THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO
SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGS OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER 47
Text in Transliteration:
karmany evaa ‘dhikaaras te maa phaleshu kadaachanana
maa karma phala hetur bhoor ma ate sango ‘stv akarmani
Text in English:
Seek to perform your duty; but lay not claim to its fruits.
Be you not the producer of the fruits of karma; neither shall you lean towards
inaction.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHVANANDA:
There seems to be
an anomaly and defeat of purpose in this injunction of the Lord. Not an atom
moves without a motive. Beings are all busy either to gain something or to ward
off something unwanted. In the absence of such a motive no action needs be
performed. But the Lord induces Arjuna not to be motivated and at the same tome
to be intensely active. Yes, herein lies the turning point in life from Pryas
to Sreyas. Good accrues from detachment and never from attachment. Karma in
itself is no evil; but it becomes so when mixed up with desire. Desire tainted
karma gives continuity to the wheel of birth and death. The seekers after
heavenly enjoyments are also slaves to desire. Conquerors of desire are they
who care not for the fruits of karma. Freedom from dsire is the real freedom.
When duty is discharged untarnished by desire, clarity of understanding ensues.
In addition to it, efficiency increases. Karma therefore has to be performed
perfectly by the aspirant unmindful of the fruits thereof.
SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA QUOTES SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
A boat may be
floating on water, but no water should be allowed to get into it. Man may live
in the world, but no worldly desire ought to take possession of him.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
This famous verse
contains the essential principle of disinterestedness. When we do our work, plough
or paint, sing or think, we will be deflected from disinterestedness, if we
think of fame or income or any such extraneous consideration. Nothing matters
except the good will, the willing fulfilment of the purpose of God. Success or
failure does not depend on the individual but on other factors as well.
Giordano Bruno says: “I have fought that is much, victory is in the hands of
fate.”
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
When you perform
actions have no desire for the fruits thereof under any circumstances. If you
thirst for fruits of your actions, you will have to take birth again and again
to enjoy them. Action done with expectation of fruits (rewards) brings bondage.
If you do not thirst for them, you get purification of heart any you will get
knowledge of the Self through purity of heart and through the knowledge of the
Self you will be freed from the round of births and deaths.
Neither let thy attachment be towards inaction thinking “What
is the use of doing actions when I cannot get any reward for them?”
In a broad sense Karma means action. It also means duty
which one has to perform according to his caste or station of life. According
to the followers of the Karma Kanda of the Vedas (the Mimamsakas) karma means
the rituals and sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas. It has a deep meaning also.
It signifies prescribed in the Vedas. It has a deep meaning also. It signifies
the destiny or the storehouse of tendencies of a man which give rise to his
future birth.
Comments of the blogger:
If we closely look at this verse, four points are important.
Or, we could say, putting it in another way, four points constitute this verse.
Point number one is we have a right to duty. But we should not crave for the
fruits thereof makes the second point. Thirdly, Lord’s kind exhortations that
please don’t you ever have as your motive the fruits of your action. And the
last but, not the least, don’t allow yourself fall into inaction which is worse
than wrong action!
This is the gist of Samsaaraa as well as the ideal behind
the sporting Ishwar!
What is samsaaraa and what is the sport?
Samsaaraa is this worldly life. It constitutes of the three
elements. The following is the two-parted articles I wrote in the Google+
sometimes ago. My Gmail ID is kraguram55@gmail.com
. Those readers who have not read these two articles are advised to read them
and then the following article that comes after these articles, which form part
of the series, but with the name, The Unit of Measurement.
SAMSAARAM AND SAMSKAARAM!
Samssram is a
sagaram, or an ocean, in Hinduism; Sri Shankarar defines the word samsaaram in
his bashyam or commentary for Aithreya Upanishdham as maya or illusion, kama or wishes and karma or action
or a proclivity to act as Samsaaram. According to that incomparable saint from
a small village in Kerala, namely, Kaladi, Samsaram is described as an ocean
into which being are tossed. Thus, we are affected by illusion, wants or
avarice and action; in other words, we cannot choose out of these trinity of
the ocean that is Samsaram or worldly life; samsaaram itself is a Sanskrit word
for worldliness.
On the other hand,
Samskaaram, in Sanskrit, means entirely
a different thing in Hinduism: it is a minute unit, smaller than an atom of the
worldly matter, used by the Creator to measure up the actions of the human
beings and other beings and non beings or sentient and insentient; to measure
up their effect, and to evaluate them. This is how our actions and the
involuntary activities going on inside our bodies, and that of this universe,
like the planetary movements and other things and other natural events, and
also Acts of God like the seasonal
changes and cataclysms like the earthquake that shook Napal recently and the
deluge that engulfed the entire Chennai city of Tamil Nadu State in India.
