The Philosophy of the Karma Yoga of the Bhagavadgita: 3. (END) Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday 08, Aug 2026, 08:35.
Article
Scriptures 
The Philosophy of the Karma Yoga of the Bhagavadgita: 3.
Swami Krishnananda.
(Spoken on July 15, 1979)
Post - 3.

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The undifferentiated spread-out character of our goal of life is our main problem, so neither can we renounce a thing nor can we cling to a thing. Mā karmaphalahetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi (BG 2.47): Neither can you cling to action, nor can you abandon action, so you are caught from both sides. You cannot say you like it, and you cannot say you don't like it. Both these attitudes are uncalled for and untrue to the nature of things.

How is it possible for a person to neither like a thing nor not to like a thing? We have never heard of such a state of affairs. We always have some opinion of things which is either in favour of it or against it because we have personal requirements, we have needs and desires, and anything that is in conformity with the fulfilment of our own needs appears beautiful and valuable, and therefore, good, ethical. But that which is somehow or other tending towards an opposition towards the fulfilment of our own so-called needs and desires is ugly and undesirable. That is an object of vehemence from our own minds.

Hence, any attitude, any judgement that we pass in regard to things outside as valuable or otherwise should proceed from a precedent analysis of the justifiability of our own needs and requirements. What is the spring of action behind the projection of a particular desire in our mind? What motivates the mind in a particular direction of like or dislike? That has to be the object of analysis first. If the basic motive behind is partitioned and is not in a position to take into consideration the extraneous circumstances, then the universe, the law of nature, will set up a reaction of a similar nature. As you judge a thing, so also you will be judged. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Tit for tat is the law of nature. Whatever you do to the world, that the world will do to you one day or the other. Whatever you think about the world, that the world will think about you. Whatever you give to the world, that the world will give you. In one sense at least, we may say that the whole world is like a mirror in which your face is reflected. You see your own self there. So whatever grinning you do in front of the mirror, that is reflected back upon you and you see it.

This happens because the world is not outside you. The basic error of our approach is to spring upon the world as if it is an outsider, take it by surprise, and try to conquer it or abandon it. The necessity to set up a balance, samatva, between ourselves and the world in karma yoga arises because of our involvement in the world. The world is neither a friend nor an enemy, just as I am not my own friend and I am not my own enemy. We cannot have such attitudes towards one's own self when the world is involved in the very structure of our being, and vice versa, so much so that any kind of judgement would be an unwarranted attitude of ours. Judge not lest ye be judged, is a universal maxim because only God can judge things, because He alone isomniscient. Judgement is passed by a person who has knowledge of every bit of the matter. He has a comprehensive knowledge of the entire circumstance of the case. Then only the judgement can be passed. But if one is a partisan, such a person is unfit to pass a judgement. And we are partisans, it is very well known, because we belong to our own selves, our own families, our own country, our own nationality, our own species, humanity. So how are we fit to say anything about the things in the world? We are not impartial either towards the complainant or towards the defendant. We belong either to that side or this side.

Hence, again we come to the point of the Bhagavadgita concerning the freedom that we have to attain in respect of our own personal predilections, a fact that has been emphasised in the verse that we have been studying: nirmānamohā jitasaṅgadoṣā adhyātmanityā vinivṛttakāmāḥ, dvandvair vimuktāḥ sukhaduḥkhasaṁjñaiḥ gacchhanty amūḍhāḥ padam avyayaṁ tat (BG 15.5). In one verse many things are said. Adhyātmanityā vinivṛttakāmāḥ: The establishment, either in the Self, or we may say in God, whatever name we give to it, is possible only when we are nivṛttakāmāḥ, that is, we have no personal idiosyncrasy in respect of anything. This is possible when we are dvandvair vimuktāḥ: Free from a tendency to take part in either side of the matter. We should not say we belong to this party or that party, because then it is very clear what opinion we will have about the other party. The world has no parties. All the parties are contents of this world.

This is the final structure of the constitution of things. As an umpire witnesses the game that is played in a field without belonging to either side, we have to be a spectator of all time and existence. What is the meaning of being a spectator of all time and existence? It is to be a spectator of ourselves as well as of others, and bear all these pairs of opposites.

