THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 27 AND 28

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBERS 27 AND 28

Text in Transliteration:

sparsaan krtvaa bahir baahyaams

      cakshus chai ‘vaa ‘ntare bhruvoh

praanaapaanau samau krtvaa

     naasaabhyantararachaarinau

yatendraiya manobudhir munir mok sa paraayanah

vigatecchaa bhaya krodho yah sadaa mukta eva sah

Text in English:

Shutting out external objects, fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalizing the outward and inward breaths moving in the nostrils, the sage who has controlled the senses, mind and intellect, who is solely pursuing liberation, who has cast away desire, fear and anger, he verily is liberated.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

When sound and other sense-objects are excluded from the mind, they are said to have been shut out. The eyes remain half closed in meditation; their gaze simply seems to be fixe between the eyebrows while actually they are at rest. The breath exhaled is called praana and that inhaled, apana. Regulating and harmonizing the inward and outward flow of breath is called  Praanaayaama. Stilling the mind and equalizing the passage of breath either way through Praanaayaama are interrelated. When mind ceases to function, breath stops, and when breath stops mind ceases to function.

Mind gets disturbed and depraved every time desire, fear and make their evil appearance in it. The reflection of an object gets hazy and broken, and the surface of the disturbed water. Likewise the presence of Atman is obscured in a disturbed mind. It should first of all gain quietude  through the conquest of desire, fear and anger. Meditation then becomes easy and spontaneous.

Muni is the original word for sage. He is a Muni whose mind flows incessantly towards the Lord. He is liberated who is establishing in Pure Consciousness.

The next chapter elaborates on the ideas contained in these two stanzas.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp. “When one fixes the thought on the midpoint between the two eyes the Light streams of its own accord.” It is symbolic of union with buddhi, that gives spiritual knowledge.

COMMENTARY FOR STANZA 27 BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The verses 27 and 28 deal with the yoga of meditation (Dhyana). External objects or contacts are the sound and the other sense-objects. If the mind does not think of the external objects they are shut out from the mind. The senses are the doors or avenues through which sound and the other sense-objects enter the mind.

‘Muni’ is one who does Manana or reflection and contemplation.

If you fix the gaze between the eyebrows the eyeballs remain fixed and steady. Rhythmical breathing is descrbed here. You will have to make the breath rhythmical. The mind becomes steady when breath becomes rhythmical. When the breath becomes rhythmical there is perfect harmony in the mind and the whole system. (Cf. VL.10, 14; VIII. 10)

SWAMI SIVANANDA’S COMMENTARY FOR THE VERSE 28:

If one is free from desire, fear and anger he enjoys perfect peace of mind. When the senses, the mind and the intellectual are subjugated the sage does constant contemplation and attains for ever to the absolute freedom or Moksha.

The mind becomes restless when the modifications of desire, fear and anger arise in it. When one becomes desireless, the mind moves towards the Self spontaneously: liberation or Moksha becomes his highest goal.    

Comments by the blogger:

Dharana or concentration itself is Hinduism’s gift to the whole world forever. Ordinary mental problems get cured by concentration. The success in one’s endeavour, whatever the field be, is all about concentration. When the mind is brought between the two eyebrows, great things happen there. All our inner strength gets awakened and one tends toward a life spiritual. All our weakness and harmful partialities, whether it is for foods, or drinks or any other even serious thing, go away. We become addicted to the sessions of concentration. If this is the benefit of dharana or mere concentration, what should be the infinite feat a Muni should achieve towards the goal of self realisation by contemplation by shutting out all external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalising the outgoing and incoming breaths? Why, the complete liberation is the goal. And that’s what’s explained in the verse 28.

This kind of contemplation can be made by a Hindu, Muslim or a Christian and the result is the same. For the great Rig-Vedic and Upanishadic Sages belong to the entire world’s humanity. The proof of the yogic pudding is in the eating, that is in the practice. The whole humanity can and should benefit from it. In this wise, we owe it a lot to the present Prime Minister of India who had a guiding hand in allotting a day for the World Yoga Day as announced duly by the UNO under his guidance.  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 26

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 26

Text in Transliteration:

kaama krodha viyuktaanaam yateenaam yatachetasaam

abhito brahmanirvaanam varate viditaatmanaam

Text in English:

The Beatitude of Brahman is both here and hereafter fro those Sanyasins who have shed lust and anger, subdued their minds and realized the Self.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Nyasa is sumlimation; Samyasa or Sanyasa is total sumblimation. This is positive meaning of the word Sanyasa. Negating the phenomenon is its negative meaning. In whichever way Sanyasa is practised, the attainment of the Beatitude of Brahman is the result. The Sanyasin is no more conscious of the body than the ordinary people are of their shadows. He is therefore liberated even while in the body. The here and hereafter become one endless Brahmaavastha to the Sanyasin.

Mind has to be vanquished fr the attainment of Beatitude. The process is delineated in the next stanza.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

They live in the consciousness of Spirit. The possibility of blessed existence in this world is indicated here.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Those who renounce all actions and practise Sravana(hearing of the Scriptures), Manana (reflection), and Nididhyasana (meditation), who are established in Brahman or who are steadily devoted to knowledge of the Self attain liberation or Moksha instantaneously (Kaivalya Moksha), Karma yoga leads to Koksha step by step (Krama mukti). First comes purification of the mind, then knowledge, then renunciation of all actions and eventually Moksha.

Comments by the blogger:

Subduing mind is a feat in itself. Mind is likened to a monkey. It never stays put even for a even a second. Only he who is free of illusions of the world and comes to think of the whole Universe as a beautiful thought can subdue his mind as his mind and senses do not have kama or desire; and where there is nill personal desire then the mind becomes totally subdued.

Such a man is a sanyansin and it is his priority to have no lust or anger and always enjoys the Beatitude of Brahman.

Thus the Hinduism alone, as we have seen earlier, gives hope of total emancipation here itself which enures to hereafter also.  

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA , OR THE RENUNCIATION , VERSE NUMBER 25

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 25

Text in Transliteration:

labhante brahmanirvaanam rshayah kshinakalmasaah

chinnadvaidhya yataatmaanah sarvabhatahite rataah

Text in English:

With sins destroyed, doubts (dualitites) removed, minds disciplined, being delighted in the welfare of all beings,  the Rishis attain the Beatitude of Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Rishis are they who have realized the substratum of all the things. Perfect enlightenment is theirs because of complete detachment from the mundane. Though detached, they engage themselves in the welfare of all. Because of complete self-controle they commit no sin. The Beatitude of Brahman is theirs as a matter of course.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Sarvabhatahite rataah: the soul which has acquired wisdom and peace is also the souls of love and compassion. He who sees all existence in the Supreme, sees the Divine even in the fallen and the criminal, and goes out to them in deep love and sympathy.

To do good to others is not to give them physical comforts or raise their standard of living. It is to help others to find their true nature, to attain true happiness. The contemplation of the Eternal Reality in whom we all dwell gives warmth and support to the sense of the service of fellow-creatures. All work is for the sake of the Supreme jagad hitaaya. To overcome the world is not to become other-worldly. It is not to evade the social responsibilities.

The two sides of religion, the personal and the social, are emphasized by the Gitaa. Personally, we should discover the Divine in us and let it penetrate the human; socially society must be subdued to the image of the Divine. The individual should grow in his freedom and uniqueness and he should recognize the dignity of every man, even the most insignificant. Man has not only to ascend to the world of spirit but also to descend to the world of creatures.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Sins are destroyed by the performance of Agnihotra (a daily obligatory ritual) and other Yagnas vide notes on verse III.13) without expectation of their fruits and by other selfless services. The duties vanish by constant meditation on the non-dual Brahman. He never hurts others in thought, word and deed, and he is devoted to the welfare of all beings as he feels that all beings are but his own Self.

Comments by the blogger:

Dr.S.Radhakrishnan hit the bull’s eye when he says “being delighted in the welfare of al beings” does not connote one should help all economically, which is impossible too. Jawaharlal Nehru writes in his autobiography that people call him and his family a rich man and rich family in India, but could he give food for all the people of India for a day? So helping all the people economically is not possible even to the modern democracies and the erstwhile Maha Rajas. But helping everyone to fulfil himself in his own way is the greatest of all services. And elsewhere, Swami Sidbhavananda has said that to fulfil oneself according to his predominating guna is a great worship offered to the Lord.

