Sensing Gita For A Living
Dr. Basudeb Sen
Preface
Sensing Gita For A Living is a weird individualistic personalised exploration of Gita’s conversation between Pandava Hero Arjun and Lord Krishna, God in human form for a person whose childhood impression of Gita was ’Nothing but a part of the ancient folklore stories called epics as also religious and philosophical scripture’ is what would describe my childhood impression. Until the age of 35, I had virtually no idea about the (Vedas, Upanishads and) Gita, beyond the oft-quoted but unread Gita verses about ‘right to work and not to its consequences’ or ‘God appears again and again in human society to destroy evil and protect the good”. My childhood failure to pick the ancient language of Sanskrit was one barrier to know what really the scriptures contained.
In 1985, I chanced upon a collection of Swami Vivekanda’s speeches on all Yogas in Bengali. It was interesting reading, especially the later chapters on Gyana Yoga. I read this book again and again and often read out to my wife before falling asleep at night. Being a daughter a devout Hindu Brahmin idol worshipper, she often would not accept Vivekanda’s liberal views emanating from the abstract concept of Unique, formless universal abstract concept of God of Advaita philosophy. This made my interest in Gita grow and I read Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’ analytical Bengali essays on Shri Madbhagwat Gita, Krishna Charitra and Dharma repeatedly. I read two other translation cum interpretation of Gita. I could not however get hold of a precise of the essence of Gita that I could reflect on. In 1998, I wrote down my own translation of the verses I had thought as the most relevant to the essence of Gita in a notebook.
After I had severed, all relations with regular income earning activities fro my living at the age of 54 in 2002, I had plenty of time to revisit Gita, reading the same and new sources of translations/ interpretations including my own earlier notes. In 2008-09, I posted my translations on my site ‘Sense Gita Voyage’ at http://gita18.blogspot.com. This is what I extract now as Part One: Towards A Gita For The Self in this book.
Since 1985, I had also been in search of a method of getting to my own understanding of the Essence of Gita that I can actually try to live with. This only method that I could use is one of continuous reflections on my own translations and interactions with people discussing various issues about Gita on the Net. This led to postings on another of my blogs, ‘Basudeb GitaSense: The Scientific Theory of God’, a blog to continuously explore my sense of Gita and as an attempt to experience Gita live. The first 24 posts at http://senland.blogspot.com forms Part Two: My Essence of Gita of this book.
I dedicate Sensing Gita For A Living to those who exposed my childhood to the story of Gita and illustrate practicing a few of its verses as guiding principle of life: Manindranth Sen Sharma and Lilabati Debi, my parents whom I lost over two / three dacades ago.
Basudeb Sen
Calcutta: 17 October 2011
Part ONE
Towards A Gita For The Self
(Sense Gita Voyage at http://gita18.blogspot.com)
1. Contents of Gita
Gita is written in Sanskrit, a language that few people know or are comfortable with. Most people depend on translations into other languages to form an idea of the contents of Gita. But there are many translations and various commentaries available for one to understand the meaning of the verses in Gita. The Sanskrit language itself seems to give scope for varying interpretations of the verses. The sequence of verses may not always facilitate smooth pursuit of the meaning and relationship among verses.
One may therefore need his own understanding at any point of time documented for regular review to evolve one's own understanding. This method may also have the risk of not understanding correctly. But this method has the chances of discovering one's own Gita for practice. So long as this practice is in full faith in Gita, a believer in Gita would receive aid from God to travel along the right direction.
For one who does not believe in Gita or Gita's God, the misinterpretation risk should not matter for his effort is to satisfy himself with what seems consistent to him.
The subsequent postings in this blog are such an attempt to document one's own understanding at any point of time for future review.
Since Chapter Two of Gita appears to be in the nature of a Key to Gita, first Chapter Two is covered select verse-wise. Then, all the 18 chapters are covered in summary form but in tune with the original sequence of the verses but ignoring repetitive or contextually difficult to relate verses.
2. Gita: Chapter One
Chapter One provides the context in which Lord Krishna revealed the Ultimate Truth to Arjuna. Arjuna was afflicted suddenly by serious mental agony over the desirability of fighting the Great War between the Kauravas and Pandavas when both the armies gathered at the battlefield of Kurushetra. The main hero of the Pandavas and the third brother among the Pandava princes felt completely dejected, confused and demoralized, lamenting that he was faced with a fight against and attempt to annihilate his own teachers, relatives and friends in the Kaurava side and be the cause of death of millions of warriors on both sides. Thus, fighting the war would amount to him as an act of great sin. He was distressed to visualize the adverse consequences of the War on the society and him and therefore was about to withdraw from the battlefield laying down the arms.
Verses 1.1 - 1.46
After looking over the army gathered by the sons of Pandu, King Duryodhana went to his teacher, Drona, and told them to behold the great army of the sons of Pandu, so expertly arranged by their intelligent disciple, the son of Drupada and observe the many heroic bowmen equal in fighting to Bhima and Arjuna including great fighters like Virata, Drupada, Dhrstaketu, Cekitana, Kasiraja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, Saibya, Yudhamanyu, Uttamauja, the son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi who are great chariot fighters. Then he described his own army line-up that included, besides Drona, Bhisma, Karna, Kripa, Asvatthama, Vikarna and Bhurisrava the son of Somadatta, who were always victorious in battle. There were many other heroes well equipped with different kinds of weapons, experienced in military science and prepared to lay down their lives for Duryodhana’s sake. He considered the strength of his army immeasurable and perfectly protected by Grandfather Bhisma, whereas the strength of the Pandavas, protected by Bhima, is limited. He sought full support to Grandfather Bhisma. Then, Bhisma, the great valiant grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, blew his conch shell very loudly like the sound of a lion. The conch shells, bugles, trumpets, drums and horns combined to create a tumultuous sound.
On the other side, both Lord Krishna and Arjuna, stationed on a great chariot drawn by white horses, blew their transcendental conch shells. Lord Krishna blew His conch shell, called Pancajanya, Arjuna blew his Devadatta and Bhima, blew his Paundram. King Yudhisthira blew his conch shell Ananta-vijaya, Nakula and Sahadeva blew the Sughosa and Manipuspaka. The great archer King of Kasi, the great fighter Sikhandi, Dhrstadyumna, Virata and the unconquerable Satyaki, Drupada, the sons of Draupadi and Subhadra, blew their respective conch shells. The blowing of these different conch shells became uproarious, vibrating both in the sky and on the earth, shattering the hearts of the sons of Dhrtarastra.
Arjuna seated in his chariot, his flag marked with Hanuman, took up his bow and prepared to shoot his arrows, looking at the sons of Dhrtarastra. He then requested Krishna to draw his chariot between the two armies so that he could view the warriors desirous of fighting, and with whom he would have to contend in the battle. Then, Arjuna could see, within the midst of the armies of parties, his grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and also his father-in-law and well-wishers all present there. He became overwhelmed with compassion and sorrow. He said that his body was quivering, mouth drying up. , hair standing on end, bow Gandiva slipping from his hand and his skin burning. He was unable to stand any longer and forgetting himself with mind is reeling envisioning the consequences of the war as only evil. He could not comprehend how any good can come from killing his own kinsmen in this battle and therefore unable to desire victory, kingdom, or happiness from this war. He enquired of Krishna of what utility are kingdoms, happiness or even life itself when all those for whom these are desired - teachers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law and all relatives are ready to give up their lives in this battle. He expressed his disinclination to fight to kill them even if the entire universe were offered for fighting. He felt it was sinful to slay such aggressors, even if these kinsmen, overtaken by greed, see no fault in killing one's family. He further anticipated destruction of dynasty and the eternal family traditions, the rise of irreligious practices, corruption, unwanted progeny and degradation of womanhood. He would rather feel better if the sons of Dhrtarastra killed him without fight unarmed than bring in the devastation by fighting the battle. Overwhelmed by grief, he then laid down his bow and arrows and sat down on the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief.
3. Gita: Chapter Two
Responding to the distressed mental agony of Arjuna and his request for advice, Lord Krishna emphasized the need to remove all dilemmas and confusion from the mind and advised Arjuna to act in accordance with the Ultimate Truth perceived by the wise and learned men. He told Arjuna to get out of the illusion (Maya) of ego that creates attachment to desires, perception of sensual pleasure and pain. He advised him to practice Yoga that would enable to lead a life free of anger, fear and desire driven emotions He advised him to realize the Truth that human beings cannot influence the course of events. This chapter is like an executive summary of Lord’s instructions and advices to Arjuna. The slokas / verses in this Chapter talk about the basics of Yoga and its different methods like karma yoga, Gyana yoga, Sankhya yoga, Buddih yoga and also about the essential equality of all that is in the Universe. This knowledge is Atman, the origin and indestructible source of all that is and all that is happening in the entire creation is embedded in each infinitesimal part of the creation though not easily recognized by human beings subject to the three guna properties imparted by the nature that also is the result of the creative process of Atman. Realisation of Atman is nothing but identifying oneself with the Atman that continually acts without being affected by the process of creation.
Verses 2.1 – 2.10
Krishna then advised Arjuna the impurities of his thoughts did not befit Arjuna, a man who knew the progressive values of life and would promise him only infamy. It would not be correct for Arjuna to yield to such degrading impotence and petty weakness of heart, and start fighting the battle. But Arjuna said he would prefer to lead the life of a beggar than to live with the blood-tainted spoils earned at the cost of taking, with counterattack, the lives of great souls like Drona and Bhisma, his superiors and teachers, even if they were avaricious. He wondered if conquering the sons of Dhrtarastra, whom if he had killed he would not care to live, was a better than getting conquered. He admitted that he was confused about my duty and lost all composure because of weakness. He submitted to Krishna and sought Krishna’s advice and instructions as he could not find any means to overcome the grief that had immobilized his senses and would not revive even at the prospect of winning an unrivaled, sovereign heavenly kingdom. Therefore he had decided not to fight. Then Krishna smiling as always started speaking as contained in the subsequent verses that follow.
Verses 2.11 – 2.30
Mourning for what is not worthy of grief is unwise. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead. Never was there a time when any person - whether, I, you, the kings or any being did not exist. Nor, in the future shall any one among them or us ceased to exist. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul in each body similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change or transformation. The nonpermanent appearance and disappearance of happiness and distress are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. These are the delusions created by sense perception and the wise learn to tolerate them without losing their stability of peace in mind. disturbed. The person undisturbed by happiness and distress and in steady state under both situations is certainly eligible for liberation. By studying in depth, the seers have concluded that the non-existent cannot endure and the existent cannot cease to be. That which pervades the entire body is indestructible: the imperishable soul cannot be destroyed by anybody or anything. Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is subject to destruction.
The thought that a living entity is the slayer or one can slay a living entity is flawed and based on ignorance: the person with knowledge knows that the self or the soul slays not nor is slain. The soul is never born, never dies and unborn, eternal, ever existing and primeval. The self lasts even if the body is slain. A learned person, who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable, can not think that one can kill anyone or cause anyone to kill. As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. The soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. The soul is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. The soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, one should not grieve for the loss of the body.
Should one think that the soul is born and dies, there is no reason to grieve: for, one who has taken birth, death is certain and for one who is dead, birth is certain. All created beings are non-manifest in the beginning, non-manifest state for sometime state and transformed non-manifest again. So, there is no reason to lament on death. Some know that the soul is amazing but most do not know or understand the nature of the soul at all. The soul that dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore there is no need to grieve for any creature.
Verses 2.31 - 2.39
One belonging to the warrior class (khatriya) has the specific duty to fight wars and Arjuna therefore should have no hesitation in taking up the unsought opportunity to participate in the battle. If Arjuna does not fight the war, he will neglecting his duties and loses his reputation as a fighter. For an honorable person such disrespect is worse than death. The great generals who have highly esteemed Arjuna will now think of him as a coward who left the battlefield out of fear only. In a battle there are two possibilities: either one earns the distinction of a hero giving up life fighting or a conqueror that wins the kingdom. Arjuna should therefore get up to fight with determination, without worrying about the outcome like happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat resulting from his action to fight. This is the wisdom derived from the analytical knowledge of Sankhya philosophy or Gyana Yoga.
Verses 2.40 – 2.53
According the knowledge derived from the Yoga of Desire-free Action, when one acts without any desire to enjoy the fruits of actions one frees oneself from the bondage or slavery of action. In this Yoga one does not calculate any lose or gain anything but is able to come out of even the most dangerous type of fear that may weaken the minds. Those who practice this Yoga with resolve are focused on the single aim of being engaged in activities without any attachment to the fruits of actions. Those who do not have the resolve to practice this Karma Yoga suffer from dilemmas. Persons may be easily attracted by the tempting prescriptions contained in the nicely worded verses of the Vedas to engage in fruit-yielding activities to obtain material pleasures of various types including wealth, power, and sensual gratification. The minds too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, the resolute determination of devotional service through desire-free activities does not appeal.
One has to transcend and go beyond the activities linked to the three Gunas/ properties of material nature recommended by the Vedas if one has to get liberated from all dilemmas, dualities and anxieties for gain and safety, and get established in the Self. Just as the various purposes served by small ponds can all be served by the great reservoir of water, all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the basic purpose behind them. The basic knowledge is that one has only the right to perform actions prescribed as one cannot remain without actions, but one cannot have guaranteed entitlement to the desired fruits of actions. It is not correct to consider oneself as the cause of the results of one’s activities, and therefore ceased from doing one’s duty. A Yogi steadfast on this method of desire-less action performs duty giving up all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is required in the practice of yoga of devotional service by complete surrender to the Supreme Consciousness and to get rid of all result-motivated activities, by devotional service, and surrender fully to that consciousness.
A person engaged in devotional service rids himself of the concept of good and bad actions: that is the essence of strategy of carrying out activities. The wise engaged in devotional service take refuge in God and free themselves from the pangs between birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. That is the technique of acting without suffering miseries. When all delusion has been cleared by the intellect, one becomes indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard. When the mind is no longer enamored by the tempting language of the Vedas, and when it remains fixed in the trance of self-realization, one will be able to attain the divine consciousness.
Verses 2.54 – 2.72
Arjuna at this stage enquired to know the symptoms of one whose consciousness is merged in Transcendence in terms of behavior. Krishna responded that when one gives up all varieties of sense desire that arise from mental concoction between senses and the objects of sensual pleasure, the mind finds satisfaction in the self alone in pure transcendental consciousness. The sage in the steady state of pure consciousness is unperturbed by events that cause miseries to others, is not elated by what could cause happiness to any other, and is free from attachment, fear and anger. The person without attachment and perfect knowledge fails to rejoice or lament on any happening. True knowledge enables withdrawal of senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell. Even after the embodied soul is restricted from sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects may remain. But, the new experience of a higher taste, the mind gets fixed in consciousness. Even then, the mind of a person controlling the senses may be overpowered by the strong impetuous senses. A person with senses restrained and consciousness fixed on God is a person of steady intellect.
When the mind contemplates the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust for sensual pleasure develops, and from lust anger arises. Anger leads to delusion; delusion affects access to memory that leads to loss of intelligence. With intelligence lost, one gets trapped into the material whirlpool again. But the person who gains control over the senses through practice can become free from all attachment and aversion. A person who attains such freedom of Divine consciousness is able to lift oneself beyond material existence; in such a state, one's intellect remains steady in peace, unperturbed by external events. But the person not in transcendental consciousness does not have control over the mind and does not have steadiness of intellect to remain in peace. Just as a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can destabilize the intellect. It is only the person with senses restrained from sensual objects that can have steady intellect.
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage. Only the person unperturbed by the incessant flow of desires (like rivers entering into the ocean that remains still) can achieve peace. Real peace can be achieved only by the person who has shed all desires for sense gratification, lives a desire-free life and is free from desires, abandoned all sense of proprietorship and is ego-free. This is the way of spiritual life is attained and one can proceed to merges with God.
4. Gita: Chapter Two: Select Verses
Gita develops the Concept of God in very simple, straight forward ways. If one excludes the verses that are connected to the Kurushetra War and those verses that are simply inconsistent with the main spiritual theme of Gita, Gita is a step by step logical sequence of the theory of a Generalised God that encompasses any personal God or God as a special power or energy. Here we select verses from Chapter 2 of Gita.
4.1 The feelings generated as a result of the contact of senses and sensual external objects are transient phenomena of pain and pleasure. These feeling are better endured with detachment. These feelings should not influence one’s action in any way. To quote:
Verse 2.14 The contacts of the senses with their objects, gives
rise to the feeling of cold (likes) & heat (dislikes) and pleasure &
pain, etc., these feelings come and go and are impermanent;
therefore, forbear them patiently i.e., remain unaffected by them.
(maatraa-sparshaas tu kaunteya, sitosna-sukha-duhkha-daah
aagamapayino 'nityaas, tams titikshasva bhaarata).
The transient is Unreal because it cannot last. The Real is that which is unchanged and constant. Transient feelings are Unreal and not where one really exists. To quote:
Verse 2.16 The Unreal has no existence and the Real never ceases to be; this
Truth has been realized by the seers of truth.
(naasato vidyate bhaavo, nabhaavo vidyate satah
ubhayor api drsto 'ntas tv anayos tattva-darshibhih)
4.2 That which is permanent is what is Real and pervades the entire Creation. It is permanent because it is indestructible, unlike the Unreal that is perishable, transient and hence gets destroyed in any case. To quote:
Verse 2.17 Know that the Real is imperishable and by which all this universe is pervaded; none can bring about the destruction of this
indestructible.
(avinaashi tu tad viddhi, yena sarvam idam tatam
vinaasham avyayasyaasya, na kaschit kartum arhati)
4.3. Only Atman (the Soul) is the Real because it never perishes, never ceases to exist. It has been always there as the only constant forever. To quote:
Verse 2.20 The Atman is never born nor does does It ever die, or having once come into being It never cease to be. It is Unborn, eternal, constant and ancient. Even though the body is killed, It (the soul) is not slain.
(na jaayate mriyate va kadaachin, nayam bhutvaa bhavitaa va na bhuyah
ajo nityah saasvato 'yam puraano, na hanyate hanyamaane sarire)
4.4 The one who realizes that Atman is the only Real and hence all pervasive permanent also knows that neither he nor can anyone / anything else cause it to be destroyed, to perish. To quote:
Verses 2.21 How will the man who realizes this Atman to be imperishable, eternal, unborn, free from birth and decay, slay anyone, or cause anyone to be slain?
(vedaavinashinam nityam, ya enam ajam avyayam
katham sa purushah paartha, kum ghaatayati hanti kam )
Verse 2:23 Weapons cannot cut the Atman, nor fire burn It, water cannot drench
It, nor can wind make It dry.
(nainam chindanti shastrani, nainam dahati pavakah
na cainam kledayanty apo, na sosayati marutah)
Verse 2.24 The Self is unfathomable, incombustible and cannot be drenched by water nor
dried. It is eternal, all pervading, unchanging, immovable and
everlasting.
(acchedyo 'yam adahyo 'yam, akledyo 'sosya eva ca
nityah sarva-gatah sthanur, acalo 'yam sanatanah)
4.5 No one has been able to describe Atman or the Self. Some visualizes Atman as beautiful, some say that it is the best of all things while some others hears of it as great. But few really know what Atman is.
Verse 2.29 One beholds the Self as wonderful, another speaks of It as
marvelous; another hears of It as a marvel, yet another having
heard, knows It not.
(ascarya-vat pasyati kascid enam, ascarya-vad vadati tathaiva canyah
ascarya-vac cainam anyah srnoti, srutvapy enam veda na caiva kascit)
4.6 Shifting from Gyan Yoga to Karma Yoga to illustrate their equivalence.
Verse 2:39 So far I have told you about Sankkhya Yoga that enables the Realisation of equanimity (Samtaah) wisdom / knowledge in one self. Now, Partha (Arjuna) hear about how the same Realization is attained through Karma Yoga’s Self-less Action that enables to completely shake off the bondage of Karma (action).
(eshaa te 'bhihitaa saankhye, buddhir yoge tv imaam shrinu
buddhyaa yukto yayaa paartha, karma-bandham prahaasyasi).
4.7 Practicing Vedic rituals for fulfilling desires and pleasures (even if such rituals yield results) is unwise action because they keep one under the bondage of illusion (Maya) and associated cycles of transient pleasures, pains, sufferings and fear.
Verse 2.42-43 Obsessed by desires, seeking heaven as the supreme goal, and devoted to the letter of the Vedas, some persons perform many rites for fulfilling desires. They are unwise people may give attractive speeches, recommending many rituals of various kinds for the attainment of pleasure and prosperity, with rebirth as the fruit of their actions.
(yaam imaam pushpitaam vaacham, pravadanti avipaschitah
veda-vada-rataah paarth, naanyad asteeti vaadinah
kaamaatmaanah svarga-paraa, janma-karma-phala-pradaam
kriyaa-visesa-bahulaam, bhogaishvarya-gatim prati).
4.8 The attachment to Bhoga (worldly enjoyment of pleasures) through the desire-driven senses and pursuit of accumulation of wealth cannot resolve pursue the spiritual path of selfless action.
Verse 2:44 Persons attracted by and deeply attached to worldly sensual pleasures and prosperity cannot pursue the path of selfless action with determination.
(bhogaisvarya-prasaktanam, tayapahrta-cetasam
vyavasayatmika buddhih, samadhau na vidhiyate)
4.9 Arjuna should discard Vedas-prescribed actions driven by the three Gunas to achieve worldly objects and should adopt the yoga of performing selfless actions that will enable him to completely detach from all Worldly desires, wants, wealth protection and accumulation motivation as also pleasures and pains of material existence so that he can get established permanently in Divine eternal existence.
Verse 2.45 The Vedas prescribe actions driven by the three Gunas and this is what Arjuna should shun and should get permanently established in Eternal Divine Existence, totally detached from worldly wants and pleasures and the preservation of wealth and enjoyment.
(trai-gunya-visayaa vedaa, nistrai-gunyo bhavaarjuna
nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho, niryoga-kshema aatmavaan)
4.10 Wise men who have attained the ultimate, permanent peace of union with God no longer needs to use their body, senses, mind and intellect there is to act or pursue any desire or goal. And, they are the real `Brahman' (enlightened one).
