|
|
11. Once the baby lion tastes blood…
40
In this endeavor there is no destruction or diminution. Even a little of this dharma releases one from great fear.
In what endeavor? In destruction or diminution of what? And why is it so?
Answer: In "yoga (union with God), in acting in equanimity in happiness and sadness, loss and gain, victory and defeat." Let’s go back to the two examples we looked at when considering verse 38 – firstly of the two teams playing in the world cup finals, and secondly of the businessman going to visit a prospective client from whom he is expecting a big order. In the first case, one team is acting in equanimity in victory and defeat, the other team is not. In the second case the businessman was first not acting in equanimity in loss and gain, but when realization dawned upon him, he was.
In both the cases, there was equanimity in action. And this equanimity came because they both saw that there was something greater, something more important than worldly victory or defeat, worldly gain or loss. They had equanimity, and as verse 48 will say afterwards, "Being equanimous in success and failure is called yoga." They had in fact, got a taste of yoga i.e. union with God. Of course it would not have even entered their minds that they were getting into closer union with God! Both the situations are in no way religious settings. But God is not religious. He is real! And he seems to work far more in real situations than in religious ones. The war situation that Arjuna was in was no religious meeting with bhajans and kirtans and religious discourses going around!
In the situations they were in, the world cup final and the business presentation meeting respectively, they got a taste of equanimity, a taste of real yoga i.e. union with God. And it is in this that there is no loss or diminution! Once you have tasted what real yoga i.e. union with God is, the joys of this world fade automatically. Once the team members had tasted real yoga then who cared whether they won the world cup or not? Once the businessman had tasted real yoga, who cared whether he moved into the big league or not? This was much, much better! Once a baby lion tastes blood there is no going back for him to mother’s milk! Once the baby lion has tasted blood, there is no destruction or diminution of its taste for him! No destruction of the taste – it’s not going to go away now, no matter what! And no diminution of it – he wants more of blood, and wants blood only! Similarly once one has tasted real yoga i.e. union with God, one is eternally spoilt. That taste is not going to go no matter what – there is no destruction of it. And it’s not going to decrease – there is no diminution of it either. That’s also why the psalmist says in Psalm 34:8, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." He knows that there is no point of arguing with those who have not tasted God; he will only be met with counter-arguments. But once the atheist has tasted God…
Many a times atheists argue that they feel no need for God. That’s fine, and if you don’t feel the need for God, you shouldn’t go for him. You may not yet be "ready" as described in chapter 5. But you can keep in mind that perhaps you may be like the baby lion who says, "I don’t feel the need for meat." Or the ten year-old boy who has never experienced ejaculation and so doesn’t understand what the fuss over sex is all about, saying "I don’t feel the need for sex. Girls are such a waste of time." But once he has had his first ejaculation, he will be a totally different fellow! Once the baby lion has tasted blood, he is a totally different fellow!
"In this endeavor there is no destruction or diminution." There is no end to growing in yoga, the process of "knowing God better." No-one can say that he knows God so well that there is nothing more worthwhile left to know. It’s a process that continues till the end of our lives. There is no retirement here. Only an ever-open field of wondrous exploration never exhausting itself, providing the ultimate satisfaction which nothing in this world can match. All other areas of life are subject to the three-stage cycle:
Only this area does not have the last (decline and death) stage! You can go on forever building on previous gains, without experiencing any sense of futility about it.
Why is it so? It is so because we are made for happiness, and we are naturally drawn to what gives us more happiness. Yoga, union with God, samatva, seeing the self by the self, knowing Brahman (all different ways of saying the same thing) give us not just happiness, but bliss i.e. innate happiness, happiness that is not dependent on anything else. A happiness that is so much greater than what the joys of the world give us, that it dwarfs them. When you have drunk enough from the joy of the spirit, the Atman, and are full of that bliss, you naturally find the joys of this world as small change. "The state where consciousness stops, being restrained by yoga, where the self sees the self by the self, the self becomes contented. That infinite happiness is obtainable by the intellect beyond the senses. Knowing that and situated in that, he moves in reality. Having gained this, he considers no other gain greater; thereafter situated in it he is not agitated even by great sorrows." (6:20-22) So once you have got a taste of the real God, you will be spoilt for life! You will care for nothing else. This is all what you will want. And want more and more of.
The other interpretation of the verse, equally valid, is that once a person has developed a level of equanimity, there is no destruction or diminution of it. Suppose the same team reaches the next world cup final too. Are they going to be in a different state of mind? Are they going to lose their equanimity? Is their equanimity going to decrease even a little? No! In fact it may increase. They have already been there, done that. It is even less important to them whether they win or lose, than it was the last time. There is no diminution or destruction in their equanimity.
