THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 01

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER FOUR

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 01

Text in Transliteration:

                            sri bhagavaan uvaacha

 imam vivasvate yogam proktavaan aham avyayam

vivasvaan manave praha manur ikshvaakave ‘ braveet

Text in English:

                              The Blessed Lord said:

This imperishable yoga, I declared to Vivasvat; Vivasvat taught it to Manu, Manu told it to Ikshvaku.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Moksha or the spiritual emancipation being imperishable, yoga or the means to it is also designated as imperishable. Man’s endeavours for emancipation are everlasting. Vivasvat is the name of Surya, the sun god. Manu is the ruler immortalized by his smiriti—the code of conduct. Ikshvaku is the first among the kings of solar dynasty. When the rulers of kingdoms come to know of this supreme wisdom they tackle the worldly problems more diligently.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Vivasvan means the sun. Ikshvaku was the son of Manu. Ikshvaku was reputed ancestor of the solar dynasty of Kshatriyas.

This yoga is said to be imperishable because the result or fruit, i.e., Moksha, that can be attained through it is imperishable.

If the rulers of dominions possess a knowledge of the yoga taught by Me in the preceding two discourses, they can protect the Brahmanas and rule their kingdom with justice. So I taught this Yoga to the Sun-god in the beginning of evolution.

Comments of the blogger:

This sloka or stanza deals with the Lord’s teaching this immortal Yoga first to the sun-god, who in turn taught it to Manu the Ruler and known for his Act or Smriti. Manu, in turn, passed it down to Ikshvaku, the Ruler of the Solar dynasty.

Should we believe this?

How could the sun, which is just one of the planets, gaseous albeit, of the Universe, be taught?

The Vedic Saints and Seers worshiped the Natural forces. They understood there was a close relationship between the Heavenly Bodies and Man. They were the first among the mankind, irrespective of the glorious Nature Worshipers in Egypt and elsewhere, to have found out this abiding interrelationship between the various planets and the Five elements and Man.

It is said in the Prachna Upanishad that in the beginning God, wanting to create beings, went into meditation and created the Sky and the Prana or Shakti or Power or energy. It is further said that God thought that these two, the Sky and Energy will create for Him the world. And it is further said that the sun is the external form of Prana or Energy or Power. Thus it is clear that all the living beings of our world derive their energy only from the sun. Since the sun is the externalized form of the kinetic energy the sun was properly marveled at and worshiped by the Rig-Vedic Saints. The Upanishadic Seers only continued the tradition. This energy is not only power but also wisdom and Knowledge which is indicated in the form of Yoga.

The sun has shakti or kinetic energy and also the Agni or Fire. In this regard it would be useful to think back on my series of Articles on Agni:

The sun light is the Agni. Agni was worshiped by Vedopanishad Saints and Seers as a God. The great contribution to the knowledge of the world is born of the Arians’ discovery of the properties of the Agni or Fire. Everything moves because of the sky and the sun. And there is a close relationship between Agni or fire and the sky and the planets in it. The Vedic Saints found out the fact that Agni or Fire holds knowledge of all other beings and non-beings and acts as the Messenger at the time of Yagya and take the things like melted butter and other things poured in to the fire of oblation to the other intended gods of Nature. Thus no sacrifice was possible without Agni or Fire.

Then in the Upanishadic period when the external sacrifice was internalized, Agni’s knowledge and its character and role as a messenger got to be recognized. In the Upanishadic parlance this earth is a karma boomy or where individuals’ karmas are worked out and the individual’s life is nothing but a sacrifice. The oblations are desires of various worldly nature. The Atman or the Soul is full of light, one of the properties of Agni or Fire. When our whole life is seen as a sacrifice the Agni within us is the understanding and as we become more and more bereft of various desires, the power of Agni is thoroughly sensed and felt. And at the time of death, when the Agni leaves our body, it becomes cold. And it is Agni who conducts our Astral body (every thing as senses, mind, intellect and Atman) to the loka or the world or the plane of consciousness our worldly life and sacrifices deserve. It is Agni which makes us enjoy joy and sorrow in the nether world. And it is the Agni which helps our Atman to take a new body. The balance sheet of our acts and the good and bad are monitored by the Agni with the help of the samskaras or the basic and infinitesimal unit of measurement of the good and bad of our acts and thoughts and even imaginations.

Thus Agni is knowledge and wisdom of God and it works along with the Sky.

Since our worldly life has been rightly found out by the Upanishadic Saints, Agni is the source of all sharpness and knowledge. This knowledge of Agni is called by the Lord as the imperishable Yoga. Thus it stands to reason that the Lord first taught this imperishable Yoga to the Sun which is the source of externalized knowledge in the form of Fire or Agni.

What is the wonder? These properties were discovered by the Rig-Vedic Saints and Seers some four thousand years ago, as per the scholars’ calculation.

Manu was an author of the Act which stands in his own name. Besides he was a ruler. And it is very important that the Rulers must be full of Yogic knowledge so that they can rule the country well with the help of the interpreters of the Sastras, the learned Brahmins. The knowledge was taught to every one by Agni. Here the Lord mentions Manu as the Archy type. Every human being gets his knowledge of Yoga which means the right action by the sun or Agni. So there is no wonder in Manu having passed down this imperishable Yoga to Ikshvaku, the founder of the solar dynasty and a great King.   

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 43

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

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE ACTION, OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 42

 THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

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

VERSE NUMBER 42

Text in Transliteration:

indriyaani paraany aahur indriyebhyah param manah

manasas tu paraa budhir yo buddheh paratas tu sah

Text in English:

The senses are said to be superior to the body; the mind is superios to the senses; the intellect is superior to the mind; and what is superior to the intellect is Atman.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A thing subtle is always superior to another, gross. The senses, five in jumber excel the gross body. Mind dominates over the senses and so it is superior to them. Intellect comes above the mind in that it decides while the latter merely feels. Atman supplies light to the intellect itself and therefore it is above all these instruments utilized by it.

The skin and other coverings of a fruit are of varying grades. The interior sheaths progressively assume more and more of the characteristics of the pulp which is the main factor in it. Similarly, in the make up of man the subtle organs are more akin to Atman, than the gross.

Desire clings more tenaciously to the subtle than to the gross. Attachment to the body easily gives place to the attachment to the senses; from the senses it shifts to the mind; from the mind it rises to the intellect. Attachment to all of these categories leads to bondage and brings untold misery to the embodied.

