Geeta Dhara – Gurukul

ye me matam idam nityam anutiṣṭhanti mānavāḥ,
śraddhāvanto’nasūyanto mucyante te’pi karmabhiḥ (3.31) 

3.31:”Unquestioning and devoted men who always act according to this precept of mine are liberated from action.”

Freed from illusion and possessed of feelings of adoration and self Surrender, men who always act in conformity with Sri Krishn’s precept that “one should fight” are also liberated from all action. This assurance of Yogeshwar Krishn is for all of humanity. His doctrine is that one should make war. It may appear from this that this teaching is for warmongers. Fortunately there was the setup of a universal war before Arjun. But, when we are confronted by no such prospect why do we seek resolution in the Geeta or why do we so adamantly insist that the means of liberation from action is available only to fighters of a war? 

Truth is quite the contrary. The war, of the Geeta is that of the heart-the innermost Self. This is the war between matter and spirit, knowledge and ignorance, Dharmkshetr and Kurukshetr. The more we try to check our thought by meditation, the more the unrighteous impulses emerge as enemies and launch a terrible attack. 

Vanquishing their demoniacal powers and restraint of thought are at the very centre of this war of the divine song. The one who is rid of illusion and engages in the war with faith, is perfectly liberated from the bondage of action, and of birth and death.
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ye tv etad abhyasūyanto nā’nutiṣṭhanti me matam, sarvajñānavimūḍhāms tān viddhi naṣṭān acetasaḥ (3.32)

3.32 :“Know that skeptical men, who do not act in keeping with this precept of mine because they are devoid of knowledge and discrimination, are doomed to misery.”

Deluded men, drunk with attachment and lacking in discrimination, who do not follow the teaching of Sri Krishn, or who, in other words, do not wage war in a state of meditation in which there is complete self-surrender as well as freedom from desire, self-interest, and grief, are deprived of the ultimate bliss.
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sadṛśam ceṣṭate svasyāḥ prakṛter jñānavān api,
prakṛtim yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kim kariṣyati (3.33) 

3.33 :“Since all beings are constrained to act in conformity with their natural disposition and the wise man also strives accordingly, of what avail can violence (with nature) be?”

All beings are dominated by their governing property and act under its compulsion. The sage who is blessed with perception also makes his efforts in accordance with his nature. Ordinary men abide in their actions and the wise in their Self. 

Everyone acts according to the inescapable demands of his nature. This is a self-evident and incontrovertible truth. It is for this reason that, according to Sri Krishn, men do not follow his teaching even though they know it. Unable to overcome desire, self-interest, and sorrow, or, in other words, attachment and aversion, they fail to act in the prescribed way.
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indiyasaye’ndriyasyā’rthe rāgadveṣau vyavasthitau,
tayorna vaśamāgacchettau hyasya paripanthinau (3.34)
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3.34:“Do not be ruled by attachment and aversion, because both of them are the great enemies that obstruct you on the way to good.”

Attraction and repulsion lie within the senses and their pleasures. One should not be dominated by them because they are formidable enemies on the way that leads to good and liberation from action; they ravish the seeker’s worshipful attitude. 

When the enemy is within, why should one fight an external war? The enemy is in league with the senses and their objects-within the mind.So the war of the Bhagavad Gita is an internal war. The human heart is the field on which there are marshalled the divine and devilish impulses – the forces of knowledge and ignorance, the two aspects of illusion. 

To overcome these negative forces, to destroy the devilish by fostering divine impulses, is real war. But when the unrighteous forces are annihilated, the utility of righteous impulses also comes to an end. 

After the Self is united with God, pious impulses too are dissolved and merge with him. To overcome nature thus is a war that can be fought only in a state of contemplation. Destruction of feelings of attachment and aversion takes time. Many seekers, therefore, forsake meditation and suddenly take to imitating some accomplished sage.
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śreyān svadharmo viguṇaḥ paradharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt,
svadharme nidhanam śreyaḥ pradharmo bhayāvahah (3.35) 

3.35 :“Although inferior (in merit), one’s own dharm is the best and even meeting with death in it brings good, whereas a dharm other than one’s own, though well observed, generates only fear.”

There is a seeker who has been engaged in worship for ten years and there is another who is being initiated into the process only today. It is but natural that the two cannot be equal. The novice will be destroyed if he imitates the experienced worshipper. It is for this reason that Sri Krishn says that, even though deficient in quality, one’s own dharm is better than another man’s well-observed dharm. 

