CHAPTER NUMBER 16 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF YOGA

VERSE NUMBER 16

Text in Translitration:

evam pravartitam chakram naa ‘nuvartayati ‘ha yah

aghaayur indriyaaraamo mogham paartha sa jtvati

Text in English:

He who does not follow on earth the wheel thus revolving, sinful of life and rejoicing in the senses, he, O Partha, lives in vain.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:

Factories are set up for curing, treating  and processing  the various things. The wheel of Nature is likewise set up by the Lord for nursing, training, disciplining and elevating all beings at varying levels of existence. A pupil who declines to be educated does not derive the benefit of his being school. A visit to a town is as bad as no visit if the visitor fails to see or do anything there. Having come into this world if man does not do what is expected of him, his advent amounts to nothing. As a drone he drags on a wretched existence. He is no asset but a burden and dead weight to society. Instead of fulfilling , he frustrates the divine plan and plan and purpose of Nature. Man ought to be a fulfilment and not a failure in life.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

In these verses the Vedic conception of sacrifice as an interchange between gods and men is set in the larger context of the interdependence of beings in the cosmos. The deeds done in the sacrificial spirit are pleasing to God. God is the enjoyer of all sacrifices. Yajno vai visnuh. Sacrifice is the Supreme. It is also the law of life. The individual and the cosmos depend on each other. There is a constant interchange between human life and world life. He who works for himself lives in vain. The world is in progress because of this co-operation between the human and the divine. Only the sacrifice is not to the deities but to the Supreme of whom the deities are varied forms. In IV , 24, it is said that the act and the materials of the sacrifice, the giver and the receiver, the goal and the object of the sacrifice are all Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

This is the wheel of action set in motion by the Creator on the basis of the Veda and sacrifice. He who does not follow the wheel by studying the Vedas and performing the sacrifices the sacrifices prescribed therin but who indulges only in sensual pleasures lives in vain. He is wasting his life. He is leading a worthless life indeed. One who does not live in accordance with this law and who is selfish commits sin. He violates the law of the Creator and that is the worst sin.

Comments by the blogger:

In the previous verses, namely 14 and 15 the nature of the wheel is described. Beings depend on food which is brought forth by rain which in turn is the result of sacrifice and sacrifice issues forth from action, which action comes from Brahma and he comes from the imperishable, and therefore, logically the Brahma’s source is sacrifice. To understand the Brahmic wheel, we can change the version thus: from sacrifice Brahma comes forth, and sacrifice is an action that comes forth from the Imperishable and sacrifice is but an action and rain occurs because of sacrifice and food come from rain and beings are sustained by food!

Thus for beings Brahmic sacrifice is the warp and woof of existence.

Here interdependence is the highlight, and interdependence is properly highlighted also. And this is the wheel of nature. Verse 16 is the logical corollary. Sri Krishna restates the two previous verses and put everything in context only. Nothing new is stated in the verse 16. It is a restatement.

Man and beast and the cosmos inhere in a set up whose basic notion is interdependence. Nature does not wish to overpower Man. Beast know this by instinct. But Man has always tried to overpower the Nature besides playing a foul game. “The deserted village” is a poem by Oliver Goldsmith. The poem is a rendering of the stark reality and the foul play Man has played on the Nature. Sylvan villages and fertail acreage are deserted and people go to the newly formed cities and become coolies. They lack the basic amenities. Laks of people live in shacks and under inhuman conditions under the name of industrial revolution. Charles Dickens also has painted this picture.

Man is a mule. He has never been able to rationalize properly. There are exceptions, of course. The Rig-Vedic sages and Upanishadic sages. In every quarter of the world such noble souls have risen to proclaim the nature of the wheel described in verse number 16, whose conditionality is one of interdependence. Nature has never forsaken Man and the beast. The beast, by instinct, can’t betray Nature. But Man has always been betraying Nature.

Before the invasion of Irak, George Bush the Junior and the then PM of England, John Major are said to have gone down on their respective knees and pray for guidance. Did they here the voice of God! No. They heard what they already planed to do. See the result of the invasion! And the world is praying for the finishing of the ISI before the goons finish off the world! What was the terms of the prayer before the invasion of Irak? Did the noble souls pray like George Washinton or Mahatma Gandhi for guidance whenever a snag cropped up? Here the two guys prayed to tell God that they were going to invade an independent and sovereign Nation, Irak! Petrol money was the shameless consideration. Now we have to pay with our blood for the two leaders’ unwarranted prayer. Man is a mule, I say, but for the minority like the Vedopanishadic saints.

We neve know the limit of our ambition. Today crass materialism is followed and advised and adverted and glorified. Three years old marriage crumble and the fourth year see both or either of the two to the contract move the court and the foundation of justice and want a divorce. Three day virgins and mother whoring monsters can go around with impunity if she or he had enough money and other assets.

Mane is a mule.

Wathc a sparrow. How limited is its wants! Our wants also are very limited. But a minority of us want to own the world and the cosmos. The tobacco barons are the cancer mongers. And their hefty donations are needed to win the election. Man is a mule. Gun culture has gone over the limit twenty five years ago. Now five years old children get access to guns. Teenagers go into a nursery. Who are there. Simple daffodils with human legs and arms. And the teenager let off with the gun and many of  the simple and unsullied flowers are done to death. But there is no way to stop the gun barons. Electoral funds speak. They are as bad as our sand and granite mafia. Man is a mule. Nature punishes repeatedly. But Man has gone so far he can stop even if he realise his folly.

Man is a mule!

There is an interdependence between man and man and beast and beast and man and beat and Nature. Still, India alone house three hundred million people living under the notorious poverty line. This poverty line was originally drawn by the invading Mohammadans and then later the British. But it has been fosterd by Indira Gandhi and her dynasty. After more than 65 years of independenc, India still fights its fight against one dynasty that refuses to let go after repeatedly being shoe-beaten by the electorate. Indira Gandhi herself never lead a majority government. She , like the damned Brish governors divided the minority for votes from the majority Hindus saying but for her dynasty the majority Hindus would swallow up the minorities. Thus she got major portion of the minority peoples votes and the Hindu majority votes were not garnered by the important opposition parties. Thus with the minotiy government indira Gandhi repeatedly divided and ruled. And saw to it there wont be proper education and the poverty line will linger as her vote banks. In a country of one hundred and twenty five crore people, where just fifteen crorse people constitute the minorities, the Hindus have to feel ashamed to call themselves as Hindus. The basic tenets like death and re-incarnation is openly derided. And the proliferation of the minorities go unhindered. The average Hindu feels shy in the national forum to own up as such. And deriding the Hinduism by the Hindus is taken as a great mark of mordernism and education and the resultant civilisation. Mark my word, friends, a day of reckoning would come in a quarter of a century’s time and the world would turn to the Hinduism for sustinence and preservation!

The world and man is so interdependent, that if you think a thinking, the whole cosmos feel the rippling effect instantaneously, whether it is a good and noble thought of base one. Every action has its own reaction commensurate to the positive force. Man can cure the world by positive thinking alone. That is how the cosmos and the Man-animal-kind is interdependent.

The wheel set by Sri Baghavan Krishna must move, and each of us should give shoulder to the wheel so that the proper momentum is sustained. Those who fail to give shoulder to the further movement of the cosmic wheel are sinners indeed.

In the meanwhile, yes brother and sister, Man is a mule!    

VERSE NUMBERS 14 AND 15 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

VERSE NUMBER 14

Text in Transliteration:

annaad bhavanti bhootaani parjanyaad annasmbhavah

yajnaad bhavati parjnah karmasamudbhavah

Text in English:

From food beings become; from rain is food produced; from yajna rain proceeds; Yajna is born of karma.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Work performed with the right frame of mind gets converted into Yagja (sacrifice). The effect of that work assumes a subtle force which in the Vedic parlance is known as “apurva” (apoorva). This point can be clarified through two concrete examples. The sun converts the sea water in the invisible vapour which is equivalent to “apurva”. In its turn the vapour becomes rain. The rubbish consigned to fire changes itself into the invisible carbon dioxide. It is “apurva” in this state. It then forms food to the plants assimilated by their leaves. Similarly man’s “yajna” changes into mental force which alone in reality is “apurva”. The syllables chanted in “Yajna” do not themselves become mantras or mental forces. It is the thought or the feeling that really constitutes the mental force—“mantra”. The purer the man and his motive, the stronger is the mental force. It is the intensity of the force of mind that becomes “apurva”. Influenced and regulated by it the rainfall occurs to people on earth. The production of grains for food depends on the availability of water caused by rain. That beings thrive on food , is self-evident.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Here “Yajna” (sacrifice) means “Apurva” or the subtle principle or the unseen form which a sacrifice assumes between the time of its performance and the time when its fruits manifest themselves.

Karma: Action, Brahmodbhavam: arisen from the injunctions of the Vedas.

