, evenness of mind.
10. Perform actions abandoning attachment,
remaining unconcerned as regards success or failure. This evenness of mind is
known as Yoga.
11. Control the senses, sense
organs.
12. One who restrains the organs
of action, yet entertains thoughts of sense objects in mind, is a hypocrite.
13. One who controlling the
senses by the mind, remains unattached, directs the organs of action to the
yoga of action, excels.
14. Do actions free from
attachment, for sake of Yajna, to give and not to take (in mind), and then
there will be no bondage.
15. Action cannot be avoided,
take action but for others welfare, without personal attachment.
16. Action is because of Prakriti
– nature, our ego assumes that we are doing it.
17. Forces of nature act with
forces of nature, inside to outside, outside to inside, know this, don’t get
attached.
18. Sense organs and sense
objects these are forces of nature that act and react with each other; our mind
is in between, when mind gets involved ego develops, craving and aversions
develop.
19. Desire unrestrained, anger
and uncontrolled mind covers true knowledge.
20. Beyond body and sensory
organs, is the mind, beyond mind is the intellect and beyond intellect is the
atman.
21. Be a Rajarshi, be without
craving, without fear and anger, have control and discipline of the mind and
thinking.
22. Nirvikalpa – without mental
modifications, a state of no mind.
23. Let the mind be satisfied all
the time; then detachment will come, work will not be work anymore, it will become
enjoyable.
24. With faith and shraddha, discipline
and control the senses, and be free.
25. Renunciation and action are
one when the mind is focused on the self, in tapas, with detachment, in the
spirit of yoga.
26. With sense organs under
control, immerse in self, recognize it as the same self in all beings, work
like a Yogi, for the benefit of all. Detachment comes.
27. Detachment alone can set you
free, one is basically free, it is the bondage of sense organs that imprisons
us, we cannot become what we are not.
28. Humans have two natures, one
internal and the other external, all action is because of nature, let the
internal nature be supreme.
29. At the level of the self
(above intellect) all life forms are the same, there is no difference, there is
absolute equality and unity.
30. Develop equanimity; stay
equidistant from pleasantness and unpleasantness, both extremes. Stay unattached
from / to external factors / contacts and become free from external
environment.
31. Our six enemies; Kama
(unrestrained lust), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (delusion), Mada
(arrogance or pride), Matsarya (jealousy). All connected to external contact
and leading to unhappiness.
32. Dependence on external factors brings
unhappiness; freedom from external factors brings happiness.
33. Control your desires; you are
your own friend and enemy.
34. Let the supreme self be the
object of constant realisation.
35. Conquer your senses such that
mud stone and gold seem the same.
36. Retire into solitude and
practice concentration of the mind.
37. Let the heart be serene and
fearless.
38. Avoid extremes, be moderate
in everything you do, not too much austerities or too much indulgence.
39. From a scattered mind become
a gathered mind.
40. When seeing the self by the
self, one is satisfied in the self.
41. Sense organs have no role, the self can be
realized only by trained buddhi i.e. intellect.
42. Control of the mind can be
achieved through Abhyas, Vairagya and Sraddha.
43. Earth, water, fire, air,
space, mind, intellect and ego are the lower eight parts of nature.
Intelligence and conscience are the two higher parts of nature.
44. Maya is like the magic of the
magician. When you get involved in the magic you are caught but when you are
focused on the magician you can’t get caught in his magic. The maya is very
difficult to cross if we do not focus on the mayavi, the one who crates the
magic.
45. The gunas are also maya.
Tamas pulls one deeper into maya, rajas retain one in maya and Sattva helps one
to pull out of maya. Sattva is not the highest reality, it only shows the
direction.
46. There are four seekers of the
mayavi / magician. The distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of
wealth and the spiritually wise one who seeks for the sake of love, which is
the best.
47. Craving and aversion are the
two main obstacles.
48. Beyond the manifest is the
unmanifest. When one is steadfast, disciplined and detached, in pursuit of the
unmanifested, one surely attains it.
49. Strive for the unmanifest and
the unmanifest will help you to advance further, through intellect, Buddhi, the
unmanifest will help you to advance.
50. It is the body conscience
that holds us back from understanding the universal atman, the Brahman. The
whole function of knowledge and intellect is to penetrate the surface and see
the one behind the many.
51. One who does work for me alone and has me
for his or her goal, is devoted to me, is free from sensory attachments and
bears no enemity towards any being, he or she will attain to me. (From Chapters 1 to 11)
