Gita Satsang: Pujyaswami DayanandaSaraswati's Commentary Part I

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

Poojya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

studied under the guidance of Swami Chinmayanandaji and he is a great

Vedantin. Let me take this opportunity to thank Swamiji for granting

permission to post his Homestudy Gita Notes to the list. The Gita

Homestudy Gita Notes along with chanting of the entire Gita verses are

available at Arshavidyagurukulam.(.http://www.arshavidya.org/)

 

regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

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

Part 1 Gita Chapter 7 Verses 15 to 17

 

RESOLUTION OF THE SEEMING DUALITY

When Lord Krsna says, ye mam prapadyante, there is a seeming duality.

So, we have to understand what he means by looking into the context.

In the beginning of this chapter he said, `I am going to teach you

exactly what is knowledge along with immediate understanding without

anything being left out — jnanam te aham savijnanam idam vaksyami

asesatah. I will give you, not merely knowledge, but immediate

knowledge.'

Later he is going to say, `There are many people who are devoted to

Me. The distressed raise their prayers to Me as do those who want to

accomplish things. And the people who want to know about Me, of course

are devoted to Me as are the ones who do know Me, the jnanis. All of

them are devotees. But understand that the jnani is no longer separate

from Me. He is Myself, jnani tu atmaiva me matam.' So, the knowledge,

that Bhagavan has promised to teach, resolves the duality between jiva

and Isvara.

He will also say very clearly that, he is the one who has entered into

all beings as `I.' And that he is the atma of all beings — sarvasya

caham hrdi sannivis¶ah. As the space seemingly enters the pot as it is

created, atma having created everything, seemingly enters everything,

remaining the same, as the uncreated basis of everything. Throughout

the sastra, the jiva is never said to have been created — a very

important thing to understand. The physical body, the mind, the senses

are all created because they are assembled. But the jiva is never

created. It is the changeless atma, the very atma of every being.

After the entire process of creation, atma remains the same as the `I'

of everything. And that `I' is independent of all the three gunas.

These three gunas are to be overcome. How? Since Lord Visnu has

already overcome them, has them all under his control, Krsna says

here, `mam eva prapadyante — they seek only Me, the one who is

everything. Then they are released.

Introducing the next verse Sankara says, if this is so, why doesn't

everyone seek you? Krsna answers this here.

na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah

mayayapahrtajnana asuram bhavamasritah Verse 15

duskrtinah — those who do wrong actions; mudhah — those who are

deluded; naradhamah — the lowest among men; na mam prapadyante — do

not seek Me; mayaya — due to maya; apahrtajnanah — robbed of their

discrimination; asuram bhavam — state of revelling in sense pursuits

(or doing things that are not good for them); asritah — they are the

ones who have resorted to

Those who do wrong actions, who are deluded and the lowest among men

do not seek Me. Robbed of their discrimination by maya, they have

resorted to the condition of those who revel in sense pursuits.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT SEEK ISVARA AT ALL?

These are those who, even though they can cross over this maya by

seeking Me do not seek Me, mam na prapadyante. Why? Because they are

mudhas, duskrtins, naradhamas and mayaya apahrta-jnanah. You cannot

say more. Krsna simply piled up all these characteristics which, in

short, make them asuram bhavam asritah —people who have resorted to

the condition of indulging in what is not good for them. Let us see

the meaning of the individual words.

Duskrtinah means those who, either in this life or in the previous

ones have done wrong actions, papa-karmas. And duskrtins can also be

taken as those who continue to do so.

Mudhah means those who are deluded. Why do they do these wrong

actions? Because they are mudhah, deluded. To put it in a simple form

they have a confusion of priorities. What exactly is important and

what is not is not very clear. As a result, sometimes the end becomes

so important, the propriety of the means is not considered. Even for

religious fanatics the end becomes so important that they compromise

with reference to the means. This is an unfortunate thing. These

people are called mudhas, deluded as they are about what is to be done

and what is not to be done, karya and akarya. As a result, they become

duskrtins, people who did wrong actions previously and continue to do

so under the spell of maya.

