Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 4 - Jnaana Karma Sanyaasa Yogah - Yoga of Renunciation of Action in Knowledge

 

 

CONTENTS

 

• ACTION WITHOUT ATTACHMENT DOES NOT LEAD TO BONDAGE
• DOCTRINE OF ACTION AND INACTION
• INACTION IN ACTION
• ACTION IN INACTION
• PERFORMED ALL ACTIONS
• SACRIFICE AND ITS SYMBOLIC VALUE
• WISDOM  AND WORK
• HOW DOES ONE GAIN THAT EXALTED KNOWLEDGE?
• RESULT OF KNOWLEDGE
• HOW DOES KNOWLEDGE DESTROY SIN?
• MEANS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
• CONCEPTS AND ISSUES
• LIVE AS THE GITE TEACHES YOU TO LIVE
• POINTS TO PONDER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preamble

In  the previous Chapter Sri Krishna advocated the path of Karma Yoga as a method  to realize the Self.  For fear that Arjuna  may misunderstand this advice as the only way for the self-development Lord Krishna reveals in this chapter how spiritual knowledge is received by successive disciples  and the reason and nature of His descent into the material worlds. He also  explains the paths of action and knowledge as well as the wisdom regarding the  supreme knowledge which results at the culmination of the two paths. Thus this  chapter dealing with the paths of action and knowledge is entitled: ‘The Yoga of Renunciation  of Action in Knowledge’. In a way this  Chapter can be considered as an Appendix to the Third Chapter.

In  this Chapter we can observe Sri Krishna talking to Arjuna not as his friend or charioteer but as an omnipotent and omniscient God probably to instill in his mind the necessary reverence and respect for Him and His teachings.

TRADITION OF JNAANA (GYAAN) YOGA

sri bhagavaan uvaacha
    imam vivaswate yogam proktavan aham  avyayam
    vivaswaan manave praaha manur  ikshwaakave'braveet // 4.1 //

Sri  Bhagavan said
    I  taught this eternal Yoga to Vivasvan; he taught it to Manu and Manu proclaimed  it to Ikshvaku.

This  eternal yoga means the yoga taught in the Second and Third Chapters. The fruit  of this yoga is liberation, which transcends time, space and causality. Hence  it is eternal. Vivasvan is the Sun-God. Manu is the ancient law-giver. Ikshvaku  is the ancestor of Kshatriyas whose lineage goes back to the Sun-God.

Jnaana  Yoga, discussed in the 2nd and 3rd Chapters, is based on  renunciation and is attained through the performance of duty. Thus it  comprehends both the life of activity (pravritti) and the life of  retirement (nivritti) as taught in the Vedas. The path of knowledge has  been described throught the Gita as leading directly to liberation. Therefore,  it is extolled here by pointing out its antiquity.

evam paramparaa praaptam imam  raajarshayo viduh
    sa kaaleneha mahataa yogo nashtah  parantapa // 4.2 //

This  knowledge, handed down thus in regular succession, the royal sages knew.  This yoga by long lapse of time has been lost  to the world, O Parantapa (Arjuna).

The  royal sages - men like Rama and Janaka who were kings and at the same time  sages also because of their austerities and wisdom knew this Yoga. If the  leaders of a country possess the knowledge of Yoga i.e. moral values of life,  they will percolate down the line into the entire society.

The teachings of this yoga were lost by falling into  the hands of selfish and unrighteous people. It is the intention of the Lord to  revive it through the Gita.

sa evaayam mayaa te'dya yogah proktah  puraatanah
    bhakto'si me sakhaa cheti rahasyam  hyetad uttamam // 4.3 //

That  same ancient yoga has been taught to you by Me today, for you are My devotee  and My friend and it is a supreme secret

The  yoga mentioned here is considered secret because it is not commonly known to  everybody and that it should be revealed only to those who are worthy to  receive it.

ARJUNA’S DOUBT

arjuna uvaacha
    aparam bhavato janma param janma  vivaswatah
    katham etadvijaaneeyaam twam aadau  proktavaan iti // 4.4 //

Arjuna  said
    Later  was your birth and earlier was the birth of Vivasvan; how, then, am I to  understand that you taught this Yoga in the beginning?

The  birth of Sri Krishna was later than that of The Sun. Arjuna wants to know how he  should believe that the former taught this yoga to the latter.

THEORY OF AVATARS

 

 

sri bhagavaan uvaacha
    bahooni me vyateetaani janmaani tava  chaarjuna
    taanyaham veda sarvaani na twam vettha  parantapa // 4.5 //

Sri  Bhagavan said
    Many  births of mine have passed as well as of yours, O Arjuna; I know them all but  you know them not, O Parantapa.

Arjuna  with a limited knowledge thinks that Sri Krishna is an ordinary man and not the  omnipotent and omniscient Lord. This doubt is cleared here. Sri Krishna knows  the past and future because He is the Lord Himself. He is unobstructed in His  power of vision.

SECRET OF LORD’S BIRTH

ajo'pi sannavyayaatmaa bhootaanaam  eeshwaro'pi san
    prakritim swaam adhishthaaya  sambhavaamyaatmamaayayaa // 4.6 //

Though  I am unborn, and eternal by nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet  subjugating my own nature, I come into being by my own Maya.

The  Lord is eternal by nature because Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, which  forms His nature, is eternal and changeless. ‘My own nature’ means His inherent  power of Maya. Maya inheres in Brahman, but Brahman remains unaffected by it in  the same way as the poison of a cobra which is in the cobra but cannot injure  it. This power of Maya which is made up of the three Gunas, deludes the  embodied being from recognizing the Lord who is his true Self. ‘I come into  being by my own Maya’ means that it is through Maya the Lord appears to be  born. His embodiment is not real as are the embodiments of other beings.

The  embodiments of human beings (birth in the human form) are not voluntary. Driven  by nature or prakriti, through ignorance, they are born again and again. The  Lord controls nature and assumes embodiment through His own free will. The  ordinary birth of creatures is determined by the force of nature while The Lord  takes birth through His own power. He uses His nature in such a way which is  free from subjection to karma. Yogamaya refers to the free will of God, His  incomprehensible power.

To put it differently, the embodiment of the Lord is  only an appearance. A created being is under the control of Maya but the Lord  is the controller of Maya. The birth and death of the Lord depends upon His own  will. But the birth and death of an embodied being are due to the law of Karma.  This is the difference between an embodied being and the incarnate Lord.

THE LORD’S INCARNATION

 

yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanir bhavati  bhaarata
    abhyutthaanam adharmasya tadaa'tmaanam  srijaamyaham // 4.7 //

Whenever  there is a decline of dharma (righteousness), O Bharata , and rise of adharma (unrighteousness),  then I manifest myself.

FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

 

 

paritraanaaya saadhoonaam vinaashaaya  cha dushkritam
    dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami  yuge yuge // 4.8 //

For  the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the  establishment of righteousness, I am born in every age.

Whenever  there is a serious tension in life, when the all-pervasive materialism invades  the hearts of human souls, to preserve the equilibrium, a responsive manifestation  of wisdom and righteousness is essential. The Supreme, though unborn and  undying, becomes manifest in human embodiment to overthrow the forces of  ignorance and selfishness.

Avatara  means descent, one who has descended. The Divine comes down to the earthly  plane to raise it to a higher status. The purpose of Avatar is to inaugurate a  new world, a new Dharma. By His teaching and example, He shows how a human  being can raise himself to a higher grade of life.

The  issue between right and wrong is the most crucial one. The Lord works on the  side of the right. Love and mercy are more powerful than hatred and cruelty.

