SRIMAD BHAGAVAT GITA chapt 4(Gita .4)

SRIMAD BHAGAVAT GITA chapt 4(Gita .4)

https://youtu.be/olnnewwMOM8

SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 4 

अथ चतुर्थो‌உध्यायः ।

श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
इमं विवस्वते योगं प्रोक्तवानहमव्ययम् ।
विवस्वान्मनवे प्राह मनुरिक्ष्वाकवे‌உब्रवीत् ॥ 1 ॥

एवं परम्पराप्राप्तमिमं राजर्षयो विदुः ।
स कालेनेह महता योगो नष्टः परन्तप ॥ 2 ॥

स एवायं मया ते‌உद्य योगः प्रोक्तः पुरातनः ।
भक्तो‌உसि मे सखा चेति रहस्यं ह्येतदुत्तमम् ॥ 3 ॥

अर्जुन उवाच ।
अपरं भवतो जन्म परं जन्म विवस्वतः ।
कथमेतद्विजानीयां त्वमादौ प्रोक्तवानिति ॥ 4 ॥

श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन ।
तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप ॥ 5 ॥

अजो‌உपि सन्नव्ययात्मा भूतानामीश्वरो‌உपि सन् ।
प्रकृतिं स्वामधिष्ठाय सम्भवाम्यात्ममायया ॥ 6 ॥

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥ 7 ॥

परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥ 8 ॥

जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः ।
त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर्जन्म नैति मामेति सो‌உर्जुन ॥ 9 ॥

वीतरागभयक्रोधा मन्मया मामुपाश्रिताः ।
बहवो ज्ञानतपसा पूता मद्भावमागताः ॥ 10 ॥

ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् ।
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः ॥ 11 ॥

काङ्क्षन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं यजन्त इह देवताः ।
क्षिप्रं हि मानुषे लोके सिद्धिर्भवति कर्मजा ॥ 12 ॥

चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः ।
तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम् ॥ 13 ॥

न मां कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा ।
इति मां यो‌உभिजानाति कर्मभिर्न स बध्यते ॥ 14 ॥

एवं ज्ञात्वा कृतं कर्म पूर्वैरपि मुमुक्षुभिः ।
कुरु कर्मैव तस्मात्त्वं पूर्वैः पूर्वतरं कृतम् ॥ 15 ॥

किं कर्म किमकर्मेति कवयो‌உप्यत्र मोहिताः ।
तत्ते कर्म प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसे‌உशुभात् ॥ 16 ॥

कर्मणो ह्यपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः ।
अकर्मणश्च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गतिः ॥ 17 ॥

कर्मण्यकर्म यः पश्येदकर्मणि च कर्म यः ।
स बुद्धिमान्मनुष्येषु स युक्तः कृत्स्नकर्मकृत् ॥ 18 ॥

यस्य सर्वे समारम्भाः कामसङ्कल्पवर्जिताः ।
ज्ञानाग्निदग्धकर्माणं तमाहुः पण्डितं बुधाः ॥ 19 ॥

त्यक्त्वा कर्मफलासङ्गं नित्यतृप्तो निराश्रयः ।
कर्मण्यभिप्रवृत्तो‌உपि नैव किञ्चित्करोति सः ॥ 20 ॥

निराशीर्यतचित्तात्मा त्यक्तसर्वपरिग्रहः ।
शारीरं केवलं कर्म कुर्वन्नाप्नोति किल्बिषम् ॥ 21 ॥

यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टो द्वन्द्वातीतो विमत्सरः ।
समः सिद्धावसिद्धौ च कृत्वापि न निबध्यते ॥ 22 ॥

गतसङ्गस्य मुक्तस्य ज्ञानावस्थितचेतसः ।
यज्ञायाचरतः कर्म समग्रं प्रविलीयते ॥ 23 ॥

ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् ।
ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना ॥ 24 ॥

दैवमेवापरे यज्ञं योगिनः पर्युपासते ।
ब्रह्माग्नावपरे यज्ञं यज्ञेनैवोपजुह्वति ॥ 25 ॥

श्रोत्रादीनीन्द्रियाण्यन्ये संयमाग्निषु जुह्वति ।
शब्दादीन्विषयानन्य इन्द्रियाग्निषु जुह्वति ॥ 26 ॥

सर्वाणीन्द्रियकर्माणि प्राणकर्माणि चापरे ।
आत्मसंयमयोगाग्नौ जुह्वति ज्ञानदीपिते ॥ 27 ॥

द्रव्ययज्ञास्तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञास्तथापरे ।
स्वाध्यायज्ञानयज्ञाश्च यतयः संशितव्रताः ॥ 28 ॥

अपाने जुह्वति प्राणं प्राणे‌உपानं तथापरे ।
प्राणापानगती रुद्ध्वा प्राणायामपरायणाः ॥ 29 ॥

अपरे नियताहाराः प्राणान्प्राणेषु जुह्वति ।
सर्वे‌உप्येते यज्ञविदो यज्ञक्षपितकल्मषाः ॥ 30 ॥

यज्ञशिष्टामृतभुजो यान्ति ब्रह्म सनातनम् ।
नायं लोको‌உस्त्ययज्ञस्य कुतो‌உन्यः कुरुसत्तम ॥ 31 ॥

एवं बहुविधा यज्ञा वितता ब्रह्मणो मुखे ।
कर्मजान्विद्धि तान्सर्वानेवं ज्ञात्वा विमोक्ष्यसे ॥ 32 ॥

श्रेयान्द्रव्यमयाद्यज्ञाज्ज्ञानयज्ञः परन्तप ।
सर्वं कर्माखिलं पार्थ ज्ञाने परिसमाप्यते ॥ 33 ॥

तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया ।
उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः ॥ 34 ॥

यज्ज्ञात्वा न पुनर्मोहमेवं यास्यसि पाण्डव ।
येन भूतान्यशेषेण द्रक्ष्यस्यात्मन्यथो मयि ॥ 35 ॥

अपि चेदसि पापेभ्यः सर्वेभ्यः पापकृत्तमः ।
सर्वं ज्ञानप्लवेनैव वृजिनं सन्तरिष्यसि ॥ 36 ॥

यथैधांसि समिद्धो‌உग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुते‌உर्जुन ।
ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ॥ 37 ॥

न हि ज्ञानेन सदृशं पवित्रमिह विद्यते ।
तत्स्वयं योगसंसिद्धः कालेनात्मनि विन्दति ॥ 38 ॥

श्रद्धावांल्लभते ज्ञानं तत्परः संयतेन्द्रियः ।
ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥ 39 ॥

अज्ञश्चाश्रद्दधानश्च संशयात्मा विनश्यति ।
नायं लोको‌உस्ति न परो न सुखं संशयात्मनः ॥ 40 ॥

योगसंन्यस्तकर्माणं ज्ञानसंछिन्नसंशयम् ।
आत्मवन्तं न कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय ॥ 41 ॥

तस्मादज्ञानसम्भूतं हृत्स्थं ज्ञानासिनात्मनः ।
छित्त्वैनं संशयं योगमातिष्ठोत्तिष्ठ भारत ॥ 42 ॥

ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे

ज्ञानकर्मसंन्यासयोगो नाम चतुर्थो‌உध्यायः ॥4 ॥

https://youtu.be/tkws6TFxPwk

IV

The Yoga of Wisdom

Summary of Fourth Discourse

Lord Krishna declares that He is born from age to age, in order to raise man and take him to the Supreme. Whenever there is a prevalence of unrighteousness and the world is ruled by the forces of darkness, the Lord manifests Himself to destroy these adverse forces and to establish peace, order and harmony. Hence we see the appearance of the great saviours of the world.

What is the secret of Yogic action? This the Lord proceeds to explain to Arjuna. Even though one is not engaged in action, but if the mind is active with the idea of doership and egoism, then it is action in inaction. On the other hand, though engaged physically in intense action, if the idea of agency is absent, if one feels that Prakriti does everything, it is inaction in action. The liberated man is free from attachment and is always calm and serene though engaged in ceaseless action. He is unaffected by the pairs of opposites like joy and grief, success and failure.

One who has true union with the Lord is not subject to rebirth. He attains immortality. Such a union can only be achieved when one is free from attachment, fear and anger, being thoroughly purified by right knowledge. The Lord accepts the devotion of all, whatever path they may use to approach Him.

Various kinds of sacrifices are performed by those engaged in the path to God. Through the practice of these sacrifices the mind is purified and led Godward. Here also there must be the spirit of non-attachment to the fruits of actions.

Divine wisdom, according to Sri Krishna, should be sought at the feet of a liberated Guru, one who has realised the Truth. The aspirant should approach such a sage in a spirit of humility and devotion. God Himself manifests in the heart of the Guru and instructs the disciple. Having understood the Truth from the Guru by direct intuitive experience the aspirant is no longer deluded by ignorance.

The liberated aspirant directly beholds the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self. He cognises through internal experience or intuition that all beings, from the Creator down to a blade of grass, exist in his own Self and also in God.

Arjuna is given the most heartening assurance that divine wisdom liberates even the most sinful. When knowledge of the Self dawns, all actions with their results are burnt by the fire of that knowledge, just as fuel is burnt by fire. When there is no idea of egoism, when there is no desire for the fruits of one’s actions, actions are no actions. They lose their potency.

