THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER THREE
KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK:
VERSE NUMBER 43:
Text in Transliteration:
evam buddheh param buddhvaa
samstabhyaa ‘
tmaanam aatmanaa
jahi satrum mahaabaaho
kaamaroopam
duraasadam
Text in English:
Thus knowing Him as superior to the intellect, restraining
the self by the Self, slay, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of desire,
difficult to overcome.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
When desire is centred on body, the senses, mind and intellect
the jiva consciousness or individualized little self is fostered. This little
self is ever wrought with misery. Foolishly do people think it is imbued with
happiness. Every happiness associated with the body, the senses, mind and
intellect is bound, sooner or later, to reappear as misery. There is no escape
from it. Atma bodham or spiritual consciousness is to be awakened. Following in
its wake, the body, the senses, mind and intellect have all to serve Atman. The
base desire automatically vanishes; the little self dwindles away; the real
Self emerges; bliss infinitude becomes patent, never again to be clouded. Life
shines in the glory of Atman.
SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
No sooner is a thief
detected than he takes to his heels. When you know the nature of maya it flees
from you.
COMMENTARY BY DR. RADHAKRISHNAN:
Kaama: desire. Control the restless ego by the light of the
Eternal Spiritual Self. He who knows becomes truly independent and asks
guidance from no other power except his inner light.
This chapter expounds the necessity for the performance of
work without any selfish attachment to results, with a view to securing the
welfare of the world, with the realization that agency belongs to the modes of
prakriti (Nature) or to God himself. Such is the view of Yaamunaachaarya.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Restrain the lower self by the higher Self. Subdue the lower
mind by the higher mind. It is difficult to conquer desire because it is of a
highly complex and incomprehensible nature. But a man of discrimination and
dispassion who does constant and intense Sadhana can conquer it quite easily.
Desire is the quality of Rajas. If you increase the Sattvic quality in you, you
can conquer desire. Rajas cannot stand before Sattva.
Even though desire is hard to conquer, it is not impossible.
The simple and direct method is to appeal to the Indwelling Presence (God)
through prayer and Japa.
Comments by the blogger:
We are urged to know the indwelling Self or Atman as
superior to the intellect. Then we are asked to restrain our lower nature by
the higher nature or Self. Then we, the Higher Self, have to slay the enemy in
the form of desire who is very difficult indeed to overcome.
The first question that arises is if we have two selves. Because
we are asked to overcome the (lower) self by the (higher) self!
There is both the Man and the Beast in us; Dr. Jekyll and
Hyde. But the Lord has no fear in differentiating them by giving two words, one
to each. Both the Man and the Beast in us are called simply self. He wants us
to restrain Hyde by Dr. Jekyll. But he simply uses the word self to both.
Because we are both the man and the beast and it is not easy even to ponder to
segregate one from the other. But when we give in to all kinds of base desires
then the Beast in us gains the upper hand. But when we resort to prayer and
worship of the personal deity, gradually our lower nature is transcended. Thus
we are both, sour and sweet. Knowing that the higher self is superior to our
intellect makes things easier. This realization leads us hurtling toward the
Lord for mercy and guidance. We say, Forgive me my Lord/ For things I do/ That
are not kind and good/ And forgive me my Lord and/ Help me to do the things I
should!
Time hangs heavily on our hands. Whether we want to or not,
we have twenty four hours on our hand per day. Moreover, by nature this
Universe is action oriented. And, since we are made of things that go into the
making of the universe, we too are action oriented. This is a difficult situation.
Arjuna wants to go abegging instead of having to slay his kinsmen and Achariya
and his Pithamaha, Dronacharya and Beeshma respectively. But the Lord chides
him for this, as He put it, unmanly proclamation. We have to act, whether we
want to or not, but the nature would beguile us with sensual things and thus
giving fodder to the Beast (self) in us. We have to be constantly on the
tenterhooks and watch out each and every second if we want to not loose out to
the Beast in us. This may sound and look imponderable. But when we appeal to
the Lord within us, after a test by sensual fire in the beginning on the part
of the Maya-illusion-filled Nature, the light of mercy falls on us! There is
also encouragement from the Nature, once we have got over Her beguiling and
sensual tests, and She would make our way towards the Lord and self-realization
or Salvation easy and rosy.
