The Blessed Lord said: 1. I taught this Imperishable YOGA to Vivasvan; Vivasvan taught it to Manu; Manu taught it to

Ikshvaku.

As we said in our introduction to this chapter, the Lord is making an open statement, that what He had been saying so far was nothing other than an intelligent reiteration of what is the content of the immortal Vedas. Inspired by a Divine remembrance, the Lord declares that He Himself, at the very beginning of creation, imparted the Knowledge of the Vedas to the Sun, and later on, the Sun-god conveyed it to his son, Manu, the ancient law-giver of India. Manu, in his turn, declared it to Ikshvaku, the ancestor of the Solar-dynasty that ruled over Ayodhya for a long period of time. The word "Veda" is derived from the root Vid, "to know"; Veda, therefore, means 'Knowledge.' The 'Knowledge' of divinity lurking in man and the technique by which it can be brought out to full manifestation are the theme of the Veda text-books, and the Truth of this theme is eternal. Just as we can say that electricity is eternal, as there was electricity even before the first scientist discovered it, and electrical energy will not be exhausted because of our forgetfulness of its existence, so too the divine nature of man will never be destroyed because of our non-assertion of it. The knowledge of the divine content and its possibilities in man are indeed eternal. The creation of the universe, it is accepted even by modern science, must have started with the Sun. As the source of all energy, the Sun was the first of the created objects, and with its very creation, this Great Knowledge of the Self was given out to the world. The theme of Vedic literature being the subjective divinity, language fails to express it completely. No deep experience can be exhaustively expressed in words. Therefore a study of the scriptures by one's own self is apt to create misunderstandings in the mind of the student, rather than a right appreciation of it. Thus it is a time- honoured tradition in India that spiritual lessons are directly heard from a true Master, who has vivid inner experiences in the realm of the Spirit. It has been handed down from Master to disciple and we have been given here the identity of the earliest students of Brahma-Vidya.

2. This knowledge, handed down thus in regular succession, the royal sages knew. This YOGA, by long lapse of time, has been lost here, O Parantapa (burner of the foes) .

This Yoga, the Yoga in which the Vedic teachings regarding activity

(Pravritti) and retirement (Nivritti) are comprehended, thus handed down in regular succession among the "Royal sages," has its own destinies. At certain periods of history, this Knowledge seems to be readily available for the service of mankind, but at certain other periods of history it falls into disuse and becomes, as it were defunct. The golden era of spirituality dies down to inaugurate the dark ages of undivine life. At such periods of monstrous materialism, the generation is not left in neglect to suffer and groan under its own negative values. For, at that time, some great master appears on the horizon to inspire, to encourage and to lead the generation away from the ruts of sorrow onto the highroads of cultural revival. Krishna rightly evaluates the period of the Mahabharata and declares: "THIS YOGA, BY LONG LAPSE OF TIME, HAS BEEN LOST HERE." SEEING THAT THE "YOGA" HAD BEEN LOST BY FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF THE WEAK, WHO COULD NOT CONTROL THEIR SENSES, AND SEEING THAT THE GENERATION HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO ATTAIN THE OBJECT OF LIFE, THE LORD ADDS THE FOLLOWING:

3. That same ancient "YOGA" has been to-day taught to you by Me, for you are My devotee and My friend. This is a Supreme secret. With a direct statement in the style of an open confession, Krishna is here removing all possible misgivings of the orthodox, by insisting that the Truth he has declared in the last chapter... Karma Yoga... is nothing other than the same ancient Yoga. A Master can feel really inspired and instruct efficiently, only when he establishes a certain type of affectionate rapport with the students. Krishna finds that his friend Arjuna is fully devoted to Him, and that he will certainly follow the "Path" indicated by Him. The relationship between teacher and taught should not be a mere commercial arrangement of "you-pay-and-I-teach." Mind and intellect blossom forth only in a warmer climate of love and freedom, friendship and mutual understanding. These qualities required for a healthy transference of the subjective knowledge were found in full measure in Arjuna and therefore, Krishna says 'I taught you' this Yoga in the earlier chapter. The secrecy mentioned here only indicates that a man, however wise he might be, may not come to suspect the existence of the Atman in himself without being so advised by a man of Experience. The Self being that which is beyond the intellect, (III-41) the reasoning capacity in a man cannot come to suspect the existence of an Eternal, Changeless, Conscious Principle, subtler than the intellect, ever illumining the thoughts rising in the very intellect. Hence, this Science of Truth is called here as the Supreme secret." IN ORDER NOT TO LEAVE IN ANYBODY'S MIND AN IMPRESSION THAT ANY INCONSISTENT STATEMENT HAS BEEN MADE BY THE LORD, ARJUNA ASKS, AS THOUGH RAISING AN OBJECTION:

Arjuna said: 4. Later was Your birth, and prior was the birth of Vivaswan (Sun) ; how am I to understand that You taught this YOGA in the beginning?

There is a palpable anachronism in the opening stanza of this chapter. Krishna says that he taught this Eternal Truth to Lord Sun in the beginning of creation. It was quite natural for Arjuna to think of Krishna as the son of Devaki, the Flute-bearer of Gokula. To Arjuna, his charioteer Krishna had a definite date of birth, and was only his own contemporary. Therefore, Krishna Himself could not have advised the Sun, who, by all calculations, is the one who manifested in nature much earlier than all the planetary worlds. TO REMOVE FROM THE MINDS OF THE HASTY READERS THE POSSIBLE MISUNDERSTANDING THAT KRISHNA, THE SON OF DEVAKI, IS THE SPEAKER OF THE GEETA, VYASA MAKES THE BLESSED LORD DECLARE THE FOLLOWING:

The Blessed Lord said: 5. Many births of Mine have passed as well as yours, O Arjuna; I know them all but you know them not, O Parantapa (scorcher of foes) .

The scriptural masters of the Hindus exhibit an infinite amount of patience and understanding, which almost amounts to an intellectual daring, and they readily come out to satisfy all possible doubts of all the students. Here we find Krishna trying to explain how He was the very Infinite in His Real Nature and that He had Himself, in the very beginning of creation, given out Brahma-Vidya to Lord Sun. In this section we find an exhaustive discussion of the

"theory of incarnation" (Avatara), as propounded in the Pauranic literature. To many foreigners, this portion of the Hindu philosophy and belief has been very confusing, and many of them have expressed such opinions about it; and, perhaps, none has put it so vehemently as Max Mueller. But, when we try to understand it with a sufficient background of the Vedantic concept of creation, it is not very difficult for us to follow the idea. We have elsewhere explained in the "Fall of Man" how, when the Infinite Reality functions through 'unactivity' (Sattwa), we have the concept of the God-Principle. Later on in this section, Krishna Himself explains how He, in all freedom, takes upon Himself the matter-envelopments and plays the game of the Immortal among the mortals --- but all the time Himself being ever conscious of His own complete Divine Nature. Not a single mortal embodiment can be the result of sheer accident. Every man comes to the field of the world only as a result of his evolutionary progress, even according to the Darwinian theory. Each embodied life indicates a long autobiography of that ego, and it is only after a long chain of existence in different forms that it has at last reached its present destination. In each life, as soon as the ego expresses itself in its given field of activity, it, fortunately, forgets the entire past, and carries with it only a distinct flavour (vasana) thereof. But a Master-mind like Lord Krishna, in His Divine Omniscience, understands that both He and Arjuna had been through many vicissitudes of existence, and that "I KNOW THEM ALL WHILE YOU KNOW THEM NOT."

"HOW THEN CAN YOU, THE ETERNAL LORD, HAVE A BIRTH IN THE ABSENCE OF DHARMA AND ADHARMA?" LISTEN:

6. Though I am unborn and am of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet, ruling over My own Nature, I take birth by My own MAYA.

Here is the most daring and original thought of Vyasa, we may say, throughout the entire Geeta. The Supreme, on account of His unquestioned freedom, by His own perfectly free will, takes upon Himself the conditioning of matter, and manifests Himself in a particular embodiment in the world, for serving the deluded generation of that time. To the Lord, His 'ignorance'is but a pose assumed, not a fact lived. A mortal becomes victimised by his Avidya, while the Lord is Master of His Maya. A driver is bound by his duty to the vehicle, while the owner of the vehicle is Lord of it. He uses the vehicle for his purposes, and whenever he reaches his immediate destination, he leaves the vehicle with all freedom, and enjoys his own independent activities. But, the poor driver, bound to the vehicle, will have to guard it against intruders and serve the vehicle as its servant. The Lord uses the matter- envelopments and their limitations as a convenience and as a set of necessary tools in His game of protecting the creation. Thus, though the Lord is Unborn and Changeless in His Nature, and ever a Lord of matter, yet, keeping His Maya perfectly under His own control, He comes into the world, through His own free will. All the time He is fully conscious of His own Divine status and unchallenged prerogative. He does not come into being as others do, compelled by His past Karma, to live here in the world under the thraldom of Nature. He is not bound by His mental temperaments but He is ever free from the mischiefs of His own Maya. You ask your servant to take your heavy motor-cycle to the nearby garage for refilling it. If you watch him doing it you will have some idea of what the Lord is trying to express here. To that poor man, the unwieldy machine is a calamity, a suffering. To push it across the road is a risky adventure for him, because the machine, by its own weight, guides him, he being powerless to assert his mastery over it. On the other hand, if you yourself were to ride, or push, the motor-cycle, you can joyously, and easily, do so. The vehicle remaining the same, in your hands it becomes a slave to carry you, while the poor servant was being dragged by the clumsy weight of the heavy machine! To an ordinary man who is ignorant of the working of his vehicle, it becomes a painful agony and a difficult responsibility to make use of these instruments. To the Lord, the world is no problem, and His personal equipments and their appetites are always perfectly under His own control. He comes to lord over every situation. This perfect freedom of a God-man could not have been more beautifully brought out in so few words as in these incomparable lines.

"WHEN AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE IS THE INFINITE SO BOUND?".. THE ANSWER FOLLOWS:

7. Whenever there is a decay of righteousness, O Bharata, and a rise of unrighteousness, then I manifest Myself.

"Whenever there is a decline of Dharma, I create for Myself a body." The term Dharma has already been exhaustively explained. Dharma, "The Law of Being" is a sacred truth, and when the majority of the members of a community do not obey this great Truth, there is a conquest of the world by a herd of biped-animals, and not a co-operative happily-living family of men, pursuing life in their full dignity as intelligent social beings. In all such dark periods of history, some great Master comes to present himself as the leader of men to revive 'the-standard-of-life' and its moral values. This is generally done, not only by giving a fillip to the existing nobler values, but also by a corresponding policy of total elimination of the wicked. It is for this purpose that the Infinite, from time to time, wears the "matter-apparel" and appears on the scene of activity, like the owner of an estate, who now and then puts on his gumboots to inspect and reorganise his estate. Even while he is on the work-spot, in the burning sun, among his workers, he is conscious of his lordship over, and ownership of, the entire estate. Similarly, the Supreme, which is the substratum for the pluralistic world, puts on the body-gown and, as it were, walks into the dusky atmosphere of the immoral life of mankind, for the purpose of re-organising and conducting a thorough spring-cleaning of the bosom of man. In the descent of God explained here, it is very clearly said that the Lord takes upon Himself, a body, projected for the purpose by Himself, and that He reserves for Himself the Divine freedom to be IN it, and yet not OF it: "THEN I BODY MYSELF FORTH." FOR WHAT PURPOSE ?

8. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of rightenousness, I am born in every age.

It is quite evident that the Infinite cannot project Itself forth unless there is some "desire." The State of Desireless- ness is but the State of Actionless-ness. Without some equipment or the other, electricity cannot, of its own accord, manifest itself. Similarly, the Supreme cannot, and need not project out into a Divine, or an undivine form --- as an Immortal Omniscient God or as a mortal foolish ego --- unless there is some desire, or the other, to precipitate the manifestation A super-saturated solution, if left alone, undisturbed, can carry its extra quantity of crystals in itself; but the moment a minutest particle of the same substance is thrown into that beaker, immediately, all the extra crystals get thrown out in crystal-form. Similarly, the Dynamic Supreme, the Womb of Infinite potentialities, cannot bring forth any form, or forms, unless there is an intention --- it may be Divine, it may be good, it may be bad. Then the DESIRE that made the Supreme assume the Divine form of Krishna --- the Enchanting Cowboy, the Blue Lover-of-All-is here explained in Vyasa's own words. In the stanza, Vyasa makes Krishna confess His initial

"desire," that caused His manifestation. The divinest of all "desires" is, indeed, a selfless thirst to serve the world; but all the same it is a DESIRE. In order to "PROTECT THE GOOD," when the Absolute starts ITs Godly career, it is the very necessity of Maya that He, the very Lord of Delusion, has to take upon Himself one more added mission," THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WICKED."

