THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 7

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 7

Text in Transliteration:

yogayukto visuddhaatmaa vijitaatmaa jitendriyah

sarvabhootaatma bhootaa kurvann api na lipyate

Text in English:

With the mind purified by karma yoga, and the self disciplined, and the senses subdued, one who realizes one’s self as the Self in all beings, though acting, is not affected.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:                                          

There is a contrast between the earth-bound man engaging himself in action and the soul-liberating karma yogi doing so. Bondage increases in the former and diminishes in the latter. The action of the yogi not being motivated by any desire, his understanding gets progressively clarified. As his desires in all forms get liquidated his self-control tends to perfection. The desirelessness in him gets transformed into clarity of understanding. This clarity itself ultimately becomes the intuition which cognizes the one Cosmic Consciousness apparently appearing as the multitudinous forms of consciousness. Karma yoga itself is karma sanyasa because it brings in these successive stages of spiritual enlightenment.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

An individual has the delusion, “I am the doer” as long as the philosopher’s stone has not converted the base metal his mind into the noble one of the divine eye. When he is in ignorance he entertains the feelings of agency such as “I am the doer this virtual act,” and “I am the doer of this vicious act.” This attitude is the continuation of the wheel of birth and death. But when one realizes God, one is freed from the feelings of agency and bondage. One remains convinced in the truth that God is the real doer of everything.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

He renounces all actions inwardly, not outwardly. Even Shankara admits that such action is quite consistent with the knowledge of Self. Even if he acts for the sake of world-solidarity, he is not bound by actions.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

He who is harmonised by Yoga, i.e., he who has purified his mind by devotion to the performance of action, who has conquered the body and who has subjugated the senses, whose Self is the Self of all beings, he will not be bound by actions although he performs actions for the well-being or protection of the masses in order to set an example to them.  (Cf.XVIII.17)

Comments by the blogger:

The mind should be purified by karma yoga. George Junior Bush and John Mayer decided to invade Iraq. The plausible reason was to find out the poisonous bombs! Well the bombs were not found but Saddam Husain was found out from his underground hiding place after much bloodshed. They promptly hanged him till death. Such of the judicial enquiry and trial and judgment would not stand when the invasion itself was against all the tenets of the International Law. This exacerbated the Muslim community the world over. And this gave an impetus to Muslim fundamentalism and terrorism. As a result, the twin towers in America were razed to the ground. This made the American government shout hoarse for ‘justice’. When Osama-bin-Laden was killed, the cause of justice was sumptuously served. In the meanwhile, the international terrorism became necessary for the Muslim fundamentalists. So Syria happened. Such actions cannot purify the Man. They can only make His life a veritable hell on earth. This is Kali Yuga where justice, private, national and international, is at a premium. But the Lord of Gita wants our minds to be purified by karma yoga or the yoga of action and its renunciation in knowledge. When the international leaders behave in a rotten way, the individuals rot. Rama Rajyam is not a distinct possibility. But it should be a distinct goal. The leaders of the countries should be above blame. Then only there would be peace in the world. but the Bible Culture and the Culture of Quran being what they are, even violent methods of propagation could be justified, and have been justified on the basis of the individual claim, I HAVE FOUND WISDOM AND TRUTH AND MINE ALONE IS WISDOM AND TRUTH, AND THUS IT SHOULD BE MY WAY OR THE HIGH WAY, then even meaningful and peaceful life on earth is rendered impossible.

This is where the Hindu way of life assumes great importance. There is no compulsion thrust on a Hindu to PROPEGATE  his religion. For the Hindu Religion is not dependent on any one single person’s life. It got started by the way of life the Vedic Seers and Sages stipulated a particular way of life. The much talked about Rig-Veda was not a product of one man or woman. It was the product of more than a thousand sages over a long period of time. At the end, the slokas or stanzas were compiled by one great man, namely Viyasar. That was how the Hindu religion started as a way of life. The Vedas and the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutra form the backbone of the Hinduism. The Bhagavat Gita is one of the Upanishads! Today the world needs very much the Hindu way of life. The other two major religions should own up their limitations and should desist from the idea of propagation. All should come forward to follow the Hindu way of life. It is not a religion. It is a way of life. The Yoga Asanas or the yogic postures are practiced by people owing allegiance to all religions. That is only to prepare the body and mind to receive the knowledge and wisdom. But the asanas or the postures are adopted as a life-sustaining remedy for all ills by people the world over! It amounts to missing the wood for the trees. No one individual started Hinduism. The name, Hinduism or the word Hindu was not found out or created by any Hindu master. It was a general nomenclature given by the European Scholars in those days as the main Vedic Civilization started on the banks of the river Sindu!

Our mind should be purified by the yoga of action. The yoga of action is indulging in action non-stop as per one’s swadharma or self-ordained duty without any expectation of the fruits thereof. This is one part of the Hindu way of life. The persons indulging in it are called the Karma Yogis or the Yogis of right action. Self-discipline is part of the spiritual culture of the Hindu India.

There is a universal soul which imparts and crystallizes in each individual being. So seeing one’s self in all beings is the marga or the Hindu Way of life. (For the Christians and the Muslims there are as many souls as there are individuals and other beings like plants and beasts have no soul) One’s work and action must not harm anyone. That is not enough. One should always work for the good of the whole beings of the world which are individual expressions of Brahman or the Ultimate Almighty. Such actions will lose all the binding force and thus such persons will not have to come back to the earth’s plane. This is part of the scheme of the Universe. The Hindu philosophers alone understood Nature for what it is while others got busy in describing how their Gods created this world and the Man. That was why when one man, namely, Charles Darwin, came up with his theory of evolution the Christians started to question the Roman Church. There is much violence inbuilt in the pages of the Holy Quran. It is my way or the High Way for them. Only Hinduism and the Hindu way of life can cure all the ills of the world society and save our planet for the succeeding generations.