THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYAS YOGA OR TRUE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 1

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR TRUE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 1

Text in Transliteration:

                                arjuna uvacha

samnyaasam karmanaam krrshna punar yogam cha samsasi

yach chreya etayor ekam tan me broohi sunischitam

Text in English:

                               Arjuna said

Renunciation of action, O Krishna, you commend, and again its performance. Of the two, which one is the better? Tell me that conclusively.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

In Chapter IV verses 18, 19, 21, 24, 32, 33, 37 and 41 the Lord advocated the renunciation of action. But in the last verse of the same chapter he commended the performance of action. Two conflicting courses cannot be adopted simultaneously. Hence Arjuna raises this doubt.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Shankara argues that the question is with reference to the unenlightened, for the man who has realized the Self has no longer any object to gain since he has achieved all. In III, 17, it is said that he has no more duties to perform. In such passages as III, 4 and IV, 6, the method of work is enjoined as an accessory to the acquisition of the knowledge of the Self, while in V, 8, always to meditate with a concentrated mind on the idea that it is not “I” that do it. It is not possible to imagine even in a dream that the man who knows the Self can have anything to do with work so opposed to right knowledge and entirely based on illusory knowledge. So Shankara contends that Arjuna’s question relates only to those who have not known the Self. For the ignorant, work is better than renunciation.

The intention of the Gita right through seems to be that the work to be abandoned is selfish work which binds us to the chain of karma and not all activity. We cannot be saved by works alone, but works are not opposed to saving wisdom.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Thou teachest renunciation of actions and also their performance. This has confused me. Tell decisively now which is better. It is not possible for a man to resort to both of them at the same time. Yoga here means Karma Yoga. (Cf. III.2)

Comments by the blogger:

Arjuna could have had many reasons for this question.

First of all he might have genuine reason for the question. He might have thought the Lord of Gita comes up with two diametrically opposite viewpoint in having urged him to renunciate or give up action and in the same breath its performance.

The second reason could have been his desire to hear the nectar like words of the Lord further for a longer time. We should remember he is an ultimate student taking lessons from the ultimate Teacher. Still he comes up with this poser could mean he wants to feast upon His words at this psychological time.

The third also is more feasible: Arjuna could have come up with this poser so that the future generations might benefit from the words of God. Swami Sidbhvananda in his able commentary for Manickavasagar’s THIRUVASAGAM, gives such an incline. While the incomparable poet-yogi feels and expresses regrets in tearful ways that despite the Lord Shiva’s intercessions to help him many a time, the poet-yogi time and again go to women of dubious character and enjoy them, and begs forgiveness for that. Swami Sidbhavananda in his interpretations would say that truely great people have a way of considering the sins of the masses as their own and beg on their behalf forgiveness. This is the way of the saintly poet to work out the sins of the masses on his own body like Jesus Christ.    

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 42

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 42

Text in Transliteration:

tasmaad ajnaanasambhootam hrrstham njaanaasinaa ‘tmanah

chittvai ‘nam samsayam yogam aatishtho ‘ttishtha bharaka

Text in English:

Therefore, severing with the sword of knowledge this ignorance-born doubt about the Self, dwelling in your heart, be established in yoga. Stand up, O Bharata.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Doubt is the originator of all evils. It takes its stand on ignorance. In the night of ignorance things cannot be viewed in their true perspective. Therefore understanding remains in a confused state. Ignorance and inertia are interrelated. The urge to be up and doing is absent in this drowsy state. But at daybreak sleep is shaken off, things are seen in their true shape and the man goes about his work with all zeal. The dawn of knowledge is similar to this. It drives away the soul-killing doubt. Knowing and doing go hand in han; and the man is at his best.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Arjuna is here called upon to perform action with the help of knowledge and concentration. The doubt in his heart whether it is better to fight or abstain is the product of ignorance. It will be destroyed by wisdom. Then he will know what is right for him to do.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Doubt causes a great deal of mental torment. It is most sinful. It is born of ignorance. Kill it ruthlessly with the knowledge of the Self. Now stand up and fight, O Arjuna.

Comments by the blogger:

Hiduism scores over other major religions of the world in spreading the quintessential message of the Vedas and the Upanishads through two epics and various Puranas. So there is no doubt about the existence of God here. It is simply a step forward for Hindus to have knowledge and with the sword of knowledge to cut asunder the ignorance.

While Charles Darwin came up with his theory of evolution, the Bible readers had a hard time to retain faith in God. Though the faith in God is fundamental for all religion, the Hindu forefathers did not enjoin on the faithful as a duty to spread the message which lead to conversion. That has been the bane of Christianity and Mohammedanism. One is born a Hindu and as per the Scriptures, anyone can follow the Yogic path irrespective of the religion without any problem of losing faith in one’s God. But there is no in-built mechanism for conversion of a non-Hindu into a Hindu. Self-knowledge is the culture of Hindus. So it is but natural for the Lord of Gita to make him remember his roots and cut asunder the ignorance-born doubt about the Self with the sword of Knowledge dwelling in his heart temporarily and be established in yoga.

We have to cut asunder any modicum of doubt.

Doubts are enemies of a sadhaka or practitioner. Arnjuna’s problem is he shudders at having to kill his kith and kin and the Acharya. The Lord has refurbished his knowledge besides establishing the yoga that had got dimmed in the millennial march of Hindus’ history.

IN THE UPANISHAD OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, THE KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN, THE SUPREME, THE SCIENCE OF YOGA AND THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN SRI KRISHNA AND ARJUNA, THIS IS THE FOURTH DISCOURSE DESIGNATED:

THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 41

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4                

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 41

Text in Transliteration:

yogasamnyastakarmaannam jnaanasamchinnasamsayam

aatmavantam na karaamani nibadhnanti dhanamjaya

Text in English:

With work absolved in yoga, and doubts rent asunder by knowledge, O Dhananjaya, actions do not bind him who is poised in the Self.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The mud-fish remains untarnished by mud, though wallowing in it all the while. A yogi is he who is not tainted by karma though ever occupied with it. Nature is infallible. There is a divine plan and purpose in its functioning. It trains and disciplines and Jivatman stage by stage to perfection. He who understands this does not fall prey to doubt, but applies himself with all earnestness to self-fulfilment in tune with cosmic plan. This wholesome attitude and right application develop in it. In freedom he works.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The mutual relationship of true work, wisdom and self-discipline is here brought out.

yogasamnyastakrmaanam; who has renounced all works by yoga. This may refer to those who develop even-mindedness with worship of God as its characteristic, and so dedicate all works to God or to those who have insight into the highest reality and so are detached from works. Madhusoodana.

aatmavantam; who possesses his self. While he does work for others, he remains his own self. In the eager pursuit of the good of others, he does not lose his hold on the self.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Sri Madhusudhana Sarasvati explains Atmavantam as “always watchful”.

He who has attained to Self-realisation renounces all actions by means of Yoga or the knowledge of Brahman. As he is established in the knowing of the identity of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul all his doubts are cut asunder. Actions do not bind him as they are burnt in the fire of wisdom and as he is always watchful over himself. (Cf. II. 48; III. 9; IV. 20)

Comments of the blogger:

 An act of absolution is done by the priest when a faithful person confesses his sin to him. To absolve is principally to free one from sin.

So it becomes clear that the very act of indulging in action is a sin!

We have already seen a sin is what it is not. In other words, the very idea of sin in Hinduism is understood in a different way. Any action, even donating ten million rupees to a public charity, is a sin if its potential is to take the person donating to the charity away from God. How? If the person’s real intention was to garner the publicity the act of charity gives rise to then it is a sin. Because, he must come back here after death to enjoy the fruit of the act of charity! Even a so called good thing becomes bad in this sense if the action has a selfish motive.

Lord Krishna acts almost uninterruptedly in the epic Mahabharata. And when he was in his youth he had the dalliance with many a woman. And he made love to his spouse, the divine Radha. But he was a Nitya-Brahmachari! He was a man known for his continuous and uninterrupted continence! How? None of his works in the Krishna avatar or in his descent Lord Vishnu as Krishna to play a part on the earth’s plane was done with an “I” sense. He was not intent on the fruits of his works. But he did not desist from work. He made all his works into a yogic exertion. He lived and breathed yoga. He was a Yogeshwara; the king of yoga.

Works of any kind bind self. And, as a result, the self has to come back to the earth’s plane to enjoy the good or bad consequences of his actions. Because this Universe is filled with actions, and there is triguna or three tendencies in the cosmos, by name, sattvic or light and straightforwardness, rajasic or action orientation and tamasic or inertia, the human beings whose makeup partakes the fundamental five elements of the cosmos, have all these three tendencies in varying degree and are on constant action mode.

So we cannot, even for a moment even while we are lying or sitting idly, escape action! Our basis of mental makeup is action. And it imparts to the physical body too. We cannot be absolutely idle for even a moment. So we have to act and must know how to turn all our actions into yoga. That is absolving our actions in yoga!

Yoga brings self-knowledge and we understand we are co-extensive with our Maker for all intents and purposes. And that knowledge cuts asunder all our doubts. Thus action do not bind him who is poised in the Self.