Verse 2:40b says that "Even a little of this dharma releases one from great fear." Even a little of what releases one from great fear? Answer: The same "Yoga," the same "Sama-buddhi." Where does fear come from? Where did fear come from in the above two situations for the team in the world cup final and the businessman? Fear came from the thought "What if we lose?" And how did the fear go? Fear went when the realization dawned, "So what happens if we lose?" Nothing much will happen! What difference is it going to make 500 years from now whether we won the world cup or not? What difference is it going to make 500 years from now whether I got the big order or not? Who is going to remember it? Who is going to even know about it? No one! It matters little whether we win or lose! Equanimity in happiness and sadness, loss and gain, victory and defeat, leads to fearlessness (2:38). And this is also our experience in real life. When it makes no difference to us what the results of our actions will be, all fear gets automatically removed from us.
Why is it that only a little bit of it is necessary to dispel great fear? Because equanimity and fearlessness are the nature of sat i.e. that which always exists, and fear comes out of living in asat i.e. that which doesn’t exist (but seems to exist). The fear that came from "What if we lose?" was related to something in this world – the thought that somehow winning or losing the game was important. The world, as we have seen is asat. "Only a little bit of equanimity is necessary to dispel great fear" because "only a little bit of sat is necessary to dispel great asat," because "only a little bit of truth is necessary to dispel great lies." Suppose a person has built up a mountain of lies. How much truth does it require for it to collapse? The greatest scams the world over have come to light through a small insignificant truth! How much light does it take to dispel great darkness? A small candle is enough! Just as a little bit of truth dispels great lies, a little bit of light dispels great darkness, similarly a little bit of equanimity dispels great fear.
What if this fearlessness gets extended to all areas of life? Wow! What if we learn to have equanimity in happiness and sadness, loss and gain, victory and defeat in all areas of life? Then our entire life will become fearless! But it is not a question of only fearlessness. It also leads to skill in action "Yogah karmasu kaushalam" ("Yoga is skill in action") says verse 2:50. The team above that played fearlessly, played much better! For the businessman, the presentation went off much better! When you are not bothered about the results of your actions, then you end up being far more skillful in your work!
Note that it is "Yoga is skill in action" not "Skill in action is Yoga." Else the skillful murderer, the skillful thief, the skillful rapist could say, "I was operating in the state of yoga." However such actions, no matter how skillfully performed are not Yoga, for they are not done in Unity with God. God does not desire such actions from anyone and he does not lead anyone to perform such actions. All skillful actions are not Yoga, but all Yoga is skillful action.
Verse 40 can be also considered as a first statement against vedic ritualism. There will be another statement of not confining oneself to vedic ritualism in verse 45 (and later in 6:40-45), but this is the first time in the Geeta that an allusion to vedic rituals can be seen. In vedic ritualism, unfinished rituals yield no fruit just as in farming no fruit is obtained if the entire sequence of events i.e. ploughing, watering, sowing, weeding, guarding, harvesting etc. is not completed. Similarly in vedic ritualism, some acts, when not performed perfectly following all the strict injunctions, may actually backfire, resulting in sins, accrued through the non-performance (or improper performance) of acts for fruit that are enjoyed. This sin is called pratyavaya. As against this, verse 40 boldly declares, "In this endeavor there is no destruction or diminution."
Arjuna would ask the very question in chapter 6, verses 37 and 38: "What of the unsuccessful - endowed with faith in yoga and moved in it, but not obtained perfection in yoga? What does he move to, and where does he reach? Is not such a person destroyed, as a torn cloud perishes, without any position, mighty-armed one, deluded on the path of Brahman?" In his answer in verses 40 to 45 of chapter 6, Krishna will assure Arjuna of the same i.e. "In this endeavor there is no destruction or diminution," again mentioning "the written words of the Vedas and the ritualistic principles of the scriptures" in verse 44.
His answer there reads: "Neither in this life nor in the next life is there destruction for him who does good; he does not degrade. Achieving the world of the righteous, and dwelling there for many years, he that has fallen from yoga, takes birth in the house of the clean or of the wealthy. Or in the family of wise yogis he takes birth, although this certainly is rare. There he gets that intellect and connection as he had in the previous body. From that point again, he endeavors for perfection. By the previous practice, he is certainly attracted, even helplessly to be inquisitive of yoga. He transcends and goes beyond the written words of the Vedas and the ritualistic principles of the scriptures. By practice and endeavor, a person united (with the divine), cleansed of sins after many births, having attained perfection, thereafter attains movement towards the supreme."