Chapter II (VERSE 71) & CHAPTER V (VERSE XII)
Sankhya Yoga – The Yoga of Knowledge
CHAPTER II
(Verse 71)
विहाय कामान्यः सर्वान्पुमांश्चरति निःस्पृहः ।
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः स शान्तिमधिगच्छति ॥ २-७१॥
That man attains peace who, abandoning all desires, moves about without longing, without the sense of ‘l-ness’ and ‘myness. ‘
There are commentators who believe that this and the following stanza explain the Path of Renunciation, which is, in fact, not altogether ignored in the text of the Geeta. Since, as we said earlier, the second chapter is almost a summary of the entire Divine Song, it has to indicate even this Samnyasa Yoga, which will be later on explained at length and hinted at different places during the entire length of the Geeta.
This stanza seems to ring clearly the significant advice given earlier by Krishna, almost at the very opening of his philosophical discussions, in this chapter. He had advised therein: “HAVING CONQUERED THE MENTAL AGITATIONS CREATED BY THE PAIRS-OFOPPOSITES, FIGHT THE BATTLE OF LIFE.” The same idea seems to be resounding here at the close of the chapter.
The first line of the stanza explains the mental condition of one who comes to discover Real Peace in himself. Such an individual, it says, renounces all desires and has no attachments or longings. The second line describes the condition of such an individual’s intellect and it asserts that it is without any sense of ‘I-ness’ or ‘my-ness.’ The ego is the cause for the sense-attachments and longings. Where the ego is not perceptible, as in sleep, there are no longings or desires in the individual or, at least, they are dormant. Thus, if the first line of the stanza is describing a negation of the effects of “ignorance,” the second line asserts the absence of the very cause from which desires and the agitations arise.
Earlier, in the introduction, we explained that the split in the personality of Arjuna was caused by the intervention of the sense of his ego and his egoistic-desires, which broke up the subjective and objective aspects of his mind into two independent islands with a vast ocean of surging waves of desires between them. With a soft suggestion, after explaining all the logic of thought, Krishna is carefully placing his finger on the very ulcer in the Pandava’s mind.
The stanza, in its sum-total suggestions, advises us that all our sufferings in the world are caused by our own egocentric misconception and the consequent arrogance characterised by our ever-multiplying demands for wealth and our endless desires.
Samnyasa means sacrifice, and to live in a spirit of sacrifice after renouncing completely one’s ego and its desires is true Samnyasa, wherein an individual comes to live in constant awareness of his fuller and ampler Divinity. The general misunderstanding that to run away from life is Samnyasa, or to colour the cloth is to become a true monk, has cast an irreparable slur on the philosophy of the Upanishads. Hinduism considers him alone to be a Samnyasin “who has learnt the art of living his life in constant inspiration, which is gained through an intelligent renunciation of his ego-centric misconceptions.”
Shankara beautifully explains this point of view in his commentary on the stanza. “THAT MAN OF RENUNCIATION, WHO, ENTIRELY ABANDONING ALL DESIRES, GOES THROUGH LIFE CONTENTED WITH THE BARE NECESSITIES OF LIFE, WHO REGARDS NOT AS HIS, EVEN THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE NEEDED FOR MERE BODILY EXISTENCE, WHO IS NOT VAIN OF HIS KNOWLEDGE, — SUCH A MANOF-STEADY-KNOWLEDGE, WHO KNOWS BRAHMAN, ATTAINS PEACE (NIRVANA), THE END OF ALL THE MISERY OF MUNDANE EXISTENCE (SAMSARA). IN SHORT, HE BECOMES BRAHMAN.
Karma Sanyasa Yoga – The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
CHAPTER V
(Verse 12)
युक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम् ।
अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥ ५-१२॥
)
The united one (the well-poised or the harmonised) , having abandoned the fruit of action, attains Eternal Peace; the non-united (the unsteady or the unbalanced) , impelled by desire and attached to the fruit, is bound.
Through right actions, undertaken without any selfdissipating anxiety for the fruits of those actions, a KarmaYogin can reach an indescribable peace, arising out of the sense of steadfastness within him. Peace is not a product manufactured by any economic condition or cooked up by any political set-up. It cannot be ordered by constitutionmaking bodies or international assemblies. It is the mental condition in the bosom of the individual when his inner world is not agitated by any mad storms of disturbing thoughts. Peace is an unbroken sense of joy and it is the fragrance of an integrated personality. That, this can be brought about through selfless actions undertaken in a spirit of Yajna, is the revolutionising theory given here. When the worker is “ESTABLISHED IN HIS RENUNCIATION OF THE EGOISTIC SENSE OF AGENCY” and when he has “RENOUNCED HIS EGOCENTRIC DESIRES FOR THE FRUITS OF HIS ACTIONS,” he soon becomes integrated and comes to experience the peace of steadfastness.
Not satisfied by this positive assertion, the Lord is reemphasising this very same philosophical truth in the language of negation. He says that when one is not ESTABLISHED (Ayuktah) in the renunciation of “agency,” and because of his desires, gets himself tied down to some expected results of his actions, he gets bound and persecuted by the reactions of his own actions. Some medicines, which, in small doses can give a complete cure, can also spell death in larger doses — for example, the sleeping tablets. An instrument by which we can defend ourselves can itself be the instrument for our own suicide.
In the same way, when we work in the outer field unintelligently, instead of gaining a greater glow of satisfaction and joy within, we will get ourselves more and more bound, and hurled down into bottomless darkness. The cause for this has been beautifully explained by Sri Krishna. Due to desires for specific fruits, we are mentally attached to those wished-for patterns to be fulfilled in future. This is compelling life to patternise itself to our will at a future moment; if a frog were to imitate a bull and grow to the bull’s size, it would end in a tragedy; a mortal finite mind ordering a pattern for a future period of time, is in no way better equipped than the frog that tries to expand to the size of a bull.