Here 'DESTRUCTION' is not annihilation of the individuals as much as the REMOVAL OF THE WRONG TENDENCIES in the individuals. It is a process of refitting the wardrobe wherein some old clothes are irredeemably spoiled, and have to be eliminated in order to make more space for newly-made and other refitted items. Similarly, Prophets, when they come, they encourage the good, sometimes they rejuvenate the bad, and often eliminate the poisonous specimens from the garden-of-life. This much Lord Krishna was compelled to explain about Himself because it was perfectly evident that Arjuna was blissfully unaware of the true Divine nature of Krishna. The line of arguments adopted by Arjuna in the opening chapter to justify his conduct in his friend's eyes would be meaningless if Arjuna did not, in fact, believe that he was addressing a human being. It would, in such a case, suggest that Arjuna was an utter atheist who would not rely for his victory upon his Divine companion. All the same, when Krishna comments upon Arjuna, characterising him as a non-caviller, a friend and a devotee, deserving His assistance, Arjuna appeals to Krishna, with a childlike simplicity: "DO TEACH ME, I AM THY DISCIPLE." This was undeniably an attitude of profound respect but no indication that Arjuna treated Krishna as God-Almighty, Himself. WHY IS THE LORD GIVING THIS BIT OF HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY?

9. He who thus knows, in true light, My divine birth and action, having abandoned the body, he is not born again; he comes to Me, O Arjuna.

After explaining the how and the why of incarnations in general, Krishna declares that those who, by constant contemplation upon this fact, understand the Divine birth and activities of the Lord, end their limitations and reach Godhood. That it is not a mere understanding or knowing that is indicated here is clear from the very words, "IN TRUE LIGHT" (Tattwatah), that is, we have to experience subjectively how and when the Supreme Atman takes Its Avatara in us. Today, no doubt, individually, we live as limited mortal brutes, but, at certain moments, when we are entertaining pure selfless "desires," the very same Spark-of-Life in us comes to manifest a divine potency and a celestial dash. The stanza also subtly indicates that for one's spiritual development, the practice of Upasana of the blissful form of the Lord is as efficient a method as meditation upon the formless-Self. There are some professional Vedantins who cannot accept the concept of the Lord having an embodiment. They are merely barking at a shadow. To one who is practising sincerely and whole-heatedly, the goal is equally available whether it is through the Upasana of the Truth with a form (Saguna), or without any form (Nirguna).

Krishna is indicating here the Supreme State-of-Perfection, the State-of-Existence from where "ONE IS NOT BORN AGAIN." In the earlier Vedic literature the State-of- Godhood is described as the "State-of-Deathless-ness" (Amaratva), while in the later Vedic literature we find a slow change-over, and the Eternal is explained as the State from which "ONE IS NOT BORN AGAIN" (Ajah). The evolution of this concept clearly indicates the intellectual development in this country at that time. When a society is immature, its members are afraid of death; but as they grow and evolve, it is not death that frightens them so much as the possibility of a new birth, for, it starts a new lease of agonising existence in imperfect environments. It is evident that the 'State-of-Deathless-ness' is itself the 'State-of-Birthless-ness,' because death can come only to that which is born. And yet, the change in expression declares the maturity that was gained by the Vedic- students of that period. THIS PATH OF SALVATION IS NOT ONE MERELY REASONED OUT BY KRISHNA TO SUIT HIS PRESENT PURPOSE, BUT IT WAS WALKED EVEN IN ANCIENT TIMES:

10. Freed from attachment, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, purified by the Fire-of-Knowledge, many have attained My Being.

The entire "Path-of-Self-development" and the final Goal that is to be reached have been indicated in this stanza. Without renouncing attachment and its by-products, which always disturb one's mental equipoise, no progress is ever possible for a seeker. Once this mental discipline is gained, absorbed in the idea of Self-perfection, the seeker comes to take total refuge in this great victory. Thereafter, the mission of Self-perfection becomes a passion with him to thrill his life. When an individual has thus gained this stage of Self-development, he becomes fit for the study and practice of the great scriptures --- the Upanishads. (a) The study of the scriptures at the feet of a Master, followed by (b) independent analysis of Vedantic Truths by oneself in an attempt to understand their real import, and lastly, (c) the seeker's slow and steady attempt at balancing himself in single-pointed meditation --- all these three together constitute the technique of Self- development as visualised in Hinduism. A study of the theory of Vedanta and all our attempts to live the life of tranquillity and love indicated therein, together constitute

Jnana Tapas.

There are some commentators who read into the stanza a synthesis of all the three "Paths." The "Path-of-Action" is indicated in the first-half of the first line, because, unless one trains oneself in the field of activity, "DETACHMENT FROM DESIRES, FEAR, AND ANGER" cannot be gained.

The second-half, "ABSORBED IN ME AND TAKING REFUGE IN ME" indicates the "Path-of-Love," wherein the devotee, binding himself with love to the 'Lord of his heart'lives his life, taking refuge in nothing other than the Lord. The "Path-of-Knowledge" is indicated by the discriminative analysis and the constant and continued attempts at identification with the Self (Jnana Tapas). The import is, that seekers walking all the seemingly different

"Paths" reach but the same Goal, the Supreme, "Me." In fact, these three "Paths," are but three different techniques to perfect our mind; all spiritual paths are but attempts to purify the mind, meaning, to make it steady and single-pointed. Some of us identify ourselves more with our bodies than with anything else. Others are, by temperament, living more in their mental zones. And there are some again who live more in their rational personalities. To all these three types of seekers, if one and the same "path" is indicated, the chances are that the technique prescribed will not be universal in its acceptance and application. But whatever be the "Path" pursued, and whatever be the type to which the seekers belong, the ultimate experience of Spiritual Perfection gained by every one of them at the moment of illumination, is one and the same. This is an incontrovertible fact, for the mystical literature of the world reads as though every saint has borrowed and copied from all the earlier Masters across the world!

THEN LORD KRISHNA MUST BE CHERISHING FEELINGS OF AFFECTION AND AVERSION, SINCE HE LIBERATES SOME, AND NOT ALL. THE ANSWER FOLLOWS:

11. It whatever way men approach Me, even so do I reward them; My path do men tread in all ways, O son of Pritha.

Attachment and aversion are not the weaknesses of the Lord. He is a mass of Dynamism, the source of all activities and achievements. We are given the equipment through which we can, as we like, invoke this Infinite Mind. If we rightly invoke and carefully use the equipments, as a reward for our intelligent self- application, we can reach the Goal of our activities. If we misuse them, the very same Divine Force can be the cause of our utter disaster. The fuel strength in the petrol can be converted into horse- power through the mechanism under the bonnet. We can invoke the horse-power to reach our destination, or we can easily dump ourselves into a mass of twisted wreckage on the way-side and become a bundle of broken bones. These accidents are caused by the carelessness of the driver, although the strength and power with which the car dashes down the embankment of the road is, no doubt, supplied by the same petrol. But the strength in the petrol had no attachment for those whom it guided home safe. Nor can we say that it had a hatred for those whom it wrecked. With neither attachment nor hatred, the petrol gives its power when invoked through the mechanism of the engine, and how to make use of the power depends upon us and our wisdom in employing it. Similarly, here the Lord says, "I, AS LIFE, LEND MY POWER TO ALL WITHOUT ANY PARTIALITY; IN WHATEVER FORM THEY INVOKE ME, IN THAT FORM I SERVE THEM." An electric plug in the house can be made use of to hear a song over the radio, to cool ourselves with the breeze of a fan, to boil water, to cook or to warm the room with a heater; it all depends upon what instrument we plug into it. It is never possible that electricity flowing through the fan, of its own accord, can start emitting fire or light. Similarly, the unmanifest Eternal Force of Life can be invoked, and It shall fulfil all

"desires" through us according to the type of our invocations. IF GOD BE THUS FREE FROM ALL ATTACHMENTS AND OTHER EVIL PASSIONS, HE, THE LORD, MUST BE GRACIOUS TO ALL CREATURES ALIKE AND MUST BE ABLE TO GRANT THEM ALL THEIR DESIRES. THEN WHY IS IT THAT ORDINARILY MEN DO NOT DESIRE TO SEEK THE LORD AND GAIN THE INFINITE? --- LISTEN WHY IT IS SO;

12. They who long for satisfaction from actions in this world, make sacrifices to the gods; because satisfaction is quickly obtained from actions in the world-of-objects.

If the Atmic-force guides us on both, the path-of-good and on the path-of-evil, then how is it that in this world of ours we see but a rare few who are honestly trying to travel the path-of-rightenousness, while the majority are pursuing the road-of-evil? This question must necessarily come to the mind of all intelligent students, and Lord Krishna is answering this possible query. He says, whether the mind wants to pursue an extrovert life, or live the introvert joys, it can do so only by borrowing its capacity and capability from the Omnipotency of the Atman; but the mind ever chooses an extrovert career, in stinking sensuality, because it is easy to gain cheap pleasures by satisfying the sensuous ticklings of nerve-tips. This is the cause for sensuality in the world, and Krishna explains why a majority of us, inspite of our best efforts, live a life of animal passions: "BECAUSE SUCCESS RESULTING FROM ACTION IS QUICKLY ATTAINED IN THE HUMAN WORLD." On this globe of ours, the quickest results are gained when our sense-organs come in contact with their desired objects as the result of deliberate actions. Since a sensuous life is a life of least resistance, though of cheap pleasures, the ordinary man, in his keen appetite for joy and peace, wastes his spiritual strength in hunting after, procuring, and enjoying the fleeting sense-objects. The truth of the statement is well within the experience of every one of us. The passage should not be understood only to say that worldly success is easily gained, but that, as men, we can intelligently plan our actions in such a way that we can, out of our actions, create or compel nature to yield a greater dose of happiness than the members of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. MEN WHO ARE SEEKING THE LOWER OR THE HIGHER WAYS OF LIFE THROUGH THE EMPLOYMENT OF THEIR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH CAN BE DIVIDED, UPON THE BROAD BASIS OF THEIR INTROVERT AND EXTROVERT NATURES; AND THE EXTROVERT MEN CAN AGAIN BE DIVIDED INTO FOUR TYPES, ON THE BASIS OF THEIR FINER DISTINCTIONS OF THE TEXTURES OF THEIR THOUGHT AND ACTION.

13. The fourfold-caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of GUNA an d KARMA; though I am the author thereof know Me as non-doer and immutable.