Nara-adhamah — Sankara says among the human beings, there are people

who are exalted – utkrs¶a, lowly – adhama and in between, average –

madhyama. Being lowly in terms of behaviour is entirely due to

thinking. Essentially there is no sinner. But due to ignorance and a

lack of discrimination, people do behave improperly. They can gain a

good discriminative faculty through doing good karma at least in this

life. But even for this, a change in thinking has to occur. That is

why grace is required and therefore, prayer.

WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS?

Mayaya apahrta-jnanah — These are people whose discrimination is

robbed away by maya. Apahrta-jnanas means those who have lost their

viveka because of the very maya that they have to cross. Maya, we have

seen, means ignorance and its products, likes and dislikes and so on.

It becomes a decoy. Robbed by this maya one is bereft of his treasure,

jnana, which here means viveka. That rational discriminative faculty

is our treasure. And if the treasure which is given only to a human

being is taken away by maya, these people becomes totally given to the

condition of an asura, asuram bhavam asritah.

WHO IS AN ASURA?

`Asuram bhavam asritah' refers to people who have resorted to the

qualities of an asura. Sura means the one who revels in himself or in

things that are good. Asura means the opposite, i.e., the one who

revels in all the things that are not good. It can also mean asusu

ramate, the one who revels only in the sense organs meaning the sense

enjoyments — wine, woman, horse races, discos and so on. Or, as

Sankara takes it, himsa-anrtadi-laksanam asuram bhavam — asura-bhava

is nothing but a tendency to hurt others, to tell lies, etc. Himsa

means hurting another for the sake of personal gain like money or

pleasure. Anrta is falsehood and adi can be taken to mean all other

false values like stealing. Laksana means characteristic. So, these

are the characteristics of the state of mind and lifestyle of an

asura. Given to this, naturally they do not seek Isvara. Carried away

by fancies and wrong values, they will be totally given to the life of

an asura, and they do not come to Isvara at all. They do not even

think of Isvara. The Lord just does not come into their lives.

Krsna himself tells us in the next verse that to overcome this

seemingly hopeless situation one need not even know Isvara as oneself.

Just the understanding that there is Isvara is good enough. Then a

certain attitude and prayer will develop and one will find that

changes begin to take place. These changes occur only with a prayerful

attitude and recognition of Isvara in one form or another. That is

what really paves the way for an inner conversion to take place.

Therefore, it is not totally hopeless; there is a chance. Krsna is

going to explain that in the next verse. From here till the end of the

chapter he will be talking about people given to good works and

attitudes, sukrtins. Even for those who are prayerful only in

distress, there is hope. They may not think of Isvara at all until

they get into trouble; but at least they think of Isvara at that time.

There are some who, even in trouble will not think of him. But even if

they think of him only in distress, there is a change. That is what we

call conversion. Once Isvara is accommodated in one's life, the change

takes place thereafter.

caturvidha bhajante mam janah sukrtino'rjuna

arto jijnasurartharthi jnani ca bharatarsabha Verse 16

caturvidhah — four-fold; janah — people; sukrtinah — who do good

actions; mam — me; bhajante — worship; arjuna —

O Arjuna!; artah — the one in distress; artharthi — the one who wants

security and pleasure; jijnasuh — the one who desires to know; ca —

and; jnani — the one who knows; bharatarsabha —O foremost in the

family of Bharata!

O Arjuna, the people, given to good actions who worship me are

four-fold. They are, the one in distress, the one who wants security

and pleasure, the one who wishes to know (Me), and the one who knows

(Me), O foremost in the family of Bharata!

Sukrtinah janah — the people who do good deeds. As a contrast to the

duskrtins who do not seek the Lord, in this verse Krsna tells us of

the sukrtinah janah, those people who do good actions now, or did them

in previous lives. He says, `They seek Me — bhajante mam. And it is

because of the punya earned through their good actions that they seek

Me.'