In order to attain divine wisdom one must have supreme faith and devotion. Faith is therefore the most important qualification for a spiritual aspirant. The doubting mind is always led astray from the right path. Faith ultimately confers divine knowledge, which removes ignorance once and for all.

Mere intellectual knowledge does not lead to liberation. It cannot grant one supreme peace and freedom. When one has achieved complete self-mastery and self-control, when one has intense faith and devotion, then true knowledge dawns within and one attains liberation and freedom from all weaknesses and sins.

The Lord concludes by emphasising that the soul that doubts goes to destruction. Without faith in oneself, in the scriptures and in the words of the preceptor, one cannot make any headway on the spiritual path. It is doubt that prevents one from engaging in spiritual Sadhana and realising the highest knowledge and bliss. By following the instructions of the Guru and through sincere service, one’s doubts are rent asunder and divine knowledge manifests itself within. Spiritual progress then goes on at a rapid pace.

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Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:

Imam vivaswate yogam proktavaan aham avyayam; 
Vivaswaan manave praaha manur ikshwaakave’braveet.

The Blessed Lord said:

1. I taught this imperishable Yoga to Vivasvan; he told it to Manu; Manu proclaimed it to Ikshvaku.

Evam paramparaa praaptam imam raajarshayo viduh; 
Sa kaaleneha mahataa yogo nashtah parantapa.

2. This, handed down thus in regular succession, the royal sages knew. This Yoga, by a long lapse of time, has been lost here, O Parantapa (burner of foes)!

COMMENTARY: The royal sages were kings who at the same time possessed divine knowledge. They learnt this Yoga.

Sa evaayam mayaa te’dya yogah proktah puraatanah; 
Bhakto’si me sakhaa cheti rahasyam hyetad uttamam.

3. That same ancient Yoga has been today taught to thee by Me, for, thou art My devotee and friend; it is the supreme secret.

COMMENTARY: This ancient Yoga consists of profound and subtle teachings. Hence it is the supreme secret which the Lord reveals to Arjuna.

Arjuna Uvaacha:

Aparam bhavato janma param janma vivaswatah; 
Katham etadvijaaneeyaam twam aadau proktavaan iti.

Arjuna said:

4. Later on was Thy birth, and prior to it was the birth of Vivasvan (the Sun); how am I to understand that Thou didst teach this Yoga in the beginning?

Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:

Bahooni me vyateetaani janmaani tava chaarjuna; 
Taanyaham veda sarvaani na twam vettha parantapa.

The Blessed Lord said:

5. Many births of Mine have passed, as well as of thine, O Arjuna! I know them all but thou knowest not, O Parantapa!

Ajo’pi sannavyayaatmaa bhootaanaam eeshwaro’pi san; 
Prakritim swaam adhishthaaya sambhavaamyaatmamaayayaa.

6. Though I am unborn and of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet, ruling over My own Nature, I am born by My own Maya.

Yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanir bhavati bhaarata; 
Abhyutthaanam adharmasya tadaatmaanam srijaamyaham.

7. Whenever there is a decline of righteousness, O Arjuna, and rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself!

COMMENTARY: That which elevates a man and helps him to reach the goal of life and attain knowledge is Dharma (righteousness); that which drags him into worldliness is unrighteousness. That which helps a man to attain liberation is Dharma; that which makes him irreligious is Adharma or unrighteousness.

Paritraanaaya saadhoonaam vinaashaaya cha dushkritaam; 
Dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge.

8. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of righteousness, I am born in every age.

Janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti tattwatah; 
Tyaktwa deham punarjanma naiti maameti so’rjuna.

9. He who thus knows in true light My divine birth and action, after having abandoned the body is not born again; he comes to Me, O Arjuna!

Veetaraagabhayakrodhaa manmayaa maam upaashritaah; 
Bahavo jnaana tapasaa pootaa madbhaavam aagataah.

10. Freed from attachment, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, purified by the fire of knowledge, many have attained to My Being.

Ye yathaa maam prapadyante taamstathaiva bhajaamyaham; 
Mama vartmaanuvartante manushyaah paartha sarvashah.

11. In whatever way men approach Me, even so do I reward them; My path do men tread in all ways, O Arjuna!

Kaangkshantah karmanaam siddhim yajanta iha devataah; 
Kshipram hi maanushe loke siddhir bhavati karmajaa.

12. Those who long for success in action in this world sacrifice to the gods, because success is quickly attained by men through action.

Chaaturvarnyam mayaa srishtam gunakarma vibhaagashah; 
Tasya kartaaram api maam viddhyakartaaram avyayam.

13. The fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of Guna and Karma; though I am the author thereof, know Me as the non-doer and immutable.

COMMENTARY: The four castes are Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. This division is according to the Guna and Karma. Guna is quality. Karma is the kind of work. Both Guna and Karma determine the caste of a man.

In a Brahmana, Sattwa predominates. He possesses serenity, purity, self-restraint, straightforwardness and devotion.

In a Kshatriya, Rajas predominates. He possesses prowess, splendour, firmness, dexterity, generosity and rulership.

In a Vaisya, Rajas predominates and Tamas is subordinate to Rajas. He does the duty of ploughing, protection of cattle and trade.

In a Sudra, Tamas predominates and Rajas is subordinate to the quality of Tamas. He renders service to the other three castes. Human temperaments and tendencies vary according to the Gunas.

Na maam karmaani limpanti na me karmaphale sprihaa; 
Iti maam yo’bhijaanaati karmabhir na sa badhyate.

14. Actions do not taint Me, nor have I a desire for the fruits of actions. He who knows Me thus is not bound by actions.

Evam jnaatwaa kritam karma poorvair api mumukshubhih; 
Kuru karmaiva tasmaat twam poorvaih poorvataram kritam.

15. Having known this, the ancient seekers after freedom also performed actions; therefore, do thou perform actions as did the ancients in days of yore.

Kim karma kim akarmeti kavayo’pyatra mohitaah; 
Tat te karma pravakshyaami yajjnaatwaa mokshyase’shubhaat.

16. What is action? What is inaction? As to this even the wise are confused. Therefore, I shall teach thee such action (the nature of action and inaction), by knowing which thou shalt be liberated from the evil (of Samsara, the world of birth and death).

Karmano hyapi boddhavyam boddhavyam cha vikarmanah; 
Akarmanashcha boddhavyam gahanaa karmano gatih.

17. For, verily the true nature of action (enjoined by the scriptures) should be known, also (that) of forbidden (or unlawful) action, and of inaction; hard to understand is the nature (path) of action.

Karmanyakarma yah pashyed akarmani cha karma yah; 
Sa buddhimaan manushyeshu sa yuktah kritsnakarmakrit.

18. He who seeth inaction in action and action in inaction, he is wise among men; he is a Yogi and performer of all actions.

COMMENTARY: It is the idea of agency, the idea of “I am the doer” that binds man to worldliness. If this idea vanishes, action is no action at all. It does not bind one to worldliness. This is inaction in action. But if a man sits quietly, thinking of actions and that he is their doer, he is ever doing actions. This is referred to as action in inaction.

Yasya sarve samaarambhaah kaamasankalpa varjitaah; 
Jnaanaagni dagdhakarmaanam tam aahuh panditam budhaah.

19. He whose undertakings are all devoid of desires and (selfish) purposes, and whose actions have been burnt by the fire of knowledge,—him the wise call a sage.

Tyaktwaa karmaphalaasangam nityatripto niraashrayah; 
Karmanyabhipravritto’pi naiva kinchit karoti sah.

20. Having abandoned attachment to the fruit of the action, ever content, depending on nothing, he does not do anything though engaged in activity.

Niraasheer yatachittaatmaa tyaktasarvaparigrahah; 
Shaareeram kevalam karma kurvannaapnoti kilbisham.

21. Without hope and with the mind and the self controlled, having abandoned all greed, doing mere bodily action, he incurs no sin.

Yadricchaalaabhasantushto dwandwaateeto vimatsarah; 
Samah siddhaavasiddhau cha kritwaapi na nibadhyate.

22. Content with what comes to him without effort, free from the pairs of opposites and envy, even-minded in success and failure, though acting, he is not bound.

Gatasangasya muktasya jnaanaavasthitachetasah; 
Yajnaayaacharatah karma samagram pravileeyate.

23. To one who is devoid of attachment, who is liberated, whose mind is established in knowledge, who works for the sake of sacrifice (for the sake of God), the whole action is dissolved.

Brahmaarpanam brahmahavirbrahmaagnau brahmanaa hutam; 
Brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahmakarmasamaadhinaa.

24. Brahman is the oblation; Brahman is the melted butter (ghee); by Brahman is the oblation poured into the fire of Brahman; Brahman verily shall be reached by him who always sees Brahman in action.

COMMENTARY: This is wisdom-sacrifice, wherein the idea of Brahman is substituted for the ideas of the instrument and other accessories of action, the idea of action itself and its results. By having such an idea the whole action melts away.

Daivam evaapare yajnam yoginah paryupaasate; 
Brahmaagnaavapare yajnam yajnenaivopajuhwati.

25. Some Yogis perform sacrifice to the gods alone, while others (who have realised the Self) offer the Self as sacrifice by the Self in the fire of Brahman alone.

Shrotraadeeneendriyaanyanye samyamaagnishu juhwati; 
Shabdaadeen vishayaananya indriyaagnishu juhwati.

26. Some again offer hearing and other senses as sacrifice in the fire of restraint; others offer sound and various objects of the senses as sacrifice in the fire of the senses.

