VERSE NUMBER 11 OF SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDG

HOLY GITA

CHAPTER TWO

SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE

VERSE NUMBER: 11:

Text in Transliteration

sri bhagavaan uvaacha

asochyaan anvasocas tvam prajgnaavaadaama cha bhaashase

gataasoon agataasooms cha naa ‘njsochanti panditaah

Text in English:

The Blessed lord said:

You grieve for those who should not be grieved for: yet you spell words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.

COMMENTARY BY SHANKARA:

Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that he need not entertain any compassion of despondency bout people like Bhishma and Drona, because they do not swerve from dharma or justice, and are eternal. You think in your heart that they will be killed by me and; how can I derive happiness by killing them; and what kind of use would it be the kingdom I would get by killing people like them. At the same time you speak like a pandit who have much knowledge. Thus you are a person with knowledge and unwarranted despondency. That Arjuna was with both ignorance and knowledge. This is what Krishna says to Arjuna.

Those who have knowledge about self do not grieve neither for the dead nor for the living. Panda relates to self-knowledge. That kind of persons with self-knowledge are “panditas.”Brhath Upanishad says in 3-5-1 “pandithyam nirvidhah”, that is, he who knows about Brahman is a person who knows all. Sri Krishna says O, Arjuna you get despondent about those who knows no destruction. Thou would be an ignorant person till you entertain this thought.

COMMENTARY BY RAMANUJA:

You get despondent about those who do not deserve it. Not only that, you also speak the words of persons who know the difference between the body and the soul. You say that the deceased forefathers would suffer because of non availability of pindas. Those who have this kind of knowledge need not become despondent about anything. This kind of persons grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. They will not get despondent for the cause of body nor soul.

You have some contradictions. You think you will kill them. Since you have the knowledge about the Atman being different from the body, thou speak about dharma and adharma or righteousness and unrighteousness. Thus you do not understand about the nature of the body. You haven’t understood that the body, which is different from the Atman, does not know anything about destruction. That your dutis as a kshatria or warrior, who indulge in war, are means for getting self-knowledge is not understood by you. If you engage in this war without any expectation of the fruits thereof, thou shall get full knowledge about the Atman or Soul.(so this is the means for your Atman to attain the Paramatman).

What is instructed here? The Atman is not dependent on the body for its appearance. Even when the body perishes, the atman does not perish.  For the Atman there is neither birth nor death. So, you need not  get despondent about the Atman or the Soul. This body has no knowledge; it is subject to modifications. It has birth and death as its nature. So you need not worry about the body also. First you should know about the atman or the soul.

COMMENTARY BY MADHVA:

Brahgna vada or the argument about the feelings rise in the mind about which there is nothing in the shastras or the Scriptures. Why this feeling is unwarranted? Sri Krishna is going to speak about the same.

According to Swamy Sivananda, the philosophy of Gita begins from this verse, Bhishma and Drona deserve no grief because they are eternal in their real nature and they are virtuous men who posssess very good conduct. Though you speak words of wisdom, you are unwise because you grieve for those who are really eteral and who deserve no grief. They who are endowed with the knowledge of the Self is immortal and that It is unborn. They also know that there is no such a thing as death, that it is a separation of the astral body from the physical, that death is nothing more than a disintegration of matter and that the five elements of which the body is comprised return to their source. Arjuna has forgotten the eternal nature of the Soul and the changing nature of the body. Because of his ignorance, he began to act as if the temporary relations with kinsmen, teachers, etc., were permanent. He forgot that his relations with this world in his present life were the results of past actions. These, when exhausted, end all relationship and new ones crop up when one takes on another body. The result of past action is known as “karma” and that portion of the karma which gave rise to the present incarnation is known as “prarabdha karma”.

According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the teacher explains in brief in verse 11-38 the wisdom of the Saamkhya philosophy. The saamkhya does not refer to Kapila’s system but to the teaching of the Upanishads.