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

Katha Upanishad., III, 10; see also VI, 7. Consciousness must be raised step by step. The higher we rise the more free we are. If we act under the sway of the senses, we are least free. We are freer when we adopt the dictates of manas; still more free when our manas is united with buddhi; we attain the highest freedom when our acts are determined by buddhi suffused by the light from beyond, the self.

This verse gives us a hierarchy of levels of consciousness.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

When compared with the physical body which is gross, external and limited, the senses are certainly superior as they are more subtle, internal and have a wider range of activity. The mind is superior to the senses, as the senses cannot do anything independently without the help of the mind. The mind can perform the functions of the five senses. The intellect is superior to the mind because in is endowed with the faculty of discrimination. When the mind is in a state of doubt, the intellect comes to its rescue. The Self, the Witness, is superior even to the intellect, as the intellect borrows its light from the Self.

Comment by the blogger:

This sloka or stanza of Bhgavat Gita starts from the phrase. “They say that” and goes on adumbrate what has been said in the Upanishad. Sri Krishna has extracted the nectar from the milk cow which indeed are the Upanishads. To give credit to the saints and seers of the Upanishads by Sri Bhagavan Himself is most beautiful.

The Upanishadic seers give fulsome credit to the Vedic saints and say they have had the advantage of seeing the truth perched as they were atop the spiritual shoulders of the Vedic Saints and Seers. And the beauty is the Vedic Saints also give credit to the wisdom of their own forefathers. The researchers have concluded that Vedic period existed some four thousand years from now. But the assessment is not conclusive. Bala Gangadhara Tilak takes the Vedic period further back. And he has given irrefutable and scientific facts and data to prove his point. Swami Vivekananda says that whatever be said of the time of the Vedic Seers, the Rig Veda was brought into the worls some nine thousand years from now.

Such is the hoary past of the Hinduism. For thousands of years, there have been uninterrupted and stupendous research into the state of the created Man, the Universe and the Creator and the relationship existing between them in this holy land.

The gross must always loose out to the subtle. The crude oil must yield ground, in terms of usefulness and potentiality, to Kerosene oil. And the kerosene oil must yield unhesitatingly ground to the petrol which must yield place to the gaseous form of petrol, and this must yield ground to the highly refined petrol used in airplane engines.

The subtler always gains ground over the gross.      

The Hindu saints have found out that when we die, what perishes is only the gross body. And the astral body with senses, mind and intellect go up, in layers with the Atman for the core, to the nether world. There the astral body enjoys or suffer, thus work out some karmas akin to that strata of consciousness and then come back to this gross world, taking a new body to further work out the remaining karma. In the course of which it acquires new karmic effects and thus there is a chain effect. To put to an end or reduce the number of births and deaths we are advised to not yield much ground to gross desires which are sinful in as much as they elongate the time and increase the number of rebirths, thus postponing our salvation or soul-realization.

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 41

 THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

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

VERSE NUMBER 41

Text in Transliteration:

tasmaat tvam indriyaany aadau niyamya bharata rshabha

paapmaanam prjahi hy enam jnaanavijnaana naasanam

Text in English:

Therefore, O eminent of the Bharatas, mastering first the senses, slay it—the sinful, the destroyer of knowledge and realization.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

When the protecting fort is taken by storm, the enemy’s position becomes vulnerable. It is easy to subdue him then. Lay hold of the senses, mind and intellect using them for divine causes and desire is thereby done away with.

A clear grasp of the teachings of the scriptures is classified here as knowledge. Intuiting the Reality is realization. Both of these become impossible to a man of worldly desires. The splendour of Atman gets smothered by desire, which is therefore condemned as sinful. The conqueror of desire is indeed a hero. Lord Siva’s burning Cupid to ashes is a mythological exposition of the conquest of desire.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

What is maya? It is none other than the desire that obstructs the spiritual growth of the aspirant.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

The wisdom of the Vedaanta and the detailed knowledge of the Samk may be meant by jnaana and vijnaana. Shankarar explains jnaana as “knowledge of the self and other things acquired from the scriptures and the teachers,” and vijnaana as “the personal experience, anubhava, of the things so taught.”

For Ramanuja, jnaana relates to atmasvarupa or the nature of the self and vijnana to aatmaviveka or discriminatory knowledge of the self. In the translation here given jnaana is taken as spiritual wisdom and vijnaana as logical knowledge.

Sridhara supports both the interpretations.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Jnana is knowledge obtained through the study of scriptures. This is indirect knowledge or Paroksha Jnana. Vijnana is direct knowledge or personal experience or Anubhava through Self-realistion or Aparoksha Jnana. Control the senses first and then kill desire.

Comments by the blogger:

We have to first master the senses before slaying them. Because, senses are sinful and destroyer of knowledge and realization. Here Arjuna is called as the one eminent of the class, Bharatas from whom India derived its name, Bharath.

The whole Universe is made of five elements, namely, water, earth, air, sky and fire. The human beings and other animals are also made of these five elements. What is there in the Universe is in us individually. Between our breasts is a heart-cave or simply cave. This cave is different from the human heart. The heart-cave contains our Atman and the whole Universe. The universal sky is not encapsulated there, but each of us is bearing the sky within our heart-cave in the same proportion as we have outside of in the universe. We individually are abundant expression of the Lord, our Maker.

Senses, human and animal, are useful in seeing and understanding the outside Universe. Without the senses we cannot live even for a minute. Eyes are important to see ourselves and other things and people. ears are important to hear and understand others’ speech and other Natural sounds. Mouth is important to eat, and without eating and drinking animal and human life is not possible. Nose is important to both smell as well as breathe. We can go without food and water for a few days. And in India thirty million people do this trick, who are so impoverished that they do not know where there next meal, if at all, will come from; but we, none of us, go without breathing even for a few minutes. The consequences will be fatal. But with the nose we smell. Without our skin we cannot touch and feel anything. Wind can be felt by our skin and heard by our ears, but cannot seen by our eyes. So without the senses nothing here can go on. Life itself is utterly impossible without the senses.

But the Lord Krishna files a white paper about the demoralizing character of the senses and asks us to first master them only to slay later!

What is the trouble, indeed?