Here Arjuna is called by the Lord as Dhananjaya.

Arjuna raided many a kingdom and brought home the idle wealth locked up there. Dhananjaya means winner of wealth. In these continuous actions Arjuna brought all the idly kept dhanam or wealth from small kingdoms and used the same for the public wheel. So his actions of raiding did not bind him. His raiding actions had been absolved by the yoga of charity to the public. He utilised this wealth to raise the standard of living of his people and never used the wealth for his betterment. So those raidings did not bind him.

This is one of the beauties of Gita. By calling Arjuna as O, Dhananjaya the Lord satisfies the meter of the verse and at the correct rhythm is achieved. At the same strok, He imparts an intrinsic meaning to the content of the verse too!

For the ordinary us who cannot turn each action into yoga, it is better to only indulge in good actions. And we will certainly come back to the earth’s plane to enjoy it good fruits. But as we also read our Scriptures regularly our ascent to yoga would be quickened. Since we cannot banish actions nor can turn them into yoga, it is a million times good to indulge in only good actions and daily pray the Lord, besides our Scriptural reading.

THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 40

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 40

Text in Transliteration:

ajnas chaa ‘sraddhdhaanas cha samsayaatmaa vinasyati

naa ‘yam loko ‘sti na paro na sudham samsayaatmanah

Text in English:

The ignorant, the man devoid of shraddha, the doubting self, goes to destruction. The doubting self has neither this world, nor the next, nor happiness.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Ignorant is that man who is uninformed about Atman. Divine qualities such as self-confidence and noble effort are all born of sraddha; but doubt is the very negation of these great qualities. The doubting man does not trust anybody in the world. he suspects the words and the deeds of the others. Through disbelief he alienates himself from the others and feels miserable. For want of faith in the right path he fails to pursue it and brings ruin to himself. Fallen as he is, he neither enjoys this world nor is he fit for the next.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Unless one has the faith of a baby one cannot have access to the Lord. If mother points to somebody and says, “He is your brother,” the baby believes it. The grace of the Lord comes to him who has this kind of faith. The calculative and doubtful estrange themselves from the Divine.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

We cannot have a positive basis for life, an unwavering faith which stands the test of life.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The ignorant: one who has no knowledge of the Self. The man without faith: one who has no faith in his own self, in the scriptures and the teachings of his Guru.

A man of doubting mind is the most sinful of all. His condition is very deplorable. He is full of dobts as regards the next world. he does not rejoice in this world also, as he is very suspicious. He has no happiness.

Comments by the blogger:

 The Lord of Gita, who taught ‘samkya yoga’ in chapter 2 and said the Atman cannot be destroyed by the four elements, namely water, fire, earth and wind (water cannot wet the Atman, fire cannot scorch the Atman, the sharp instruments—got of the earth—cannot cleave the Atman and the wind cannot dry the Atman) and the Atman cannot undergo any modifications and changes, which also means it is eternal (“you and these kings and me have had many a birth, Arjuna. While I know them all you don’t and we shall always be”) now takes up an opposite viewpoint for two reasons; 1) In order to encourage Arjuna to have shraddha or faith in Him and 2) to instil on him almost the everlasting period of time the fallen individuals who have no faith and who are ignorant have to go through with scarce hope of joining with Him by obtaining Self-Knowledge or Salvation!

Otherwise, have no doubt whatsoever that Atman, even that of the Nirbhaya’s ravishers and killer, can face everlasting damnation or immediate destruction. Such modifications are alien to an Atman embodied in human forms.

Still the Lord of Gita says, “The ignorant, the man devoid of sraddha, the doubting self, goes to DESTRUCTION.

Why?

In chapter 8 entitled “The yoga of the Imperishable Brahman”, in verse 17 the Lord of Gita dwells on the day and night of Brahma. There he says the day of Brahma lasts a thousand Yugas and his night lasts a thousand Yugas! In our calculation one Yuga should mean a trillion years and a thousand Yugas means millions of trillion years! All these years form one day of Brahma and His night also consists of another millions of trillion years!

What is important here is, during the day of Brahma, the creator, this world and cosmos inheres and fluxes like now, and during Brahma’s night there is wholesale destruction or withdrawal of this cosmos and the whole Universe is filled with non-creative darkness for millions of trillion years.

When the longish night of Brahma, the creator, is over, then, once again there is light in the universe and it starts to flux once more! At some time single cell life happens on a conducive planet with proper atmosphere and human beings or the most intelligent beings with vertical back bone come about in the course of evolution. At such time the fallen souls must restart the working out of their karmas!

In case of the doubting Thomas, he has to go through several days and nights of Brahma with no way of salvation in sight. The Brahma himself has a hundred years of life. Then another elevated soul takes his place. Sometimes a soul takes more than one Brahma’s cycle of existence. So for trillions upon trillions of Barhma’s days and nights or life cycles of hundred years of several Brahmas!

So, when we cannot even form an idea of the almost everlasting time factor, we call this duration as infinitive. Among the five elements, the sky is even now in the 21^st century said to be infinitive when it has been proved the sky is finite in its size howsoever imponderably huge it may be! The Lord of Gita also uses the human way of talking and comparing and juxtaposing because He is talking to a human being, Arjuna.

So, the everlasting condemnation of the soul is inherent in Christianity and Mohammadanism who follow the Holy Quran. But in Hindu Religion, everlasting condemnation is a misnomer! The birth right of the soul is emancipation! And Salvation is for all, not for a selected individuals! For obtaining one’s salvation, a soul is given umpteen number of rebirths! These are inherent in the Hinduism.    

  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 39

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 39

Text in Transliteration:

sraddhaavaam  labhate jnaanam tatparah samyatendriyah

jnaanam labdhvaa paraam saantim achirenaa ‘dhigacchati

Text in English:

The man of sraddha, the devoted, the master of his senses obtains knowledge. Having obtained knowledge he goes promptly to the Peace Supreme.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

In the midst of the devotion to the preceptor, whole-hearted service to him and searching inquiries into the nature of the real and non-real, due to lack of adequate zeal, the criterion for spirituality. To the extent sraddha or zeal beams in one, progress is made in the path of knowledge. One is said to be devoted when one’s mind is given wholly to the ideal. Perfect mastery over the senses is a prerequisite to the development of intuition. Variance in the fulfilment of these conditions leads to quick or slow gain of knowledge. The time factor for it varies from a trice to the duration of several births. Along with the gain of Brahma-jnana comes Peace that cannot be described.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

“When will I have the vision of God?” asked an ardent disciple of the master. Instead of giving a direct answer he took the novice to the sea shore and held him immersed in water for a while. He was then asked how he felt. “I thought I would die for want of air to breathe,” came the answer.  “Such a quest of God would reveal Him immediately,” was the answer given by the master.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

sraddhaa; faith. Faith is necessary for gaining wisdom. Faith is not blind belief. It is the aspiration of the soul to gain wisdom. It is the reflection in the empirical self of the wisdom that dwells in the deepest levels of our being. If faith is constant, it takes us to the realization of wisdom. Jnana as wisdom is free from doubts while intellectual knowledge where we depend on sense data and logical inference, doubt and scepticism have their place. Wisdom is not acquired by these means. We have to love it inwardly and grow into its reality. The way to it is through faith and self-control.

paraam saantim; the supreme peace. Nilakantha suggests that he attains the supreme state of bliss, after the karma which has commenced to operate completes its course.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

He who is full of faith, who constantly serves his Guru and hears his teachings, who has subdued the senses surely gets the knowledge and quickly attains the supreme peace or salvation (Moksha). All the above three qualifications are indispensable for an aspirant if he wants to attain to the supreme peace of the Eternal quickly. One qualification alone will not suffice. (Cf. X. 10, 11)

Comments by the blogger:

Possession is nine points in law. Like that, in the spiritual parlance, shraddha or unflinching faith is everything. This universe is both for the faithful and the faithless. No one is going to get faith into the heart of the faithless and faithlessness into the heart of the faithful. Complete freedom has been given to the human beings. And the appearance and actions of and in the Universe are there that are food for both the faithful and the faithless. The faithless easily ask what was wrong with Nirbhaya and countless such girls and women who are pervasively invaded into the physical privacy and what was God doing at the time. There are many things and actions that seem not commensurate with the existence of God in the world. On the other hand, for the faithful the sun up and sun down are enough to send them into the exquite pain of joy at the greatness of God!

God created everything and everyone in this world. But He did not create faith. It is we who should have and show faith. Unless there is faith devotion is not possible. God has everything. He is the master of all things. He is the cosmic master. But he has no self-worship. He sells Himself for those who worship Him. The measure of devotion is the kind of faith one has in God’s omnipresence and omnipotence.

Faith and devotion bring in their wake knowledge of the self and it results in Supreme Peace.

For us, we should indulge in our self-ordained duty with great zeal even as we show devotion to the Lord in our own individual ways. Take the case of a child that leaves the Home Work till the last moment and spends time in front of the TV and the blessed one who always has a habit of relaxing a bit with its mother on coming home after school and then starts to devote time to its Home Work. While the former indulges in its TV action with a guilty feelings the latter’s quality time is THE VERY INDULGENCE IN CARRYING OUT ITS DUTY.

