Gita Summaries - chp 2 (Part two)

The second chapter deals on 4 topics: Saranagati (Arjuna’s surrender); Karma yoga, Gnana yoga, Mukti. In the first part of the summary to this chapter I discussed Arjuna saranagati and Karma yoga. Today I plan to discuss jnana yoga and muktihi.

            But before going into them I wish to add a few points on karma yoga. The word “yoga” in karma yoga means “Samathvam” or “maintenance of equanimity”. The mind loses its equanimity for fear or “anxiety over the future”. The only way forward is for the mind to be prepared to face any kind of future. This mental strength can be developed through devotion to the Lord.  Or the mental equanimity may be disturbed when we are not able to accept certain choiceless situations in the present. Here again the mind must be strengthened to accept present unavoidable situations. This acceptance is also possible through mental strength through devotion of the Lord. Yesterday someone came to me and said,” Swamiji you only said but the future and the present. Nothing about the past for it often disturbs my equanimity.” Regarding the past also I have the same answer as the past comes under choiceless painful situation. The past is gone and there is no way of changing the past. Therefore I have to accept my past and if I don’t have the strength to accept the past then I have to derive strength from the Lord and openly declare,” I have no regret.” We can learn from the past but brooding or regretting or worrying over the past disturbs the mind in the present.  So learn towards past “acceptance” and with regards to present also “acceptance” and with regard to future “preparedness” – all these can be gained through devotion.

            I wish to add one more point regarding karma yoga. Shankaracharya adds one more element in his commentary on karma yoga which he called “samadi yoga” on verse -39. He adds Astaga Yoga of Patanjali along with karma yoga. The aim of Astaga yoga is to balance the extrovertedness of the mind because a karma yogi is involved in action. Ultimately I have to come to myself to discover my true nature and an extrovert mind cannot get into self-enquiry. So along with karma yoga we add Astaga yoga so that mind can develop introspection. In the scriptures also various Upasanas are prescribed that are meant for mental withdrawal. Not only should the mind learn to go outside but it should also learn to withdraw inside from external objects and actions. The mind should learn to be comfortable with people and also be comfortable without people; comfortable doing actions and comfortable not doing any action. So karma yoga is balanced with samadi yoga which will later help the spiritual aspirant when he is ready to enter jnana yoga. Even the daily Sandhyavandanam is meant for such a training only; early in the morning he learns to be with himself and after a busy day he learns to withdraw into himself in the evening.

            Then what is the culmination of karma yoga? What is the final benefit expected through karma yoga (KY hereafter). Otherwise people will ask the question, how long should I remain in KY and when am I fit to enter jnana yoga (JY hereafter). Karma yoga should make a person jnana yoga yogyatha; makes a person fit for self-enquiry.

            What is the fitness required to embark on JY? Like the fitness needed to join the army; certain height, weight, chest measurements etc. Or what is the fitness to join IIT? Or fitness to join Sanskrit college as a student?  For all these certain qualifications are needed and similarly what are the qualifications to enter JY through KY. The fitness is four fold which is well known in the sastras as “Sandhana Chatushtaya Sampathi” where Krishna hints in this chapter. yadā te moha-kalilaṁ buddhir vyatitariṣyati tadā gantāsi nirvedaṁ śrotavyasya śrutasya ca. What are those qualifications?

            a) Discrimination is the capacity to differentiate between what is bondage and what is freedom; between what is dependence and what is independence. If this discrimination is not there then we will not have proper priorities in life. We will go on from one dependence to another dependence or keep increasing the number of dependences. In the name of technology we are increasing the number of dependences in our life. Earlier lack of a few things could make us unhappy but now lack of many things makes us unhappy.  When we have many possessions we call it success but Vedanta says: if you need more things to be happy, or dependent on many things for your happiness, then you have become weaker.  Greater the dependence the weaker a person is. So what a materialistic person says “success” our scriptures say is a “failure” for he has travelled from dependences to more dependences. Therefore we don’t even know how to discriminate between success and failure. Discrimination is to understand the priority and the priority is: I must depend on myself more and more and less and less on outside people, situations and objects. I may use different objects and it is different from depending on them. And if a person has this discrimination then he has got nitya-anitya vastu viveka or banda-mukti viveka. Once this discrimination the second step is a natural consequence and that is dispassion.