Verse 2:46 As on obtaining a reservoir of water flooded from all sides, there is no use for a small tank of water. Likewise, an enlightened Brahmana experiencing the ultimate reality of oneness does not need the Vedas or vedic rituals any longer.
yaavan aartha udapaane, sarvatah samplutodake
taavaan sarveshu vedeshu, brahmanasya vijaanatah.
4.11 One has the right to actions, driven by the Gunas that attach actions to intended results from actions. But actions by themselves cannot guarantee the materialization of the intended result. So, one is destined to perform actions but it is pointless to be attached to an expectation of the realization of the intended consequences of one’s actions since results of actions may seldom be realized fully or even partially. It is better to act without any attachment to the intended or actual consequences of actions. But just because one is not assured of the certainty of realizing the intended consequences of any action, one cannot pursue a strategy of being inactive as one will e forced to act anyway.
Verse 2.47 One can and have no option but to only exercise the right to perform actions/ duties as per his/her own instincts (gunas), but never can one assure himself/ herself of the certainty of realizing the intended/ desired fruits of actions performed. Thus, pursuing a motive of the fruit of action is pointless. The non-correspondence of actions with the intended results, however, does not mean that one can desist from actions and be attached to inaction.
karmanyevaadhikaraas te, maa phaleshu kadaachanaa
maa karma-phala-hetur bhoor, maa te sango 'stv akarmani
4.12 Yoga is nothing but performing duties / actions without attachment to success or failure to achieve the intended consequences of such actions/ duties. That is what one should do.
Verse 2.48 Arjuna, Dhananjaya (the conqueror of wealth. Krishna), should perform actions (duties), renouncing attachment, being steadfast in the path of Yoga, remaining even-minded in success and failure: Yoga is nothing but that equanimity of detachment to outcome of actions.
yoga-sthah kuru karmaani, sangam tyaktvaa dhananjaya
siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhootvaa, samatvam yoga uchyate
4.13 The continuous reflection of the wisdom of equanimity in a person’s way of living frees the person from the dilemma over what is good or bad action: practicing equanimity is the strategy of skillfully performing actions in life.
Verse 2.50 A person with the trait of inherent equanimity in life is free from the bondage of dilemma over good and bad actions; practicing the Yoga of equanimity imparts the skill in performing actions.
buddhi-yukto jahatiha, ubhe sukrita-duskrte
tasmad yogaya yujyasva, yogah karmasu kausalam
4.14 One who happens to possess the trait of equanimity treats all types of actual or likely results of one’s actions: this trait by definition enables the person to remain detached and enjoy the blissful state of total immunity from the perception of worldly life of pleasures and pains commonly associated with human birth.
Verse 2.51 Wise men endowed with equanimity remain detached from (likely and actual) consequences of their actions: this frees them from the bondage of life and enables them to enjoy the supreme bliss.
karma-jam buddhi-yukta hi, phalam tyaktvaa maneesinah
janma-bandha-vinirmuktaa, padam gachchanti anaamayam
4.15 An intellect free from the attachment to ego, desire and sensual pleasure and pain derived from objects and thoughts by definition is indifferent to all advise to perform duties, rituals and actions that promises enjoyment in current life and future.
Verse 2.52 When intellect frees itself from the delusion (of worldly pleasure and pain. Of ego and desire), it becomes indifference to and unaffected by what has been heard and what is yet to be heard about the enjoyments of this life and beyond.
yadaa te moha-kalilam, buddhir vyatitarisyati
tada gantasi nirvedam, srotavyasya srutasya ca.
4.16 The ultimate state of Yoga of union with God is attained when the intellect successfully lifts itself above the dilemmas that may be created by confusing and conflicting prescriptions of various scriptures and firmly establishes itself in the practice of equanimity.
Verse 2.53 Once a person’s intellect rises above the confusion that may be created by the conflicting doctrines of different scriptures and firmly stabilizes in equanimity, the person reaches the ultimate state of Yoga when one is in union with God.
shruti-vipratipannaa te, yadaa sthaasyati nischalaa
samaadhav achala buddhis, tadaa yogam avaapsyasi
4.17 A desire-free mind and intellect completely engrossed in the knowledge of the Pure Self is in the steady state of wisdom.
Verse 2.55 A person remains stable in the state of complete wisdom when the person has successfully cleansed his mind off all desires and is fully engrossed in the (true/ real) Self.
prajahaati yadaa Kaamaan, sarvaan paartha mano-gataan
atmanye evaatmanaa tusthah, sthita-prajnas tadochyate
4.18 The sage of wisdom is one who is unaffected by any external event of any type because of complete detachment to sensual pleasures and pains: he remains free of emotive response, anger or fear irrespective of whatever happens to the environment in which he lives.
Verse 2.56 The mind of a person in the steady state equilibrium of ultimate wisdom is unperturbed by any event/ happening that would normally the cause of sorrow, and is equally detached from and entirely free from passion, emotion, fear: He is the sage of steady wisdom
duhkheshv anudvigna-manaah, sukhesu vigata-sprhah
veeta-raaga-bhaya-krodhah, sthita-dheer munir uchyate
4.19 No external development or condition is capable of affecting the equilibrium of a person in the steady state of wisdom and knowledge: nothing pleases or displeases such a person in steady state of peace.
Verse 2.57 In the steady state of wisdom, a sage remains unperturbed irrespective of the nature of external conditions: a sage in steady state of complete knowledge and wisdom is neither delighted at pleasant nor dejected by unpleasant developments
yah sarvatraanabhisnehas, tat tat praapya subhasubham
naabhinandati na dvesti, tasya prajnaa pratisthita
4.20 Complete detachment of senses from sensual objects firmly establishes a Yogi in the steady state of wisdom.
Verse 2.58 Similar to a tortoise withdraws its limbs from all sides; the Yogi completely detaches the senses from the sensual objects and thus firmly establishes the intellect in wisdom.
yadaa samharate chaayam, kurmo 'ngaaneeva sarvasah
indriyaanindriyaarthebhyas, tasya prajnaa pratisthitaa.
4.21 A Self-realized person in the steady state of wisdom is no longer attracted by worldly objects and thoughts since the person’s senses have been completely withdrawn from sensual attachment.
Verse 2.59 One who has detached senses from Sense-objects, may still have a latent taste for sense objects. But on realization of the Supreme Self, a person in steady state wisdom no longer relishes worldly objects
vishaya vinivartante, niraahaarasya dehinah
rasa-varjam raso 'py asya, param drishtvaa nivartate
4.22 Even long years of practice of self-control over the mind and senses can be over powered by the mighty power of the lust forcing the senses become turbulent again.
Verse 2.60 The power of the insatiable lust driven senses is so strong enough to force the mind and intellect of even a wise man with long practice of control over the senses.
yatato hy api kaunteya, purushasya vipascitah
indriyaani pramaatheeni, haranti prasabham manah
4.23 The Yogi can remain stable in wisdom if he has been able to bring all his senses under complete control and with complete faith and concentration surrenders exclusively and totally to God.
Verse 2.61 A Yogi with full control over all the senses, devoting heart and soul to God with exclusive focus remains steady in wisdom.
taani sarvaani samyamya, yukta aaseeta mat-parah
vashe hi yasyendriyaani, tasya prajna pratisthita
4.24 Attachment to sensual objects develops in a person due to thinking about such objects; attachment gives rise desire and lust which if not satisfied gives rise to greater lust and frustration-induced anger in a person.
Verse 2.62 Thoughts contemplating objects of the senses, develop attachment tor desire for such objects and that gives rise to lust which if not satisfied at any point of time gives rise to disappointment-induced anger.
dhyaayato vishayaan pumsah, sangas teshoopajaayate
sangaat sanjayate kaamah, kaamaat krodho 'bhijaayate.
4.25 Anger paves the way for delusion to develop; delusion leads to bewilderment of memory; a bewildered memory weakens intellect and intelligence; loss of intellect leads to loss of knowledge and revival of attachment to material world.
Verse 2.63 From attachment springs desire, and from desire ensues anger (due to frustration of lust) and lust begets weakening of memory, which leads to loss of intellect and intelligence, and that in turn leads to ruin.
krodhaad bhavati sammohah, sammohaat smriti-vibhramah
smriti-bhramshaad buddhi-naasho, buddhi-naashaat pranashyati
4.26 Free from all attachment and aversion, the mind gets disconnected from the senses and sense objects and hence from sensual pleasure and pain, the Self is able to connect to the Supreme Truth or Personality.
Verse 2.64 A person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses can obtain the perception of the Supreme Personality of Truth.
raga-dvesa-vimuktais tu visayan indriyais caran
atma-vasyair vidheyatma prasadam adhigacchati
4.27 Miseries of material existence no longer exists for an attachment-free and aversion-free intellect with mind under its complete control gets connected to and soon gets established itself in the Ultimate Truth / Knowledge
Verse 2.65 For such a person whose Self is able to connect to the Supreme Truth, the miseries of material existence no longer exists; in such state of satisfied consciousness, the person’s intellect soon get firmly established in the Ultimate Truth.
prasade sarva-duhkhanam hanir asyopajayate
prasanna-cetaso hy asu buddhih paryavatisthate
4.28 A person who is delinked from stability of mind and intellect being incapable to perceive the Ultimate Truth cannot attain even peace: for such a person achieving the ultimate happiness does not arise.
Verse 2.66 Spiritual intellect cannot establish itself with out a mind disciplined in Yoga: without a steady (yoga) state of intellect and mind, it is not possible to realize the Ultimate Truth. So, a person not established in the Yoga state of steady mind and intellect and therefore unable to realize the Ultimate Truth cannot achieve even peace, not to speak of achieving happiness.
naasti buddhirayuktasya na chaayuktasya bhaavanaa
na chaabhaavayatah shaantirashaantasya kutah sukham
4.29 A person’s intellect can drift without any direction when it is linked to a wandering, sense-driven mind just as the ship floating in water is carried by the wandering wind.
Verse 2.67 Just as the ship floating on the water is drifted away by the wind, the intellect floating on the mind is drifted away by a mind engrossed in any one or more of the wandering senses,
indriyaanaam hi charataam yanmano'nu vidheeyate
tadasya harati prajnaam vaayurnaavami vaambhasi.
4.30 When the sesnses are under complete control, the intellect can remain steady.
Verse 2.68 The intellect is stable in a body in which senses are completely restrained from the sense-objects.
tasmaadyasya mahaabaaho nogrheetaani sarvasah
indriyaaneendriyaarthebhyastasya prajnaa pratisthitaa
yaa nishaa sarvabhootaanaam tasyaam jaagarti samyami
yasyaam jaagrati bhootani saa nishaa pashyato muneh
4.31 The disciplined, enlightened Yogi is awake in God and sleeps away from worldly pleasures when the other beings are asleep in ignorance, busy enjoying worldly pleasures.
Verse 2.69 During the nights of all other beings, the disciplined Yogi is awake. And, whatever all beings seek when awake, the enlightened seer shuns as darkness of the night.
yaa nishaa sarvabhootaanaam tasyaam jaagarti samyami
yasyaam jaagrati bhootani saa nishaa pashyato muneh
4.32 Worldly pleasures flow into a wise Yogi in blissful happiness but are unable to affect the stability of his intellect, just as water of different rivers flow in the Ocean brimming with water without affecting its calmness and character.
Verse 2.70
Waters of different rivers flow into the water-full ocean and yet the ocean remains undisturbed. Similarly, all enjoyments and pleasure of worldly material existence flow into the wise seer in bliss without affecting the stability of his intellect.
aapooryamaanamachalapratistham
samudramaapah pravishanti yadvat
tadvatkaamaa yam pravishanti sarve
sa shaantimaapnoti na kaamakaami
4.33 Only the completely desire-free, possiveness-free, ego-free and necessity-free person attains tranquility.
Verse 2.71 Tranquility comes to the wise that is completely bereft of desire of any kind, does no longer feel the need for any possession whatsoever, performs actions without any sense of being the performer, and has no necessity to be cared for survival.
vihaaya kamaanyah sarvaanpumaanshcharati nihsprhah
nirmamo nirahankaarah sa shaantimadhigacchati
4.34 In the state of Godhood, God-realized soul) free of desire, free of thought on necessities of life, free of the sense of passiveness of anything or anybody, and free of ego, there is complete loss of individuality and affinity to anything or any being or any thought. This result in complete loss of any question to be answered as there are no more dilemmas or doubts or confusion. This state of complete merging in God, the absolute and ultimate source of all, may be reached even at the time of death for attainment of eternal bliss for ever.
Verse 2.72 Such is the state of a God-realized soul as described just now (in the immediately preceding verses). A soul in this state overcomes all delusion. If a soul reaches this state even at the hour of death, the soul attains eternal bliss of union with God for ever.
esa brahmi sthitih partha nainarh prapya vimuhyati
sthitvasyamantakale'pi brahmanirvanamrcchati, O Partha,
5. Gita Chapter Three
Chapter Three deals with various types of actions or duties and how performance of such actions and duties become appropriate under different conditions. While the usual interpretation is that the Chapter seeks to classify actions and duties as good or bad or useful and useless, the spirit of Lord’s advice is to emphasize that actions and duties would be performed by individuals under the varying influence of the varying combination of the three Gunas/ properties inherent in different individuals. He therefore advises Arjuna to get over the dilemma of what is good or bad action but do whatever he is driven to do by the Gunas and the circumstances faced without any attachment to the consequences of any action. Actions are appropriate given the situational background and the inherited natural properties of a person. One need not worry about the future outcome of the present actions; eliminate the operation of lust through the intellect, the mind and the senses.
Verses 3.1-3.2 Arjuna wants to know why he should fight if knowledge is better than fruit-yielding action?
Verses 3.3 – 3.9 Krishna replies: There are two categories of self-realized persons: one category tends to understand God by empirical and philosophical pursuits while the other and try to know God by devotional work. No one can achieve freedom from responding to external environment by merely abstaining from work or merely through renunciation. All are forced to act helplessly according to the impulses implicit in the inherited composition of the three Gunas of material nature. No one can refrain from action even for a single moment.
One may restrains the senses and organs of action but unable to detach the mind from thinking sense objects. Such a person can pretend to be a Yogi but actually far from being on the path to Knowledge. Superior person is the one person with the senses under control of the mind and engaged in action full of devotion, without desire and attachment to ego or consequences of action.
Action as duty is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without action.
Work done as a sacrifice for Vishnu has to be performed; otherwise work binds one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached and free from bondage.
Verses 3.10 - 3.15 The general law of happiness in the creation is based on mutual sacrifice because it is through sacrifice the system sustains the creatures. Each draws sustenance from the system and has to contribute to the sustenance of the system. One lives / enjoys by consuming / using things in the Nature. This involves sacrifice of other things in nature. Similarly, the one who enjoys something from the Nature for one’s sustenance in turn may need to be sacrificed for the sustenance of another being. Each person who draws from the natural pool would automatically be required to contribute to the natural process. Those who think of living on the sacrifice of others without himself/herself sacrificing for the sustenance of life of others are conceptually thieves. Those who eat food after offering the same for sacrifice remind themselves of this general law of sustenance: those who prepare food merely for personal sense enjoyment and do not wish to reciprocate fail to harmonize their living with the general law of sustenance of creation.
All living bodies subsist on food grains produced due to the operation of natural forces. The natural forces work on the principle of sacrifice through transformation. And such transformation is the result of actions performed by various living and non-living forces in accordance with the properties imparted (duties assigned) to them. This is the reason why all actions prescribed in the Vedas are oriented to sacrifice.
Verses 3.17 -3.28 One who taking pleasure in, illuminated in and rejoices in the Self as also fully satisfied with Self realization has sacrificed all desires and ego. He/she does not need to perform the action of symbolic / ritual sacrifice. A self-realized person has no purpose to fulfill through actions and yet has no purpose to serve by remaining inactive. Such a person may not depend on the sacrifice by any other living/ non-living being. Thus, performance of actions without being attached to the consequences of actions is consistent with the pursuit of knowledge of the Self. A self realized person merely acts to become a role model for others. Even God is not in the need of anything, nor does God need to obtain anything--and God is continuously in action. If God did not engage in work, everything in creation would follow suit and the Universe would come to an end. Had God ceased to work, God would have caused chaos and the entire creation would be ruined.
The ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results. But the learned act without attachment and set examples for people to perform actions. The wise and learned do not disrupt the minds of the ignorant perform actions with attachment to results of actions. They set examples to discourage common people from remaining inactive and encourage people to perform action in the spirit of devotion to God. The bewildered person thinks that he acts as per his/ her own decision though actually he performs whatever the three Gunas of material nature drives him/ her to think and do.
Verses 3.29 – 3.43
A person with knowledge of the Absolute Truth does not use the senses to seek sensual enjoyment and pleasure, while the ignorant fully engage the senses for material activities with attachment to fulfill sensual desire. However, The wise do not unsettle the ignorant even if the latter perform actions to fulfill material pleasure. The task is to act without ego and lethargy and to surrender all actions and their fruits to God, with desire-free mind fixed on God. Performance of actions faithfully in accordance with these requirements frees a person from the bondage of actions driven by the illusive pursuit of transient sensual pleasure. But driven by envy and desire, persons do not perform in the manner required and remain ignorant and slave to the senses.
All including the one with knowledge act according to his own nature imparted by the Gunas: attraction and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings. But those who fall prey to desire flamed by senses and sense objects fail to progress on the path of self-realization.
Performing actions without desire but in accordance with one’s own nature, even if not performed with perfection, is better than trying to perform actions that are consistent with another person’s nature: rather trying to act against one’s nature may be dangerous.
It is lust born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath that forces a person to act under the control of the senses. Fire may be covered by smoke, a mirror covered by dust and the embryo covered by the womb. Similarly, different living beings are covered by different degrees of lust. The eternal enemy of insatiable lust corrupts the mind and the intelligence by creating a veil over the pure consciousness of a person: because of this veil the intellect, the mind and the senses cannot attune themselves to the Knowledge in the pure consciousness. This great force of lust can be overcome and eliminated only by systematic and hard practice of regulating the senses. Once this lust is completely vanquished, the true knowledge becomes clearly visible to and attracts the intellect, the mind and the senses.
The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is on a higher plane than the senses; intellect is at still higher level than the mind; and the pure consciousness/ knowledge is even higher than the level of the intellect. The knowledge available at the highest pure consciousness Self can be accessed only as a person moves/ transcends from the control over the lower level self to the highest level Self. When the highest level of Self is in control of the intellect, the mind and the senses, the person is freed from all burdens and bondage because there is no lust left anymore to the intellect, the mind and the senses remain in ignorance and attached to the goal of sensual pleasure.
6. Gita Chapter Four
In Chapter Four, Lord Krishna explained the two paths to the realization of Truth (Self or God): the path of desire-free action and the pursuit of Knowledge. He also explains how the two paths are complementary and converge to the same goal of Self realization.
Verses 4.1- 4.11 The supreme and imperishable science of the Yoga has been handed down from generation to generation through the chain of master and disciple. It is not generally available to everyone, especially because the chain of master-disciple has weakened over time. This science will now be described to unveil the mysticism around this ancient science of the relationship of God and His creation. Although God is never born and never dead unborn and always in existence without any change, God may appear in the form of a living being in fully Self Realized state every millennium whenever and wherever there is an unstable chaos in the Creation so as to protect the oppressed and annihilate the oppressors and restore balance between creative and destructive forces. One who knows the transcendental nature of God’s manifestation in living form gets freed from the slavery and bondage of the material world and merges with God. Freeing themselves from attachment, fear and anger, eliminating ego by complete submission to God and taking refuge in God, many persons have in the past attained the Absolute Ultimate knowledge and merged with God. All of them by surrendering unto the God and following the path towards divinity progressed over time to merge with God.
Verses 4.12 – 36
Human beings are generally driven by the desire to achieve success in satisfying them through their actions. Such actions are a form of worship of the God but only one or the other aspect of God and they are rewarded soon by the God to enjoy the fruits of their actions.
Depending on the combination of the three basic properties/ Gunas of material nature imparted to living beings, they are suitable to do different categories of work needed in the society for the sustenance of the society and the creation. Though God is the creator of this system, God Himself does not have the ego of being a doer and has always remained unchangeable. There is no work that affects God because God is not attached to the results/ consequences and outcomes of the actions. The person who truly understands this truth about God imbibes the same property of God. Since the ancient ages, many persons have led their lives in perfect accordance with this knowledge and in the process achieved liberation from the bondage and burden of Worldly life.
Even the intelligent find it difficult to determine what is action and what is inaction as the intricacies of action are very hard to understand. The intelligent wise person sees inaction in action and action in inaction; such a person is engaged in all sorts of activities without being affected by these actions. Each and every act of such a person with perfect and complete knowledge is devoid of any desire for sense gratification and does not have any consequences to inflict on that person. Abandoning all attachment to the results of activities, always satisfied and independent, such a person may be engaged in all sorts of activities with out any iota of desire to reap the outcome of the activities. Such a learned and wise person acts with mind and intelligence perfectly controlled, gives up all sense of proprietorship over actions, results, possessions and procures the bare necessities of life whenever possible. None of the activities of such a person produce any reaction on such a person. Such a knowledgeable person, in the midst of all the activities he may perform, remains always satisfied irrespective of the gain or losses that flow, is free from duality, does not envy, remains unaffected by both successes and failures, is never entangled in the results of actions. The activities of such a person unattached to the influence of the inherited or imbibed Gunas / properties of material nature, is in complete transcendental peace and harmony that merges the person into divine existence beyond the physical material existence of sensual urges and feelings. This indeed is the state of bliss in which the person gets fully absorbed irrespective of his material surroundings.
Some yogis worship various forces / symbols of almighty God by offering different sacrifices, while some other yogis offer sacrifices in the representing the Ultimate source of the Creation, the Creator. Some yogis sacrifice all the senses in the fire of the controlled mind, while others sacrifice the objects of the senses in the fire of sacrifice. The yogis trying to achieve self-realization, offer the functions of all the senses and the vital life force of breathing in the fire of the controlled mind. There are others sacrificing their material possessions in severe austerities and engage in strict practice of eightfold mystic yoga. Still others study the Vedas for the advancement of transcendental knowledge. Some yogis practice breath restraint to remain in trance, practice stopping the movement of the outgoing breath into the incoming, and incoming breath into the outgoing to remain in trance, stopping all breathing. Some curtail the eating process, offering the outgoing breath as a sacrifice into itself. All these yogis understand the meaning of sacrifice and seek to cleanse themselves of reactions. Once they start tasting the effects of such sacrifice, they get ready to merge into the supreme eternal God-sphere that contains the entire creation. Without sacrifice one can never live in peace and happiness. All these different types of sacrifice are approved by the Vedas, and all of them are born of different types of work.