Sarvaaneendriya karmaani praanakarmaani chaapare; 
Aatmasamyamayogaagnau juhwati jnaanadeepite.

27. Others again sacrifice all the functions of the senses and those of the breath (vital energy or Prana) in the fire of the Yoga of self-restraint kindled by knowledge.

Dravyayajnaas tapoyajnaa yogayajnaastathaapare; 
Swaadhyaayajnaana yajnaashcha yatayah samshitavrataah.

28. Some again offer wealth, austerity and Yoga as sacrifice, while the ascetics of self-restraint and rigid vows offer study of scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice.

Apaane juhwati praanam praane’paanam tathaa’pare; 
Praanaapaana gatee ruddhwaa praanaayaamaparaayanaah.

29. Others offer as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming, and the incoming in the outgoing, restraining the courses of the outgoing and the incoming breaths, solely absorbed in the restraint of the breath.

COMMENTARY: Some Yogis practise inhalation, some practise exhalation, and some retention of breath. This is Pranayama.

Apare niyataahaaraah praanaan praaneshu juhwati; 
Sarve’pyete yajnavido yajnakshapita kalmashaah.

30. Others who regulate their diet offer life-breaths in life-breaths; all these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are all destroyed by sacrifice.

Yajnashishtaamritabhujo yaanti brahma sanaatanam; 
Naayam loko’styayajnasya kuto’nyah kurusattama.

31. Those who eat the remnants of the sacrifice, which are like nectar, go to the eternal Brahman. This world is not for the man who does not perform sacrifice; how then can he have the other, O Arjuna?

COMMENTARY: They go to the eternal Brahman after attaining knowledge of the Self through purification of the mind by performing the above sacrifices. He who does not perform any of these is not fit even for this miserable world. How then can he hope to get a better world than this?

Evam bahuvidhaa yajnaa vitataa brahmano mukhe; 
Karmajaan viddhi taan sarvaan evam jnaatwaa vimokshyase.

32. Thus, various kinds of sacrifices are spread out before Brahman (literally at the mouth or face of Brahman). Know them all as born of action, and knowing thus, thou shalt be liberated.

Shreyaan dravyamayaadyajnaaj jnaanayajnah parantapa; 
Sarvam karmaakhilam paartha jnaane parisamaapyate.

33. Superior is wisdom-sacrifice to sacrifice with objects, O Parantapa! All actions in their entirety, O Arjuna, culminate in knowledge!

Tadviddhi pranipaatena pariprashnena sevayaa; 
Upadekshyanti te jnaanam jnaaninas tattwadarshinah.

34. Know that by long prostration, by question and by service, the wise who have realised the Truth will instruct thee in (that) knowledge.

Yajjnaatwaa na punarmoham evam yaasyasi paandava; 
Yena bhootaanyasheshena drakshyasyaatmanyatho mayi.

35. Knowing that, thou shalt not, O Arjuna, again become deluded like this; and by that thou shalt see all beings in thy Self and also in Me!

Api chedasi paapebhyah sarvebhyah paapakrittamah; 
Sarvam jnaanaplavenaiva vrijinam santarishyasi.

36. Even if thou art the most sinful of all sinners, yet thou shalt verily cross all sins by the raft of knowledge.

COMMENTARY: One can overcome sin through Self-knowledge.

Yathaidhaamsi samiddho’gnir bhasmasaat kurute’rjuna; 
Jnaanaagnih sarvakarmaani bhasmasaat kurute tathaa.

37. As the blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge reduce all actions to ashes!

Na hi jnaanena sadrisham pavitram iha vidyate; 
Tat swayam yogasamsiddhah kaalenaatmani vindati.

38. Verily there is no purifier in this world like knowledge. He who is perfected in Yoga finds it in the Self in time.

Shraddhaavaan labhate jnaanam tatparah samyatendriyah; 
Jnaanam labdhvaa paraam shaantim achirenaadhigacchati.

39. The man who is full of faith, who is devoted to it, and who has subdued all the senses, obtains (this) knowledge; and, having obtained the knowledge, he goes at once to the supreme peace.

Ajnashchaashraddhadhaanashcha samshayaatmaa vinashyati; 
Naayam loko’sti na paro na sukham samshayaatmanah.

40. The ignorant, the faithless, the doubting self proceeds to destruction; there is neither this world nor the other nor happiness for the doubting.

Yogasannyasta karmaanam jnaanasamcchinnasamshayam; 
Aatmavantam na karmaani nibadhnanti dhananjaya.

41. He who has renounced actions by Yoga, whose doubts are rent asunder by knowledge, and who is self-possessed,—actions do not bind him, O Arjuna!

Tasmaad ajnaanasambhootam hritstham jnaanaasinaatmanah; 
Cchittwainam samshayam yogam aatishthottishtha bhaarata.

42. Therefore, with the sword of knowledge (of the Self) cut asunder the doubt of the self born of ignorance, residing in thy heart, and take refuge in Yoga; arise, O Arjuna!

Hari Om Tat Sat
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Jnaanavibhaagayogo Naama Chaturtho’dhyaayah

Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the fourth discourse entitled:

“The Yoga of Wisdom”

Frombhagavat Gita by Swami Sivananda.)

https://youtu.be/6U7Si7E3-3A

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Discourse 8: The Fourth Chapter Begins – The Avataras of God

We have studied three chapters of the Bhagavadgita. If you have listened to me carefully, you would have noticed that the compressed matter that has gone into the first three chapters lays the very foundation, as it were, of the whole spiritual teaching for mankind. As difficult it is to remember all these things, so difficult it is to make out the various facets involved in the teaching; and more difficult it is to put them into daily practice. The poor human individual with a frail intellect, with an even more frail body, with tensions which are political, social and of many other types—how will this individual be able to grasp this teaching? Where is the brain for it? It is difficult to intellectually comprehend the inner secrets hidden even in the first three chapters. So much has been said about practically everything. Nobody will remember all these things—except this tape recorder. It will record everything, but others cannot remember everything in detail.

This difficulty is likely to be felt by everyone, as ordinary human individuals are subject to limitations of every kind. Is the human individual to feel disappointed that, after all, it seems to be too big an affair and we are perhaps not fit, either physically or mentally, to face the profound realities of this world? Are we to be in a state of despondency and feel a sense of helplessness? No. There is a guiding hand operating through the cosmos. It is not merely a picture of problems and difficulties and scientific interconnections that has been placed before us. The picture of the universe in terms of modern physics, chemistry and astronomy may be enough to frighten us out of our wits. We cannot even imagine what kind of world it is, with such width and such depth and such intricacies of inner composition. Such are the gunas of prakriti; such is prakriti; such is purusha; such are the involvements of consciousness and matter, and individuality, and whatnot. All sorts of things have been told. We seem to be as far from this lofty teaching as we are from the stars. Is it so?

The Fourth Chapter begins with a great consolation. The element of spiritual guidance is brought into the focus of the attention of the student. There is a perpetual guidance flowing from every part of the cosmos. The whole universe is composed of friends, well-wishers, who are eager to see that we are protected, that we are guarded and enabled to rise higher and higher, to more and more profound states of perfection. They are the directions of the heavens which are dominated and superintended by divinities called the Ashtadiggajas, the divinities of the four quarters, the gods who superintend over our sense organs and our mental psyche, the very prakriti itself whose sattva, rajas and tamas are in our own personality, and the supreme purusha, which is implanted in the recesses of our heart. These are the highest friendly forces. There are no enemies in this world.

The highest possibility of help comes from a Universal intelligence which permeates through the entire material universe and all the fourteen lokas; and whenever there is disharmony among the parts of the cosmos, the power of God descends as an avatara. The incarnation of God is nothing but the cosmic intelligence operating through required media at a given time, in a given manner, for a given purpose.

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmyaham (4.7)
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharmasaṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge (4.8)

At every juncture of experience, whether created knowingly or unknowingly, God manifests Himself, just as healing forces in the body work perpetually when there is disease in the system. If there is some illness in the body, the protective forces immediately gird up their loins and powers called anabolic forces stand against the catabolic forces which are intent on destroying the body. As gods and demons fight in heaven, the constructive healing forces fight, as it were, against disease-forming toxins—just as whenever there is even a little pain in the foot due to a thorn that has gone into it, the entire body descends as an incarnation of power to set right that element that has entered as something totally alien to the bodily requirement.

When does God incarnate? Is it sometimes, occasionally, always, or only in some ages? The word ‘yuga’ is used in this verse: yuge yuge. Yuga also means the fourfold cycle of time known as Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. These four ages of the time process are called yugas in Sanskrit. “In every yuga I manifest myself” is one meaning. We will find in the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana or the Vishnu Purana or other Puranas that the incarnation of God in some form—Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, and so on—took place in every yuga. But yuga also means a junction, a crisis, a situation where there is a conflict of forces, outwardly as well as inwardly. There is a necessity for the descent of redemptive forces, in the same way as the constructive redeeming forces of the body do not act only sometimes. They do not even sleep. The anabolic forces, or constructive forces to which I made reference, are perpetually working in the body to see that health is maintained and the body does not deteriorate.