Since man has been given a choice as to how he would conduct his life here on earth, when Man makes a pig of himself He comes down heavily on those who misuse senses. Senses are more than like electricity. Even electricity, when misused kills man. But senses’ power of annihilation is more than that of electricity; it does not kill the Atman but almost do it. Atman, in its very nature, does not suffer any action upon. But the realization of soul get for ever elongated and postponed for yugas or for ages.

God loves us so much that it almost hurts Him!

He does not want us to postpone soul-realization for ever. So he urges us to utterly kill the senses! This is like the mother threatening to “skin” the little brat who has been up to something undesirable!

This apart, a stage will come through our millennial births and deaths when we will evolve into ascetics. The Lord knows the slow progress we make, and the cumbersome process involved in the course of evolution spiritually. He wants to quicken this process. Otherwise senses are not completely to blame. We need not even slay them. We only need to use them sparingly. And we must become so very devout that our senses must be put in the service of the Lord.

For this reading the scriptures and attending the satsangs  or communal worship are primary musts. We are receptacles to hold God consciousness. Since the misuse of the senses leads to indescribably endless danger through ever increasing chain of birth and death, God speaks like the mother of the brat who threatens to “skin” him!      

THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 40

VERSE NUMBER 40

Text in Transliteration:

indriyaani mano buddhir asyaa ‘ dhishthaanam uchyate

etair vimohayaty esha jnaanam aavrrtya dehinam

Text in English:

The senses, the mind and the intellect are said to be its seat; by these it deludes man by veiling his wisdom.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The fort that protects the enemy has to be spotted out before siege to it. The foe of desire has usurped the fort of the heart of man. He has captivated the senses, mind and intellect. Perforce he makes them serve his base pleasures. The mind is made to cogitate on covetous concepts. The mind is made to cogitate on covetous concepts. The intellect is directed on designs that are vulgar. These instruments that are evolved to serve to serve the Supreme are, alas, utilized in profligacy.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

 The mind directed to sensuous things is like a holy man living in the midst of hooligans, or like a wealthy living in a slum.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

If the abode of the enemy is known it is quite easy to kill him. so Lord Krishna like a wise army general points out to Arjuna the abode of desire so that he may be able to attack it and kill it quite readily.

Comments made by the blogger:

Desire deludes the embodied, us. The seats of desire are senses, mind and intellect. The wisdom as to one’s real nature (Thou art That) is veiled; not annihilated. In Hinduism there are umpteen number of chances through reincarnations. All men and women are individual expressions of God. There is no permanent annihilation as such. The only thing is how soon you are able to reach Godhood; become one with the Lord, that is. Though senses, mind and intellect are three different things, a single thing as unflinching devotion to the Lord or the Dhevi will spiritually fumigate all and drive out the deluding desire. Senses will feel about the greatness of the Lord through the eyes, ears, mouth, nose and the touching sensation; mind will be focused on the Lord and we will derive happiness only in speaking about the glory of the Lord. The intellect will marvel at the greatness of the Lord. Thus the devotion is the panacea for all ailments caused by the virus, desire. Whatever we do we must think of the Lord and glorify Him. Hinduism is very unique in that it takes into consideration all sorts of people according to their preponderating guna or tendency, and prescribe the correct yoga as medicine. Devotion is common to all. And it is a panacea for all our ills. We have already seen seeking has been at the base of the evolutionary process.   

  

THE HOLY GEETA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 39

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

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

VERSE NUMBER 39

Text in Transliteration:

aavrtam jnaanam etena jnanino nityavairinaa

kaamaroopena kaunteya duspoorenaa ‘ nalena cha

Text in English

Knowledge is covered, O son of Kunti, by this insatiable fire of desire, the constant foe of the wise.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Desire grown to the stature of greed is a destructive force and an enemy to all human beings. But the ignorant among them who come under its sway hold it as a helpful friend. Whenever a set back and humiliation ensue from it, the destructive force of desire is momentarily detested as a treacherous factor in the make up of man. But this feeling vanishes as quickly as it dawns. The unwary ignorant choose to ally with it always. But the case of the knowing man is different. Both while under the influence of desire and while holding it in abeyance the wise man views it as his sworn enemy. He likes no alliance with it. Still, in spite of him, it steals into his heart assuming innumerable forms and trying to allure him. it is therefore the constant foe of the wise.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The indicator in the balance moves away from the middle point when there is more weight on one side. The mind of man moves away from God allured by the weight of lust and greed.

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp.  “Desire is never satisfied by the enjoyment of the objects of desire; it grows more and more as does the fire to which fuel is added.”

na jaatu kaamah kaamaanaam upabhogena saamyati

havishaa krshnavartmeva bhooyaevaabhivardhate.

                                                               Manu, II, 94.

Cp. Spinoza: “For the things which men, to judge by their actions, deem the highest good are Riches. Fame or Sensual pleasure. Of these the last is followed by satiety and repentance, the other two are never satiated; the more we have, the more we want; while the love of fame compels us to order our lives by the opinions of others. But if a thing is not loved, no quarrels will arise concerning it, no sadness will be felt if it perishes, no envy if another has it, in short no disturbances of the mind. All these spring from the love of that which passes away. But the love of a thing eternal and infinite fills the mind wholly with joy, and is unmingled with sadness. Therefore it is greatly to be desired, and to be sought with all our strength.” De Intellectus Emendations. The fundamental social crime is appropriation in any form whatever, class privilege, race discrimination or national egotism, for it involves pain to others. There is no answer to Wordsworth.

    “Never to blend our pleasure or our pride

     With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.”

                                                                    Hart-Leap Well.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Manu says, “Desire can never be satiated or cooled down by the enjoyment of objects. But as fire blazes forth the more when fed with Ghee (melted butter) and wood, so it grows the more it feeds on the objects of enjoyment of objects of enjoyment. If all the foodstuffs of the earth, all the precious metals, all the animals and all the beautiful women were to pass into the possession of one man endowed with desire, they would still fail to give him satisfaction.”

The ignorant man considers desire as his friend when he craves for objects. He welcomes desire for the gratification of the senses; but the wise man knows from experience even before suffering the consequence, that desire will bring only troubles and misery for him. so it is a constant enemy of the wise but not of the ignorant.

Comments by the blogger:

Knowledge is covered by the insatiable fire of desire. It is, as per the Lord’s words, the constant foe of the wise.

