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The Bhagavad Geeta: Overview and Principal Themes
Even though the Bhagavad Geeta is smaller in size to both the Bible and the Quran, it is in a sense the most difficult to understand. At the end of his discourse, in 18:63, Krishna himself calls the knowledge he had given as "guhyat, guhya taram", meaning "confidential, most confidential" or "confidential of the confidential." And it is. Not because the words of the Geeta are not known - obviously they are very well known now! But because their true meaning is understood only by a person who is in the state of being described as "yogasthah" in 2:48. In fact later on in life, Krishna himself could not say it the way he said it in the Geeta, because when he discoursed in the Geeta, he was "in the state of Yoga." He himself says in section 16 of the Ashwamedha Parva (Book 14 of the Mahabharata), "I cannot discourse on it again in detail. I discoursed to you on Supreme Brahman, being fully in the state of Yoga." The relevant portion in section 16 of Ashwamedha Parva is worth reading:
"Janamejaya said, "When the high-souled Keshava and Arjuna after slaying their enemies went to the assembly rooms, what conversation, O regenerate one, took place between them?'
Vaishampayana said, "The son of Pritha (Arjuna), having recovered his own kingdom, joyously spent his time, without doing anything else, in the company of Krishna, his heart filled with delight, in that palace of celestial beauty. One day, those two listlessly proceeded to a particular part of the palace that looked, O king, like a veritable portion of Heaven. Themselves filled with delight, they were then surrounded by their relatives and attendants. Pandu's son, Arjuna, filled with joy in the company of Krishna, surveyed that delightful mansion, and then addressed his companion, saying, 'O--mighty-armed one, your greatness became known to me upon the approach of the battle. O son of Devaki, your form also, as the Lord of the universe, then became known to me! What your holy self said unto me at that time, O Keshava, through affection, has all been forgotten by me, O chief of men, in consequence of the fickleness of my mind. Repeatedly, however, have I been curious on the subject of those truths. You again, O Madhava, will be going to Dwaraka soon.'
Vaisampayana continued, 'Thus addressed by him, Krishna of mighty energy, that foremost of speakers, embraced Phalguna and replied unto him as follows.
'Vasudeva said, 'I made you listen to truths that are regarded as mysteries. I imparted to you truths that are eternal. Truly, I discoursed to you on Religion in its true form and on all the eternal regions. It is exceedingly disagreeable to me to learn that you did not, from folly, receive what I imparted. The recollection of all that I told you on that occasion will not come to me now. Without doubt, O son of Pandu, you are destitute of faith and your understanding is not good. It is impossible for me, O Dhananjaya, to repeat, in detail, all that I said on that occasion. That religion (about which I discoursed to you then) is more than sufficient for understanding Brahman. I cannot discourse on it again in detail. I discoursed to you on Supreme Brahman, being fully in the state of Yoga. I shall now, however, recite to you an old history upon the same topic...
Well, well, well! If Krishna himself could not repeat the message he spoke in the Geeta, because he had spoken it when he was in a particular state of being, what about those who have no idea of what the state of Yoga even means? But take heart. We may not know what the words "state of Yoga" mean, but we all have had some experiences or the other in our lives, which give us a glimpse of what it means. It is a most wonderful state of being, in which there is an experience of great freedom and fearlessness, and operating from which righteous actions flow easily. We are all supposed to cultivate that state of being, and live in it more and more, so that our lives become lives lived in yoga.
If I were to choose one phrase which summarizes the message of the Geeta, it would be the first part of 2:48 – "Yogasthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva" meaning "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment." A large part of the Geeta is describing the state of a person who has reached his destination, i.e. who is "yogasthah" and has attained moksha or true freedom in God. And this state of being is almost impossible to communicate to a person who is not in that state! It's like a person who knows swimming describing by words what it means to know swimming, to a person who doesn't know swimming! Or like a person who can ride a bicycle, trying to describe in words, the method of riding a bicycle to a person who doesn't know how to ride one! At best, it is extremely difficult to do.
To communicate the difficult concepts, the method that I will be using is to take day-to-day experiences which have already led us to achieve a certain level of being, and extend them to our entire lives All of us have certain experiences which make us already know what is being talked about. Thus although very few of us can be said to have attained the state of complete "moksha" or complete "true freedom in God", all of us have certain experiences which have given us a sense of what moksha or true freedom in God really means. We use these experiences and extend the understanding gained from them, to our entire lives and to completeness, to get a sense of what complete moksha really means.
To understand the Bhagavad Geeta as a whole, it is helpful to be clear about the meaning of certain extremely important words and concepts which occur over and over again in the Geeta, and about which there are many wrong ideas. The first and most important of these words is "Yoga." In fact if you look at the titles of the eighteen chapters of the Geeta as given by its writer Vyasa himself at the end of each chapter, you will find that each and every one of them ends with the word "Yoga." These are:
Now to most people, the word "Yoga" conjures up an image of bearded men sitting in a particular posture, meditating for hours together in some secluded place. Or of particular physical or breathing exercises taught in the many popular yoga classes today. That can hardly be the meaning of the word "yoga" as used in the Bhagavad Geeta. That belongs more to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (and a small part of that too), and has very little to do with the meaning of Yoga as used in the Geeta. In 2:48, right in the middle of the battlefield, Krishna tells Arjuna, "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment, winner of wealth. Being equanimous in success and failure is called yoga." How much time did Arjuna have to become "yogasthah," i.e. to be "established in yoga?" There he was, standing between the two armies. The bugles had already sounded. Both the armies were eager for war. They were just waiting for their leaders to give directions. And Krishna was telling Arjuna, "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment!" How much time did Arjuna have to get "established in yoga" and "abandon attachment" and then perform action? A few minutes at the most! And what was Krishna telling him to do? Some physical and breathing exercises? "Yoga" here can hardly mean "abandon all activities, go to the Himalayas, do meditation for a long time" nor can it mean "sit in this or that particular posture and do these or those breathing exercises." Those belong more to the physical yoga system laid down by Patanjali. That too, only a part of Patanjali’s Ashtanga (or eightfold) Yoga Sutras, which actually consist of
These can be grouped into three sections: the first two i.e. Yama and Niyama, then steps iii to vii, and finally, Samadhi. The yogasanas taught in the many popular yoga-classes of today, the meditation taught in the many meditation-classes of today, correspond only to points iii to vii above. Now there are two extremely important points of the Yoga system laid down by Patanjali that most yoga and meditation classes ignore, or are not even aware of. The first is that the purpose of these five (iii to vii) is to get the body and mind in a state where the eighth (Samadhi) can be easily attained. These five are only the means to an end, not an end in themselves. And Asanas and Pranayama (iii and iv) are in a sense only preparatory for v, vi, and vii. Many people today consider the practice of asana or pranayama as an exercise regimen or a way to stay fit. But Patanjali and other ancient yogis used asanas to prepare the body for meditation. To sit for a lengthy time in contemplation required a supple and cooperative body! "To perform the boat posture simply to get a flatter tummy is missing the boat."
But the second and more important point that most yoga and meditation classes miss is that just as steps iii and iv are preparatory for steps v, vi and vii, and just as steps v to vii are preparatory for the ultimate goal of Samadhi, similarly steps i and ii (Yama and Niyama) are preparatory for Asana and Pranayama. You can do all the Asanas and Pranayamas in the world, but of your Yama and Niyama are not right, then the Asanas and Pranayamas will hardly yield any benefits. To put it in today’s terms: many people go for yoga or meditation classes today to relieve themselves of stress and stress-related diseases like ulcers, headache, migraine, stomach disorders etc. Stress and tension comes mainly from work or family problems, the area of Yama and Niyama. If your Yama and Niyama is not right, then this stress and tension is going to come in greater doses than what the Asanas and Pranayamas are going to take away. To use an analogy to make the point, if stress and tension could be measured in kilograms, and if one hour of Asanas and Pranayamas do away with one kg of stress and tension, and if your Yama and Niyama is not right, then the stress and tension that comes in through your work or family life is of the order of tens of kilos! You are much better off dealing with those issues directly first, i.e. getting your Yama and Niyama right first. Which is also why Patanjali put Yama and Niyama before Asanas and Pranayamas.