According to Swamy Chidbhavananda, Arjuna’s utterances in the verses thirty-five to forty-four of the fist chapter are commented upon here. The Lord puts it to him that while his arguments appear as words of wisdom, actually they are not. The way of the world is to classify a man of learning as Pandita; but the Lord does not do so. He holds that the one who truly knows the plan and purpose of the universe is a Pandita. Such a one grieves not over the death of his kin any more than one grieves over the sunset. Grief is meaningless to the knowing  one. Keeping the mind constant in all eventualities is the way of the wise. While speaking like an enlightened one, Arjuna sorrows like an ignorant one. This inconsistency in him is pointed out by the Lord. Bhishma and Drona are sages who have probed into the mystery of life and death. They are not ruffled over the end that is to come to them forthwith. Forced by circumstances they have taken sides with the wicked in a true sportsman’s spirit. Bhishma in particular plays his part best, remaining unaffected by the consequences. But Arjuna grieves for these very persons who should not be grieved for. He is a Yogeeswara who practises yoga and becomes an adept in it. But Sri Krishna is more than that; he is Yogeswara. It is yoga in all of its form that ever emanates from Him. As light and heat constantly come from the sun, yoga comes from this Great Entity. He is therefore Yogeswara. The Lord of yoga points out to Arjuna that he is devoid of the very first step in yoga. He who harmonizes his thougt, word and deed verily gets into yoga; but that is the very thing that Arnjuna does not do. He thinks one way, speaks in another way and acts in yet another way. The personality thereby gets split, integrity shattered and character lost. Such a man falls from yoga. Arjuna is warned against this fall.

Here Swamy Chidbhavananda quotes from Sri Ramakrishna: “speak out that only which is in you mind. Do not create conflict between word and deed. Nothing good comes from the disharmony of the thought, word and deed in oneself”

Comments by the blogger:

My name is K. Raguram. I am 56. And I have been in touch with the holy Gita for more than fifteen years now. I have tried to delve in this beautiful book of 18 discourses many a time. Each time I was struck by one thought. How Hinduism as a way of life got degraded into various religious sects who worship Lord Vishnu and Siva in exclusivity. For those who are worshippers of Sri Vishnu, Saivism is an anathema. And the worshippers of the Lord Shiva do not much worry about Vishnu or in this Holy Book. How did it happen? When we go through the three important bashyams or commentaries by Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva there is no room for any schisms. The stress differs, as it should be, but the substance is the same. And, they could not have been conscious parties to the starting of separate Hindu Riligious Sects as Saivism and Vaishnavism. But, while Shankara sang about all the modern Hindu deities belonging to the two principal sects, Sri Ramanujar worshipped the Lord Ranganadhar, a manifestation of Sri Vishnu. But that also is understandable. Taking one deity as one’s patron moorthy or God and concentrate the whole attention on HIM or HER is not only understandable, but eminently acceptable as a great way to stay in the path unswervingly.

Up to the period of the Upanishads, of which Bhagavat Gita is the last, there seems to be no one principal deity that holds superiority over other Vedic deities. But later when the puranas and itihasas came, only to encapsulate as well as elongate the tenets of the Vedopanishadic culture, the starting of the division and argument about one deity over the other seems to have been ushered into. Since there was lack of unity, instead of the Hindus who should be ruling the world, the Hindu India gave access to the Christians and Muslims to preach their religions and faith here. Their faith claims not just superiority, but completely total exclusivity. And they were founded by individuals. Whereas, the Hinduism is a way of life. There were systems like the Vedic worship of the Natural elements in ancient Egypt and Greece. While they all perished, we take pride that the Hindu culture could withstand the onslaught of repeated intrusions and invasions. And at last came the Mohammadans and the British People to enslave a Hindu India. They thought the Hindus were essentially living in an euphoria. They believe in repeated births and deaths. Instead of the Sanscrit ruling the world, English language has been having its sway. All this is because of the later schisms in the Hindu way of life. Rig-Veda does not hold neither Rudhran or Vishnu as the ultimate God. The natural elemental Gods like Agni were given great importance in the Rig-Veda. Indiran is not worshipped now, but He is one of the important Gods of the Rig-Veda. What does it mean? We can any one entity as the Universal Super Conscious and Super Intelligent Being, and the result would be the same. Vedas and Vedanta, Sri Bhagavat Gita has no reiligion. But Shankara wrote a commentary for the Brahma Sutra, and Ramanuja and Madhva expressed their own viewpoints and commentaries. And all of a sudden, it would seem, different sects were born among the Hindus. But the Vedas and the Upanishads have no one God, though an established multifaceted system of knowledge about Brahmman, as the Universal God, much in the way as being enjoined by the Christians and Muslims.

