Bhagavad Gita

# Ch2: Sankhya Yoga Chapter 2 summary Divided into four parts **1-10 Arjunas doubts** Arjuna has doubts and then is not able to get an answer, and hence he surrenders himself ultimately to the lord and a channel of communication is now established **11-38 - Gnana Yogi** This portion is very important and has the essence of all the upanishads. You are not your mind and the body. Gnana yoga is realising the consciousness, and it is the solution to all problems. Krishna says understanding the atma, consciousness is very difficult until you prepare the mind through karma yoga. **39-53 - Karma Yogi** **Proper action + proper attitude is karma yoga** Satvika karma, the action should benefit everyone. And you should do it with a lot of love. IF you don’t find an action which you love, love the action which you do/get. Even the most menial action you love and do it wholeheartedly , you will do it with perfection. How can you do something whole heartedly, by doing the action as an offering to lord and taking the result as the prasada . Proper action = an action that benefits more number of people, the more the number of people the better. Proper attitude = do the action with love. do it as an offering to god and consider the results as prasad from the god. **54-72 Sthira prajna** Sthira prajna qualities , attributes mentioned above. Guru can imbibe only intellectual knowledge into the sisya (prajna). Effort is needed from his end to become emotionally capable. (sthira prajna) Three excercises to get emotional mastery as said by krishna 1. Master your senses. Control them. Indriya nigrahah. If every sense enters your mind, it can disturb you . 2. Choose the thoughts you want to entertain. Mano nigrahah. 3. Dwell upon HIS teaching. By reading books, etc. What happens after you do these things. What are the results 1. Freedom from binding desires born out of self sufficiency and self fulfilment 2. The knowledge gives me such a mental fulfilment that I do no have any binding desires. I will do what I like, if its successful good, else also it is fine. They are non binding desires. So all binding desires are gone, only non binding desires, which are harmless and this is because of self sufficiency. We call it **purnatvam**. I do not miss anything in life. 3. Assimilation of samatvam. Equanimity of mind. Freedom from the ups and downs of life. Like an ocean. # Chapter 3: Karma Yoga ## Verse 1-3 Krishna should I pursue jnana yoga or karma yoga? You are confusing me Karma yoga is like washing hands before eating (gnana yoga) . Both are required to reach the destination of mukthi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Verse 3-6 So what are the two arguments. Argument no.1: 1. **by giving up actions, you do not get mokṣaḥ or peace;** 2. **the second argument is that you cannot give up action. because the nature of the cause shows in the creation. and you have to exhaust your gunas.** and then you gain knowledge Act Pure Learn Free Act = Karma, get pure from kama, krodha, etc, learn in gnana and attain liberation Running away from duties or inaction The Ego has to ripen before the ego falls. He also says Going to sanyasa before the ego has matures, and you have become physically and physiologically self sufficient, you will go nuts and its very risky ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Verse 6-8 **It is important to transcend the wordly desires not suppress them.** **Regulate**/manage **your** **senses**, don’t suppress them. Going to movies is fine, but not three movies a day. It is important to live in detachment. By holding onto them , I am not going to retain, either you grow out of it, or yamadharmaraja will take it away from you. Grow out of things you use. A detached grihasta is better than a immature sanyasi Sattvika karma, your actions that benefit a lot of people and these actions cleanse the mind. 5 main activities you need to do everyday 1. Allocate a time of the day for religious activity or worship 2. Worship forefathers. 3. Worship scriptures 4. Do service / feed the poor 5. Plant trees and take care of the environment Once you do all this, you are no more a burden to the society. Satvika karma, is give more take less. **All actions are offerings to the lord and all results are prasada. If you follow this attitude. There will not be a divide between pleasant and unpleasant jobs**. It will lead to pleasantness in any kind of duty. **Samatvam .** No work is being done with a grudge. He will be a source of enthu. **A karma yogi will have a lot of enthu with smile. That is why you should have a ever smiling face!**. **If you don’t have the strength to accept some of the prasadas of god, ask / pay for strength.** If you don’t do these 5, you will move away from moksha, thats the punishment. And therefore, it is impossible to give up action because svabhāva pressurises. When you choose an idle lifestyle, it is risky; because when you do not have anything to do; normally at least for a grihasthā, so many responsibility, therefore something to worry is there; and his mind is always preoccupied. When there are no responsibilities, when there are no goals in life; no plan, nothing is there, the mind is idle, and he is not going to meditate upon the self, because he does not know what the Self is; if he knows what the Self, he is a jñāni, so when a person without even ātmajñānam, remains quiet without doing anything, he cannot think of ātma also, and he does not have any project to think of, healthy project to think of, he has got an idle mind, an idle mind is an ideal for a devil's workshop. **All the suppressed desires come up** and especially when he looks up and sees that so many people are going after so many variety of enjoyment, since he cannot do it physically, because he has become a sanyāsi ; because the society does not accept that, and therefore he does not do anything physically, then whatever he is missing physically he begins to fantasise; he begins to imagine; and the mind goes on imagining, the thought becomes more and more powerful; and a time comes, either he violates the sanyāsa āśrama dharma totally; or his mind gets deranged, because of suppression. Even psychologists say suppression is more dangerous than violent expression. So what vēdānta talks about is transcending the worldly desires; not suppressing the worldly desires; parīkṣya lokān karmacidān brāhmaṇān nirvēdām āyāt; getting **vairāgyam is growing out of worldly desires**. But this person is not growing out; but he is su ppressing and therefore Krishna calls him a mithyācāraḥ. Outside he is aSwami, he is declaring himself to the world that I am only thinking of dharma and mokṣaḥ, that is the declaration through this vastrā, and outside he declares onething and inside his mind is in arta-kāma. Thus there is a double personality; split personality and therefore he is called a mithyācāraḥ. Arjuna why should you be amithyācāraḥ, because there is a strain in the personality. ## Verse 6 So therefore what is the ideal āśrama, according to Krishna. It is Grihasthāśrama, a life in society, where there is a scope for contribution, so that I can cleanse myself;Grihasthāśrama, while it is an ideal āśrama, for fulfilling artha kāma desires,parallelly it is an ideal āśrama for service to the society. As a grihasthā, as an active person in society, let him regulate his sense organs first; even though grihasthā is given afreedom to fulfil his artha kāma, artha kāma means what, artha means security,money, possessions, house, status etc. name, fame, they are all security; and kāmameans entertainment. So śāstrā gives freedom to fulfil the artha kāma desire only inGrihasthāśrama and not in Sanyāsa āśrama The legitimate fulfilment of pleasures cannot be beyond limits, that is why I gave theexample of pickle; pickle is allowed, if you do not have BP of course, pickle isallowed, but you should know what is the main dish, what is the side dish. Youshould not take the pickle as the main dish, forgetting the main dish. Similarly,artha kāma should not be primary, dharma should be primary; giving must beprimary, taking must be lesser; always the account must show that what I havecontributed is more what I have consumed is less. That is called a dharmic puruṣaḥ. And therefore, regulating, avoiding indulgence. Avoiding excesses, sensory excesses.and how do you control the sense organs; manasā; manasā means bydiscrimination, by discrimination, what is right, and what is wrong and what ismoderate and what is not moderate, **the intellect must assess and judge and decide controlling the mind; controlling is not suppression. Controlling is regulating.Remember the example of a river; if you stop a river, it is suppression; the water will increase, increase and increase, the pressure will mount up a time will come when itwill break the bund and flood the whole place. At the same time if you do not stopthe river, the water may be wasted, it may just flow into the ocean withoutbenefitting anyone; that is also wastage of water. So that is also not correct;stopping also is not correct; and what is the correct thing; regulation of water, damthe river alright, but you have to channelise the water in an useful direction.Similarly, Vēdānta does not ask you to suppress; at the same time, vēdānta says donot violently allow the sense organs to: ா ா ி ல ம ா லாமா,ம ா ா ி ல ம த ா லாமா; kaṇ po a pokkile ma am pokalāmā,ma am po a pokkile ma ita pokalāmā; (Should the mind uncontrollably followwhatever the eyes see; and should a man uncontrollably follow his uncontrolledmind?) So do not allow that to happen. That is excess.** ## verse 7 I had briefly discussed in the second chapter; that also you can remember. I said karma yōga consists of two portions; one is karma and another is yōga. Karma is one word; yōga is another word; karma means proper action. So one of the criteriafor karma yōga is that the action must be proper action; what is proper action (satvika action, one which has many beneficiaries), we will see later; karma is here proper action. Then the second part of karma yōga is yōga. And the word yōga means proper attitude; towards what. towards the action and not only the action; towards theresult of action also; that is more important; so proper attitude towards action andresult is called yōga**ḥ**. Therefore, Krishna says Arjuna, if you are a karma yōgi,concentrate on the pañca mahā yajña; you might have selfish desires; fulfill them alright, but predominantly it should be a **life of contribution**; which is proper action; I have only talked about first part of karma yōga; that is proper action. pañca mahāyajña, sātvikam karma; niṣkāma karma. I do not consider it as my contribution and develop arrogance, I am humble and I am grateful to the Lord that I have got an opportunityto serve the Lord, which is in the form of all these people I do not do it grudgingly; therefore what is the benefit of īśvarārpaṇa buddhi, there is pleasantness in any kind of duty; Krishna calls it samatvam. No work being done murmuring, mumbling, grumbling. Not only he is unhappy, he is freely distributing unhappiness to anyone going near by. If anyone stands near him for five minutes,our face will also droop. There is no enthusiasm. There is no pleasantness. with a smile. Therefore, that smile should be in the face; that is why SwamiChinmayananda used to give one advice; easiest advice, but most difficult, you just try to follow only one rule; that the motto given in the school to the children; Keep smiling; it looks so simple, but it is one of the important thing, whatever you have todo, be pleasant. And what is the benefit of this karma yōga? Material benefits may come, may not come; Karma yōga does not guarantee material benefit, it may come, generally it will come, that is the bye-product of karma yōga. Generally, but we are notsupposed to concentrate on the bye-product; if you are concentrating on the bye-product, it is no more bye-product; it is the main product. Therefore, material prosperity is a bye-product; we are not supposed to concentrate on it, the primary result of karma yōga is what: very fast spiritual progress; and what is the sign of spiritual progress; interest in self-knowledge; spiritual progress how can I know; I begin to love self-knowledge; and I will also easily grasp self-knowledge. This is thebird's eye view of the karma yōga. With this background, we will go slōkā by slōkā;every slōkā is a gem. ## verse 8 So Krishna says: look at the 8th sloka; अकमण ः कम ् यायः **akarma aḥ karma** **jy yaḥ**. Arjuna, action is always superior to inaction. Action is always superior toinaction; because as we saw in the previous sloka; in inaction, the mind is idle andan idle mind is a devil's workshop. Only a jñāni can remain without action, because his mind has no problem, but whereas as far as an ajñāni is concerned, if he is idle,and if he tries to alone, withdrawn from the society; the very same aloneness will only create fear and loneliness. Therefore, whenever a place is a quiet place, you will find two people will have two types of response. One will say that it is quiet like āśramam. Another person will say it is quiet like a cremation ground or burialground. Quiet remaining the same, the one who has got a mature mind, he enjoys that, he calls it aloneness; whereas the other person who is not prepared, the verysame thing is what: loneliness. Externally both are same; but internally, it isdangerous for an unprepared mind, therefore Krishna says; action is superior toinaction; and not only that; look at the second line; अकमण ः शर रया ािप च ते न िस येत ् **akarma aḥ ar ray tr 'pi ca t na prasiddhy d**. If you resort to inaction, evenliving in the world will become impossible. If you resort to inaction; śarīra yātrā,even the journey of life, even the procurement of the minimum needs like food,clothing and shelter, even that is not possible, if you do not take to action. Andsuppose a person argues. I need not act for procuring the minimum needs. I alreadyhave got pūrvika wealth. Suppose a person says, all that I have to do is to eat to thenose-full, and take rest, if I have to eat I have to take rest, after some rest, I haveto eat; for that śāstrā says, even if you have got everything provided you have toact in the world at least for maintaining your physical health; otherwise cholesterolwill get deposited all over, the person who has got the car and the other facilities,the doctor will say, keep the car at a long distance and walk. At least to maintainyour health you will have to work, you have to act and therefore Krishna says, evenfor livelihood you have to work in the work if you are not doing panache maha yagna, the punishment is that you are moving away from sprituality and you are moving away from moksha ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Verse 9 Karma yoga is making your life a pooja to the lord. Puja not just 15 mins, live life such that the entire life is a pooja. Let your very living be an offering to the lord. Follow karma yoga not as fear to the lord, but as gratitude to the lord Action minus devotion is bondage, action with devotion is liberation. Dont do anything for appreciation. Appreciation is a bonus. Do it as an offering. But it is your duty to appreciate others. Our society is a duty based society. Your duty becomes another persons right. Dayanada says, where duty is emphasised, humility will come, but where right is emphasised, fight will come, court will come, divorce will come. I would not appreciate, because it is said that in Gītā that no one should expect appreciation; very careful, they should not expect appreciation, but it is my duty to appreciate every contribution of every member of the family. They should not ask but you should give the appreciation. Therefore, wife should not ask for appreciation from the husband; but the husband should appreciate. Similarly husband should not expect appreciation from wife, but wife should. if youdo not convert your action into worship, then what will happen, karma bandhanaḥ,every action will become a bondage for you. Action as worship is not a bondage, infact it leads to liberation, action as worship is not a bondage, in fact it leads toliberation, whereas action which is not a worship is cause of bondage. Why it is thecause of bondage; because I will have tensions, whether it will work properly, thereis a constant anxiety; whether the child will get admission or not; whether I will beable to go to America or not, whether I will be able to win the contract or not. he has got high salaryalright, but he cannot enjoy even good food. I have told you. he cannot take salt;because of BP; he cannot take sweet; because of sugar; he cannot take sour thingsbecause of ulcer; puli is not there; what to eat? Pumpkin juice, three times daily!!For what purpose you are earning; if minimum you cannot eat well, why should Iearn a salary of Rs.50,000 a month. Therefore if you want to eat the minimum earnand eat well, remove the stress and that you can do only under one condition; whatis that; convert your life into worship and tell yourselves whatever comes, prasādaḥ. Action is your return gift to the lord who gifted you everything from food, to water to everything. Appreciation of the water; appreciation of the air; appreciation of fire; Like cobrapoison. The poison can kill a person within a few minutes, cobra poison; but the verysame poison, in certain places, they extract and make medicine out of it, the verysame poison, if handled properly, it can become a saving medicine. So therefore, tellme whether poison is a killer or a saviour. What will be the answer? It depends uponhow you handle. Similarly action is a saviour, a binder, a killer or spiritual destroyer. Krishna says that action by itself, neither binds nor liberates, but it all depends uponhow you handle the action; action minus devotion, is bondage. Action plus devotionis a liberator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Verse 10 Follow the vedas and live a life of yagnah (harmony), else you will be the cause of your own destruction. Competition is not good, it causes envy, you should be happy when the other guy wins also. Co operation is the key , not competition. Remove the six evils, practice karma yoga and become a kamamadhenu, the sacred cow (human intelligence) that gives anything. Kama lust , krodha anger, lobh greed, moha attachment, made pride, matsarya jealousy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Verse 11 Live in harmoney with nature and the nature gods will bless you and keep you in harmony Your body is a gift to you by god. You need to return it to them by living a life of harmony. --- ## Verse 12 If you don’t offer the gifts by god to you, you are a mere theif. Just atleast thank god before eating --- ## Verse 13 Without atma jnanam one can never attain moksha The external world is neither a source of happiness nor is it a source of sorrow. Its all in your attitude (Sankaracharyas Bhajagovindam) According to vēdānta anything that obstructs my spiritualpursuits is a pāpam this delusion must go away and I should understand that it is not the world thatgives me joy or sorrow, it is my attitude towards the world which is responsible forhappiness or unhappiness. It is my attitude towards the world which determinessorrow or happiness and therefore what is required is not a change in the world buta change in my attitude. And any attitudinal change, any perspective change is brought about by knowledgealone. Knowledge alone changes my attitude; therefore ultimately, what I require isknowledge; instead of finding fault with the world and once I turn towardsknowledge, then I have become a spiritual seeker. And whatever helps thismisconception or delusion which makes me go after the world and which makes mechase the world is called mōhaḥ, and that is why Sankaracharya wrote a work calledBhaja Govindam which was called mōhaḥ, mudgaraḥ. Mudgaraḥ means hammer. ல ை olakkai. mohaḥ mudgaraha means a work which will hammer and destroy your delusion. ## verse 14 And what is the meaning of the worddharma, धारणात् धम dhāraṇāt **dharma, that which maintains the harmony of the** **creation** is called dharmaḥ. **humans come from food comes from rains comes from punyam/yagna which is harmony. harmony of seasons etc. which comes from karma yoga** Krishna says Arjuna you may not believe in God; does not matter; you may not believe in mokṣaḥ. You may not believe in puṇya. You need not follow karma yōga for the sake of purification, you need follow karma yōga, to worship God. You need not believe in God. You need not do karma yōga as a commandment of God; but still even if you are an atheist person, since you have to live a life of karma yōga, to maintain the harmony of the creation. And even the worst atheist who does not believe in God and dharma and punyam and pāpam; he will have to believe; why believe; accept the harmony of the creation, because since every moment is proving that the whole creation is inter-connected. Therefore we cannot lead a life of irresponsibility. We should be responsible citizen. And to indicate the harmony of the creation, Krishna knows that everything that happens in the creation is a cyclic process. Cycles indicate balance indicate harmony. A simple example that we all know is what: we require oxygen to breath in; without oxygen we cannot survive. Therefore naturally, when there are many people in a city, we breath plenty of oxygen in, and we give out carbon dioxide, a time will come when the balance is disturbed. Then Bhagavan has made wonderful arrangement. What is that arrangement? The plants, the tree are there; wonderful, they need carbon dioxide and they release oxygen; thus we have got a beautiful cycle of oxygen and a beautiful cycle of carbon dioxide. We have not produced this cycle; we find this cycle is already existing; man and nature are inter-connected. But what will we do; the brihaspathis! This wonderful brihaspathis, in the city population will go on increasing, and when more human population is increased, should not the trees also increase! Very simple, even a little intellect is enough. But we do just the opposite; all the individual houses surrounded by trees, they are all destroyed and that one house is given to the promoter and there are 32 flats in that area; And the trees I cannot keep. Similarly, all over the promotion of concrete houses, just go on and the trees are cut, then what happens, the cycle is broken; and who is going to be the sufferer; we are going to be the sufferer Then from where does karma come; from where does karma come; ultimately thekarma has to come from me alone; therefore I am born out of karma, and thekarma is born out of me; thus I and my karma are inter-dependent; therefore **if you have to live in the society; you have to keep contributing to the society; only then the cyclic is complete, and everytime I eat, I am taking and every time I work,complete that cycle, by a life of contribution.** The Cycle This body is born out of annam. So bhūtāni, here bhūtāni, living beings, they are all born out of annam. Annam does not mean rice alone; any form of food; then how annam come; पज􏰊र् याद􏰊नस􏰉􏰖वः **parjany􏰈dannasambhavaḥ**; because of rain alone annam comes; without annam, without rains, we cannot produce annam. We might have enough seeds alright; seeds alone are not enough, we require rain; So therefore Krishna says parjanyāt anna sambhava and one year there is no rain; then the Kaveri dispute becomes more intense. In the year when the rain is plenty, there is no talk of Cauvery water, as they have enough water and they want to give and we also have got enough water, we just release it into the ocean. So no 􏱎ா􏱩 􏱪􏱩ச; What is responsible for rain. Krishna says यज्ञा􏱡वित पज􏰊र् यः **yajñ􏰈dbhavati parjanyaḥ**. yajñādbhavati parjanyaḥ. Here the word yajñaḥ means apūrvam or adṛṣṭam, because of invisible factor yajñaḥ, adṛṣṭam; invisible favourable factor called yajñah, sometimes it is called punyam, sometime it is called adṛṣṭam, sometime it is called apūrvam, here the word yajñaḥ means because of the punyam alone, rain comes. Then we may wonder, what are you talking, because of punyam rain comes; it looks like a cock and bull story; how do you say punyam produces rain; if you have to understand punyam in scientific language; remember punyam or adṛṣṭam means the cosmic balance or harmony; only when there is a harmony in nature; only when there is balance in nature; the rain will come at the appropriate time; because the seasons are indicative of natural harmony. The seasons are all always indicative of natural harmony; therefore in our tradition, they always took rain as the acid test for universal balance; ecological balance; because in those days, the scientific language was not available; therefore they call it punyam, but nowadays because of the advancement of science, we can use the language, when you are cutting the forest, naturally the clouds are not formed properly, therefore the rains do not come; therefore deforestation or that is the cause;, or pollution is the cause, they say; Nowadays you use the word of ecological balance or harmony; in those days, they called it yajñaḥ. And therefore yajñādbhavati parjanyaḥ. So are you now able to see the connection. Living beings are born because of annam. Annam is because of rain; rain is because of harmony; balance of nature. Then the next question, how do we maintain the balance of nature. How do we create the balance of nature; Krishna gives the answer, यज्ञः कमसर् म􏱡ु वः yajñaḥ karmasamudbhavaḥ. One maintains the balance of nature only by karma yōgaḥ. Only by self-restraint. Only by avoiding the exploitation of nature. Only by revering the creation. Only by respecting nature, we will maintain the balance; as I said the other day, I need not bring about harmony of nature, because nature is already harmonious, what I have to do is, I should avoid disturbing the harmony. So now what are the layers? We are born out of food; food is because of rain; rain is because of cosmic harmony, cosmic harmony is because of karma or karma yōgaḥ; that means the ultimate cause of human beings is karma yōga alone. So from karma alone, through various layers, the living beings are born. From karma alone, through various layers, the living beings are born; that means I or my existence is dependent on karma. Then from where does karma come; from where does karma come; ultimately the karma has to come from me alone; therefore I am born out of karma, and the karma is born out of me; thus I and my karma are inter-dependent; therefore if you have to live in the society; you have to keep contributing to the society; only then the cyclic is complete, and everytime I eat, I am taking and every time I work, complete that cycle, by a life of contribution. So yajñaha karmasamudbhavaḥ and you have to add one line, karma bhootha samudbhavaḥ, the karmas are born out of living beings, then the cyclic is complete ——————— ————— ## Verse 15 **15. Know that action is born out of the V d . The V d is born out of theLord. Therefore the V d is all-pervading (and it) is always employed inY jña.** Karma yoga is in short give. Give up your anger, pride, etc, etc. Then give / share your everything. ——————— ————— ## Verse 16 Gita says reverse, tagi. You should give as much as you consume. You consumed wealth from this world, then you give it up. The world doesn’t praise the richest men, the world praises the ones who gave wealth to the world. The person who has just amassed wealth and doesn’t give is a sinner. Giving and taking is a cycle and you live in that cycle and create harmony he is sensualist who only spends his life, for his sensory pleasures alone; he does not consider anything superior to that; he is a sensualist given to sensory pleasures only; hey partha; मॊ􏱒म् सः जीवित **mōgha􏰬 saḥ j􏰱vati**; such a person lives in vain; because he is neither useful to himself nor useful to the society. He is not useful to himself because being a sensualist given to sensory pleasures only; he is not going to accomplish anything greater. Because eating and drinking and procreating cannot be considered a great pleasure because or great achievement because even animals do that successfully. As Vivekananda says somewhere, living a long healthy life, is not a great accomplishment, even a tortoise lives for 350 years; a coconut tree lives longer; therefore long life or a having many family members, I have got 3 sons and four daughters; and I have got 24 grandchildren and 72 great grand children; that is not a great accomplishment, because pigs have bigger family. If sensory pleasure is great accomplishment the animals also do that; therefore the real accomplishment is in the field of karma and mokṣaḥ and this person who was a sensualist, he did not accomplish anything; his human life has become a waste alone. And not only his life was useless for himself; was it useful to the society; he did not contribute anything to the society also; that the society thanks the Lord that this person dies; because bhu bharam kurinjithe. 