Dharma  will conquer Adharma, truth wins over falsehood and power behind death will be  overthrown by the Reality, Sat Chit Ananda - Being, Intelligence and Bliss.

Dharma  means the mode of the being. It is the essential nature of a being that  determines its mode of behavior. So long as our conduct is in conformity with  our essential nature, we are acting in the right way. Adharma is nonconformity  to our nature. Harmony of the world is on account of conformity of all beings  to their respective natures; disharmony of the world is due to their  nonconformity.

When  the freedom given to humans is abused causing disequilibrium The Lord does not  merely stand aside and allow the things to drift. He, through His  manifestation, sets the matter on the right track and lets it jog along by  itself while His loving hand is steering it all the time.

Sri  Krishna says that His manifestations in this world in every age are for the  following purposes:
1. for the protection of  the good: To protect those who lead a life of truth and righteousness, who utilize their bodies in the service  of the community, who are free from selfishness, anger,  hatred, lust and greed and who devote their life to  divine contemplation.
2. for the destruction of the evil-doers: For the elimination of wrong tendencies in those who lead a life of  unrighteousness, who break the laws of the society, who are vain, dishonest and greedy, who injure others, who take possession of other's property by force and who commit  all sorts of crimes  and
3. for the establishment of dharma: When dharma is protected and wickedness destroyed, society lives according to dharma and affords opportunities to its members to lead a spiritual life. It connotes cosmic and moral order.

janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti  tattwatah
    tyaktwaa deham punarjanma naiti maameti  so'rjuna // 4.9 //

He  who thus knows in true light My divine birth and action, will not be born again  when he leaves his body: he will attain Me, O Arjuna.

After  explaining the reasons for His incarnations in this world Sri Krishna declares  that he, who knows the great truth that the Lord though apparently born is ever  beyond birth and death, though apparently active in the cause of righteousness,  is ever beyond all action - becomes illumined with Self-knowledge, has realized  the ultimate truth. Thus he transcends birth and death in the relative world  and attains Brahman. 

veetaraagabhayakrodhaa manmayaa maam  upaashritaah
    bahavo jnaana tapasaa pootaa  madbhaavamaagataah  // 4.10 //

Freed  from attachment, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, purified  by the fire of knowledge, many have attained my being.

The  purpose of incarnation is not merely to uphold the world order but to help the  human beings to become perfected in their nature.

The  steps required to be undertaken by beings in this regard are:

1. renouncing  attachments to sense objects
2. becoming desire  less
3. getting free from  selfishness
4. realizing that he  is constant, indestructible, eternal Self and that change is merely a quality  of the body.

When  an individual has reached this stage of self-development he becomes fearless  and sees the Self everywhere and in such a state anger cannot arise in him. He  is absorbed in Him and becomes fully devoted to Him. He thus takes absolute  refuge in The Lord after getting purified with the fire of this knowledge.

The  wisdom is referred to here as fire. Just as fire burns everything the wisdom burns  down or completely removes all latent tendencies, impressions, cravings etc in  an individual and thus makes him pure.

IS THE LORD PARTIAL TOWARDS SOME?

 

ye yathaa maam prapadyante taamstathaiva  bhajaamyaham
    mama vartmaanuvartante manushyaah  paartha sarvashah // 4.11 //

In  whatever way men worship Me, in the same way I reward them; It is my path, that  men follow in all things, O Son of Pritha.

This  verse brings out the wide catholicity of the Gita religion. God meets every  aspirant with favor and grants to each his heart’s desire. He does not  extinguish the hope of any but helps all hopes to grow according to their  nature. The Lord bestows pleasure to those who seek pleasure, rewards those who  aim liberation, and rescues them from distresses who pray to Him, and so on. In  whatever form man worships the Lord, the Lord appears to him in that form. The  various deities and cosmic forces, the angels, the prophets, the incarnations,  are only different manifestations of the Lord Himself.

As  there are innumerable ideals cherished by men, so there are innumerable forms  of the Lord corresponding to those ideals. It is to Him alone that man offers  worship under different names and forms, through different symbols and rites.  Likewise, from Him alone comes the fulfillment of all desires, whether they are  secular or spiritual. As the Self within He brings to fruition all wishes when  the necessary conditions are fulfilled. The Atharva Veda says “ekam jyoti  bahudha vibhati’ - the one light manifests itself in various forms.  (XIII.3.17)

“The spiritually immature are unwilling to recognize  other Gods than their own. Their attachment to their creed makes them blind to  the larger unity of Godhead. This is the result of egotism in the religious  ideas.  The Gita on the other hand  affirms though beliefs and practices may  be many and varied, spiritual realization to which these are the means is one”.  Dr.S.Radhakrishnan.

WHY DO PEOPLE NOT DESIRE LIBERATION?

 

kaangkshantah karmanaam siddhim yajanta  iha devataah
    kshipram hi maanushe loke siddhirbhavati  karmajaa // 4.12 //

Those  who long for success in action in this world worship the Gods, because success  is quickly attained by men through action.

Men  worship God in this world because they want immediate fruits in terms of pleasures  from their activities.  Worldly success  is much easier of attainment than Self-knowledge which demands perfect  renunciation.

ALL ARE NOT BORN EQUAL

chaaturvarnyam mayaa srishtam gunakarma  vibhaagashah
    tasya kartaaram api maam  viddhyakartaaram avyayam // 4.13 //

The  fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of Guna  and Karma; though I am the author thereof know Me as non-doer and changeless.

This  verse explains the diversity of human temperaments and tendencies.  All men are not of the same nature because of  the preponderance of the different Gunas in them. The caste system was  originally meant to make the growth of human society perfect. But this  principle later on came to be abused and misused by the society which gave it a  totally wrong meaning based on the accident of birth.

On  the basis of the temperamental distinctions and the quality of thoughts  entertained by the individuals, the entire mankind has been, for the purpose of  spiritual study, classified as the four castes or Varnas just as people are  divided as professionals, merchants, agriculturists and laborers etc on the  basis of activities or vocation pursued by them. For the well being of the  society in general each class of people is as important and essential as the  other.

Accordingly  the four varnas are:

1. Brahmana - where Sattwa (purity, goodness etc.) predominates in thoughts and action.
2. Kshatriya - where Rajas (courage, valor etc.) predominates in thoughts and deeds.
3. Vaishya - where Rajas and Tamas (indolence, ignorance etc.) predominate.
4. Sudra     - where Tamas alone predominates.

  The  Lord is the Creator of the four castes only from the standpoint of maya. Maya  is the immediate cause of everything that happens in the relative world. But  since maya has no existence independent of the Lord, He is said to be the  Creator.

The  Lord with reference to the mind and intellect is the creator of the  temperaments although in His essential nature He is not the Doer or the Creator  because He is the changeless and all-pervading irrespective of what happens in  the creation.

ACTION WITHOUT ATTACHMENT DOES NOT LEAD TO BONDAGE

na maam  karmaani limpanti na me karmaphale sprihaa
    iti maam  yo'bhijaanaati karmabhir na sa badhyate    // 4.14 //

Actions  do not taint Me, nor have I a desire for the fruits of actions.  He who knows Me thus is not bound by actions.

Actions  do not taint the Lord because He is totally free from egoism. Since He is  unselfish, He is not taking rebirths as men to reap the fruit of His actions.  Anyone who knows his own inmost Self to be the Lord, unattached to action and  its result, is not bound by action and will not be reborn in the world of maya.

Taint  and desire can come only to an Ego which is the Self functioning through a  given state of mind and intellect. The one who has renounced his identification  with his limited ego and rediscovered himself as none other than the Self is no  more affected by his actions in the outer world.

evam jnaatwaa kritam karma poorvair api  mumukshubhih
    kuru karmaiva tasmaat twam poorvaih  poorvataram kritam // 4.15 //

Having  known this, the ancient seekers after liberation performed action; therefore,  you too perform action, as did the ancients in the olden times.