This is a stanza that has been much misused in recent times by the upholders of the social crime styled as the caste system in India. Varna, meaning different shades of texture, or colour, is employed here in the Yogic-sense. In the Yoga Shastra, they attribute some definite colours to the triple gunas, which mean, as we have said earlier, "the mental temperaments." Thus, Sattwa is considered as white, Rajas as red, and Tamas as black. Man is essentially the thoughts that he entertains. From individual to individual, even when the thoughts are superficially the same, there are clear distinctions recognizable from their temperaments. On the basis of these temperamental distinctions, the entire mankind has been, for the purpose of spiritual study, classified into four "castes" of Varnas. Just as, in a metropolis, on the basis of trade or professions, we divide the people as doctors, advocates, professors, traders, politicians, tongawalas, etc., so too, on the basis of the different textures of thoughts entertained by the intelligent creatures, the four "castes" had been labelled in the past. From the standpoint of the State, a doctor and a tongawala are as much important as an advocate and a mechanic. So too, for the perfectly healthy life of a society, all "castes" should not be competitive but co-operative units, each being complementary to the others, never competing among themselves. However, later on, in the power politics of the early middle-ages in India, this communal feeling cropped up in its present ugliness, and in the general ignorance among the ordinary people at that time, the cheap pandits could parade their assumed knowledge by quoting, IN BITS, stanzas like this one. The decadent Hindu-Brahmin found it very convenient to quote the first quarter of the stanza, and repeat "I CREATED THE FOUR varnas," and give this tragic social vivisection a divine look having a godly sanction. They, who did this, were in fact, the greatest blasphemers that Hinduism ever had to reckon with. For Vyasa, in the very same line of the couplet, as though in the very same breath, describes the basis on which this classification was made, when he says, "BY THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE MENTAL QUALITY AND PHYSICAL ACTION (OF THE PEOPLE)." This complete definition of the Varna not only removes our present misunderstanding but also provides us with some data to understand its true significance. Not by birth is man a Brahmana (Brahmin); by cultivating good intentions and noble thoughts alone can we ever aspire to Brahmana-hood; nor can we pose as Brahmana merely because of our external physical marks, or bodily actions in the outer world. The definition insists that he alone is a Brahmana, whose thoughts are as much Sattwic, as his actions are. A Kshatriya is one who is Rajasic in his thoughts and actions. A Shudra is not only one whose thoughts are Tamasic, but also he who lives a life of low endeavours, for satisfying his base animal passions and flesh-appetites. The scientific attitude in which this definition has been declared, is clear from the exhaustive implications of the statement:

"ACCORDING TO THE DIFFERENTIATION OF "guna" AND "karma." We had tried to explain how the Self, functioning through Its own self-forgetfulness (Maya) as it were, came to project forth temperamentally in three distinct conditions of mental and intellectual life: Unactivity, Activity and Inactivity. Through these triple channels flow the expressions of Life manifesting the different ideas, agitations and actions of the embodied-Life. None of the vagaries of existence would have been possible if the equipments were not tickled by the touch-of-Life. Krishna, as the very Source of Life, emphatically asserts here, that He is the author of it all, in the sense that the ocean could say that it is the author of all the waves, ripples, foam, bubbles, etc., and gold can assert that it is the very creator and sustainer of all gold-ornaments in the world, inasmuch as no gold-ornament can exist when the gold element is removed from it. But, at the same time the Infinite, being All-Pervading, as we have already explained, cannot participate in any action and therefore, the Lord, in one and the same breath, declares that though "HE IS THE AUTHOR OF IT," in His own Real Nature," HE IS AT THE SAME TIME A NON- DOER."

Such contradictions in Vedanta become confusing to the students, as long as they are not initiated into the SECRETS OF ITS STUDY. In our conversation, we generally hear people say "that they reached their destination ten miles away by sitting in a bus;" "I caught a train and reached here." Since we understand it in our usual routine conversation, we do not try to dissect such statements to discover the contradictions they contain. Sitting you cannot travel. By catching a train, none can cover distances. And yet it is so true. When we travel in a bus or a train, we donot move; we only sit and hang on to our seats! But stillwe cover the distance because the vehicle in which we sit, moves on. In other words, the motion of the vehicle is attributed to us. Similarly, the creation of the temperaments, which should be attributed to the mind and intellect, is attributed to the Lord. In fact, the Lord, in His Essential Nature, being Changeless and All-Pervading, is neither the Doer nor the Creator. SINCE I AM NOT IN REALITY THE AUTHOR OF THOSE ACTIONS OF WHICH YOU THINK ME TO BE AN AUTHOR:

14. Actions do not taint Me, nor have I any desire for the fruits- of-actions. He who knows Me thus is not bound by his actions.

The Ever-pure and the All-full cannot be tainted, nor can It have any sense-of-imperfection which can germinate any "desire." The Lord, the Self, declares here: "ACTIONS

DO NOT TAINT ME NOR HAVE I ANY ANXIETY FOR THE FRUITS OF ACTIONS." Taint or "desire" can come only to an ego, which is "the Self, functioning through a given mind and intellect." When the subtle-body is tainted by "desires" and agitations then the ego in it seems to be played upon by these two. This is better understood by the following analogy. The sun, reflected in a bowl of water, is entirely dependent upon the condition of the water. The reflected- sun is shaken when the water in the bowl is disturbed and it appears to be dim when the water is muddy. Neither the dimness nor the agitations of the reflection have caused any change at all in the original object --- the sun in the Infinite Heavens. Similarly, the ego suffers the evil tendencies and such other taints of the mind and also gets disturbed, due to the "desires" for the FRUITS OF ITS ACTIONS. The Self, in Its Pure Conscious-nature, is not at all affected by these delusory disturbances of Its own reflection in the mental pool. THIS SEEMS TO BE A NOVEL INTERPRETATION OF THE USUAL VEDIC TECHNIQUE OF SELF- PERFECTION. IS THERE ANY PRECEDENT?... LISTEN:

15. Having known this, the ancient seekers-after-freedom also performed action; therefore, you too perform action, as did the ancients in the olden times.

After knowing Me that "I AM NON-AGENT AND I HAVE NO LONGING FOR THE FRUITS OF ACTIONS," and realising the All-full Self-hood, there shall no more be any "desire" or "egoistic vanities." The technique of Karma Yoga, as enunciated and propounded in the last chapter, was practised, says Krishna, even in olden times by many an intelligent seeker. In short, there is nothing new in the

"Path-of-Action" and all seekers trying to realise the Self had been following the same technique.

"IF 'KARMA YOGA' IS TO BE PERFORMED, I CAN DO IT BECAUSE OF YOUR ADVICE. BUT WHY SHOULD YOU ADD THAT THE ANCIENTS DID THE SAME?" IN REPLY TO THIS THE LORD SAYS: "LISTEN, THERE IS GREAT DIFFICULTY IN UNDERSTANDING WHAT CONSTITUTES RIGHT ACTION"... HOW?

16. What is action? What is inaction? As to this even the "wise" are deluded. Therefore, I shall teach you "action" (the nature of action and inaction) , knowing which, you shall be liberated from the evil (of SAMSARA --- the wheel of birth and death) . All of us understand that 'ACTION' means movement of the limbs with relation to things in the outer world, and 'INACTION' means a state of existence wherein there is a total cessation of such vigorous and conscious movements. This is the popular definition of 'action' and 'inaction' which, no doubt, is quite acceptable as far as the every-day activities of life are concerned. But from the philosophical stand-point, the concept and features of both 'action' and 'inaction' change. For purposes of self-development, when we consider 'action,' it is not to be valued merely by observing its manifested qualities but we must also take into consideration the un-manifested but subtly-working motives behind the very same action. An action, in itself, cannot be considered either as good or bad. It is the MOTIVE BEHIND IT which determines the quality of the action. Just as the beauty of a fruit is not the last word for its edibility, but it depends upon its contents, so too, a beautiful action in itself could be a poisonous act of criminality, if the motive behind it is low and vicious. Therefore, it is said that, in discriminating between what is 'action' and what is 'inaction,' "EVEN THE POET-SEERS OF OLD ARE CONFUSED." The word 'Kavi,' now-a-days mainly used for the poets, was the name for the Rishis, the Seers of Upanishadic declarations. Any inspired man, recognising and expressing a truth that was noble and immortal, was called a Kavi. After stating this difficult problem of discriminating between 'action' and 'inaction,' Krishna promises here that He will teach Arjuna what exactly constitutes right action, by knowing which, naturally, one can save one's self from all evil.

IT IS FAMILIAR TO ALL, THAT ACTION MEANS MOVEMENT, AND INACTION MEANS ABSENCE OF IT: TO SIT QUIET. WHAT IS THERE TO LEARN ABOUT THEM?

17. For verily (the true nature) of "right action" should be known; also (that) of "forbidden (or unlawful) action" and of "inaction" ; imponderable is the nature (path) of action.

Life means activity. Where activity has ended, death has entered. In active life alone can we progress or deteriorate. A stagnant pool of water decays and soon gets putrefied; while the flowing water of a river ever keeps itself fresh, pure and clean. Life being dynamic, it cannot, even for a moment, cease to function. Complete cessation from activities is impossible so long as life exists. Activity, therefore, is the very corner-stone of life. Since man must always actively exist all his lifetime, the entire possibilities of activities have been taken into consideration by the great Seers of old in evaluating life. The accompanying chart will vividly explain their classifications. Life is constituted of moments of activity and moments of inactivity. Through inactivity, neither progress nor deterioration is ever possible. Deep-sleep or periods of complete cessation in existence are intervals of total holidaying from life, and they can neither make nor marthe individual's progress in his evolution. Periods of activity create man. This creative-period depends upon what type of activity we venture upon. According to the ancient Seers, activities can be of two types, constructive or destructive. Constructive activities which contribute towards the evolution of the individual are termed here as Karma. Destructive activities are those that are totally condemned by the Shastras, because they tend to devolve the individual, and those are termed in our text books as Vi- karma. The constructive activities (Karma) can be of three kinds: Nitya --- constant duties, Naimittika --- special duties on special occasions, and Kamya --- work purposeful and self-determined for winning a desirable result or reward. Built upon the ancient Vedic doctrine, Krishna here expounds an elaborate theory of self-development. He says that life is but a name for continuous activities. These activities can fall within two distinct classifications as Karma and Vi-karma. Lord Krishna's advice to Arjuna is to avoid the forbidden actions (Vi-karma) and to pursue the constructive and creative activities of self-development (Karma). In this scientific analysis, without any formality, or mental reservation, Krishna totally rejects "inactivity" (A-karma).

It is necessary, it is said here, that a true seeker who is trying to live a diligent life, contributing to his material progress and to his spiritual self-development, must necessarily know this triple classification of life, considered as a bundle of activities. Even after so beautifully defining the three clear and distinct classifications, Krishna admits that, for an ordinary man it is not easy to distinguish the one from the other, and to readily and successfully classify all his activities under these three headings, because, Krishna says, "THE NATURE OF KARMA IS IMPONDERABLE. " In this statement lies the secret suggestion that an action is to be evaluated not merely on its face value but after a sincere consideration of the motive working behind it. If the motive, or desire, or intention of one is pure and constructive, then the action too is noble and meritorious for that particular individual. Since in this evaluation of actions the individual factor is so very predominant, one must agree with Krishna over the imponderability of the nature of Karma. WHAT IS THERE TO LEARN ABOUT ACTION AND INACTION? THE ANSWER FOLLOWS:

18. He who recognises inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; he is a YOGI and a true performer of all actions. By thus following the rules of right-living (Karma), as indicated in Vedanta, when an individual has lived a sufficiently long period of time, the doubt arises as to when exactly we can say that he has completely reached the State of Perfection. This question should necessarily throb in the intellect of all sincere students, and Krishna is trying to indicate this noble goal of fulfilment of all Karmas in this stanza. Action, as we have already seen, is a gross expression in the outer world of some known, or unknown, deep

"desire" in the intellect. A complete "STATE OF ACTIONLESS-NESS" would be necessarily the 'STATE OF DESIRELESS-NESS" or the "STATE OF INFINITE GOD- HEAD." But the goal indicated here is not this "STATE OF INFINITE PERFECTION," but only a wayside station on the pilgrimage. A true and diligent man can discover and recognise in himself that even in physical inaction there can be an intense mental and intellectual activity, and he can also recognise that he, even in the most intense activities, himself as an observer of it, is revelling in

"unactivity" (A-Karma). This is the maximum Sattwic state. Such an individual has thereby reached a State of Great Equanimity, which is almost unavoidable in living a successful life of meditation. It is not said here, as it is usually believed, that right action itself will take us to the Infinite. This is impossible. As action itself is a child of