The ability to engage in action that arises from one’s nature is one’s dharm. So dying in the observance of one’s own dharm is truly fortunate. After the Soul assumes a new body, he will resume his journey from the same point of spiritual attainment at which he had stopped in his last physical life. The Soul does not die. A change of clothing does not change the mind and its thoughts. 

To masquerade as men who have gone ahead of him will cause the seeker only more fear. Fear is a quality of nature, not of God. The pall of nature is thickened when there is imitation.There is abundance of cheap imitation on the “spiritual” path.Imitation does not help when we tread on the spiritual path. The seeker has to practise his own dharm.

What is this one’s own dharm (swadharm)? In Chapter 2, Sri Krishn had named it and told Arjun that even with his own dharm in view it was his duty to wage war. There was no more blessed a way for a Kshatriya. From the point of view of his innate property, the inherent dharm, Arjun was declared a Kshatriya.

Sri Krishn told Arjun that for the Brahmin, truly devout men possessed with knowledge of Supreme Spirit, instruction in the Ved was like taking a bather to a mere puddle. But Arjun was urged to learn the Ved and grow into a Brahmin. In other words inherent dharm is subject to change. However, really significant point is that the inherent dharm is the most conducive to one’s well-being. But this does not mean that Arjun should imitate a Brahmin, and dress and look like him.

The same path of action has been divided by the sage into four parts: the lowest, medium, good, and excellent.Sri Krishn has named the seekers treading on these paths respectively Shudr, Vaishya, Kshatriya, and Brahmin. 

Action begins at the level of the lowest, but in the course of his spiritual quest the same seeker can evolve into a Brahmin. Further than this, when he is united with God, there remains neither Brahmin, nor Kshatriya, nor Vaishya, nor Shudr, but only pure intelligence, the eternal and changeless Supreme Spirit. He then transcends all these classes.Sri Krishn says that he has created four classes. But, as it was pointed out earlier, the classification was on the basis of action rather than according to birth. But what is that action which forms its basis? Is it what is usually done in and for the world?Sri Krishn contradicts this and speaks of ordained task or action.

As we have seen, this ordained action is the process called yagya, in which one breath is offered as sacrifice to another and all the senses are restrained, all of which is in a true sense the practice of yog and meditation. The special exercise which takes one to the adored God is meditation. Varn are a division of this act of meditation itself into four categories. A man should begin his quest at the level of his natural ability. This is the inherent dharm. 

If the seeker imitates those who are superior to and ahead of him, he will be only burdened with fear. He will not be destroyed completely, for in the spiritual enterprise the seed is indestructible. But he will be overwhelmed by terror and impoverished under the burden of material world. If a student of primary level sits in graduate classes, he cannot become a graduate although for sure he will forget even his alphabet.

[As expounded by most revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans]

Main Source: www.yatharthgeeta.com
Audio Link:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLKeK4s8zBZFWYK9XfbZw5BJsJctJkVUr

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“Humble Wishes”

na buddhibhedam janayed ajñānām karmasanginām,
josayet sarvakaramāṇi vidvān yuktaḥ samācaran (3.26) 

[3.26] :”Rather than confusing and undermining the faith of the ignorant who are attached to action, the wise man should prompt them to dwell in God and act well as he himself does.”

Instead of creating confusions in the minds of the ignorant who are engaged in the performance of the said action, seers who have directly perceived God should be careful that no act of theirs should cause a weakening of other men’s dedication.

It is the duty of the sage, who is blessed with sublime knowledge, to inspire others to perform the prescribed action in which he himself is so earnestly engaged.

“A teacher should teach by example rather than precept.” Thus it is the duty of a sage that while he is engaged in action himself, he should also keep other devotees engaged in meditation.A devotee should in the same way dedicate himself to worship with sincere adoration, but whether he is a follower of the Way of Knowledge or a faithful doer of selfless action, he must not allow himself to feel arrogant on account of his meditation.
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prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ,
ahankāravimūḍhātmā kartā’ham iti manyate (3.27) 

[3.27] :”Although all action is caused by the properties of nature, the man with an egotistic and deluded mind presumes that he himself is the doer.”

From the beginning to the moment of attainment, all action is performed because of the properties of nature, but the man whose mind is clouded with vanity thinks arrogantly that he is the doer. He takes it for granted.
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tatvavit tu mahābāho guṇakarmavibhāgayoḥ,
guṇā guṇeṣu vartanta iti matvā na sajjate (3.28) 

[3.28] :”But the wise man, who is aware of different spheres of the properties of nature in the form of mind and senses as well as of their action upon objects, is not a prey to attachment, O the mighty-armed, because he knows that the mind and senses (gun) dwell upon objects of perception (gun).”

