Bhagwad Gita - Post 65

Verse 16

Jnaanena tu tad ajnaanam

Yeshaam naashitam aatmanah;

Teshaam aadityavaj jnaanam

Prakaashayati tatparam.

But, to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun, knowledge reveals the Supreme (Brahman).

Here Lord Krishna is emphasizing that persons whose spiritual knowledge has become awakened do not become deluded in the material existence. They are able to discriminate between the mundane material knowledge and the divine spiritual knowledge by knowledge of the atman or soul and knowledge of the Supreme. This spiritual knowledge destroys all ignorance and manifests illumination of the Supreme Lord within the etheric heart of a human being just as the sun destroying darkness and illuminates all things.

Let us resort to Sri Chinmaya’s commentary for this profound declaration by Sri Krishna in this verse.

Acharya writes, 

“In the case of finite mortals, sighing and sobbing in ignorance, the Self is screened off from them by lifeless walls of nescience (Avidya). The man of realization is one in whom Knowledge has lifted this veil of ignorance.

Darkness is removed by Light not by degrees but instantaneously --- however old the darkness may be and however thick its density. Similarly, in one who has Knowledge (Jnana) of the Self, the beginningless ignorance is lifted and within a lightning flash, his ignorance ends.

Ignorance creates the ego-centric concept and the ego thrives in the body, mind and intellect. With the end of ignorance, the ego too ends.”

In Ramayana, a verse states:

Rākāpati ṣhoṛasa uahiṅ

Tārāgana samudāi

Sakala girinha dava lāia

Binu rabi rāti na jāi

“Despite the combined light of the full moon and all the visible stars in a cloudless sky, the night does not go.  But the moment the sun rises, the night makes a hasty exit.”

The light of the sun is such that the darkness cannot remain before it.  The light of God’s knowledge has a similar effect in dispelling the darkness of ignorance. 

Chinmaya writes on this illumination in the context of today's verse thus:

“When we reconsider this statement, it is not very difficult for us to understand that the sun cannot be covered by a tiny bit of a cloud. 

Also, the region of the cloud is far removed from the centre of the Universe where the sun, in its infinite glory, revels as the one-without-a-second. The minute humans observing from the surface of the globe with their tiny eyes, experience that the glorious orb of the sun is being veiled because of a wisp of cloud. Even a mighty mountain can be veiled from our vision if we put our tiny little finger very near our eyes!

Similarly, the ego (Jiva) looking up to the Atman finds that ignorance is enveloping the Infinite. This ignorance is not in Truth, just as the clouds are never in the sun. The finite ignorance is certainly a limited factor compared with the infinitude of Reality. 

And yet, the mist of Self forgetfulness that hangs in the chambers of the heart gives the ego the false notion that the Spiritual Reality is enveloped by ignorance. When this ignorance is removed, the Self becomes manifest, just as when the cloud has moved away, the sun becomes manifest.

To see the sun, we need no other light; to experience the Self we need no other experience. The Self IS Awareness. It is Consciousness.”

Dear All,

The beauty is that having been created as pure divine being, within us is the Sun, the illumination or the Knowledge - CHIT.

We are the chit, the sat-chit-ananda Swarupas.

Yet, over several births, we ourselves have clouded the sun that we are, with the cloud of our ignorance. 

Incarnations come and teach us, our Acharya teach us, the entire shrutis (Upanishads) teach us that “we are the light”.

However, since the clouding of our real SELF is also due to our own karmas, we only have to take efforts, engage in serious spiritual sadhana to uncloud our clouded ego / ignorance (avidya) so that we shine brilliantly as the eternal light within us. 

Lord does help us when we sincerely pray to Him to help us in our sadhana and hence we invoke His guidance by singing, 

“Sathya Jyothi Jalao,

Prema Jyothi Jalao,

Ananda Jyothi Jalao”

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 64

Verse 8 

Naiva kinchit karomeeti

Yukto manyeta tattwavit;

Pashyan shrunvan sprishan jighran

Nashnan gacchan swapan shwasan.

“I do nothing at all”—thus will the harmonized  knower of Truth think—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing.

One engaged in this process of yoga or the science of the individual consciousness attaining communion with the absolute  consciousness perceives himself  as separate from the activities of the body and that the senses reside in the very sense objects desired. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting are the functions of the organs of knowledge - the eyes, ears, hands, nose and tongue. 

The knowers of the Brahman or the spiritual substratum pervading all existence being free from all conceptions of doer-ship are not subject to reactions from their actions although performing so many activities. 