Here desire is rightly compared to insatiable fire. Why insatiable? The fire can never be extinguished. But there is an important statement in this stanza that harks back to the Upanishadic Maha Vakya, namely, THOU ART THAT. Thou are the Lord. In other words, the Lord is inside of you, and it is for you to realize Him. Though not every one has got the power to discern the fact, every single individual is the abundant and full expression of the Lord. That is why the Maha Vakya or the Great Sentence of the Upanishad proclaims, “Thou art that”. Every individual is God. The meanest beggar on the street, the most violent rapist and the victim are all the individual expression of the Lord. Then what is the problem? Not everyone is in possession of the knowledge that he or she is God! Though every one is God, he or she has to realize the fact.

There is a common lore which holds that for a long time a beggar was seated on a mound of soil and went studiously about his work and vocation of begging. He had to lead an abject life. And one day he died and some good souls took his body and commended the same to the fire. After the funeral rights were over, they went away. After a long time, to broaden the street the mound of earth the deceased beggar had seated for a long time had to be dug up. It was then gold ornaments and many lacks of rupees were found in thalis beneath the mound on which the abject beggar had lived and spent his life!

This is how even after the Sastras or the Scriptures have proclaimed in the unequivocal words that THOU ART THAT we are unable to realize the fact. For, this knowledge is engulfed by the constantly flaring fire called desire. A desirous mind never keeps silent. It is agitated like the surface water of the ocean. Only when the desires for this worldly things cease and the waters is not agitated, we can see what is beneath the surface water. Our knowledge needs to be realized. Until then, despite of ours being God, we cab never enjoy the qualities and attributes of God.

Till the insatiable fire goes on crackling, we cannot see into and enjoy our godhood.

In this stanza, the Lord calls Arjuna as the son of Kunti. In every stanza Lord calls and describes His student, Arjuna, in various ways. Here he calls him as the son of kunti. Kunti is of high-class birth. So Arjuna and the rest of the Pandavas belong to the high class. Their station in society also harks back to the way they think and act. They are wise people. For such wise people, this insatiable fire of desire is a constant enemy, rendering them unable to realize their real Godhood. They are co-extensive with the Lord. Even though they are wise, they are singularly unable to realize the fact of their being the Lord Himself or individual expression of God.

For others who are not knowledgeable, like that beggar who spent a lifetime sitting on the mound of earth and the riches beneath, this question of constant enemy or in other words, the insatiable desire is their constant and continuous enemy rendering them unable to realize who indeed they are does not simply arise.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

  

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. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OR ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 37

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER THREE

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

VERSE NUMBER 37:

Text in transcription:

                   Sri bhagavaan uvaacha:

kaama esha krodha esha rajoguna samudbhvah

mahaasano mahaapaapmaa vidhy enam iha inam

Text in English:

                     The Blessed Lord said:

It is desire, it is wrath begotten by the Rajo-guna: all-consuming, all-sinful, know this as the foe here on earth.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Desire is the most destructive foe of man. When this desire is obstructed it transforms itself into wrath. The Lord, therefore, treats both as one. It takes its origin in Rajas and aggravates it further. As fire cannot be satiated by feeding it with fuel, desire cannot be appeased by supplying it with sense-objects. The more it gluts, the more it craves. Sin increases in direct proportion to desire. It is, therefore, Satan, the arch-enemy of man.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Time and again man gets humiliated because of his being victim to lust and greed. Still, he is unable to recoil from them and give his thought to God.              

 COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Bhagavan: Bhaga means the six attributes, viz., Jnana (knowledge), Vairagya (dispassion), Kirty (fame), Aishvarya (divine manifestations and excellences), Sri (wealth) and Bala (might). He who possesses these six attributes and who has a perfect knowledge of the origin and the end of the universe is Bhagavan or the Lord.

The cause of all sin and wrong action in this world is desire. Anger is desire itself. When a desire is not gratified, the man becomes angry against those who stand as obstacles on the path of fulfillment. The desire is born of the quality of Rajas. When desire arises, it generates Rajas and urges the man to work in order to possess the object. Therefore, know that this desire is man’s foe on this earth.(Cf. XVI. 21)

Comments by the blogger:

Bhagavat Gita is not for those who are spineless. It takes a lot of intellectual and spiritual spine to understand the Lord’s words.

Even Gautama, the Buddha attained salvation when he intuited that it is the desire which is at the root of all sorrow of human beings.

Here the Lord of the Gita says desire is the enemy of Man; that it is the desire which gives rise to Rajo Guna or tendency of the mind; that desire begets wrath. Or wrath is nothing but the unfulfilled desire.

Surely, when a man desires something and another man creates a stumbling block then the desire gives birth to wrath only. But this is not to mean Man shall not have any desire. For, desire is at the root of creation.

There is a spiritual lore about how in the very beginning the Lord Shiva created nine Rishies or Ascetics known as Sabtha Rishies and thought they would propagate and create the world. But, when after many years, when the Lord came to see them, all the nine Ascetics were in ecstatic condition having individually immersed in deep tapas or meditation on the Lord! It was then the Lord understood the need for the worldly men and women to propagate and create the world!

Thus, if everyone becomes devoid of desire, the very purpose of creation would be set at naught. Still, the Lord says desire is the enemy of the human beings! This is because He has abundant faith in the discrimination of His student, Arjuna. And another thing is that He wants us to not become overly addicted to desires. There should be moderation in everything.

Part of samsara, as we have already seen, is the  desire which leads to karma or work. Man will cease to work if he becomes bereft of desire.

For getting over this dichotomy the ancient Hindus had divided human life into Brahmacharya, studentship, householder and then at last sanyasa. Thus the childhood is spent in the house of Acharya or Guru or Teacher and when, after a man attains marital stage, he can either renounce the world or marry a girl, and then will start life as a householder. This obviously involves earning money and wealth and begetting children. And at last, when their children become old enough to be married, they shall see their children are properly married and settled in life, then the old couple would retire into the forest and spend their lives there eating fruits and uncooked roots only. This fourth state is called Vanaprastha or life in the forest.

Thus even Great Rajas took to Vanaprastha once the crown prince was crowned as the Raja or king and went into the forests to indulge in meditation.

This was how Man conquered desire. Moderate desire is a must for the continuity of the world.

Since He has full confidence in His student’s ability to understand with discrimination, He is afford to indulge in superlative utterances. Some slokas or stanzas in the Gita can stand alone as all-comprising, while some need to be understood in consonance with the general Plan and Scheme of the Lord for the Universe.  

