THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER TWO
SAMKHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE
VERSE NUMBER42
Text in Transliteration:
yaam imam pushpitaam vaachm pravadanty avipascitah
vedavaadartaah paartha naa ‘jyad asti ‘ti vaadinah
Text in English:
The unwise who
delight in the flowery words disputing about the Vedas say that there is
nothing other than this.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Unwise people who are lacking in discrimination lay great
stress upon the Karma Kanda or the ritualistic portion of the Vedas, which lays
down specific rules for specific actions for the attainment of specific fruits
and extol these actions and rewards unduly. They are highly enamoured of such
Vedic passages which prescribe ways for the attainment of heavenly enjoyments.
They say that there is nothing else beyond the sensual enjoyments in svarga
(heaven) which can be obtained by performing the rites of the Karma Kanda of
the Vedas.
There are two main divisions of the Vedas—Karma Kanda (the
section dealing with action) and jnana Kanda (the section dealing with
knowledge). The karma kanda comprises the Brahmanas and the Samhitas. This is
the authority for the Purvamimamsa school founded by Jaimini. The followers of this
school deal with rituals and prescribe many of them for attaining enjoyments
and power here and happiness in heaven. They regard this as the ultimate
object of human existence. Ordinary
people are attracted by their panegyrics. The Jana Kanda comprises the
aranyakas and the Upanishads which deal with nature of Brahman or the supreme
Self.
Life in heaven is also transitory. After the fruits of the
good actions are exhausted, one has to come back to this earth-plane.
Liberation or Moksha can only be attained by knowledge of the Self but not by
performing a thousand and one sacrifices.
Lord Krishna assigns a comparatively inferior position to
the doctrine of the Mimasakas of performing Vedic sacrifices for obtaining
heaven, power and lordship in this world as they cannot give us final
liberation.
VERSE NUMBER43
Text in Transliteration:
kamaatmaanah svargaparaah janma karma phala prdaam
kriyaa visesha bahulaam bhogaisvarya gatim prati
Text in English:
Who are desire-ridden, who hold the attainment of heaven as
the goal of birth and its activities, whose words are laden with specific rites
bringing in pleasure and lordship
COMMENTAY BY SWAMI
SIVANANDA:
Full of desires, having heaven as their goal (they utter
speech which is directed to ends) leading to new births as the result of their
works, and prescribe various methods abounding in specific actions, for the
attainment of pleasure and power.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
(VERSE NUMBERS 42-43)
The undiscerning who rejoice in the letter of the Veda, who contend that there
is nothing else, whose nature is desire and who are intent on heaven, proclaim
these flowery words that result in rebirth as the fruit of actions and (lay
down) various specialized rites for the attainment of enjoyment and power.
The teacher
distinguishes true Karma from ritualistic piety. Vedic sacrifices are directed
to the acquisition of material rewards but the Gita asks us to renounce all
selfish desire and work, making all life a sacrifice, offered with the
devotion.
Cp. Mundaka Upanishad., I, 2,10. “These fools, who believe
that only the performance of sacrificial ritual (ishtaapoortam) is
meritorious and nothing else is meritorious, come back to this mortal world,
after having enjoyed happiness in heaven.” See also Isa Upanishad., 9,12; Katha
(Upanishad) II, 5. The Vedic Aryans were like glorious children in their eager
acceptance of life. They represent the youth of humanity whose life was still
fresh and sweet, undisturbed by disconcerting dreams. They had also the
balanced wisdom of maturity. The author however limits his attention to the
karmakaanda of the Veda which is not its whole teaching. While the Veda teaches
us to work with a desire for recompense whether in a temporary heaven or in a
new embodied life, buddhiyoga leads us to release.
VERSE NUMBER 44
Text in Transliteration:
bhogaisvarya prasktaannaam tayaa ‘pahrrtachetasaam
vyavsaayaatmikaa buddhih samaadhaou na vidhtyate
Text in English:
There is no fixity of mind for them who cling to pleasure
and power and whose discrimination is stolen away.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHVANANDA:
The desire-ridden
are those who have not risen to ethical and spiritual levels; they are the
unrefined among the human. Their sole aim in life is to hunt after vulgar
enjoyments here and hereafter. Their learning, enquiry and power of speech are
all directed to this base end. The ritualistic portions in the Vedas pander merely
to the low tasted of the crude happiness-hunters. Rites of this kind in the
Vedas are useful to only those who seek to prolong the wheel of birth for the
sake of several enjoyments. Though the Vedas are the oldest literature in the
world, all that they contain are not sublime and elevating. The needs of the vulgar
are also met in them.
