Bhagwad Gita - Post 225

Verse 13

Learn from Me, O mighty-armed Arjuna, these five causes, as declared in the Sankhya system for the accomplishment of all actions!

Verse 14

The body, the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various sorts, and the presiding Deity, also, the fifth,

Verse 15

Whatever action a man performs by his body, speech and mind, whether right or the reverse, these five are its causes.

There are five conditioning factors behind any kind of movement, action, work, or whatever it be. 

Sankhya, which is the highest knowledge, and which details the varieties of results that follow from different kinds of karmas, tells us that there are five phases of an action. 

Body

The physical body has something to say about the quantum of work that we can execute, and also the quality of work that can be expected from us. Whether our body is strong and healthy, or whether it is weak and sick, is a factor that also is to be taken into consideration when we do any work.

Hence, according to the nature of the physical condition, there will also be the conditioning of the result that follows from the action. That is one aspect among the five.

Doer - Karta / Soul

Kartā means “the doer,” and refers to the soul. Although the soul itself does not perform actions, it inspires the body-mind-intellect mechanism with the life force to act. Further, it identifies with their actions, due to the influence of the ego. 

Therefore, it is responsible for the actions performed by the body, and it is called both the knower and the doer. 

The Prasna Upaniṣhad states: 

“It is the soul that sees, touches, hears, feels, tastes, thinks, and comprehends. Thus, the soul is to be considered both—the knower and the doer of actions.” 

For easier comprehension, we can understand this as soul+samskara or in very broader terms, the ego factor.

Various senses 

The instruments that we use in the performance of action also condition the work. Suppose we dig a pit. If we dig with our hands, we will get one type of result; but if we use a pickaxe or a shovel, or a bulldozer, then different kinds of results will follow. The kind of instrument that we use in the performance of action will also decide what kind of result will follow.

So, it is about how our 5 Karma Indriyas are used, that the action shapes up.

Different functions of Mind

Even when we are doing one work, twenty ideas may be in our mind at the same time, pulling us in different directions, and it does not mean that a person thinks only one thought at a time. Even when we are doing one work, if we are able to think only that and nothing else, we are really a great person. But, generally that is not possible. 

There is a memory of something that happened in the past, and an apprehension of something that could take place in the future, and a fear of something that is in the present.

These will distract the mind. These operations of the mind which distract are also conditioning factors in the performance of the work.

Proper functioning of mind with focused intellect / viveka is what we have understood as Self Efforts or purushartha and depending upon how we exercise this factor, our actions are performed by us. 

Presiding deity

This has been explained by various commentators in different ways.

Some say, these are the five elements.

Some say, this is the Atman and they justify this as under:-

“The five factors are the physical body, the five senses such eyes, ears, etc., the ego, the life airs which govern breathing and the atma the controller of them all. 

The Vedanta Sutra II.III.XXXIII beginning upadanat states: The atma of the jiva or embodied being at the death of the physical body takes the pranas along with it; therefore the atma is the controller.”

However, most appealing is the interpretation given by Swami Krishnananda who says, this is Divine providence or the cosmic will and explains,

“A thing that is not sanctioned by the Ultimate Will of the universe will not take place, however much we may sweat. That which is to happen will happen, whatever be our effort to prevent it; and that which is not to happen will not happen, even if we call for it. This is the inscrutable factor operating behind all things. 

Our very mind, our very body, our egoism, our mental faculty, our very existence, is conditioned by the central Cosmic Will; and if it does not permit any event to take place, that event will never take place even if millions of people work hard to make it happen. 

Whatever be our effort in the direction of guarding our person, our society, or our country, it has to be sanctioned by the Supreme Will. As Sri Krishna told Arjuna, “Go ahead. You will succeed.” But that sanction was not there for the Kauravas, and the opposite result followed.

Thus, the final operative factor is the central Universal Will, with which we have to always stand in a state of union and communion. We should not egoistically assert too much of our own individual agency in action. We are not the only agents. There are five agents in the performance of an action, and among those five there is one supreme principle which we cannot afford to forget: the existence of God in the world. The principle of divinity permeating all things—the immanence of God—ultimately decides all factors, though others also act as instruments”.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 224

Verse 10

The man of renunciation, pervaded by purity, intelligent and with his doubts cut asunder, does not hate a disagreeable work nor is he attached to an agreeable one.

The person who renounces attachment due the preponderance of the sattva guna in him, who is very intelligent in perceiving the pros and cons of things, and has no doubt whatsoever about the way in which work is to be done, hating not painful work, clinging not to pleasurable work, such a person is really an example before us. 

It does not mean that we should cling to something because it is pleasant, nor does it mean that we should hate something because it is not pleasant. 

Na dveṣṭy akuśalaṁ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate: The pleasant form of work does not call for attraction, nor should it evoke hatred when it is painful work calling for hard labour on our part. 