This sense of peacefulness pervades us while we carry out our earthly duty to the best of our ability regularly. And just think of the kind of Peace that should be the birth right of the blessed ones who have faith-devotion-born Knowledge and the resultant Peace!   

THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 38

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 38

Text in Transliteration:

na hi jnaanena sadrrsham pavitram iha vidyate

tat svayam yogasamsiddhah kaalenaa ‘ tmani vindati

Text in English:

Verily there is no purifier in this world like knowledge. He that is perfected in yoga realizes it in his own heart in due time.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A man dreams that he is being tortured to death. All remedial measures adopted in that dream are of no avail to the victim. The dream requires to be snapped and the man brought to wakefulness. This done he clarifies to himself that nobody subjected him to torture and that his agony was his own creation. Wakeful state here is the purifier of the self-imposed ignorance in dream. Likewise, Self-knowledge cleanses man of the delusion of birth and death. It reinstates him in his original blessedness. Knowledge is, therefore, the best among the purifiers of man. The proper practice of karma yoga transforms the life of the yogi into jnana-yajna. His mind thereby gets purified and he becomes competent in course of time for Self-knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Self-control discovers it to man at last.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

There exists no purifier equal to knowledge of the Self. He who has attained perfection by the constant practice of karma yoga and Dhyana (the Yoga of meditation) will after a time find the knowledge of the Self in himself.

Comments by the blogger:

Knowledge of the self purifies. How? In the ocean of Samsara or worldly life, there are illusion or ignorance which leads to kama or desire and that in turn leads straight away to karma or action. Man becomes bound only because of the illusion. When the self-knowledge is revealed the illusion goes away and that causes absence of kama and karma. Because self knowledge gives unbearable joy and this drives away all other lower types of joys. Knowledge is like fire and when one does not feed the fire with action because of the lack of desire, it purifies one and there exists atmabodham or direct cognition of joy born of Self-knowledge.

Every being, not excluding the animals, only moves in this direction. Small joys lead to more actions and greater joy is arrived at and when that is not enough greater action is the result. When man knows how to make use of the karma or action which binds him by indulging in yoga that selflessness fetches knowledge. Karma yoga and bakti yoga go hand in hand. Even when one dies in the middle of such austerities there is no loss. He comes back here to continue the karma yoga or yoga of action and bakti yoga or yoga of devotion. At some point of time the full knowledge is got at and then there won’t be any more desire to indulge in selfish actions.

Till then one should do one’s self-ordained duty studiously. In this there is no loss, as Lord Krishna says and even a little effort gives great courage.

So we should be ever mindful of our duty. We should love all. We should make a daily study of our Scriptures. For the Hindu’s, Bhagavat Gita is enough. The Lord will lead us properly.  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OR RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER37

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 37

Text in Transliteration:

yathai ‘dhaamsi samiddho ‘gnir bhasmasaat kurute’ rjuna

jnaanaagnih sarva karmaani bhasmasaat kurute tathaa

Text in English:

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

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

While in ignorance the Jivatman shares in karma in all its three forms—samchita, aagamin and praarabdha. Of these three, the first remains stored up to bear fruit in the distant future and the second in the near future. The third is working itself out in the present body. The fire of knowledge destroys the first two and renders the third ineffective though operating. The Jnani pays no more heed to it than he does to the shadow of his body.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Just as the seeds that are roasted cannot germinate, so also the actions that are burnt by the fire of knowledge cannot bear fruits, i.e., cannot bring man to this world again for the enjoyment of the fruits of his actions. This is reducing actions to ashes. The actions lose their potency as they are burnt by the fire of knowledge. When the knowledge of the Self dawns, all actions with their results are burnt by the fire of that knowledge just as fuel is burnt by the fire. When there is no agency-mentality (the idea “I do this”), when there is no desire for the fruits, action is no action at all. It has lost its potency. The fire of knowledge can burn all actions except the Prarabdha karma, or the result of past action which has brought this body into existence and which has already begun to bear fruits or produce effects.

According to some philosophers even the Prarabdha Karma is destroyed by the fire of knowledge. Sri Sankara says in his Aparokshanubhuti:

“In the passage ‘his actions are destroyed when the supreme is realised’ the Veda expressly speaks of actions (karmas) in the plural, in order to signify the destruction of even the Prarabdha.”

There are three kinds of karmas or reaction to or fructification of past actions: 1) Prarabdha, so much of past actions as has given rise to the present birth, 2) Sanchita, the balance of past actions that will give rise to future births—the storehouse of accumulated actions, and 3) Agami or Kriyamana, acts being done in the present life. If by the knowledge of the Self only the Sanchita and Agami were destroyed and not Prarabdha, the dual number would have been used and not the plural. (Sanskrit grammar has singular, dual and plural numbers.) Cf. IV. 10-19)

Comments by the blogger:

Fire of knowledge is referred to realisation of one’s self. Once Self is realised, all the things of this world fall from that man. Or it could be said, once a man becomes shorn of all actions in the sense that he does not have to indulge in any action his Self is realised by him. So it goes without saying that once self is realised he becomes free of all actions whatsoever. Self-knowledge is likened to fire and the karmas or actions and their effect are likened to seeds. Seeds will sprout and become plants if watered by desire. But incinerated seeds cannot sprout.

Here what is important is to note the differentiation of karmas. This is another contribution to the world by the Vedic sages. Actions are of three kinds: one is sanchita karma. The second is agami karma and the third is prarabdha karma. The sum of karmic effect or effect of actions in the immediate past life is Prarabdha. After death we, every one of us, go to different planes of existence. And the majority of us should go through heavenly enjoyments for the good actions we indulged in before death. Those performing latcharchana or rendering the names of the Lord ten million times by the priests in a fire sacrifice will enjoy heaven for that. The general do-gooders of the world will go through heavenly enjoyments. When that is over they must return back here. Even though this is explicitly told in the Scriptures, people queue up to enrol their names to render latcharchana. Their idea of heaven is a permanent enjoyment without rebirth. It is possible only when knowledge of Self is attained on the earth’s plane. For which the sacrifices mentioned in verses 25 to 30 of this chapter must be carried out. Any one of the listed sacrifice will do.

So when, in ordinary cases, the heavenly time is over souls come back to the earthly plane as embodied in human form or other form. In human forms, the birth, parentage, spouse and siblings, friends and other things are pre-ordained according as our past karmic effect or effect of actions. The karmas or actions responsible for the present birth is called Prarabdha Karma. This is our fate. Apart from the heavenly enjoyments, we have to work out the effect of the past actions in the previous birth. We cannot escape this. This is the case even with the realised souls. Sri Ramakrishna suffered a cancerous wart on his hand which gave mighty pain. But when his disciples were worried about this, he would say that there was two persons in his body. One, the sthula or gross body suffers. But the real and inner body or soul did not undergo any pain. This only shows, even great realised souls should suffer the good and bad effect of their Prarabdha Karma even after their full realisation of their soul.

Agama karmas are ones that give immediate effect in case of some simple transgressions of do’s and don’ts. They will give effect in the present birth itself. And the remaining portions of Agami karma which we earn anew in the present birth will be added to the sanchita karma.

Sanchita karma is a storehouse of all the Karmas and the effect of all the actions we haven’t worked out till now. Whenever we take new birth, some portions of these karmas will be added to the Prarabdha karma which determines our present birth.

Now what the Lord of Gita says is that all the Karmas or actions will be pour into the fire of knowledge as fuel and they get burnt once and for all. And the realised souls would go up, after death of their bodies, to mingle with the Lord Vishnu. This is the philosophy of Adhvaitha or Monism. Others have differing viewpoints about the state of the realised souls after they have shed their mortal and gross bodies! We have seen them already.

But all of the differing Hindu philosophers, not excluding Gautama, the Buddha, that the realised souls never return back to the earthly plane!

 As for you and me who must shed at some time this body without realising the soul, it should be borne in mind that great yogis are not manufactured in some Brahmic factory. They have had their umpteen chances to make good and bad through countless births and they attained the soul-realisation by gradation.

So we must, without losing heart, indulge in as many good actions as possible, while loving the entire humanity, for they are bearer of God inside of themselves. They might not know or aware of this singular fact. Some of them might give intolerable pain for us. These are no excuses. Those who know that all here scintillates with God, both sentient and insentient, we are bound to love all as though they are our own kith and kin and treat them as such! By gradation we will become greater devotees and will indulge in more good than bad. And this will obtain us very good births. Which will enable us to do even greater achievements towards soul realisation.   

