Narayanasramam

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Ensuring Freedom, Joy and Excellence by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

 

Although Krishna has been stressing the need for asakti (detachment)

throughout (in Bhagavadgeta), he knows very well how hard it is for the human

mind to give up sakti (attachment) or to rise above its

attachmental notes. Right in the beginning he had denounced sanga,

showing in an explicit manner how it leads to total downfall

(Bhagavadgeeta 2.62-63). He also emphasized the need for expanding the

mind by developing a non-attachmental vision, anabhisneha: (2.57). His

cardinal position is: One given to detached activity is by far the

excellent human model (3.7).

 

He explains as well as extols again and again involvement in activity

without getting attached to the results, saying that such a pursuit will itself

be a full-fledged means for fetching the supreme gain (3.19). His comparison of

the activity of the Wise with that of an attached person, pointing out that

externally both will appear the same, strikes a stunningly revealing note

(3.25). He holds that detachment does not dampen or immobilize activity, instead

it makes the actions free and wholesome. Detachment primarily ensures inward

freedom and joy for the performer. The culture and refinement of detachment,

asangatva, is to be worked and gained at the mind and intelligence level.

 

In the 4th chapter Krishna again emphasizes that sanga is something to

be sternly abandoned, and only then one's activity will have the

right quality and potential (4.20). It is the impurity that works havoc in every

individual. Striving for purity is thus the first requirement for yoga pursuit

as well as true spiritual attainment (5.11).