Episode 673: BG Chap 4
karmaṇyakarma yaḥ paśyēt akarmaṇicakarmayaḥ
sabuddhimān manuṣyēṣu sayuktaḥ kṛtsnakarmakṛtǁ18ǁ
He who sees action in inaction & inaction in action is the wisest among humans. He is a yogi. He has completed all actions.
Actions done with egoism, feelings of doership, seeking results, & with attachment to the results bind the person.
Any amount of work done without doership & without seeking results, cannot bind. It is equivalent of not doing any work. Karma (action) here is equal to akarma (inaction). Even Mahatmas work. However, as they have no interest in its results, for them it is inaction. It cannot bind them. This is seeing inaction in action. Bhagavān did not say, ‘Action is bondage. Abandon it’. Duties mandated by the Shastras must be unfailingly completed but without expectation.
Many have desires. They sit inactively but mentally are engaged in action. The senses & body do not move, but the mind runs. That is action in inaction. It creates bondage. Those who see this wisely abandon laziness. They perform good deeds & through them obtain mental purity which leads to Jnana.
Bhagavan says- those who perceive action in inaction & inaction in action are wise. They obtain the result that is obtained on completion of all actions.
In 5 verses He glorifies seeing inaction in action.
yasyasarvē samārambhāḥ kāmasaṅkalpavarjitāḥ
jñānāgnidagdhakarmāṇaṁ tamāhuḥ paṇḍitaṁbudhāḥǁ19ǁ
He whose actions are freed from desires & resolves, & whose all actions are burnt in the Jnana-fire is addressed as a pandit by the Self-realized.
One who sees inaction in his actions will not desire, ‘I seek this’ nor will resolve, ‘this should be successful’. If he is in the pravrtti path, then without selfishness he completes deeds for universal wellbeing. If he is in the nivrtti path, he engages only in actions for his sustenance.
Ability to see inaction in action is Jnana-fire. The Self-realized address him, whose good & bad deeds are burnt in this fire as a Pandit.
tyaktvā karmaphalāsaṅgaṁ nityatṛptōnirāśrayaḥ
karmaṇyabhipravṛittō’pi naivakiñcit karōtisaḥǁ20ǁ
He who has abandoned all attachment for fruitive results, who remains content & who does not depend on anything, is not doing action even if he is engaged in it.
The Self does nothing. He who knows, ‘I am doing nothing’ is a Jnani. What personal gain can he seek? Hence, he must abandon action along with its tools. If he cannot exit from them, he continues to work as before. However, as he is aware that he is not the doer, it is inaction for him.
The Yati, who, even before starting the actions realizes his oneness with the Supreme, and thinks, ‘I am the Brahma who is actionless’, seeks nothing in this visible world or other invisible worlds.
nirāśīryatacittātmā tyaktasarvaparigrahaḥ
śārīraṁ kēvalaṁ karma kurvannāpnōti kilbiṣamǁ21ǁ
He who is free from desires, who has restrained his mind, body, & senses, who has given up accepting objects, & who does not have the thought, ‘I am the doer’, is not touched by sin even if he engages in actions for survival.
Here Bhagavan teaches how actions must be performed, in what mental state they should be performed & the attitude with which they should be performed, to not be touched by sin.
He who does not have desires is ‘nirāshih’. He whom the desires have abandoned is also ‘nirāshīh’. Although both connote the same meaning, a slight difference exists.
Chitta is the antahkarana. Here the word ‘atma’ is the union of the body and the senses. He who has restrained his inner faculty and atma is yatāchittātma. He who has abandoned all possessions is tyakta sarvaparigraha. He has abandoned accepting any objects (he pursues aparigraha vrata).
Learned scholars address the lack of ‘mine-ness’ towards objects as aparigraha i.e., he has no attachment towards his present & future possessions, & towards objects given by others now & in future.
This is the mental aparigraha vrata (although he accepts physically, his mind is unattached to them).
As without doership he engages in actions necessary for survival, he obtains neither merit nor sin. Note that even merit should be undesired as it creates bondage for the seeker of liberation.
yadṛcchhā lābhasantuṣhṭaḥ dvandvātītovimatsaraḥ
samassiddhāvasiddhauca kṛtvāpi na nibadhyate ǁ22ǁ
He who is content with that which arises by chance, who has crossed dualities of heat-cold, joy-sorrow etc., who is free of envy and who is even-minded in success & failure, is unbound by actions even if he performs them.
Yadrcchaya is that which is obtained unexpectedly/without desiring. Santushta is he who is content thinking, ‘this is enough’.
He who disregards dualities that touch him is dvandāteeta. Vimatsarya is to have no feelings of enmity. Bhagavan explains this through - nirvaira sarvabhūteṣu.
15 июн 2024
