Bhagavd Gita Chapter 2 Verses 47 to 53 - Swami Chinmayanandaji's Commentary

[Guest guest]

karmaNyevaadhikaaraste maa phaleshhu kadaachana .

maa karmaphalaheturbhuurmaa te saN^go.astvakarmaNi .. 2\.47..

 

47. Thy right is to work only, but never to its fruits; let not the

fruit-of-action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction.

 

The traditional belief of Hinduism has not at all been shaken in the

Geeta-theory that single-pointed, divine-dedicated Karma, without

desire for the fruits, shall bring about inner purification, which is

a condition precedent to spiritual awakening. The Geeta only gives an

exhaustive exposition of this idea to incorporate in it ALL ctivities

in the social and personal life; while in the Vedas, Karma meant only

the religious and the ritualistic activities. Philosophy is not a

subject that can be rightly understood by hasty students. The stanza

now under review, when not properly understood, would seem to

indicate an impossible method. At best, it would look as if it was a

religious sanction for the poor to continue to be poor and a

sacred permission for the rich to continue tyrannising over the poor!

To act in life "WITHOUT ANY EXPECTATION OF RESULTS" would seem to be

almost impossible to one who is only trying to understand the stanza

mentally. But when the same individual, after his studies,

walks out into the open fields of life and tries to practise it

there, he shall discover that this alone is the very secret of all

real achievements. Earlier, we have indicated how Krishna, through

his Karma Yoga, was showing "the art of living and acting" in a

spirit of Divine inspiration. Here also we shall find, as we

tussle with this idea in our attempt to digest it, that Krishna is

advising Arjuna on the secret-art of living an inspired life.

Wrong imaginations are the banes of life, and all failures in life

can be directly traced to have risen from an impoverished mental

equanimity, generally created by unintelligent entertainment of

fears regarding possible failures. Almost all of us refuse to

undertake great activities, being afraid of failures, and even those

who dare to undertake noble endeavours, invariably become nervous

ere they finish them, again, due to their inward dissipastion. To

avoid such wasteful expenditure of mental energy and work with the

best that is in us, dedicated to the noble cause of the work

undertaken, is the secret prescription for the noblest creative

inspiration; and, such work must always end in a brilliant success.

This is the eternal law-of-activity in the world.

 

The future is always carved out in the present. Tomorrow's harvest

depends upon today's ploughing and sowing. But, in the fear of

possible dangers to the crops, if a farmer wastes his

present chances of thoroughly ploughing, and carefully sowing at the

right time, it is guaranteed that he shall not have any harvest at

all. The present moments are to be invested intelligently and

well, so that we may reap a better time in the future. The past is

dead; the future is not yet born. If one becomes unhealthy and

inefficient in the present, certainly he has no reason to hope for a

greater future.

 

This fundamental truth, very well-known and easily comprehended by

all, is, in the language of the Geeta, a simple statement: "If

success you seek, then never strive with a mind dissipasted

with anxieties and fears for the fruits." In this connection it is

very interesting to dissect carefully and discover exactly what the

Shastra means when it says: "Fruits-of action." In fact, the

reward of an action, when we understand it properly, is not anything

different from the action itself. An action in the PRESENT itself,

when conditioned by a FUTURE-time, appears as the

fruit-of-the-action. In fact, the action ends, or fulfils itself,

only in its reaction, and the reaction is not anything different from

the action; an action in the present, defined in terms of a future

moment, is its reaction. Therefore, to worry over and get ourselves

pre-occupied with the anxieties for the rewards-of-actions is to

escape from the dynamic PRESENT and to live in a FUTURE that is not

yet born! In short, the Lord's advice here is a call to man

not to waste his present moment in fruitless dreams and fears, but to

bring his best --- all the best in him --- to the PRESENT and vitally

live every moment, the promise being, that the future shall take care

of itself, and shall provide the Karma Yogin with the achievements

divine and accomplishments supreme. In effect, therefore, Arjuna is

advised: "All that is given to you now is to act and, having known

the cause of action to be a noble one, to bring into the activity all

that is best in you and forget yourself in the activity. Such

inspired action is sure to bear fruit, and again, it has its own

reward-spiritual."