The sacrifice of knowledge is superior to the sacrifice of material possessions as the sacrifice of desire driven actions culminates in transcendental knowledge. This knowledge can be acquired through the guidance of a spiritual master by submissive inquiry and service to the self-realized Master. When one learns the truth in this process, one would realize the full meaning of the ultimate truth that all living beings are but part of God and hence they are in God and belong to God. One who is able to ride this boat of transcendental knowledge, one is on the way to crossing the ocean of miseries, irrespective of past activities.
Verses 4.37 – 4.42
The fire of knowledge burns to ashes all reactions to material activities. There exists nothing as sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge one derives from all mystic Astanga Yoga. But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain transcendental knowledge. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.
The person who has renounced the fruits of his action, whose doubts are destroyed by transcendental knowledge, and who is situated firmly in the self, is not bound by works.
7. Gita: Chapter Five
Chapter Five explained the concepts of action with detachment and renunciation in actions. It emphasized that since an individual is forced to act under the influence of the Gunas and the circumstances of the situation, worrying about the future consequences and the desirability of such forced action was meaningless. The best approach would be to act with detachment to the consequences of forced actions even if they can be anticipated. This chapter explained how salvation is attained by the pursuance of the two paths of performing desire-free Action and of pursuing Renunciation of the ego and imbibing equanimity.
Verse 5.1 – 5.11
The path of renunciation of ego from action and the path of work in devotion are both good for liberation. Of the two, work in devotional service is superior to renunciation of activities. A person in renounced state neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities and is fully liberated from all dualities and material bondage. Only the ignorant does not perceive the equivalence of karma-yoga of devotional service and the analytical knowledge of the material world (Sankhya Yoga). The truly learned knows that through proper practice of either of these paths, one can achieves the results of both. Unless one is engaged in the desire-free, ego-free devotional service, mere renunciation of activities cannot make one happy. The sages, purified by their devotional service activity achieve God without delay. By engaged in devotional actions without getting entangled and attached to the outcomes, a pure soul in full control of mind and senses becomes dear to everyone, while loving everyone. Such a person in the divine consciousness and engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within that the person is not the real doer or performers of these activities. While speaking, evacuating, receiving, opening or closing the eyes, the person is all the time aware that only the material senses are engaged with their objects but the person is unattached and detached from these activities. Such a person performs duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme God and hence not affected by the actions just as the lotus leaf in water never gets wet by the water. The yogis, abandoning attachment, act with body, mind, intelligence, and even with the senses, only for the purpose of attaining Knowledge and Godhood that are beyond material existence and sensual enjoyment.
Verse 5.12- 5.22
The soul steadfast in activities in true spirit of devotion and sacrifice attains undistorted, impurity-free peace by submitting the results of all activities to God: the person who performs actions through senses attracted and driven by greed, lust and fear is not in union with the Divine and becomes entangled in the chain of pleasure and pain. Only the embodied living being in full control of his intellect, mind and senses, renounces ownership of actions and enjoys peace and bliss of divine existence while residing in the material body; such a person does not really perform work or cause work to be performed but witnesses work being performed continuously working. The embodied spirit, master dweller of the material body, does not create activities or induces actions or reactions or derive any fruits of action. All this is enacted by the Guna properties of material nature. This knowledge however is not available to the ignorant because the veil created by the Gunas of material nature. When the veil is removed one is enlightened with the knowledge that reveals everything, as the sun light up everything in the day. When one's intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the God, the knowledge reveals itself and the person gets liberated.
The humble sage to whom the knowledge reveals itself due to the removal of the veil of Maya created and sustained by the Gunas of material nature, envisions the equality of a learned and gentle person, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater. The mind that is established in equanimity or inherent sameness has succeeded in liberating itself from the bondage of the conditions of birth and death.
A person with such a mind with transcendental knowledge neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant. Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure or external objects but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. The self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness by concentrating on God.
Such an intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery arising out of in transient sensual pleasure from the contact of the material senses and their objects.
Even if moments before death, one is able to overcome the urges of the material senses and eliminate the force of desire and anger, one becomes a yogi who realizes bliss. The person who has perfectly practiced Astang Yoga derives happiness from within, remains active within, rejoices within and is illumined within; Such a person is liberated in Godhood. One who is beyond duality and dilemmas, whose mind is engaged within, who is always busy working for the welfare of all sentient beings, and who is free from desire, ego and anger, achieves liberation in and merges with God. Such persons are free from anger and all material desires, remain in self-realized state. Detaching from all external sensual objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils to keep the mind, senses and intellect under reins, the transcendentalist Astanga Yogi becomes free from desire, fear and anger and certainly gets liberated from the pangs of worldly miseries and transient sensual pleasures. The sages know God as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, and worship God as the Creator of all that we find and do not find in this entire universe and see God as the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities.
8. Gita: Chapter Six
Chapter Six explained the process of practicing Astanga yoga and emphasizes the methods to gain complete mastery over the volatile behavior of mind creates obstacles to concentration necessary for steady progress along the path of desire-lee action and Renunciation of the Ego.
Verses 6.1 - 6.23 The person unattached to the fruits of actions performed, performing actions only as a devotional obligation as part of renunciation and sacrifice is a yogi practicing yoga. Renunciation is yoga to merge with God: one cannot be a yogi without renunciation the desire for sense gratification. Performing desire-free, ego-free actions is a part of the eightfold yoga and achieving success in yoga practice that has already attained to yoga leads to the end of actions of all material activities. A person steadfast in yoga renounces all material desires, does not act for sense gratification and does not engage in actions desirous of the fruits of actions.
The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. By learning to keep the mind under complete control, one can convert the mind into the best friends. The mind becomes the greatest enemy when the mind is not under control and operates freely driven by lust and greed. When the mind has been conquered the mind, a person is enabled to realize the Self and enjoy the state of tranquility in which happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all worth the same. A person in the steady state of self-realization is called a yogi fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person in transcendence and sees everything from pebbles and stones to gold as well as everyone from the honest well-wishers and friends to enemies, from the envious and sinners to the pious, sand those who are indifferent and impartial, as the same and equal.
A transcendentalist yogi free from desires and feeling of possessiveness, always try to concentrate the mind on God, try to live alone in a secluded place and always carefully control the mind. To practice yoga, one needs to go to a secluded place, sit firmly on the ground in the seat made of kusa-grass and covered with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should be neither too high nor too low. The yogi will then be able to practice yoga with greater concentration, controlling the mind and the senses, purifying the heart and fixing the mind on single thought or no thought at all. In this yogic stance, the body, neck and head are erect in a straight line and the eyes stare steadily at the tip of the nose. With a mind no longer continuously volatile straying here and there, and completely free from fear and sexual / sensual thoughts, the Yogi meditate upon God within the heart seeking union with God. In this way giving up all involvement with material life, the Astanga Yogi practices control of the body, mind and activities with the intense urge to unite with God.
One who eats too much or too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough cannot hope to become a Yogi. A person moderate and balanced in habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can hope to overcome the urge of material existence and practice Astanga yoga. Through the practice of this Yoga one day the Yogi hopes to attain the transcendental state when the mind, devoid of all material desires, remains always steady in meditation on the transcendent Self, just as a lamp in a windless place does not waver. In this stage of perfection, called Samadhi, with one's mind completely restrained from material thoughts, the Yogi acquires the ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, the Yogi develops transcendental capability to enjoy boundless happiness and Truth of Self Knowledge. Stable in such a state, even in the midst of greatest external adversity or temptation, the Yogi enjoys the real and permanent freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.
Verse 6.24 – 6. 32 To practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith, all material desires born out of ego have to be abandoned. As one practices, progressively following step by step, with full conviction in the intellect, Samadhi is reached with mind fixed only and exclusively on the Self and nothing else arises in the mind as the intellect withdraws the mind from whatever and wherever the mind tries to wander due to its flickering and volatile nature. With the mind is fixed on God, the Yogi attains the highest level of permanent happiness. With the Yogi’s identity merging with God, the Yogi gets liberated as God from whatever happens in the World and like God the Yogi remains always at peace, without passions and free from all dualities and dilemmas including the dilemmas of god and evil / virtue and sin. A true self realized yogi observes all beings and each being in God and sees God everywhere. As a result of the Yogi’s observing God everywhere and everything, the Yogi and God never loses each other. Realizing that God is resident as the source within each and all creatures, the Yogi worships and remains always in God under all circumstances. The perfect yogi sees the true equality of all beings, both in their happiness and distress.
Verses 6.33 - 6.47
It is true that the system of yoga may appear impractical and unendurable to many since the mind is so restless, unsteady, turbulent, obstinate and so strong that it is impossible to exercise control and rein in the mind. But it is possible to rein in the mind by constant and determined practice of detachment from worldly external objects and sensual enjoyment. Unbridled mind cannot aid an only obstruct self-realization. With appropriate methods however mind can be controlled.
The Yogi who reaches transcendence does not meet with destruction. The unsuccessful yogi will keep trying at a later time to become a perfect Yogi or may remain a failure. Till the human race exists, generations of persons will be born and die over time. Along with various kinds of unintelligent people, yogis will also be born in different generations. There will be Yogis born again and again with Guna-dictated qualities that will attract them to the spiritual path to divinity and union with God. Some Yogis may fail to reach their goals but their attempts to proceed on the path of Yoga will be remembered. The experience of earlier yogis may impart in certain later generation babies the properties that help progress on the path of Yoga. Thus future generation yogis may follow the path laid down by earlier yogis. The new generation yogis may try and make various degrees of progress depending on the qualities /combination of Gunas with which they are born. Some may start practicing yoga on their own accord and do not have to go through the ritualistic steps mentioned in the scriptures. They are born Yogis.
A Yogi is superior to any ascetic, any knowledge-seeking empiricist and any one in action with attachment to fruits of action. Among the yogis, the one who always worship God in great abiding faith in God and performs service in devotion is the best and most intimately unites with God.
9. Gita: Chapter Seven
In chapter Seven Lord explained the illusory nature of material existence in material world and the intransient nature of sensual pleasure derived from thoughts and actions connected to material objects as distinguished from the permanently peaceful existence of Self Realized state. In such a state, an individual submits all his actions and thoughts to God without reservation and complete faith and devotion.
Verse 7.1- 7.30
By practicing yoga with full awareness of and faith in God and the mind completely and exclusively attached to God, the Yogi acquires full knowledge about God. And, there is nothing further to know once the Yogi has acquired knowledge about God. Of the many thousands of people, only one may endeavor for perfection to know about God, and of those who have achieved perfection in the practice of Yoga to know God, hardly one comes to know the whole truth about God. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and ego are the eight separate components of God’s material manifestation. God’s superior form of manifestation is inside the living beings struggling with their material nature and sustaining the universe. God resides in the origin and dissolution of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world. There is no Truth superior to God as everything and everyone is attached to God just as pearls are strung on a thread. God is the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the beginning word Om (Oum) or Aum) in the Vedic mantras, the sound in ether, the ability in man, the original fragrance of the earth, the heat in fire, the life of all that lives, the penances of all ascetics. the original seed of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, the prowess of all powerful men, the strength of the strong, sex in passion and desires.
All the basic characteristics or Gunas of being like goodness, passion and ignorance are manifested by God’s power. God in essence is everything and yet independent not influenced by these Gunas of material nature. Deluded by the three Gunas of Satva, Rajas and Tamas, the whole world fails to know the inexhaustible God. The three Gunas are also God’s creation and difficult to overcome. Those who completely surrender to God easily transcend the Gunas to acquire knowledge about God and become free and independent like God. The grossly foolish among men do not surrender to God and thus remain under the illusion of the three Gunas that act as a veil to hide the True Knowledge.
Four kinds of pious men render devotional service to God: the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and the seeker of knowledge of the Absolute. Of these, the best is the wise one in full knowledge is in union with God through pure devotional service: God is the dearest to such a wise person as is the person very dear to God. Such persons who know God as the ultimate cause of all causes are very rare and are found once among many generations of humans born in successive generations. The minds distorted by material desires in accordance with the varying composition of the Gunas imparted in various persons by the God may surrender to and worship various demigods. But it is the ultimate God residing in each heart that influences the person’s devotion to particular form of demigod. But all devotions to varying deities and demigods are responded to by the same unique ultimate God who bestows the benefit of any kind of worship to the worshipper. The results of worshipping demigods are limited and when the worshiper understands the knowledge of God and worships Him, the worshipper merges with God, the unlimited and inexhaustible. Inadequate intelligence leads to the belief in limited form and personality of God: persons with such intelligence cannot acquire the knowledge of the complete truth about inexhaustible, changeless God as the supreme. God created illusion of Maya keeps human beings to remain foolish and unintelligent and unable to discover the true nature of God as the unborn and infallible.
God is the complete knowledge of all - everything that happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, all that are yet to happen and all living entities; none has the complete knowledge about God. All living beings are born into delusion, and suffer the bondage of desire and hate. Persons freed from the duality of delusion, engage themselves in God’s service with determination. Intelligent persons seeking liberation from old age and death take refuge in God through devotional service. They come to acquire knowledge about everything transcendental and result-motivated activities. When they know God as the governing principle of the material manifestations, as the one underlying all the demigods and as the one sustaining all sacrifices, they can, with steadfast mind, understand and know God at some point in their lives.
10. Gita: Chapter Eight
In chapter eight Krishna emphasized the science of yoga. Revealing that one attains whatever one remembers at the end of one's life, He stressed the importance of the very last thought at the moment of death. This Chapter also hints on the creation of the material and the distinctly different spiritual world.
Verse 8.1 – 8.28.
The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and its eternal nature is called the Self. Action relating to the development of the material bodies is called karma, or result-yielding activities. Physical nature is endlessly mutable. The universe is the cosmic form of God who is present as the Super soul in the heart of every embodied being.
An individual soul is an integral part of the Super-soul but gets merged in the Super-soul if at the time of quitting the body at death, the Soul remembers the Super-soul alone. Whatever state of being an individual self remembers when quitting the body it remains in that state. He, who meditates on the Supreme Soul with mind constantly engaged in remembering God, therefore merges with the Supreme soul. The ideal is to meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as the oldest, as the controller, as smaller than the smallest, as the maintainer of everything, as the luminous like the sun, as transcendental beyond all material conception, is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun and, being transcendental, is beyond this material nature. If, at the time of death, one fixes his life breath between the eyebrows and in full devotion engages in remembering God, one attains the Personality of God. Persons learned in the Vedas, those uttering Om and great sages in the renounced order enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one practices celibacy.
Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes oneself in yoga. After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable Om, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of God and quits his body, one will certainly reach the spiritual heights. A person remembering God without deviation obtains God easily. After attaining, the great yogis in devotion never return to this temporary world full of miseries. Wherever does one exist, one has to face misery of worldly life, except when one attains the salvation of merging with God.
For a period of thousand ages a host of living entities comes into existence and all these entities get eliminated during the subsequent period of thousand ages. These periods alternate endlessly. But all throughout something eternal and transcendental remain without change, non-manifest and infallible part of God. Depending on at what time one passes away from the World one is destined to merged with this non-manifest part of God. The self of dwelling in the body of the yogi who attains the Supreme Brahman pass away from the world during the fortnights of the moon as the sun moves in the northern direction. The self embodied in the astang yogi who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the moonless fortnight as the Sun moves in the southern direction change abode into anew body again. A person who accepts the path of devotional service is not bereft of the results derived from studying the Vedas, performing austere sacrifices, giving charity or pursuing analytical, philosophical pursuit of the Ultimate Truth and engaged in result yielding scripture directed activities. At the end, the embodied soul merges in the God.
11. Gita: Chapter Nine
In chapter nine Lord Krishna reveals that the sovereign science and the sovereign secret. He explains how the entire material existence is created, pervaded, maintained and annihilated by His external energy and all beings are coming and going under His supervision. The subjects matters covered subsequently are primarily concerned with devotional service and the Lord Himself declares that these subject matters are most confidential. Thus this chapter is entitled: Confidential Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth.
Verse 9.1 – 9.34
The everlasting and ultimate knowledge that relieves a human being from the miseries of material existence is as follows: The self embodied in those not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain God but has to pass on from one body in this material world. In the non-manifest from, God pervades the entire universe: all beings originate and remain in God. God is the maintainer of all living entities and God is everywhere, God is the very source of creation. The mighty wind that blows throughout the World always rests in ethereal space: similarly, all beings rest in God. At the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters into God and at the beginning of another millennium, God creates again through manifestation. The whole cosmic order is a manifestation of God. By God’s will the cycle of manifestation and elimination / annihilation continue? Yet, all these actions of God cannot bind God, as God remains ever detached and neutral to the consequences of His actions. This material nature works under God’s direction, producing all moving and unmoving beings. And, this material World is created and annihilated again and again in cycles.
Fools may deride a human being of transcendental nature and the supreme dominion of God and such a human being of transcendental nature over all in the Creation because of ignorance. They may be attracted by demonic and atheistic views and therefore their hopes for gaining desired material things or knowledge or liberation do not fructify into reality. But the great souls, not under delusion are under the protection of the divine nature: they engage themselves completely in devotional service with the knowledge that God and His manifested personality are the inexhaustible origin of everything. They chant the glories of God in His manifest and non-manifest forms, and with great determination and devotion worship God continuously. Again, those engaged in seeking knowledge worship God as the Unique present in both diverse and universal forms. They know the existence of God in the rituals, in the sacrifice, in the offering to the ancestors, in the healing herb, in the transcendental chant, in the butter, the fire and the offering. The know God as the father of this universe, the mother, the support, and the oldest as also as the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable Om as also as the Rig, the Sama, and the Yajur Vedas. They know me as the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, the most dear friend, the creation and the destruction, the basis, eternal source and resting place of everything, They know God as the controller of heat, rains and drought, as both immortality and death, as the source of all being and nonbeing.
Those who study the Vedas and seek heavenly lives worship God indirectly and their desires are fulfilled accordingly only for a while before becoming subject to worldly miseries again. Thus, following the Vedic principles and rituals, they achieve only flickering happiness. But God ensures that those who worship God with devotion, meditating on God’s transcendental form, get all that need and preserve what they need to have.
Whatever sacrifices are offered to various forms of gods is really offered to the Unique God alone but without this knowledge. God is the only and sole enjoyer and the only object of sacrifice. Those who do not recognize God’s true transcendental nature, fail to reach God. Among them, those who worship the demigods realize only the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits realize such beings; those who worship ancestors realize ancestors’ characteristics; and those who worship God live and realize God. God accepts whatever is offered to God with love and devotion, whether the offering is a leaf, a flower, fruit, water or all that one eats, offers and gives away, as well as all austerities that one may perform. Worshiping God by offering everything one thinks of and deals with frees a person from all responses and experiences resulting from all deeds, good or evil. This is the fundamental principle of renunciation that if followed with perfection liberates one from all bondages and help.
God envies no one, not partial to anyone. equal to all. But whoever renders service unto God in devotion is a friend of God who lives in God. Even if one has committed the most abominable actions, one can become saint through constant devotional service and can soon attains lasting peace. A person in devotional service to God does not perish. Any one, irrespective of caste, creed or sex, who takes shelter in God with devotion, can reach the ultimate goal of salvation. Engaging the mind always in thinking about God, offering obeisance and worship to God and being completely absorbed in God, one does reach God.
12. Gita: Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten described the feelings that a divine vision of God’s Infinite Universe –engulfing Image and as the Cause of all causes. It also specified His special manifestations and opulence. Arjuna prays to the Lord to describe more of the opulence and the Lord describes those which are most prominent.
Verses 10.1 – 10.12
Neither the demigods nor the great sages know God, the origin of both these. Those who know God as the unborn, as the beginning-less and as the Supreme of all the worlds are freed from all bonds. God is the creator of intellect, knowledge, freedom (from doubt and delusion), forgiveness, truthfulness, self-control and calmness, pleasure and pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness, nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame and infamy. All creatures including all great sages and progenitors of mankind are born out of God’s Consciousness’ or mind. The person in the know of this truth of God’s power offers unalloyed devotional service through desire-detached ego-free activities.
Knowing the truth that God is the source of all spiritual and material worlds and everything emanates from God, the wise engage in devotional service and worship of God with all their hearts. The thoughts of pure devotees dwell in God, their lives are surrendered to God, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss enlightening one another and conversing about God. God imparts the knowledge required to merge with God to those who are constantly devoted and worship God with love. God helps them destroy the darkness of ignorance by constantly dwell in their hearts.
Verses 10.12 – 10.18
God is the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine, the transcendental and original, the unborn and all-pervading beauty. Neither the demigods nor demons comprehend the personality of God. God alone can comprehend Himself. Saying all this Arjuna seeks to know details of God’s divine powers and glories. Your divine powers by which You pervade all these worlds and abide in them.
Verses 10.19 - 10.42
God’s opulence is limitless. As the Self, God is seated in the hearts of all creatures. God is the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. God is the sun, the moon, the Sama-veda, the demi-god Indra, the mind, the knowledge of living force in living beings, the Lord Siva; the fire, the mountain Meru, the chief priest, Brhaspati, the lord of devotion, Skanda, the lord of war, the ocean of water, the greatest sage Bhrgu, the transcendental vibration om, the chanting of the holy names the immovable Himalayas, the holy fig tree, the sage Narrada, the singer Chitraratha, the perfected being sage Kapila, the horse Uccaihsrava born of the elixir of immortality; the lordly elephants Airavata, the monarch among men, the thunderbolt, the cow Surabhi giving abundant milk, Kandarpa, the god of love, the serpent chief Vasuki, the chief, the celestial Naga snake Ananta, the aquatic Varu the departed ancestor Aryama, and Yama the dispensers of justice, Yama, lord of death, the great devotee Prahlada of demon dynasty, the time, the lion, the bird Garuda, the feathered carrier of Visnu. the wind; Rama the great user of weapons, the shark fish, the Ganges river, the beginning and the end and also the middle, the spiritual science of the self, the conclusive truth, the letter A, the inexhaustible time, the Brahma, whose manifold faces turn everywhere, the all-devouring death, the generator of all things yet to be, the fame, the fortune, the speech, the memory, the intellect and intelligence, the faithfulness and patience, the hymn Brhat-sama sung to the Lord Indra, the Gayatri verse, sung daily by Brahmanas, the winter months, the flower-bearing spring, the gambling of cheats, the splendor, the victory, the adventure, the strength of the powerful, Vasudeva, Arjuna, sage Vyasa, the thinker Usana, the rod of chastisement, the morality, the silence, the wisdom and the generating seed of all existences. No moving or unmoving being can exist without God. All these are just indicative glories and powers of God’s limitless divine manifestations. All beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of God’s splendor. But these details are of no consequence because only a single fragment of God pervade and support the entire universe.