Apart from the above, we should delight in the welfare of all because of the logical reason that all here, including our sworn enemies, and sentient and insentient, is filled with God’s Self. One Self has crystallized into the whole cosmos. And everyone is related to the whole Universe. This is part of the understanding of the scheme of the Universe.

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 24

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION

VERSE NUMBER 24

Text in Transliteration:

yo ‘ntahsukho ‘ntaraaraamas tathaa ‘ntarjyotir eva yah

sa yogee brahmanirvaanam brahmabhooto ‘dhigacchati

Text in English:

He whose happiness is within, whose delight is within, whose illumination is within only, that yogi becomes Brahman and gains the Beatitude of Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The ignorant man hunts for happiness in the external world. he fancies he is obtaining it there; but no sooner he clutches at it, than it vanishes. This is due to happiness not being inherent in things external. The projected happiness is actually in the self. Similarly, repose and joy are in the self and nowhere else. In search of enjoyment the senses get extraverted, only to be foiled. Atman is Bliss; therefore, real happiness is in Itself. In short, whatever is sought after externally, is actually in oneself. The core of one’s being is Brahman, realizing which, everlasting Beatitude is gained.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Knowledge is not for him who is attached to the world. enlightenment and bliss ensue in direct proportion to disentanglement with the sense-objects.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The yogin becomes unified in consciousness with the Eternal in him. The next verse indicates that this nivaana is not mere annihilation. It is a positive state full of knowledge and self-possession.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

‘Within’ means “in the Self”. He attains Brahmanirvanam or liberation while living. He becomes a Jivanmukta.

Comments by the blogger:

The Vedic Sages and the Upanishadic Sages well understood that the body of ours consists of and constituted by the same five elements the Universe is made and constituted of. So by understanding ourselves would amount to understanding the Universe. And understanding of the Universe lead up to the understanding of its Maker! This is pure and established science. All the discoveries and inventions of the eighteenth century taking place in the Europe belonged only to the Universe. They turned their attention to the external objects and analyzed them. But understanding one’s self is the mother of all discoveries.

But thousands of years ago the Hindu Sages and Saints turned their attention inward. When they turned their attention inward, the senses fell silent and this gave them infinite beatitude. They came to understand that it is these senses that create a bondage to the sense objects of this world. To be shorn of senses is to be one with God and becoming God.

Even in our day-to-day life we may understand that even an iota of sense sacrifice gives us immense pleasure. We often go without food as a form of vow and this gives us immense pleasure. Whenever we help others we get immense satisfaction. That arises because we deprive our sense pleasures so some one dear and near to us may obtain the same. And when this relates to giving out to a complete stranger the pleasure we feel is that much more.

Jesus Christ says that if some one slaps you on your left cheek show him your right cheek too. If someone steel your coat let him have your lower garment too. This kind of sacrifices gives us immense pleasure and we are readied to give ourselves to the Lord at last.

But the Hindu Saints delved deeply into their core and found out that the annihilation of the senses bring something unbearably beautiful and insouciant.     

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 23

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 23

Text in Transliteration:

saknotee ‘hai ‘va yah sodhum praak sareeravimoksanaat

kaamakrodhodbhavam vegam sa yuktah sa sukhee narah

Text in English:

He who is able to resist the impulse of desire and anger even here before he quits the body—he is a yogi, he is a happy man.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Desire or its counterpart anger is bound to make its appearance as long as life lasts in the body. They are capable of raising their hoods even while man is at the point of death. It is in and through indulgence, indulgent observation and covetous imagination that desire thrives. Anger, its negative expression, sprouts when the sense-objects prove themselves unpleasant. Desire fostered in the mind expresses itself in the physique by directing the senses covetously on their objects; there is then a longing for them visible in the countenance. Anger has its physical expression as perspiration, throbbing of the body, quivering of the lip and reddening of the eyes. A yogi is he who has quelled the impulses of desire and anger. This done, the bliss of Self becomes tangible to him.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Lust and greed have immersed people in sin. If you behold women as the embodiments of the Divine Mother, you will escape from the snares of lust and its aftermath, misery.

God- vision is impossible until desire is vanquished.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The non-attachment from which inner peace, freedom and joy arise is capable of realization even here on earth, even when we lead embodied lives. In the midst of human life, peace within can he attained.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Yukta means ‘harmonised’ or steadfast in Yoga or self-abiding.

Desire and anger are powerful enemies of peace. It is very difficult to annihilate them. You will have to make very strong efforts to destroy these enemies.

When the word kama (desire) is used in a general sense it includes all sorts of desires. It means lust in a special sense.

While still here means ‘while yet living’. The impulse of desire is the agitation of the mind which is indicated by hairs standing on end and cheerful face. The impulse of anger is agitation of the mind which is indicated by fiery eyes, perspiration, biting of the lips and trembling of the body. In this verse you will clearly understand  that he who has controlled desire and anger is the most happy man in this word, not he who has immense wealth, a beautiful wife and beautiful children. Therefore you must try your level best to eradicate desire and anger, the dreadful enemies of eternal bliss.

Kama (desire) is longing for a pleasant and agreeable object which gives pleasure and which is seen, heard of or remembered. Anger is aversion towards an unpleasant and disagreeable object which gives pain and which is seen, heard of or remembered.

A Yogi controls the impulse born of desire and anger, destroys the currents of likes and dislikes and attains to equaniminty of the mind, bu resting in the innermost Self, and so he is very happy. (Cf. VI. 18)

Comments by the blogger:

The word Yogi means many things in the Gita. Here the person who is free of desire before shedding his body is the yogi and the happy man. The object of life is happiness. The western world is a great satiators of desires. They are adepts in finding out new ways of living it off, as they claim. Desire, when being satiated, creates new situations and circumstances which form new desires. The White Man consumes a lot by way of rich food, clothing and drinks and what not. We are small pies to him. Now even the Indians, the Middle-Class Indians, not to count the thirty crore Indians who don’t know where their next meal will come from, have begun to ape the White Man. Eating out is essentially a White Man’s culture like dating, but today the Indians ape their white brothers and sisters and have given themselves shamelessly to the consumer culture. For McDonald and other multi national companies India is a hunting ground. The White Man creates lots of holes in the ozone layers. He has been doing this for nearly two and half centuries. He consumes a lot. And Indians have started to make pigs of themselves. There is no discretion. Pizza culture will not liberate man.

While the Hinduism acknowledges reincarnations, it wants Man to have few wants. Desire when stopped by others become anger, according to Swami Sidbhavananda. All our anger have arisen out of the disallowed desires. Desire for pizza can be substituted by desire for a desire to fill the empty stomach of a couple of children. Here desire is sublimated. And anger will not arise. The object of human birth is to find salvation. And it is not possible if we do not help others. If we consider ourselves as islands there is lurking an enemy in the form of desire.

Desire is not a Saturn. Desire can be sublimated like in the case of the self-giving life of Mahatma Gandhi. He alone could tell the kind of the sense of happiness he manufactured by giving his time for others. Our object is unconditional happiness in this world itself. We can achieve this by desiring to help others and make our lives a meaningful one.     

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 22

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION

VERSE NUMBER 22

Text in Transliteration:

Ye hi samsparsajaa bhogaa duhkayonaya eva te

Aady anta vantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah

Text in English:

The delights that are contact-born are verily the wombs of pain; they have, O son of Kunti, a beginning and an end; no wise man rejoices in them.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Misery to which man is so much prone is ever the outcome of the search for sense-pleasure. When the senses create contact with their objects, the initial agreeableness presents itself as pleasure. The prolongation of the contact as well as the separation of the senses from their objects transforms itself into misery. Like a flash of lightning the sensation called pleasure appears and disappears, and man pays dearly for it in the form of pang. The discerning one refrains oneself from the empty game, while the sense-bound one hunts after it.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

If people ever sighted a venomous cobra, they used to supplicate, “O deity of deadliness, may you hide away your head from our sight and present the powerless tail alone to our view.” It is good to recoil in this manner from sense-objects that drag down the mind. Instead of falling prey to them and then praying for redemption, it is better ever to keep aloof from them.

COMMENTARY BY SIVANANDA:

Which: the gain or the realisation of the Self or the immortal soul.

Wherein; in the all-blissful Self which is free from delusion and sorrow. The self is all-blissful Self which is free from delusion and sorrow. The Self is all-full and self-contained. All the desires are fulfilled when one attains Self-realisation. That is the reason way the Lord says: “There is no other acquisition superior to Self-realisation.” If one gets himself established in the supreme Self within, he cannot be shaken even by heavy sorrow and pain, because he is mindless and he is identify himself with the sorrowless and painless Brahman. One can experience pain and sorrow when he identifies himself with the body and the mind. If there is no mind there cannot be any pain. When one is under chloroform he feels no pain even when his hand is amputated, because the mind is withdrawn from the body.

