The Bhagavad-Gita: A Case Study in Vedic Psychology - Maharishi ...

MODERN SCIENCE AND VEDIC SCIENCE
machinery that creates desire—senses, mind, and intellect—so that even while remaining
in the field of desire, it remains free from the impact of desire....
Having thus far explained that the loss of wisdom is due mainly to the mind's incessant
engagement in the field of activity, to desire, the Lord now begins to describe a way
whereby the subjective aspect of one's life, which is responsible for all desire and activity,
can be influenced in such a manner that, on the one hand, it does not permit desires to overshadow
Being and, on the other, it brings fulfillment to them.... (pp. 239-241)
Lord Krishn continues:
The senses, they say, are subtle;
more subtle than the senses is the mind;
yet finer than mind is intellect;
that which is beyond even the intellect
is he.
(III. 42)
Thus, having known him who is
beyond the intellect, having stilled
the self by the Self, О mighty-armed,
slay the enemy in the form of desire,
difficult to subdue.
(III. 43)
Let him gradually retire through
the intellect possessed of patience;
having established the mind in the
Self, let him not think at all.
(VI. 25)
Maharishi points out that in these verses, Lord Krishn describes the mechanics of
experiencing the Self as a process of withdrawing the attention from the senses through
the "subtler" levels of inner experience—the mind, intellect, and ego (individual self)—
eventually experiencing the Self or pure consciousness (Dillbeck, 1988). Lord Krishn
asserts that in this experience of the Self, which is beyond thought, the impelling force
of desire no longer takes attention outward through the senses.
In his commentary, Maharishi emphasizes that the process of transcending described
by Lord Krishn does not require effort or concentration. As quoted previously, Lord
Krishn (II, 40) first introduces the topic of Yog by stating, "In this (Yog) no effort is lost
and no obstacle exists." However, he also said, as quoted above (II, 43), that desire was
"difficult to subdue." Maharishi explains the resolution of this apparent inconsistency in
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