Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 29-5. Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, December 12, 2022. 08:30.

Chapter 29: The Yoga of the Bhagavadgita -5.

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Hence, we are told repeatedly in the Bhagavadgita that the yogin is not necessarily an inactive person: na niragnir na cākriyaḥ (BG 6.1). 

Nor is it action of an involved nature. It is not inaction because inaction would also be a personalised attitude, and a yogin has overcome the limitations of personality in some degree. It is not action; it is not inaction. It is a different attitude altogether, difficult to describe. 

Aniṣṭam iṣṭaṃ miśraṃ ca trividhaṃ karmaṇaḥ phalam, bhavaty atyāgināṃ pretya na tu saṃnyāsināṃ kvacit (BG 18.12): 

For the sannyasin, for the renunciate, for the yogin, action is neither good nor bad. It is also not a mixture of two things. The action of a yogin cannot be called good action, nor can it be called bad action, nor can it be called a combined product of something good and something bad. In the case of ordinary persons the actions may be good or bad or mixed, but in the case of the renunciate any kind of evaluation in this manner is unwarranted because the yogin's actions are natural actions. ‘Natural' means ‘spontaneous', spontaneous in the sense of communion with the facts of nature; therefore, these actions are nobody's actions, or rather, they are everybody's actions. The yogin's action is the action of the whole world or, in a sense, it is no action at all. Such is the inscrutable nature of the behaviour of the yogin.

All extremes are avoided. “I want these things,” the yogin will not say. “I do not want these things,” the yogin also will not say because he has established a harmony of attitude inwardly in consciousness in relation to events and things in the world. Complete abstemious attitude of an over-pressurised ascetic is not the yoga of the Bhagavadgita. Yoga is not starvation. The yoga of the Bhagavadgita does not tell us to starve ourselves emotionally, intellectually, or even physically and materially. The yoga does not want that we should kill ourselves. It also does not tell us that we should pamper ourselves, that we should indulge our ego and the sense organs.

The yoga of the Bhagavadgita is the yoga of healthy living. You know what healthy living is. Normalcy of intake and normalcy of avoidance, both these are normal behaviours. In order to live a healthy life we have to avoid certain things and we have to take certain things. Now, this intake of certain things for the purpose of the maintenance of health is not to be considered as attachment because it is partaken of as a necessity in the maintenance of the balance of the person, the health of the body. Even eating is not to be a pleasure; it is a medicine. Food has to be taken as a medicine for this illness of hunger. We do not take medicine because there is pleasure in taking it. It is a necessity. The diet of the senses and the food of the body are necessities to the extent they are unavoidable for existence, but they should not become luxuries and excitements of senses and the physical appetites.

Hence, there is this norm of a golden mean prescribed in our diet, in our food, in our intake; in our daily behaviour, in our work, in our occupation, in our character, in our conduct, in our sleep, in our wakefulness we should be normal. We should not be excessive either way. This shows the wisdom of the yoga of the Bhagavadgita that we should maintain samatva, which is yoga, a balanced outlook at every stage in yoga, even in the least and the most initial steps, because this balance called for implies our due regard for all things that are real, relatively at least, in the atmosphere outside. We do not disregard the world in our love for yoga, nor do we pamper, praise, eulogise, or get attached to the objects of sense. In all the levels of approach we maintain a wise, judicious attitude. Therefore, we are ever in a state of perfect equilibrium of conduct in attitude with all things at every level, whatever those things be. 

Hence, we are friends of all people: sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ (BG 5.25): 

The yogin is a well-meaning friend and benefactor of all. You have the goodness by which you show due regard even to the least of values in this world. The yogin respects everything. He does not disregard anything. Therefore, he is a benefactor, a lover, a friend, a philosopher and a guide of all. Such is the yoga of the Bhagavadgita, a wholesome outlook to the whole of life in all its manifestations.

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Next
Chapter 30: Communion with Eternity
To be continued

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