The Bhagavad Geeta is concerned with a totally different kind of yoga – a spiritual yoga, the goal of which is also Samadhi, but which bypasses steps iii to vii above, and follows a different route, a more direct route of Dnyana-Yoga and Karma-Yoga to achieve the state of Samadhi i.e. equanimity, in which you live in the world without being affected by it. The only few verses in the Geeta which talk about physical yoga are 6:10-15 and 18:51-54, ten verses out of 701, a miniscule portion of the entire Geeta. The main focus of the Geeta is on Dnyana Yoga (the yoga of knowledge), Karma Yoga (the yoga of action), and Bhakti Yoga (the yoga of devotion),. None of these concern with the physical and breathing exercises taught in yoga classes. Personally for me, the Yoga spoken of in the Geeta, which is hardly spoken of and which very few are even aware of, is far, far more important than the merely physical and breathing exercises taught in the popular Yoga classes today. I am not deriding them, but just putting them into perspective. Firstly physical and breathing exercises may have their physical benefits, and you may do your reality check about the various claims, but these benefits are essentially for this world, temporary and ephemeral, destined to be left behind when we go. But the benefits of the yoga that the Bhagavad Geeta speaks about, we will take with us.
Secondly, the yoga that the Geeta speaks about, is perfected during the day-to-day activities of life; you don’t have to go to any special classes or set aside any special time to put them into practice. You simply get to know what it’s saying and put it into practice in the same, normal activities of your day-to-day life! That also means that you don’t have to make any special efforts to "come back" into normal life. After doing meditation, you make some gains on the way to samadhi (equanimity), but to consolidate those gains and perfect them, you have to come back to day-to-day normal life, which is like coming back down-to-earth after a mountain-top experience. You are not supposed to continue living in the clouds, you are supposed to get those gains so that you can live your life in a better way down here on earth, in the middle of the hustle-and-bustle of life, with people who are the cause of those tensions and worries in the first place. Since the yoga that the Geeta talks about is attained and perfected right in the middle of day-to-day activities, no special effort is required to "get back."
Thirdly, the Yoga that the Geeta talks about is achieved much faster than the Yoga achieved through physical and breathing exercises. To repeat what has been said before, in 2:48, right in the middle of the battlefield, Krishna tells Arjuna, "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment, winner of wealth. Being equanimous in success and failure is called yoga." How much time did Arjuna have to become "yogasthah," i.e. to be "established in yoga?" There he was, standing between the two armies. The bugles had already sounded. Both the armies were eager for war. They were just waiting for their leaders to give directions. And Krishna was telling Arjuna, "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment!" How much time did Arjuna have to get "established in yoga" and "abandon attachment" and then perform action? A few minutes at the most!
Fourthly, in the physical and breathing exercises yoga system, if you don’t complete of the entire process i.e. if you don’t reach the final stage, the gains of all the seven steps done before are lost when you die! Arjuna asks a pointed question in 6:37-38, "What of the unsuccessful - endowed with faith in yoga and moved in it, but not obtained perfection in yoga? What does he move to, Krishna 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?" to which Krishna answers in 6:40-45, "Partha, neither in this life nor in the next life is there destruction for him who does good; he does not degrade, my friend. 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 mind and connection as he had in the previous body. From that point again, he endeavors for perfection, son of the Kurus. 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."
So what is "yoga" as used in the Bhagavad Geeta? The word "yoga" is derived from the Sanskrit "yuj" which means "to join" or "to engage" or "to unite." To join what? And with what? The word "Yoga" in the Geeta particularly, is used for the connection, the union, the joining between God and man, between the atman (soul or self) with the param-atman (super-soul or super-self). Thus "Dnyana Yoga" would mean "the knowledge that leads to an establishing or a strengthening of the relationship or connection between God and man;" "Karma Yoga" would mean "the actions that lead to an establishing or a strengthening of the relationship or connection between God and man;" and "Bhakti Yoga" would mean "the devotion that leads to an establishing or a strengthening of the relationship or connection between God and man;" This leads to an equanimity in differing external conditions. We remain unaffected whether we win or lose, whether we find ourselves in favorable or unfavorable conditions. Our happiness is no longer dependent on anything external to us; it is intrinsic and flows from the inside out, regardless what the circumstances are.
It is very important to note that there is a very big and very important difference between "Dnyana" and "Dnyana-Yoga" i.e. between "knowledge" and "the knowledge that leads to an establishing or a strengthening of the relationship or connection between God and man." All knowledge does not lead to this strengthening of the connection between God and man. You can be an expert in rocket science, but that knowledge is not going to help you in any way in strengthening your relationship with God. Similarly, there is a very big and very important difference between "Karma" and "Karma-Yoga" i.e. between "action" and "the action that leads to an establishing or a strengthening of the relationship or connection between God and man." All action does not lead to this strengthening of the connection between God and man. Only right actions that are performed, leaving the results to God, lead to this strengthening of the connection between God and man. The "leaving the results to God" is extremely important and is what contributes a lot towards true detachment or freedom or moksha. And finally, there is a very big and very important difference between "Bhakti" and "Bhakti-Yoga" i.e. between "devotion" and "the devotion that leads to an establishing or a strengthening of the relationship or connection between God and man." There are people who are devoted to their work. It is their relationship with their work that gets strengthened by this devotion, not their relationship with God! Some people are devoted to their families, some are devoted to peculiar causes like the saving of some endangered species in some remote corner of Africa. Such devotion does not lead to a strengthening of their relationship with God.
These can also be looked upon as "paths" or "ways" to strengthen your relationship with God. Krishna says in 3:3 "There are peoples on two paths of faith, as said by me in the past, sinless one. There is the path of knowledge for men of contemplation and there is the path of action for men of action". What does this mean? Does it mean that men of study and contemplation are not to engage in action or that men of action are not to engage in study and contemplation? Not at all! It only means that these paths are more suited for such people because they are according to the natural inclinations and natural strengths of such people. Thus Dnyana-Yoga is more suited for men of study and contemplation (whose natural strengths are an ability to do in-depth study and think through issues), while Karma-Yoga is more suited for people of action. It does not mean that a Dnyana-Yogi is to shun work, nor does it mean that a Karma-Yogi is to shun the gathering of knowledge. It only means that a Dnyana-Yogi will not plunge into actions first, he will only carry out actions after he has thought things through; and that a Karma-Yogi will not plunge into in-depth study first, he will get into action first and will only carry out study when he feels it is necessary.
Let’s get this clear by using an example of how different people go about learning to play computer games. Some people read through all the rules first, the objective of the game, the strategies, the tricks, the scoring methods, the pitfalls to be avoided working them all out in their minds first, and then starting to play. These are the "men of contemplation" for whom Dnyana Yoga is the more suitable path. Most people plunge into the game first. When they realize that they are just going around in circles, just trying this and that, without knowing the objective or purpose of the game, without knowing the strategies, the tricks, the scoring methods, the pitfalls to be avoided, then they get down to reading the Help screens! I personally follow a mixed method. I read the general objective and scoring methods, and "try the game a little" to get a basic feel of the game. When I have got a hang of it, I read the strategies, the tricks and the pitfalls to be avoided to get better at it. After getting a little better at the game, I go through the Help-screens again to see whether I have missed anything and to see how I can get even better.
Which of these is superior to the other? Neither! "Only the ignorant say that knowledge and action are different, not the learned who is situated completely in yoga, and who enjoys the fruit of both. The place which is received by analytical study, that same is also reached by action. He who sees analytical study and yoga as one, he truly sees" says Krishna in 5:4-5. The Dnyana-Yogi who takes the path of knowledge, reaches the same place as the Karma-Yogi, who takes the path of action.
In the above example of the game, both the Information-first-game player (man-of-contemplation) and the Action-first-game player (man-of-action) finally reach the same place – of playing the game well. That is because the Information-first-game player sooner or later starts playing the game since he is not interested in just head-knowledge, and the Action-first-game player soon realizes that plunging into playing a game without knowing its objective or rules or strategies or scoring is plain stupid and he would be just wasting his time doing so. Only they have chosen different paths – the man-of-contemplation has taken the path of knowledge, while the man-of-action has who taken the path of action. Needless to say, the vast majority of the people on earth are the Action-first type.
That does not mean that they are Karma-Yogis! All man-of-contemplation are not Dnyana-Yogis and all men-of-action are not Karma-Yogis. They become Dnyana-Yogis and Karma-Yogis if and only if they apply these (Knowledge-first or Action-first) paths to the area of "knowing God" or "achieving union with God." Yoga is "union with God"; a Dnyana-Yogi is a person who has chosen to apply his "Knowledge-first" predilection in the area of knowing God, and a Karma-Yogi is a person who has chosen to apply his "Action-first" predilection in the area of knowing God. If they don’t apply these predilections in the area of knowing God, they don’t become "yogis," even though they may accumulate great Dnyana (knowledge) in any other field such as computers, rocket science, stock market or whatever. Similarly, if the men-of-action do not apply their natural predilection for action in the area of knowing God, they don’t become "Karma-yogis." They may do great karma, great work in the field of business or sports or entertainment or social service or politics or whatever, and may have great achievements against their names, but if they don’t use their work as a means of developing their relationship with God, they are not "Karma-Yogis."