  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 36

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 36

Text in Transliteration:

api ced asi paapebhyah paapakrrttamah

sarvam jnaana plavenai ‘va vrjinam samtarishyasi

Text in English:

Even if you be the most sinful of all sinners, yet shall you cross over all sin by the raft of knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Sin and virtue are the obverse and reverse of the same fact which is karma. According to the use made of it, the same karma presents itself as sin or virtue. The ignorant do karma so as to get entangled in it as sin. The enlightened do the same karma to reap merit and also to be emancipated from it. Knowledge therefore is the only means to absolve all sin. As the unfordable river is crossed over by a raft, the meshes of karma are got over by knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

You can cross the ocean of sin with the boat of the knowledge of the self. (Cf. IX. 30)

Comments by the blogger:

I am 57. When I was a callow youth I read a novella story by an English author of mysteries. The name of the author slips my memory. But it doesn’t matter. He had written that story, an eminently readable one, out of the Buddhist philosophy and belief in rebirths. The protagonist of the novella is a criminal gang leader, who, inter alia, is a seller of narcotic drugs to young students. The police have a hard time in catching up with the protagonist who uses a high speed motor bike and often changes his location. It is a gripping story. In his criminal sojourn the protagonist comes into contact with a Buddha Pitchu or ascetic. He teaches the protagonist the fundamentals of the Buddhist faith which includes Man’s reincarnations many hundred times before he himself is turned into a Buddah or an emancipated soul. In the meanwhile the police are on the hot pursuit of the criminal gang leader, the protagonist’s trail. At last the gang leader makes all the arrangement for his gang to be carried on till he comes back to them in the next incarnation and in the climax, even as the much harassed police officer is in hot pursuit, the gang leader drives his motor bike straight against the trunk of a huge tree. There is a witness who saw the whole scene. He swears that he could never forget the smile on the gang leader’s face just before the dash!

A good mystery novella indeed! But even then I was not convinced. I thought why should he, the gang leader, take a rebirth at the place and town he was living before his suicide! Now I can tell that there is not even a guarantee that he would come back as a human being! What if he came back as a beast for many a birth! And all the scenario might have changed. Because it would be several hundred years, if we can tell, before he obtains a human birth! Even then there is no guarantee that he would be born in the city where he had been running the gang. All his mates and the members of the gang and the indefatigable police officer who had been very diligent in pursuing his case might have been dead and gone for centuries!              

The same way, can that fellow who pierced Nirbhaya’s stomach with a sharp instrument (a minor at the time who has since been released) practice yoga and obtain knowledge of the Self as mentioned in verses 25 to 30? Yes he can, should be the answer. But it would be one in a million chance for him to become a yogi! For his former imponderable crime and his act of having derived carnal benefit would continue to gall him and chase him through out this birth. And if he comes back here as a beast, it would be a just desert!

But theoretically is there a possibility for him to turn in to a yogi. Yes, certainly! The theoretical possibility is always there howsoever the odds might be heavy.

Such is the power of knowledge of the self! It can incinerate all sins and all the effect, good and bad, of the practitioner’s karma! 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 35.

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 35

Text in Transliteration:

Yaj jnaatvaa na punar moham evam yaasyasi paandava

Yena bhootaany aseshenna drakshyasy aatmany atho mayi

Text in English:

Knowing this, O Pandava, you will not fall into this confusion; by this you will see the whole of the creation in your self and in Me.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Two apparently opposing detachments encountered each other at midnight and lay in ambush to deal on the enemy a decisive blow at daybreak. But to the surprise of both, they discovered in the morning that they belonged to the same army. Their attitude and action changed accordingly. The world is viewed by the ignorant as made up of conflicting forces. But with the dawn of enlightenment all diversities disappear. One Reality is presenting Itself as the many.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Knowledge leads to unity: ignorance to diversity.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

When the sense of difference is destroyed actions do not bind, since ignorance is the source of bondage and the self, having attained wisdom, is free from it.

Cp. Plato; “A man should persevere till he has achieved one of two things; either he should discover the truth about them for himself or learn it from some one else; or if this is impossible he should take the best and most irrefragable of human theories and make it the raft on which he sails through life. (Phaedo.85). Cp. Plotinus; “out of discussion we call to vision, to those desiring to see we point the path, our teaching is a guiding in the way the seeing must be the very act of him who has made the choice.” Enneads, VI, 9, 4.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

That, the knowledge of the Self mentioned in the previous verse, that is to be learnt from the Brahma-nishtha (from those established in Brahman) Guru through prostration, questioning and service. When you acquire this knowledge you will not be again subject to confusion or error. You will behold that underlying basic unity. You will behold or directly cognise through internal experience or intuition that all beings from the Creator down to a blade of grass exist in your own Self and also in me.

Comments by the blogger:

“That” stands for the Knowledge to be obtained from one’s Guru through prostration, by question and by service. Once that knowledge about one’s Self is obtained, one becomes a man or woman in possession of Self or Self-knowledge. It is there inside us but it requires the help of the guru.

But it should be noted the dharma is not a static one. It is resilient and capable of different and differing interpretations according to the different time and age we live. When Lord Rama lived, material sacrifice or outward sacrifice was the norm to attain self-knowledge. When Lord Krishna came unto this world, all the external sacrifices mentioned in the Karma Kanda of the Vedas got fully internalized. One has, to obtain self-knowledge, observe and perform any of the internal sacrifices mentioned by the Lord from verse 25 to 30.

Now we are living in the time or age of Kali Yuga. The prescription for self-knowledge has been simplified now. All we need to do is choose any one of the Lord’s name, like Narayana, Govinda, Namah Shivaya, Allahu Akbar, O lord Jesus Christ, etc, etc, and make a continuous chanting of it. In the beginning it takes an effort but as time goes on it becomes easy. It rests us in the consciousness of the Lord in us. After a time, we would arrive at a stage whereby we need not chant the name of our Lord externally, for it would get internalized. This is called Jaba siddhi or victory in chanting within ourselves. Then the Lord Himself will act as our Guru or Master and lead us to self-knowledge. I have been chanting one of the names of Lord Shiva, Om Lingeshwara, for well over seventeen years. Now most of the time it gets internalized. Some times I need to recharge the battery and chant the Lord’s Name outwardly. Try to do it, you will harvest a rich benefit.

In this verse, the Lord says that once Self-Knowledge is achieved, we shall see all beings in ourselves and also in Him, the Lord.

Gita accepts the pluralistic religious viewpoints.

Sri Shankarar’s philosophy is ADHVAIDHA. For him the Creator alone exists and is, as such, real. The creation or Jeevatmas or the individual human beings go into Him, losing their individual sense of self and existence, after Self-knowledge. And this world is just a chimera or an illusory appearance.

Sri Ramanujar established the philosophy of DHWAIDHAM. While Sri Shankara’s philosophy could be called Monism, Sri Ramanujar’s could be called DUALISM. For him, God is one entity and the individual self is another entity. So all the human beings retain their individual self-knowledge and individual-existence independent of the Lord and the realized souls spend their time in glorifying the Lord in Heaven.

Sri Madhva established the philosophy of VISHISTADHVAIDHAM. While he accepts the monism of Sri Shankarar he says there is a vishedam or import that God and His Creations do not retain their individual entity and the created beings go to mingle with the Lord. But there is a vishedam or implication that the created beings retain their individuality after their self-realisation.

Then we have Vaishnavism and Saivism. The Vaishnavists follow the philosophy of Sri Ramanujar and strongly believe that the Lord and His Created Beings are two different entities. The individual selves spend their time in Sri Vaikunta or Vishnu’s Celestial World in Glorifying Lord Vishnu.

For the Saivaits, who worship Lord Shiva, all the three entities are eternal. The Lord and his Creations and this World are real. When the Self become deluded and thinks it is independant of the Lord, it has to come to the earth’s plane embodied as human beings (all the animals ultimately take birth as human beings). Till this delusion or malam gets cured, the created beings have to come here to the earth’s plane repeatedly. And at one point, the deluded beings get cured of their delusion and then they attain the Heavanhood and spend there their time in glorifying the Lord, depending always on Him.

At one stroke, the Lord of the Gita accepts all the philosophical points and bring a reconciliation by saying, “by this –the attainment of the self-knowledge—you will see the whole of the creation in your self and in Me!

Gita religion is a vast ocean into which every philosopher finds his faith accepted and acknowledged.

It is important to note that all the so-called various philosophical standpoints have issued forth out of the Four Vedas, primarily, the Rig-Veda. So reconciliation is possible. The Lord of Gita does just that. It is puny little people and ignoramus individuals who spend a lifetime in nitpicking and glorifying one’s God and shaming others’. That is why we should revive the Vedas and Upanishads to get out of the our silly notions and religious fetishes.     

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 34

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OR ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 34

Text in Transliteration:

tad viddhi pranipaatena pariprasnena sevayaa

upadekshyanti te jnaanam jnaaninas tattva darshinah

Text in English:

Seek that enlightenment by prostrating, by questions and by service; the wise, the seers into the Truth will instruct you in that knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A commercial attitude may be paying elsewhere but never in the realm of the knowledge divine. Even the secular study gets sanctified if the relationship between the teacher and the taught be wholesome. But the bond between the two in spiritual enlightenment is ever sacred. The disciple prostrates before the master as a mark of making himself over to the other. He adds to his attainments by raising submissive questions pertaining to the real and the non-real, bondage and freedom. Through a reverent personal service he offers himself as oblation in the sacrificial fire of the personality of the master. The body, speech and mind of the disciple are this way dedicated to the bestower of knowledge.

