Panchjanyam Hrsheekesah-Truth about action

[Guest guest]

The discipline of knowledge along with renunciation of result

through yoga of action has been explained so far in the previous

chapters. Now Krishna sets out the authenticity of Karmayoga by

tracing it back to the Sun. He says ‘imamvivasvathe yogam prokthavaan

aham avyayam,’ “I taught this immortal yoga to the Sun.†Krishna

further says that this yoga was known to the rajarshis, who were the

descendents of the Sun and it became extinct in course of time. The

yoga is ancient and a supreme secret and Krishna tells Arjuna that

He will  impart the knowledge to Arjuna as he is a devotee and a

friend.

 

Now, Arjuna, who has been hitherto considering Krishna as

the son of Devaki, though with great reverence and adoration, comes

out with a legitimate doubt. He expresses his disbelief that Krishna

had expounded the yoga to the Sun as the birth of Krishna was much

later than the Sun, who was of ancient origin. The reply

was  ‘bahooni me vyatheethaani janmaani thava chaarjuna, thaanyaham

veda sarvaani na thvam veththa paramthapa,’ “You and I have passed

many births, I remember them all ; You do not remember.â€

 

Now for the first time Krishna reveals His true identity

as the Self of all., though it was hinted at in the third chapter of

the Gita ‘mayi sarvaani karmaani sanyasya.’ The Supreme Self

is  the sarvajna, omniscient, not being  contaminated by karma and it

is only the individual transmigratory self, jiva, who has limited

knowledge due to karma. The pure self has no karma as Krishna asserts

in the third chapter ‘na me partha asthi karthavyam.’  As if sensing

the question in the mind of Arjuna that if Krishna is none other

than the Supreme Self why should He be born at all, Krishna explains

the purpose of His incarnations that, ‘ajopi sannavyayaathma

bhoothaanaam isvaropi san prakrthim svaam adhishtaaya sambhavaami

aathmamaayayaa,’ though He is unborn and the immutable Self and the

Lord of all beings He manifests Himself resorting to His own Maya,

wherever there is a decline of dharma, ‘yadhaayadhaahi dharmasya

glaanirbhavathi,’ for the purpose of protecting the good and

punishing the evil ‘paritkhraanaayasadhoonaam vinaasaaya cha

dhushkrthaam.’

 

To understand the true nature of the Supreme Self, ‘janma

karma cha me dhivyam’ is the right knowledge and one who acquires

this transcends the cycle of birth and death, thyakthvaa dheham

punarjanma nethi maamethi,’ and attains the brahman-hood. This is the

path of emancipation which existed from time immemorial and many have

attained it by jnanathapas, the austerity of knowledge, which

consists of getting rid of desire, fear and anger,

veethraagabhayakrodhaah,  through utter dependence on the Lord,

perceiving Him in everything ‘manmayaa maamupaasrithaah.’ Thus they

attain the status of the Lord, which signifies the state of

salvation, Mukthi.

 

The words manmayaa maamupaasrithaah does not indicate

partiality on the part of Krishna because He is now talking as the

Supreme self. The sloka that follows makes this clear. Ye yathaa

maamprapadhyanthe thaan thathaiva bajaamyaham, He says. In whatever

form one seeks the Lord, He appears in the same form to the

devotee. The criticism of Hinduism being pantheistic is proved wrong

by this. There is only one God who can be called by any name or

conceived in any form, provided the worshipper remembers that He is

not limited to that name or form. The Lord who is everywhere, in and

out of all being is naturally present also in the particular form in

which one thinks of Him. So Krishna affirms that all men follow His

path only, mama varthmaa anuvarthanthe manushyaah paartha sarvasah’

 

In this world men seeking the fruition of their

activities worship the minor gods, says Krishna , kaankshanthah

karmanaamsidhdhim .yajantha iha devathaah. Who are the minor gods

referred to here? It does not mean any particular deity but imply

only the limited power which men seek to fulfil their desires, and

the activities undertaken for that purpose are desire motivated. It

is like asking a millionaire for  a few coins. But the actions that

are prescribed in the veda for desired ends definitely bear fruit in

this life itself, though transient. Kshipram hi maanusheloke

sidhdhirbhavathi karmajaa. But the result of the desire motivated

actions need not and often do not bring happiness. A man who

diligently pursues a course of action in order to amass wealth is

also a worshipper of a minor deity, namely, money . The action

undoubtedly gives the desired result but the effect of it may turn

out to be quite the reverse. Under the circumstances can a man, who

is engaged in desire motivated activity, be considered as following

the path of the Lord? The answer to this is given later in the

seventh chapter of the Gita, in the sloka, ‘udhaaraassarva evaithe’

 

Why should there be any difference in the activities of

the .people if all are following the same path? The answer is given

by Krishna that the difference is due to the propensities which

differ according to the inborn qualities. “They were created by

Me,†says the Lord ,â€according to the mode of prakrthi predominant

in each, and apportioning duties corresponding duties to them, †and

his is he basis of classification of the four orders of society,

namely, braahmana, kshatriya, vaisya and sudra. So the Bhagavatgita

very clearly specifies that the caste system was man made and does

not have he authority of scriptures. Chaahurvarnyam mayaa srshtam

gunakarma vibhaabasah, and not by birth as already explained in the

previous chapter..

 

If the Lord is the creator,  will the fruit of His

action accrue to Him? No, says Krishna, Na maam karmaanimlimpanthi na

me karmaphale sprha. Neither the action nor the fruit adhere to Him.

