Bhagawad Gita Ch.4 Ver. 23-29 [Swamy Chinmayananda]

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TO EXPLAIN THE DIVINE MOTIVE AND ATTITUDE WITH WHICH MEN-OF-PERFECTION ACT

IN THE WORLD, THE FOLLOWING NINE STANZAS ARE DECLARED BY THE LORD:

 

gatasaN^gasya muk{}tasya GYaanaavasthitachetasaH .

yaGYaayaacharataH karma samagraM praviliiyate .. 4\.23..

 

23. Of one who is devoid of attachment, who is liberated, whose mind is

established in knowledge, who acts for the sake of sacrifice, all his

actions are dissolved.

 

A Man-of-Wisdom has been fully comprehended in the first line of this

stanza. The qualifications are beautifully enumerated serially and they

themselves explain the "Path-to-Perfection." Economy of words is the very

essence of the style in all Scriptural books. Even so, they are particularly

careful to use the most suggestive terms for their purpose and take an

artistic joy in ordering the very sequence of the words used; here is a

brilliant example of it.

 

DEVOID OF ATTACHMENT (Gatasangah) --- The divinity attained by the Rishis is

not a new status strangely acquired by them from some unknown and secret

quarters. It is only a rediscovery of the Perfection that is already in each

one. We are self-exiled from ourselves due to our attachments with the

finite world-of-objects. Thus a "wise" man is he, from whom all his

attachments with the finite things of the world have dropped away.

 

LIBERATED (Muktah) --- The majority of seekers have only a vague idea of

what this "liberation" means. The bondages are created upon our personality

and life by none other than ourselves. These bondages, infinite in their

number, are produced by the subtle chords of our own attachments with

things. The deluded ego feels fulfilled only through the world-of-objects.

Thus, as a body, it gets attached to the world of its sense-objects; as a

mind it lives enslaved to the world of emotions; and as an intellect, it

gets bound with its own ideas.

 

WITH MIND CENTRED IN KNOWLEDGE (Jnana-avasthita-chetasah) --- The above

phenomenon of perfect detachment, which produces a sense of complete

liberation, can be accomplished only when the mind of the seeker gets

centred in right discriminative knowledge and develops for itself a capacity

to distinguish between the permanent and the impermanent, the fleeting and

the lasting.

 

A Perfect Sage, who has thus cut himself free from all attachments, with his

mind well-balanced under the light of his own "Wisdom," becomes completely

liberated from the chains of all moral debilities, ethical imperfections,

and sensuous appetites. Such a Sage too performs work for the rest of his

life in his perfected manifestations. Krishna says that all such activities

undertaken and performed by him are ever done in a spirit of 'dedicated

activity' (Yajna). When a Sage thus functions in a spirit of Yajna, that

action itself does not and cannot produce any reaction, or forging of

thicker bondages with newly-formed vasanas.

 

The term 'Yajna,' borrowed from our scriptures, is employed here by Krishna

to yield a more elaborate sense implying a wider and a more universal

application. In the Geeta, the Vedic Yajna has become "a self-dedicated

activity performed in a spirit of service to the many." All actions,

performed without ego, and not motivated by one's ego-centric desires, fall

under the category of Yajna.

 

All through the NEXT SIX STANZAS we get an enumeration of something like

twelve different Yajnas which can be practised by everybody, on all

occasions, in every field, under all conditions.

When a sage of the description given in the stanza, performs actions in a

spirit of Yajna, they dissolve away without leaving any impression upon his

mind, just as the rainbow that disappears when the thin shower falling

against the sunlight ends.

 

IF THIS BE SO, THE QUESTION ARISES --- " FOR WHAT REASON THEN DO ALL ACTIONS

WHICH HE PERFORMS ENTIRELY DISSOLVE, WITHOUT PRODUCING THEIR NATURAL

RESULTS?" LISTEN WHY IT IS SO:

 

brahmaarpaNaM brahma haviH brahmaagnau brahmaNaa hutam.h .

brahmaiva tena gantavyaM brahma karma samaadhinaa .. 4\.24..

 

 

24. BRAHMAN is the oblation; BRAHMAN is the clarified butter, etc. ,

constituting the offerings; by BRAHMAN is the oblation poured into the fire

of BRAHMAN; BRAHMAN verily shall be reached by him who always sees BRAHMAN

in all actions.

