The Bhagavadgita's Message of Knowledge and Action: 6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Valmiki, after hearing the captivating story of Sri Rama from Sage Narada, became deeply absorbed in it. One day, while at the Tamasa river with his disciple, he saw a pair of Krauncha birds happily playing together. Suddenly, a hunter shot the male bird, killing it. The female bird’s heart-wrenching cries deeply moved Valmiki, and in his grief, he spontaneously cursed the hunter, saying, “May you never find peace for killing one of the birds in the midst of its joy.”

What surprised Valmiki was that this curse had come out in the form of a perfect metrical verse, with four lines, each containing eight syllables. Brahma then appeared to Valmiki and praised the verse, revealing that the poetic inspiration had a divine purpose. He instructed Valmiki to compose an epic about the life and glory of Shri Rama in this same verse form. Brahma promised that the story would endure in all the worlds as long as mountains and rivers existed. 

Valmiki, inspired and guided by this divine command, set out to compose the Ramayana, narrating the soul-stirring tale of Shri Rama, culminating in the defeat of Ravana. His disciples found his verses delightful, and thus the Ramayana became a timeless and beautifully structured epic, celebrated for its insight and poetic brilliance.

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Saturday 19, October 2024, 07:15.
Article
Scriptures
The Bhagavadgita's Message of Knowledge and Action: 6. 
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on Gita Jayanti in 1974)

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The motive behind the action also comes. Why are we doing this action? The motive is the moral force, meaning or significance that is behind an action, and it colours the action to a large extent, if not entirely.

There is a very, very important fifth factor. As Shakespeare has put it, there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how you will. Whatever be our effort, whatever be our sweating, there is something else that decides the fate of our action. Whatever be the argument of an advocate in a court, the deciding factor is the judge. The judge will hear the arguments from both sides and finally, he is the deciding factor. Now, we will have a doubt in our mind: “Will God decide against my motive? Then it is very pitiable. Suppose I do something and God simply disposes of the entire motive of my action; what is the good of my doing anything? This is a sorrowful state of affairs.”

Again the same principle of action, harmony, is here called yoga. Harmony is the will of God. This is an essential factor in any kind of successful action. God will not act against us if our will is united with the divine will. The law will not punish us if our action is in consonance with the law. Why should the law punish us? It is because we go against it. We curse the law. “Oh, stupid thing, the law is harassing me.” Why does it harass us? Because we do not know what it means and we do not want to follow its mandates. We have a law of our own, contrary to the prevailing law, so why should it not trouble us? Whose mistake is it?

Therefore divine will, God's dispensation, is not against man's motivation of action, and God's will is the ultimate fruit-yielding factor in all activities of the individual. We sow the seed, manure the sapling, take care of the plant and see that the tree grows, but the fruit comes out of the tree due to the will of a universal power, with which our will has to be united.

What is meant by saying we must be in harmony with the atmosphere and environment of our action, with all conceivable factors, in order that our action may be successful? Can we conceive all the factors? No. We are not sufficiently educated. Therefore, we fail in our action. We cannot exercise our mind to such an extent that we can understand the operation of all the factors involved in an action and, therefore, many of our actions go abortive, producing no result whatsoever. Not merely that, sometimes the result of the action that we performed comes back upon us like a boomerang and we cry, “Oh, what has happened to me? Is this the result of my good deeds?” Well, we must have done a very good deed from our own limited point of view, but we have forgotten to put on the ultimate switch. The powerhouse is working, the wire is there, the bulb is fitted, but we have forgotten to put on the switch, so how will there be illumination?

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Continued

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