4- Gyana Karma Sanyasayoga or The Yoga of Renunciation of Action through Knowledge
1 – Doctrine of Avatara (Verses 1-9)
Tradition of Jnana Yoga. (1-3)
2. This, handed down thus in succession, the King-sages learnt. This
Yoga, by long lapse of time, has been lost here, O harasser of foes. 3. That
same ancient Yoga has been today taught to thee by Me, seeing that thou art My
devotee and friend ; for, this is the Supreme Secret. This knowledge, this
Yoga, is the Supreme Secret.
Divine Incarnations. (4-6)
6. Though I am unborn, of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord
of all beings, yet ruling over My own nature, I am born by My own Maya.
The purpose of Divine
Incarnation. (7-9)
7. Whenever there is a decay of religion, O Bharata, and an ascendency
of irreligion, then I manifest Myself.
8. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers,
for the firm establishment of religion, I am born in every age.
He also declares
that the right and full comprehension of the mystery of his births and work on
earth confers upon us nirvana, so that rebirth occurs no more. This is because
it is not possible for a man to understand the mystery unless he has completely
liberated himself from the chains of passion and acquired entire concentration.
He has learned to look beneath the shell of appearances that deceives the
unthinking mind. (William Q. Judge, Essays on the Gita, 4, 8)
2- Action (10-18)
Jnana-Yoga is the sole
means to moksha. (10)
10. Free from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in
Me, purified by the fire (tapas) of wisdom, many have reached My being.
Divine dispensation of
worldly benefits and salvation. (11-12)
11-Howsoever men approach Me, even so do I reward them ; My path do men
follow in all things, O son of Pritha.
I grace people according to the manner by which they express
their devotion to me. It is the natural tendency of man to do my
upasana (worship). But through ignorance or due to delusion, most people
think of me in many different forms though I am one and the only God. I
am without name but they assign different names to the different forms
which they consider as deities.
I am all pervading but they qualify my
forms as superior or inferior. With desire in their minds they
worship these deities. They gain the fruits therefrom but actually that is
the fruit of their actions, there being nothing other than actions which
can give fruits. I am the witness to the worship of all these deities but
each worshipper gets the fruits according to his attitude. (4:76) (Dnyaneshwari; 4:66-76, transl. M.R. Yardi)
Caste as a divinely ordered
human institution. (13)
13. The fourfold
caste has been created by Me according to the distribution of energies and
actions; though I am the author thereof, know Me as non-agent and immutable.
Action without attachment
does not bind the soul. (14-15)
14. Actions pollute Me not, nor have I a desire for the fruit of
actions. He who knows Me thus is not bound by actions.
The real nature of action
and inaction. (16-18)
18. He who can see inaction in action, who can also see action in
inaction, he is wise among men, he is devout, he is the performer of all
action.
Now, action
which belongs to the body and the senses, while yet retaining its own
nature as action, is falsely imputed by all to the Self who is actionless
and immutable; whence even a learned man thinks " I act."
Hence
the passage means:—He who sees inaction in action, i.e., he who has
the right knowledge that action, which is commonly supposed by all to
pertain to the Self, does not really belong to the Self, just as motion
does not really pertain to the trees (on the shore of the river) which
appear (to a man on board the ship) to move in the opposite direction
; and he who sees action in inaction, i.e., he who knows that even
inaction is action,—for, inaction is but a cessation of bodily and mental
activities, and like action it is falsely attributed to the Self and
causes the feeling of egoism as expressed in the words " quiet and
doing nothing, I sit happy;"-—he who can realize the nature of action
and inaction as now explained is wise among men ; he is devout (Yogin),
he is the performer of all actions. He is released from evil ; he has
achieved all. (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya,
transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901, 130-132)
3- The sage (19-23)
Who is a sage ?(19)
19. He whose
engagements are all devoid of desires and purposes, and whose actions have been burnt by the
fire of wisdom, him the wise call a sage.
Now listen to the characteristics of a person who has reached
perfection. Even as he performs actions he does not consider himself to be
the doer and does not keep expectations about the fruits. Apart from a
sense of duty, he has no other reason for actions. It must then be
considered that actionlessness has been well ingrained in such a person.
Such a person should be considered as having understood the meaning of non-action
and an enlightened person.
He who realises Self knowing
that performance of his actions is unreal from the point of view of the
Self is a real person of non-action. He enjoys the worldly pleasures
without being attached or being affected by them. And even by remaining in
one place he travels through the universe and actually himself becomes
the universe. (Dnyaneshwari; 4:93-102)
The Sage's worldly action
as an example to the masses. (20)
20. Having abandoned attachment for the fruits of action, ever content,
dependent on none, though engaged in actions, nothing at all does he do.
The Sage's action for
bodily maintenance. (21-22)
21. Free from desire, with the mind and the self controlled, having
relinquished all possessions, doing mere bodily action, he incurs no sin.
22. Satisfied with what comes to him by chance, rising above the pairs
of opposites, free from envy, equanimous in success and failure, though acting
he is not bound.