13. Gita: Chapter Eleven
In Chapter Eleven, one could get the thrill of visualizing through divine sensors God’s Infinite Universe –engulfing Form enveloping all of existence.
Verses 11.1 – 11.34
Arjuna expressed his satisfaction over the details of spiritual knowledge imparted by Krishna to behold the cosmic form of God or the Universal Self. Then Krishna let Arjuna visualize the opulence of God that contained hundreds of thousands of varied divine multicolored forms and manifestations including the Adityas, Rudras, and all the demigods as also many things many things which no one has ever seen or heard before. He pointed out that Arjuna is able to see these in the same body form not through his worldly eye sensors but through the divine sensors imparted temporarily to Arjuna for the purpose of viewing God’s opulence. Arjuna could see in the universal form, unlimited and wonderful faces, mouths and unlimited eyes, dazzling ornaments arrayed in many garbs and with garlands spreading fragrances all over. All was magnificent, continuously expanding, unlimited and magnificent as if illuminated by hundreds of thousands of suns at the same time. Seeing this Universal form of the God Self, Arjuna’s hairs stood up in astonishment and with folding hands he began to pray with folded hands, offering obeisance to God. He said he could see simultaneously in God’s Self all the demigods, living beings, the Brahma sitting on the lotus flower, Lord Siva many sages, divine serpents, many bellies, mouths, eyes expanded without limit with no beginning, no middle or end, form adorned with various crowns, clubs and discs, is difficult to see because of its glaring effulgence, which is fiery and immeasurable like the sun. He then started saying that God Self is the supreme primal object, the inexhaustible, the oldest, the maintainer of principles that govern the Creation, the origin without beginning, middle or end, with uncountable, infinite number of arms, eyes radiating lights as powerful as suns and moons and heating the entire universe and spread throughout the skies and the planets and all space between. Arjuna could see that all the planetary systems, all demigods surrendering and flowing into the God in fear with folded hands singing the Vedic hymns. All Adityas, the Vasus, the Sadhyas, the Visvedevas, the two Asvis, the Maruts, the forefathers and the Gandharvas, the Yaksas, Asuras, and all demigods were beholding God in wonder. Unable to tolerate seeing the unimaginable, amazing vast and all pervasive form of the God Self, Arjuna felt bewildered and exhausted. He could see the sons of Dhrtarastra along with their allied kings, and Bhisma, Drona and Karna, and all Pandava soldiers rushing into God’s blazing, fiery mouth with their heads smashed and crushed by God’s terrible teeth as if God is devouring all people while covering the universe with His immeasurable rays. Then Arjuna asked Krishna what was all these he was seeing. Krishna replied that God as Time also destroys His own manifestations. What Arjuna had seen as God devouring people is nothing but the future of the battling armies who would be slain in the War and Arjuna has only to fight as the instrument of God to slay them. All the great warriors like Drona, Bhisma, Jayadratha and Karna are already destroyed. Arjuna has to simply play the role cast for him by God: fight to vanquish his enemies.
Verses 11.35 -
After hearing these words of Krishna, Arjuna trembled, fearfully offered obeisance with folded hands and said that the world became joyful upon hearing God’s name. He said God stood above even Brahma as the original master, the limitless, the refuge of the universe, the invincible source and the cause of all causes, transcendental to all material manifestation. He understood that God is the only knowable pervading the entire cosmic manifestations including air, fire, water, the moon, the supreme controller and the grandfather and every thing at the same time. God is the father of the whole cosmic manifestation, the ultimate to worship, the spiritual master. No one is equal to the immeasurable God. Arjuna begged for mercy for God for his ignorance and follies in the past. He prayed God to assume his more traditional deity form for worship. Krishna replied that no one before Arjuna had ever seen the unlimited and effulgent, universal form. And, this form cannot be viewed by studying the Vedas, or by performing sacrifices, or by charities, or by mere worship. Thus for the benefit of devotee Arjuna, Krishna assumed His four-armed deity form and thereafter the normal human form and restoring Arjuna to calmness. Then Krishna said that God’s original and divine form can only be seen by the real devotees of God. The devotee engaged in pure devotional service to God, free from the contaminations of previous activities and from mental speculation, and who is friendly to every living entity, can only visualize and merge with God.
[ Note: This Viswaroop Darshan of God by Arjun may appear to be something, unnatural, mystical or magical. This is not really so. This episode is completely natural as has been explained at " Viswaroop Darshan - Beyond Eye Vision: God & Gita 39" at http://senland.blogspot.com/]
14. Gita: Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve pointed to the super glory of devotion to God and also explained the different forms of spiritual disciplines and the qualities of the devotees. chapter is entitled: The Path of Devotion.
Verses 12. 1 – 12.20
Arjuna inquired about the relative perfection of the two types of Yogis: those engaged in devotional service and those in worship of the impersonal Brahman, the non-manifest. Krishna replied the person whose mind is fixed on God’s human form and always engaged in worshiping God with great and transcendental faith, was the most perfect. But the one who finally achieve me is the person worshiping the all-pervading, inconceivable, fixed, immovable and impersonal concept of the Absolute Truth of God in the non-manifest form that lies beyond sense perception of the senses, by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone and engaged in the welfare of all. Those with minds attached to the non-manifest form, progress is very difficult to achieve. God delivers liberation more quickly to the unfailing devotee who worships, submits all activities to God and engages in devotional service, always meditating on God. One just needs to fix the mind on God and engage the intellect in God to live in God.
If one is unable to fix the mind on God without deviation, then one can practice the regulated principles of bhakti-yoga and develop a desire to attain to God. If one cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then one can just try to work for God to start with.
If one is unable to work for me, then one can try to perform activities giving up all results of work and remain focused on the self. If one cannot even practice giving up the results of actions to God, then one can engage in the cultivation of knowledge.
Better than the pursuit of knowledge is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action as renunciation brings peace of mind.
Persons very dear to God have the following characteristics’ (a) the person who is not envious but kind to all living beings, who does not think himself a proprietor of his actions, who is free from ego and equally unperturbed by both happiness and distress, who is always satisfied and engaged in devotional service with determination and whose mind and intellect are aligned in attachment to God, (b) the person for whom no one is put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anxiety, who is steady in happiness and distress, (c) A devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, free from all pains, and who does not strive for some result, (d) the one who neither grasps pleasure or grief, who neither laments nor desires, and who renounces both auspicious and inauspicious things, (e) the one who is equal to friends and enemies, who accepts honor and dishonor equally, remains indifferent to heat and cold, and find no difference between happiness and distress or fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who does not care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, and (f) the person who follows the path of devotional service and who completely engages with full faith to strive to reach God.
15. Gita: Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen explained the distinction between the transitory, perishable physical body and the immortal, eternal and immutable soul. It also deals with the relationship between the individual soul and the ultimate soul.
Verses 13.1 - 13.19 Arjuna wanted to know from Krishna the meanings of prakriti (nature), purusha (the enjoyer]), the field and the knower of the field and of knowledge and the end of knowledge. Krishna explained that the body is the field, One who knows this body is called the knower of the field. God is the knower of all bodies. Knowledge is the understanding of the body and its owner. Krishna then gave the description of this field of activity, how it is constituted changed and produced, who is knower of the field and the influences of the knower.
Knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in the Vedas, particularly in the Vedanta-sutra’. In brief the field of activities includes the five great elements of air, water, earth, space and sky, false ego, intellect / intelligence, the non-manifest, the senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions. Knowledge consists of humility, modesty, non-violence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; non-attachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to God, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth. Anything contrary to knowledge is ignorance.
Brahman, the spirit, is the knowable, knowing which one tastes the eternal. Brahman is the creation of God, is beginning less, and lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world.
The Supersoul exists everywhere. It is the original sense-free source of all senses. It is unattached maintainer of all living beings and beyond the influence of but the master of the three Gunas of material nature. The Supreme Truth is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. The Supersoul appears to be divided, but actually not divisible. He is situated as one. The Super-soul creates, develops, maintains and destroys the created manifestations and the creation. He is the source of light in all luminous objects, beyond the darkness of matter, beyond all that is manifest, both knowledge and the object of knowledge as also the goal of knowledge, seated in the heart of everyone.
Verses 13.20 – 35 Material nature and the living entities are beginning less. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature. Nature is the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living being is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. The living being in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three Gunas/ properties/ modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.
In the human body, Self is the transcendental enjoyer, God as the supreme proprietor, the overseer and the approving authority, exists as the Super-soul. The person who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living being and the interaction of the modes of nature is certain to attain liberation. Super-soul is perceived by some through meditation perceives, some others through the cultivation of knowledge, and still others through practicing desire-free actions. Again, those not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship God upon hearing about God from others. Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.
Whatever one finds in existence, both moving and unmoving, is only the combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field. One who sees the Super-soul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, and who understands that neither the soul nor the Super-soul is ever destroyed, actually sees. One who sees the Super-soul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination. When a person observes that it is the material natured body that performs all activities and that the self does nothing, he / she perceive the Truth. When a person ceases to see different material bodies as having different identities, understands the concept of Brahman. Thus he sees that beings are expanded everywhere. The vision of eternity find enables one to see the soul is transcendental, eternal, and beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, the soul does nothing and gets entangled with nothing. Just as the all pervading sky does not get tied to anything that we see in the sky due to its subtle nature, the soul, situated in Brahman vision, does not mix with the body in which it dwells. Just as the sun illuminates the universe, so does soul dwelling in the body illuminate the entire body with consciousness? The person, whose knowledge recognizes the difference between the body and the owner of the body and can understand the process of liberation from this bondage, also attains to the supreme goal.
16. Gita: Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen deal with the basic properties of humans, namely the three Gunas reflected by goodness, passion and nescience or ignorance. These influence the behavior of everything in the material existence. The Chapter illustrates the characteristics of the operation of the Gunas, their cause, the level of their potency, how they influence a living entity affected by them as well as the signs of one who has risen above them. The advice is to relinquish oneself from ignorance and passion and adopt the path of pure goodness until acquiring the ability to transcend all the Gunas.
Verses 14.1 - 14.20 This supreme wisdom outlined earlier, the best of all knowledge, is what enables the sages to attain perfection. Fixed in this knowledge, one is able to understand the transcendental nature of God and become unaffected by the appearance and disappearance of the body. Brahman the spirit that is beyond the material world however is the source of material substance that is impregnated by God to usher in the birth of all living beings. God provides the seed to father all species of life. The material nature of the three Gunas of goodness, passion and ignorance condition each living entity. The Guna of goodness being purer than the others is illuminating, and it frees one from all adverse reactions and helps develop knowledge conditioned by the concept of happiness. The Guna of passion is characterized by unlimited desires and longings and hence conditions one to activities in search of material benefits. The Guna of ignorance causes delusion in all living entities and conditions them to madness, indolence and sleep. The Guna of goodness conditions one to happiness, passion conditions one to the fruits of action, and ignorance to madness. Sometimes passion becomes prominent, overcoming the goodness, while sometimes goodness dominates passion, and at other times ignorance dominates goodness and passion. There is always competition for supremacy among the Gunas.
The manifestations of the Guna of goodness can be experienced when the body is illuminated by knowledge. An increase in the intensity of Guna of passion is reflected in greater attachment, uncontrollable desire, and intense endeavor to satisfy desire and lust. Higher impulse of the Guna of ignorance is identified with manifestation of laziness, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness. A person who dies in the mode of pure goodness Guna, the dweller leaves the body with an environment congenial to knowledge. Death in the state of the dominance of passion Guna, the self leaves the body in an environment congenial to strong desire to enjoy happiness, while death in the period of the dominance of ignorance Guna provides an environment of illusion faced by animals. Activities done under the influence of goodness Guna helps purification of mind and intellect. Activity under in the influence of passion Guna leads to disappointment and distress, while actions performed under the influence of the ignorance Guna shows up in foolishness and inefficiency. Goodness help develop real knowledge develops, passion leads to greed develops while ignorance fosters foolishness, madness and illusion.
When a person is able to understand that all activities are shaped only by one or more of influence of the three gunas imparted by nature, and God is independent and beyond the reach of these Gunas, the person acquires the knowledge of the spiritual nature of God. When the embodied being is able to transcend these three Gunas, it approaches the Godly state.
Verses 14.21- 14.28
Arjuna desired to know the symptoms and behavior of a person who has transcended beyond the three Gunas to those modes and how the person achieves this transcendence? Krishna replied that the transcendental person (a) does not hate or love illumination of knowledge or attachment to desire or delusion, (b) is indifferent to the existence or disappearance of these Gunas, (c) remains firmly unconcerned with and independent of the operation of the Gunas of nature, (d) perceives with equanimity and remains indifferent to different situations/ phenomenon or entities, whether pleasure or pain, a stone or a piece of gold, praise and criticism, honor or dishonor, friend or foe, (e) does not undertake any activity in search of the fruits of action, (f) engages in full devotional service, and (g) does not deviate from all the above under any circumstance. This is the exact state of the impersonal, immortal, imperishable and eternal Brahman.
17. Gita: Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen
Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen describe the virtues, the glories and transcendental characteristics of God as the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. They highlight the purpose and value of knowing about God and the method to realize God by overcoming the overwhelming influence of the Gunas.
Verses 15.1 – 15.15
The person with the knowledge of the banyan tree with its roots upward and its branches down and leave as the Vedic hymns, are the knower of the Vedas. The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three Gunas/ properties of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down bound to the actions of human society undertaken to achieve some fruits or results. The real form of this tree cannot be comprehended as none can identify its ends, its beginning or its foundation is. With determination one could cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment and never seek to restore the already cut parts of the tree, and then surrender to God from whom everything has been sourced and in whom everything is contained since time immemorial. When the person free from illusion, prestige, and association, in full knowledge of the eternal, free of material lust and duality of happiness and distress, surrenders to God reaches and remains in God abode that does not require sun and moon to provide illumination. The living entities in this conditioned material world are God’s eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the senses and the mind. A living entity carries its own conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Each living entity obtains a specific set of senses aligned to its specific nature of mind. The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit one body and the particular combination of the Gunas of material nature inherent in a particular body. He enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But the endeavoring transcendentalist established in self-realization, can understand all this clearly. The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire, the energy of the planets in orbit, the juice in vegetables, the fire of digestion in every living body, the air of life, memory, memory recall, knowledge and forgetfulness – all are sourced in God. God is seated in everyone's heart. God is to be known and the methods to know God described in the Vedas and Vedanta are sourced from God.
Verses 15. 16 – 15.20
There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is infallible. Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, God Himself, who has created, entered into these worlds and is maintaining them... But God is transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible. Whoever knows God as the Supreme Personality without doubt, is the knower of everything, and therefore is engaged in full devotional service. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection.
Verses 16.1 –16. 16
The transcendent characteristics of godly persons are absence of fear, purification of existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity, simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion, freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty, steady determination, vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and freedom from the ego of honor. In contrast, arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance are the characteristics of qualities of demoniac natured persons. The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities result in bondage. The demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done: there is little or no cleanliness, improper behavior and absence of truth is in them. According to them, this world is unreal; there is no foundation and no God in control: the world is for satisfying sex desire and lust. The demoniac are lost to their dominant Guna and have no intelligence: they engage in unbeneficial, horrible activities that are essentially destructive. The demoniac shows insatiable lust, pride and false prestige. They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. The demoniac person is continuously pursue wealth accumulation and engages in destruction of enemies to lord over as many things, places ad people as possible. Demonic person is focused on a self -image of the sole enjoyer, the perfect, powerful and happy as also the richest, surrounded by aristocratic relatives and with great pride in making sacrifices and giving away in charity. Perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, the demonic suffers strong attachment to sensual enjoyment and activities aimed at fulfilling desires and wishes. A demonic person is self-complacent and impudent, deluded by wealth and strong sense of prestige. Afflicted by ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demonic person may even become envious of God. The demonic characteristics snowball and force a person to get more deeply bonded to such materialistic existence further and further away from ultimate peace and happiness. Lust, anger and greed freely operate to progressively degrade the living entity from the peace of the eternal soul. The person free of lust, greed and anger is capable of performing actions conducive to self-realization and make progress to reach the supreme destination of God.
The person unable to follow the codes of behavior and conduct prescribed in the scriptures and unhesitatingly fall prey to temptations arising from the strong force of Gunas of material nature is also unable to acquire knowledge of the transcendental Self or permanent happiness as contrasted to transient sensual enjoyment and disappointment, or the eternal peace of being in God. The task is to understand the activities that are recommended as duty and not recommended as duties duty by the scriptures and practice them to achieve progress on the path of real freedom and Truth.
18: Gita Chapter Seventeen
In chapter seventeen Lord Krishna classifies the three divisions of faith, revealing that it is these different qualities of faith in the Supreme that determine that character of living entities. These three types of faith determine one's consciousness in this world. Thus this chapter is entitled: The Three Divisions of Material Existence.
Verses 17.1 – 17.28
Each person develops a particular kind of faith depending on the combination of Gunas of material nature inherited and their blossoming as the person responds to the stimuli of surrounding environment. A person who is dominated by the Guna of passion tends to worship imaginary powers in the form of demons. A person who is dominated by ignorance tends to worship imaginary powers in the form of ghosts and spirits. Performing severe austerities or sacrifices, torturing their bodies, out of pride, ego, lust and attachment are driven by strong demonic passion.
The Gunas inherited influences food habits and vice a versa. Foods that seem attractive under the influence of the Guna of Goodness are generally those that are sweet, juicy, palatable and nourishing to help increase longevity purify existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Persons dominated by the Guna of passion like foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, pungent, dry and hot to cause pain, distress, and disease. Persons who are dominated by the passion of ignorance does not have problem in relishing stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean food, maybe cooked long before being eaten.
Persons under the influence of Guna goodness perform sacrifices as a matter of duty and devotional service without any expectation of reward, while the force of the Guna of passion forces people to sacrifice out of pride or for some beneficial material reward / fruit in return. Persons under the influence of the Guna of ignorance make sacrifices in brutal ways not recommended by any scripture.
The austerity of the body consists of worship of the God, the brahmanas, the spiritual master and superiors like the parents, practice of cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy, serenity, self-control, purity of thought and nonviolence in life, and in speaking truthfully without offending. This threefold austerity is practiced by persons under the influence of Goodness Guna not for any material benefit but as offering in devotional service to God. Persons under the dominance of the passion Guna perform ostentatious penances and austerities only with the objective of gaining respect, honor and reverence. Under the influence of the Guna of ignorance, people perform penances, self-torture and austerities to destroy or injure others.
The Guna of goodness prompts people to gift to worthy persons in need as a matter of duty and without expectation of return, while charity influenced by the Guna of passion is motivated by expectation of some return or with a desire for results from actions, or as a matter of imposed duty most reluctantly performed. Charity given to unworthy people without consideration of appropriateness of time and place and with disrespect or contempt for the beneficiary of the receiver is the result of the Guna of ignorance.
The three syllables Om, Tat and Sat that for respectively the Supreme, the Absolute and the Truth (Brahman) are uttered recited while chanting Vedic hymns and during sacrifices, for the satisfaction of the Supreme. The transcendentalists perform sacrifices, charities, and penances always in the spirit of Om tat sat, to attain the Supreme. But sacrifices, austerities and charities performed without faith in the Supreme are nonpermanent and useless regardless of whatever rites/ rituals are performed.
19. Gita: Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen draws on the conclusions of previous Chapters and points to the attainment of salvation by the paths of karma yoga and Gyana yoga, both of which require one to offer, without any reservation, everything to God.
Verses 18.1 – 18.16
Giving up or tyaga the results of all activities from consideration in the mind is renunciation and the wise in the state of renunciation is in the renounced order of life or sanyass. Some learned persons prescribe giving up of all kinds of activities associated with fruits of action in the state of sanyassa, other sages maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance should never be abandoned. The three kinds of renunciation declared in the scriptures: acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are never to be given up but should be performed as they purify even the great souls. Renunciation actions are to be performed without any expectation of results and as a matter of duty. Illusion generated by the Guna of ignorance leads one to give up prescribed duties, while the influence of the Guna of passion causes one to give up prescribed duties as being troublesome, or give up out of fear. One need to perform prescribed duty only because it is ought to be done and renunciations of all attachment to the fruits of activities including duties are caused by the Guna of goodness. Those under the complete influence of the Guna of goodness does neither hate inauspicious work nor get attached to auspicious work, and always perform work.
It is impossible for an embodied being to give up all activities and renunciation means renouncing the sense of being the doer of actions and of the attachment to the results of actions performed. The persons in the renounced order of life have no result of action to suffer or enjoy.
The five factors that bring about the accomplishment of all action, according to Sankhya philosophy, are the place of action, the performer, the senses, the endeavor, and ultimately the Super-soul. All action, right or wrong action performed by body, mind or speech is caused by these five factors. No one factor can, therefore, claim to be the sole cause or doer of any action. One who is not motivated by ego and whose intellect is not entangled knows that he can kill no body even if someone is killed by his action and he is not to be affected by such action.
Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors that motivate an action; the senses, the work effort to act and the doer are the mere instruments of action.
Verses18.17 - 18.40
The knowledge of the existence of one undivided spiritual nature in all divided existences, is the knowledge acquired under the influence of the Goodness Guna. The Guna of passion influences a person to remain in the knowledge that different type of living entities dwell in different bodies. The Guna of ignorance keeps the person ignorant of all the factors that determine action, their inter-relationships and the Self.
