Gita Satsang: Gandhiji's Message of the Gita After Practice!

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I have enclosed below Gandhiji's message of the Gita in his own words. I

suggest everyone to read carefully his interpretation because he is one of the

few who tried to practice the teachings of Gita. Several of you have pointed

that messages in Gita can be potentially inconsistent. Gandhiji has the

following answer to those of us who have expressed doubts: "I am a devotee of

the Gita and a firm believer in the inexorable law of karma. Even the least

little tripping or stumbling is not without its cause and I have wondered why

one who has tried to follow the Gita in thought, word and deed should have any

ailment. The doctors have assured me that this trouble of high blood-

pressure is entirely the result of mental strain and worry. If that is true,

it is likely that I have been unnecessarily worrying myself, unnecessarily

fretting and secretly harboring passions like anger, lust, etc. The fact that

any event or incident should disturb my serious efforts, means not that the

Gita Ideal is defective but that my devotion to its defective. The Gita Ideal

is true for all time, my understanding of it and observance of it is full of

flaws."

Harijan, 29 February 1936. ("What is Hinduism?" Mahatma Gandhi, National Book

Trust of India,

page, 95).

 

--

Ram Chandran

Burke, VA

 

Gandhiji's Message of the Gita After Practice!

==============================================

Even in 1888-89 when I first became acquainted with the Gita, I felt that it

was not a historical work, but that under the guise of physical warfare, it

described the duel that perpetually went on in the hearts of mankind, and that

physical warfare was brought in merely to make the description of the internal

duel more alluring. This preliminary intuition became more confirmed on a

closer study of religion and the Gita. A study of the Mahabharata gave it

added confirmation. I do not regard the Mahabharata as a historical work in

the accepted sense. The Adiparva contains powerful evidence in support of my

opinion. By ascribing to the chief actors super human origins, the great Vyasa

made short work of the history of kings and their peoples. The persons

therein described may be historical but the author of the Mahabharata has used

them merely to drive home his religious theme.

 

The author of the Mahabharata has not established the necessity of physical

warfare; on the contrary he has proved its futility. He has made victors shed

tears of sorrow and repentance, and has left them nothing but a legacy of

miseries. In this great work the Gita is the crown. Its second chapter,

instead of teaching the rules of physical warfare, tells us how a perfected

man is to be known. In the characteristics of the perfected man of the Gita, I

do not see any to correspond to physical warfare. Its whole design is

inconsistent with the rules of conduct governing the relations between warring

parties.

 

Krishna of the Gita is perfection and right knowledge personified; but the

picture is imaginary. That does not mean that Krishna, the adored of his

people, never lived. But perfection is imagined. The idea of perfect

incarnation is an after growth.

 

In Hinduism, incarnation is ascribed to one who has performed some

extraordinary service of mankind. All embodied life is in reality an

incarnation of God, but it is not usual to consider every living being an

incarnation. Future generations pay this homage to one who, in his own

generation, has been extraordinarily religious in his conduct. I can see

nothing wrong in this procedure; it takes nothing from God's greatness and

there is no violence done to Truth. There is a Urdu saying which means, "Adam

is not God but he is a spark of the Divine." And therefore he whois the most

religiously behaved has most of the divine spark in him. It is in accordance

with this train of thought that Krishna enjoys, in Hinduism, the status of the

most perfect incarnation.

 

This belief in incarnation is a testimony of man's lofty spiritual ambition.

Man is not at peace with himself till he has become like unto God. The

endeavor to reach this state is the supreme, the only ambition worth having.

And this is self-realization. This self-realization is the subject of the

Gita, as it is of all scriptures. But its author surely did not write it to

establish that doctrine. The object of the Gita appears to me to be that of

showing the most excellent way to attain self-realization. That which is to be

found, more or less clearly, spread out here and there in Hindu religious

books, has been brought out in the clearest possible language in the Gita even

at the risk of repetition.

 

That matchless remedy is renunciation of the fruits of action. This is the

center round which the Gita is woven. This renunciation is the central sun,

round which devotion, knowledge and the rest revolve the planets. The body has

been likened to a prison. There must be action where there is body. Not one

embodied being is exempted from labor. And yet all religious proclaim that it

possible for man, by treating the body as the temple of God, to attain

freedom. Every action is tainted be it ever so trivial. How can the body be

made the temple of God? In other words how can one be free from action, i.e.

from the tint of sin? The Gita has answered the question in decisive language:

"By desireless action; by renouncing the fruits of action; by dedicating all

activities to God, i.e. by surrendering oneself to Him body and soul."

