Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 20-1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Friday, April 15, 2022. 21: 00

Chapter 20: The Arising of the Concept of Unity-1.

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We are in the Fifth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. In a way, we may say, the Fifth Chapter acts like some sort of a link between the subject treated in the Fourth Chapter and the one that is to be dealt with in the Sixth. The Fifth Chapter does not take up any new theme for discussion. It has some features of the Fourth Chapter, and also a little connection with the subject of the Sixth.

Jnana karma sannyasa – renunciation, nonattachment produced by knowledge and right action. The Fourth Chapter was full of these discussions of knowledge and right action, and the cumulative effect bears fruit, as it were, in the direct disciplinary systems described in the Sixth Chapter. Actually, the seed of the Sixth Chapter is sown at the end of the Fifth Chapter, as we shall see.

There was a lot of emphasis on non-attachment in all the things that were told us. That is why some exponents of the Gita, such as Mahatma Gandhi, feel the proper name of the Bhagavadgita would be Anasakti Yoga, the yoga of non-attachment. That is the subject of the Bhagavadgita: Never be attached to anything. Says the Upanishads: This Great Being is non-attached, and the characteristic of this Great Being is reflected in everything that is divine in this world, everything that aspires for union with this Great Being, and every step that we take in the direction of the experience of this Great Being. So non-attachment is not only the quality of God; vairagya is said to be one of the features of the Almighty, and not only that, anything that is connected with God also is related to a kind of non-attachment. There is an intense concentration of spirit in anything that is connected with God, even if it be a ritualistic worship, a holy reading from a scripture, or any religious exercise.

The nature of detachment is specially emphasised in this chapter. A famous verse of the Fifth Chapter has some relevance to an aphorism of Patanjali, though in a different context.

"Ye hi sansparsha-ja bhoga duhkha-yonaya eva te

adyantavantah kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah?" (BG 5.22): 

Translation

BG 5.22: The pleasures that arise from contact with the sense objects, though appearing as enjoyable to worldly-minded people, are verily a source of misery. O son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, so the wise do not delight in them.

All contacts of the senses with their objects are wombs of pain; therefore, the wise one does not delight in the satisfactions of the senses. Full of meaning is this sloka. There is a beginning and an end for everything that we can expect in this world. It comes, and therefore it must also go. That it comes shows that it was not there before it came. Hence, the joy that has not yet come, that is yet to come, creates an anxiety in the mind of one who expects it, an anxiety which is not different from pain and sorrow – namely, the thing that is desired has not yet come. That which I want has not yet come; therefore, my desire has not been fulfilled, and the non-fulfilment of a desire is agony of the spirit. It is sorrow of the person. It is grief unadulterated.

Now, when it comes, it must also have an end. The temporal character of anything is indicated by its coming and going. Because it has to come, there must have been a time when it did not come, so it must have been a source of sorrow. Even if it has come, it shall not be a perennial source of security. It creates another anxiety: that it shall leave. 

The sutra of Patanjali in this context is Parinama-Tapa-Samskara-Duhkaih-Gunavritti-Virodhat-Ca-Dukham-Eva-Sarvam-Vivekinah (Y.S. 2.15) : 

(Material Objects) Being Of The Nature Of Pain, Resulting From Changes, Anxiety, And Memory-Potential And By Reason Of The Opposition Of The Modifications Of The Qualities – To The Discriminating All Is Nothing But Pain.

Due to certain characteristics inseparable from contactual experience through the senses, the world is full of misery. The world is misery embodied. It is only sorrow. There is no joy in this world. The doctrine of Buddhism says anitya dukkham anatmam: This world has nothing permanent in it. It is anityam shanikam. Momentary concatenation of causes and effects is said to be the picture-show of this world phenomenon; like the connecting pictures in a cinematographic projection, little bits are joined together as little pieces of organic cells are arranged in a pattern to make our body. There is nothing that can last and maintain its self-identity even for one moment. This is the philosophy of Buddhism, attributed to statements of Buddha himself. Even for a moment a thing cannot maintain its self-identity, and that such an identity happens to be visible in objects, personalities, and the like, is to be attributed to an illusoriness in perception.

To be continued .....

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