Action in pursuance of duty performed without attachment, without love or hate, by one who has renounced fruits of all actions is connected to the Guna of goodness. Action performed with great effort by one seeking to gratify desires and with a sense of ownership as the doer is connected to the Guna of passion. And, the action performed in ignorance and delusion without consideration of future bondage or consequences, is connected to the Guna of ignorance.
The performer of action who is free from all material attachments and the ego of the doer, who is enthusiastic and resolute but indifferent to success or failure, is a performer under the influence of the Guna of goodness. An action by a greedy, envious and impure performer who is attached to the fruits of action effort and desirous of enjoying the fruits of actions and who is anxious to succeed rather than fail, is linked to the influence of the Guna of passion. And that action-performer who is materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating, is a person under the influence of the Guna of ignorance.
Understanding and determination also vary according to the three Gunas of nature. The understanding of the knowledge about what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, what is binding and what is liberating, is established under the conducive nature of the Goodness Guna. Understanding that does not enable one to distinguish between proper and improper ways of life and between action that should be done and action that should not be done, is imperfect understanding promoted by the Guna of passion. And, understanding that lacks perspective and direction and without any basis or principles or framework is the result of the dominating influence of the Guna of ignorance.
The determination that is unbreakable, sustained, as steadfast as of a yogi, and thus controls the mind, life, and the acts of the senses, is connected to a strong bearing of the Guna of Goodness while determination to hold fast on to the desired result of actions and ensure sensual pleasure is developed under the impact of the Guna of passion.
The impact of the Guna of Ignorance is reflected in the determination based on impractical dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion.
The nature of happiness enjoyed by different persons is also influenced by the relative composition of the three Gunas inherited by each person’s nature. The happiness from self-realization can be enjoyed only under the influence of the Guna of Goodness. Happiness from contact of the senses with the sensual objects can be enjoyed really by persons with nature under the dominance of the Guna of passion. Persons whose nature is strongly cast in the Guna of Ignorance enjoy happiness from sleep, dream, laziness, envy and illusion.
Verses 18.41 – 18.78 No being and nothing in the Creation except God is free from the impact of the operation of the respective combination of Gunas of material nature each being or thing is imparted with. Brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are distinguished by their qualities of work in accordance with their respective natural broad grouping of Gunas. Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness are the qualities that influence the work of the brahmanas. Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the quality marks of ksatriya’s work. Farming, cow protection and business are work that naturally comes to Vaisya’s competencies, and while the sudras excel in manual effort, craftsmanship and service to others.
Every person can attain perfection using the qualities naturally imbibed. It is better to engage in one's own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another's occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties that suit one's nature have no adverse reactions on the performer. Every endeavor has its own disadvantages and demerits along with merits and advantages.
One can obtain the results of renunciation simply by self-control and by becoming unattached to material things and disregarding material enjoyments. Purified by intelligence and control over mind, body and tongue, giving up the objects of sense gratification, becoming free from attachment, hatred, ego, pride, lust and anger, one who lives in a secluded place, eating little, always in trance and not accept material things, a person is certain to advance to the state of self-realization. In such a transcendental state, one no longer laments, no longer desires, treats every living entity equally and automatically remains absorbed in pure devotional service to God, the only way to understand God and reach the eternal and imperishable abode of God.
The ideal method is to engage in activities all the while remaining dependent on God and His protection with full consciousness in God, getting rid of all ego: all the obstacles imposed by the conditioning of life by the Gunas of material nature are overcome only by the Grace of God.
Part TWO
My Essence of Gita
1. Concept of God
God is defined and interpreted variously. All may be acceptable as there is no scientific criterion available to test which concept of God is correct or incorrect. It is meaningless to debate over the various concepts of God. Each concept of God is relevant only to the application of the concept to various uses. Here we first try to find out the definition of God from select verses contained in Shrimad Baghwat Gita and then explore its applications and uses.
Gita does not define God as one would find any definition given in a standard textbook. The concept is to be extracted from a few relevant verses dispersed in various chapters of Gita. The simplest way to pick up the concept of God in Gita is to read the verses (slokas) where God is described in some way or the other. Let us select the following (translated in to English by me from translations into Bengali from Sanskrit by others: take care my translations are word for word and are influence by my own understanding):
1. God (Atman) “ encompasses the entire universe (creation), pervades all phenomena, matter and elements – everything in the universe: God is all pervasive, indestructible and ceaseless.” (II.17)
2. God is “ ever present, ceaseless and unlimited infinite: God never destroys anything or gets destroyed.” (II.18 -19)
3. God “was never born and never ceased to exist: God is ever present, permanent, agelessly old and never disappears even if the forms in which God is manifested may be transient and transform continuously.” (II.20)
4. God “cannot be cut into pieces by any weapon, cannot be burnt by fire or become wet by pouring water on it, nor can God become dry because of air or breeze. God is not exhaustible, not inflammable, not penetrable, not containable, God is static, is everywhere, in everything, incomprehensible, unexplainable, inexpressible, unimaginable, unalterable and original. (II.21-24)
5. God also “exits in all forms, independent of the form, shape and body.” (II.30)
6. God has “never been born, is inexhaustible and is ever present in every being, every thing. God appears in varying forms as a result of God’s own nature. At one level, God takes form as land, water, fire, wind, air, sky mind, intellect and ego. At another level, God is not apparent and formless and yet holds and sustains the entire universe or the entire creation.” (IV. 6)
7. “God’s illusive power is reflected in all things: Land, Water, wind, fire, Sky, mind, intellect and ego. But all these and all life forms and materials arise from God as the source. God is the cause of all creation, destruction and transformation. There is no other ultimate source than God: everywhere everything is ultimately related to me as the source. God is the essence of everything, of water, of light provided by the Sun and the moon, all words and sounds and of all the power of human beings. God is the fragrance in everything, the heat produced by fire, life of all living beings and the power of sacrifice, meditation and renunciation. God is the seed of everything, the wisdom of the wise and the strength of the strong; God is the source of power gained from renunciation as well as the strength of all desires of human beings. God is the desire, attachment, and anger in all beings. All different kinds of characteristics, tendencies and properties of different beings and things arise from God: God does not depend on these properties or characteristics but completely controls these instincts and natural tendencies and properties exhibited by living beings and all other things.” (VII. 4-12)
8. “ God is formless but is in all forms. Formless God is not discernible to the human faculties and senses. God fills the entire universe/ creation. That senses do not perceive or discern my presence is also the result of God’s power to keep them in illusion. God in everything All life and matter exists in God, yet God’s existence in not limited to all forms of life and matter nor limited to the known and the knowable.” (IX. 4-7)
It is clear from the above that the concept of God in Gita is very simple, even if abstract. God is not conceived as a known, identifiable physical or extra-physical form nor is God perceived as a known or unknown power or force. God is conceived as something enveloping, encompassing, all pervasive, incomprehensible, and unimaginable and the ultimate source of the entire creation – known or unknown, and perceived as always there even when time might not have existed. Yet God’s presence is perceived in all elements of matter and life everywhere, every moment of time and beyond time and space. God seems to be the creator and the creation as well.
It is a clear admission that God is indescribable, if not unknowable, source of all that we know or do not know and is defined as such. Why has God been conceived and defined in this way some 2,500 or 5,000 years ago? Why is this God not named? How is such an abstract concept or definition useful and applied in human life?
2. Logic of God: Identifying the Creator
Friday, January 30, 2009
Gita’s simple and abstract concept of God did not reveal itself suddenly one day during 2500-5000BC. It quite probably evolved through centuries of quest by the thinking men and women. They were awed by the great diversity of inanimate objects and living beings in the environment around in the land, water, fire breeze, storm, sky, day and night, hunger and pleasure, peace, conflict and rivalry, sun, moon and the stars, the mountains, the trees and woods, the rivers and the seas as also the continuous change in the environment including the climate and the temperature. They wanted to know who would have created all this. Their quest for knowledge about the Creator through observations and application of logic led them to the conclusion of
Unique Creator: multiple Creators would have led them to search for the Ultimate Single Creator of all Creators and the question of who created the Ultimate Creator was illogical therefore by definition (the word ultimate stops one from going beyond).
3. Once the concept of Ultimate Single Creator is accepted, the Creator (He/She) becomes ageless or limitlessly old, never born, never dead (never ceases to exist), inexhaustible, indestructible and always present.
4. Since observations showed that all new things that emerge owe their origins to some one or more source/s (seeds grow into plants), the properties of any part of the creation must have been imparted by the source/ origin (fish cannot start swimming, birds cannot start flying, drops of rain cannot stop falling mid-way in the sky, the Sun cannot stop emanating light unless these properties were inherent in the source from which they came into being). If everything did not come out of nothing but emerged out of something through transformation from one or more sources that existed before, the transformation process would have passed on the properties of old source/s to the new one that they gave rise to. Thus the ultimate Creator being the Ultimate Source, the Creator must have contained all the properties of all that is in the Creation (including all transformation/ creative/ destructive processes) that we come to know or yet to know.
5. If the Creator as the Ultimate Source contains all the properties of all that is and will be in the Creation, the Creator is present in all parts of the creation and hence everything contains Him in this sense, though we cannot identify Him separately in each of his creation. Each part of the creation therefore contains Him: even if each part is further decomposed in to smaller parts, He still exists in each of the smaller parts. So, the Creator is in this sense indivisible even if the Creation has so many parts, elements and processes.
6. If the Creator is present in each of the infinitesimal parts of the Creation, this amounts to accepting that the entire Creation is contained in the Creator.
7. Apparently, 5 and 6 seem contradictory. But given the assumptions of (a) the Ultimate-ness of the Creator and (b) transformation of properties from source/ origin to the transformed new creation (new parts at any point of time – like a human at birth or the clouds and rain or a new species or a new thought, a new weapon, an invention), both 5 and 6 are mutually consistent. God as the Creator is contained in us and all of us are contained in the Creator. So, God is all-pervasive.
8. Given the instruments of scientific testing of Truth that the thinkers had during 2500BC to 10,000 BC (and probably even now), there was no way to test the Truth contained in 5,6 and 7 empirically. If the assumptions held good, the theory contained in 5,6 and 7 held good as well by logical deduction and induction.
9. The parts in the Creation are numerous, uncountable. This was easily testable empirically. If the Creative and Destructive processes were part of the overall Transformation process that relates all origins/ sources to their transformed output and the transformation process did not seem to end, the Creator is Infinite to the human senses.
10. Since the Creator is infinite, so is the Creation as the entire Creation is contained in the Creator and the Creator is present in each part/ component/ process/ element/idea of the Creation and as of the time when Gita had been uttered by Lord Krishna (who is Krishna is a separate issue) there was absolutely very little knowledge of the diversity and dimensions of, and the processes that goes on in the Universe, the Creator was incomprehensible and unexplainable (Science has progressed much since the days of Lord Krishna and yet the Universe is far from being comprehensible and explainable in the entirety: there are more questions to which answers are being sought by scientists today to explain the Universe than the number of questions that occurred to human being at any point of time in the past).
We have got some idea as to how the abstract concept of Unique, all-pervasive, omni-present, infinite, ceaseless, inexhaustible, indestructible, everlasting, incomprehensible, unexplainable, unalterable God evolved through scientific pursuit of the knowledge about the Creator and the Creation through observations and logical reasoning.
The Question that arises now is to what use did the Gita put this simple, abstract concept of God, especially when competing theories of God already existed in that ancient ages ? That is what we may try to explore next.
3. Karma Yoga: An Application of the Concept of God
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The simple, abstract concept of God of the Gita evolved over time to as the other concepts of God were found wanting in two ways: Other concepts of God were either (a) not internally consistent, and/ or, (b) unable to consistently explain the Creation, its relationship with the Creator and the evolution of human society. The concept of God arose in the minds of human beings due to many reasons. Incidence of strange and unknown or unpredictable events had led to the belief that strange and unknown events occur in individual or group life because of the will of various Gods. If particular God was worshiped, he would arrange for events that would cause pleasure and happiness. Such good gods were given particular names. Similarly, out of the fear of bad happenings, various Gods of evil were identified and worshipped. These thoughts did not come out of the blue. There were always leaders of groups/ families who loved and cared for others and sacrificed for them while some other leaders were selfish, cruel and used their physical and knowledge powers to oppress others. Both kinds of leaders had their followers. Transforming such leaders as role models for various Gods had not been difficult. This was especially so because in ancient times through observations over long time human race had identified natural powers of Sun giving light or drying up fields that grow food, the wind that soothes the body or uproots trees and destroys shelters, the Rains that help vegetation and quench thirst as well as cause floods that damages shelters and crops. Therefore, the Nature, the Natural phenomenon and the objects in the sky provided a good source of creating different Gods. All such concepts of Gods did not explain the ultimate source of all these gods. Nor, did these concepts help explain, in any comprehensive manner, the life of human beings or the progress of civilization in terms of powers of these Gods. Some great thinkers at a later age arrived at the concept of Single, Unique, and Ultimate God as the elaborated later in the Gita, This concept or theory of God helped unify all the god concepts developed earlier and provided a comprehensive and internally consistent explanation of the Creator, the Creation and their inter-relationship. How did this theory achieve this in the Gita? It did by explaining the various properties and states of individuals (and consequently of groups).
The main pillars of the explanations in the Gita are:
(a) the concept of God as explained in the Gita 0001 and Gita 0002,
(b) the concept of three Gunas (basic, broad classification of properties of any human being or element or entity in the Creation,
(c) the behaviour of recognizable individuals of certain specific types and the characteristics of the states of comfort within each such individual.
One general category of individuals is called “learned” or “wise”. Some characteristics of the learned are given in various slokas:
1.”The learned are not bewildered, nor enchanted, nor enamored nor perplexed by nor attached to the experience of the embodied existence involving continuous transformation of a physical body and mind through adolescence to youth to old age. In the process the learned successfully avoid experiencing the succession of numerous transient happiness and sorrows that are the result from the natural connection of the senses to the objects around through desire.” (II.13-14)
2. “The learned equip themselves with the ability to endure the experience of the embodied existence with patience and detachment, The learned and the wise men have realized that all such transient phenomenon of their embodied existence are unreal and not relevant to their permanent, indestructible non-embodied Real existence. The learned are solely interested in their Real existence that is permanent, everlasting and beyond the physical-sensual existence filled with transient pleasures and pains.” (II.16-21)
3. “The leaned practice, through Sankhya Yoga, to ignore all the transient phenomenon of pleasures and plain of the embodied existence and concentrate on their work without attachment. They can thereafter be in the state of practicing Karma Yoga that helps enhances the Knowledge of learned. Even little practice of Karma Yoga can increase knowledge and wisdom” (II.39-40)
4. “ Those who show skills in giving commentary or speeches with sweet words or verses (slokas) that attract the attention of the audience and luring others into activities that would bring worldly happiness or practice rituals that may produce desirable outcomes are not learned people simple because they cultivate desires, promote selfishness and attached to objects of desire” (II.42-44)
5. “ One with complete devotion to the concept of God can be as much learned through the practice of Karma Yoga with perfection as another who has studied all the different parts of the Vedas”. (II.46)
6. “Practicing Karma Yoga involves only the right to work and the right to the consequences of work, involves working/ acting/ doing/ thinking/ inhaling/ eating drinking etc. without the accompaniment of any desire to derive any result or gain from suck work. One cannot stop work (karma) merely because there is no desire to derive benefits from work. It is impossible to be without work for a human body and mind. Embodied existence is filled with work even without the knowledge of the body and mind. The learned work with perfect application of the full knowledge of desire-free work: this technique of performing work is Yoga. The person that performs Karma Yoga perfectly is detached to the consequences of his work and attains Godhood. God works all the time through His creation, maintenance, destruction and transformation process without any attachment to the consequences of the work He does because He is always in the State of perfect Karma Yoga. (II.47-50)
7. “ The wise disowns any relationship with the results/ consequences of his work (even if he is aware what work can lead to what consequences) and become free of the bondage to the burden of work. When the learned person’s intellect crosses the boundaries of desires and the identification of work-performer with the physical being, complete indifference to worldly affairs develops and the desire=free state emerges.
When a person is stable in such a desire-free state, he is indeed immersed in the state of Yoga,” (II.51- 53)
9. “ A person in the desire-free state, he is not at all perturbed or disturbed in any way by any incident/ event nor does he feel the happiness or sorrow from any incident/event/ outcome, he does not seek any happiness, he is no longer angry with any thing or anyone. He is without any fear, likes or dislikes. He is indifferent and unattached to and not attracted by any event or any consequences of any event. He has completely withdrawn from all desires and instincts and made his senses insensitive to sensual objects. This is when his intellect is firmly established in the Knowledge of the Ultimate, Unique, Indestructible, and Infinite God. Even this state, desires may still be hidden and then erupt suddenly with great force to overpower the senses and dislodge the learned who have made sincere efforts over a long period of time to attain the desire-free state. Thus, it is the one whose all desires have gone away and whose instincts, senses, mind have been completely under reins so that sensual objects do not drive them to be powered by desire again, is the one who has achieved the state of stable equilibrium in Yoga. (II55- 61).
10. “ One who has successfully renounced all desires, successfully put all his senses including the mind insensitive to sensual objects and desires, and has become stable in his complete indifference to all types of events and outcomes, he is the person who is in complete peace. And, yet all pleasures shorn of all pains flow into such a person who has also given up his self-ego and he is the one who enjoys in full measure without the use of the senses that are completely disassociated with desires and sensual objects” (II.70-71).
Thus, Gita uses the abstract concept of God to explain how one group of learned and wise men lead their lives through the practice of Karma Yoga and attain the attributes of God.
4. God in Knowledge: Application of Concept in Gyan Yoga
Monday, February 2, 2009
All applications of the Concept of God are aimed at the possibility of an individual human being attaining Godhood. The different Yoga’s are illustration of the characteristics of different "learned"/ "wise" / "knowledgeable" individuals who have advanced along the path towards attaining Godhood or actually attaining Godhood (implying attaining the characteristics of the God as defined in the Concept of God in Gita and God 0001 & 0002). Clearly, these individuals coming closer to Godhood through different yoga’s ultimately would reflect almost the same characteristics by definition, as the characteristics of God are unique.
1. "The 'learned' / 'wise' individuals worship God (i.e. to become God) in various ways: they may just think about God all the time and seek to be with Him, they may love God and crave for the love of God to unite with Him, they may control and rein in senses and instincts, they may go being self-ego to shun drop the idea of identifying themselves as doer of action they do, they may sacrifice for others, they may give away alms, they may help others, they may give up all physical ad mental desires, they may practice various physical exercises to concentrate on their breath and feel the vibrations going on inside the different parts of their bodies, they may renounce domestic life and all comforts, they may do lot of penance, thy may study about God and meditate on God, they may offer prayers to God in front of an idol or symbol or they may do many other such acts. They are all seeking to free them from the bondage of embodied worldly existence. This freedom is attained by those "wise" persons who are able to do all these acts they do with complete detachment from such acts and their consequences. Once this freedom is attained the "wise" individual no longer remains the individual embodied existence but become God with full knowledge of what goes on in the Creation. Once this freedom is attained, the identification of existence with human body, senses, mind, intellect and ego gets lots and the clouds of desire perpetrated by the illusive powers of the three Gunas of Satva, Rajas and Tamas working out through the senses completely disappear. Being God implies Full Knowledge of how the Creation works and its dynamics. The seeker of Knowledge now is in Full Knowledge and therefore transforms into Knowledge (God) Himself. At that state the individual leaned/ wise person sees God in everything: work, work matter, work process, work consequences, the work consequence victims- in all and everything including those things that others cannot see, the wise Brahma gyani sees God only. Because God sees everything that way." (IV.22- 35).
2." The Brahma Gyani is completely happy and at peace with whatever he happens to get or meet, does not suffer from any conflict or doubt or contradictions or differentiation, finds gains and losses as equally irrelevant, acts without any attachment of such actions, is not connected to any desire that cause his senses to work, does not see himself as the doer of any of his acts/actions/work effort or work. Therefore he remains free from the bondage of slavery to desire motivated work done through the senses propelled by the Gunas." (IV.22- 23).
3. " The learned/ wise person who has given up all desires, controlled his senses and mind from binding his existence to their actions/ operations and is no longer attracted by material goods, comes to acquire Gyan / Real Knowledge (of the Creation and the Creator) that helps to act and work without being involved as a doer of such acts/ actions but merely to allow his embodied existence to continue with its transient existence as long as it happens to last. Always satisfied, irrespective of external environment, and completely desire less, his embodied existence show actions with which he is completely detached and is not involved as the doer of such actions. " (IV.20-21)
4. " Long and sustained efforts of individuals practicing Karma Yoga have been observed to reach the state of Bramha Gyani as the desires and ego get lost allowing the knowledge of the God to flow in freely. The person who has faith in the concept and able to control and rein in all desires and attachment, can arrive at Gyan (knowledge) that brings him all peace. Such a person who is in engrossed in Yoga in the pursuit of God is able to resolve all conflicts and doubts and he can no longer be enslaved by any doings/ actions his embodied existence may be required to perform till the transient embodied existence lasts." (IV.38-42)
5. " The One who does not envy, is never angry and no longer seek or long for any thing, has risen above all conflicts of happiness and sorrow, pleasure and pain and therefore he remains free from the bondage of pleasure and pain / happiness and sorrow. Practice of Karma Yoga, Sanyas (Karma Thyaga) Yoga and Gyan Yoga are ultimately equivalent: at some stage along these paths different paths, the learned and the wise show the same or al most indistinguishable characteristics and behavior. At some stage, Sanyas Yoga cannot advance without Karma Yoga. When Karma Yoga complements Sanyas Yoga, the progress along Gyan Yoga or Brahma Yoga is speedier. Karma Yoga helps one win over senses and instincts, in the process clears the way to see the light of the Real knowledge of Brahma Gyan as the attachment to all desires and work performed by senses disappear. The wise Gyani, remaining always firm in the realization that he is not the doer of anything and yet sees, hears, smalls, eats, moves, sleeps, talks, gives, takes, blinks the eye lids, breathes without getting attached to or involved in all such work his senses and instincts happen to perform or get attracted by sensual objects. The wise see the nature function through his embodied existence but he is not attached to such performance as God is not attached to all that happens in his creation. To the Gyani, a learned person, another Gyani, cow or n elephant, the dog or the vagabond - all are same. Having overcome all illusion created by the three Gunas, the Gyani is no longer excited or worried about any thing or any happening or the giving and taking of any thing or any interactions with the environment including all embodied existence and forms in his neighborhood. The Gyani's only pleasure is in being in full knowledge of the Creator and Creation as defined by the concept of God. The Gyani is in the realization that he is now in the ultimate Godhood existence, being friend (par) of everything without any discrimination and completely satisfied and peace, unaffected by any of the happenings in the Creation." (V.3-29).
