THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION , VERSE NUMBER 6

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 6

Text in Transliteration:

samnyaasas tu mahaabaaho duhkham aaptum ayogatah

yogayukto munir brahma nacirenaa ‘dhigacchati

Text in English:

Sanyasa, O mighty-armed, is hard to attain to without karma yoga: the man of meditation, purified by karma yoga quickly goes to Brahman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A tender and unripe fruit clings fast to the tree that bears and nourishes it; but when fully ripe it severs connection from its sustainer. Similarly, the karma yogi gets from Prakriti the experience that matures into wisdom. He is a philosopher who translates principle into practice. Theorization and make-believe have no place in his spiritual career. By experiment he knows that life in the supersenses is superior to that in the senses. The mind of the unselfish man is more magnanimous than that of selfish one. Life blossoms better in him who lives for others than in him who lives exclusively for himself. Just as sound sleep is possible only for him who works hard, deep meditation comes to him who has negated his individuality in the service of others. It is self-denial that brings in purification of the heart. The one pure in mind becomes one with Brahman who is all purity. Here karma yoga fruitions in Karma Sanyasa.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

‘Muni’ is one who does Manana (meditation or reflexion). Yoga is performance of action without selfish motive as an offering unto the Lord.

Brahman here signifies renunciation or Sanyasa because renunciation consists in the knowledge of the Self. A Muni, the sage of meditation, the yoga-harmonised, i.e., purified by the performance of action, quickly attains Brahman, the true renunciation which is devotion to the knowledge of the Self. Therefore Karma Yoga is better. It is easy for a beginner. It prepares him for the higher yoga by purifying his mind.

Comments by the blogger:

Among four yogas, Bakti Yoga  or Yoga of Devotion comes naturally for those people who are sentimental. But there have always been pure men of action. Unless they are taken care of, there would be chaos in the world.

Now the problem in Syria could have been averted and the Muslim fundamentalism could have been averted if there were a way out for the Rajasic Muslims inside the four corner of the Holy Quran. Pakistan would not have become almost a Rogue State which is said to be a Military having a nation if Karma Yoga had been crafted into the Holy Quran. In the early ages of the Roman Christendom many a staunch faith the world over would not have been obliterated through unashamed violence and ruthlessness if Karma Yoga had been crafted into the Holy Bible. Those two religions failed utterly to take into account the three division of the gunas  or tendencies in the mindset of the people of the world irrespective of the religion. When the Hindus were violently taken into Mohammedanism, the erstwhile sentimental people came up with Sufism. That is not acceptable to the present fundamentalists among the Muslim terrorists. So they had to be put to the sword.

All the ills of the Muslim Fundamentalism is a lack of space in the Holy Quran for the tremendous men of continuous action. Like devotion for the sentimental people, non-stop mighty action through Karma Yoga or the Yoga of Action is necessary. Both the above said religions lack the space for great men of action. This was exacerbated by the Word of Jesus and the Word of Allah the Great to go and propagate their respective religion and religious message. And the essentially spiritual word in the Holy Quran, Jihad got an intolerably violent interpretation that has taken the whole world and the multi-culture and the modern civilizations literally by the throat.

In Hinduism, as it interpreted the scheme of the cosmos and the relationship between the Man and Nature on one hand and the Man and God on the other, the three gunas of the Universe and the Man have been taken into account by the Vedic Seers some four thousand years ago according to the scholars belonging to other cultures and religions, and some nine thousand years ago, according to the words of Swami Vivekananda. And suitable arrangements in the Scriptures have been engrafted for all sorts of people for their salvation.

Like the yoga of devotion, the yoga of action also comes naturally to the Man. So Karma Yoga or the Yoga of action is better to start with and when all actions are geared toward the Lord with no selfish stake for the fruits of actions then it would be time for the Sanyasa yoga or the yoga of renunciation!