This can be explained as follows: The expression ‘I’ actually means

the Self only and taken in that sense the agent of action is the

Self because without it the action can never  take place, but the

Self is only saakshi bootha, a witness-self. And therefore it is

neither the doer nor the enjoyer. Similarly the Lord who is the

inner self of all is not affected by the actions of the individual

beings. The ancient seers knew this and identifying themselves with

the Lord their real Self they discharged their duties with detachment

and with the welfare of the world at heart. So, Krishna tells Arjuna

that he should also follow the footsteps of his ancestors and do his

duty.

Karmayoga had been explained by Krishna in the previous

chapter and here He elaborates on karma and akarma, action and

inaction. In order to follow the path of Karmayoga the seeker must be

very clear as to which actions will lead him to bondage and which

will secure release from bondage. Krishna has been insisting on the

importance of doing one’s duty and cited the example of the

ancients in by-gone days. The reason for doing so is due to the fact

that it is difficult to decide which actions are to be done and which

are to be given up. Even the sages are deluded in respect of the

questions as to what is action and what is inaction, kim karma kim

akarma ithi kavayo api athra mohithaah, says Krishna, and tells

Arjuna that He will instruct him on this subject so that he can

follow the path of Karmayoga without being riddled with doubt.

 

The average man seems to have no doubt at all in this

matter because to him action is exertion of some kind and inaction is

immobility. But there are not only karma and akarma, action and

inaction, but also vikarma, prohibited action. What is laid out in

the Vedas are karma in accordance with one’s nature and position in

this world. These have to be done but without attachment. At the same

time one ought to know what are the actions prohibited by the Vedas

and should avoid them. For example a thief may say that stealing is

what comes to him naturally and demanded by his status in the

society because he is not trained for any other work. This kind of

activity is denoted by vikarma. On the other hand there are certain

actions which need not be done and abstaining from them will be

akarma.

 

To put this in a simple language, any work that brings a

result that affects the doer is karma and that which does not affect

the doer in anyway is akarma. A man of divine wisdom, jnani, does not

think that h is doing anything because he does not identify himself

with the body, mind and intellect and does not possess ahamkara, ego.

As mentioned in the last chapter he considers his actions as the

interaction between the gunas in him an those outside, gunaaguneshu

varthantha ithi mathvaa na sajjathe. Only the man whose intellect is

clouded with ego thinks that he is the doer.

 

This idea can be well brought out by a story about

sage Vyasa and Krishna. Once Krishna told a gopi to take food for

Vyasa who was at the other side of river Yamuna. But she was not able

to cross the river as Yamuna was in spate. Krishna told her to pray

that if Krishna was a nithya brahmachari the river should part.

Probably the gopi had her own doubts but she had explicit faith in

Krishna and did as he told her and the river parted and she went to

the other side and gave the food to Vyasa. But again there was flood

and she could not go back . Then Vyasa told her that if he was

nithya upavasi the river will part. This time the girl was really

perplexed because just then he ate the whole food brought by her and

termed himself a nithya upavasi. She expressed her doubt to Vyasa and

also told him what Krishna said about Himself.. Vyasa explained

that both of them being jeevanmukthas the function of their bodies

did not touch their real Self. The real ‘I’ which is the pure Self

is neither the doer nor the enjoyer.

 

Then Krishna starts elucidating the truth about action

that has to be known. The wise men sees action in inaction and vice

versa. The one who can do this is yuktha, integrated and

krthsnakarmavith, has the real knowledge of action, karmanyakarma

yafpasyeth akarmani cha karma yah sa bhudhdhimaan manushyeshu sa

yukthah krthsnakarmavith.

 

 

This appears to be a self contradicting statement on the

surface but it is not so in reality. Seeing akarma in karma is with

respect to the actions done without attachment giving up the desire

for the fruit of such actions. This could be understood by the above

story of Vyasa and Krishna. Since the result of such actions do not

affect the doer who identifies himself with his Self and not with his

body, mind and intellect. Another example of seeing akarma in karma

is the incident that happened in the life of Jadabharatha cited in

Bhagavathapurana.

 Bharatha, a king in ancient times left his kingdom in

pursuit of knowledge and led an ascetic’s life. But due strange

circumstances he became attached to a deer cub and had to take

another birth as a deer, in which due to the wisdom acquired in his

previous janma he shed his body and was born as an enlightened  sage

in his next and last birth.  Once he was asked to carry the palanquin

of King Rahugana, which he did without hesitation as he was totally

devoid of ego. When his gait did not match that of others the king

got irritated and seeing his well built body, sarcastically remarked

that perhaps it was too much of a burden for him. Bharatha replied “I

do not have any strain because I am not doing any work.†When he

said ‘I’ he meant his Self and not his body. So this is a case of

seeing akarma in karma.

 

But more perplexing is the idea of seeing karma in

akarma. The word inaction, akarma is usually understood as abstention

from action or keeping still. Bur even when we are keeping quiet our

mind is active. So it appears that inaction is when even the mind is

silent or in a state of Samadhi. But it is not as simple as that.

The great sages who are found even today in Himalayas doing

meditation are in fact engrossed in great activity, namely bringing

blessings to mankind. The classical example can be Lord Ranganatha

who is reclining on His Seshasayana . As Krishna Himself said in the

previous chapter, utseedheyuh ime lokaah kuryaam karma chedhaham, If

the Lord is really inactive the world will collapse. Also

identifying the Lord with the anatharaathma , the real Self, there

can be no activity without the Self, which in reality is not the

doer. This is karma in akarma.

 

 This idea can be very simply verified in daily life.

When we are moving in a vehicle, provided the movement is very smooth

and not felt as such, it looks as though we are still and the other

objects outside are rushing in the opposite direction. Similarly when

we look at a distant object it looks as though it is stationary

whereas it may be moving and the movement is not visible due to the

distance. The difference between a man of wisdom and a man of the

world is similar to that between a man of scientific knowledge who

knows that the earth is moving and an ignorant man who thinks

that  it does not.