 

This is a famous stanza which is chanted throughout India as a prayer at the

table before the Hindus eat their meals, although, today, ninety per cent of

those who chant this stanza before their meals do not understand or care to

follow its meaning. All the same it contains infinite suggestions and almost

summarises the entire philosophic content of Vedanta.

 

The Infinite Reality, which is the changeless substratum behind and beneath

the changing panorama of the world, is indicated by the Vedic term Brahman,

and this is contrasted with that aspect of Truth which functions in and

through the body as the Atman. But though the Eternal Truth has been thus

indicated by two different terms, Vedanta roars that "The Atman is Brahman."

 

 

The metaphor is borrowed from the very well-known divine ritualism of the

Vedas, the Yajnas. In every Yajna there are four essential factors --- (1)

the deity invoked to whom the oblations are offered, (2) the fire in which

the offerings are poured, (3) the material things that constitute the

offerings and (4) the individual who is performing the Yajna.

 

Here the stanza explains the mental attitude and the experience of the

Perfect-Sage when he performs the Yajna. To him Truth alone exists and not

the delusory plurality which his erstwhile ignorance had conjured up for him

in his mind. Therefore, to him, all Yajnas arise from Brahman; (III-14, 15)

in which Brahman, the Truth, is the performer; offering Brahman, the

material; to the sacred fire, which is also nothing other than Brahman;

invoking but Brahman. When one wave jumps over another and breaks itself

upto embrace and become one with its comrade, we, who know that "all waves

are nothing but the ocean," can certainly understand that in this act of

union between two waves nothing has happened except that the ocean rising

over the ocean, broke itself to become one with the ocean!!

 

If an individual can thus see the substratum, or the essential nature, in

and through, all names and forms, actions and behaviours, to him,

irrespective of all conditions and circumstances, all beings and things are

but a remembrance of the Infinite Blissful Truth. If actions are performed

by a Saint, invoking no deity other than Brahman, "ALL HIS ACTIONS DISSOLVE

AWAY" because he is invoking but the One Truth through all his actions.

 

The significance of the stanza as "a prayer to be said before food" is amply

self-evident. To live we must eat. Food is necessary for existence. Whatever

be the type of food, when one is hungry one will enjoy one's meals. The

suggestion is that even at this moment of natural enjoyment, we are not to

forget the great Truth that it is Brahman eating Brahman, and that during

our meals we are offering to Brahman, the food that is Brahman, invoking

nothing but the grace of Brahman. To keep this idea constantly in the mind

is to get perfectly detached from the enjoyment and raise ourselves to a

greater and endless beatitude which is the reward of Super-manhood.

 

AFTER REPRESENTING THE VERY SPIRIT IN ALL "YAJNAS," THE LORD IS TRYING TO

SHOW ARJUNA HOW ALL THROUGH LIFE, ALL OUR ACTIONS CAN BE CONVERTED TO BECOME

A "YAJNA." RIGHT KNOWLEDGE ("BHAVANA") MAKES EVERY ACT A "YAJNA." LISTEN:

 

daivamevaapare yaGYa.n yoginaH paryupaasate .

brahmaagnaavapare yaGYaM yaGYenaivopajuhvati .. 4\.25..

 

25. Some YOGIS perform sacrifice to DEVAS alone (DEVA-YAJNA) ; while others

offer "sacrifice" as sacrifice by the Self, in the Fire of BRAHMAN

(BRAHMA-YAJNA) .

 

In the following few stanzas, Lord Krishna is explaining the mental attitude

of a Saint-at-Work. One doubt is generally raised by every intelligent

student at all times. The spiritual experience, no doubt, can be had when

the seeker in meditation transcends even his intellect. But then, this

transcendental experience is bound to remain only for a limited time. The

"Realised-Saint" is found working in the world, sometimes, in an elaborate

fashion, like a Buddha or a Christ; in some cases he works in a limited

fashion, like a Ramana Maharshi, and at certain moments he may not undertake

any activity at all, but merely continue living among the world-of-objects.

Now the doubt is: "what would be the mental attitude of such a

Perfect-Master when he comes in contact with the world and functions in it?"

 

A Yogi is one who is always trying, through all the means that are in him,

to raise himself from his state of physical, mental and intellectual

imperfections to a more perfect state of existence. In this sense of the

term it would be unjust to read into the stanza merely the obvious meaning.