Enjoyment of
pleasure and happiness is not the goal of the human life. The attainment of
perfection is its supreme object. The means for it is to be absorbed in samkhya
and yoga. Rituals simply distract the mind. Samadhi cannot be from them.
SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA QUOTES FROM SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS FOLLOWS:
“The vulture soars high up in the sky. But its eyes are
always on the carrion and carcass below on earth. However much one may be
leaned in the Vedas, as long as one’s eyes are fixed on sense-pleasures one
acts like a vulture. Spiritual enlightenment is not to the one given to lust
and greed.”
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
They will not have
the one-pointedness of mind in God. The intelligence which is intended to be
well trained is seduced from its normal functioning.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Those who cling to pleasure and power cannot have steadiness
of mind. They cannot concentrate or meditate. They are ever busy n planning
projects for the acquisition of wealth and power. Their minds are ever
restless. They have no poised understanding.
VERSE NUMBER 45
Text in Transliteration:
traigunya vishayaa vedaa nistraigunyo bhavaa ‘rjuna
nirdvandavo nitya sattvastho niryogakshema aatmavaan
Text in English:
The Vedas enumerate
the three Gunas. You transcend the three Gunas, O Arjuna. Be free from the
pairs of opposites, ever-balanced, unconcerned with getting and keeping and
centred in the Self.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Prakriti (Nature) or
the phenomenal universe is here designated as the Vedas; and this is the correct
definition. The compiled literary works, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are aso
called Vedas, because they deal with the working of the universe. They help the
aspirant to understand intellectually, the function of Prakriti. So far, they
are indispensable. When the Vedas are said to be imperishable, it refers to
Prakriti which is eternal and not to the books which run the risk of being
destroyed or neglected. More than all these, it is “prakriti” (Nature) that is constituted of the three
Gunas—Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
To be Prakriti-bound is not the goal of the enlightened
human life. While the life here is entangled, what is beyond is unfettered. The
means to get into it is also presented herein. Heat and cold, pain and
pleasure, gain and loss, victory and defeat—duals such as these are called the
pairs of opposites. They are inevitable in the phenomenal existence. When a
person refuses to be affected favourably or adversely by these happening and
when he maintains his even-mindedness, he is said to be making progress in
self-culture. The term “yoga-kshema” requires to be clarified. “Yoga” is the
act of seeking for the needful earthly things and “kshema” the act of keeping
carefully, such of the things procured. But the spiritual aspirant ought to be
unconcerned with getting and keeping them. Such is the law of spiritual life. The
aspirant deviates from the path when he gives undue attention to getting and
keeping them. As all beings get, as a matter of course, the air they require
for breathing, the spiritual aspirant gets his bare bodily requirements without
effort. Such is the law of spiritual life. The aspirant deviates from the path
when he gives undue attention to getting and keeping them. As one gets his
being centred in the Self, he transcends the phenomenal existence.
COMMENTARY BY
DR.S.RADHAKRISHNA:
“nityasattva”, Arjuna is asked to stand above the modes and
be firmly rooted in the sattva. This is not the mode of sattva which Arnuna is
asked to go beyond, but is eternal truth. Shankara and Ramauja, however, take
it to mean the sattvaguna. Ritualistic practices necessary for the maintenance
of worldly life are the results of the modes. To gain the higher reward of
perfection, we must direct our attention to the supreme reality. The conduct of
the liberated, however, will be outwardly the same as that of one who is in the
sattva condition. His action will be calm and disinterested. He acts with no
interest in the fruits of action; not so the followers of karmakaanda of the
Veda.
“Yogakshema” is acquisition of the new and preservation of
the old.
“aatmavaan”: be possessed of the self , ever vigilant.