"desire," through action alone we can create things; and created 'results' are, in their very nature, finite. Thus, a God-head reached through activity can only be a Sunday- God-head which must depart from us the following Monday morning! Shankara and other great Acharyas have all been tirelessly repeating that, right action, undertaken with a sense of devotion and dedication, creates in the bosom of the student a sense of complete detachment, as though he himself is a disinterested observer of all that is happening within and without him. When thus an individual detaches himself and observes his own activities as part and parcel of the world of activities around, he gains in himself an indescribable poise which is essential for the practice of meditation. Merely because an individual is keeping quiet, we cannot ever conclude that he is inactive. Physical inactivity is no criterion to call one an idler. On the other hand, it is a fact well-known to all of us, that, when we are intensely thinking --- whenever we are in a state of creative thinking --- we are invariably quiet and inactive, physically. Therefore, in the physical inactivity of one, which is labelled as idleness by the hectic foot-path-walkers in life, we can detect intense activity in his deep "within." A Buddha under the fig-tree, an artist at his easel, a musician at his instrument, a writer at his desk --- all of them punctuate their activities with 'still moments of intense inactivity'-called unactivity-and they bend forward to pour out their artistic and literary creations. All these physical moments of cessation are not mere inactivity but they are the necessary quietude and silence when the mind and intellect function with the highest velocity. Thus, he who has a capacity to introspect, can easily detect perfect action in complete inaction. As I am writing these words a certain part in me can stand apart and visualise how my fingers, constituted of mere minerals, can hold the pen at the right slant and carry it along the paper so that the words may be spelt properly thereon. So, in all activities, this capacity to visualise discriminatingly our own activity --- this capacity to observe ourselves functioning in a given field with or without the other members of the community --- is not very rare and those who can do it can realise how, inspite of all our activities, the observer in us which OBSERVES the activities is most INACTIVE. The train runs, but not the steam. The fan moves, but not the electricity. The fuel burns, but not the fire. The body, mind and intellect function and act, but not the Self, the Life in them! Such an individual who can thus stand constantly apart from himself and observe "the activity in inactivity" and

"complete inactivity even in the highest activity... called

UNACTIVITY"... is termed here, we must carefully note, not a man of realisation (Jnani), but an intelligent, full- grown human creature (Buddhiman). "He is the intelligent one among men," and he is certainly one who is very near to the Self (Atma Yuktah). In short, desireless activities, when undertaken and performed in a spirit of dedication, purify us, and the intellect thereby gains a new keenness. Out of such a purified head, a new faculty, as it were, arises. The capacity to observe oneself as an actor on the stage of life, is a capacity divine and noble, inasmuch as it immediately redeems us from our selfish preoccupations with life's ever-changing incidents and accidents. REALISATION OF 'INACTION IN ACTION' AND 'ACTION IN INACTION' IS EXTOLLED AS FOLLOWS:

19. Whose undertakings are all devoid of desires and purposes, and whose actions have been burnt by the Fire-of-Knowledge, him the "wise" call a Sage.

He is called a Saint, a man-of-Perfection, "whose undertakings are all devoid of plan and desire-for-result." Planning is a shackle upon the freedom of one's activities. In all planning, we are forcing the circumstances into a desired mould, a wished-for pattern. In thus driving the situations to mould themselves into a planned pattern, we are exhausting ourselves and vainly fighting against terrible odds. This method of activity drains away all inspiration and joy from the worker. We have already discussed how the desire-for-results during any activity dissipates our energies. The fruits-of- an-action can only mature in a future period of time and therefore, to court the results is to escape from the present and live in the unborn periods of time. It is a law that the effects depend entirely upon the causes, and so to be sincere and complete in our activities is the greatest guarantee for all successful achievements. One who is a perfect Sage, says Krishna, is one who will undertake to act

"WITHOUT PLANNING" and

"WITHOUT ANY DESIRE FOR FRUITS." In this context, these two qualifications of a perfect act are to be understood with kindness and sympathy. A literal meaning of these two terms should not be used here, as in that case the statement would become absurd. The instruction to act "WITHOUT PLANNING AND DESIRE" does not mean that a man-of-Equilibrium, in his inspired activity, should not make use of his better intelligence and plan his activities to gain a desired result. It only means that, WHILE HE IS AT WORK, he should not allow his abilities and capacities to run to waste, with his mental preoccupations and sentimental fears regarding the results-of-his-work. Vedanta does not in any way ignore man's intellect. The way of life as advised in the Geeta provides only a more efficient means to act and achieve, to live and to enjoy, cultivating and applying our own potentialities more intelligently. An individual, who has thus come to live intelligently and act diligently, becomes fully wedded to the piece of work in hand and gets so entirely drunk with the joy of his own inspiration, that the action cannot leave upon him even a trace of its reaction. Our mind and intellect will venture forth to worry over the unknown possibilities and dangers, unless they can find a more secure hold upon something nobler and diviner. A perfect Sage is one whose mind is ever hitched on to the cognition of the Divine, so that, even when he functions in the world outside, he is revelling in his own Consciousness within. By thus painting the psychology of a Sage-at-work, Lord Krishna is indicating with what mental attitude and intellectual composure, Arjuna, a seeker, should enter his fields of activity. These instructions, given by Vyasa through the mouth of Krishna, are meant for all generations of seekers and, therefore, words addressed to Arjuna are also words addressed to you and to me. When my son wants to become a doctor I would certainly explain to him the story of the struggle of some known doctors, so that my son may understand how best he himself can become a true doctor. So too here, by the description of a perfect Sage-at-work, Arjuna is being initiated into the "Path of Self-development," which he is to follow faithfully, if he is to reach the goal of life.

DEVOID OF ALL DESIRE-PROMPTED ACTIONS, AND ATTACHMENTS TO THEIR RESULTS, AND THEREFORE, HAVING NO SELFISH END IN VIEW, WHEN A SAGE PERFORMS KINDLY ACTS IN THE COMMUNITY, HE REALLY DOES NO ACTION; HIS ACTION IS EQUIVALENT TO "INACTION," SINCE ALL HIS ACTIONS ARE CONSUMED IN THE FIRE OF KNOWLEDGE. TO TEACH THIS "UNACTIVITY," THE LORD SAYS:

20. Having abandoned attachment to the fruits-of-action, ever- content, depending on nothing, he does not do anything, though engaged in actions.

We are not asked here to renounce the fruits-of-actions as such nor to ignore them, but we are only warned to renounce our MENTAL SLAVERY and INTELLECTUAL CLINGING to the "expected-fruits." Only when we get preoccupied with the expected fruits of our actions do we come to exhaust ourselves, and thus become inefficient in our activities. Forsaking (tyaktwa) our clinging (Sanga) to the fruits-of- action (Karma-phala), we are advised to strive for and to achieve the welfare of the society. A true painter never willingly sells his masterpiece! To him, that piece of canvas upon which he has lavished long periods of effort, is now by itself a complete reward, even if he be starving!! As compared to the satisfaction and joy that it gives to the painter, he feels that even all the wealth in the world would but be too little a payment for it. If a mere finite piece of art could thus give to an ignorant man of agitations and desires, such an invaluable joy, how much more intense must be the diviner joys of a perfect saint working in the world of names and forms? Indeed, the Self-realised Ones, after their experience of the Infinite Reality as their own Self, become perfectly independent of everything else. Again, the anxiety for the fruits-of-action, the sense of discontentment and the feeling of dependency upon the things and beings of the world --- all belong to the misconceived notion of the ego-centre. The ego in us is the sufferer of all the above-mentioned incapacities and inabilities. When the seeker-after-Truth rediscovers his ego to be the Infinite Truth, the limited ego ends its career of sorrow, and naturally, the agony and the incapacities of the imperfect ego also end. The reflection of the sun in a cup of water can be broken up when the water in the cup is shaken. But when the water is poured out, the reflection also ends, and no more can the sun in the sky be shaken by any known method. Such an individual, who has rediscovered the Self,

"THOUGH SEEMINGLY ENGAGED IN ACTIVITY," does not do anything.

The body, mind, and intellect act in the world-of-objects, but not the All-pervading Self --- the Life --- in us. Without 'Life' the body cannot function; but when the body functions, 'Life' as such cannot be said to function. Therefore, one who is established in the Self, though he engaged himself in action, cannot be said to do any action. The train may move but it would be incorrect to say that the steam is moving. It is generally a doubt in the students that, even if all the reactions of the past actions have ended at the time of Self- re-discovery, when such a prophetic Master undertakes activity in the world, he would, perhaps, be initiating new actions of sins and merits for the enjoyment of which he may again have to take up births. This false idea has been completely eradicated in this stanza. After the God- experience, when the saint functions in the world outside,

"THOUGH ENGAGED IN ACTION HE DOES NOT DO ANYTHING." EVERY ACTION HAS A REACTION. NATURALLY, EVEN THE BODILY ACTIONS OF A SAINT SHOULD HAVE SOME REACTION. THIS IS THE ORDINARY ARGUMENT. TO NEGATE THIS ASSUMPTION THE LORD SAYS:

21. Without hope, with the mind and Self controlled, having abandoned all possessions, doing mere bodily action, he incurs no sin.

Mere bodily activity is not action that will merit a reaction. It has already been seen that the reactions of actions take place in the mental and in the intellectual zones. An action can leave a mark on our subtle-body only when we act with an ego-centric consciousness that we are the actors, and these marks can be effective only when our actions are motivated by powerful and strong ego-centric

"desires." Ego is created only when the Self, in its assumed delusion, identifies itself with the body, mind, and intellect and their respective fields of objects. This ego draws its sustenance from the "hopes of the future," and also from the "satisfaction of the present" possessions. Therefore, the stanza declares that an individual, (a) when he has completely renounced hope, (b) when he has brought his body and mind under perfect control, and (c) when he has relinquished all possessions, can no longer sustain the illusory concept of the ego in him. When the ego has ended, the actions performed by that individual's body become incapable of leaving any permanent mark upon his mental constitution, or on his intellectual character. In sleep if I become naked I am not charged of any indecent behaviour; if, in my sleep, my body kicks my own son, I am not accused of cruelty to my child. For, in both the above cases we know that "for the actions of my body I am not responsible, since I was absent in that body during those activities." This clearly shows that the ego- centric identity with the body is the actor and the sufferer, and where the ego is not, there the mere bodily actions cannot bring about any consequences. A Self-realised Saint's activities do not touch him at all since he is not the actor; the actions only flow through him. Such a truly Great One becomes not a doer of actions, but serves as a glorious instrument for the Lord's Will to express itself. If the music coming from a violin is not good, the audience does not attack the violin, although the violinist cannot be very safe! The violin, of its own accord, does not make music but it allows music to emanate from it at the touch of the flying bow and the tickling fingers of the performer. Its duties end when its supple chords have bent under the touch of the musician's dancing fingers. An ego-less man-of-Perfection is the "wonder instrument" through which the Divine orchestra plays, singing the song of the Lord's own Will, faithfully. Any activity undertaken by a Perfect Master does not and cannot bring about any consequences, good orevil, upon him; he is only a "Divine-instrument." THOUGH A SELF-REALISED MAN RENOUNCES ALL ACTIONS, HE HAS, OF NECESSITY, TO BARELY MAINTAIN HIS BODY; SUCH A MAN STEADY ON

THE 'PATH-OF-KNOWLEDGE' IS EVER LIBERATED. TO TEACH THIS THE LORD SAYS:

22. Content with what comes to him without effort, free from the pairs-of-opposites and envy, even-minded in success and failure, though acting he is not bound.

Such an individual, who has gone beyond his own ego, can thereafter commence no desire-prompted activity with any definite fruit-motive. Naturally he will feel quite contented and happy in whatever gain spontaneously rises out of his actions. The state-of-egolessness indicates a condition of perfect conquest over the mind and intellect. Naturally therefore, the pairs-of-opposites --- heat and cold, success and failure, good and bad, joy and sorrow, etc. --- cannot affect him, they being always the interpretations of the world-of-objects by the mind. Where the mind has ended, the intellect too can no more bring its own affections and prejudices, or its spirit of competitions and jealousies. We generally get agitated due to the pulls of success and failure. On the rising tide of success our ego dances in a vain joy, while in the hollows of failures it feels miserable and crushed. But when the ego is completely divinised, the individual will, thereafter, automatically remain equanimous in both success and failure. Such an individual who has thus conquered his ego-centric misconceptions about himself, "THOUGH

ACTING, IS NOT FETTERED" by the natural consequences of the actions performed (Karma-phala). When such a Perfect-Master-of-Realisation lives amidst us he is generally seen to act in no way different from an ordinary sensible man, and yet, all the same, his activities show an extra dynamic capacity to carve out a more complete and enduring success. According to the Lord's words, the activities of a man-of-Knowledge do not, in any sense of the term, affect him. Naturally, it becomes a little difficult for an ordinary man to know readily how this is accomplished by the sage. TO EXPLAIN THE DIVINE MOTIVE AND ATTITUDE WITH WHICH MEN-OF-PERFECTION ACT IN THE WORLD, THE FOLLOWING NINE STANZAS ARE DECLARED BY THE LORD:

23. Of one who is devoid of attachment, who is liberated, whose mind is established in knowledge, who acts for the sake of sacrifice, all his actions are dissolved.