The trick is not to check unholy desires violently, but to create the healthy desire on the Lord's Holy Feet. This will erase all the tendency to entertain bad and unholy desires throughout our lives. And sticking to once spouse without desiring for variety, lust may me got over. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE TOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 36

THE HOLY YOGA

CHAPTER THREE

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

VERSE NUMBER 36

Text in Transliteration:

                         Arjuna uvacha

Atha kena prayukto ‘yam paapam carati purushah

Anichann api vaarsneya balaad iva niyojitah

Text in English:

                                            Arjuna said:

But dragged on by what does a man commit sin, unwillingly though, O Varshneya, constrained as it were by force?

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Sri Krishna is here addressed as Varshneya because of his coming of the Vrishni race.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Anicchannapi; even against his will. This is what Arjuna feels, that a man is forced to do things even against his will. But it is not really so. Man tacitly gives his consent as the use of the word kaama or craving by the teacher in the next verse indicates. Shankara says; what we speak of as the prakrti or the Nature of a person draws him to its course only through attachment and aversion.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

“Varshneya” is one born in the family of the Vrishnis, a name of Krishna.

Comments by the blogger:

Is there a force which constrains a person to indulge in sin? Yes! There is a force in the Prakrity or Nature which bewitches and beguiles man to indulge in sin. Man has to make his own choice. A person comes across a number of things in life. Any number of things and incidents occur to him in his day to day life. A person goes to the temple to worship the Lord and he chances upon a bundle of rupees or a gold necklace. It is up to him to what to do. The choice is that of his. He can strive to find for signs as to the ownership of the same and take the trouble to restore the money or the ornament. Of he can simply hand the thing over to the police. Or he could take the same and make a private use of the money or ornament. These are the choices available to him. of all the choices, the last one is made by the Prakriti or Nature as being more useful and attractive than the others. This is because of the Kama or Desire involved in the human life in the Prakrity.

We have already seen that life in the prakriti is known as Samsara which involves Kama too. Kama or desire is one of the vital motivating force which makes human life on earth possible. It is just a matter of choice, someone says. Not to make use of this choice is not easy. The very fact Man has been given five senses and Prakriti or Nature has got in abundance sense objects, with a rider that one should rise above the pulls of sense objects and to make a yogic plan for emancipation or self-realization.

In the Upanishadic parlance, there is a lore: there are two birds on the branch of a tree; one bird eats the fruits of the tree. And the fruits are sweet and sour. And the other bird, without any incline as to take part in the repast, just sits there on the branch and WATCHES  the eating bird. The non-eating bird is our inner soul. Our soul does not partake of the life of eating, drinking, and other sensual enjoyments of the ordinary sense-object objectified life.

God gives us fruits and the capacity and tremendous inclination to enjoy them. At the same time, He has given the power to ignore them in favour of His society. He expects tremendous will power and a way of life of giving and ignoring from us so as to clothe us with the wherewithal to pine for His society. But Nature puts too many hurdles and beguiles with charms the practitioner of yoga in the beginning. At this stage, Nature acts as a courtesan. She bewitches the God-bound man. But Man should not cower and fall a prey to the charms of Nature. This initial charms of the Nature is called and dubbed as Satun by the Christians and the Muslims. But this tendency of the Nature is onely one part as per the scheme of the Creative Master. Another part is to facilitate the diehard practitioner who stands in the path of seeking Godhood without swerving and giving in for the sensual pleasures. Then Nature shows a different face, her real face; she is an ecstatic mother in feeding from her breasts of jnana or the quintessence of wisdom that makes the practitioner to take the world rightly as a chimera and the only real is the ultimate Brahman.

So, Arjuna puts the right question only. We are beguiled by Nature in our samsara or worldly life to indulge in the passing show which is the general appearance to the seer, but for others sensual and ultimate.

Witness the number of numberless persons among the Hindus who queue up to pay up a hefty amount of money to various temple authorities conducting Latcharchana or invoking the Lords Graces by singing his names for one lake times. This is nothing if not for an enjoyable stint in the Heavenly life after the individuals’ death. So, the sensual desires and pulls are not exhaustive for them. They do not want to seek as per the yogic sastras or Books on Yoga for permanent emancipation but pour gee in the oblational ability to fetch more and greater sensual enjoyment in the heavens! Such is man’s desire. Such is man’s compulsion like a moth which seeks its own emancipation at the flame of the lighted lamp.

Arjuna puta a very pertinent question on his and our behalf and we should thank him for that!  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 3, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION, VERSE NUMBER 35,

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 35

The Text in Transliteration:

sreyaan svadharmo vigunah paradharmaat svanusthitaah

svadharme nidhanam sreyah paradharmo bhayavahah

Text in English:

One’s own dharma, though imperfect, is better than the dharma of another well discharged. Better death in one’s own dharma; the dharma of another is full of fear.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Man’s nature is to have recourse to what gives pleasure and to recoil from what gives pain. Arjuna’s temporary set back illustrates this position. From boyhood onwards he had been trained for the dharma of a ruler and a warrior. He delighted in being trained that way, because it was his own duty, svadharma. The impending righteous war demanded his fighting against the revered grandsire, which he did not like; he even hated it. At this juncture he preferred to be a recluse, subsisting on alms. Nothing good accrues to one by changing one’s svadharma, prompted by fear or hatred. Abandoning one’s duty and embracing that of another, enticed by ease and pleasure are equally harmful. Vacillation of the mind is born of weakness; it depraves man more and more. Steadfastness to duty on the other hand, strengthens man and aids the building of character.  Constancy is life and vacillation death. Through firm devotion to duty, man gains in excellence. Arjuna was about to lose his manliness through a change of dharma. Even if he had lived a hermit’s life as best he could, his conscience would have been clouded: and that was worse than death. He would have proved himself a coward if he had changed his dharma. Man should always evolve in the makeup best suited to him.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A professional farmer does not lose courage and continues to cultivate even if there be a terrible drought for twelve long years. But a weaver who takes to tilling for a change of occupation gets disheartened if rain fails for one season. A true devotee does not deviate from the path of devotion for any reason whatsoever. In life and death he relies on the Lord.

