THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 12
VERSE NUMBER 17
BHAKTI YOGA OR THE YOGA OF DEVOTION:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
yo na hrrshyati na dveshti na sochati na kaankshati
subhaasubha parityaagee bhaktimaan yah sa me priyah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
yah = who: na = not: hrrshyati = rejoices: na = not: dveshti = hates: na = not: sochati = grieves: na = not: kaankshati = desires: subha asubha parityaagee = renouncing good and evil: bhaktimaan = full of devotion: yah = who: sah = he: me = to me: priyah = dear.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
He who neither rejoices nor hates nor grieves nor desires, renouncing good and evil, full of devotion, he is dear to Me.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The worldly people rejoice obtaining things pleasing to the senses, but the lover of God does not behave as they do. They hate them who create unwanted situations, but the devotee pays no heed to bad people and unpleasant situations. He does not grieve when he is deprived of worldly possessions nor does he desire to procure them for his personal enjoyment. His intense devotion to the Lord admits no other desire into his heart. He is free from the notions of good and evil, even as an innocent baby is. A devotee with these excellences is endearing to the Lord.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
God’s presence cannot be felt in that heart which is given to attachment, aversion and fear.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
What is described in verse 13 is dealt with at length in this verse.
He does not rejoice when he attains the desirable objects. He does not hate when he gets the undesirable objects. He does not grieve when he parts with his beloved objects. He does not desire the unattained.
Subhasubhaparityagi: Here is a further description of Sarvarambhaparityagi of verse 16. He who has renounced good and evil actions which produce pleasure and pain is a devotee of the Lord. Such a devotee or knower of Brahman, who is My own Self, is dear to Me. (Cf. VII.17; IX.29)
Comments by the blogger:
He who does not rejoice on obtaining anything which gives for otherworldly people enjoyment, and does not grieve on obtaining anything which gives for otherworldly people unpleasant feelings, he who has no desires, he who renounces the good and evil for My sake that person is dear to Me, says Sri Krishna. So such a person who is dear to God does not go into raptures when he gets something productive of the worldly joy nor does he fathom the depths of sorrow when something unpleasant happens to him, and he who does not desire for some worldly thing and who renounces all things productive of both good and evil IS DEAR TO ME, SAYS SRI KRISHNA IN THIS VERSE. He is a Karma Yogi like Mahatma Gandhi.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, all of us have our appointed tasks, as Brahmins or Kshatriyas, Vaisyas or Sudras. Anyone who does his work without hope of reward and in a disinterested spirit is a bhakta of God. The second chapter contains verses describing a ‘sthitaprajna’. They describe the state of mind of a yogi living absorbed in a mystic world. This Chapter XII describes, in our ordinary language, the state of mind of a ‘bhakta’ or devotee.
Srimat Swami Vivekananda says in his speech in San Fransisco, America, “ How to worship God? We will understand more clearly if we once get rid of the idea that religion consists in doctrines. One idea of religion has been that the whole world was born because Adam ate the apple, and there is no way of escape. Believe in Jesus Christ—in a certain man’s death!
But in India, there is quite a different idea. There religion means realisation, nothing else. It does not matter whether one approaches the destination in a carriage with four horses, in an electric car, or rolling on the ground. The goal is the same. For the (Christians), the problem is how to escape the wrath of the terrible God. For the Indians it is how to become what they really are, to regain their lost Selfhood...
Have you realised that you are spirit? When you say, ‘I do’, what is meant by that—this lump of flesh called the body or the spirit, the infinite, ever blessed, effulgent, immortal? You may be the greatest philosopher, but as long as you have the idea that you are the body, you are no better than the little worm crawling under your foot! No excuse for you! So much the worse for you that you know all the philosophies and at the same time think you are the body! Body-gods, that is what you are! Is that religion?
Religion is the realisation of spirit as spirit. What are we doing now? Just the opposite, realising spirit as matter. Out of the immortal God we manufacture death and matter, and out of dead dull matter we manufacture death and matter, and out of dead dull matter, we manufacture spirit...