A Man-of-Wisdom has been fully comprehended in the first line of this stanza. The qualifications are beautifully enumerated serially and they themselves explain the

"Path-to-Perfection." Economy of words is the very essence of the style in all Scriptural books. Even so, they are particularly careful to use the most suggestive terms for their purpose and take an artistic joy in ordering the very sequence of the words used; here is a brilliant example of it. DEVOID OF ATTACHMENT (Gatasangah) --- The divinity attained by the Rishis is not a new status strangely acquired by them from some unknown and secret quarters. It is only a rediscovery of the Perfection that is already in each one. We are self-exiled from ourselves due to our attachments with the finite world-of-objects. Thus a

"wise" man is he, from whom all his attachments with the finite things of the world have dropped away. LIBERATED (Muktah) --- The majority of seekers have only a vague idea of what this "liberation" means. The bondages are created upon our personality and life by none other than ourselves. These bondages, infinite in their number, are produced by the subtle chords of our own attachments with things. The deluded ego feels fulfilled only through the world-of-objects. Thus, as a body, it gets attached to the world of its sense-objects; as a mind it lives enslaved to the world of emotions; and as an intellect, it gets bound with its own ideas. WITH MIND CENTRED IN KNOWLEDGE (Jnana- avasthita-chetasah) --- The above phenomenon of perfect detachment, which produces a sense of complete liberation, can be accomplished only when the mind of the seeker gets centred in right discriminative knowledge and develops for itself a capacity to distinguish between the permanent and the impermanent, the fleeting and the lasting. A Perfect Sage, who has thus cut himself free from all attachments, with his mind well-balanced under the light of his own "Wisdom," becomes completely liberated from the chains of all moral debilities, ethical imperfections, and sensuous appetites. Such a Sage too performs work for the rest of his life in his perfected manifestations. Krishna says that all such activities undertaken and performed by him are ever done in a spirit of 'dedicated activity' (Yajna). When a Sage thus functions in a spirit of Yajna, that action itself does not and cannot produce any reaction, or forging of thicker bondages with newly- formed vasanas. The term 'Yajna,' borrowed from our scriptures, is employed here by Krishna to yield a more elaborate sense implying a wider and a more universal application. In the Geeta, the Vedic Yajna has become "a self-dedicated activity performed in a spirit of service to the many." All actions, performed without ego, and not motivated by one's ego-centric desires, fall under the category of Yajna. All through the NEXT SIX STANZAS we get an enumeration of something like twelve different Yajnas which can be practised by everybody, on all occasions, in every field, under all conditions.

When a sage of the description given in the stanza, performs actions in a spirit of Yajna, they dissolve away without leaving any impression upon his mind, just as the rainbow that disappears when the thin shower falling against the sunlight ends. IF THIS BE SO, THE QUESTION ARISES --- " FOR WHAT REASON THEN DO ALL ACTIONS WHICH HE PERFORMS ENTIRELY DISSOLVE, WITHOUT PRODUCING THEIR NATURAL RESULTS?" LISTEN WHY IT IS SO: 24. BRAHMAN is the oblation; BRAHMAN is the clarified

butter, etc. , constituting the offerings; by BRAHMAN is the oblation poured into the fire of BRAHMAN; BRAHMAN verily shall be reached by him who always sees BRAHMAN in all actions.

This is a famous stanza which is chanted throughout India as a prayer at the table before the Hindus eat their meals, although, today, ninety per cent of those who chant this stanza before their meals do not understand or care to follow its meaning. All the same it contains infinite suggestions and almost summarises the entire philosophic content of Vedanta. The Infinite Reality, which is the changeless substratum behind and beneath the changing panorama of the world, is indicated by the Vedic term Brahman, and this is contrasted with that aspect of Truth which functions in and through the body as the Atman. But though the Eternal Truth has been thus indicated by two different terms, Vedanta roars that "The Atman is Brahman." The metaphor is borrowed from the very well-known divine ritualism of the Vedas, the Yajnas. In every Yajna there are four essential factors --- (1) the deity invoked to whom the oblations are offered, (2) the fire in which the offerings are poured, (3) the material things that constitute the offerings and (4) the individual who is performing the Yajna. Here the stanza explains the mental attitude and the experience of the Perfect-Sage when he performs the Yajna. To him Truth alone exists and not the delusory plurality which his erstwhile ignorance had conjured up for him in his mind. Therefore, to him, all Yajnas arise from Brahman; (III-14, 15) in which Brahman, the Truth, is the performer; offering Brahman, the material; to the sacred fire, which is also nothing other than Brahman; invoking but Brahman. When one wave jumps over another and breaks itself upto embrace and become one with its comrade, we, who know that "all waves are nothing but the ocean," can certainly understand that in this act of union between two waves nothing has happened except that the ocean rising over the ocean, broke itself to become one with the ocean!! If an individual can thus see the substratum, or the essential nature, in and through, all names and forms, actions and behaviours, to him, irrespective of all conditions and circumstances, all beings and things are but a remembrance of the Infinite Blissful Truth. If actions are performed by a Saint, invoking no deity other than Brahman, "ALL HIS ACTIONS DISSOLVE AWAY" because he is invoking but the One Truth through all his actions. The significance of the stanza as "a prayer to be said before food" is amply self-evident. To live we must eat. Food is necessary for existence. Whatever be the type of food, when one is hungry one will enjoy one's meals. The suggestion is that even at this moment of natural enjoyment, we are not to forget the great Truth that it is Brahman eating Brahman, and that during our meals we are offering to Brahman, the food that is Brahman, invoking nothing but the grace of Brahman. To keep this idea constantly in the mind is to get perfectly detached from the enjoyment and raise ourselves to a greater and endless beatitude which is the reward of Super-manhood. AFTER REPRESENTING THE VERY SPIRIT IN ALL

"YAJNAS," THE LORD IS TRYING TO SHOW ARJUNA HOW ALL THROUGH LIFE, ALL OUR ACTIONS CAN BE CONVERTED TO BECOME A "YAJNA." RIGHT KNOWLEDGE ("BHAVANA") MAKES EVERY ACT A

"YAJNA." LISTEN:

25. Some YOGIS perform sacrifice to DEVAS alone (DEVA-

YAJNA) ; while others offer "sacrifice" as sacrifice by the Self, in the Fire of BRAHMAN (BRAHMA-YAJNA) . In the following few stanzas, Lord Krishna is explaining the mental attitude of a Saint-at-Work. One doubt is generally raised by every intelligent student at all times. The spiritual experience, no doubt, can be had when the seeker in meditation transcends even his intellect. But then, this transcendental experience is bound to remain only for a limited time. The "Realised-Saint" is found working in the world, sometimes, in an elaborate fashion, like a Buddha or a Christ; in some cases he works in a limited fashion, like a Ramana Maharshi, and at certain moments he may not undertake any activity at all, but merely continue living among the world-of-objects. Now the doubt is: "what would be the mental attitude of such a Perfect-Master when he comes in contact with the world and functions in it?" A Yogi is one who is always trying, through all the means that are in him, to raise himself from his state of physical, mental and intellectual imperfections to a more perfect state of existence. In this sense of the term it would be unjust to read into the stanza merely the obvious meaning. The word

"Deva" comes from a root, meaning 'illumination.' Subjectively viewed, the greatest "Devas" are the five sense organs: eyes illumining forms and colours, ears illumining sounds, the nose illumining smells, and the tongue and the skin illumining tastes and touches. Seekers, and Perfected-Masters (Yogis) too, when they move in the world, no doubt perceive sense-objects through sense stimuli. But in their understanding and experience, perception is but "a world of sense-objects continuously offering themselves into the fires of his perception in order to invoke the Devas (Sense- perceptions)." Such seekers and masters walk out into life, and when they come across the sense world, they only recognise and experience that the world-of-objects is paying a devoted tribute to the powers of sense- perceptions! When this mental attitude is entertained constantly by a seeker he comes to feel completely detached from the sense experiences and, irrespective of the quality of experience, he is able to maintain a constant sense of inward equanimity. As contrasted with this method (Deva-Yajna) there are others who perform Brahma-Yajna, says Krishna, wherein they come to "OFFER THE SELF AS A SACRIFICE BY THE SELF IN THE FIRE OF THE SELF." This statement becomes perfectly clear when subjectively analysed and understood. As long as we exist in the body manifestation, we have to come across the world of sense-objects. The outer-world can yield to us its joy or sorrow not by itself but only as a result of our healthy or unhealthy attitude towards it. The objects in themselves are impotent to give us either joy or sorrow. The Perfect Masters understand that the sense-organs are only INSTRUMENTS-of-perception and that they can work only when in contact with the Supreme, the Atman. In this true understanding all Masters live, allowing the sense-organs to sacrifice themselves in the Knowledge-of- Brahman. Seekers also are, by this statement, advised as to how they too can gain a certain amount of freedom from their senses by dedicating their sense-life in the service of the world. When an individual's sense-organs of perception and action are to function and act --- not for his own ego-centric, selfish satisfactions but for the sake of serving the society or the world --- then, even if such an individual lives in the world-of-objects he will not be enslaved by his attachments to his possessions. AFTER THUS ENUMERATING THE "DEVA-YAJNA" AND THE

"BRAHMA-YAJNA,"

LORD KRISHNA EXPOUNDS TWO MORE METHODS IN THE FOLLOWING:

26. Some again offer hearing and other senses as sacrifice in the fires-of-restraint; others offer sound and other objects of sense as sacrifice in the fires-of-the-senses.

SOME OTHER GREAT MASTERS OFFER HEARING AND OTHER SENSES IN THE FIRES-OF-RESTRAINT --- In all these Yajnas described, the metaphor is taken from the most familiar ritualism known at the time to Arjuna. Oblations were offered, in Vedic ritualism, into the sacred- fire in order to invoke the blessings of the deity. In these examples, we are shown how when some materials are offered into a sacred-fire, not only the oblations get burnt up and consumed by the fire, but also, as a result, a great blessing accrues. Here, it is said that some Masters live on in life constantly offering their senses into the fire-of-self- control, so that the senses, of their own accord get burnt up, contributing a greater freedom and joy in the inner life of the man. It is also a fact, very well experienced by all of us, that the more we try to satisfy the sense-organs the more riotous they become and loot away our inner joy. By self-control alone can the sense-organs be fully controlled and mastered. This is yet another method shown to the seekers by which they can come to experience and live a more intense life of deeper meditation. If in this method the "Path-of-Sense-control" is indicated, in the second line the "Path-of-Mind-control" is suggested. The mind is sustained and fed by the stimuli that reach it from the outer world. The sense-objects perceived by the organs create and maintain the mind. The mind can never function in a field which cannot be interpreted in terms of the five types of sense-objects. Therefore, to make the mind non-receptive to the perceptions of the Indriyas is a method by which one can gain a better poise in life for purposes of meditation. Such an individual who has controlled the mind completely and withdrawn it totally from the sense-centres is indicated here when the Lord says: "OTHERS OFFER SOUND AND OTHER OBJECTS IN THE FIRES OF THE SENSES." If the former method is a technique of controlling the stimuli at the very gateway of the senses, the latter is a different technique of controlling the same from the inner, and therefore more subtle, level of perception, called the mind. AFTER THUS EXPLAINING THESE FOUR METHODS, YET ANOTHER TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN PROPOUNDED BY THE LORD IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:

27. Others again sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of the breath (vital energy) in the fire of the YOGA of self-restraint, kindled by knowledge.

ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SENSE-ORGANS (JNANA-INDRIYAS), AND THE ORGANS OF ACTION

(PRANA-INDIRYAS)

ARE OFFERED INTO THE KNOWLEDGE KINDLED-FIRE OF RIGHT UNDERSTANDING --- Control of the ego by the better understanding of the Divine Reality is called here as the

"Yoga-of-Self-restraint' (ATMA-SAMYAMA-YOGA). The "Path-of-Discrimination" (Vichara) lies through a constant attempt at distinguishing between the limited lot of the ego and the divine destinies of the Spirit. Having discriminated thus, to live more and more as the Self, and not as the ego, is to "RESTRAIN THE SELF BY THE SELF (Atma-Samyama)." By this process, it is evident how the mad ramblings of the organs of perceptions and actions can be completely restrained and entirely conquered. EXHAUSTING THE ABOVE-MENTIONED FIVE DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES, AS THOUGH TO BRING TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF ARJUNA, THAT A HUNDRED OTHER METHODS CAN BE INDICATED, KRISHNA ENUMERATES IN HASTE FIVE MORE DIFFERENT METHODS IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:

28. Others again offer wealth, austerity and YOGA as sacrifice, while the ascetics of self-restraint and rigid vows offer study of scriptures and knowledge as sacrifice.

OFFERING OF WEALTH (Dravya-Yajna) --- Sacrifice of wealth is to be understood in its largest connotation. Charity and distribution of honestly acquired wealth, in a sincere spirit of devotion to and in the service of the community, or of the individual who is the recipient of the benevolence, is called Dravya-Yajna. This includes more than a mere offering of money or food. The term Dravya includes everything that we possess, not only in the world outside but also in our worlds of emotions and ideas. To pursue thus a life of charity, serving the world as best as we can, with all that we possess physically, mentally and intellectually is the noble sacrifice called "Wealth sacrifice."

In order to perform this it is not at all necessary that the devotee should be materially rich. Even if we are poor and physically DEBILITATED, from our bed of pain and penury, we can still be charitable, because our inner treasurers of love, kindness, sympathy and affection, do not at all depend either upon our material circumstances nor on our physical condition. Sometimes, a word of sincere sympathy, a look of love, a smile of true affection, or a word registering true friendship, can give to the receiver more than a heartless cheque, even if it be for a very fat sum. Tapo-yajna --- Some live, offering unto their Lord, a life of austerity. There is no religion in the world which does not prescribe, by some method or the other, periods of austere living. These austerities (Vratas) are invariably undertaken in the name of the Lord. It is very well-known that the Lord of Compassion, who feeds and sustains even the lowliest of the low, can gain no special joy because of a devotee's self-denial. But it is generally done in a spirit of dedication, so that the seeker might achieve some self- control. This activity, in some extreme cases very painful indeed, is undertaken in order that the devotee may learn to control himself in his sense-life. Yoga-yajna --- An earnest attempt of the lesser in us to grow into a better standard of diviner living, is called Yoga. In this attempt, devoted worship of the Lord-of-the- heart, called Upasana, is a primary method. This worship and love, offered to the Lord-of-the-heart, when performed without any desire or motive, is also called Yoga, since it directly hastens the seeker's self- development. Swadhyaya-yajna --- The daily deep study of the scriptures is called Swadhyaya. Without a complete study of the scriptures we will not be in a position to know the logic of what we are doing in the name of spiritual practice, and without this knowledge our practices cannot gain the edge and the depth that are essential for sure progress. Thus, in all religions, the daily study of the scriptures is insisted upon, as an essential training during the seeker's early days. Even after Self-realisation, we find that the Sages spend all their spare-time reading and contemplating upon the inexhaustible wealth of details and suggestions in the scriptures. In its subjective implications, Swadhyaya means "self-study including the art of introspection pursued for understanding our own inner weaknesses." If, in the case of a seeker, it is a technique of estimating his own spiritual progress, in the case of a Seer, it will be for revelling in his own Self. Jnana-yajna --- The Sacrifice-of-Knowledge: this word has very often been used in the Geeta and it constitutes one of the many original terms coined out by Vyasa to beautify the Lord's declarations. The "Sacrifice-of-Knowledge" is the term given to that activity in man by which he renounces all his ignorance into the fire-of-knowledge kindled BY him, IN him. This is constituted of two aspects; negation of the false, and assertion of the Real Nature of the Self. These two activities are effectively undertaken during the seeker's meditation. All these five methods of Self-development --- " sacrifice- of-wealth," "austerity," "Yoga," "study" and "knowledge" --- can be practised with profit only by those who are men of

"rigid determination" and who can find in themselves an inexhaustible enthusiasm to apply themselves consistently to reach this great goal. It is not sufficient that we know these paths, or that we decide to gain these developments. Progress in spirituality can come only to one who is

"sincere and consistent in his practices" (Yatayah). IN THE FOLLOWING VERSE KRISHNA EXPLAINS PRANAYAMA AS YET ANOTHER METHOD, THE ELEVENTH IN THE SERIES:

29. Others offer as sacrifice the out-going breath in the in- coming, and the in-coming in the out-going, restraining the courses of the out-going and in-coming breaths, solely absorbed in the restraint of breath.

In this verse we have a description of the technique of 'breath-control' regularly practised by some seekers, in order to keep themselves under perfect self-control, when they move amidst the sense-objects in the work-a-day world.

As a sacrifice some offer "THE OUT-GOING BREATH INTO THE IN-COMING BREATH AND OTHERS OFFER THE IN-COMING INTO THE OUT-GOING." The latter is, in the technique of Pranayama, called the Puraka, meaning the 'process of filing in'; while, the former is the 'process of blowing out,' technically called the Rechaka. These two processes are alternated with an interval, wherein the 'breath is held for sometime,' within and without, which is called the Kumbhaka. This process of Puraka-Kumbhaka- Rechaka-Kumbhaka, when practised in a prescribed ratio, becomes the technique of breath-control (Pranayama). This technique is again explained here as a Yajna by which the practitioner, in the long run, learns to offer all the subsidiary Pranas into the main Prana. Prana is not the breath; this is a general misunderstanding. Through breath-control we come to gain a perfect mastery over the activities of the Pranas in us. When very closely observed, we find that the term Prana used in the Hindu Scriptures indicates the various "manifested activities of life in a living body." They generally enumerate five different kinds of Pranas, which, when understood correctly, are found to be nothing but the five different physiological-functions in every living body. They are: (1) the function of perception, (2) the function of excretion, (3) the function of digestion and assimilation, (4) the circulatory system, which distributes the food to all parts of the body, and lastly (5) the capacity in a living- creature to improve himself in his mental outlook and intellectual life. These activities of life within, about which an ordinary man is quite unconscious, are brought under the perfect control of the individual through the process of Pranayama, so that a seeker can, by this path, come to gain a complete capacity to withdraw all his perceptions. This is indeed a great help to a meditator. IN THIS SERIES OF TECHNIQUES ENUMERATED BY KRISHNA, AS A LAST METHOD, WE HAVE IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA THE TWELFTH METHOD DETAILED:

30. Others, with well-regulated diet, offer vital-airs in the Vital- Air. All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by sacrifice.

There are some who, through systematic regulation of their diet, come to gain a complete mastery over themselves and their appetites and passions. Dieting is not at all a new technique in India. The ancient Rishis not only knew the vitamin-contents and the caloric-values of the various food materials, but also prescribed very scientific combinations of the available vegetables and cereals to suit the temperament, function, and duties of persons belonging to different levels of society. Not only this; they so well perfected their knowledge that they even showed how, through regulated dieting, a man's character and behaviour, and ultimately his very cultural quality, can be purified and raised.

The verse adds that all these "KNOWERS OF Yajna," meaning all those who know "the art of living these techniques," when they practice them in a spirit of self- dedication and selfless enthusiasm, can fully come to profit by them. These methods and techniques do not promise that they will, of themselves, guide us or lead us to the Supreme. It is promised that all those who practise all, or a few, or even one of them for a sufficiently long period, can become "PURIFIED OF THEIR SINS." Sin, we have already discussed, is but a wrong pattern of thought-channels that is etched in a mind by devolutionary thoughts, entertained by a deluded ego in its extreme misunderstanding and its consequent attachment with the body and sense-objects. It is these sinful vasanas that make the ego act like an animal and force it to commit low and vicious criminalities. The above-mentioned practices not only wipe clean the existing wrong-vasanas but cut out in their place new- channels-of-thoughts, more constructive and evolutionary in their very nature. Thus, it must be carefully noted that all practices, physical, mental, or intellectual, that are generally known as divine and religious, are, without exception, only techniques by which the mind-and-intellect equipment gets adjusted for greater and more effective self-application in meditation. Meditation is the "path" in which the ego learns to withdraw its false evaluations of itself in particular, and of life in general, and comes to the final experience of its own divine nature. We often find sincere seekers getting so extremely attached to their own "path" of practice that they constantly argue about it among themselves. Therefore, Arjuna has been instructed here that all "paths," however noble and great they may be, are all but means, and not an end in themselves. IN ALL THE ABOVE-ENUMERATED TWELVE DIFFERENT "YAJNA-TECHNIQUES," SELF-EFFORT IS A COMMON FACTOR, AND THEREFORE, THE LORD SAYS:

31. The eaters of the nectar --- remnant of the sacrifice --- go to the Eternal BRAHMAN. Even this world is not for the non- performer of sacrifice; how then the other (world) , O best of the

Kurus? EATING THE SACRED REMNANT OF THE Yajna --- In the ancient ritualism of fire-sacrifices, things that were 'left over' in the pot from which the offerings were made, were called the "sacred remains," and they were considered by the devotees as divinely potent-remnants from the Lord's own plates. This was generally eaten by the devotees with great reverence, and it was considered that, thereby their minds would get purified. In the metaphor used here, when we try to find its corresponding implication in the subjective world, we must understand "the remnant that is left over" to mean

"the result of the above-mentioned twelve types of Yajnas."

The result of any one of the above 'Yajnas' is, as we know, a greater amount of self-control and the consequent inner integration of the individual personality. Those who have gained this have prepared themselves for the greatest vocation in life called 'intense meditation.' Such an integrated man can gain a greater inner poise in his meditation through which he can easily come to experience the Infinite and the Eternal, indicated by the term Brahman. The second line of the verse contains a beautiful generalisation which clinches the main idea, that self-development and inner growth cannot be had without investing continuous and sincere self-effort. Inaction can never bring about any profit even in this world, in any field whatsoever. Without self-dedicated and selfless activity, no great and enduring profit can be achieved in this world, and therefore, Krishna exclaims: "How could a seeker hope to achieve the Highest without any conscious effort at gaining it?" Two doubts can arise in the minds of ruthlessly intelligent students. It may be doubted: "Can all these different 'paths' lead us to one and the same goal, or do they lead to different goals?" It may also be doubted: "Are these not mere intellectual theories propounded by Krishna himself as an original contribution to Hindu thought?" THE FOLLOWING EXPLAINS THESE TWO DOUBTS:

32. Thus innumerable sacrifices lie spread out before BRAHMAN --- (literally at the mouth or face of BRAHMAN ) --- Know them all as born of action, and thus knowing, you shall be liberated.

In the world, no two different activities produce the same set of results. The twelve different Yajnas described so far, are all conspicuously different from one another, and so they must all be producing not an identical result but a series of different effects. In order to show that though the

"paths" are different, all of them ultimately lead to the same goal, it is said here: "Various Yajnas lie open, leading to the gate of Brahman, the ETERNAL." Just as 'all roads lead to Rome,' all the above-mentioned techniques of Yajna also ultimately lead to one and the same goal. KNOW THEM ALL TO BE BORN OF ACTION --- This timely reminder of the Lord has more than one direct suggestion: (a) these "paths" prescribed in the Vedas are all to be pursued through self-effort, and therefore, Arjuna is reminded of the inevitability of right action, if he wants to move ahead in his cultural self-development; and (b) it also suggests that all these "paths" are only the means and not the end. Action is born of "desires," and, therefore, as long as there is action there is no redemption from

"desires." The "State-of-Desirelessness" is the "State-of- Perfection," and therefore, in the context of our understanding, these pregnant words of the verse ring a note of warning that we should not misunderstand these Yajnas as the very goal of life.