  

VERSE NUMBER 15

Text in Transliteration:

karma brahmodbhavam viddhi

   brahmaa ‘ksharasamudbhavam

tasmaat sarvagatam brahma

   nityam yajne pratishthitam

Text in English:

Know karma to have risen from the Veda, and the Veda from the Imperishable. The all-pervading Veda is, therefore, ever centred in Yajna.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The phenomenon-jagat constituted of the three Gunas is known as Brahma or as Veda. It is also constituted of time, space and causation. This manifested universe expands into infinitude. It is therefore designated as all-pervading. Having come out of Brahman the Supercosmic Intelligence, this cosmos itself beams with intelligence . for this reason it is styled as Veda. This phenomenon is again in a constant state  of flux. As such, karma and the somos are equated. When karma is performed perfectly and with the best of motives it becomes “Yagna”. Eating for example may be done as an act of glorifying the Divinty enshrined in one. Living itself is turned into “Yajna” when directed to the service of the Divine. An earthly government becomes ideal when all people are law abiding.on a higher level still, when people take to the performance of “Yajna”, the functioning of the universe itself become elevated and sublime. The universe is therefore started to be ever centred in “Yajna”. It is possible for man to convert the earth into heaven. And sacrifice is the sure means to it. The scheme of Nature is verily centred on “Yajna”

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Action is rooted in the imperishable. But for the action of the Supreme, the world will fall into ruin. The world is a great sacrifice. We read in the Rig-Veda (X, 90) that the one Purusha was offered as a sacrifice and his limbs were scattered to all the quartes of space. By this great sacrifice, the world,s pattern is kept up. Action is a moral as well as a physical necessity for embodied beings.

Brahma is also taken to  be prakti as in XIV, 3-4. Nature springs from the Divine and the entire activity of the worl is traceable to it.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Brahma may mean “Veda”. Just as the breath comes out of a man, so also the Veda is the breath of the imperishable or the omniscient . the Veda ever rests in the sacrifice, i.e., it deals chiefly with sacrives and the ways of their performance . (Cf. IV, 24to 32)

Comments by the blogger:

From food beings, all the flower and fauna come into existence, for food rain is important. And the rain always proceeds from Yajna and karma gives birth to Yajna. And Karma which begets Yajna comes into being from the Veda, and the Veda comes into being from Braman, and thus Veda is , therefore, ever centred in Yajna.

This universe itself is the Veda and all the actions done or suffered by beings and nonbeing are that of Ishwara. Every action is that of Ishwara. Ishwara’s actions are called “Yajna”. Dr. S.Radhkrishnan cites the Rig-Veda which says this whole world is a sacrifice or Yagna. The Brahman’s body and scattered limbs are the planets and living and non-living beings. Even a rock is Brahman. All the flowers and fauna are Brahman indeed. The Hindus have a habit: inside and outside the family and the market places, even if inadvertently one’s foot comes in to contact of another human being’s body, they would touch that person, even if he be a perfect stranger, with the hand and then touch their forehead to the chanting of the Name of the Lord like Eeshwara, Siva. It is not the equivalent of “sorry!” other religious people say by way of apologizing; here, for a Hindu no question of apology, but they would treat the body as God’s own limb and touch them reverently to the accompaniment of the chanting of the Lord’s Name. This occurs even in the family of abjectly ignorant and impoverished Hindu’s family.

This word, when seen as a beautiful thought, there is no action for that “muni” or ascetic and he does not care about anything except Ishwara inside him, in the “hrdyakuhya”—the cave in the chest, next to the heart. But for all the persons for whom this world is real, then the world is Brahman and all actions inhere in Him or takes place in Him. we are just the media or agents of action or suffering action.

So Arjunan must act as an agent of the Lord and indulge in His action. “By their conduct, they have already been done to death, Arjuna, you just be an agent in my hands and just go through the motion and slay them, your sworn enemies. And as far as the great people worthy of veneration like the Acharya Drona and Bhishma they are past masters and the world’s illusion would have no effect on them. Slay them too!”

From food beings arise and for food rain is necessary and rain occurs as a result of Yajna and the Yajna itself is born of Karma.

British Indian History is notorious for Bengal famine. Famines always occur where the people are indulging in unworthy or unbecoming action which does not amount to Yajna. Famine was a punishment like the earthquake, though there are scientific reasons for them like the tectonic shifts, even as there are scientific reason for the seasons and the day and night!

India suffered and still suffers because of the crass material pursuits by the later Brahmines who had become lackadaisical and used the karma kanda of the Vedas to spread superstitions for their own somnolent benefit. They set their eyes on a easy going life. Lord Buddha’s Avatar happened to chide them and impart some discipline. But we, the inheritors of such supreme Vedic culture, are still suffering because of the great Brahmines as a race washed their hands off us. Everything was done by great and costly sacrifice. Tantras were used for worldly purposes. Supertiotions and fears were sold to the nonplussed people as well as the kings. Both the kings and ordinary people suffered under the unbecoming inheritors of the Vedic Culture, and thus good actions and Yajnas could not be done the nation over. So the Mohammedans came and did great disservice to the Hindus, besides reqruiting Hindus under the sward to their religion, and then British people came. With the result, the glorious India, which was the super economic power of the period some five hundred years ago, began suffering under Bengal Famine like famines and other furies of nature. Under Modi’s regime there has come a chance to redeem India and the ancient Indian Vedic culture, which did not know anything about castes. And the four varnas were nebulous and had not become rigid. The Italian dynasty held sway even after Independence for well over ten years. Before that Nehru Gandhi dynasty ruled. At last the county breathes the real freedom. It is for Mr. Narandra Modi to take the country to its economic and cultural super power stage it occupied before a century when Gaudama, the Buddha was born!  

VERSE NUMBER 13 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

KARMA YOGA OF THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

VERSE NUMBER 13

Text in Transliteration:

yajnasistaasinah santo mucyante sarva kilbishaih

bhunjate te tv agham paapaa ye pacanty aatmkaarandt

Text in English:

The good who eat the remains of Yajna are freed from all sins; but the sinful ones who cook food only for themselves, they verily eat sin.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Karma in itself is neither good nor evil. The motif behind it make it good or evil. A deadly war waged with the object of edterminating the wikced is a virtuous act. A pious prayer to the Almighty for a selfish end may not be a sin; but it is not so meritorious as a prayer offered for common weal. An action becomes sacred to the extent the ego gets obliterated. All thoutht, word and deed require to be directed to the glory or the Lord and the good of the world.

Partaking of food is an obligatory work. Cooking the daily food has therefore to go on as a matter of course. But one ought to think of and provide for the hungry and the needy as much as for oneself.he who is exclusive and self-centred in the procurement of food and in the partaking of it, is a sinful man. What he eats is nothing but sin. The bodage of sin that he creates for himself is boundless.

A SCENE FROM MAHABHRATA AS CITED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The king Yudhishthira perfomed a great Rajasuya Yajna when he ascended the throne after the great   war was over. The learned and the wise unanimously praised that Yajna as unparalleled. A mongoose having one side of its body turned golden, entered the sacrificial hall, rolled on the ground and pronounced the extollers as liars. But the assembly opinion and that they did not lie. The half-goden creature then explained itself:- “A few year back a terrible famine raged in a particular province causing death to people in large numbers. A pious teacher, his wire, son and daughter-in-law lived a humble but dutiful life in that region. In the midst of privation the teaching went on regularly. When life was somehow lingering in the family, a scanty offering of flour was made to it by a devoted disciple. The famished four baked four pieces of bread with that flour, offered them to the Lord and sat to partake of the sanctified food, when there was a knock at the door. The family felt itself blessed because the deity of a guest had arrived just in time when they had the semblance of a meal to offer. All the four fading souls reverently parted with their little shares, intent on appeasing the increasing hunger of the new comer. He blessed them heartily for their hospitality and went his way. But the whole family perished of hunger. Just then i entered their hut and rolled on the floor. The remnants of the flour there came in contact with a half of my body and turned it golden as you all see. It was so because of the purity of the motive and of the intensity of the spirit of self-sacrifice in their act of cooking and serving the guest. Since then i am on the look-out for another Yajna as it has not brought any change whatsoever on my body.” The assembly meekly submitted to the view of the strange mongoose.   

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

A day passed bereft of the performance of Yajna is a day gone to waste. Such is the injunction enjoined in the scriptures. An ideal family man is he who engages himself dily in the five great yajnas. All the five of them form his nitya karma—obligatory work.

Fist and foremost among them is Deva Yajna –the worship of God. The day invariably begins with it. This has to be gone through devoutly and to the best of one’s knowledge. This has to be gone through devoutly and to the best of one’s knowledge. It may be augmented with rituals according to traditions and individual tastes.

The second in order is Rishi Yajna –the adoration of the Enlightened. The great ones who have had cod-realization have not allowed their rare experiences to go into oblivion. Out of compassion for the ignorant humanity they have passed them on to posterity in the form of scriptures and sacred books. A devoted study, assimilation and practice of the principles contained in them constitute this yajna. Expounding the holy scriptures with a devotional attitude to the ardent enquirers with a devotional attitude to the ardent enquirers and devotees is also an aspect of this Yajna. Expounding the holy scriptures and devotees is also an aspect of this Yajna.

Pitru Yajna come third in rank. It has its two aspects. The living parents have to be revered and devotedly served every day. He who pleases not his parents cannot please anybody here of hereafter. This is the first part of this Yajna. Thinking daily holy and auspicious thoughts for the welfare of the departed ancestors is its second part.

Fourthly comes Nara Yajna—the devoted service rendered to mankind. Individuals are the limbs of the community. At all levels and in all fields the enters of the limb should be subordinated to that of the main body. Any position reverse to this is definitely harmful. That man who places the public interest above the personal and acts accordingly is doing Nara Yajna. This age is indeed in need of emphasis on this Yajna.