Apastamba declares that there is nothing higher than the possession of the
self. To know the spirit which has neither commencement nor decay, the Spirit
which is immortal, to know Him whom we do not know is the true end of man. If
we suppress this side we are slayers of the self, to use the phrase f the
Uanishad.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Guna means attribute
or quality. It is substance as well as quality. Nature (Prakriti) is made up of
three Gunas, viz., Sattva (purity, light or harmony), Rajas (passion or motion)
and Tamas (darkness or inertia). The pairs of opposites are heat and cold, pleasure
and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, honour and dishonour, praise and
censure. He who is anxious about new acquisitions or about the preservation of
his old possessions cannot have peace of mind. He is ever restless. He cannot
concentrate or meditate on the Self. He cannot practise virtue. Therefore, Lord
Krishna advises Arjuna that he should be free from the thought of acquisition
and preservation of things. (Cf., IX. 20,21)
VERSE NUMBER 46
Text in Transliteration:
Yaavaan artha udapaane sarvatah samplustodake
Taavaan sarveshu vedeshu braahmanasya vijaanatah
Text in English:
To an enlightened Brahmana all the Vedas are as useful as a
tank when there is a flood everywhere.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
It is evident that a tank containing water is very useful in
a place where water cannot be had from any other source. But nobody ever pays
any attention to such a tank in a locality submerged everywhere with pure
water. Likewise the Vedas and the scriptures are of use to those who are still
in ignorance. By faithfully following the sacred books happiness can be
obtained on earth and in heaven which are both in the region of the phenomenon.
But the various spheres of relative existence become meaningless to the one
illumined with “Brahma-jnanam”. It is infinite beatitude. All earthly and
heavenly happinesses are mere rays of that endless brilliance. The food
consumed in dream does not nourish the body; whereas what is consumed in the
wakeful state gives succour both in the wakeful state and in sleep. Likewise
“Brahma-jnanam” which leads to the absolute existence enriches the
prakriti-bound relative existence also abundantly.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA;
Only for a sage who has realised the Self, the Vedas are of
no use, because he is in possession of the infinite knowledge of the Self, This
does not, however, mean that the Vedas are useless. They are useful for the
neophytes or the aspirants who have just started on the spiritual path.
All the transient pleasures derivable from the proper
performance of all actions enjoined in the Vedas are comprehended in the
infinite bliss of Self-knowledge.
Comments by the blogger:
In the two verses 42 and 43, Sri Krishna speaks about the
unwise (or fools, to be blunt and straight) and the desire-ridden people; they,
according to Him take delight in the flowery words of the Vedas, and are fond
of disputations and say there is nothing other than the Vedas ( the actions and
sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas); this kind of people hold that the words of
the Vedas are the ultimate. And they are also desire-ridden; and they hold the
attainment of heaven as the ultimate goal of birth and its activities. These people
only speak of words laden with specific rites bringing in pleasure and
lordship.
We can compare the fools and the desire-ridden described by
the Lord in these two verses with “the Joy of the Kurus”, namely Arjuna, as
referred to in the verse 41, because Arjuna is imbued with incomparable concentration.
So he could be the joy of his race, for he could rein his worldly desires and
concentrate on the everlasting Moksha as distinguished from the ephemeral
worldly pleasures and lordship.
The lord does not talk about those who can benefit from the
Vedas and concentrate on the attainment of the atonement with him. Whoever
concentrate on those ephemeral and transitory pleasures are unwise or fools and
desire-ridden. And the Lord does not criticise this kind of people.
Then on whom the mistake and insufficiency fall? On the in
false and insufficient and foolish and the desire-ladden seekers or the Mighty
Vedas, the Indisputable Mother to all the Hindu Scriptures that were brought
down some four thousand years ago by the Vedic Seers and the Sages? The ocean
is there. One might sit or stroll on the shore enriched by the rich and pure
air, or commit suicide by falling into it. But there are others who create
crafts and boats and ships to ride the mighty waves of and use it for their
livelihood. And there are others who wright immortal songs about the ocean. Can
one find fault with the ocean for those who commit suicide either wantonly or
in foolishly trying to swim in the ocean without knowing anything about the
power of the waves and currents and die in the end?
The Mighty Vedas are more than the seven seas of the world! Even
according to the tentative and unproven words and estimates of the scholars the
world over, the Vedas are more than four thousand yeas old? Especially the
Rig-Veda. And it has stood the test of the time and tide and proved immortal. The
Rig-Veda is the world’s fully acknowledged oldest written piece of literature! All
the philosophic thoughts and “darsanas” of the ancient India were spawned by
the Vedas. They are the basic philosophy even for those, like Gautama, the
Buddha, who did not accept the authority of the Vedic pronouncements, the basic
inducement for differing disputations like his Dhammapada, the Vedas are the
foundation. The Buddha’s disputations is against the Rig-Veda, out of which
other Vedas came, and thus it gives him something to think and analyse as a
basis.
But they are the minorities. For other “Darsanas” Vedas
provided the foundation to develop further thought and form different philosophies,
while still accepting the ultimate authority of the Vedas!
So the Lord Krishna’s criticism is not against the Vedas as
much as the wrong users thereof. Vedas have
the karma kanda and the Janana kanda, and , while the karma kanda speaks much
about rituals the Janana kanda is pure philosophy.