Knowing  that the Self can have no desire for the fruits of actions and cannot be  tainted or soiled by them and knowing that no one can be tainted if he works  without egoism, attachment and expectation of fruits, Arjuna is called upon to  do his duty as the ancients like King Janaka and others did in the days of yore.  The idea is that the ignorant perform action for self purification, and the  wise perform action for the maintenance of the world.

DOCTRINE OF ACTION AND INACTION

 

kim karma kim akarmeti kavayo'pyatra  mohitaah
    tat te karma pravakshyaami yajjnaatwaa  mokshyase'shubhaat // 4.16 //

What  is action? What is inaction? As to this even the wise are perplexed. Therefore,  I shall tell you what action is by knowing which you shall be freed from the  evil (of Samsara - the wheel of birth and death).

The  Lord thus instructed Arjuna to perform action in a disinterested spirit. But  one cannot duly perform one’s duty without knowing in reality what constitutes  action and what inaction is. Therefore the Lord promises to reveal to Arjuna  the truth about action showing its intricate nature and the value of its  knowledge in order that Arjuna may really understand the truth about  transcendent actions, which are free from the feeling of possession, the sense  of doership, attachment and the desire for fruit. Thus the mystery of action is  extremely difficult to unravel.

karmano hyapi boddhavyam boddhavyam cha  vikarmanah
    akarmanashcha boddhavyam gahanaa karmano  gatih // 4.17 //

One  has to understand what action really is and likewise one has to understand what  is forbidden action and also what inaction is. Indeed hard to understand is the  way of action.

One  must not oversimplify action and inaction by thinking that the former means the  activity of the body and the latter its idleness. The definition of these three  terms is as under:

1. Action : That which is prescribed in the scriptures and not merely approved by men.
2. Forbidden action : That which is forbidden by the scriptures.
3. Inaction : Renunciation of action.

Activity  is the very essence of life. The great Seers of ancient days evaluated the life  on the basis of the quality of activities. This is explained in the following  chart.

 

Life  is constituted of moments of activity and inactivity. Through inactivity  neither progress nor deterioration is ever possible. Periods of activity alone  create man. Such creation of man depends upon what type of activity he  undertakes. Activity or Karma need not imply only ritualism but it encompasses  all dedicated actions. It is known to all that action means movement of the  body etc., and inaction means absence of such movements or to sit quiet. But  these two terms imply much more than these familiar ideas.

Activity  can be broadly classified as constructive and destructive. Constructive  activities are termed here as Karma (i.e. actions to be done) which contribute  towards the evolution of an individual. Destructive activities are those which  debase the individual and hence totally condemned by the Sastras; these are  referred to here as Vikarma (actions to be avoided).

Karma  (Constructive activity) can be of three types:

1. Nitya Karma :  constant duties
2. Naimittika Karma :  special duties on special occasions and
3. Kamya Karma :  duties done expecting rewards.

Sri  Krishna advises Arjuna to avoid prohibited actions (Vikarma) and to pursue the  constructive and creative activities of self-development (Karma) and to totally  reject inactivity (Akarma). It is essential that a true seeker should know the  triple classification of activities constituting life. Sri Bhagavan admits that  it is not easy to understand these concepts of activities implying that for  evaluating actions one should go beyond the actions as such and look into the  motive or desire or intention behind such actions. If motives are pure actions they  will be noble and if motives are impure so also actions will be mean.

karmanyakarma yah pashyed akarmani cha  karma yah
    sa buddhimaan manushyeshu sa yuktah  kritsnakarmakrit // 4.18 //

    He  who recognizes inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; he  is a Yogi and a true performer of all actions.

This  verse conveys the central theme of this Chapter. Sri Krishna describes the  nature of action and inaction by introducing the concepts of seeing inaction in  action and action in inaction. Bhagavan  asserts that he who so recognizes is a wise person, a Yogi and is deemed to  have preformed all actions.

Although  these terms are common and familiar they are used in the Gita with special  meaning and implications. They are examined hereunder.

Inaction in action

  It  is only the ignorant that regard the Self as active. But the wise person  regards the Self as actionless even when he himself is engaged in action.  Activity belongs to the senses, the body and the mind. It is a function of the  Gunas.

Action in inaction

  The  body, the senses and the mind, regarded by the ignorant as actionless, are  perceived by the wise to be active. Hence he sees action in what the ignorant  think to be inaction.

Performed all actions

  A  wise person devoid of the idea of agency is really a free soul, though he  participates in action. Action does not bind him.

The  terms ‘action’ and ‘inaction’ are not rightly understood; the one is mistaken  for the other. The Lord tries to remove this misunderstanding. The Self of man  is actionless. Action pertains to the physical body, the senses and the mind.  But an ignorant person falsely attributes action to the Self and says to  himself that ‘I am the doer, mine is the action, and by me is the fruit of  action reaped’ and so on.

Similarly,  he falsely imputes to the Self the cessation of activity, which really pertains  to the body, the senses and the mind. So he says to himself ‘I shall be quiet,  I may be free from work and worry and be happy’ and so on.

Through  right knowledge a man sees inaction in action; he sees that action commonly  associated with the Self really belongs to the body, the senses and the mind  and that the Self is actionless. Likewise, a man with right knowledge sees  action in inaction; he knows that inaction is also a kind of action. Inaction  is a correlative of action and pertains to the body. The Self is beyond action  and inaction.

Sankara  explains that in atman there is no action; in the body, however, there  is no rest, even when there seems to be rest.

He  who knows the meaning of action and inaction as explained above is wise among  men; he is a Yogi. He does all action without being bound; he is free from the  evil result of action. He has achieved everything.

    yasya sarve samaarambhaah kaamasankalpa  varjitaah
        jnaanaagni dagdhakarmaanam tam aahuh  panditam budhaah // 4.19 //

Whose  undertakings are all devoid of desires and self-will and whose actions have  been burnt by the Fire of Knowledge, the wise will call him the sage.

Realization  of `inaction in action' and `action in inaction' is praised here. Sri Krishna  says that he is a perfect sage whose actions in the outside world are without  desires or the thoughts which cause such desires. Such actions performed are  mere movements without any attachment for the actions and for their results  because of the absence of any selfish purpose.

They  are undertaken for preventing people from going astray or merely for the  maintenance of the body or to set an example to others. When a sage performs  these actions in the community such a learned person really does no action and  his action is equivalent to inaction since all his actions are consumed by the  fire of wisdom in having known the truth about action and inaction through the  knowledge of Self.

The  Self knowledge is a spiritual fire which consumes the results of all kinds of  actions, good or bad, making the enlightened sage free from the bonds of  action. Even when such a saint works in the world outside he is only expressing  the will of the Divine and not his own desires and therefore, it is said that  his actions are burnt by the fire of knowledge.

tyaktwaa karmaphalaasangam nityatripto  niraashrayah
    karmany abhipravritto'pi naiva kinchit  karoti sah // 4.20 //

Giving  up attachment to the fruits of actions, ever content, depending upon nothing,  he does not do anything though engaged in actions.

A  man of wisdom is described here. He who has abandoned all concern for actions  and has also renounced all his attachments for their fruits is a perfect  worker. This, however, does not mean that the Path of Action is to act without  an eye upon the fruits of activities. It only means that we should avoid our  mental dependence and intellectual attachment to the desired or expected  results of our activities. Only when one gets pre-occupied with the expected fruits  of actions, he gets worried and anxious and thereby becomes ineffective.  Hence we are advised to work for the  happiness and welfare of the society by forsaking (Tyaktwaa) our clinging  (Sangam) to the fruits of action (Karma phalam).