Bhuta Yajna or a reverent relationship with all the living being completes the list. Since all creatures have come from Fod,  the Cosmic Life, they have to be treated with due regard.the domastic animals and birds require to be tended on a par with a human. The cow’mother--Gomata is lierally worshipped in this great land. Bhuta Yajna does not, however, preclude stern steps being staken afainst terrific and venomous creatures that prove a menace to human. Life.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

It is God Himself who has become the entire Creation. All beings are therefore is to be revered as the various manifestations of Narayana. The tiger-Narayana, however, has to be respected from a safe distance.

Once again swami chidbhavananda:

Through the meticulous practice of these five great sacrifices—Pancha maha yajna  the life of man on earth becomes prosperous and auspicious. Again, all the activities in life can be converted into Yajna by the knowing ones.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Those who,after performing the five great sacrifices, eat the remnants of the food are freed from all the snins commintte by these five agents of insect slautghter, viz,.. (1 )the pestle and mortar, 2, the grinding stone, 3, the fireplace, 4, the place where the water-pot is kept and 5the broom. These are the five places where injury to life is daily committed. The sins are washed away by the performance of the five Maha-Yajnas or great sacrifices which very Kvija (twice-born or the people belonging to the first three castes in Hinju socieyy, especially the Brahmin) ought to perfom:

1.       Deva –Yagna: Offering sacrifices to the gods which will satisfy them.

2.       Brahma-Yajna or Rishi –Yajna: Teaching and reciting the scriptures which will satisfy Brahman and the Rishis.

3.       Piti-Yajna: offering libations of water to one’s ancestors which will satisfy the manes.

4.       Nri-Yajna: the feeding of the hungry and the guests, and

5.       Bhuta-yajna: the feeding of the sub-human species, such as animals birds etc.

Commnts by the blogger:

In those distant days, travelling by ordinary people was mostly on foot. So it was not possible to travel to distant places without the people fostering the guests from distant places. There were no lodges then and most of the land was comprised of villages. So only sayings like “adidi devo bhav” –the gusts must be treated as the Lord. The divine poet in Tamil literatue, Tiruvalluvar has written some two thousand years ago that an ideal housholder’s wife would propitiate the incoming guest and after sending them off will wait for the next guest. Now times have changed. There are lodges everywhere and entertainment of guests need not be given the kind of importance as given some two thousand years ago. But that does not mean we can disregard the guest with impunity. But the same kind of rigorousness need not be attached.

Thus cooking food for self and family is a sin cannot stand the test of the modern one-baby time. But this might be changed into giving abundant donations to various and genuine charities. It is with this thinking in mind this sloka should be read. And the five-fold duties of the householders, namely, Dheva Yajna, Rishi Yajna, Pitru Yagna, Nara Yagna and Bhoota Yajna are a must for the ordinary householders. All the yajnas must be scrupulously followed.   

              One of the beauties of the Hinduism is even Scriptures can be interpreted according to the changing times. Because, it was not started or founded by one man. It does not dependent on one man’s life and incidents that took place in his days. Even swadharma can be interpreted according to the changing tide of time. These are some of the reasons how this way of life has endured so long without any interruption.

VERSE NUMBER 12 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

VERSE NUMBER 12

Text in Transliteration:

Ishiaan bhogaan hi vo devaa daasyante yajnabyaavitaah

Tair dattaan apradaayai ‘nhyo yo bhurikte stena eva sah

Text in English:

“Cjerished by Yajna, the Devas shall bestow on you the enjoyments you desire.” A thief verily is he who enjoys what is given by them  without returning them anything.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

This world abounds in facilities and amenities that have come about as a result of the sacrifices of several people. The new born baby is nursed and brought up. That is “sacrifice” of the parents. The youth receives education. It comes from sacrifice made by the builders of educational institutions. The food that man consumes, the house that he lives in, the clothing that he wears, the means of transport that is available to him –all these are the outcome of sacrifices made by other people. While availing himself of all these advantages, man ought to ask himself as to how his own life is going to be useful to the others. As are one’s sacrifices so are the blessing that emanate from them. Whatever man does must be more beneficial to others than to himself. His doings become yajna in proportion to their public utility. When a balance is struck between receipts and gifts, a righteous man is he who gives more than he receives. Indebted is that man who appropriates more than he gifts. A thief is he who grabs everything and sacrifices nothing. This seemingly prosperous man ends his career as a non-entity. The enlightened do not place themselves in that pitiable position.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

When the gods are pleased with your sacrifices, they will bestow on you all the desired objects such as children, cattle, property, etc. He who enjoys what has been given to him by the gods, i.e., he who gratifies the cravings of his own body and the senses without offering anything to the gods in return is a veritable thief. He is really a dacoit of the property of the gods.   

Comments by the blogger:

This world is not for one who does not sacrifice. And the sacrifices to the elemental gods of the Rig-Veda later transcended the outwardness of the sacrifices and during the Upanishadic peried they got internalised. Even after that, the basics of the Rig-Vedic sages’ idea of selfless sacrifices to the gods have been retained in the Gita, with one proviso, that the sacrifice be the internal than the external. So we as men and women and children have a strong affinity to the universal soul. The whole universe is inside us in the form of “Idaya kuhiya” and we are made and crafted of the same five elemental stuff as the outward universe. The whole universe is within us, and when we open our eyes we can discern us all around us in the universe. So we have to know this strong affinity. If the Devas or the universal soul is not satisfied by our sacrifice after receiving from the universe rain, shine, food, etc., we become thieves if we fail to reciprocate and return them.

VERSE NUMBER 11 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 11

Text in Transliteration:

devaan bhaavayataa ‘nena te devaa bhaavayantu vah

parasparam bhaavayantah sreyah param avaapsyatha

Text in English:

Cherish the Devas with this; and may those Devas cherish you; thus cherishing one another, you shall   reap the supreme good.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Etymologically the word deva means the one that is shining. In the human frame the senses are called devas. They are shining in their own way and they bring ligh to the dweller in the body. If food be not supplied to the body, the senses become weak and unable to function. If the senses be abused then also they get worn out. But when they are properly cherished they become useful to bring knowledge and efficiency to man. To the extent man gets enlightened he looks after the senses with added wisdom and attention. Mutual fostering takes place this way causing good to both. Life becomes enriched thereby.

Highly evolved souls are called Devas wherever they happen to be. Cosmic forces are also called Devas because of their efficient functioning. The characteristic of the good and the enlightend is that they are always engaged in the welfare of all. It is Yajna to aid them in their noble and auspicious endeavours. The good and the boble in the world spontaneously come forward to serve the doers of good and to promote their noble  causes. Those who sacrifice themselves completly to God get their reward accordingly. As the fuel that gives itself away to fire becomes fire in its turn, the devotees who surrender their everything to the Lord, become all Divinity. By sacrificing his all to Gd , man attains godhood. This is the supreme good that yajna brings.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Whatever you offer to the Lord is returned to you , magnified manifolds. Take card , therefore , that you do not offer anything bad to him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

See Mahabharata., santiparva, 340, 59-62, where the mutual dependence of gods and men is described in similar terms.    

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

 Deva literally means ‘the shining one’. By this sacrifice you nourish the gods such as Indra. The gods shall nourish you with rain etc . The highest good is the attainment of the knowledge of the Self which frees one from the round of births and deaths. The highest good may mean the attainment of heaven also. The fruit depends upon the motive of the aspirant.

Comments by the blogger:

In verse number 10 the Creator Prajapati is said to have created sacrifice along with men and said, by this you shall propagate and let this by your milch cow which will bring everything desired of. Man cannot live without sacrifice and Vishnu is an eater of sacrifice. This is the basic plane of action man and woman are sent to this plane to indulge in action. For a man who does not sacrifice this world is an Adamantain chain he has to pull where ever he goes. Verse number 11 represents the same in a superb manner through what may look like an allegory, but it inheres in its quintessential state in Truth.

Paying incomtax is not a duty of a citizen, it is one of the incidences of citizenship, and as such it becomes A RIGHT OF THE CITIZENSHIP. WITHOUT AVAILING THIS RIGHT, ANOTHER RIGHT OF VOTING AT THE ELECTION WILL NOT BE ATTACHED TO CITIZENSHIP AS ANOTHER FORM OF RIGHT. THUS VOTING AND PAYING ONE’S INCOME TAX  ARE FUNDMENTAL DUTIES OF THE CITIZEN.

THEN, THERE IS IS A HIHGER EXISTANCE THAN THIS WHER THE RIGHT AND OBLIGATION ARE CALCULATED ON A UNIVERSAL LEVEL.

MAN (VERESE 10) WAS CREATED WITH SACRIFICE, AND WHEN THAT IS DON PROPERLY , EVEN ORDINARY MAN, A HUMBLE TILLER BECOMES THE OWNER OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE AND HE IS RESPONSIBLE TO IT UPKEEP.

NOW THE SHINING ONES EXIST ON BOTH LEVEL.

ON THE UNIVERSAL LEVEL THEY ARE THE RIG-VEDIC ELEMENTAL GODS WITH AGNI ACTING AS THE COSMIC AND INTERSTELLER AND INTERCOSMIC CONVEYAR AND BRINGER OF OBLATIONAL THINGS.