But my viewpoint is, even the karma kanda full of
ritualistic sacrifices and rites for obtaining various benefits here and
hereafter in the heaven cannot be judged as idle men’s idle thoughts. In that
distant time they had sat and meditate and found out the everything about the
universe. While the modern scientists like Charles Darwin found out the
evolution of the organic species a few hundred years ago, the Rig-Vedic Saints
and Sages found out the Law of the Universe and the relationship of the Man
with the universe several thousand years ago!
They found out the Law of the universe and understood that
Man has to return here after death from different lokas or worlds, each with a
differing consciousness, to which man has to go after death. Who were they who
could cushion the life in heaven by the acts of various sacrifices? Ordinary souls?
Never! Never has Man been proved to have laid down such a wonderful system of
tenets and rites for various sacrifices to cushioning the life not just here
but in the other worlds after death! When? 4,000 years ago! But the modern Man
is not still able to see and understand the size of this universe, and the
number of planets even after the development of such modern technologies and
Hubble Telescope and radars, etc, etc.
Do we know the properties of the elements to the extent the
Rig-Vedic saints understood? They found out that Agni or Fire had special
properties. They understood all the properties of the Agni or Fire and prayed
the Element as the god! They asked the god Agni to come and preside over the
sacrifices. They understood the properties of the earth, fire, air, water and
the sky. They knew the sky, among the five elements, was totally actionless,
and is useful as the carpenters unmoving anvil for shaping out other lengths
and pieces of metals; and they understood the god Agni could bring the
offerings and oblations to other elemental gods and as well as the souls of the
deceased forefathers of the hosts of the sacrifices. They knew the Agni god has
the property of understanding and travelling between different worlds and
interact with all the elemental gods and the our deceased forefather’s souls in
which ever plane of consciousness they might have attained to. ( I have written
a series of articles on the AGNI in the
Google + and my Gmail ID is kraguram55@gmail.com
and please read them for further elucidation).
The Vedas are criticised for so many hymns in praise of the
elemental gods for the good things of life. But no one could deny that these external
sacrifices alone were internalized by the latter Upanishadic Saints and Seers
and the result was the Vedanta philosophy. The upanishadic god, the Brahman is
not a discovery, but the understanding through the Veidic binoculars! And the
Upanshadic saints want us to eschew all external sacrifices and turn our
attention inward so the internalized sacrifice could bring us not just near to
the Brahman, the Creator of the Universe, but make us equal to Him and one with
Him.
Ultimately came the Lord Himself to reconcile all
disputations and various darsanas and bring out the essence of all the
Upanishads in the form of Bhagavat Gita! Gita and the Bramha Sutras are the
Grand Children of the Vedic Grand Fathers, whose sons were the Upnishadic
saints. It is but natural to lay down new law and present the old philosophy in
a new way, and in the course, find some faults in the Grand Fathers’ Tenets. Only
in the Hinduism this kind of Lordly chiding is possible. No one is afraid of
questioning even the Creator of the Universe. And continuous research and new
ways of presentation have always gone hand in hand in the Hindu System of
Philosophy which has been a relentless search after the Ultimate Truth. In the
course of which, this Lordly Chiding occurs in these two verses, namely 42 and
43, as stated above.
In the verse 44 the Lord continues to argue that there is no
fixity of mind for them who cling to pleasure and power and whose
discirimination is stolen away by material pursuits and overlordship. The verse
45 contemplates this universe itself as the Veda (veda means to know), and describes
this universe has three gunas.
This was understood by the Rig-Vedic saints who correlated
Man’s constitution with that of the Universe; that man also has the three gunas
and his body is likewise, constituted of the five elements. And the Bhagavan
Krishna wants us to transcend the three gunas, as the Brahman has no notion of
guna or time. So also are we. The earth’s life is just a transitory dream and
He urges not to spend too many rebirths and elongate our salvation. For this He
gives us the path and that is trying to free us from the airs of opposites.
Verse 46 is just a reshaping of the teachings contained in
the verses from 42 to 45. The Lord says that to an enlightened Brahmana all the
Vedas are as useful as a tank when there is a flood everywhere. To the one who
has attained Self-knowledge and become one with God, even the teachings
contained in the Gita should and will become redundant. The Lord knows this, but
only in the Hinduism this kind of utterance is possible. To the one who has
realised himself, all the Scriptural Texts should be just as good as any other
books made up of printed papers!
Bold research and unflinching questioning and the fearless
posit are known to no other religion as the Hinduism!
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