The master in his turn is all mercy to the disciple. He has no motive other than propagation of spirituality. As a burning lamp lights another, an enlightened soul alone can carry light to another competent enquirer. Spiritual fulfilment takes place this wise.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Of what avail are prayer and devotion to an aspirant who views his master as a mere human being? The disciple ought not to hold the master as a man. Before getting the vision of the Deity, the novice sees the form of the guru as a preliminary. This form metamorphoses into the Deity. The disciple thereby understands that God and guru are one and the same. The master awakens the spiritual consciousness in him. More than that, he leads the initiated into Brahman Itself.

If the aspirant is earnest about spiritual enlightenment, the Lord sees to it that he comes in contact with an enlightened one. Seek and the light is sent to you.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Wise men will teach us the truth if we approach them in a spirit of service and reverent inquiry. Until we realize the God within, we must act according to the advice of those who have had the experience of God. If we accept what is said in the sastras or taught by the teacher in unthinking trust, that will not do. Reason must be satisfied. “He who has no personal knowledge but has only heard of many things cannot understand the meaning of scriptures even as a spoon has no idea of the taste of the soup.” We must combine devotion to the teacher with the most unrestricted right of free examination and inquiry. Blind obedience to an external authority is repudiated. Today there are several teachers who require of their followers unthinking obedience to their dictates. They seem to believe that the death of intellect is the condition of the life of spirit. Many credulous and simple-minded people are drawn to them not so much by their spiritual powers as by the publicity of their agents and the human weakness for novelty, curiosity and excitement. This is against the Hindu tradition which insists on jijnaasaa or inquiry, manana or reflection or pariprasna in the words of the Gita.

But mere intellectual apprehension will not do. Intellect can only give fragmentary views, glimpses of the Beyond, but it does not give the consciousness of the Beyond. We must open the whole of our inner being to establish personal contact. The disciple has to tread the interior path. the ultimate authority is the inner light which is not to be confused with the promptings of desire. By the quality of service and self-effacement, we knock down the obstructing prejudices and let the wisdom in us shine. Truth achieved is different from truth imparted. Ultimately, what is revealed in the scriptures (pranipaataa-sravana) must agree. We must consort with the great minds of the past, reason about them and intuitively apprehend what is of enduring value in them.

This verse makes out that in spiritual life, faith comes first then knowledge, and then experience.

Those who have experienced the truth are expected to guide us. The seers owe a duty to their less fortunate brethren and guide them to the attainment of illumination which they have reached.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Go to the teachers (those who are well versed in the scriptures dealing with Brahman or Brahmanishthas). Prostrate yourself before them with profound humility and perfect devotion. Ask them questions, “O venerable Guru! What is the cause of bondage? How can I get liberation? What is the nature of ignorance? What is the nature of knowledge? What is the Antaranga-Sadhana (inward spiritual practice) for attaining Self-realisation?” Serve the Guru whole-heartedly. A teacher who is versed in the scriptures (Sastras) but who has no direct Self-realisation will not be able to help you in the attainment of the knowledge of the Self. He who has knowledge of the scriptures and who is also established in Brahman will be able to instruct thee in that knowledge and help thee in the attainment of Self-realisation. Mere prostrations alone will not do. They may be tinged with hypocrisy. You must have perfect faith in your Guru and his teaching. You must serve him whole-heartedly with great devotion. Now hypocrisy is not possible.

Comments by the blogger:

In verse 33 the Lord wants us to make wisdom-sacrifice. Wisdom is knowledge of the Self. Knowledge of other worldly things cannot be equated with this wisdom of one’s Self. Self-Knowledge is to be sought strenuously. Self-culture is the culture of real India.

In this verse, the Lord shows the way to seek that knowledge or enlightenment. There are three ways to seek: 1. By prostrating 2. By questions and 3. By service.

Prostration is not a mere act of lying at the feet of the master. It is more than that; it is a bhava or attitude. A disciple must give himself up to the master. He must have full confidence in the master’s ability to steer him toward knowledge of his own self. There cannot be any duration like the academic courses. And the guru or master will not reveal knowledge of the self until the right time comes. Self-Knowledge revealed to a person who is not spiritually ready will not of any help to the disciple. So with the confidence that the master knows when his disciple is ready for the revelation one must be patient.

By question means vichara or seeking. The master will teach the disciple the Sastras or Scriptures. Whenever the student does not understand a point he should prostrate and humbly phrase his questions in humble words. At last will come the mother of all questions. That question relates to one’s Self. The Prachna Upanishad describes six students who go around in search of knowledge. They hear about the greatness of the Sage, by name, Pippalata. They go to him and humbly question him about knowledge. Pippalata asks them to stay at his ashrama or hermitage for a year and then ask their questions. Thus the student’s truthfulness in the search of knowledge is subjected to severe tests. For knowledge imparted to a wrong person will not benefit him; it might even bring him great disaster in personal life.

By service means one should serve one’s teacher by his body, mind and soul. Whole- hearted service is a must. The disciple should turn into oil when the master asks for the mustard seed!

The Lord says thus one should get Self-knowledge.

OK, what about the modern hectic life? Can we each seek a master? Well, the time of Gita was very ancient and it is hard to say there could have been more than a ten million people in India! Or a twenty or thirty million in whole of undivided India! In those days Vanaprasta or going into the forest by the householders in their elderly age was possible. Today forests are being studiously destroyed to make way for human occupation! When India was about to attain Independence, there were just thirty million people in India. Today it has quadruped!

Where shall we go for masters?

Mahatma Gandhi’s one earnest seeking for a spiritual master was never fulfilled! At that time India had got just thirty million people! Now where shall we go for the masters?

This can be remedied by becoming members of some sat sanga or conglomeration of the faithful folks under a master like Amma in Kerala, Juggi Vasudev in Coimbatore and Sri Sri Ravishankar in Bangalore. They each do a great service to the seeking and the faithful. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE, OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 33

I come back to you, my dear followers, with the Lord’s words earlier than I had given you to understand. 

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 33

Text in Transliteration:

sreyaan dravyamayaad yajnaaj jnaanayajnah paramtapa

sarvam karma ‘khilam paartha jnaane parisamaapyate

Text in English

Knowledge-sacrifice, O Scorcher of foes, is superior to wealth-sacrifice. All karma in its entirety, O Partha, culminates in knowledge

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Man lives to add more and more to his wisdom, and not to multiply his material possessions beyond proportion. Things material cannot be made more use of than the requirement. Over-possession fosters care and anxiety. He who gives himself over too much to mammon pays the penalty in the form of being lop-sided or stunted in intelligence. The man becomes earth-bound beyond redemption. Knowledge, on the other hand, develops into wisdom. It embellishes the personality, aids one to discern between the self and the non-self and leads man into enlightenment and liberation.

Magnificent temples attendant with elaborate and awe-inspiring ritualistic worship serve more to make man earthly than enlightened, more superstitious than spiritual, more drawn to the priests than to the prophets. A neat little sanctuary, on the other hand, serving as a symbol of the human tabernacles, takes man more effectively Godward. It tends toward jnana-yajna. The feeling that the mind has to be kept as fresh and pure as a flower is more conducive to spiritual growth and enlightenment than offering a heap of it on the altar. The knowing man has less of the problems of life than the ignorant one. It is knowledge to intuit that one is Atman and not body. In that knowledge the karma of that individual gets absolved.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHVANANDA:

He is truly a man who has made money his slave; he is not fit to be called a man who does not know how to make use of money.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The goal is the lifegiving wisdom, which gives us freedom of action and liberation from the bondage of work.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Sacrifices with material objects cause material effects and bring the sacrificer to this world for the enjoyment of the fruits, while wisdom-sacrifice leads to Moksha or Salvation. Therefore wisdom-sacrifice is superior to the sacrifice with material objects. Just as rivers join the ocean, so do all actions join knowledge, i.e., they culminate in knowledge. All actions purify the heart and lead to the dawn of knowledge of the Self.

All actions that are performed as offerings unto the Lord with their fruits are contained in the knowledge of Brahman.

Comments by the blogger:

We have already noted the point that the Lord devotes only a phrase in one of the stanzas from 25 to 30 to the wealth sacrifice. The significance of the wealth sacrifice is not to be demeaned. But it is very difficult to make wealth sacrifice without any sense of ego and the automatic result of wealth sacrifice is Heavenly enjoyments for a while. Then the man indulge in wealth sacrifice must come back to this earth. Here Arjuna is called Parantapa or the Scorcher of foes. Unless one is good enough to scorch the ego in the knowledge of Brahman it is no use to make wealth sacrifice. There have been people like that. The founder of the Microsoft Computer, Bill Gates in America is one good example. He and his wife are indulging in such egoless wealth sacrifice in a very very systematically scientific manner. Srimati MS. SubbulaKshmi, the late legend of Karnatic music world is another example in India. They belong to a minority. The majority of us cannot make even a five rupees as sacrifice without the ego. Somehow this ego sense gets in and we have to come back to this world for enjoying the fruit of every rupee of sacrifice we made. That is  why it is important when giving alms to beggars we must be humble and chant the name of the Lord we love and give all the charities in HIS or HER name. Then the Lord will collect the fruits and free us from the vicious circle of birth and death.