Man has to sacrifice. Simply because I happend to have a good pair of eyes, I can’t see blue films; it is a killer of atman. It is used in excess. The faculty of vision, when excessively used, it molests both the individual self and the universal self. An American thinking about the unhigyen way a South African is brought up eckos and revebrates the whole Universe, apart from affecting the wave maker, the American, and the South African child even though one single dollar is fished out for the emelioration of the child. That assignment is taken care of the universal spirit which cause the intesteller echo of one American man to arrive at the right man of woman or organisation and reverberate in their heart, and then that child gets digestible biscuits and egg powder soon!

There is a constant contact between the fundamental elemental gods and Man AS FOUND SINGULARLY OUT BY THE RIG VEDIC SAINT IN INDIA, OTHER SAGES IN EEGYPT AND OTHER COUNTRIES WHICH HAD ELEMENTAL GODS FOR WORSHIPPING.

THROUGH OUT THE RIGVEDA SAINT AFTER SAIN PROPITIATE THE ELEMENTAL GODS AND INDIRA AND THE SHINING ONES SO THAT THEIR EARTHLY LIFE MAY BE MADE GOOD ,SAF AND SOUND. THAT PERIOD AND THE LATER UPANISHADIC PERIOD WERE THE ACME OF GREATENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL AND THE UNIVERSAL SOUL. SUCCEEDING HISTORY OF THE MANKIND IS TO BE MEASURED IN PROPORTION TO WHICH HE HAS BEEN MAKING HIMSELF UNRECEPTIVE TO SUCH THEORIES OF MOST ORIGINALITY!

WE ARE BUT PAUPERS IN COMPARISON TO OUR FOREFATHERS WHO HAD QUESTIONED EVERYTHING, RESEARCHED EVERYTHING MEDITATED ON EVERY QUESTION, AND FOUND OUT FULSOME ANSWERS TO ALL THE RELVANT POINTS AND ISSUES. WE ARE RAG PICKERS AND SAY THEY DID NOT KNOW HOW TO ENJOY THEMSLEVES AND UNDERSTOOD LIFE AS AN ENDLESS SACRIFICE AND PROPITIATING.

EVEN AFTER THE SAME EXTERNANALAIZE SACRIFICES GOT INTERNALIZED AND MAN EVOLEVED, NOW WITH HIS SIGHT HAVING TRANSCENDING THE UNIVESAL SOUL AND REACHING OUT TO THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, AND WITH THAT A CHANGE IN THE SACRIFICES HAVING COME INTO EFFECT , AND GREAT RISHIS MEDITATED FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS HAVING NUTRALIZED THE INTERNAL BREATH INTO EXTERNAL AND EXTERENAL INTO THE INTERNAL AND THUS TAKING THEM QUITE OUT OF THE ONSLOUGHT OF THIS UNIVERSE AND ITSE INSUFFICEINET LAW, THEY MEDITATED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND FOUND OUT THE CREAER OF THE UNIVERS ITSELF.

BUT , WE, THE MODERN MEN AND WOEMEN HAVE NO TIME FOR THOSE METHODICAL MASTERS. WE HAVE OUR PUNI UNDERSTANDING OF   THINGS , MEN AND MATTER. AND WE LIVE FOR OURSELVES OR AT LEAST THINK SO. BUT IT IS NOT POSSIBLE.

MAN AND SACRIFICE WERE CREATED IN THE BEGINNING BY THE PRAJAPATI. UNLESS WE INDULGE IN SACRIFICE WE HAVE NO CHOICE OF REALISING OUR SOUL.   

VERSE NUMBER 10 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 10

Text in Transliteration:

sahayajnaah prajaah srstvaa puro ‘vaacha prajaapatih

anena prasavisyadhvam esha vo ‘stv ishta kaama dhuk

Text in English:

Having created mankind in the beginning together with Yajna, the Prajapati said: “By this shall you propagate; this shall be the mich cow of your desires.”

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The creative force of nature is an aspect of Iswara. Manifesting Himself in this pspect He governs and guides human destiny. Then He is known as Prajapati.

Life on earth is wrought with misery, however much man may pose to be free from it.  Still, there is an unfailing way to convert earthly life into a ‘mansion of mirth.’ When all activities in life are changed in to Yajna, the spectacle also undergoes a corresponding change. Man is born to give and not to grab. The grabbing man pays the penalty in the form of misery; the giver reaps the reward in the form of undiluted joy. The means to give somehow increases in the man who has a mind to give.the resources, the bodily effort and the mental disposition—all these become multiplied in the man of Yajna. His life flowers in being useful to others and fruts in enlightenment.

Kaamadhuk is also called kaamadhenu. It is a mythological milch cow, having a woman’s head, a cows body and a bird’s wings. The usefulness of the human, the beast and the bird are all combined in it. The owner of this divine cow is belived to have all his wants immediately supplied. Allegorically this milch cow is nothing other than Yajna. The doer of Hajna is never in wants;  he is always in affluence.whatever he wants to offer to others comes to him easily. His bounteous mind is the real kaamadhenu. Because of this frame of mind he is ever in prosperity. Preyas and Sreyas do both pay homage to him. this is the plan and purpose of Cosmos.

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISNAN:

Kamadhuk is the mythical cow of indra form which one can get all one desires. Bu doing one’s allotted duty one can be saved.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANANDA:

Prajapati is the Creator or Hrahma. Kamadhuk is another name for the damadhenu. Kamadhenu is the cow of Indra fom whci everyone can milk whatever one desires. (Cf. VIII. 4; IX.24m 27l X. 25)

Comments of the blogger:

Desires had to be shuned as being bounding the soul to this earth plane, with no way of emancipation in sight. In this verse, desire is sublimated. True desire is to do good to others, which is called inward culture or inward Yajna or yagya or sacrifice. The Creator created beings along with sacrifice is one of the original thought for emancipation Hinduism has contributed to the world. True Gesus Christ says if your neighbour takes your shirt, let him have your coat too. But the sacrifice contemplated here is one of self giving. Giving oneself. Thus the creator in the beginning created mankind with Yajna and said, with this you propagate. This shall be your milch cow kamadhenu of Indra which gave whatever one wants and desires. If we have such a beast, we would not care for anything. For we are comfortable with the possession of all-giving beast, the milch cow. Yajna is glorified in such glowing form by the Lord. Sacrifice when internalized becomes a force to reckon with. It gives all that needs to sacrifice without much of an exertion. Sacrifice is the key to cut asunder this bondage to nature is the original thought and contribution to the world for self –emancipation-tool. We can obtain our self only by giving up all here. Thus sacrifice ones life and body even is extolled as the proper method. We must live for others. When  our lifestyle becomes firmly one of unstinted giving which is spoken of sacrifice in the Upanishadic parlance, we have no stack here , and we become fully in possession of our Self. The creator created both mankind and sacrifice together and said by this you propagate, and let it be the Kamadhenu of Indira—is a most original contribution to the word thinking by the Hinduism. No other religion comes anywhere near this. That was why, when the Mohammadans and then the British people ruled this country and plunder it beside indulging in shameless acts of recruiting Hindus to their religion with force, the highest spiritual masters of Hinduism did not rouse the people against them. For them the encroachers and colonial folks too were their brothers and sisters. And if the mass of India had to work out their individual karma in the kurukchetra, so be it! That was their unconcerned concern. Otherwise, there were great maters who could have driven the aliens with the utterance nay with the thinking of one single thought, “Go!”

No they did not considered the Hindus as their people and the religious converters and the alien rulers as different. Now India is slowly becoming the power to reckon with. We were under the Italian yolk for ten years. Now the son of the soil has come to power and the dynasty is petrified. India is slowly evolving into a super power. Soon India, with its vedhopanishad background, would show the way for the world countries. Knowing this transformation some hundred or two hundred years ago, our religious masters did not interfere in the slow evolution. This India. This spirit and thinking pattern is Indian solely.     

VERSE NUMBER 9 OF THE KARMAYOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

VERSE NUMBER 9

Text in Transliteration:

yajnaarthaat karmano ‘nyatra

   loko ‘yam karmabandhanah

tad artham karma kaunteya

   mukta sangah samaachara

Text in English:

The world is bound by actions other than those performed for the sake of yajna. Do therefore, O son of kunti, earnestly perform action for yajna alone, free from attachment.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

 Competition, co-operation and self-dedication are the three ways in which beings make life a fulfilment. The lowest order of creation exists by sheer competition. In this stage, the struggle for existence is an endless warfare. The physically strong and the fittest thrive and prosper while the weak and the feeble are either left in the background or exterminated. This law of the survival of the fittest inexorably prevails in life at the physical level. Plants, birds and beasts bear testimony to it.

In the life at the mental plane, cruel competition gets minimized. Intelligent co-operation gains ground here. This process is also known as social life. Man is a social being though corporate life is not his excusive prerogative. Other beings are also found very well at it. Corporate life is more conducive to growth and progress than the competitive one. The civilization of man is mainly based on his gregarious instinct. Collective peace and security are the bases for prosperity and progress in arts and sciences. Man enjoys these advantages much more than the lower order of creation.