Just as the intelligence maintaining the human body works continuously, without winking and without sleeping, in order to maintain this psychophysical organism, in the same way, God acts in this world through manifestations which are myriad in number. Santi sahasraśaḥ—thousands and thousands are the ways in which God can reveal Himself for the purpose of bringing about a rapprochement of conditions, a harmony among conflicts arising in any way whatsoever. God can reveal Himself positively in the form of an amelioration of all the conditions causing pain to people, or negatively by the amputation of a limb of a body if that becomes unavoidable, which God does only under extreme cases in the form of battle, war, epidemics, cyclones, earthquakes, floods and tornadoes. All these come as incarnations of God. He may come as the beautiful butter-stealing child Krishna—so tender, so attractive, so beautiful and so adorable—or He may also come as the terrific tooth-and-claw Narasimha. Hence, we should not expect Him to manifest Himself only in the manner we like.

When a fever arises in the body, it is a very painful and very unpleasant thing that is taking place, but it is a healing process. A big war is taking place within the body, and a heightened form of energy rises up into action in order to drive out all the toxic forces. In this war, sometimes the soldiers in the battle who drive out the toxic elements also die. The warriors do not always come back hale and hearty. Many of them perish. The white corpuscles in the blood are supposed to be the warriors, and when they die there is pus in the body. That pus is nothing but the blood corpuscles dying in the war for the sake of our welfare. Soldiers die for the nation. Nations survive; soldiers die. In the same way, these poor white cells fought with the elements that came as toxins, and when the toxins were too powerful—like Ravana and Kumbhakarna—many of these cells died, sacrificing themselves for the welfare of the body.

Similarly, the manifestation of God is with an ultimate purpose. It is not with an individual, motivated, localised purpose. God does not descend for your sake or my sake, or for this country’s sake or that country’s sake. There is no such thing as ‘mine’ and ‘his’ for God. The total intention of creation, taken in its completeness, is the intention of God. He wants the health and the harmony of the entire creation in the same way as we want the health and the perfection of the entire body. We do not want part of the body to suffer and part of the body to be healed by medical treatment. What is the good of it? If we are partially sick and partially healthy, we cannot be regarded as healthy at all. As a good medical practitioner, God takes the view that the entire body should be protected. It is not enough if only some limb is protected; and if for the sake of the protection of the entire organism which is the body, some part has to be eliminated, He will eliminate it—by a cyclone or something like that. But God does not always come as a disease or a threat or a Narasimha. He can also come as a friend, a well-wisher. Suhṛdaṁ sarvabhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati (5.29): “Knowing Me as the friend of all beings, you shall attain peace.” A terror like Narasimha, or a fearsome force like Bhagavan Sri Krishna, yet the kindest, most merciful, most adorable, is the manner in which incarnations come.

“Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises up, I will manifest Myself.” Dharma is the integrating force; adharma is the disintegrating force. That which keeps society, the world as a whole, intact as an organic completeness is dharma. Dharma is a cohesive force, a cementing element, even in the midst of the worst of diversities of being. Adharma is the opposite. It cuts into pieces all the unity that we can have anywhere—brother fights with brother, the husband throws away his wife, the wife deserts her husband, the son sues his father, and nobody wants anybody. These kinds of terrible, diversifying situations can be the outcome of adharma working with great rapacity, which comes as Hiranyakashipus, Ravanas and Kumbhakarnas, etc., or as destructive cosmic forces.

It is the intention of God to see that His creation is in a state of harmony and well being. I ask you to remember that the universe is made in the same way as our bodies are made, so the universe works in the same way as our bodies work. As the anatomical and physiological functions protect this body in a requisite manner, there is a cosmic anatomy and physiology, in the light of which the balance in the cosmos is maintained. For the sake of this there is the avatara, which is the coming of God for the sake of protecting dharma—that is, to establish the power of unity against the destroying and disturbing elements that go out of the centre. “Then I incarnate Myself.”

Whenever we feel some pain in the body, even in a finger or a toe, it means the whole body is sick, and immediately the healing forces start working. At once the centre of the universe acts, just as the centre of our personality acts when we start sneezing or we have a headache or a wound in the foot, etc. In order to illustrate the similarity of the cosmic structure and the human structure, the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita tell us that the universe is one person. Just as we are one person, the whole universe is also one person. He is called Mahapurusha, Supreme Purusha, Purushottama. How many people are there in this world? There is only one person. Sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākśaḥ sahasrapāt (P.S. 1): Million-headed, million-eyed and million-eared is that single Purusha. And where are those million heads and million eyes? They are here. Your head and my head, your eyes and my eyes, your legs and my legs are actually His heads and His eyes, through which He is speaking and working. But the ego of the individual, which is a part thereof, asserts its individuality and cuts itself off from the healing forces that come from the cosmos.

God never breaks His promise. We may break our promises, but not God. Once God decides, it is decided forever. Like an eternally conscious invigilator, God-consciousness operates in this cosmos. God knows what we are speaking, what we are thinking, what we are feeling, what we are doing. Even the movement of a mouse in a corner of a house is known to that Centre of the cosmos. There is no such thing as private action in this universe. It has been beautifully said that we cannot touch a flower in the garden without disturbing the stars in heaven. Such is the organic connection. There seems to be a vast distance between the stars and the little flower in our garden, but the connection is such that the stars will know that a flower is being interfered with.

There is no such thing in this world as individual, private activity. In the same way, there is no such thing as individual activity in our body. Whether we see with the eyes or hear with the ears, speak with the tongue or walk with the feet, etc., it is not individual action taking place. It is one total action manifesting itself through the different limbs. Similarly, all this world activity, the great mystery of mankind—the coming and going of things, the destroying of empires and the rising of empires, and so on—all the drama that is being played in the form of this creation is a single action taking place. The whole world is doing only one thing; it does not do many things. In the same way, our physical personality does one thing in the form of seeing, hearing, touching, digesting, speaking, walking, etc. Though they appear as diverse functions, they are really not diverse functions; it is Mr. So-and-so acting.

God acts; and when God acts, dharma rules the world. Whenever dharma’s force moves in the wrong direction by an extreme step that is taken by individuals, a cloud of darkness hovers around the heads of mankind, and we become insecure. We do not know what will happen to us tomorrow. The thoughts of people are also supposed to determine the fate of everybody. If one man thinks, it is a very feeble thought; but if the whole of humanity thinks a single thought, it draws the attention of the centre of the cosmos—just as when the whole nation cries for something, the central government will open its eyes and take steps, while if one man cries, they may not bother much.

Christ is called the son of Man. Everybody is a son of man, so why should Christ be called the son of Man? It is the son of Man with capital ‘M’. It is the descent of a divine force as a response to the call of the whole of humanity that cried for God. Otherwise, a person cannot be called a son of Man, as everybody is a son of man. This is my own interpretation of the biblical statement. Christ is also called the son of God. The bible refers to Christ as the son of Man, and the son of God.

Our thoughts and actions contribute, to a large extent, to the welfare or the suffering of mankind; and if they are very intense, they disturb the other layers of the cosmos such as Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, etc. When the Rakshasas were harassing the Devas, the Devas went to Rudra and Brahma, and finally they beseeched Narayana to take some action. Similarly, the fourteen worlds will cry for a redeeming power to act. Then the centre of the cosmos will work immediately, in a positive manner or a negative manner.

The avataras of God are described in great detail in the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana. It is said that Narayana had twenty-four avataras, but that is only in a manner of speaking. There can be twenty-four million avataras. How many rays has the sun? We can say the sun has only one ray that, like a huge beam, inundates the entire earth in heat; or we may say that there are millions of rays—sahasrakirana. Surya is called sahasrakirana because thousands of rays emanate from it. If we close our eyes and look at the sun, sometimes we feel radiance emanating in a millionfold way.

God may cast a single action or cast a manifold action, as the case may be. Fortunately or unfortunately, this doctrine of avataras, which is so important and so dear to the heart of man because it brings God to the very earth, is briefly stated in the Fourth Chapter of the Gita in only two verses, and afterwards it goes into some other subject—though this is well compensated from the Seventh Chapter onwards, where God’s glory is abundantly described.

The society of people has to work in a state of harmony in order that it may survive; and the harmony that is expected in human society is of two kinds—a horizontal harmony and a vertical harmony. The horizontal harmony is called varna dharma, and the vertical harmony is called ashrama dharma. The social integration brought about by a cooperative action of people through the works that they perform from their own stations is a horizontal way of the working of dharma for the purpose of integrating the quantity of humanity. But the quality of the individual also has to be enhanced; it is not enough that we merely protect the quantity of people. That qualitative ascent of the individual already protected by the quantitative forces—this vertical ascent, as I called it—is ashrama dharma, which consists of Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyasa, where we reach the apex of social solidarity and spiritual integration.

This also is conditioned by God. Cāturvarṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇakarmavibhāgaśaḥ, tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhyakartāram avyayam (4.13). Everything taking place historically, or taking place only from the point of view of human individuals, may be said to be God’s work; and yet, God does not do anything, just as the sun is the cause of every activity in the world but is not regarded as doing anything at all. We cannot lift a finger if the sun is not shining, and yet the sun is not responsible for our lifting a finger. Nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ (5.15): Neither is God responsible for the good that we do, nor is He responsible for the bad that we do. We are automatically rewarded or punished by a ‘computer system’ which He has set up in the form of these cosmic forces; and as the law automatically acts, our actions automatically act in the form of pleasure and pain. Therefore, the social setup—individual as well as collective—cannot be regarded as God’s work, and yet it is, in a way, God’s work because it is a tendency towards the growth of humanity towards God’s integrating Realisation. Nothing that we do can be called God’s work. It is our work; yet, without His sanction, nothing can take place. Thus, in a way, God has created the whole world and does everything, but, in another way, He has not created the world and He does nothing.