If  an attitude of non-attachment to fruits of actions is developed one becomes  anxiety-free and his intellect can have no more desires because anxiety is the  direct result of desires. He thus becomes ever content (Nitya-Tripta) in his  experience of the Self acting in the world not seeking any fulfillment for  himself.

An  ordinary man lives entirely depending on the fruits of his actions and derives  joy out of such fruits.  In the case of a  sage, he expects no fruits of his activities and his very actions are by  themselves a reward for him.  Hence he  depends on nothing (Niraashraya).

The  weaknesses of anxiety for the fruits of action, a sense of discontentment and a  feeling of dependency on things and beings of the world, belong to the Ego.  When the seeker ends his ego and realized his identity with the Self, he though  seemingly engaged in activity does not do anything. He is an emancipated soul  who sees inaction in action and action in inaction.

niraasheer yatachittaatmaa  tyaktasarvaparigrahah
    shaareeram kevalam karma kurvannaapnoti  kilbisham // 4.21 //

Free  from desire, with the body and the mind controlled, and surrendering all possessions  he incurs no sin through mere bodily activity.

A  knower of Brahman is always absorbed in his communion with the Absolute and no  outside activity is possible for him. However, actions for the bare maintenance  of the body are done by him without any real identification with the body. The  question whether such a person commits any sin accruing from failure to perform  one’s prescribed duties is answered now.

When  an individual

1. completely  renounces desire
2. brings his body  and mind under perfect control and
3. relinquishes all  possessions, his ego ends.

When  the ego has ended his actions do not leave any impressions on his mind and intellect  and hence they are not capable of bringing about any consequences.

Such  a saint's activities do not bind him since he is not the performer of actions  but the actions merely flow through him. He is not a doer of actions but only  an instrument for the Lord's will to express itself. The human soul becomes the  pure channel of Divine power.

yadricchaalaabhasantushto dwandwaateeto  vimatsarah
    samah siddhaavasiddhau cha kritwaapi na  nibadhyate // 4.22 //

Content  with what comes to him without any effort on his part, free from the pairs of  opposites and envy, even minded in success and failure, though acting he is not  bound.

An  individual who has gone beyond ego cannot perform any desire-prompted and  result-motivated activity. So he will be happy with whatever gain spontaneously  accrues to him out of his actions. This is called ‘without any effort’.

The  state of egolessness indicates perfect victory over mind and intellect and so  the pairs of opposites - heat and cold, success and failure, good and bad, joy and  sorrow, gain and loss etc., cannot affect him because they are only the  interpretation of the world of objects by the mind. Such an individual who has  conquered his egocentric misconceptions about himself, though acting is not  bound by the consequences of the actions performed (Karma-Phalam) because he  realizes that the gunas act upon the gunas and is ever steady in the true  knowledge of the Self. From the standpoint of the world such a man may appear  to be working or engaged in action, but from his own point of view he is not  the agent of any action. The egoistic motive of action has been consumed, in  his case, in the fire of knowledge.

The  Cosmos is a manifestation of the Supreme and what binds is not the act but the  selfish attitude to action, born of ignorance which makes us imagine that we  are many separate individuals with our likes and dislikes.

In  the following verses Sri Krishna proceeds to point out how the actor, the act  and the action are all different manifestations of the one Supreme and action  offered as a sacrifice to the Supreme does not bind.

SACRIFICE AND ITS SYMBOLIC VALUE

 

gatasangasya muktasya  jnaanaavasthitachetasah
    yajnaayaacharatah karma samagram  pravileeyate  // 4.23 //

For  the one who is devoid of attachment, who is liberated, whose mind is established in knowledge, who acts for the sake of sacrifice alone, the whole  action dissolves away.

The  qualities of a man of wisdom are enumerated in this verse which explains the  path to perfection. They are:

Devoid of attachment - Divinity attained by man is not something that is newly  acquired by him but it is only a rediscovery of perfection already existing in  him which is veiled from him because of his attachment to the finite world of  objects. The wise man is he for whom attachment with the world of objects has  ceased.

Liberated - Bondages created around the personality of a man are  his own creation due to his attachments with things. His ego feels fulfilled  only through the material world of objects and it develops a sense of clinging  to these objects. Thus his  body gets  itself attached to the world of sense-objects, his mind gets itself enslaved in  the world of emotions and his intellect gets entangled in its own ideas and he  feels bound and fettered. It is only when one goes beyond these attachments and  hand-cuffs he becomes liberated.

Mind established in knowledge - Perfect detachment and complete liberation can be  accomplished only when the seeker's mind gets focused on the discriminative  knowledge of knowing the difference between the permanent and impermanent.  Mind's attachment to the worldly objects is because of its delusion.  If, however, the mind were to concentrate on  the discriminative knowledge with the support of the intellect all the false  attachments will drop off.

Acting for the sake of sacrifice (Yagna) - `Yagna' does not mean only the rituals performed in  an attitude of Dedication to God for achieving freedom from the cycle of mortal  existence ; it means all actions  performed without ego and without the motivation of egocentric desires  in a spirit of service.

When  a man of perfect wisdom with the qualities as stated above performs actions in  a spirit of sacrifice (Yagna), such actions dissolve away of themselves i.e.  they do not leave any impressions upon his mind and cannot produce any reaction  of newly formed vasanas.

Yagna  ritual, the holiest act known to man, is used in the following verses as a  symbol standing for the outlook of an illumined man on all his work. It is  interpreted in a larger spiritual way.

brahmaarpanam brahmahavirbrahmaagnau  brahmanaa hutam
    brahmaiva tena gantavyam  brahmakarmasamaadhinaa  // 4.24 //

Brahman  is the act of offering ; Brahman is the clarified butter etc. constituting the offerings; by Brahman it is offered into the fire of Brahman; Brahman is that which is to be reached by him who always sees Brahman in all his works.

This  is a famous verse which is generally recited before taking daily food. This  verse is a capsule of the entire Vedanta.

Brahman  is the Infinite Reality which is changeless substratum behind the changing  phenomenal world in contrast with that aspect of Brahman which functions in and  through a body termed as the Atman.

When  the waves of the ocean dash against each other nothing new happens because all  waves are nothing but the ocean and by their act of dashing against each other  the ocean rises over the ocean itself and become one with the ocean.  Similarly when a Yagna is performed by a sage  for whom there is no plurality of the world, Brahman the Truth is the performer  offering Brahman, the material to the sacred fire, which is nothing but  Brahman, invoking Brahman only.

In  the previous verse it was stated that performing actions for the sake of  sacrifice, Yagna, alone melts away all his actions. It is explained here that  after attaining the true knowledge the seeker's whole life becomes one act of  Yagna, in which the process of offering, the objects offered , the fire, the  doer of the sacrifice, the work itself and the goal are all Brahman.

After  attaining the Knowledge of Brahman, a man sees Brahman in everything. He sees  Brahman in every part of the action: the instrument, the doer, the result and  the action itself. These have no existence apart from Brahman just as the  mirage has no existence apart from the desert. What appears to be water to the ignorant  is nothing but the desert. Likewise, what appears to the unenlightened as the  instrument of action, the doer, and so on, is realized by one who is endowed  with the knowledge of Brahman as Brahman Itself. To him everything is Brahman.

Thus  the action performed by the knower of Brahman to set an example to the world is  in reality no action, since all the accessories of action are consumed, as it  were, in the fire of Brahman. The knowledge of Brahman removes all duality.  Therefore action performed by a knower of Brahman melts away with its result  and cannot bind its performer.