b) Dispassion: Dispassion is not leaning on things. Because I learn more and more that I should not depend on people or situations for if I lean on them I am going to become more bound. When I lean on anything for my happiness, when it goes away then I fall. Therefore giving up dependences and giving up leanings is dispassion or vairagyam; it is not hatred but giving up leaning.

c) Discipline: The third qualification is discipline. For whatever activity we undertake, we only have these tools of body-mind-intellect as instruments either to achieve material success or spiritual success. Since these are the instruments I have, I have to keep them in fit condition just like before any music concert what do the musicians do. They will keep on adjusting the tambura, violinist will keep on adjusting the tension of the strings and the mrudhagam player will be knocking. The body-mind complex are just tools and I must learn to discipline them. The body must be kept fit, and the body should not be an impediment. Sense organs must obey me and not drag me everywhere. I should not have an emotionally weak mind; I should learn to experience emotions but I should not be carried away or be overwhelmed by emotions. The intellectual discipline is the capacity to logically think, have language skills to understand the scriptures. So discipline at these levels is essential: physical, senses, emotional and intellectual. This fourfold discipline is the third qualification.

d) Desire: The desire for freedom is “mumukhistvtam”. There are so many people who are addicted to people and objects that they don’t want freedom. You talk to a smoker to quit and give all the scientific reasons and cause of early death, he will say,” I don’t mind dying.” A person said,” I was reading a book that kept talking on evils of smoking. And so I gave up? What? I gave up reading!” Once addiction comes it will justify the weakness. Similarly there are a lot of people who are slaves of people and objects and they are happy about their slavery. And they proudly claim,” I would like to be a dasa.”  Our scriptures say: all the best and continue to be a samsari. But they warn that when you suffer a loss of people or thing, don’t cry and complain that the Lord has no eyes or has no ears. The scriptures have always warned that dependence will lead to sorrow. And if I have sincere desire for independence or freedom then it is called “thrivra mumukhsthvam”.

            Once a person has gained these fourfold qualifications at least to some extent then jnana yoga yogyatha has come and he is ready for entering jnana yoga. Now I will enter into jnana yoga (JY) topic. The purpose JY is the discovery of Self-dependence or Independence. I should discovery security in myself; I should discover happiness in myself without requiring artha, kama, and dharma from outside. In fact I should discover artha, kama, and dharma in myself. What the scriptures say is this: we have got a lower nature and we have got a higher nature. Para Prakruthi and Apara Prakruthi. And now we are functioning only at the lower level and from the perspective of the lower level which we call “Ahankara” or “jivatma” and we are bound and we are dependent, and we are miserable. It makes me “kartha” and “Bogtha”.What the scriptures wants us to discover our higher nature, para prakruthi. Depending or discovering on which we need not seek security or purnatvam outside. Therefore JY is discovering our true selves. We know self with small s what we write in the bank cheque. That is the miserable self and having one or two lacs in the savings account. Here we are talking of a different Self with a capital S. How to discover this? For this I will discuss two fundamental concepts on which we can enter into analysis.

The first principle is: I the experiencer and am a conscious being different from whatever I experience. This is the foundation of Vedanta. The Experiencer is always different from the experienced. Subject is always different from the object. This is a simple law which we experience in our day to day life. This eye can see every object in the world. I can see every one of you in the hall; I can read every word in the book. My eyes can see everything except itself. With the tip of the finger you can touch anything in the world but it cannot touch itself. I will give you a modern example. Your phone can call any number except one number which is itself. Even with the imported phone or the costliest phone you cannot get this number. Therefore the subject is never subject to objectification. The subject cannot become object and the object cannot become the subject. The subject is ever the subject and the object is ever the object. Therefore, the experiencer is always different and distinct from the experienced.

