Facing a crucial and important problem in life, or when in trouble and uncertain what to do, we consult professionals skilled in the problem at hand or talk to a friend who can help us in the right direction and on the path to the correct solution. The Bhagavad Gita, is a sacred religious book of the Hindus written thousands of years ago points out important lessons in ethics, morality and more importantly, on the love of God or devotion to the divine Spiritual Being. It is a conversation of the immortal soul, Arjuna to his friend and creator, Krishna, the spirit in man or God, on ways and means so that Arjuna can control and discipline his lower mortal and perishable vehicles, the body, emotion and mental faculties. The book explains in questions and answers form the effort of the immortal soul to gain mastery and control of his lower self, the body. In religion, we are told that man is body, soul, and spirit. The body comprises the physical part of man that make up the earth, water, fire, air, and ether. The soul is the immortal part of man, gaining lessons in the world of matter for accuracy and definiteness in material detail. The spirit is the guiding principle that is the spark of the divine flame, the son of the Father, the architect of the universe.
The scene of the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna is at the Kurukshestra plane. The plane is considered by the learned and wise as the physical, emotional, and mental bodies of man. This is the battlefield acquired by the result of action or karma and the thirst for life or tanha. Some believed the place is the present Delhi where two opposing camps of the Kurus and the Pandavas are about to engage in battle. (A diagram of the relationship of the two opposing camps is attached for reference) There are many personalities mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and the names of the persons are hard to pronounce and to remember particularly those who are not Hindus. It should not discourage those who wish to learn important lessons in life not to study the book. Just remember the two main camps, the Kurus that represents the lower vehicles of man that is the physical body, the emotional body, and the lower mental body. The Spiritual side, the Pandavas camp where Arjuna belong represents the immortal soul learning to control and discipline his lower vehicles with guidance and assistance from his Higher Spiritual Self, Krishna. It is worthy to note that the battle that happened thousands of years ago still happens now, and will continue to happen in each of us, within our own selves. The battle in our midst is the opposition from friends, and from all the habits man has acquired and also that which naturally arises from hereditary tendencies. Such will confront him and then it will depend upon how he listens to Krishna who is the Logos shinning within and speaking within whether he will succeed or fail. The book provides us a guide to learn how to be selfless and discriminate and align with the Higher Self in us, the true learner in the world of forms and matters and from the mortal and perishable lower self that is just the instruments of learning. The book also helps us to know right action consistent with our ray and temperament, poise and non-attachment to the fruit of action, and action benefiting cosmic welfare.
Let us in part select some important lessons from the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna that may be helpful to our problems at hand. More can be learned if one will study the book himself. It will certainly help quenched his spiritual thirst and enrich and elevate his total well-being to a higher state of consciousness.
I – THE DESPONDENCY OF ARJUNA
The Kurus, the material and the lower selves in man, led by Bhisma and King Dhritarashtra are preparing for battle against the Pandavas, the immortal and the spiritual nature in man. The army of Bhisma, the lower self in man is inadequate to fight against the army of Pandavas, the Higher Self or the Spiritual Self in man, where Arjuna belong, particularly so that Krishna is with them. Arjuna is unable to fight the Kurus especially after seeing that many of the fighters in the Kurus camp are his friends, relatives, uncles, cousins, tutors, sons, brothers, and bosom friends. Arjuna told Krishna that he cannot fight them even if the Kurus are willing to kill him. Arjuna told Krishna that although the Kurus are willing to fight the Pandavas, the Kurus may not be aware of the crime in killing so that they cannot be faulted for the desire for battle. Arjuna puts away his bow and arrows, his heart was overwhelmed with despondency. In other words, Arjuna, the soul is tentative or uncertain if he can control and discipline his lower self, the physical, emotional, and mental bodies. For a long long time Arjuna has been using the lower bodies to gain experiences and accuracy of details in the material world so he is uncertain of controlling or disciplining them.