 

The stanza gives the four injunctions guiding us to be true workers.

A real Karma Yogin is one who understands: (a) that his concern is

with action alone; (b) that he has no concern with results; © that

he should not entertain the motive of gaining a fixed fruit for a

given action; and (d) that these ideas do not mean that he should sit

back courting inaction. In short, the advice is to make the worker

release himself from all his mental pre-occupastions, and thus

through work make him live in the joy and ecstasy of inspired self-

forgetfulness. The work itself is his reward; he gets himself drunk

with the joy and satisfaction of a noble work done. The work is the

means; the Higher Self-experience alone is the Goal-Divine. By thus

re-acting readily to all external challenges, with his devoted

attention upon Him, one can find peace easily, and a bosom thus

purged of its existing vasana-bondages is, to that extent,

considered better purified for the purposes of meditation and the

final Vedantic-realisation of the Infinite glory of the Self.

IF A MAN SHOULD NOT PERFORM WORK PROMPTED BY DESIRES FOR THEIR

RESULT, HOW THEN SHOULD HE PERFORM IT? THE REPLY FOLLOWS:

 

 

yogasthaH kuru karmaaNi saN^ga.n tyak{}tvaa dhana.njaya .

sid.hdhyasid.hdhyoH samo bhuutvaa samatva.n yoga uchyate .. 2\.48..

 

48. Perform action, O Dhananjaya, abandoning attachment, being

steadfast in YOGA, and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of

mind is called YOGA.

>From this stanza onwards we have an exhaustive discussion of the

technique of Karma Yoga as conceived by Krishna in his Doctrine of

Action and expounded in Vyasa's Geeta. A complete technique of how

one can live the life of a truly inspired worker is explained here,

and, to any careful student, who understands all the implications of

the terms, it must be clear that a complete effacement of the ego and

its vanities is to be achieved to succeed in this Path; and this

is gained by practising the equipoise mentioned in the previous

stanzas. In this stanza, for the first time, the term Yoga has been

used in the sense of the "evenness of mind" through work, and before

it concludes, we also get an exhaustive definition of the term

Yoga as used in the stanza. "Evenness of mind," the tranquillity of

mental composure, in facing all pairs-of-opposites is

defined here as Yoga. Defined thus, the term Yoga, indicates a

special condition of the mind in which it comes to a neutral

equilibrium in all the ebb and flow of life's tides.

The instructions in the stanza advise us that desireless action can

be performed only when one gets completely established in Yoga; here

the terms precisely paint what Vyasa's definition means.

 

Not only is it sufficient that a true worker should act in the world,

established in equipoise and equanimity, but he should, amidst the

changes of the world, also reinforce this poise, through a

renunciation of his "attachment" (Sanga) to the immediate fruits of

his actions. We shall try to enquire into the "attachment," mentioned

here, which a seeker should renounce, so that he may become more

efficient in performing inspired activities. To all sincere students,

who have so far followed the Lord's words, it should be clear that

"attachment" here means all factors against which Krishna has already

warned us in the earlier stanzas and insisted that we

must renounce them all --- viz., wrong imaginations, false

expectations, day-dreams about the fruits of actions, anxieties for

the results, and fears for future calamities that have not yet

appeared to threaten our lives. When it is put thus as a list of

mistakes to be avoided, any true Karma Yogin, striving upon the Path

of Yoga, will find it impossible to practise it. But when we

analyse this further with our understanding of the Upanishads, we can

easily solve the riddle. All the above nerve-racking mistakes belong

to the delusory ego-centre. When we analyse closely the stuff of

which the ego is made we can easily find that it is a bundle of

 

'MEMORIES OF THE PAST AND HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR THE FUTURE.' The

dead moments, that are no more, constitute the past. The future is

unborn, and does not yet belong to us. To live in the ego, therefore,

is to live either in the burial grounds of dead moments, or in the

womb of time where the unborn future now rests. In all these pre-

occupastions, we lose the immediate moments given to us to act, to

strive, to earn, and to achieve. It is this unintelligent

squandering of the wealth of present chances, through our broodings

and imaginations, that is hinted at here by the genius of Vyasa when

he says, "Act, established in equanimity, abandoning attachment."

