Shrimad Bhagavad Gita

14. "God creates neither action nor the capacity for action, and not even the association of action with its fruits, but at the same time, vitalized by his spirit, it is nature that acts.’’

God makes neither the power of beings to act nor actions, nor does he decide the fruits of action, and all objects and beings act only under the pressure of innate natural properties. One acts according to the three properties, tamas, rajas and sattwa. Nature is vast, but it affects a man only to the extent to which his natural disposition is virtuous or vitiated - divine or devilish.People usually say that it is God who does or gets things done, and we are mere instruments. It is he who makes us do well or ill. But Krishn maintains that God neither acts nor prompts action, and that he also does not produce favourable or unfavourable circumstances. Men act by themselves according to the compulsions of their inborn nature. They are impelled to act by the inevitability of their inherent traits; it is not God who acts. Then why do people say that everything is done by God? Krishn dwells upon the problem.

15. "The all-pervading God, the Glorious One, accepts neither men’s sinful acts nor attachment because their knowledge is enveloped by ignorance (maya)." 2

The one who has been named God is now described as the Glorious One because he is embellished with sublime glory. That God, all powerful and radiant, accepts neither our sins nor our righteous actions. But people yet say that he does everything, because their knowledge is clouded with ignorance. As yet the men who speak so are only mortal beings, enclosed within bodies. Subject to delusion they can say anything. So Krishn now elucidates the function of knowledge.

16. "But the knowledge of one whose ignorance has been dispelled by Self-perception shines like the sun and renders God brilliantly visible. ’’

The mind, whose darkness has been pierced through by knowledge of the Self and which has thus acquired true wisdom, is lit up as if with the light of the sun and God is clearly manifested to it. This does not by any means imply that God is some kind of darkness, for he is truly the source of all light. He is the fountain of all light, but his light-it appears-is not for us because it is not seen by us. When darkness is swept away by perception of the Self-like the Self, like the sun, the resulting knowledge absorbs hisbrightness within itself. After this there is no longer any darkness. Here is what Krishn has to say about the nature of this knowledge:

17. "Those men attain salvation-after which there is no next birth-whose mind and intellect are free from delusion, who dwell with a single mind in God and put themselves at his mercy, and who are freed from all sin by knowledge.’’

That state is knowledge in which a man dedicates himself wholly to God and is dependent on him, with a mind and an intellect shaped accordingly, and overflowing with his essence. Knowledge is not garrulouness or being argumentative. The man who is endowed with this knowledge attains to salvation and is liberated from physical ties. It is such men who are called pandit, men of profound learning and wisdom. Only a man who has achieved this ultimate state deserves the name of pandit.

18. "Sages who look evenly at a Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even the most despicable of men are blessed with the highest degree of knowledge."

They are realized sages whose sins have been destroyed by knowledge and who have achieved the state in which there is no further birth. And such men regard all creatures impartially, making no distinction between a discerning Brahmin and an outcast, or between a dog and an elephant. In their eyes there is neither any special merit in the wise and learned Brahmin nor any special demerit in the ostracized man. For him neither is a cow holy nor a dog unholy. He does not find any special greatness about a massive elephant. Such men of knowledge are impartial of view and equalminded. Their eyes are fixed not on the skin, on the external form, but on the Soul-the inner essence. The difference is only this: men who know and are reverent to the Self are close to God, whereas others straggle behind. Some have gone a stage ahead, while some are yet lingering behind. Men of knowledge are conscious that the body is but an apparel. So they look at the embodied Soul and attach no significance to the outward form. They do not discriminate. Krishn was a cowherd and he had tended cows. So he should have spoken of this creature in reverential terms. But he has done nothing like that and he concedes no place to the cow in dharm. He has only admitted that like other beings she, too has a Soul. Whatever be the economic importance of cows, their religious elevation is just an invention of the ignorant with enslaved minds. Krishn said earlier that ignorant minds are riven with dissensions, because of which they devise an endless variety of deeds.The eighteenth verse suggests that there are two kinds of sages. First, there are sages whose knowledge is perfect. Secondly, there are sages who are possessed of reverent knowledge. Let us linger for a moment to see how they are different. It is an axiom that everything has at least two stages, the highest-the ultimate stage-and the initial-the lowest stage. The lowest stage of worship is the one at which it is commenced, when it is taken up with discernment, detachment, and dedication, while the highest stage is that at which the final outcome of the act of worship is about to emerge. The same is true of the Brahmin class-the state of sattwa, when there is the advent of properties that provide access to the Supreme Spirit and there is the presence of knowledge and a reverential attitude. At this stage all the faculties that take one to God are spontaneously active within-control of mind, restraint of senses, beginning of the process of intuition-direct perception, steady contemplation, concentration, and abstract meditation. This is the lowest stage of the state that is named Brahmin. Its highest stage is reached when with gradual perfection the Self at last stands face to face with God and is dissolved in him. Now that which had to be known is perfectly known. The sage who has achieved this is the one with perfect knowledge. This sage, who is now beyond rebirth, looks equally at creatures, because his eyes are turned within to see the enshrined Self. So Krishn now describes what is the ultimate lot of this sage:

19. "They who achieve the state of equality conquer the whole world within the mortal life itself, because they rest in God who is also unblemished and impartial.’’

Sages with perfectly poised minds are freed from material nature during their worldly life itself. But what is the relation between an even mind and conquest of nature? When the world itself is annihilated, what is the position of the Self? In Krishn’s view, since God is immaculate and impartial, the minds of sages who have known Him are also freed from all blemishes and inequalities. The sage becomes one with God. This is the ultimate birthless state and it is acquired when the ability to overcome the enemy, the world of appearances, is fully developed. This ability is there when the mind is controlled and when one has achieved the state of equality, for the world of appearances, is but an extension of the mind. Krishn then speaks of the distinctive marks of the sage who has known God and merged into him:

20. ‘That equal-minded man dwells in God who is neither delighted by what others love nor offended by what others scorn, who is free from doubt, and who has perceived Him’’

Such a man transcends feelings of love and hatred. He does not go wild with joy when he gets something which is cherished and admired by others. In the same way, he is also not repelled by what others find distasteful. With such a constant mind, free from doubt, and endowed with knowledge of the divine Self, he always dwells in God. In other words, he is a man of attainment, and-

21. "That man becomes one with God and enjoys eternal bliss who is single-mindedly dedicated to him and whose heart is free from desire for worldly joys."

The man who has renounced desire for the pleasure of objects of the external world attains to the felicity of God. His Self is united with God and the resulting happiness is therefore eternal. But this happiness comes only to him who is unattached to pleasures.

22. "Since the pleasures arising from the association of senses with their objects are a cause of grief and are transitory, O son of Kunti, men of wisdom do not desire them."

Not only the skin, but all senses feel the sensation of touch contact. Seeing is the touch of the eye as hearing is the touch of the ear. Although seeming pleasant to experience, all the enjoyment arising form these contacts of senses with their objects only leads to miserable births. Moreover, these sensual gratifications are also transient and destructible. So Arjun is told that men of discrimination are not entangled in them. Krishn then enlightens him on the evil that is embodied by attachment to these pleasures.

23. "That man in this world is a true and blessed yogi who, even before the death of his mortal body, acquires the ability to withstand the onslaughts of passion and anger, and conquers them for ever.’’

He is the real man (nara=na+raman)-one who is not given to physical dalliance. Even while he is living in the mortal body, he is capable of facing the fierce urges of passion and anger, and of destroying them. He has achieved selfless action in the world and he is happy. He has won the happiness of identity with God in which there is no grief. According to divine ordinance, this happiness is acquired in this mortal, worldly life itself and not after the death of the physical body. This is what Sant Kabir intends to convey when he counsels his disciples to place their hope in this life. The assurance that salvation comes after death is false and given only by unworthy and selfish teachers. Krishn also says that the man who succeeds in overcoming his passion and anger in this life itself is the doer of selfless action in this world, and he is blessed with everlasting happiness. Passion and anger, attraction and repulsion, desire for the touching of objects by the senses, are our mortal enemies whom we have to vanquish and destroy. Krishn again dwells upon the nature of the doer of selfless action.