5. Actionable Knowledge of Devotion: Equivalence of Different Yoga Methods
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Since attainment of Godhood is the ultimate destination of all Yoga’s, at some stage along the path all Yoga’s get merged. With Karma Yoga at one stage the wise person concentrates on work as worship of God that leads him think about the God and he moves towards the knowledge or Gyan. The same is true of Dhyan Yogi who concentrates on the God through deep meditation. Raj Yoga helps prepare body and mind to sustain meditation on God. A gyan Yogi needs at some stage to make all his acts desire-free and hence adopts the same stance as the Karma Yogi. A Bhakti Yogi seeks to develop intense love for the God forgetting every other thing in the World: he becomes desire-free, destroys his ego through complete submission to God, thus getting over anger, jealousy and selfish motives. As intense love fills the Yogi, he is no more bound by Karma and is tuned to realization of Gyan, the ultimate knowledge. A Gyan Yogi at some stage learns to love God and hence everyone and everything. That helps him realize God and walk the final steps to Godhood.
“The wise Yogi who sees himself as equal and same with every other entity/ element/ body or thought or phenomenon is the Greatest among the Yogis.” (V.32)
“The one who does not depend on the effects of Karma to motivate him to Karma and yet carries out all Karma is both a Karmas Yogi and a Gyan Yogi. No Yogi can give up Karma until he reaches the stage when he/she is permanently and continuously in God-realization stage. Even then some acts continue without his conscious involvement or attachment.” (VI.1)
“When the Yogi reaches a stage when his heart, mind, intellect and senses can no longer make him aware of sensual pleasure or pain, when he has become completely free of all possible desires, he is close to the final destination of Godhood.” (VI.18-19)
“When the embodied existence is permanently free of any connection with any desire, pleasure or pain and hence his mind, thoughts and intellect are permanently and solely established in the knowledge of God, the Yogi has attained Yoga-Samadhi.” (VI.23-26)
“For types of Yogis are found to worship God: those who are in difficulty and seek relief from the God, those who seek fulfillment of their earthly sensual desires through God’s help or blessing, those who are seeking ultimate knowledge by concentrating their thoughts on me and those who have realized the ultimate knowledge. It is the last categories of yogis in complete knowledge are the ultimate Gyanis or Tatwa Gyanis who have reached Godhood.” (VII.16-18)
“ The worshipers and Yogis get what they want from God since they concentrate their thought on the God with some desire or the other. If they desire wealth, they concentrate on one of the God’s images (Lashmi) and they get wealth. Those who worship to get education and/ or knowledge, they also get what they want through Yoga and meditation on my image of Education or Knowledge (Saraswati). Those who worship me to obtain physical and mental power superior to those of the ordinary beings, get what they want as they concentrate on one of God’s various images (Shiva/ Kali).”(VII.20-23)
“ The illusive power of the three Gunas makes most Yogis fail to concentrate on the full and comprehensive concept of God and therefore they are unable to reach Godhood. Those who succeed have the same knowledge as God is defined by” (VII.25-26)
“ Those who wants and strives to free themselves from the bondage of the nexus of Gunas-Desires –Senses, completely submits to the whole concept of God and ultimately realizes full knowledge about God and attain Godhood” (VII.29)
“The Yogi who reaches the ultimate stage of complete knowledge about God (the Creator and the Creation) goes beyond the ideas of the infinitesimal sub-atomic particles to an idea of formless all pervasive enlightened existence, merges with such divine existence of God” (VII. 9-10)
“The Yogi who mediates on the concept of God with complete single-point, focused concentration and faith all the time, easily transits to divine existence of God.” (VIII. 18)
For a Yogi who has reached Samadhi state, is always in God and hence work or no work, karma or no karma, rituals or no rituals, prayer or no prayers – all are immaterial to him. Till one reaches that blissful state, practice of Karma, or Bhakti, or meditation, yearning for Gyan or sacrificing for others or helping others, etc., only keep him on the path towards godhood. He cannot really give up work or Karma. As different Yogis who began on the path of Yoga successfully reach close to the ultimate destination of Godhead, they show similar characteristics- desire-free Karma, completely sub-merged in love with or in prayer or worship of God, in meditation on the ultimate Gyan, love for all, unperturbed by external objects, events, outcome, seeing him in everything in this creation, virtually no disappointment, no pain or pleasure, no fear, no anger, no excitement, no self-ego. The equivalence of Yoga of different types is meaningful only in this perspective.
However, there would be many Yogis who will not show one or more of these characteristics: they are yet to reach closer to the ultimate destination.
All these are findings from empirical observations on those who practices Yoga of different types. This is not to suggest that one can freely choose to decide to be a Yogi or remain in the path of Yoga.
6. Implications of Gita's Concept of God
Sunday, February 8, 2009
1. Everything and all that is / may be in the Creation – every and all elements, bodies, nature, thoughts, processes, transformation, actions/ reactions, karma, ego, life phenomena, instincts, senses, mind, atoms, genes, desire, forms, properties, gunas, forces, pleasures, pains, ideas, knowledge – scientific, spiritual, or others, the known and the unknown, the seen and the unseen, the imaginable and the unimaginable, all the universe and its components, the concept of God - everything and every possible / probable thing, is contained in the God and manifestation of God that is limitless, infinite, indestructible, ceaselessly in existence and unaffected, unperturbed, desire-free and in complete peace of what goes on in the Creation.
2. All that has been mentioned in 1 above have ultimately originated in God and hence God is the ultimate source. As the ultimate source God is present all the time in all that is mentioned in 1. So, everything in that sense is divinely equal even if they are distinctly separate and dissimilar by their features, behaviors, patterns, colors, forms, actions, reactions, effects or their immediate past origin or source. God is all pervasive and hence in that sense all that exists and mentioned in 1 above including the concept of God, is God or rather God’s manifestations. All manifestations are equal in the sense that they are manifestations of the same ultimate source.
3. But manifestations of God are not God Himself/ Itself/ Divine-self. God is the one that manifests: God’s actions are reflected in His diverse and infinite manifestations. God manifests in infinitely varying ways and forms and without any desire, without any attachment or illusion, fear or pleasure or pain but with full and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of what, when, why and how of all manifestations and their interrelations. This knowledge may be partly known to the manifestations that have the property to understand these parts.
4.Both the concept of God and the how, why etc of His manifestations are not fully comprehensible to the human minds (otherwise, they would have disproved the existence of God as defined in Gita by either comprehensively explaining the entire Universe and all that has been mentioned in 1 or proving that there was nothing to more explain and seek answers to, in this and in regard to this Creation of all that has been mentioned in 1. God has remained an abstract Concept as an Ultimate origin/ source of all that is in the creation.
5. The Ultimate source, God, is therefore unalterable and permanent while all the manifestations of God are transient / perishable as observed by human beings, though some manifestations may have been in existence for pretty long durations that human beings are capable of measuring or not capable of measuring.
6. The abstract God exists in all manifestations throughout and therefore in every human being. But being part of the manifestations of God can any human being also come to reflect the State or Characteristics of the unalterable God. If the God that is never tired, never exhausted, never in pain or pleasure of transient nature, never frustrated, never attached to the manifestations and yet continue to act incessantly without any self-ego or desire? This is the question that Gita asks and tries to answer.
7. Gita’s answer is simple: there is some, though very insignificantly small probability of an individual to reach the State of Godhood. The answer in the affirmative is based on empirical evidence among humans. Rarely has an individual achieved this State and only a few have been observed to reach a stage where they have reflected some weak symptoms of getting closer to the Godhood State of being
*desire-free,
*ego-free,
*unperturbed by external environment and internal properties and the consequences/ outcomes/ happenings at any point of time- past, present or future,
*seeing himself and the God in everything in the Universe,
*loving everything else in the Universe as much as loving himself, *completely jealousy-free, fear-free and anger free
*completely and always satisfied and contended.
*complete faith in the concept of God
8. Why are the chances so low for individuals to reach such Godhood State and how even the rare things happen? This is the question that Gita tries to answer by using the concept of God and citing empirical observations/ evidence. First the Gita explains the basic properties imparted to human beings in the form of combinations f desires and the three Gunas and then illustrates how the chances are low by classifying the various Yoga practices observed by different groups of people who have achieved different measures of progress to get to the stage of Godhood or attained Godhood.
9.The three Gunas of Satva, Rajas and Tamas are an integral part of the manifestation of God. It is these Gunas that help develop self-ego in human minds. These three basic properties are observed empirically in humans in the way the humans behave: desire, feel, know, explore, act, react, imagine, think, experience and change using their senses / instincts, in the face of the external environment and objects they are exposed to at different points of time. But the combination of these three properties differ from one human being to another and the impact of these combinations on individual human behavior may change over time due to changes in the strength of the senses with age, impact of past experiences and changes in the external environment that may take place. (The Gunas may be interpreted as something akin to broad genetic sequence classifications referred to in modern science.) The Gunas help classifying human behavioral patterns in terms of inclinations, propensities and tendencies. But, more importantly, the operation of Gunas as a form of manifestation of God in human beings, determine individual behavior: both internal and external behavioral differences noticed among various individuals arise from differences in Guna combinations and the differences in exposures to external environment. These Gunas give rise to individuality and a sense of separate embodied identification as a doer in each individual. In the process the knowledge of the Truth of divine equality in the Creation is lost in human mind. As a result, for most of the time, an individual human being (or other being) identifies himself / herself as separate from all other individuals which in turn gives rises to individual taste and preferences, likes and dislikes, jealousy, rivalry, anger, fear, aggression, disappointment, pains and pleasure. The natural addictions / inclinations therefore sustain the concept of the individual embodied existence as distinct from transient, varying manifestations of God. This, therefore, creates a veil over the mind, intellect and other senses to hide the fact of oneness of Divine, indivisible permanent existence that the concept of God implies for all manifestations of God including individual humans. This is referred to as Illusion or Maya – manifestation of God. This illusion is so strong that humans in general cannot cross the barrier of self-ego and desire. This explains why there is a very infinitesimal chance of a human being even seriously trying to come out of the illusion/ Maya of individual embodied existence. This also explains why the probability of an individual human being is even lower than an individual trying to get out of the illusion of transient, separate individual embodied existences.
11. The above findings of the Gita are based on empirical evidence on (a) the proportion of human individuals trying through various methods called Yoga’s to attain Godhood, (b) the proportion out of (a) that reach Godhood and remain in that State never to return within the fold of the Illusion. The essence of all Yoga methods / practices observed to be followed by different Yogi’s (practicing Yoga) and (c) the proportion of individuals spending practically their entire existence in the embodied existence under the complete influence of Maya or Illusion of separateness. Of the two opposing forces: one of Maya-induced proclivity to experience separate and transient / temporary individual embodied identities and the other Divine proclivity to experience the existence of being merged in the unique, indivisible, indestructible, ultimate source / origin called God, in permanent peace. The Guna combinations imparted through the transformation process continuously to the individual embodied existence is so structured that the former Maya-induced force remains overwhelmingly strong and dominating over the other force and therefore the proportions referred to in (a) and (b) while dynamically oscillating within a range but the range always remaining infinitesimal as close to close to zero as possible.
12. All the above points to the hypothesis that the state of individual embodied existence at any point of time is an outcome of an unfolding stochastic process whose parameters and probability-distribution properties are not known. Whether a person would try to be a Yogi or the kind of Yoga to which a particular Yogi be trapped by, or whether a particular Yogi will achieve some measure of success on the progress towards Godhood or attain God hood – are all a matter of chance determined by the transformation/ manifestation process giving rise to various combinations of Gunas and varying environmental exposures to different individuals. No body decides to become a Yogi and no body decides to reach Godhood. All this just happens to a few individuals as a matter of unknown probabilities.
13. Gita thus does not tell all the people to seek Salvation through Yoga but tells you that if the odds happen to be in your favor you may become a Yogi and even attain Godhood. And, the chances are indeed very low. You will try to become a Yogi for as much time as your chances favor you and you may attain Samadhi or Godhood if the probability of success materialises in your case.
7. Summing Up Essence of Gita
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Before we begin a critique of Gita’s concept of God, it may be desirable to make a summary of the essence of Gita’s God.
1. God is the ultimate source and cause of all creations and God is present in everything and everywhere of this Creation. The Creation is entirely contained in the Creator and is essentially God’s various manifestations. Thus, God is indestructible, indivisible, infinite and permanent (ever-old never born and ceaseless in existence), while all that is in the creation as His manifestations are transient and temporary, even if they exist for finite, long durations.
2. God’s manifestations include all physical bodies, all forces, all energy, all atoms and molecules, all forms of life, all shapes and designs, all natural and man-made processes and phenomena, all planets and their movements, all properties, tendencies, inclinations, natural laws, senses, instincts, mind, intellect, all thoughts, ideas, imaginations, perceptions and concepts including the concept of God, religions, castes and creeds, classifications, logic, reasoning – every thing including all dimensions, time and space. While all these may differ in forms, properties, characteristics, they have two things in common: (a) all of them are transient / temporary embodied or sense-perceived existences and (b) God as defined in 1 is inherently present in each of them as well as contain all of them and hence are inherently indistinguishable from the divine and permanent, unique, indivisible, indestructible, infinite and ceaseless existence.
3.Thus, the transformation process imparts two things in any transient manifestation like human being: (a) an urge to enjoy as a false separate identity of an independent "doer" with free will, individual self-ego, desires, and senses-driven dynamics of actions, reactions, thoughts, feelings, perceptions and relationships with other embodied existences, and (b) the urge to know, realize and enjoy the oneness of divine, indivisible existence inseparable and indistinguishable from other embodied existence.
4. The relative strength of the two opposing forces of 3(a) called the Great Illusion or Maya and 3(b) called Divinity in different individuals varies widely depending on the how the manifestation process imparts the three Gunas (Satva, Rajas and Tamas) in various combinations to each manifestation and the varying external environment that each manifestation happens to face at different points of time. It is all these Guna-combination mixes and the differential environments that explain why human behavior varies across individuals, groups, space and time.
5. Empirical evidence shows that despite the differences among individual behavior, the most dominant behavior is the one completely or largely influenced by the manifestation process of Maya. In the case of only a few individuals, the influence of the Divinity manifestation process is stronger at least at some points of time.
6. Evidence also suggests that the few individuals in whose case the Divinity
process is stronger than the Maya process, show certain common characteristics. They tend to practice certain methods called Yoga's of various types and generally love people, willing to sacrifice for others, do penance, most of the time engaged in worshiping God, praying to God, have faith in God, long to merge with God, mediate over God, control senses, work/ act/ think without any desire, give up ego and the sense of being a doer, show less of anger, fear, rivalry, jealousy, attachment. These people re called Yogis or learned or wise because they happen to be under the strong influence of Divinity process.
7. Some of the yogis makes considerable advance over time towards the path of liberation/ independence from the influence of Maya process while some are recaptured by the Maya process. While some Yogis stop further progress towards liberation and remain at the stage where they are with Maya process able to exercises very little influence on them, a very rare lone Yogi may attain the final stage where he/ she is no longer influenced by the Maya process and completely merged in the Divinity process. Such a Yogi has attained Godhood in the sense that the Yogi is fully liberated from the being driven by senses, desires and external embodied existences and the Yogi shows the characteristics as exhibited by God, namely a self ego -free, desire-free, anger-free, fear -free, unperturbed individual merged in and enjoying oneness existence of indestructible, indivisible, ceaseless God. He is no longer enamored by the separate identity of embodied existence of worldly pleasures, pains and ambitions.
8. The empirical evidence therefore suggests that given the nature of God's manifestation process, the probability of an individual to become a Yogi is very small, the probability of remaining a yogi is even smaller and the probability of attaining Godhood or come close to that stage is virtually zero. It all depend on the stochastic process of transformation and manifestation of God imparting various Gunas in varying mixes and the exposure of individual embodied existence to other embodies existences resulting from the Grand, Stochastic and Continuous manifestation/ transformation process whose parameters are as incomprehensible as the concept of God.
9. Gita does not preach any Yoga or religion but explains a simple but abstract concept of God, the Creator and the Creation that is based on the empirical evidence of the behaviour of humans in general and the Yogi's in particular. If you happen to be a Yogi, it is not because of your choice but because of the manifestation transformation process. If you do not become a Yogi, that is not because of your choice but the result of the incomprehensible Grand, Stochastic and Continuous Manifestation Process of God, the Ultimate Source, Origin, Creator of and inherent in all of the Creation.
10. All these from 1 to 9 are what make Gita the most interesting aid to the pursuit of knowledge about the nature and operation of the entire Creation and Creator and about all our questions in this regard. The main features of Gita are its comprehensiveness, its logical reasoning and empirical evidence-based findings, its consistency as a theory of god and human life, and finally its universal applicability to understand individual and group living in ever-increasing complexity of the World.
8. Unacceptability of Universal God: Responding to Critics
Thursday, February 12, 2009
There are at least four different perspectives to criticizing Gita as expressed in Gita 0001 to 0007 (call this SenGita)
The first is from the perspective of the experts and devotees of Gita. They would find SenGita far removed from the Real Gita they know of, distorted and misleading, casual and simplistic and even outrageous in the contention that Gita did not preach any religion or ritual of practicing Yoga to Mankind.
The second perspective is of the seekers of scientific proof of anything about God whether in Gita or in SenGita or anywhere else. They would contend that concept of SenGita is nebulous, devoid of adequate proof of existence of God enunciated in SenGita and that the entire Sengita or the original or authentic versions of Gita is nothing but glib talk.
The third perspective is of the believers of God defined differently from SenGita and particularly those who believe in personal God. They would find the concept of God both abstract and nebulous and something that cannot have any operational significance in terms of worshipping or praying or obtaining blessings from God – the almighty.
The fourth perspective is that of the believers in Man as an intelligent being with a meaningful purpose and freedom to change the world and the society as contrasted to SenGita’s concept of each human as a chance occurrence of a phenomenon of particular set of properties, tendencies, inclinations that by definition has no free will or independence to decide. To them a fatalistic concept of man as a transient toy that acts only as per the properties imparted into each specific toy as elaborated in SenGita is devoid of any meaning and simply unacceptable.
All these criticisms are valid insofar as they easily are explainable by the concept of God and Human being elaborated in SenGita. Criticisms are nothing but responses that each human being as a particular phenomenon of properties, tendencies and inclinations imparted by the Gunas in the process of manifestation of God.. The same is equally true of Sengita: it is a chance occurrence of such phenomenon of manifestation. God is as much inherent in SenGita as in the criticisms. But that is only one way of response to criticisms from an embodied existence by ignoring the criticisms. There is the more common human phenomenon of responding to criticisms by accepting a criticism or by demolishing or embarrassing a criticism by reasoning or feeling or biased/ blind beliefs. We can just do that now.
9. Devotees' Disbelief in God: Response to Gita Monopolists’ Critique
Friday, February 13, 2009
SenGita is far removed from the various original version of the real Gita and distorts the latter is a plausible criticism. The criticism is valid but irrelevant. First, there is no true real Gita available. Even the ones that are available have many slokas that are grafted into Gita from time to time (see Bankim Chandra Chattapadhyay’s essay on ShreeMadBhagwat Gita) and often contradictory to the main theme and superfluous. So, there may not be any undistorted Gita at all. The translations can always be called distorted whether SenGita or any other translation. Yes, SenGita does not cover translations sloka (verse of Gita) by sloka and covers only a selection of slokas. But this is neither a distortion nor misleading in terms of the essential theme and message of Gita. SenGita cover a selection of slokas that are together more than adequate to capture the essence of Gita and many slokas are not covered because they are either repetitions in some sense or superfluous elaboration and therefore not necessary for understanding the essence of Gita. The Truth and knowledge can be expressed much more cogently and precisely than the mass of sloka renderings of Gita in various so-called authentic/ comprehensive versions. SenGita does not concern itself with the sanctity of each sloka and all slokas: its purpose is to get the essential concepts.
True, the various versions of Gita do not talk about empirical evidence on Yogis. But the words uttered by Lord Krishna are not coming out of the blue: He clearly talks about the learned/ wise men and various types of Yogis as real-life illustrations. So, Gita’s concepts, classification and theory are based on both logical reasoning and study of empirical evidence/ observations on human psychology and behavioral patterns. The dialogue form of question and answer between Lord Krishna and Arjuna is unable to hide the fact that the discourse is based on logic, reasoning and empirical validation. Clearly, Gita was not written in a modern text-book form: it adopted the practice of teacher answering questions to a pupil, prevailing in distant ancient times 5000 to 10000 years Before Christ.
Gita also does not preach Yoga for everyone. It specifically recommends Arjuna to concentrate on the War without the desire to achieve certain favourable outcomes. Lord advises Arjuna to understand what the Yogis have learnt and act in the battle-field with Yogi-like desire-free, anger-free, fear-free and attachment free state of existence. Arjuna might have already known about the Yogis. In any case, battle field was no place to practice Yoga to reach salvation but to act with Yogi-like characteristics by keeping mind, intellect and thoughts concentrated on the concept of God and acting like God who is unperturbed, unattached and free of desire and self-ego, in complete knowledge of the Creation and Manifestation process and yet always incessantly in action as per His own Dharma / property that is not captured by the three Gunas and the Grand Illusion of Maya. Lord is assuring Arjuna that he will be able to do what he is destined to do. It is only a rare outcome that a warrior will fight like a warrior without getting confused and realizing that what he is doing is only a manifestation of God. The chances of living such a life even in the battle-field while fighting a war is very low but it is going to materialize in the case of the phenomenon of Arjuna as the manifestation of God at Kurushetra. It is the stochastic destiny process that creates all phenomena as manifestation of God, the ultimate source of everything, contained in everything and container of everything including Arjuna, his co-fighters and his enemies in the battle field. It is only a matter of chance that Lord Krishna happens to be charioteer and adviser to Arjuna and that other warriors did not have that chance materializing in their case.