Thus, in complete self-forgetfulness, to get intoxicated with the

activities undertaken in the present, is to live vitally, fully and

entirely with all the best that is in us. To dissolve ourselves thus

--- our past, our future, our hopes, our fears --- into the fiery

contents of the PRESENT is to work in inspiration. And inspired work

ever promises the greatest returns. An artist, who is at work,

forgetting himself in the very ecstasy of his work, is an example.

One need not, for that matter, be a great artist even. One who is

working interestedly with all his mind and intellect on any piece of

work will not be aware, immediately, of any chance intruder.

It will take time for the artist to come down from the realms of his

joyous mood to the crystallisation of the ego in him to recognise the

intruder, understand his enquiry and give him an intelligent answer.

In all inspired activity, the worker forgets himself in the

work that he is doing. In all such activities, when the worker has

gained almost a self-forgetfulness, he will not care for

the success or failure of his activity because, to worry for the

results is to worry for the future, and to live in the future is not

to live in the present. Inspiration is the joyous content of thrilled

ecstasy of each immediate moment. It is said that this content of a

moment in itself is "the entire Infinite Bliss."

"Established thus in equanimity, renouncing all ego-centric-

attachments, forgetting to worry over the results of success or

failure in the activities, act on," --- says, in effect, Krishna to

Arjuna; and he adds that the great Yoga is to work thus with

equipoise in all situations.

 

IN COMPARISON WITH ACTION THUS PERFORMED WITH EVENNESS OF

MIND, KRISHNA DECLARES:

 

duureNa hyavara.n karma buddhiyogaaddhana.njaya .

buddhau sharaNamanvich{}chha kR^ipaNaaH phalahetavaH .. 2\.49..

 

 

49. Far lower than the YOGA -of-wisdom is action, O Dhananjaya. Seek

thou refuge in wisdom; wretched are they whose motive is the "fruit.

"

 

Work done with a mind undisturbed by anxieties for the results is

indeed superior to the work done by a dissipasted mind, ever worrying

over the results. Here the term, "Buddhi yoga" has

tickled some commentators to discover in it a special Yoga advised by

the Geeta.

 

I personally think that it is too much of a laboured theory. Buddhi

as defined in the Upanishads, is the determining factor in the

"inner-equipment"; Nishchyatmika is 'intellect'; Samshayatmika is

'mind'. Thus, when the thoughtflow is in a state of flux and

agitated, it is called the 'mind'; and when it is single-pointed,

calm and serene in its own determination, it is called the

'intellect.' Thus, Buddhi yoga means "to be established in the

devotion to the intellect." Steady in your conviction, your mind

perfectly under the control of your discriminative intellect, to live

thus as a master of your inner and outer world is called Buddhi yoga.

In Buddhi yoga we pursue our duties in life, without ever losing

sight of our ultimate Goal in Life. Analysing the meaning of the

stanza in terms of what we have already seen regarding the split-

personality and its cure through Vasana-purgation, we may interpret

Buddhi yoga as an individual's attempt to live and act from the zone

of the intellect which freely controls the mind's functions, and

readily receives faithful obedience from the mind. The attempt of

the mind to work in union with the intellect --- the "objective-mind"

working under the control and the order of the "subjective-mind" ---

is called Buddhi yoga. By so doing, instead of incurring more and

more liabilities of new Vasana-bondages, the individual gains a

release from the mental congestion created by the existing Vasanas.