Mahatma Gandhi was a true "Karma-Yogi." While other freedom fighters around him and Independence-movement leaders of other countries had great karmas i.e. great actions, and great achievements against their names, for Gandhiji India’s Independence struggle was also a means to an end – the end objective of developing his relationship with God. He was determined to follow God’s methods of standing firmly for Satya (truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence), and was sure that if he was stubborn enough on those for a long enough time, eventual victory was guaranteed. He used the activity of the freedom-movement to develop his relationship with God, not just to win Independence for India.
We are to grow in this Yoga. It doesn’t happen all together in one go; neither is it automatic. We are to use whatever life throws at us, whatever situations and circumstances we find ourselves in, to grow in our relationship with God. The growth is in two aspects – breadth and depth. We grow in breadth when we cover more and more areas of life. We grow in depth when we get into a deeper, stronger, closer and more intimate relationship with God in an area in which we have a certain depth of relationship already present. Let’s take Arjuna’s own example in the situation he found himself in – the war that was about to begin. It offered him an opportunity to strengthen his relationship with God by doing his duty, doing his best at what was right, and leaving the results to God. Having done that, his relationship with God would have got strengthened, he would have become more "yogasthah" in war situations. But that does not mean he had automatically become "yogasthah" in his home situation! He would have to work on that too, separately. Nor does it mean that he would have automatically become "yogasthah" in another war situation. The gains made here would have its benefits in providing him with a ready knowledge of what state of being he is to get in, but he still has to do it! Plus he would be building on a higher platform. Similarly for us. We can become "yogasthah" in one office situation i.e. in a situation presenting stress and tension, do what is right in a state of equanimity and God-consciousness. But there would be other office situations, more stressful than the current one, in which we have still to become yogasthah. And there would be home situations where the stress is coming from the wife! And there would be traffic situations where the stress is coming from the traffic-jam! The gains we made in gaining equanimity in our office situation would be a help, but we still have to gain equanimity in facing the wife and facing the traffic jam!
Now as we grow more and more in this yoga, we find ourselves happier and happier and more and more free in more and more situations, and our life itself becomes a life of freedom and happiness. Our freedom and our happiness get no longer dependent on anything external to us; they are intrinsic and flow from the inside out. We no longer need to go on a holiday to be free from stress and tension. Our whole life becomes a holiday, since our entire lives are marked with freedom and happiness independent of the external circumstances. "He who is freed from attachment and envy, and moves amongst the objects of the sense organs without the self coming under their control, in such regulated freedom of the self, he attains grace. In grace comes the loss of all sorrows and a development of a happy consciousness. Very soon the intellect becomes sufficiently established." (2:64-65)
That then is the meaning of the word "yoga." Looked at it that way, the titles of the eighteen chapters make a different kind of sense, which is also borne out by the text:
That then is a broad picture of the 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Geeta, showing that the Geeta is primarily concerned with a "Yoga" that is quite, quite different from that taught in the popular yoga classes of today. It is concerned with the yoga that means "union with God," not the physical and breathing exercises that bring temporary gains for this world. All this does not mean that you are to look down on the physical and breathing exercise yogas. It only means that you get your perspective right and see the benefits flowing from them as temporary and for this life alone, to be left behind when we go. The yoga that the Geeta talks about brings permanent benefits, which you take with you when you go.
Let’s now move on to some other key words and concepts found throughout the Geeta, such as Moksha (or Mukti) or Freedom or Liberation; Samatva (or Samabuddhi or Samadhi) i.e. Equanimity; attachment/bondage and detachment; Sanyasa (Renunciation), Dyana (Knowledge), and Karma (Action/Work). In a sense, all these flow from or are connected with "Yoga" or unity with God. You find true freedom only as you get more and more locked into God’s purposes for you, just as a railway train finds true freedom only while it runs on the tracks. The moment it gets off the tracks, it loses its freedom! The true freedom and fruitfulness of a leaf lies in its remaining attached to the stem, if it is "freed" from the stem, it may sense a feeling of freedom for a time being (which is akin to the pseudo-freedom people find in this world), but very soon, it withers and dies. You find true detachment from the things of this world and from the tyranny and control of your own ideas and emotions only when you shift your attachment to God and get attached to God. Similarly, you find true equanimity only when you strengthen your relationship with God. "Even a little of this dharma releases one from great fear" says 2:40 and "Even in this life, it is they who are victorious who are situated in equanimity" says 5:19. Both are speaking of samatva or equanimity as is clear from the context. Samatva also develops as you develop your relationship with God. As God becomes more and more important in your life, the things of this world become less and less important, and winning or losing in the rat-races of this world, according to the standards of this world become less and less important, and finally totally irrelevant.
So the second important word and concept one has to clearly understand is "moksha" or "mukti", freedom or liberation, the goal and purpose of life according to Hinduism. This is a particularly important one because there is so much misunderstanding about it. Many a times we hear of people "leaving everything" (or to make it sound more spiritual "renouncing everything"), and going off to the Himalayas to find "moksha." Whereas according to the Geeta, true moksha is to be found and developed right in the middle of your daily activities itself. True moksha is not liberation from daily duties or family life. God has not put us in the middle of the world so that we can run away from it. If that is what God wanted us to do, he could have very well placed each one of us on different planets, separate from each other. Indeed true moksha can be perfected only while remaining in the middle of this world. Perfection comes only by practice. You can read all books on cricket but unless you pick up the bat and ball and get your hands dirty, you will never know cricket. You can gather all information about swimming but unless you jump into the water and get your body wet you will never perfect swimming. Similarly you cannot perfect moksha by running away from life. Just as cricket can be perfected only on the cricket field, just as swimming can be perfected only in the water, true moksha can be perfected only in the middle of life. As you develop this true liberation in your day-to-day life, it will lead to final liberation, or release from the cycle of birth-and-death according to the Geeta, the second aspect of liberation. Let’s look at some of the passages in the Geeta in which Krishna speak about moksha:
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2:49-53 |
"Far away from the mind in yoga, certainly, is abominable work, winner of wealth. Surrender in the mind. Those who desire for the fruits of action are pitiable. He whose mind is united (with the self) gets rid in this life itself, of the results of good and wrong actions. Therefore engage in yoga, for yoga is skill in action. By action born of a united mind, abandoning the fruit of actions, the sages and the devotees get liberated from the bondage of birth and reach a position devoid of suffering. When your intellect crosses the dense forest of temptation, then you will gain indifference to all that has been heard and all that has to be heard. When you remain unmoved by all that you hear, when your mind is steady and satisfied, at that time you will have attained to yoga." |
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3:8-9 |
"Do your work daily. Action is certainly better than inaction. Even the journey of the body is not possible without action. Except work performed for sacrifice, actions lead to bondage. That should be the purpose of work, son of Kunti. It should be free from attachment, with equanimity of behavior towards everything. |
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4:16-23 |
"What is action and what is inaction? Even the wise are bewildered about this. I shall speak to you about that action knowing which you will be liberated from evil. Action certainly should be understood, inaction should be understood and wrong action should also be understood. Deep is the course of action. One who sees action in inaction and inaction in action is intelligent amongst men. He acts in an integrated manner. One whose undertakings are not for sense gratification, his actions have been burnt in the fire of knowledge, he is called wise by the knowers of reality. Abandoning all attachment to the fruit of action, always satisfied, depending on nothing, even though fully engaged in action, he does not act. Free from longing, with a consciousness controlled by the self, giving up all sense of ownership over possessions, performing actions by the body only, he incurs no sin. Contented with the gain which comes of its own accord, surpassing dualities, free from envy, same in success and in failure, even though he acts, the action does not bind. He who is free from attachment, is liberated, whose consciousness is in knowledge, who works for yadnya (sacrifice), his action is totally dissolved. |
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5:23-26 |
He who is able in this life to resist before liberation from the body, sense gratification and anger, moves towards unity (with God) and is a happy man. He whose happiness is within in the self, whose light is within, he is a person united (with the divine). He is liberated in divine consciousness, and finally he attains to divine consciousness. Those who get liberation in divine consciousness are sages devoid of sin, whose doubts are dispelled, who are self-controlled, who are engaged for the benefit of all living entities. Those who are freed from sense gratification and anger, the saintly persons with controlled consciousness, find liberation in divine consciousness. |
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16:21-24 |
"Three kinds of gates are there of this hell, by which the self is destroyed - sense gratification, anger, and greed - therefore these three, give up. Those liberated, son of Kunti, from the three gates of darkness, behave by the self in a better manner, and thereafter attain movement towards the supreme. He who discards the regulations of the scriptures remains working for sense gratification. He does not reach perfection nor happiness nor movement towards the supreme. Therefore by the scriptural standards of allowed and forbidden activities as arranged, knowing what is said in the scriptures, do actions in this life as appropriate." |
