Bhagwad Gita- Post 153

Quality # 21 

Na sochati na kaangkshati  

Neither grieves nor desires

Grief is generally experienced while parting with a beloved object, and desires are entertained when one yearns to have and to possess something unattained at present. 

Needless to say, the root cause is again “ EGO”.

A Man of Perfection is one whose beloved object, the Self, can never be apart from him. ( Hence, no GRIEF)

And he has no sense of attachment with any other object. (Hence no Desire)

Having attained the Self, the inhabitant of his heart, he has such a complete sense of fulfillment that he has no more any desire for attaining anything that he has not attained. The Self being the All, he has attained everything.

With all the understanding gained by us so far, shall we re arrange the line as " No desire and hence, no possibility of grieving ever"?

Quality # 22 

Shubha Ashubha parityagee          

Renouncing good and evil

The happenings in the world around us can fall under these two categories, according to whether they arouse in us a feeling of joy or sorrow. 

To any person who is living away from the realm of the dualistic experiences, and who has learnt the art of drawing inspiration from something beyond, none of the happenings, here at the level of the mind and the intellect, can be of any serious consequences.

A verse from Ashtavakra Gita is recalled here, which applies to all dualities dealt in the 26 qualities of devotee in this chapter as much as it applies to the present quality- “Renouncing Good and Evil”

Janaka uvāca 

ākāśavadananto'haṃ ghaṭavatprākṛtaṃ jagat 

iti jñānaṃ tathaitasya na tyāgo na graho layaḥ  

Janaka says to Ashtavakra,  

“I am infinite like space, and the natural world is like a jar. To know this is knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation, nor acceptance or cessation of it.”

Dear All,

This verse also beautifully aligns to the talk posted for devotees in an Oman Sai centre, where, through different analogies, it was expounded by the author, “You are the space, ( pure consciousness), unaffected by anything that exists in you, anything that goes in in your mind, good or bad"!!

Janaka says that in His state, he has nothing to accept and nothing to renounce as he has risen above the level of any object awareness to accept and renounce any object in this creation. 

He exists like the space in this creation which is like a jar. Inside the jar, surrounding the jar, prior to the jar being made by the potter and after the pot is broken, in and through all  situations, he exists as pure space- pure consciousness. 

Love

Bhagwad Gita- Post 152

Quality # 19

Sarva arambha parityagee        

        

Renounced all undertakings and all  Commencements

The phrase sarva-arambha-parityagi means renouncing all endeavors that are colored with ego. 

He does not take initiative. If something happens, he acts in accordance with that happening. If nothing happens, he keeps quiet. 

He does not plan what he will do tomorrow or the day after that. He remains quiet, as if nothing is happening and the world itself does not exist. 

Why would a True devotee will not make a beginning in any thing?? Will he just sit idle?? 

For such apparently contradictory verses, Sri Chinmaya’s lines  always illumine and clears the confusion when we read such verses

He writes,

“To perceive any definite beginning in an undertaking, the individual actor must have a solid and gross egoistic claim that he had begun it himself. 

He must have the strong feeling that he is beginning an activity, for the purpose of gaining a definite goal, whereby he will be fulfilling a specific desire of his, or will thereby be gaining a positive profit. 

One who is a seeker of the Divine, striving to reach the higher cultural perfections, must renounce this egoistic sense of self-importance and work on in the world."

An example would clarify this state of “not beginning anything on his own ( with ego)"

The series of Samarpan bhajans taken up in a Sai centre in Oman. somewhere in 2007, was stopped after taking up bhajan teaching as well as satsangh for 251 bhajans, few years before.

Never did an Idea strike to the Author that he should re-start the same. After nearly 5 years or so, when the Sadan talk series on Realization through the path of devotion, Attraction to Atma Nivedanam got over, one of the devotees messaged, “ Why don’t you start the Samarpan again?”. 

There was no time space gap between the suggestion received and his replying, “ yes, we will start”.

This shows that, on his own, a true devotee may not rush to start any thing on his own, which is propelled by ego, any thought that “ I will take the initiative”. 