Self-dedication is the highest law of life. It prevails at the ethical and spiritual planes. It is given to the enlightened man alone to practise self-dedication. The act of offering the best and the most useful in one for the welfare of the others is self-dedication. Both the giver and the receiver stand to gain through this sacred act. It is like draining the water away from a copious well into a fertile field. This bounteous act goes by the name of Yajna which literally means sacrifice. As fresh water springs out from an emptied well, the man who performs Yajna becomes more and yet more enlightened and prosperous. By imparting one’s learning to others the capacity to teach increases! By supplying manure to the soil its capacity to yield is made more potential. By giving the labourer his due wage the urge in him to turn out more work is made keen. By sharing one’s wealth with all those who have been responsible for its growth, security and further expansion are ensured. The personal weal is ever unfailingly contained i n the public weal. Giving effect to this inviolable law of nature is the practice of Yajna.

Meritorious act untainted by selfishness, disinterested service, work of any kind performed for general welfare, adoration of the Almighty, ethical and spiritual endeavours—all these salutary activities are contained in Yajna.

Dedicating oneself exclusively to spiritual life amounts to the performance of Yajna. Waging a righteous warfare to wipe out wickedness from the world is an act of Yajna. Increasing the wealth of the country not for self-aggrandizement but for people’s welfare is definitely Yagna. Humble and obscure labourers such as hewers of wood, drawers of water, tillers of soil and carriers of load are also performing Yajna when they assume the attitude that with the sweat of their brow they are serving the Lord and His creation. It is the attitude that transforms the soul-entangling karma into the soul-emancipating Yajna. Divinity reveals itself best where Yajna takes place. That “Yajna is Vishnu” is an Upanishadic statement. Performance of Yajna leads man to ‘Sreyas.’

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

 He lives in vain who does not utilise the human birth which is very rare to obtain, for the attainment of Divinity

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Shankara equates Yajna with Vishnu.

Ramanujar interprets it literally as sacrifice.

All work is to be done in a spirit of sacrifice, for the sake of the Divine. Admitting the Mimaamsaa demand that we should perform action for the purpose of sacrifices, the Gita asks us to do such action without entertaining any hope of reward. In such cases the inevitable action has no binding power. Sacrifice itself is interpreted in a larger sense. We have to sacrifice the lower mind to the higher. The religious duty towards the Vedic gods here becomes service of creation in the name of the Supreme.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Yajna means sacrifice or relisious rite or any unselfish action done with a pure motive. It means also Ishvara. The Taittiriya Samhita (or the Veda) says “Yajna verily is Vishnu” (1-7-4). If anyone does actions for the sake of the Lord, he is not bound. His heart is purified by performing actions for the sake of the Lord. Where this spirit of unselfishness does not govern the action, it will bind one to Samsara however good or glorious it may be. (Cf. II.48)

Comments of the blogger:

The world is constituted of trigunas (three gunas or nature as Satvic or light or harmony, Rajasic or passion for action, and Tamasic or inertia or darkness). Beings and non-beings have these trigunas in varying proportion. So only this world is full of actions. Samsaraa means maya or illusion, kama or desire, and karma or action. Man is tossed into this ocean of samsaraa which makes man action-oriented. Other animals are also having these trigunas and they too are action-oriented in an instinctive manner as different in Man’s case where actions are both voluntary and involuntary and reflexive.

Thus the world is full of actions. And the very nature of action is binding. Whether we do good or bad, it will bind us to the world. And to that extant, even do-gooders are removed from their original native status which was oneness with the Supreme Lord.

Every action binds. For actions good, we have to come back here to enjoy the goodness which is the result thereof. And evil actions too bind us and we have to come back here to suffer and work out the evil effect we inflicted on nature and its beings and non-beings in the former birth. Even a good thought and evil thought bind us. A good thought or sympathy for an emaciated Ethiyopion skeletal kid bind us inasmuch as it affect the kid and somehow that kid receives food or milk due to the vibrations set out from us. And that kid feels thankfulness. And to enjoy the fruit of that vibratory goodness we have to come back here!

Thus, THIS WORLD IS FULL OF ACTIONS. AND A C T I O N   BINDS US!

Every action binds us in its own unique way. No one can escape the chain effect of this phenomenon. Do good, be bound and do bad be bound, too!

Then, if we are bound to this world with its chain of birth and death owing to our good and bad actions (EVERY ONE OF US DO GOOD AS WELL AS BAD ACTIONS, MIND YOU!), how to earn that emancipation which will lead us toward our Master and make us one with Him?

Here scores the Vedopanishadic sages and saints of the ancient India. Nil action or actionlessness is peculiar to Hinduizm. Sacrifice! That is one Brahmic key that unlocks the secrets of this action bound world. Some four thousand years ago the way out has been found, and the sastras have been codified clearly and this has stood the onslaughts of so many hundreds of ailien invations, apart from the vagaries of nature.

Those millennial fathers have found the WAY OUT of the action-maze. The cosmic conundrum has been answered fully!

Sacrifice! It is the key. By sacrifice alone we can asunder this death-giving chain of birth in death and death in birth! Sacrifice! Every action has to be done in a spirit of sacrifice. Vishnu prides Himself as an EATER OF SACRIFICE. I AM AN EATER OF SACRIFICE. BY FEEDING HIM WITH SACRIFICE ALONE WE CAN ESCAPE THE WORLD AND BECOME ONE WITH HIM OR REALISE OUR ATMAN.

 Thus every action has to be done with a sacrificial spirit. Then it becomes sacrifice.

We have to constantly engage in action but the with no stack in the fruits thereof. This is how we can beat the death producing Nature.

THAT APART, YOU MIGHT ASK, IS IT POSSIBLE? CAN’T I EAT A PAIR OF IDLIES WITH CHUTNEY WITHOUT THE SACRIFICIAL INCLINATION? CAN’T I SMOKE A SIGAR, CAN’T I POUR A COUPLE OF BECKS OF WHINE WITHOUT A SACRIFICIAL INTENT.

 WELL THE ANSWER IS THAT YOU WILL BE BOUND TO THE NATURE!

THEN YOU TURN AROUND AND ASK, “WHAT ABOUT YOU?” “ARE YOU AN ABSOLUTE SAINT?” DO YOU ALWAYS DO EVERYTHING IN A SACRIFICIAL SPIRIT?”

I SAY TO EVERY QUESTION, NO!

A RESOUNDING NO IS MY ANSWER!

I TRY TO BE VERY VERY DEVOUT , TRUTHFUL AND SIMPLE. I CONSTANTLY CHANT THE HOLY NAME OF THE LORD. BUT FOR THAT I AM NO SAINT. I EAT MY IDLIES AND DOSAS WITH CHUTNE AND SAMBAR ONLY FOR MYSELF. IT IS NOT A SACRIFICE.

BUT, I HAVE BEEN MARVELLING AT SUCH LIFE. MAY BE, WHO KNOWS, THIS CONTINUOUS ACT OF MARVELLING MAY LIFT ME OUT OF THE QUAGMIRE OF CRASS MATERIALISM I AM STEEPED IN IN MY NEXT INCARNATION! 

The Lord calling Arjuna as O son of kunti, here should be taken that this kind of sacrifice is not esoteric but common men and women born of women. He is not calling Arjuna as mahabahu, or parantaba or o Barata is notable. Even common folks can perform sacrifice of this kind and asunder the bondage of the nature with discrimination with a little effort.

Here is an encouragement for all of us. Performing our daily actions without expectation of the fruits turns the ordinary actions into sacrifice! And even common folks can do this with a little discrimination and devotion to the Lord and the fellow beings.  

VERSE NUMBER 8 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

VERSE NUMBER 8

Text in Transliteration:

niyatam kuru karma tvam karma jyaayo hy akarmanah

sareerayaatraa ‘pi cha ten a prasiddyed akarmanah

Text in English:

Engage yourself in obligatory work; for action is superior to inaction, and if inactive , even the mere maintenance of your body would not be possible.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Bathing, eating, sleeping—activities such as these are classified as nitya karma or obligatory work; but if any one fails to perform it, then one incurs demerit. Eating, for example is an obligatory work; but if any one fails to perform it, then one incurs demerit. Eating, for example is an obligatory work. By regularly nourishing oneself, one does not emerge as a better person, but if one neglects one’s nourishment one become weak and emaciated, which is a demerit.

Bodily existence is required to achieve the several ideals in life. Keeping the body fit is therefore accepted as an aid in making the pilgrimage of life. If the body be not perfect, life gets frustrated. Action is the means to maintain it well. Those who desire an abundant life ought to be fully engaged in activities.

 One ought not to be satisfied with discharging the obligatory duties alone. For, they can only maintain man in the excellences he has so far acquired. But there are yet other excellences to acquire. New endeavours are the sure means to it. Crawling is a necessary step in a baby’s life. But in remaining satisfied with it, the baby cannot evolve. He has further to stand, walk and run. Even so man progresses through new enterprises. There are those who hold that doing any new karma amounts to the creation of an additional bondage. The seeming progress on one side is nothing but bondage to karma on the other; is the view of these people. They advocate the avoidance of the chimera of slavery to action. But this negative position is untenable. Man can make endless ethical and spiritual progress in life and at the same time remain untethered to karma.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Niyatam Karma is an obligatory duty which one is bound to perform. The non-performance of the bounden duties causes demerit. The performance of the obligatory duties is not a means for the attainment of a specific result. The performance does not cause any merit.

Living itself involves several natural and unavoidable actions which have to be performed by all. It is ignorance to say, “I can live doing nothing”.

