The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita - 4.6. Swami Krishnananda.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, October 05, 2020. 6:37.PM.

Chapter 4: Duty – An Empirical Manifestation of True Being-6.

----------------------------------------------------------------

1.

Now I revert for a few minutes to what I told you a little earlier – that we are born with a duty, perhaps we die with a duty. We need not be frightened about the word 'duty', as we might be, due to a mistaken understanding of the meaning of the word 'duty'. This is the reason why we are asking for privileges and rights rather than be willing to do our obligation to others, or do our duties. We have created a feeling in our minds that a duty is something imposed up on us by others. "This is something which I will not do if I am entirely free." But you cannot be entirely free until you do your duty – here is the answer to your question. Don't say, "I shall not do anything if I am totally free." That freedom cannot be bestowed upon you; it is unthinkable if you are not to do your duty. Duty and freedom go together – I have mentioned it already, sometime back.

2.

Now, the duty that you are expected to perform in the world is not something imposed upon you by a government, or a social mandate from outside. It is the law of your own nature expecting you to do what is necessary, under the very structure of your own individuality, or jivatva – your personality. I go back to the analogy of the limbs of the body. You cannot even exist unless there is cooperation among the limbs of the body; there will be dismembering of your body, there will be a complete dislocation of the limbs, and there will be total destruction and an end of your existence itself. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Na   hi   kascit    kshanam  api   jatu    tishthaty   akarmakrt,

Karyate   hyavasah    karma    sarvah    prakrtijair   gunaih." Gita- Ch-3. Slok-5.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tatvam ( Essence ) of  Slokam-5.

Slokam-5.  Lord's reply  ( continues from slokam-3. ) : 

All men are forced to do karma  helplessly according to the impulses born of the   modes of material nature   ( guna-s  of  prakrti  ) ; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No one exists without doing something. The world is active, perpetually – every atom is active. You will not see anything static in the world – not one cell of the body, not one electron – everything is vibrating terribly. Why should they move in this manner? The evolution of the universe is the answer. The world is active without remission of effort, for the achievement of a goal which is self-realisation of the cosmos. It is the universe attempting to be aware of its own majestic existence. What you call 'evolution' is only the process of the ascent, of the lower degrees of reality in the direction of the higher degrees. Unless the 'Absolute Reality' is contacted and made one's own, evolution cannot cease.

3.

The activities, the duties so-called, fulfil themselves in the realisation of the Absolute – God-realisation. Then there is no expectation on your part, and nobody expects you to do anything; the universe frees you from its clutches, and no law operates there because your being and the law become one. The will of the cosmos and the will of the individual get united, and actually, what you call 'democracy' is nothing but the union of the individual will with the national will. If there is no such unity, there is no democracy. Likewise, when the Universal Will and the individual will seem to be working in harmony, karma yoga is being performed by you – every action becomes yoga, because it is a perpetual union of your being with the Being of the Universe. Karma yoga is action transmuted into the yoga of meditation. A meditation is the precedent of every right action. Ideas precede activities – thought comes first, action afterwards. Yoga is the union that is anterior to the action that follows from this union. You meditate first, think first, place yourself in an orderly position in respect of the universe, and then act, and then it becomes Yoga. So karma yoga is action which is yoga, and yoga is action – action is Yoga – they mean the same thing. All life becomes yoga. Even your breathing becomes yoga, provided you can connect this activity of your existence and your performance with the purpose of the cosmos, with the intention of God. This union of your will with the Cosmic Will is a yajna that you are performing – a sacrifice, a glorious performance which is also yoga. Yoga is sacrifice, sacrifice is yoga – yajna is yoga. 

This is the theme of some of the portions of the fourth chapter.

End.

Next - Chapter: 5. Life as a Yajna or Sacrifice

To be Continued ...

================================================================