The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 13.7- Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday November 17, 2021. 8:00.PM.
The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 13- 7.
Chapter -13. Cosmology and Eschatology- 7.

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But the path of Darkness is the path of return. Whatever good we do in this world is repaid in its own coin and our good deeds bear fruit in the afterlife. Just as our bank balance can get exhausted one day if we go on drawing cheques continuously, our good deeds can exhaust themselves by experience; and when the momentum of our good deeds is spent out by experience in our future lives, we are supposed to revert to the condition from where we started.

Hence, actions should not be performed with any personal motivation. Even when we perform a charitable deed, it should not be done as if it is a prerogative of our effort. The great point made out in the statement, “Let not the left hand know what the right hand does,” has a philosophical meaning behind it, apart from its being an injunction on good motivation. Our good deeds are not supposed to be ‘our’ deeds; they do not belong to ‘us’, for no action can belong to us, really. But if we insist, “I have done a good deed, I have performed a charitable act, I have shown mercy,” then we shall reap the fruit of that mercy and good deed, no doubt. When the force of that particular action is over, we are reborn to continue our old work, again. Otherwise, when we do our deeds and works in this world as a vehicle through which God’s Will operates, neither good nor bad will cling to our personality. The good and the bad are words which we use to signify the quality of an action, and when the action is not ours, the quality also does not belong to us, it goes to him who has done it.

All this is difficult for us to contemplate, for we are not made in this way. We cannot think in an impersonal manner. We cannot imagine, even for a moment, that we are not the doers of deeds. We have to be very humble on the spiritual path and cannot imagine that we are on the topmost pedestal. Who can believe, even for a second, that one is not the doer of action? We may not say this in words, but do not we feel in our hearts that we are doers? Well, this is a very serious matter, indeed.

But, if God has taken possession of us, and if we know that these two paths, the Northern and the Southern, or whatever they are, are only the empirical movements of the consciousness lodged in the body, and that no such passage would be necessary for the soul that is united with God, to such a soul that we are to be, liberation is assured, and God becomes the All-in-All, the Friend and Supporter and the Benefactor in every way.

God comes nearer and nearer to us as we proceed through the chapters of the Gita. In the very early chapters, no mention was made, practically, of God. It was all an emphasis on self-discipline and effort for self-integration; then we were introduced into the cosmology and the creative forces that were operating behind things. And then the question was raised as to what happens to one after one leaves the body, and our relationship with God, the Creator, was discussed. The Eighth Chapter somewhat stands midway between the earlier chapters and the later ones, giving us a taste of something of the earlier phases and something of the future ones, also. From the Ninth Chapter onwards, the religious consciousness gets unfolded, whereby to live life would be to live religion, and to exist in the world would mean to live for God.

CHAPTER-13 ENDS.

Next : Chapter-14. The Glory and Majesty of the Almighty

To be continued ....

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