Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse 6.2. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, November 22, 2020. 11:37. AM.

Discourse 6: The Third Chapter Begins – The Relation Between Sankhya and Yoga -2.

Post-1.

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Now Sri Krishna takes up the question of the relation between Sankhya and yoga, about which enough has been said in the Second Chapter. It has been mentioned again and again that all our activities have to be based on the knowledge of the Sankhya. But are they two different paths, or are they internally related to each other?

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Sri bhagavan uvacha

"Loke ’smmn dvi-vidha nishtha pura prokta mayanagha

jnana-yogena sankhyanam karma-yogena yoginam." (BG -  CH-3, SLO-3.))

"Na karmanam anarambhan naishkarmyam purusho ’shnute

na cha sannyasanad eva siddhim samadhigachchhati." (BG- CH-3, SLO-4.)

Sankhya and yoga, or knowledge and action, are mutually related in an organic fashion. When it was said that action has to be rooted in the knowledge of the Sankhya, the idea was not to bifurcate the adventure of life into two aspects. Sankhya and yoga are something like the two wings of a bird, or like the two legs with which we walk, or the two hands with which we grab and hold. They are complementary; and one being rooted in the other, or one being necessary for the other, does not imply any difference in the structure of Sankhya and yoga; it means that they are inseparable elements in the total perspective of life.

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One cannot have merely an understanding of Sankhya in a theoretical sense minus involvement in the work of prakriti, or action; nor is it possible to be engaged only in action without its being rooted in the knowledge of Sankhya. If there is only an emphasis on Sankhya or only an emphasis on yoga, it is a one-sided emphasis in which knowledge remains a theory and action becomes blind. Unintelligent movement cannot be regarded as yoga. Yoga is an intelligently directed movement in a given fashion. We have already noted that the practice of yoga or the performance of action according to the mandates of the Sankhya is a graduated movement in the direction of larger and larger dimensions of universal existence.

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The universality principle rules all actions that we perform, and also the extent of understanding that we entertain in our minds. Merely because we do not do something, it does not mean we have freed ourselves from the impulse to action. 

Na karmanam anarambhan naishkarmyam  purusho ’shnute :

Freedom from action is not achieved by a physical abstraction of oneself from the performance of action. 

na cha sannyasanad eva siddhim samadhigachchhati  : 

Nor by a mere act of renunciation of involvement in the world does one attain siddhi, or perfection.

To be continued ...
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