Bhagwad Gita - Post 36

Third Chapter - Yoga of Action

In order to remove Moha or attachment, which was the sole cause of Arjuna’s delusion, Sri Krishna taught him the imperishable nature of the Atman, the realization of which would grant him the freedom of the Eternal. 

A doubt therefore arises in Arjuna’s mind as to the necessity of engaging in action even after one has attained this state. 

This chapter opens with Arjuna’s dilemma. He asks Sri Krishna, “You maintain that knowledge is superior to action. Then why do you ask me to engage in this terrible action? Tell me one definite path that will take me to sreya, the highest spiritual Goal.” 

Sri Krishna clears this doubt by telling him that although one has realized oneness with the Eternal, one has to perform action through the force of Prakriti or Nature. 

He emphasizes that perfection is attained not by ceasing to engage in action but by doing all actions as a divine offering, imbued with a spirit of non-attachment and sacrifice.

The man of God-vision, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna, need not engage in action, as he has attained everything that has to be attained. He can be ever absorbed in the calm and immutable Self. 

But to perform action for the good of the world and for the education of the masses is no doubt superior. Therefore, action is necessary not only for one who has attained perfection but also for one who is striving for perfection. 

Sri Krishna quotes the example of Janaka, the great sage-king of India, who continued to rule his kingdom even after attaining God-realization. 

Prakriti or Nature is made up of the three qualities—Rajas, Tamas and Sattva. The Atman is beyond these three qualities and their functions. Only when knowledge of this fact dawns in man does he attain perfection.

The Lord tells Arjuna that each one should do his duty according to his nature, and that doing duty that is suited to one’s nature in the right spirit of detachment will lead to perfection. 

Arjuna raises the question as to why man commits such actions that cloud his mind and drag him downwards, by force, as it were. 

Sri Krishna answers that it is desire that impels man to lose his discrimination and understanding, and thus commit wrong actions. Desire is the root cause of all evil actions. If desire is removed, then the divine power manifests in its full glory and one enjoys peace, bliss, light and freedom.

Sri Krishna then gives the way out. Rise to a higher desire, the lower will lose its hold over you. He concludes with a highly inspiring message – Kill the formidable enemy in the form of desire by rising to the highest desire, that of Self Realization. 

The warrior in Arjuna is provoked and responds.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 35

Verse 69

Yaanishaa sarvabhootaanaam

Tasyaam jaagarti samyamee;

Yasyaam jaagrati bhootaani saa

Nishaa pashyato muneh.

That which is night to all beings, then the self-controlled man is awake; when all beings are awake, that is night for the sage who sees.

The sage lives in the Self; this is day to him. He is unconscious of worldly phenomena; this is like night to him. The ordinary man is unconscious of his real nature. So, life in the Self is like night to him. He experiences sense-objects; this is day to him.

Swami Sivananda says:

“That which is real for the worldly-minded people is illusion for the sage? and vice versa. The sage lives in the Self. This is day for him. He is unconscious of the worldly phenomena. 

They are night for him? as it were. The ordinary man is unconscious of his real nature. Life in the spirit is night for him. He is experiencing the objects of sensual enjoyment. This is day for him. The Self is a non-entity for him; For a sage this world is a non-entity. 

The worldly-minded people are in utter darkness as they have no knowledge of the Self. What is darkness for them is all light for the sage. The Self? Atman or Brahman is night for the worldly-minded persons. But the sage is fully awake. 

He is directly cognizing the supreme Reality? the Light of lights. He is full of illumination and Atma Jnana or knowledge of the Self.”

The worthy disciple of the Sage Sivananda, Swami Krishnananda, says:

“For us, this world of sense perception looks like bright daylight with every kind of clarity before it, and all things seem to be very well with us; but actually, we are in darkness in view of the fact that the truth of the universe is not as it is presented to us through the sense organs. 

The daylight of the sense organs is the darkness of the spirit. The true spirit, which is universal, is sleeping, as it were, while the senses are awake and are active in the daylight of their activity.”

Sri Aurobindo writes on this verse:

“The status he reaches is the Brahmic condition; he gets to firm standing in the Brahman, brāhmī sthitih. It is a reversal of the whole view, experience, knowledge, values, seeing of earth-bound creatures. 