 

The word "Deva" comes from a root, meaning 'illumination.' Subjectively

viewed, the greatest "Devas" are the five sense organs: eyes illumining

forms and colours, ears illumining sounds, the nose illumining smells, and

the tongue and the skin illumining tastes and touches. Seekers, and

Perfected-Masters (Yogis) too, when they move in the world, no doubt

perceive sense-objects through sense stimuli. But in their understanding and

experience, perception is but "a world of sense-objects continuously

offering themselves into the fires of his perception in order to invoke the

Devas (Sense-perceptions)." Such seekers and masters walk out into life, and

when they come across the sense world, they only recognise and experience

that the world-of-objects is paying a devoted tribute to the powers of

sense-perceptions!

 

When this mental attitude is entertained constantly by a seeker he comes to

feel completely detached from the sense experiences and, irrespective of the

quality of experience, he is able to maintain a constant sense of inward

equanimity.

 

As contrasted with this method (Deva-Yajna) there are others who perform

Brahma-Yajna, says Krishna, wherein they come to "OFFER THE SELF AS A

SACRIFICE BY THE SELF IN THE FIRE OF THE SELF." This statement becomes

perfectly clear when subjectively analysed and understood. As long as we

exist in the body manifestation, we have to come across the world of

sense-objects. The outer-world can yield to us its joy or sorrow not by

itself but only as a result of our healthy or unhealthy attitude towards it.

The objects in themselves are impotent to give us either joy or sorrow.

 

The Perfect Masters understand that the sense-organs are only

INSTRUMENTS-of-perception and that they can work only when in contact with

the Supreme, the Atman. In this true understanding all Masters live,

allowing the sense-organs to sacrifice themselves in the

Knowledge-of-Brahman. Seekers also are, by this statement, advised as to how

they too can gain a certain amount of freedom from their senses by

dedicating their sense-life in the service of the world. When an

individual's sense-organs of perception and action are to function and act

--- not for his own ego-centric, selfish satisfactions but for the sake of

serving the society or the world --- then, even if such an individual lives

in the world-of-objects he will not be enslaved by his attachments to his

possessions.

 

AFTER THUS ENUMERATING THE "DEVA-YAJNA" AND THE "BRAHMA-YAJNA," LORD KRISHNA

EXPOUNDS TWO MORE METHODS IN THE FOLLOWING:

 

shrotraadiiniindriyaaNyanye sa.nyamaagnishhu juhvati .

shabdaadiinvishhayaananya indriyaagnishhu juhvati .. 4\.26..

 

 

26. Some again offer hearing and other senses as sacrifice in the

fires-of-restraint; others offer sound and other objects of sense as

sacrifice in the fires-of-the-senses.

 

SOME OTHER GREAT MASTERS OFFER HEARING AND OTHER SENSES IN THE

FIRES-OF-RESTRAINT all these Yajnas described, the metaphor is taken

from the most familiar ritualism known at the time to Arjuna. Oblations were

offered, in Vedic ritualism, into the sacred-fire in order to invoke the

blessings of the deity. In these examples, we are shown how when some

materials are offered into a sacred-fire, not only the oblations get burnt

up and consumed by the fire, but also, as a result, a great blessing

accrues. Here, it is said that some Masters live on in life constantly

offering their senses into the fire-of-self-control, so that the senses, of

their own accord get burnt up, contributing a greater freedom and joy in the

inner life of the man. It is also a fact, very well experienced by all of

us, that the more we try to satisfy the sense-organs the more riotous they

become and loot away our inner joy. By self-control alone can the

sense-organs be fully controlled and mastered. This is yet another method

shown to the seekers by which they can come to experience and live a more

intense life of deeper meditation.

 

If in this method the "Path-of-Sense-control" is indicated, in the second

line the "Path-of-Mind-control" is suggested. The mind is sustained and fed

by the stimuli that reach it from the outer world. The sense-objects

perceived by the organs create and maintain the mind. The mind can never

function in a field which cannot be interpreted in terms of the five types

of sense-objects. Therefore, to make the mind non-receptive to the

perceptions of the Indriyas is a method by which one can gain a better poise

in life for purposes of meditation. Such an individual who has controlled

the mind completely and withdrawn it totally from the sense-centres is

indicated here when the Lord says: "OTHERS OFFER SOUND AND OTHER OBJECTS IN

THE FIRES OF THE SENSES."