In the samsara-sagara or the ocean of the worldly life we
have kama or desire which ever pushes us to become beastlier than we are or
want to get to be. This desire is born of the illusion of the worldly life. And
this desire pushes us to become action oriented. So there is no help for us. We
have to act. But our action should not pander to the over-mastering and
illusory pulls exerted on us by Nature or Prakrity. On the other hand, we have
to act in a manner that is conducive to the self-realization. This cannot be
possible except when we cringe beg the Lord in us to save us from sin and make
us do things that we should.
Lord Shiva is shown as having a deer under his left arm. The
deer is by nature fickle minded and difficult to master like an Arabian horse
on the run. The deer runs around all sides. But the Lord has the deer firmly
clutched under His left Arm. And we also know the Lord Shiva’s left arm and leg
belongs to His Spouse. Thus the act of clutching the deer under His Left Arm
also denotes His overmastering the sensual nature!
In the ocean of worldly life we have been tossed, says Adi
Shankara. This ocean has illusory pulls. We also come with unquenchable thirst
for desire. This desire makes us action-oriented. And the action must be that
of Dr. Jekyll and not that of Hyde. The only course open to us is to surrender
ourselves to our Lord and pray to Him to conduct us in life in every way. He
wants in the Gita to see Him only in every thing, both animate and inanimate,
both sentient and insentient. If we can do us, then the Lord should make His
prakriti or nature to bend for us and make our ways rosy and a cake walk. The
prakriti or Nature or the Universe is nothing but a school. It educates us. It
constantly tests us. If we persevere it makes our path rosy. Once we graduate
then the Nature shall have no hold whatsoever over us.
Watch a baby play after it has done its Home Work. And watch
him when he hasn’t done his home work and is playing. In the former case he
would play with great sattvic abandon. In the latter case he would be
half-hearted even in his play.
Doing our duty regularly and loving our neighbours even as
we love ourselves, worshipping our lord and surrendering all ours at His Lotus
Feet, then we can enjoy both the worldly life and the life after death. At one
time a day will come we would become one with Him. That is emancipation,
self-realization and Salvation all neatly rolled into one.
Once we become self-controlled enough, then we would love
it. Even when we are among the sattvic people who are fully self-controlled,
slow to speak and devout beyond any flinching question, we feel good. But the
company of bad people bring us an inner irritation and we want to leave their
company. Such is the attraction of the devout people, simple of habits, humble
in attitude, who are calm and composed. That is proof enough that our inner
true self rejoice in killing the waves of desire that agitate us. If our wants
are as few and far between as that of the sparrow, how much light we are filled
with and how others, even strangers cherish our company. Such is the might of
folks who have surrendered their all at the feet of the Lord and are unswerving
in their speech and action. Straightforwardness and truthfulness and calmness
coupled with intense devotion to the Almighty hold the key for freedom.
Otherwise worldly desires and a tendency to pandering to all our whims and
desires and that of our family members bring only sorrow at the end of the
proverbial day. Let us indulge in karma yoga. That is, let us turn the karma or
action into yoga. Or let us, as the Lord wants us, turn the bondage begetting
karma or daily action as according to our avocation into a freedom giving yoga.
May our life be turned into yoga and then no temple would be necessary, for we
would enjoy and be satisfied with our inner Atman or Soul. Being satisfied with
one’s self is the highest form of yoga!
CONCLUSION OF THE THIRD CHAPTER
IN THE UPANISHAD OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, THE KNOWLEDGE OF
BRAHMAN, THE SUPREME, THE SCIENCE OF YOGA AND THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN SRI KRISHNA
AND ARJUNA, THIS IS THE THIRD DISCOURSE DESIGNATED:
KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK
No comments:
Post a Comment