Thus, when an individual completely surrenders his ego, he is said to

be "Established in Buddhi yoga." Hence it is said "SEEK REFUGE IN

Buddhi," meaning: "let your mind be perfectly under the control and

direction of the intellect." There is a solid reason why we should

live under the control of the intellect. Those who live in

the mental zone, tossed about by the mind's tribulations, get

agitated by anxiety for the fruits-of-actions. Such people are termed

here as 'wretched. ' It is a powerful statement by which Vyasa

condemns such thoughtless, unintelligent people: "WRETCHED ARE THEY

WHO ACT FOR THE RESULTS." Understood properly, this is a wonderful

guidance by following which we can totally eliminate all failures in

life. Efficient activity in the present alone can order great

results. They are "wretched" because they will be, in their desire-

prompted activities, incurring new Vasanas and thus will be

thickening the veil of ignorance of their own glorious Divinity.

Unselfish work, performed in a spirit of dedication and ego-less

surrender, is the secret method of exhausting our Vasana-store. Such

a mind alone, purged clean, can reflect the Self clearly and come to

discover the Eternal God-hood.

 

NOW, LEARN WHAT RESULTS HE GAINS WHO PERFORMS HIS DUTY WITH

EVENNESS-OF-MIND:

 

buddhiyuk{}to jahaatiiha ubhe sukR^itadushhkR^ite .

tasmaadyogaaya yujyasva yogaH karmasu kaushalam.h .. 2\.50..

 

50. Endowed with the Wisdom of evenness-of-mind, one casts off in

this life both good deeds and evil deeds; therefore, devote yourself

to YOGA, Skill in action is YOGA.

 

One who has an evenness of temper accomplished by his perfect

withdrawal from the realm of sentiments and emotions, and who is

established in his resolute intellect, gets himself transported

from the arena of both the good and the bad, merit and de-merit. The

conception of good and bad is essentially of the mind, and the

reactions of merit and de-merit are left on the mental

composition in the form of Vasanas or samskaras. He, who is not

identifying with the stormy sea of the mind, will not be thrown up or

sunk down by the huge waves of Vasanas. This idea is explained here

by the term Buddhi yuktah: one whose actions are all guided by

his clear vision of his higher and diviner Goal. The Geeta,

throughout this section, is sincerely calling upon man not to live on

the outskirts of his personality, which are constituted of the worlds

of sense-objects, the physical body and the mind, but to enter into

the realm of the intellect, and from there to assert his natural

manliness. Man is the supreme creature in the kingdom of the living,

because of the rational capacities of his discriminative intellect.

As long as man does not utilise this special equipment in him, so

long he cannot claim his heritage as man. Arjuna was asked by Krishna

not to be a vain and hysterical person, but to be a he-man and,

therefore, ever a master of all his external situations. The great

hero, Arjuna, became so frail and weak because he started living in

delusory identification with the sense of his own physical

security and with his various emotional attachments. He who lives

constantly asserting his full evolutionary status as man, becomes

free from the chains and bondages of all his past impressions

(vasanas), which he must have gathered in his pilgrimage through his

different embodiments. "Therefore, apply yourself," advises Krishna,

"to the devotion of action, Yoga." In this context, again, Vyasa is

giving a definition of Yoga, as he means it here. Earlier, he had

already explained that "Evenness of mind is Yoga." Now he re-writes

the same definition more comprehensively and says, "Yoga is dexterity

in action." In a science-book, if the very same term is defined

differently in every chapter, it would bring about confusion in its

understanding. How is it then that in the Science of Religion, we

find different definitions of the same term? This riddle solves

itself as soon as we carefully attempt an intimate understanding of

the definition. The earlier definition is being incorporated in the

latter one, because, otherwise, "evenness of mind is Yoga" may be

misunderstood as a mere 'evenness of mind' producing inaction and

slothfulness. In this definition such a misunderstanding is

completely removed, and thus Karma Yoga, as indicated in the all-

comprehensive meaning implied herein, indicates the art of working

with perfect mental equilibrium in all the different conditions

indicated by the term "pairs-of-opposites" (Dwandwas). After

dissecting this stanza thus, we come to understand what exactly is

the Lord's intention. When Yoga, "the art of working without desire,"

