THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 24

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 4

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

VERSE NUMBER 24

Text in Transliteration:

brahmaa ‘rpanam brahma havir

   brahmaagnau brahmanaa hutam

brahmat ‘va tena gantavyam

   brahmakarma samaadhinaa

Text in English:  

The oblation is Brahman, the clarified butter is Brahman, offered by Brahman in the fire of Brahman; unto Brahman verily he goes who cognizes Brahman alone in his action.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

He who holds himself the agent to the performance of a sacrifice cherishes the feeling of distinction between himself, the Deity to be propitiated, the things offered, the medium of fire and so on. But he who takes to jnana-yajna, the process of enlightenment, views all these as Brahman, the Thing-in-itself.

Consuming the daily food regularly is obligatory on all including the enlightened; but the latter convert eating itself into jnana-yagna. The food, the eater of it, the digestion –all these are mere modifications of Brhaman even as the waves are of the sea. The one established in brahmaavastha in this wise attains Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The Vedic yajna is here interpreted in a larger, spiritual way. Though the performer of yagna does work, he is not bound by it, for his earth life is brooded over by the sense of eternity.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

This is Jnana-yagna or wisdom-sacrifice wherein the idea of Brahman is substituted for the ideas of the instrument and other accessories of action, the idea of action itself and of its results. By entertaining such an idea, the whole action melts away, as stated in the previous verse.  

When one attains to the knowledge of the Self or Self-realisation his whole life becomes a wisdom-sacrifice in which the oblation, the melted butter or the offering, the performer of the sacrifice, the action and the goal are all Brahman. He who meditates thus wholly upon Brahman shall verily attain to Brahman.

The sage who has the knowledge of the Self knows that the oblation, the fire, the instrument by which the melted butter is poured into the fire and himself have no existence apart from that of Brahman. He who has realised through direct cognition (Anubhava) that all is Brahman, does no action even if he performs actions.

Comments of the blogger:

From verse number 25 to 30 of this chapter Sri Krishna is going to elaborate on various kinds of sacrifices great people carry out. Of them except one stanza, 28, all other sacrifices are internalized. As a precursor has come the present stanza.

There are two kinds of people in this world; one kind treats this whole Universe as matter and engages in earning wealth and work for pleasure for the present and future. They are the majority. Most of us are worldly people. For us this earth and the other four elements are real. This Universe is very much real. The cosmos exists in all its multitudinous planets and stars. We are divided broadly into two types: one is the people who have abundant and complete faith in God. They are spiritual in its rudimental state. They accept the existence of God. Some are more spiritual and devote their greater time than others in worshipping God. Some are less spiritual and but they accept the existence of God in the fundamental way. A small minority of those for whom this Universe is very much real and matter exists are stout naysayers. They stoutly deny the existence of God. They have various theories but those people are completely devoid of any spiritual leanings and belief. Their ego is overwhelming.

All these people have to work out their karma here by coming back to earth repeatedly. They are enchained to repeated births and deaths and their progress toward the second type of people is very painfully slow.

The second type of people in this world are completely evolved and they think and believe and look upon the Universe or the whole of the Cosmos as a great and beautiful thought. For them everything here is Brahman. The whole universe is non-matter and a pure thought by Brahman. It is Brahman by His maya or illusion that shows Himself as the World. For them, the flower and fauna and the insentient objects including the Five Universal Elements and their conglomeration just a beautiful thought as well as filled with Brahman. So, this cosmos is a Brahmic thought. There can be nothing that is extraneous to Brahman here. This kind of people belongs to a minority. They are highly evolved souls. They represent the cream of the created. They are an adornment to the Brahman. For them this worldly life is a mammoth sacrifice. Everything they do and think is a sacrifice. The very food they eat is a kind of sacrifice. For them, as Swami Sidbhavananda says, they hold themselves as the agent to the performance of a sacrifice, the Deity to be propitiated, the things offered the medium of the fire and so on. But he who takes to Jnana-yoga or yoga of wisdom, the process of enlightenment, views all these as Brahman, the Thing-in-Itself.