THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 09
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
asaktir anabhishvangah putra daara grrhaadishu
nityam cha samachittatvam ishttaanishttopapattishu
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
asaktih = non-attachment: anabhisvangah = non-identification of self: putradaara grrhaadishu = with son, wife, home and rest: nityam = constant: cha = and: sama chittatvam = even-mindedness: ishta anishtta upapattishu = on the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Unattachment, non-identification of self with son, wife, home, and the like, and constant equanimity in the occurrence of the desirable and the undesirable;
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
There are objects of senses to which man gets deeply attached if not to the enjoyment thereof. Such attachments require to be eliminated by discrimination. Inordinate identification with son, wife and home drives one to the position of holding them as one’s own self. Ailment if any of a kith causes misery to one, due to imaginary ownership. The death of the wife or the son deals a greater blow than the death of oneself can possibly render. The loss of the earthly possessions of a miser brings complete frustration to him. Such are the effects of the baneful identification with people and property that are not actually one’s own forever. The right attitude, therefore, is to view all beings and all possessions as belonging to the Lord. Worldly events are prone to cause likes and dislikes in a worldly man. But the spiritual aspirant ought to practise even-mindedness in all eventualities.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
A person found it very difficult to meditate on God because of his inordinate attachment to a relative. “Behold your favourite relative as God come in that form,” was the advice given to him. On pursuing that attitude meditation on the Lord became easy to that person.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA;
When a man thinks, “This object is mine”, the idea of “mine-ness” enters his mind. He develops Abhimana (false identification). There is the absence of liking for the objects.
Anabhishvangah: There is an intense attachment to wife, son or mother, etc. There is complete identification of the Self with another. He feels happy or miserable when that person is happy or miserable. Govindan feels miserable to her but he does not feel anything when his neighbour’s wife is dead. A man of wisdom has no attachment to his home. He considers his home as a public inn on the side of a public road.
And the rest: Others who are very dear: relatives or other dependents.
Constant even-mindedness or equanimity is an index of knowledge. The man of wisdom is neither elated when he attains the undesirable or painful objects.
Non-attachment, absence of affection and equanimity are all conducive to the attainment of knowledge of the Self. They are designated as knowledge because they are the means of attaining knowledge.
Comments by the blogger:
Attachment to one’s son, wife, home and the like: in other words, attachment to one’s relatives comes in the way of true Knowledge or Wisdom or Gnana. This kind of attachment is more harmful than attachment to one’s own Self. Or, if one identifies his Self with his own body, all that happens to the body, whether it is good or bad, injury or health, is taken to be the good or bad, injury or health of the Self of that person. Swami Vivekananda says, “Why do we cry when we are pinched by others? We react as though the act of being pinched affects one’s spirit. See the slavery of taking one’s body as one’s Self?”
If that is the case of wrong identification of the Self with the body, greater seems to be the inordinate identification of one’s Self with that of the son, wife, home and the like. So our goodness felt in the Self is hinged to the son, wife or other relatives. So whatever happens to them, individually or collectively profoundly affects the person with wrong or false identification.
But can we go through life without loving our son, wife, home and the like?
It is a million dollar question.
I have already cited the example of an ideal teacher, namely, Nallamuthu who had been working in De Britto High School, Devakottai in Tamil Nadu. How the teacher had not availed even a day’s leave in his whole career. And when his dearest wife died, how he came to school after making the suitable arrangement through the relatives. Such teachers were not very rare in those days. Now teachers go on strike demanding all sorts of things. Teachers are given a great amount of salary. They give out the money for usurious interest! They individually mostly have some connection with some calling in addition to their job as teachers. In those days, teachers were looked upon as next only to God. They were very poor and they had been adorning the impoverished condition as though it were the fruit of their sacrifice or Yagya!
So, human beings like Mr Nallamuth were indeed practising the tenets of Gita. They lived their lives as though it were their chance and opportunity to perform Karma Yoga!
Gandhiji, when he and the family were leaving South Africa, was presented with golden jewellery worth many thousands of rupees in those times. But Gandhiji would not avail of the jewellery for his own purpose. When his wife told him not to give away the golden jewellery as they indeed had to give them to the future in-laws as dowry for their daughters. It was not as though Gandhiji had earned a great lot of money for taking care of his daughters' marriage. But still, Mahatma Gandhi would have none of the items of the jewellery. And when his darling wife, Kasturba Gandhi, insisted with tearful eyes that she won’t allow him, Gandhiji, to part with the golden jewellery, Gandhiji was angered with righteousness and pushed his wife out of their house so that Kasturba Gandhi would stand near the outer gates of their house! Such was his unattachment to good things of life!
But we find it very hard and harsh to bear it as and when one of the family members come down with fever. And we lose our mental equilibrium if a death occurs in the family. How can we face such unavoidable circumstances? My advice would be to not stop reading Bhagavat Gita. If we make the reading of the Gita daily we would, at some time, become somewhat changed inwardly. Gita would serve as a lifeguard for us when the Adversity stares us in the face.
How desirable it was for me when at long last when Google AdSense approved of my two blogs, namely, THE HOLY GITA and MY RESOURCEFUL AUNT for serving their Ads! For it meant money! I was on cloud nine when I read the E-mail from Google AdSense authorities! I went to the pooja room and repeatedly thanked the Lord the whole day. Yes, I was so elated that it hurt! But soon when it dawned on me that you, my readers and viewers, amounting to more than ten thousands in number would not be interested in clicking the Ads, all I got was $ 0. 1 or 2 per day! For several days it would show 0 dollars! But they never tired of serving wonderful Ads after Ads! I thought, well, at least my blogs have earned Google AdSense’s approval. And with no hope of earning anything out of this adventure, I simply continued to write. But, the son of a gun, Viswanathan would not approve of the Ads served on my sites and did the simple thing of going into my web page and clicking on the Ads shown there! Because of the son of a gun, I have not even been able to see Ads on the two blogs. He has done this kind of things for an umpteen number times. I am not earning anything for my darling daughters because of this son of a gun. But soon I chanted the Name of the Lord for some time and continued to blog. Now I have come to the conclusion that the dog would once again do the same thing after the Ads are restored. And I would be banned for life from exhibiting Ads on my blogs. Viswanathan has never allowed me to live a normal life. And his latest interference has just added to the past actions of persecution. I am not bothered anymore. Would you believe that?
I am helpless. I haven’t got many friends. I was sent away to school to De Britto High School and after the six years stint there I went to college and then I took History as the Main Paper. That was in Tiruchi. Then I went to do MA in English Literature in Tanjore and after that, I went to Madurai to do a graduation course in Law. Then I went to Chennai to practise as a junior advocate for one year and then I returned to my native place. No one knew me! And I am a very shy person. My reticence did not earn me a good name in my village. Even today I am not known to all at the village. And the taluk town, Aranthangi also became my place of Nemesis as I had earned the wrath of this chap, Viswanathan. The one or two friends I have got could not be influenced by the son of a gun. That’s how I am able to get the help of one of my friends to take care of the works on the computer. All I know is to write and upload the writing online. God has given me many a leg-up. But the perverted sadist, Viswanathan has robbed me of all of the initiatives in the last twenty years. And I put up with what Viswanathan has still been doing only because of my devotion to the Lord. I don’t claim that I have equanimity of mind. But my virtue of putting up with such intense and extensive acts of persecution by the sun of a gun is more thrusted on me rather than I consciously practise keeping my mind free and get along with life notwithstanding the acts of persecution.
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