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 22

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 22

Text in Transliteration:

Content with what he obtains without effort, free from the pairs of opposites, without envy, balanced in success and failure, through acting he is not bound.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Egoism prompts the action-bound man to exert himself for the procurement of his bodily needs. An attitude of this type is born of ignorance. But a spititual aspirant is he who is not obsessed with the thought of bodily sustenance. Providence provides for him who is attuned to the Supermundane. The aspirant is therefore content with what comes to him unsought. Happenings such as success and failure, honour and dishonour are the pairs of opposites. He is not affected b y any of these happenings. Whatever falls to his lot, he accepts as divine dispensation. A worldling becomes envious of the prosperity of his neighbour; but the sadhaka (practitioner of yoga) is free from that canker. He is, instead, happy over the prosperity of the world. A man of this fame of mind is not bound by karma in the midst of his being tightly engaged in it.

COMMENT BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Action by itself does not bind. If it does, then we are committed to a gross dualism between God and the world becomes a cosmic blunder. The cosmos is a manifestation of the Supreme and what binds is not the act but the selfish attitude to action, born of ignorance which makes us imagine that we are so many separate individuals with our special preference and aversions.

 The teacher now proceeds to point out how the actor, the act and the action are all different manifestations of the one Supreme and action offered as a sacrifice to the Supreme does not bind.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANADA:

The sage is quite satisfied what comes to him by chance. In verses IV. 18,19, 20, 21 22 and 23 there is only a reiteration of the results of the knowledge of the Self which is beyond action. The sage who identifies himself with the ‘actionless’ Self is not bound as action and its cause which bind one to the round of birth and death have been burnt in the fire of the knowledge of the Sef or Brahma-Jnana. Just as a seed burnt in the fire cannot germinate, so also the karmas or actions burn by the fire of knowledge of the Self cannot produce future birth.

Ordinary people think that the sage is also a doer of actions, an agent, active and therefore bound, when they see him doing actions. This is a mistake. From his own point of view and, in truth, he is not an agent at all. He really does no action at all. He feels and says, “I do nothing at all. Nature does or the three qualities of Nature do everything.”

He is not affected by heat and cold, pleasure and pain, success and failure, as he always has a balanced state of mind. He is not attached even to the things which are necessary for the bare maintenance of his body. He experiences neither pleasure not pain, whether or not he obtains food and the other things which are required for the maintenance of his body. The reason is that he is resting in his essential nature as Existence-knowledge-Bliss Absolute (Satchdananda-Svarupa); he is swimming in the ocean of bliss. So he does not care for his body and its needs.  

Comments by the blogger:

That man is not bound by his actions who is content with what he obtains without effort, free from the pairs of opposites, without envy, balanced in success and failure; he is not bound though acting always. Lord Krishna Himself is the best example. He is constantly acting. His full of actions. At the great war of Kurukchetra what he gets is akin to a peon’s post or gate keeper’s post or the driver’s post in the modern parlance. He just works and serves as the charioteer of his very student to whom He taught Gita! How many teachers in this world condescend to act as the chauffeur of his student’s limousine? Isn’t that just what the Lord does? The Lord of yoga, a Yogeshwara, acting as the car driver of his very student who just a while back owned up he was perplexed and please tell him as to what to do in this war!

Lord Krishna is not, though full of action, is not moved by the pairs of opposites. He has no vested interest and He knows dharma is on the side of Pandavas or Arjuna and his four brothers.

The question is can we, ordinary folks emulate the Avatar of Lord Vishnu?

Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi are the two recent examples.

Can we rise up to their level? Of course not. But they were born like us, not Avatars, see? So each of us can at least understand their level of consciousness is possible for human beings.

We should not vilify actions. Actions by themselves do not taint us. They do no by themselves bind us. There are not actions which cannot be converted into freedom-giving ones. So all depends on just how we take them and execute them.