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.
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