Comments by the blogger:

Here, in this sloka, the refrain, “Therefore Arjuna indulge in war” occurs only indirectly. The Lord argues in favour of carrying out the fundamentally basic actions like drinking, eating, sleeping and bathing as nitya karma or ordained duty. By bathing or eating no new merit incurs, but if one becomes indifferent to even these basic karma then high demerit would ensue. Thus the Lord argues that whether one is willing to act or not, the very fact of subsisting, if not high spiritual living, would become impossible for human beings. Thus, calling them as ‘niyatam karma’ the Lord argues in favour of karma as the very foundation of the bondage of the living human beings, and thus leading up to the carrying out of Arjuna’s swatharma or the self-ordained duties as a kshatria or warrior king!

Samsaara means the constituents of illusion or maya, desire of kama and action or karma. None can, even for a minute remain actionless or free from the bondage of action. The trick is turning the self-ordained duties into self-realising tool by carrying out them without expectation of the fruits. A person must be like a public prosecutor. His duty is not somehow fetch sentence of jail and punishment to the accused person, but to stack all the points relevant and in his provice so and let in evidence, so that the court can decide whether the accused is an innocent or a criminal needed to be punished. In this province, the public prosecutor could not be said to be having any iota of interest. His duty ends collecting all the evidence relevant to the charges and accused persons and let in evidecnce. His arguments also need not necessarily be in favour of arguing punishment somehow or other to be given to the accused. He sits down completely satisfied after letting in evidence and arguing the evidentiary points, leaving the judgment of the accused in the safe hands of the Judge. If a criminal is punished, that should not be seen as a win for the PP or when the criminal is set out as innocent or the alleged crime against him having not been proved sufficiently beyond any reasonable doubt, it could not be seen as a failure for the PP. The right kind of PP, indeed, does not hesitate in letting in evidence that is, in his judgment, basically in favour of the accused. The PP’ duty ends after letting in evidence with regard to all the relevant facts and circumstances. Arjuna must not judge the dos and don’ts of the matter. He must give battle as it has come unsought to him who is a proven kshatria.

When even nitya karma could not be disregarded, the swadharmic or self-ordained duties could never be ignored without incurring sin.

VERSE NUMBER 7 OF THE KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK

VERSE NUMBER 7

Text in Transliteration:

yas tv indriyaani manasaa niyamayaa rabyate rjuna

karmendriyaih karmayogam asaktah sa visisyate

Text in English:

But he excels, O Arjuna, who, restraining the senses by the mind, unattached, directs his organs of action to the path of work.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

A hungry dog chained to a post scrambles and paws for a plate of food kept for him at a distance. Such is the case of the mind of the untrained man given to sense-life. Viewed ethically and spiritually, he is a hypocrite who allows his mind to wander on sense-object while apparently curbing the senses. On the other hand an aspirant ought to change his attitude and seek to engage his mind on things divine. The mind disciplined this way chooses to engage the ever active and indulgent senses on things noble and elevation instead of on those, base and vulgar.

Disciplined is imperative in all the detailed activities of the mind and the senses. The acts of cooking and eating may be cited as samples. An aspirant prepares wholesome food for offering to his chosen Deity. While doing so, there is no thought whatsoever opf his tasting the dish. It is done in a worshipful mood. The food is then dedicated to the Deity. It is subsequently partaken of by the devotee as grace from the Lord and not as an object of sense enjoyment. Its delicacy is relished as the glory of the Lord. Herein lies the difference between the indulgent and the disciplined. The former wastes away the mind and the senses while the latter weans and conserves them. In this wise all the senses require to be fully engaged in the services of the Lord Self-control culminates in self-fulfilment.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

A deadly cobra was a terror to the wayfarers in a woodland. The knowers of this fact scrupulously avoided that locality for this reason. Once when a holy man was inadvertently passing that way the venomous creature made its appearance intent on its nefarious act. But the benignly loving look of the saint brought a change in the snake. Instead of biting him it looked meekly on the pious man. He kindly advised the serpent not to hurt anybody. And this enemy of mankind wholeheartedly took the advice. After a long time the holy man came again that way, thought of the converted cobra and searched for it. To his dismay the creature was found mangled and half dead, wriggling in a hole. When the matter was anxiously enqured into, the snake submitted that it was all the result of faithfully following the advice of the saint. Because it stopped biting, people took to pelting it with pebbles and hurting it violently. The deadly creature was force to hide itself lest it should be done to death. The saint smilingly rebuked it: “ I exhorted you not to hurt, but i did not prohibit you from hissing.” The snake learnt a lesson for life and thenceforth got on safely. The unbridled senses are like the poisonous snake playing havoc among people. the curbed senses are like the inactive snake almost beaten to death. The sublimated senses cause harm to none while elevating their owner to sublimity.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The human will can triumph over the rigidity of law. We should not look upon the things of the world as means to our satisfaction. If we are to recover our lost equanimity, our lost integrity, our lost innocence we must see all things as manifestations of the Real and not as objects to be grasped and possessed. To develop this attitude of non-attachment to things, contemplation is essential.

In verse 6the Lord condemns mere outer renunciation and in this verse commends the true spirit of inward detachment.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

If anyone performs actions with his organs of action ( viz., hands, feet, organ of speech, etc.) controlling the organs of knowledge by the mind, and without expectation of the fruits of the actions and without egoism, he is certainly more worthy than the other who is a hypocrite or a man of false conduct. (Cf. IV. 21; II. 64, 68)

The five organs of knowledge are the eyes, the ears, the nose, the skin and the sense of taste (tongue).

Comments by the blogger:

In verse number 6 the Lord condemns those who indulge unsuccessfully only in the external curbing of karmendria or the organs of karma or action without exerting the mind which is the seat of the senses. Unless one curbs mind and thus senses, the sense objects and sense organs will trouble the practitioner. In this verse the Lord speaks in glowing terms such persons who, controlling the senses by the mind, engages in himself in karma yoga or method of work with the organs of action, without attachment, he excels.  

This apart, a question may arise, cannot we enjoy the good things of life without becoming a sinner? If we should control our mind which is the seat of senses and thereby the sense organs, what is the bloody purpose of the senses and sense objects? And should we all become sanyasins? Can’t I like my whisky and bacon in the morning and wine and teak for dinner, without having to suffer the consequences? If eating, touching, speaking, smelling etc. In excess is sin, why the hell they were given to me. Why the hell is there a world full of sense objects? Why the hell shoul I go through life like a bundle of ideals and vague notions about yoga and then think I am happy. For God’s sake, can’t be a guy happy in life? Being happ itself is sin? What kind of God would he be if he expects me to be mute and go through life like a nincompoop and deaf and dumb?

Hey! Wait a minute, will you?

Ha! Ha! Ha!

During studying Gita for the first time some fifteen years back, I used to get these questions agitate me. Irrespective of that side of me, there was an inner self that said, all the Lord wants us is to live a full life , happy life like a Raja, but at the same time watching over our senses so that we would not become pigs! This world is full of maya or illusion and the real happiness is always wears a clock while brash and sinful things are loud and opprobrious catering to our lower self. Every one of us has a secrete longing to become a pig and enjoy continuously.

There’s an upnishadic story you might like and relish:

There was a king and to his court, one day, a mendicant paid a visit. The Raja came down his thrown and bent over to touch the ascetic’s feet. After some time, before the wandering monk was going to leave the court, the king asked of him a question. And the question related to what would happen to the king after his death. To this, without any hesitation, the mendicant said, “You will take a re-birth as a pig!” The king became very sorrow, and laughingly the monk said, “Don’t lose heart, man. Though it is true that you would take a birth as a pig , after that incarnation is over, you would come to this earth as man again and wield great powers!”

With that the mendicant went on his wandering way, and the king accosted some faithful bodyguards of his and directed them that once his death take place to be ever watchful for the birth of that pig and kill it instantly, so that he could come again soon here as man and wield power like now.

One day the king died and the faithful bodyguards were ever watchful for that pig’ cub. One that occurred, they chased the cub to kill it. But the pig ran round and round and at one time became very tired and asked the soldiers of their purpose. “I am but a small cub and what could I have done to you that you all should chase me with outdrawn swords?” it asked. The faithful soldiers told the Raja inside the pig the story of his bidding to kill him as soon as he incarnated as a pig. “O, I see!” said the pig cub. “I am all prise for your honesty and fidelity to the king in me. But I happen to like this pig’s life too. I hadn’t realise then a pig’s life could be so very marvellous. So I want to enjoy this pig’s life too fully. So don’t dare come near me!”

Having said it the small pig cub ran away!

Such is the power of maya or illusion. We might despise a pig, but to the shit eating pig it’s glorious life indeed. And he is an honest pig, no?

The question is that there should be moderation in all and can’t we exert our mind a bit and flux our thinking muscle if an unhurried simple and devout life is not full of happiness and light, and if before this inward culture could even a Roman King could claim parity?

Stick to Gita. We will discuss many more things, dear friends. 