is pursued, the Karma Yogin becomes detached from all the existing

vasanas in himself, both good and bad. The vasana-pressure in

the individual causes restlessness within. The inner-equipment that

has become peaceful and serene is called the pure Antah-Karana, which

is an unavoidable prerequisite for consistent, discriminative self-

application in meditation. Thus all actions, when properly

pursued, become means for the ultimate end of realising the Self

through meditation, with a pure mind.

 

We have here yet another example of Vyasa using the frightening word

Yoga in a tamer context in order to make his society then feel at

ease with it.

 

WHY SHOULD WE CULTIVATE THIS EVENNESS OF MIND AND

CONSEQUENTLY AN EXTRA DEXTERITY IN ACTION?

 

karmajaM buddhiyuk{}taa hi phalaM tyak{}tvaa maniishhiNaH .

janmabandhavinirmuk{}taaH padaM gach{}chhantyanaamayam.h .. 2\.51..

 

 

51. The wise, possessed of knowledge, having abandoned the fruits of

their actions, freed from the fetters of birth, go to the State which

is beyond all evil.

 

Being a man of action, extremely intelligent, and having not yet

developed any blind faith in Lord Krishna's divine potentialities,

Arjuna still questions mentally, and the Lord, anticipasting his

doubt, explains here why a man of true devotion to work should act,

and with perfect evenness of mind strive to achieve. The wise,

meaning those who know the art of true living, undertake all

work, maintaining in themselves the full evenness of mind, and thus

abandon all anxieties for the fruits of their actions. These two

conditions, under which the wise work, bring out fully the

picture of an individual who acts renouncing both ego and ego-

motivated desires. By identifying with the agitations of the mind,

the ego is born, and, the ego so born gets riddled with desires as it

gets anxious for the fruits-of-its actions. When one works with

neither ego nor desires, one achieves vasana-purgation; this is

possible only when one always has the Higher Goal in view.

 

 

yadaa te mohakalilaM buddhirvyatitarishhyati .

tadaa gantaasi nirvedaM shrotavyasya shrutasya cha .. 2\.52..

 

52. When your intellect crosses beyond the mire of delusion, then you

shall attain to indifference as to what has been heard and what is

yet to be heard.

 

When the intellect crosses over the morass of delusion, when it

sloughs off its delusions, the stanza here assures Arjuna, that it

will develop a disgust, "FOR ALL THAT IS ACTUALLY HEARD AND THAT IS

YET TO BE HEARD." Here the term "WHAT IS YET TO BE HEARD" must be

understood as a representative term standing for all "sense

experiences that are yet to be experienced." Naturally so; when the

intellect becomes purer then it loses all its erstwhile charm for

sense experiences --- what it had before, and what it may gain in the

future. Essentially Godly and Divine, Spiritual Consciousness seems

to fall under a self-delusion, which, when analysed, becomes

perfectly evident as to its effects. This cause of delusion is

conceived of as the indescribable power called Maya. Like

unmanifested electricity, Maya, as such, is not

perceptible except in its different manifestations. It is a

phenomenon that can be fully estimated and accounted for through its

varied expressions. Observing and analysing the effects of Maya

within the constitution of all individualised and

embodied souls, the Vedantic masters have beautifully concluded that

it comes to play in two distinct modes of expression, at two

different layers of the human personality. Thus, at the

intellectual level it expresses itself as a film of doubt and

hesitation in its understanding, or experiencing, of the Self in us.

This expression Maya is termed by the Masters as the "Veiling-

Power" (Avarana-Shakti). Due to this mist of ignorance, that envelops

the intellect, when it is unconscious of the Spiritual

Reality behind it, the mind starts projecting forth the world of the

not-Self and superimposes upon it two firm ideas that: (a) "it is

true" (Satyattwa), and (b) that "I am nothing other than the

projected world" (Atmabuddhi). This is Maya's expression as

"Projecting-Power" (Vikshepa-Shakti).