A note by Swami Sidbhavananda:

In chapter two stanzas 62 and 63 and in chapter three stanza, 34, the root cause of all evils has been unmistakably pointed out. Still Arjuna raises that question again here for further elucidation:-

COMMENTARY BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:

There is more happiness in doing one’s own work even without excellence than in doing another’s duty well. Each one must try to understand his psychophysical makeup and function in accordance with it. It may not be given to all of us to lay the foundations of systems of metaphysics or clothe lofty thoughts in enduring words. We have not at all the same gifts, but what is vital is not whether we endowed with five talents or only one but how faithfully we have employed the trust committed to us. We must play our part, manfully, be it great or small. Goodness denotes perfection of quality. However distasteful one’s duty may be, one must be faithful to it even unto death.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

It is indeed better for man to die discharging his own duty though destitute of merit than for him to live doing the duty of another though performed in a perfect manner. For the duty of another has its  pitfalls. The duty of a Kshatriya is to fight in a righteous battle. Arjuna must fight. This is his duty. Even if he dies in the discharge of his own duty, it is better for him. He will go to heaven. He should not do the duty of another man. This will bring him peril. He should not stop from fighting and enter the path of renunciation.

The blogger’s opinion:

Men and women take birth according to their own cumulative karmic effect and the thought at the time of breathing their last. In which we are indulged throughout our life shall form the last thought at the time of death. And even in the case of persons who die in their sleep or accident or unconscious state, the effect of their cumulative thought and actions are important. So, the reincarnation is determined by what we were and did and thought in the previous life. And there is another karma as sachintha, the cumulative but latent effect of un-worked out karma; this also has a say in determining our next birth.

Thus the family into which we are born, the kind of parents and brothers and sisters we have, apart from the relations and our friends. Our karma to be worked out in the next birth would also be dependent on such persons’ influence on our psyche.

Thus there is nothing accidental in our birth and station in the present birth. Among the four varnas or classes of persons like the Brahmin, Chathriya, Vaisya and shutra is predominantly determined in this birth by the summum bonum of the thoughts and actions of us in the previous birth.

Now svadharma or the self-ordained duty is determined by our birth, family, relations and friends and our own preponderating guna in the previous life. Thus we determine our own svadharma or self-ordained duty in the present birth. Then how can we swerve from actions and thoughts not in consonant with our present station and state of birth in the present life without incurring the necessary incidents of fear and doubts?

It is better to deal with our own duty ordained by our state of birth and station in society than trying to meddle with others’ svadharmic or self-ordained duty. For when we deal with our own svadharmic duty, there is excellence even when performed half-heartedly. And, likewise, there is fear and doubt when we surrogate another man’s svadharma and even when we show excellence in his svadharmic duty we are left to whistle in the wind and we are not sure of our vocation. For, vocation is determined by our predominating guna or tendency.

Even a shutra should have evolved from the Ape. Even a Brahmin should have been born in some previous birth as a shutra carrying out the menial acts, as we see.

For, among actions, nothing is menial and derogatory and decadent. It is our false sight and belief that make them to look so.

This was why our first Governor General, Shri Rajagopalachari fondly called as Rajaji, introduced a scheme of education that prevailed upon students to follow school education in the forenoon and go back home in the afternoon to learn the vocation of his parents. He thus had, at one stroke, had set at naught the forces that latter brought in debilitating unemployment. His laudable scheme was demeaned as KULA KALVI OR AN ATTEMPT TO PERPETUATE VARNASIRAMA OR THE FOUR CLASSES OF THE SOCIETY AS ENVISIONED BY THE LORD HIMSELF. AND RAJAJI  RESIGNED FROM HIS POST AS THE CHIEF MINISTER OF TAMIL NADU!

The predominant tendency of ours is determined by our actions, thought, desire and the last thought at the time of death in the previous birth. And this predominant tendency also determines out guna or tendency to act. And, as a result, we are made to act without fear or doubt in this birth in the state of birth and station in society.

Thus, it can be seen, our svadharma or self-ordained duty is nothing but our own creation.

This is how we are geared and wired to doing certain acts without much of an exertion while some actions are not easy for us. What comes naturally to us is our svadharma. And we should practise that art or craft or other actions carefully so that we could show greater and habitual excellence in the carrying out of such actions and vocation.

There is nothing demeaning about being a shutra or a vaisiya or a chathriya, and nothing rare and rarefied comes to be attached to a Brahmin just because of his incident of birth. If he does not show tendencies and follows vocations as according to his Brahminical status now, he would have to go down in his state and station and incidents of birth next time.

Let us follow what comes naturally to us. For that comprises our svadharma. Let’s not ape other’s dharma or duty.

What is material in the final analysis is not how best we carried out our vocation or self- ordained duty but with what attitude and with how much ease.

For, every one has on his or her hands 24 hours a day and time hangs heavily on our hands. We must be like a sparrow in being and going through life without any care even as we carry out our self-ordained duty without much of an exertion. It counts for much! 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER THREE, KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF WORK, VERSE NUMBER 34

Dear followers of this site and blog,

Pardon me for the interregnum in which I had vanished from these pages. Hereafter you would get to be reading regularly. And that’s a promise!

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

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

VERSE NUMBER 34

Text in Transliteration

Indriyasye ‘ndriyasyaa ‘rthe raagadveshau vyavasthitau

Tayor na vasam aagacchet tau hy asya paripanthinau

Text in English

Attachment and aversion of the senses for their respective objects are natural; let none come under their domination; they are verily his enemies.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA

Life in the body and in the senses is not an end in itself; it is only a passing phase. Senses have been serviceable for the evolution of the subhuman into the human. Now the goal for the human is to evolve into the divine. Senses are stumbling-blocks to it. They are therefore labeled the enemies of a  spiritual aspirant. They require to be transcended. It is from attachments and aversion that they get their power to function. When these dualities are done away with, the senses cease to be enemies. Likes and dislikes are created by the egoistic attitude. When this hurtful attitude is changed into the helpful devotional attitude, likes and dislikes melt away; the senses in their turn get tamed down.

The function of the scriptures is to exhort man to change his attitude from the base to the noble. When the life for the individual is converted into the life for the Lord, the senses cease to be enemies.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA

When can desire and hatred, the enemies of man be destroyed? These propensities of the mind prove themselves enemies when directed to worldly affairs. They become allies when directed Godward. Desires for worldly things must be converted into the desire for God. Let man be annoyed with God and agency with Him for not revealing Himself. Desire and anger cannot be totally destroyed, but they can be transmuted; then they become harmless.