The  significance of reciting this verse before taking food is that eating food is  an unavoidable necessity for existence.   When one is hungry he enjoys any type of food that comes to him. Even at  this moment of enjoyment he should not forget the truth that it is Brahman  eating Brahman, and that during meals he is offering to Brahman the food that  is Brahman invoking nothing but the grace of Brahman.

Yajna in the ancient past merely meant the ritual of  fire worship by kindling the flames with the offerings therein by the people. Krishna gives a new interpretation to the word Yajna to mean  the conversion of human day to day activities into worship. The cycle of human activity  starts with the receipt of stimuli from the world at large by the organs of perception,  which turn them into reaction in mind and intellect, and which are returned as  a response back into the world through the organs of action. This entire cycle  has been split into twelve main activities; each of them turned into a ritual,  worship, a Yajna. Those who understand this and turn their daily activities into  a practice of these yajnas will free themselves from the vasanas / desires.

This  concept of viewing daily activities as a Yajna can be further explained in  simpler terms. Take for instance the most common activities of eating and  reading. This can be stated in the Gita language as “People offer  the sense of hunger as sacrifice in the fire of food; others offer the sense of  ignorance as sacrifice in the fire of the knowledge” What does this mean?  It simply means that food satisfies hunger or hunger is burnt in the Yajnakund of food or hunger is burnt by food or just hunger is satiated by consuming  food. Similarly, knowledge removes ignorance or ignorance is burnt in the  sacrificial fire of knowledge or ignorance is burnt (removed) by knowledge or  just ignorance disappears when knowledge dawns.

By converting activities into Yajna (worship) a  seeker drops his vasanas and gradually gains knowledge of the Self. The supermost  of all yajnas is jnana yajna,  the yajna of Wisdom. A seeker should prepare himself for the yajna through devotion,  enquiry and service. With such preparation he will attract a perfect Guru to  teach him the knowledge of the Self. This knowledge of the Self destroys all  desires and agitations and removes forever his delusion that the world is real.

The knowledge of Self purifies the mind of all  agitations and gives supreme Peace. Those devoted to Self control their senses  and pursue the Self with consistency until they reach it. The ignorant, ever  doubtful of the Self, lack steadiness of purpose. They will not achieve  anything in this world or the next nor will they find any enduring happiness. Krishna, therefore, advises Arjuna to gain knowledge and  remove all doubts and delusion and thus become established in the Supreme Self. 

daivamevaapare yajnam yoginah paryupaasate
    brahmaagnaavapare yajnam yajnenaivopajuhwati // 4.25 //

Some Yogis offer oblations or perform  sacrifice to Devas alone (Deva-yagna); while others offer the Self as sacrifice  by the Self into the fire of Brahman (Brahma Yagna).

Sri Krishna explains the mental  attitude of a sage when he comes in contact with the world and functions in it.  The Lord is enumerating in these verses twelve different types of Yagnas, each  one apparently meaning ritualism but in fact suggesting different patterns of  life wherein by the necessary adjustments in the mind we can effectively change  the entire reactions of the world upon us.

Deva Yagna - Some Yogis perform sacrifice to Devas alone: According  to ritualism this means invoking the grace of a specific deity and offering  oblations to it in the sacred fire for gaining its blessings.  But here it means that the perfect masters  (Yogis) when they move in the world do perceive objects but their understanding  and experience of the perception is of such a nature that the world of objects  was subservient to the five sense organs which are Devas.  When this mental attitude is entertained by  the seeker, he feels detached from the sense experience and is able to have a  sense of inner equanimity. It is surrendering individual consciousness to  Cosmic Consciousness.

Brahma Yagna - Offering the Self as a sacrifice by the Self in the  fire of Brahman: The outer world by itself is incapable of giving us sorrow or joy;  but it is our attitude towards the objects and situations of the outer world  that brings us such feelings. The perfect masters understand that the sense  organs are mere instruments of perception and tune them to sacrifice themselves  in the knowledge of the Brahman. When an individual's organs of perception and  action are to function not for satisfying his selfish needs but for the sake of  serving the society at large, then although he lives in the world of objects he  will not have any attachment to them.

The limiting accessories such as  body, mind and intellect which are super imposed on the Self through ignorance  are subordinated and the identity of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul  is realized. The offering of the Self in the Brahman is to know that the Self  which is associated with the limiting adjuncts is identical with the  unconditioned Supreme Brahman. This is called Brahma Yagna wherein the Self is  divested of Its Upadhis or limiting adjuncts so that it is recognized as the  Supreme Self or Brahman.

Brahman is described in the  scriptures as Consciousness, Knowledge and Bliss and as the innermost Self of  all. It is devoid of all limitations imposed by time, space and causality. The  individual self is in reality Brahman, but appears as the individual through  association with the body, mind, intelligence and senses. To know the  conditioned self as one with the unconditioned Brahman is to sacrifice the self  in the fire of Brahman. This sacrifice is performed by those who have renounced  all action and are devoted to the Knowledge of Brahman.

    shrotraadeeneendriyaanyanye samyamaagnishu juhwati
    shabdaadeen vishayaananya indriyaagnishu juhwati  // 4.26 //

Some again offer hearing and  other senses as sacrifice in the fire of restraint; others offer sound and  other objects of the senses as sacrifice in the fire of the senses.

To offer hearing and other senses  in the fire of restraint: Some masters live constantly offering the senses into  the fire of self-control so that the senses, of their own accord, get burnt up  giving them inner joy. The more we satisfy the sense organs, the more they demand  and this process goes on endlessly. Hence self-control of the sense organs is  the only way to tame them for experiencing inner peace. This is the path of  self control which is also an act of Yagna. Every form of self control, where  we surrender the egocentric enjoyment for the higher delight, where we give up  lower impulses, is said to be a sacrifice.

To offer sound and other objects  of sense in the fire of the senses : Others direct their senses towards pure  and unforbidden objects of the senses and in so doing regard themselves as  performing acts of sacrifice. Under this method the senses are made the best  use of for the adoration of the Almighty.   In the fire of the senses, sense objects are offered as oblation. The  sensual is transformed into spiritual.

Two diametrically opposite types  of Yagnas are mentioned here. One makes the senses ineffective and the other  makes the senses super-effective. The method of self control is negative (which  is given to the few) while sense-sublimation is positive (which is given to the  aspiring many); but both achieve the same objective i.e. purification of the  mind.

sarvaaneendriya karmaani praanakarmaani chaapare
    aatmasamyamayogaagnau juhwati jnaanadeepite  // 4.27 //

Others again sacrifice all the  functions of the senses and the functions of the breath (vital energy) in the  fire of the Yoga of self-restraint kindled by knowledge.

Control of the ego by better  understanding of the Divine behind it is called atma-samyama-yoga i.e.  the Yoga of self-restraint. All the activities of sense organs and the organs  of action as well as the objects of the senses together with the functions of  the prana are offered into the knowledge-kindled fire of right  understanding i.e. meditation which is one-pointed discriminative wisdom. The  idea conveyed here is that by stopping all activities, the masters concentrate  the mind on the Self.

dravyayajnaas tapoyajnaa yogayajnaastathaa'pare
    swaadhyaaya jnaanayajnaashcha yatayah samshitavrataah  // 4.28 //

Others again offer wealth,  austerity and Yoga as sacrifice, while the ascetics of self-restraint and rigid  vows offer study of scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice.

Dravya Yagna: Charity and distribution of honestly acquired wealth  in a spirit of devotion in the service of the community is called Dravya yagna.  Wealth includes love, kindness, sympathy and affection also.

