Chapter IV (VERSE 36) & CHAPTER IX (VERSE 30)
Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga – The Yoga of Renunciation of Action with Knowledge
CHAPTER IV
(Verse 36)
अपि चेदसि पापेभ्यः सर्वेभ्यः पापकृत्तमः ।
सर्वं ज्ञानप्लवेनैव वृजिनं सन्तरिष्यसि ॥ ४-३६॥
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.”
Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga – The Yoga of Royal Knowledge and Royal Secret
CHAPTER IX
(Verse 30)
अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक् ।
साधुरेव स मन्तव्यः सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि सः ॥ ९-३०॥
Even if the most sinful worships Me, with devotion to none else, (or with single-pointedness) , he too should indeed be regarded as ‘righteous, ‘ for he has rightly resolved.
The practice of devotion, understood in the special meaning in which it is used in the Geeta, is glorified here by indicating its effects upon each individual practitioner. In the Geeta, Bhakti is selfless contemplation with a singlepointed mind upon the non-dual Brahman considered as nothing other than the very Essence in the devotee. When this Bhakti is practised for a sufficiently long time, with the required intensity and sincerity, the evolution in the individual is mapped out here showing the various stages in its efflorescence.
Ordinarily, there is a vague belief that a vicious sinner or a desperate criminal is an outcaste, who can never dare to enter the courtyard of heaven. This condemnation of the immoral sinner is an unhappy mis-reading of the spirit of Vedic literature. THE VEDAS CONDEMN THE SIN, NOT THE SINNER. The evil ways of the sinner are but expressions of the evil thoughts in his mind, and so, if the texture of the thoughts flowing in his mind could be changed, the texture of his behaviour would also be transformed. He who has come to keep consistently in his mind, thoughts of the Lord, accomplishes, in the warmth of his growing devotion, so total a rehabilitation of the mental life that he cannot thereafter carry on his career in sin.
EVEN IF A WICKED PERSON WORSHIPS ME — Not only does the Geeta throw its gates open to the sinners, but the Singer of the Divine Song also seems to have great missionary zeal to redeem all sinners, and bless them. Even those who are given to evil ways are not debarred from entering the field of spirituality because of their undivine actions and the impurity of their lives. The only insistence is that the worship of the Self must be performed by the devotee with “undivided devotion.” Here the term ‘undivided’ (Ananya) can be applied both to the ‘mind of the meditator’ and to the ‘goal meditated upon.’ On the whole, the phrase implies that devotion can pay its promised dividend only when the devotee, with a single-pointed mind, contemplates upon a goal that is non-dual and permanent. The non-dual Self is not to be considered as different from the very Essence in the devotee himself (Ananya).
HE SHOULD BE REGARDED AS GOOD — Even though he has been, till this day, a man of evil ways, wicked and cruel, living the life of the senses, uncontrolled and passionate, even then, from the moment he has taken to the path of contemplation upon the Supreme, with devotion, he is to be considered, says Krishna, as ‘SAINTLY AND GOOD.’ Such usage of words is common to every language, when we want to emphatically assert a state or condition to be fulfilled in the immediate future. In all such cases, we claim it as a state accomplished, even in the present ‘baking the bread,’ ‘making the tea,’ are all examples when, even while kneading the flour or boiling the water, we refer to these acts with a term indicating anticipatory fulfilment. Similarly here, one who has taken to the “Path Divine” is called, from that very moment, as “GOOD AND SAINTLY” because he will soon (Acirat) grow out of himself to thrive and flourish in the vaster atmosphere of spiritual glory; it is an anticipatory statement.
Such an individual is to be considered good and divine, “FOR,” as Krishna puts it, “HE HAS RIGHTLY RESOLVED.” In the Life Divine, right resolution is more important than mere routine. The majority of seekers only plod on their “paths” — a melancholy brood, like famished cattle, treading their way to the meat-market! Such a melancholy procession can reach nowhere but the butcher’s block where Time hacks them into pieces! He who steadily walks the path with an iron-heart of resolution, open-eyed and enthusiastic, cheerful and heroic, alone is noted for sure success and therefore, the Flute-bearer emphatically asserts that the rightly resolved man of evil ways is to be considered, from the moment of his noble decision, as one especially marked out to be soon a successful man-of-Perfection.