 

But desirelessness or renunciation does not come for the mere talking about

it. It is not attained by an intellectual feat. It is attainable only by a

constant heart-churn. Right knowledge is necessary for attaining renunciation.

Learned men possess a knowledge of a kind. They may recite the Vedas from

memory, yet they may be steeped in self-indulgence. In order that knowledge

may not run riot, the author of the Gita has insisted on devotion accompanying

it and has given it the first place. Knowledge without devotion will be like a

misfire. Therefore, says the Gita, "Have devotion and knowledge will follow."

This devotion is not mere lip-worship, it is a wrestling with death. Hence the

Gita's assessment of the devotee's qualities is similar to that the sage's.

 

Thus the devotion required by the Gita is not soft-hearted effusiveness. It

certainly is not blind faith. The devotion of the Gita has the least to do

with externals. A devotee may use, if he likes, rosaries, forehead marks, make

offerings, but these things are not test of his devotion. He is the devotee

who is jealous of none, who is fount of mercy, who is without egotism, who is

selfless, who treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery, who is every

forgiving, who is always contented, whose resolutions are firm, who has

dedicated mind and soul to God, who causes no dread, who is not afraid of

others, who is free from exultation, sorrow and fear, who is pure, who is

versed in action and yet remains unaffected by it, who renounces all fruit,

good or bad, who treats friend and foe alike, who is untouched by respect or

disrespect, who is not puffed up by praise, who does not go under when people

speak ill of him, who loves silence and solitude, who has a disciplined

reason. Such devotion is inconsistent with the existence at the same time of

strong attachments.

 

We thus see, that to be a real devotee is to realize oneself. Self-realization

is not something apart. One rupee can purchase for us poison or nectar, but

knowledge or devotion cannot buy us either salvation or bondage. These are not

media of exchange. They are themselves the thing we want. In other words if

the means and the end are not identical, they are almost so. The extreme of

means is salvation. Salvation of the Gita is perfect peace.

 

But such knowledge and devotion, to be true, have to stand the test of

renunciation of fruits of action. Mere knowledge of right and wrong will not

make one fit for salvation. According to common notions, a mere learned man

will pass as a pandit. He need not perform any service. He will regard it as

bondage even to lift a little lota (cup). Where one test of knowledge is

non-liability for service, there is no room for such mundane work as the

lifting of a lota.

 

The popular notion of bhakti is soft-heartedness, telling beads and the like

and disdaining to do even a loving service, lest the telling of beads etc.

might be interrupted. This bhakta, therefore, leaves the rosary only for

eating, drinking and the like, never for grinding corn or nursing patients.

 

 

But the Gita says: "No one has attained his goal without action. Even men like

Janaka attained salvation through action. If even I were lazily to cease

working, the world would perish. How much more necessary then for the people

at large to engage in action.?"

 

While on the one had it is beyond dispute that action binds, on the other hand

it s equally true that all living beings have to do some work whether they

will or no. Here all activity, whether mental or physical, is to be included

in the term action. Then how is one to be free from the bondage of action,

even thought he may be acting? The manner in which the Gita has solved the

problem is, to my knowledge, unique. The Gita says: "Do your allotted work but

renounce its fruit - be detached and work - have no desire for reward and

work."

 

This is the unmistakable teaching of the Gita. He who gives up action falls.

He who gives up only the reward rises. But renunciation of fruit in no way

means indifference to the results. In regard to every action one must know the

result that is expected to follow, the means thereto and the capacity for it.

He, who, being thus equipped, is without desire for the result, and is yet

wholly engrossed in due fulfilment of the task before him, is said to have

renounced the fruits of his action.

 

Again, let no one consider renunciation to mean want of fruit for the

renouncer. The Gita reading does not warrant such a meaning. Renunciation

means absence of hankering after fruit. As a matter of fact, he who is ever

brooding over result often loses nerve int the performance of his duty. He

becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy

things; he jumps from action to action, never remaining faithful to any. He

who broods over results is like a man given to objects of senses; he is ever

distracted, he says goodbye to all scruples, everything is right in his

estimation and he therefore resorts to means fair and foul to attain his end.

