Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 19-6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday, April 09, 2022. 20:30. 

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti).

Chapter-19. Knowledge and Action are One - 6.

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yoga-yukto vishuddhatma vijitatma jitendriyah

sarva-bhutatma-bhutatma kurvann api na lipyate(BG 5.7). 

Translation :

BG 5.7: The karm yogis, who are of purified intellect, and who control the mind and senses, see the Soul of all souls in every living being. Though performing all kinds of actions, they are never entangled.

yoga-yuktaḥ—united in consciousness with God; 

viśhuddha-ātmā—one with purified intellect; 

vijita-ātmā—one who has conquered the mind; 

jita-indriyaḥ—having conquered the senses; 

sarva-bhūta-ātma-bhūta-ātmā—one who sees the Soul of all souls in every living being; 

kurvan—performing; 

api—although; 

na—never; 

lipyate—entangled

Commentary :

The word ātmā has been used in multiple ways in the Vedic literature: for God, for the soul, for the mind, and for the intellect.  This verse typifies all these uses.  Shree Krishna describes the karm yogi who is yog yukt (united in consciousness with God).  He says that such a noble soul is:  1) viśhuddhātmā, of purified intellect, 2) vijitātmā, who has conquered the mind, and 3) jitendriya, one who has controlled the senses.    

Such karm yogis, with purified intellect, see God situated in all living beings, and behave respectfully toward everyone without attachment.  Since their actions are not motivated by the desire for self-enjoyment, their knowledge is progressively clarified.  As their desires are eliminated, the senses, mind, and intellect that were being propelled for sense pleasures come under control.  These instruments are now available for the service of the Lord.  Devotional service leads to realized knowledge from within.  In this way, karm-yog naturally brings about these successive stages of enlightenment, and hence is no different from karm sanyās.

We are afraid of the binding effect of action. Karma binds, we say, and the world binds, and everything we do seems to be a limitation to our freedom because we neither know the meaning of yoga, which is liberating action, nor do we know the meaning of knowledge, which is inclusive awareness.

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A person who is endowed with the consciousness of right action is yogasamyukta, the word used at the end of the Fourth Chapter. He is also one who has removed every kind of doubt from his mind:  

yoga-sannyasta-karmanam jnana-sanchhinna-sanshayam

atmavantam na karmani nibadhnanti dhananjaya (BG 4.41).

Translation :

BG 4.41: O Arjuna, actions do not bind those who have renounced karm in the fire of Yog, whose doubts have been dispelled by knowledge, and who are situated in knowledge of the self.

yoga-sannyasta-karmāṇam—those who renounce ritualistic karm, dedicating their body, mind, and soul to God;

jñāna—by knowledge; 

sañchhinna—dispelled; 

sanśhayam—doubts; 

ātma-vantam—situated in knowledge of the self; 

na—not; 

karmāṇi—actions; 

nibadhnanti—bind; 

dhanañjaya—Arjun, the conqueror of wealth

Commentary :

Karma is actions involved in prescribed rituals and social duties, sanyās means “to renounce,” while “yog” means “to unite with God.” Here, Shree Krishna has used the word yogasanyasta karmāṇaṁ, referring to “those who renounce all ritualistic karm, dedicating their body, mind, and soul to God.” Such persons do their every action as a service to God. Shree Krishna says that their work performed in devotion do not bind them.

Only those actions bind one in karma, which are performed to fulfill one’s self-interest. When work is done only for the pleasure of God, such action becomes free from all karmic reaction. They are like multiplying numbers with 0 (zero). If we multiply 0 with 10, the result will be 0; if we multiply 0 with 1000, the result will remain 0; and if we multiply 0 with 1 million, the result will still be 0. Similarly, the works that enlightened souls perform in the world do not bind them, because they are offered to God in the fire of Yog, i.e. they are done for the pleasure of God. Thus, although doing all kinds of works, the Saints remain unfettered from the bonds of karma.

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Because of freedom from every kind of doubt, and having freed himself from every kind of attachment because he is yoga-sannyasta-karmāṇam, he is established in the true Self: ?tmavan. Such a person is not bound:  It is only the soul that cannot be bound; everything else is subject to bondage. Now, to the extent we are a soul, to that extent we are free. Each one of us should know how far we are souls, and to what extent we are not souls. We are every blessed thing other than a soul; therefore, we seem to be enmeshed in bondage of every kind. There is trouble, trouble, trouble, everywhere; there is nothing but that because we are phenomenal beings more than noumenals. We are involved in externality more than in universality. We are not  therefore, knowledge and action are totally different things. We are more traders, commercial beings even in the performance of our actions, rather than souls operating for our own freedom.

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Yogayukta is one who is united with the principle of yoga. The word yoga is again used in many senses in the Bhagavadgita. We shall now conceive of it in one sense: the unitedness of the performer with the performance. The other senses we shall think of later on. The harmony that is there between the performer of the action and the action itself, that is yoga. Such a person is purified:  Such a person is automatically self-controlled: His self is controlled by the Self and his sense organs are restrained by the mind:  Such a person sees himself in every other soul:  His soul has become the soul of all beings. That is because the soul cannot be in one particular place. One who works through the soul works through the universal principle in all things. He is established in God-consciousness in one degree, and so he is the only person who can do real good to people; otherwise, it will be ordinary, fragile action which will bring fragile results. Many have come in the world, and many have gone. So many things have been done, yet the world is the same. It is not changing because brittle action produces brittle results. Living action produces living results. Life is only in the soul, and in the non-soul there is no life.

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Hence, the Bhagavadgita exhorts us to act on the basis of the soul within us, whose consciousness is called sankhya, and it is at the same time an establishment in the Universal because the soul is universal. In that state, knowledge and action are the same. Everything that you do is a joyous self-expression, a liberating performance. You are ever in a state of bliss.

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Next - Chapter 20: The Arising of the Concept of Unity

To be continued .....

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