Isn’t it very
confusing? First, samskaaram or the ocean of the worldliness, and then the
samskaaram, which is the infinitesimally smallish unit of the Brhamic
measurement! Could there be any relation between them, and, if at all there is
a relationship, how could it be established? Why should the worldly life be
described as our having been tossed into the ocean? And what the hell is the
matter with the samskaaram? Can’t a human being go through life without becoming
conversant with these ostensibly idiotic words?
SAMSAARAM AND
SAMSKAARAM, HAAA?
WHAT THE HELL DO
THEY MEAN AND WHY THE HELL WE SOULD UNDERSTAND IT?
WHILE THE QUESTIONS
ARE NATURAL, THERE IS MUCH SUBSTANCE IN THESE TWO WORDS, SAMSARAM AND SAMSKAARAM!
WHILE THESE BASIC
THINGS WERE REVEALED TO THE RIG VEDIC SAGES, GREAT THINKERS LIKE ARISTOTLE
AND RESERARCHERS LIKE CHARLES DARWIN DID NOT GO INTO THEM!
WHILE RIG-VEDIC SAGES AND UPANISHADIC SAGES DELVED DEEP INTO THEM! THAT IS THE
ORIGINALITY OF THE HINDUISM, AND THIS IS HOW THE HINDU WAY OF LIFE HAVE BEEN
ABLE TO WITHSTAND THE ONSLAUGHT OF VARIOUS INVASIONS AND MORE THAN FOUR
CENTURIES OF FOREIGNERS’ OCCUPATION WHO THRUSTED THE MOHAMMADANISM AND THE
CHRISTIANITY ON THEIR SUBJECT!
WE SHALL GO INTO THE PHILOSOPHY INVOLVING SAMSAARAM AND
SAMSKAARAM TOMORROW.
SAMSAARAM
AND SAMSKAARAM—PART 2
We have briefly noted what is meant basically by Samsaaram
or the ocean, which is worldly life indeed, and Samskaaram.
When samsaram
involves or the very incidence of our birth involves our three-fold bondage,
which is very difficult to cross over: they are maya or illusion or taking this worldly life
FOR REAL TO THE ABSOLUTE EXCLUTION OF THE SPIRITUALITY INVOLVED IN OUR
LIVES; kama or wants or wishes which
makes us to make a wish or sankalpa to get something, or to do something. To
get wealth, to build and own a bungalow, or to become a high profile VIP,
anything, even to get a free meal or meal after paying for it, is kama or
avarice or wishes; and then, the natural human proclivity, because those two
things, is the action or the tendency to get activated always. This is samsaara
saakaraa. Why? Because, like an ocean, it is not possible to cross over it,or
travel beyond these trinity of human bondages, without doing and indulging in
karma or activity in an impassioned and selfless manner. But that doesn’t mean it is totally
impossible of crossing this ocean or sagaram, in Sanskrit. Samsaara saagaram
could be and have been successfully crossed over by too many Hindu, Mohammedan
and Christian saints and sages to be able to name.
Samskaaram, on the
other hand, is a very minute unit of measurement. It is with which, the God and
the Creator of the world and the cosmos, has been able to watch over its flux,
and not in the general sense, but in the individual sense. If there is a beach,
knowing the number of sand grains there is absolutely no problem for Him, the Creator. The Bible readers will tell
you that God can tell you the number of individual hair follicles on one’s
head! It is no joke! And this kind of measurement is possible only because of
this very infinitesimally minute unit of measurement in evaluation of the flux
of the universe as also the individual human being’s action and the very flux
of his mind!
In order to be
better informed about such philosophical things and Hindu concepts, the readers
and viewers are advised to follow my domain on Google + my articles on and
about THE HOLY BAGAVAT GITA.
I humbly state that I
have 1849 followers on the domain Philosophy of Religion, and more than seven
lakh viewers. I also state that I am blogging at myresourcefulaunt.blogspot.com
which is a serialized Romantic Comedy. Please follow me there on every Wednesday.
The Unit of measurement
You might not have
forgotten my article, “SAMSAARAM AND SAMSKAARAM”!
Of which Samsaaram
involves the trinity of binding factors, namely maya, or illusion, kama or
desire and karma or action. We have seen in some details, these trinity of
bondage, forming or constituting the ocean of life into which beings are
thrown.