Seers who have perceived the ultimate essence are aware of the distinction between the properties of nature and action, as also of the fact that these properties are preoccupied with themselves, and are disinterested in their action.

“Essence” here means the Supreme Spirit rather than the five (or twenty-five) elements or primary substances that are countable. In Sri Krishn’s words, God is the only element; besides him there is no other reality. 

Going across the properties of nature, the sages who dwell in God-the only reality, are enabled to perceive divisions of action according to the properties of nature.

If the predominant quality or property is ignorance (tamas), it shows itself in the forms of lethargy, sleep, and wantonness-in brief, in a general disinclination to action. 

If the basic property is passion (rajas),the resulting action is characterized by an unwillingness to retreat from worship and a sense of authority. 

If the dominating property is virtue or quality of goodness (sattwa), the actions prompted by it bear such traits as concentration of mind, meditativeness, a positive attitude towards experience, continuous thought, and simplicity.

Properties of nature are mutable. So the perceptive sage alone is able to see that the excellence or otherwise of action is determined by the constituent properties. These properties effect their work through their instruments, the senses and their objects.But they who have not yet gone beyond these properties, and are still midway, are addicted to whatever they do.
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prakṛter guṇasanmūḍhāḥ sajjante guṇakarmasu,
tān akṛtsnavido mandān kṛtsnavin na vicālayet (3.29) 

[3.29] :”They ought not to undermine the faith of the deluded who are unaware of the truth, because they are enamoured of the constituents of matter and so attached to senses and their functions.”

Men who have an infatuation for nature get addicted to their actions when they see them gradually evolving towards the level of superior properties. Wise men who know the truth should not unsettle these deceived men who lack in both knowledge and energetic effort. Instead of disheartening them, the wise should encourage them because they can reach the ultimate state where action ceases to be only through the performance of action. 

After making a careful appraisal of his inborn capacity and situation, the seeker who has resolved to act by the Way of Knowledge must deem action as gifted to him by the properties of nature. If, on the contrary, he presumes that he himself is the doer, it will make him vain and conceited. Even after progressing on to superior properties he should not get addicted to them. 

The seeker, on the other hand, who has chosen the Way of Selfless Action, has no need to analyze the nature of action and properties of nature. He has to act only with a total self-surrender to God. In this case, it is for the God within (guru) to see which properties are making their entry and which are departing. 

The seeker on the Way of Selfless Action believes everything – change in properties as well as his gradual elevation from the lower to the higher ones – to be a blessing from God. So, although he is constantly engaged in action, he neither feels the vanity of being the doer nor becomes attached to what he is doing.
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mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi sannyasyā’dhyātmacetasā,
nirāśīr nirmamo bhūtvā yudhyasva vigatajvaraḥ (3.30) 

[3.30]:”So, O Arjun, contemplate the Self, surrender all your action to me, abandon all desire, pity, and grief, and be ready to fight.”

Arjun is told to fight, restraining his thoughts within his innermost being, surrendering in a meditative state all his deeds to the God in Sri Krishn, and in absolute freedom from aspiration, pity, and sorrow. 

When a man’s thought is absorbed in contemplation, when there is not the least desire of hope anywhere, when there is no feeling of self-interest behind the act, and when there is no regret over the prospect of defeat, what kind of war can a man fight? 

When thought is withdrawn from all sides into the innermost spirit, against whom will he fight? And where? And who is there to fight against?

In fact, however, it is only when you enter into the meditative process that the true form of war emerges. It is only then that it is known that the throng of unrighteous impulses, of desire, wrath, attraction and repulsion, and of desire and hunger, all deviations from piety, which are called kuru, are the great enemies that create attachment to the world. 

They obstruct the seeker of truth by launching a vicious assault.To overcome them is real war, to subdue them, to contract oneself within one’s mind, and to achieve the state of steady contemplation is real war.

[As expounded by most revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Paramhans]

Main Source: www.yatharthgeeta.com
Audio Link:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLKeK4s8zBZFWYK9XfbZw5BJsJctJkVUr

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“Humble Wishes”

evam pravartitam cakram nā’nuvartyatī’ha yaḥ,
agāyur indriyārāmo mogham pārtha sa jīvati (3.16)

3.16 -“The man in this world, O Parth, who loves sensual pleasure and lead an impious life, and does not conduct himself in accordance with the thus prescribed cycle (of Self-realization), leads but a futile life.”

