Jaao Re Jogi : Part 2

 Jaao Re Jogi

Part 2:

Love:

Jaao re jogi tum jaao re

Yeh hain premiyon ki nagari 

Yahan prem hi hain pooja ……..

Prem ki peeda sachcha sukh hain 

Prem bina yeh jeevan dukh hain

The song opens with Amrapali proclaiming the yogi is unwelcome because it is a city of love. Then starts making tall claims about love.

We need to understand the concept of love.

Love for what? That’s really the issue that separates a real yogi and a non-yogi.

Love for the perishable or imperishable?

Every living creature is perishable to ordinary eyes and brain. Even the people of faith who believe that the person does not perish with death or want to believe this, are not able to discern the matter from the spirit of the person in day to day living. That’s precisely the reason why they experience great grief when the loved one passes away or is separated from them.

The yogi sees clear distinction between matter and spirit and learns to not get caught up in matter. A wise yogi can’t help but love people and all creatures. But his understanding of what they are is much different from ordinary people. He doesn’t seek anything from them and cannot give back the kind of pleasures and display of affection like they expect from him. 

The kind of love he holds in his heart is much deep seated. It does not fluctuate based on what someone does for him or to him. He can only wish good for them notwithstanding what they wish for him. 

When Jesus says “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”( Bible: Luke 23:34), he knows that they really don’t know. They don’t know who they are. But Jesus knows who he is. And he knows they are essentially not different from who he is. The only difference is in knowing and not knowing. The one who knows has the advantage of feeling love and benevolence. Those who don’t know, sadly, lack these gifts. So each one is behaving according to their own understanding. Either one can’t behave like the other. Jesus can’t be cruel and they can’t be kind! So on their behalf, Jesus intervenes and ask forgiveness for their genuine ignorance. 

Ask people who fall in and out of love. Would they care to unconditionally forgive and defend those who hurt them? Mostly they are bred in a culture of reciprocity.

Love is inseparable part of the spirit. Those who gain the spirit, gain love.

Conversely, the slightest feeling of hatred or dislike for anyone is a sign of impurity getting stuck on to the pure spirit. This recognition is very handy in order to remain unwaveringly in the spirit without a trace of contamination with matter. As the yogi advances in his identification with the spirit or pure consciousness he ceases at a personal level to reciprocate towards both good and bad turns from people. This can turn off people who did a good turn to him. Because they have become accustomed to reciprocation.

All said and done, a true yogi is not easy to understand for many. 

The making of a yogi by itself can initially get confusing even for himself. There may be periods when he finds himself neither here nor there. He can’t fit into ordinary culture and he is baffled about what is the right way. To keep a count of every good deed or not? To comply with social formalities or not?

Not keeping count of anyone’s bad deeds is easy for him. Not keeping count of good deeds is what confuses a good heart in the beginning. Drifting away completely from mainstream culture becomes challenging until more clarity comes in. 

Back to the topic of love, the definition and understanding of love differs vastly for a true yogi and for people living in mainstream society. It is therefore not surprising when people mistake a person who shows outward dispassion and indifference as lacking deeper emotions. Those emotions are far more meaningful and selfless than can be perceived on the outside. They are seldom expressed in words or even gestures. Partly because the yogi gradually even gives up the desire to be understood. The onus of understanding falls on the other person. Therefore self expression ceases to hold any importance to the yogi.

Alternatively, every person’s expression is his expression. Even that of ignorant people. As Muktabai describes it:

ऐसा नटनाट्य खेळ 

स्थिर नाही एक वेळ

He learns to remain steady participating in the role assigned to him.

Amrapali was right in a way that unless you experience love, and suffering arising from the love, you cannot attain lasting wisdom. The only thing is that she underestimated the fact that the yogi too experiences love and suffering, but at a whole different level. She was not capable to understand a true yogi as long as her love was for a singular physical entity. A true yogi however could understand her standpoint with no difficulty and therefore he wouldn’t argue with her. He would probably simply nod in response to her reasoning. 

Again, perhaps it is worth reiterating, that understanding is largely a personal responsibility. Someone else cannot be held accountable to make us understand life. Not misunderstanding is equally a personal responsibility. Another person cannot be held accountable for our misunderstanding. Once we know that, we begin to exercise our choice: do we want to make effort to understand and resist misunderstanding at any cost?

Yahan prem hi hain pooja ……..

There is nothing wrong in seeing love as a form of worship. 

But when the object of worship is really small and limited in nature, that becomes a dangerous form of worship. In the Bhagwad Gita it is deemed as tamasic kind of worship.

In contrast, when the object of worship is the infinite reality and you forget everything else in a bid to seek it, your life just lifts to a whole different level and without having to try separately, you manage to lift other people with yourself.

Thus the take home message is feel free to make love as a form of worship but exercise utmost caution in choosing the object of your worship.

Prem ki peeda sachcha sukh hain 

Prem bina yeh jeevan dukh hain

Here too joy and suffering arising from love are qualitatively determined by the kind of love you profess. Physical love leads to tamasic joys and sufferings. There is heartbreak in the end in such love.

Spiritual love brings a different kind of bliss and an entirely different kind of suffering known only to saintly people. In this way of life, the heart is fulfilled in the end. This is sattvic experience.

Rajasic experience is a mixture of saatvic and tamasic. When sattva is significantly accumulated but tamas is not entirely overcome, the sorrows and joys are of a mixed quality.

Thus ultimately all experience boils down to the level of gunas one reaches. 

Sensory experience dissolves in the state that transcends the three gunas. No experiencer. And no describable subjective or objective experience.

Prem ki peeda sachcha sukh hain    

There is no peeda(suffering) in that trigunateet state. Prem, sukh, jeevan and sach all become a single entity. Love, bliss, life and truth are the very nature of that state.