VERSE NUMBER 6 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 6

Text in Transliteration:

Karmendriyaani samyamya ya aaste manasaa smaran

Indriyaarthaan vimoodhaatmaa mirthyaachaarah sa uchyate

Text in English:

That deluded man is called a hypocrite who sits controlling the organs of action, but dwelling in his mind on the objects of the senses.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The functioning of the mind persists as long as the Jivatman is bound by Prakriti. And the way of the mind is to be ever assuming modifications. Thought waves continue to rise in it while the external sense organs are held under restraint. This conflict is harmful. It is like applying brake to the wheels of the locomotive while the throttle-valve is fully open. To shut the steam first and then to apply the brake is the proper course. Any contrary action is disastrous to the locomotive. When man adopts this kind of wrong restraint on himself in a violent way in order to control the senses, he ruins the personality. Whatever mars man is evil. While yet in ignorance man’s pretension to the renunciation of action is sheer hypocrisy which he should not resort to.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Two friends went out one night intent on any entertainment that they came by. As they walked on they met with a pious gathering listening devoutly to the Holy Bhagavadhtam being explained. One of the two suggested that they wait there and derived benefit from that sacred discourse. But the other preferred some earthly enjoyment and walked away to a house of ill-fame. After a while the first man thought he made a mistake in choosing that holy assembly. All the time he was cogitating over the pleasure his companion was enjoying. The second man on the other hand, was repenting of the base choice he had made and was imagining of the divine bliss his friend was sharing with the devotees. The fist man was sitting in a house of God and sinning while the second was craving for the divine though physically placed in a bad environment. Sin and virtue accrue ever from the frame of mind and never from the restrictions imposed on the senses.

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

We may control outwardly our activities but if we do not restrain the desires which impel them, we have failed to grasp the true meaning of restraint.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The five organs of action, karma Indriyas are Vak (organ of speech), Pani (hands), Padam (feet), Upastha (genital) and Guda (anus). They are born of the Rajasic portion of the five Tanmmatras or suble elements; Vak from the Akasa Tanmatra(ether) pani from the Vayu(air), Padam from the Agni Tanmatra (fire), Upashth from apas Tanmatra (water), and Guda from the Prithvi Tanmatra (earth). That man who, restraining the organs of action, sits revolving in his mind thoughts regarding the objects of the senses is a man of sinful conduct. He is self deluded. He is a veritable hypocrite.

The organs of action must be controlled. The thoughts should also be controlled.  The mind should be firmly fixed on the Lord. Only then will you become a true yogi. Only then will you attain to Self-realisation.

Comments of the blogger:

It should be noted that verse number 6 come after the 5 where it is postulated openly by the lord that none can remain for even a moment without performing action.  And performance of action always involves the sense playing around the sense objects and this is a must for the continuance of the universe and creation. But the Lord says,  in verse 5 that everyone is made to act helplessly indeed by the qualities born of Nature!

We should not comprehend the two verses as the Lord saying that YOU MUST ACT,  NATURE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU, EVEN FOR A SECOND, REMAIN WITHOUT ACTING. BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU MUST CURB YOURSELF TO THE EXTENT OF YOUR BEING INACTIVE.

 In the whole universe, except the sky and the Atman or Self or Soul nothing remains without action. Even inside the inorganic objects like rock and water there is constant action, and this is the tatva or truth or the philosophy of Siva Dhandava or Sri Nataraja’s Cosmic Dance! So much so that every inorganic thing like rock has its own atom number declaring the basic vibration level in the atoms. This the Dance of Siva.

The combined study of the two verses as aforesaid makes it clear that we have to act, because we have been wired that way, but there should be moderation in all, and the endless pursuit of the materialism is a sin in as far as it drags the soul from its Master through millennial rebirths, each innings giving birth to more million of number of re-births. The Lord must be understood as saying in these two verses as DON’T INCREASE THE NUMBER OF YOUR REBIRTHS. AND, THOUGH ACTION IS YOUR BASIC MODE, YOUR SELF DOES NOT KNOW OF NO ACTION, AND TO REALISE THAT, BECOME RESTFUL AND RESTRICT YOUR SENSES SO THAT THEY SHALL NOT MAKE A DASH FOR THE SENSE OBJECTS. BUT, IF YOU ONLY PUT A CURB ON YOUR SENSE OBJECTS LIKE SPEECH ORGAN, HAND, FOOT, PRIVATE PART AND THE ANUS, WHILE FREELY ALLOWING THE INCOMING OF THE SENSE PLEASUES IN THE MIND, BECAUSE IT IS SHEER HYPOCRICY.

Actions are there. Senses are in the mind which must be curbed, which will have a SAY  on the sense objects, then you can attain slowly toward the supreme state of actionlessness. So till then, without fear or favour, without likes or dislikes, and without expectation of fruits of the actions, ever indulge in your self ordained duty, O, Arjuna.

Even if you go into the forest after renouncing the world, your mind would not be able to think of anything but the war that took place at Krutkchetra. Because you are a kshatria and a kshatria is wired toward giving battle when challenged. Even in the forest your senses would be lingering on the battlefield, and thus, just curbing your vak, pani, padam, upashta and Guda will never do. Take up the bow and arrow thrown by you and give mighty battle and enjoy the whole world here and after death enjoy the heaven for ever! 

VERSE NUMBER 5 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 5

Text with Transliteration:

na hi kaschit ksanam api jaatu tisthaty akarmakrt

kaaryate hy avasah karma sarvah prakrtiuair gunaih

Text in English:

None can ever remain really actionless even for a moment; for everyone is helplessly driven to action by the Gunas, born of Prakriti.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Prakriti of Nature is constituted of the three Gunas—‘Sattva’, ‘Rajas’ and ‘Tamas’. It is ever in a state of flux. In other world karma is inherent in Prakriti. Beings involved in prakriti are therefore helplessly bound by karma. Vain is their wish and attempt to rid themselves of action; eating, sleeping, breathing, beating of the heart –all these are nothing but karma. From the atom up to the universe all are engaged in activities of innumerable types. It is impossible for beings to renounce karma while being entangled in prakriti.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANANDA:

Those who are enlisted as indoor patients in a hospital cannot get out it until they are cured. After the cure is effected they have no need to be in the hospital. Similarly beings that suffer from the ailment of ignorance are hospitalized in prakriti. Thaye are being effectively treated with karma for enlightenment. With the dawn of Brhma-jnanam they quit prakriti, and get to actionlessness.

 COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

So long as we lead embodied lives, we cannot escape from action. Without work life cannot be sustained. Aandagiri points out that he who knows the self is not moved by the gunas, but he who has not controlled the body and the senses is driven to action by the gunas.

By implication the view that released soul ceases to work as all work is a derogation from the supreme state, a return to ignorance, is reflected. While life remains, action is unavoidable. Thinking is an act; living is an act—and these acts cause many effects; to be free from desire, from the illusion of personal interest, is the true non-action and not the physical abstention from activity. When it is said that works cease for a man who is liberated, all that is meant is that he has no further personal necessity for works.  It does not mean that he flees from action and takes refuge from blissful inaction. He works as God works, without any blinding necessity or compelling ignorance, and even performing work, he is not involved. When his egoism is removed, action springs from the depths and is governed by the supreme secretly seated in his heart. Free from desire and attachment, one with all beings , he acts out of the profoundest depths of his inner being, governed by his immortal, divine, highest self.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The Gunas (qualities of Nature) are three, viz., Sattva; Rajas and Tamas. Sattva is harmony or light or purity; Rajas is passion or motion; Tamas is inertia or darkness. Sattvic actions help a man to attain to Moksha. Rajasasic and Tamasic actions blind a man to Samsara.

These qualities cannot affect a man who has knowledge of the self. He has crossed over these qualities. He has become a Gunatita (one who has transcended the qualities of Nature). The ignorant man who has no knowledge of the Self and who is swayed by Avidya or nescience is driven helplessly to action by the Gunas. (CF. IV.16, XVIII. 11)

Comments by the blogger:

God’s essential condition is one of glorious inaction or actionless masterliness. Human condition is one of pathetically continuous action. This nature or prakriti with the three gunas, remains constantly in a flex. There is no respite in it. The basic atom of the matter here is our quintessential personality. And inside the atom there is lots of action taking place, in the sense electron is constantly revolving round the neutron and the proton, and this is made possible by the inactive space which preponderates in volume in any atom.

Likewise, Lord Siva is pervasively extant and in this respect there is no action in him, but the Sivadhandava ( the Dance of Siva) constantly takes place even in a minute atom. Inside the atom the moving electron can be seen both as a fixed point of light at the same time, from a different angle, like a streak. Siva constantly dances even inside the atom, and at the same time, like the unmoving space within and without the atom, is unmoving, everlasting and extant.

The jivatma, having been tossed into the samsara constituting of illusion or maya, desire or kama and action or karma is helplessly becomes action-oriented. There is endless action in prakriti or Nature with its three gunas or state of conditions, namely, sattva, or purity or light or harmony, Rajas or passion for action, good or bad, and Tamas or inertia or darkness sans understanding and in Man also all these three gunas or nature inhere in varying degree and proportion, and as such, the average human being is given to action unendingly. Even when we sit idly, there is much action taking place inside our mind. And there are ceaseless bodily actions which are involuntary by nature as the movement of the heart, lungs and kidneys. It is not possible for us to remain actionless. And at the same time we have to spend twenty-four hours every day and thus time also hangs heavily on our hands. And each action has its own reaction, even each mental action has its own equal reaction. That is why the Lord has taken the pain to teach in Gita to always indulge in action having given up the fruits thereof to Him. that is the only way human being can get the better of the prakriti or Nature. Prakriti is a task mistress and only by indulging in unselfish action always can we get the better of her and in the process get to know the roots of ours.

Every person is made to act according to the preponderating guna or nature ceaselessly. Here comes the help of the Ishta Moorthy and the chanting of His or Her NAME ceaselessly even as we go through life. Every Hindu must choose a moorthy from the pantheon of Gods and Goddesses in the Hinduism and sing His or Her name constantly. It will never lead us astray. We can indulge in worldly action without fear!