Tapo Yagna: Offering of a life of austerity to The Lord in a spirit  of dedication so that the seeker may attain a little self-control.

Yoga Yagna: Yoga is an attempt to grow from the lower in us to the  higher standard of divine living; it comprises such practices as breath-control  and the withdrawal of the mind from the objects of the world.

Swadhyaya Yagna: This means study and understanding of the  scriptures without which no progress in spiritual practices is possible. It  also implies introspection.

Jnana Yagna: It is that activity in man by which he renounces all  his ignorance into the fire of knowledge kindled by him in him. This has two  aspects - negation of the false and assertion of the real nature of the Self. These  two activities are undertaken during the seeker's meditation.

All these five methods of  self-development can be practiced only by him who is sincere and consistent in  his practices.

apaane juhwati praanam praane'paanam tathaa'pare
    praanaapaana gatee ruddhwaa praanaayaamaparaayanaah  // 4.29 //

Others offer as sacrifice the  out-going breath in the in-coming and the in-coming in the out-going,  restraining the courses of the out-going and in-coming breaths, solely absorbed  in the restraint of breath.

Sri Krishna explains here  Pranayama as another technique for self-control. Pranayama consists of three  processes viz.

• Puraka        :   process of filling in the breath
• Rechaka     :   process of blowing out the  breath 
• Kumbhaka :    process of holding the breath for some time.

Puraka and Rechaka are alternated  by an interval of Kumbhaka. This process of  Puraka-Kumbhaka-Rechaka-Kumbhaka-Puraka when practiced in the prescribed manner  becomes the method of Pranayama.   Pranayama is referred to here as a Yagna where the practitioner offers  all the five subsidiary Pranas into the main Prana. Prana does not merely mean  breath. It indicates the various manifested activities of life in a living  body.

Generally five different Pranas  are enumerated corresponding to different functions in every living body viz. 

• function of perception - prana 
• function of excretion - apana 
• function of digestion and assimilation - samana 
• circulatory system which distributes food to all  parts of the body  - vyana and 
• capacity of a living creature to improve himself  in his mental outlook and intellectual life - udana.

These activities of life are  brought under the perfect control of the individual through the process of  Pranayama so that a seeker can gain capacity to withdraw completely all his  perceptions of the outer world for gaining the knowledge of the Self.

apare niyataahaaraah praanaan praaneshu juhwati
    sarve'pyete yajnavido yajnakshapita kalmashaah  // 4.30 //

Others, having their food  regulated, offer the vital forces in the vital forces. All of them are knowers  of the sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by sacrifice.

In the series of techniques  enumerated by Sri Krishna this is the last method. There are some, who through  systematic regulation of their diet, come to gain complete mastery over  themselves.

Those, who know the art of living  these techniques, weaken the functions of the organs of action and thereby  control their passions and appetites leading to purification of the mind and  destruction of sins for achieving the goal of Self-knowledge.

In the above mentioned twelve  different types of Yagna techniques self-effort is a common factor.  The yajnas are only the means to enable the  mind-intellect equipment to adjust itself better for meditation.  Meditation is the only path through which the  ego withdraws from false evaluation of itself for achieving spiritual growth.

yajnashishtaamritabhujo yaanti brahma sanaatanam
    naayam loko'styayajnasya kuto'nyah kurusattama  // 4.31 //

The eaters of the nectar - the  remnant of the sacrifice - go to the Eternal Brahman.  This world is not for the non-performer of  the sacrifice; how then the other world, O Best of the Kurus?

`Eating the nectar - the remnant  of the sacrifice' means the result of the above mentioned twelve types of  Yagnas. The result of performing any one of the above Yagnas is a greater  amount of self-control and the consequent inner integration of the individual  personality for the purpose of intense meditation. Such an integrated person  will have greater inner poise in his meditations through which he comes to  experience the Infinite and the Eternal indicated by the term `Brahman'.

Self-development and inner growth  cannot be had without sincere self-effort. Therefore, Sri Krishna exclaims how  one could hope to achieve the highest without sincere effort when even in this world  nothing great can be obtained without selfless and dedicated activity.

evam bahuvidhaa yajnaa vitataa brahmano mukhe
    karmajaan viddhi taan sarvaan evam jnaatwaa vimokshyase  // 4.32 //

Thus innumerable sacrifices  lie spread out before Brahman - literally at the mouth or face of Brahman -  Know them all as born of action and thus knowing, you shall be liberated.

When twelve different Yagnas  differing from one another have been described a doubt arises as to whether  these different paths lead to the same goal or produce different effects.  It is clarified here that all of them lead to  the same goal - innumerable sacrifices lie spread out before Brahman.

Another doubt as to the origin of  the theory of Yagnas is clarified by interpreting the same line of the verse to  mean the various Yagnas lie strewn about at the door of the Vedas giving  authenticity to the idea .

It is also urged that the paths  prescribed are to be achieved through self effort and hence the inevitability  of right action accomplished through the activities of the body, speech and  mind.

These activities cannot be  attributed to the Self as the Self is actionless. Thus if one realizes that  these are not my (Self) actions and I (Self) am actionless and detached he will  be freed from the worldly bondage.

As compared with these sacrifices  which are the means to attain inner integration, knowledge (considered as a  sacrifice) is being extolled in the next verse.

WISDOM AND WORK

 

shreyan dravyamayaadyajnaaj jnaanayajnah parantapa
    sarvam karmaakhilam paartha jnaane parisamaapyate  // 4.33 //

Superior is the knowledge-sacrifice  to all material sacrifices, O Parantapa.   All actions in their entirety, O Partha, culminate in wisdom.

Sri Krishna explains that Gnana  Yagna, the offering of our ignorance into the Fire of Knowledge - acquired and  experienced- is the noblest of all the activities. Compared with the  formalistic ritualism with material offerings (Dravya Yagna), Gnana Yagna -  destroying the misunderstanding in the fire of right understanding - is  superior because sacrifices with material objects produce only material results  while the Knowledge of the Self, Brahman, ends desire, the source of all  activity and therefore all actions get themselves fulfilled. Hence Sri Krishna  says `all actions in their entirety culminate in Knowledge’. The goal is the  life giving wisdom, which gives us freedom of action and liberation from the  bondage of work.

HOW DOES ONE GAIN THAT EXALTED KNOWLEDGE?

tadviddhi pranipaatena pariprashnena sevayaa
    upadekshyanti te jnaanam jnaaninas tattwadarshinah  // 4.34 //

Learn it by prostration, by inquiry  and by service. The wise who have realized the Truth will teach you in that  Knowledge.

The method of gaining the  Knowledge by which all actions get exhausted is told here.  The verse explains the qualities of a teacher  who alone can give guidance on the Path of Knowledge. It also prescribes the  mental attitude and intellectual approach that a student should possess for  having an effective and rewarding Guru-Sishya relationship.

The student acquires knowledge of  the Self by: 

• Prostration:   It is not only the show of physical surrender by prostration before the  Master by the student but an intellectual attitude of humility, reverence and  obedience when he approaches the teacher for receiving instructions. The  student should exhibit readiness to understand, grasp and follow the Master's  instructions.

• Inquiry: The student should be ever ready to  raise doubts about bondage and liberation and about knowledge and ignorance  etc. and have them clarified from the Teacher within the limits of devotion and  respect. Discussions between the teacher and the taught bring forth the best  from the teacher which gets transferred to the student.

• Service: Service does not imply any physical  service or offering of material objects but it means the attunement of the  student to the principles of life advised to him by the Master.

The qualifications of a fully  useful teacher are:

• perfect knowledge of the Scriptures and
 • a subjective experience of the Infinite Reality.