􏱥 􏱛ாரம் 􏱮􏱣ன்சிது. (earth's burden is reduced, by a useless's removal!). First stage is called pravṛtti; the second stage is called nivṛtti. First stage is called involvement; the second stage is called seclusion or withdrawal; And having withdrawn from extrovertedness, what I am supposed to do; ask thebasic question, who am I; what am I really seeking in life; am I blindly doing things because my parents did; and the grand parents did; often it is mechanical; I went to[pre-L.Kg](http://pre-l.kg/ "Page 608"). Lkg. uKg; then school. and then college; and then education is over and Iwent to job, because everybody did all these; then, everybody married and I alsogot married; why, that is what my parents did; thereafter got children; why, becausethat happens; and thereafterwards I educated them and then got them married;often it is mechanical life; I have to ask the question what is life, what is my real nature, why have I come here; what is my real destination, why this human struggle; and this is called jñāna yōgah; And this jñāna yōga is in the form of vēdānta śravaṇa, manana, nidhidyasanam.Study of the philosophical scriptures dealing with their true nature. And assimilatingthat teaching and discovering the real I, which is ever pūrṇaḥ, which is evercomplete. That discovery of the complete-self is called jñāna yōgaḥ. ——————— ————— ## Verse 17 Do every action not for fulfilment , but out of fulfilment. What is the difference. When you do it for fullfillment, there is always envy, anxiousness, tension, etc. ——————— ————— ## Verse 18 Move from world dependance (samsara) to god dependence (bhakthi) to self dependence (jnani) ——————— ————— ## Verse 19 ——————— ————— ## Verse 20 Be a responsible person for the society ——————— ————— ## Verse 21 **If you are a leader be very very responsible as everyone will follow you. You are the standard..** One can learn by listening vedas, shruthi or reading smriti or by following great living people/models/ like mata, pita, guru, deivam (hanuman) etc as long as you are in the society; you have to serve as a model for other members of the society; and the other members happen to be spiritually ignorant and since the other members require karma, you have to set an example by performing karma, not for your sake, but for teaching the society; and in this context, Krishna talks about certain general principles and that is according to our scriptures, there are different sources of learning the proper way of living; dharmic way of living; one can and one should learn from different sources. If a person does not learn the dharmic way of living; then the person will go according to his rāgaḥ and dveṣaḥ; and a life in keeping with my views and fancies will be improper life; it will be 􏰰ाकृ त जीिवतम ् prākṛta jīvitam. And therefore one has to change the life from prākṛta to saṃskṛta; from wild life to a decent cultured life; for that I should know the proper way of living; for that I require the source of knowledge; in Sanskrit, we call it dharma pramāṇāni. Pramāṇam means source of knowledge; dharma means right way of living, which would lead to liberation and dharma-pramāṇa means sources for knowing about the right way of living; and according to our scriptures three sources are there; as you are, so will ——————— ————— ## Verse 22 Even though Krishna is a god, he is still doing his duty. Even if you are jnani, do your duty ——————— ————— ## Verse 23 If I ever do not remain tirelessly in action, all people will follow it. Whatever you do , do it enthusiastically , because people will follow you. Pick your profession according to your varnasradarma i.e what ever suits your svadarma. If you like your work , you will be able to do it with more enthu. Simple Test: Do you look forward to monday or friday evening ——————— ————— ## Verse 24: guṇa based karma; guṇa anusari karma; which is very good; and which isvery ideal because, when I choose a profession, which I love, which I can do verywell, then the greatest advantage is what; that I will get satisfaction; I will enjoywhat I am doing. In fact, enjoyment becomes the primary thing, the salary becomesincidental thing; and there is no strain. I will look forward to Monday. When I lovewhat I do, I look forward to Monday, when I hate what I do, I look forward toFriday; I look forward to my Sunday classes; you know why, because I love it. Andotherwise Friday Saturday is called weekend. because you are weakened; why youare weakned, not the physical strain; you will never know the physical strain; whenyou do the job with love; when you love the job, physical strain will never be felt;but when it is done as a burden, one needs double income --- ## Verse 25 **Oh Arjuna! Just as ignorant people act with attachment to action, awise man also should act without attachment, with a desire to maintainthe harmony of the society.** when Ajñāni is doing karma,ajñāni has not attained liberation; and not attained liberation means, he is not happywith himself; bondage means self-insufficiency; self-incompleteness; self-dissatisfaction; not being at home with myself. And naturally, since a ajñāni is nothappy with himself, when he does any action, through the action, he wants to discover fullness and happiness; therefore he performs action for happiness; aajñāni performs action for getting happiness; for getting fulfilment; and therefore there is an anxiety also; will I succeed; will I get that; only if I get that, I will befine; if I do not get that, I will be terribly disappointed; I would like to get that house; I would like to marry this particular man or this particular woman; I wouldlike to get a child; and I want the child to be male; or female; every thing that I do,it is done out of incompleteness; and therefore it is for completeness; and thereforethere is a problem of attachment; or expectation; or dependence The jnani is already fullfilled, hence he does it out of happiness. And when I do action for happiness; the action is a struggle; when I do action withhappiness; the action is a game; a sport; in Sanskrit, Leela; Jñāni's every action is aleela; ajñāni's every action is a drag. That is why in all languages, how is the lifegoing; everybody has similar phrase; just going; just goes on in English, Chaltahai inHindi; in every language, nobody would be enthusiastic; that is typical samsāra, thisis the attitudinal difference; that is said in the sloka, which we will see in the nextclass. A grihastha gnani needs to perform his karma to teach and guide the society. Ajnani does the job with attachment. And naturally the jnani does the job with detachment! (remember getting rid of attachment) --- ## Verse 26 **26. A wise should not create confusion in the intellect of the ignorant, who are attached to action. Efficiently performing all (his) duties, withdiscipline, he should inspire (them).** The wise man shouldnt confuse the ajnani , **he should only inspire** . Dont go and tell a child that Rs.500> ballon. For everything there is a time. Dont force anything. Dont force renunciation. It is important that people evolve into things. take the example of the child in the womb, the first 9months the child requires the atmosphere of the womb of the mother, the child cangrow only in that atmosphere; and if there is a premature delivery; they have tocreate an artificial womb called incubator, the child has to be carefully protected.Therefore the womb is extremely important for a child for 10 months, but supposethe child feels very very nice and cosy inside the womb and feels that it does nothave to do anything, everything is done by the mother, etc. Therefore feelscomfortable and wants to remain permanently there; which mother wants to carrypermanently. No. You will find very nature has created what; tyāgēnaikē, whattyāgē, womb naikē, mother need not request, the child need not request; the natureitself has created a situation, the child grows out of it; therefore the womb is good or bad; if you ask, what will you say, up to the ten month it is a blessing; after the 10 month it is an obstacle for its further growth Apply this principle to every thing in life; every thing in good for the initial stage of growth, you will have to enter, grow and then grow out of the set up. A fruit requires the skin for ripening. an active life is also like a womb for the spiritual baby. Even though we are grown up physically, spiritually we are mustachioed baby; even though physically grown up, spiritually babies only and therefore the vēdās say enter the karma womb, do lot of action, take to lot of activities; serve the society, do pancha maha yajñās and grow inwardly. And that is the glorification of karma; and how long it should do; not permanently do not get struck with karma In forced detachment, the person will become melancholic. Castrol oil face, no smiling; he is missing something; and when he grihasthas enjoying, more miserable; they are going nicely to the cinema, picnics, hotels, etc. etc. he will feel; I am not able to do this, because I have been caught in this dress of sanyāsa. Introduce concepts to people and let it grow. Kindle the curiosity and let it grow on people. --- ## Verse 27 **Under all conditions, all actions are done by the gunas of prak􏰉ti. One,whose mind is deluded by Ahankara, considers “I am the doer”.** 1. consciousness is not a part, a property or product of the body; 2. consciouness is something an independent entity, which pervades and enlivensthe body; 3. this consciousness which is different from the body, which pervades and enlivensthe body, this consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body; thelimitations of the body, dimensions of the body, it extends beyond the body; 4. this consciousness, which is an independent entity, and not limited by thedimensions of this body, does not die even when the body perishes; it is eternal allpervading principle So this consciousness, I gave an example also, which you should remember, is likethe light pervading the hand; light is neither part, product or property of the body, itis an independent entity which pervades and illumines the hand, will not be boundby the boundaries, limited by the boundaries of the hand, it extends beyond and thelight will survive, even when the hand is removed. That is why consciousness isoften compared to light; it is called 􏱃योितः jyotiḥ. jñāni for whom ahamkāra and its problems are not absent; but they areinsignificant The body/matter does all actions. You are the consciousness --- ## Verse 28 **28. Oh Arjuna! But, the knower of the truth of Gu as and their functionsremains detached with the understanding that Gu as (sense organs)function among Gu as (sense-objects).** If ahamkāra tries to rest as they say, if you rest, you will rust; even for maintainingphysical health, ahamkāra has to be active. Therefore we do not accept the laws of the Lord. Jñāni looks at every body,everybody and every mind from universal law; therefore he does not protest againstany event in life; old age, he gracefully accepts; separation, he gracefully accepts;health deterioration, he has to accept; death he has to accept. So this acceptancewithout resistance is called jīvan mukthiḥ; and therefore Krishna says; iti matvā;with this knowledge, with this objectivity na sajjatē, jñāni remains detached Krishna's first advice wasto ajñānis and the second advice is to jñānis. Ajñānis have to do karma for chittaśuddhiḥ, jñānis have to do karma for loka saṅgrahaḥ. And when ajñāni does karmafor citta śuddhiḥ, it is called karma yōgaḥ; when jñāni does for loka saṅgrahaḥ; youdo not call karma yōga; you cannot say jñāni does karma yōga; to say that a personis a karma yōgi is to say that he is ajñāni. So therefore, when ajñāni does karma forpurification, it is called karma yōgaḥ; when jñāni does karma for lokasaṅgraham;upliftment of the society, we do not call it karma yōgaḥ; it is only jñāni's leela orjñāni's karma. --- ## Verse 30 **Offering all actions unto Me with a devote mind, fight without expectations, without possessiveness, (and) without anxiety.** The rules of Karma yogi Rule 1 we should remember that the life is valid only if it is dedicated tospirituality primarily. Therefore to be a karma yōgi, **moksha must be my ultimate goal**. We do not say dharm arta kāma should not be pursued, we require dharma,artā and kāma; artā wealth is required; kāma entertainment is required, because mind requires relaxation; and even punyam is required for getting a proper guru;guru one should get and he should be proper. Therefore we require dharma artā kāma, but there are not ends in themselves. If I consider money to be an end, I cannever be a karma yōgi; for a karma yōgi money can only be a means; Rule 2 Dedicate all the actions to the Lord; convert your work into a worship if I am offering the actions to the Lord, whom I revere, naturally I do my best God is not in temples alone, the entire creation is manifestation of the Lord; therefore to do karma yōga or worship, you do not necessarily require a temple, anywhere you do, mentally offer to the Lord, the action has become a worship. Rule 3 Accept any result as a gift of god So every movement is determined by the goal that I want to acquire; therefore Krishna does not condemn planning, what Krishna condemns is planning is something, worrying is quite another; anxiety is quite another; plan, implement; and live the rest to theLord. Kill worry by being prepared for the worst. You only worry when you are not prepared for the worst Planning is a deliberate action, done at a particular time; you can do it; you need not do it; you can change it to another time also; but what about worrying; is worrying a deliberate action done at a particular time; if you say so, I will tell you, from tomorrow, allot some time for worrying; morning 6.30 to 6,30 sitting in padmāsana, first worry about the elder son; then the second daughter; then the husband is there; or the wife; and thereafter the father, for each 5 to 7 minutes; if worry is a deliberate action, you can choose and do, but worry happens; therefore it is a reaction; which is, planning will make you efficient, worrying will make you inefficient; planning is also with regard to future; worrying is also with regard to future; planning makes you efficient; worrying makes you forget even the plan; Rule 4 Dont take all the glory for the success.. Your success is also because of a lot of hidden variable. Dedicate it to the lord. Rule 5 Be Calm, Samatvam, equanimity of success and failure. Be Calm. When I am doing an actionwhich I do not like, there is tension; in fact, they have found that most of theproblems are because we have jobs which we do not love or like; especially in thepresent employment situation; when getting a job itself is difficult; this person isqualified for something and he loves to do something; and then what he gets totally something else; therefore there is resistance to that work; but what to do; family is there; children are studying, one has to work for the money; fortunately or unfortunately 8 hours of our waking period is in job; 5 or 6 days of the week, 4 weeks of a month; and 12 months of the year; and so many up to year whatever bethe age, I have to do the job; imagine I do not love that job; there is a strain everymoment; there is a resistance every moment; there is a drag every moment; Ialways look forward to weekend; and Sunday evenings are always terrible; why, I have to go to work tomorrow. Gītā class is there and I am saved. so we get lot of diseases and lot of problems when I am not happy as a kartā; and therefore the most important advice is if you cannot do what you like, learn to like whatever you have to do; start today itself; learn to like whatever you have to do; by innovating the job, improving the job, finding something doing research; so that I am enjoying what I do. O**ne of the most important characteristics of a karma yōgi, Krishna tells inthe 18th chapter is, ध􏰖ृ य􏰖ु साहसमि􏰔वतः dhṛtyutsāhasamanvitaḥ; he must be the embodiment of utsāha, enthusiasm; half of our tension is gone**, if I love to learnwhat I have to do; and that is equanimity as kartā; then the second source of tension is as a bhoktā, I have resistance to what is happening; and when I have resistance, I blame everyone in the world; and poor Lord also is scolded left and right; because he is in the form of stone, he is saved; therefore as a boktā,equanimity is possible, if I learn to accept whatever comes as a result, with the total understanding that Bhagavān cannot be unjust; the most painful experience is justice only. And if I say that Swamiji I know that it is justice, but I cannot bear it,what to do; you can say and go, but I cannot bear it; Swamiji you are only a singleman; I know I have to accept it; but how to do it; surrender to the very same Lord;Oh Lord, I know you are doing justice alone, but I do not have the strength toaccept this; please bless me with strength to face what I should face; this is called vigatajvaratvam and Arjuna as a kartā, he has problem, he has to shoot his near anddear ones; Bhīṣma, Drōṇa, Kr̥pa; therefore as a kartā, it is painful; and aftershooting when they are killed. --- ## Verse 31 **31. Those people, who always follow this teaching of Mine with faith andwithout being critical, are freed from (the bonds of) Karma.** Krishna does notexpect perfection from us; Krishna expects only sincere effort on our part --- ## Verse 32 Whenever I want to get up, I get up, and then sit in the bed and take bed cofee; and think for another15 mts and decide whether to get up or sleep again; it is always easier to go by our instincts, which life is called prakṛta life; prakṛta means doing to the prakṛti; where as karma yōga is teaching us to go by śāstrā propriety, śāstrā vidhi niṣedhaḥ; it is asaṃskṛta life. And to follow a saṁskṛta life, I have to always fight against my own nature; always karma yōga is swimming against the tide; uphill task. during this one month, when you would like to sleep one hour extra, this is mārkazhi month,one has to go to the temple at 4 a.m. You know why the śāstrā have kept suchrules; they want to break our laziness; they want to break our tamo guna; and for atamo guni, is always easier to give one excuse or the other, --- ## Verse 33 **33. Even a man of knowledge acts according to his nature. All beings go by (their) nature. What will restraint do?** As I said only when the personality and profession tally properly, I will love what I am doing. Otherwise there will be a strain; and therefore śāstrā's first preference is we take up any action which is in keeping withour guṇāḥ. We should follow what type of a person we are . That is why even drona being a bharhma sect moved to war, vysya. Karma yōga does not depend upon the type of action. Karma yōga depends upon the type of attitude A commercial brāhmaṇa would not be a karma yōgi; where as non-commercial business man; a business man who considers that business as a worship of the Lord and considers his citta śuddhiḥ as more important than makingprofit; making profit becomes subservient to purification or service, then that non-commercial vaiśya is a karma yōgi; rather than a brahman priest whose ritualsdepend upon the length of the note kept as dakṣiṇāḥ --- ## Verse 34 **Likes and dislikes are bound to exist with regard to the object of every sense organ. One should not come under their control, because they are his enemies.** Svabhava -> Thoughts -> words -> Action. You cant control the Thoughts that come to you , but you can choose if you want to allow them or not. That is your freewill. And this is where you have most control. Once you nourish the thoughts furthur, it becomes tough. Then the most important thing is Krishna says is the arrival of thoughts depend upon your svabhāva; over that you have no control; but whether those thoughts should be allowed to continue or not; should I nourish the thought; should I support the thought; or should I intelligently divert my attention from that type of thought is under my control. The arrival of thought is not under my control; is dependent upon on my svabhāva, prakṛti, but the perpetuation of those thought is in my hand; and therfore the free will to decide whether that thought should be encouraged or should I nip it in the bud; remember the second chapter; dhyāyatō viṣayān puṃsaḥ saṅgastēṣūpajāyatē| saṅgāt ... The world enters my mind and produces the thought of anger or jealousy or attachment or love or compassion, the world enters and generates a particular thought; but whether I should encourage that thought or not is in my hand; No.1 under my freewill. --- **## 35. One’s own duty, (though) improperly performed, is better thananother’s duty, properly performed. Even death in one’s own duty isbetter. Another’s duty is dangerous.** your life's journey should be governed by twoprinciples, your personal desires, svabhāva and also what is dharma And that is called svadharma; a course of life, which is governed by propriety and svabhāva; and that is called svadharma. imperfectly performed svadharmais better than perfectly performed paradharma; another's duty. Like Steve Jobs says, dont live your life, living another persons dreams. Perfect paradharma is inferior to imperfect svadharma. --- ## **36. Arjuna asked: Oh Krsna! Then, prompted by what, does this person commit sin, even though unwilling, as though he is forcibly persuaded?** --- ## **37. The Lord replied – (It is) this desire. (It is) this anger. (It is) born ofRajōgu􏰇a. (It is) insatiable and very sinful. Know this (to be) an enemy inthis life.** Desire is the root cause of all evil. it is ajñānam, ignorance alone is the cause of all problems; sheer ignorance working at two levels; in the initial level it is the dharma adharma ajñānam It manifests itself as kama krodham. Kama is desire. Krodha is anger. the nature of kama is that they are great eater. Desires never end , they only expand more and more. All desires are basic expression of the basic desire. which is your are not full. You cant complete yourself with acquiring things. Happiness = **Desires completed / Desires held**. Better to have denominatore 0. If ratio is 1 also denominator will keep increasing and you will be distracted to materialism Anger will lead to violence which hurts others and hurting others is not dharma Handling kāma and krōdhaḥ should be the lifelong project of an intelligent humanbeing, because the quality of life is determined by these two powerful forces Intensity of anger is directly proporational to the intensity of desire. --- ## **38. This (Knowledge) is covered by that (desire) in such a way as fire isenveloped by smoke, (as a) mirror is (covered) by dust, as the fetus isenveloped by the womb.** a person who is obsessed with a desire can not think, that is why you use the words, blinded by kāma, and vivēka śakti or discriminative power is like a charioteer which guides your life. In Kathōpaniṣad,buddhi or discriminative power is said to be the driver of the vehicle; just as thedriver alone decides which way the vehicle should go; similarly, the buddhi-driver alone has to decide what should be my way of life; therefore every moment I shouldknow whether I should give importance to spirituality or whether I should giveimportance to materialism. Which is more important? So that means what, I should have discriminative power to know the relative priorities of life. Every moment youhave to decide: you have a job in a place where the culture is there, where money is not there; you have a job in a place, where money is there, but not culture; youhave a choose; whether money or culture, which you want; every moment we haveto choose; life is full of choices. And what does kāma do; it blunts or covers the viveka śaktihi; --- ## **39. Oh Arjuna! Knowledge is covered by this which is in the form of desire,which is (like) the insatiable fire, (and) which is the permanent enemy ofthe wise?** desire is an eternal enemy of a scripturalstudent ## **40. The sense organs, the mind, and the intellect are said to be the base ofthis (desire). Veiling the knowledge by these, this (desire) deludes theindividual.** What are they? No.1, 􏰼ि􏰊द्रयािण **indriy􏰈􏰗i**, the five sense organs are the first one; because they alone introduce the sense object to me. So just as those people who want to advertise their product, they present the product in the TV and they want to make you somehow watch them; therefore even in-between the news, advertisements comes; Then at the time of the news or advertisement, you want to go somewhere and do something, they will increase the volume; advertisers do that; volume will be high-pitch; even if you are away, it will fall in your ears. suitings, suitings, they will shoot. That is the principle, what the TV does, the sense organs do the same thing; constantly present, śabda, sparśa, rupa, rasa, gandha; It will be kept in front of your mind; take this take this; super sale, 30% offer, etc. etc. Buy two, take three; whatever has to be said, they will say and somehow they will make you buy their product. The sense organs come to the sense objects, this is the origin since the beginning. And then what is the next nourishing base; मनः **manaḥ**; the advertisement is only for one minute, even not that length; 20 seconds or 30 seconds only, because they have to pay so many lakhs of rupees for a few seconds; they spend so much money, the advertisement pushes sense object into your mind, only within a half a minute or a few second; but the problem is the mind takes over that; it has got a wonderful recording power; whereas the local recording you have to change the cassette on and off; the mind records what you saw when you were visiting Mumbai, which object, which shop, which street; all these will be remembered, whether you remember the Gītā or not; it creates a strong saṁskara or vāsana by what; dhyāyatō viṣayān puṃsaḥ; it is relay race, the sense organs does the first job and hands over the baton to the mind, the mind says that I will take care of the rest; and what does the mind do; it goes on dwelling: that it is wonderful, it is wonderful; it is wonderful, etc. etc. the every advertisement is bigger it is useless; even though it does not have any stuff or any value in it; I go on dwelling upon this, what is the mind's job; projection of vasanas, by what; dwelling upon it by repeating it that is nice that is nice, that is nice, it is worth having, it is worth having, it is worth having; and gradually I want it, I want it, I want it, then I say that without I cannot survive; See where it started and where it has come. Without that I have been surviving all these years; and I am fat also, that is not understood; where is the problem of surviving also. like the problem of the boy, who lost the non-existent scooter. Similarly even though I do not possess that object, the imaginary possession itself gives a such a nice feeling that I cannot imagine even a imaginary loss of that thing; so therefore, how does mind do that; by avrithihi; sense organs present the mind, repeats it; So this is the second base; manaḥ And what is the third base of kāmah; 􏰳िु द्धः **buddhiḥ**; buddhiḥ is the intellect is the third source, the intellect contributes to the desire by its wrong judgement, by its delusive thinking; by its indiscriminate attitude; and what is the wrong judgement of the intellect; that is the judgment is that external object will make my life happier and secure. That external object or situation or person will make my life happier and more secure; and according to Vēdānta, this is the worst judgment, because Vedānta says the external world is neither a source of joy nor a source of sorrow; external world is what; external world. And according to vēdānta; I alone am the source of joy also; I alone am the source of sorrow also. Aham eva sukha hetuhu; aham eva duḥkha hetuhu. **## 41. Oh Arjuna! Therefore, controlling the sense organs first, may you giveup this sinful one which is the destroyer of Jñ􏰅na and Vijñ􏰅na.