Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse- 9.6. - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Friday,  July 02, 2021.9:47. PM.
Chapter - 9. The Fourth Chapter Continues: The Performance of Action as a Sacrifice - 6.
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1.

Gatasa?gasya muktasya jñ?n?vasthitacetasa?, yajñ?y?carata? karma samagra? pravil?yate: All actions melt then and there. What is the jñ?n?vasthitacetas condition? What is actually the gatasa?gatva; and what is actually the yajna karma, finally? When there is a hailstorm, little balls of ice form; and the moment they fall on the earth, the balls of ice melt and become liquid. Likewise, the fire of knowledge will burn up the solid masses of karma that we have accumulated, provided that our actions are totally unmotivated in terms of the fruit that is to accrue in the future.

2.

Brahm?rpa?a? brahma havir brahm?gnau brahma?? hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavya? brahmakarmasam?dhin? (4.24). This verse is itself enough for us to meditate on the great God of the cosmos. When we offer a sacrifice, the offering is nothing but a face of the Ultimate Reality itself. The performer, the process of performance, the instrument of action, and the result that follows are all various modifications of a single Reality, in the same way that the ocean waters—whether they are like foam or bubbles or ripples, whether they are solid or liquid, or whatever be the form—are just modifications of a single mass of water.

3.

Even the offering of the sense organs in terms of objects of sense, this crude activity that we are performing as sense perception, is actually an action of the Cosmic Power. The means, or the instruments, that we use in this process of perception also come from that Supreme Force only. That is the havis that we offer—the yajna of action. The fire into which we offer the oblation is only that Supreme Being manifesting as fire; and the aim that we have in our minds, the goal that we want to reach after the performance of this yajna, is also only the Ultimate Reality. The path and the goal coalesce in the highest realm of spiritual experience.

4.

Brahm?rpa?a? brahma havir brahm?gnau brahma?? hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavya? brahmakarmasam?dhin?. There is a similar verse in the Yoga Vasishtha—tat chintana? tat kathana? anyonya? tat prabodhanam, eta deka paratva? ca brahm?bhy?sa? vidur budh?? (Y.V. 3.22.24)—in which it is told to us that we have to practice brahmabhyasa. The Yoga Vasishtha prescribes three kinds of sadhana—prana nirodha, chitta-vritti nirodha and brahmabhyasa—which are prana-yama, control of the mind, and meditation on the Absolute.

5.

Tat chintana?: Thinking only that day in and day out. A person who has been given the death sentence will always be thinking of the gallows, and the executioner’s noose will be in his mind even before it actually takes place, or a person who is expecting a great promotion will always wait for it to come, anticipating the increased salary, and so on. Just as we constantly keep in our minds the great goals in this world in some form of material possession, in a like manner we should brood over this Reality, always thinking That.

6.

Tat kathana?: When we speak to people, we should not talk about unnecessary things. We should enlighten ourselves and the other by a discussion on this subject. We should prompt the person to talk only on this subject, and we should also talk only on this subject. This is actually a satsanga that is taking place between two persons, or any number of persons. Tat chintana? tat kathana?: Always thinking that, and talking and conversing only about that.

To be continued ...

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