Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse- 9.4. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday,  June 17, 2021.8:04. AM.
Chapter - 9. The Fourth Chapter Continues: The Performance of Action as a Sacrifice - 4.
Post-4.
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The thickest part of our karma is in the anandamaya kosha. This is what psychologists called the unconscious level. The slightly thinner part is in the subconscious, which we experience in dream many a time, and the thinnest part is in the waking condition. Because of its transparency, consciousness is reflected so clearly that even through that karmic residuum we begin to perceive things in the world as clearly as if it were in the waking state. But we perceive things dimly in the dreaming condition because it is subconscious and not as clear as the waking condition. And we know nothing in the sleeping condition because the cloud is very thick and consciousness does not penetrate through that cloud—just as during the monsoons we will not see the sun even at midday, and it will be like night due to the thick clouds covering the entire sky.

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This is the difficulty in knowing what karma is. 

Gahana karmano gatih : “The way of karma is indeed very hard to understand,” says Bhagavan Sri Krishna. 

But karmas loosen their grip upon the individual who does not act entirely according to the preponderance of the demands of the sense organs, but acts in the spirit of a yajna, to which reference is made in the Third Chapter. 

Gatasangasya muktasya jnanavasthitacetasah, yajnayacaratah karma samagram praviliyate (4.23) : 

The person who is totally detached, gatasaṅga, and free from attachments, mukta, and established in the wisdom of life, jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ, and who performs action as a sacrifice as detailed in the Third Chapter—for him every action melts as ice before the sun.

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No action will produce a reaction in the case of a person who acts as if in a yajna, or a sacrifice—i.e., as a participation in the cosmic purposes and not as an individual actor for the purpose of reaping an ulterior fruit. Expecting a fruit is a special characteristic of selfish action, and there is no expectation of fruit in an unselfish action. It is work for work’s sake, duty for duty’s sake, as they say. The moment there is an intention in the mind to reap a consequence, or a fruit, tomorrow or the day after or in the future, as the result of karma, or action, done today, that person is actually thinking in terms of the time process because the fruit of an action will accrue only after some time. The expectation of the fruit of an action, therefore, is tantamount to involvement in the process of time, and time is equal to death; and such a person is bound by karma. But one who performs actions as a yajna, as a duty, does not expect any fruit. Ulterior motive is totally absent in the case of unselfish action.

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We may wonder: if we expect nothing from a work, why should we work at all? These are the stock arguments of modern thinkers, and even of very well-read people. What should be the prompting behind us to do anything at all, if we get nothing out of it? This question arises on account of our total ignorance of the nature of our relation to the world which is, once again, the wrong apprehension of the world as being totally outside us—a field where we can grow a crop and eat the fruit thereof, with God somewhere in heaven, Who will bless us with salvation after death. This is the peculiar, crude, illiterate argument of even the most learned people these days. Hard it is for a person to appreciate that there is an organic, living connection between us, the world, and God.

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To be continued ...

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