TWO TYPES OF PUNYA

There are two types of punya. One gives wealth, pleasures, comfort,

parentage etc. For this you do not require any culture or inner

growth. There is another type of punya which is purely spiritual. And

that punya-karma expresses itself no matter where one is born. Even if

a person has a difficult beginning, it does not deter him at all in

his seeking. Those who have this type of punya-karma, those sukrtins,

worship Isvara, mam bhajante. They recognise Isvara.

FOUR TYPES OF DEVOTEES

Among those sukrtins who recognise and worship Isvara, there are four

types, catur-vidhah — caturvidhah bhajante mam. Vidha means variety.

Therefore, there are four varieties of devotees. All of them have

sufficient recognition of Isvara to be devotees but among them there

is a gradation. The degree of recognition, their attitude, approach,

prayers, etc., all determine the four types. And they are, he says,

`artah jijnasuh artharthi jnani ca bharatarsabha.'

ARTAH

Arti means any sorrow or grief. Sadness, distress, discomfort, trouble

are all called arti. Sankara defines arta as one who is seized by a

distress, caused by a thief, tiger, or disease. Tigers were common in

those days when India was full of forests; so, Sankara commonly uses

the tiger as an example. When a person is seized by some distress,

whom he will call as a last resort? If he has some punya-karma, there

is Isvara in his life and he will call upon him. But only when he is

in distress. Till then he does not think of him. But at least during

that spell of distress he does think of him because he does not see

anyone else who can help him. This kind of devotee is called arta, a

devotee in distress.

ARTHARTHI

Artha means that which is desired. In this context it means wealth and

things similar to it — power, progeny and so on. One wants all these

and to get them, the artharthi invokes the grace of Bhagavan. He

thinks that he cannot live happily without these things and so, he

makes use of various means to get them. He uses local influence,

money, etc., along with Bhagavan, because he recognises that there is

always a factor over which he has no control. As a devotee, he is

mature enough to recognise the chance element. That he recognises as

daiva. And there is no way of having any control over it without some

grace. So, whenever he wants to accomplish something, he invokes the

grace of Isvara to control certain factors that he cannot control or

even know. He will perform rituals in order to invoke Isvara's grace

to help him gain whatever he wants. This is kamya-karma, a karma done

with a desire to accomplish a given end within samsara. The one who

does kamya-karma is an artharthi. But he is also an arta, a devotee in

trouble. When he is in trouble, he will of course, invoke the Lord. An

arta, however, is not an artharthi. Because only in distress can he

think of God.

JIJNASUH

The third one is jijnasu. The order in the verse, arta, jijnasu,

artharthi is for the sake of metre. But in order of their

understanding the arta and the artharthi belong to one group, the

jijnasu and the jnani to another. Jijnasu is the one who desires to

know. What does he want to know? That is also important because even

the one who does wrong actions, the duskrtin, wants to know a lot of

things — like how to open locks, etc. But here, the subject matter is

Isvara, the truth of Isvara, bhagavat-tattva. He is not invoking

Isvara's grace for simple accomplishments. He wants to know the truth

of Isvara, the ultimate cause of everything. And this jijnasu is a

great devotee. He does not use Bhagavan as an accomplice for his small

little pursuits; he wants to know who is Isvara. As a bhakta he

invokes Isvara's grace for this. He also offers his prayers; he also

performs his daily and occasional duties, nitya-naimittika-karma. But

he does all this to gain a clear mind, antah-karana-suddhi, and the

knowledge of Isvara.

Knowledge of Isvara is nothing but knowledge of atma. Isvara, the

cause of everything happens to be in essence, oneself. If Isvara were

other than atma, he would be anatma, and therefore, inert. The only

conscious being is atma, and Isvara is not separate from it.

This seeming difference between Isvara and the individual is due to

upadhi, as we have seen. There is only one reality and that the

jijnasu wants to know. He is a devotee because he seeks the help of

Isvara and performs prayerful actions to earn this help. But his

actions are not for limited ends within samsara, kamya-karmas. The

arta and artharthi are kamis because their karmas are kamya-karmas.