In as much as the ego-sense is absent there is no impetus to exhibit aversion or attraction for either one or the other and since all other goals have been relinquished and resigned with the exception of moksa or final emancipation from material existence as revealed in Vedic scriptures then one is truly established in ultimate renunciation. 

Thus the conclusion is that relinquishing all ego-sense of authorship and abandoning any desire for rewards is actual renunciation and not mere abstention from actions.

This state of existence is echoed in Ashtavakra Gita in the following verse 

(Liberation is when the mind does not long for anything, grieve about anything, reject anything, or hold on to anything, and is not pleased about anything or displeased about anything.)

(Chapter 8, verse 2)

The verse speaks of acceptance of an action which is agreeable or rejection of an action which is disagreeable.

The question is- Agreeable or disagreeable to WHAT?

It is agreeable / disagreeable to one’s EGO, dominated by Rajas/Tamas.

And, Ashtavakra says, the one who has transcended EGO, stands liberated at that very moment and there is no ego to say, "O Yes, this I shall accept” or to frown, “O No, this I reject”.

Verse 11

Verily, it is not possible for an embodied being to abandon actions entirely; but he who relinquishes the rewards of actions is verily called a man of renunciation.

No embodied person can totally be free from work. The very fact of our being in a body calls for some kind of engagement because this body is made up of physical matter and, therefore, it is a form of prakriti constituted of the three gunas—sattva, rajas and tamas. 

In as much as prakriti is always in a state of disturbance—it is not in a state of equilibrium—and its properties of sattva, rajas and tamas are constantly moving in a cyclic fashion, they compel the body to also be subject to that kind of cyclic action because the physical body of a human being, or of anything whatsoever, is not free from the contingency arising from the operation of the three gunas.

Abandoning work is, therefore, not possible as long as we have a body. But we shall be free from the binding effect of karma, or action, provided we do not look to the effect, or the fruit, that accrues from the work. 

We should do our work because it is necessary to work for the welfare of everybody, not because we get some recompense out of it. 

Sattvic work is work done for work’s sake only, whether or not it brings any fruit. Actually, every duty performed well—in a most unselfish manner—will, of its own accord, bring a result which is most pleasant, and we need not ask for it. 

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 223

Verse 7

 

Verily, the renunciation of obligatory action is improper; the abandonment of the same from delusion is declared to be Tamasic.

An obligatory duty is that kind of work or performance which is organically related to our very survival and existence in this world and is interrelated to other beings in the world. 

Our existence is conditioned by certain obligations to the atmosphere or the environment of the society in which we are living, and if this point is missed due to any intense form of selfishness on one’s part—one works for one’s own welfare very ignorantly, not considering the internal relationship that one bears consciously or unconsciously with the outer atmosphere—if this ignorance is going to be the motive behind one’s action, deluded is that person.

Abandonment of such obligatory duties is considered by the Lord as the lowest and the darkest (Tamasic). Every individual has his own obligations to himself and to others in society.

Verse 8

He who abandons action on account of the fear of bodily trouble (because it is painful), he does not obtain the merit of renunciation by doing such Rajasic renunciation.

Tamasic relinquishment is mentioned as that form of abandonment of action.

There is another relinquishment, called rajasic tyaga: “Because it is difficult—it is very painful, it involves a lot of hardship, I have to work, day and night—therefore, I will not do that work.” This argument for not doing a work is not actually feasible or tenable. 

The reason for not doing a work should not be merely the fact that it is a strain upon oneself to do hard work. We have to sweat, and “I do not want to sweat; therefore, I will not do this work. Physically it is painful, torturous and, therefore, I am afraid of doing this kind of work or undertaking this project”. When a person abandons doing a work because it is painful and requires hard labour on their part, that kind of abandonment of work is called rajasic tyaga. It is not sattvic.

  

Verse 9

Whatever obligatory action is done, O Arjuna, merely because it ought to be done, abandoning attachment and also the desire for reward, that renunciation is regarded as Sattwic!

Sattvic renunciation does not mean renunciation of action. Then, what does it mean? It is the doing of one’s work because it is something that must be done under the circumstances in which one is placed. 

Kāryam ityeva yat karma niyataṁ: “Definitely it has to be done, because it is binding upon me. Yet, I shall do that work but be free from attachment to the work.” It does not mean that we should be attached to duty. The performance of duty is an impersonal involvement of ourselves in a call that is super-individual and it does not call for attachment. 

Attachment is an emotional clinging to a particular form, event or anything whatsoever; and duty, being a superior call from a law that is above human nature, cannot be an object of attachment. 

Therefore, when a person performs a work as a duty incumbent upon that person and yet never feels that it is ‘my’ work, and he knows that it is not anyone’s work but it is a work done for the work’s sake, and he does not expect any recompense or fruit thereof—such an impersonally construed unselfish action done for the sake of work alone can be regarded as sattvic action. All other kinds of work are rajasic or tamasic.

Love.