Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse- 9.2. - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Tuesday,  June 1,2021.7:09. PM.
Chapter - 9. The Fourth Chapter Continues: The Performance of Action as a Sacrifice - 2.
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Avataras of God, incarnations of God, are supposed to be a perpetual occurrence—not something that took place centuries back and something that will take place later on, after another few centuries. It is a perpetual occurrence, like the rays of the sun perpetually falling on the earth. There is a perpetual inundation of the earth by the light of the sun, day in and day out, somewhere or the other. So, in many ways, the coming of God into this world is an avatara for, without this, we would not be able to walk on this earth. 

We would not be able to lift a finger; we would not be able to digest our food; our lungs would not function; our hearts would not function; our breath would not be there; our brains would not be there. It is the coming of God in a particular form through our individuality, the cosmic operation through the individual in some form unknown to the individual, that is the reason for the very existence of the so-called ego-ridden individual.

The karmas which bind the soul are such intricate processes of relativistic association in this world that it is not easy to know what is actually happening when a karma binds. 

"kim karma kim akarmeti kavayo ’pyatra mohitah"

Learned people, very advanced in knowledge, are also bewildered as to what karma actually is. 

What is karma? 

What is akarma? 

Many a time even people with great insight are also confused. 

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"kim karma kim akarmeti kavayo ’pyatra mohitah
tat te karma pravakshyami yaj jnatva mokshyase ’shubhat." (BG- 4.16)
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BG 4.16: What is action and what is inaction? Even the wise are confused in determining this. Now I shall explain to you the secret of action, by knowing which, you may free yourself from material bondage.
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"karmano hyapi boddhavyam boddhavyam cha vikarmanah
akarmanash cha boddhavyam gahana karmano gatih." (BG- 4.17.)
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BG 4.17: You must understand the nature of all three —recommended action, wrong action, and inaction. The truth about these is profound and difficult to understand.
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It is necessary to know not only what karma is, but also to know what non-karma or inaction is, and what wrong action is. Therefore, what is right action, what is wrong action, and what is inaction? It is necessary to know all these things.

Karma?o hy api boddhavya? boddhavya? ca vikarma?a?, akarma?a? ca boddhavya?: Very difficult is this peculiar, intricate way in which karma works. There is no such thing as karma sitting outside on a tree. It is not a thing whose existence we can visualise somewhere. Just as we consider diseases to be a peculiar maladjustment of the physical functioning of the body rather than a thing that is sitting outside the body and existing separately, so also the karma is not sitting outside, waiting to harass us.

Karma is the peculiar automatic reaction set up by the cosmic forces in proportion to the action performed by an individual. The reaction will be exactly in proportion to the action that we perform. In a way, it looks like tit for tat—and in a crude way, we may say it is like that.

The world is supposed to be something like a mirror through which we see our own face. We see our contour in our relationships with the world. If we smile at the world, the world smiles at us; if we get angry with the world, it gets angry with us; and if we denounce it, it will denounce us also. It will treat us in the same way as our body treats us. We cannot know how the body acts and reacts in regard to our own individual existence. The body is not outside the soul. It is inseparably acting on our Consciousness, which is our individual soul. Automatic action takes place through the body, and that experience of an automatic reaction set up by the body is the pleasure or the pain that we speak of.

To be continued ...

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