** what is the second stage of learning; instead of saying I-am-the-body and I-have-a-soul, ātma, we have to shift the identification and I have to learn to say:what; I-am-the ātma and I have an incidental, temporary medium called the body.and I operate the body sometimes; I do not operate through the body sometimes;just as the spectacles, I use for sometime, and I remove the spectacles; similarlybody is a temporary medium through which I function. That is why in waking state, Ifunction through the body and experience the world; during sleep state, I set asidethe body and I do not experience the world. How using the microscope I see themicrobes; like that, when I remove the microscope I am not able to see themicrobes; like that through the body scope I see the world in the waking; when I setaside the body, I do not experience the world; am I there or not in the sleep? I amthere. Therefore who am I? I am not the body, but I am the user of the body; thatis what we saw in the second chapter. Time is money, which was on somebody's table;why can't someone put ‘Time is mōkṣa’ board!! Because in Time only you getjñānam. Nobody puts Time is mōkṣa; everybody puts time is money, therefore forthese two hours, if I work, I can earn something; little bit more money and thereforeKrishna says Kāma is jñāna vijñāna nāśanam and therefore better you handle kāmaby dealing with the three bases. the first aid solution to kāma is three fold, theyare called dhamaḥ and samaḥ and vivekaḥ. damaḥ means discipline of the sense organs; so filtering what enters my mind through the sense organs; there must be a board in front of the eyes, no admission without permission; trespassers will be prosecuted; unnecessary thing should not enter. Our mind is not a wastepaper basket; for everything to enter, I am particular. This is called damaḥ, indriya nigrahaḥ; and once things have entered my mind, they are capable of generating thoughts; I begin to live in my internally projected world; and these thoughts also I have to edit, monitor, because these thoughts alone get converted into words and action and therefore I take care of my thoughts also and unhealthy thought I nip in the bud itself. Two things must be nipped in the bud itself; what are the two things; Śatrum,vyadhim. Śatru means an enemy; vyadhi means a disease; if a disease is not tackledin the early stages itself, that disease can grow and destroy even the healthiestperson. That is why nowadays master check up. Only thing is it costs too much. So sensory discipline method one; mental discipline is method two; and the thirddiscipline is vivekaḥ. Tongue first; in Tamil; நா􏱟 􏱬􏰿􏱭􏱐ி􏱈ா􏱜,நா􏱮ம் 􏱬􏰿􏱭􏱞ம் nāv aṭaṅki􏱯āl, nālum aṭaṅkum There is such a statement. nālum means the other four sense organs There is such a statement. nālummeans the other four sense organs. That is my opinion; I do not know about theoriginal commentary. Nāvu is one sense organ; if you master your tongue, both theeating-tongue, entrance; and talking-tongue, exit, is discipline that ## **42. They declare the sense organs to be superior to (the sense-objects).The mind is superior to the intellect. The intellect is indeed superior to themind. That which is superior to the intellect is indeed that (Self).** what is that permanent solution; ātma jñānam eva; self-knowledge alone is theultimate solution. Why do we say so; what is the logic behind it? The logic is this;desire is an expression of a symptom of sense of incompleteness. Why do I wantthings; because without that I am incomplete. Incompleteness expressed is desire;that is why we always ask, what is your kurai; then he says everything is there; butno child; no grandchild, etc. etc. only girl children not there; something or the other;I told you about the tampura sr̥ uti; I want I want; it continues. therefore desire is anexpression of apūrṇatvam and it will go only by the discovery of pūrṇatvam. Ahampūrṇaḥ asmi; pūrṇaḥ, not the sweet pūrṇam; this is vedantic pūrṇathvam; pūrṇammeans full and complete; i do not lack anything; I do not need anything. When I am full and complete, I do not need anything; whatever around is luxury.Dayananda swamiji beautifully says converting everything around to luxury isMokṣaḥ. What is luxury; whatever you possess, you enjoy; when it is not there, youdo not miss; that is called luxury; but if you miss that object, it is no more luxury; ithas become a necessity. So when you say I know, I ask you the question, how do you know you know, yousay I know English; I ask the question how do you know, you say I know; you sayI know I know English; that means what, the knowledgeable condition of theintellect I am aware of; therefore intellect is also an object of my awareness; theknowledge in the intellect is also an object of my awareness; and then I ask you, doyou know Chinese; then you say I do not know; then I ask the question how do youknow. No Swamiji I know, what do you know; I know I do not know Chinese. So I do not know is another quality of the intellect; quality of ignorance, thereforenot only I am aware of the knowledgeable mind I am also aware of the ignorantmind; both knowledge and ignorance are properties of the intellect; which I amaware of. Therefore I am neither intellect; nor am I knowledge, nor am I ignorance, I am theconsciousness who am aware of the intellect and its property of knowledge as wellas ignorance; that I, who is neither the body, nor the sense organs, nor the mind, nor the intellect, all these four are the object of my knowledge; body is the object ofmy knowledge; mind is the object of my knowledge; senses are the object of myknowledge. When you take a picture in that picture so many people are there; and you concludethat if there are 9 people in the picture for that programme at least 10 people musthave gone; Suppose you say, automatic photograph, I will ask you the question;camera is there or not; camera is never seen in the picture; camera's existence isnever doubted; I the awareness is never seen, but its existence can never bequestioned and that I the awareness which proves everything but which does not require any proof; that awareness is the ātma; and this ātma I should know or I should own up as myself. **## 43. Oh Arjuna! Thus knowing (the Self) which is beyond the intellect, andsteadying the mind with the mind, conquer the enemy which is in the formof elusive desire.** So Arjuna, your ultimate task is knowing this ātma, the chaitanya tatvam. And whattype of chaitanya tatvam; 􏰪􏰥ु देः परम ् **budhdeḥ param**; which is superior to even the intellect, which is the objectifier of even the intellect; which is the subject behind theintellect; that ātma the consciousness you should own up. And what is the nature of that consciousness; I have discussed before; - 􏱷 Consciousness is not part, product or property of the body; - 􏱷 Consciousness is an independent entity which pervades and enlivens the body; - 􏱷 Consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body; - 􏱷 consciousness survives even after the fall of the body; - 􏱷 that surviving consciousness cannot inter act because of the want of, because of the lack of medium; So that boundless consciousness and what is the example I give, like the lightpervading the hand; but which is not limited by the boundaries of the hand; just asthe boundless light is all-pervading but beyond the hand, you do not see the light,but it is there. Similarly, the consciousness is in the body; and it is beyond theboundaries of the body; this sat chid ānanda ātma one should know. And it is not sufficient to know that there is consciousness; more important islearning to train our mind to own up the formless consciousness as the real-I; theformed-body is not the real-I; the formless-consciousness is the real-I. One westernauthor, Wayne Dyer; who writes beautifully, who is influenced by Indian philosophicteaching; he says when you shift the I, from the formful-body formed-body, to theformless-consciousness, that is called transformation. What is the realtransformation in all? In converting the thin-body to fat-body; not by converting byregular walking; fat-body to thin-body; that is not the real transformation; the realtransformation is transcending the form. And then what is that; I am the formless-consciousness. Then what about the body and mind; just as I use the spectaclesconsisting of two glasses; to transact with the world; the body and mind are like thespectacle which I use to transact with the world, during waking, I use the body andmind and transact; during sleep what do I do, body and mind are set aside, that iswhy I am not able to transact. Transacting-I is absent in sleep; am I absent insleep? Non-transacting-I still continues. What is the proof? That is why happily go to sleep; if sleep is the death of theindividual, if sleep is the death of the individual; nobody will go to sleep. We will allstay awake by all means. Now I know during sleep the transacting-I alone is gone;the non-transacting non-located-I continues. Therefore body-and-mind I use and setaside, therefore they are the media, they are not me. What is the different between prajñāh and sthira prajñāh. Ifyou are only prajñāḥ; this knowledge is alive in this playground; the moment theclass is over, and the chappal is on, the good-old-miserable-bitter-limited-angry-restless-irritable-irritated; that person comes; again if you come to the class, it isgood; whereas if I am a sthira prajñā this knowledge continues and it is availablewhenever I need. So ready availability of knowledge during crisis is called jñānaniṣṭā; otherwise it is 􏱻􏱅டு 􏱼ைரக்􏱐ாய் 􏱐􏱛ிக்􏱞 􏱽தவாது eṭṭu curaikkāy ka􏱾ikku utavātu. When you own up this consciousness as myself; Idiscover pūrṇatvam; because the physical body alone is limited, but I-the-formless-ātma is not limited at all. And this owning up of the pūrṇatvam removes all thewants. that they did not know; therefore this incomprehensible inscrutable kāma you justgive up only by pūrṇatvam owning. So this is the ultimate solution. Thus first aiddamaḥ-samaḥ and vivekaḥ; and ātma jñānam is the ultimate solution and oncekāma is handled; krōdhaḥ is also automatically handled. --- ## Summary a jñāni grihastha is liberated and superior to an ajñānisanyāsi; a jñāni grihastha is better and superior to a ajñāni sanyāsi and Krishnagives himself as an example. Krishna says You see I am a maha grihasthaḥ; because 16,008wives; not one or two.; somebody asked Swamiji it seems; That is Swamiji tells thatyou are worshipping Krishna who has got 16,008 wives; does he deserve worship.Swamiji said that I am worshipping only because he manages 16,008. You fools arenot able to one keep one wife happy and if Krishna can make 16,008 wives happy,he requires 16,008 namaskara; Like that; this is the introductory portion; the mostimportant mantra is Those people who go to work without liking their job, there is a tremendous strainand five days a week, six days a week; 8 hours a day, I am doing something I donot like; imagine what a tremendous mental strain a person has to undergo; you getphysically and mentally exhausted very quickly and within 40 years you grow old;because there is a constant split personality, I do not like to do this; but I have to dothis. In karma yōga, what we do is if I cannot get the action that I like, then learn tolike whatever action you have to do. If I cannot get a job that I like; better I learn tolike whatever I have to do; how do I developing the liking; by dedicating that actionto the Lord; and as a bhaktha, I do not want to do any action; I do not want to offerany action to the Lord half-heartedly; Therefore, to maintain Samatvam, I shouldlove my carrier, my profession, whatever I do; this is called īśvarārpaṇa buddhi. īśvarārpaṇa buddhi plus prasāda buddhi is equal to samatvam. Dedicating all actions to the lord and all results as his prasada is samatvam First angle is: take karma yōga way of life as a commandment of the Lord; 􏲁śvaravihitham. If you cannot understand the glory or the importance, at least out of fear,you follow, does not matter; so this is called the attitude of 􏲁śvara's commandment.And just like the rules of the Government; many of them we follow not because weappreciate those laws, because we will get punishment if we do not follow. Even weobey traffic signal not because of our maturity; if it is out of maturity we will followat all times; but we follow after seeing whether the Police man is there; if he is, weobey. Even now, after so much education, we follow only out of fear; wheneverthere is a gross mind; we have to instill fear; for those people who are gross, theLord says follow karma yōga, if not out of appreciation, at least out of fear; becauseif you do not follow, you will get prathyavaya pāpam. Sandayavandam, pāpam. Noprayers, pāpam; no srāddha, pāpam. Always fear; That is the only language welearn; this is karma yōga as 􏲁śvara ajñā. Suppose we are a little bit matured; it need not be out of fear; but it can be out of asense of gratitude; Follow this way of life; as an offering to the Lord, as a yajñā; asSwami Chinmayananda beautifully says; What God has given you is His gift to you;what you do with what God has given, is your Gift to the Lord; So with the life,what I accomplish, what I contribute, that becomes my expression of gratitude tothe Lord; therefore convert karma yōga into yajñāḥ; this is the second angle ofkarma yōga. Then the third angle that Krishna presents is karma yōga as śodakam. Whether youtake it as a worship of the Lord, whether you take it as 􏲁śvara's commandment, itdoes not matter; karma yōga is the best method of cleansing your mind of raga,dveṣaḥ, kāma, krōdhaḥ, lobha, mohaḥ, etc. Therefore śodakam, it is a great purifier; Then the fourth angle of karma yōga that Krishna presents is karma yōga asdharma; karma yōga is the only way of life, by which cosmic harmony can bemaintained; ecology can be maintained; environment can be maintained; socialharmony can be maintained. From 20, 2nd line up to verse No.29, Krishna talks about the duties of a jñāni. Dutiesof a jñāni. Even though it may not be relevant to many people, because it is dutiesof jñāni; it is not necessary for you, we are not jñānis, and also I am not going tobecome one in the near future, is the thinking of some people here;!! But still Krishna wants to give from which we get valuable corollary also. Corollary ismore important. and what is that duty; Krishna says Jñāni does not require anysādhanā; because he has already accomplished the sādhyam, the goal; A means isrequired only to accomplish the end; after accomplishing the end, the meansbecome irrelevant; therefore, jñāni does not require karma yōga; jñāni does notrequire jñāna yōga; he does not require pooja, he does not require japa, he doesnot require tapas, Nistriguṇ ye pathi vicharatham ko vidhihi ko niṣedaḥ? He has no dos and do nots. Krishna says even though jñāni does not require anydiscipline, all the other people in the society, being ajñānis they all require discipline;and therefore, as long as the jñāni is in the society, he should follow the disciplinesto serve as a model to other people; because jñāni being great, the whole societywill be looking up to him; that is what it is; when a person wants to become a greatcricketer; then he will watch Tendulkar right from the hairstyle onwards. because hebecomes a model; what is your secret of success; in every interview it is asked therefore jñāni being a successful human being, the society wants to emulate him,imitate him, follow him and if jñāni drops all the disciplines, and the society isalready lazy and they are already waiting, for some excuse they may follow; andtherefore, Krishna says --- How to be a Karma Yogi 1. Have spiritual goal as the primary priority of your life. That is the first indication ofkarma yōga. Spritual goal is the primary goal. We do not say that other goals arenot required; but we should remember that the other goals are subservient to thisprimary goal. Because if all other goals do not lead to spiritual goal; all the othergoals are utterly useless; because they are subject to arrival and they are subject todeparture also; I got any amount of money, so what; it is going to go. So thereforematerial goal must be there; but let spiritual goal be given top priority; thereforeprioritisation is No.1. 2. No.2 is īśvarārpaṇa buddhya sarva karma anuṣṭāna; Dedicate all your actions, asan offering to the Lord; so that you do not have any of your duties. You do not callpleasant duty; it is my pleasant duty, do not use that phrase, any duty must bemade pleasant and for Arjuna, the duty happens to be what; what an unpleasantduty; it is killing his own kith and kin; gurus and elders, and Arjuna you cannotdivide the duty, into pleasant and unpleasant category, make everything pleasant,by dedicating it to the Lord; so mayi sarvāni karmāni sanyāsya; convert work into worship; this is factor no.2. That spiritual goal be primary goal No.1. Convert your work into worship is the second factor. 3. No.3 is Nirāśi; means be prepared for all types of future situations because future is totally not under your control; you are only one of the factors determining yourfuture; you do not save you are helpless; that is called fatalistic approach; you do not save everything is predetermined; we do not say, certainly you determine yourfuture; but we do not say you alone determine your future; that is called arrogance.If I say you do not determine at all; everything is pre determined; fatalism; if everything is determined by you if you say it is arrogance; you also determine yourfuture; you are one of the important factors who determine your future. In addition to you, there are many other factors which can influence your future;and the number of factors that can influence is infinite; your husband, your wife,your children, the very government, the budget, my God, all things are there; and awar in Iraq can affect our condition here; some Saddam Hussain's capriciousdecision can affect our lives here; so therefore, future is unpredictable is a fact; andtherefore an intelligent person is one who is prepared for facing any type of future;and that preparation is the third factor of karma yōga; and that preparation isprasada buddhi. Lord whatever is the genuine result; let it come to me; and if it isgoing to be unfavourable, I cannot ask you to change the law for my sake, if it isunfavourable, give me the required mindset, so that I can accept that and work toimprove the future. So this is called prasada buddhi; or preparedness to accept thefuture; then there is anxiety at all. Anxiety is unpreparedness to face the future. Then the fourth condition or factor is Nirmamaḥ; when success comes, do not claimthe total credit; even though you are responsible for your success; you are not theonly one responsible for your success. There are infinite factors other than you;which all put together we call daivam; you may call it luck; you may call it daivam,you may call it grace; you may call it purva punyam; some X factor, all externalfactors together is called daivam. Therefore in success, remember the Lord's grace.That is called humility. Nirmamaḥ means be humble; take wherever credit is due toyou, take the credit; I did not do anything, I did not do anything, you need not say.If you had not done anything, you would not have got anything; I have also done;let us also not be falsely humble; therefore, I have certainly done, I have certainlyworked hard; day and night; worked; wonderful; let me remember, that is not theonly factor; other factors were favourable; Thank God! This is called humility insuccess; Acceptance in failure; humility in success; these are the hall marks of akarma yogi; this is the fourth factor and Fifth and final factor is vigata jvaraḥ; maintain mental poise, mental equanity,mental balance, which is extremely difficult; but if the first four factors are followed,the fifth factor is almost a natural consequence; so vigata jvaraḥ, avoid mentalfeverishness; otherwise called samatvam **So these are the five factors; spiritual priority, converting work into worship, beprepared to face the future, humility in success; and equanimity; and if you are ableto follow these five, you are a karma yogi and the benefit is your mind is gettingpurer and purer faster; so this is the essence of 30th sloka in which Krishnasummaries karma yōga.** we are made up of both materialand spiritual personality; anātma is matter, ātma is spirit; deha is matter, dehi isspirit; we are a mixture of both; and therefore our life should be well balanced inwhich I take care of both my material needs and also spiritual needs; in the case ofthis person, the arta kāma becomes so dominant, that he has no time forspirituality, obstructed desire isanger; obstructed desire is anger; therefore if we know how to handle desire; wecan handle, we have handled anger. --- Following are the reasons that you must do karma yoga 1. Purify your mind from raga,dveṣaḥ, kāma, krōdhaḥ, lobha, mohaḥ, etc. 2. To maintain the harmony of the society 3. or do it because everyone will follow you and do like you . You are the role model\ 4. Gods commandment 5. As a return to god, who gifted you everything how to be a karma yogi 1. highest goal is spirituality, all other goals are byproducts 2. dedicate your work to the lord 3. be prepared for the worst. 4. if the outcome is successful , don’t claim the credit, you are only one of the factors 5. maintain mental poise. follow samatvam Discipline. The way to handle desire 1. Sense organs, what gets into your mind 2. The thoughts your mind entertains, nip off the thoughts before they become words 3. Discrimination, be very clear that you are the source of your problems . nothing finite can make you full. --- How to think about Work Action is always superior to inaction -> as inaction leads to desires cropping up mentally, leading to the path of entertainment which is pointless. Leads to further problems. Physically your body will get you to all problems like cholesterol. So physically and mentally you will have to ACT It is your duty to contribute. You are here because someone contributed. You are a product of food -> rain -> harmony . Harmony is caused by people doing their job. People plant trees, water the trees. Properly use water. keep the soil fertile. create tractors, diesel. So contribute. Tortoise lives for 350 years, even animals are able to satisfy their sensory pleasure. There is nothing great about these things. If you are human, you should contribute. As you are so will the world be. How many times in cricket have you heard that this is a perfect shot for kids. Kids watching this, dont do this. We tend to learn from our environment. So how you lead your life, is how many people will inspired from and lead their life. So in some sense you are creating an average of the society It is important you are doing your svadharma, even after you have finished getting what you want. if you go against your nature, you will be unhappy. A karma yogi should be an embodiment of enthusiasm. Philosophy Act -> Become Pure -> Learn Consciousness -> Moksha Action creates harmony in society, benefits people. they have models to look upto. Action cleanses you. Impure action leads to stress and anxiety. Action without attachment to results, cleanses you. Ripens your ego , and ego falls. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Ch4: Gnana Yoga Verse 1-3 Krishna mentions that he had thought this to the surya bhagavan, even before teaching this to Arjuna. Surya , sun is the giver of energy to the planet. Sun brings about rain, Sun helps plants make fruits. Verse 4-5 Arjuna says you are born after the sun. Krishna says you and I have had many births and have taken many sarirams. Vedas heard from rsi are shruti, they have condensed and written down the giti which is a smrti. Avatar krishna is born out of 1. knowledge (cause), 2. Takes the (form) required , i.e Ravana had a peculiar boon that he should be killed only by humans. Humans = maya bhuta sariram (boudhika sariram), avatar = maya sariram, no bhutas. Hence no pain/pleasure 3. Purpose, we are born to exhaust our punya and papams. Avatar descend to establish dharma Verse 6-7 Krishna says he was the vishnu shariram and now he is in the krishna shariram, ultimately the Lord is the same. And he will descend whenever there is rise of unrighteousness and decline of righteousness Verse 8 Whenever required I will take avatara and support the righteous people and destroy adharma Do as krishna said and as rama did. Only in these two avatars there are teaching. In other avatars, its only destroying adharma. ADharma can be killed by converting or destorying Verse 9 **O Arjuna! He who thus really knows My divine birth and action, does nottake another birth after giving up the body. He attains Me** Self realisation and god realisation are the same thing. Your inner consciousness Ramana Maharishi in saddarsanam If a person has experienced God in front, as an object, and he has not recognisedthat Lord as non-different from one-self that God vision is not real. Seeing God asan object is not-real sight; it is mānasikekṣaṇaṃ syāt; it is only mānasikam; it is notfact; only when that God is recognised as non-different from the observer, sahaātma or tat brahma aham asmi. Then the knowledge has come. Verse 10 After karma yoga once you have got rid of attachment, fear, greed, desire. You have to enrich yourself with gnanam by taking the help of lord and read scriptures to get rid of all impurities and get the nature of God. And by removing all the impurities, what did they find, madbhavam agatha, they didnot reach God, they did not meet God, they discovered that I minus impurity is God **madbh vam gat ḥ**; they all attained My nature; they did not reach Me; they all attained My nature; My nature means what;satyam jñānam anandam brahma; the nature of fullness; the nature of security; thenature of purnatvam; they attained; therefore Arjuna, you also have to go throughthese four stages; Stage1: Spritual Goal must be top prioroty Stage2: Surrender to lord, individually I can’t control, I can only contribute Stage3: Purify the mind, by getting rid of kama, krodah Stage4: Study the scriptures and gain self knowledge Verse 11 Sastras says that all of us are seeking for **independence**. Some people know that and some are yet to. They look for wealth, dharma, svarga, etc. Good will help them also "only condition I will put, followingthat law of dharma; let him enjoy the life fully. In fact, enjoyment is part of life; togrow out of it; otherwise it can lead to suppression.” Verse 12 Karma yoga is a life of effort. Finite results What is the difference in their results. Karma phalam anityam. All the results ofkarma are finite in nature; and it is full of defects also; I have talked about this inthe upanishad class. Duḥkha misritatvam; if accomplishment is a pain, preservationis a greater pain and the final loss is the greatest pain; and any amount ofaccomplishment will not give satisfaction; atṛptikaratvam; and more and moredependence on external factors Jnana yoga is You are what you are seeking in life. Drop seeking, and own up your true nature Jnana yoga is infinite. Infinitecan never be the end product of a process Intelligent pick jnana yoga against karma yoga. Jnana yoga happens in a minute. But preparation is very time consuming. Dropping krodah , etc , takes time. Verse 13 normally spiritual end and material endsare diagonally opposite; because in material ends; I am seeking external factors toget happiness. I am going from dependence-to-dependance. Because I want toaccomplish more and more; I want to depend on more and more objects; one isdepending on external factors; whereas Mokṣaḥ is depending on myself. One isleaning, another is non-leaning. One is acquiring; one is disposing. One isattachment; the other is detachment I have the knack of remaining inwardly akartha. Inwardly akartā meanswhat: untained by the action; unaffected by the action; I am able to keep safedistance. And not only distanced from karma, karma phalam also which he will say in the nextsloka. karma also does not affect me; karma phala also does not affect me;therefore I am avyayam. Avyayam means undisturbed. I am undisturbed,unchanged, nirvikaraḥ aham asmi. the śāstrās saysthat you have to break the tamas of the body; otherwise there will be no differencebetween you and an animal. Therefore our first progress is what; tama pradhāna to raja pradhāna; the lazyperson should become active person. I should learn towithdraw and be contemplative and to shift from rajo guṇa to satva guṇa, thescriptures prescribe upāsana kāndam. Varieties of meditation. So karma kāndam isfrom tamas to rajas; and upāsana kāndam for rajas to satva guṇa; and once I havebecome satva guṇa pradhāna, I am what: guṇa brāhmaṇa I have become; I am fitfor the next level; and what is the next level; satva guṇa to nirguṇaḥ or guṇātītaḥ Therefore the greatest advantage is I enjoy what I do, doing what I enjoy, is a veryimportant necessity for a healthy life. If I have a lead a healthy life, I should enjoywhat I am doing. So that is an advantage; if I choose the profession according to mycharacter. the beauty is what; even though I am full of karma oractivity, the activities do not bind me. So karma does not bind me. Verse 14,15 **Actions do not affect Me. I have no craving with regard to the resultof action – thus he who clearly knows Me is not bound by actions.