Comments by the blogger:

Though the Hinduism believes strongly in reincarnations of the soul for umpteenth number of times before salvation, it does not approve of a life after the good things of life. Sri Paramahansa Yogananda in his autobiography says that the Christianity too believed in reincarnation in the beginning. But when seeing people becoming  overly worldly, a conference was held several centuries ago and decided by the Pope and other that Man has but one birth only. That this had been done with the good intention of turning the worldly people toward God, but this had an opposite effect in the old world with the people thinking if there was but one chance only one should enjoy all the worldly things at one attempt!

Hinduism stoutly proclaims in hundreds of birth a soul have to take before salvation. But at the same time gross worldliness is strongly frowned upon. The trick is to restrict the number of births and deaths and minging with God. For that it declares that the delights that are contact-born are verily the wombs of pain and they have a beginning and an end. That no wise man rejoices in them.

The Lord addresses his disciple as, “O son of Kunti”. There is loaded meaning in this. A Hindu has a partiality for a son to carry out his funeral rights after his death. And those who do not have a son are permitted to adopt one under the Old Hindu Law especially for this purpose. Even that kind of action, getting a son which fills the parents’ heart with joy is nothing but a source or womb of pain!

So what do we do? Commit hara-kiri?

The Taiteeria Upanishad advises us to live our life fully. But selfishness is not a full life. When India was accorded independence, Gandhi Mahatma was elsewhere to put a fullstop to the fratricide between Hindu and Muslim brethren! The Mahatma was a true karma yogi. But his life was full of non-stop action. Only he lived for others. Albert Einstein declared at the death of the Mahatma that the  succeeding generation would find it hard that a man like the Mahatma walked this earth in flesh and blood. Mother Teresa is the most recent example.

But of course, you and I can’t rise to their level. But we can love our neighbours in particular and the humanity in general. No one wants us to become a saint. But we need not pig it up either. Jesus Christ said there shall be moderation in everything. That kind of life we can easily adopt. We can read our Scriptures daily. Like the Lord of Gita says we may (at least try to) see the Lord alone in all, Man and the beast. Certainly this is not a tall order. And telling and chanting the Name of the Lord is a short cut in kali yuga for redemption. Kajendhira Moksham is all about the same.    

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 21

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION

VERSE NUMBER 21

Text in Transliteration:

baahyasparseshv asaktaatmaa vindaty aatmani yat sukham

sa brahmayoga yuktaatmaa sukham akshayam asnute

Text in English:

With the self detached from the external contacts he realizes the bliss in the self. Devoted as he is to the meditation of Brahman, he enjoys imperishable Bliss.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Those pleasures are perishable which are born of contact with the objects outside. They are styled sense-pleasures. The purified mind enjoys the Bliss of Atman; and this Bliss suffers from no mutation. It is therefore held as being imperishable.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

There are signs of the awakened ones—those that have got into Atma bodha. Those blessed ones are like the mythological Chakravaka bird which, even when parched with thirst to the point of death, does not alight on earth full of water, but seeks to slake it with the rain water only if and when available up in the sky. The God-intoxicated ones revel only in Him and in nothing else.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

He, who has freed himself from the phantoms of the senses and lives in the Eternal, enjoys the bliss divine.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

When the mind is not attached to external objects of the senses, when one is deeply engaged in the contemplation of Brahman, he finds undecaying bliss in the Self within. If you want to enjoy the imperishable happiness of the Self within, you will have to withdraw the senses from their respective objects and plunge yourself in deep meditation on the Self within. This is the gist of this verse.

Comments of the blogger:

We have seen elsewhere the quantification of the Bliss of Brahman.

To have this bliss here on earth by human beings is possible. All he has to do is to withdraw his senses from the sense objects and concentrate on Brahman.

Swami Sidbhavananda would say that every being is in search of this bliss in its own way. Every being from the little earthworm is in search of the Brahma bliss. The millennial search leads to birth as human being and then when the worm comes here as human being then there is illusion and kama and karma. When the human being was a warm he was lead by pure instincts. But when he comes and evolves as a human being, he is tossed into the Samsara Sagaram which is an ocean of worldly life. And the erstwhile worm gives as a human being himself or herself to the bliss and sorrow of the worldly life whole-heartedly. It takes hundreds of rebirths as the human being and one by one the being shed his or her likes and dislikes for the worldly objects. And at one time he or she hears about Scriptures and yoga and he performs yoga. And this is the starting point when he would have the Brahmic bliss. Little by little the human being turned yogi, through various births evolves into a perfect yogi. Then there is no allurement for his or her senses for worldly objects. The single-minded object is Brahman. When Brahman alone is the whole goal then Brahman indeed attained. Then the bliss of Brahman is attained. No more sorrow as there is no more worldly life. The individual soul enters the Brahmic Soul which is Sat-Chit-Ananda(endless and everlasting bliss). Thus the earthworm, which had its origin in the single cell animal, has attained Brahmahood!

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 20

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION

VERSE NUMBER 20

Text in Transliteration:

na prahrsyet priyam praapya

   no ‘dvijet praapya chaa ‘priyam

sthirabuddhir asammoodho

   brahmavid brahmani sthitah

Text in English:

Established in Brahman, with firm understanding and with no delusion, the knower of Brahman rejoices not, getting what is pleasant and grieves not, getting what is unpleasant.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Likes and dislikes, happiness and misery—feelings of this kind are all associated with one’s entanglement in the body. He who thinks of himself as the body gets deluded. But he who is established in Brahman is completely free from mentation.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

What remains in the man from whose mind lust and greed are entirely eliminated? The Bliss of Brahman beams in him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

brahmani sthitah; established in God. He gets at It, reaches It and enters into It and is fairly established in It.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

This is the state of a Jivanmukta or a liberated sage or a Brahmana who identifies himself with the Self or Atma. He always has a balanced mind, who identifies himself with the body and mind feels pleasure and pain, exhilaration of spirits when he gets a pleasant object and grief when he obtains an unpleasant object.  (Cf. VI.21, 27, 28; XIII. 12; XIV.20)

Comments by the blogger:

Having given out the promise that one can attain salvation here in his earthly sojourn in the previous verse, Sri Krishna now gives the merits of such a person who is firmly established in Brahman. When a person is firmly established in Brahman, his understanding is firm and he suffers from no delusion. What is pleasant for the worldly man is not so for him. So he does not rejoice at it. He does not grieve when he gets something unpleasant. During the time when India was under the foreign yoke for well over 400 years there were many yogis who could have overthrown the foreigners by their sheer yogic power and prowess. But they did not interfere in what was being played out. Today we are talking about India becoming a super power in 2020 and even if it fructifies the true yogis firmly established in Brahman will not rejoice.

Of course there are some exceptions like Swami Vivekananda who took pride in his Indianess. And his own guru and master lived through the White Man’s reign without talking anything about it. Swami Vivekananda had a vision and mission and he restored the pride of India and spoke about the sages of the Vedas and Upanishads throughout his life.

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 19

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 19

Text in Transliteration:

ihai ‘va tair jitah sargo yesham saamye sthitam manah

nirdosham hi samam brahma tasmaad brahmani te sthitaah

Text in English:

Transitary existence is overcome even here by them whose mind rests on equality. Brahman is flawless and the same in all; therefore they are established in Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Objects appear distorted when seen through a heterogeneous glass; but they present themselves just as they are when seen through a homogenous glass. A clean and even glass causes no hindrance to right apperception. Mind in man occupies the position of the spectacles. A vibrant mind cognizes phenomenon outside; a mind in equilibrium cognizes noumenon or the Thing-in-Itself which is Brahman. As there is no vibration in Brahman It is the same in all. It is Pure Consciousness and therefore there is no modification in It. Changes such as increase, decrease and transformation do not take place in It; and for this reason It is said to be flawless. Those who have gained equanimity of mind are able to cognize Brahman. Once obtained, this intuition becomes permanent. No interruption whatsoever takes place in it. They that remain in Brahmaavastha or Cosmic Consciousness transcend transitory existence. They are not therefore bound by the limitations of this world even while living in it.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Maya is compared to the snake in motion and to the same snake at rest. Kinetic energy is Maya and potential energy Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

See Chaandogya Upanishad., II, 23.I.

