Verse 11
चित्तस्य शुद्धये कर्म न तु वस्तूपलब्धये ।
वस्तुसिद्धिर्विचारेण न किंचित्कर्मकोटिभिः ॥ ११ ॥
cittasya śuddhaye karma na tu vastūpalabdhaye |
vastusiddhirvicāreṇa na kiṃcitkarmakoṭibhiḥ || 11 ||
(Selfless work and charitable acts help
to purify the mind, but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the perception
of Reality. The discovery of the Reality is brought about only by discriminative
analysis and never by any number of actions.)
An often quoted analogy by the author -
In our school times, we loved our school, we loved our seating, our class
mates who uses to sit along with us in a row. But can we, after growing up and
getting married, still go and sit on the same seat in that same row in the same
class room saying that we love that seat, that class and we won’t leave that?
Another example.
A child is told by his parents to
revise his arithmetic tables everyday.
The obedient child soon gets into the habit of starting his day with a reading
of the tables. But if the child continues his habit as a dull and unintelligent
routine even in his postgraduate classes, it is but natural for his professor
to laugh at his stupidity.
A sage writes,
“In the halls of Vedanta, the seeker is
laughed at because of the time-worn techniques of self-development
to which he has become habituated, but that does not mean that
Sankara or the Vedantins are against them.
The paths of karma, bhakti and so
on, have certainly a place in the scheme of self-development and they are
unavoidable in hauling up a man through the various stages of self-development
to the pinnacle of perfection.
Three things constitute dharma; one is
rituals or religious exercises; like puja, japa etc. that is one part of
dharma; all religious exercises whether it is temple visit, puja, pilgrimage
japa, etc. all of them will come under rituals or religious exercises.
Second part of dharma is values. There
are many people who give importance to religious exercises but they never give
importance to their character, the quality or morality. And therefore morality
or value is the second part of dharma.
And third part of dharma is attitude;
the way we look at the creation; the way we look at ourselves and the way we
look at the people around. First learn to respect yourself. A Bhakta is
great not because of anything; because Lord is inside him.
Thus religious exercises, values and
attitude. This is called karma here. Chittasya
Shuddaye karma; Karma is equal to dharma.
When an action is undertaken with
a motive, the individual must necessarily be shattered and fatigued under its
persecution. On the other hand, when an act of charity or kindness is done in a
spirit of dedication and love, with no ulterior motive, the mind cosily
settles down and peace that rises within the sadhaka increases
automatically and his personality becomes more and more integrated.
Selfless actions do not help a seeker
directly in his flights of self-discovery. But they certainly have a place
in one's sadhana in as much as they prepare the individual to transcend
the ego and give him the wings for the last flight to the beyond.
Sankara is uncompromisingly severe when
he declares in his irrevocable statements that the Self is neither
produced nor knowledge created as a result of finite actions, however
noble, divine and great they may be.
How about someone who is unable to take
up the path of vichara? He would like to do more of puja; Can he cry in front
of the Lord as a replacement of vichara?
Sankara says Na kinchit karma kotibhihi; one can do crores of yajnas; crores of
yagas; crores of pujas; intense bhajans; one may do all these things; cry
in front of the Lord; crying would not replace enquiry; but crying in front of
the Lord would not go waste; the Lord will make him fit for enquiry make you
love enquiry.
A bhakta may not know when he has moved
/ evolved to the path of discrimination. In His Love for God, when the urge
within him is on fire to merge with the lord instead of crying out for the
lord, in that quest for merger with lord, the path of Jnana/discrimination
has started.
Karmaṇa siddhihi, vicharane
jnana.
This is sara of this sloka. Religion gives purity; philosophy gives knowledge.
Veda purva is purity; veda anta is knowledge.
Love.
