THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO
SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 40:
Text in Transliteration:
ne ‘haa ‘bhikrmanaaso ‘sti pratyavaayo na vidyate
svalpam apy asya dharmasya traayate mahato bhayaat
Text in English:
In this there is
no loss of attempt; nor is there any adverse effect. The practice of even a
little of this dharma protects one from great fear.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
If the construction
of a house be not completed with roofing, all that is so far done goes to
waste. If the raising of a crop be not gone through with harvesting, the
endeavours so far made become fruitless. But the partial practice of yoga does
not suffer from any disadvantages of these kinds. Even a fragmentary
application of it has its corresponding benefit just as a day’s food has its
own nourishment. If a wrong medicine be administered to a patient, instead of
its healing the disease, it may lead to the decease of the person. The practice
of yoga is not fraught with any danger of this kind. Any little practiced of
it, gives to that extent a glimpse into the nature of Atman. The fear of death
is the greatest of all. As Atman is being understood this fear ceases.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:
No step is lost, every moment is a gain. Every effort in the
struggle will be counted as a merit.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
If a religious ceremony is left uncompleted, it is a wastage
as the performer cannot realize the fruits. But it is not so in the case of
Karma Yoga because every action causes immediate purification of heart.
In agriculture there is uncertainty. The farmer may till the
land, plough and sow the seed; but he may not get a crop if there is no rain. This
is not so in Karma Yoga. There is no uncertainty at all. Further, there is no
chance of any harm coming out of it. In the case of medical treatment great
harm will result from the doctor’s injudicious treatment if he uses a wrong
medicine. But it is not so in the case of Karma Yoga. Anything done, however
little it may be, in this path of yoga, the yoga f action, saves one from great
fear of being caught in the wheel of birth and death. Lord Krishna here extols
Karma Yoga in order to create interest in Arjuna in this yoga.
Comments by the blogger:
There is no loss of attempt; there is no fear of adverse
effect; and there is a great merit in this yoga: it saves one from great fear. Even
a little of this yoga saves one from great fear!
Now what is meant by yoga here?
Sri Krishna first taught the endlessness of the Atman. The imperishable
character of the Self. The immortality of the Soul. Then He goes to the task of
putting the theory into practice or action.
So he teaches this Karma Yoga to Arnjuna and us.
Karma Yoga consists of doing and carrying out our
self-ordained duties or swadharma without expectation of the fruits thereof.
Every action carry good or bad reaction according as we do
it with the particular mentality. Reading and gathering knowledge is good. But reading
the errotic books is bad. Both consist of reading only. The books themselves
are not good or bad, though we attach importance to the Scriptural books as
distinguished by the weekly magazines and daily news papers. We would never
sell the Gita book knowing full well it would be torn and used to wrap up the
savouries like the processed ground nuts or peanuts! But will it be a sin to
sell the books containing Scriptural Texts? Even great renouncers of the world,
the hermits and the wandering monks attaché some importance to their kamendala
or vessel bearing pooja water! But we have no compunction in selling the old
newspapers and magazines. Many a time, they contain the pictures of important
people, bad people and Gods’ and Goddesses’ pictures. Do we have any
compunction? It all relates to the way in which we treat them. The papers used
to print the Scriptures are not more meritorious in terms of holiness than the
papers used to print erotic pictures and stories. The quality of the paper may
differ, the auspicious quality is discussed here.
No action is good or bad in itself. Elsewhere the great
Swami Chidbhavananda would say that the same light issuing forth from a lamp
may be used to read a Scriptural text or to plan and plot murder or other
crime. The action of lighting up a lamp in itself is neither good nor bad!
WE ARE DIGRESSING!
Karma Yoga consists of doing our duty without expectation of
the fruits thereof.
In this yoga, there is no loss, no room for fear.
Then what is the problem in practising this yoga? Our ego is
the problem. If our child obtains a centum in a paper, we want to proclaim the
news from the rooftop. If it bunks, we kill the child with a withering look. Mental
equanimity is not for us. This blogger is infamous and notorious for the lack
of mental equanimity! But, anyhow, more than fifteen years of reading Gita and
other Scriptures have given me a modicum thereof. We are all the victims of the
lack of mental equanimity. But there are people among us who are very satvic
and treat the good and bad tides almost as though with a complete indifference!
They are the blessed lot, indeed!
That apart, I view the life itself as a performance of yoga.
If we are blessed, we carry out our duties in the spirit of Karma Yoga, and
others like me go through life mostly as the tide’s dragging power.
If the world can be seen both as a thought and matter, the
life in this world may be treated as yoga, whether we are conscious of it or
not.
How?
Any act we carry our, when left unfinished, we have to come
back here to start it from where we left off. And if we indulged in our daily
activities with the usual ego-sense, then we have to come back here both to
reap the good and bad of our doings in this life. So, life is both yoga and
meditation.
How can it called a meditation?
When we consciously indulge in meditation, we first use to
be indifferent to the cropping up of all the unwanted thoughts and imaginations
in continuous waves. To the extent we are indifferent to them, and keep our
concentration fixed on the inward chanting of OM and the lotus feet of the
Lord, we can attaine emancipation quickly, even during one life time.
Likewise, even the ordinary people like me go through life
in a state of meditation only. Please, there need not be any doubt about this. But
the difference is we are deviating ourselves mostly in giving ourselves to
needless activities and thoughts. So the number of rebirths gets increased. But
even this process is a meditation in the sense that we tend to shed favourite
activities and likes through the evolution that happens inwardly. This is how,
while some people can go through life with the minimum of wants and
necessities, for others till the last breath is sucked out there are wants and
desires.
This is how people are born with the preponderating satvic
or rajasi or tamasic guna or mentality or nature and natural inclination. This is
why, I firmly hold, while this world can be seen both as a thought and matter,
this life itself is a continuous process of meditation.
Then why should we indulge in Karma Yoga and Meditation?
Sri Babaji’s disciple is Lahiri Mahasaya, and his disciple
is Sri Yukteshwarar Giri, and his own disciple is the celebrated yogi, and the
author of the famous autobiography, namely, “An Autobiography of a Yogi” and
the author’s name is Sri Paranhansa Yogananda. He says we do one kriya in “kriya
yoga” with one indrawn breath and the outgoing breath. This is possible only to
the Man with vertical back bone. Whether we are conscious of the “Kriya Yoga”
or not, we indulge in this yoga in life. All of us! But if we indulge in the
proper method, and perform one “kriya” or one cycle of indrawn and outgoing
breath, we transcend many a human rebirths of a healthy human being!
Thus we are all yogis! While they travel at the rocket’s
speed toward the Almighty, we travel on a bullock cart towards the infinity!
But yogis are we all! Nothing could detract from this fact.
Now think what great comfort should accrue to a conscious
yogi!
This is how, even a little of KARMA YOGA saves us from great fear! There is no peril
in this yoga. If a yogi dies at a particular point of time, then he would come
back to pick up the thread and start off from the stage of karma yoga he had
left off!
The same is the case of the ordinary man’s life. But by
consciously doing the yoga, we may avoid having to be born a beast or a plant
with lesser ingenuity to perform yoga. But they too are moving, in their own
way, toward the Maker! Why should we court materialism and indulge in acts
which me elongate the duration of our mingling with our God?
Moreover, by the same principle, it may be fearlessly held,
that, a reader of the Bhagavat Gita or some other Scriptures with faith would
ensure a human birth at the next innings, because we have to continue with the
reading from where we left off in this innings, no?
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