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17:25 |
Thus without desiring fruit, the actions of sacrifice and austerity, and the actions of charity, and various other actions are done by those with desire for liberation. |
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18:66 |
Abandon all religions and surrender to me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not worry. |
According to Krishna, it is such a person who attains liberation from the cycle of birth and death (according to the doctrine of re-incarnation laid out in 2:11-30), not somebody who just takes a dip in a particular river at a particular time at a particular place (God is not so foolish):
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7:27-30 |
"Arising out of desire and envy, deluded by dualities, descendant of Bharata, all living beings go into delusion on taking birth, scorcher of enemies. But whose sins have gone at the end of their (previous) lives, those pious people are free from the delusion of dualities, worship me with determination. For liberation from old age and death, one who endeavours by taking shelter of me, they know the divine consciousness by doing actions in the supersoul entirely. Those who know me as the lord of all living, the lord of all gods, and the lord of all sacrifices, even at the time of their death, are joined in their consciousness to me." |
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8:21 |
That which is said to be unmanifest and indestructible, the supreme destination, which achieving one does not come back, that is my supreme abode. |
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9:1-3 |
Sri-Bhagavan said : "But to you all this most confidential knowledge I shall speak, since you are not envious. Knowing this knowledge you will be liberated from evil. This is the king of all knowledge, the most confidential, pure and excellent. By direct experience it is understood. It is according to dharma, performed with great happiness, and imperishable. The people without faith in this dharma, scorcher of enemies, not obtaining me, come back in the cycle of death and life. |
|
9:27-29 |
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you give away, whatever austerities you perform, son of Kunti - do that as an offering to me. From the bondage of auspicious and inauspicious fruit of actions certainly you will be liberated. With the self joined in renunciation yoga, liberated, you will come to me. I am the same to all living beings. I do not envy, neither am I partial to anyone. Whoever worships me with devotion, I am in them. |
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14:20 |
Transcending these three properties, the embodied person achieves liberation from birth, death, old age, sorrow produced because of the body. |
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15:5-6 |
Without honour or delusion, victorious over attachments and faults, regularly in the supersoul, always disassociated from sense gratification, liberated from dualities, happiness and distress, reach unbewildered that imperishable position. Neither the sun illuminates it, nor the moon, nor fire. Attaining that supreme abode of mine, one does not return back. |
So it is the day-to-day experiencing of moksha or liberation, that finally leads to a liberation from the cycle of birth-and-death. Let’s look at some day-to-day examples to make the concept of true moksha clearer. When we were children we all played certain games – Snakes and Ladders, Ludo etc., and we were highly interested in winning in them. We got happy and even elated when we won, and got sad or even depressed when we lost. Winning the game was important to us, and we made all efforts at winning them. However, when we grew up, we are no longer interested in such games. As more important things took over, we naturally lost interest in those games. But far more important, we lost interest in winning or losing those games. If we won a game of Snakes-and-Ladders, we no longer got happy or elated; when we lost we no longer got sad or depressed. We became "equanimous" in victory and defeat. We became the "same" in victory and defeat. Why? Because now there were far more important things than winning-or-losing a game of Snakes-and-Ladders. What difference does it make now if we lost a game of Snakes-and-ladders? Nothing! We are now "free" or "liberated" from having to win at those games. And it is only in this state of freedom that we can really "enjoy" that game. If your child comes to you and asks you to play a game of Snakes-and-Ladders with him, you gladly and joyfully oblige. You are no longer playing for the sake of winning; you are playing for the sheer joy of playing with your children. You may not artificially lose (I never do that), but when you do lose, you are genuinely more happy to see the joy and the laughter on your child’s face than you would be if you would have won.
Now extend that understanding to the entire game of life and you get a sense of what is being said in the Geeta. The Geeta wants us to come to a state of being where we look at life itself as a big game set up by God for the enjoyment of his children. God’s "Leela." True freedom, true liberation, true moksha comes when we see that life itself is a game. Most of people’s problems stem from the fact that they consider whatever they are doing in this world (their jobs, careers etc.) too important. As if whatever they are doing is going to make any difference to the universe! How can it? The universe has been here for millions of years and is likely to be around for millions of more years. What difference does your miniscule job or career make to the universe? Nothing! Go out to the countryside to an unpolluted place and look at the heavens on a starry night. Does whatever you are doing make any difference to the stars? Sit on the mountain top and feel the breeze. Does whatever you are doing make any difference to the breeze? Observe the beauty of a wild flower which no-one else would have seen. Would God have made it less beautiful if no-one would have seen it? There are two beautiful passages in the Bible that I love and which are perfect for getting our perspective right. One is from Jesus’ lips and is found in Matthew 6:25-34. It goes thus:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The second is found at the end of the book of Job, chapters 38 to 41. Job has finished arguing with his friends about his terrible suffering, and in chapters 26 and 31 accuses God himself of unfairness (Job 33:8-11 and Job 34:5-6). It is here that God breaks through and shows his majesty in the magnificent chapters 38 to 41. All these are perfect for getting your perspective right – to see that whatever it is that you consider so important, is not at all important as compared with God himself. When you get that right, you become free of the world. And indeed you can carry out your worldly responsibilities with greater freedom and greater skill, and enjoy it more.
The third word one has to clearly understand is "Samadhi" or "Samatva" or equanimity, another important result of true yoga. "Even in this life, it is they who are victorious who are situated in equanimity" says 5:19. You want to be victorious in life? Then you have to develop this equanimity! And I am not talking about just victories according to the standards of this world. I mean real victories. Let me explain.
Imagine this situation: It’s the world cup final. Two teams facing each other. Both tense. Perhaps the most important day of their lives! Besides all the commercial benefits, victory would mean that they would be known as world champions for four years. Victory would mean that they would be looked up at, wherever they go. Victory would mean that their entire nation would be proud of them, and the entire world would respect them. Victory would mean that they will have an extraordinarily special time to look back on for the rest of their lives. Defeat would mean letting down an entire nation. Defeat would mean a lifetime of dejection at the thought of opportunities lost and "what it could have been." Who knows whether such a moment will come again? Every moment during this match would be crucial.. Man-for-man, both the teams are evenly matched. As for skills and abilities, both the teams have them in abundance – they had to, to reach at this level. What would determine the difference now is how well they seized the crucial moments, how well they kept their cool in the high-pressure situation. One mistake and it could be all gone! All members in both the teams are extremely tense.
And then the coach of one of the teams, highly experienced person that he is, two minutes before the match is about to start, suddenly gives a big, relaxed smile and says to his team members, "Okay guys, this is it. Enjoy yourself. Have fun. It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. Play hard and play fair. But have fun. That’s what ultimately matters."
That does the trick. Suddenly, the tension in this team is totally lifted. Everyone is relaxed and at ease. And it’s just the appropriate "being at ease" – leading to confidence but not complacency or cocksureness. They are in exactly the state of mind they need to be, to go into the crucial match. The match starts. The other team is still tense. They are playing well, but somehow cannot get into "flow," whereas our team is flowing beautifully right from the beginning. The other team starts making silly mistakes; mistakes such as they would never had made in their sleeps! The captain eggs them on. They try harder. Which makes it even worse. Slowly they start to see the match slipping out of their hands. They start making desperate moves, only to see those moves fall flat miserably. Finally the team in the right state of being wins.
What is this "right state of being?" This "right state of being" is the state of "equanimity" or "samatva." Equanimity between victory and defeat. "Having gained equanimity in happiness and sadness, loss and gain, victory and defeat, if you engage thus in fighting, you will not fall into sin" says Krishna in 2:38, and "Even in this life, it is they who are victorious who are situated in equanimity" in 5:19. You want to win in life? Then cultivate this equanimity, this sense of "it doesn’t matter." Once the pressure to perform is gone, once the fear of defeat is gone, victory will come easily to you. It’s the pressure to perform and the fear of losing that keeps people from playing this game of life in such a manner as would lead to victory.
But how do you develop this equanimity? You can’t be artificial and tell yourself, "It doesn’t matter" when it does! If winning a game is important to you, then you cannot fool yourself by saying that "It doesn’t matter." It doesn’t work that way. Anything artificial cannot work in the long run. You have to really get into the state of mind that "it doesn’t matter whether I win or I lose." But how do you do that? Answer: you do that by getting into a state of being where you see that there is something that truly matters far more. And if you carry out the reasoning to its logical conclusion then you see that what ultimately matters is your relationship with God, your connection with God (your "yoga"), and that is something that cannot be disturbed by whatever happens in the world.