However, it does not mean that he will never rise to take up anything. Everything that he starts, does, is based on intuition and the decision to start, when the intuition is received, is instant and then the work is taken up with  highest spirit. 

Quality # 20

Yona hrishyati na dweshti         

Neither rejoices, nor hates

Again, both these qualities owe  their state of existence to  the devotee’s transcending the root cause- EGO, which has been sufficiently explained , yet, it deserves a recap.

Clouded with ignorance ( Avidya)  of our divine nature, developing the “ I” or “ mine ness”( Asmita) , when we usually encounter a situation or obtain an object, we are either attracted ( Raga)  to it, repulsed (Dvesha) by it. 

Attraction generates desires that are stored in our mind, and repulsion generates negative desires, a list of things we would like to stay away from. If we eventually get the favorable object, or hold on to the favorable situation long enough, we become “harshita”, we rejoice. 

But if we lose that object or situation, which is bound to happen sometime, we become “shochita”, we grieve. Attraction, revulsion, desire, hatred, joy, grief – this is how most of us usually operate.

 
The perfected devotee has tackled this problem at its root, he has transcended Avidya and has become one with the Lord.

He has stopped labelling any object, person, situation or thought as either good or bad, because it is exactly this labelling that starts the chain reaction of attraction, desire, joy and sorrow. The perfected devotee accepts all objects and situations as Easwara’s blessings, does what he has to do, and moves on. 

Love

Bhagwad Gita- Post 151

Quality # 17

Udaseeno    

Unconcerned

He is Udaaseenaha, unconcerned and unattached, not because he does not care about the action, but because he doesn’t get attached to the result of the action.

In Panchadasi, there is this  description of a Jivanmukhta, which exactly aligns with this quality.

“Nothing worries them. If somebody is cutting a tree in the forest, we are not bothered. Let them cut it. Nothing is happening, though the tree in the forest is being cut by somebody. 

So many are climbing trees and chopping off branches for fuel. Are we worried about all these things? We look at these events taking place as if they are not taking place at all. 

Many events in the world which are causes of great anxiety to people like us are no events at all for these Godmen, as if they do not take place. If the prarabdha which is working through this body manifests itself in the form of some experience—as Jadabharata had an experience, for instance—it matters not to them. 

Whether they are alive or dead, it makes no difference, because  essentially they cannot die. And even if they are alive, it is not a great virtue for them because, after all, what is this life except through this body born of prarabdha? Birth and death mean the same thing.

Why at all we are concerned about something?? Because, as per our attachment, certain things, when they happen, we are happy about it  and on the other hand, certain things, if they happen or if they do not happen,  we are very concerned as to why it happened or why it did not happen. So, if we reach to the root cause of this “ excessive concern”, we will find that our ego is the cause for the same.

And, we have elaborately dealt with this “ Ego” and how a devotee transcends the same.

Hence, a sincere devotee who has no ego any more, is not concerned with any material aspects in the world as other persons would be concerned. 

How ever, wherever any action is required, any one needs to be served, without deliberations, without propelled by any thoughts arising out of Ego, he ends up acting/ serving spontaneously. 

In short, each move by/ from such a devotee/ Jnani is based on intuitions, not driven by mind.

Quality # 18

Gatavyatah 

Untroubled

Free from grief of every kind. He has no sorrow, no grief, no feeling that something has come which he does not want, or something that he wants has not come. 

This grief does not touch him because there is nothing that he wants, and there is nothing that he does not want.

With no mental agitations caused by future expectations or past anxiety, the karma yogi performs actions with great dexterity and fearlessness. “Yogaha karmasu kaushalam” – dexterity in action is karma yoga as we saw in the second chapter. 

The karma yogi devotes all his attention and brings great focus to the task at hand, keeping all distractions aside. He also performs the work as an emissary of Easwara, which removes any notion of fear, hesitation or doubt from his mind. Sri Krishna says that this type of devotee, the perfected karma yogi, is very dear to him.

Love