SWAMI SIVANANDA

Each sense has got an attraction for a pleasant object and aversion for a disagreeable object. If one can control these two currents, viz., attachment and aversion, he will not come under the sway of these two currents. Here lies the scope for personal exertion or Purushartha. Nature which contains the sum total of one’s Samskaras or the latent self-productive impressions of the past actions of merit and demerit draws a man to the course through the two currents, attachement and avertion. If one can control these two currents, if he can rise above the sway of love and hate through discrimination and Vichara or right enquiry, he can conquer Nature and attain immortality and eternal bliss. He will no longer be subject to his own nature now. One should always exert to free himself from attachment and aversion to the objects of the senses.

The blogger's opinion;

While studying Gita one should have a deep faith in the rightness of the Lord’s words and our limitations to understand Him fully. Since the Lord is teaching not for the caviling and doubting Thomases but for persons and humble but daring students like a faithful Arjuna, He is not afraid of saying things like, “for they (the five senses) are his veritable enemies.”

Is it a sin if I love my daughter and hate the brat who plunged some sharp instrument into the innards of Nirbaya on her last bus ride? Isn’t it natural for me to hate the rapists of Nirbhaya? But yet the Lord says attachment and aversion are my two enemies! On a bird’s view of things said by the Lord, it would appear as hypocrisy. This is exactly why we need able commentators like Swami Chidbhavananda and Swami Sivananda. The former speaks about the serviceability of the senses in the day to day course of the life of Man. The later speaks about subjugating the senses so their services may be directed to the Lord.

And both mean one and the same thing!

We cannot subjugate senses while still immersed in the crass worldly life. For example, every man can form desire a beautiful wench but can anyone be commanded to make love to an ugly leper with wound all over her body which emanates a smell typical in her case! Leave that, can even a good and perfect man be forced to ministrate to a leper?

But a Mother Theresa could do it with ecstatic love and affection! How? In what way she was different from others? The answer is not far to seek. While ministering to the lepers and the depraved was her act born of love for Her God, we cannot escape from subjectivising the whole thing.

But don’t we have a right to lead a good life? Is it a sin to eat beef while there are thirty crore poor people in India who just don’t know wherefrom their next meal would come from? Certainly no. We have a right to maintain our body and keep it fit for our vocation. But should we make pigs of ourselves in the midst of such a wholesale impoverishment predominantly fostered and maintained by the ruling family which ruled this accursed country after independence for so very long a time?

Jesus Christ says there shall be a moderation in everything.

The senses have a tendency to invade into our humane nature and turn us into a selfish prisoners of theirs. That is why we should exhibit moderation in everything. Moderation in the ultimate act of love-making is to live with one’s own spouse till the last breath!

Too much attachment to our senses make a pig of ourselves, while moderation converts us into living saints!

Why should I turn into a saint and not content with going through life as ordinary average man and woman feeding our senses?

Our senses are at once our own friends and arch enemies; in so far as they can take us toward a beast or God.

This is where God, our maker, scores easy-effortlessly over even as great creative writers like Shakespeare! For God gives his characters in His effort to write the millennial story of humanities time and time again much freedom and an essential personal choice, much different from ordinary creative writers among human beings! He endows us with five senses and sends us to the earthly plane. The baby’s attachment to mother’s breasts and the divine nectar of breast-milk is only the beginning! In live, in every course of life and in every way of doing things, He gives us much choice so personal that we can become saints or downright  sinners! The creator doesn’t seem much to care about his creations and the way they act in this world!

But God cares for each of his created beings and non- beings.

This world is a Kurukchethra, a battlefield and a daily and day-today personal war has to be waged by God’s individual characters, beings and non-beings. This is the reason why there is much wrong in this world. The world is not a perfect place of Eden. Both the saints and sinners occupy this world. This world shall never be a well-oriented and ideal one! The word is incomplete. The daring Master is continuously writing the story of evolution. While the evolution on the physical plane is over, it is still continuing in the spiritual field. In God’s world,  both the saints and sinners have equal opportunities to do as they wish and equal right to occupy and evolve.

But one thing is sure, the theory of evolution is not complete and Darwin's theory is much faulted one. God is the ultimate creator among the creative artists and his creation is teeming with anachronistic characters numberlessly, so to speak!

The world was never conceptualized as a completed picture though it was drawn by the Master Craftsman.

This is why there are so many dichotomies.

This incomplete world harks back to the battle field at Kurukchetra; for, it was occupied by both saint, sinners and ordinary men working out their karma in between the two levels! 

VERSE NUMBER 33 OF THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

Hi, Friends, I was writing a blog by name, THE HOLY GITA. FOR QUITE SOME DAYS THERE WAS AN ABSNSENCE OF CONTRIBUTION. SO NOW I MAKE THE CONTRIBUTION THROUGH THIS DOMAIN.

Hi, Friends and devotees, there have been some unavoidable circumstances necessitating some inconvenience to the followers of this blog. Actually, in the interregnum, I was indulged in publishing a collection of 34 short stories as a book under the title, namely, “The Cookies Jar”. In my long search, I came upon the  Notion Press in Chennai helping the writers in India who want to self-publish their creative writing.  was a labour of love, it consumed all my spare time, because of which, I could not continue this blog. I have successfully published the book and having done so I have turned returned to you. Sorry for the unintended inconvenience caused to the followers of this blog. Most of you would be Net Savvy. But I am not. So, for the friends who are like me, let me say that if you type Notion Press in the Google search engine you would arrive at the domain of the press that published my short stories book, namely, The Cookies Jar, and then all you have to type is K. Raguram, The Cookies Jar. You can order the book containing 156 pages and  the MRP is just 160 Indian Rupees.

Now back to The Holy Gita!  

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 33

Text in Transliteration

sadrsam cestate svasyaah prakrrter jnaanavaan api

prakrtim yaanti bhootaani nigrahah kim karisyati

Text in English

Even a wise man behaves in conformity with his own nature; beings follow nature; what shall restraint avail?

 COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Some plants grow tall and slender while others shrubby and stout; some fruits taste sweet while others bitter. The varying nature of the vegetation cannot be changed, but they can be augmented and enriched. Variation in nature is much more in the human than in the other species. Dispositions are divergent even among the enlightened. One is an introvert and another is an extravert. A saint is given to devotion and a sage to discrimination. The yogi disciplines the mind while the man of action lovingly serves mankind. Attaining perfection is their thread of unity in the midst of mental variation. No violence should be done to the vagaries even in saints. Each must be allowed and encouraged to evolve in line with his temperament.