Now we shall see
the interesting facts about SAMSKAARAM. While samsaaram is the ocean of life
into which beings are thrown, samskaaram is the basic unit of measurement of
our actions, as per their good or bad effects. This samskaaram is the minute
unit, for it can be used to evaluate our thoughts and imaginations too. Even
good thoughts and imaginations are important, and they are factored in, even as
the bad thoughts and bad imaginations.
One may ask, so
what? Let our actions activities and other things like imaginations and
thoughts be factored in and evaluated. How would that be exerting a binding
force on us. Indeed that is the fact. All our actions and thinking and
imaginations are evaluated continuously. Even the stray thought gets
automatically factored in. And the effect can be extinguished only by enjoying
the effect of our actions, imaginations and thoughts, good or bad. If our
actions etc are good, in effect we must come back here to enjoy the fruits of
the same. And if the effect thereof is a bad one, we must come here to enjoy
the bad effects. This is proper accounting of actions, etc.
Human beings can
never be able to escape the fruits of their actions, good or bad. Even good
acts bind us to this world, and that way alienate us from our Maker. But that
does not mean good actions too bind, so, let us do anything, and come back here
anyway. The consequences of bad and heinous acts could be disastrous in the
next birth. First of all, there would be no guarantee we would be born as human
beings, and if we come here as beasts or plants, then it would severely retard
our progress by gradation toward God!
So only it is
advised in the Hindu Scriptures to do good actions in place of bad actions, and
Jesus Christ advises to show the other cheek to be slapped. If one takes your
shirt, give him your coat too. Why, because we are suffering from some kind of
schizophrenic conditions? No, to forgive is one of the great acts among good
actions. Likewise prayer, that also is a powerful action. And any positive
thought is a power-loaded action. Light, power and inertia go into the making
of this universe as well as our body. So, let us increase the light in us so as
to drive away the darkness which impel one to indulge in more and more selfish
and heinous actions. But, light too , that is, good actions also bind us, which
elongate length of our worldly sojourn. So, in order to avoid doing bad we have
to do good, and that good actions must be done without any selfishness, without
any expectation of the fruits. So, if someone takes your shirt, give him your
coat too. And turn the other cheek too when slapped on one cheek. This is good
action. But it will bind us too, and we would have to come back here to enjoy
the good effects. But if we must desist from good action, we must do good
actions. We must always indulge, even within our inner self, good thinking and
imaginations. This is to avoid having to
do the bad, which is easy because of the maya or illusion of the SAMSAARAM and
the kama or desire thereof. Without them no action is possible. Without action,
no world is possible, and without good actions there is no way of avoiding
indulgence in bad actions. And in order not to come back here , being tossed
into the worldly life, which is called, SAMSAARAM we have to do good actions
without any expectation of fruits thereof. Selfless good actions do not bind
us, and we may mingle into the Maker.
Thus, samskaaram,
the basic unit of measurement is used by God to measure the actions!
THE REASON
WHY I REPRODUCED THE ABOVE THREE ARTICLES, DEAR READERS, IS TO SPEAK
ELABORATELY ON ISHWAR’S SAMSAARAM AND THE SAMSKAARA. I HOPE I HAVE MADE MY
POINTS CLEAR. NOW LET US CONTINUE WITH MY VIEWPOINTS ABOUT THE VERSE 47 OF THE
BHAGAVAT GITA, IN THE SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE CHAPTER!
As the Lord
says, we have no right is not to work. The Lord plays with words. He ought to
have put, instead, “YOU DUTY IS TO WORK ONLY!”
Why? because,
when we are tossed into this SAMSAARA or the worldly life, which has illusion,
desire and action, we have no right, but duty to indulge in karma or action as
we are beguiled by the illusion that deny us the knowledge of our origin, and
we become victims of desires and this leads us to karma or action. And our
smallest of action or thinking or imagination is measured by the basic unit of
measurement, SAMSKAARAA!
Then where is the room for the so called right to action. We
are duty-bound to act. And, the Lord sports by looking on us as we indulge in
action. He has also given us the right to choose. The other animals have no
such right. We have this golden chain weighing us down. We can choose to act
with expectation of the fruits or with absolutely no privately beneficiary expectations
like Mahatma Gandhi showed recently. Then, the illusory pulls of the prakrity
of Nature would fall off and we will become liberated from rebirths.
The last exhortation is that we should not remain inactive. The
fear of the results of the examination should not make the student to bunk the
exam. We must indulge in the self-ordained duty, and Arjuna should fight,
without expectation of the fruits. Then they would accrue only to God and we
will be liberated!
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