I went into great detail concerning the avataras of God because it is something very dear to the heart of man. That God comes to our house and rescues us from moment to moment, is this not a good and happy message?

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Discourse 9: The Fourth Chapter Continues – The Performance of Action as a Sacrifice

Incarnation is the descent of God for the ascent of man. This has been briefly touched upon in two verses which we studied yesterday: yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmyaham; paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, dharmasaṁsthāpanārthāya saṁbhavāmi yuge yuge (4.7-8).

In two verses, the great mystery of incarnation has been stated. Still, this incarnation is a mystery. It is supposed to be a response of the cosmos to the demands of the individual, but only when the demand arises from the deepest recesses of the heart of the individual. Otherwise, the response will not come, just as a radio can receive the signals that come from the broadcasting station only if its heart, which is the receiving capacity, is on the same frequency as the broadcasting station.

When the heart cries, God is supposed to come. What is the meaning of the heart crying? We usually do not have such an experience in this world. Our hearts never cry, because we are—at least most of us are—not in such an urgent need of God. “It does not matter if He comes after ten days. I have the capacity to get on without Him for ten days.” Do we not have such subtle thoughts? Is it so urgent that He must come just now? It shows how shallow our hearts are, and how foolish our thoughts are, and how inadequate is our understanding of what God is. To say that God may come tomorrow or the day after is like saying, “I can breathe after ten days. Today I need not breathe.”

God is a greater necessity than our daily diet. The only comparison that I can make is to the breath of life. We cannot say, “Let me breathe after ten days. It doesn’t matter if I do not breath now.” Breathing is an immediate necessity. The necessity of God as an immediacy is not felt by the ego-ridden individuality, which feels self-conscious and not God-conscious. The karmas of the individual bind it so fast with the ropes of its own desires that even the coming of God may not be recognised.

Avataras of God, incarnations of God, are supposed to be a perpetual occurrence—not something that took place centuries back and something that will take place later on, after another few centuries. It is a perpetual occurrence, like the rays of the sun perpetually falling on the earth. There is a perpetual inundation of the earth by the light of the sun, day in and day out, somewhere or the other. So, in many ways, the coming of God into this world is an avatara for, without this, we would not be able to walk on this earth. We would not be able to lift a finger; we would not be able to digest our food; our lungs would not function; our hearts would not function; our breath would not be there; our brains would not be there. It is the coming of God in a particular form through our individuality, the cosmic operation through the individual in some form unknown to the individual, that is the reason for the very existence of the so-called ego-ridden individual.

The karmas which bind the soul are such intricate processes of relativistic association in this world that it is not easy to know what is actually happening when a karma binds. Kiṁ karma kim akarme’ti kavayo’pyatra mohitāḥ: Learned people, very advanced in knowledge, are also bewildered as to what karma actually is. What is karma? What is akarma? Many a time even people with great insight are also confused. Kiṁ karma kim akarme’ti kavayo’pyatra mohitāḥ, tat te karma pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣyase’śubhāt (4.16): Now I shall tell you what kind of thing karma is. Karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ, akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ (4.17): It is necessary to know not only what karma is, but also to know what non-karma or inaction is, and what wrong action is. Therefore, what is right action, what is wrong action, and what is inaction? It is necessary to know all these things.

Karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ ca vikarmaṇaḥ, akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṁ: Very difficult is this peculiar, intricate way in which karma works. There is no such thing as karma sitting outside on a tree. It is not a thing whose existence we can visualise somewhere. Just as we consider diseases to be a peculiar maladjustment of the physical functioning of the body rather than a thing that is sitting outside the body and existing separately, so also the karma is not sitting outside, waiting to harass us.

Karma is the peculiar automatic reaction set up by the cosmic forces in proportion to the action performed by an individual. The reaction will be exactly in proportion to the action that we perform. In a way, it looks like tit for tat—and in a crude way, we may say it is like that.

The world is supposed to be something like a mirror through which we see our own face. We see our contour in our relationships with the world. If we smile at the world, the world smiles at us; if we get angry with the world, it gets angry with us; and if we denounce it, it will denounce us also. It will treat us in the same way as our body treats us. We cannot know how the body acts and reacts in regard to our own individual existence. The body is not outside the soul. It is inseparably acting on our consciousness, which is our individual soul. Automatic action takes place through the body, and that experience of an automatic reaction set up by the body is the pleasure or the pain that we speak of.

In a similar manner, there is a spontaneous action that is taking place in the cosmos when any activity, any action, takes place anywhere. The reaction is not created by somebody, such as God in heaven. God does not sit there and say, “So-and-so is doing something. I shall react in this manner.” It is an automatic action of the cosmos. When something happens to some part of the body, an automatic reaction is set up by the entire organism in relation to the particular event taking place in the limb of the body. There is no third person who pushes the button.

The difficulty in understanding what karma is arises on account of our difficulty in knowing what our relationship is with the world at all, and finally, with God Himself. There is an inveterate habit of the sense organs to compel us to feel that the world is totally outside, and God is very far away. Even the most learned in scriptures cannot escape this difficulty of suddenly feeling that the world is outside and God is away, and is not as near as their skin. This erroneous apprehension of the relation of oneself with the world and God is the cause of the reaction set up by what reality is in the form of the world or God, and this error itself is a karma.

The wrong apprehension of our relation to the world and to God is the karma that we perform. Our consciousness is our action. Actually, the physical movements are not action. How we modulate our consciousness, how we direct our thoughts, and how we feel things around us—this is the action that we are performing day in and day out. Every moment we feel something, and think something, and understand something. This psychological activity perpetually taking place inside is the perpetual action in which we are engaged, and this is also the reason for the perpetual reaction that is being set up. Karma is supposed to get accumulated in our psyche, in the sense of a propensity of the reality outside, to give the individual that has motivated this wrong action his due. And if this impact goes on continuing again and again—if we persist in wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and wrong understanding—the cosmos persists in giving us a blow again and again, in the same way that if we persist in having a wrong diet and living a wrong life, nature will persist in tormenting us with varieties of illnesses.

The piling up of impacts coming repeatedly from the cosmos on account of our repeated wrong actions every day becomes thick—like a cloud, as it were. Inasmuch as it is a force that is acting upon us from the cosmological side, karma cannot be regarded as a substance. The action engendering a reaction from another source is a kind of experience, and the karma residuum which causes rebirth, etc., is also a potentiality for experience in the future. The repeatedly occurring impact of cosmic forces upon individuals becomes thick like a cloud, and it becomes what we call the unconscious, subconscious and conscious levels of the mind. These three layers are: the thick and turbid residuum at the bottom, like the thick layers at the top of clouds; a slightly thinner layer further down; and a thinner layer further on, like the layer which slightly illumines the sunlight even in the rainy season when the clouds are thick.

The thickest part of our karma is in the anandamaya kosha. This is what psychologists called the unconscious level. The slightly thinner part is in the subconscious, which we experience in dream many a time, and the thinnest part is in the waking condition. Because of its transparency, consciousness is reflected so clearly that even through that karmic residuum we begin to perceive things in the world as clearly as if it were in the waking state. But we perceive things dimly in the dreaming condition because it is subconscious and not as clear as the waking condition. And we know nothing in the sleeping condition because the cloud is very thick and consciousness does not penetrate through that cloud—just as during the monsoons we will not see the sun even at midday, and it will be like night due to the thick clouds covering the entire sky.

This is the difficulty in knowing what karma is. Gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ: “The way of karma is indeed very hard to understand,” says Bhagavan Sri Krishna. But karmas loosen their grip upon the individual who does not act entirely according to the preponderance of the demands of the sense organs, but acts in the spirit of a yajna, to which reference is made in the Third Chapter. Gatasaṅgasya muktasya jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ, yajñāyācarataḥ karma samagraṁ pravilīyate (4.23): The person who is totally detached, gatasaṅga, and free from attachments, mukta, and established in the wisdom of life, jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ, and who performs action as a sacrifice as detailed in the Third Chapter—for him every action melts as ice before the sun.

No action will produce a reaction in the case of a person who acts as if in a yajna, or a sacrifice—i.e., as a participation in the cosmic purposes and not as an individual actor for the purpose of reaping an ulterior fruit. Expecting a fruit is a special characteristic of selfish action, and there is no expectation of fruit in an unselfish action. It is work for work’s sake, duty for duty’s sake, as they say. The moment there is an intention in the mind to reap a consequence, or a fruit, tomorrow or the day after or in the future, as the result of karma, or action, done today, that person is actually thinking in terms of the time process because the fruit of an action will accrue only after some time. The expectation of the fruit of an action, therefore, is tantamount to involvement in the process of time, and time is equal to death; and such a person is bound by karma. But one who performs actions as a yajna, as a duty, does not expect any fruit. Ulterior motive is totally absent in the case of unselfish action.

We may wonder: if we expect nothing from a work, why should we work at all? These are the stock arguments of modern thinkers, and even of very well-read people. What should be the prompting behind us to do anything at all, if we get nothing out of it? This question arises on account of our total ignorance of the nature of our relation to the world which is, once again, the wrong apprehension of the world as being totally outside us—a field where we can grow a crop and eat the fruit thereof, with God somewhere in heaven, Who will bless us with salvation after death. This is the peculiar, crude, illiterate argument of even the most learned people these days. Hard it is for a person to appreciate that there is an organic, living connection between us, the world, and God.