II – DEVOTION THROUGH APPLICATION OF THE SPECULATIVE
DOCTRINES
Arjuna in tears, Krishna told him to stand up and abandon his unmanliness and weakness of heart. Arjuna told Krishna that it is better for him to beg for foods than to be murderer of preceptors and where his reverence to them is due. Arjuna cannot take possessions and wealth polluted with their blood. Arjuna asked Krishna for instruction since as a disciple it is his duty to obey, and he do not know whether to fight them or not.
Krishna told Arjuna not to lament and align his sentiments to those expounders of the letter of the law. The wise on spiritual things neither grieve for the dead nor for the living. Krishna said that He never was, nor he, nor all the princes of the earth; nor shall we ever hereafter cease to be. As the Lord of this mortal frame experiences infancy, youth, and old age, so in future incarnations will it meet the same. One who confirms this belief is not disturb by anything that come to pass. He endures the senses that are the producers of heat, cold, pleasure and pain. They all come and go and are brief and changeable. There is no existence that does not exist; nor non-existence that exist. Learn that He by whom all things were formed is incorruptible, and that no one is able to effect the destruction of THAT which is inexhaustible. These finite bodies, which envelope the souls inhabiting them, are said to belong to Him, the eternal, the indestructible, unprovable Spirit, who is in the body; therefore, Arjuna, resolve to fight. Death is certain to all things that are born, and rebirth to all mortals. Therefore, do not grieve that which is inevitable. The spirit can never be destroyed in the mortal frame that it inhabit, and therefore it is not worthy to be troubled by these mortals and perishable vehicles. Krishna encouraged Arjuna to perform his duty as a soldier regardless of result. If killed in battle, liberation will be his; and if successful the world is the reward. In the performance of duty, he will be free from karmic debt, or from sin.
Be steadfast and constant in all experiences in threading the spiritual path. Those who desire riches and enjoyment have not certainty of soul and least hold on meditation. The disciple must be free from the influences of the pair of opposites, seek the truth, light, or stay in sattva quality, free from worldly anxiety and the desire to preserve present possessions, free from self-centered and uncontrolled by object of mind and senses. Act because it is right, not for its result or reward. The motive of the action must be action itself, not in the event. Krishna further explained that one is on the spiritual path when he forsakes every desire that enters his heart and is happy and contented in the Self, his mind undisturbed in adversity and happy. He is stranger to anxiety, fear and anger. Krishna warns that senses and organs distract man aiming towards perfection. He told Arjuna to beware of passion, from passion anger, from anger to delusion, from delusion a loss of the memory, from the loss of memory loss of discrimination, then loss of all. He who abandons all desires, acts without covetousness, selfishness or pride, deeming himself neither actor nor possessor, attains to rest.
III – DEVOTION THROUGH THE RIGHT PERFORMANCE OF ACTION
Arjuna asked Krishna why he is being asked to fight the dreadful battle against Kurus, his lower selves. If there are many ways to engage in a fight, can Arjuna select one that is more pleasant and joyful. Krishna answered that there are those who follow the Sankhya, or speculative science, that is the exercise of reason in contemplation, the followers of the Yoga school. There are those in devotion follow the performance of action. Krishna asserted no one ever rest inactive in a moment. Every man is involuntarily urged to act by the qualities of his vehicles that spring from nature. The journey of the mortal frame cannot be accomplished by inaction. All actions performed other than as sacrifice to God make the actor bound by action or karma. Abandon all selfish motives and in action perform the duty for Him alone. If He will not act, all creatures in His world will perish. All creatures perform act according to their nature (Monadic ray). The ignorant performs the duties in life in hope for rewards, the wise performs duty to benefit mankind.
Arjuna asked Krishna why man seems to commit offenses against his will or is compelled by some secret force? Krishna answered that it is lust that instigate it resulting from the rajas quality of his nature. This rajas quality is the enemy of man in earth. As the flame is surrounded by smoke so the universe is surrounded by passion. Passion clouds discrimination and is the constant enemy of the wise man. Krishna urges Arjuna to restrain his senses to conquer sins that destroy knowledge of spiritual discernment.