The state of liberation is the one which we can attain here on earth.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

When the mind gets rooted in equanimity or evenness or equality, when it is always in a balanced state, one conquers birth and death. Bondage is annihilated and freedom is attainted by him. when the mind is in a perfectly balanced state he overcomes Brahman Himself, i.e., realises Brahman.

Brahman is ever pure and attributeless and so He is not affected even though He dwells in an outcaste, dog, etc. So He is spotless. He is homogenous and one, as He dwells equally in all beings.

Comments by the blogger:

The Hinduism holds out this promise that one can attain the transitory existence and attain Moksha or Salvation while still living on the earth’s plane. There are several promises made by the Lord to the entire world and the totality of Humanity. For example, that celebrated Stanza which goes like this: Paritranaya sadhoonam/ vinashaya cha dushkrutam/ dharmasamsthaarpanaarthaaya/ sambavami yuge yuge which means, to save the faithful and to slay the wicked I come to the world Age after. That was how the avatar of Sri Krishna happened and the war at kurukshetra to save the good and slay the bad and wicked.

The Christian Religion and Mohammedanism do not accept the reincarnation of the souls, while the Holy Bible speaks about the second coming of the Lord alone and not the people. The Hinduism not only envisages reincarnation of ordinary people for umpteenth number of time but holds out the promise that even an ordinary Man and Woman can obtain salvation while still living here on earth.

For the two other religions the Judgment day is important. It occurs immediately after a faithful dies. And the Lord asks the soul why he or she did this and that and refrained from this and that. And then, after giving this chance to explain, the Lord accords Heaven for the good and tosses into Hell’s fire the bad. ONLY ONE CHANCE TO GET OVER SUCH AN INSURMOUNTABLE MAYA OR ILLUSION WHICH IS THIS WORLD IS! HOW MANY PULLS AND PRESSURES ARE BROUGHT UPON THE GUILELESS SOULS ON THE EARTH’S PLANE! GOD GIVES JUST ONE CHOICE AND THEREAFTER THE HEAVEN AND HELL IS A PERMANENT PLACE! CAN YOU EXPECT THE LORD THE ALMIGHTY TO BE SO NEEDLESSLY HARSH ON THE DEFENCELESS ORDINARY HUMAN BEINGS?

BUT HINDUISM NOT ONLY RECOGNISES THE TRUTH OF REINCARNATION BUT HOLDS OUT THIS SINGULAR PROMISE THAT THE ORDINARY SOULS, THE LOWEST OF THE LOW, CAN ATTAIN AND OBTAIN SALVATION WHILE STILL LIVING ON THE EARTH! AND THIS IS  ONE OF THE RELIGIONS THAT DOES NOT RECOGNISE THE COMPULSORY PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH! WHILE MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS DIED AND PUT TO THE SWARD BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT ACCEPT THE NEW FAITH WHICH WAS CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM!  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 18

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYAS YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER18    

Text in Transliteration:

vidyaavinayasampanne braahmane gavi hastini

suni chai ‘va svapaake cha panditaah samadarsinah

Text in English:

Men of Self-knowledge are same-sighted on a Brahmana imbued with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Sunlight falls equally on all things. It makes no difference between the sacred Ganga and sewage water. The knower of Brahman cognizes Brahman only everywhere. The distinction whih the worldly make among beings, is born of ignorance. To them an ideal Brahmana is one who is to be shunned. Among men the former is topmost in rank and the latter the last. Similarly, among animals the cow is to be revered, the elephant admired and the cur kept aloof. Bt the man of Self-knowledge does not see into the assumed differences in men, animals, birds and other creatures. He cognizes the same Omniscience present in all these forms which are unreal. The Jnani sees truly while the worldly see erroneously.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Nescience creates plurality and difference among beings. Omniscience reveals unity behind the seeming multiplicity.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

vidyavinayasampane; great learning brings great humility. As our knowledge increases we become increasingly aware of the encircling darkness. It is when we light the candle that we see how dark it is. What we know is practically nothing compared to what we do not know. A little knowledge leads to dogmatism, a little more to questioning and a little more takes us to prayer. Besides, humility come from the knowledge that we are sustained in existence by the love of God. The greatest thinkers of all ages were deeply religious men.

vinaya; humility or rather modesty which is the result of cultivation or discipline. The first division of the Buddhist Tipitaka is called vinaya or discipline, vinaya is the opposite of the pride or insolence. The recognition of dependence on non-human factors produces cosmic piety. The truly learned are humble.

samadarsinah; see with an equal eye. The Eternal is the same in all, in animals, as in men, in learned Brahmins as in despised outcasts. The light of Brahman dwells in all bodies and is not affected. By the differences in the bodies it illumines.

The characteristics of the Supreme, being, consciousness and bliss, are present in all existences and the differences relate to their names and forms, that is, their embodiments. When we look at things from the standpoint of the Ultimate Reality present in all, we “see with an equal eye.” The fundamental dualism is that of spirit and nature and not of soul and body. It is the distinction between the subject and the object. Nature is the world of objectivization,  of alienation, of determinability. There we have, the distinction of minerals, plants and animals and men, but they all have an inner non-objective existence. The subject, Reality, dwells in all of them. This affirmation of basic identity is not inconsistent with the empirical variety. Even Shankara admits that the one eternal reality is revealing itself in higher and higher forms through successive stages of manifestation. The empirical variety should not hide from us the metaphysical reality our fellow beings with kindliness and compassion. The wise see the one God in all beings and develop the quality of equalmindedness which is characteristic of the Divine.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The liberated sage or Jivanmukta or a Brahmana has equal vision as he beholds the Self only everywhere. This magnificent vision of a Jnani is beyond description. Atma or Brahman is not at all affected by the Upadhis or limiting adjuncts as He is extremely subtle, pure, formless and attributeless. The sun’s reflection falls on the river Ganga, on the ocean or on a dirty stream. The sun is not at all affected in any way. This makes no difference to the sun. So is the case with the Supreme Self. The Upadhis (limited adjuncts) cannot affect Him. Just as the ether is not affected by the limiting adjkuncts, viz., a pot, the walls of a room, cloud, etc., so also the Self is not affected by the Upadhis.

The Brahmana is Sattvic. The cow is Rajasic. The elephant, the dog and the outcaste are Tamasic. The sage sees in all of them the one homogeneous immortal Self Who is not affected by the three Gunas and their tendencies. (Cf. VI.8, 32; XIV.24)

Comments by the blogger:

Self-knowledge makes one attuned to God. He realises he is one with God. Then it is only natural that one of God’s attributes should shine in him. For him there is hardly any difference between a learned Brahmana imbued with humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste.

In the course of time and civilization of even three or four centuries like that of England the people are divided according to their occupation. In European countries there were Class troubles till the first world war and it took the second world war to annihilate it. An outcast was treated to be like an animal. In the older civilizations like Egypt there were slaves. The people were enslaved and traded like any chattel or commodity. This always happens in a society. But in India it should not have happened where the Vedopanishadic Sages and Saints walked the earth as colossus. But even in India it happened. Simply because the Lord says and lists out the outcast we should not take that he considers the outcast as lesser than a cur. If you see the main theme of the stanza, that the one with Self-knowledge will have the same-sightedness and will not treat differently a learned Brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste treat them as his equals, then the difficulty in understanding the Lords list and wordings will go, leaving place for light and understanding.

For the Lord all are equal. The whole universe is his body only. And he does not even take into account the good and bad conducts of people, according to another stanza in this chapter. He mentions the word outcaste because there were people in Lord Krishna’s avatara who were considered to be outcastes and the Lord is not afraid of mentioning them. He is not going to stand in any elections for the Parliament to choose carefully his words, irrespective of the ground position. He is no politician to play with words. And outcastes and curs are as full of the Lord as the man imbued with Self-knowledge. It is only a question of time before the cur takes human birth and the outcaste to caste away his body and come back here as a Vaisiya, or a Shatria or even as a Bramana according to his Prarabhda.       