The Vedanta Sutra VI.I.XVI states that when knowledge of the Brahman is realized, the result is the permanent eradication of all previous reactions and the inability to receive reactions for any subsequent actions. 

How does the Sankhya Yogi react when he sees someone acting?

He simply says, “That person is not acting, because he is “ATMAN”. What is perceived as action is executed by his body, and this action is colored by his intrinsic nature of three gunas.”

A normal jiva, on the other hand, thinks that it is he or the lower self which acts, but as far as the yogi himself is concerned, it is always the body which acts, irrespective of whose body it is. He is totally above the “body consciousness”.

In Yoga Vasishta, Sage Vasishta  advised Lord Rama:

Karta bahirkartāntarloke vihara rāghava

“O Rama, externally engage in actions diligently, but internally practice to see yourself as the non-doer and God as the prime mover of all your activities.”

In this divine consciousness, the karma yogis  see themselves as mere instruments in the hands of God.  

In one of the talks, the author  went on to teach few sadhakas that neither Sai nor any incarnation, nor a jivanmukhta, actually do anything like normal human beings do.

In both cases, in case of an avatar or a Jivanmukhta, from time to time, on a moment to moment basis, whatever is required to be performed by them, such actions just happen, and they do not plan or deliberate such actions.

And once such actions manifest from / through them, even while acting and after the action is over, they attach least importance to  such actions. 

Living, speaking, eating, acting apparently like any other human being, they are eternally in the realization of the truth that while their body / mind acts as per the requirement of the hour, the pure atman that they really are, is unmoved!

While the whole world may not be aware of the above truth about them, they have no urge / reason to even think as to why or whether the world is aware about such secret about their action less actions or the world is not aware at all.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 63

Verse 5 

        

Yatsaankhyaih praapyate sthaanam

Tad yogair api gamyate;

Ekam saankhyam cha yogam

Cha yah pashyati sa pashyati.

That place which is reached by the Sankhyas or the Jnanis is reached by the (Karma) Yogis. He sees who sees knowledge and the performance of action (Karma Yoga) as one.

Lord Krishna now clarifies specifically that atma tattva or realization of the soul is the result and that persons who practice renunciation of actions attains this same result as those that practice prescribed Vedic activities without desire for reward and thus for one who sees this similarity of result sees that both paths are actually one. 

The word yoga meaning the science if the individual consciousness attaining communion with the ultimate consciousness denotes by the suffix api meaning also of one who is a practitioner of yoga

Without spiritual intelligence one's actions can never be properly established. Whereas performance of activities in spiritual intelligence without desire of rewards automatically leads one to renunciation. The person who performs actions with renunciation offering the results to the Supreme Lord attains the eternal Brahman or the spiritual substratum pervading all existence. 

The detachment of the Sankhya yogi is quite unusual and not easy to cultivate. If the Sankhya yogi has such a withdrawn outlook, then how come the Karma yogi who is not only involved in action but does not claim that he has a withdrawn outlook, is able to attain the same goal as the Sankhya Yogi? 

Perhaps, Sri Krishna has the answer!!

True, the karma yogi does not, like the Sankhya Yogi, say that it is merely his body that acts, nor does he say “I am the Atman” .

But an important thing is that, he dedicates everything to God. For him, God may seem to be external but that does not matter. Since all actions are offered to God, nothing ever touches him. Arjuna, note carefully that because the Karma yogi is all the time thinking of God, for him also, God eventually becomes internal!!!

The Sankhya yogi, by fully identifying himself with “Atman” or the inner SELF, totally disassociates himself actions and therefore also from the consequences – in other words, actions do not bind him.

For a karma yogi also, actions do not bind him as he has offered all actions and results of actions to God. (Pujari and Prasad talk / post covers this aspect). 

The unbinding is achieved by two different techniques- in one case, total focus inside and in the other, total absorption in God who might be perceived as external, but has actually become internal. For reaching the ultimate Supreme state or Brahman, it does not matter which of the two strategies is adopted. The important thing is to ensure that actions do not bind.

Sri Ramana was totally absorbed in Inner Self whereas Sri Ramakrishna was totally absorbed in worship of Ma Kaali and did everything for the divine mother. 

Yet, if one carefully looks at their lives, one can know that both of them reached the ultimate goal of Realization.  Thus, when it comes to the attainment of Goal and after attainment of goal, typecasting a yogi as either a Sankhya yogi or a Karma yogi is a meaningless exercise. 

Love.