IV – DEVOTION THROUGH SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE
Krishna informed Arjuna that He taught Vivaswat (sun), the Manu (reigning spirit in sensuous universe), Ikswaku (the founder of the Indian Solar Dynasty) the doctrine of yoga, the spiritual knowledge and they in turn taught royal sages of the same. Krishna like any others passed through many births knowing them all, unlike Arjuna who has yet to reach super human perfection to know too all his passed deaths and births. Krishna unborn, of changeless essence, and the Lord of all existence, yet in presiding over nature is born through His own maya (illusion), the mystic power of self-ideation, the eternal thought in the eternal mind. Krishna incarnates to rectify and establish righteousness when virtue decline and insurrection of vice and injustice prevail in the world. Action affects Him not, nor has He any expectations from the fruits of action. Krishna said that those who have spiritual discrimination are wise whose undertakings are all free from desire, for their actions are consumed in the fire of knowledge. A man is wise when he abandons the desire for reward of his action, is free, contented, and depends on nothing while engage in action. His mind and body are subdued and above enjoyment from objects and free from the influence of the pair of opposites, free from envy, and the same in success as in failure.
Krishna stated further that the sacrifice through spiritual knowledge is superior to sacrifice made with material things; every action without exception is comprehended in spiritual knowledge. Man must seek this wisdom by doing service, by strong search, by questions, and by humility. There is no purifier in this world that will equal and compared to spiritual knowledge. Even the greatest sinner when he embarks to search for spiritual knowledge will be saved. As the natural fire reduces fuel to ashes, so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes. The man who restrain the senses and organs and devote time to search for spiritual knowledge will soon reach peace and tranquility.
V - DEVOTION BY RENUNCIATION OF ACTION
Arjuna is confused since Krishna praised renunciation of action one time, and at other time, praised right performance. He asked which one of the two is better. Krishna responded that both are means to final emancipation but action is better than renunciation. Those who renounce action are free from the pair of opposites and therefore released from bonds forged by action. But to attain to true renunciation of action without devotion through action is difficult. Those devotees who engaged in the right practice of his duties approach the Supreme Spirit shorter and faster with no time wasted at all. The man of purified heart, having his body fully controlled, his senses restrained, and for whom the only self is the Self of all creatures, is not tainted although performing actions. The devotee who knows the divine truth think “I am doing nothing”, in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing; even when speaking, letting go or taking, opening or closing his eyes, he says, the senses and organs move by natural impulse to their appropriate objects. Whoever in acting dedicates his action to the Supreme Spirit and puts aside all selfish interest in their result is untouched by sin, even as the leaf of the lotus is unaffected by the waters The man who shut his placid soul away from all sense of touch, with gaze fixed between his brows; who make the breath to pass through both his nostrils with evenness alike in inspiration and expiration, whose senses and organs together with his hear and understanding are under control, and who sets his heart upon liberation and is ever free from desire and anger is emancipated from birth and death even in this life.
VI - DEVOTION BY MEANS OF SELF RESTRAINT
Krishna said that he who performed action without attachment performed right action. Such action without attachment is a step to right meditation. The man who has attained spiritual knowledge and discernment stands at the pinnacle, subdued his senses, considers gold and stone as the same is said to be devoted to his Higher Self. To purify his lower self, man should practice meditation with his mind fixed on one point, senses restraint, thought controlled, heart fixed to the Supreme, keeping his body, head, and neck firm and erect. This divine discipline is not attained by one who eat more than enough or too little, has the habit of sleeping too much, and has the habit of overwatching. When man centers his heart in the true Self and exempt from desires and attachment, he is said to have attained to yoga.
Arjuna expressed difficulty in meditation since the mind is full of agitation, turbulent, strong, obstinate and so hard to restrain. Krishna answered it is true the mind is restless and hard to restrain but it may be restrained. Practice and absence of desire are solution. The man of meditation is describe as superior to the man of penance and to the man of learning and also to the man of action. Resolve to become a man of meditation.
VII - DEVOTION BY SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT
Krishna advised Arjuna that by fixing his heart on Him in meditation, he will be able to completely know Him and knowing and learning Him, there is nothing else to be known. Earth, water, fire, air, and akasa, Manas, Buddhi, and Ahankara are the eightfold division of His nature. Yet it is inferior; that His superior nature is different and is the knower; by it the universe is sustained; learn that the whole of creation springs from this too as from a womb; He is the cause, the production and the dissolution of the whole universe. In all creatures, He is the life and the power of concentration in whose minds are on the Spirit. He is the disposition arising from the three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas. All that exist are in Him, but He is not in them.