** I always get what I deserve; never what I desire. vēdānta is not against planning; becauseplanning makes me more efficient in the present. What is vēdānta against; worryingabout the result vēdānta is against; because worrying over the result will not makeme efficient in the present; it will make me only deficient in the present. Suppose you want to worry between 6 and 7a.m., as part of your schedule, because you cannot spend time in the office toworry, and in that itself, 5 minutes' worry, on each member of your family, sotherefore eldest son, 6.45. to 6.50; then the next daughter 6.50; and more time forthe husband/wife, 10 minutes; can you do that; you cannot plan and worry, ithappens; whereas planning is a deliberate action; and therefore plan andimplement. knowledge increases our mental health and many of our problems arepsychosomatic diseases; when mental health is improved, physical health willimprove; and therefore my weapon is jñānam; that is why Lord Vishnu also holdswhat cakram; sudarśana cakram; Bhagavān Vishnu's cakram; darśanam meansjñānam; sudarśanam means right knowledge; so with the cakram of sudarśanam, Idestroy the samsāra; ajñānam; ajñāna janya adhyāsa; adhyāsa janya karma; karmajanya puṇya-pāpa, puṇya-pāpa janya sukha duḥkham; everything I cut; and whatKrishna says is: this sudarśanam cakram is not uniquely mine, you can also get thissudarśana cakra, jñānam. So Krishna says here माम:् यः ित अिभजानाित **m m yaḥ iti** **abhij n ti**. So the one who knows this secret of mine; what is that secret;freedom in spite of activity. Not freedom from activity; not freedom fromresponsibility, but freedom inspite of responsibility if at all one takes to sanyāsa, he should take sanyāsa when problems are notthere; then alone it is a true need for knowledge; escapist sanyāsa is not accepted;and therefore Arjuna remain where you are and do karma; what type of karma, पवू ः पूवत रं कृ तम ् **p rvaiḥ p rvatara k tam**, the same karma, which your forefathers performed. when you do not know swimming, pool willbecome a threat to you; it can destroy you; you can end up in a watery grave, if youdo not how to swim; but if you know how to swim, the very same swimming poolwould not only will not be a threat; it will become a sporting ground also; you enjoy. Similarly, karma is like a swimming pool. By itself it is neither a cause of anxiety or apleasure, but it all depends upon what type of preparation I have. For a jñāni, karmais a sport; for an ajñāni, karma is a burden. Verse 16 - 17 Knowledge of what ? Knowledge of action, inaction and prohibited action. Action is subtle. Verse 18 **He who sees actionlessness (of the Self) in the action (of the body)and he who (sees potential) action in the inaction (of the body) is wiseamong men. He is Yōgi who has accomplished everything** Consciousness is infinite and one. It is like one electricity. It is ever prevading in space . Space cannot move. Karma needs movement like thought moves, air movies, water moves, fire moves, earth moves. Hence space was never able to move and its action less, or karma less, or the self i.e. consciousness is action less. The mind body complex is never free from action. Because it is a finite entity made up of atoms. Atoms , electrons are always moving. Earth is revolving around soon and on its own axis also. Therefore what is wisdom? Accept actions at anātma level; never try to escape fromaction; and own up the actionlessness or permanent rest in ātma level. So **never try for leisure**, at the end of action; **discover the leisure** amidst theaction; in spite of the action. this shifting of the I, from the inferior I, the ego, to the superior I,the ātma, is called wisdom Svāmi means the one who is the master of his own ahaṃkāra; andwhen I am master of the ahaṃkāra, Svāmi so and so, is invariably followed byānanda; Svāmi so and so ānanda; but as long as I am subjugated by the lower-I, Iam no more Svāmi, I am दासा dāsā; I am a slave. Svāmi's opposite is asāmi. All the ignorant people asāmis; and asāmis is invariably followed by duḥkham; that titleduḥkham you need not add, because by looking at the person's face itself it isevident; whether this person is Svāmi or asāmi. Why we do say a jñāni is an accomplished person? It is afigurative expression. When human beings are trying to accomplish things; what isthe driving force? Any human beings' any accomplishment or any pursuit, the drivingforce is without those accomplishment, I feel small; That is why always people say, Iwant to be somebody in life; because he or she feels that now he or she is nobody.And therefore I have a sense of smallness; through accomplishment, I am trying tobe somebody, I am trying to full and complete; fulfilment or pūrṇatvam is the goal;somebody wants pūrṇatvam through Wimbledon tennis title; another one throughworld cup; another one through some other thing; so the driving force is pūrṇatvam; and the unfortunate thing, he never gets the pūrṇatvam ; as ahaṃkāra, the finite ahaṃkāra, whatever be my accomplishment, finite ahaṃkāra plus finiteaccomplishment, is equal to finite ahaṃkāra. Previously I was a miserable bachelor,BA; now miserable Master of Arts, MA; miserable Phd; and miserableness continuesbecause finite plus finite is equal to only finite and not infinite. It is the finiteahaṃkāra struggling to become pūrṇaḥ; and life becomes a failure Therefore ahaṃkāra can never become pūrṇaḥ; therefore jñāni does not struggle tomake ahaṃkāra pūrṇaḥ; he accepts the ahaṃkāra as it is; and enjoys doingwhatever the ahaṃkāra can do; a few more sciences I can learn; and but I do nothope to complete all sciences Verse 19-20 **He whose actions are all free from desires and fancies and whoseactions are burnt by the fire of knowledge – sages call him wise** A jnani isn’t driven by desire. He is contempt. But the world says if everyone is contempt no one will work. So be disscontempt, or unhappy and work is the logic they are saying. This is stupid. So what is the driving force Our scriptures say then the driving force will be one of compassion; the greatness of wisdom is: the more a person becomes wiser, the more he identifies with the whole world; ignorance makes my mind smaller; selfish, bothered about me and my family; but in the case of a jñāni,because of universal identification, there is universal compassion; which is hisnature. He does not show compassion; but compassion becomes his nature; just asa mother has got an instinctive love for the child; just as the tiger loves the baby;anybody comes around, it attacks; it is not born out of will; it is nature-driven;therefore the scriptures give the example, just as heat cannot be separated from fire; just as light cannot be separated from Sun; similarly compassion will becomethe intrinsic nature of a jñāni. similarly a jñāni is likeBhagavān, doing whatever is required according to the need of the surrounding, andtherefore he says; samārambhāḥ; a jñāni is full of undertaking; as active an ajñāniis; so active a jñāni also is Therefore kamavarjitha; he is free from desires; desires to fulfill himself; so kāmavarjitāḥ; andtherefore only saṅkalpavarjitāḥ; he is free from all kinds of future projections Whydo we project; because now I am not comfortable with myself; now I am not athome with myself and therefore I picturise myself in the future, with a house; howwill I look; with a particular dress; how will I look; with that particular girl or boy,how will I look; with that particular degree, how will I look I have rejected myself and when Icannot accept myself, I cannot accept the world also; I find fault with every person,every job, every set up, every house, and whatever it is; the problem is not with theworld, self-rejection expresses in the form of world rejection. And self-acceptance,expresses in the form of world acceptance. Again Svāmiji beautifully says: a jñāni isat home with himself as he is and therefore at home with the world as it is and nomore dreaming and projections; he lives in the present day and I am fine as I am;and enjoy doing whatever I can do, and whatever I have to do. Therefore he doesnot travel from unhappiness to happiness; therefore his travel is from happiness tohappiness to happiness only. What a beautiful state of mind; so happily hesucceeds; happily he fails also; happily he gets things done; and happily he is notable to get things done also. they give the example of a roasted seed; a roasted seed is aseed; it looks like the other seed; and you can touch it, you can handle it; you cando everything; except one; it cannot germinate; A roasted seed, if you sow, itcannot germinate; except germination, everything else is common; Similarly, jñāni'sahaṃkāra is supposed to be roasted seed like, this ahaṃkāra has got a functionalexistence; if you ask him who are you, he will also give the bio-data or theahaṃkāra description. Therefore functional ahaṃkāra is there; but it will notgerminate into further samsāra; and therefore, it is roasted and for roasting whichfire should you use. For roasting the seed, you use the local fire; for roasting theahaṃkāra, what do you do, you require a different type of fire; and what is that fire,jñāna agniḥ; the fire of wisdom; and by the fire of wisdom; jñāni burns down all hisāgāmi karma. paṇḍitāḥ; endowed with self-knowledge Krishna wants to point out that a person can gain jñānam, whatever be hisstatus in life. It does not depend upon the lifestyle that one has. Ajñānam ignoranceis the cause of bondage; jñānam is the cause of liberation; the set-up has nothing todo with bondage or liberation. And therefore, if a person is jñāni, then he is liberatedeven if he is amidst the society; on the other hand, if a person is ajñāni, he is goingto be miserable even if he is in the best āśramam in Badrinath. So therefore the set-up does not determine, or the āśrama; whether you are a brahmacāri, whether youare a Sanyāsi, or whether you are a grihasthā; or whether you are a vānaprasthi;the āśrama does not decide. Your varṇā does not decide; you may be a brāhmaṇa,kṣatriyā, vaiśya or śūdraḥ; that is why Śankarācārya wrote beautiful pañcakam; **Verse 20** **Remaining ever satisfied and independent, (and) renouncing theattachment towards the result of action, he never performs any action,though very much engaged in action.** IfI give support, it is love. If I seek support emotionally, then it becomes attachment Dayananda says; verybeautifully; Success in life is nothing but preparation for failure. A man who is wellprepared for failure is a successful person and if I am not prepared for failures, aslong as I succeed I am fine this grihasthā jñāni, is everfulfilled, not because he has completed the family duties, but because he finds thefulfilment within himself or herself āśrama does not determinefreedom and bondage, but it is the knowledge that determines Verse 21 **21. Having renounced all possessions (and) having restrained the mindand body, he (remains) free from desires. Engaging in (minimum) activityrequired for the maintenance of the body without attachment, he does notincur sin.** **22. Fully content with whatever is obtained by chance, unaffected by thepairs of opposites, and remaining free from jealousy, he is equanimous insuccess and failure. Though engaged in action, he is not bound.** yadrcchālābhasantuṣṭaḥ, he welcomes whatever happens in life as a result ofhis karma; so yadrcchālābhasantuṣṭaḥ; satisfied with whatever comes as a result ofhis action; because we should remember that the events in our life are not totallycontrolled by us; this is a very important lesson that we have to rememberthroughout the life, my future is not totally controlled by me. there areone set of people, who claim that I can order my future and I can decide my future;I can totally control my future; this is one extreme, the arrogant type of people; andthey will talk like that until they get thrash from the Lord. No human being can claimthat. Even Bhagavān when he came as avathāra; he could not totally decide what isgoing to happen. So one extreme is overconfidence; then the second extreme is thefatalistic type, who say that nothing is under my control; I do not have any controlat all with regard to my future; this is the other extreme; one takes hundred percentresponsibility; another takes zero percent responsibility. Gītā says both extremes arewrong. Then what is the right attitude; I am one of the contributory factors withregard to my future. And I am a very powerful, very important contributory factor with regard to myfuture; I cannot totally decide, but I can influence my future. According to our śāstrā, competition is not a healthy thing; even though nowadaysthey say competition alone brings the best out of the people, our śāstrā is not verymuch in favour of that; śāstrā feels that it is like drug induced power; so when aperson takes certain banned drugs in olympic games etc. it is called performanceenhancing drugs; but still they ban. Why should they ban; even though it increasesthe performance. Side effects are not good; they are powerfully negative. In thesame way, śāstrā feels competition may bring the best, but invariably it is going tomake you compare with the winner. Invariably going to lead to depression.Invariably it is going to lead to jealousy. And invariably it will lead to cheating also.Therefore all these are because of competition; our śāstrā says love and cooperationmust be the means of performance enhancing; not mātsaryaḥ. That is mātsaryam isincluded in six enemies of the individual; kāma krōdhaḥ, mōbhaḥ, madaḥ mātsaryaḥ.And jñāni is one who does not have this problem of competition; vimatsaraḥ; andwhen there is no competition, when somebody wins; when somebody performsbetter, I can congratulate. Otherwise congratulations would be more externally lip-service while cursing the hell inside; heart burning inside **samaḥ siddhāvasiddhau ca :** according to vedānta; success is defined as capacity to manage bothsuccesses and failures of life **23. The entire action of one whose mind is established in knowledge, whois free from attachment, who is independent, and who acts for the sake ofYajñ dissolves.** And that is what is calledmukthiḥ. So freedom is not some kind of a mysterious thing to be acquired in amysterious world; freedom means freedom from anxiety; freedom from tension;freedom from worry; freedom from insecurity; that is called freedom. Therefore,म ु त य **muktasya**; and how did he get it; because of detachment; and how did he get detachment; because of this knowledge; and therefore Krishna says, jñāna ानावि तचेतसः **jñ n vasthitacetasaḥ**. **Ajñ ni acts for happiness;jñ ni acts out of happiness**; **24. The ladle is Brahman. The offering is Brahman. It is offered into thefire of Brahman by Brahman. Brahman alone is to be reached by him whosees Brahman in every action.** . And we clearly differentiated the body and conscious, through thosefive points; do you remember. 1. consciousness is not part, product or property of the body. 2. consciousness is an independent entity which pervades and enlivens the body; 3. consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body. 4. Consciousness survivies even afte the fall the body; and 5. that surviving consciousness cannot interact with the world because the bodymedium is not available. Thus we have differentiated consciousness and body. This we did in the 2ndchapter, from verse 12 to 25. And in this chapter also, we did in verses beginningfrom 18th onwards. Therefore one of the first steps of vedāntic knowledge isdifferentiating ātma and anātma; consciousness and body; or spirit and matter;cētana-acētana vibhāgaḥ. And after differentiating what am I supposed to; instead of claiming the materialbody as myself; I have to practice claiming the consciousness as myself; Instead ofsaying I have consciousness, I should start claiming I am. Have verb should bechanged to Am. And after claiming that I am consciousness, you have to use allthese five points; replacing the word 'consciousness' by the word I. Krishna goes one level up and says, The consciousness is everything and matter is a myth. Krishna wants to say that everything is nothing but ātma; there is noanātma separate from ātma. First level of learning is I am the consiousness , next level is Consiousness is the same everywhere, next level is only consiousness is truth, even matter is a myth. consciousness alone is the cause, and everything else is aproduct of this consciousness-principle alone. Thus ātma is the kāranam, anātma is the kāryam; anātma meaning the mind, thebody, as well as as the world, and once I learn to see this fact that consciousness isthe cause and matter is the effect, then my attitude towards the matter will change And what is that attitudinal change? That there is no matter separate fromconsciousness. Just as there is no ornament separate from gold. And once I haveunderstood gold as the essence, I will continue to see the variety of ornaments, butI know that ornaments are many, but the gold which is inherent in all of them is one. Even in science they say that all the different types of elements that you seeare superficially different; but ultimately they are all energy in motion. Thereforedifferent substances you see, are superficially different; but the essence is oneenergy; but vēdānta goes one more step further; even energies are superficiallydifferent; but behind all of them; there is one essence; that is consciousness. Howcan the invisible consciousness become the visible creation, if you ask, the scienceitself answers, the intangible, invisible energy can manifest as tangible matter. Ifthat is possible for energy, vēdānta says that intangible formless consciousnessalone is appearing as the tangible formful matter. And the one who has this vision,sees one truth behind all the superficial plurality; this is called sarvatra svarṇadarśanam. He is very alert; that means the conscious mind doesall the transactions but the subconscious mind is aware of this truth; this is calledjñāna niṣṭā; this is called ātma nishta; this is called Brahma nishta; Brahman isanother name of ātma; and such a person is called Brahma samādhi. **25. Some Yōg is offer the very self by the self into the fire of Brahman.Others perform Devayajñ alone.** A sadhana is also called a yagnah, because the lord is involved in all those actions and impurities must go away and the person must become pure. Every sadana is called a yajñāḥ; japa yajñāḥ; dhyana yajñāh; upavasa yajñāḥ; yatra yajñāḥ;prānāyāma yajñāḥ; all these are called yajñāḥ Krishna points out that Brahma jñāna yajñā isthe greatest spiritual sādhanā; and all other yajñās are subservient to, onlysubsidiary to the Brahma jñāna yajñāh. jīvātmā offers the jīvātmā itself unto the fire of Paramātma. This is calledjñāna yajñāḥ. The lower self offers itself into the fire of the higher self. I am offering food to the lord < I am offering myself to the lord (Paramātma) **26. Some offer the sense organs like the ears into the fire of sense control.** **Others offer the sense objects like sound into the fire of sense organs**. **27. Others offer all the functions of the sense organs and all the functionsof Prana into the fire of self-control, kindled by discrimination.** And Krishna has been enumerating various yajñās, and we have seen five yajñās inverse No.25, 26 and 27. These five yajñās, if you remember, is jñāna yajñā itself.No.1 Self-knowledge itself is a form of yajñā. No.2 dēva yajñā; which is in the form of ritualistic worship of various dēvathās;called dēva yajñāḥ; No.3 viṣaya bhōga yajñāḥ; considering every experience as a worship. So thus theentire world consisting of śabdaḥ sparśaḥ, rupa:, rasa:, gandhaḥ; these five aretaken as flowers; So music is a flower. A beautiful picture is a flower; A tasty objectis a flower. These flowers in the form of śabdaḥ sparśaḥ, rupa:, rasa:, gandhaḥ, areoffered to the Lord, who is inside us in the form of atma chaitanyam. So this iscalled viṣaya bhōga yajñāḥ; And the fourth yajñāḥ that Krishna presented was indriya samyama yajñāḥ; whereinthe very sense control is taken as a yajñāḥ; like observing mounam on a particularday. Gandhiji practiced mounam on a particular day; even now there are manypeople, they just practice mounam and this mounam is considered a spiritualsādhanā. Not only reduce the noise pollution; but spiritually also it is considered avery big sādhanā. Sankaracharya says: यॊग य दमम ् वारम ् वा िनरॊधः yōgasya pradamam dvāram vāṅ nirodhaḥ; நாவ ி ா நா . nāv aṭaṅkināl nālum aṭaṅkkum (in Tamil). So once you master your tongue, both the eating and speaking tongue, you get atremendous mastery over other organs also; this is called indirya samyama; indriyanigrahaḥ; or damaha; so this dama yajñāḥ is the fourth one; So once you master your tongue, both the eating and speaking tongue, you get atremendous mastery over other organs also; this is called indirya samyama; indriyanigrahaḥ; or damaha; so this dama yajñāḥ is the fourth one; And fifth one that we saw in the last class, is samah yajñāḥ; disciplining the mind;mental discipline. Thought discipline; by controlling the quantity and quality. First wehave to master the quantity; then alone quality control is possible; anything bignumber, quality control is impossible; and therefore thought discipline, both in termsof quality and quantity and also in terms of direction, in which direction my thoughtsgo generally. It is a tough discipline, because it requires monitoring the mindthroughout the day. And this is called sama yajñāḥ. These are the five types of yajñās Krishna has enumerated till now; another sevenmore yajñās Krishna will introduce. And remember the word yajñāḥ means aspiritual disciple, in a broad sense, Krishna uses **28. Others of right effort (and) of firm resolve are practitioners of charityas a Yajñ , austerieis as a Yajñ , Yōga as a Yajñ , and the repetition andstudy of scriptures as a Yajñ .** If you take the river, river receives water from the mountain; one side it receives,the other side it again goes back unto the ocean; and the ocean does not keep; ithands over to the cloud; from the cloud to the river and the river again gives it backto the ocean; if you study the creation; every thing is cyclic. There is oxygen cycle,there is carbon dioxide cycle; there is food chain; everything is cyclic process; cyclicmeans not only I should receive, I should also give. And when a person's mindbecomes ि पणा kripaṇā mind or a लॊिभ lobhi mind, he is interested only in getting; he is not interested in giving; or he is not interested in proportional giving; he getscrores and gives one rupee; that too after one hour thinking; And he asks the priestto give back the 8 anna coin from the karpoora thatthu. He does not have 8 annachange; and therefore he puts one rupee and takes back the 8 anna back. Sodānam, not only should be there; it also should be proportional to what I receive;then only ēvaṃ pravartitaṃ cakraṃ nānuvartayatīha yaḥ .. (3.16); and once there isa stagnation, then there is imbalance in the society, the divide between the rich andpoor will become bigger and bigger and then there is robbery; there is chainsnatching, and there is murder for gain, and all when there is a big gulf between therich and the poor. And if you forcibly give, it becomes communism; that becomes aproblem; because our religion does not believe in forcing; that fellow will not get thebenefit also. What religion says is neither you should keep; nor you should be forcedto give; but out of wisdom, understanding, I should come forward and share. We have got four or five layers, we have studied, annamaya, prānamaya,manōmaya, vijñānamaya. Annamaya is disciplined by yōgasanas; so that I can sit ina posture for one hour without disturbance. It is a yōgah. And then for prāṇamaya disciple, we have prāṇāyāma; for manōmaya disciple, we have meditation; for vijñānamaya discipline, we have study. So thus aṣṭāṇga yōga is a brilliant scheme, devised by Pathajali muni for theintegration of various layers of my personality. **Unless wehave a will power, spirituality is impossible. A person of weak-will can never progressin spirituality. And therefore Krishna admires them; they are saṃśitavratāḥ; peopleof firm determination;** **29. Committed to Pr maya, others offer exhalation into (the fire of)inhalation, and inhalation into (the fire of) exhalation. Restraining themovements of both inhalation and exhalation, (some others offer theminto the fire of retention).** **30. Others of regulated diet offer the Pranas into the (fire of) Pranas. Allthose performers of Yajñ become purified by Yajñ .** **31. Those who partake of the ambrosial Yajñ prasad go to the eternalBrahman. Oh Arjuna! (Even) this world is not there for the non-performerof Yajñ s. How can there be the other (world)?** **32. In this manner, many types of Yajñ s are elaborated in the pages ofthe V d . Know them all to be born of action. Having know thus, you willbe free.** Follow any karma yajñā; purify the mind,follow jñāna yajñā and be liberated; therefore Krishna here gives warning **33. Oh Arjuna! Jñ nayajñ is superior to (other) Yajñ s involvingmaterials. Oh Arjuna! Every action without exception culminates inknowledge.** **34. May you gain that (knowledge) by prostration, by service, and by** **proper enquiry. The wise sages will impart (that) knowledge to you.** Go to the guru and he will give you the knowledge. The guru should have good communication and knowledge You need to have hunger for that knowledge and accept you ignorance (prostration) and do your seva to bring the relationship with the guru **35. After gaining that (knowledge), you will not get into delusions in thismanner once again. Oh! Arjuna, By that (knowledge) you will see allbeings without exception in Me as well as in yourself.