 Only the Hindu way of life would save the world from man-made-mad cataclysm. The Vedopanishadic saints and sages have raised all the relevant questions about the Man, the world and the Creator and found sufficient answers for all the relevant questions. And the man is nothing but God’s expression, and Man can ultimately realize the God in himself , all these things, like “tatvamasi” have been rendered in vakyas and maha vakyas. But there is no end to the schisms among the Hindus. The world is fast losing its moral authority and ability to go on and thrive. The unlimited materialism in the last three centuries by the Europeans and the Western country peoples has torn up the ozone layer. Nature has been raped repeatedly. The highly industrial European and Western countries refuse to own up their carbon responsibility. They owe it to the suffering peoples of Asi and Africa to set things right. But they want the countries like India to bear the burden to stitch the ozon layer, the sari of Mother Nature. The rapists ask the victims to participate in owning up the responsibility. Chennai is under deluge, and hundreds lose their lives. Who are responsible for the floods and famines? The rapists, no?

The modern world has to take up to the Vedopanishadic way of living, and before that, we the Indians must shed materialistic pursuit. Only the Ancient India’s Hindu way of life can save the world. First, we have to set the house in order. We have to resuscitate the Vedopanishad culture in India! It took a chai valla, Mr. Narendra Modi to make the UN to segregate a day for yoga and announce the international day of yoga. But the secular India is divided about the question! See the irony!

And the irony continues: I am not a Brahmin. I belong to one of the Hindu Backward Communities. I am not a member of the much dreaded and derided RSS or its political wing, the BJP, and it takes me to write about the resuscitation of the ancient India’s way of life and culture! Believe it or not, the world is standing at the edge of the precipice. And if the ISI gets hold of the nuclear bomb, that would be the last nail on the coffin of the Nature. And America and its minions are capable of manufacturing many more fundamentalist sects like the ISI. Hindu way of life, as it is understood in the Vedopanishadic context alone can save the world. And before that, Indians have to save their children from the corrupting western culture.

Shankara is very clear and explicit about the samkhyam and yoga. As we saw from his expositions as mentioned in my yesterday’s blog, knowledge and yoga cannot inhere in one and the same person. If that were the case, Sri Krishna would not have taught about the nature of the soul and yoga. Samkhyam or knowledge is self-knowledge. And for those who can get that knowledge, this whole universe is just a thought and for yogis it is matter indeed. Yoga stands for the carrying out of the various actions mentioned in the Vedas and if carried out properly, it too will lead to self-knowledge by gradation; step by step. Sri Krishna is accused by some to have asked a good-soul, Arjuna to indulge in killing. So they argue the Gita is a book that teaches violence. Even great pundits, hold this view! Indulging in war that came unsought was a dharma in those days for a kshatriya or warrior. And the war at kurutchetra was inflicted on the Pandavas by the avaricious Kauravas. Even now the Pakistan’s Army, which has a state too, sends terrorists into Kashmir and Panjab. They bomb the border area villages to distract our attention, and send in through another way their human bombs and terrorists. What should India do? To go on a meditational mode? And our valiant souldiers who catch and kill the terrorists harvest any sin? Isn’t it their swadharma when the nation sends them to protect our borders to engage in killing? The Pakistanis are our cousins only to go by history. Should our soldiers shed sentimental tears over having to kill the beastly terrorists? To ask them to indulge in killing is a sin? View this way Sri Krishna’s urging to do his self-ordained duty and thus engage in yoga, for which alone Arjuna is fit. And not for renouncing the world and become a non-acting hermit or wandering monk, for whom there is no action! And the great souls like Bhishma knew the consequences of their stand. So only Sri Krishna urges him to indulge in yoga by engaging in his swadhrma or self-ordained action and duty! Through this he can attain knowledge step-birth by step-death! That is, step by step through many a reincarnation!