The earthy among men are bound fast to things mundane. Obstructing their ways avails nothing. Inducing them to evolve ways avails mundane. Obstructing their worldly ways avails nothing inducing them to evolve in tune with their nature aids their growth. Slow of their nature is the greatest service that can be rendered to them.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

An individual complained to Ramakrishna that he found it impossible to turn his mind Godward. It was asked of him as to what was the thing of being that he loved most. The man pondered for a while and said that he was inordinately attached to a goat that he reared. A suggestion was made to him to that of that goat as imbued with divinity and meditate on it. The man did so and had his mind slowly turned Godward.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

prakriti is the mental equipment with which one is born, as the result of the past acts. This must run its course. Shankarar thinks that even God cannot prevent its operation. Even He ordains that the past deeds produce their natural effects.

Restraint cannot avail since actions flow inevitably from the workings of prakrti and the self is only an impartial witness.

This verse seems to suggest the omnipotence of nature over the soul and requires us to act according to our nature, the law of our being. It does not follow that we should indulge in every impulse. It is a call to find out our true being and give expression to it. We cannot, even if we will suppress it. Violated nature will take its revenge.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

He who reads this verse will come to the conclusion that there is no scope for man’s personal exertion. It is not so. Read the following verse. It clearly indicates that man can conquer Nature if he rises above the sway of Raga-Dvesha (love and hatred)

The passionate and ignorant man only comes under the sway of his natural propensities, and his lower nature. He cannot have any restraint over the senses and the two current of likes and dislikes. The seeker after Truth who is endowed with the four means, and who is constantly practising meditation can easily control Nature. (Cf. XVIII. 59; IIl 60; V, 14) 

Comments by the blogger:

Not only beings but great souls have their own natural proclivity. There is a saying; “There is no Muni who is the same as others”. Ramana Maharishi mostly kept silent, though he was very much in the midst of people. Ramakrishna Paranhansa spoke much, and in the midst of people, but he was not an erudite person like his illustrious disciple, Swami Vivekananda. When the ascetics generally wanted lay people and importantly the practitioners of Yoga to eat less and be very moderate eating habits. But Swami Vivekananda advised young men to eat more and maintain their body, so it would be like iron with steel like sineuis and nerves! Kanchi Mahan, Sri  Chandrasekarendra Saraswati, fondly called by devotees as periyava (the eldest) was in constant touch with people and like Adi Shankara walked all over India, while there are and were Munis who would prefer the unattainable caves in the Himalayas and reside even after great attainments and emansipation!

We just can’t account for the varying aspects and gunas of the saints. If that be so, what should be the case of ordinary folks like you and me!

We come into this earth’s plan due to the effect of actions and activities, various commissions and omissions, with varying gunas or nature. The prakrity or the Nature of the world also has been made of three gunas. So, even after self-realisation, great munis are having their own individual nature.

Sri Krishna utters this to put in mind of us the kind of pulls exerted on us by the Nature’s illusion. We are all creatures totally helpless until we surrounder ourselves to the Lord and praying him go through life carrying out our swadharma or self-ordained duties.

{As I have said, I have published a book of collection of 34 short stories for all age groups through the Notion Press at Chennai. Please buy my book whose price is minimal, namely, Indian Rupees160 only. You can either place orders at one of the online shops or write to the Notion Press directly, and the postal address is as follows:  Notion Press, old No.38, New No. 6, Mcnichols Road, Chetpet, Chennai-600031, Tamil Nadu, India. And you can get your copies of “The Cookies Jar” by K.Raguram through parcel post. I have also started a blog in the name of the book, “The Cookies Jar”, and request you all to visit the same.} 

VERSE NUMBER 32 OF THE KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 32

Text in Transliteration:

ye tv etad abhyasooyanto naa ‘nutisthanti me matam

sarvajnaana vimadhaams taan viddhi nastaan acetasah

Text in English:

But those who carp at my teaching and act not thereon, deluded in all knowledge and devoid of discrimination, know them to be ruined.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Fire hurts the one who mishandles it and it cooks food for another who utilizes it properly. Losers are they who do not know of this law of nature. Moral and spiritual laws are not different from the laws of nature. Those who avail themselves of these laws progress and prosper, while those others who defy and break them come to grief and debasement.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUATED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Cats claws and teeth are benevelont to its kitten and malevelont to the rat. Similarly “maya”, the power of the Lord, is beneficial to His devotees and harmful to the malefactors.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The pig-headed people who are obstinate, who find fault with the teachings of the Lord and who do not practise them are certainly doomed to destruction. They are incorrigible and sensless persons indeed.

Comments by the blogger:

This is not to castigate those who do not follow the Lord’s teachings but carp at him, but to put the fear of God in them and rein them.

The very nature of the embodied or the soul is emancipation or self realization. But by carping at the Lord’s teachings brings in its wake indescribable problems to the embodied, in the sense it almost indefinitely postpones the chance of self realization. For, those disbelivers and who carp at the Lord’s teaching may be compared to take to walking towards the goal of emancipation, while the believer’s voyage toward realization may be compared to the speed of a rocket! Because the Lord loves us so much that it HURTS HIM and makes HIM use words and epithets like “ doomed to destruction”.

In Hinduism there is no room for permanent damnation. On the other hand, the scheme of the Universe presupposes that there should be thousands of re-births a soul must suffer by coming here time and time again embodied in ever new bodies. Even the Agnostic religion like the Buddhism accepts the concept of re-births.

The lord loves us so much that he castigates us, takes a stick and beat us with by saying such things like “permanent destruction or damnation”.

On the contrary, it is the Lord’s word that people follow HIM from all paths. And every being from the ant to man is in search of that permanent and cloyless satchit maha Ananda. So it would be contradiction in terms even to allude to permanent damnation. Still the Lord uses for obvious reasons.

HE wants us to come to HIM using a minimal number of re-births.

And the carping fools certainly manufacture “almost” endless re-births; re-birth presupposes non-realisation of our self which pains the Lord who earns for us.

This is how this kind of slokas must be understood. We must go for the larger context, keeping in mind the scheme of the Universe which is here only to act as a school to make us gain knowledge in gradation.

Books like Geeta are not for weak-minded and the doubting Thomases. We must be strong in our faith, and that unflinching faith alone matters in the ultimate analysis.