            By applying the first principle we can derive many corollaries which is whatever I experience that I am not:

            a) The whole world is experienced by me. Therefore, I am not the world. The world is an experienced object. We will have no difficulty understanding this and everyone will nod the head. I understand this clearly; I am not the book, I am not the pen, I am not this desk. This everyone knows and we will extend this further. For those we are new to Vedanta the following would be difficult to accept. My submission is if you don’t accept it now but don’t reject it also instead keep it pending for a while. You will accept it one day or the other.

b) My body is also experienced by me as much as the world. As clearly as I objectify the world, as clearly as I experience the world, I am experiencing this body also. So Vedanta concludes that I am different from the body I experience. Modern Science itself says that the body is made up of matter. According to our scriptures also, the world is made up of five elements and so is the body. Air, fire, water, space and of course lot of earth is there! The body is born out of the elements, sustained by the elements and resolves into them at the time of death. Body is just like a wave in the water of ocean. Just as a world is an experience-able object so too is the body which is an experience-able object. How do you experience the body? You feel numb sitting down on the floor a long time; your body feels hunger etc. So if the world is not me then certainly the body is not me. The first casualty is the dearly held body.  This body to which you take so much trouble to slim down, go to a gym or beauty parlour and pampering it all the time, Swamiji you have dismissed in one sentence! That is why I am saying don’t reject this notion straightaway but keep it pending for a while. Next is the mind it is even more difficult to accept.

c) Vedanta applies the same law to the mind; whatever I experience that I am not. Mind is also something you experience all the time. That is why you say,” Today my mind is calm and I understood the class. Yesterday it was too agitated and it did not follow a thing. So, you can have a confused mind, determined mind, ignorant mind, understanding mind, rejecting mind, accepting mind etc. It is not that I know the mind but it is that I alone know my mind, nobody else knows. Since your mind itself is changing so fast, you always end cribbing, “no one understands me”!!! Therefore mind is an object of experience and as much a part of the world as any other object. This is also scientifically provable that mind is subtle form of matter. That is why when the mind is OFF they give an electric shock which is energy or they give some drugs if you are depressed etc. This indicates that the mind is another form of matter and influence-able by outside matter including food. Applying the first principle we dismiss the mind also as an object different from me. So after the study of Vedanta the body is included in the world, the mind is also included in the world; I am different from both body and mind and I am making use of them. For a wise man the body is a medium just like a spectacle. For instance: Is spectacles a part of me or not? Is it a subject or an object? It is so close to me that I almost mistake it to be a part of me. For a wise man the body is a temporary shell, temporary medium and used for a few years and to be lost after some time. The body is a rented residence. Only difference is that the number of years of lease is not known. It is brought from punyam or paapam as the case may be. For a wise man the mind is also a temporary medium of use. In fact we keep both this mediums off and on. Do you know when we keep the body and mind aside?  In sleep I am very much there but I am not using the media of body or mind. Therefore I don’t experience the world in sleep. In the morning you wake up, take the media and experience the world by having bed coffee!  By taking the first law we discover I am not the body and the mind, then who am I? I am the conscious principle different from the body-mind complex. What is my nature? Let us explore law 2 on which we have to build up further.  What is my nature is what I have to find out?

The second principle: All the experienced attributes or properties belong to the experienced objects and never to the subject, the experiencer. For example: Take this cloth in front. Then you are experiencing its attributes. It is of orange colour, it is this thick, and it is a cotton cloth. The colour, material, thickness are all attributes belonging to the object (the cloth) and not to me (the experiencer or subject). You never say,” I am orange colour.” So any property you experience it always belongs to the object of that experience; its attributes don’t belong to you. And if you don’t experience, then you won’t know about it. So any property you experience you know it belongs to experienced object. So the corollary is that the experiencer does not have any property. In fact, you are free from any attributes. You are the “subject” and “nirgunah” (free from attributes). My body is an object and it has its own attributes. The mind is an object and it has got its own attributes. The world is an object and it has got its own attributes. All the experienced attributes or properties either belong to the world, or to the body, or to the mind. None of them belong to “I” the experiencer. Therefore aham nirgunah asmi. Once we have come to the nirgunah “I” then we can draw many corollaries:

a) Every object in this world has got a “time” location or a “time limitation”, like it existed from 1930 to 1990. Before that object was not there and after that the time period the object was dissolved. People are born on a certain date and time at a certain date. Applying the second principle the time location belongs to the object and not to me, the experiencer. I am free from the property of time location. Who am I? I am not the body or the mind (the objects) but the conscious experiencer principle. I am not bound by kalah; I am timeless, free from “time” location. So naturally I am free from birth, I am free from growth, I am free from decay, and I am free from death; as all these are caused by time alone – birth, growth, decay, death are all caused in time. Every object located in time has all these stages. I, who is not located in time, is free from all of them.