Lord did not need to preach religion or Yoga to Mankind or Arjuna. He was only answering questions to Arjuna. His answers were based on knowledge already available with Mankind through the Yogis / learned / wise people and Lord Krishna were aware of. Lord Krishna was always in the state of Yoga doing what He had to without any desire or attachment. Rather he was referring to religious rituals of worshipping God as something that the Yogis generally did not practice.
Gita is therefore fundamentally grounded on the reality of psychology - individual and social behavior of human beings, rather than trying to cultivate any mysticism about God and preaching religion on that basis. SenGita seeks to find the essence and fundamentals contained in the Gita without any distortion and does not mislead. But getting misled or confused is a general property of human beings and that cannot be avoided except by chance.
10. Godly Critique of God: Response to Science-Monopolists
Friday, February 13, 2009
It is in the nature of the Three Gunas to combine sometimes in a manner to impart the strongest possible scientific aptitudes to some human beings and strongest possible attachment to anything counted as scientific to many others. Both types of followers of science are manifestation of God. It is in the natural transformation process that these persons would need to assurance that the essence of Gita (SenGita here) is scientific.
Of course, the Concept of God is nebulous. But it is not nebulous to science. Science deals with abstract concepts. The concept of God in Gita / SenGita is one of the simplest among all abstract scientific concepts. In the Universe, man has observed that anything can be traced to a source or origin. That is how human civilization has over time arrived at atoms, molecules, sub-atomic particles, neutrinos and unobservable (dark) dusts or whatever. It is easy to get through induction from effect to cause and from derivatives to source in successive sequence backwards to the Ultimate Source of anything and everything in this Creation. That Ultimate Source is named as God. It is a definition that is as scientific as the definition of Science.
Some will ask for proof of existence of God. This is a perfectly valid demand. It is as good as asking for the proof of existence of the Ultimate Source. Let us assume that there exists no ultimate source. Then the cause and effect sequence has to break and scientific enquiry into what resulted in what has to stop somewhere that Science would not know. Alternatively, the sequence of derivatives to sources at some stage has to form a circular chain that admits of derivatives becoming the source of the source at some point (water to vapor to clouds to rain to water). In that case, the cause and the effect become the same thing. That is what Gita says: the Creator and the Creation are all the same. Manifestation is the cause of manifestation and manifestation is the source manifestation. As a result, everything in the Creation is one and the same inherently and therefore God is by definition indivisible. And, if something is indivisible and inherent in everything, it must be all pervasive, omni-present. That is what Gita says.
But assume that the Ultimate Source exists. Then, it must be inherently there in any and all successive transformations and manifestation including in all transformation / manifestation processes from any source to its derivatives. Whether the Ultimate source exists or the Source-derivative chain is circular, the entire process chain exists. The process is then the Ultimate Cause / Source. Since it exists, God by definition exists.
The Ultimate Source (or, the Process Chain) by definition is Unique and one. One does not have to prove that One as a number exists. Science is based on Axioms whose proof lie in the validity of the deductions made from the Axioms.
The Ultimate Source is infinite. If the number of points on any straight line that is smaller in length is infinite, the Ultimate source will be as infinite as the infinite numbers you can use in the Creation. So, God is limit less.
The Ultimate Source is indestructible and ageless because that explains all transformations and transformation processes. If it were destructible, the Creation would have ceased to exist in finite time. Science is yet to prove that Creation would come to an end in finite time or countable infinite time. So, by definition God is indestructible, ageless, never born and never ceased to exist.
The Ultimate Source is ceaseless in its activity of transformation / manifestation without being affected in any way by the transformation processes and the outcomes. God therefore is a desire-free and ego-free Karma Yogi. The Ultimate Source has the complete knowledge of the transformation processes and their outcomes (Ultimate Source of everything is also the Ultimate Source of all knowledge by definition). So, God is also in Gyan Yogi state.
Fine, these are only connected to definition of God. But from where do the concepts of the three Gunas, desire, the Grand Illusion or Maya and the Yogis come from? These have not come from outside the system or the Creation. These are based on innumerable observations of the characteristics, psychology and behavior of large sample survey of individuals. The methods of empirical investigations that gave rise to classifications of the Gunas, the tendency to experience self-ego, desire, sense driven actions, the tendency to forget the existence of the Unique Ultimate source of everything in the World (and, hence suffering from the Grand Illusion of Maya), the tendency to love others and sacrifice for others, the varying characteristics of Yogis, their experiences, successes and failures – all these have come out of scientific empirical research. We do not know if they had different statistical, sampling, questionnaire- based response gathering, psychometric tests/ methods than the methods modern social, medical, psychological and behavioral sciences deploy.
In any case, Gita’s conclusions on human behavior are stated in forms that are testable / verifiable/ refutable hypotheses. That is what Science is all about. Any social scientist can arrange to test Gita’s statements concerning human traits, psychology, characteristics, tendencies, inclinations, perceptions, experiences and behavior to find out if these Statements are valid or not and if valid, to what extent. That would be the scientific approach to criticize or praise the essence of Gita. Unfortunately neither the Scientists- breed intellectuals nor do the Gita-follower intellectuals care to adopt scientific methods to criticize or praise Gita. This however is natural: the Three Gunas and their self-ego prevents them from doing such a massive empirical testing exercise. For the Yogis, the attempt to prove or disprove is immaterial: for them proof of the pudding is in eating.
11. God of Alternative Choices: Response to Critique of Believers in God
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Those who believe in God, especially personal God, may not like the idea of the abstract concept God of Gita since the abstract God does not seem to be one, being unperturbed by any thing or any event and in a desire-free, ego-free state of ceaseless activity, who would respond to devotees worship and prayers, and one with whom it does not seem to be possible to communicate with. They would prefer a God who can respond and with whom communication is possible even if He is mysterious, one who may have a name or his representative as a human being and who can be visualized in some form that a human being can imagine. An abstract God who is incomprehensible, unexplainable and unfathomable through human senses and imagination is not who can be endeared and communicated with. If God was just Fire or Sun or Gravitational force, or who has sent his human emissaries to humans would me more acceptable.
If we explore the abstract Concept of God in Gita a little more deeply, we shall realize see that we can get the God of our choice. The abstract concept and theory of God in the Gita is so comprehensive that it allows different individuals to choose the God they like. There is no problem with the abstract concept of God at all.
First, as per Gita God is everywhere inherent in any manifestation that we can or cannot see, touch, feel, smell, perceive or imagine. So, one can easily choose any concept or name or form of God one prefers.
Second, one has to choose a form, concept or name of God because of the effect of the three Gunas. And, this applies to all non-believers as well. One who does not believe in God has to say what is that which he does not believe in or whose existence he does not accept. Even if for example one says he does not believe in any kind of God, he is effectively saying that he believes in Nothing like or as God. But as per the abstract concept of God in Gita, the thought of Nothing is a manifestation of God. If the non-believer says that the concept of God does not exist, this saying or that thought behind this saying itself is a manifestation of God.
But we are not dealing with non-believers here.
And, we see no difficulty of devotees of God of any type. Since God is infinite/ limitless, there is no problem with infinite identities of God the concept of God. Any God will have some or all the properties ‘ characteristics of the God defined in Gita.
One may still ask, how one communicates with an abstract God as a devotee, as a worshipper. Gita has the answer, different people can perceive different images / perceptions of God but if they happen to continue to incessantly to try communicating with God and succeed, at some stage all of them will come to same realization of God – a God that is abstract because they then merges in the abstract definition of God. That is what the empirical analysis of human (including Yogis and Sanyasis) over the years in ancient times gave rise to the theory of Abstract God explained in the Gita. Gita and Gita’s God are sacred not because it captures Lord Krishna’s discourse to Arjuna, but because this discourse was based on, at least at that time the most, scientific study of the Creation and human behavior. Gita is not an imagination of Lord Krishna, or Sanjay the narrator or Vyas the author of Mahabharata.
Yogis have followed different concepts of God that they can meditate upon (GyanYogi), worship (all Yogis), pray to (all Yogis), love / serve (BhaktiYogis), work selfless for submitting the consequences of actions to God (KarmaYogi) and practice mental and physical methods of flowering the inherent powers of God in human beings (RajaYogi). They can have different concepts of God with different names or images or thoughts. But when the Yogis reach the final stage of merging with the God they all transit to the abstract concept of God. Even non-Yogi common people follow the Yogis path in a small way – at certain times of the day worshipping various Gods. If they one day happen to make a transit to Yogi state, they follow the different Yogic paths and those who finally happen to succeed realize the God in the most abstract concept to common people. If you happen to reach Godhood, you have complete knowledge and nothing is abstract to you any longer.
12. God's Supremacy: Response to Critique of Superman Believers
Monday, February 16, 2009
Some may or may not believe in God but they believe that Mankind has a purpose and Man can independently decide to change the World given Man’s intelligence. Man can bring in prosperity to all, can overcome to Nature’s forces and change social order for the good. Any concept of God therefore is either a rival to Manhood or a separation of powers between the God and Man. And, Gita’s concept of makes everything including Man as a servant/ machine driven by Maya induced desires and self-ego, and the three Gunas. The believers of Superman cannot accept Gita’s God that makes each man or woman as a toy created by a stochastic process of transformation / manifestation of God.
The obvious answer from Gita is that is natural: the believers of Superman reflect a particular set of combinations out of all possible infinite combinations or mixes of the three Gunas. The Sun gives light to the earth but Sun has no freedom to choose any option for its future other than it is destined to day: burn in simple language. But Sun can enjoy, if it had any mental ability, pride in its great power to illuminate. So, both Sun and Man’s son can bask in their own glory. We know both are but the chance outcome of God’s manifestation process. The lion is the ruler of the jungle and so Man is the ruler of its expanding reach from the Earth to the farthest point in the Universe space Man can send to / receive back signals to/ from, if not the farthest point Man can just imagine.
And, this view is what God as per the abstract concept or the theory of God in the Gita propounds. Gita considers it empirically valid that quite a dominatingly large proportion of human individuals are imparted (through the operation of the three Gunas and the Maya illusion associated with God’s manifestation process,) the property of strong will, self-ego, desire and capability to master, rule and change the Universe. So, those who believe in Superman need not worry that the concept of God is does not allow for the validity or utility or the meaningful purpose of the Superman: rather, the existence of the Superman is an integral part of the theory of God in Gita. Gita accepts the dominance of the Superman tendency in human beings because it was empirically true in ancient ages and even now. All Supermen however need not have to have strong desire or ego or attachment. Gita also says that there could a few among the human individuals with the capability to and indeed in action to master, rule and change Man’s Kingdom who happens to show the characteristics of desire-free, ego-free and attachment free activity and thoughts. Some Yogis may transform the whole World or human civilizations by their desire-free, ego-free and attachment free actions. Some great scientists, technologists, social thinkers/ reformers and philosophers may really have shown the characteristics of a KarmaYogi or a GyanYogi.
13. Poor God: Gita for the Hungry and Shelter-less
Friday, February 27, 2009
Can one struggling to find even a single meal during the day and without a roof to sleep under at night find Gita of any use? This is what bothers some intellectual brains. And, they may also perceive that Gita is for killing time for those who do not have to worry about food and shelter.
The question and the perception are very natural but are essentially meaningless. Gita in this World is relevant to (a) those that happen to seek the Ultimate Truth or (b) get pleasure in showing off that they are spiritual and (c) those who think Gita is useless. The nature of relevance varies among the groups (a), (b) and (c). As per Gita people differ in their attributes / behavior depending on differences in their mix of the three Gunas. Not all people are interested in political rights or social justice. That does not mean politics or social / economic equality and freedom. But that does not mean politics or social / economic issues do not exist or not relevant. Gita is as much relevant to the Creation as anything else in this World. E = mc^2 is part of and hence relevant to the Creation.
Living a spiritual life and ensuring meals and shelter are not mutually exclusive options. We have the empirical scientific evidence that many spiritual leaders of the past did not have to work/ find meals and shelter. We would not have got Buddha had Prince Siddhartha been worried about food and shelter. Sri Ramakrishna concentrated on thinking about God and trying to establish relation with God: food and shelter came to him without any effort. Those who use Internet can be spiritual without having to worry for food and shelter. There are many who have assured food and shelter does not try to be spiritual. There are many in this world that do not worry about food and shelter but food and shelter come to them whether or not they are spiritual. Aged people often require very little food or very little shelter - many of them let God to take care of their needs and God indeed does so. So, there are various possibilities.
No one is forced to become spiritual: those who try to be spiritual try on their own irrespective of whether they have assured food or shelter. The test of spirituality lies in how far one has submitted to God to take care of the needs. One, who loves God and wants to reach Him through spiritual discussions, does not care whether he fails to live for want of food and shelter. When spiritual tendencies take over, a person tends to forget about food and shelter. Many Sanyasis had joined Ramakrishna Mission or the Order of the Church not because they were assured of food and shelter. Those who are really spiritual do not need shelter or food yet food and shelter come to them without their effort to get food and shelter.
14. God Created Science: Science Content in Gita
Friday, February 27, 2009
Many persons with educational background in physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences seek to find expressions and concepts in Gita that corresponds to or resembles concepts of modern sciences. This is a normal human tendency: if one has a strong faith in some sacred text as being the source of all scientific knowledge, one tends to believe that text must contain something that explains all that modern science has discovered.
Science has progressed much ahead in time from the days Gita was composed or the thoughts in Gita evolved over time in the minds of the Indian sages. There is no point in trying to identify scientific concepts in Gita now, Gita is based on a scientific approach to acquiring knowledge - the basic nature of scientific investigations has remained the same. Gita is based on as much scientific methods of investigations as is possible today: observation, imagination, conjecture, axioms, refutable hypothesis, deductions, inductions and empirical verification, though today we have much advanced instruments to make scientific experiments/ investigations.
If we are really interested in Gita as scientists let us try to find out what is that indivisible, invisible, indestructible and infinite container of the entire creation that simultaneously is contained in any infinitesimal part of the Creation. What is beyond neutrinos and invisible matter or invisible consciousness that fills each and every infinitesimal point in the Universe Space including each and all physical bodies? If we are serious, let us do modern statistical sample surveys to measure the three Gunas in different individuals and the variation of attributes of the Yogis and common people of different backgrounds. Let us calculate the probability of an individual becoming a Yogi of particular variety, or remain Yogi for n number of years without fall and probability of an individual to obtain salvation. Let us, if we happen to be so interested, try to do such empirical studies and see whether we can confirm Gita's findings, whether we can progress further ahead in spiritual knowledge than get stuck in interpreting, reinterpreting and praising Gita, and whether the essentials of Gita can be disproved or not.
15. Change Amidst God: Change And Development
Friday, February 27, 2009
How does the concept of God consistent with change and development? God is indivisible, indestructible, infinite and yet unchanged, unaffected, unperturbed: but Manifestation of God changes forms through a transformation process that is driven by a Principle that is universal and unchanged. The nature may look like changing over the seasons and over millenniums, but the core source or principle that causes these changes remain unaltered. Gita explains everything in this Universe including change.
The Creation is not static: there is continuous transformation of each element/ body/ thought all the time - though all changes may not be perceptible all the time. Every moment some thing is changing or under process of change in the entire Universe and in each of us. So, change is the essence of Creation. Whether we try or not we are changing. Despite all this change we observe, the source of ultimate origin of all things in the universe remains the same and is unchangeable. That source is what we call GOD, Paramatma or Para. The changing Universe and all its constituents is Apara and is the manifestation of the infinite, imperishable, incomprehensible Para. If all changes and forms are the manifestation of God/ Para, there is nothing best or better or worse. Everything / everyone are the manifestation of the same God / Para.
To know this is easy. To accept this as part of life is difficult because of differences and changes are the essence of the manifestation of Para in the various forms of Apara. To realize the oneness among innumerable varieties of people and things is extremely difficult.
To be really one with everything is virtually impossible despite all Sadhanas. Although we may know that all persons are manifestation of God, we continue to think that someone is better than the others. That is the way the Apara works even if Apara arises from Para. Whether we like or not, some people will hate others while a few people will see and recognize God in everyone and everything.
Gita is all about life. The illusion of Maya keeps us attached to all changes and development in the external environment and our individual lives.
What Gita sayings amount to in this context is:
1. The change and development that we see around is not under our control and will happen irrespective of what we wish or desire.
2. There is no alternative but to accept all changes and developments instead of wasting time and energy about whether the change/ development is desirable or not (that Arjuna had no option but to fight in the Kurushetra War, if necessary with Lord Krishna playing the role of a guide to see Arjuna through a suffering from depressed mental turbulence).
3. The only reason that may give comfort to one about what he is forced by circumstances to do, is the call of duty to play one's part as per own inherent instinctive property (as a born/grown warrior, Arjuna's instinctive dharma was to fight war as all others in the Kaurava side were doing).
4. One's duty is nothing but what one is compelled to do as per the great design of manifestation of God. One's response to change is ordained by the internal properties (dharma) and influence of internal properties (the mixture of the three Gunas - Satva, Rajas and Tamas).
5. Whether one is proud or confident or diffident or sad, one has no alternative but to do his duty.
6. While one's duties may have some ex-ante objectives/ goals and one's actions may have good/bad consequences, the duties have generally been observed to be better performed when they happen to be done without thinking about desired objective to be realized or the likely consequences.
7. The persons who happen do their duty with detachment from the desires to be fulfilled and consequences of one's own doing have been found to contribute more effectively to the mission that the manifestation process always achieves.
8. Changes are things that are certain: realization of goals/ objectives/ desired consequences is only probabilities.
9. So, one feels better when one participates in the change / development with detachment and performs duties as per one's own properties - inherent or imparted by the environment.
10. Even God almighty has to participate in the change/ development (Sambhavami Yuge Yuge and cycle of excessive oppression phase and phase of justice and equality are all but part of the very nature of Maya-dominated world).
11. Despite all the changes and developments that Maya forces us to observe and get temporary happiness or sadness), there is no change in the Fundamental Realty of absolutely No Change in the inner core of the Creation. All forms and differences that appear under the influence of separate ego/ identity is the influence of Maya. In the ultimate reality, all these are nothing but one - split into slices of different kinds/ forms and recomposed in various permutations and combinations to create the illusion of differences in identities.
12. Thus all changes – natural, environmental, physical. mental, material, spiritual and social etc. are all illusion: the reality is the continuous transformation of the same single constant that is infinite, indestructible and indivisible power – the concept of God in the Gita or the Upanishads.
13. Participate one will, without any free choice, in the developments and changes in this great, continuous transformation process. For, all forms and identities are nothing but temporary, transient snapshots of the same single core.
16. Gita & God: Beyond Discussions
Friday, February 27, 2009
The more we discuss the meaning of different words, the more we get into confusion. Actually, what Gita says is so simple that anyone can understand it if one thinks on his own. No amount of discussion and debates with words will ever make one necessarily understand Nature of God. All thoughts including the concept of God, all words in Gita or any other words, all physical bodies, mind, work, life, names ---all arise from, are contained in, are manifestation of and contains the SINGLE ORIGINAL SOURCE that we refer to variously as GOD or PARA or PARAATMAN or NATURE 0r CREATION or CREATOR. The different forms/identities that we see or recognize are all APARA or the various reflections of PARA the single original source. PARA is the REAL source that eludes us while all that we deal with in life are APARA and the great diversity of APARA keeps us tied to the illusion of you, I, they, mine, our, your, etc. We are all slaves of APARA nature that has been created by the mother source nature of PARA. There is nothing more to know or discuss. All that is manifestation and subject to transformation process and all of us experiencing life, exist / live in Apara. Yet, it is easy for the one being in Apara to see that the existence of some source Para, the source, cover, and container of all Apara is a must. The process that moves an individual t from a sense of different identities (APARA) to single identity (PARA) has been named as Sadhana. Such Sadhana process has been observed to take place among some individuals with varying intensities and durations. This does not mean an individual decides to practice Sadhana: one just happens to be under the transformation process called Sadhana. Those who happens to be under the process of Sadhana for long are observed to live in the illusion of differences and diverse identities and yet at the same time constantly being aware of the single source from which everything arises and is contained in. But it is seen that some among those who get interested in discussing and debating over the various concepts and terms, happens to fall under the grip of the Sadhana process. So, discussions and debates may not be an indicator of an individual falling victim to Sadhana process at a later point of time. Again, some people have been observed to fall into Sadhana process without having to go through a process of debates and discussions over spiritual matters, terms and concepts. Utility of discussion and debates thus varies from persons to persons: for some discussions/ debates happen to prove to be the beginning of falling into the trap of Sadhana transformation process while for some others these happen to prove to be another addiction or entertainment.
[Ego = Differentiating one from all others in existence = Doing all with that one does as one identifies one as different from others = Apara = Maya = Illusion = Finite = Destiny= No Choice = Slavery to Diverse Identities = Duty whether desirable or not.
Consciousness= Conscience = Chaitanya = Bayragya = Rising above individual identities = Realization of Brahman = Para = Infinite = Indestructible = imperishable = all pervasive, all inclusive
Apara is what I do and think: Para is the source from which Apara arose and gave me separate identity recognition.
Apara is the concept of I-you-they differentiation that I have to live with, while Para is the loss of differentiation and merging of all identities into the single source.
Para creates and contains all Apara: Apara distances from Para or sometimes approaches towards Para but never realizes that.
If Water is Para, ocean, seas, rivers, rains, clouds, ponds, urine, etc are all parts of Apara.]
Discussions and Debates are manifestations and subject to transformation process. Transformation processes may include discussions and debates. The process of discussions and debates has different consequences for different individuals inheriting different mixes of the three Gunas. One does not decide to discuss and debate or participate in the discussions/ debates. It just happens.
17. Utility of Reading Gita Again and Again
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The utility of reading any scripture varies from individual to individual. For some, it is an aid to thinking about God, for some others it is about memorizing, for some it is for preparing to give lectures and participate in debates and discussions, for some it is for trying to find what Gita says and probably means, for some it is to show off to others, for some it is an habit, and so on.
For the one more interested in knowing the Ultimate Truth or Knowledge expressed in Gita and in applying the lessons from Gita in day-to-day life, the sloka number or chapter number or the words used in Gita are immaterial. He may read Gita with a critical mind trying to find whether he believes in the following:
1. Anything in this Universe is the manifestation of the same indestructible, all-powerful, infinite unique element that always exited and exits.