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 17

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 17

Text in Transliteration:

tadbuddhayas tadaatmaanas tannishthaas tatparaayanaah

gacchanty apunaraavrttim jnaananirdhootakalmashah 

Text in English:

Those who think on That, merge in That, get fixed i n That, have That as the goal, they attain to non-return, their taints being dispelled by knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The sun can never see darkness wherever it may go. It is ever in brilliance. The knower of Brahman has nothing but Brahman to cognize. Distinctions such as inside and outside do not exist for him. one undivided, interminable consciousness is for him. The man of this experience does not take birth again; he attains mukti.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

 Brahman is experienced vaguely through discrimination, somewhat vividly through meditation and in Its Original Splendour in Samadhi.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The false ego determined by works disappears and the jeeva realizes its identity with the Supreme Self and works from that centre.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

They fix their intellects on Brahman or the Supreme Self. They feel and realise that Brahman is their self. By constant and protracted meditation, they get established in BrahmanThe whole world of names and forms vanishes for them. They live in Brahman alone. They have Brahman alone as their supreme goal or sole refuge. They have Brahman alone as their supreme goal or sole refuge. They rejoice in the Self alone. They are satisfied in the self alone. They are contented in the Self alone. Such men never come back to this Samsara, as their sins are dispelled by knowledge (Brahma-Jnana). (Cf. IX.34)

Comments of the blogger:

Here there is much for Sri Shankara’s Adhvaidham. The beings, after getting the knowledge of Brahman become Brahman. But we should not think that this is the religion of the Holy Gita. There is much for others belonging to Dhvaidham of Sri Ramanucharya and Vishistadhvaidham of Sri Madhva. Bhagavat Gita is a holistic book. The Lord openly says and claims that people belonging to various faiths and rituals come to Him only. And, what’s more, He declares that people from all sides come to Him. The only deviation from this cosmopolitan view and attitude is when the Lord claims that those who worship their Pitrus (the deceased forefathers) go to the Pitru Loka or consciousness and those who worship Him come to Him. And at yet another context the Lord of Gita proclaims that even those who offer worship to various Devas and Devdas come to Him only, as their worship is born of ignorance!

When knowledge is attained about Brahman (the Upanishadic God) all the effect of the past karma becomes extinct. But that portion of the Prarabdha would linger without effect. And it will affect only the bodies of the Knowledgeable and never their inner person. This was how Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramanamagarishi had cancerous warts on their hands before throwing off their mortal bodies.  

   

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION,VERSE NUMBER 16

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 16

Text in Transliteration:

Jnaanena tu tad ajnanam yesaam naasitam aatmanah

Teshaam aadityavaj jnaanam prakaasayati tat param

Text in English:

Shining like the sun, knowledge reveals the supreme in them, in whom ignorance is destroyed by self-knowledge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Darkness vanishes when the sun rises; ignorance ceases to be with the dawn of knowledge. As the sunlight reveals things in their true perspective, Self-knowledge or Brahma-jnanam posits the Reality of Brahman and the evanescence of Prakriti. The knower of Brahman knows he is Brahman and none else.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

tatparam; paramaartha tatvam; ultimate reality. Shankara

The Self above the ego is not touched by sin or merit, by joy or sorrow. It is the witness of all.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

When ignorance, the root-cause of human sufferings, is annihilated by the knowledge of the Self, this knowledge illuminates the Supreme Brahman or that highest immortal Being, just as the sun illumines all the objects of this gross, physical universe.

Comments of the blogger:

The Supreme is in them, that is, beings. Tatvamasi or Thou art that, when it is realised the Self-Knowledge shines like the sun. For that ignorance shading Knowledge has to be got over by annihilation thereof. The reason for the Lord’s love for the sinners and others, for the way He clubs them both together in the stanza last, is ignorance. This ignorance is not the making of Man to start with. Man is tossed into the samsara sagaram or the ocean of worldly life, and this presupposes illusion that gives rise to desire and desire ends up in actions non-stop. So, at least, to start with Man or individual soul is not responsible for the ignorance. It is rather instilled by the Greater Self or the Omnipotent to conduct its sport divine on the individual souls. That is why we should not take anything in the worldly life including a death in the family so very seriously. We are not responsible for the initial ignorance. One Self gets crystallized into a teaming number of individual souls. The only difference between the two is while the individual souls must play the swadharmic karma or self-ordained duty in a way that would shrink and reduce the number of births, the Omnipotent remains supremely free of any action. Once the self-ordained duty is being continually carried out by the individual souls, then devotion comes in and we must pray to our Lord Master for deliverance along with a list of worldly things. The objective should be to reduce the number of rebirths. When we exert ourselves in this way, Nature will help us by withdrawing her pull on us and we would become that much more relevant in shedding ignorance and head toward the attainment of self-knowledge. Nature is a benign Mother. She never pulls back her punch for those who are after the worldly lures. Such people can’t even have time for a decent ten minutes’ prayer to the Lord. But if we persevere, Nature starts to tilt in our way and puts accidental and coincidental things in our way that all help in shedding the ignorance. 

Even a continuous chanting of the Lord’s name will deliver us!

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 15

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 15

Text in Transliteration:

naa ‘datte kasyacit paapam na  chai ‘va sukrrtam vibhuh

ajnaanenaa ‘vrtam jnaanam tena muhyanti jantavah

Text in English:

The omnipresent does not take note of the merit or demerit of any. Knowledge is veiled by ignorance

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Prakriti or Nature is constituted of five elements—akaasa, vaayu, agni, aapah and prithivi (ether, air, fire, water and earth.) Akasa which is equated with space, is the substratum on which the other four elements play their parts. Good and evil emanate from them in the course of their interaction; but Akasa remains unaffected by these modifications. In the same way Iswara remains unaffected by the merits and demerits in beings. A crystal glass seems to take the hue of the flower brought to its proximity; but actually the crystal remains ever itself. Similarly, Atma seems to take the characteristics of Prakriti, while actually It does not. People who are in ignorance impose the traits of Prakriti on Atman and get deluded.

The relationship between Purusha and Prakriti is very well explained in these two verses. Iswara is Bliss and Perfect Poise. Karma has no place in His Blessedness. Prakriti gets itself vitalized in the proximity of Purusha. Jivatman gets bound when he identifies himself with Prakriti; he gets emancipated when he detaches himself from Prakriti . and this is the essence of Vedanta.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The burning lamp gives light to one and all, all round it. Some use that light for cooking their food, others for reading scared books and yet others for forging false documents. The merits and demerits in these several acts do not in any way affect the light coming from the lamp. In this wise the consciousness equally present in all beings makes all sorts of activities deeds, however, of beings do not go to the Pure Consciousness, which is Iswara.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

vibhuh; all pervading. Each soul is not a separate monad, eternal and changeless. Vibhuh refers either to the Self of the jnanin or the Supreme Self, which are identical in Advaita Vedanta.

Ajnanena; by ignorance. It is the ignorance which makes us believe in the ultimateness of the multiplicity. Jnanam; wisdom. It is the wisdom which is the one basis of all distinctions.

Knowledge is enveloped by ignorance. Consequently man is deluded. He thinks, “I act. I enjoy. I have done such and such a meritorious act. I will get such and such a fruit. I will enjoy in heaven. I will get a birth in a rich family.”

Of anyone; even of His devotees.

Man is bound when he identifies himself with Nature and its effects—body, mind, Prana or the life-force, and senses. He attains freedom or Moksha when he identifies himself with the immortal, ‘actionless’ Self that dwells within his heart. When “I” does not act how can God accept good or evil deeds? (Cf. V.29)

Comments of the blogger:

One of the attributes of the Lord is his presence everywhere. He is omnipresent. It is very important to note this point. God does not take the merit or demerit of the individuals. Why? The answer has been given in the previous verse, when the Lord says that the Lord does not create agency or actions for the world; He does not create union with the fruits of action. Nature does all this.

Thus both the sections must be read jointly. How can God take into account the merit or demerit of the individuals while he openly declares that he does not create agency or actions for the world? How can He take the good and bad actions of the individuals when He does not create, on his own words, union with the fruits of action? He has simply left these things to Nature.

But there is significance in the statement that He does not take note of the merit or demerit of any, inasmuch as that even the rapists of Nirbhaya can worship Him and ask for forgiveness if the same is sincere and not ritual. But Nature would take care of them and give them beastly births in the next incarnations. But the sincere asking for forgiveness would make the tortured individuals to go through life with that much of fortitude as will not be available otherwise.

Actions themselves do not taint. It is the manner in which it is carried out that count.

But when the actions are done by individuals with the ego of “I do this and that” then it will bind and taint the individuals. Then whether it is good action or bad will not count as the doer must come back here to enjoy the fruits of the good or bad action. Good and noble actions carried out with ego do taint the individuals as much as the bad acts.

God remains supremely unconcerned by both types of actions.