 

If the former method is a technique of controlling the stimuli at the very

gateway of the senses, the latter is a different technique of controlling

the same from the inner, and therefore more subtle, level of perception,

called the mind.

 

AFTER THUS EXPLAINING THESE FOUR METHODS, YET ANOTHER TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN

PROPOUNDED BY THE LORD IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:

 

sarvaaNiindriyakarmaaNi praaNakarmaaNi chaapare .

aatmasa.nyamayogaagnau juhvati GYaanadiipite .. 4\.27..

 

27. Others again sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions

of the breath (vital energy) in the fire of the YOGA of self-restraint,

kindled by knowledge.

 

ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SENSE-ORGANS (JNANA-INDRIYAS), AND THE ORGANS OF

ACTION (PRANA-INDIRYAS) ARE OFFERED INTO THE KNOWLEDGE KINDLED-FIRE OF RIGHT

UNDERSTANDING --- Control of the ego by the better understanding of the

Divine Reality is called here as the "Yoga-of-Self-restraint'

(ATMA-SAMYAMA-YOGA).

 

The "Path-of-Discrimination" (Vichara) lies through a constant attempt at

distinguishing between the limited lot of the ego and the divine destinies

of the Spirit. Having discriminated thus, to live more and more as the Self,

and not as the ego, is to "RESTRAIN THE SELF BY THE SELF (Atma-Samyama)." By

this process, it is evident how the mad ramblings of the organs of

perceptions and actions can be completely restrained and entirely conquered.

 

 

EXHAUSTING THE ABOVE-MENTIONED FIVE DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES, AS THOUGH TO BRING

TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF ARJUNA, THAT A HUNDRED OTHER METHODS CAN BE

INDICATED, KRISHNA ENUMERATES IN HASTE FIVE MORE DIFFERENT METHODS IN THE

FOLLOWING STANZA:

 

dravyayaGYaastapoyaGYaa yogayaGYaastathaapare .

svaadhyaayaGYaanayaGYaashcha yatayaH sa.nshitavrataaH .. 4\.28..

 

28. Others again offer wealth, austerity and YOGA as sacrifice, while the

ascetics of self-restraint and rigid vows offer study of scriptures and

knowledge as sacrifice.

 

OFFERING OF WEALTH (Dravya-Yajna) --- Sacrifice of wealth is to be

understood in its largest connotation. Charity and distribution of honestly

acquired wealth, in a sincere spirit of devotion to and in the service of

the community, or of the individual who is the recipient of the benevolence,

is called Dravya-Yajna. This includes more than a mere offering of money or

food.

 

The term Dravya includes everything that we possess, not only in the world

outside but also in our worlds of emotions and ideas. To pursue thus a life

of charity, serving the world as best as we can, with all that we possess

physically, mentally and intellectually is the noble sacrifice called

"Wealth sacrifice."

In order to perform this it is not at all necessary that the devotee should

be materially rich. Even if we are poor and physically DEBILITATED, from our

bed of pain and penury, we can still be charitable, because our inner

treasurers of love, kindness, sympathy and affection, do not at all depend

either upon our material circumstances nor on our physical condition.

Sometimes, a word of sincere sympathy, a look of love, a smile of true

affection, or a word registering true friendship, can give to the receiver

more than a heartless cheque, even if it be for a very fat sum.

 

Tapo-yajna --- Some live, offering unto their Lord, a life of austerity.

There is no religion in the world which does not prescribe, by some method

or the other, periods of austere living. These austerities (Vratas) are

invariably undertaken in the name of the Lord. It is very well-known that

the Lord of Compassion, who feeds and sustains even the lowliest of the low,

can gain no special joy because of a devotee's self-denial. But it is

generally done in a spirit of dedication, so that the seeker might achieve

some self-control. This activity, in some extreme cases very painful indeed,

is undertaken in order that the devotee may learn to control himself in his

sense-life.

 

Yoga-yajna --- An earnest attempt of the lesser in us to grow into a better

standard of diviner living, is called Yoga. In this attempt, devoted worship

of the Lord-of-the-heart, called Upasana, is a primary method. This worship

and love, offered to the Lord-of-the-heart, when performed without any

desire or motive, is also called Yoga, since it directly hastens the

seeker's self-development.