When the Lord says all karma in its entirety culminates in knowledge, He calls His student, Arjuna as Partha which translates into Kaunteya or the son of Kunti. Here what is highlighted is that all persons born of the wombs of ordinary mothers indulge in action. All actions culminate in knowledge. If it does not bring knowledge in this birth, all our karma will bring enlightenment in some birth. It is as natural as the growth of the baby in the womb of a mother and its birth. The only question is when we will get the enlightenment.

And when we get the enlightenment we must make a sacrifice of it to the Lord. Then only we will attain Moksha or Salvation.

For us the ordinary day-to-day folks, devotion and daily study of the scriptures and prayer will fetch a good birth next time to continue the devotion and study of the scriptures and the knowledge contained in them will get revealed to us step birth by step birth. That is by gradation we will get the knowledge from the study of the scriptures. Because the allurements of this world cannot be got away overnight or overbirth, so to speak.         

A Public Notice

Dear Readers,

owing to circumstances out of my control, I am taking a break for ten days from today. on the eleventh day from today I will come up with new postings.
I request you to bear with me.
Thank you and kind regards.

THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 32

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 32

Text in Transliteration:

evam bahuvidhaa yajnaa vitataa brahmano mukhe

karmajaan viddhi taan sarvaan evam jnaatvaa vimoksyase

Text in English:

Various yajnas such as these are spread out in the storehouse of the Vedas. Know them all to be born of karma; and thus knowing you shall be free.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The four-faced Brahma, Veda, prakriti, Nature, phenomenon, maya—all these terms refer to the same reality. The knower of Veda is he who knows how Nature functions. Nature is the embodiment of karma. And there is in it a divine design of karma. They who convert karma into Yajna (sacrifice) construe and conform to the sacred plan of Nature. All the happenings in Nature are capable of being converted into Yajna (sacrifice). While karma in its ordinary form is binding, in the form of Yajna it is liberating.

DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN’S VERSION OF THIS STANZA:

Thus many form of sacrifice are spread out in the face of Brahman (i.e. set forth as the means of reaching the Absolute). Know thou that all these are born of work, and so knowing thou shalt be freed.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Various kinds of sacrifices are spread out at the mouth of Brahman, i.e., they are known from the Vedas. Know that they are born of action, because the Self is beyond action. If you realize that “these actions do not concern me, they are not my action, and I am actionless, you will surely be liberated from the bondage of Samsara by this right knowledge

Comments by the blogger:

In Verses 25 to 30 the Lord of Gita lists out various kinds of Sacrifices.

This universe is the body of Iswara. That is why the four Vedas are called as such, Veda. Veda means to know. One who knows the design of the universe or prakriti or Nature is the knower of the Veda. This universe is filled with three gunas or tendencies, namely, Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic. Sattvic is the character full of light and knowledge. Rajasic is full of action of various kinds. Tamasic is inertia and darkness. These are three tendencies. The cosmos consist of these three tendencies or gunas as the Man. We are also the storehouse of these three gunas or tendencies. Actions are a divine design of the Universe, according to Swami Sidbhavananda.  Nature is full of action. Both sentient and insentient are action oriented. Take a piece of rock or a handful of earth, much action is taking place there! We cannot see this with our naked eyes. If we take the irreducible atom of this rock or earth, then we can see much action taking inside the action. The acting protons and neutrons can be seen as a streak of light at one angle and a dot at another. So much action takes place even in the so-called inert rock or earth. The planets and the distant stars are ever on the action mode. The sky is the only non-acting element. It acts as the anvil on which various pieces of metals are hammered and shaped. All our actions are made possible because of the non-acting sky. The universe thus filled with three gunas or tendencies is teeming with non-stop action.

 Anything and anyone coming into the plan of Nature has to act. No one can remain without action. While our atman is without action, we have to act non-stop. Even while we sit idly our inner organs and our mind act non-stop. So there is no escape from action. Once we act it binds us. Because this universe is filled with the maya or illusion of Ishwara! So we get the “I do this and that” mentality which is called ego. But actions which are carried out without selfishness and ego becomes a sacrifice. The scheme of  Nature is Sacrifice. Sacrifice alone saves us. When actions of all kinds are done as sacrifices, then it ceases to bind us. Then we can reach our original state. Thus sacrifices are spread on the face of the Brahman or are in His Nature or prkriti. He who can understand these basics and indulge in actions is never bound.

Ok, what about us, that is, many of us who cannot turn the majority of our daily actions into sacrifices and we indulge in actions for their fruits.   

Is it a crime to study for the examinations with a view to score high marks?

Is it a crime to join in a job and expect emoluments for the work we do?

It is not a crime. But all our selfish actions are binding. So what? We have to come here time and time again. whereas our original state is coextensive with Eternal Brahman. To get back to our original state, we have to do things which will not bind us. The Hindu saints found this out thousands of years ago. That is why the word “swaga” is used in every Vedic sacrifice even now. In the Agni, there are things poured as oblations. At the time the word “swaga” is used. Swaga means to return back what was given to us. This society gives us education. We must give back to the society by educating some pupils free of costs or we must spend our hard earned money for the education of the poor pupils. They must, in their turn, utter swaga and return back not to us, for we did it as an act of sacrifice, to some other poor pupils and thus the public weal must be fostered.

Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that all the sacrifices listed out by Him should be understood as having been born of Karma or action. So action in itself is not a sin. So take up your bow and quills Arjuna and indulge in your self- ordained duty or give battle to the people arrayed against your army! This is what the Lord tells Arjuna. He tells him not to fight for his victory. But never shun the action and the duty. Indulge in your skathriya duty or duty of a warrior with mind not expecting the fruits. Then, even if you kill thousands, your hands will not be tarnished.

Now all the modern States have Army, Navy and Air Force. In a just fight if the men kill thousands of human beings it will not sully them. Why go so far? The modern independent country, Iraq was invaded for its petrol wealth by the US and the UK principally. Even in that war, since the duty of a soldier was to obey the State authority, no sin will attach to the individual soldiers. The sin will bind the leaders who indulge their military and air power. The leaders must collect the sin, and their totally wrong decision deliberately taken will bind them and few people and officers privy to the decision of invading a modern sovereign country. So Arjuna should fight. We all should fight our individual war without fear and favour. Then, irrespective of the result, if we had indulged in the action it will not bind us.

Even in the case of our daily conduct, we do so many acts, good and bad. We must try to minimise the bad and maximise the good. And it is no crime to eat and drink with moderation and kiss your spouse. We must study our scriptures daily without fail. Nothing or none should be allowed to interfere in our daily reading and daily prayer. Ten minutes prayer and deep faith in the Lord would do miracles. We would start to love all. It is a must. We must love our enemies too. But we need not go out and tell them that! We must have adroitness. Thus we will come back to the earth’s plane with surroundings and self-will to do more good. And at one stage we would start to indulge in internal sacrifice alone. Then it would be a matter of births before we shall have realised the Lord in us.     

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNAJA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 31

Text in Transliteration:

yajnnasishtaamrrta bhujo yaanti brahma sanaatanam

naa’yam loko ‘sty ayajnasya kuto ‘nyah kurusttama

Text in English:

The eaters of the nectar, the remnant of Yajna go to the Eternal Brahman. This world is not for the non-sacrificer, how then the other, O best of the Kurus?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Whatever a man does must be conducive to the common welfare. The food consumed by him becomes nectar to the extent he relegates selfishness. Every act of self-denial aids man take a step towards perfection. And self-annihilation is the godliest of all of his endeavours. When the man in an individual is crucified, the divine in him manifests itself. He who offers his jivahood as oblation regains Brahmanhood, his Original State. There is no gain superior to the gain of Eternal Brahman.

When the very Highest can be gained by the performance of Yajna (sacrifice), the gaining of the lower things by his means would undoubtedly be easy. This earthy possession is verily the easiest for man to procure. But even this is not obtainable to him who fails to perform Yajna. The self-seeking man shrinks; he thrives nowhere; and the world views him with disdain. The attainment of heaven which is superior is beside the point to such a man.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The law of the world is sacrifice and he who violates it cannot obtain mastery either here or beyond.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

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

Comments by the blogger:

What is the nectar? The food that is left off after the sacrifice is nectar. In other words, the remnant of Yajna or Sacrifice is the nectar! And he who eats the remnant of Sacrifice goes to the Eternal Brahman. This world is not for the non-sacrificer, how then the other?

The Lord of the Gita speaks of the various Sacrifices from verse number 25 to 30. In verse 31 he utters that who eats the nectar which is the remnants of Sacrifice go to the Eternal Brahman. Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are the manifestations of this Eternal Brahman who is ineffable and can only be experienced. For that Man has to sacrifice in any one of the various Sacrifices listed by Krishna from verse 25 to 30. For example, ‘some yogis perform sacrifices to the Devas alone. They perform sacrifice to the Rig-Vedic gods and goddesses. And what is left of the oblation such as gee or melted butter, pinda or rice cake and fruits may be eaten by the performers of such Sacrifices. Some yogis sacrifice their self as sacrifice. It is said in the same verse. Such performers offer the self as sacrifice by the self verily in the fire or knowledge of Brahman. While such performers offer their own self to the Eternal Brahman, what remains to be eaten by them? Why the Eternal Brahman Himself. Their mixing with and become one with the Brahman is allegorically said as the act of eating.