The pleasure-loving, sinful man who, despite his birth in human form, does not conduct himself in keeping with the means of the ordained action or, to put it differently, does not follow the way of attaining to the state of immortality through fostering gods and so also himself by tending the divine riches of his nature, lives but in vain.

For the sake of recapitulation,Sri Krishn named “action” in Chapter 2, whereas in this chapter he has told Arjun, and so all of us, to perform the ordained action. Observance of yagya is this action. Whatever else is done besides this is only a part of worldly life. So one should, in a spirit of detachment, perform the action of yagya. Sri Krishn has then given an account of the characteristic features of yagya and said that yagya had its origin in Brahma. Mankind is inclined to yagya with sustenance in view. Yagya arises from action and action from the divinely inspired Ved, whereas the visionaries who perceived the Vedic precepts were enlightened sages. But these great Souls had shed their ego. With this attainment, what was left as an outcome was only the imperishable God. The Ved is therefore arisen from God and God is ever existent in yagya.

The impious lover of sensual pleasures who does not follow the way of this prescribed action lives in vain. That is to say that yagya is an action in which there is no comfort for the senses. The injunction demands participation in the act with complete subjugation of the senses. Sinful are they who yearn for sensual comforts. But even after all this, it has not been defined what yagya is. That brings us to the question whether we have to practice yagya forever, or will there also be an end to it?
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yas tv ātmaratir eva syād ātmatṛptaś ca mānavaḥ,
ātmany eva ca santuṣṭas tasya kāryam na vidyate (3.17) 

3.17 – “But there remains nothing more to do for the man who rejoices in his Self, finds contentment in his Self, and feels adequate in his Self.”

The man who is utterly devoted to his embodied Soul, finds satisfaction in him and feels that he needs nothing more besides him-has nothing more left to do. After all, the Self was the goal. Once the unmanifest, immortal, indestructible essence of the Soul has been realized, there is nothing beyond to seek. A man such as this needs neither action nor worship. Soul and God-Self and the Supreme Spirit-are synonymous.
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nai’va tasya kṛtenā’rtho nā’kṛtene’ha kaścana,
na cā’sya sarvabhūteṣu kaścid arthavyapāśrayaḥ (3.18) 

3.18 -“Such a man has neither anything to gain from action nor anything to lose from inaction, and he has no interest in any being or any object.”

Previously there was, but now there is for such a man neither any profit in doing- nor any loss in the absence of doing. He ceases to have any selfish relationship with any being.The Self is constant, eternal, unmanifest, changeless, and indestructible. When once this Soul has been known and one is joyous, contented, and absorbed in him, what else is there beyond to search for? And what shall we gain by any further seeking? For such a man there is no harm in forsaking action, because he no longer has the mind on which impieties can make an impression. He is not the least concerned with beings of the external world or with any of the layer upon layer of inner aspirations.When he has grasped the very highest, what use has he for anything else?
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tasmād asaktaḥ satatam kāryam karma samācara,
asakto hy ācaran karma param āpnoti pūruṣaḥ (3.19) 

3.19 -“So always do what is right for you to do in the spirit of selflessness, for in doing his duty the selfless man attains to God.”

In order to achieve this state, Arjun ought to be disinterested and do well what is fit for him to do, for a selfless man realizes God only through selfless action.The action which is worthy of doing is the same as the ordained action.
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karmaṇai’va hi sansiddhim āsthitā janakādayaḥ,
lokasangraham evā’pi sampaśyan kartum arhasi (3.20) 

3.20 -“Since sages such as Janak had also attained to the ultimate realization by action, and keeping in mind, the preservation of the (God made) order, it is incumbent upon you to act.”

Janak here does not mean the King of Mithila. “Janak” is an epithet of father-the giver of life. Yog, the way by which the individual Soul may be united with the Supreme Spirit and thus secure absolution, is janak, for it brings out and manifests the embodied Soul. All those who are endowed with yog are sages like Janak. Many such great men possessing true wisdom have also achieved the final bliss through action aimed at the ultimate attainment. “Ultimate” stands for realization of the essence that the Supreme Spirit represents. All great saints, such as Janak, have attained to the state of ultimate realization through performance of the action which is yagya. But after attainment they act with the welfare of the world in view. They work for the betterment of mankind. So Arjun, too, is worthy of being a true leader of the people after attainment.

Sri Krishn had only sometime back said that there was neither any gain in action nor any loss in inaction for a great Soul after he has reached the state of realization. Yet, however, keeping in mind the interest of the world and the preservation of its order, he continues to acquit himself well of his prescribed duty.

 [As expounded by most revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Paramhans]

Main Source: www.yatharthgeeta.com

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“Humble Wishes”