When the utterance in the stanza number 14 is taken into account in interpreting the present one then the confusion for the Sanskrit word vibhuh (all pervading) will not arise. It certainly refers to the Omnipresence of the Lord and not the liberated individual Self. Of course, what happens to the Liberated Souls is open to arguments: while the Vedantins argue that the liberated soul mingles with the Lord and become Him seamlessly, those who put forward the theory that the liberated souls individually exist in bliss like that of God’s. Here no room for any doubt about the word Omnipresent can be attributed while taking the words of the Lord in stanza number 14 of this chapter.   

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 14

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 14

Text in Transliteration:

na kartrrtvam na karmaani lokasya srjati prabhuh

na karmaphala samyogam svabhaavas tu pravartate

Text in English:

The Lord does not create agency or actions for the world; He does not create union with the fruits of action. Nature does all this.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Due to ignorance the individual self identifies himself with Nature or Prakriti and assumes ownership over karma and its consequences. Actually, all work belongs to Nature and not to Atman.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Prabhuh is the Sovereign Self of the knower, the Real Self which is one with all that is.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

 The Lord does not create agency or doership. He does not press anyone to do action. He never tells anyone, “Do this or do that”. He does not bring about the union with the fruit of actions. It is Prakriti or Nature that does everything. (Cf. III.33)

Comments by the blogger:

In the Bible, the Christ says that He is the Good Hope and, “Go and spread my words to all in the world.” Jesus Christ and Bible explicitly lay down the does and don’ts. You can indulge in these things and should not indulge in these things. According to the Bible, (The Old Testament) the Lord took six days to create this world and on the seventh day he took rest and that is Sunday. The whole weekend culture of the Europeans and Americans have justification on these words. God is omnipotent and why should it take six days to create the world is the first question and the next is the logical corollary: can anything, any action, tire the omnipotent Lord? This brings into question that the Holy spirit, according to the Holy Bible, too is subject to that to which Man is. Man also is capable of action and he tires too and needs rest! Then it is the next step to assume that the Holy Spirit does need to eat, drink, sleep and empty like Man! If you accept one thing the legion of the resultant possibilities are only natural and legitimately logical corollary!

The Mohammedanism also speaks of the things human beings can do and those that should not do. That some acts are haram and others are acceptable. The rigidity of the Holy Quran leaves no room for interpretation according to the changing conditions of the ages. Marrying four wives were acceptable in those days of the Prophet Mohammed Sal, as there was gross inequality in the rate of population of women to men. Men also died in the Holy wars necessitating their widows to be remarried. So, in the initial days of the Holy Quran marrying four wives were perfectly acceptable. Even the Mahatma Gandhi asked young men to marry the women raped by the white men for their rebellion. They were all female soldiers in the cause of the nation obtaining independence. But in these days there is no justification for any Muslim man to marry four wives. The great soldier, the so-called sword of the Allah the Great Bin Laden had four wives! This is exacerbated when the triple talaq is put into operation. Thankfully the Allahabad High Court’s judgment in this regard has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

But that is beside the point.

Now the topic of argument is whether God had a direct hand in creating agency or actions for the world.

The ancient Hindu Seers were able to understand the Scheme of the Universe some nine thousand years ago from now, according to the calculation by Swami Vivekananda.

God can never create agency or actions for the world. For then He would be held directly responsible to the actions indulged in by the Men and Women of this world. He would be as much responsible for the Vedopanishadic Seers and Sages’ actions as the raping of Nirbhaya! Can anyone tell with a clear conscience that it was God who was responsible for the looting, raping and murders inside the Somnath Temple in the North India? Actions also include the thinking and imaginations. Can anyone claim that God is responsible for all the imaginations and thinking that go around in even a good and honest man?  A man is not a good man for not entertaining any bad thoughts and imaginations. Man’s mind is often likened to a monkey. It is totally impossible to hold the mind as pure and as holy as a Temple. All sorts of good and bad things enter the imagination and thinking faculty. Man is a hero if he is able to war with the Hyde inside of him and come up with the Jekyle and lead a good life. So how can God be held responsible for all the tumultuous and sinful things that go through a man’s mind?

And the Lord of Gita also proclaims that He does not create union with the fruits of action. And that Nature does all this.

Nature does not see whether a man is a theist or atheist. It does create union with the fruits of action. Otherwise the atheists cannot have a happy-go-lucky way and call themselves rationalists. Nature is a mother, school and hospital. It looks out for our internal evolution, our external evolution having come to an end, so we can be properly schooled in umpteen number of births and deaths and births again, and acts also as a hospital for the grossly worldly men and women and cure them in gradation of their worldliness and increases their Godliness through many births and deaths. This is the strength of the Hinduism that accepts reincarnation. God, having created the world leaves it alone and does not interfere in its day-to-day’s function. There is a large significance in this assertion of God. And it goes to the Vedopanishadic Sages to have understood the scheme of the Universe in the proper way. That is how the Hindu way of life endures over the millennial march of the world while all other civilizations have died away. There is much scope for interpretation of even Swadharma according to the changing times of the Ages. This resilience is possible because the Hinduism is not dependent upon the life history of one person howsoever superior He might be.   

   

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 13

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION

VERSE NUMBER 13

Text in Transliteration:

sarvakarmaanee manasaa samnyasyaa ‘ste sukham vase

navadvaare pure dehee nai ‘va kurvan na kaarayan

Text in English:

Having mentally renounced all actions, the self-disciplined indweller rests happily in the city of nine gates, neither acting nor causing to act.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Karma varies in pattern according to the temperamental difference. There are also forms of karma distinct in themselves. The indispensable one among them is the obligatory work, ‘nitya karma’, such as eating, sleeping, bathing and praying. By doing these acts no new merit is acquired but by falling in them there is a sure set back. Naimitya karma are special activities that are performed on occasions such as Sivaraatri, Ekadasi and eclipse. ‘Kamya karma’ or desire-impelled activities are those  performed for certain earthly ends. Again, there are the ‘nishiddha karma’, the prohibited acts that run counter to ethics. While the obligatory works alone go on automatically by sheer force of habit, the yogi does not engage himself in any of the other forms of karma. This is possible because he is completely rid of egoism and agency.

The body with its openings is aptly compared to a city of nine gates. Like a monarch, Atman stays enthroned in this citadel the administration of which is carried on by the ministry of egoism, min, intellect, life-energy and the senses. The reign over the region of the body lasts until the momentum of the ‘praarabdha karma’ gets exhausted. Even while residing in the body, the consciousness of it and domination over its activities is entirely absent in the yogi. Self revelling in Its own glory is the gain that the yogis has.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp. Katha Upanishad., V.I

The nine gates are the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, and the mouth and the two organce of excretion and generation.

See Svetaasvatara Upanishad., III. 18

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

All actions:--

1)        Nitya Karmas: There are obligatory duties. Their performance does not produce any merit; but their non-performance produces demerit. Sandhyavandana, etc., belong to this category.

2)      Naimittika karmas: These Karmas are performed on the occurrence of some special events such as the birth of a son, eclipse, etc.

3)      Kamya karmas: These are optional. They are intended for the attainment of some special ends (for getting rain, son, etc.)

4)      Nishiddha Karmas: These are forbidden actions such as theft, drinking liquor, etc.

5)      Prayaschitta Karmas; Actions performed to neutralise the effects of evil actions or sins.

The man who has controlled the senses renounces all actions by discrimination, by seeing inaction in action and rests happily in this body of nine openings (the nine-gated city), because he is free from cares, worries, anxieties and fear and his mind is quite calm and he enjoys the supreme peace of the Eternal. In this nine-gated city the Self is the king. The senses, the mind, the subconscious mind andthe intellect are inhabitants or subjects.

The ignorant worldly man says, “I am resting in the easy-chair”. The man of wisdom who has realised that the Self is distinct from the body which is a product of the five elements, says, “I am resting in this body”. Cf. XVIII. 17, 50)

Comments of the blogger:

The nine gates have already been enumerated by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. He has referred to Katha Upanishad. The Tamil poet Manikkavasagar in his monumental work, Thiruvasasagam refers to the body as a house with nine gates through which dirt is expelled always!

Whether we like it or condemn it, it is a healthy way to see this body as dirt producing mechanism.  Because senses enslaves us to the bodies of the opposite sex! It would do a wealth of good to see our body in its true light. Then only we can see the bodies of the opposite sex in the same light. It would help us to stick to our wife or husband. But for the senses our discrimination is enough to throw us, toss our own bodies off a mountain top or cliff. The healthy association with filth and acknowledgment that we stink if we do not take very great care of our body by daily bathing and other methods of ablutions. The pores of our skin expel sweat. The process starts the moment the bathing is over!