>From the bitter experiences of desire for fruit the author of the Gita

discovered the path of renunciation of fruit, and put it before the world in a

most convincing manner. The common belief is that religion is always opposed

to material good. "One cannot act religiously in mercantile and such other

matters. There is no place for religion in such pursuits; religion is only for

attainment of salvation, " we hear many worldly-wise people say. In my

Opinion the author of the Gita has dispelled this delusion. He has drawn no

line of demarcation between salvation and worldly pursuits. I have felt that

the Gita teaches us that what cannot be followed out in day-to-day practice

cannot be called religion. Thus, according to the Gita, all acts that are

incapable of being performed without attachment are taboo. This golden rule

saves mankind from many a pitfall. According to this interpretation murder,

lying, dissoluteness and the like must be regarded as sinful and therefore

taboo. Man's life then becomes simple, and from that simpleness springs peace.

 

Thinking along these lines, I have felt that in trying to enforce in one's

life the central teaching of the Gita, one is bound to follow truth and

ahimsa. When there is no desire for fruit, there is no temptation for untruth

or himsa. Take any instance of untruth or violence, and it will be found that

at its back was the desire to attain the cherished end. But it may be freely

admitted that the Gita was not written to establish ahimsa. It was an

accepted and primary duty even before the Gita age. The Gita had to deliver

the message of renunciation of fruit. This is clearly brought out so early as

the second chapter.

 

But if the Gita believed in ahimsa or it was included in desirelessness, why

did the author take a warlike illustration? When the Gita was written,

although people believed in ahimsa, wars were not only not taboo, but nobody

observed the contradiction between them and ahimsa.

 

In assessing the implications of renunciation of fruit, we are not required to

probe the mind of the author of the Gita as to his limitations of ahimsa and

the like. Because a poet puts a particular truth before the world, it does not

necessarily follow that he has known or worked out all its great consequences,

or that having done so, he is able always to express them fully. In this

perhaps lies the greatness of the poem and the poet. A poet's meaning is

limitless. Like man, the meaning of great writing suffers evolution. On

examining the history of languages, we notice that the meaning of important

words has changed or expanded. This is true of the Gita. The author has

himself extended the meanings of some of the current words. We are able to

discover this even on a superficial examination. It is possible, that in the

age prior to that of the Gita, offering of animals in sacrifice was

permissible. But there is not a trace of it in the sacrifice in the Gita

sense. In the Gita continuous concentration on God is the king of sacrifices.

The third chapter seems to show that sacrifice chiefly means body-labor for

service. The third and the fourth chapters read together will give us other

meanings for sacrifice but never animal-sacrifice. Similarly has the meaning

of the sannyasa undergone, in the Gita, a transformation. The sannyasa of the

Gita will not tolerate complete cessation of all activity. The sannyasa of the

Gita is all work and yet no work! Thus the author of the Gita by extending

meanings of words has taught us to imitate him. Let it be granted that

according to the letter of the Gita it is possible to say that warfare is

consistent with the renunciation of fruit. But after 40 years' unremitting

endeavor fully to enforce the teaching of the Gita in my own life, I have, in

all humility, felt that perfect renunciation is impossible without perfect

observance of ahimsa in every shape and form.

 

The Gita is not an aphoristic work; it is a great religious poem. The deeper

you dive into it, the richer the meanings you get. It being meant for the

people at large, there is pleasing repetition. With every age, the important

words will carry new and expanding meanings. But its central teaching will

never vary. The seeker is at liberty to extract from this treasure any meaning

he likes so as to enable him to enforce his life the central teaching.

 

Nor is the Gita a collection of Do's and Don'ts. What is lawful for one may be

unlawful for another. What may be permissible at one time, or in one place,

may not be so at another time, and in another place. Desire for fruit is the

only universal prohibition. Desirelessness is obligatory.

 

The Gita has sung the praises of knowledge, but it is beyond the mere

intellect; it is essentially addressed to the heart and capable of being

understood by the heart. Therefore the Gita is not for those who have no

faith. The makes Krishna say: " Do not entrust this treasure to him who is

without sacrifice, without devotion, without the desire for this teaching and

who denies me. On the other hand those who will give this precious treasure to

My devotees will by the fact of this service assuredly reach Me. An those who,

being free from malice, will with faith absorb this teaching, shall, having

attained freedom, live where people of true merit go after death."

 

Source: "The Message of Gita," by M. K. Gandhi, Navajivan Publishing House,

Ahmedabad. (Pages 7-18).