The final chapter, the third to deal with the Gunas, is the longest, and perhaps aims to be a final summary, or recapitulation of sorts, returning again to the fundamental questions of action, knowledge, devotion, detachment and renunciation.
1- Renunciation (1-11)
Samnyasa ' and ' Tyaga ' distinguished.
(1-2)
2. Sages understand ' samnyasa ' to be the renouncement of interested
works ; the abandonment of the fruits of all works, the learned declare, is '
tyaga .
A few sages understand by ' samnyasa ' the abandonment of kamya-karmani,
of works (such as the Asvamedha, Horse sacrifice ) acccompanied with a
desire for fruits. The learned declare that ' tyaga ' means abandonment of
the fruits of all the works that are performed, — nitya and naimittika,
ordinary and extra-ordinary duties,—i.e., of the fruits that may accrue to
the performer. (Baghavad Gita,
with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)
Should the ignorant perform
works or not? (3-4)
3. That action should be abandoned as an evil, some philosophers
declare; while others (declare) that acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity
should not be given up.
The Lord's decree is that the
ignorant should perform works. (4-5)
Because it is hard to know the fact that the threefold (Tamasic,
&c.) abandonment denoted by the words ' tyaga ' and 'samnyasa ' is
possible in the case of him alone who does not know the Self and for whom
works are intended,—not in the case of him who sees the Supreme Reality,—therefore
no one, other than Myself, is able to teach the real truth about the
subject. Wherefore, learn from Me what My—the Lord's—decree is as to the
real teaching of the sastra. (Baghavad
Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri,
1901)
The obligatory works should be
performed without attachment. (6)
Abandonment Some people
consider these routine and incidental actions as useless because they must be
done routinely anyway. But just as food gives satisfaction (to the taste-buds)
and removes hunger, similarly these routine and incidental actions give
all-round results. Performance of these routine and incidental actions removes
the blemishes from one's mind, raises one's worth and because of it one reaches
a good state in the after-world. But even though one gains such fruits of the routine
and incidental actions, one should abandon those fruits. Thus, while one should
attentively perform the routine and incidental duties keeping oneself within
the prescribed bounds, the fruits thereof should be abandoned totally. This
abandoning of the fruits of actions is called abandonment. Thus I have
explained to you abandonment and Sanyas (renunciation). Renunciation When renunciation occurs the actions done with desire
do not bother. Prohibited actions are not done because they are prohibited and the
routine and incidental actions are automatically nullified because of the abandoning
of their fruits. (Dnyaneshwari; 18:119-126).
Tamasic and Rajasic
renunciations of works. (7)
7. Verily, the abandonment of an obligatory duty is not proper ; the
abandonment thereof from ignorance is declared to be Tamasic.
8. Whatever act one may abandon because it is painful, from fear of
bodily trouble, he practises Rajasic abandonment,
and he shall obtain no fruit whatever of abandonment.
Renunciation in works is
Sattvic. (9)
9. Whatever obligatory work is done, O Arjuna, merely because it ought
to be done, abandoning attachment and also the fruit, that abandonment is
deemed to be Sattvic.
When the man who is qualified for (Karma- Yoga) performs obligatory
works without attachment and without a longing for results, his inner
sense (antah-karana), unsoiled by desire for results and regenerated by
(the performance of) obligatory works, becomes pure. When pure
and tranquil, the inner sense is fit for contemplation of the Self. (Baghavad Gita, with the
Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)
From renunciation in works to
renunciation of all works. (10)
10. He hates not evil action, nor is he attached to a good one,—he who
has abandoned, pervaded by Sattva and possessed of wisdom, his doubts cut asunder.
Renunciation of fruits is
alone possible for the ignorant. (11)
11. Verily, it is not possible for an embodied -being to abandon actions
completely; he who abandons the fruits of actions is verily said to be an
abandoner.
An embodied being: a body-wearer, i. e., he who identifies himself
with the body. No man of discrimination can be called a body-wearer, for
it has been pointed out (ii.21, etc.) that such a man does not concern
himself (in actions) as their agent. So, the meaning is : it is not
possible for an ignorant man to abandon actions completely. When an ignorant
man who is qualified for action performs obligatory works, abandoning
merely the desire for the fruits of his actions, he is said to be an
abandoner (tyagin) though he is a performer of works. This—the title
" abandoner,"—is applied to him for courtesy's sake.
Accordingly, the abandonment of all actions is possible for him alone who, realising
the Supreme Reality, is not a ' body-wearer,' i. e., does not regard the
body as the Self. (Baghavad
Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri,
1901)
2- The Five Causes (12-17)
Effects of the two
renunciations after death. (12)
12. The threefold fruit of action,—evil, good, and mixed,—accrues after
death to non-abandoners, but never to abandoners.
Factors in the production of
an act. (13-15)
14. The seat and actor and the various organs, and the several functions
of various sorts, and the Divinity also, the fifth among these;
The agency of the Self is an
illusion. (16) Realisation of the non agency of the Self leads to absolution
from the effects of all work. (17)
The impulses to action. (18)
Knowledge, the object known, the knower (form) the threefold impulse to
action ; the organ, the end, the agent, form the threefold basis of action.
If the knower likes the knowable sense-object then he cannot tolerate a moment's
delay in enjoying it. But if he dislikes it then every moment of delay in
abandoning it seems to him like aeons. Then he does actions in order to accept
or reject it. Thus the knower becomes the doer of actions. He who, with the
desire of sense pleasures, makes the organs work becomes the doer and then
knowledge becomes the cause or in other words the means and consequently the knowable
becomes the action. In this manner the basic nature of the knowledge changes.