b) Any object located in “time” is either a cause or an effect. And if I am not located in time then I am NOT the cause (Kartha) nor the effect (Bogktha); neither karyam nor karanam etc.

c) Just as every object has time location as its property; it has space location has another property. Any object and you’ll ask: where is it? Where (space) and when (time) are frequently enquired in any conversation. If I say,” Gita class”; you will ask,” Swamiji where and when.”  The second property is space location and since I am free from all property I am free from space location also. Therefore I am not bound my space. If I am not bound by space then I can say I am all-pervading; I am undivided; I am one (for how many all-pervading things are possible? Only one is possible). A thing which is all-pervading is motionless (it cannot move) and therefore I am free from any kind of action for action requires motion. So I am akartha etc. Krishna says; nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur acalo ’yaṁ sanātanaḥ. The athma is our true self is ETERNAL, it is ALL-PERVADING, it is CHANGELESS, it is MOTIONLESS. ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇona hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. You are free for birth, growth, decay, death. Even when the body is destroyed, you the higher self is not destroyed. Once a person discovers this athma as “aham” this knowledge alone we call as “Aham brahman asmi”or the knowledge of purnatvam or fullness.  

Once a person discover I am BRAHMAN; the eternal ATHMA then he realizes he is only using the body/mind complex temporarily. He is not worried about death; not worried about separation because he knows that the body is a temporary medium (it has to come and then after sometime it has to go away). dehī nityam avadhyo ’yaṁ dehe sarvasya bhārata tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi. Your sorrow is not because of arrival or departure of the body, but your sorrow is because you identify with your body. You cannot accept your mortality but you accept everyone else’s! So death itself is not the cause for sorrow but “I am mortal” is the problem. All my sorrows are because of identification with this body/mind complex. But once I know I am not the body-mind then I don’t have this sorrow or problem of mortality. I don’t have to worry about “after death travel” once I clearly understand I am the all-pervading athma. Therefore I am sat-chit-ananda swarupa or brahma swarupah. This is the essence of jnana yoga.

There are three stages of sadhana to acquiring or grasping this knowledge: Shravanam, Mananam, and Nidhidyasanam.

Shravanam is learning under a guru and applying these two principles. Arriving at “I am the purna athma” is the purpose of learning and using a teacher for guidance is shravanam. Every Upanishad discuss about “athma vidya” or “athma jnanam” only.  Krishna gives a bird’s eye-view of jnana yoga in this second chapter which HE will elaborate later in the following chapters. The second chapter is only a trailer. Consistent and Systematic study of scriptures under the guidance of a competent Acharya.

Mananam is the second stage of learning for the removal of any doubts that we may get when we study the teaching. There might be doubts that will not allow us to accept this teaching. If I say that you are all-pervading then you will ask me,” Swamiji, are you alright?” Swamiji, I am sitting on a chair and I am not even hall-pervading. So your rational intellect, it is an educated intellect, and it will ask umpteen questions; remember Vedanta is not a matter of belief but a subject for understanding. That is the difference between ritualistic portion and Vedantic portion. In karmakanda every ritual is a matter of belief; do this humam or ahuti and there is no rational explanation given. You just have to perform them without questions like a shardam etc. But Vedanta is a matter of understanding and if there is even the smallest of doubts it is not knowledge and it will not benefit me. It is like one mosquito in the net and that is enough to disturb the sleep. So manamam is the stage of raising questions and getting answers from the guru. Vedanta is not afraid of logic or is it afraid of Science.  

 Nidhi Dyasanam is the third stage of learning which assimilation of the teaching and making it part of my life. This knowledge must be available to be when I grow old and when I have fear of death or when I suffer loss of money etc. If I am not to be afraid of mortality, that is only possible through this knowledge, “Aham purnah asmi”. This assimilation is for the purpose of making this knowledge useful for me is nidhidyasanam. Through shravanam, mananam and nidhidyasanam a person becomes a jeevan mukta. The uniqueness of Gita teaching is it promises liberation here and now, in this life itself. WE don’t promise freedom after death as other religions proffer; it is here and now. If Vedanta does not work then you can throw it away, it is a challenge given by our scriptures.

