THE SOCIETY AROUND us is not perfect. But it is the same with us too. We too are not perfect. While living in society we often feel like abandoning it for the sake of our peace of mind. We expect too many reforms in the world around but hardly any of them is visible. We then feel that enough is enough, ‘I am going to give it up and shift to a place far away from here, where the people and surroundings are of my liking’. But will that solve the problem, as one part of the problem itself is migrating to that apparently ‘perfect place’?
Sri Krishna is seen trying to make Arjuna understand this fact that he will have to work out the solution of the problem by facing it with a proper attitude and technique.
The Reserve Bank of Karma
Whatever actions performed by us, good or bad, are stored up within our being as sanchita and prarabdha karmas. Our subtle and causal bodies are like the reserve bank of karma saving every thought and action for posterity. What we are now is largely decided by what type of thoughts and actions are stored up in our personal karmic bank account. As a result of our past good actions, more and more opportunities are created for us to do good in the present and in turn better and better future is in the making for us. Naturally, letting go of our constant preoccupation with the expectation of the good results of our present good actions is not easy. We get caught up in this vicious cycle of performing action while looking forward to getting wonderful fruits in return. And in here lies the trap.
‘What you sow, so you reap’ is an established law and we are almost trapped in this law forever. Total freedom is achieved only when we understand and transcend the laws of nature. Swami Vivekananda says in his lecture ‘Work and Its Secret’, ‘Our great defect in life is that we are so much drawn to the ideal, the goal is so much more enchanting, so much more alluring, so much bigger in our mental horizon, that we lose sight of the details altogether’ (Complete Works, 2.1). In the beginning of the Bhagavadgita, we find Arjuna also getting trapped into a similar situation. He too had begun sermonising about the evil effects of the imminent war and how they should avoid the war at all costs. His temperament and prowess as a warrior did not dissuade him from thinking too much of the horrible effects of their impending intense actions that were supposed to take them to hell.
What is Wrong in Seeking Heaven?
Humans are always chasing desires like being stuck on a hamster wheel. For a time, it may be a peak of pleasure, but after that phase is over we are again suffering through the enormous efforts required to get to that momentary paradise again. Swamiji says: ‘Do not be mere white mice in a treadmill, working always and never accomplishing anything. Every desire is fraught with evil, whether the desire itself be good or evil. It is like a dog jumping for a piece of meat which is ever receding from his reach, and dying a dog’s death at last’ (7.66).
That is why this tendency of performing sacrificial rites for the sake of attaining heaven is condemned by Sri Krishna in the second chapter of the Gita. But why this outburst against seeking Heaven? This must certainly be because Arjuna had mentioned earlier that fighting these blood thirsty Kauravas in this battle was futile and that they would end up in hell. And such weakness in action is antithetical to dharma. Dharma requires that people understand their individual duties in life and perform them with utmost sincerity. When this dharma subsides and the majority of the population goes awry then the Divine Consciousness incarnates in the forms of Rama, Krishna, and so on, for the protection of Dharma.
That is why this tendency of performing sacrificial rites for the sake of attaining heaven is condemned by Sri Krishna in the second chapter of the Gita. But why this outburst against seeking Heaven? This must certainly be because Arjuna had mentioned earlier that fighting these blood thirsty Kauravas in this battle was futile and that they would end up in hell. And such weakness in action is antithetical to dharma. Dharma requires that people understand their individual duties in life and perform them with utmost sincerity. When this dharma subsides and the majority of the population goes awry then the Divine Consciousness incarnates in the forms of Rama, Krishna, and so on, for the protection of Dharma.
To inspire Arjuna to stand and fight against adharma Sri Krishna had to awaken him to action. Every action is goaded by desire for its results or fruits. Even the slightest desire for heaven may entangle Arjuna in a seemingly eternal cycle of birth and death. And the Lord would never have wanted such a fate for his beloved disciple. Therefore, he takes this opportunity to enlighten us of the pitfalls of those rites, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices that guarantee the passage to heaven and enjoyments therein. They are nothing other than the cause of repeated cycles of birth and death. A person attached to such enjoyments can never fix his intellect on the path of knowledge or yoga of unattached action that leads to liberation from this cycle. This performance of actions without keeping an eye on results is termed as Buddhi-yoga or the yoga of sameness in action; this is contrasted with the path of selfish action entangling the self in this mrityusamsara-sagara (ocean of transmigration).
What we think about freedom in life is that we must be free to do as we please. We do not like to be constrained at all. We seldom realize that these constraints are not put on us by someone else but ourselves. Our past actions created a chain of effects that are chasing us wherever we are and bind us to them and compel us to perform more and more actions.