The greatest pair of opposites is the pair of the seer and the seen, myself and yourself. These two constitute the central pair of opposites, and then everything else follows. Like, dislike, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, etc., are all secondary. The opposition between me and you is the pair of opposites. I cannot fully agree with you, and you cannot fully agree with me. Here is the ultimate irreconcilability of nature: the structure of things and the structure of the mind that beholds the things. Mind cannot reconcile itself with matter; matter cannot reconcile itself with mind. This is the philosophical or the metaphysical irreconcilability of opposites which descends in the form of lesser irreconcilabilities between parties in political fields, etc. Therefore, light has to be thrown on the various degrees of irreconcilability that we feel in our lives in order to understand what it is to be a dvandva mumukta.

Sukha and dukha, from which we have to be free according to the teaching of the Gita, arise because of this dvandva or the clash of opposites. The whole creation seems to be arranged in such a manner that a tendency to irreconcilability has been planted in the very seed of creation itself. We are unable to comprehend this mystery, of course, but we have somehow or other to adjust ourselves to the existing conditions. When, as the scriptures say, God willed that He should become many, it appears as if the Universal Subject willed to become the objects, and we know what it means: the I becoming the you. First the I becomes the me, then the me becomes the you. The you becomes the friend and the foe, and everything that follows as a consequence thereof, to the level where we are today.

One who is not caught up in the delusion of this so-called irreconcilability of dvanvdas is one who is not stupid, and to be stupid is to believe in the ultimate irreconcilability of yourself and myself. Can we be really friends? Let us ponder over this matter a little. Can you be a real friend of mine always, till the end of life, under every circumstance, at every place, even at the point of doom? It is doubtful if this is a practicable proposition. We are told that a real friend is one who will follow us till the doom. But have we seen such a friend throughout history? It is not possible because we have a personality of our own. Because I assert myself in the same way as you assert yourself, we can never be friends. We can never be friends as long as we are individuals, as long as I am what I am and you are what you are. But if I can become you and you can become me, there is a chance. Is it possible that you can become me and I become you? Maybe. It is a strange proposition indeed. How is it possible that I can become you?

This is sadhana. It is not merely the rolling of the beads in a physical fashion but the rolling of the bead of the mind, as the saint Kabir used to say, man ka manka. The mind has to perform a sirsasana, which means to say, the top has to become the bottom, and the bottom has to become the top. That is sirsasana. The object has to become the subject; the subject has to become the object. What I see should become myself and I should be there in what I see. Then the real Bhagavadgita gospel begins to operate like a flood that is rushing over our heads. Then God is at our beck and call. God becomes our servant. He is not merely our master. Wonderful! God becomes our servant as Krishna became a tongawalla – unthinkable! If you read the lives of saints, you will realise how God became even a servant boy in the house of great masters. He will sweep the floor, wash your cloths and purchase vegetables for you from the market. This is possible only if you are the servant of all, and not the master of anyone. As I mentioned yesterday, if you are the humblest conceivable, you are the master of everything. He who is nothing has control over all things. He who wants nothing will be bestowed with everything, and he who is the last will become the first for God.

An abolition of individuality, ego-personality and what not implies the worship of God in the circumstances of things. As Krishna is present in the whole field of the Mahabharata and Rama was present in the entire Ramayana warfare, God is present in this series of events we call life. The whole of life is a series of processions of events which is the drama played by the central will of God. He is the dramatic personae as well as the audience. He is Himself in this arena of movements, in this stage of life where men come and go and have their entrances and exits. But all these are to be taken in their central perspective and we have to learn the art of seeing things as the Supreme Being Himself sees.

Truth is, really speaking, what God sees with His eyes, goodness is that which God loves, and righteousness is that which God does. We cannot do what God does, we cannot think what God thinks, and we cannot see things as God sees. It is true, but we can take one step in that direction. Even if we move one inch in the direction of holy Badrinath, we are on the journey towards Badrinath, though it is only one step that we have taken. We have not even reached Lakshmanjhula, but still we say that we are on the journey towards holy Badrinath. Likewise is our journey towards God. It may be millions of miles away or hundreds of births ahead; it does not matter. We have taken a step, and it is a step in the proper direction.

Thus, one has to be always infinitely patient with the confidence that one has taken the right step, just as a farmer is happy even if he has merely sown the seed in the field and he does not know whether the crop will come up or not. It is beyond him, and he is not worried about it. The kisan, the person who works in the field, is satisfied because he has done his duty. He has done it in the proper manner, and therefore, it brings him satisfaction. What makes us happy is not the expected fruit which is out of our reach and beyond our control, but the consciousness of having done what is proper with the light of the highest understanding available to us.

Here is, in a small outline, the whole philosophy of the karma yoga of the Bhagavadgita, which is the prerequisite to the higher contemplations on God with the final aspiration of unity with God.

END.

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