Sri Krishna means to say that  mere theoretical knowledge, however perfect, does not qualify a person to be a  Guru.  The Truth or Brahman must be realized  before one can claim that most elevated position. That knowledge alone which is  imparted by those who have full personal enlightenment can prove effective and  not any other because he who has no subjective experience of what is taught  cannot understand the inner meaning of the scriptures just as a spoon cannot  have any idea of the soup. This verse makes out that in spiritual life faith  comes first, then knowledge and then experience.

RESULT OF KNOWLEDGE

yajjnaatwaa na punarmoham evam yaasyasi paandava
    yena bhootaanyasheshena drakshyasyaatmanyatho mayi  // 4.35 //

Knowing that, O Pandava, you will  not again get deluded like this: and by that you will see all beings in your  own Self and also in Me.

Sri Krishna declares that after  gaining the Knowledge of Brahman (referred to in the previous verse, to be  learnt from the Guru) one will be able to recognize the entire creation,  constituted of the world of objects, emotions and ideas, as nothing but the  Self which is none other than `Me', The Lord, The Paramatman, just as having recognized  the ocean, all the waves are recognized as nothing but the ocean itself. The  Self and the Lord are identical. All beings too are identical with the immortal  Self; through ignorance they appear as separate.

Meaning thereby, that having  received the true knowledge from a teacher one will realize the identity of the  individual Self and God and he will not be subject to any confusion again like Arjuna  now. Here the confusion of Arjuna refers to his despondency about killing of  his kith and kin assembled on the battlefield.

api chedasi paapebhyah sarvebhyah paapakrittamah
    sarvam jnaanaplavenaiva vrijinam santarishyasi  // 36 //

Even if you are the most  sinful of all sinners, yet you shall verily cross all sins by the raft of  Knowledge.

Gita, being a scripture for  living, says here that even if one is the most sinful among the entire sinful,  one can attain salvation and cross the world of imperfections through the Knowledge  of the Self.

Sin is an act of ego forgetting  its own divine nature. It is an act indulged in by man in his delusion catering  to his baser instincts with the hope of achieving bliss. To rediscover that our  ego is nothing other than the Self in us and to live thereafter as the Self of  all is called true wisdom - Jnana.   Having thus realized one's own true nature, the material objects do not  have any attraction to such an individual.

HOW DOES KNOWLEDGE DESTROY SIN?

 

yathaidhaamsi samiddho'gnir bhasmasaat kurute'rjuna
    jnaanaagnih sarvakarmaani bhasmasaat kurute tathaa  // 4.37 //

As the blazing fire reduces  pieces of wood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the Fire of Knowledge reduces all  actions to ashes.

As the fuel pieces, irrespective  of their quality, shape, size etc., will be reduced to one homogeneous mass of  ash in the Yagna fire, all Karmas, good, bad or indifferent, get burnt up in  the Fire of Knowledge and will become something different from what they were  in their cause and effect condition.  When  the Knowledge of the Self dawns, all actions and their results cannot bring man  into this world again for the enjoyment of fruits of his actions. This is  reducing actions to ashes. When there is full enlightenment i.e. no idea of  agency or doership and no desire for the fruits of actions, then action is no  action at all as it loses all its potency.

Actions leave reactions in the  form of residual impressions which mature at different periods of time  depending upon the quality and intensity of the action. There are three kinds  of Karmas or actions or fructification of past actions Viz. 
• Prarabhdha - so much of the past actions that  have given rise to the present birth (operative). 
• Sanchita - the balance of past actions that will  give rise to future births (not yet operative) 
• Agami - the actions done in the present life (to  be operative in the future).

The Fire of Knowledge cannot  bring about the results of all actions except the Prarabdha which have already  started producing effects.

na hi jnaanena sadrisham pavitram iha vidyate
    tat swayam yogasamsiddhah kaalenaatmani vindati  // 4.38 //

Certainly, there is no  purifier in this world like Knowledge.  A  man who has become perfect in yoga finds it within himself in course of time.

There exists no purifier equal to  knowledge of the Self.  He who has  attained perfection by the constant practice of Karma Yoga and Meditation will  find knowledge of the Self in himself after some time. The surest means of  acquiring this knowledge or wisdom is taught in the next verse.

MEANS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE

 

shraddhaavaan labhate jnaanam tatparah samyatendriyah
    jnaanam labdhvaa paraam shaantim achirenaadhigacchati  // 4.39 //

The man who is full of faith,  who is devoted to it and who has subdued all the senses, obtains this Knowledge  ; and having obtained Knowledge he goes at once to the Supreme Peace.

The three qualities that are  necessary for an individual to be assured of the Knowledge Divine are  enumerated here. Faith, devotion and self-control are the three imperative  necessities to be acquired before one hopes to evolve to a diviner stature.

Faith (Sraddha): This is not blind belief or unquestioned  acceptance of any declaration said to be divine.  Faith indicates that by which an individual  understands readily the exact import of the scriptural text as well as the  words of advice of the teacher.

Devotion (Tatparah):  The  seeker must give his undivided attention to the path of self-development chosen  by him and must on all occasions maintain in his mind a continuous consciousness  of the Divine.

Self-control (Samyatendriyah): It is the sense organs that cause  mental agitations and come in the way of maintaining oneself quietly in the  higher values of life. Therefore, a seeker should learn to live in steady and  constant sense-control.

The seeker who follows the above  agenda of life reaches the state of Knowledge having attained which he soon  reaches the Supreme Peace or the Supreme Joy, the goal of life. All activities  in this world are undertaken to achieve better happiness or joy. So the goal of  life is absolute happiness where all strife ends, all desires fulfilled and  agitations exhausted. Sri Krishna indicates here that such a state of Supreme  Peace is attained by acquiring the Divine Knowledge.

ajnashchaashraddhaadhaanashcha samshayaatmaa vinashyati
    naayam loko'sti na paro na sukham samshayaatmanah  // 4.40 //

The ignorant, the faithless,  the doubting self goes to destruction; there is neither this world nor the  other nor happiness for the doubting soul.

In the previous verse it was said  that those who had faith and knowledge would soon reach the Supreme Peace.  Sri Krishna repeats the same idea through a  negative statement in this verse. Those who do not have these qualities will  get themselves ultimately destroyed and completely ruined.  He who has no Knowledge of the Self  (ignorant), who has no faith in his own self, in the scriptures and in the  teachings of his Guru (faithless) and who is of a doubting disposition because  of which fails to enjoy this world on account of his suspicion about the people  and things around him and who has innumerable doubts as regards the other world  will not find any joy anywhere - neither here nor in the hereafter.

yogasannyasta karmaanam jnaanasamchhinnasamshayam
    aatmavantam na karmaani nibadhnanti dhananjaya  // 4.41 //

Actions do not bind the one,  who has renounced actions through Yoga, whose doubts have been fully dispelled  by Knowledge and who is poised in the Self, O Dhananjaya.

This verse is the summary of all  the main secrets of life explained in this Chapter. It is only egoistic  activities, motivated by egocentric desires that leave gross impressions in the  inner personalities of men and bind them to reap their reactions.  When an individual learns to renounce his  attachments to the fruits of his actions, righteous or unrighteous, through  Yoga and yet works on in perfect detachment and when all his doubts about the  goal of life have been removed through Self-Knowledge, the ego comes to realize  that it is none other than Atman, the Self.   When such a person works, his actions do not bind him. The mutual  relationship of true work, wisdom and self-discipline is brought out here.

Tasmaad ajnaanasambhootam hritstham jnaanaasinaatmanah
    chhittwainam samshayam yogamaatishthottishtha bhaarata  // 4.42 //

Therefore, with the sword of  Knowledge (of the he Self) cut asunder the doubt about the Self born of  ignorance, residing in your heart and take refuge in Yoga, arise O Bharata!

