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.