 

In this stanza it is said that, once the intellect in us is purified

through the art of steady-work, called 'Devotion through Work,' it

becomes possible for it to peep over the veil of ignorance

that separates it from the splendour of the Spiritual Entity. When

the intellect sloughs off its delusions, it goes beyond its

attachment for the charms of the sensuous world. But before this

happens, the intellect, ignorant of its spiritual destiny, pants to

fulfil itself and surges forward seeking satisfaction amongst the

finite sense-objects of the world. But, when the intellect discovers

in itself a capacity to pierce through the dreary veil of

ignorance, it comes to live its own Real Nature of Bliss Infinite.

Each fleeting joy in the sense-world only sharpens its appetite for

the Infinite Bliss which is Its Real Nature. To the extent the

clouds have moved and the sun has emerged, to that extent he who is

warming himself at the fireside moves away from the fire-place and

walks into the open, to bask in the all-enveloping warmth of the

blazing sun. Similarly, to the extent the illusion of ignorance

melts away in an integrated intellect, to that extent its wanderings

in the sensuous-world are curtailed.

 

The sense-world is beautifully indicated by two representative terms

"what has been heard (Shrutam)," and "what is yet to be heard

(Shrotavyam)." We must include in them 'the seen

and the unseen,' 'the smelt and the unsmelt,' 'the tasted and the

not-tasted,' and 'the touched and not-yet-touched.' The intellect of

such a purified Karma-Yogin does not relive its memory of

the sensuous joys it had experienced in the past and also does not

remember that it has to experience still more joys in the future

through the sense-organs, in the world of sense-objects.

If we take the word meaning of these terms literally we get the usual

interpretation of the commentators: "When the seeker's mind is not

tossed about by the seemingly different and often

opposing conclusions of philosophers, when they do not upset him any

more, then he is established in inward purity."

 

SHANKARA CONNECTS THIS STANZA WITH THE FOLLOWING: "YOU MAY

NOW ASK, 'WHEN SHALL I ATTAIN TRUE CONVICTION OF THE SELF, AFTER

CROSSING BEYOND THE VEIL OF IGNORANCE, AND OBTAIN WISDOM

THROUGH THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE SELF AND THE NOT-SELF? ' LISTEN:"

 

shrutivipratipannaa te yadaa sthaasyati nishchalaa .

samaadhaavachalaa buddhistadaa yogamavaapsyasi .. 2\.53..

 

53. When your intellect, though perplexed by what you have heard,

shall stand immovable and steady in the Self, then you shall attain

Self-realisation. When one's intellect comes to a steady equipoise,

UNDISTURBED by any of the experiences that reach one through the five

great arch-ways of knowledge, then one is considered as having

attained Yoga. The mind gets agitated mainly due to the flooding-in

of the ever-new rush of stimuli from the outer world. Sense-organs

are the antennae through which the world's tickling signals creep in

and disturb the mental-pool. One is considered as having attained

Yoga only when one, even in the midst of enjoying sensuous pleasures,

and even while the sense-organs are letting in a flood of stimuli,

does not get at all disturbed in one's inner serenity and equipoise

This idea is better developed and exhaustively dealt with later in

the chapter, where Krishna enumerates the visible

qualities and the perceptible signs of one established in Wisdom

(Sthita-Prajna).

 

The discussion so far, makes Arjuna so interested that he is now no

more under the influence of his hysteria. He has come to forget his

dejection and sorrow, and is now taking an active interest in

Krishna's exposition. He could not control himself from expressing

his sincere enquiry as to what exactly is the nature of such a

perfected one who is beyond the storms of sensuousness. The question

evidently shows that though Arjuna's intellect had somehow come

to appreciate Krishna's theory, something in him was not quite ready

to accept it fully.