24. "The man who knows his Self and whose happiness and peace lie within merges into God, and he attains to the final beatitude that lies in him."

The man, who is joyous within, at peace within, and illumined within by his perception of the Self and the identical Universal Spirit, is a realized sage who is united with God and who attains to his ineffable state. In other words, there is first destruction of perversions-alien impulses such as attachment and aversion, then the emergence of perception, and finally submersion in the all-pervading ocean of final beatitude.

25. "They attain to the eternal peace of God whose sins have been destroyed by perception and whose doubts are resolved, and who are single-mindedly concerned with the good of all beings.’’

He is a man of attainment whose sins have been dispelled by his vision of God, whose doubts have been done away with, and who is wholeheartedly devoted to the service of all mankind. Only a man of this elevated state can help others, for how can he who is fallen in a ditch himself help others to get out? So compassion appears as a natural attribute of realized sages and they, with their spiritual perception and conquest of the senses, realize the peace that comes with the final dissolution in God.

26. "Men who are free from passion and wrath, who have conquered their mind, and who have had a direct perception of God, see the all-tranquil Supreme Self wherever they look.’’

Krishn thus repeatedly stresses the distinctive features of the character and life of doers of selfless action in order to motivate and encourage Arjun and, through him, all his other disciples. The question is now almost resolved. To conclude his argument, however, Krishn reverts to the necessity of contemplating the incoming and outgoing breath for the realization of this sage’s state. In Chapter 4, he told us of offering pran to apan, of sacrificing apan to pran, and of the regulation of both the life winds while giving his account of the process of yagya. The same subject is taken up again at the end of the present chapter.

27-28. "That sage is liberated for ever who shuts out of his mind all objects of sensual pleasure, keeps his eyes centered between the two brows, regulates his pran and apan, conquers his senses, mind and intellect, and whose mind is fixed on salvation."

Krishn reminds Arjun of the vital need of excluding from the mind all thoughts of external objects as well as of keeping the eyes fixed steadily between the two brows. Keeping the eyes between the brows does not simply mean concentrating them at something. It is rather that while the worshipper is sitting erect, his eyes should be pointed ahead in a straight line from the midpoint between the brows; they should not wander about restlessly and look right and left. Keeping the eyes aligned with the ridge of the nose- we must be careful that we do not start watching the nose-and balancing pran against apan and keeping the eyes steadily fixed all the while, we should direct the vision of mind, the Soul, to the breath and let him watch it: when does the breath go in, how long is it held-if it is held in for only half a second, we should not try to prolong it by force, and how long does it stay out? It is hardly necessary to say that the name in the breath will ring audibly. Thus when the vision of mind learns to concentrate steadily on the inhaled and exhaled breath, breathing will gradually become constant, firm, and balanced. There will be then neither generation of inner desires nor assaults on the mind and heart by desires from external sources. Thoughts of external pleasure have already been shut out; now there will not even arise inner desires. Contemplation then stands steady and straight like a stream of oil. A stream of oil does not descend like water, drop by drop; it comes down in a constant, unbroken line. Similar to this is the motion of the breath of a sage of attainment. So the man, who has balanced his pran and apan, conquered his senses, mind and intellect, freed himself from desire, and fear and anger, perfected contemplative discipline, and taken refuge in salvation, is ever-liberated. Krishn finally discourses upon where this sage goes after liberation and what he achieves.

29. "Knowing the truth that it is I who enjoy the offerings of yagya and penances, that I am God of all the worlds, and that l am the selfless benefactor of all beings, he attains to final tranquillity."

This liberated man, who knows that Krishn-God of the gods of all worlds-is the recipient and enjoyer of the offerings of all yagya and penances, and that he is the selfless well-wisher of all beings- knowing all this he achieves the ultimate repose. Krishn says that he is the enjoyer of the worshipper’s yagya of inhaled and exhaled breath as well as of austerities. He is the one in whom yagya and penances are at last dissolved and so their doer comes to Him, the ultimate serenity that results from the completion of yagya. The worshipper, liberated from desire by selfless action, knows Krishn and realizes him as soon as he is blessed with this knowledge.

This is named peace; and the one who achieves it becomes God of gods just as Krishn is.