Gita Satsangh Chapter 12 Verses 12 to 13

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

This posting of verses (should have been posted on Sunday) was

delayed due to the fact that I was out of town and I didn't get

internet access.

 

With my warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

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Gita Satsangh Chapter 12 Verses 12 to 13

(Verse Translation by Swami Gambirananda, Gita Bhasya and commentary

by Swami Chinmayanandaji)

 

Adweshtaa sarvabhootaanaam maitrah karuna eva cha;

Nirmamo nirahankaarah samaduhkhasukhah kshamee.

 

12. Knowledge is surely superior to practice; meditation surpasses

knowledge. The renunciation of the results of works (excels)

meditation. From renunciation, Peace follows immediately.

 

Jnanam, knowledge; [Firm conviction about the Self arrived at

through Vedic texts and reasoning.] is hi, surely; sreyah,

superior; -to what?-abhyasat, to practice [Practice-repeated effort

to ascertain the true meaning of Vedic texts, in order to acquire

knowledge.] which is not preceded by discrimination. Dhyanam,

meditation, undertaken along with knowledge; visisyate, surpasses

even jnanat, that knowledge. Karma-phala-tyagah, renunciation of the

results of works; excels even dhyanat, meditation associated with

knowledge. ('Excels' has to be supplied.) Tyagat, from this

renunciation of the results of actions, in the way described before;

[by dedicating all actions to God with the idea, 'May God be

pleased.'] santih, Peace, the cessation of transmigratory existence

together with its cause; follows anantaram, immediately; not that it

awaits another accasion.

 

Should the unenlightened person engaged in works be unable to

practise the disciplines enjoined earlier, then, for him has been

enjoined renunciation of the results of all works as a means to

Liberation. But this has not been done at the very beginning. And

for this reason renunciation of the results of all works has been

praised in, 'Knowledge is surely superior to practice,' etc. by

teaching about the successive excellence. For it has been taught as

being fit to be adopted by one in case he is unable to practise the

disciplines already presented [Presented from verse 3 onwards.]

 

Objection: From what similarly does the eulogy follow?

 

Reply: In the verse, 'When all desires clinging to one's heart fall

off' (Ka, 2.3.14), it has been stated that Immortality results from

the rejection of all desires. That is well known. And 'all desires'

means the 'result of all rites and duties enjoined in the Vedas and

Smrtis'. From the renunciation of these, Peace surely comes

immediately to the enlightened man who is steadfast in Knowledge.

 

There is a similarity between renunciation of all desires and

renunciation of the results of actions by an unenlightened person.

Hence, on account of that similarity this eulogy of renunciation of

the results of all actions is meant for rousing interest. As for

instance, by saying that the sea was drunk up by the Brahmana

Agastya, the Brahmanas of the present day are also praised owing to

the similarity of Brahminhood. In this way it was been said that

Karma-yoga becomes a means for Liberation,since it involves

renunciaton of the rewards of works.

 

Here, again, the Yoga consisting in the concentration of mind on God

as the Cosmic Person, as also the performance of actions etc. for

God, have been spoken of by assuming a difference between God and

Self. In, 'If you are unable to do even this' (11) since it has been

hinted that it (Karma-yoga) is an effect of ignorance, therefore the

Lord is pointing out that Karma-yoga is not suitable for the

meditator on the Immutable, who is aware of idenity (of the Self with

God). The Lord is similarly pointing out the impossibility of a

karma-yogin's meditation on the Immutable.

 

In (the verse), 'they.....attain Me alone' (4), having declared that

those who meditate on the Immutable are independent so far as the

attainment of Liberation is concerned, the Lord has shown in, '...I

become the Deliverer' (7), that others have no independence; they are

dependent on God. For, if they (the former) be considered to have

become identified with God, they would be the same as the Immutable

on account of (their) having realized non-difference. Consequently,

speaking of them as objects of the act of deliverance will become

inappropriate!

 

And, since the Lord in surely the greatest well-wisher of Arjuna, He

imparts instructions only about Karma-yoga, which involves perception

of duality and is not associated with full Illumination. Also, no

one who has realized his Self as God through valid means of knowledge

would like subordination to another, since it involves a

contradiction. Therefore, with the idea, 'I shall speak of the group

of virtues (as stated in), " He hwo is not hateful towards any

creature, " etc. which are the direct means to Immortality, to those

monks who meditate on the Immutable,who are steadfast in full

enlightenment and have given up all desires,' the Lord proceeds:

 

Swami Chinmayanda's Commentary

When a divine philosopher gives a discourse for the benefit of a

disciple who is confused and broken-down, it is not sufficient if he

merely enumerates the dry philosophical truths; he must so

beautifully arrange his ideas that the very scheme of the discourse

must help the student to gather all the ideas together in a bunch.