** he presents the jñāna phalam in two different ways. Firstbenefit is mōha nāśaḥ; conflicts in life will end; In spite of clear knowledge, why did Arjuna have conflict; sothat means what; any amount of information you get; any amount of knowledge youget; it is not going to be a guarantee against conflict. Conflict is mainly because ofattachment. Because of attachment I do not want certain consequences in future; Iam not ready to face the future; Arjuna was not ready to face the day when Bhīṣmaand Drōṇa will be absent from the earth; he was not ready for that. If he was notready for that day, why can't he remain in the forest; he was not interested incontinuing in the forest also; the future will be one of the result; either Bhishma etc.would have to be killed; or Arjuna should continue in the forest; Arjuna is not readyto face either of the future. Our inability to face the future, because of attachment is the cause of conflicts inlife. Our inability to face the future, because of our emotional attachment is thecause of conflict; and you cannot avoid decisions in life, you cannot avoid facingfuture; and therefore what do you do; we postpone our decision; somehow escape;we will see later. And by postponing how long can you postpone; you have to takesome decision in life; whether to go to America or remain in India; whether to takethis job or that; whether to get married or not; whether to become sanyāsi or not;whether to marry this girl or not; how long can you postpone; and each decision is arisky decision because I cannot control my future; and as somebody said, marriageis not a word; marriage is a sentence! Therefore conflict is our weakness born out of attachment because of which I wantto avoid facing future; and once I have got self-knowledge, the advantage is, I amready to face any future. **36. Even if you are the worst (sinner) of all sinners, you will cross over theentire (ocean of) sin by the boat of Knowledge.** In the 35th verse Krishna talked about two-fold benefit;the first one being sarva mōha nāśaḥ; mōhaḥ means conflict in life; which is a verybig and serious problem; and this self-knowledge will remove all the conflict in life;This is sarva moha nāśaḥa; and then the second phalam he mentioned was sarvatrajīvātmā paramātma aikya darśanam; in fact aikya darśanam was the second phalam;and the third phalam was sarva pāpa nāśaḥ **37. Oh Arjuna! The fire of knowledge reduces all Karmas to ashes just asa well-kindled fire reduces the fuel to ashes.** ultimately even puṇya karmas are destroyed;because puṇya karmas also fall within samsāra only. Ultimately speaking, evenpuṇya karmas come under samsāra because puṇya karmas lead to what, svargalokaḥ prāpthi. And if you are going to be permanently in heaven; wonderful; butunfortunately, having enjoyed the svargam very well, like people going to the Statesand coming back to India and complaining about mosquitos. Now here itself wehave no complaints because peaceful co-existence, we are practising; we are noteven aware; not only that our body is immunised also; perhaps the mosquito will fallsick after biting us; and by pure water, pure air, all these, next day, they fall sick. Ido not say do not go to America; but the thing is: if this is the story of America;what to talk of heaven, millions of time superior to America and having immunisedand enjoyed, you come down and you feel terribly miserably. Tell me, so puṇyam is source of joy or sorrow? According to Vēdānta; pāpam gives immediate sorrow;puṇyam gives later sorrow; therefore according to vedānta puṇyam is alsobandhaha; and that is why the upanishad it says, tada vidvān puṇya pāpē vidhūya;niranjanam paramam samyam upaithi; jñāni goes beyond puṇyam and pāpam; andin the Gītā itself Krishna is going to say in the end, Sarva dharmaan api parityajya;mām ēkam saranam vraja; wherein Krishna says that you transcend both dharmaand adharma; anyathra dharmaat, anyathra adharmaat, asmat krita akrita, mōkah isbeyond puṇyam and pāpam. And therefore jñāgni sarva karmani means puṇyakarmani api bhasmasāt kurutē. **38. Indeed, there is no other purifier in this world like knowledge.Prepared through Yōga, one attains that (knowledge) in the mind easily intime.** **39. One who has faith, who is devoted, and whose organs are restrainedattains knowledge.Having attained knowledge, he will soon attainsupreme peace.** **40. The ignorant who has no faith and who has a doubting mind perishes.For one who has a doubting mind, there is neither this world, nor the next,nor happiness** **41. O Arjuna! Actions do not bind one who has renounced all actionsthrough knowledge, who has destroyed all doubts by knowledge, and whois mindful.** **42. O Arjuna, Hence with the sword of knowledge, destroy the doubtabout the self which is in your mind, and which is born out of ignorance.Get up and take to Karma yōga.** # Chapter 5: Sadana means spiritual discipline niṣṭā means lifestyle karma yōgais the means, jñāna yōga is the end; jñāna yōga is the means, mōkṣa is the end. Chapter 2-4 is about sadana Chap 5 is about nista Therefore Krishna wants to say, a humanbeing can get married and lead a life of a grihastha; or a human being can become amonk, a sanyāsi, and live a life of seclusion; but what Krishna wants to emphasiseis whatever be your lifestyle, you do not have a choice with regard to sādanā. **1. Arjuna asked – O Krishna, you are praising karmasannyasa and again,karma yōga. Definitely tell me that one among these two which is good(for me).** āśrama it is a place of spiritual sādanā, even family life is called grihastha āśrama;which means our śāstra tells, in family also, one can follow spiritual sādanā **2. The Lord said – Both sany􏰐sa and karma yōga are conducive to** **Liberation. However, among these two, Karmayōga is better than sany􏰐sa.** **3. O! Arjuna ! He who does not desire (and) does not hate is to be knownas a permanent sannyasi. Because, one who is beyond the pairs ofopposites is completely freed from bondage effortlessly.** Therefore, what you have to learnis how to manage your rāgaḥ-dveṣaḥ; so that whether your likes and dislikes arefulfilled or not, you learn to adjust and manage; which requires tremendousstrength; And therefore Krishna says a grihastha is a sanyāsi, if he has learnt to handle likesand dislikes; viruppu veruppu What is the advantage in sanyāsa āśrama; sanyāsi does not have any duties and all,for wife or children, and therefore he will have a quality time or quality mind topursue vēdānta; that is the advantage of sanyāsa āśrama; he need not bother aboutchildren's education or their marriage, all those things; therefore the advantage ofsanyāsa āśrama is a light mind. Krishna says if you know how to handle rāgaḥdveṣaḥ; you can also enjoy the same light mind as a sanyāsi enjoys; and thereforesuch a grihastha as good as a sanyāsi. You will certainly have certain preferences in life; that isinevitable. In fact the very definition of your personality is based on your like anddislikes; whenever somebody wants to interview someone, and you want to knowthe personality of that person, they will ask the question, which book you like, whichdress you like, which author you look, which music you like, northern, southern,western; how do you a define a personality, in terms of likes and dislikes only.Therefore Krishna does not want you to get rid of likes and dislikes. Krishna says donot be a slave of your likes and dislikes. If you able to fulfill them, wonderful and ifyou are not able to fulfill them; you should know how to face them; so mastery oflikes and dislikes is converting them into non-binding desires. Therefore Krishna says, Hey Mahābāho; hey Arjuna, िन􏰇र्व􏰅􏰇वो **nirdvandvō**, that person who has managed the pairs of opposites consisting of rāgaḥ and dveṣaḥ,lābha and naṣṭa, māna and apamāna, samyōga and viyōga; all these pairs, the onewho can handle; such a person is called nirdvandva; a master of the pairs ofopposites; and such a person 􏰪􏰅धा􏰌􏰈म􏰛ु यते **bandh􏰐t pramucyat􏰑**; he will or she will definitely attain mōkṣa; without going to sanyāsa āśrama, remaining in grihasthaāśrama, such a person can attain mōkṣa. How: of course, following his two sādanās,first karma yōga and next jñāna yōga; there is no escape from jñāna yōga; being ingrihastha āśrama, attending the Saturday-Sunday classes; in those days, theseclasses were not available; if you have to study Vēdānta, you have to go toRishikesh. So you are supposed to go there; instead we have come here. So therefore,wonderful; this is gurukula; make use of this opportunity; you are following jñāna yōga remaining in grihastha āśrama; and how सखु म ् **sukham**; comfortably; you can go and eat at home; you do not have any problems of sanyāsa āśrama; at the sametime, you get the benefit of jñānam. How lucky you are; so therefore, sukhammeans effortlessly, they get liberated. **4. Ignorant (people) assert that samnyasa and karmayōga are different,not the wise. By resorting to any one of them properly, one attains theresults of both.** **5. That goal, which is attained by sannyasis, is attained by karma yōgisalso. He who sees sannyasa and Karma yōga as the same (effect) sees(properly).** Mōkṣa isalways one; so sanyāsis will get a bigger infinite; and I will get smaller infinite;mōkṣa means infinite; there are no two infinites; there is no difference in the mōkṣa; **6. O! Arjuna, Sany sa is difficult to attain without Karma Yōga, but thedevout Karma yōgi attains Brahman before long.** **7. Having mastered the body and sense organs, the pure-mindedkarmayōgi (becomes) the Atma which is the self of all beings. Thoughacting, he is not affected.** To put in a nutshell,karma yōgi is one, who balances materialistic pursuits and spiritual pursuits. Karmayōgi is one who does not spend the whole day in earning money only That is why I have told you before, what I am is more important than what I have;Śankarācārya describes a jñāni who does not possesses anything at all but still he ispūrṇa; dependence is samsāra; and independence is mōkṣ As I said before, what matters is not what I have, what matter is what I am. Mypeace does not depend upon what I have; my peace depends upon what I am;security does not depend upon what I have; security depends upon what I have; happiness does not depend upon what I have; happiness depends upon what I am;karma yōgi focuses on this principle. Society is going to measure your success in termsof your possession, vēdānta measures your success in terms of your personalitytransformation All our problems are based on two abhimānam; one is the identification with thebody and the other is identification with the properties of the body; and the wholevēdānta is tackling this abhimāna **8-9. Even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving,reclining, breathing, talking, evacuating, opening the eye, closing the eye,the disciplined knower of the truth, understands “I do not do anything atall” bearing in mind that the sense organs remain in sense-objects.** when he does not have anything personal to accomplish, whatwill determine his action; the need of the society will determine this action; becausethe jñāni does not have anything to accomplish; he is pūrṇa puruṣa; krita krityata and what will be the motivation for his action; the motivation will be love andcompassion towards the society; the suffering society; the ignorant society; theconfused society; and not that he entertains love and compassion; jñānam naturallybrings out the love and compassion. As our Swamiji beautifully says we need notacquire love; because the innate nature of everyone is love; innate nature ofeveryone is compassion; but now the love and compassion are suppressed becauseof selfishness, which is due to abhimāna; when the abhimāna goes away; he doesnot acquire; but already available love and compassion gets thrown out; justmanifested. when I am identified with totality; I am God; and identified with totality;whatever I do will be God's action; and God can never do adharma, jñāni also isincapable of adharma; and therefore his actions will continue **when a big tragedy took place,he asked What?; and the next moment, he remembered the teaching, and said SoWhat: That's the difference between ajñāni and jñāni. Life will have ups and down,but ajñāni is shocked** **Gi􏱙ta􏰐 is going** from what **to** so what; **10. Dedicating the actions to the Lord, he who acts without attachment isnot affected by papam just as the lotus leaf (is not wet) by water.** A sanyāsi also should get jñāna yōgyatha and jñānam And for getting jñāna yōgyatha, one has to take to some activity, karma is the onlymethod of getting jñāna yōgyatha. The type of karma may vary, but karma is theonly method of getting jñāna yōgyatha. In simple language, jñāna yōgyatha can betranslated as purity; so it can be either kāyikam karma, or vācikam karma ormānasam karma; according to the availability and situation, but can concentratemore on kāyikam-physical, vācikam-verbal, or mānasam-mental. Śankara says in Vivekachūdamaṇi; cittasya śuddhayē karma; and having practisedkarma for citta śuddhiḥ, one will get jñāna yōgyatha or purity, thereafter one has tocome to vēdānta vicāra and vēdānta vicāra alone can give jñānam. Krishna says follow karma, purify, study scriptures, know and be free So not only karma is important; the method of doing that karma; the attitude withwhich we do karma; the attitude with which we look upon the result of the karma;they also are important; mere karma does not guarantee purification and that is weadd a suffix, karma yōgaḥ. The yōga indicates the proper method of doing karma,because of which, karma will become purificatory thing; therefore karma minus yōgacannot purify; karma plus yōga purifies In this īśvara arpaṇa buddhi and prasādabuddhi; what happens; lubrication happens, my life goes smoothly, without violentreaction; Why there is no violent reaction, because whatever happens is taken asGod's will; and my attitude towards God is what, God can never be unjust. God cannever do injustice and if at all I feel that the benefit I get is disproportionate,improper I only take it that I do not know what are the factors involved; God knowsbetter . Therefore what I get is what I deserve; not what I desire; karma yōgi will plan for the future, but he is not going to be anxious over thefuture; this Krishna calls saṅgam tyāgaḥ; therefore Arjuna; dedicate all your actionsto the Lord; and give up all your concerns over the future. he will have so many responsibilities; but we cansee him smiling; otherwise the problem what we face is what; no smile at all; theprice that many people pay for entering grihastha āśrama is as somebody nicelysaid, it is a situation in which a person loses bachelor's degree and never gets theMasters. So therefore you can be a grihastha and still continue to smile, because youdo not worry too much. **11. Without attachment, karma yōgis perform action for the sake of puritywith the body, mind, intellect, and sense organs without identification.** **12. Renouncing the result of action, the disciplined (person) attains peaceborn of the discipline (of Karma yōga).Attached to the result due to theimpulse of desire, the undisciplined (person) is totally bound.** **13. Renouncing all actions through knowledge, the self- contained personcomfortably remains in the city of nine gates without doing any action(and) without instigating (any one).** **14. The atma creates neither doership nor objects. Nor contact with theresults of actions for the people. But Maya operates.** **15. The tma takes neither the p pa nor the pu ya of anyone.Discrimination is veiled by ignorance. Hence the beings are deluded.** **16. However, knowledge illumines that supreme ( tma) like the Sun forthose, whose ignorance of the tma is destroyed by Knowledge.** **17. Those who the knowledge of that (Brahman,) who have that(Brahman) as the atma, who are established in that (Brahman,) who havethat (Brahman) as the supreme goal, and whose impurities are completelydestroyed by knowledge attain the goal of non-return.** this inner free self iscalled mokṣa; this independence is called Brahman. Do not think mōkṣa is going toforest; or mokṣa is some event happening after death; **mōkṣa is the capacity to be comfortable even when the situations are not to my expectations** The ocean does not depend upon the rivers for its fullness; and if the rivers aregoing to claim that I am adding water to you; what will the ocean do, suppose therivers Kaveri, Ganga, Yamuna etc. it goes and tells the ocean, I am supplying waterto you; what will the ocean do; it would not even answer; because the ocean knowsthe river is not supplying water to the ocean. On the other hand, it is the other wayround; ocean water alone gets evaporated and it again pours down as rain and therainy waters accumulated become the river. So just as the ocean is full; whether therivers flow or not; and whatever be the quality of river also. Ganga also merges, ourcoovam also merges; and what is my full self. I am like the ocean; experiences arelike the rivers. Wonderful experiences come; and terrible experiences come;experiences do not come at all; like ocean aham ever pūrṇaḥ. What a wonderfulstate of mind it should be. And once my struggle is to transform myself, I havebecome a spiritual seeker. Until then, I am only a material groper Then what is the next stage of sādanās; even after knowing my higher-self, I do notidentify with that higher-self; I continue to identify with my lower-egoistic-self only;because I have fallen in love with my individuality; I as a father, I as a husband, I asa grandfather, I have got so much identification with my body-mind-complex, that Ido not want to give it up. Like the slum people, even if government provides thembetter houses, you know what do they do; the better houses are given out for rent;and they come back the same slum. And the bonded labourers are rescued by theGovernment; and they are put in some rescue homes or so; and within a month orfew weeks, you know what they do; they give up that rescue home and go back tothe same old place, where they were bonded labourers. We were under the controlof British for a few hundred years and when some of the freedom fighters wantedfreedom; many of the Indians resisted that and they said: why all that: let them ruleitself; Even now there are some people of the older generation; who feel british ruleis better; When I am controlled by someone, after some time, that slavery itself, Iget addicted to and therefore I continue to be the ahaṁkāra. This is called vāsana;dēhātma vāsana; and therefore what do I say; I am samsāri; and I have got ahigher self and that ātma is liberated; I am asamsāri. Now after coming to the class,Swamiji I come to know that I have got a higher self; as if it is somewhere up, andthat is liberated. What is the use? After renouncing everything, the abhimāna that 'I am a great renouncer', thatabhimāna also you renounce; but it is not that easy. In fact, this takes the longest time. Knowing about the higher self is easy; butdropping the abhimāna with the lower self is not that easy. And therefore Krishnasays tat ātmanaḥ; tat ātmanaḥ means identifying with the higher self. And in fact, inthe traditional stages of sādanās, sanyāsa āśrama is only to facilitate thisdisidentification. Nothing is there; that is all from the standpoint of the body; but that does not meanyou go home today and say that you are no more wife or husband; do not tell at allthat; as it is problem; so having understood the higher nature, you decide to playthe role of a husband; you decide to play the role of a wife; role of a brother;convert every action into role playing; this is called nidhidhyāsanam. So morning Ishould remember all my activities are role playing; and night I should again remindmyself that all these are role playing; so this is called nidhidhyāsanam; tat ātmanaḥ. So then the next and final stage is ति न ाः **tanni h ḥ**; so once a persondeliberately practices this; Śankarācārya has written many slōkās to assist this process; they are all called nidhidhyāsana slōkās; So can you guess these four stages of knowledge; - first value for discovering the higher self; - then the next stage is discovering the higher self; - then the next stage is learning to identify with the higher self and gradually dis-identify from the lower self; -and then the fourth and final stage is the identification with the higher self becomesnatural. And such people; what will happen to them; they are called brahma nishtaha; theyare called jñāna niṣṭāḥ; What will happen to them; **ा त क म ा jñ nanirdh takalma ḥ**; they are freefrom all the impurities; washed off by knowledge; all the impurities are gone. And varieties of impurities are there;- ignorance is an impurity; - and after studying the scriptures, doubt is another impurity; everything is fine;but, that but will always butt in; and thereafterwards ignorance is also gone; doubt is also gone; but habitual vāsanas, dēhabhimāna continues; that is the third impurity. Ajñāna, śaṁśaya, viparyayaḥ; ignorance, doubt, and habitual body identification. Allthese come under kalmaṣāḥ. And all these kalmaṣāḥ are nirdhūtam; wiped out bythe power of knowledge. This is called jīvan mukti; so such people enjoy jivan mukti;how long; as long as their prārabdha karma is there; and once the prārabdha karmais over; their body falls off; they do not die; because they are higher self; which iseternal; the incidental body falls off;. and they do not have punarjanma. ThereforeKrishna says; अपनु राविृ तम् ग ि त **apunar v ttim gacchanti;** they attain vidēha mukti; apunarāvṛtti means vidēha mukti; they do not have punarapi jananam;punarapi maranam cycle. More in the next class. --- And this understanding of the relationless-ness is called sanyāsaḥ; and this realrenunciation takes place only through wisdom; and such a person will move with everyone but is not attached to any person; he loves every person but not hooked toany person. He lives in every place but he is not rooted to any place, which is bornout of inner renunciation. and this inner renunciation is possible through jñānamwhich is called vidvat sanyāsaḥ; and because of this reason alone, this chapter itselfis called sanyasa yōgaḥ; inner detachment through knowledge. And in this 17thverse, which we saw in the last class, Lord Krishna talked about the stages of thisparticular wisdom: - First stage is value for knowledge. - Second stage is knowing I have ātma; - Third stage is owning and claiming I am the ātma; - Fourth and final stage is this owning up becomes very spontaneous to me. **18. The wise (people) see the same (Brahman) in a Brahmin who hasknowledge and humility, in an elephant, in a dog, and in a dog-eater.** **according to vedanta; ourproblems are not because of the world and the people; our sams ra is notcaused by the world and people, because in the very same world, theliberated jñ nis also live.** It is in the very same world; they enjoy ānanda; thejñāni sings. To the one who has realized Brahman in all aspects, the whole world becomes the heavenlygarden; all the objects the _kalpav_ṛ_k_ṣ_ās_ (the wishyielding trees); every water-flow the holyGanges; all his actions, virtue and auspiciousness; the elevated as well as the foolish talks(words) the _Vedāntavākyās_; the entire earth, Vārānas . Every thought or awareness of hisreveals to Him only Brahman. therefore Krishna says, jñāni looks upon himself as what; ātma; he looks at thebody as vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya; it is a temporary dress. And if jñāni looksupon himself as I am ātma; then how will I look upon everyone; Same thing;therefore in jñāni's vision, everyone is ātma; every one is caitanyam; and just as Iam the ātma with an incidental body; similarly, all of you are ātma with an incidentalbody; with a superficial quoting; and if I look upon and I as both ātma; Krishna saysthere is no difference at all; sarvatra sama darśanam. **Therefore the benefit of knowledge, Krishna says, is sarvatra sama darśanam andthis sama darśanam is not through the physical eye; it is through the eye of wisdom.** And what about the physical organ; they will see the differences but the differences are seenas superficial differences; thus differences will become less pronounced andsamatvam will become more pronounced. If you want to know what is the definition of paṇḍitāḥ, it is given in this verse;paṇḍitāḥ sama samadarśinaḥ. Not through the physical eye, every careful. Inphysical eyes, I see differences; there are different colours and different forms anddifferent smells, the fleshy eyes are meant to see the differences; and suppose theeyes begin to see everything same. If everything is seen as same; ready for cataractsurgery. This eye if it sees samatvam, one has to go hospital; if jñāna eye seessamatvam, you are ready for moksha. Therefore do not miss that. paṇḍitāḥ samasamadarśinaḥ; here the word sama means sama ātma darśinaḥ. So here a brāhmaṇaḥ, who is endowed with what character, vidyāvinayasampannē;who is very rich person; rich in what; what is the real wealth, according to śāstrā,the real wealth is jñānam; the material wealth is only secondary wealth; real wealthvidya dānam; sarva dānāt pradhānam. Because the other wealth can purchase onlyfinite things in the creation; whereas knowledge is the only wealth, with which we can "purchase" the infinite mōkṣa itself; and therefore we have this well-known saying िव या धानम ् सव धानात ् धानम ् vidhyā dhānam sarva dhānāt pradhānam. And if he is poor in the material sense of the term; this material poverty is amplycompensated by another wealth and what is that wealth; jñāna dhānam; andtherefore vidyā sampannaḥ; a brahmin is one who is rich in knowledge wealth andbecause of this knowledge, he has got what; vinaya sampannaḥ, and he is anembodiment of humility; vinayaḥ means humility; amānitvam; because vidya cannotcome, without vinayaḥ; as I had said the other day, water will flow only to a lowerlevel, from higher level; similarly only a humble mind can receive the wisdom. Andthat is why we indicate the humility by bending; indicating what, when I bend Iaccept I am in a lower level. and when I bend in front of someone I accept that; theother one is higher level; and therefore adhihi bhagavaḥ; please give me wisdom;therefore, without humility, wisdom cannot come; and therefore brāhmaṇa is onewho is the embodiment of wisdom and humility. This is the highest in this case. And the next one is वपाकः **vap kaḥ**; śvapākaḥ means an uncultured person;literally it means the one who eats a dog; dog eater. In our culture, meat eating itself is looked down upon; not accepted because it involves himsa; **19. Here itself birth is overcome by them whose mind is established insameness. Brahman is indeed the same and defectless. Therefore they areestablished in Brahman.** Why? because there vision has changed; going back to the example that I give whenthe wave was taking itself to be a wave, imagine wave is self-conscious; so when awave looks out itself as a wave, what will be its thinking; I am born out of theocean; and I have got a date of birth; and now I am growing older and older; andeven I am giving chocolates to other waves, today is my birthday; I am also afraidthat as a wave I will disintegrate and merge into ocean which is my death; thereforeas I look upon myself as a wave, I am a mortal wave; subject to the power of thewind, because the wind alone decides my birth and death; the wind indicatingprārabhda. But imagine the very wave has shifted the vision and instead ofmistaking itself to be a wave, it claims that I am water with an incidental form; thewind has not created me; I have been there all the time; wind has only given ashape to me; and that shape is incidental; and the shape is bound to go. So whethershape is there or not, whether form is there or not; I am the eternal water; andeven when the Sun evaporates me; I the water will continue in the form of steam orhumidity; and even when I am pouring down; I continue as a rain, and when itpours into streams, I am called rivers; my names are different; but I am the eternalwater; then that wave is an enlightened wave. **20. Facing the pleasant he is not elated, and facing the unpleasant he isnot depressed. A knower of Brahman is firm in Knowledge, free fromdelusion, and is established in Brahman.