An individual must have performed great punya, great merit in the previous birth or in several births, to be able to appreciate this great truth of the identity of ourselves with the atmosphere in which we are stationed. Therefore, unselfish action is itself a fruit thereof. If we become healthy, do we ask what we get if we become healthy? Health itself is the fruit thereof. Similarly, unselfishness is nothing but a healthy relationship that we maintain with the world, and perhaps with God. And what we call selfish action is an unhealthy relationship that we maintain with the world and with God—an alien relationship, as it were. We treat the world and God as foreigners, as if we have no connection with them. If that is the case, they will also treat us as foreigners. This is a tit-for-tat action that nature does unto us. But we can be free from this predicament of getting kicks from nature and from God if our actions are motivated by a consciousness that we are an agent, an instrument, a medium of action of cosmic powers, and that we do not do anything.

Shakespeare wrote all the plays with his pen, but we cannot say the pen wrote the plays. Though it is true that the pen actually wrote the plays, we do not say that the pen wrote them; we say that Shakespeare wrote the plays. This is the manner in which we have to understand our position in this world. We are like a fountain pen in the hand of God, an instrument in His hand. We are a tool, as it were: nimitta matra.

The brain will not accept these arguments on account of the turbid karmas that are lying latent in the unconscious and subconscious levels. So in the beginning stages, spiritual practice cannot rise to such heights of this kind of comprehension. It has to start with citta shuddhi—the practice of yamas, niyamas, viveka, vairagya, shad-sampat and mumukshutva—qualities which are mentioned in the Vedanta Shastras. We must be good persons before we become God-persons. We cannot suddenly become godly individuals unless we are good individuals first and foremost. There is very little of goodness in most of us. We are the same brutes when the time for it comes, and this is something that we can know through a little bit of investigation, instead of actually landing ourselves in the predicament where we have to behave like that. We need not fall sick in order to know what sickness is. A doctor can understand. A good physician can know what sickness is, how it acts, without actually falling sick himself.

Hence, it is essential for us to educate ourselves in this art of spiritual living by a graduated ascending process of self-purification, before we go into the meditations of the Upani-shads and the Bhagavadgita. Even when we become students of Vedanta, for instance, we do not start with the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras, and so on, because they will look like a jungle, and we will not know where what is. Everything is found in a forest, but we will not know what is found in which place. This also applies to the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. Therefore, the Vedanta Shastra commences with introductory Prakarana Granthas like the Vedanta Sara, the Vedanta Paribhasha, the Laghu Vasudevamanana, and the Panchadasi. Then we study the Upanishads. Only after these, the Bhagavadgita and the Brahma Sutras should be studied. We should not suddenly jump into them unless we are already a prepared soul, by the grace of God.

Gatasaṅgasya muktasya jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ, yajñāyācarataḥ karma samagraṁ pravilīyate: All actions melt then and there. What is the jñānāvasthitacetas condition? What is actually the gatasaṅgatva; and what is actually the yajna karma, finally? When there is a hailstorm, little balls of ice form; and the moment they fall on the earth, the balls of ice melt and become liquid. Likewise, the fire of knowledge will burn up the solid masses of karma that we have accumulated, provided that our actions are totally unmotivated in terms of the fruit that is to accrue in the future.

Brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā (4.24). This verse is itself enough for us to meditate on the great God of the cosmos. When we offer a sacrifice, the offering is nothing but a face of the Ultimate Reality itself. The performer, the process of performance, the instrument of action, and the result that follows are all various modifications of a single Reality, in the same way that the ocean waters—whether they are like foam or bubbles or ripples, whether they are solid or liquid, or whatever be the form—are just modifications of a single mass of water.

Even the offering of the sense organs in terms of objects of sense, this crude activity that we are performing as sense perception, is actually an action of the Cosmic Power. The means, or the instruments, that we use in this process of perception also come from that Supreme Force only. That is the havis that we offer—the yajna of action. The fire into which we offer the oblation is only that Supreme Being manifesting as fire; and the aim that we have in our minds, the goal that we want to reach after the performance of this yajna, is also only the Ultimate Reality. The path and the goal coalesce in the highest realm of spiritual experience.

Brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā. There is a similar verse in the Yoga Vasishtha—tat chintanaṁ tat kathanaṁ anyonyaṁ tat prabodhanam, eta deka paratvaṁ ca brahmābhyāsaṁ vidur budhāḥ (Y.V. 3.22.24)—in which it is told to us that we have to practice brahmabhyasa. The Yoga Vasishtha prescribes three kinds of sadhana—prana nirodha, chitta-vritti nirodha and brahmabhyasa—which are prana-yama, control of the mind, and meditation on the Absolute.

Tat chintanaṁ: Thinking only that day in and day out. A person who has been given the death sentence will always be thinking of the gallows, and the executioner’s noose will be in his mind even before it actually takes place, or a person who is expecting a great promotion will always wait for it to come, anticipating the increased salary, and so on. Just as we constantly keep in our minds the great goals in this world in some form of material possession, in a like manner we should brood over this Reality, always thinking That.

Tat kathanaṁ: When we speak to people, we should not talk about unnecessary things. We should enlighten ourselves and the other by a discussion on this subject. We should prompt the person to talk only on this subject, and we should also talk only on this subject. This is actually a satsangathat is taking place between two persons, or any number of persons. Tat chintanaṁ tat kathanaṁ: Always thinking that, and talking and conversing only about that.

Anyonyaṁ tat prabodhanam: Mutually enlightening only on that particular theme. When we meet anybody, we should ask, “What have you studied? What is the progress that you have made? I would also like to have the benefit of knowing something.” As students sometimes compare their notes in schools and colleges, we can compare notes and compare experiences even among our colleagues. That is mutual illumination that we engender among ourselves, and that also becomes a kind of meditation. In a family, in a community where there are many people, we should not talk nonsense. We should always be talking on this great subject, which is the great health of the body, of society, and finally, liberation itself.

Anyonyaṁ tat prabodhanam, eta deka paratvaṁ ca: Depending on that only for our life and death. This is our life, and this is also our death, and we cannot have any other thought in our minds. Eta deka paratvaṁ ca brahmābhyāsaṁ vidur budhāḥ: This is called the practice of Brahman.

There is a little book by Brother Lawrence called Practice of the Presence of God. You can all read that book. It is very interesting. His experience was that everywhere—in the shoes, in the kitchen and dishes, in the broomstick—everywhere is God only. Similarly, there is another verse: tadbuddhayas tadātmānas tanniṣṭhās tatparāyaṇāḥ, gacchantyapunarāvṛttiṁ jñānanirdhūtakalmaṣāḥ(5.17). We will discuss this verse later on.

Today we drew certain conclusions about our wrong apprehension of our relation between ourselves and the world and God, which creates binding karma, and the necessity to perform unselfish action in the form of yajna. What yajna is has been described. Yajna is actually brahmabhyasa—total dependence on God. This is, finally, unselfish action.

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Discourse 10: The Fourth Chapter Concludes – Methods of Worship and of Self-Control

daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate
brahmāgnāvapare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati (4.25)
śrotrādīnīndriyāṇyanye saṁyamāgniṣu juvhati
śabdādīn viṣayān anya indriyāgniṣu juvhati (4.26)
sarvāṇīndriyakarmāṇi prāṇakarmāṇi cāpare
ātmasaṁyamayogāgnau juvhati jñānadīpite (4.27)
dravyayajñās tapoyajñā yogayajñās tathāpare
svādhyāyajñānayajñāś ca yatayaḥ saṁśitavratāḥ (4.28)
apāne juvhati prāṇaṁ prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare
prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ (4.29)
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juvhati
sarve’pyete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ (4.30)

In these verses from the Fourth Chapter are further details as to actually putting the spirit of yajnainto practice in daily life. We have heard a lot about yajna, sacrifice, in the earlier chapters. We envisaged, in a philosophical light, what yajna, or sacrifice, is. Now in a very down-to-earth, practical way we are told how we can practise spiritual sadhana as a yajna, or a sacrifice, and what the methods of actually manifesting yajna in our daily performance are.

Varieties are the ways of the daily performance of yajna. Some people offer everything, including themselves, to the gods in heaven. They worship Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Ganesha, Devi, Durga, Surya. Every day there is a dedication of oneself in an act of submission and surrender, through prayers offered by way of Veda mantras or verses from the Puranas and the epics, or from the Tantra and Agama Shastras. The gods are worshipped according to the injunctions that are given to us mostly in the Agama Shastra, which is a scripture dealing with the rituals of worship.

We may have seen people worshipping gods in a large public temple or worshipping a little image kept in front of them in their own house—a Siva linga, or Vishnu’s image, or Surya’s sphatika, or whatever it is. They perform varieties of entertainment to the god who comes to their house as a royal guest.

Actually, the ways of worship in temples, particularly in large temples of public worship, are similar to the ways in which we receive a king into our house. Suppose we are informed that tomorrow the emperor is paying a visit to our house. What do we do? There are a series of things that we do. We clean the premises, and make everything tidy. We arrange a beautiful seat for him. We receive him with honour and say, “Please be seated.” Afterwards, in Indian tradition, we have to wash his feet. This system may not be there in the West, but in India one of the important gestures of reception given to an honoured guest is to offer him a very comfortable seat and wash his feet. Afterwards we enquire how he is and whether there is anything we can do for him, and then offer him something to eat or drink, give him some clothing or jewels, and place before him fruit and all the delicious dishes that we have prepared. We wave a sacred light before him, called arati, and then calmly sit and enquire about his welfare. We serve him a meal, and afterwards—very, very honourably—we bid him farewell. This is what is done in worship in very large temples like Tirupati, though they do not go into all these details in small temples.

