Gita in Daily Life: Ch.5 -- Actionlessness and Equanimity

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Namaste

 

In Chapter 5, there are two major ideas that has to reflect

on our daily life.

One is Actionlessness, about which chapter 4 itself has

paved the way.

The other is Equanimity, expressed in its context of

advaita as brahma-bhAva.

 

The concept of Actionlessness is now carried in more

detail. In other words the picture of actionlessness is

presented dramatically in ‘slow motion’ .

 

“I do nothing at all” – thus would the enlightened yogI

think – seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going,

sleeping, breathing, speaking, answering nature’s calls,

grabbing, opening the eyes and closing the eyes; all the

time convinced that it is the senses that move amidst the

sense-objects. (V -8 and 9)

 

He who does actions, offering them to Brahman, abandoning

all attachment, is not tainted by sin, as a lotus leaf is

untainted by water on it. (V – 10)

 

This analogy of “water on a lotus leaf” is a

well-understood analogy in the culture of the length and

breadth of India, because it is blended into the ethos of

the country’s spiritual heritage. The origin of this

analogy is this Gita verse.

 

Abandoning all attachment, the yogI performs actions only

with the body mind intellect and even by the senses -- all

this for the purification of his BMI. (V – 11)

 

“Atma-shuddhaye” – for the purification of the self. Here

the self is the outer self, the BMI. The real Self, the

Atman, needs no purification because it is pure. So when

Krishna says “Atma-shuddhaye” he means the purification of

the BMI which results naturally in the shedding off of the

association with the BMI .

 

And now we come to the second part which is the

‘Equanimity’. I would consider this as the central core of

the Gita teaching. In this teaching itself there are two

facets.

1. Equanimity with respect to the objects in the Universe,

either animate or inanimate.

2. Equanimity with respect to what happens to us.

 

Both have lessons to tell us about our daily life.

 

First, the equanimity with respect to objects and persons.

The famous shloka (#18) of Chapter 5 is unmatched in this

respect among its parallel versions anywhere else.

Learned wise men look at all equanimously – whether it be a

brahmin endowed with scholarship as well as humility, or an

animal like a cow, elephant or dog, or the lowliest of

human beings like one who eats dog-meat. (V – 18).

This balanced view of everything as nothing but a

re-presentation of the Supreme is given only to great yogis

and sages. But the Gita is never tired of saying this to

Arjuna and to the common man as if it should be the

greatest maxim of our daily life. In fact that is what

Krishna means.

 

Secondly, equanimity with respect to happenings that

impinge on one’s life. Shloka 20 of the fifth chapter is

only one among many in the Gita which reverberate this

thought. And the following shlokas complete the picture.

 

The pleasant shall not please you nor shall the unpleasant

upset you. Always have the same steadiness of mind that

does not waver from its equanimous balance. Such will be

the nature of a brahma-vit. He is anchored in brahman. (V –

20).

 

The enjoyments that are born of contacts are only wombs of

pain, for they have a beginning and an end. The wise do not

rejoice in them. (V – 22)

 

He who still here, is able to withstand the impulse of

desire and anger, before liberation from the body is a

yogi. He is the happy man. (V -23).

 

 

Thus we have highlighted the two major aspects of Gita’s

advice in Ch.5 for our daily life –namely, Actionlessness;

Equanimity both with respect to objects and persons and

with respect to one’s own reactions to happenings in life.

 

 

PraNAms to all advaitins

profvk