Gita Chapter 6

In continuation to the prvious chapters the concept of what is Karma yoga, who is a Yogi vs Sanyasi.  Sankalpa is given importance as a factor.   Dropping all Sankalpas and than performing action will be liberating.  Activity vs action.  Activity without Sankalpa is liberating Action, activity with Sankalpa can be a bining action. 

Lord defines further who is a Yogi and Sanyasi.  Unlike what commonly held opinion is, just because some one has given up the household or is not engaging in any activity, it does not make him a yogi or sanyasi.  But the one who is performing action without attachment to the outcome and who is freed from the sense gratification only than he even though engaged in action, can be called a yogi or sanyasi. Such an  Action can be a useful means to getting established in yoga.  Qualities of the one who is established in Yoga:

Senses and mind are under his control
Over come dualities of warmth and cold, respect and disrespect,  happiness and grief
His mind intellect complex is satiated by wisdom and knowledge
His senses ar firmly in his control
He has Samta Bhava: He does nto see any difference in gold and a peice of stone
No matter what company he is in :  he is calm and unattached
Not inclined to hoarding and collecting things
The one whose Rajoguna has been quietened
He is balanced in his diet, activity, sleep and rest and socializing

When he is so inclined and established in these qulaities, he  engages in the practice of meditation. ( technique described in the chapter )

This in turn leads to him developing a state which is called YOGYUKTA.  this state is characterized by:

Like the flame of a  lamp in a windless space, no ripples, no disturbance, calm and stable
Purified intellect is able to get in touch with the reality of the Lord
He is firmly established in the peace that comes from the Lord. He experiences that form of peace that can be  esperienced only with the purified Antahkaran
He will not give up this state no matter what temptation he is subjected to
He becomes one with HIM and experiences that peace
He sees everything in Lord and Lord in everything.  The entire creation is Lord Himself

Yogi with such qualities is truly the best and most admirable

  Even though this task is very difficult but it   can be accomplished by constantly engaging in  practice ( Of Karma yoga )  and dispassion.( towards the siddhis that come with the practice) 

As usual Arjuna has a doubt:  What if I die before reaching that state ?

Krishna offers  hope  for such questioners:

What ever you have accomplishde in this life time is not going to go to waste.  If you do not reach that ultimate state of union with the  LORD, and you died, you will still enjoy the benefits of all the spiritual practices you have engaged in.  You may enjoy the benefits of heaven and than be born in   pious families or in the families of wise sages.  You will bring back with you all the good  sanskaras from previous  yogic practices and you will pick up from wehre you left in the previous life and will re-engage in the same  pursuit with vigor and energy.  The efforts wil  soon lead to the accomplishment of that state of re-union with the Lord.

Gita Chapter 4

Gita Chapter 4

Lord is introducing Arjuna to the concept of time and at the same time reminding him of the cycle of life and death that He alluded to in the first half chapter 2.  Here He si giving His own example by telling Arjuna that I gave this knowledge to Sun in the beginning of time and Sun in turn imparted that knowledge to Vaivasvat and  who in turn gave this to Ikshvaku.  and so forth.  Arjuna, being the doubter can not beleive that Krishna was around so long ago.  That is when Krishna tells him about His own Divya Janam, Immanance, Eternal nature and Omnipresence.  Lord tells Arjuna not to be hung up just on this life time.  He tells him that Arjuna and everone else has taken birth and gone through death several times in the past.  But Arjuna does not remember that, and that is why he is so attached to this life time.  Once a person has truly realized  the fact that I have existed before and i will be, in the future although in different form, the attachemtnt to this one particular body and family will be overcome.  Thus allowing us to carry out our duties without being handicapped by this attachment  or Moha.  Here Lord also tells him how HE, from time to time,   comes to save the good people from the bad ones and also to re-establish Dharma. 

Understanding this concept of cycle of life and death in such a way and contemplating on Him in such a way clears the path for us to becoem one with Him and become like Him.  We become what we think and contemplate.  If we contemplate strongly enough about the Divine qualities of the Lord, than we will become like Him and become ONE with Him.