He is not bothered about his person, is desireless about the fruits of
his actions and is always happy. He is always content but constantly seeks
the experience of the Self. Shedding
expectations and ego, he experiences more and more the sweetness of the
bliss of the Self. Therefore he is happy with whatever comes to his lot.
He does not say that this is mine and that is somebody else's. The very
actions he performs merge into him because he does not see anything other
than Self in this world. How can actions affect such a person? (Dnyaneshwari; 4:106-112)
The Sage's worldly action
does not bind him. (23)
23. Of the man
whose attachment is gone, who is liberated, whose mind is established in
knowledge, who acts for the sake of sacrifice,—his whole action melts away.
4- Sacrifice (24-32)
Wisdom sacrifice. (24)
24. Brahman is the offering, Brahman the oblation ; by Brahman is the
oblation poured into the fire of Brahman ; Brahman verily shall be reached by
him who always sees Brahman in action.
No sacrificial rite is ever found unassocialed with the idea of the
accessories of action and results, unaccompained with egoism and a
longing for the results. But this (wisdom-sacrifice) is an
action wherein all idea of the instrument and other various
accessories of action, all idea of action itself and of its results,
has been replaced by the one idea of Brahman. Whence it is no action
at all. This is shewn in iv 18, 20 ; iii. 28; v., 8 Thus teaching, our
Lord here and there tries also to remove all idea of duality, i.e, of
action, its result and its accessories.
(Sankara Commentary)
Sacrifices effected by
action. (25-32)
Brahman is devoid of all characteristics of mundane existence (samsara)
such as hunger and thirst, inconceivable in any particular form or aspect,
as taught by the Scripture in the terms, "It is not thus, it is not
thus." (Bn. Up. 4-4-22). To know the conditioned Self as identical
with the unconditioned Brahman is to sacrifice the Self in
Brahman. This is the sacrifice which is performed by those who,
having renounced all action, are ever steady in their knowledge of
the identity of the Self with Brahman. (Sankara Commentary)
32. Thus manifold sacrifices are spread at the mouth of Brahman. Know
them all as born of action. Thus knowing, thou shalt be liberated.
5- Sacrifice to Wisdom (33-42)
Wisdom sacrifice is superior to other sacrifices. (33)
33. Superior
is wisdom-sacrifice to the sacrifice with objects, O harasser of thy foes. All
action, without exception, O son of Pritha, is comprehended in wisdom.
After enumerating all, not only the performance but also the omitting of
sacrifice, he shows Arjuna that spiritual knowledge includes all actions and
burns to ashes the binding effects of all work, conferring upon us the power to
take nirvana by reason of emancipation from the delusion that the lower self
was the actor. The perfection of this spiritual knowledge is reached by
strengthening faith and expelling doubt through devotion and restraint. (Judge,
4, 33)
How and where one should
seek wisdom. (34-35)
34. Know this: by long prostration, by enquiry, by service, those men of
wisdom who have realised the truth will teach thee wisdom.
Know thou by what process it is obtained. Go to the ? teachers
(Acharyas) and humbly prostrate thyself before them. Ask them what is the
cause of bondage (bandha) and what the means of deliverance ; what is
wisdom (vidya) and what nescience (avidya). Do service to the Guru. Won
over by these and other marks of respect, the teachers who, knowing the
truth as well as realising it themselves, will impart to thee their
wisdom,—that wisdom which has been described above. Some only, but not
all, know as, well as realise the truth.—By this the Lord means to
say that that knowledge alone which is imparted by those who have realised
the truth — and no other knowledge—can prove effective. (Sankara
Commentary)
35. Knowing which, thou shalt not again thus fall into error, O Pandava
; and by which, thou wilt see all beings in thy Self and also in Me.
Wisdom, a consumer of all
sins and actions. (36-38)
36. Even
shouldst thou be the most sinful of all the sinful, thou shalt verily cross all
sin by the
bark of wisdom.
The surest means to wisdom.
(39)
39. He obtains wisdom who is full of faith, who is devoted to it, and
who has subdued the senses. Having obtained wisdom, he ere long attains to the
Supreme Peace.
Knowledge seeks him who is fed up with sense-pleasures in preference
to the pleasure of the Self-realisation, who does not bother about the
sense organs, who does not allow desires enter his mind, does not
feel responsible for the things which occur naturally and who has become
happy by faith. Peace resides in the mind of such a person. Once the
Knowledge becomes firm in his mind he attains self-realisation and peace
reigns in his mind. He sees peace wherever he casts his glance and duality
about "this is mine" and "that is another person's"
vanishes from his mind. (Dnyaneshwari; 4:186-190).
Wisdom the killer of
doubt. (40-42)
So long as doubt remains there will be no peace, no certainty, nor any
hope of finding it in this world or the lives upon it hereafter, and not even
in the vast reaches of other universes on which we may live in future ages; the
doubter now will be the doubter then, and so on while the wheel revolves for
the millions of years yet before us.
(Judge, 4, 40)
42. Therefore
with the sword of wisdom cleave asunder this doubt of the Self lying in the
heart
and born of
ignorance, and resort to Yoga. Arise, O Bharata.
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