Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 46-7 - Swami Krishnananda.

 =======================================================================

=======================================================================

Saturday, July 23, 2022. 19:00.

Discourse 46: The Seventeenth Chapter Begins – The Threefold Character of Faith : 7.

=========================================================================

Slokam-18 :

"Satkaramanapujartham   tapo  dambhena  caiva  yat, 

kriyate  tadiha  proktam   rajasam  calamadhruvam." (17.18): 

 ================================================

*Austerity that is performed with ostentation for the sake of gaining honor, respect, and adoration is in the mode of passion. Its benefits are unstable and transitory.

*Those ostentatious penances and austerities which are performed in order to gain respect, honor and reverence are said to be in the mode of passion. They are neither stable nor permanent.

=======================================================================

Fickle-minded people with no concentration whatsoever, with no understanding, with no knowledge of what they are doing at all, who are idiotic in their attitude and cause suffering to themselves as well as to others, and perhaps even harm other people—if that kind of undertaking is our desire, we should be considered as tamasic. 

"Satkaramanapujartham   tapo  dambhena  caiva  yat, 

kriyate  tadiha  proktam   rajasam  calamadhruvam." (17.18): 

If we do sacrifice for respect, for gaining recognition from people, and for ostentation, it is rajasic; but if we do it for harming people, if our sacrifice is not motivated by pious intentions, then it is tamasic.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slokam-19 :

"Mudhagrahenatmano   yat  pidaya   kriyate  tapah,

parasyotsadanartham   va  tat tamasamudahrtam." (17-19.)

Slokam-19.   

"And those penances and austerities which are performed foolishly by means of obstinant self-torture, or to destroy or injure others, are said to be in the mode of ignorance." 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slokam-20.

"Datavyamiti   yaddanam   diyatenupakarine,

dese  kale  ca  patre  ca  tad  danam  sattvikam   smrtam."  (17.20):

"That gift which is given out of duty, at the proper time and place, to a worthy person, and without expectation of return,      is considered to be charity in the mode of goodness.: 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we do charity, we should give to that person from whom we expect nothing, or rather, from whom we cannot expect anything. If we help a person from whom we cannot expect any kind of recompense—we may not get even a word of thanks from that person, yet we help that person—that is prattyupakārārthaṁ, expecting no recompense to follow from the good deed that we perform. We should not expect our charity to bring us something visible. We will be blessed by the divinities that rule the world. That will be enough for us. Unless we do that, it will not be real charity.

We must give in charity because it is necessary under that condition. We feel for the suffering of another because that person is deprived of physical, mental or social needs. If a person does have access to even the minimum needs of life, and we are in a position to help that person merely because it is good to be of assistance to people of that kind, that would be sattvic charity; and again, anupakāriṇe—we should not expect anything from that person.

Sattvic charity has to be given in the proper place, at the proper time, and to the proper person. Three conditions are there in order that charity may be sattvic. We should not give charity at a wrong place where it will be disturbing either to ourselves or to others; it has to be given at the proper time, and not when the person is not in the proper mood to receive it; and he must be a really deserving person, and not a person who does not need our gesture of goodwill. Deśe kāle ca pātre ca: If all these conditions are fulfilled, we give charity or express a gesture of goodwill because it is to be done in the case of a person who needs it, in the proper place, at the proper time, and to the proper person—that charity, that gesture of goodwill of ours, that kindness, the mercy that we show, is sattvic in its nature.

To be continued...

========================================================================