I am immanent, omnipresent, eternal, omniscient.  Those who contemplate me like that they they unite with me or become like me.  Jiva is considered to be the ansh or a  part of the Lord.  The process of contemplation on the qualities of God, makes it possible for the Jiva to reunite and regain the same qualities as of the Lord

Ignorance, doubt and scepticism is an obstacle in the spiritual path.  Acquire knowledge and overcome  these.  To acquire knowledge go to, respectfully ask question and serve a qualified sage.  That sage will give you the knowledge.  There  is nothing as beneficial as   knowledge in this world.  Just as fire burns the wood completely, similarly, knowledge ( of what  is action and what is inaction) will burn all the, karmas or  binding actions. ( knowledge will help you perform action without the binding effect, in essence meaning that  fire of knowlede has burnt the actions )  It helps you overcome doubt and scepticism and help you understand what it means to be engaging in action which is non binding.  You will be able to continue to perform non binding actions while you still appear to be engaged in activity.  It is really difficult to understand what it means to be perfoming an action, without acting, and what it is to be non performing an action and still be engaged in activity. 

When you engage in an activity without attachment to the outcome it means non performance of action.  But on the contrary if you are, all the time worried about the outcome and are engaging in activity with attachement to  the outcome and with the desire to enjoy the fruits of activities, than even if it appears that you are not doing anything, it is a binding action. 

Another way to be a non performer, but at the  same time engaging in activity is if you  perform all actions as Yajna or as worship to the Lord.  If all your actions are performed as an offering to the Lord, than also, those actions are non binding. 

Scriptures have described so many ways an individual may be performing Yajna:

    Sense control
    Pranayam practice
    Hatha Yoga
    Performing Homa and Havan to please various Devas
    Charity
    Vows of non violence etc
    Studying of the scriptures

These are some of the examples of Yajnas.  All these are performed with the help of  senses, body and mind etc. These all are physical actions or karmas But If these are performed as an offering to the Lord and some of the leftover  fruits are used for meeting the needs of the body, than  the fruits of thses Yajnas are like Prasadam. Than these will not have any binding effect.  But the ignorant ones may be performing these but if they keep all the fruits of these Yajnas for themselves only  than they are never going to be liberated. They keep going throught the cycle of life and death.  The wise ones understnd this and are freed and they come to me.

Gita Chapter 2 part 2

Part two is really Yoga of Equanimity. Samatvam Yoga, Karma yoga
Understanding the value of Action without preoccupation  with the outcome, and performing all actions with equanility towards the desirable or undesirable outcomes.

Have firm resolve to achieve Him only.  Avoid getting caught up in the actions which are driven by desire for gains in this life and in the next life, or go to Heaven.  Practice of Karma yoga, Samtvam yoga, Equanimity will help

Even though Vedas have many rituals and routines, but they all lead to material gains here and hereafter,   We all know from experience that all the worldly gains are temporary.  many people do not realize heavenly gains are also temporary.  After we have used up all the punyas residing in heaven we have tocome back to theis earth again. You should go beyond those vedic rituals which promise material gains here and Heaven after death.  Because, just like if you have acquired the ocean than why would you want to acquire a pond.  What ever is in the pond, many times more of that is in the ocean.  When one is established in Brahman, the bliss and happiness that is experienced, is not only inclusive of worldly and  heavenly pleasures, which are temporary, but that Brahmic Bliss and Happiness is infinitely more than anything else.

Karma yoga:  You have control only on the performing of the action.  You do not and can not have a control on the outcome.  Once you have realized this and perform your actions with an equanimous mind you will be freed from the bondage that is bound to arise if you are focused on the outcome.  Performing the action with full excellence without being focussed on the outcome is also called Yoga of Excellence.  (  A form of Karma Yoga ).  People get scared thinking that they do not want to be attached to the fruits of their actions.  But if we really think about it, does being attached to the fruits of the actions guarantee  a certain outcome ? the answer is NO. We all know that.  How many times we perform an action but the out come is not the way we thought it would be.  Sometimes the outcome is better than what we expectd and sometimes it is worse than what we expected. Simply because the out come depends on many other factors besides our actions.  But if we focus so much on the outcome, it weakens our focus and concentration in the task at hand and that diversion itself would reduce the effectiveness of our actions.  But if we are fully focussed on the task we are able to give it our 100% and it is more likely, although not guaranteed that we will get the  outcome that is meant to be.  Realizing this point and than perfoming the actions is Karma Yoga.