The jijnasu, however, is a karma-yogi; so, his is a different type of

devotion. Because of his extra punya, he has discrimination, viveka,

and because of that he is a jijnasu.

JNANI

And then there is a fourth bhakta. All four recognise me and to the

degree they recognise me they are in union with me. The fourth one's

recognition is complete; so, his identification is total. When you are

a jijnasu you necessarily become a jnani, the one who knows the truth

of Lord Visnu, Paramesvara, as himself. He is a real bhakta.

HOW THE JNANI'S DEVOTION DIFFERS FROM THAT OF ALL OTHERS

The jnani's devotion is what we call sadhya-bhakti. There are two

types of bhakti. One is sadhana-bhakti, a devotion to Isvara as a

means. This is the devotion of a jijnasu. But the bhakti of one who

understands Isvara, who recognises the truth of Isvara as atma, is

sadhya-bhakti. It is a bhakti that has fulfilled itself, a devotion in

the form of absolute love — parama-prema-svarupa-bhakti.

What is this absolute love? Between the object of love and the person

who loves, there is no difference at all. Love consumes all the

differences. That is what we call absolute love and it is only in the

form of knowledge. The non-difference is already accomplished because

Isvara is atma. This is a fact which has only to be recognised.

When there is already non-difference, its recognition is called

ananya-bhakti. Ananya means there is no other. The altar of bhakti and

the seeker, the devotee, are one and the same self. That bhakti is not

time-bound or comparable because it is a fact. This is the devotion of

a jnani. For him, all the bhakti has fulfilled itself. So, how can we

call him a bhakta? He is still a bhakta if we consider a bhakta as

someone who is in union with Isvara. The other three are also in union

with Isvara, but, for them, Isvara is other than themselves and

therefore, remote, paroksa. For a jnani, Isvara is immediate,

aparoksa. That is the only difference, and it is a great difference.

Again among the three, Isvara is always paroksa for the arta and the

artharthi but for a jijnasu he is paroksa only for the time being.

Paroksa means indirectly known — as omniscient, almighty and so on.

The difficulty is with the little knowledge I have, how can I

appreciate omniscience? And with my limited power, how can I

appreciate what is all powerful? By no stretch of the imagination is

that possible. For an arta and an artharthi then, Isvara is always

indirectly known, nitya-paroksa.

For the jijnasu, however, there is a possibility of Isvara becoming

aparoksa and for the jnani, he is aparoksa because Isvara, the cause

of everything, is non-separate from atma. Even though he is the atma,

of everyone, only the jnani appreciates it. Only he has an intellect

subtle enough to recognise what is true for everyone. And the jnani is

distinguished here among the bhaktas as a fulfilled bhakta. The

jijnasu is going to be fulfilled and even the others will be fulfilled

in time. Eventually they will come to Isvara. The arta, the devotee in

distress, will become an artharthi and then a jijnasu because he has

devotion. His recognition of Isvara paves the way for his progress.

Bhakti, devotion, is any type of union between jiva and Isvara. By a

proper action or even a thought you are uniting yourself to Isvara.

But jnani doesn't try to make a bridge between jiva and Isvara.

Gaining the knowledge, he finds that he is always united. There's only

one thing there. That is Isvara; that is atma. There's no second thing

at all to unite with. So, he is always united, nitya-yukta. That is

told in this next verse.

tesam jnani nityayukta ekabhaktirvisisyate

priyo hi jnanino'tyarthamaham sa ca mama priyah Verse 17

tesam — among these; jnani — the one who knows (Me); eka-bhaktih —

whose devotion is resolved in oneness; nitya-yuktah — always united

(with Me); visisyate — is distinguished; hi — because; aham — I am;

jnaninah — to the jnani; atyartham — totally; priyah — beloved; sa ca

— and he; mama priyah — is My beloved

Among these, the jnani, always united (to me), his devotion resolved

in oneness, is distinguished because I am totally beloved to him and

he is absolutely My beloved.