** A jñāni even after gaining the knowledge will have to live in the same world;because according to vēdānta, mukti is here and now; it is now something attainedafter death. And since mukti is here and now, a jīvan muktha continues to live inthe same world; and a jīvan muktāh's life is governed by what? It is governed by thesame laws which govern the life of a ignorant person also. Our lives are governed mainly by three factors; dēśa, kāla prārabdha. Our life isgoverned by three forces; one is the place influences the life; the surrounding, theenvironment, the people, etc. That is dēśaḥ, because whether I like or not; I haveto face the onslaught of the world; and the second thing I cannot escape is kālaḥ;whether I like or not, the time is flowing; and as even the time is flowing, the bodyis ageing; Krishna says the difference will be in the response to the situation; jñānam doesnot change the situation; jñānam gives the inner strength to have a balancedresponse towards both ups and downs; and this samatvam is the benefit of ātmajñānam. **21. One whose mind is not engaged in external objects attains that􏱀nanda which is in 􏱀tma. He whose mind is engaged in the meditation ofBrahman attains lasting 􏱀nanda.** **22. Oh Arjuna ! Those pleasures which are born of contact are indeedsources of sorrow only, (because) they have a beginning and an end. Thewise (person) does not revel in them.** And what is the reason for this. Krishna gives the reason also; आ य तव तः **dhyantavantaḥ**; the reason is all contact born pleasures have got a beginning;whether it is a relationship with another human being; or possession of a particularobject, the contact has a beginning. Therefore it has got ādhi; and what is theuniversal law?; the universal law is everything that has got a beginning has got anend also; So ādhi antavantaḥ; so if their arrival is pleasure; their departure will bepain. Suppose the departure is pleasure, some people give happiness when they goaway; I told you; some people give happiness wherever they go; **some peoplegive happiness whenever they go**. If an object gives pleasure by theirdeparture; then the very same object will give pain by its arrival. So very simple law;if arrival gives pleasure, the departure will give pain; if departure gives pleasure,arrival will give pain and the world is full of arrivals and departures. So ādhiantavantaḥ kauntēya; therefore the basic truth that Krishna wants to say is that theworld or the objects are a mixture of pleasure and pain. Now the question is how to discover that pūrṇatvam if I decide to give upeverything. How to discover the inner strength if I decide to have things; and thebeauty is: for both there is only one method; and that method is self-knowledge;self-knowledge will simulatenously give you two faculties; self-knowledge willsimultaneously give two faculties; you will be able to give up everything; and youwill have the pūrṇatvam; or you will be able to possess everything; and then facethe consequent pains also; and that is why once you get the jñānam; either way itis OK; you decide to have things; no problem; you decide to give up things; noproblem. If you do not have self-knowledge; possession also will be problem; non-possession also is problem. **23. That person who is able to manage the impulse born of desire andanger here itself before the fall of the body is disciplined. He is happy.** It is I who make the world a source of joy; and it I who makes theworld a source of sorrow also. That world is seen as God's creation without any subjective projections. Until wecome to that; vēdānta will not work. Vēdānta requires objectivity; from jīva sr̥ ṣṭi; wehave go to īśvara sr̥ ṣṭi; from īśvara sr̥ ṣṭi alone, we can go to asr̥ ṣṭi; that is theabsolute; my creation; god's creation; to no creation. No creation is the absolutewisdom. Here Krishna says we can see that later; go from your creation to god'screation and Krishna accepts that this is not easy thing; because we have subjectiveorientation; and therefore we always judge and dub things as good or bad; and it isnot easy; therefore Krishna says you have to work throughout your life to get out ofthe hold of rāgaḥ and dveṣaḥ; and Krishna says you have the entire lifetime to workon it; it is not one year thing or two year thing; you get over before your die; nextjanma you can learn vēdānta; let it be your lifelong project. there is no question of ideal bodydoes not exist; but what is health; even if sickness comes; I have got sufficienthealth to overcome the sickness and continue my journey of life as I saidbefore, he can have things, and he can be without things also; when he has things;he will enjoy their presence; if he is seeking loneliness; that is also anotherbondage; if I am attached to loneliness I would like to be alone when people comeyou would come angry; neither attached to loneliness nor attached to people; theone who can enjoy both; and even when he enjoys the presence of things andpeople, he does not lose sight of his inner freedom. Therefore, saha antarjyōtirēvayaḥ; saha yōgi; that person is called a real yōgi. So yōgi means what; jñāni; wiseperson; here yōga does not mean the one who can stand upside down; or one whocan bend the body like a rubber ball; that is all very good; that is also yōgasana;Here yōga is that inner faculty; that wisdom; therefore yōgi means jñāni; I am able toidentify and share the happiness; and similarly when the other person feels the pain;I should be able to appreciate that feeling and share; and this capacity of feelingothers' feeling is called empathy. and that is here referred to as sarvabhūtahitēratātvam; and initially I learn to feel the feelings of my own family members. In fact,the very purpose of marriage is to develop empathy; so first start with your wife;that itself is in the problem; Once I am able to expand my mind and sense theintense feelings of my wife or husband; my mind has expanded to நா வ naam iruvar; from வ oruvar to வ iruvar; and thereafterwards, they encourage having children also; जाच व यय वचनेच prajāca svadhyaya pravacanēca;why should we have children; so that our mind will expand enough to feel the feelings of the children also; and like that I should expand, The short-sighted human being is one who is not aware of his own wife's or thehusband's pain and a person of expanded mind is one, who can sense the pain ofnot only the family members, not only the members of the society and includes theanimals and plants and such a person will be embodiment of ahimsā; and ahimsā issupposed to be the mahavr̥ tam for spiritual progress. And it will lead to what; kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ; such aselfless life in which one contributes to others' also in the society; one who followskarma yōga; the one who follows pancha maha yajñā will become kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ;free from pāpam; kalmaṣāḥ; pāpam or duritam; kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ; free from allduritam. Thenwhatisthenextstage;ि न व धा**chinnadvaidh ;** knowledgeisbeneficialonly when it is free form all forms of doubt; doubtful knowledge is as good as ignorance.And therefore acquisition of knowledge is incomplete; if all my doubts are notcleared; and that is called conviction; niścaya jñānam; knowledge has to beconverted into niścaya jñānam; how, by removing all doubts, I should ask my ownintellect, am I convinced of this teaching. so you need not tell anyone. You shouldask your own conscious, you should ask your own inner heart; you say ahambrahmāsmi; are you agreeing; and generally what will we say: Summary Grihashtha ashrama has money and relations and gives us a sense of security. Sanyasa ashram doesn’t have either and is tougher. Grishastha is generally better. Either ashrama can lead to liberation First do karma yoga (proper action & proper attitude) then gyana yoga (realise consciousness and identify you with it Proper action -> selfless > selfish > hurtful Proper attitude -> Offer all work as dedicated to god and results accept as prasad Vairagya is letting go of everything external and experience freedom internally , this leads to jivan mukthi , sthirapragnan, then lead to # Chapter 6: dhyana yoga Meditation meditation is not a means of liberation. Only knowledge is means to liberation. Meditation is not a means to knowledge also. Meditation is not for any extra ordinary experience Meditation is for preparation of mind for spiritual knowledge **1. The Lord said --- he who performs the action to be done withoutexpecting the result of action, is a real sany si, and not a renouncer ofrituals. Moreover, he is a Yōgi and not a renouncer of activities.** after-allmeditation is what?; mind dwelling upon one field is meditation; mind dwelling onone particular field is meditation; a karma yōgi is a meditator because he is notagitated about his past experience; he is anxious about the future; his mind is fullyavailable for the present task. Which is not available for the other persons becausewhile he is doing one thing, already his mind is thinking of what will happen; whatwill happen; therefore even 5% mind is not available as far as karma yōgi isconcerned; he plans, before planning, he thinks for the future and once he hasplanned and started implementation; thereafter what is going to be the result; hedoes not bother; and therefore he has got a fully focused mind; and a fully focusedmind is a mind in meditation; so a karma yōgi is practising open eye meditation; it iscalled meditation because God is involved in karma yōga; because whatever actionhe performs he is offering to the Lord; **2. Oh Arjuna! That which (they) call renunciation is that Karma Yōgaalone, understand. For, nobody becomes a Karma Yōgi with outrenouncing fancies.** **3. For a seeker who wants to reach dhy nayōga, karmayōga is said to bethe means. For those, who have reached dhy nayōga, renunciation is saidto be the means.** **4. Indeed, when one is interested neither in sense-objects nor in (their)pursuits, then that renouncer of all fancies is said to be one who hasreached dhy nayōga.** Therefore Krishna says indriyārtheṣu na anuṣajjate; It is not craving after the sensepleasures; And if they do not attract me or appeal to me; very careful not hatred;hating the sense objects is as much an obstacle as craving for them; So a matureperson does not hate also. Nor does he crave. Dayananda Swamiji gives a beautifulexample. As a baby, I might be playing the game of marbles. Nowadays we cannotgive this example. Computer games I should say; Swamiji used to say Marbles sotoys; During that age, I am very very possessive; how many toys I have how manymarbles I have; marble I mean not the floor marble; not that; I am talking about theplaying marble; the goli, that you play with; So you are obsessed with that; youmeditate on that as a baby; now what is your attitude towards goli; suppose yourown grand child or child calls you; there is no friend to play with; so appa come withme for playing goli; you do not hate and say that if I see that I will get attachment,etc. therefore I will not play; you are not afraid of getting attached to the marble;you will happily play and even you will pretend that Oh My son I am gettingdefeated, etc. All those things; you will show interest; you do not hate; and in themiddle of the game and you are winning; and some guest comes and the game isstopped half way; you the grown up, are you disturbed; crucial I was winning;somebody came and spoiled; playing is also OK for you; not playing is also OK foryou; that is called transcending.That is called vairāgyam; That is called growing out; that is called maturity;therefore indriyārtheṣu na anuṣajjate; he is not enamoured by, tempted by, thesense objects, and therefore only कमस ु karmasu; karma means what; activities for procuring those arta kāma puruṣārtaḥ; arta kāma sādhanām. arta kāma is sādhyam;karma is sādhanām; arta kāma is end; arta kāma means arta means wealth; kāmameans entertainment; these are the goals or sādhyam; and karma is sādhanām,Krishna says a mature person is neither attached arta kāma sadhyam; nor is heattached to karma sādhanām. Neither the means he is attracted to nor the end heis attracted to. If at all he is attracted to, that is dharma moksha puruṣārtaḥ. In fact,dharma puruṣārthaḥ, he has grown out, moksha puruṣārtaḥ he is. To put in simple language; what is the sign of maturity? Detachment. Detachment isthe crucial litmus test for inner growth; And such a person is called sarva saṅkalpaḥsanyāsi, and since he is not obsessed with arta kāma; he is not obsessed with theirarrival nor he is obsessed with their departure. No doubt, he knows money isrequired in future; he knows; he has saved some money; but he is not going tothink because nowadays various treatment and their cost, we come to know fromthe newspapers; angio plasti, Rs.1 lakh; whatever it is; byepass surgery; Now youcan imagine, if I get such a disease, what will be the expenditure; and at the timewhat will it cost; and what I am having now; whether it will be met from the interestthat I get out of it; etc. So you can worry about all the possible diseases and wonderwhether you have sufficient money; In fact to have a master check up to saynothing is there; you have to spend Rs.10,000. I do not know what is the minimumrate now. So if you are going to worry; you can worry any amount; that is whyKrishna said security never depends upon external conditions; it is purely an innerstate of mind. If you feel insecure, you can feel insecure with any amount of wealth.In fact, if you have more wealth, the very possession of wealth can make you moreinsecure. Therefore security is an inner state; and therefore Krishna said OK have some wealth; PF, shares, medical insurance, etc. you keep; but be veryclear none of them is going to give you a total sense of security; therefore bettersurrender to the Lord; Lord will take care of you; and because of this attitude, what oes he do; sarva saṅkalpaḥ sanyāsi; he has dropped his worry about future; he is as good as a sanyāsi. In fact when a person takes to sanyāsa āśrama; what is his future; he has notprovided anything for his future; he does not own anything; no money, norelationship; what is going to happen in old age; so what does he do; a sanyāsi'sonly security is Bhagavan. If a karma yōgi can develop same sense of security; he isas good as a sanyāsi; ready for vēdānta; so yōgārūḍhastadōcyatē; **5. One should uplift oneself by oneself. One should not lower oneself. For,the self alone is the friend of oneself; the self alone is the enemy ofoneself.** Fate is one of the factors which will determine my future; fate isdefined as prarabdha karma; purva karma phalam; this is a healthy attitude; The other factor is our freewill. Those who have good fate, their mind is already tuned towards free will. And once you have decided to take charge of your life; what is the first step. Thefirst step is this; whatever goal you want to accomplish in life; you have got thesame set of instrument; whatever goal you want to accomplish, you have got thesame set of instruments; they are your physical body, they are your sense organs,they are your emotional mind; and your rational intellect. They are the basic toolkitthat you have. you have a body; you have a set of senses; jñanēndriyaṇi,karmēndriyāṇi, you have got a mind, which is capable of having healthy emotionsand uplift to you; and a mind which is capable of having unhealthy emotions thatpull you down. Mind is same; you have got a rationale intellect also; which canchose a wonderful goal and accomplish it also; and which can choose a wrong thingand destroy the life; And this instrument kit, body-mind-senses-intellect Krishna calls tma in thiscontext. In this context of 5th verse, Krishna uses the word tma by which Krishnameans the instruments of body, senses, mind and intellect. And your success in lifedepends upon the condition of your instruments. If your instruments fulfill certainbasic conditions, you are lucky, you can accomplish any goal; it is like having a carwhich is in good condition. Imagine the wheels are loose; in the car; and thesteering is good; only once in a while, when you turn to the right, car will go to theright; only once in a while; Car is very good; the driver is drunk; that is all; No; Sotherefore, the car should be in good condition; then you can reach the destination, ifthe car is not in good condition, you will reach the nearest hospital. First refine your instruments; integrate your personality;and what do you mean by refinement; every organ must be healthy; never ignoreyour health; body; sense organs, mind, mental health is psychological sanity; Ishould be sane psychologically; and above all intellectual clarity with regard to whatI want in life; there are several people who are still now; that they might be 57years in life and if you ask them what do you want in life; they will say: do notknow; it is groping in darkness and in fact they spend the entire life without knowingwhat they really require in life. And therefore every individual organ should behealthy; and not only each organ must be healthy, they should all function incoordination. So otherwise, the singer may be singing Sankarabharanam; and theviolinist plays Kalyani and the mridangist is playing thani avarthanam in the middleof the music concert; how will it be; who will stay there. So each individual may be great in his own field. Individual greatness is not enough;there should be coordination; many organisations fail even though the members aretop; you know why, each one is so intelligent that he can never agree with theother; this is the best guarantee for failure. So similarly, we have to maintain thehealth and also coordination, which is called jñāna yōgyatha prapthihi; I will call itintegration; I will call it adhikārithvam; Therefore Krishna's first advice, make yourinstruments healthy and qualified and well directioned. And the beauty here is whenI have to refine my equipment, to refine the equipment, what equipment I will use,very interesting; the refine the mridangam, I use my hands to adjust the tampurasṛuti, I use the hands; therefore to refine the external instruments, I use my owninstruments. Now if I have to refine my own instruments, what I will do; I cannot have anotherset of equipment, then there will be infinite regress problem, because to tune theseequipments I will require another equipment. To tune that equipment, I will requireanother equipment. Therefore Krishna says you integrate the body, with the help ofthe body itself; You refine your mind, with the help of mind itself; You refine yourintellect; with the help of intellect itself; they should integrate themselves. Andtherefore ātmana ātmānaṃ uddharēd; you integrate your instrument with the helpof the very instruments themselves; And na ātmānam avasādayēt; never weakenyour instrument because they are the only saving grace; so by unhealthy attitude;never weaken your instruments and the basic weakening attitude is what: I cannotgrow in life; it cannot be done by me. One Vivekananda may accomplish it; OneŚankarācārya may accomplish; one Ramaṇa Maharshi may accomplish; and you justworship them; it is called deification; you make them extra-ordinary people, so thatyou can continue to be lazy and adamant as before. Anybody who has achievedsomething make him a hero; Extra ordinary person; so that I can dub myself anordinary person; Why can't I be extra ordinary then; no no no. they are all extraordinary people and we are all ordinary people. So this is called self-diffidence; never entertain self-diffidence; never bring downyourselves; never develop inferiority complex. never be too self-critical; Never be toopessimistic; be optimistic; So this is called self-confidence and self-effort; these aretwo important exercises which is required for all accomplishments, including spiritualaccomplishment; and then Krishna supports that further in the second line, sayingआ म व या मनो धःु **tmaiva hy tmanō bandhu**; ātma means I told you, your own instruments; body, mind, senses, intellect complex. stūla sūkṣma śarīram; kāryakārana sangāthaḥ; so your own ātma is your true friend. So all the gurus in theworld can only indirectly contribute; all the scriptures can only indirectly contribute;even Bhagavān can only indirectly contribute; the direct contributory is yourselves,like a running race, in which your son is involved and you are just there at the end;where the final ribbon is there; so what can do; your son is coming; the re is anotherboy who is about to beat him; what can you do; suppose you start running; youcannot; if your son has to win the race, who has to run; your son. Therefore you cando; sabāsh, you can clap up, whip up, you can encourage, etc. You can doeverything but they are all indirect contribution; running you can only do; your guru,God, scriptures, they are all clapping; What are we doing; we are sleeping; Krishnasays: Get up my dear; start walking; ātmaiva hyātmanō bandhu, you are your truefriend and आ म व िरपरु ा मनः **tmaiva ripur tmanaḥ**, you alone are your enemy also; So you are your friend; you are your enemy. When you are your friend, you canmake the whole world friendly to you; and when you are your enemy you will **6. The self is a friend of oneself for him by whom the self is mastered bythe very Self. But, that very self would remain in enmity like an enemy forhim who has not mastered the Self.** **Krishna is saying that mind is just like any other tool, which you need to know to manage. You should control it and know how to manage it.** **7. For one who has mastered himself and who is tranquil, the supreme tma is evident. (he is the same) in heat and cold, pleasure and pain, aswell as in honour and dishonour.** How do I know how I am master of myself. What is the sign. Krishna says praśāntaḥ; the more I win a victory over myself; the more my life is calmer; that isthe acid test; otherwise, my mind will be turbulent and which I do not myself hasany say at all; Therefore, jitātma is a praśāntaḥ puruṣaḥ and Krishna called such aperson; yōgarūdhaḥ; And therefore Arjuna where should you start; first develop, self-belief in free will;you have to start there; that future is in my hands; I should accept. andthereafterwards I should develop self-confidence and thereafterwards I should putforth self-effort; and first stage of self-effort is attunement of my own instrumentsand then everything will be taken care of; this is going to be the development; thedetails of which we will see in the next class. So poise of mind (samatvam), self-confidence; self-effort, and then fourthly Krishna talked about another important discipline also; and that is self-management, or self-mastery. Self-mastery the word self means body-mind-sense-complex , they should function in harmony and should be healthy. Even now, as you are listening to the word, in your mind, there are two things; asyou are listening to my words, in the mind, thoughts are occurring; every word iscreating a thought in your mind, and you are grasping the thought; you areunderstanding or not understanding; you are accepting or not accepting; thethoughts are variable; but in and through the variable thoughts, there is one non-variable constant principle. Can you guess what is that constant principle. that isnone other than the consciousness principle; because I am conscious of the firstthought, conscious of the second thought; conscious of the third thought; thethoughts vary; but the consciousness does not. Like what: the light that is pervadingthe hall; The people are coming and going; but in and through the arrival anddeparture of the people, what is one common factor; the light because of which Iam aware of the arrival of people, as well as the departure; in fact, if there is oneprinciple, which is ever available, that is consciousness. And therefore, we need not go to mysterious state to recognise consciousness, itisavailable in the most ordinary waking state. What is required is only the turning theattention from the thought to the consciousness. And therefore what is Vēdānta? Switching the attention from the changing thoughtsto the changeless consciousness. And this turning the attention is possible only whenthe mind is relaxed mind. A calm mind and a subtle mind; a mind which isturbulent, and which is extrovert, it will be bothered about the changing worries andchanging anxieties in the mind; but it cannot turn the attention to the changelessthought and therefore a lot of effort is required to enjoy a relaxed mind; a highlydynamic active result oriented ambition gripped mind wants to make use of everysecond and achieve this or that; that mind is not relaxed. Vēdānta requirespraśanthasya. First of all he should listen to the teacher. For that itself, a relaxationis required. An extrovert mind cannot listen. Krishna tells when the mind is relaxed,paramātma; the self which is none other than the consciousness and when does itobtain; pratibōdha vidhitam mataṁ; Kenōpaniṣad beautifully says that ātma isevident all the time; you do not have to go to a special meditation to experience theātma. Just as I do not have to go to a special meditation to recognise the light,because the light is experienced in and through every experience, Similarly, theconsciousness does not require any special state of mind, or any special meditation;it is all the time available And this recognition has to be done in two stages: - the first stage is turning the attention from thought to consciousness; like turning the attention from hand to the light; similarly in our mind also, changing thoughtsare there; changeless consciousness is there; Vēdānta is shifting the attention fromthe changing thought to the changeless witness; This is the first part of the sādanās; - then there is the second and more important part; and what is that?: when Irecognise consciousness or turn my attention to consciousness, my tendency will beto say that I am the body-mind-complex, and I have consciousness. This is our initialapproach: who am I; I am the body-mind-complex. And what do I have; I have theConciousness which illumines my thoughts. Now Vēdānta says that you have to train your mind and reverse the approach. Instead of saying that I am the body-mind-complex, and I have consciousness, what should I do? I have to reverse it and claimI am the consciousness principle and the body-mind-complex is an incidentalinstrument used by me. This is the biggest shift and most important shift. In factmeditation is meant for this particular shift alone; I have to change my orientation;because throughout when I give my bio-data, bio-data is body-mind oriented bio-data. I have to scrap that by knowing that that is not my bio-data; then what is mybio-data - Consciousness is not a part, product or property of the body; - Consciousness is an entity distinctive from the body, which pervades the body;- Consciousness is not bound by the dimensions of the body; - consciousness survives even after the body goes; - the surviving consciousness cannot transact, not because it is absent, but becausethe medium of transaction is not there. the transacting instruments come and go; but I, the consciousness, am eternally unaffected. So this is called ātma jñānam. This is called discovering the real I. This is calledowning the real I. And when I own up this real I, what is the benefit I will get,Krishna says samaḥ bhavathi; we have to supply; samaḥ bhavathi means this wiseperson is the same unaffected by what; śītōṣṇasukhaduḥkhēṣu. This wise person isunaffected by all the pairs of opposites, happening in his life; like heat and cold;favourable condition and unfavourable condition; none of them will shake him; andnot only that, and त ा मानापमानयोः **tath m n pam nayōḥ.** Mānam and apamānam is a very big issue; we are very worried about our social status and respect; whatwill our children do; what will we do, if they do like this; like that; etc. So we are noteven bothered regarding children's future; we are only bothered only about ourname and fame; family name if such and such thing happens; self-respect; that is somuch; that when that is affected by apamānam, there are people who even commitsuicide; thus our life is constantly tormented by all these opposite experiences, andjñānam gives immunity; against all this. 8. **One whose mind is satisfied through Jñ na and Vijñ na, who is steady(and) who has mastered the sense organs is called a Yōgi. A yōgi is one forwhom a lump of earth, stone and gold are the same.