When we practice this Karma Yoga, we won't be influenced by the outcome of the action.  Normally, when there is a favorable outcome we want more of it and that creates greed for more of that.  ( when we go go a slot machine and it pays out lot of money, what happens, we play more and more hoping for a bigger payout, and most of us know what happens in the end.  That greed for more ultimately causes us to not only lose what the machine gave us, we also lose everything we had in our pocket. )  And if the outcome is unfavorable we get distressed  and troubled and unhappy with the outcome.  That itself leads to lot of unhappiness.  But if you do not care what the outcome would be than, when there is a positive outcome you will accept it as a God given gift and as Prasad and it there is an unfavorable outcome you accept it as Go'd will and accept it as such.  Since neither  of these are  creating any greed or aversion, there is no long lasting effect on the mind and no new Sanakara for the future is created.

An individual who is able to live like this is called Sthitpragya.  It means one who whose wisdom has become stable in himself, one whose wisdom has become self contained, one whose consciousness does not fluctuate from one to another. It does not jump from one sense object to another, one who has a mastery on his mind. He is like a tortoise who has retracted his limbs, he retracts his senses away from sense objects and stays equanimous in both and favorable and unfavorable outcomes and situations.

The one who is not Sthitpragya, his senses are constantly running after sense objects and just as  a boat is bounced around by the wind, his mind is bounced around by the sense driven restlessness caused by running after the sense objects.  Controlling the senses leads to calming of the mind and calming of the mind allows the intelect to stabilize. If you do not practice this way, than the unfulfilled desires will upset the mind, this will lead to anger which leads to loss of memory and the ability to discriminate between right and wrong  VIVEKA.  Once Viveka is lost it leads to loss of intelect ( BUDDHI ) and once a perosn has lost his intellect he will lose all his knowledge and that will lead to  complete destruction.

Sthitpragya Muni is compared to an ocean where even with all the rivers flowing into the ocean, those rivers not change the nature of the ocean. Ocean stays the same.  Similarly for a Sthitpragya even though he is going around living like any one else and the input from the sense objects into his senses, mind and intellect he is not adversely influenced like that ocean.  He stays unperturbed and lives in this world.  Such a person appears to be doing all those things that everyone else is doing, but he experiences adn is constantly is in touch with the  unlimited Bliss and Tranquility that is inherent in Brahman.  Such an individual even at the end of his physical existence leaves his physical body, while abiding in that Brahmi Bliss ( Brahman Shanti )

Bhagwadgita Chapter 2 part 1

Arjuna is deeply attached to his family, esp Bhishma and Drona. He is very sad that he has been in a situation where he has to fight his close family members and his teachers. In life at times we are faced with situations where carrying out our duty means causing grief to our family members. Like if a student as to leave his home to go away to school. He knows going away will cause his parents to become sad but he has to do it. If he decided not to go to school in a distant town, than although he will be keeping his parents from getting sad but he will not be carrying out his duty, that is to study and acquire knowledge from whereve rhe can. Arjuna was faced with a situation even of greater significance. because here carrying out his duty meant that he would end up killing his own teachers and family members.

So what to do ?

So he surrenders to Krishna and says, i have come to you and you are the only one who can help me deal with this situation. My intellect is not helping me figure out what to do. I would rather beg than to fight because that would end up causing harm in so many ways.

Krishna knows Arjuna and Krishna is also a great psychologist. He is going to employ several strategies to try to tell Arjuna how to get over this attachment and do his duty. First point Krishna brings up is:

These people are going to die any way. they were not there until few years back and few years from now they won't be there any more. The life force in them, the Jiva, however has always been there and will always be there even after the pysical body is not there any more. He gives him a real life example that of how we change clothes. Just like we in day to day life change old dirty clothes for new ones, similarly Jiva discards old worn out body and assumes a new body. Itself Jiva is Forever, Eternal, Not affected by the forces of nature such as fire, water weapons etc.

But this did not really help Arjuna, so krishna put forth a different argument, the second point:

He said, so Arjuna, even if you believe that Jiva is perishable and the body is perishable, you see people dying around you. Can you stop that from happening ? You know you can not stop that from happening. Than why not accept the fact that everyone is going to die any way, than why grieve over this. It is eternal truth that every entity that takes birth WILL die and every entity that has not taken birth yet, will take birth in the future. and you can not do anything to change that. So why griev about it.

Arjuna still did not get it. so Krishna used third strategy that a worldly perosn would understand. He told him that you have a great reputation of an expert and the best archer on earth. People consider you one of the bravest fighter. If you abandon the battlefield people are going to call you coward. Can you live with that. They are going to call you AWOL. Absent without leave. People are going to badmouth you. Do you really want them to do that. Now look, if you died fighting, you will go to heaven and if are victorius than you will rule this kingdom.