In verse number 26 the Lord of the Gita says the some offer hearing and other senses as sacrifice in the fire of restraint, while others offer sound and other sense-objects as sacrifice in the fire of the senses. Here in the former sacrifice, in the fire of restraint the yogis offer as sacrifice hearing and other senses. They, like Gandhi’s three monkeys, do not see what should not be seen. But they see what can be seen. That is the remnant of their olfactory sacrifice. They do not hear what should not be heard, and the remaining things that can be heard, for example the recitation of the Lord’s names and glories, and this is auricular nectar they eat. They do not speak what should not be spoken and the remaining things are the Lord’s countless names and ineffable glories of which the can speak and sing and this is the nectar to be consumed by them orally. And some yogis are said to offer sound and other sense–objects as sacrifice in the fire of the senses. But there are sense-objects such as hearing Lords Holy names and His glories that can be enjoyed. Ant these sense-objects like seeing the Lord’s pictures and speaking about the Lords glories as sense-objects are nectar. And they go to the Eternal Brahman after their earthly sojourn. In verse number 27 the Lord says that others again offer all the actions of the senses and the functions of the life-energy as a sacrifice. Offering all the actions of the senses means they do nothing than speaking, seeing the Lords glories. And when they eat they do it sparingly for the maintenance of the bodily functions. There too they see the Lord inside of them and offer the food as to Him only as sacrifice. Thus they eat, see, hear, speak and touch what is left off their sacrifice in the fire of self-control kindled by knowledge.

In the verse number 28 the Lord says that yet others offer wealth, austerity and yoga as sacrifice, while still others, self denial and extreme vows, offer sacred study and knowledge as sacrifice. Here wealth offering is easy to understand. They offer honestly obtained wealth as sacrifice, and only enjoy that portion of wealth for their and their families’ maintenance and that is turned into nectar. In the case of offering austerity and yoga as sacrifice, they do not covet the natural power and spiritual prowess that rise out of such austerity and yoga. They offer that too to the Lord. Some others of self-denial and extreme vows, offer sacred study and knowledge as sacrifice! The study of sacred books enlightens one and givs him or her intuitive knowledge about God. They would not blow their own trumpets about such gains. And this self denial is nectar and they offer that too to the Brahman. Then all that is left off is the Eternal Brahman Himself and they partake of Him in the sense they mingle with him.

In the verse number 29 the Lord says, “Yet others offer as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming, and the incoming, in the outgoing...” Here while normal persons enjoy more than thirty incoming and outgoing breaths per minute in their worldly exertions, the meditating saint enjoy only one incoming and outgoing breath. All others enjoyed by the worldly men are offered as sacrifice. And what they actually enjoy per minute give them knowledge of Brahman due to their regulation of the flow of outgoing and incoming breath. They are occupied solely in the regulation of life-energy, which is wasted by others.

In the verse number 30 the Lord says, “Still others of regulated food habit offer the pranas the functions thereof. Mahatma Gandhi speaks of one form of fasting: it involves taking fifteen handful of cooked rice on the full moon day and progressively reducing the number of the handfuls to 14, 13 and finally on the moonless day the yogi would not eat anything. And then, starting from moonless day, counting it as zero-food-day, they will increase the food taken as the moon waxes from 1, 2 and like this they would take fifteen handfuls on the full moon day. This is an extreme vow. These kinds of yogis give rest to the ten pranas established in their body. The remaining food for them too is the Eternal Brahman!

Thus, the Lord says in the verse 31 that the eaters of nectar eat the remnants of Sacrifice and they go to the Eternal Brahman.

A question may arise that what about those good people who do some or great service to his neighbours or to the entire Humanity and other people who observe small time fasts and austerities? They too would get their deserved deserts as good birth in their next incarnation and would start from where they left off. There is a promise in the Gita for the whole humanity about this matter of continuing in the next birth the discontinued austerity in the previous birth owing to their demise.              

So take heart my dear friends and brothers and sisters and if you and me can’t be full time yogis, let’s do good to the limit of our means in this birth so as to fetch a better rebirth in a better family! Never lose heart. Gita is there! It is for all the suffering men and women of the world! 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 30

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 30

Text in Transliteration:

apare niyataahaaraah praanaan praaneshu juhvati

sarve ‘py ete yajnnavido yajnnakshapita kalmashaah

Text in English:

Still others of regulated food habit offer in the pranas the functions thereof. All these are knowers of yajna, having their sins destroyed by Yajna.

COMMENTARY BY SIDBHAVANANDA:

Partaking of wholesome food in a regulated manner is in itself an aspect of yoga. It is like tuning the vina, (a stringed instrument) in order to bring out the best music from it. The modern medical world knows how to transfer warm and fresh blood from one body to another requiring to be revitalized. Eating and digesting is natural way of vitalizing the body. One conserves life-energy in oneself only by appropriating it from another life unit. Life lives on life. He, who is exclusively attached to his personal life is therefore a sinner. Performance of Yajna (sacrifice) is the only way of redeeming oneself from sin. The individual life is dedicated to the service of the Cosmic Life, manifesting Itself as millions of beings. This is what is meant by offering the functions of praanas in the praanas(vital force as well as breath) themselves. They who live for the common weal incur no sin.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

Restraint is the essence of all sacrifice and so all sacrifices may be regarded as means to spiritual growth.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

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

Niyataharah means persons of regulated or limited food. They take moderate food. Bu rigid dieting they control the passions and appetites by weakening the functions of the organs of action.

Yogis pour the life-breath as sacrifice by weakening the functions of the organs of action.

Yogis pour the life-breaths as sacrifice in the controlled life-breath. The former becomes merged in the latter.

Performance of the above sacrifice leads to the purification of the mind and destruction of sins.  

Comments by the blogger:

We have already seen what the functions of the pranas (vital breaths) are. To recapitulate the same, we may repeat some of the sentences used there. It is said there are ten pranas or Vital forces. One prana (vital force) divides itself into ten. The original Prana divides itself into prana, apana, viyana, uthana, samana, naga, koorman, krukalan, dhevadhathan and dhananjeyan. These vital forces connect the body with the mind. Becase of these vital-forces in our body all actions are being carried out without our sanctions or knowing. The Hindu saints and sages discovered these various functions being carried out by individual vital forces and named them thousands of years back. Because of these vital forces or pranas bodily actions above and below, and all sides, the action of death(yes, dying is an action and at the time the vital forces and life-energy leave the body because of the prana, by name, Uthanan. Digestion of food and transforming the digested food into blood and so on is taken care of by smanan. Nagan or naga takes care of vomiting and belching. Both acts are as important as any. When we are ill, the undigested food turn into poison! The earlier it is forced out the better for the body. Belching and wind-breaking force out the unwanted and poisonous  wind and pernicious gas. Koorman is a pranan that resides in our eye-lids and safeguards the eye. Krukalan is a prana that gives us hunger. Dhevadhathan is a prana that takes care of yawning. Dhananjeyan is a pranan that gives us health and vitality.

The act of eating is the only voluntary act we indulge in. All other ten actions listed above are involuntary. Regulation of food habits helps the above-listed ten actions. To the level the above ten involuntary actions and activities adhere to a good healthy life, then we are sattvic and our understanding of the world and ourselves and our Creator is perfect. When we over-eat and indulge in unwarranted enjoyment of food our system suffers, and the central nervous system comes under severe pain. The heart and lungs and kidneys and other vital parameters’ actions suffer. The pranan, apanan and viyanan are the overseers of these vital parameters. They come under heavy pressure and weakening of the human body is the ultimate result. Fatty and spicy foods and foods and dishes that are over-hot or sour should always be avoided. Milk and lots of vegetables and fruits and greens will do a world of good to make us sattvic. In Gita separate discourse is devoted to see what are sattvic food and with regard to other matters. We will see then in great detail what are all sattvic in life. Epicureanism is not commensurate with sattvic life. There must be a life-style change in those who crave for always stuffing their stomach irrespective of chest burns and other immediate problems.

The lord is not a votary of famishing your system by any zealous methods of avoiding good and healthy food, you should know. But it makes all sorts of people to make the world. In listing out the various kinds of sacrifices He gives this model and mentions as a lost item of sacrifice because there are people who are fanatical about these things.

Lord Buddha tried this method and starved his system and became very emaciated. All his bones in the ribcage jutted out and the stomach was a cavernous gorge, so much so the inner organs like pancreas could be seen by the naked eyes. His beautiful face became a skeletal head with taut skin stretched across it. The whole body had become emaciated and the skin shrunk with joints jutting out like knobs! Lord Buddha tried various methods of meditation and food habits. By denying food to the body the senses will become dim and would not be able to exert any desire and make us indulge in sinful acts, he was given to understand. But his body become a shrunken skeletal mass but the main objective of attainment of Salvation did not happen. Then he ate well and his put a curb on the senses. He practised many of the does and don’ts the Hindu Yogis observed. And at some point of intense meditation he attained Samadhi or Salvation and became a Buddha.

