A Study of the Bhagavadgita :13.8. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday, August 25, 2022. 08:45. 

Chapter 13: The Positivity and the Negativity of Experience-8.

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It should be clear to you that something is good, not because you have decided it in an adamant fashion, but because you have considered the pros and cons of everything. 

Writers on ethics tell us that the action should be conditioned by at least three or four factors. 

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Firstly, it should not produce a consequence which is worse than the condition in which you are now.

 The tamasic man does not know what consequence will follow; he will simply go ahead. A little reason, a little intellection and vichara shakti should be employed, by which you are in a position to foresee what would be the result or consequence of that particular deed. The consequence should not be retrograde or harmful either to yourself or to others. It does not mean that it can harm somebody while it is doing good to somebody else. It is not paying Peter and harming Paul. It should be good for both Peter and Paul. Thus, the pros and cons have to be considered before you take any particular step, and the consequence should not be bad, either for you or for others. It is difficult to take such a step, because always you will be in a quandary.

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Secondly, the motive behind your doing anything should be justifiable – consequence or no consequence, that is a different thing. Sometimes, by some peculiar act of chance, no consequence will follow, but it is your motive that is important – with what intention you have done it. If the intention is not justifiable, that action is not a good action, in spite of there being no consequence.

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The third is, the instruments that you employ for the performance of an action. They must be justifiable means. Your means must be as good as the end. It does not mean the end justifies the means always, that you can do anything for the sake of achieving a particular end. That is the Machiavellian theory, which is not always accepted as ethically or morally proper.

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And lastly, the act should engender a beneficial atmosphere around you, and you must become a better person than you were earlier. 

Who will do any work unless it is going to be for your betterment? 

Are you such a fool that you go on doing something for nothing? 

You always expect some betterment of your personality. By doing something, you shall become better tomorrow; otherwise, why are you doing anything? 

So, ensure that when you do anything, these four factors are there. And there are many other factors also, as the Gita will tell us.

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So there are difficulties in actually employing our conscience and our faith unless they are conditioned by the operation of sattva. 

Very difficult it is to manifest it in ourselves. Mostly, even if we are into sattva, there is a disturbance in the midst of its action by the interference of rajas and tamas. Many a time, when we are intending to do some good deeds, 

we have some suspicion in our mind: "

If I do this, what will I get?" I am going to do a good deed, but subtly some voice will say, "What are you going to get out of it?" 

Now here rajas comes in, and perhaps a little bit of tamas also. Are you going to do a good thing because it is beneficial to you? 

Actually, a good deed will be beneficial to you. You need not put a question like that to yourself. A duty is always beneficial; otherwise, it will not be called duty at all.

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In this context, various things are explained in great detail in the Seventeenth Chapter: 

sattvic, rajasic and tamasic food; sattvic, rajasic and tamasic charity; sattvic, rajasic and tamasic mauna; sattvic meditation, sattvic austerity, etc. You can read all these things in detail in a commentary.

Hence, the answer to the question whether it is all right to entirely depend on faith is another way of asking whether your conscience is pure. Bhagavan Sri Krishna's answer is, it is perfectly all right; there is no objection, but be assured that it is sattvic. Your diet should be sattvic; your words should not be barbed, cutting and poison-like; they must be very sweet and sattvic; they should be truthful without being painful; and your joys should be sattvic joys.

To be continued ....

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