When Krishna tempts Arjuna with a “jeevan mukta” then Arjuna becomes curious about such a person. He asks,” How does a free person look like? How will be walk? How will he talk?  As Arjuna thinks a liberated person will have physical challenges. We also see some pictures of jnani and they show a halo behind his face. Then we look at the mirror is something is happening behind our head…..laughter. Understand clearly that no halo will come and if you see something then go to an eye doctor.  The halo is only a symbolic representation. Body will remain as body and hunger will remain as hunger and thirst will remain as thirst. Don’t think after you become a realized person you will see some special objects all around. There is no change in the physical body, there is no change in the world and everything will remain the same but this response to different situations in life will be different. There will be no differences in experiences also. Even jnanis will face different kinds of people, some may even criticize and some glorifying etc. A jnani or jeevan mukta still has no control as to the situations he will encounter but in any circumstances he will not lose his “samathvam” or “equanimity”. A jnani is happy in himself. To be happy and complete in myself then I don’t need anything. Not that he hates anything but he is comfortable in every situation. So all this spiritual discipline is only to CHANGE YOUR RESPONSES and not change the situations. He realizes that he needs nothing to be happy for he is “purnah” himself. Let people/things be around, I will be fine. Let them not be there, I am fine too. Let conducive situation be there, I am fine and let unconducive situation be there then also I am fine. Because of this athma jnanam he is free from raga, dvesha, bhaya, kroda. In the first chapter we saw that samsara is due to raga -shokha-moha. Once there is attachment (Raga) there is a constant fear of losing. So each time you get a telegram you are scared or when family member come late from office you are scared and think of the worst possibility of accident or injury. Even when everything is fine you have fear that someone will keep “dhristi” or evil eye. And whether you like it or not we have to lose that object of attachment someday through death. Then I become “kroda” anger with the person or situation that caused the separation. That is why some people turn atheist when they lose a loved family member. Like,” I went to the temple daily and I did all the pujas and why should God inflict this tragedy on me.” So as long as attachment is there, there will be fear. And when there is no attachment there will no fear; and hence no anger. There is no sadness also as I was happy with the object and also happy without the object for I have discovered happiness in myself. Imagine if I enjoy such a mind then no one can blackmail me and no situation will disturb me.

Krishna gives two examples to show the difference between a wise and free man and an ignorant and bound person. They are like day and night. yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni sā niśā paśyato muneḥ. Though both of look the same, eat the same and walk the same; there is a huge difference. An ignorant person is a slave of the world while the wise person is a Swami. That is why they call a sanyasa Swami so and so Ananda; only a master can have ananda at all times. The opposite of Swami is aasami in Tamil (laughter). You need write dukham to their names for their very face is full of sorrow. Swami has a blooming face while aasami has a gloomy face. Krishna gives the lecture with a smiling face while Arjuna’s face is full of sorrow (samsari).

The second example Krishna gives is āpūryamāṇam acala-pratiṣṭhaṁ samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśanti sarve sa śāntim āpnoti na kāma-kāmī. A wise person is compared to an ocean and a samsari is compared to a pond. An ocean is ever full and does not depend upon the rivers and the rains. While in the case of a pond a little flood and the banks are broken. Little rains and the pond dries up. A wise person like an ocean, let different experiences come and go but they don’t affect him. Let some people criticize or throw stone, he is not affected. Neither is he affected with praise etc while an ignorant person is at the top of the ceiling one moment and the next moment he is flat on the ground. He is so helpless as favourable situations and unfavourable situations toss him around between happiness and sorrow. A person can become wise in two stages: first karma yoga and then jnana yoga. If a person follows these two then he too can become a jeevan mukti.

These are the four topics of this chapter – Arjuna saranagati is from verse-1 to verse-10, jnana yoga is from v-11 to v-38, karma yoga is from v-39 to v-53 and mukti is from v-54 to v-72. Thus the entire essence of the Gita is given in the second chapter and since jnana yoga is the central theme of this chapter the chapter is titled “Sankhya yoga” which is another name for jnana yoga.