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.