UNDERSTANDING THUS, YOU SHALL BE FREE --- Here the word "understanding" is not a mere intellectual apprehension but a complete spiritual comprehension, in a vivid subjective experience of Reality. Right-Knowledge was represented as a "Knowledge- sacrifice" (IV-24). Then, several sacrifices have been mentioned. Knowledge is now being extolled, as compared with these latter kinds of sacrifices, which are all means of attaining the Purushartha --- the inner integration.

33. Superior is "knowledge-sacrifice" to "Sacrifice-with-objects, " O Parantapa. All actions in their entirety, O Partha, culminate in Knowledge.

Krishna compares the Dravya-Yajna --- the sacrifice of material oblations --- with Jnana-Yajna, and declares that, for cultural self-development, Jnana-Yajna is any day nobler and diviner than mere formalistic ritualism with material offerings (Dravya-Yajna). In the second line of the verse the Lord explains how and why He considers

"the sacrifice of 'ignorance'in Knowledge" (Jnana-Yajna) as greater and nobler than "the sacrifice of food and other materials in the sacred fire" (Dravya-Yajna). Ritualistic Karmas produce results to enjoy which the individual ego has to take up new manifestations, wherein again, he has yet to undertake and perform more and more activities. Karma never ends

Karma, and therefore, action cannot be a complete fulfilment in itself. On the other hand, Right-Knowledge (Jnana) ends all Karmas, once and for all, inasmuch as the deluded-ego destroys itself in the light-of-Self-Knowledge. We have already seen that 'ignorance'causes 'desires,' and desires are the seeds from which all actions arise. When this 'ignorance,' the primary source of all activities, ends at the dawn of 'Knowledge,' all actions naturally get fulfilled. Therefore, "ALL ACTION IN ITS ENTIRETY, O PARTHA, ATTAINS ITS CONSUMMATION IN KNOWLEDGE." IF THUS, BY 'KNOWLEDGE' ALONE WE CAN REALLY GAIN THE FULLEST SATISFACTION, THEN HOW ARE WE TO GAIN THIS 'KNOWLEDGE' BY WHICH ALL ACTIONS CAN AT ONCE BE BURNT UP AND EXHAUSTED?

34. Know that by long prostration, by question, and service, the "wise" who have realised the Truth will instruct you in (that) 'Knowledge. '

The verse explains the qualities that are necessary in a teacher, who alone can instruct us on the "Path-of- Knowledge" and guide us to the great consummation in all life. It also explains the mental attitude and the intellectual approach which a successful student must adopt, so that his contact with the Guru may be fruitful.

PROSTRATING YOURSELF --- All that is meant here is that the student must have an intellectual attitude of surrender and meekness, respect and obedience, when he approaches the teacher who has to instruct him upon the secret-of-life. Regarding the world within and the methods of its control, ordinarily, the students are completely ignorant, and therefore, they must approach the teacher with a readiness to understand, grasp and follow his instructions. Just as water flows always from a higher to a lower level, so too, 'knowledge' can flow only to a lower level. It is, therefore, necessary that the student must have a "spirit of prostration" in him so that he may be able to get himself surcharged with the 'Knowledge' that flows from the teacher. Thus the prostration, as used here, essentially defines more, the required mental and intellectual attitude of the student, than his physical readiness to fall-flat on the ground at the feet of his Master. BY QUESTIONS --- By raising doubts to the teacher we are opening up the cistern of 'Knowledge' locked up in the Master's bosom. A perfect Guru immediately detects from the questions, the false line of thinking in the student, and while removing the very doubt, he imperceptibly orders and reorganises the right-way of thinking in the inner thought-life of the student. When this intellectual wrestling has been practised for a long time, the fragrance of perfection in the teacher, as it were, gets transferred to the student's life!

Therefore, it has been an immortal tradition among the Hindus to have open discussions between the teacher and the taught, called Satsanga. This privilege is not available in all religions of the world. In fact, Vedanta alone thus dares to proclaim a perfect freedom for the intellect. It never trades upon the blind faith of the seekers. In all other religions, faith is a great power and force, and therefore, many of the intellectual imperfections in their Scriptures cannot be completely answered; and the priests therein must necessarily check the full freedom of the seekers to question their sacred texts. BY SERVICE --- The offering of flowers and sweetmeats is not what constitutes seva. These have been understood as the service of the teacher only as a by-product of institutionalism and Ashrama organisation. A true service of the teacher lies in the attempt of the student to attune himself to the principles of life advocated and advised to him by the Master. To live the life indicated by the Rishis is the greatest seva that an imperfect mortal can offer to the Man-of-Perfection. The two main qualifications essential for a fully useful teacher on the spiritual path are: (a) a perfect knowledge of scriptural literature and (b) a complete subjective experience of the Infinite Reality. These two factors are indicated here. Each, without the other, is totally useless in guiding a seeker. Mere knowledge of the Scriptures can make only a learned Pandita and not a Perfect-Master. A man of intimate experience of Truth will, in himself, become completely silent, because he will find it impossible to explain and express his own transcendental experience to other seekers. BY THIS THE LORD MEANS TO SAY THAT, THAT 'KNOWLEDGE' ALONE, WHICH IS IMPARTED BY THOSE WHO HAVE REALISED THE TRUTH --- THAT 'KNOWLEDGE' ALONE AND NO OTHER 'KNOWLEDGE' --- CAN PROVE EFFECTIVE. THEN THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT HOLDS GOOD:

35. Knowing that, you shall not, O Pandava, again get deluded like this; and by that, you shall see all beings in your Self, and also in Me.

After all these painful troubles, it may chance that we may get 'Knowledge,' but after one's death one may again fall back to 'ignorance'and come to repeat the same process. Even in our own life-time there have been many things learnt and experienced which we do not now remember. Similarly, this 'Knowledge' also may be lost to us in which case it will be indeed a great loss. This doubt is fully cleared here by an assertive, confident declaration that after regaining this 'Knowledge,' "YOU SHALL NOT, O PANDAVA, AGAIN GET DELUDED LIKE THIS." This declaration, rather fanatical in style, has to be, for the time being, accepted by all seekers. All teachers unanimously declare this idea and since they have no particular reason to deceive their generation, it is but intelligent that we should accept the truth of this declaration in good faith --- till we come to confirm it in our own personal experience. No doubt, an immature child can never understand the physical thrills of the nuptial chamber, and thereby it cannot be said that the newly-weds are always telling lies!! The little child has not matured enough even to feel sympathetically the thrills explained. Similarly, we, living in delusion, cannot UNDERSTAND the thrills of the transcendental, or EXPERIENCE its Eternal Nature --- however vividly the teachers may explain, until we also grow to the required inner maturity. By this rediscovery of the Self, Krishna promises that the Pandava Prince will thereafter be able to recognise the entire creation --- constituted of the world of objects, emotions, and ideas --- as nothing other than the Self, which is his own real Nature; which again is nothing other than 'Me', Lord Krishna, the Paramatman. Having for once realised the ocean, all the waves are recognised by the intelligent-eye as nothing but the ocean. In this stanza, thus, tests of having realised "that Knowledge" --- discussed in the previous stanzas, are given. It also indicates how long we must hold on to the apron of a true Guru. As long as we have not realised that the whole creation is nothing but our own Self, which is as divine and omnipotent as the Lord of Dwarka Himself, so long we cannot afford to leave our intimate relationship and complete dependence upon the Preceptor and Guide, the Guru. MOREOVER, SEE HOW EXCELLENT 'KNOWLEDGE' IS:

36. Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners, yet you shall verily cross all sins by the raft of 'Knowledge. '

While Arjuna was promised such a glorious transcendental experience, too divine for him to believe, he felt a certain amount of lack of confidence in himself, which was, perhaps, reflected, on his face. He had a feeling that he was not fit for such a great inner experience. Such a feeling can come to anyone of us, because there is none among the intelligent who is not painfully conscious of his own shortcomings. Vedanta is not a philosophy that heartlessly keeps the sinners out of its halls of wisdom. It does not believe that there is any lost soul who will ever wander among the heathens, and who can ONLY be redeemed IF he enters the portals of the Church of Vedanta!! Tolerant to a fault, Vedanta declares the Truth and nothing but the Truth. The All-pervading Divine manifests everywhere and therefore, there is no sinner who cannot, through his endeavour, come to claim his own heritage of Absolute Perfection. The Geeta is a scripture of life written for man, and its universality is unmistakably seen in the statement here. It assures man that "EVEN IF HE BE THE MOST SINFUL

AMONG THE SINFUL," he too can cross over his painful destinies of the present and reach the shores that lie beyond finitude and imperfections. Such a clear charter of man's right to the Divine has never so far been written in any other existing scripture of the world!! To rediscover that, in reality, the ego is nothing other than the Self in us, and to live thereafter as the Self of all, is called true 'Wisdom' (Jnana). Having thus awakened to our Real Nature, the dreamy cravings of the flesh can no more enchant us away from our pristine glory and make us run down the channels of sensuousness, to wreck ourselves on the stony bed of sin and sorrow. This is indicated by a beautiful metaphor: "BY THE RAFT OF 'KNOWLEDGE' ALONE SHALL YOU GO ACROSS ALL SINS." IN WHAT MANNER DOES THIS WISDOM DESTROY SIN?... HERE IS AN EXAMPLE:

37. As the blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the Fire-of-Knowledge reduce all actions to ashes.

JUST AS FIRE REDUCES FUEL TO ASHES --- This example has been given by the Lord in His sheer fatherly love for Arjuna. These words, familiar in all Yajnashalas, when used apart from their word meaning, are capable of creating, in their association, brilliant suggestions of a serene atmosphere and a thrilled sense of divinity.

Besides, the example is very striking. Whatever be the quality, shape, condition, colour, etc., of the fuel pieces, when all of them are taken to the fire-place and digested by the fire, they become one homogeneous mass of ash! In the samples of ash left in the hearth we cannot recognise the ash of a particular twig as different from that of another. Similarly, all Karmas, it is said, good, bad, or indifferent, get burnt up in the 'Fire of Knowledge' and will become something altogether different from what they were in their cause-and-effect condition. Solid fuel having girth, weight, smell, etc., becomes almost weightless, with no specific colour except a light-greyness, when it comes to the final state of ash. Actions leave reactions. The reactions mature at different periods of time depending upon the quality and intensity of the actions. From beginningless time, in our different manifestations, we have been, at every moment, acting in our ego-centric vanity and individuality. All those actions must have left their residual impressions and they have to be lived through. This entire Karma has been scientifically considered as falling under three classifications. They are called "not yet operative" (Sanchita), "operative" (Prarabdha), and "to be operative in future" (Agami). When, in the Geeta, it is said that all Karmas are burnt down, the Lord means the entire

Sanchita and Agami.

WHEREFORE:

38. Certainly, there is no purifier in this world like 'Knowledge. ' He who is himself perfected in YOGA finds it in the Self in time. So glorious is the result of Self-realisation that Lord Krishna explodes in enthusiasm and cries: "VERILY THERE EXISTS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD MORE NOBLE AND SACRED THAN SELF-KNOWLEDGE." Just as to a drowning man there is nothing more precious than a life-belt, so too, to the deluded ego there cannot be a greater possession and a nobler endeavour than the acquisition of 'Knowledge' of its own Real Nature. The Knowledge of the Self can be attained in one's own bosom when one has gained in oneself a full "MASTERY IN Yoga" --- when one has sincerely and diligently practised the above-mentioned twelve Yajnas and gained a complete self-mastery through them. This mastery of the Self over the flesh is not given by any teacher. The traditional story of a teacher spiritualising a student by his touch is a myth; it is impossible. Had it been so, in the presence of such a perfect Prophet like Krishna, Arjuna could have attained --- especially when the Lord felt such a great friendliness and love towards him --- in a wink, all the spirituality needed to become a God-man. Many devotees have, from time to time, wasted their chances and brought dishonour to their noble teachers, because they expected their Gurus to impart their acquired Wisdom to them, their Chelas (disciples), for the physical services rendered or the intellectual support given. Many of the existing seekers are, today, thoughtlessly squandering away their noble opportunities by vainly waiting for this cheap and ready method of purchasing God-hood! Let them be warned that, in spite of such glorifications of some Gurus available in the market and sold at some Ashramas in this country, it has no scriptural support. Here, Krishna, in all love, plainly tells the truth to Arjuna that he has to purify himself (Swayam) and then he himself will realise the Truth "in good time" (Kalena). No definite time schedule is promised for Perfection to manifest. It is only said that he who is practising sincerely and devotedly, all the twelve different subjective-Yajnas that are described earlier, will attain the necessary growth within, and will "IN GOOD TIME" come to experience the Self, the Beatitude-of-Perfection, the State of God-hood. IN GOOD TIME (Kalena) --- This does not mean either immediately, nor does it promise us the Supreme only after trillions of impossible years. The same idea has been more beautifully described in the following stanza by a more self-explanatory term "ere long" (Achirena). It gives a direct suggestion of hope and guidance to all seekers of all times that they need not become impatient and that, in fact, it would be far better for them constantly to apply themselves on the right path in the full confidence that they shall "ere long" reach their goal.