Let me give another example to make things even more clear. Imagine a businessman going to visit a prospective client from whom he is expecting a big order, which will propel him into the big league. He has prepared well for the presentation, he is excited at the possibility of the big order, yet he is filled with a strange kind of fear – what if I don’t get the order? He bears the nagging fear for some time, and then suddenly something strikes him and he asks himself the question – "What if I really don’t get the order? What will happen to me?" He thinks for a while and soon the truth hits him – well, nothing much is going to happen anyway! Life will go on as before. He was doing reasonably well before, and he will continue doing so afterwards. The things that really matter to him – his family, his children, his parents, his friends and relatives, his simple, peaceful, joyful life, all will continue as before. When he realizes that, suddenly all fear goes out of him. He has come to the state where it really does not make any difference to him whether he gets the order or not. He has come to the state of "sama-buddhi," the state of being the "same" in both the situations – whether he gets the order or not.
He has only had a little of this "equanimity," but it has delivered him from great fear. When he makes the presentation now, he does it confidently, fearlessly, and it goes on very well. He may or may not get the order, for that is dependent on many other factors, but he has actually achieved a far more important thing – he has achieved true fearlessness. By realizing that he has control over action only, not even a little on its fruit, he has learnt to act not for the sake of fruit which may not come (2:47).
Now this has happened because there is truly something more important to him than being in the big league of business – his family, his children, his parents, his friends and relatives, his simple, peaceful, joyful life – these things are truly more important to him than being in the big league of businessmen. He doesn’t have to work up a belief, there is nothing artificial there. It’s real. And so it works. It won’t work if he has to artificially drum up a "samatva."
But then what happens at the next level? What if he dares to ask himself the unthinkable question – "then what happens to me if one day I get the news that my wife and children have died instantly in a car crash?" Much as nobody likes to face such questions, it is very real possibility. Such things have happened to other people, so why should such a thing not happen to him? The earlier thing worked because there was truly something more important to him – his family. But what happens to him if he loses "what is most important to him."
Think it through and you will realize that true "samatva" is possible if and only if what is the most important thing to you cannot be lost no matter what happens in this world. And that thing can only be one – your relationship with God. Even if such a terrible thing were to happen to you, if your relationship with God is strong, you will recover fast. There is a very beautiful example in the Bible of this very thing happening. It’s found in the book of 2 Samuel. The child of King David, a person who had a very strong relationship with God, became so ill, that he was close to death. Now look at David’s behavior as described in 2 Samuel 12:16-23:
David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate." David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied, "he is dead." Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!" He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."
In his heart, David was ready even for the worst thing – the death of his child whom he loved very much. He had "samatva." He knew that even if his child died, the thing that ultimately mattered – his relationship with God, was not going to be affected.
He could recover so fast only because his relationship with God was such that it was really the most important thing to him. He was not working up a belief. Right from his childhood, he had focused on this one thing that mattered – developing his relationship with God. He had gone through many difficult times, but had emerged triumphant in all. He had triumphed not only by the standards of the world (remember he was the king), but also by God’s standards. For example, he had refused to grab the kingship even when he could have taken it easily by killing Saul. "How do I know for sure that it is God who is giving the kingship to me?" was his reasoning and he had spared Saul’s life even when he could have easily killed him, having caught him sleeping in the tent. How could David exhibit such magnanimity? How could he be the "same" between being a king and being a fugitive? Because he knew that the most important thing in his life – his relationship with God was not going to get affected whether he became king or whether he remained a fugitive. Back to the Geeta.
"Even a little of this dharma releases one from great fear." It says in 2:40. Even a little of what releases one from great fear? Answer: "Sama-buddhi." 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.
What if this fearlessness gets extended to the entire 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 50. For the businessman above, 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.
The next word one has to understand is "attachment" (or "bondage"), and its opposite, detachment. Many people confuse attachment with love, and detachment with lack of love, and consider detachment a negative thing. According to me, only detachment can make one love truly and freely, attachment only leads to bondage. Let me clarify this by giving two pairs of extreme and opposite examples, to illustrate what I mean by attached love and detached love. Attached love, which has been glorified so much in the modern world, is nothing more than emotional infatuation. The perfect examples of such attached love are the famous "love stories" – Romeo and Juliet, Laila-Majnu, Heer-Ranjha, Shireen-Farhad, Devdas-Paro. The fact that most such "love stories" have tragic endings is not coincidental! They have tragic endings because that kind of love weakens the two and leaves them good for nothing else, and they soon wilt and perish when the pressures of the world come on them. Consider the two in college who have "fallen" deeply in love with each other. They can’t concentrate on their studies, they can’t concentrate on any other work. They are good for nothing else. On the other extreme is unattached love, shown by people like Mother Teresa. If she would have let her emotions get entangled with every person she helped, either in compassion or in repulsion, she would have gone mad!* The kind of love she had, unattached love, does not emotionally drain, because emotions are not involved, whereas attached love drains you out since emotions are involved. Such love strengthens those who show it, because the person has to necessarily draw such kind of love from God since such love is beyond the scope of human emotions. Such love is also freeing, since it gives without expecting anything in return. And such love releases you and helps you to do what is right and necessary in an efficient and effective manner, because your actions are not entangled by your emotions. That’s why I said erlier that if I were to choose one phrase which summarises the message of the Geeta, it would be the first part of 2:48 – "Yogasthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva" meaning "Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment."
(* I remember a beautiful Hindi movie of the olden days by the name of "Khamoshi" starring Rajesh Khanna and Waheeda Rehman which perfectly illustrates this. The man is a person needing psychiatric care and the lady is a nurse who takes up his case. Initially, while she is in an unattached state, she does a very good job and helps him recover. However in the process, she herself falls in love with him i.e. lets her emotions get entangled with him, so much so, that finally she herself goes mad!)
Any love that is dependent on anything in this world, including other people, is attached love. Love that is not dependent on others, on their behaving in any particular way, is detached love. Such love frees the other person to be free to be whatever way he wants to be. On the other hand, since attached love is dependent on the other person, is binding; the very word "attachment" also means "binding". This kind of love binds the person exercising it with the person towards whom it is expressed or even held in the spirit. It makes one dependent on the other person. This is the kind of love that causes most family problems today. How many times do we hear sentences like "I do so much for him (/her) and he (/she) doesn’t even notice it", "How much have we done for our children and now they don’t even bother about us", "I slog the whole day to provide for you kids and these are the kind of marks you bring!", "Why did he say that? It hurt me so much." "He shouldn’t have done that", "She shouldn’t have said that" and on and on and on. Another terrible kind of binding statements are of the kind "If you love me, you would…" (fill in yourself). This kind of conditional love is attached love and binds the other person. Detached love frees the other person. When the movie Devdas was released, a question was asked to respondents, "Was Devdas a lover or a loser?" My answer would have been, "He was both a lover and a loser. He was a lover because only a lover could go to such extremes of depression as he did. But he was also a loser. A true winner would have said to her, ‘Okay madam, I love you and love you truly and deeply. I would have liked to have you as my wife for the rest of my life. But if I can’t, then I am not going to sit crying about it. Life is too big to be wasted over one girl. If you can’t be my wife, then I wish you all the best in your life with whomever you marry. May God bless the two of you.’" Those are the words of a winner, an unattached lover. Those words would have freed her. But more importantly and more surely, it would have freed him! If you don’t overcome attached love, it definitely binds you, regardless of whether it binds the other person. We don’t know how she would have responded over time, may be she would have freed herself of any emotional bondage with him as time went by. But we do know how it would have affected Devdas if he didn’t break that bondage: it would have messed it for the rest of his life! The main reason for the messed up lives today, fueled by the silly love-films and emotional tear-jerkers, is this wrong idea of love; where emotional infatuation (or attached love) is misunderstood for true love. True love frees a person, attached love binds a person. As the saying goes, "If you want to find whether he truly loves you, set him free. If he truly loves you, he will come back. If not, his love was not true anyway."
How does one develop such detachment? Such detachment can be easily developed by transferring the sense of attachment to God and doing away with the feeling of ownership. The word used in the Geeta is "nirmamah" in verses like 3:30, 12:13, and 18:53, a word that has unfortunately got a negative connotation over time to mean "without feeling." But that’s not its real meaning. "Nir" means without, "mamah" means "mine," so "nirmamah" means "without a sense of being mine" or "without a sense of ownership". I love my children dearly, but I am also keenly aware that they are not mine, I don’t own them. They are God’s, and God has only given them to me for a period of time to love them and bring them up properly. God has created them unique persons, giving them unique strengths and weaknesses, unique likes and dislikes, unique inclinations, disinclinations and predilictions. They don’t have to fit my ideas and they don’t have to be like me or like any idea of a perfect person that I may have. I look after them for a time, but when they are of age, I am to let them choose their own paths. Hopefully by then, I would have imparted some useful things to them that will help them in their lives. I try my best to do so, but I am keenly aware of the fact that no matter how much I do, it may not be enough, and no matter how good a father I am, they may still go awry. I rest in the knowledge that more than me, they belong to God, and ultimately they have to follow God and not me. If necessary to follow their own convictions, they may even have to go against me, as I had to do with my own father. I am at rest with all these possibilities because I am "nirmamah", aware that I don’t own them, that God owns them, that ultimately they belong to God. That attitude sets them free, but more importantly, it sets me free now!
The next important word we come to is "Sanyasa" or Renunciation. Once again, this is a subject that is extremely important to understand correctly, since there are so many misunderstandings and misconceptions, and many a sincere seeker has blundered into many a morass due to lack of proper understanding. Krishna himself warns about it when he says in 4:16: "What is action and what is inaction? Even the wise are bewildered about this. I shall speak to you about that action knowing which you will be liberated from evil" and in 5:6, "renunciation afflicts one with grief if without yoga. The quiet person who is joined in yoga quickly attains to divine consciousness." Renunciation without yoga i.e. without union with God, will lead to great problems. The many ochre-robed mendicants one sees, wandering from place to place with a lost look in their eyes, not even bothering to keep themselves clean, are grim reminders of what renunciation without yoga can lead to. And talking about "munis" ("quiet persons" in Geeta 2:56, 2:69, 5:6, 5:28, 6:3, 10:26, 10:37, and 14:1), that does not mean putting a cloth over your mouths and going around refusing to speak anything! That only creates problems for yourself and for others! Quietness means quietness inside, not outside! It means a quietness of the spirit, of a person who is at peace within, not a quietness of the mouth! Yeh andar ki baat hai! Vyasa is considered the "quietest of the quiet" persons in 10:37, but he sure must have talked a lot with his mouth as he recited the entire Mahabharata while his amanuensis (Ganesha) wrote it all down.
"Renunciation afflicts one with grief if without Yoga"..We can’t operate as vacuums. Just giving up the wrong things is not enough, we have to fill the vacuum up with the right things, else as is rightly said, "An idle mind is the devil’s workshop!" This is a huge subject, and the understanding of renunciation is closely tied up with the understanding of work, action and inaction according to the Geeta. Let’s begin by listing the key passages from the Geeta which speak about these subjects.
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3:4-5 |
Not by non-performance of actions does a man achieve non-binding action, nor by renunciation does he reach perfection. No one can even for a moment, at any time, exist without doing action. Everyone is helplessly moved to action by the properties of his nature. |
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3:30 |
Renouncing all action unto me, maintaining your consciousness in the self, freed from longing and any sense of 'mine', fight without lethargy. |
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4:41 |
One who has renounced actions by yoga, whose doubts have been cut by knowledge, who is full of the self, actions do not bind him, winner of wealth. |
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5:2-13 |
Both renunciation and yoga of action lead to the supreme good. But the yoga of action is superior to renunciation of work. Know that the renouncer does not envy nor desires, who is free from dualities, he is certainly in happiness and completely liberated from bondage, mighty-armed one. Only the ignorant say that knowledge and action are different, not the learned who is situated completely in yoga, and who enjoys the fruit of both. The place which is received by analytical study, that same is also reached by action. He who sees analytical study and yoga as one, he truly sees. But renunciation, mighty-armed one, afflicts one with grief if without yoga. The quiet person who is joined in yoga quickly attains to divine consciousness. Engaged in yoga, with a purified and victorious self, having victory over the senses, who empathises with all others, though engaged in action is not entangled. One who is thus joined and knows the truth does not have a feeling of 'I am the doer'. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, dreaming, breathing, talking, giving up, taking, opening, closing, he holds only that the senses act with their objects. He who acts giving up all attachment, sacrificing to Brahman, is not entangled by sin, as a lotus leaf by water. With the body, by the mind, with the intellect, by the sense organs, the yogis act without attachment, sacrificing self for purification. He who is united, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains peace. He who is not united, who lives for sense gratification, being attached to the fruit of actions, is bound. Having renounced all action by the mind, the dweller in the body rests in happiness, in control of the nine gates, neither doing nor causing action to be done. |
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6:1-4 |
One who acts without depending on the fruit of action, he is a renouncer and a person united (with the divine) and not one who is without fire and without activity. Know that which is called renunciation is yoga, Pandava, not without giving up self-desire can a person be a yogi i.e. united (with the divine). For a novice in yoga, action is called the means; of one who is firmly seated, peace is the means. When a person does not engage in the senses nor in activities, when he has renounced all activity, at that time he is called established in yoga. |
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9:28 |
From the bondage of auspicious and inauspicious fruit of actions certainly you will be liberated. With the self joined in renunciation yoga, liberated, you will come to me. |
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12:6-7 |
But those who renounce all actions unto me, being attached to me without anything else, in yoga meditating on me and worshiping, I am their deliverer from the ocean of death and birth. I quickly become so, Partha, to those who have fixed their consciousness on me. |
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18:1-12 |
Arjuna said : "I wish to understand the truth about renunciation, mighty-armed one, and of sacrifice, Hrishikesha, separately, killer of Keshi demon." Sri-Bhagavan said : "The giving up of activities for desire is renunciation as said by the wise knowers. Giving up the fruit of all action is called sacrifice by those with eyes. 'Every single activity must be given up as full of faults' thus is said by some great thinkers. 'Works of sacrifice, charity, austerity are not those which must be given up' – thus say others. Now definitely hear me about renunciation, best of the descendants of King Bharata. Renunciation is declared to be of three kinds, tiger amongst men. "Acts of sacrifice, charity and austerity are not actions which must be given up. Sacrifice, charity and austerity purify even the greats. These actions should be done without attachment, giving up the fruits and as a duty, Partha. This is my definite and excellent opinion. The renunciation of daily activities is not befitting. The giving up under temptation is declared renunciation in ignorance. The giving up because of grief, bodily trouble, or out of fear, that giving up is done in passion. Such renunciation does not result in any gain of the fruit of renunciation. Actions done as 'This action has to be done' and 'this is daily activity', Arjuna, giving up attachment and fruit, that renunciation is done in goodness in my opinion. Neither hating unskilled work, nor attracted to skilled work - such a renouncer is absorbed in purity, with intelligence, and shorn of doubts. Not for the embodied is possible to be renounced in action completely. But who is a renouncer of the fruit of action, he is called a renouncer. Incorrect, desirable, and mixed - these three kinds of fruits of actions accrues to the unrenounced after death, but not to the renounced at any time. |
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18:48-49 |
Just because some work is faulty, son of Kunti, it should not be given up. All endeavours are certainly covered with faults, as fire is covered by smoke. He who is with unattached mind everywhere, victorious over the self, without aspiration, perfected in non-reaction, attains to the supreme by the renounced order. |
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18:56-57 |
Even though always engaging in all action, taking shelter of me, because of receiving my blessing, he gets to an eternal, imperishable position. Conscious of me in all actions, renouncing to me the supreme, with mind united to me, taking shelter of me, with consciousness in me – be constantly in this state of being. |
It is clear from these passages that the understanding of renunciation is based on the understanding of what is action and what is inaction (karma and akarma in 4:16). So before we talk about renunciation of actions, we have to be clear about what is meant by action and inaction in the first place: An important passage for this is 4:16-23
What is action and what is inaction? Even the wise are bewildered about this. I shall speak to you about that action knowing which you will be liberated from evil. Action certainly should be understood, inaction should be understood and wrong action should also be understood. Deep is the course of action. One who sees action in inaction and inaction in action is intelligent amongst men. He acts in an integrated manner. One whose undertakings are not for sense gratification, his actions have been burnt in the fire of knowledge, he is called wise by the knowers of reality. Abandoning all attachment to the fruit of action, always satisfied, depending on nothing, even though fully engaged in action, he does not act. Free from longing, with a consciousness controlled by the self, giving up all sense of ownership over possessions, performing actions by the body only, he incurs no sin. Contented with the gain which comes of its own accord, surpassing dualities, free from envy, same in success and in failure, even though he acts, the action does not bind. He who is free from attachment, is liberated, whose consciousness is in knowledge, who works for yadnya (sacrifice), his action is totally dissolved.
What then is "action" and "inaction" here? Simply put, in the words of our understanding about attachment and detachment, "action" is all work done under attachment and "inaction" is all work done in detachment. As it says in 3:25 "The ignorant do actions being attached to results, descendant of Bharata. The knowledgable should do actions without attachment desiring to lead the group of people." "One who sees action in inaction and inaction in action is intelligent amongst men" means that a person who does actions with the physical organs of actions – hands, legs, mouth etc., without getting mentally or emotionally affected by the sense objects outside, is actually doing inaction though acting by the body and is the ideal state of being according to the Geeta; on the other hand one who is getting mentally or emotionally affected by the sense objects outside, without doing any physical action, is actually doing action. Such a person is called deluded in 3:6, "Keeping under control the sense organs, one who dwells on the sense objects is a deluded person. He is called a person whose behavior is based on the non-existent." Such a person may not be acting by the physical organs of the body, but his thoughts and emotions are anyway binding him to the objects of the world.
So then, what is true renunciation? True renunciation is the giving up of all attached action. It is not the giving up of all actions, nor is it the giving up of worldly responsibilities, but it is engaging in activities in the world and carrying out the responsibilities without getting affected by what is going on around you. (By the way, my very name "Awdhoot" means a person who is unaffected by what goes on around him!). It is carrying out action in a non-binding manner that is our goal, not the giving up of all actions. "Not by non-performance of actions does a man achieve non-binding action, nor by renunciation does he reach perfection. No one can even for a moment, at any time, exist without doing action" as it says in 3:4-5.
How are we to achieve this state? Answer: This state gets automatically achieved when one gets into yoga i.e. union with God. "One who has renounced actions by yoga…" says 4:41. Renunciation of actions is achieved by yoga i.e. union with God. It is almost automatic: Union with God i.e. attachment with God leads to a detachment with the things of the world which leads to true renunciation i.e. giving up of all attached action. "But those who renounce all actions unto me, being attached to me without anything else, in yoga meditating on me and worshiping, I am their deliverer from the ocean of death and birth," says 12:6-7.
Once you have achieved this state, what is left for you to do? Answer: Nothing! Enjoy! There is nothing left to "achieve" in this world, nothing to prove to anyone, not even to yourself. Nothing matters. How can it? Millions of years have gone by, millions of years will go by, millions of people have achieved, and will achieve, far greater things in this world than you have, and it hasn’t made the slightest difference to the universe. What makes you imagine that whatever work you are doing and which you think is of such great importance, is going to make any difference to anything? What makes you think you are so important? In a few years you will be gone and in a few more years after that you will not even be remembered by anybody. So once you have reached the state of yoga i.e. union with God, there are no "achievements" left in this world for you to achieve. So, enjoy! Do what you want to do, do what you like to do (from the permitted activities!), enjoy the company of those whomever God brings in your life in the normal course of things, be of whatever help you can to them if possible. And if you can’t, no sweat. Leave it to God. God is much bigger and much more capable than you are.
Now, when you have reached this state, all actions you carry out will be "inaction." Your hands and legs (and mouth!) will be doing the appropriate external actions, but your mind and emotions remain unaffected by the actions you carry out. This is "action in inaction." (Or is it "inaction in action?" - doesn’t matter) Such action doesn’t bind you. "Contented with the gain which comes of its own accord, surpassing dualities, free from envy, same in success and in failure, even though he acts, the action does not bind" says 4:22. "One who has renounced actions by yoga, whose doubts have been cut by knowledge, who is full of the self, actions do not bind him, winner of wealth," says 4:41. "He who is united, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains peace. He who is not united, who lives for sense gratification, being attached to the fruit of actions, is bound" says 5:12. And it is only in this state that one can even kill for the sake of duty according to 18:17, "One whose state of being is not of the ego, his mind is not entangled. Though killing people, he does not kill, nor is he bound." (The teaching of the Geeta cannot be used to justify any killing. Killing is justified only for those whose duty it is to kill attackers for the duty of protection of the weak – Kshatriyas in olden days, soldiers of the army today). Indeed, Krishna speaks about himself and his own actions thus in 9:9, "Not me these actions bind, winner of wealth. I am as neutral, situated without attachment, while doing these actions." Such a person is called "sthitapragnya" in 2:55, "When a person gives up all desires in his mind, when he is satisfied in the self, by the self, then he is called ‘sthitapragnya’ (a person of steady intellect)."
It is here we can look at one of the most quoted verses of the Geeta, verse 2:47 "karmanyevaadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana, ma karmaphalaheturbhur ma te sangostvakarmani" which is generally translated as "You have a right over action only, not even a little on its fruit. Do not act for the sake of fruit which may not come; neither let there be attachment to action." Again, there is a big misunderstanding there! It is made out as if you don’t have a right to enjoy the fruit of your action! Well, if you don’t, then who has? If you have worked for a month in a company, then who has the right to the salary? Obviously you, and no one else! The problem comes because of the way "adhikara" is translated to mean "right." But here it means "control" and the meaning of the verse is a very simple, common sense meaning: "You have control over action only, not even a little on its fruit. Do not act for the sake of fruit which may not come; neither let there be attachment to action." It is commonsense to know what is in our hands and what is not. To act is the only thing in our control, in our hands. Its results are not; the action’s results depend on a hundred-and-one other factors! There may be a delay in the salary payments, the company may go bust a day before salary-date, riots may break out (or Mumbai may get flooded) and the city may come to a standstill for a week; anything can happen. These things are not in your control. The only thing in your hands is to do your work properly for the month. If the salary comes on time, well and good. If it doesn’t, what can you do? That’s why the latter part of the verse says, "Do not act for the sake of fruit which may not come." If you do, you may get worked up when it doesn’t come.
This is also the source of many family problems. "I do so much for him, and he doesn’t even notice it." If you get this one fact right, that only the doing of actions is in your hands, and the results are not, then your life will become bliss! You simply do your best and leave the results to God. If the results come, fine. If they don’t, it’s God’s problem, not yours. You are free.
Renunciation, then is the giving up of actions which bind i.e. which affect the mind and the emotions in some way. If the lady in the previous paragraph is doing her good actions so that her husband will notice them and appreciate her, then her actions "bind" her. But if she gives up her desire that her husband would notice them and appreciate her, and carries out those very same actions in the spirit of "I will do my best for him; regardless of whether he notices and appreciates" then those very same actions free her, since she is acting in the spirit of the verse 2:47 ("Only the doing of actions is in my hands; the results are not") and her life will become happier! The results may come, or they may not; her happiness remains intact, no longer being dependent on her husband’s noticing and appreciating her.
The next two words we look at are Dnyana and Karma. We have already covered some ground here in the foregone discussion. As said before, all Dnyana is not Dnyana-Yoga and all Karma is not Karma-Yoga. There is an interesting question that Arjuna raises in regard of these two, in verse 3:1-2, where Arjuna asks "If you consider knowledge better than action, Janardana, then why are you engaging me in this horrible action, Keshava? With such mixed statements you are bewildering my intelligence. Tell me in unmixed words definitely, that by which I will make a better state as my own."
This question is a result of the state of being that Arjuna was in. It seems to suggest that Krishna had said that knowledge was superior to action. But where in the preceding two chapters had Krishna said anything of that kind? In fact, in 2:39, Krishna had clearly said, "All this has been described unto you in terms of Buddhi-yoga. When you act in such knowledge you will be freed from the bondage of works." And in 2:51 he had said, "By action born of a united mind, abandoning the fruit of actions, the sages and the devotees get liberated from the bondage of birth and reach a position devoid of suffering." It is by action born out of a state of being united with God, that one attains freedom from the entangling emotions.
Arjuna didn’t want to fight. When we don’t want to do something, we find a hundred-and-one reasons for not doing it. Our emotions are our primary deciders of what we want to do, the mind is called upon only later on to come up with arguments to support that decision! To do that, we can even interpret (purposely or unconsciously) another’s statements to make them mean what we want them to mean, to suit our convenience. In fact, I have a humorous way of looking at the entire Geeta: Arjuna, a typical argumentative Indian, is presenting one question after another to Krishna to avoid fighting. In the end, Krishna, fed up with all his questions, tells him, "Now just shut up, trust me and fight!" when he says in 18:66, "Abandon all religions and surrender to me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not worry." ;-)
Humorous it may be, but doesn’t it perfectly summarize what our entire life is supposed to be, in that order: "Shut up, trust God, and do what has to be done." It is interesting to observe this very process happening in chapter one. On seeing many of his close relatives in the opposing army, he was overwhelmed by grief and sorrow (1:27-30). This was his emotion – the deciding factor! The intellectual arguments that follow, are only mustered up to support the emotional decision.