VIII - THE OMNIPRESENT SPIRIT NAMED OM
Arjuna is unable to comprehend the meaning of Brahman, Adhyatma, Adhibhuta and Adhidaivata. He asked Krishna to explain and to teach him.
Krishna answered that Brahman the Supreme is the exhaustless. Adhyatma is the name of His being manifesting as the Individual Self. Karma is the emanation that causes the existence and reproduction of creatures. Karma is the action of the Supreme that is seen in manifestation throughout the evolution of the objective worlds. Adhibhuta is the Supreme Spirit dwelling in all elemental nature through the mysterious power of nature’s illusion. Adhidaivata is the Purusha, the Spiritual Person, and Adhiyajna is Krishna in this body. The man who in the hour of his death fixed in meditation on Him will go without doubt unto Him. Therefore, meditate on Him at all times. Man must meditate upon the Supreme Ruler, the smallest of the small, the Supporter of all, whose form is incomprehensible, bright as the sun beyond the darkness; with mind undeviating, united to devotion, and by the power of meditation concentrated at the hour of death, with his vital powers placed between the eyebrows, attain to the Supreme Divine Spirit.
Krishna explained further that he who close his mind in his heart, fixed his vital powers in his head, standing firm in meditation, repeating the monosyllable OM and continue while quitting the body, go to the supreme goal. All worlds up to that of Brahman are subject to rebirth again and again, but those who reach Him have no more rebirth. The collection of existing things completed, is dissolved at the approach of the night and again emanates spontaneously on the coming of the day. But there is that which is not dissolved; it is indivisible, indestructible, and of another nature from the visible called unmanifested and exhaustless named the supreme goal. Man having attained the goal never more return – it is Krishna’s supreme abode.
IX - THE KINGLY KNOWLEDGE AND THE KINGLY MYSTERY
Krishna said that all things in the universe are pervaded by Him in His invisible form. All things exist in Him, but He does not exist in them. He is the cause of things to exist and supporting them all, but dwelling not in them. Taking control of His own nature, He emanates again and again in the whole assemblage of beings, without their will, by the power of the prakriti (material) essence. These acts do not bind Him because He sits indifferent, uninterested in those work. By His supervision, nature produces the animate and inanimate universe. At the end of kalpa (duration in time), all things return unto His nature, and then again at the beginning of another kalpa, He causes them to evolve again. He is the father and the mother of the universe, the grandsire and the preserver. He is the Holy One, the object of knowledge, the mystic purifying syllable OM. He is the origin and the dissolution, the receptacle, the storehouse, and the eternal seed. Worshippers come to Him. He accepts and enjoys the offerings of the humble soul who in his worship with a pure heart offers a leaf, a flower, or fruit, or water to Him. He knows neither hate nor favor; but He said that those who serve Him with love dwell in Him and He in them.
X - THE UNIVERSAL DIVINE PERFECTIONS
Krishna told Arjuna that no one knows His divine origin, including the assemblage of Gods, Adepts, and the Adept Kings. They know Him to be the Ruler of the Universe, without birth or beginning. The subtle perception, spiritual knowledge, right judgment, patience, truth, self-mastery, pleasure and pain, prosperity and adversity, birth and death, danger and security, fear and equanimity, satisfaction, restraint of body and mind, all these various dispositions of creatures come from Him. In former days, the seven great Sages and the four Manus who are His nature were born of His mind and from Them sprang this world. Krishna is the Ego seated in the hearts of all beings; He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all existing things. Among the senses and organs, He is the manas, creature of existence. He that knows perfectly this permanence and mystic faculty of Him is without doubt possessed with unshaken faith.
Arjuna understood Him to be the Parabrahm, the supreme abode, the great purification, the eternal presence, the Divine Being, before all other Gods, holy, primeval, all pervading without beginning. The great Sages Narada, Asita, Devala, Vyasa (the author of the Mahabharata) say the same of Krishna. He is the knowledge of the Adhyatma (the Spirit), and of the uttered sounds the human speech. Among letters He is the vowel A and of all compound words, the Dwandwa, the endless time itself, the preserver whose face is turned on all sides. Krishna established this whole universe with a single portion of Himself, and remains separate.
XI - VISION OF THE DIVINE FORM AS INCLUDING ALL FORMS
Arjuna asked Krishna if it is possible to see His divine form and His inexhaustible Self. Krishna responded saying His forms are by the hundreds and by the thousands of diverse kinds, divine, of many shapes and fashions. As Arjuna’s eyes cannot see them all, Krishna provides him with divine eyes, power and might. Able now to see Krishna, Arjuna said that he can see Him on all sides, of infinite forms, having many arms, stomachs, mouths, and eyes. He can see the crowned with a diadem and armed with mace and charkas, a mass of splendor, darting light on all sides; difficult to behold, shining in every direction with light immeasurable, like the burning fire or glowing sun. Krishna told Arjuna His time had matured, now is the time of Arjuna to do what He did, to destroy the creatures, his lower selves and none of them shall live. Fight and conquer all the enemies.
XII - DEVOTION BY MEANS OF FAITH
Arjuna asked what is the better way to worship Krishna, to worship Him in the indivisible and unmanifested, or to serve Him as it is now. Krishna said that He regard in highest esteemed those that worshipped Him with constant zeal, with the highest faith, and minds placed on Him. Men with senses and organs restrained, and rejoicing in the good of all creatures, meditate on the inexhaustible, immovable, highest, incorruptible, difficult to contemplate, invisible, omnipresent, unthinkable, the witness, undemonstrable, shall also come unto Him. Devotees can find Krishna who worshipped Him, renouncing in Him all their actions, regarding Him as the supreme goal, and meditating on Him alone. If unable to find Him after constant practice, follow Him by actions performed in His behalf and he shall attain perfection. If still unable to find Him, place all the works, failures, and successes alike, on Him, abandoning in Him the fruit of every action. For knowledge is better than constant practice, meditation is superior to knowledge, renunciation of the fruit of action to meditation; final emancipation immediately results from such renunciation.
XIII - DISCRIMINATION OF KSHETRA FROM KSHETRAJNA
Krishna explained that the perishable body is kshetra, and the kshetrajna is the immortal soul. Whenever anything, whether animate or inanimate is produced, it is due to the union of the Kshetra and Kshetrajna. Know also that prakriti or nature, and purusha the spirit, are without beginning. And the passions and the three qualities are sprung from nature. Nature or prakriti is said to be that which operated in producing cause and effect in action. Individual spirit or purusha is said to be the cause of experiencing pain and pleasure. For spirit when invested with matter or prakriti experience the qualities that proceed from prakriti; its connection with these qualities is the cause of its rebirth in good and evil wombs. The knowledge attained through the soul is a realization of both the known and the knower and is wisdom. True spiritual wisdom is free from self-esteem, hypocrisy, and injury to others. It is patience, sincerity, firmness, respect for spiritual instructors, purity, self-restraint, dispassion for objects of sense, freedom from pride and meditation upon birth, death, decay, sickness, and error. Some men by meditation, using contemplation upon the Self, behold the kshetrajna (spirit) within, others attain to that end by philosophical study with its realization, and others by means of the religion of works. The Supreme Spirit when in the body, neither act nor is it affected by action because being without beginning and devoid of attributes, it is changeless. The Spirit though present in every kind of body is not attached to action nor affected. As a single sun illuminates the whole world, so does the One Spirit illumines every body.
XIV - SEPARATION FROM THE THREE QUALITIES
Upon attaining the superhuman perfection, sages are no longer affected by the three qualities of nature and are not disturb at the time of general destruction. The three qualities of nature are sattva, light or truth; rajas, passion or desire; and tamas, indifference or darkness The sattva quality by reason of its lucidity and peacefulness entwine the soul to rebirth through attachment to knowledge that is pleasant. The rajas quality, by the nature of passion and desire entwine the soul producing thirst and propensity for it. The tamas quality imprisoned the Ego in the body through heedless folly, sleep, and idleness. The sattva quality attaches the soul through happiness and pleasure, the rajas through action, and tamas quality surrounding the power of judgment with indifference attaches the soul through heedlessness. When wisdom, the bright light, shall become evident in the body, then one may know that the sattva quality is prevalent within. The rajas is prevalent when the love of gain, activity in action and the initiating of works, restlessness and inordinate desire are produced. Tamas predominates when there is absence of illumination, the presence of idleness, heedlessness, and delusion.
The fruit of righteous acts is called pure and holy, appertaining to sattva; from rajas is gathered the fruit in pain; and the tamas produce only senselessness, ignorance and indifference. From sattva wisdom is produced, from rajas desire, from tamas ignorance, delusion and folly. Those in whom the sattva quality is established mount on high, those who are full of rajas remain in the middle sphere, the world of men; while those who are by the gloomy quality of tamas sinks below.
XV - THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUPREME SPIRIT
Ashwattha, the eternal sacred tree is a symbol for the universe, which, although apparently destroyed and then again renovated, is never ending for it is the same as the Evolutionary Stream. It grows with its roots above and its branches below, and the leaves are the sacred teaching, the Vedas. Its branches grow out of the three qualities of nature, the sattva, the rajas, and the tamas. The objects of the senses are the lower shoots, spread forth, some above and some below; the roots that spread below in the regions of mankind are the connecting bonds of action. The place where the roots of ashwattha tree can be found is the sought after place by those who need not return for rebirth in this world. Those who are free from pride of self and whose discrimination is perfected, who have prevailed over the fault of attachment to action, who are constantly employed in devotion to meditation upon the Supreme Spirit, who have renounced desire and are free from the influence of the opposites known as pleasure and pain are free and proceed to that place which endure forever. Neither the sun nor the moon nor the fire lighten the place, from it there is no return; it is His supreme abode.
There are two kinds of beings in the world, the one divisible, the other indivisible; the divisible is all things and the creatures, the indivisible is called Kutastha, or he who stand on high unaffected. But there is another spirit designated as the Supreme Spirit – Paramatma – that permeates and sustains the three worlds.
XVI - DISCRIMINATING BETWEEN GODLIKE AND DEMONIACAL NATURE
Fearlessnes, sincerity, devotion, generosity, piety, self restraint, alm-givings, study, mortification and rectitude, harmlessness, veracity and freedom from anger, resignation, equanimity and not speaking of the faults of others, universal compassion, modesty, mildness; patience, power, fortitude, and purity, discretion, dignity, freedom from conceit, unrevengefulness – these are the marks of man with godlike character and virtue. Those who are born with demoniacal dispositions are marked by hypocrisy, pride, anger, presumption, harshness of speech, and ignorance. The destiny of those whose attributes are godlike is final liberation, while those of demoniacal dispositions, continued bondage to mortal birth. Fast bound by the hundred chords of desire, prone to lust and anger, they seek injustice and the accumulation of wealth for the gratification of their own lusts and appetites. The gates of earth-bound soul are three – desire, anger, and covetousness. These gates destroy the soul. Being free from these gates, a man works for the salvation of his soul and proceeds to the highest spiritual path.
XVII - THE THREE KINDS OF FAITH
Krishna said that the faith of mortals is of three kinds. It is the quality of sattva, truth; raja, action; and tamas, indifference. Those who have sattva quality worship the gods; those with rajas quality worship the celestial powers; those of tamas worship elementals power and the ghosts of dead men. Furthermore, those who practice severe self-mortification not enjoined in the Scriptures are full of hypocrisy and pride, longing for what is past and desiring for more to come. These men are full of delusion, torture the powers and faculties which are in the body, and also in the innermost recesses of the heart.
Food that increases the length of days, vigor and strength, that keeps one free from sickness, maintain tranquil mind, contented, nourishing and of permanent benefit and congenial to the body are of sattva quality. The food liked by those of rajas quality is bitter, too acid, excessively salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning. It causes unpleasantness, pain, and disease. Food that was dressed a day before, tasteless or rotting, and impure are preferred by men of tamas quality.
Gentle speech that causes no anxiety, truthful and friendly, and diligence in the reading of the Scriptures are said to be austerities of speech. Serenity of mind, mildness of temper, silence, self-restraint, absolute straightforwardness of conduct are those men of sattva quality. But if man practices austerity with hypocrisy for the sake of obtaining respect for oneself, or for fame or favor, and is uncertain and belong wholly to this world, it is of rajas quality. Those austerities that are practiced merely by wounding one-self or from a false judgment or for the hurting of another are of the quality of tamas.
Gift given at the proper time to the proper person and not desirous of a return are of sattva quality. But if gift is given with the expectation of a return from the beneficiary or with a view to spiritual benefit flowing therefrom, it is of rajas quality. Gift given out of place and season and to unworthy person without proper attention is of tamas quality.
XVIII - RENUNCIATION AS FINAL LIBERATION
Arjuna wants to know from Krishna the nature of abstaining from action and the giving up of the results of action and the difference between the two. Krishna answered the questions as follow:
1. Deeds of sacrifice, of mortification, and of charity are not to be abandoned, for they are proper to be performed, and are the purifiers of the wise. Those works are to be performed after renouncing all selfish interest in them and in their fruits.
2. The work that is performed because it is necessary, obligatory and proper with all self-interest therein put aside and attachment to the action is absent is of the quality of sattva. The doer who performs necessary actions unattached to their consequences and without love or hatred is of the nature of the quality of truth – sattva. The discerning power that knows how to begin and to renounce, what should and what should not be done, what is to be feared and what not, what holds fast and sets the soul free is of the sattva quality.
3. The abstention from necessary and obligatory work is improper. Not doing them is due to delusion springing from the quality of tamas. The doer who is ignorant, foolish, undertaking actions without ability, without discrimination, with sloth, deceit, obstinacy, mischievousness is of the quality of tamas. The discriminating power that is enveloped in obscurity, mistaking wrong for right and all things contrary to their true intent and meaning is of the dark quality of tamas.
4. The refraining from works because they are painful and from the dread of annoyance arise from the quality of rajas. The doer whose actions are performed with attachment to the result, with great exertion for the gratification of his lusts and with pride, covetous, unclean, and attended to with rejoicing and grieving is of the quality of rajas. The man who does not fully know what is to be done and what should not, what should be feared and what should not, is of the passion-born rajas quality.
5. Man finds it utterly difficult to abandon actions; but if he does give up the results of action, he is a true renouncer of action.
6. The three causes that incite to action are knowledge, the thing to be known, and the knower, and the threefold also is the totality of the action in the act, the instrument, and the agent. Knowledge, the act, and the agent are also distinguished in three ways according to the three qualities as above mentioned.
7. The performance of the duties of a man’s own particular calling, although devoid of excellence is better than doing the duty of another, however well performed and he who fulfills the duties obligated by nature does not incur sin.
8. Man attains the highest perfect freedom from action through the renunciation of all works with an unfettered mind and subdued heart.
The Bhagavad Gita depicts the attempt and the struggle of the soul to discipline and to control his lower vehicles of consciousness, the physical, the emotional, and the mental bodies and unite with him to the Higher Self, the monad, God. It is the effort to reach union with the divine or to reach human perfection. Digressing from the main theme of the story, it is worthy to note that the essence of the ancient teachings of the Bhagavad Gita is similar to the essence of the Christian Bible story of the prodigal son who realizing his true spiritual being questioned himself why he is eating foods fit for the swine and resolve to go back to the kingdom of his Father. The spiritual symbols depicting the story of Christmas or the second birth of man, the realization of his true spiritual nature, the Baptism, Transfiguration, Easter, and Ascension all depict the struggle of the soul to overcome the clout and veil of matters that he may reach freedom and human perfection. The Four Noble Truths taught by Lord Buddha and the Noble Eightfold Path towards perfection are also the teachings and lessons very much the same in essence as the teachings in the Bhagavad Gita and the Christian Bible. All these spiritual teachings we can simple call “The Ancient Wisdom”, the guide to spiritual human perfection.
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