THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER 5, SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION, VERSE NUMBER 12

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 5

SANYASA YOGA OR THE RENUNCIATION:

VERSE NUMBER 12

Text in Transliteration:

yuktah karmaphalam tyaktvaa saantim aapnoti naishthikeem

ayuktah kaamakaarena phale sakto nirbdhyate

Text in English:

Abandoning the fruit of action, the yogi attains peace born of steadfastness; impelled by desire, the non-yogi is bound, attached to fruit.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Performance of karma is common to both, the yogi and the non-yogi. But the difference between the two is in the disposition. The feeling of agency to action is no more in the former. Whatever takes place through his instrumentality is the Lord’s work. His steadfastness consists of his mind being released from work and of its being immersed in the Lord. In this state of the mind there is no anxiety; there is calmness instead; the mind gets itself steadily purified. It becomes fit for enlightenment. On the other side, the non-yogi gets entangled in work; anxiety is on the increase in him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

Cp. Emerson:

               “Teach me your mood, O patient stars;

                 Who climb each night the ancient sky

                 Leaving on space no shade, no scars,

                 No trace of age, no fear to die.”

yuktah. Or disciplined in action:

santim. When the peace of God descends on us, Divine knowledge floods our being with a light which illumines and transforms, making clear all that was before dark and obscure.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Santim naisthikim is interpreted as ‘peace born of devotion or steadfastness’. The harmonious man who does actions for the sake of the Lord without expectation of the fruit and who says, “I do actions for my Lord only, not for my personal gain or profit,” attains to the peace born of devotion, through the following four stages, viz., purity of mind, the attainment of knowledge, renunciation of actions, and steadiness in wisdom. But the unbalanced or the unharmonised man who is led by desire and who is attached to the fruits of the actions and who says, “I have done such and such an action; I will get such and such a fruit,” is firmly bound.    

Comments by the blogger:

The Lord rephrases already said and explained. And since the Lord’s words were like nectar in his tortuous mind, Arjuna cannot have enough of it. This how the various stanzas re-posited in this chapter or discourse must be taken. And there is virtue in repetition which is the key. When we get to hear repeatedly we think constantly about it and when we think constantly about something we become it. That is why the divine Tamil poet, Tiruvalluar said some two thousand years back that whatever we think let it be of high meritorious things. Man is man because he thinks and he becomes what he constantly thinks.

Performance of actions is common to both the yogi and the non-yogi. For no one, even for a moment live without action unless he has practised the consciousness-less state which is called “Sooniya”. If one is able to practise Sooniya or void state in thought and imagination, where not even a stray thought or imagination takes place, no one who has come to the earth’s plane can remain action-less or without entertaining any action either external or internal. Even for the practitioner of Sooniya where no external or internal action takes place, the practitioner has to breathe and his digestion process would be going and blood would be coursing through his veins and and the parts and organs like kidneys would continue to work. Food assimilation itself is a work. Thus no one can escape action.

But the yogi has the art and knack of discrimination and non-attachment everywhere that he goes through his self-ordained duties as the actions of Eshwar and without any stake in the fruits of his actions and thus turns binding actions into a yoga and fetches self-realisation whereas the non-yogi, with his heart full of desire to the fruits of his actions, becomes attached to them and thus become bound. He repeatedly comes to earth’s plane of consciousness.

Then, most of us being non-yogis, what is the hope for us? Here the Hinduism scores over other religions. It believes strongly in rebirths. And the two principal religions, the Christianity and Mohammedanism loses out by not going through the Scheme of the Universe. It fails to understand that for the right kind of people the Universe is just a beautiful thought by the Great Lord. And for non-yogis, it is very much real and material. The above-said two religions do not speak about refined and free yogis. They call the illusion as Satan. It is Satan who constantly works against God and the Satan takes revenge upon the Lord by besmirching His created beings by taking them toward the worldly paths and gross worldly enjoyments. Christianity considers all the human beings as sinners. Because of the Doctrine of the Original Sin! The Mohammedanism accepts the Old Testament. Thus they treat all human beings as sinners. And wants to beg God through prayers for deliverance by indulging in actions acknowledged by their Scriptures alone. They don’t believe in rebirths and thus make the Lord as a heartless being. Which is very very deplorable. God gives all human beings umpteen number of opportunities through rebirths to refine constantly oneself.