God comes to us as an emperor, and He comes every day by way of invocation. After some time, we bid Him farewell; and so the next day, we have to invite him again. After bidding a guest farewell, the person leaves. Every day this gorgeous reception is given to the honoured guest who is God; and finally, we offer ourselves: I am Thine.

Daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate: Some of the spiritual seekers or yogis worship gods in a ritualistic manner by chants, by performances of ritual, or even by actual contemplation. Brahmāgnāvapare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati: Or we contemplate the Supreme Absolute in our own personality. We surrender ourselves to that ocean of the Absolute so that we melt into that Supreme Being itself. The greatest worship we can think of is where we offer ourselves instead of offering delicious dishes, clothes, gold and jewels, etc. They are secondary in comparison with what we ourselves are. We offer ourselves in the great brahmayajna that we practise—the contemplation of the Supreme Absolute. Brahmāgnāvapare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati.

Śrotrādīnīndriyāṇyanye saṁyamāgniṣu juvhati: Some yogis offer the very powers of the sense organs into the fire of self-control. Self-control is visualised as a kind of kunda, a yajnasala—a special pit in which the holy fire is lit. Our performance, or act of self-control, is itself a holy fire that we have lit in ourselves, into which we offer the sense organs themselves, which we pour as an offering of ghee into this holy fire. The perception, and all the perceived objects of perception, are offered into this fire of complete withdrawal. All the five senses—the eyes, the ears, and the other perceptive sense organs—in their capacity as powers of perception and cognition, are abstracted from their involvement in the objects, brought back and offered, as ghee is offered, into the fire. The sense organs are offered into the fire of total withdrawal—pratyahara, we may say. Here, pratyahara is described as the offering of the powers of the sense organs into the fire of self-restraint.

Śrotrādīnīndriyāṇyanye saṁyamāgniṣu juvhati, śabdādīn viṣayān anya indriyāgniṣu juvhati. There is a reverse action to what has been mentioned, which is also regarded as a kind of sacrifice. What we mentioned first is that the sense organs, which are involved in the objects, are withdrawn, and poured into the fire of self-restraint. Here, in this second half of the verse, it is said that all the objects of sense are offered into the fire of the sense organs through the media of the perceptive organs. The objects of perception are offered into the mind, and from the mind they are offered into the intellect. This is the reverse process of self-control. We may either withdraw our connection to the sense objects and then offer the powers of the senses into the fire of our self-control; or we may melt the very form of the objects themselves, as is done in samadhi, samapatti, etc., according to Patanjali’s Yoga Shastra. It is also mentioned in the penultimate verse of the Second Chapter of the Bhagavadgita that all the desires and the desired objects come and pour themselves into the ocean of the seer: apūryamāṇam acalapratiṣṭhaṁ samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat, tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśanti sarve sa śāntim āpnoti na kāmakāmī (2.70).

We need not be afraid of the world. This is a higher form of self-control. The lower form of self-control is to sever the connection of the sense organs with objects, and to pour the energy into the mind in self-control. The other is more difficult, which is to melt the very concept of objects. Objects do not exist. They are only configurations of cosmic force. Objects are only energies—sattva, rajas, tamas—concentrated in their permutation and combination, and when they are thus melted, as hard ice may melt before the sun’s hot rays, the objectivity vanishes and the entire cosmos of physicality may melt into liquid, as it were; and like rivers flow into the ocean, the whole world will flow into us. This is a kind of higher self-control, which only great masters can perform. We cannot melt the world so easily and make it flow like a river into our own ocean-like Self: śabdādīn viṣayān anya indriyāgniṣu juvhati.

Sarvāṇīndriyakarmāṇi prāṇakarmāṇi cāpare, ātmasaṁ- yamayogāgnau juvhati jñānadīpite: All the sensations and the very activity of the pranas are concentrated in the Self. There are five sense organs—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching—and these are the five sensations. There are also five forms of breath—prana, apana, vyana, udana, samana. The prana causes the breath to exhale, and the apana causes the breath to inhale; and when we put a stop to this process of inhalation and exhalation it is called kumbhaka, which is mentioned a little later in further verses. Vyana is a pervading shakti, or force, which causes the circulation of blood throughout the body. Samana equalises the forces; it digests food.

These functions of the pranas, together with the fivefold function of the sensations mentioned, are concentrated on the Self, and emanate like rays of the sun from the Self of one’s own existence. The five pranas and their functions, and the five sensations, may be visualised as the rays of the sun, as it were—the sun being our own Atman. So sarvāṇīndriyakarmāṇi prāṇakarmāṇi: All the sensations and all the prana activities are concentrated in the Self. Ᾱtmasaṁyamayogāgnau juvhati jñānadīpite: Lit up with the highest form of wisdom, endowed with the knowledge of the Ultimate Spirit of the universe, a yogi or a spiritual seeker is enabled to perform this otherwise very difficult task of concentrating the pranas and the senses in his own Self, so that there are no multifarious activities taking place. There is a total action taking place, total perception taking place; and that total perception is called insight or intuition: ātmasaṁyamayogāgnau juvhati jñānadīpite.

Dravyayajñās tapoyajñā yogayajñās tathāpare, svādhyāyajñānayajñāś ca yatayaḥ saṁśitavratāḥ: Yogis, students of yoga, offer physical substances to the gods in heaven as a form of worship. This is called material offering: dravya yajna. Others offer themselves through the performance of tapas. Tapas is the creating of the heat in one’s own body or mind by subjugating the sense organs. There is an energy content in ourselves which always maintains an optimum. It never increases or decreases. As they say, the total energy in the cosmos is always stable—it does not increase or decrease—but, it can increase or decrease under certain circumstances. When the consciousness is contemplating an object of sense which is outside, particularly with an emotional charge upon it, the energy flows through the channel of the perceptive organ—and to that extent, the energy quantum is diminished. And the more we are emotionally conscious of an object, the weaker we are in mind and body, and the worse we are in every way. The greater the power of the consciousness to not allow itself to move in the direction of the objects of the sense organs and stabilise itself in itself, the greater is the energy quantum in us. And then indomitable strength, invincible power, and such things as siddhismay develop in one’s own self if our energies are maintained in ourselves, and they are not allowed to move outside towards objects or move through the sense organs to the parts of the body.

We have seen the beauty of a little baby. Why does an old man look ugly while a baby looks very beautiful? The reason is the equidistribution of energy in the baby’s system. As the child grows into an adolescent and an adult, the energies begin to concentrate themselves in the different parts of the body, and the equidistribution ceases. The harmony with which the energy is distributed in a baby makes every part of its body beautiful. There is no comparison of one part with another part. Whether it is the nose or the leg or the foot, all are beautiful. But when the energies get diverted due to the desires of the adult, they concentrate themselves in the eye or the nose or the tongue or the other organs, and the energy leaks out as water may leak out through a pot with many holes. This should not be allowed.

Tapas is the strength that we exercise in ourselves with which we maintain our energy in ourselves, and we do not wish that energy to go to some other object of sense, or even to a particular part of the body. It should be equally distributed everywhere. This is called tapoyajñā. This is why children who are innocent and have no desires, and also saints who have no desires, have beautiful and radiant faces. But ordinary people, who have desires, feel compelled to let out the energies towards objects through their sense organs.

Dravyayajñās tapoyajñā yogayajñās tathāpare: In terms of the practice of yoga, we do a yajna in a spiritual sense. It is left to us to determine what kind of yoga Bhagavan Sri Krishna means here. It may be karma yoga, it may be bhakti yoga, it may be the raja yoga of Patanjali or it may be the jnanayoga or brahmabhyasa of the Yoga Vasishtha and the Upanishads; by the practice of this kind of yoga, the highest kind of yajna is performed.

Dravyayajñās tapoyajñā yogayajñās tathāpare, svādhyāyajñānayajñāś ca. There are people who are devoted to sacred study. Every day they read the whole Gita, or the whole Srimad Bhagavata, or the Ramayana, or the Mahabharata, or the Bible, or the Koran, or whatever their holy text is. They pour themselves into the theme of the text, so that this tremendous concentration that they are bestowing on the theme that is delineated in the sacred text becomes a kind of concentration. Svadhyaya is sacred study. Svadhyaya does not mean reading books in the library, just picking up anything randomly and reading it. It is a concentrated study of a single text or a single group of texts—the Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, Vedas, etc.—so that the thoughts of the great masters who wrote these texts will have such an impact upon their minds that they are virtually meditating not only on the thoughts of these great sages but also on the noble themes which are delineated in the text. Thus, svadhyaya, sacred study, which is to be conducted every day by everyone, is also a yajna, a great sacrifice that a spiritual seeker ought to perform and must perform.

Jnana yajna is again mentioned as the pouring of the soul into the cosmos, the melting of ourselves into all the five elements, and ceasing to exist as individuals—existing only in God. The Yoga Vasishtha is especially devoted to jnana yoga. It tells us how to melt ourselves into the Supreme Being and deny the whole world as an existent subject itself—to see only God permeating everything, and know that only God is.