** If you want to discover, Vēdānta says: MayI help you?; in the railway station; may I help you. What is this counter for? Not togo after any person; if anybody wants help, it will be given; and what is the solution;the only solution is you have to discover the ātma which is different from the body. Krishna says for a wise person, no experience is a traumatic or shocking experience; he is unshaken; and such a person is called, य ु त य ु यते yukta ityucyatē; such a wise person is called a yōgi. Yōgi in the real sense of the term; because normally we usethe word, for anyone who is an expert in yōgāsana; so if he can stand on his head;or do a few exercise, we say he is a great yōgi And why he does not have rāgaḥ dveṣaḥ; attachment is towards an object; which isgoing to improve my status; when do I get attached to some, because that object orperson, gives me happiness, gives me happiness; gives me security, gives mefullness; then naturally I am attached to that. So attachment is when the objectimproves my status. Then hatred is towards which object; when an object is goingto decrease my status, reduce my happiness; reduce my security; then I have gothatred; jñāni is free from both of them; you know why; because for a jñānipūrṇatvam or fullness does not come from an external object; he is not fulfilledbecause of the presence of object; his fulfilment comes from where; not because of money, not because of house; not because of status; not because of wife, orparents or anything. I am full because of what: my nature happens to be full; And ifI am already full, no object can increase my fullness; no object can decrease myfullness; āpūryamāṇamacalapratiṣṭham; just as the ocean is ever full; the worldcannot affect my fullness; **9. He whose mind is the same with regard to well-wishers, friends,enemies, neutrals, meditators, hateful ones, relations, the righteous andeven the unrighteous excels.** Lord Krishna is stating that one who regards equally the well-wishers such as relatives who help due to relations and friends who help due to affection without desiring anything from them and is also nonplussed by those who wish to do harm such as an enemy or the envious, as well as those of righteous conduct and those of unrighteous conduct, such a person excels even the _yogi_ or one perfecting the science of the individual consciousness attaining communion with the ultimate consciousness. Śankarācārya gives an example in Vivekachoodamni; the example of a piece ofsandal wood; sandal wood is innately fragrant. It has got only fragrance as it nature;but when the sandal wood is kept wet for some time and it is not used at all;because of the wetness, a coating of moss is formed over the sandalwood and thatcoating is so foul smelling; that it overpowers the innate fragrance of thesandalwood; and if I am going to superficially look at the sandalwood and say that itis foul-smelling and I throw away, I am committing a mistake. What is required is alittle bit rubbing. When the superficial coating goes away, it exudes fragrance again.There is a beautiful vāsana. And therefore, we all have got unhealthy behaviour, caused by ignorance and error.ignorance is also removable; error is also removable; because of the superficialquoting of ajñāna and adhyāsa; we are now foul-smelling; rāgaḥ-dveṣaḥ, kāmakrodhaḥ, lobhaḥ, mohaḥ, madaḥ mātsaryaḥ; in fact, every criminal has got thiscoating; and in fact, everyone has got crime in a milder form or an intense form;and jñāni is one who has recognised this fact, and therefore his philosophy is simple;everybody is lovable; this is the basic. **10. Remaining alone in solitude with a restrained mind and body, withoutany desire, and without any possession, a Yogi should constantly engage(in meditation).** First requirement for meditation is a quiet and secluded place, as much as possible. Let the place of meditation be a secluded place and all alone, don’t do any joint activity Let the place be spiritually and physically clean. sleep is a verybig gift of the Lord; however sorrowful a person may be, good sleep will certainlyreduce the impact of that; therefore early morning is good for meditation. So best time to meditate is the morning this is the generalrule; but we should remember that it is not a compulsory rule; because fromindividual to individual, the conveniences vary and therefore we say any time inwhich you are relaxed and not sleepy; that is ideal for meditation; whether it is twop.m. in the afternoon or whether it 12 midnight; we do not care, what is important ismind is neither too much wandering nor the mind is drowsy. That alert non-extrovertmind is called sātvik mind; whenever you have such a mind; meditate. Duration quality is important not quantity. 2-3 hours might be lesser than 20 mins Have your own asana, so that there is no pain and back is straight Krishna says you should sit steadily which means you should have a maximum base area. If the legs are kept as much apart as possible, you have got a wide base area; when you have got a wide basearea, the posture is more steady; So keeping a wide base. And then Krishna says keep the body, neck and head straight, and then let it berelaxed; not tense; so this is the posture. Then the fifth item that Krishna talks about is, prāṇa sāmyam; prāṇa sāmyam meanseven breathing; the breathing should be relaxed and even; smooth and even;because breathing and our thoughts are interconnected; Prāṇa apāna, means inhalationand exhalation must be rhythmic; this is prāṇa sāmyam; this is the fifth stage. then the sixth step is indriya nigrahaḥ; sensory restraint; because sense organs arecapable of influencing the mind, because every sense organ is a gateway throughwhich alone, the world enters your mind; it is a very good door; śabdhaḥ sparśaḥrūpa rasa gandhaḥ; all the five enter; that is why when you sit in meditation andsomebody is making masala dosai; whether you like it or not; it goes; so today inour home masala dosai has been made; then you have got do the dosai dhyānam;therefore what to do with sense organs; Krishna says may you deliberately withdrawthe sense organs; by turning the mind away and then Krishna specifically treats thesense organ of eye, because the eyes are the most powerful sense organ. And dealing with the eyes, is a little bit difficult also; because if the eyes are openwhether you like or not, whatever is in front of the eyes will enter; you see an ant;and from the ant you will be reminded of the sweet; then you will wonder about somany things; if eyes are open distraction; I cant close the eyes. Gone, as it is wetend to sleep, if the eyes are closed, by the law of association then the seventh step is manō nigrahaḥ; as we go further, it becomes tougher also;the mind has to be withdrawn from mundane fields; it should be taken away from allthe worldly roles you play in life; the thoughts connected with you as husband; aswife; as father; as employer, as neighbour, as a business person, so you have gotseveral personalities; and along with each personality there is a set up anxieties,worries and therefore I should shed, I should die to all those roles of life; That iswhy in some books they say; become mentally a sanyāsi. Tell yourselves that youare not father for 15 minutes; later you pick up your worries; for 15 minutes I amnot father, not husband, be a sanyāsi or if at all you are particular aboutrelationship, relate to either God or to your Guru, because these are the tworelationships which has no problem. With God, no problem, with guru I hope noproblem; if there is problem, renounce guru also, during meditation. In Kaivalyaupaniṣad it is said: Gurum praṇamya, you invoke the guru; because when guru isinvoked, the teaching is reminded; by the Law of association, because it is in thecontext of spiritual teaching, I am related to guru; not that I have got a rudrakṣabusiness contract or anything meditate as a sanyasi hen the 8th step and the last is: buddhi niścayaḥ; buddhi niścayaḥ meansconviction regarding the necessity and the utility of meditation; I should beconvinced of meditation; that it will help me; in absorbing the teaching; withoutconviction if I sit, I will be restless; I have so much thing to do; time is going; andtherefore it will become a mechanical routine; like people doing pooja, sandhyavandhanam, etc. kada kada ....and finish place - secluded, time - calm mind morning, seat - cloth, posture - asana with wide base, rhythmic even breathing, withdrawal of sense organs - no smell and no eyes semi closed, withdrawal of mind (sanyasi, not dad, father) and then conviction that meditation will help Therefore āsanās are prescribed in theaṣṭā ga yōga so that your body is pliable, healthy and fit; so that when you sit for45 minutes or 20 minutes; why even five minutes; it can sit in one posture withoutsig-sagging. So therefore āsana is for physical fitness and that is indicated here ~yatha citta ātma; May you keep your body by practising yōga āsana. thus āsana and prāṇāyāma help me in keeping the body fit andunder my control; yatha cittātma. Why do we say simple living is required for high thinking; if it is a luxurious living,then there are so many possessions with me and then naturally the mind is botheredabout their maintenance, because yōga is always followed by kṣēma. In fact, all ourworries are only for these two things; yōga means accomplishment; kṣēma meansmaintenance; so either I am worried about getting things, or I am worried aboutmaintaining things, reduce both of them; reduction of yōga is called nirāśīḥ; reduction of kṣēma is aparigrahaḥ; lead a simplelife. Even your relationship; children, grand children, you practicetelling, they are children of God. I am only given an opportunity to be with them; infact to learn the art of loving. Unless I have an opportunity; how will I learn;therefore Lord wants to train me in the art of loving; therefore they are the childrenof God; temporarily given but they do not belong to me; as somebody nicely said;children are not of you; but they have come to the world through you; theappropriate preposition is not "of"; if you put 'of' ~ relationship, belongingship; andonce you put "of" you will be off. Therefore aparigrahaḥ; reduce possessions andwith regard to the minimum possessions also give up the sense of ownership. Havethe idea of trusteeship. meditation is for removing the impurities of the mind; the impurity beingtwo-fold; malam and vikṣepaḥ; malam means unhealthy ways of thinking; rāgaḥ-dveṣaḥ; kāmaḥ, krōdhaḥ, lōbhaḥ, mōhaḥ, madaḥ, mātsaryaḥ etc. are called malam;uncultured thought; unrefined; indecent thought, is called malam. and vikṣepaḥ is the second impurity; which is extrovertedness of the mind;restlessness of the mind; therefore, for removing the malam; and for removing thevikṣepaḥ, mala vikṣepa rūpa aśuddi nivr̥ ttyartam dhyānābhyasaḥ; And after purifying the mind, one has to necessary study the scriptures forknowledge, **11. In a clean spot, one should firmly fix one’s own seat which consists ofa cloth, a skin and kusa-grass, one over the other, and which is neither toohigh nor too low.** **12. Seated there on the seat, having restrained the activities of the mindand sense organs, and having made the mind one-pointed, one shouldpractice dhyana yōga for mental purification.** **13. (remaining) firm, holding the trunk, head, and neck erect and steady,and not looking around, one should look at the tip of one’s own nose (as itwere.)** **14. Remaining in the vow of Brahmacarya with a calm mind withoutanxiety, and restraining the mind, the disciplined one should remain withthe mind (fixed) on me (and) with Me as the supreme (goal)** **15. Thus engaging the mind (in meditation) constantly with a restrainedmind, the Yogi, attains peace which belongs to ME and which culminatesin liberation.** Meditate focusing the mind on the formless God, with full self restraint and without distraction, you will get ultimate peace of mind from the Lord himself. More the meditation, more peaceful the mind will be. But this particular line I chanted say ati aśnāt; yesterday oneof the pāpams I did was overeating. Not only I overate at the time of breakfast,lunch, dinner, but between also; because now fridge is available; and therefore timepass; train; walk on; why it is called time pass; just go on eating; so thus, the mouthis always busy; if nothing is available, chewing gum; eating between eating,anything is never accepted; not only it is bad for health; śāstrām says it is pāpam. And therefore, here Krishna warns do not overeat; But some people confusion iswhat is overeating. They do not know the difference; looks normal; in the previousdays, we were sitting down and eating; and therefore when the stomach is half full,you would not be able to reach the plate; so at least you keep that norm; then youcan get up. Now that the dining table has come; the gap between the food and themouth is small, you go on eating so much. Therefore how am I to know; so theśāstrā says, Divide your stomach into four portions; it is a concept; divide mentally; and half ofthe stomach should be solid food; pūrayēt aśanē ardham; third quarter should be forliquid; like water or butter milk; and what about the fourth quarter, just leave it;cathurtam avaśēṣayēt; leave it, so that the food can be mixed up, if it is totally full,it can mix up properly; so cathurtam avaśēṣayēt. Now the problem is how do I know when it is half full; any measurement; like thescale in the auto rickshaw to measure the petrol; do you have some measure; whatto do; when you can eat some more, stop it; that is the very simple thing; when youcan eat some more; stop it. And if that is not clear; the best method is scientificmethod; one day you eat to your full; 12 dosas; (do not tell that it is too less!)assume you are able; that for calculation; next time you make it six; the idea is aftereating; you should not feel discomfort; before eating you have got discomfort due tohunger; and after eating you have got discomfort due to overeating; it should notcome; after eating the hunger discomfort should go away but eating discomfortshould not come; That is called moderation; in eating; that is very very important;िमत आहारः mita āhāraḥ**.** **17. Dhyana yōga becomes the destroyer of sorrow for one who ismoderate in eating and recreation, who is moderate in sleeping andwaking, (and) who is moderately engaged in actions.** And therefore Krishna says, always dedicate some time for satsaṅga, some mahātmayou meet; they will remind; or study scriptures, or go to some ashram; somepilgrimage, you should be always reminded of what is the goal; what for I havecome; what am I doing; tally both, on and off. and therefore Krishna says karmasu yuktacēṣṭa; the one who is moderate in actionsalso. Dont’s Yama 1. Give up violence at the thought and verbal and physical level 2. Maintain truth at the thought and verbal level 3. Dont steal. Any unfair deal is stealing 4. Give up any improper attitude towards the opposite sex 5. Dont amass wealth. Distribute it to the poor Do , Niyama 1. They are soucham; means purity, within and without; internal and external purity iscalled soucham; 2. Santhoshaḥ means contentment with whatever I legitimately earn; never comparewith the other people; 3. Svādhyayaḥ; scriptural study is the next compulsory duty; 4. tapaḥ means austerity; simple living; non-pompous living; non-luxuriousliving; simple living; austere living; observing moderation; 5. śvara pranidhānam; means surrender to the Lord (laws of karma). Accept the past as isvaras will . Accept means not allowing the experience to create any negative emotions like jealousy; hatred, anger, inferiority complex/ Cheerful acceptance if possible; it is painful but I do not havecomplaints. Because what I get is what I deserve, I cannot blame anyone in theworld; and if at all I pray to the Lord, the prayer is Oh Lord give me the strength toface the inevitable; this is called saraṇagathi. Last 3 niyamas are kriya yoga. if I can sit for minimum 20 minutes; withoutchanging the legs, (do not worry, I will not watch out for all these things) withoutchanging the posture, without movement, if you can sit for 20 minutes, it is calledāsana siddhi; that is the training; āsana, Pranayama captures the mind within the body Prathyarah, withdraw the senses from the world. Dharana - focus , withdraw your mind from the world and focus on the lord Dhyanam - Retaining I have become one with the object of meditation; and this absorption wherein Iforget the surrounding, I forget the fact that I am in a particular place, doing this job, everything you forget is called samadhi Yama, Niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyaraha, dharna, dhyana, samadhi - ashtanga yoga 18. your thought is always directedtowards the object of attachment Sitting formeditation with attachment will be only sitting, but everything else exceptmeditation will take place; therefore sarvakāmēbhyaḥ niḥspṛhaḥ san, havingdetached from the object And that is why I repeatedly say Vēdāntic meditation is not thoughtlessness; yogicmeditation is thoughtlessness; the yōga philosophy talks about the culmination ofmeditation as a thoughtless state; whereas in Vēdānta; we do not accept or approveof that; it is not the thoughtless is not possible; but it is of no use; except that mindgets relaxation; whether your mind gets relaxation or not; others get relaxation,when you sit in meditation; therefore, thoughtlessness, we do not give muchimportance; we give importance to thought and what type of thought, thoughtcentered on ātma; and what are they like; I am the conscious principle, by which theworld is known; by which the body is known, by which the mind is known and bywhich even the thought this known; and not only the thought is known **does not flicker** **19. The following simile is mentioned for the restrained mind of a Yogiwho is practising dhyana yōga of the tma – (it is) like a lamp in awindless spot (which) does not flicker.** the culmination of meditation is mental absorption in the object of meditation; and And therefore meditation is not thinking of a new thing, but meditation isrecollecting whatever we have collected earlier. Therefore this vēdāntic studentmentally goes back to the class; vēdānta sṛvaṇam; and what all he has heard, hehas to bring to the mind; and he has to see that I am the witness of my thoughts;and I am the nature of changeless consciousness and I am not affected by the typeof thoughts; these are all different features and when my mind continually dwells onthat, it is called sajātīya pratyaya pravāhaḥ. When will is required; there is savikalpa; when the will is not required; it isnirvikalapa. And this nirvikalpaka samādhi is supposed to be the culmination of theaṣṭā ga yōgaḥ; and therefore the 8 stages are called a ga; and the nirvikalpakasamādhi is called a gi; the 9th one is a gi, the destination; the eight ones are thea gās, the stepping stones; and Krishna wants to define that samādhi in theseverses beginning from 20 to 23, 7 definitions of samādhi or culmination or yōgaphalam; aṣṭā ga yōga phalam. **20. (One should know that to be Samadhi) wherein the mind, restrainedby the practice of meditation, quietens and wherein one perceives the tma with the (pure) mind and rejoices in the tma.** In this verse, two more definitions are given; of the total 7 definitions, two are over;the next two comes in this slōkā; so that is the third definition; ātyantikam sukham;the highest ānanda, one owns up; the highest ānanda; ātyantikam means limiless;sukham means ānanda, ānanda means fulfilment, which is totally different from theexperiential sense pleasures; all the experiential sense pleasures are finite; in termsof time, in terms of place, in terms of quality; qualitatively they are finite; andspacially and timewise. The evident finitude, is timewise finitude; every experientialpleasure is time bound. That is why people always say that day I had greatest joy;and they use the past tense; indicating what; then it was when I say, now it is notthere; I had ecstatic bliss; I was blissed out; blissed and that he was out; later blisswas also out; any experiential pleasure is time bound And the first definition that we saw was citta uparamaṇam; nirvikalpaka samādhi is astate of absorption, in which the mind is totally relaxed, tranquil, at home, at peace,at poise. In fact, we called it citta uparamaṇam. Citta means mind, and uparamaṇammeans quietude. That the second definition we saw was ātma darśanam.I am not the body, Iam not the senses, I am not the mind, I am the consciousness principle, differentfrom the body; pervading and illumining the body. Then the third definition was in verse No.21; ātyantikam sukhaṃ; it is highesthappiness, in which I own up the fact that my very nature is happiness. It is not anexperiential happiness; experiential happiness is finite, because it is time bound; Onthe other hand, it is a happiness born out of the knowledge that I do not missanything in life; I do not lack anything in life; I do not have any imperfection; Then the fourth definition was tattva niṣṭā, by which we mean that it is a state inwhich a person abides in his true nature; that he will not slip out of his svarūpam;even during transaction. So this is called not losing the centre of gravity; I gave youan example, when a cyclist moves; an experienced cyclist moves, whatevergymnastics he does, especially you see in a circus, he does all kinds of gymnasticsbut he does not get out of the centre of gravity; and in life the centre of gravity isaham satchandānandasvarūpaḥ; that is called tattva niṣṭā; sahaja samādhi; that isthe fourth definition. The fifth definition we saw was atyantika labhaḥ; it is the greatest accomplishmentin life; in fact latest accomplishment in life, coming back to myself; going in searchof peace all over; discovering the fact that peace and fullness is my very nature. andthat is why mōkṣa is called in Tamil; as veedu. whatever we do, we want to comeback to where? we want to come back home where you are at home. It has come.Similarly, a person discovers his svarūpam he has got sense that I have come backto where I have to come; so this is called atyantika lābha; highest gain in life; Then the sixth definition is ātyantika duḥkha nivrithiḥ; that gaining which a persondoes not know how to grieve in life; there is no more sorrow in life; even the worstcrisis does not shake him; because he is very clearly aware that the whole anātmaconsists of body-mind and the world and at the level of anātma, unpredictablefluctuations will take place anytime. At the physical level any kind of change, theworst being death itself; he is aware that it is a probability; And that is why vēdānta says: never seek mystic pleasures;even mystic pleasure vēdānta is not going to emphasise because even mysticc pleasure since it arrives at a time, will be subject to loss. That is why those peoplewho claim that I had the greatest bliss in nirvikalpaka samādhi, they themselves saythat when they came out it was intense pain because that ānanda went away; andthey described that intense pain is like thousand scorpions stinging together; now ifsamādhi sukhaṃ is going to lead to scorpion prick, who will want it Then how to get infinite ānanda? After finishing everything you are asking thisquestion? If you get it, you will lose it; and therefore in vēdānta, when we sayinfinite ānanda prāpthi, it only means you remove the superimposed sorrow uponour svarūpam; it is not getting a new thing; but it is removing the obstacles to ownup our nature; it is exactly like a doctor giving you health by treatment; this exampleis given by ācārya; when a doctor treats you, he never gives you health; no doctorgives you health; no doctor need you give you health; health is natural; whereasdisease is a incidental thing which we have acquired; which is unnatural; which is anintruder; and when I get back my health; health, I have not accomplished; doctorhas removed what: whatever be the obstacle to natural health; that obstacle, thatintruder has been removed by medicine, when the intruder toxin is removed, I havenot got back health; And therefore Krishna says दःुखसयं ोग िवयोगं **duḥkha** **sa yōga viyōga** ; samādhi is remaining in the natural state of pūrṇatvam; bynegating the unnatural sorrow; every sorrow you analyse, you will find it isunnatural; because either it belongs to body or it belongs to the mind, or it belongsto the world. None of them is your true nature; therefore every sorrow you take andhand over to anātma; either to the world or body or mind. Therefore what is the seventh definition. Duḥkha samyōga viyōgaḥ; disassociation fromassociationwithunnaturalsorrow;andthisiscalledयोगसं तम् yōgasaṃjñitam;this is called yōgaḥ; nirvikalpaka samādhiḥ. So with this, the seventh definition is also over. And therefore Krishna says: never get frustrated; allot the time, for dwelling on theteaching. Even if you are not successful, it does not matter, allot the time; work onit; ābhyāsa is required. Therefore with a undepressed mind; with an unfrustratedmind; with an optimistic mind; with an enthusiastic mind; may you practice thismeditation **24. Having completely given up all desires born out of fancies, one shouldrestrain the group of sense organs from all directions by the mind.** a**25. One should withdraw (the mind) gradually by the intellect, which isendowed with will. Having made the mind abide in the tma, one shouldnot think of anything else.** In Mandūkya kārika, Gaudapādācārya says enjoying the pleasantness in meditationis also an obstacle; and he calls that obstacle as rasasvāda; rasam means pleasant;in our area, when something is very nice, we say ர மா ' rasamāyirukku'; I do not know whether they say it here; āsvādaḥ means enjoying; even enjoying thepleasant feeling of meditation is an obstacle because the pleasantness also belongsto the quiet mind. We are talking about what; not the pleasant condition; we aretalking about the witness of the pleasant condition, which was there, beforemeditation, which witness is there; after meditation. I want to own up the witness-ātma. I do not want to enjoy pleasant experience in mediation; here the meditationis for owning up the knowledge; not for any special experience. Vēdāntic meditationis only for owning up this knowledge; not for any special experience aham caitanya svarūpaḥ asmi; I amof the nature of consciousness; Thoughlessness gives only deep relaxation, Vedantic meditation revolves around meditating on the self so that you drill it within you , it becomes nivikalpa and it doesn’t have an end, so you have antima ananda, endless satisfaction and happiness And if the student follows that: remember the very sṛavaṇam is meditation; not thatyou should sit in an āsanam and keep the body straight, if the body straight, halfclosed eyes, they are all supportive systems; but what makes the meditation isātmakara vṛittihi; therefore the sṛavaṇam itself is dhyānam; if it is an activesṛavaṇam; in which the student closely goes behind and that is why one of the greatācāryas Sureshvarācārya, a direct disciple of Śankarācārya says; even if one doesnot separately sit in meditation, repeated sṛavaṇam; repeated listening to theteaching; itself is a form of meditation only. Therefore we should not have thethinking that meditation should be āsana, straight, etc. You should not think, theyare all incidentals, meditation means the mind dwelling upon the teachingconsistently. What will be result of this practice? So dhyana phalam Krishna mentions in thes verses. शा तमनसम ् येनं उ तमं सखु म ् उप ित pra ntamanasam hi ena uttama sukham upaiti Vēdānticmeditation is meant for enjoying the benefit of knowledge**;** **28. Thus constantly engaging the mind (in meditation) the purified Yōgieffortlessly attains limitless ananda which belongs to Brahman.** **29. One whose mind is disciplined through meditation perceives the tmain all beings and all beings in tma. He has the same vision everywhere.