This life of the dualities which is to them their day, their waking, their consciousness, their bright condition of activity and knowledge, is to him a night, a troubled sleep and darkness of the soul; that higher being which is to them a night, a sleep in which all knowledge and will cease, is to the self-mastering sage his waking, his luminous day of true being, knowledge and power.”

Dear All,

“Where all beings are awake that is the night for the sage who sees the Self”: This refers to the physical day light as compared to the spiritual day light for the sage.

Majority of us are awake during day time. It is the time we are involved in various activities that bind us to the world around us. During the physical daytime, the sage is spiritually living in night because he is not attached to the world around him. He is totally immersed in the “Atman” and does not see the world around him. (living in night.)

Physically awake – spiritually ignorant: 

Conditioned by the time of the day and immersed in worldly activities, majority of us are unaware of the Atman within and all around.

Physically sleeping but spiritually awake to the Atman within and all around: this is the way of living of the realized soul.

To sum up, A stitaprajna or a Jivanmukhta is asleep (unconcerned) to all those objects / worldly desires to which the world is awake (indulgent) and He is awake (awakened to the spirit, the atman that He verily exists as) to which the world is asleep (ignorant, filled with avidya, existing far away from their own real identity, the Atman)

Love.

PS - With this, we come to the end of Second chapter. We will take up important verses from the 3rd chapter from the next post onwards.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 34

Verse 65

Prasaade sarvaduhkhaanaam

Haanir asyopajaayate;

Prasannachetaso hyaashu

Buddhih paryavatishthate.

In that peace all pains are destroyed,

for the intellect of the tranquil-minded soon becomes steady.

Lord Krishna now explains that when the mind is placid and pure, it has enacted for itself the cessation of all miseries arising from conjunction with prakriti materialism.

Prasanna-chetah refers to that delightful one whose mind is expunged of all impediments that hinders it from realizing the eternal soul while bestowing the spiritual intelligence needed for illumination. Thus, when the mind has been purified, all sorrow is terminated.

When one strives for pleasure, he undergoes lot of pain / lot of struggle for getting that pleasure, when he gets it, there is a pain / fear of losing it, when he actually loses it, then it is again lot of pain.

And, if he does not get at all in the first instance, there is pain from the very beginning.

Non-attachment is the key by which we can dilute the harmful effects of desire and hatred and we can escape from vicious cycle towards destruction of mind.

Just this awareness, the discrimination, the understanding in mind that I am unattached with outer world, I am in control of the self or supreme self, I am with ‘him’, can lower the power of the overpowered senses, it can eliminate desire and hatred and then even though we interact with the senses, we attain peace.

In peace, all sorrows are withdrawn from oneself. And mind becomes clear. He who is clear minded, intelligence immediately becomes steady.

Verse 66

Naasti buddhir ayuktasya

Na chaayuktasya bhaavanaa;

Na chaabhaavayatah shaantir

Ashaantasya kutah sukham.

There is no knowledge of the Self to the unsteady,

and to the unsteady no meditation is possible;

and to the un-meditative there can be no peace;

and to the man who has no peace,

how can there be happiness?

Lord Krishna now reveals the controlling of the senses as a means of attaining spiritual intelligence in a converse way. The Lord states that one with an uncontrolled mind can never possess spiritual intelligence even if well versed in the Vedic scriptures and is taught by a Realized master.

Why is this true? Because with an uncontrolled mind it is not possible to have spiritual intelligence, without spiritual intelligence one cannot meditate and without meditation it is not possible to realize the Ultimate Truth. 

So, one who has an uncontrolled mind is bereft of this, for one who cannot meditate, who is unable to enlighten themselves within there is no peace and where there is no peace, how can there be happiness?

There are various manifestations of a mind which is uncontrolled like Anger, Greed, Envy, Worldly ambition etc. They are all different but when one transcends all these, the peace experienced is the same

Shanti or peace refers also to liberation. Shanti, moksha or liberation and nirvana all have a similar meaning denoting termination of the samsara or worldly existence.

Swami says,

"Once a man is free from undue attachment to the body and its appurtenances (things attached to "the body"), he is liberated also from the pulls of joy / grief / bad / pleasures / pain etc. He is firmly established in equanimity, fortitude and undisturbed balance" - (Message of the Lord).

Love.