Mahatma Gandhi ate frugally and then said only after he practised diets he became aware of how much of an eater he had been. Over-eating has serious consequence by giving fuel to the clamouring senses as much as under-eating or severe denial of food dim the senses and we become patients. Dimming the senses artificially is not the way. The Lord of Gita observes he who eats too much or does not eat at all, and he who sleeps too much or does not sleep at all are not fit for practising yoga! There should be moderation in everything.

But it is not the philosophy of Gita that one should famish oneself to the extent of dimming the senses. Senses are fondly and allegorically described as the shining one, that is, the Devas by the Lord of the Gita.

Since fire and electricity are liable to scorch and kill us if used wrongly, they are not to be avoided as our enemies. Without them life is not possible. Since there are recurring flight and train accidents the world over people do not shun them en masse!

Senses are important for Man. Only through senses Man could attain the super-consciousness. So, ordinary consciousness should be transformed into all -including and all-encompassing vision of super-consciousness.      

         

THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 29.

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 29

Text in Transliteration

apaane juhvati praanam praane ‘paanam tathaa ‘pare

praanaapaanagatee ruddhvaa praanaayaamaparaayanaah

Text in English

Yet others offer as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming, and the incoming in the outgoing, restraining the flow of the outgoing and incoming breaths, solely absorbed in the regulation of the life-energy.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

There is close relationship between man’s mentation and his breathing. The regularity or otherwise in the one has a corresponding effect on the other. Unwholesome mentations such as fear, lust and anger disturb and hinder the flow of breath. Calmness, contentment, affection and such like healthy attitudes lead to rhythm in breathing. Conversely, if the flow of breath be voluntarily regulated, its effect on mind is beneficial. Yogis took note of this fact and evolved the science of praanaayaama (breath control).

Breathing through the mouth is to be avoided. Air taken through the nostril is known as apaana and that thrown out, as praana. Inhaling is technically called pooraka; and exhaling, rechaka. Arresting the breath within or without is kumbhaka. Violent and incorrect practice of praanaayaama shatters the nerves and brings in neural complications. Correct practice of it heals diseases, tones the system, enhances health and pacifies the mind. Attractive and inviting as this science is, adepts in it are few and quacks many. A novice will therefore do well to refrain from it.

A yogi endowed with a serene mind may practise deep rhythmic breathing avoiding kumbaka as far as possible. A good walker takes no note of his legs. Similarly a sadhaka who does good praanaayaama is hardly ever obsessed with it. Measured breathing and a blissful attitude constitute a good praanaayaama.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Some Yogis practise Puraka ( inhalation) some Yogis practise Rechaka (exhalation), and some Yogis pratise Kumbhaka (retention of breath).

The five sub-Pranas and the other Pranas are merged in the chief Prana (Mukhya-Prana) by the practice of Pranayama. When the Prana is controlled, the mind also stops its wanderings and becomes steady; the senses are also thinned out and merged in the Prana. It is through the vibration of Prana that the activities of the mind and the senses are kept up. If the Prana is controlled, the mind, the intellect and the senses cease to function.

Comments by the blogger:

The proper way of breathing is a contribution by the Vedopanishadic Sages to the world. there is a deep instant and direct connection between good bodily health and proper way of breathing. Not just that, there is a deep instant and direct connection between man’s mentation and breathing. Fear, lust and anger are unwholesome mentations. When a man is afraid or is filled with lust or anger, his pulse rate increases. This means he starts to breathe in and breathe out very quickly. This will shatter the central nervous system. But, on the other hand, when we indulge in sattvic thoughts, when we are truthful, filled with love for God and His creations, when we take pride in our neighbours’ achievements we breath slowly. We are not panting as when we are angry or lustful.

Hindu saints found out this connection of the breath and good health and good ethical life thousands of years ago. What happens under normal circumstances could be copied by way of pranayama or breath control techniques they found out. Pranayama or breath control is one of the greatest science and contribution by the ancient Indian Yogis to the Humanity in general.

Now let us come to the sacrificial aspect. The Lord says, “Yet others offer as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming and the incoming in the outgoing,...” What does the Lord mean by saying that some people sacrifice their outgoing breath in the incoming breath and the incoming breath in the outgoing breath? If you think deeply about this it would sound as pure hypocrisy on the part of Lord Krishna to use such a language. You would naturally ask with all honesty in the world that just where and how could the question of sacrifice creep into these words of the Lord. But bear in mind, Lord Krishna does not use a single syllable in His Gita Discourse without weighing the consequences. Because He is teaching yoga in seventeen Discourses or chapters not including the first one that is devoted for Arjuna’s sorrowfulness and its expression. In the present discourse or chapter He uses the word sacrifice from verse number 25 onwards. He lists out how various yogis indulge in sacrifice. Now he says that some yogis sacrifice their outgoing breath in the inside breath and the incoming breath in the outgoing breath. These are Lords words. Sometimes the truth can only be said in an allegorical manner. Here there is no such need. He categorically says that some yogis SACRIFICE their outgoing breath in their incoming breath and SACRIFICE  their incoming breath in the outgoing breath!

Where the heck comes the question of sacrifice?

To demonstrate this I beg you to suppose that there are two men seated side by side. And I ask you to further suppose that between the two men one is an accomplished Yogi who is performing Pranayama or breathing exercise and another is an average ordinary man. Now further suppose both of them indulge in the act of BREATHING IN  their individual breath simultaneously. Now see the result: the yogi and the ordinary man start to breathe IN. The yogi breathes IN, in a steady and slow and scientifically rhythmic way, but the ordinary man knows no rhythm whatsoever and in a short while completes his INCOMING BREATH AND STARTS TO BREATH OUT WHILE THE YOGI IS STILL STEADILY PULLING IN HIS INCOMING BREATH IN A SLOW-STEADY RHYTHMICAL WAY! THAT IS, WHILE THE ORDINARY MAN HAS STARTED TO BREATH OUT, THE YOGI IS STILL BREATHING IN, IN A RHYTHMIC WAY. THIS IS WHAT THE LORD MEANS AS SACRIFICE! WHILE THE ORDINARY MAN, WHO HAS STARTED TO BREATH IN ALONG WITH THE YOGI HAS STARTED TO ENJOY THE OUTGOING BREATH, BUT THE YOGI IS STILL PULLING STEADILY HIS INCOMING BREATH AND HE THUS SACRIFICES HIS OUTGOING BREATH IN THE INCOMING BREATH! Then while the Yogi starts to breathe out steadily rhythmically and continuously the ordinary man completes his outgoing breath and starts to breathe in. And THIS IS SACRIFICING THE INCOMING BREATH ON THE PART OF THE YOGI IN THE OUTGOING BREATH!

Actually the Lord teaches one of the methods of rhythmic breathing technique. But why should he make resorts to such grandiloquence while the matter may be clothed in ordinary words? And why does he list this verse along with the ones dealing with mighty sacrifices?

We need not go far for the answer. Right from verse number 25 in this discourse, the Lord has been speaking about various kinds of INNER SACRIFICES IN THE FIRE OF KNOWLEDGE. IN ONLY ONE VERSE, NAMELY 28 HE USES GIVING OUT WEALTH AS ONE OF THE SACRIFICES. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY OF SACRIFICE WE KNOW IN COMMON PARLANCE. BECAUSE EVEN BY GIVING OUT PROPERLY EARNED WEALTH TO THE DESERVED PEOPLE AND INDULGE IN SACRIFICE. BUT ALL OTHER SACRIFICES HAVE BEEN RELATED TO RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE! THIS IS THE WAY OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE. THIS KNOWLEDGE ALONE HAS THE FIRE THAT WILL SCORCH ALL OF OUR PAST AND PRESENT KARMIC EFFECTS AND GIVE SALVATION. Lord Krishana’s use of sacrifice is not in the way as we know. Sacrifices should be made in the fire of knowledge. We must also give up the fruits of such action that gives birth to sacrifices.

A yogi steadily slowly breathes in and likewise, when the intake breath is finished, starts to exhale steadily slowly without any hurry. Thus he restrains THE FLOW OF THE OUTGOING AND INCOMING BREATHS, SOLELY ABSORBED IN THE REGULATION OF THE (INCOMING AND OUTGOING BREATHS OR) LIFE ENERGY.

From verse number 25 to 30 the Lord describes various kinds of sacrifices yogis of the world resort to. In these verses only one mention about the conventional sacrifice as we all know is mentioned in verse number 28 that too among various kinds of sacrifices. The conventional way of doing sacrifice is to give away to the deserved people our hard earned money and wealth.

Thus in the parlance of Gita, the Lord does not give overmuch importance to the wealth-giving sacrifice, though it is duly catalogued along with austerity and yoga as other two kinds of sacrifices which do not include sacrifices of wealth. Even a poor fakir can do austerities and yoga providing he is ready to observe the Yama and Niyama and other canons of yoga.

Thus not much premium is put on the earning wealth in the honest way and sacrifice them. But there are people who do that as a sacrifice without any ahankara or ego sense. Whereas five verses are devoted to other kinds of sacrifices of varied nature! With self-restraint and self-denial and shreda or faith anyone can indulge in such yogas though they are more arduous and almost unattainable compared to the wealth sacrifice!