The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 18.2. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday 12, Mar 2024 07:50.

Chapter 18: The Yoga of the Liberation of Spirit-2.

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There are certain actions which are unavoidable. Among the many types of action, three specific ones are pinpointed as inviolable and impossible of avoiding under any circumstance. These three types are designated as yajna, dana and tapas, terms which have a wealth of meaning behind them. Literally translated, yajna would mean sacrifice, dana would mean charity, and tapas would mean austerity. These are not injunctions of a religious type that are imposed upon us by the Gita. This is not a ritual that we are expected to perform by way of yajna, dana, or tapas. These are tremendously significant cosmic requirements on the part of every individual, whatever be his vocation. There is a universal meaning behind these great mandates.

In our relationship to the Supreme Being, God, the Absolute, we have to be perpetually performing a sacrifice on our part by ascending degrees of perfection and in increasing dimensions. God-Being is the greatest of sacrifices in the sense that it is the state of the abolition of all individuality and egoism. The state of God is the apotheosis of sacrifice. Often, in Indian scriptures, God is referred to as yajna, or sacrifice. 'Yajno vai Vishnuh': 'Narayana is yajna', or sacrifice himself. By this what is intended is that even the least of individuality is wiped out in that conflagration of universal knowledge or realisation.

To approach God would be to perform a sacrifice on the part of oneself, because the highest state of egolessness is God-Being. And to approximate this Great Being would be to sacrifice or surrender the ego, little by little, by degrees, which is the sacrifice that is intended. To surrender and sacrifice our own self is the principle of true abandonment or relinquishment—sannyasa or tyaga. From the point of view of our aspirations for God, our duty would be sacrifice, surrender, relinquishment of personality and egoism, the principle of the 'I am' in us. We are bound to perform a duty in our relationship to God, and our duty towards God is sacrifice.

Likewise, we have a duty towards the world, and that is charitableness, dana. We cannot be possessors, accumulators or hoarders of any kind of property when we live in a world of cooperative action and mutual respect. Respect for others' welfare and recognition of the value of another's existence is the principle of charity, which does not merely mean parting with some material goods that we may possess, but an inward attitude of respect for others, inasmuch as the Self is present in others to the same extent as it is present in us. The feeling of love and affection, and a spontaneous sense of giving rather than taking is the essence of dana, or charity. We perform charity not because we are rich and others are poor. The reason is different, viz., that the others are equally important, and they have as much right to exist as we ourselves have. The principle of the recognition of the Selfhood of all beings is behind the performance of charity or the extension of good will with regard to others. This is our duty towards the world of beings, even as we have a duty towards God, the Supreme Creator.

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Continued

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