The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 17.1 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, December 26, 2021. 6:00. PM.

The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 17-1.

(The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita )

Chapter 17: The Meaning and Purpose of Sacrifice : - 1.

(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti).

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Srimad Bhagavadgita : Chapter-4 : Slokams-23 to 30. 

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1. "Gata-sangasya muktasya jnanavasthita-chetasah

yajnayacharatah karma samagram praviliyate."  (BG 4.23)

2. "Brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam

brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma-karma-samadhina."  (BG 4.24)

3. "Daivam evapare yajnam yoginah paryupasate

brahmagnavapare yajnam yajnenaivopajuhvati." (BG 4.25)

4. "Shrotradinindriyanyanye sanyamagnishu juhvati

shabdadin vishayananya indriyagnishu juhvati." (BG 4.26)

5. "Sarvanindriya-karmani prana-karmani chapare

atma-sanyama-yogagnau juhvati jnana-dipite." (BG 4.27)

6. "Dravya-yajnas tapo-yajna yoga-yajnas tathapare

swadhyaya-jnana-yajnash cha yatayah sanshita-vratah." (BG 4.28)

7. "Apane juhvati pranam prane ’panam tathapare

pranapana-gati ruddhva pranayama-parayanah." (BG 4.29)

8. "Apare niyataharah pranan praneshu juhvati

sarve ’pyete yajna-vido yajna-kshapita-kalmashah." (BG 4.30)

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These Slokams  I have now recited from the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita highlight certain aspects of action, which was our subject. Who acts, actually? 

The question of action as performed by anyone arose out of the consideration of God's action as the Incarnation, which was the topic at the very commencement of the Fourth Chapter. 

We had occasion to go into the depths of this intricate subject of action, and found that there is an interconnectedness of the basic foundations of all things, insofar as all organisms, living beings, and even those things we call inanimate, are products of the permutation and combination of the forces of prakriti – sattva, rajas, tamas – including our bodies and minds, and all our internal apparatus we call the antakarana, the psychic organ or the psyche proper. 

In light of this, we concluded last time almost with a question: Who does action?

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The principle teaching of the Bhagavadgita is that there are no individual actions. 

It is a message of right action which is constituted in such a way that segregated, isolated, pinpointed, ego-ridden psyches cannot understand. Everyone is accustomed to the idea of action associated with oneself. It is the intention of the Bhagavadgita to remove this erroneous notion, namely, that an action can be associated with any particular individual. 

It is so because of the fact there are no such things as particular individuals in this web of interconnected operations of sattva, rajas and tamas. Every particle of sand is connected to every star in the heavens. 

Such seems to be the hidden secret of natural operations and, if this is so, it is hard for us to accommodate our individual self-sense with the sense of agency in action. It appears that action takes place, and yet we cannot confidently declare that anyone is responsible for action. Action is a propulsion that arises from the very centre of the purposiveness of the cosmos, the original structure of things on which every other outer formation is founded. 

This is to be kept in mind whenever any idea arises: Whose idea is it?

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Thoughts and actions, ideas and performances constitute human history and any kind of history. 

But our analysis the other day led us to a startling conclusion, namely, that not merely the bodily organs, which are the instruments of physical action, but also all the inner operations of the psyche are the products arisen out of a certain arrangement of patterns of the evolutes of prakriti. 

The tanmatras we mentioned – sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa, gandha – are the spatial and temporal objects of the sensations of hearing, tasting, and so on, which again are the rudiments out of which the whole physical cosmos is formed as we see it in the form of the five elements – earth, water, fire, air and ether – which again are the building bricks of even our physical bodies. 

Thus, whatever is in the outer world of nature seems to be in our physiological system, in this anatomical structure; and whatever is in the subtle potentials of the three gunas – sattva, rajas, tamas – seems to be the original substance out of which even our minds and intellects are made. 

If that is the case, who thinks, whose ideas are these, and who acts?

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To be continued ....

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