Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 49-2. - Swami Krishnananda.

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"IN KERALA ONAM AND MAHABALI : PEOPLE OF KERALA IGNORANT OF THE ESSENCE - THE TRUTH OF MAHABALI AND ONAM IS EXPRESSED IN DETAIL BY SWAMIJI."

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Friday, September 09, 2022. 06:30.
Discourse 49: The Eighteenth Chapter Continues – Types of Understanding, Determination and Happiness-2.

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"Mukta-sango ‘naham-vadi dhrity-utsaha-samanvitah

siddhy-asiddhyor nirvikarah karta sattvika uchyate."BG 18.26:

The performer is said to be in the mode of goodness, when he or she is free from egotism and attachment, endowed with enthusiasm and determination, and equipoised in success and failure.

Sattvic action is defined once again. It is an action performed by those people who are free from attachment—muktasaṅgaḥ; who do not have any kind of a trace of egoism on their part—ahaṁvādī; and are full of enthusiasm for the work. It is not fatigue but enthusiasm, zest, and an indefatigability that is felt before undertaking any work. Utsāha, which is enthusiasm, spiritedness, and a love for what is good, should be the motive behind performing action, whether one succeeds or not. This is because, as mentioned earlier, the fruit of an action is not in anyone's hand. The fruit is the product of the cooperative activity of five factors.

Therefore, if we do something to the best of our ability but have not succeeded, it is because we have not taken into consideration the other four aspects. Finally, one cannot succeed in life unless one is practically omniscient in nature. An ordinary person cannot know what consequence will follow from what action, because we cannot know all aspects of the matter at the same time. Sattvic karma is free from the longing to achieve its fruit, free from egoism, filled with enthusiasm, work undertaken spontaneously by oneself for the welfare of all people.

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"Ragi karma-phala-prepsur lubdho hinsatmako ‘shuchih

harsha-shokanvitah karta rajasah parikirtitah."BG 18.27:

The performer is considered in the mode of passion when he or she craves the fruits of the work, is covetous, violent-natured, impure, and moved by joy and sorrow.

Rajasic karma is a different kind. It is, right from the beginning until the end, filled with some kind of longing: “I expect some fruit from this kind of undertaking. It must come.” The focus is not on the means, but on the end. It does not matter what means we adopt, provided the end is achieved. But the correct process of action is that the end cannot be justifiable if the means is not justifiable. The end is nothing but the evolutionary completion of the means. When evolution takes place, the means evolves into the fruit of itself; that is called the end. The end is the consummation of the means. Inasmuch as the end is the consummation of the means, there cannot be any qualitative difference between the means and the end. Hence, it is foolishness and a kind of idiocy to think that the end justifies the means.

Attachment, desire, longing, and passionate clinging are the characteristics of rajasic action, not of sattvic action. Karmaphalaprepsuḥ: Always thinking of what comes out of the action performed. Lubdhaḥ: Full of greed for the fruit. Hiṁsaātmakaḥ: Causing injury to people, and not caring what negative effect the action may have on other people, as long as one is satisfied. Aśuciḥ: Impure motive is at the back of it. Sometimes one is elated, sometimes one is depressed. When there is a little indication that perhaps success is on the horizon, one is elated; but when the conditions change, there is immediately depression. A person floats on the surface of the sea of happiness and sorrow, and does not know what will actually be in store for him tomorrow, whether it will be happiness or grief. That kind of undecided state of affairs in the future is veritably grief itself. Harṣaśokānvitaḥ kartā rājasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ: Such a person is rajasic in nature.

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"Ayuktah prakritah stabdhah shatho naishkritiko ‘lasah
vishadi dirgha-sutri cha karta tamasa uchyate."BG 18.28: 

A performer in the mode of ignorance is one who is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, deceitful, slothful, despondent, and a procrastinator.

“Oh, what a difficult work it is! Why should I undertake that work?” 

That is a tamasic attitude. Always grieving—complaining in the beginning, complaining in the middle, and complaining in the end. There are some people who always complain when they do some work. They complain before starting it, while doing it, and also at the verge of completion. Dīrghasūtrī: Taking a long time to do a thing. If something can be done today, they will take three days to do it. They go on thinking about it for three days, and on the fourth day they think how to do it, and on the fifth day someone has to push them to do it. This kind of procrastination is the thief of time, as they say, and such people are called dīrghasūtrīs. Ayuktaḥ: Always in a state of grief and diffidence, and not inwardly united to the spiritual goal. Stabdhaḥ: Highly crude in behaviour, thinking only of the material end, always in a state of mental torpidity. The mind is not active, not clear, not at all moving for days together; and when it starts moving, it will move in the wrong direction. Śaṭhaḥ: A person who is totally unreliable, shrewd and cunning in the performance of affairs, a bad character, and basically lethargic in his nature. All these qualities go to form what is called tamas.

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To be continued....

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