2. Therefore, there is ultimately no difference among any pair of things, ideas, living being, and non-living being. All are the same.
3. There is no choice or freedom for any element or collection of elements, physical bodies, living beings, and non-living beings to pursue any time path of transformation: whatever happens happen due to the laws/ principles/ properties of the ultimate unique element. Whatever any of us do or think or do not do or do not think are all determined by those properties/ laws / principles embedded in the ultimate unique element.
4. Therefore, all discussion in a community, the terrorist attack, the recession, the financial crisis, the global warming, everything that is happening is just a process over which no one can exert any deliberate control or influence irrespective of whatever emotions, desires, and objectives we might think we are pursuing through independent choice / decision. The idea that any individual can change/ decide to do nothing is a myth and illusion: but that illusion itself drives all the activities of each element and all happenings in the universe.
5. When one realizes all the four above fully, he stops thinking about himself or 'I' since these do not exist beyond the fraction of a second.
6. So, it is rational that 'I' lose 'I' and get absorbed in the laws / principles / properties embedded in the Ultimate element. Because that is truly what all 'I' s are. And yet an individual finds it difficult to lose one’s 'I'.
7. So, one cannot practice the steps to realization by one’s own volition. It is again the principles/ laws/ properties that determine what one practices. An individual merely happen to know that the individual’s practicing anything is the result of the operation of the ultimate principle through him or her.
8. A person who has no anger, no jealousy, no envy, no enmity and no ego is a person in practice of the ultimate realization.
9. An individual also happen to know, as a result of operation of the ultimate principle through me, that different persons are forced by the ultimate law / principle/ property of the ultimate element to practice love, bhakti, gyan or yoga of various kinds and in various measures of intensity. Those who happen to be transformed into best practioners of all love, bhakti, gyan or yoga of various kinds and in various measures of intensity really attain the ultimate knowledge that makes them lose "I” by the sheer operation of the laws/ principles/ properties of the ultimate unique element.
10. But an individual does not know, at least till one happens to reach the fully realized Truth state, why different persons happen to practice different types of things: he merely knows that all these are determined by the operation of the ultimate principle that is unknowable.
11. One happens to feel good by thinking again and again about 1 to 10 and progressively become continuously happy, without fear of anything to be lost and without being worried what is happening here or there.
The Gita is so cool and simple. And, yet the operation of the ultimate principle that is the unknowable omni-present God, forces people go round and round discussing Gita again and again. The same principle drives billions that would never know the existence of Gita.
18. Building Gita of One's Own
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Many words used in Gita have the same or similar in meaning. But one can assume that
Gita is trying to reach us to the ultimate realization of the Truth of Oneness with the Ultimate indestructible infinite Cause of all in the Creation. If that is so, one needs to interpret Gita/s words and expressions in one’s own way consistent with the Ultimate Truth and the consistent with the path towards realization of the Truth. This may imply different interpretations and different paths. So long as people do not try to establish that their interpretations or paths are the correct or the best one’s, and instead concentrate on their own interpretations and paths, there is no difficulty as the destination or goal remains the same: Akshara or OUM or Oneness or Infinite. Some may happen to get distracted by the various similar words used. Some may in the process of trying to find out the correct interpretations get busy in differentiating definitions and the meanings of various words used in Gita in a societal context of over 3000-8000 years ago that may have no relevance to the societal context in the 21st century.
A simple alternative for an individual to choose his own words and meanings that he/ she thinks consistent and helpful to him/ her in understanding the ultimate truth of Infinite, indestructible Oneness of each and everything in the Creation. " Everything arises from and remains in the process of transformation in the medium of that Infinite, indestructible Oneness. Call and realize this as Param (the Ultimate), Aksharam
(the Oneness) and Brahman (the Indestructible Infinite Mind).”
Similarly, “ All individuals and anything else in
this Creation that one knows of and do not know, originates from and
transforms in the Adi (the unique, all comprehensive Ultimate Source), contain AdiBhootam (Origin/ Source) and reflect Adivaidaivatam (the ultimate source, the ultimate God).”
With such simple statements as one’s own Gita, an individual may just like to remain alert to these statements as many moments of life as one can and see his life alive to this Reality of Infinite, Indestructible Oneness with as many constituents of the Creation.
19. Experiencing Unison with God: Comprehending BiswaRoop Darshan
Saturday, February 28, 2009
At one stage in Gita, God appears in His Universal, Unified form. Arjuna was dumb-struck and could not bear for this form long, requesting Krishna to get back to his human form.
What is this mystical event? How is this consistent with the Scientific Theory of God in Gita? Can we explore this myth in Search of Living One Whole Unified Existence
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Gita and Upanishads suggest that God exists in each of us and we exist in God. God is the Creator and the entire Creation itself. But how do we live this concept in our individual existence?
I live an existence of isolation most of the time: I live what I perceive as my experience of living as an entity as contrasted with other entities. Most of the time:
(a) I live an existence separately from the existence of the parts that make my existence possible, and
(b) I also live an existence separately from the existence of those that I am part of.
How is the experience of (a)? It is what I have been doing since my birth as far as I remember. As a baby I learned to see myself as different from my limbs and parts of the body inside. I had no knowledge about what was inside me. Much later I came to know that I breathe air inside to supply oxygen to my heart and exhale some air that contains things elements that should go out to keep my body functioning smoothly. Over the time, my knowledge about myself improved further. I came to know my senses and my sensitivities, my hunger and thirst, my limbs and their uses, my names and surname, my body parts and mind, and my emotions and sentiments, my feelings and my moods, my discomfort in the body and the mind, my anxieties and tensions, my tastes and preferences, my idiosyncrasies and attitudes, my talents and aptitudes, and my strengths and weaknesses.
While I have been living my existence with all these that I cam to know about as mine, I have thought that I lived separately from them. Moments of my life have been largely filled with them but they seemed to be separate components of which I am made of but they still did not fully capture my existence as a unique entity. A little knowledge about anatomy, biology, physiology, chemistry and physics reduced all these to atoms, molecules, cells, DNAs, RNAs and the like. I have never lived my existence as an entity in continuous, conscious awareness of these infinitesimal entities.
Can I try to live an existence that is a conscious awareness of the cells and sub-atomic particles that are within me? Is it possible to live like that. How would living such a unified existence of my self, my components and their sub-components differ from the existence I have been living so far? Does this thought make sense? How do the molecules, atoms and their ingredients make this useless thought arise in me?
Who would help me in my quest to fid answers to these questions.
There are similar questions associated with (b). As a baby I was clinging to my mother as a part of her physical, emotional and intellectual existence as n entity. Later, I found my own identity separate from her. Later I came to know that I am a part of the family with parents, siblings and our descendants, that I am a descendant of my forefathers, that I am a part of the locality or group - my neighborhood, my class, my school, my social an business groups, my city, my state and my nation. We fell for each others' heart and became an integrated unit through marriage. I would soon myself as a part of the humanity and could shape humanity. I would be part of all the living beings, of the environment and of the Nature and the entire Universe or the Creation. But I had so far never lived a unified existence of the bigger and bigger entities of which I was just a small part. Why could not I try living that way?
Can I live a unified existence as an entity much larger in scope than what I thought of myself as an entity? Is such an existence possible? Does that have any meaning? How would it differ from my current existential living? Why dies this thought arise in me? Why cannot I have help in my quest to find answers to my questions?
So, the hypothesis is that I try to live an unified existence of the entire Creation - both known and unknown, continuously and consciously aware of all the sub-atomic particles and sub-cellular entities, their dynamics, fission and fusion, and their agglomerations and aggregates in the form of various living beings and non-living entities from a piece of metal, a drop of water, a flick of light, a wave of sound and a tinge of blood to a human body, a glacier, a storm, the Sun, the galaxies and the vast space in the Universe.
The questions are: how, in what sense and with what implications?
20. Living Unified existence in thought, feeling and action
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What would living a unified existence mean? Can I as an individual entity live as if I have no separate distinguishable entity? It does not seem possible at least in the literary sense. But there is one possibility. Living is in understanding, belief and behavior. First, can I understand and believe that I have really no separate existence as an individual just like a wheel fitted on an automobile does not have a separate existence of its own. I am just an integral part of the whole Universe (Creation) and am composed of the same original/ ultimate source from which everything including the parts that constitute me like the molecules or DNA/ RNA, or sub-atomic elements. This is easy to understand in two ways through meditation and scientific investigations. I need not be a scientist to understand the details but all sciences like physics, molecular biology and genetics are all the time in search of the ultimate source of everything: so far they have gone ahead in a never ending process of identifying infinitesimal things that make up the bigger and bigger size things. So, science is directed towards finding the ultimate source that makes up the DNAs or their constituents, the electrons and their source, the cells and their source. So, it is not difficult to believe that there exists an original and ultimate source that explains existence of everything. Simple meditation and logic convinces that there is an ultimate source. So, it is easy to believe that at the source level everything is same. So, I can live by believing that the sole source is what exists in me and everything else. I visualize that the entire Universe is nothing but that source material. So is my existence. At this level of thinking and belief, I live a unified existence as the source material transformed into a particular shape of aggregation of the source material. I have got the scientific knowledge that the ultimate source has to be one for everything else. Once I have proved that to myself, I start believing that as a matter of fact and faith: I develop an urge to connect with the source - I develop bhakti (devotion) towards the source material. At this belief and faith level, I therefore live in union with the source and hence entire Creation or the Universe that is nothing but the agglomeration of the source material. This is my knowledge and I live the knowledge of Unified existence that denies separation of any thing in the universe: all things are composed of the same source material. The drops of water in an Ocean lives an existence of the whole unified ocean and no two drops of water have any separate existence. I can live with this knowledge all my moments.
But knowledge, understanding, belief and faith may put me in the path of Gyan (Knowledge) and Bhakti (Devotion) Yoga, but I also live doing things or acting other than thinking. How do I live the unified existence in my action and reaction? I have to be on the path of Karmya Yoga to realize the unified existence as well. How do I do that? I do that simply by applying the same knowledge and Bhakti: I know that the particular agglomeration of the original source material that I am composed of, will have properties or gunas and dharma and therefore will act, react and behave in a particular fashion. Depending on their relative locations in the ocean, some drops of water evaporates, while some form the waves and some remain calm and still. I therefore find that I do nothing that I decide but what my inherent properties/ gunas/ dharma make me do in the face of changing/ different agglomerations of the same source material, other than what I refer to as I. Thus the actions and reactions and behavior of me no longer remain my behavior: they become the outcomes of the interaction of various agglomerations of the same source material. I start living an existence that is mere witnessing of the play of the source material. I do what my duty is: rather all duties are actually performed without my having to decide and do: all that I seem to be doing just happens like evaporation of water in the Ocean or the waves near the beach. I am in Karma Yoga because I witness what is just happening. Again, I started living a working life of a unified existence with the entire universe seeing the play of actions and interactions of various things that have originated from the same, sole source material.
But I do not have the understanding, the belief and the faith that is complete; I have not yet lost my ego as a doer of things. So, I have not attained the state that is the ultimate goal of the Gyan Yogi, or the Bhakti Yogi or the Karma Yogi. So, I continue to live a disintegrated existence.
21. Experiencing or Living Unified Existence
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
That I am unable to live a unified existence is only because of the properties/ gnas/ dharma imparted in the particular agglomeration of the ultimate source material that I represent. But some other shapes or forms of agglomeration that I may identify as X or Y may live a life of some sort of Unified existence with the source material at some time points and periods. Not all soils of the earth grow coconut trees but some do. Not all coal blocks have the same calorific value or ash content. Not all human beings can mother a child, but some do. Some human beings represent particular agglomerations of the original source material that have properties or gunas or dharma that may induce living of unified existence with the source material. They are therefore destined to live such lives. The saints get a chance to live such a life. Mother Teresa represented an agglomeration of the source material that implied thoughts, feelings and behavior of love for the weak and the needy. Many agglomerations of source material turn out to live a saintly life: some had to become preachers of one religion or other. Ramakrishna Paramhansa was once such agglomeration of source material that lived a great part of life in union with the source material he termed as the Holy Mother Kali. His wife Sarada Devi did not mother a child but was a mother to many and lived a life of unified existence however partial. So did Swami Vivekananda and host of Hindu Sadhaks, Fakirs and clergy men and nuns. Buddha and Jesus lived even higher degree of existence in union with the source material.
Their behavior was certainly different from the general folks. All these men and women represented certain types of agglomeration of the original source material that represented certain properties, gunas and dharma that forced them to be in search for, to understand, to believe in and to behave in a manner conducive to experiencing unified existence in various degrees.
If these saints and holy men and women are possible agglomerations of source material that were destined towards searching and experiencing unified existence, then there is also the rare possibility of a particular agglomeration of the source material that forces the agglomeration to live in complete union with the source material continuously from birth to death.
How would such an agglomeration of the ultimate source think, believe and behave?
22. The Rare Being in Complete Union with the Ultimate Source
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The rare possibility is an agglomeration that has the properties, gunas and dharma to experience complete union with the source material. How would such a person behave? He would have no desire to satisfy, would never worry about what to do and what not to do, would be fearful of nothing, would not be ever tired, ever worried or ever in dilemmas, would be unattached to any particular form of agglomeration of the source material, would be unmoved by any happening or incidence. He would see everything as equal and remain indifferent to any choice except that he would do only that what his gunas/ dharma forces him to do. He would have no anger or personal self-interest. He would be in complete knowledge of all arts ad sciences the human society has developed, and skillful in using knowledge.
Any example of such a rare being? Not one that I have come into contact with. But there a few instances in epics of the Hindus that closely resembles this particular agglomeration of the ultimate source material. One that readily comes to mind is Sri Krishna.
This character in the Hindu scriptures is painted as one without desire, with out fear, without ego and in complete equanimity. He showed tremendous affection and love and yet seemed unattached from everything and detached from worldly affairs. He was full of knowledge in various arts and sciences and extremely skilled in the application of knowledge. He had done nothing in his life that was driven by self-interest. He was beyond praise and yet merciful to others. He was never seen to abuse his powers and knowledge to meet his own self-interest as he had no such interest.
Only such a person can be in unison with the ultimate source material and live a complete unified existence. It was natural that the discourse in Gita came from his mouth.
How would such a person appear to others? It would be different to different people depending on the nature of agglomeration of the source material that each person would represent. The selfish and the greedy would look for his friendship on exclusive basis but would not get and hence would despise him. The weak and the poor would seek his help and get it. The people who would love him will develop intense love for him. The leaned will regard him as the most learned. The skilled would like to regard him as the model. His personality would be so pleasing and attractive that most people would be his fan and would worship him as God. Yet he would live a life that is simple.
The people who were advanced on the path of various kinds of Yoga would regard him as the ideal and perfect Yogi. It is no surprise that Arjuna who was his astute devotee and friend would see him in God's Viswaroop (all encompasing, entire creation). Arjun's Viswaroop Dharshan is not magical event: it is the visualisation of the concept of the ultimate source material generating various agglomerations and transformations through the infinite inner power and dynamics of the source material. The ultimate source material is ever-lasting, infinite, indestructible and present in each and every infinitesimal section throughout the Creation (Universe). There is nothing in the Creation that is not the ultimate source material in various agglomeration and transformation state. So, it was easy for Arjuna to see that in Krishna Himself since Krishna represented the rare agglomeration of source material that was transparent enough to reveal the true nature of the Universe. All that Arjuna saw is that all forms - big and small, dark and illuminated, beautiful and ugly gushing into Krishna's mouth: symbolic of the uniqueness of the source material of everything in the Creation.
I may not live a unified existence. But I can easily recognise that the Unified Existence is the basis of any concept of physical or meta-physical universe or Creation. A rare type of agglomeration of the ultimate source material as embodied in Krishna is nothing but the miniature representation of the infinite Universe of densely woven source material just like the Ocean of water.
So long as the concept of Unified Existence seems a possible outcome, I, as will some others, long to experience that existence. I enjoy seeing the video of a past event or a current event in which I am filmed: how enjoyable would be to see myself as the source material cutting across the veil of my separate individual existence with a proper or common noun?
23. Hypothetical Unified Existence
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Let us experiment in a Hypothetical living of Unified Existence of God. This living is by a particular agglomeration part X in the Creation. How would X be in perception and reality?
He would find his entire body and mind as a small part of his existence in the same way he would find everything else in the Creation as part of his existence. He would find Himself existing in and acting through everything: the different human beings, all the non-human living creatures, the entire inanimate world - the breeze, the rain, the storm, the moon, the sun, the planets and stars, the limitless space, the infinite time - past, present and future, and so on. By definition he would have all knowledge - all that there was, is and will be to be known, He will simultaneously exist in everything, in every thoughts and actions and behaviour of everything. He will find everyone in conversation and debate as his own conversation within himself. He would experience all this as one whole existence and would not have to desire anything, attach himself to anything that goes on happening: he will be just a mere witness to all that goes on and on. And, yet he will perceive as reality what X or Y or any Z does as his own action and behavior. He would then become completely one with the entire Creation and the Creator even if he acts in the form of X as a particular human being, as Krishna or Arjuna - all at the same time. X would thus be different from normal, would show no fear, no disappointment and no anger. He will do anything that he would do without desire and ego. He would excel in whatever he is found to be doing. This is the concept of the person in unified existence.
This is what Lord Krishna has been characterised as and this is what Arjuna sees of Krishna as Viswaroop Darshan. This is the Hypothetical Unified Existence. Such an existence is beyond any suffering or attachment or obligation or performance and ever lasting, infinite and what we would call blissful. How did Krishna get into such unified existence? It is stochastically destiny outcome that a rare agglomeration form X would have the properties necessary to have that experience: it is only that rare outcome which we call Krishna by chance.
How most others would would have viewed the hypothetical person X. He would be perceived as one who excels in every thing. He would by definition attract attention of others and others would be influenced by his thoughts and actions. He would be admired, praised, respected and followed by most others. That is the concept. Each person is different in external behavior because of the stochastically determined combination of Guna-doses facing stochastically determined external environment he / she fasces. X is just one such possibility which has the probability close to zero That is the concept.
Whether Krishna really existed in history or not is not the issue. The issue is the possibility of X, a human outcome with close to zero probability that is identified with God / Creator / Creation. X is the concept of God that human mind can describe. That is why X is the incarnation of God or God in living form. There are many other possibilities with low probabilities (though higher than the probability of X): these possibilities are X1, X2, X3 ... etc. for some i and j, Xi = Xj but the equivalence is not true in general. These Xi and Xj s are different Avatars, Godly men like Buddha and Christ, saints like Ramakrishna, Chaityana and Mahavir or Nanak or Kabir, some great personalities like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore, and so on.
Each person is just a stochastic outcome. So are the persons named earlier? Of these X (or Krishna) depicts the stochastic outcome that is the close to the concept of a person being in complete unified existence as the Creator and with everything in the Creation - a concept developed in the Upanishads and illustrated in the Gita.
After being in search of God or Brahmah in sound, in light, in the air and in the space, the Upanishads described God as not 'coarse, fine, short, long, glowing, adhesive", as without 'measure, inside, outside, shadow, darkness, air, fear, stickiness, odor, taste, eye, ear, voice, wind, energy, breath, mouth, name' , as 'unaging, undying, immortal, stainless, not uncovered and not covered(Aranyaka III: 8:6- Yagyavalkya) that is the "origin, sustenance and dissolution of the Creation" and therefore the only sat (being), chit (consciousness) and ananda (bliss). In Gita, this is illustrated by and through the character of Krishna: human being in complete unified existence.
24. Can I be one such?
Monday, November 22, 2010
They read Gita. They discuss Gita and they quote from Gita. Many try to practice Gita in life. For me the point is Can I practice Gita and test Gita? My hypotheses are: (a) One can practice Gita every moment of life through practice and (b) One gets what Gita promises, Salvation or permanent and unceasing happiness if one succeeds in précising Gita. But how do I test these hypotheses and prove to myself if the hypotheses are True of False? The most appealing method is by just citing an example that I have experienced. How do I obtain such an example? The best example that I can consider is to experiment with myself.
1. Can I go on doing whatever I happen to do without desiring any benefit / fruit from whatever I do? Can I be in complete renunciation and yet be in all kinds of action that I undertake or happen to undertake?
2. Can I make my mind totally unperturbed and perfectly serene in the midst of all kinds of and pairs of commonly regarded opposites, such as cold and heat,
favorable and unfavorable, joy and sorrow, honor and dishonor, pleasure and pain, success and failure? Rather, can I lose all sense of good or bad, favourable and unfavourable or such other distinctions and comparisons and perceive all happenings as equally value-free?
3. Can I cease to have any attachment, either for the objects of senses or for the actions and lose all sense of gross or subtle desires?
4. Can I perceive every one and every thing as the expression of the Same - all sourced in the One even as I go on contemplating and performing actions that I happen to perform without any desire whatsoever for fulfilling any selfish or selfless objective or goal?
5. Can I do all the above even forgetting and renouncing the objective of hypotheses testing that I had initially set myself on the experiment?
So far I have not been able to successfully do the experiment. But I have tested that it is possible, though that would mean that the phenomenon others describing me as mad or funny or escapist or irresponsible or fatalist or heartless or selfish or stupid or incompetent to become a human being would cause in me any repercussions. But that is only so far as hypothesis (a) is concerned and I can continue with my experiment so that it becomes the way of life for me. What about (b)? Unless experiment (a) is complete and I remain continuously in that State that gives the answer to all the five questions as YES, I cannot conclude if I had reached the State of Salvation, though once I reach that State that is supposed to bring me Salvation, I know, I would have lost any sense of the meaning of the world/ concept of Salvation. The only thing that I can perceive now that if I were to have no desire, no attachment, no anger, no distinction among things and events as being of more or less positive or negative value and no agitation in the mind for failure or success and pleasure and pain, I shall be free from all these bondages and yet I shall be in actions that get performed by me without any direction or control by my ego, intellect, mind and senses. There would be nothing that rules my behaviour and actions now will be ruling me any longer or even if they continue to rule, I shall not be attached to or subservient to those rulers.
My experiment therefore can only be an exploration. I can only say I started off practicing Gita driven by my guna properties reacting to external environment impulses and then I do not know what happened to my experiment.
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