 

Swadhyaya-yajna --- The daily deep study of the scriptures is called

Swadhyaya. Without a complete study of the scriptures we will not be in a

position to know the logic of what we are doing in the name of spiritual

practice, and without this knowledge our practices cannot gain the edge and

the depth that are essential for sure progress. Thus, in all religions, the

daily study of the scriptures is insisted upon, as an essential training

during the seeker's early days. Even after Self-realisation, we find that

the Sages spend all their spare-time reading and contemplating upon the

inexhaustible wealth of details and suggestions in the scriptures.

 

In its subjective implications, Swadhyaya means "self-study including the

art of introspection pursued for understanding our own inner weaknesses."

If, in the case of a seeker, it is a technique of estimating his own

spiritual progress, in the case of a Seer, it will be for revelling in his

own Self.

 

Jnana-yajna --- The Sacrifice-of-Knowledge: this word has very often been

used in the Geeta and it constitutes one of the many original terms coined

out by Vyasa to beautify the Lord's declarations. The

"Sacrifice-of-Knowledge" is the term given to that activity in man by which

he renounces all his ignorance into the fire-of-knowledge kindled BY him, IN

him. This is constituted of two aspects; negation of the false, and

assertion of the Real Nature of the Self. These two activities are

effectively undertaken during the seeker's meditation.

 

All these five methods of Self-development --- " sacrifice-of-wealth,"

"austerity,Yoga,study" and "knowledge" --- can be practised with

profit only by those who are men of "rigid determination" and who can find

in themselves an inexhaustible enthusiasm to apply themselves consistently

to reach this great goal. It is not sufficient that we know these paths, or

that we decide to gain these developments. Progress in spirituality can come

only to one who is "sincere and consistent in his practices" (Yatayah).

 

IN THE FOLLOWING VERSE KRISHNA EXPLAINS PRANAYAMA AS YET ANOTHER METHOD, THE

ELEVENTH IN THE SERIES:

 

apaane juhvati praaNaM praaNe.apaanaM tathaapare .

praaNaapaanagatii ruddhvaa praaNaayaamaparaayaNaaH .. 4\.29..

 

29. Others offer as sacrifice the out-going breath in the in-coming, and the

in-coming in the out-going, restraining the courses of the out-going and

in-coming breaths, solely absorbed in the restraint of breath.

 

In this verse we have a description of the technique of 'breath-control'

regularly practised by some seekers, in order to keep themselves under

perfect self-control, when they move amidst the sense-objects in the

work-a-day world.

 

As a sacrifice some offer "THE OUT-GOING BREATH INTO THE IN-COMING BREATH

AND OTHERS OFFER THE IN-COMING INTO THE OUT-GOING." The latter is, in the

technique of Pranayama, called the Puraka, meaning the 'process of filing

in'; while, the former is the 'process of blowing out,' technically called

the Rechaka. These two processes are alternated with an interval, wherein

the 'breath is held for sometime,' within and without, which is called the

Kumbhaka. This process of Puraka-Kumbhaka-Rechaka-Kumbhaka, when practised

in a prescribed ratio, becomes the technique of breath-control (Pranayama).

This technique is again explained here as a Yajna by which the practitioner,

in the long run, learns to offer all the subsidiary Pranas into the main

Prana.

 

Prana is not the breath; this is a general misunderstanding. Through

breath-control we come to gain a perfect mastery over the activities of the

Pranas in us. When very closely observed, we find that the term Prana used

in the Hindu Scriptures indicates the various "manifested activities of life

in a living body." They generally enumerate five different kinds of Pranas,

which, when understood correctly, are found to be nothing but the five

different physiological-functions in every living body.

 

They are: (1) the function of perception, (2) the function of excretion, (3)

the function of digestion and assimilation, (4) the circulatory system,

which distributes the food to all parts of the body, and lastly (5) the

capacity in a living-creature to improve himself in his mental outlook and

intellectual life. These activities of life within, about which an ordinary

man is quite unconscious, are brought under the perfect control of the

individual through the process of Pranayama, so that a seeker can, by this

path, come to gain a complete capacity to withdraw all his perceptions. This

is indeed a great help to a meditator.

 

[To be continued on next Monday...]