By giving impetus to the organs knower is caught in the ego of being the doer. (Dnyaneshwari; 18: 486-495, transl. M.R. Yardi)
The Impulses are threefold
according to the gunas. (19)
Sattvic Knowledge. (20)
Here follows the threefold character of knowledge :
20. That by which a man sees the one Indestructible Reality in all
beings, inseparate in the separated,—that knowledge know thou as Sattvic.
Reality (Bhava): the one Self. Indestructible : which cannot be
exhausted either in itself or in its properties ; Kutastha or immutable.
All beings: from Avyakta, or the unmanifested matter, down to the sthavara
or unmoving objects. That Reality, the Self, is not different in different bodies;
like the akasa, the Self admits of no division. Know thou this direct and
right perception of the non-dual Self as Sattvic. (Baghavad Gita, with the
Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)
Rajasic Knowledge. (21)
The dualistic fallacious systems of philosophy are Rajasic and
Tamasic, and therefore they cannot directly bring about the cessation of
samsara.
21. But that knowledge which, by differentiation, sees in all the
creatures various entities of distinct kinds, that knowledge know thou as Rajasic.
Tamasic Knowledge. (22)
22. But that which clings to one single effect as if it were all,
without reason, having no real object, and narrow, that is declared to be
Tamasic.
This knowledge is not founded on reason and does not perceive
things as they are. Because it is not founded on reason, it is narrow, as
extending over a limited area, or as producing very small results. This knowledge
is said to be Tamasic, because it is
found only in Tamasic beings possessing no faculty of discrimination. (Baghavad
Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri,
1901)
4- Kinds of Action (23-28)
Sattvic Action. (23) Rajasic
Action. (24) Tamasic Action. (25)
Sattvic Agent. (26)
26. Free from attachment, not given to egotism, endued with
firmness and vigour, unaffected in success and failure, an agent is said
to be Sattvic.
Rajasic Agent (27)Tamasic
Agent (28)
5- Kinds of Intellect (29-32)
Intellect and Firmness are
threefold according to Gunas. (29) Sattvic Intellect. (30)
30. That which knows action and inaction, what ought to be done and
what ought not to be done, fear and absence of fear, bondage and
liberation, that intellect is Sattvic, O Partha.
Action (pravntti): the cause of bondage, the karmamarga, the path
of action as taught in the sastra. Inaction (nivntti): the cause of
liberation, the path of samnyasa. — As ' action ' ( pravritti )
and ' inaction ' (nivntti) occur in connection with ' bondage' (bandha)
and ' liberation' (moksha), they have been interpreted to mean the paths
of action and renunciation (karma and samnyasa). (Baghavad Gita,
with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)
Rajasic Intellect. (31) Tamasic
Intellect. (32)
Sattvic Firmness. (33)
33. The firmness which is ever accompanied by Yoga, and by which
the activities of thought, of life-breaths and sense-organs, O Partha, are held fast,
such a firmness is Sattvic.
Sattvic fortitude When the Sattvic fortitude is created, the activities
of the mind, the life-force and the
organs stop. Then the association of the ten organs with the sense-objects breaks
and they enter the womb of the mind (i.e. instead of turning towards sense
objects they turn inwards towards the mind). Since both the upper and the lower
pathways of the life force are blocked it brings together its nine aspects and
goes to the Sushumna Nadi. Since mind is freed of will and doubt it is exposed
and the intellect rests quietly in its rear. Thus, the peerless fortitude which
by stopping the activities of the mind, life-force and the organs imprisons
them to the confines of meditation and keeps them so without getting lured by
them until they are handed over to our emperor the Supreme Soul, is the Sattvic
fortitude. (Dnyaneshwari; 18:737-744, transl. M.R. Yardi)
Rajasic Firmness. (34) Tamasic
Firmness. (35) Pleasure is threefold according to gunas. (36)
7- Pleasure (37-39)
Sattvic Pleasure. (37)
37. That which is like poison at first, like nectar at the end,
that pleasure is declared to be Sattvic, born of the purity of one's own
mind.
Sattvic bliss In order to achieve that bliss of the Self one has to
suffer in the beginning itself the pains of observing the self-restraints,
rules etc. When the strong detachment which swallows all the likes and dislikes
develops it uproots the binding (liking) to the heaven and the world. The weakness
of intellect etc. gets severely mutilated while listening to strict discretion
and while observing strict austerities. Surge of the vital airs Prana and Apana
are required to be swallowed through the Sushumna Nadi and all these efforts
are required to be made in the beginning itself. The organs suffer and feel as
if it is the end of the aeon while leaving the sense objects but with
detachment these pains are to be faced with courage. Thus by suffering the
pains in the beginning itself they achieve the highest kind of bliss. After the
detachment gets matured by the knowledge of the Self, all sorrows originating
in ignorance including the detachment vanish. Intellect becomes one with the
Soul and the mine of non-duality automatically opens up for it. In this way,
the bliss, which is rooted in detachment and ends in the peace of the
Self-realisation, may be called Sattvic bliss. (Dnyaneshwari; 18:781-793, transl.
M.R. Yardi)
Rajasic Pleasure. (38)
38. That pleasure which arises from the contact of the sense-organ
with the object, at first like nectar, in the end like poison, that is
declared to be Rajasic.
Tamasic Pleasure. (39)
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