But for the presence of our Atman, which is pure and holy as the first rays of the sun we are nothing. It is the presence of the Atman that makes us holy. Tatvamasi is one of the maha vakyas or great sentences. That means thou art that. Thou art the Lord!

The Atman is not in the habit of consuming anything. It rests in the body in its own glory.

Apart from that, we should not forget that Man alone has Atman. The Lord of the Gita wants us to see Him alone in everyone and everything, sentient and insentient. The whole Universe is scintillating with the Universal Soul.    

THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 12

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 12

Text in Transliteration:

yuktah karmaphalam tyaktvaa saantim aapnoti naishthikeem

ayuktah kaamakaarena phale sakto nirbdhyate

Text in English:

Abandoning the fruit of action, the yogi attains peace born of steadfastness; impelled by desire, the non-yogi is bound, attached to fruit.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Performance of karma is common to both, the yogi and the non-yogi. But the difference between the two is in the disposition. The feeling of agency to action is no more in the former. Whatever takes place through his instrumentality is the Lord’s work. His steadfastness consists of his mind being released from work and of its being immersed in the Lord. In this state of the mind there is no anxiety; there is calmness instead; the mind gets itself steadily purified. It becomes fit for enlightenment. On the other side, the non-yogi gets entangled in work; anxiety is on the increase in him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

Cp. Emerson:

               “Teach me your mood, O patient stars;

                 Who climb each night the ancient sky

                 Leaving on space no shade, no scars,

                 No trace of age, no fear to die.”

yuktah. Or disciplined in action:

santim. When the peace of God descends on us, Divine knowledge floods our being with a light which illumines and transforms, making clear all that was before dark and obscure.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Santim naisthikim is interpreted as ‘peace born of devotion or steadfastness’. The harmonious man who does actions for the sake of the Lord without expectation of the fruit and who says, “I do actions for my Lord only, not for my personal gain or profit,” attains to the peace born of devotion, through the following four stages, viz., purity of mind, the attainment of knowledge, renunciation of actions, and steadiness in wisdom. But the unbalanced or the unharmonised man who is led by desire and who is attached to the fruits of the actions and who says, “I have done such and such an action; I will get such and such a fruit,” is firmly bound.    

Comments by the blogger:

The Lord rephrases already said and explained. And since the Lord’s words were like nectar in his tortuous mind, Arjuna cannot have enough of it. This how the various stanzas re-posited in this chapter or discourse must be taken. And there is virtue in repetition which is the key. When we get to hear repeatedly we think constantly about it and when we think constantly about something we become it. That is why the divine Tamil poet, Tiruvalluar said some two thousand years back that whatever we think let it be of high meritorious things. Man is man because he thinks and he becomes what he constantly thinks.

Performance of actions is common to both the yogi and the non-yogi. For no one, even for a moment live without action unless he has practised the consciousness-less state which is called “Sooniya”. If one is able to practise Sooniya or void state in thought and imagination, where not even a stray thought or imagination takes place, no one who has come to the earth’s plane can remain action-less or without entertaining any action either external or internal. Even for the practitioner of Sooniya where no external or internal action takes place, the practitioner has to breathe and his digestion process would be going and blood would be coursing through his veins and and the parts and organs like kidneys would continue to work. Food assimilation itself is a work. Thus no one can escape action.

But the yogi has the art and knack of discrimination and non-attachment everywhere that he goes through his self-ordained duties as the actions of Eshwar and without any stake in the fruits of his actions and thus turns binding actions into a yoga and fetches self-realisation whereas the non-yogi, with his heart full of desire to the fruits of his actions, becomes attached to them and thus become bound. He repeatedly comes to earth’s plane of consciousness.

Then, most of us being non-yogis, what is the hope for us? Here the Hinduism scores over other religions. It believes strongly in rebirths. And the two principal religions, the Christianity and Mohammedanism loses out by not going through the Scheme of the Universe. It fails to understand that for the right kind of people the Universe is just a beautiful thought by the Great Lord. And for non-yogis, it is very much real and material. The above-said two religions do not speak about refined and free yogis. They call the illusion as Satan. It is Satan who constantly works against God and the Satan takes revenge upon the Lord by besmirching His created beings by taking them toward the worldly paths and gross worldly enjoyments. Christianity considers all the human beings as sinners. Because of the Doctrine of the Original Sin! The Mohammedanism accepts the Old Testament. Thus they treat all human beings as sinners. And wants to beg God through prayers for deliverance by indulging in actions acknowledged by their Scriptures alone. They don’t believe in rebirths and thus make the Lord as a heartless being. Which is very very deplorable. God gives all human beings umpteen number of opportunities through rebirths to refine constantly oneself.   

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 11

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 11

Text in Transliteration:

kaayena manasaa buddhyaa

    kevalair indriyair api

yoginah karma kurvanti

    sangam yuaktvaa ‘tmasuddhaye

Text in English:

The yogi, abandoning attachment, performs work with the body, the mind, the intellect and the senses only, for self-purification.

 COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The motive-power of desire creates the evil of attachment and propels the mind and the senses on baneful missions. When the evil is eliminated the instruments become available for the service of the divine. When evil is eliminated the instruments become available for the service of the divine. The more they are engaged on holy purposes the better they get sanctified. The more they are engaged on holy purposes the better they get sanctified. Self-purification is effected this way. Karma is verily the means to this great end.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Yogis here means ‘Karma Yogis’ who are devoted to the path of action, who are free from egoism and selfishness, who work for the purification of their hearts without the least attachment to the fruits or results of their actions, and who dedicate all actions to the Lord as their offerings.

‘Kevalam’: ‘only by’ (free from egoism and selfishness) applies to the body, mind, intellect and the senses.

Comments by the blogger:

Once again Karma Yoga or the yoga of action is described. Repetition is one of the key instruments in teaching. The Lord makes the point stick firmly in the mind of His student. Repetition is a psychological weapon. By repeating what is taught by the teacher and learnt by the students, more and more brain cells are used to store more and more material and lines. This is what recalled at the time of examination and speaking and writing. The more brain cells are used to store knowledge the greater is the power of the student.

As in actual fact, we use not more than a miniscule part or portion of brain tissues. Howsoever a man is learned, if one tenth of his brain cells are used and filled with information it is a wonder. If that is the case of the much learned men, we can assume an illiterate’s position!

Each man’s brain is a storehouse. It is for the receiving of the ultimate knowledge. Gene genius is all about the number of brain cells used to store information with regard to any particular discipline of knowledge. The ultimate aim is for man to gain complete salvation. And only when a man obtains self-knowledge all his brain cells are used up and he becomes coeval with God, his Maker.

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 10

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 10

Text in Transliteration:

brahmany aadhaaya karmaani sangam tyak tvaa karoti yah

lipyate na sa paapena padma patram ivaa ‘mbhasaa

Text in English:

He who act, abandoning attachment, dedicationg his deeds to Brahman, is untainted by sin as a lotus leaf by water.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The life, growth and sustenance of the lotus are all dependent on water. It dries away when severed from it. While constantly in touch with it, the lotus leaf does not permit being wetted with water. Man is born with karma and sustained by it. While fully availing himself of it, the yogi does not get affected by it.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The Gita requires us, not to renounce works but to do them offering them to the Supreme in which alone is immortality. When we renounce our attachment to the finite ego and its likes and dislikes and place our actions in the Eternal, we acquire the true renunciation which is consistent with free activity in the world. Such a renouncer acts not for his fleeting finite self but for the Self which is in us all.