If you can realise Brahman by standing on your head, or on one foot, or by worshipping five thousand gods with three heads each—welcome to it!... Do it any way you can! Nobody has any right to say anything. Therefore, Krishna says, if your method is better and higher, you have no business to say that another man’s method is bad, however wicked you may think it.
Again, we must consider, religion is a matter of growth, not a mass of foolish words...All these people fighting about what God's nature is—whether He has three heads in one body or five heads in six bodies. Have you seen God? No...And they do not believe they can ever see Him. What fools we mortals be! Sure, lunatics!
Each one thinks his method is best. Very good! But remember, it may be good for you. One food which is very indigestible to one is very digestible to another. Because it is good for you, do not jump to the conclusion that your method is everybody’s method, that Jack’s coat fits John and Mary. All the uneducated, uncultured, unthinking men and women have been put into that sort of straitjacket! Think for yourselves. Become atheists! Become materialists! That would be better. Exercise the mind!... What right have you to say that this man’s method is wrong? It may be wrong for you. That is to say, if you undertake the method, you will be degraded; but that does not mean that he will be degraded. Therefore, says Krishna, if you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can...”
Well, friends, it takes a lot of religious spine and spiritually enshrined moral authority to speak like this in America! This is what we mean by taking the bull by its horns or meeting the lion in its den! The same Americans now spend millions of dollars to convert the poorest of the poor in India to their BRAND of idea about God!
For your information, friends, I can relate how a second-grade teacher lived according to this sloka or verse: I studied at a Jesuit School from 6th standard to 11th standard, staying at the Hostel for the school situates some 60 kilometres away from my native village. In the school, there worked an unassuming and a very humble teacher approaching his retirement stage, by name, Nallamuthu. Well though run by the Jesuit Brotherhood, they employed both Christian and Hindu Teachers. What is special about Mr Nallamuthu, the ideal teacher, was that he had not taken leave of absence from his work including the casual and medical leave! Well, when I cleared Tenth Standard Mr.Nallamuth, the ideal teacher, was chosen for the Tamil Nadu Government’s ‘Superb Teacher’ award. The whole school celebrated the incident. Mr.Nallamuthu was retiring that year. And the school authorities held a huge function in honour of Mr.Nallamuthu. And only in this function, I came to understand what a rare soul Mr.Nallamuthu was; for one speaker spoke that Mr.Nallamuthu was famous for not having availed even paid holidays in his entire period of service as a teacher. And then he went on to relate one anecdote about the great teacher: when the teacher had been young, his wife died! Death had called at his door in midnight. The greatest of teachers, Mr Nallamuthu grieved over the demise of his beloved wife, but in the morning he sent words through telegraph to important relatives and apart from that he spoke to various people in his neighbourhood and made arrangement for the cremation of his beloved wife’s body in the evening after school hours! Having made this arrangement, the greatest of teachers, Mr.Nallamuthu attended school as though nothing had occurred in the family. Just nobody in school knew about the bereavement till the school hours ended in the evening!
Well, we often read in the News Papers about the rape of the schoolgirls by their own teachers. Or on how the teachers indulge in what is described in the Indian Penal Code as outraging the modesty of a woman! There are teachers who go on strick, indefinite or otherwise, on such materialistic demands like lack of emoluments or salaries! When Mr Nallamuthu worked, the even the senior-most second-grade teachers were paid something around two hundred and fifty rupees! No family planning was known in those days. Even teachers used to have a large family. They had to be fed and clothed, the children had to be educated, and the teachers themselves had to dress in accordance with the demands of their august calling! We never knew any teacher complaining about the insufficiency of salary!
Gandhiji also lived out this verse or sloka in his life. But we should know there were so many unsung heroes and Karma Yogis, mostly among the teaching community in those golden days! And I am speaking about the 1970s!
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