** **30. I am not lost to him who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in** **Me. He also is not lost to Me.** Any form of bhakti produced before self knowledge is a lower form on bhakti. All pervading atma is the real Bhagavan 31. One who has attained oneness worships Me who am present in all beings. That Yogi abides in me, though engaged every way External transformation is not compulsory, internal transformation is important 32. On Arjune! Keeping himself as the standard, that yog I who sees pleasure and plain alike in all is considered to be the greatest What I do not want others to do to me, I should not do to others. Jnani is able to be happy with others happiness. Benefit of knowledge is universal love. Sastra says either identify with everyone or no one. Samadarsanam is the highest ananda and the devotion towards the Lords reaches its peak and the final benefit Krishna mentioned was universal compassion. 33. Arjuna said, because of restlessness, I do not see the steady existence of this Yoga was imparted by you as sameness Because an undisciplined mind is an obstacle to the Vedantic study. If the mind is undisciplined, Vedantic study remains intellectual 4 obstacles 1. Dullness 2. Cause 3. Ajirna 4. Full Stomach 5. Mind has got used to sleep when eyes are closed 6. Hidden complaints, when you want to cry, you just cry. Don’t suppress it 7. Overactive 8. Stunned 9. Relaxed mind meditation 34. Oh Krishna the mind is indeed fickle, turbulent, powerful and firm. I considers its restraint to be very difficult like that of the wind When I am emotionally disturbed mind becomes active; either talking mouth or eating. Mind is pramadi, it activates all the organs. so even if intellect tells worrying is useless; worry will not change the situation.Ones mind has got used to that kind of thinking Like initially when I choose to drink coffee it is my intellectual decision and later the body is so used to it, that I can’t get out of it. There is withdrawal symptoms. Similarly certain ways of thinking initially we generate, there afterwards the minds knows how to go in that grue. And even though you decide to stop, mind will heckle at you and it will continue to do what it wants to do. Only solution is we have to reorient the mind. No habit can be broken down suddenly, it requires lot of initiative, lot of planning, lot of time, 35 . The lord answered, Oh Arjuna! Undoubtedly the mind is fickle and difficult to everyone. Oh Arjuna, However, it can be restrained through detachment and practice The mind will always dwell upon anything without distraction , in which it has got interest And there if I develop interest in a particular field, the mind will enjoy dwelling in that, in spite of distraction . And how do you develop interest in any particular field, by knowing its value, its greatness, its superiority; how it is wondering for me, So therefore, concentration requires interest, interest or love and love requires developing a value for that By knowing the greatness of moksha, I naturally will develop an interest in dharma and mocks. God dependance is self dependance, self dependance is indepedence, which is moksha 36. Dhyana yoga is difficult to be attained by one with unrestrained mind, But it can be attained by the self controlled who strives through proper means When you got interest for something you do not have sit in padmasana, you do not have to close your eyes, wherever you go, your mind will be only dwelling upon that, whatever I love, the mind effortlessly dwells on that 37. Arjuna asked . Oh Krishna! one who is endowed with faith, but who effort is in sufficient and whose mind has strayed away from dhyana yoga Viveka (intelligence) and vairagyam(coming out of stupidity) along with satsanga are key points to develop interest Yogabrastah, has failed because of insufficient effort. obstacles can come from nature, surrounding or oneself. to be born a human being, and to be interested in qpruritualy and to have an opporiuniity for pursuing sprirituality requires lot of purva janta puny, so because of some obstacles, he could not attain the phalam Summary Now the entire chapter can be divided into 6 portions and those six portions areNo.1, bahiraṅga sādhanāni; in English, general disciplines to be observed by aperson throughout the day for successful meditation; in simple language, generaldisciplines; bahiraṅga sādhanāni; No.2 topic is antaraṅga sādhanāni; in English, it is:specific disciplines to be observed just before the practice of meditation; specificdisciplines; antaraṅga sādhanāni; then the third topic is dhyāna svarupam; theactual process of meditation; what exactly is meditation; in Sanskrit, dhyānasvarūpam; and then the fourth topic is dhyāna phalam; the benefit of meditation. then the fifth topic isdhyāna prathibanda parihārau; the obstacles to meditation; and their remedies;prathibanda means obstacles and parihāra means remedy the sixth topic is anincidental and aside topic and that is yōga bhraṣṭa, a question which came becauseof Arjuna's pessimism; in spite of Krishna's encouragement; Even after Krishna'steaching; if In general discipline, Krishnaincludes karma yōga as a very important discipline for successful meditation accept all the actions that he has to do in life without grumbling; one of the sourceof mental disturbance is doing things without loving that job; when I keep on doingthings; without having a love for that; there is a split in my personality; mind doesnot want to do; body has to do; therefore தாைல kaṭa tolaikka atu; which means there is a stress and strain. Whereas karma yōgi accepts all the actionswith what; īśvara arpaṇa buddhi; not only karma yōgi loves whatever he has to do;because of the position in the family; in the society, in the organisation; he alsoaccepts all the consequences of his action. Not only karma he accepts, he acceptskarma phalam also; karma he accepts with īśvara arpana bhavana; karma phalam heaccepts with prasāda bhāvana; and because of this īśvara arpaṇa prasāda bhāvanās,karma yōgi enjoys a stress free mind. In fact, karma yōga is the best method ofstress management; and such a mind which is stress-free, Krishna calls samatvamyōga uchyate; karma yōgi enjoys a mind which is free from violent reactions; not atthe time of meditation; but throughout; if there is one violent reaction during theday; that trauma in the mind will create such a strong imprint that even duringnight, you sit in meditation that daytime argument with the auto rickshaw fellow orargument with the boss, wife or children; any violent reaction creates an imprint andit will come when you are sitting in mediation; karma yōgi avoids violent reaction Then the second bahiraṅga sādanā Krishna emphasises is self-confidence; neverlook down upon yourselves; We all are God's creations; and we all belong to theLord; and that qualification is enough for us to feel great; if even I do not have anyqualification; I am great because I belong to the Lord. **Nowhere in the vēdās, fatalism is talked about; it always says, take charge of your life;** The third value that Krishna emphasises in bahiraṅga sādanā is self-control; whenyou are using any instrument, you should have control over the instrument, whetheryou are driving a car, are whether you are using a musical instrument, you can besuccessful; only when the instrument is under your control; and Krishna saysBhagavān has given the best instrument for you, in the form of the body; wonderfulhuman body; how many things the hand can do; you can sit and write; **because according to śāstrā; breathing and mind are interconnected; ifthere is a disturbed breathing** **must read summary** # Chapter 7: Jnana Vignana Yoga karma yoga = proper action + proper attitude present is a result of the past, hence future is a result of the present. hence take charge and responsibilities for your future do not think your effort alone, you can accomplish everything , do not be arrogant, be confident, not overconfident I accomplish things with my effort backed by the grace of lord The only security is in the infinite and infinite is called Bhagvan, if you are a seeker of moksha, you are a seeker of Me, the lord When you accomplish something you get intermediate peace of mind, your journey will end only when you discover purnatvam, by accomplishing moksha. Three conditions God is your number 1 destination Do what you have to do self effort Always seek the grace of lord 2 At saguna level you see the difference between individual and god. at nirguna you don’t. 3 Insecutiry is a notion born in our minds, because of ignorance 4 Like the spider that makes it own web, the world is that of the lords, that is cause happens to the intelligence and the material cause 5 Tao of physics written by Fridg of Capra, nataraja, everything is moving tat avam sai ,the observed is para prakriti, the observer is apara 6 God alone has evolved in the form of his creation. Learn to look at everything as Gods own manifestation 7 Any attitude is based on knowledge. The basic teaching of hinduism is reverence to the creation as manifestation of God. Eating is simple, but digestion takes house. Understanding the teaching and bringing about attitudinal change takes time 9 earth by itself is fragrant we are polluting it man vasanai. similarly we are good people. therefore respect everyone. they are gods manifestation 10 I am the intelligence of the intelligent we have 5 temples, each for one bhutam. chidamabaram, kala hasti, thirvanammalai, jala lingam, tiruanaikavil, prthivilingam. Humility born to of knowledge will remain, but without understanding they will be humble outside and arrogant inside 11 When you feel fine, you understand well before buying it desire, after buying it attachment even desire for money can be good, if its for sharing with others money -> noble activities -> purification -> knowledge -> lberation 13 God is a mixture of para and apara God alone is srsti-sththi laya karanam , spider - web, creator, preservers, destroyer World is gods manifestation God is cause, world is effect why sorrow comes in life, we never analyse, I thought education/job/marriage/children will give me happiness They never analyze Problem is para prakriti is not available for our perception The first thing we need is purnatvam, fulfilment. Everything that happens in apara prakriti is in constant flux. It is subject to time and therefore noting is sasvatam. There apara prakriti will end with time it can’t give you security you need something permanent to hold onto and that is Bhagvan 14 Intial bhakti is I use lord for wordly ends God is the end in itself God is I myself 15 16 4 seekers 1. duhka nivrthiartam 2. sukha praptam 3. one interested in knowing about God 4. One who knows he and god are one. Jnani 17 In dvaita, god is subject to arrival and departure, hence darsanam self love is highest, god love will be high. Jnani 19 In front of a hungry person even god has to come with only bread Humans seeks 1. Security . world cannot give it because security is bound by time 2. Permance. world changes with time 3. Fulfilment . Creation is finite Happiness is the expression of purnatvam 20 dharma means all forms of puny which will take a person to higher worlds after death. Desire should be for infinite or God. 23 All wordly accomplishments are mixed with equal amounts of pain also acquisition involves struggle, anxiety, tension, fear, worry, jealousy, After acquiring, problem of retaining, all material accomplishments will be lost in time, ultimate loss will be pain = pleasure you derive No human being will be satisfied with any amount of wealth they create Maya belongs to apara prakriti and this maya is always mohini, very tempting and clouds thinking 25 Source of ananda is within you, there is a method of digging and owning that peace 26 27 Cause of happiness is knowing myself, cause of sorrow is not knowing myself Inspite of so many achievements, children are there, grand children are there, but my problem continues, so may be my direction is wrong. once this question comes, bhagvan begins to give direction Real spirituality is when I turn towards myself . Problem is not outside , problem is within Going beyond time is the source of secutiy 30 Summary jnanam is the only rememdy for samsara When you drink cola, whatever the taste you cannot enjoy, because you keep looking at the falling level niskama bhakthi will attain liberation # Chapter 8 **3. The Lord answered – The supreme imperishable entity is Brahman. Theself is said to be adhyatmam. The sacrificial offering which brings aboutthe origin of beings is known as Karma.** consciousness is the only entitywhich remains imperishable **4. The perishable creation is adhibhuta and Hiranyagarbha is adhidaiva. Imyself, (who reside), in this body, am adhiyajñ . O Arjuna, the best of theembodied.** **5. Dropping the body at the time of death, one who departs rememberingMe alone attains My nature. There is no doubt in this regard.** **6. Oh ! Arjuna, Thinking of whatever object one gives up the body at thetime of death, that very object one attains, being always steeped in thatthought.** **"As a person thinks, so a person becomes". It is a very verypowerful law, which is a fact; it is not a law applicable only after death; but it is alaw applicable within this life itself; as a person thinks, so he becomes;** **8. Oh Arjuna! Constantly thinking of the Lord with a mind that isundistracted due to the practice of Meditation, one attains the divinesupreme (Lord).** **9. One who thinks of the Lord at the time of death attains the lord who isomniscient, the ruler of all, subtler than atom, the sustainer of all,incomprehensible, effulgent like the sun, and beyond ignorance.** **10. At the time of death, having properly brought the praṇa between the eyebrowsby the power of yōga with an undistracted mind endowed with devotion, one attainsthat divine supreme Lord.** Now the question is how can I withdraw the praṇa, that too at the time of praṇaleaving the body; how can I can have so much control over the praṇa; to withdrawit; bring it to the heart; send through the suṣumnā nādi, it seems impossible. SoKrishna says; yōga balēna chaiva; If a person wants kṛama mukthi; not only he mustbe a great upāsaka, he also must a great yōgi; he must have practiced aṣtāṅgayōga; and he must have practiced lot of praṇāyāma and through that, he must beable to control all the praṇas; and you know it is possible also; there are manypeople who can control the so-called involuntary action; what involuntary for us; forus most of the actions are involuntary. Anyway action which are consideredinvoluntary like heartbeat etc. by the practice of yōga, he can control the so-calleduncontrol and therefore Krishna says upāsaka must be a yōgi; if he wants kṛamamukthi; what about jīvan mukthi; to come to nirguṇa īśvara jñānam; and attainmukthi here, the greatest advantage is you need not be a yōgi; now you can decidewhat do you what; so if you postpone that is the punishment; if you postpone youshould be a tremendous praṇāyāma practioner having total control over yoursystem; and therefore Krishna adds योगा लेन yōga bal na by the strength of his yōga practice, he must be able to withdraw the praṇa, and direct through thissuṣumnā nādi and while doing all these things, he has to do some more things; herehe has to do something else also; what is that; मनसाचलेन manas 'cal na; he should enjoy a mind which is very very steady; when at the time of death; not only heshould be able to withdraw the sūkṣma śarīram or praṇa, he should be able to haveperfect balance of mind; therefore acalēna manasa; so with an undistracted mind;and if you ask how is it possible; again you have to add; yōga balēna; thus yōgaśāstrā is meant for yōgaḥ citta vṛittihi nirōdhaḥ; for disciplining the thoughts in theyōga; therefore Niṣkāma upāsaka, steadies the mind; and then what is the nextthing he has to do; (not finished) bhakthya yukthaḥ; he must be endowed with totaldevotion towards me which means his intense urge should be for īśvara praapthi andnothing else; and how is it possible; yōga balēna; for each thing you have to add;yōga balēna he has control over praṇa; yōga balēna he can withdraw the mind; andyōga balēna, he can direct the mind towards the Lord; in the form of any iṣtadēvathā; that is not said here; we can understand it as in the form of any iṣtadēvathā; Rāma rūpam, Krishna rūpam, Dēvi rūpam, etc. and by such upāsana, whatwill he get; saḥ param puruṣam divyam upāithi; as a result of such a īśvarasmaraṇa, he will attain the Lord himself; what type of Lord; another description; परं प ु षम् िद यम् param puru am divyam; I have given the meaning of the word puruṣa before; the one who indwells in every one; and one who fills up the wholecreation, such a Lord; and param, the one who is the highest, dēsa kāla vasthuparichheda śūnyam; the one who is limitlessone and divyam; the one who is svayamprakāśa caitanyam; the one who is of the nature of consciousness; such a Lord hewill attain; how kṛama mukthi; not directly, go to Brahma lōkā, attend Brahmāji'sclasses; gain knowledge and attain mōkṣa. **Summary** Prathama satkam is about karma yoga Maghayam satkam is about upasana Anthima satkam is jnana yoga Upasana is defined as sauna Brahma - with attributes isvara viasaya manasa vyaparah - Mental activity. Any physical activity will go into karma yoga sakama upasana for material benefit (krishna doesn’t care for this at all in gita) niskama upasana for spiritual growth only Niskama upasana is divided into two 1. Person practices niskama upasana for a length of a time, which will give sufficient spiritual growth to jnana yoga abhhyasah , jnana yoga concentrates on nirguna isvara , which is achieved by vedanta savanna mañana nidhidhyasama . Vedanta sravana under the able guide of a guru and then by practicing mananam the knowledge is assimilated and one is liberated from the doubts in his intellect and he is liberated . So practice niskama upasama, acquire qualification, withdraw from niskama upasana, apply yourselves in vendanta vicar or sravana manana nidhidhyasama and attain nirguna brahma nana vista , by acquiring jnana nistha he attains liberatoin. After death jnani does not have to travel anywhere, he has got jivan mukthi. Krishna deals with that in all chapters. Except this 8th one is a odd one 2. Person practices niskama upasana but focuses on saguna isvara (with attributes) Rama Krishna etc. Values it the most . Naturally at the time of death he remembers the lord. Because he doesn’t know vedanta he doesn’t get liberation . But all the efforts are not gone to waste. He get krami mukthi and goes to Brahma lokha where he gains that knowledge with the help of the most able teacher who is Brahma himself. This path he travels is called sukla gati. Krishna is not suggesting this path, but he is putting this path here just for information. Now in the first 4 verses. He asks seven small questions. what is adhyatmam - Conscious inside our individual body is called adhyatmam just like you are called father, son etc. Same conscious is called brahman for everyone, but the one inside you is called adhyatmam adhibutham - The material world, the 5 bhuthams, fire earth wind water space adi daivam - The whole mind of the material world. (like the mind of your body drives you) adi yagnam - The lord of karma, who keeps notes of all the papa punyam. Mosquitos punya is your papam. There are so many karma that has lead to the creation of so many bodies. Karma is the source of creation. Brahman - is the ultimate one consciousness Karma - Any action is karma. Gives out papa, punyam and has to be exhausted by sukha, dukham What is the significance of remembering God at the time of death. Figuring out the time of death is impossible. So we have to lead a life where God is the ultimate Goal, so that we remember about him all the time (and at the time of death). As we grow older our will power weakens and our habit takes over. So we have to start practicing good habits from now. Keep the bad energy, people, habits away. Always see, listen and do only good things.They will generate the subha vasana (good habits). No need to hate people, but choose them carefully and keep cobra distance. Whatever is remembered at the time of death indicates the personality of the person. Habits determine lifestyle determine my last thought. Even if the conscious mind is stuck in loukika karmani , the sub conscious mind will will be thinking of the God and because of this at the time of death also the mind will withdraw from the external world as Bhisma did at the time of death. There are two goals a person can chose . God and not God. Everyone wants immortality , security, peace and happiness and that is God. People seek them in finite things like money, people, and possessions . One can’t get them there. Because they are bound by time and space and they will run out or you will. Even if you go to heave (svarga lokha) max benefit, you are given only visitor ticket and have to come back. (krishna gati, karmi is the name of this traveller). Take the sukla gati and go to Brahma lokha(krama mukthi) . this person is the niskama upasaka Jnana yogi doesn’t even come in this race between niskama upasaka and krami. He is the ultimate. But if you have to chose between karma and upsana, choose upasana (the infinite). Because he will get jivan mukthi, the other will not. # My philosophy **CREATE** Express yourself. Grow your imagination. Gather knowledge. Act. Create. And Express Yourself **SELL** Contribute back to society. Sustain your machines. Sell to retain harmony. Gather value **GIVE** Give it away to create a better world with healthy, educated, individual thinking people. --- - Kill your ego and desires, if not regulate.. - Become another model for people who know you.. No verbal advice. Actions speak louder than words. - Be an embodiment of enthusiasm. Seek spiritually. # Sadhguru on selfishness Even the dimmest person is very clever when it comes to his self-interest. Only when human beings get more and more intelligent, they are less and less concerned about their self-interest. The dimmer they are, the shrewder they are about their self-interest. Have you noticed this? Being interested in the limited self is a foolish thing. It’s a terrible loss that is happening to an individual human being and to humanity as a whole. When he could be interested and involved in the grandeur of the cosmos, he is interested in one little person who is not worth anything. When intelligence expands and starts looking at a variety of things, a human being is not so concerned about his self-interest. If one’s intelligence truly flowers, he has no self-interest. # Summary I need to do my duty with total involvement and love without looking at the results. Just do you best duty at every point in time and don’t be inspired by the fruits of the action. Leave it to God. At every moment, be ready for failure and hope for the best. Don’t be elated by success or worried by failure, both are not in your hands, they are in the laws of action which no one can fully understand. Attachment brings sorrow and delusion which causes poor judgement which goes into a vicious cycle, hence it is very important to renounce attachment to results / expectations or anything. You can have only non binding desires i.e preferences. If it happens its good, if it doesn’t happen its okay. Nothing in this world should be able to affect you. Get into karma yoga, renounce the fruit of action and just do you duty with full of love for your job. Then you will automatically see that the three metrics of you getting having negative emotions will come down , frequency , intensity , recovery . You have to surrender yourself completely to a guru , for the guru sisya relationship to occur. Once the sisya is ready , the guru will come, and then the vedantic teaching can take place. Remember, wise men never have a problem. They face tough situations , but they are never disturbed by situations. Because that is the nature of the wise man. Mind, body and you are different things, you should know that first. You are the awareness, not the mind, not the thoughts , not the body. Seek to grow your awareness and become one with the infinite concioussness which is God . You have to follow your dharma to sustain the harmony in this world, which is the command of the God. Surrender yourself to the Lord and he will take care of the results. One needs to follow karma yoga to fulfil and quench the prarabdhana in his birth and clear his mind. One should discover that actions and its results cannot give satisfaction , find the dispassion , Only the dispassionate mind can pursue self realisation sankhya yoga Karma yoga, one can choose one’s action but never the result, which s dependant on laws of action, which factors the known and unknown and can bring unexpected result. One cannot avoid that . So one should ever be ready for any result. One can hope for the best, but one should be prepared for the worst. If one works with the above understanding, nothing can shake him. One doesn’t react, as he isn’t caught unaware . This is yoga. Then one can convert karma into a valid teacher. This is skill in action. The tranquil mind will soon shed its false value attributed to the world and turn into the Atma. When through self knowledge one gets established with the peaceful atma, one attains liberation. Become a sthitaprajña 1. He is satisfied with himself. 2. Free from any desires 3. He is indépendant of the world to be happy 4. Naturally he is free from attachment, desire, hatred, anger, elation , fear, depression. 5. He enjoys a freedom and contentment which is unknown to others. 6. The best comparison is that of an ocean. It is complete by itself and it is undisturbed by any favourable or unfavourable situation. He is a jivan muktha 7. He has gone through karma yoga and gnana yoga. Pragna is intellectual knowledge sthira is emotional knowledge. He has both to face the crisis of life. 1. Guru should teach you the scriptures , sravanam 2. He should clear your doubts, mananam, 3. Kill all negative unhealthy responses due to emotional weakness with obtained knowledge, through nidhidhyasanam 4. You will get jivan mukthi Karma yoga 1. Keep the spiritual goal as the priority 2. Offer all the actions to the Lord 3. Don’t be concerned about the result. 4. Be free from possessiveness 5. Be calm You should do that all this not by self restraint but by awareness, that these materialistic things are nothing. Arta-Kama the pursuit of money and pleasure is only secondary , the primary goal is inner growth, inner mental health. If you have that you can enjoy anything. If you don’t have that even money can’t offer anything. Sattvika karma , beneficial for all > Rajasic karma , beneficially only to me > Tamasic karma hurtful for others Strengthen the mind, Dharma and moksha are more important that arta and kama. This awareness is satva guna. Ramana Maharishi says sattvic food, helps you to look deep inside you, as it triggers that part of the brain. Lead a very alert life, don’t lead a mechanical life. Jnani is self sufficient, he doesn’t need any external. Desires should fall because of the discovery of purnatvam not due to manogatan, which is self restraint. Desires if any must be legitimate , moderate and should be only preference. One who is free from craving amidst pleasure, whose mind is unperturbed in troubles and who is free from attachment , fear and anger is said to be a sage of firm knowledge. So What? Unfavourable situations do not disturb him too much. Even favourable situation should not harm his discriminative power, he should enjoy but he should know that it is temporary elation and not get addicted to it. Self knowledge is the only way to fearlessness. [http://www.dailyo.in/sports/cricket-karma-yoga-spirituality-hinduism-upanishad-bhagavad-gita/story/1/2806.html](http://www.dailyo.in/sports/cricket-karma-yoga-spirituality-hinduism-upanishad-bhagavad-gita/story/1/2806.html) 1. Work hard 2. Focus on the work, not on the result 3. Work because you like the work, not because you expect a reward [[Literature notes]]