Brahmany aadhaaya karmaani. Ramanuja makes Brahman equivalent to prakrity.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Chapter IV verses 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 37,41; chapter V verses 10, 11 and 12 all convey the one idea the the yogi who does actions without egoism and attachment to results or fuits of the actions, which he regards as offerings unto the Lord, is not tainted by the actions (karma). He has no attachment for Moksha. He sees inaction in action. All his actions are burnt in the fire of wiseom; he escapes from the wheel of Samsara; he is freed form the round of births and deaths. He gets purity of heart and through purity of heart attains to the knowledge of the Self he is liberated. This is the gist of above ten verses. (Cf. III.30)

Comments of the blogger:

Here sin is referred to both good and bad acts. For, whatever the nature of the acts, if the fruits thereof are expected by the actor then it becomes a sin. In this wise, the word sin gets a limited interpretation. Anything is a sin that postpones for ever the individual souls’ chance of mingling with God. If we give lots and lots of amounts of money like Bill Gates for charities and desire the fruits thereof in heaven and the fame in this world, then Bill Gates has committed a sin. But I know he is humility personified and faithful in the real sense of the term. I have no doubts whatever in this regard. I saw a photograph in the English Newspapers a few months ago; it had been taken when the great man had paid his latest visit to India. And he appeared on the stage along with one of the Khans of Indian (Hindi) cinema world. And on the stage only the two persons were seated. Bill Gates was humility personified and Mr. Khan was seen seated with his legs jauntily crossed. In front of Mr. Gates Mr. Khan is an average nobody. He is famous because of the way we treat the cine artists as next only to God. And I also happened to see the footage on NDTV24 and when Mr. Gate’s name was announced he took it without even batting his eyelids. But when Mr. Khan’s name was announced he pulled a smiling face as though in self-deprecation. There were two persons on the stage, one was a humane being and another was a humbug. There was a psychological point of view too. When one behaved naturally simply the other was curiously suffering from a serious sense of inferiority complex in the presence of the great man on stage. He could have hoodwinked his countless fanes but not discerning persons. Who indeed is he in front of Mr. Gates?

Thus Mr. Gates’ contribution to the world’s impoverished people does not inflate his ego for the simple reason he has none. Could a Mother Teresa or a Mahatma Gandhi felt good and inflated when they were acclaimed for their selfless service to the humanity? In this league Mr. Cho Ramasamy should be added. He was the founder-editor of a very popular Tamil Weekly, namely, TUKLAK. Through out his life he exhibited no ego despite his huge achievements in the field of impartial and patriotic journalism. He was a lawyer, Dramatist and actor with more than 3000 stage appearance. In the field of religion also he rendered a great service. He was known for his wit and repartee and incisive articles and editorials. He was a cause behind the periodical changes in the State of Tamil Nadu’s administration. But he was, till his death recently, known for his effervescent politeness. He conducted a purely political journal. But he gave room for religious matters. He himself wrote scintillating interpretations for the twin epics of India, Ramayana and Mahabharata which will live till the last Tamil breathes on the plane of the earth! But the man would not take credit for his numerous achievements in varied fields. He would just say, “I have been able to do these because I was lucky!” He was a Karma yogi like Kamarajar, one of the former CMs of Tamil Nadu.

So it is not only raping Nirbhaya which is a sin, clamouring for the fruits of ones actions too is sin because we would have to come to this plane of consciousness time and time again. Anything that prevents salvation or self-realisation is a sin in Gita parlance. Actions themselves are not sinful or good. The way we treat them and the spirit in which we take them make them sin or liberation-giving ones.         

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBERS 8 AND 9

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION

VERSE NUMBERS 8 and 9

Text in Transliteration:

nai ‘va kimchit karomee ‘ti yukto manyeta tattvavit

pasyan srrnvan sprrsan jighrannasnan gacchan svapan svasan

pralapan visrrjan grrhnann unmisan nimishann api

indriyaanee ‘ndriyaartheshu vartanta iti dhaarayan

Text in English:

(stanzas 8 and 9 jointly)

The sage centred in the Self should think, “I do nothing at all”—though seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing, speaking, emptying, holding, opening and closing the eyes—firm in the thought that the senses move among sense-objects.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

All activities pertaining to bodily existence take place in the non-Self. The Self is actionless. The knower of the Self is therefore free from agency. The person seated in an automobile does not himself move. He identifies himself with the moving vehicle and says, “I am going.” The person who blurts in sleep is not in reality the agent of that act. A man absorbed in some deep thought is not aware of the taste of the dish he partakes. In all these cases the activities are not actually of the persons concerned. Similar to these, the Jnani established in Atman is not the doer of the activities going on in the body, the senses, mind, intellect and the life-energy called praana.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA:

He who comes to know that he is only an instrument in the hands of the Lord, has no egoistic feeling. He is aware that he is only a tool with which God has His work done. Such a man causes harm to nobody. The poison of egoism is no more in him. a steel knife becomes a gold knife with the touch of the philosopher’s stone. Through the form of the knife is there, it is not useful any more for cutting. Similarly the Jnani retains a seeming individuality, but no ignorance-born activity occurs in and through him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

We are called upon to realize the self in us which is pure and free and distinct from the factors of prakrti or objective universe. The constituents of the ego are impermanent, a flux which changes from moment to moment. There is no changeless centre or immortal nucleus in these pretenders to selfhood.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The liberated sage or jnani always remains as a witness of the activities of the senses as he identifies himself with the Self or Brahman. He thinks and says, “I do not see; the eyes perceive. I do not hear; the ears hear. I do not smell, the nose smells, etc.” He beholds inaction in action as he has burnt his actions in the fire of wisdom. (Cf. Xiv.19-23)

  

Comments by the blogger:

The ego sense of “I do this and that” entwines the embodied to the earth’s plane and there is no limit to the number of times he takes rebirths and comes back to the earth. But the perfected sage thinks himself to be the object in the hands of Eshwara and he has no ego sense of, “I eat, drink, empty, etc., etc.

Then is there no freedom of action for us?

It is there indeed. Nirbhaya was repeatedly raped by a handful of beasts and the beasts had the freedom action. They could have, instead of raping her, taken her and her boyfriend to the place they wanted to when they boarded the bus. They could have exercised the freedom in a way most of the bus drivers and conductors do. Instead of that they had to indulge in the horrendous acts of raping and almost killing with intent to kill. So it was a grossly wrong exercise of the freedom of choice God Has given the human beings. There could be no freedom to rape and kill. The freedom could have been, and should always be, used in a great way of helping out the fellow human beings. And the spiritually informed people feel the freedom is non-existent in this illusory world. They eat and drink and empty with a full understanding and acknowledgement of the fact that they are not eating, drinking and emptying. It is just the acts of the senses among the sense-objects!

Here is where the said informed souls take the world for a colossal illusion. Every object here can be looked upon both as an illusion and a great thought of the Lord. The whole world is taken for such a beautiful thought by the Lord. Everything here has no substance. Everything taking place here is an illusory thing. And the Lord is the Master of illusion. The whole Universe is taken for a thought. Then there is no question of slackening one’s hunger or thirst by giving one’s self up completely to the act. To escape from the consequences of acts, good or bad, is to treat them as that belonging to the Ishwar or the Lord of the Universe. The cosmic master has artfully hidden himself in everything and every act here. But if you take this Universe for the real then there is a baggage of having to indulge in Karma Yoga or the Yoga of Action. Even then there is scope for liberation.

So in the Lord’s world, there is scope for liberation for both who take this world as a real one and indulge in karma yoga or as a beautiful thought and lose one’s sense of self and ego here and think that it is the senses moving among the sense-objects.

This is also is an unique contribution of the Upanishadic Sages who understood the scheme of this cosmos by perching on the shoulders, as though, of the Vedic Sages. Both the Mohammedanism and Christianity take the world for the real one. And hence, for them, the actions on the earth’s plane become much too real. How could God be so hard on you? They say they do not acknowledge the Hindu belief in rebirths. Could an ordinary human mother give her son only one chance to learn to walk and become a toddler? Will she say, “Dear son, you must stand up and walk at one go. There should not be any falling down or lurching forward!” But the Lord of the Bible and the Lord of the Quran do just that. They give only one choice, one chance, only one birth on this earthly plane in which to prove their mettle. Those who prove their spiritual mettle, the miniscule minority indeed, could go to Heaven and enjoy all the pleasures for always. And the majority of the people, who could not prove their spiritual mettle would be tossed into Hell’s fire and have to stay fallen that way for ever! Is God that much harsh? And take the distinctions and differences in their God’s creation. One child is angelic in looks while another is ugly. One has all the limbs of its in perfectly working order, while another child has impairment of the body and or the mind! What wrong did those physically challenged children do even before their birth? And in the Muslim religion the faithful Muslims would go to heaven and enjoy everything including several wives, while others who could not come up to the strict par would have the liquid coming out of the festering wounds! And the women stay that way, women in Heaven too! One of the wives of a good man!

In Hinduism, there is no room for any carnal or gross pleasures after the soul’s complete emancipation. The emancipated soul mingle in God and become one and the same. God does not eat, drink and empty!