VERSE NUMBER 4 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 4

Text in Transliteration:

na karmanaam anaarambhan naiskrmyam puruso ‘snute

na cha samnyasanaad eva sidhhim samdhigacchati

Text in English:

Man gains not actionlessness by abstaining from activity, nor does he rise to perfection by mere renunciation.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   The little ones seeking education take to schooling. But it is no intention of theirs to stick lifelong to educational institutions. They are to pass out after successfully completing the courses of study. It avails them nothing to come out of the school abandoning the studies. The training that the Jivatman gets in the school of Nature is similar to this.

   Naishkarmyam and siddhi connote the same: for , the state of perfection is that in which all activities are transcended. A fully ripe fruit may be said to have reached the state of perfection. Its taking form from the flower, its development, growth and maturity are all different stages of its activity, leading to actionlessness in perfect fruition. The fully ripe fruit severs its connection with the tree. But if it is plucked out before ripening its fulfilment remains incomplete.

    Man’s spiritual life or his progress towards sreyas is akin to this.  As the tender fruit grows receiving sustenance from the tree, so man marches towards perfection in and through the discharging of the duty fallen to his lot. He derives no benefit by violently snatching himself away from duty. Desirless action is the sure means to reach actionlessness.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   The goal in life of man is to merge in godhood. Make a reminder knot of this fact in a corner of your scarf and then plunge in the discharge of your duties.

COMMENTARY OF DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

Naishkarmya is the state where one is unaffected by work. The natural; law is that we are bound by the results of our actions. Every action has its natural reaction and so is a source of bondage committing the soul to the world of becoming and preventing its union with the Supreme through the transcendence of the world. What is demanded is not renunciation of works, but renunciation of selfish desire.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Actionlessness (Naishkarmyam) and perfection (siddhi) are synonymous. The sage who has attained to perfection or reached the state of actionlessness rests in his own essential nature as Existence-knowledge-Bliss Absolute (Satchidananada Svarupa).  He has neither necessity nor desire for action as a means to an end. He has perfect satisfaction in the Self.

One attains to the state of actionlessness by gaining the knowledge of the Self. If a man simply sits quiet by abandoning action you cannot say that he has attained to the state of actionlessness. His mind will be planning, scheming and speculating. Thought is real action. The sage who is free from affirmative thoughts, wishes, and likes and dislikes, who has the knowledge of the Self can be said to have attained to the state of actionlessness.

No one can reach perfection or freedom from action or knowledge of the Self by mere renunciation or by simply giving up activities without possessing the Self. (Cf/ XVIII. 49)

Comments of the blogger:

Non-performance of actions means non-performance of self-ordained duties or swadharma and reounciation means giving up of all actions while being in perfect possession of one’s self. It will be known to our private selves if we are perfect souls or in need of perfection. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred we find ourselves in varying stages of ripening. No man is the same in his inward culture as the other, even as no man’s biometric signature is the same as the other ones. Among the five pandava kings there is no similarity in the inward culture. Yudhishtra’s perfection is not the same as that of others of his brothers, Arjuna too is in a particular stage of perfection or ripening. But has not attained the fullness as yet. He needs to wage this righteous war as becoming of an accomplished warrior or  kshatria. But he asks for renouncing the world and live on beggars bread even! That is the accomplished state of a great master. Sanyasihood is not a matter of choice as it is a matter of understanding. Arjuna has to do a lots of things, indulge in a teeming number of activities here in this incarnation itself, he cannot escape them simply because they are not palatable to the understanding of his heart!

Actionlessness is not a state of non-being, a being at a superconscious level. That has only been revealed to him through the samkhya yoga, but that state is equal to a book yogi who has understood about yoga and samkhyam through reading commentaries by Acharyas or great commentary writers and Teachers.  But Arjuna needs to go through life by duly carrying out his duties before attaining that coveted state of actionlessness and siddhi.

VERSE NUMBER 3 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 3

Text in Transliteration:

sri bhagavaan uvacha

loke ‘smin dvividhaa nisthaa puraa ;roktaa mayaa ‘nagha

jnaanayoena saamkhyaanaam karmyogena yoginaam

Text in English:

The Blessed Lord Said:

The twofold path was given by Me, O sinless one, to the world in the beginning—the path of knowledge to the discerning and the path of work to the active.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

   Cognizing the self through the process of discrimination and detachment from the non-self is known as the path of knowledge. Clarity of understanding comes as one continues to discharge one’s duty with dispassion. Intellect clarified thus gets to know the self clearly. The path of knowledge and the path of action are both thus conducive to the cognition of the self. They are both verily great paths. Aspirants inclined to discrimination and those to duty are found in the world at all times. These paths therefore eternally exist along with man’s aspiration for self-perfection.

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

     The teacher distinguishes, as modern psychologists do, two main types of seekers, introverts whose natural tendency is to explore the inner life of spirit and extroverts whose natural bias is towards work in the outer world. Answering to these, we have the yoga of knowledge, for those whose inner being is bent towards flights of deep spiritual contemplation, and the yoga of action for energetic personalities with love of action. But this distinction is not ultimate, for all men are in different degree both introverts and extroverts.

    For the Gita, the path of works is a means of liberation quite as efficient as that of knowledge, and these are intended for two classes of people. They are not exclusive but complementary. The path is one whole including different phases. Cp. “Such are the two modes of life, both of which are supported by the Vedas—the one is the activistic path; the other that of renunciation.”(Mahabharata Epic, shantiparva, 240, 6) The two modes of life are of equal value. The teacher points out that jnaana or wisdom is not incompatible with karma or action. Shankara admits that work is compatible with enlightenment. Work is adopted not as a means to the gaining of wisdom but as an example to the ordinary people. In the world of the enlightened as in that of the teacher of the Gita, the sense and expectation of reward are absent.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The path of knowledge of the sankhyas (jnana yoga) was described by Lord Krishna in chapter II, verses 11 to 38 , the path of action (karma yoga) from 40 to 53.

Pura Pokta may also mean “in the beginning of the creation two fold path was given by Me to this world.”

Those who are endowed with the four means and who have sharp, subtle intellect and bold understanding are fit for Jana Yoga. Those who have a tendency or inclination for work are fit for karma yoga. ( The four means are discrimination, dispassion, sixfold virtues and longing for liberation. The sixfold virtues are: control of the mind, control of the senses, fortitude (endurance), turning away from the objects of the world, faith and tranquillity.)

It is not possible for a man to practise the two yogas simultaneously. Karma yoga is a means to and end. It purifies the heart and prepares the aspirant for the reception of knowledge. The karma yogi should take up jnana yoga as soon as his heart is purified. Jnana yoga takes the aspirant directly to the goal without any extraneous help (Cf.V.5)

Comments by the blogger:

This is pure psychology. In the very beginning persons with introversion and extroversion in different degree were in existence. Even today, it is the case. It took modern psychology several thousand years after the Vedic sages and saints discovered the two pattern in human beings. But no one is completely introvert or completely extrovert. That also speaks of the greatness and variety of the Creator. Always He has gone for infinite variety in His creation. Though people could be broadly divided in to two groups, there can be no exclusivity. In each person both the tendencies are present. And, the fact whether a man or a woman is an introvert of extrovert depends upon the preponderating quality. If a tendency to become inward looking is greater than that of the desire to act in the external world and manufacture gain and pain, profit and loss, he is an introvert. And if a person is preponderatingly given to acting in the external world, since even he has some degree to get to be looking inward at assorted times or at personally understandable moments of truth, then that man must be viewd as an extrovert.

When the Lord says that in the beginning he gave the two-fold path of knowledge to the discerning and the path of work to the active, the Lord means His Prakrity or Nature.

Nature has everything we need. We need only to ask. She will give. We have already seen that the matter of evolution itself was a simple matter of asking and seeking. Seek , and you will get. The Nature or Prakrity is in the Lord and the Lord is not confined to the Nature alone. Nature schools us. Whether we know or not, consciously or unconsciously we seek from Nature all we want. And what we pray to God for also supplied by the mother nature.

The two paths were also came with the pracrity or Nature. So it was there before Man. Otherwise there could not have been any seeking and getting and surviving, and in the process, evolvling for the animals. Long before Man came, or the Home Sapience appeared, there were two-fold paths provided by God through His Nature.

God created the endless Nature and gave unto her everything her children would require. And then, God became just a witness through the universe soul, of whose dot is expressed individually in us, and then withdrew from the universe. That Ultimate State of the Supreme is called by the Vedhopanishadic saints as “TURIYA” OR “TURIYAM”. That “God in His Turiya state” has got nothing to the world. This world scintillates with the superconscious knowledge of God.

This was why the ancient Indians, the Vedic sages, the Egyptians and the Greek worshipped nature and they sang hymns in glorification of the various natural forces. Most of these Nature worshipping cults were destroyed and the followers were put to violent death mercilessly by the Christians in the beginning of the Christendom. But the Hinduism absorbed such cults and thus even now, among the Hindus the nature worship lingers. For example the neem tree, pepul tree and vilva tree are worshiped by the Hindus of all cults.

The Rigvedic sages fully understood the composite of the universe and how it revolves within them and without them!

So God, through Nature, created the two-fold paths in the beginning itself to take care of both natures of beings!