In 3:3, Krishna answers Arjuna’s question, "When I was talking about Dyana and Karma, I was not talking about them being different destinations, dum-dum! I was talking about two paths, the path of knowledge for men of contemplation and the path of action for men of action. The destination is the same, Yoga, or union with God, whichever path you choose! The place which is received by analytical study, that same is also reached by action. " (5:5)
These two are the only two paths that the Geeta knows. As Krishna says in 3:3 "There are peoples on two paths of faith, as said by me in the past, sinless one. There is the path of knowledge for men of contemplation and there is the path of action for men of action." These are the only two paths that the Geeta knows. Because these are the only two natural predilections of men. Going around the streets singing songs or meditating for hours together or doing various ascetic practices are not paths because they are not natural to men. Some people talk of "Bhakti Yoga" as a different path. Yes, it is spoken of a lot in the Geeta, but not as a "path." It is more of a state-of-the-destination, a characteristic of the state of being a person is in when he is in the state of Yoga i.e. union with God. One may sing songs to God once one develops that kind of relationship with God, just as a lover may sing love-songs to his beloved after he is in love with her, but not before that! The first and important thing for most people is to get into that state of being in the first place, from the mixed-up and messed-up, trapped and lost state they are in. And that can be done only through what comes easily and naturally to them – either through study or through work devoted to God. Plus there is another very important reason why Bhakti Yoga cannot be a "path." Bhakti Yoga is primarily concerned with the emotions, and as we all know very well, our emotions can be our most treacherous guides! There is a very good reason why God has given us an intellect, a mind – and that is to mind the heart! Yes, the heart is very important. Physically, the heart is one of the most important organs of the body. But it is also the most in need of protection, and hence God has provided a strong protection around it. Similarly the spiritual heart, the seat of our emotions, is a very important part of our beings, and our very happiness is dependent on its well-being. But it is also the most in need of protection. It is most easily swayed, it is most easily hurt. It is when people "lose heart" that their downslide starts. The heart is deceptive beyond measure, and it has to be guarded from all kinds of deception. The spiritual world is full of all kinds of nonsense floating around wanting to capture our hearts (and through our hearts, our pockets!), and we can’t allow that to happen. And so, contrary to popular belief, the Bhagavad Geeta wisely does not include "Bhakti Yoga" as a path to God! Mere Bhakti can easily lead you into a morass. The correctness and accuracy of the object of Bhakti is far more important than the intensity of your emotions. Right devotion is a characteristic of the state of Yoga (i.e. Union with God), not before. As far as "paths" are concerned, the paths that you can use to reach that state, the Geeta knows only two – the path of knowledge, Dnyana and the path of action, Karma. "There are peoples on two paths of faith, as said by me in the past, sinless one. There is the path of knowledge for men of contemplation and there is the path of action for men of action." (3:3)
It is also for this reason that the Geeta lays great stress on the intellect (Buddhi) and one needs to understand this too clearly. "Buddhi" is loosely understood to mean "mind" or to mean "intellectual understanding" or to mean "the understanding that we gain from what we learn in school and college". But it is something far more, and far more important than that. It is our discerning power, our ability to discriminate between what is good and what is bad, between what is right and what is wrong, between truth and untruth, between the important and the unimportant, between the relevant and the irrelevant, between what is "long-term gain, short-term pain" and what is "long-term pain, short-term gain". This is most clearly brought out in verses 18:30-32 which talk about the three kinds of intellect: "What to move towards and what to move away from, work that should be done and that should not be done, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation - the intellect which knows, Partha, is of goodness. The intellect which knows imperfectly dharma and adharma, what should be done and what should not be done, that Partha, is in passion. He who considers adharma as dharma, is a person in covered by darkness. In all ways the intellect that works in the wrong direction, Partha, is in darkness." The difference between "long-term gain, short-term pain" and "long-term pain, short-term gain" activities is brought out by verses 18:37-38: "That which in the beginning is like poison but at the end like nectar that happiness is said to be of goodness, born of satisfaction of the self and the intellect. By the contact of the objects with the sense organs, which in the beginning is like nectar but at the end is as poison, that happiness is considered to be in passion." When it says in 2:63 that "From anger arises delusion, from delusion bewilderment of memory, from a bewildered memory destruction of the intellect, with a destroyed intellect he perishes," it is obvious that it is this ability to discriminate that is lost when we give in to anger, not what we learnt in school and college!
Hence it is for this reason that all appeals have to be made to the intellect, our ability to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad, truth and untruth. Unfortunately, all religions make their primary appeals to the heart, the seat of our emotions, even deriding the intellect. Yes, the heart is to be finally touched, but it is by that which passes through our intellects! God has given us intellects to guard what we let in. Just as watchmen guard who they let in into the building premises, screening out the harmful (robbers) and the unwanted time-wasters (sundry salesmen), similarly God has given us intellects to screen out what we let in into our minds and hearts: both the harmful (pornographic material) as well as the unwanted time-wasters (TV saas-bahu serials). Like the Geeta, the Bible too makes its primary appeals to the intellect but unfortunately, all religions, Hinduism and Christianity included, have largely resorted to appealing to the emotions. This is a huge subject, and we look at it in detail elsewhere (chapter 2, verse 39), here we can only mention the principle in passing – all appeals have to be made to our intellect, our ability to discriminate between good and bad, truth and untruth, important and unimportant, acceptable and not acceptable. Back to the "paths" mentioned in the Geeta.
Some talk of "Dhyana Yoga" as a different path. But the Geeta hardly speaks about it as a path; that belongs more to Patanjali’s Yoga system as described before. Dhyana Yoga cannot be a "path" to establishing your relationship with God. It can be an activity that you naturally do once you have reached the state of Yoga i.e. Union with God. Two lovers can spend hours looking into each other’s eyes after they are in love; not before! Imitating the external actions of a person in the state of Yoga and who is expressing his love to God in either Bhakti or Dhyana is not going to do anything internally to you; in fact it may be a hindrance to real yoga. (Dhyana Yoga is not to be confused with Trikal-Sandhya, which is taking fifteen minutes off three times a day to just close your eyes and quiet the mind. That is proper and useful to anybody. But beyond that time, your mind will just wander and the gains will hardly be any. When we are talking about Dhyana-Yoga, we are talking about sitting for hours together with God, enjoying his company, like two lovers just lying in each other’s arms for hours together, just simply being and letting the other person be, just as he or she is.) It is also in this state of Dhyana or meditation, when you are spending time with God with your mouth shut, that you receive from him – his peace, his love, his joy which "transcends all understanding", the knowledge of his will i.e. what he wants you to do, and the strength and energy to do it in this world. Else we are left to fend for ourselves in this world, using our own minds to come up with what is to be done, and our own emotions and willpower to supply the necessary energy and strength to do it. Which is pitiable stuff. (The other one in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – Dharana, which is concentration or stilling the mind by fixing it on some object such as a candle flame, a flower or a mantra, is plain rubbish. Our objective is to fix our minds on God. First fixing our minds on something else to gain practice in concentration, and then moving on to God, is as stupid as "practicing falling in love with one girl so that when the right girl comes along, you have enough practice of it!")
Sure, Bhakti Yoga and Dhyana Yoga can become paths afterwards, when one has already reached a certain stage of yoga i.e. union with God. If a lover expresses his love to his beloved by singing songs to her, their love obviously gets strengthened. If two lovers spend hours together in each other’s arms doing nothing and just enjoying each other’s company, it surely strengthens their love. However these things "happen" only when there is a certain level of love and depth of relationship already present. They cannot be forced to happen. One cannot force oneself to do such things; these actions have to flow naturally from an already existing state of being, imperfect though it may be. This state of being in relationship with God is the state of Yoga, which is called "yogasthah" in the Geeta. "Yogasthah" means "situated in yoga" i.e. "situated in union with God." It is from being in this state that our actions in this world are to flow out of.
This is important because to reach there in the first place, we have to follow the path that we are comfortable with, and which is available to us easily as a part of our day-to-day lives, so that we can start from wherever we are at. The Geeta recognizes only two as paths for this initial establishment or the relationship – the path of contemplation and the path of action, Dnyana Yoga and Karma Yoga, as means to establishing your relationship with God. After you have done so, you can get into Dhyana Yoga or Bhakti Yoga according to your temperament and predilection. But most people are not there yet, and it is important to be clear about these things so that you may choose the path that you are comfortable with and which is available easily to you as a part of your day-to-day life. The path is secondary, the destination is important. Since the destination is going to be the same whether we choose the path of knowledge or whether we choose the path of action, it is important to choose the path we are comfortable with and which is more natural to us. The common destination is Yoga or Union with God. The important thing is to reach there in the first place! And from the state of being in Union with God, to perform actions in this world in an unattached manner, trusting God for the results. That leads to true freedom or liberation. "Yogasthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva" ("Established in yoga, perform actions having abandoned attachment") – chapter 2, verse 48.