THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 38

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK:

VERSE NUMBER 38

Text in transliteration:

dhumenaa ‘vriyate vahnir yathaa ‘darso malena cha

yatho ‘lbenaa ‘vrto garbhas tathaa tene ‘dam aavrtam

Text in English:

As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo by the womb, so is this covered by that.

 The resplendent Atman is veiled in desire, which is in three grades corresponding to the predominance of the three Gunas. Desire dominated by “Sattva”( this tendency of mind is full of light and higher understanding) guna is like fire being choked with smoke. A little blowing will set it ablaze and the smoke will disappear. Discrimination likewise drives out the thin cloud of “sattvic”(sattvic guna is full of light and discrimination) desire and reveals Atman as it is. some effort is required to remove the dust on a mirror. Even so, “rajasic”(this guna or tendency is action-oriented or full of action) desire demand strenuous attempt for its removal. Lastly “tamasic”( this guna is full of darkness and without discrimination) desire is compared with an embryo in the womb. Time and regulated living are the factors for the embryo to develop and be delivered as a baby. Time and self-preparations are necessary to eliminate the deep-rooted “tamasic”(full of darkness) desire.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

As a patch of cloud hides the blazing sun, maya or illusion in the form of desire hides Iswara. When the cloud disappears the sun becomes visible. When desire disappears Iswara reveals Himself.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

idam: this, this wisdom. (Shankara)

Everything is enveloped by passion.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

This means the universe. This also means knowledge. That means desire.

Comment by the blogger:

God’s illusion is working as the smoke in the fire in the man full of light and discrimination so that he may entertain desire. Of course, his desires would not be like the crude desires of the men full of action and men suffering from the inertia of mind. But even this illuminated desire must be got over in the case of me with full of light and discrimination. Self-effort would not be of much avail. But turning their desires God-ward would help in a great manner.

God’s illusion works like a dust on a mirror in case of people endowed with worldly actions. They mostly take this world for the real and permanent. And after the worldly life, they wish for svarga or Heavenly abode. After that, they wish to come back to earth and continue with the non-stop action. This is laughable indeed. With a little bit of self-effort, they could easily discern that this world only a school shaping human souls to realize themselves so that they become contiguous with their Maker and blend with Him.

The men with a mental inertia are meandering in the world without knowing what to do. In their case, God’s illusion is almost insurmountable. Faith and the long duration and gestation period is their only remedy. Their power of discrimination is enveloped like the embryo in the womb. They need time and they have to return to the earthly life time and time again. but even in their case, a little faith in the dispensation of the Lord and the scheme of the universe would be of great help.

So desire can never be annihilated but can be transmuted and transcended like when the desire for the  worldly thing is changed for the emancipation.

In those days people went into the forests after they attained a certain stage and their children got settled in marital and worldly life. Now-a-days it is not possible. In those days, the whole of Indian sub-continent should have been filled with a few million people. Nature engulfed Man. Now even the fertile lands are converted for building houses. All the natural resources are plundered, with the result the woods have shrunk making way for people's occupation. Animals natural habitat has been interfered with. With the result, for water and food they come into the human habitat and get killed.

Vanaprastha or life in the forests in the advanced age is not possible now.

We need a different kind of Vanaprastha for our elders.

Gautama, the Budha has shown the way. We must attend with unvarying regularity the various Sat Sang activities. The elders must take few and little interest in the way their sons and daughters conduct their house and segregate most of their living time in reading up on the Sacred Scriptures and attend sat sang in the evening. Then their sons and daughters would not feel them to be a burden and consign them to the various elders’ Houses.

Thus in the modern days, Vanaprastha or drawing oneself from worldly life should be modified a little. For such of the forests as we have left untouched cannot provide our elders with fruits and roots to be consumed till death in the forests.