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!