A Study of the Bhagavadgita : 19- Swami Krishnananda.
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Monday 25, Mar 2024 06:50.
Chapter 5: The Karma Yoga Principle of the Bhagavadgita-8.
Post-19.
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The philosophy of the Bhagavadgita is not merely work, but participation in the production of a value that is transcendent to the action itself. When a large machine is working, every little part works and contributes to the machine's output, the output being transcendent to the machine itself. The machine is an instrument, and the parts are also participants. Something is automatically produced as a transcendent result by the participation of the parts in the work of this large machinery of the world.
What follows from all this? You cannot sit quiet, nor can you motivate action by your own self independently. You are wound up inextricably, warp and woof, as in the fabric of a cloth, in the arrangement of things in this universe. Again to repeat, every individual is a cosmic representation, a little avatara, an incarnation, as it were, of God Almighty Himself. Remember the cosmic scheme which we described previously – Purusha, Prakriti, Mahat, Ahamkara. These adhibhuta, adhidaiva, adhyatma, etc., are all simultaneously working in you now at this very moment. Just now, under the roof of this building, near the desk at which you are sitting and the way in which you are positioned, the whole cosmos is working though you. And so you will feel secure in this world. You will not feel dejected: “What is there? Nobody talks to me. I get nothing in this world.” Do not say that. You have everything in this world. Your feeling that you have nothing is your sorrow. When you are vitally connected with the life of the whole universe and are joyously participating in its requirement, how would you say you have nothing? You can touch the source of the world, and it will fall to you. The abundance of the universe will be in your hand. The world will be at your beck and call. You need not cringe before the world; the world will cringe before you. It will fall at your feet. Why should you fall at the feet of other people? There are no other people in this world. You are connected to everything else.
The mind is so tricky that it will not allow you to think like this. The moment this session is over, you will get up with a feeling as if nothing has happened. You have heard nothing. It is all gone, as water poured on a rock. This should not be. It should sink into your feeling. These discourses, this teaching, this academy is not a diversion from your daily duties or routine; it is a transmuting process of your very personality itself. It is intended to make you a new person altogether. When you return from this place, you will not be the same person that you were. You are a super person, a higher person, a slightly transcendent person, you may say. You have enlarged your being itself.
Therefore, the Bhagavadgita gospel of duty hinges upon two factors: In the universal setup of things everybody has to participate in some way or the other according to their proclivity, due to the predominance of the gunas of Prakriti in one's nature; and this participation should be based on the nature of one's consciousness of one's unity with the cosmos – dharma based on buddhi, karma based on jnana, in a state of equilibrium, or poised attitude of the mind. You will never be disturbed afterwards. Nothing can shake your will. Nobody can cause you sorrow, and nothing will cause you unhappiness. Is the body not maintaining a balance? It is always in the state of harmony. The world will, in a state of harmony, see that you are also placed in that harmony.
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Continued
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