Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 23-6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday, August 09, 2022. 06:30.

Chapter 23: Introduction to the Sixth Chapter - 6.

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anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṃ kāryaṃ karma karoti yaḥ,
sa saṃnyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ (BG 6.1).

yaṃ saṃnyāsam iti prāhur yogaṃ taṃ viddhi pāṇḍava,
na hy asaṃnyastasaṃkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana (BG 6.2).

ārurukṣor muner yogaṃ karma kāraṇam ucyate,
yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śamaḥ kāraṇam ucyate (BG 6.3).

yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasv anuṣajjate,
sarvasaṃkalpasaṃnyāsī yogārūḍhas tadocyate (BG 6.4).

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Here, in these few verses, we are given a caution, lest we be overenthusiastic emotionally and stirred up into the erroneous moods of behaviour under the impression that we have become extremely religious and spiritual. To understand the world is difficult, and in our becoming true persons in the context of cosmic operations, which is actually the purpose of meditation, we have also to remember where we are placed in this world. When we go to the Sixth Chapter, it does not mean we forget the Fifth Chapter or the Fourth Chapter or the Third Chapter. It is a sublimation of the teaching of the earlier chapters that is presented to us in the Sixth Chapter. We do not suddenly go into some new subject. There is no new subject. It is all a gradual growth into larger and larger dimensions of intensity.

So when we take to the life of meditation, it is necessary for us to remember all the fields that we have crossed already. What were we told in the First Chapter, what were we told in the Second, what were we told in the Third and the Fourth and the Fifth? Gathering all the harvest of the earlier fields, we now enter into this new field of the Sixth Chapter for meditation. We are well prepared now. We cannot afford to make mistakes because we have already been guarded, well educated in the art of living in this world. So in our renunciate attitude of a meditative outlook of life, we may not suddenly forget the earlier teachings of our organic connection with things. We cannot easily renounce things like that.

There is nothing that you can renounce. Nothing belongs to you here. You have no property. It was told in the Third Chapter, and in the Fourth Chapter also, that there is no belonging. You own nothing in this world. So when you say ‘I shall renounce', you should be cautious in your statement. 

What are you renouncing? I

t is necessary to renounce to become a spiritually purified person, this is certainly true, but what are you going to renounce? 

A property? 

This property does not belong to you. It was told that in this placement of yours in the operation of the three gunas of prakriti you do not own anything. You do not even do anything, let alone own anything. Then what are you going to renounce? 

Fire, hearth, cattle and land and building – is this the thing that you are going to renounce? 

No. 

Na hy asaṃnyastasaṃkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana: 

Unless the will to live and the will to possess – the consciousness of possession or the desire to possess – is not eliminated, and the taste for things has not gone, one cannot be considered as a renunciate.

The crucial point here is to understand what it is that we are expected to renounce. Sannyasa is the life of renunciation, but renunciation of what? Here the Bhagavadgita has to say something novel, not easily available anywhere. We have a traditional explanation of all renunciation. In every religion there is the renunciate, as different from the extroverted workaday labourer in the field of hard living. Now, this is something known to us very well. But the Bhagavadgita tells us, “I shall also tell you something over and above what you already know. Sannyasa and yoga are not two different things. To renounce and to be united are not two different things. Yoga is union, and sannyasa is renunciation. Union with reality may be considered as yoga; renunciation of all attachments may be considered as sannyasa. You have to unite and also to detach.”

Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to quote a passage from Saint Kabir. People used to ask him, “What are you doing, my dear friend?”

“I am doing nothing but attaching and detaching,” Kabir said. “I attach and detach. This is the only thing I am doing.” ‘Attach' means to be in a state of yoga; ‘detach' means to be in a state of sannyasa. 

Now, to what will you attach yourself and from what are you detaching yourself? This subject will be highlighted in the Sixth Chapter.

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Next - Chapter 24: Sannyasa and Yoga are One
To be continued ....

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