THE SUREST MEANS OF ACQUIRING WISDOM IS DECLARED AS FOLLOWS:

39. The man who is full of faith, who is devoted to It, and who has subdued the senses, obtains (this) 'Knowledge' ; and having obtained 'Knowledge, ' ere long he goes to the Supreme Peace.

The qualities that are necessary for an individual to be assured of the Knowledge-Divine are being enumerated here as vividly as from the leaf of a Science text-book. Three great qualities have been indicated and to understand them is to understand why the so-called seekers, in spite of their claims to sincere self-application, do not actually reach anywhere near the ladder of development. Faith, devotion, and self-control are the three imperative necessities to be acquired ere we can hope to evolve to the diviner stature from our present mortal encumbrances. But these three words are more often misunderstood than rightly evaluated. FAITH (Shraddha) --- Exploiters of religions have been making capital out of repeating this word as their safest excuse for all problems spiritual, to clear which devotees may approach these men who pose themselves as guides in religion. Invariably, we find that the ordinary devotees are completely rendered, sometimes fanatical and often poorer, in their intellectual and mental growth, because of the unintelligent insistence of Shraddha translated as "blind faith and unquestioned acceptance of any declaration said to be divine." Shankara tolls the death-knell of this misunderstanding when he explains Shraddha as "that by which an individual readily understands the exact import of the scriptural text as well as the pregnant words of advice of the preceptor." DEVOTED TO IT (Tatparah) --- Whatever be the 'path' of divine self-development that he may be following, it is an unavoidable necessity that the seeker must give his undivided attention to it, and must, on all occasions, maintain in his mind a continuous consciousness of the Divine. A mere intellectual study of the scriptures will not help us in purifying and shaping our "within' to the glorious Beauty of the Divine. It is necessary that we must pour out our mind and intellect into the scheme of living that the Upanishads advise. WHO HAS SUBDUED THE SENSES --- The Shraddha and Jnana explained above will not sustain themselves, and no seeker can consistently hope to entertain them unless he is constantly striving his best to live in a spirit of self-control. It is the sense-organs that seduce us away into the life of excessive sensuousness, and when one has entered into the troubled waters of a sensuous life, one has no chances of maintaining oneself quietly in the higher values of life. To walk the Path-Divine is to get out of the gutters-of- sensuousness. Excessive sense-life and Absolute God-life are antitheses to each other; where the one is, the other cannot be. Where the light of inward serenity and deeper peace have come, the darkness created by sense passions and animal appetites must depart. It is imperative, therefore, that a seeker should learn to live in steady and constant sense-control. Why should we live renouncing sense enjoyments, and employing our mind in remembering constantly the Divine goal of life, with faith both in ourselves and in the science of religion? Ordinarily, an intellect can enquire only as to the cause-and-effect of things. The ego is ever employed in its own motive-hunting. A seeker in the initial stages of his self-development remains constantly in his intellect. Naturally, he will enquire what the result of such a conspicuous sacrifice would be. To convince him, the second line is given. That a seeker who lives the above-mentioned triple- programme of Divine life, reaches the State-of- 'Knowledge' is the promise and guarantee of the Rishis, who are the authors of the immortal scriptures. A doubt again arises as to why we should, after all, acquire the 'Knowledge-Divine.' Krishna explains here that, having gained the right-knowledge, the individual "SOON REACHES THE SUPREME PEACE." The promise of reaching the great Goal-of-life is not guaranteed to take effect in a definite period of time. Just as, in the previous stanza, it was said, "In good time" (Kalena), so too, here it is said, "Ere long" (Achirena). In short, after gaining this 'Knowledge,' one would "soon" reach the Goal-of-life.

SUPREME PEACE (Param Shantim) --- The Goal-of-life is labelled here as the "Great Peace" that knows no diminution. In these days of peace-mongers getting ready for war in the name of peace, one is apt to become honestly sceptical about the goal indicated in this stanza. The term 'peace' here is not that undefined vague concept, that is often repeated in politics, whenever it is convenient for a set of politicians to do so, but the term Shanti has a wealth of psychological suggestiveness. It is very well-known that every living creature is, at all moments, trying to gain a better happiness, through all its activities in life. From breathing and eating, to the organised endeavour in capturing the world-market through war and destruction, all activities are attempts by the frail individuals to discover a greater and a better joy or happiness. This is true not only in man but in the animal kingdom, and even in the vegetable world. In short, no action is possible unless the actor is motivated by an inner urge in him to seek a greater sense of fulfilment or joy unto himself. If thus, the whole world is striving to win the highest joy that it possibly can, and having gained it, to invest all energy and intelligence to retain the same, then the goal of life should be ABSOLUTE-HAPPINESS, where all strife ends, all desires are fulfilled, all thoughts and agitations are finally exhausted. Desires for joy give rise to thought disturbances, which, trying to fulfil themselves in the outer world, become the visible actions in everyday life.

The restlessness of the mind and the weary fatigue of the body shall both end, when Absolute Joy is attained. Therefore, Absolute Joy is Absolute Peace. Here, in this stanza the Goal-of-life is indicated as the Supreme Peace, which may be, in other words, explained as the Supreme Joy. THOU SHALT NOT DOUBT THIS, FOR DOUBT IS MOST SINFUL. HOW?... LISTEN:

40. The ignorant, the faithless, the doubting-self goes to destruction; there is neither this world, nor the other, nor happiness for the doubter.

In the previous verse it was said that those who had faith and knowledge would soon reach the Supreme Peace. In order to hammer this very same Truth in, Krishna is here emphasising through a negative declaration that they, who have NOT these qualities cultivated, gained and developed in them, will get themselves ultimately destroyed and completely ruined. He who has neither the

"Knowledge-of-the-Self" --- if not a spiritual realisation, at least a clear intellectual understanding --- nor "the intellectual readiness to grapple with and fully understand the true import of the scriptural declarations and the words of the Masters" (Shraddha), Krishna asserts, will certainly get ruined, if he be also a 'doubting Thomas'

(Samshaya-atma).

In the next line, Krishna, with all emphasis, condemns such men of endless doubts, and points out their tragedy in life. The Lord says that such men who "DOUBT THE SELF" will not find any joy or happiness ANYWHERE --- " NEITHER HERE NOR IN THE HEREAFTER." In explaining thus, the Geeta seems to express that there may be a small chance perhaps, for one who is devoid of knowledge and faith to discover some kind of a happiness in this world, here and now, but that those who are constant doubters can enjoy neither here nor there. Such men are psychologically incapable of enjoying any situation, because the doubting tendency in them will poison all their experiences. He whose teeth have become septic must constantly poison the food that he is taking; so too, those who have this tendency of doubting everything, will never be able to accommodate themselves to any situation, however perfect and just it might be. The line contains a spot of satire, almost vitriolic in its pungency, when it is directed against the intelligent sceptic. WHEREFORE: --- FOR THIS REASON ONLY:

41. He who has renounced actions by YOGA, whose doubts are rent asunder by 'Knowledge, ' who is self-possessed, actions do not bind him, O Dhananjaya.

This being the penultimate verse in the chapter, it is a beautiful summary of all the main secrets-of-life explained at length in it. When, through the practice of Karma Yoga, we have learnt to renounce our attachments to the fruits- of-action, and yet to work on in perfect detachment --- when every doubt in us regarding the Goal-of-life has been completely removed in our own inner experiences of the nobler and the diviner in us --- as a result of the above two, the ego comes to rediscover itself to be nothing other than the Atman. Then the individual ego comes to live

"POISED IN THE SELF AS THE SELF." When such an individual works, his actions can never bind him. It is only egoistic activities motivated by our ego-centric desires that leave gross impressions on our inner personality, and thus painfully bind us to reap their reactions. With a sense of detachment and in right- knowledge, as indicated in the above scheme, when an individual has completely destroyed his ego-sense, his actions cannot bind him at all. As a dreamer, I might commit a murder in my dream, of my dream-wife, but when I awake from my dream, I shall not be punished for the crime that I seem to have committed in my dream. For, the dreamer has also ended along with the dream. The dreamer committed the murder and deserves punishment; but in the waker, the dreamer is absent. Similarly, the ego- centric actions can bind and throttle only the ego, but when the ego has become Atmavantah, meaning "POISED IN THE SELF" --- just like the dreamer when he gets poised in the waker --- the activities of the ego can no more bind the Self. The ego "POISED IN THE SELF," is the experience of the Real Self; the dreamer poised in the waker, is the waker. THIS BEING THE WONDROUS RESULT AND THE SUPREME PROFIT THAT 'TRUE-KNOWLEDGE' CAN GIVE TO THE DELUDED, KRISHNA ADVISES ARJUNA:

42. Therefore with the sword-of-Knowledge, cut asunder the doubt-of-the-Self, born of 'ignorance, ' residing in your heart, and take refuge in "YOGA. " Arise, O Bharata.

In this concluding stanza the Lord's advice is precise and it is given with a loving insistence. The stanza rings with a spirit of paternal urgency felt by the Lord towards the Pandava Prince. In the language of war, Krishna advises his warrior-friend on the battle-field, how best to live the life of dedication and perfection as advised by the Hindu Rishis from the quiet and peaceful Himalayan valleys. With the "SWORD- OF-KNOWLEDGE," Arjuna is encouraged to cut off the bonds of ignorance and 'CLEAVE ASUNDER THIS DOUBT-OF-THE-SELF LYING IN THE HEART." The spiritual doubt is explained here as working from the heart. This may read rather strange to a modern man: doubt must come from the intellect; it cannot come from the heart.

It is the traditional belief in Vedanta that "the intellect is seated in the heart," wherein the term HEART does not mean the fleshy pumping-instrument in the human bosom. The term HEART is used here not in its physiological meaning but in its literacy usage, where HEART means "the source of all love and sympathy --- of all noble human emotions." An intellect functioning from and through an atmosphere of sympathetic love, kindly charity and such other noble qualities alone can be considered in the science of philosophy as the human reason. Therefore, when the Upanishads talk of the doubts lying crystallised in the heart, the Rishis mean the intellectual perversions in some of the seekers that make them incompetent to feel and appreciate the Vision-of-the- Soul. These doubts can be completely annihilated only when the individual gains an intimate, subjective experience of the Self in him. This can be achieved only by Yoga --- NOT a strange mystical process, secretly advised to a few, by mysteriously rare groups of Gurus, to be practised in the unknown dark caves of the Himalayas, living altogether a frightful life of unnatural privations. In the Geeta, the word Yoga has been forever tamed and domesticated to be with all of us, serving us faithfully at all times in our life. By the term Yoga, in this last stanza, Krishna means the

"twelve techniques" which he has explained as the subjective-Yajnas.

The chapter concludes with a spirited call to Arjuna:

"ARISE, O BHARATA." In the context of the Geeta, though the word may be rightly said to mean only a call to Arjuna, it is a call to every seeker --- especially to this country as a whole --- to get up and act well in the spirit of Yajna, and thereby to gain more and more inner purity, so that through true meditation everyone of us can come to experience and gain the Supreme Peace which is the final fulfilment of evolution.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the scripture of YOGA , in the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, the fourth discourse ends entitled: THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE