Gita summaries - chp 14

 The 14^th chapter is also mainly mahavakya vichara, the discovery of jivatma-paramatma ikyam and qualifications needed to gain this knowledge and the benefit of this discovery. So here also we get three topics: jnanam, jnana yogyatha, jnana phallam. But Krishna approaches this chapter from a different angle. We saw in the last chapter that God is a mixture of consciousness principle, purusha and prakruthi, the inert matter principle. Both purusha and prakruthi are anadi. From that alone creation evolved. So we can say that the whole world is a product born out ishwara. So ishwara is karanam and world is karyam. There is a law; karnam gunah karyam anuvarthente. Whatever the characteristic of the karanam will inhere in the karyam also. If the ornament is made out of gold then the ornament will also be gold. If the gold has six percent copper then the ornament also will have six percent copper. This we see in regular life also; the qualities of the parents will inhere in the children. If God is the karanam then the jagat must have the features of prakruthi and the features of purusha. As we saw in the last chapter purusha is consciousness in the form of experiencer and prakruthi in the form of matter; both matter and consciousness are present in creation. In this chapter we will dwell on the three features of prakruthi and these are called “guna triyam”. Satva gunah, Rajo gunah, and tamo gunah. What is the guna of purusha? It is nirgunah or guna athithah. Since these three gunas are in prakruthi these will also be inherent in the creation. Even the five elements have got these three gunas, satva akasha is there, rajo akasha is there and tamo pradhana akansha is there; similarly for vayu, jala, agni and prithvi. Everywhere the three gunas inheres. The body which is the product of prakruthi has also these three gunas even the mind being a product of prakruthi has three gunas. Therefore the world is tri gunatmakam, body is tri gunatmakam, mind is tri gunatmakam. Every experience is trigunatmakam except the experiencer who is agunatmakam.

            The scriptures point out that these three gunas in prakruthi are responsible for our bondage, our samsara. Since they are responsible for our sufferings we have to study them carefully and know how to handle them. Like when there is a disease they try to isolate the bacteria or virus, like HIV. They do more and more research they can develop a vaccine. Interestingly the word “gunah” has another meaning; a rope or a string.  There are like three ropes iron rope, silver rope and golden rope. This 14^th chapter is primarily dedicated to the analysis of the triya gunas. We can divide this chapter into three topics:

a)      Guna triya vichara, the analysis of the three gunas and how they bind us, how their shackle us

b)      Guna thitatvam sadhana; how to come out from the bondage of the three gunas (transcending the three gunas)

c)      Guna thitatvam phallam; the benefit of transcending the gunas.

Guna triya vichara: Here Krishna analysis the three gunas from different angles. There are five topics. First is the definition of the guna (guna triya lakshnam). Satva guna is of the nature of tranquility, nirmalam, shantham. Rajo is karmatmakam; dynamism and activity. Positively put as dynamism and negatively as restlessness. Tamo guna is mohatmakam; of the nature of dullness which overpowers both tranquility and dynamism. It is the opposite of other two; dullness, inertia. We find these qualities – tranquility, dynamism, and dullness – in creation. Next topic is bandhana prakarah. How does each guna bind a person? What is the mode of binding? sattvaḿ sukhe sañjayati rajaḥ karmaṇi bhārata jñānam āvṛtya tu tamaḥ pramāde sañjayaty uta. Satva guna makes a person love tranquility and knowledge.  Love of tranquility is fine but it makes a person addicted to tranquility and knowledge that he always wants quietude. Incapacity to withstand noise is another. Love is a positive thing but addiction is not. A person high on satva guna loves dharma but he cannot withstand adharma; he becomes a cynic reading a newspaper. He will not do anything and his goodness itself becomes bondage. That is why Krishna says that to be liberated you must go beyond goodness also. If evil is a bondage, goodness also is another type of bondage. A satvik person is bound by his own morality. Rajo guna bondage is it whips a person into various activities. It makes a person workaholic and he cannot sit in one quietly for a few moment. For such a person Gita classes are impossible. More actions produces more karma phallam and more karma phallam produces more janmas and more janmas produces more karma; punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam. Rajo binds by increasing the activity. And tamo guna binds a person by causing negligence, error, carelessness, forgetfulness, incapacity to think, incapacity to discriminate, frustrations of ignorance etc. Then the next topic Krishna discusses is guna triya lingam. Lingam means “indications to know which guna is predominant”. The gunas are not pratyaksham (they are not visible on the face of a person) but they have to infer from the traits of a person. To infer you need to have some data, like smoke to infer fire. When Satva is predominant Krishna says knowledge and more grasping power is seen. A tranquil mind is a receptive mind and a receptive mind is a cognitive mind and a cognitive mind learns fast. He listens and grasps, he reads and grasps. When Rajo guna is predominant there is karma vritti. He will keep going on tours to increase business, diversify the business, open more branches, more on the air than on the ground. Pramatha or moha or nidra vritti is indication of tamo guna. Negligence, and oversight. You give him five tasks and three will be wrong. Either he is sleeping or he is sleepy. Then the fourth topic Krishna discusses is guna triya phallam. What is the consequence of increase of these three gunas? When satva increases jnanam will increase, when rajo increases karma will increase and when tamo increases the errors will increase. Then the fifth and final topic Krishna discusses is guna triya gathi. What will happen to a person after death? What kind of travel will he have? Gathi means “travel after death”. When a person with satva pradhana guna die he will go to higher lokas, when a person with tamo guna predominance dies he will go to lower lokas, and a person with rajo guna will neither go up or down but will be in the manushya loka. The point Krishna emphasis is that all the three gunas bind a person; only the nature of binding differs. Unless a person becomes guna thitah it is impossible for a person to get liberation. 

            The next topic is “how to become a guna thitah?” And what are the sadhanas to be practiced? The Sastra prescribes a gradual procedure and it is not an abrupt process. Our scriptures do not recommend revolutionary changes. We do not believe in crash programmes. Changes should only be evolutionary; look at nature. Everything is slow and gradual. A flower also blossoms gradually. Instant liberation is not possible like instant coffee or instant idlies. Do not believe anyone when someone promises instantaneous liberation. Many people in the beginning is tamo guna pradhana; a child sleeps all the time. It only wakes up for milk and sleeps. There is lack of activity and if at all any action they are instinctive and deliberate actions. Tamo guna pradhana individual is prakrutha purusha or animal man. He is untamed, wild, indecent, uncultured individual. So the sastras says that an inactive person must first be transformed to selfishly active person. All our advertisements are meant to give incentives to buy; Vedas prescribe a lot of kamya karmas. Tamo guna person is called guna shudrah. And Vedas wants to convert him to guna vaishya – I, ME and MYSELF mentality. I have earned it, and I want to possess it. Their minds can’t think beyond himself and his family only. Once you have been selfishly active; you have to progress to selflessly active stage. Sakama karma pradhana to nishkama pradhana karma; guna vaishya to guna kshthriya. Guna Kshthritya is highly active but all actions are for the benefit of society. You have been sufficiently active, now you to turn to quietude of mind. To study and understand one needs a quiet and tranquil mind. Sravanam, manamam, nidhidhyasanam needs a relaxed and contemplative mind. How do you travel from guna ksthriya to guna brahmana? Through upasana; dhyanam and meditation. Learn to withdraw the mind; an extrovert mind cannot learn Vedanta. A guna brahmana is satva pradhana individual. From inactivity to selfishly activity to selflessly active to contemplation. This is the journey. Guna shudra to guna vaishya to guna kshtriya to guna brahmana. If a person goes through the first four stages of bhakti discussed in chapter 12, he becomes fit for satva pradhana activity of contemplation. By birth he might be a chandala also but it does not matter; anyone can become guna brahmana through efforts. He can be a nandanar or dharmavyadha or kanappa nayanar but by guna there were guna brahmana. So to which community you are born to what profession you belong to; they don’t matter. What matters is one’s nature. Only this guna Brahmana is ready to become guna thitah; a guna shudra, vaishya, ksthritya can never become guna thitah. Only a guna brahmana can become guna thitah.

            The next question is “what should I do to become guna thitah?” How can I transcend the gunas. Saguna can never become nirguna. Saguna modified will become a different saguna. Saguna comes under prakruthi category; consciousness comes under purusha category. Matter can never become consciousness and consciousness can never become matter. Time-bound can never become timeless. Finite can never become infinite. Therefore saguna can never become nirguna; there is no corridor connecting these two. Then what should I do? There is only one way. nānyaḿ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraḿ yadā draṣṭānupaśyati guṇebhyaś ca paraḿ vetti mad-bhāvaḿ so ’dhigacchati. This is the mahavakya of this chapter. Jnanam is the only method of becoming guna thitah. Through these verses we come to know that the main theme of Bhagavad Gita is jnanam only. Only through jnanam a person gets liberation. Does that mean that karma yoga and upasana yoga are useless? They are not useless as they cannot give liberation but they prepare a person to come to jnanam. And knowledge gives liberation. Jnanam is main; karma and upasana are the limbs. Therefore a guna brahmana becomes guna thitah through jnanam. How can the saguna become nirguna? Through knowledge the body-mind complex continues to be finite; they will never become nirguna. The consciousness or athma will be nirguna and it will never become saguna. Then what happens in jnanam? Before knowledge I claimed myself as saguna, body-mind complex. I had identified with body-mind complex and if the body-mind is saguna then I will also claim myself as saguna. When I identify with something then the problems there will become my problems. Like when you buy a new car, you don’t want a single scratch. They will not like any person to stand even near their car? Or a person to lean to a newly painted room? They will fear that oil in the head would leave a mark on the wall. They take the impurity of the car or the wall as their impurity. So if I have identified with saguna body then the impurities of the body becomes my impurity. So I will say I am guna shudra or vaishya or kshtriya or brahmana. Even the abhimanam (identification) with a Brahmana body is a shackle, an impediment. Somebody will not even chant Gayatri mantra properly but he will take pride in being in brahmana! When I srudy the scriptures and gain knowledge what do I gain? I dissociate myself for the shariram and I learn to look upon the body as object of knowledge, the mind as object of knowledge. I am not the saguna shariram or saguna manana but I am witness consciousness, chaitanyam and beyond the satva or rajo or tamo gunas. Aham guna thitah chaitanyam asmi. I have not changed anything but I have changed my identification. This shifting to identification from prakruthi to purusha is becoming guna thitah.

            I give this story generally. There were two individuals who had to cross a river where stood a dilapidated house. One person who owned it kept on complaining about it. Every day they crossed the house the other person would crib. One day there was no grumble and other person enquired. He was told,” I have sold the house.” Which means those issues no longer bothers him now; the house has become some other person’s headache now. As long as identify with the body I was complaining about the shape of my nose, or presence of white hair. After gaining self-knowledge I no longer crib as I have shifted my identification to the eternal chaitanyam or purusha. I understand clearly that body-mind has come from God and it will go back to God and I am only a trustee. And who am I? Knowledge makes me own up my eternal nature. So jnanam is the fifth stage of bhakti. That is why we don’t have a single advice for everyone; it depends on the level of the sadhaka. If a person is guna brahmana knowledge alone is sufficient otherwise he has to become selfishly active, then selflessly active and become contemplative before this knowledge can transform him. To an inactive person don’t prescribe meditation! But nowadays unfortunately many institutions are coming up teaching meditation! Even in the Gita meditation comes in chapter -6 and not before. Even in Patanjali yoga sutra dhyana comes after yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara and dharana. Travel from karma yoga to upasana to jnanam and the teaching will be beneficial to you. Every guna thitah must necessarily be a jnani because jnanam is the final stage of liberation. Since all the stages are called bhakti yoga a person must have gone through all the five steps of bhakti that we saw in Chapter -12. So we have three identical names: guna thitah, sthithaprajna, para bhaktah.

            Now we will come to the final topic; what is the benefit of becoming a guna thitah?  Krishna talks about the glories, vibhutis of guna thitah in the few verses. What are the indications of a person who is guna thitah? How does such a person behave in the world? Which means a guna thitah person continues to exist in this world after gaining this knowledge; otherwise no one will come to this knowledge. This was discussed in chapter-12 also and I am going to select a few virtues of a jnani from both chapter-12 and chapter-14 so that I have covered both. For a jnani – also called guna thitah, sthitaprajna, para bhakta – all the virtues are spontaneous. What should a sadhaka do? All the spontaneous virtues in a jnani must be deliberately practiced by a ajnani as a sadhana. Jnani’s lakshana will be a sadhak’s sadhana. Every Gita student must keep a list of virtues given at the end of 10, 12, and 14 chapters. Without these virtues in an individual Vedanta will not give any benefit at all. The second factor why we study the glories of a jnani is it will act as an incentive to the sadhakas. I will see how his life is so free, happy and I will have a desire to become that. A jnani will become a role-model.

            The first virtue I will select is from chp-12 – adveshta sarvabhutanam. A jnani is one who does not hate anyone. One of the most difficult sadhanas to practice is getting rid of hatred. In our scriptures there is no such thing as legitimate hatred; every kind of hatred is just as bad. Every Vedantic seeker must realize they must get rid of this hating tendency.  Why? The sastras says that every person is innately a saintly person, a noble person, a lovable person. There is no being worth hate worthy. Though a person may innately be noble, one can complain that I have problems with their behavior and actions. Scriptures say that even the improper action of a person does not deserve hatred. Vedanta says by hatred a person’s behavior cannot be changed or improved. Hatred never works, on the other hand hatred harms the hater than the hated. It is like carrying acid in the heart; acid destroys the container. The first victim of hatred is the hater only not the other person. Don’t hate anyone, sarvabhutanam. Let’s assume that I don’t have any control or say over the other person’s behavior; like the boss or father-in-law, wife etc. Then ask whether you are the victim of that boorish or gross behavior? And if you are the victim, is there any possibility of avoidance? If it is your boss, should you shift to another job?. Troublesome neighbor; should I shift to a new locality? If you cannot escape this is the worst scenario – I cannot change the behavior, I am the victim and I cannot escape. Then, can I hate Swamiji? The sastra says “suffer”. Even in this worst scenario do not hate the person. Then what can I do? Pray. O Lord, please change the behavior of that person. If a person behavior affects others or not, it affects that person definitely. If a person is very angry it may affect everyone around but that anger affects that person the most. So that person is also suffering. He is also a victim of his behavior, so I may pray: O Lord improve the attitude of that person. And until that change of behavior happens, O Lord give me the strength to withstand that terrible behavior. I am taking it as an experience you are giving me to purify. Lord brings people to water not to drown them but for cleansing. We think it is drowning and lose our faith on God. Instead I say: God is giving me this experience for polishing me; for polishing HE needs a rough surface. Bhagawan gives all these choiceless situations only to improve me. So in any case don’t hate anyone, and for a jnani adveshta is a natural trait.

            From the 14^th chapter I will take this value; sarvatra sama bhudhi, tranquility of mind. It is not possible to have only favourable situations in life; it is always a mixture of both. If the road is rough what do you do? Have a shock-absorber to your car. Strengthen your mind initially through devotion and later strengthen your mind through knowledge. Initially strength from the Lord and later you discover strengthen within yourself. Learn to keep the mind tranquil; for a seeker tranquility is a sadhana while for a jnani it is a alankara. This samatvam and freedom from hatred is the benefit of this jnanam or guna thitatvam. This alone is liberation, moksha, jivan mukti.