The stanza, now under review, gives us one of the typical examples in

Krishna's discourse wherein he directly makes an attempt to

systematise his theoretical disquisitions into a well-arranged

pattern of thought.

Here we find a sequence of ideas, arranged in a descending order of

importance. When once this ladder-of-ideas is brought completely

within a seeker's comprehension and when he learns the art of moving

up and down this ladder, he will master almost all the salient points

so far expounded in this chapter.

BETTER INDEED IS KNOWLEDGE THAN PRACTICE --- Spiritual practices are

not mere physical acts but are disciplines that should ultimately

tune up our mental and intellectual levels. The inner personality

cannot be persuaded to toe the line with the physical acts of

devotion unless the practitioner has a correct grasp of what he is

doing. An intellectual conversion is a pre-requisite to force the

mind to act in the right spirit and to gain a perfect attunement with

the physical act. A correct and exhaustive knowledge of what we are

doing, and why we are doing it, is an unavoidable pre-condition for

making our Yoga fruitful. Therefore, it is said here that a knowledge

of the psychological, intellectual and spiritual implications of our

practices is greater in importance than the very external Yogic acts,

or 'devotional performances.'

MEDITATION IS SUPERIOR TO KNOWLEDGE --- More important than mere

KNOWLEDGE is meditation upon the very 'knowledge' so gathered. The

technical explanation --- of the why and the wherefore of religious

practices --- can be more easily learnt than understood. To convert

our learning into our understanding, there must be necessarily a

process of intellectual assimilation and absorption. This cannot be

accomplished by a mere factual learning of the word-meanings. The

students will have to understand, in a hearty enthusiasm, the very

meaning of the Shastra, and this is possible only through long,

subjective, independent ponderings over the significant terms in the

Shastra-declarations. The process of inward assimilation of knowledge

can take place only through meditation. Hence, in the hierarchy of

importance, " meditation " has been give a greater place than

the " KNOWLEDGE OF THE TECHNIQUE. "

BETTER THAN MEDITATION IS THE ABANDON-MENT OF FRUITS-OF-ACTION ---

Meditation is an attempt of the intellect to fly from the fields of

its present knowledge to a yonder destination of a better

understanding. In this flight to a vaster field, the intellect must

have the necessary energy and equipoise. Meditation can never be

possible for an individual in whom all energies and steadiness of

mind are shattered by the agitations created by his own ruinous

imaginations of the future. In our discourses upon the previous

stanza, we have already shown how our anxiety for the future

generally depletes our vitality to face the present. All fruits-of-

actions definitely belong to the FUTURE, and to be over-anxious about

them is to invite a lot of idle agitations into our bosom. Stormed by

these agitations, we lose all our equipoise and such an individual

has no ability to meditate upon and thereby assimilate the silent

significance of the great Shastras. Therefore, Krishna here gives a

greater place of importance in his ladder-of-ideas to " THE

RENUNCIATION OF THE FRUITS-OF-ACTION. "

As a foot-note to his own declaration, he adds how renunciation of

our anxiety for the future immediately brings about a healthy

condition within ourselves. " PEACE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS RENUNCIATION. "

In fact, in Hinduism, renunciation (Sannyasa) is nothing other

than " giving up all our clinging attachments to the pleasures arising

out of our contact with the external sense objects. "

As a result of this renunciation, therefore, a dynamic quietude comes

to pervade the bosom in which the intellect can meditate upon the

knowledge of the Shastras, and thereby understand the ways of self-

development as explained therein. And when, with this knowledge, one

uses one's seat of meditation, one is assured of definite success and

steady progress.

WITH REFERENCE TO THOSE WHO ARE MEDITATING UPON THE IMPERISHABLE, THE

INFINITE, THE LORD PRESCRIBES A CERTAIN MENTAL AND INTELLECTUAL

CONDUCT WHICH FORMS THE DIRECT MEANS TO PERFECTION:

 

 

13. He who is not hateful towards any creature, who is friendly and

compassionate, who has no idea of 'mine' and the idea of egoism, who

is the same under sorrow and happiness, who is forgiving;

 

Advesta, he who is not hateful; sarva-bhutanam, towards any

creature: He does not feel repulsion for anything, even for what may

be the cause of sorrow to himself, for he sees all beings as his own

Self. Maitrah, he who is friendly-behaving like a friend; karunah

eva ca, and compassionate: karuna is kindness, compassion towards

sorrow-stricken creatures; one possessing that is karunah, i.e. a

monk, who grants safety to all creatures. Nirmamah, he who has no

idea of 'mine'; nirahankarah, who has no idea of egoism; sama-duhkha-

sukhah, who is the same under sorrow and happiness, he in whom sorrow

and happiness do not arouse any repulsion or attraction; ksami, who

is forgiving, who remains unperturbed even when abused or assaulted;