Sri Krishna advises Arjuna in  this last verse of the Chapter to perform action with the help of knowledge and  concentration. The knowledge referred to here is the knowledge by which one  discriminates between the body and the Self and which consequently destroys  grief and delusion.

The doubt in his heart whether it  is better to fight or abstain is the product of ignorance. It will be destroyed  by wisdom. Then he will know what is right for him to do.  It is a call to every seeker to get up and  act well in the spirit of Yagna and gain inner purity, so that he can  experience the Supreme Peace which is the final goal of evolution.

om tat sat iti

srimad bhagavadgeetaasu upanishatsu brahma vidyaayaam yogashaastre sri  krishnaarjuna samvaade jnaana karma sanyaasa yogo naama chaturtho'dhyaayah

Thus in the Upanishads of the  glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the  dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the  fourth discourse entitled The Yoga of  Renunciation of Action in Knowledge

Concepts and Issues

After  stating the details of Karma Yoga to be practiced in daily life, Sri Krishna says that He taught this immortal Yoga to the Sun which was handed down to the  Solar Dynasty. The Royal sages practiced  and preached this Yoga to the humanity but later due to lack of such great  exponents this Yoga fell into disuse in public life. Arjuna raises a doubt as  to how could Sri Krishna who is living now teach this Yoga to the Sun who was  born in the beginning of creation and to others who were born long ago. The  Lord replies that He and Arjuna have undergone many lives but He knows them all  whereas Arjuna does not know about it. Again Arjuna asks The Lord as to why he has taken birth at all when He  is not bound by bondages caused by the Vasanas and when He is proficient in the  knowledge of the Self.

It  is here that Sri Krishna reveals that He is God Himself, the Infinite, the  Eternal and the Imperishable. He tells him that out of His free will He  incarnates Himself whenever righteousness (Dharma) declines and  un-righteousness (adharma) gets an upper hand, to restore the balance - to  protect the Good and to destroy the wicked. Any one who understands the secret  of His incarnation will attain liberation.

He  responds to His devotees with impartiality as per their attitudes and prayers  if they approach Him through knowledge and devotion. In the process of  evolution, the desires of humanity differ according to the grades of their  temperaments.  Sri Krishna reveals how He  has divided the society onto four varnas or groups or castes based upon the  nature and vocation of the people depending on their temperaments.

One  who possesses self-restraint, purity, straightforwardness, serenity, knowledge  of scriptures as also teaches others is called a Brahmana in whom Sattva  predominates. One who possesses prowess, splendor, firmness in action,  dexterity, generosity, ruling capacity, predominated by Rajas, is called a  Kshatriya. One who does agriculture and trade, has predominating Rajas but with  a subordinated Tamas is called a Vaishya. He in whom Tamas predominates and  Rajas is in subordination, does service to the other three categories is called  a Sudra.

Sri  Krishna says anyone according to his temperament can perform duty without expectation  of result and reach Him i.e. God-realization. Caste is not determined by the  accident of birth.

Sri  Krishna says that this is not a novel theory and the secret was understood by  the ancient seekers who pursued the path of selfless service utterly  indifferent to rewards. He advises Arjuna to do the same and not try to  renounce his duty through attachment or fear.

Sri  Krishna says that it is very difficult to decide one's own duty.  To perform one's duty one should know what to  do, what not do and how to do. The question of action has three aspects

1. Performance of  right action (Karma),
2. Abstention from  all actions (Akarma)
3. Performance of  forbidden actions (Vikarma).

Akarma  or abstention from any action is not the subject here because there cannot be  any life without any action. Performance of forbidden action (Vikarma) is  destructive and produces sorrow and restlessness in the one who performs them.

That  man is the wisest who while performing actions is not really doing them at all.  Here one must know action in inaction and inaction in action.

Action  means activities performed by body, mind, intellect and the senses. Inaction  means renouncing all activities of the body. If action is performed according  to rule and one's own order in the society without expecting result, without  attachment, without the feeling of possession and egoism, then it is considered  as inaction in action.

If  one sits quiet without performing any bodily action but thinks about all  actions in his mind he is still considered as doing actions i.e. there is  action in inaction. He who knows this secret will not renounce duties  pertaining to his order in society and stage in life.

One  who does inner contemplation on the Supreme Self and acts for the good of the  society without any selfish motive or expectation of reward is the knower of  inaction in action, a sage. Through this all his sins will get burnt up and one  will become free from bondage.  He never  expects anything from the world and is happy always.  He takes things as they come.  He is the performer of all sacrifices  prescribed in the scriptures.  He is the  knower of Knowledge or Brahman. One who feels the presence of Brahman in every  action will feel that Brahman is the actor, action and also the result of  action.  This is called knowledge  sacrifice.

Sri Krishna details various forms  of sacrifices all of which requires action of body, mind and intellect with the  expectation of the fruit. But He emphasizes that knowledge-sacrifice is far  superior to other sacrifices done with material objects. The Lord extols  spiritual wisdom and tells Arjuna that this knowledge can be obtained through  sincerity, purity of heart, service to God-realized Guru with devotion,  prolonged practice of Karma Yoga and sense-control.

The Real Knowledge is the  awareness of the Self or Pure Consciousness within.  This Pure Consciousness is experienced by the  seeker only after a protracted period of practice in deep meditation.

For this one must have immense  faith in God, belief in the preceptor, patience and devotion accompanied with a  withdrawal of the senses from the objects of the world. Then alone one can have  supreme peace.

The ignorant one, due to lack of  these qualifications, entertains doubts in himself as well as in others and  suffers here as well as hereafter.  But  nothing in the world can bind him who works with this understanding of  Knowledge.

Live as the Gita Teaches You to Live

 

 
           The doctrine of action and inaction is the keynote of this section. The important  advice to the humanity is how to understand inaction in action and how to tune  our lives towards that goal. It is emphasized that action offered as a  sacrifice to the Supreme (action performed with the Yagna spirit) does not  bind. Yagna spirit means all actions performed without ego and without the  motivation of egocentric desires in a spirit of service.


 It is only egoistic activities,  motivated by egocentric desires that leave gross impressions in the inner  personalities of men and bind them to reap their reactions.  When an individual learns to renounce his  attachments to the fruits of his actions through Yoga and works in perfect  detachment and when all his doubts about the goal of life have been removed  through Self-Knowledge, the ego comes to realize that it is none other than  Atman, the Self.  When such a person  works, his actions do not bind him. Every form of self-control, where we  surrender the egoistic enjoyment for the higher delight, where we give up lower  impulses, is said to be a sacrifice.  The  mutual relationship of true work, wisdom and self-discipline is the key note of  this Chapter. The goal is the life-giving wisdom, which gives us freedom of  action and liberation from the bondage of work. It is the goal which everybody  should attempt to reach.

Points to Ponder

1. Who are those blessed souls who attain liberation from the cycle of births and deaths?
2. Explain fully the fourfold caste system?
3. How can we be free from reactions when we perform actions?
4. What is the nature of true action; how does a Karma Yogi perform action?

5. Explain the different kinds of  sacrifices and their ultimate aim.
6. How is the `knowledge sacrifice'  superior to the sacrifices for expected results?
7. Who is the best person fit to  receive this `Knowledge' and how does he receive it?

Write short notes on
  Action,  Inaction and Forbidden Action
  Action in  Inaction, Inaction in Action
  A person of  doubting disposition
  Performing  actions with knowledge
  Result of  Knowledge
  Obstacles to  attain knowledge

Harih Om