Dravyayajñās tapoyajñā yogayajñās tathāpare, svādhyāyajñānayajñāś ca yatayaḥ saṁśitavratāḥ; apāne juvhati prāṇaṁ prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare: Some people offer the prana into the apana as an oblation in a sacrifice. The offering of the prana into the apana is done by taking the breath inward. As I mentioned, the prana takes the breath outward. The apana pulls it down. So when we breathe in, the prana, which is otherwise outwardly motivated, is restrained from its outward activity and poured into the apana, as it were. This pouring of the prana into the apana by way of inhalation exercises is also a yajna of pranayama.

Prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare: Some offer the apana in the prana. That happens when we exhale. When the prana goes out, the apana is pulled up; the prana wants to take the energy of the downward pull together with it, and we exhale. But when we deeply inhale, the opposite action takes place; the prana is offered to the apana. So, apāne juvhati prāṇaṁ is actually a description of inhalation and exhalation. Puraka is filling; rechaka is exhaling. Hence, what is mentioned here is nothing but the process of puraka and rechaka, inhalation and exhalation, as part of the pranayama process.

Apāne juvhati prāṇaṁ prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare, prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ: Some people practise only inhalation or only exhalation, but some people restrain both the outward breath and the inward breath at a particular spot. That is called kumbhaka, retention, which is true prana-yama. Therefore, this verse actually describes the pranayama process—the inhalation process, the exhalation process, and the stopping process.

How will we stop the breath? Generally, people do it by closing the nostrils, though it causes a little suffocation. That is one way. But the better method of stopping the heaving of the breath is to concentrate the mind on one particular object. The more is the concentration on one thing, the less is the breathing process. Suppose we are walking on the precipice of a deep gorge. The path is only one foot wide, and if we step outside it even a little, we will fall down into the gorge. What would we do? Suppose we are walking on a tightrope in a circus. So much concentration is required! If we waver even a little bit, we will fall down. Therefore, concentration of the mind on a particular thing is a better method of bringing the breath to a stop. It cannot stop completely, but it becomes the minimum of inhalation and exhalation, so that the breath which usually extends about twelve inches in the ordinary process of breathing will become shorter and shorter. In the end, in perfected pranayama, the breath will move only inside the nostrils. It will not move outside. We will not even know whether the person is breathing unless a piece of cotton is put near his nose. This is type of pranayama is also one of the yajnas in spiritual practice. Apāne juvhati prāṇaṁ prāṇe’pānaṁ tathāpare, prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ.

Apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juvhati: Others restrain themselves by an abstentious diet. They take a minimum diet. Niyatāhārāḥ—ahara is a food of the sense organs. Though generally aharameans the food that enters through the mouth, in the yogic sense it can also be considered as anything that the sense organs take into themselves. Colour and form are the food of the eyes, sound is the food of the ears, smell is the food of the nose, taste is the food of the tongue, and touch is the food of the skin. Therefore, these are also food. So when we are abstentious and eat very little food, we not only diminish our chapatti and rice but we also diminish the desire to see, the desire to hear, the desire to smell, the desire to taste, and the desire to touch. All the sensations become diminished in their activity, and they become virtually controlled. This is niyatāhārāḥ—restrained diet of the sense organs.

Apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juvhati: We can offer the senses unto the gods who superintend over the sense organs. Tell the god of the eyes, “Take your property.” Tell the god of the ears, “Take your property,” etc. We distribute the belongings which are not ours, which we borrowed from these gods. We give them back, and then we offer a terrible sacrifice of ourselves completely in terms of the dismemberment of the sense organs, and the pranas are offered into the cosmic prana. The senses are offered to the gods, the divinities that superintend or control the senses, so that the senses no longer work independently. They are centralised in the cosmic divinities. Similarly, the pranas are centralised in the cosmic prana, Hiranyagarbha.

Apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juvhati, sarve’pyete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ: All these processes of self-restraint that have been mentioned are equally good, and whoever takes to any one of these practices is to be considered as a real spiritual seeker, a real sadhaka, a real tapasvin. We can resort to any one of these methods of self-control that have been described by Bhagavan Sri Krishna in these great verses in the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.

The way of spiritual practice can be variegated, as designated as the different forms of yajna which are described in a few verses in the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. A yajna is a sacrifice, an offering, and the offering can be a visible material something, or it can be an offering by way of an inward contemplation. Śreyān dravyamayād yajñāj jñānayajñaḥ paraṁtapa, sarvaṁ karmākhilaṁ pārtha jñāne parisamāpyate (4.33): Better than material offering is the offering through knowledge. Jnana yajna is superior to dravya yajna. The imparting of knowledge is a greater service than giving a lot of money to a person as charity, because all value is centred in the extent of knowledge that we have of ourselves, of the world, and finally of God—of life and death.

Every activity culminates finally in knowledge. Sarvaṁ karmākhilaṁ pārtha jñāne parisamāpyate: Every activity directs itself to a state where activity itself ceases and, in the end, all action finds itself in a state of the abolition of all necessity for action. The movements of the rivers cease when they reach the ocean, which is their destination. There is no further movement in any direction after the rivers reach the ocean. Until that time, there is intense activity. Hence, all activity is an obligation that arises on account of the consciousness getting lodged in the physical body’s individuality, and it ceases to be an action when it assumes a super-individual dimension.

The flowing of a river is an action, the blowing of the wind is an action, the bursting of a volcano is an action. Do we find a difference between these actions and our actions? The difference is the extent of the personality-consciousness, ego-consciousness, individuality-consciousness involved. If our actions have an impact upon another person, it produces a nemesis by way of a reaction; but if the Ganga overflows and demolishes millions of villages, no reaction will be set up against the Ganga. If tornadoes blow, tear out trees, make the ocean rise up and destroy all kinds of life, the wind will not have any nemesis or reaction to its action. If a volcano kills millions, it will not have any karma reacting upon it. But if we do anything—if we destroy a village or break something—we will get the nemesis thereof.

The cause of nemesis, or reaction, is the extent of the individual consciousness that we maintain; and jnana is the total abolition of individual consciousness. Knowledge here does not mean academic learning in a college. It is not a gathering of information through books. It is an insight into the very substance of all things. It is Realisation that we call knowledge. Knowledge here means identity of consciousness with being. Even if a professor knows much about how the stars are formed, how the sun moves, how the solar system works, he cannot be said to have a true knowledge of these things, because true knowledge is identical with the being thereof. Having true knowledge of the sun would mean becoming the sun itself, and to know the stars would be to become the stars themselves. As no professor of knowledge has that acquisition of insight by which he can become one with that which he teaches, all professorial and academic learning keeps us away from the object of true knowledge.

Here the knowledge that is referred to in the Bhagavadgita, wherein all actions are supposed to melt down, is not the ordinary learning of any kind of academician. It is not panditya, or scholarship, but it is the very being of the object getting identified with the knowledge of the object. Sat becomes chit. Existence becomes Awareness. Knowledge is identified with the being of the very object that we know. It is this kind of knowledge that is spoken of as a highly exalted achievement, wherein all actions melt and cease forever.

All material offerings are inferior in comparison to the greatest of offerings of one’s own consciousness into the very object of consciousness. Jnana yajna is higher than dravya yajna or any kind of yajna involving objects which are material in their nature. Yathaidhāṁsi samiddhognir bhasmasāt kuruterjuna, jñānāgniḥ sarvakarmāṇi bhasmasāt kurute tathā (4.37): As a blazing fire reduces firewood into ashes, all karmas are reduced to ashes by this blazing fire of knowledge.

Arjuna is stupefied. “What is being told to me now? It was told that I should take up arms and fight. That was told at the beginning, and that is the import of the very teaching itself. What is the relation between my being asked to fight in the battlefield, and now being told that everything I do melts in the highest knowledge, which identifies itself with the object of knowledge?” Great doubts slowly arise even in Arjuna, the best of students.

All karmas get burnt to ashes in this great knowledge. Yogasaṁnyastakarmāṇaṁ jñānasaṁchinnasaṁśayam, ātma- vantaṁ na karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanaṁjaya (4.41): He who has renounced all attachment through the identification of himself with all things, he who has dispelled all doubts through this knowledge which has been described just now, and he who is established in the consciousness of the Self, no karma can bind him. That is the meaning of this pithy verse, yogasaṁnyastakarmāṇaṁ jñānasaṁchinnasaṁśayam, ātmavantaṁ na karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanaṁjaya:He who is a knower and a yogi, he who is established in the Self, him no action can bind.

Tasmād ajñānasañbhūtaṁ hṛtsthaṁ jñānāsinātmanaḥ, chittvainaṁ saṁśayaṁ yogam ātiṣṭhottiṣṭha bhārata(4.42) is the last verse of the Fourth Chapter. “Therefore, I am telling you, Arjuna, dispel this ignorance that has been born of misconception, and cut aside all doubts with this knowledge; with the sword of insight, establish yourself in yoga. This doubt that is harassing the heart of everybody and compels everyone to see things in a wrong fashion, dispel this ignorance with the sword of knowledge—jñānāsinātmanaḥ. Remove all doubts of every kind: ‘What kind of relation have I with myself?’ ‘What is my relation to the world?’ ‘What is my relation to God?’ ‘What is the relation of the world to God?’ Remove all these doubts at one stroke with the insight which is known as knowledge, or highest wisdom. Get up! Be bold! Bravo, O hero Arjuna!”

==CommentarybySwami Krishnananda.

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