How to get rid of this chain? Swamiji says in his Song of the Sannyasin (4.394):
‘Who sows must reap’, they say,
‘and cause must bring
The sure effect; good, good; bad, bad;
and none Escape the law.
But whoso wears a form
Must wear the chain.’
Too true; but far beyond
Both name and form is Atman, ever free.
Know thou art That.
And then he also says,
Thine only is the hand that holds
The rope that drags thee on.
Then cease lament,
Let go thy hold.
You Have the Right Only to Action, Not Its Fruits
The two ends of a stick cannot be joined. If you hold the one end, you have to let go of the other one. The law of Karma is like a stick; if you hold on to the action, you have to let go of its fruits or effects, and if you hold on to the fruits of action, then your focus on action vanishes. In school and college life, we find that students who are busy dreaming about their achievements and careers rarely make it. On the other hand, those students who are habituated to working hard achieve excellence they are aspiring for. Swamiji says (2.4):
The beggar [the one who is attached to the effects, the fruits, rather than their cause, the action] is never happy. The beggar only gets a dole with pity and scorn behind it, at least with the thought behind that the beggar is a low object. He never really enjoys what he gets. We are all beggars. Whatever we do, we want a return. We are all traders. We are traders in life, we are traders in virtue, we are traders in religion. And alas! we are also traders in love.
This is not as simple as it looks. It is almost impossible for most of us to perform an action without expecting the fruits. In our case, it is in fact the other way around. All our actions are about securing the fruits. There is a peculiar deadlock here. And that is, unless we know what our real nature is, we cannot stop desiring the fruits of our actions and we cannot know our true nature till we purify our hearts by performing selfless action. So this problem is similar to which is first, the chicken or the egg.
Sri Krishna was not unversed with this situation of a common man. Therefore, he suggests varieties of schemes in the different chapters of the Gita so that we can choose the path suitable to the situation we are in and our state of mind at that time. Sri Krishna also assures again and again that a little practice of this path conquers all fears.
The Two Facets of the Intellect (Buddhi)— Jnana and Karma
As knowledge and thought in a person reach greater and greater heights, his actions start subsiding. We generally see in society that the persons who are involved in intense intellectual pursuits, have less tendency to enter into vigorous physical action. Their joys and sorrows are less in the body and more in the mind. After advising Arjuna about the state of sameness, attaining which, one transcends all sin, we find Sri Krishna introducing him to the two positions of the intellect, buddhi—sankhya (knowledge) and yoga (unattached action) (Gita, 2.39). If one positions his intellect in these ways, as prescribed, then there is no loss or defaulting with regard to the practice, and its success is assured in terms of going beyond the great fear of death. Thus, those established in knowledge are automatically relieved of all actions. In other words, by knowing the secret of action, they perform all actions without their consequent physical entanglements or carrying the burden of duty. For instance, let us see this incident in Sri Ramakrishna’s life from Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play:
According to the scriptural injunctions, a sannyasin does not have the right to perform funeral rites of any kind; so the Master respectfully followed the monastic tradition when his mother died. One day he began to think that he had not done his proper duty as a son, so he tried to perform tarpana, an offering of water to his departed mother. But as soon as he lifted water in his cupped hands, he entered into ecstasy: His fingers became numb and opened of their own accord, letting the water run through them. He tried again and again without success. Then he tearfully begged his mother’s spirit to forgive him for his failure. Later a pandit told him that such a thing happens to a person who has reached a certain state when all actions drop off. Due to spiritual development that person’s activities cease naturally. If a man cannot then perform duties enjoined by the scriptures, he incurs no sin (372).
Nonetheless, Sri Ramakrishna too had gone through the stage of yoga of disinterested action in the sense that he gradually forgot about his body, his family, and other surroundings as he intensely sought to know the truth behind the deity he worshipped after accepting the priestly duties at the Kali temple of Dakshineshwar. As his transcendental states of mind became more and more frequent, his worldly duties automatically dropped and everything he would desire or would want to know would be arranged by divine intervention.
Upanishads attest to this fact that the man of knowledge attains the fulfilment of all his desires. And here Sri Krishna too adds: yavanartha udapane … just as there is no purpose of searching for water bodies like wells and ponds when everything is pervaded or flooded by water, a man of realization (of absolute Brahman) does not require to pursue the Vedas (Vedic rituals), for he attains everything (Gita, 2.46).
Thus, the man of steady wisdom, who is established in sameness towards all the dualities of this world, is an exemplar for the rest of humanity to follow in his footsteps and learn the way of yoga. Therefore, we have to seek such persons and sit at their feet with all humility and serve them to obtain their grace. Such persons alone can educate and help us to walk this path and none else.