Chapter II (VERSE 48) & CHAPTER XVIII (VERSE 23)
Sankhya Yoga – The Yoga of Knowledge
(Verse 48)
योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय ।
सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ॥ २-४८॥
Perform action, O Dhananjaya, abandoning attachment, being steadfast in YOGA, and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called YOGA.
From this stanza onwards we have an exhaustive discussion of the technique of Karma Yoga as conceived by Krishna in his Doctrine of Action and expounded in Vyasa’s Geeta. A complete technique of how one can live the life of a truly inspired worker is explained here, and, to any careful student, who understands all the implications of the terms, it must be clear that a complete effacement of the ego and its vanities is to be achieved to succeed in this Path; and this is gained by practising the equipoise mentioned in the previous stanzas.
In this stanza, for the first time, the term Yoga has been used in the sense of the “evenness of mind” through work, and before it concludes, we also get an exhaustive definition of the term Yoga as used in the stanza.
“Evenness of mind,” the tranquillity of mental composure, in facing all pairs-of-opposites is defined here as Yoga. Defined thus, the term Yoga, indicates a special condition of the mind in which it comes to a neutral equilibrium in all the ebb and flow of life’s tides. The instructions in the stanza advise us that desireless action can be performed only when one gets completely established in Yoga; here the terms precisely paint what Vyasa’s definition means.
Not only is it sufficient that a true worker should act in the world, established in equipoise and equanimity, but he should, amidst the changes of the world, also reinforce this poise, through a renunciation of his “attachment” (Sanga) to the immediate fruits of his actions.
We shall try to enquire into the “attachment,” mentioned here, which a seeker should renounce, so that he may become more efficient in performing inspired activities. To all sincere students, who have so far followed the Lord’s words, it should be clear that “attachment” here means all factors against which Krishna has already warned us in the earlier stanzas and insisted that we must renounce them all — viz., wrong imaginations, false expectations, day-dreams about the fruits of actions, anxieties for the results, and fears for future calamities that have not yet appeared to threaten our lives. When it is put thus as a list of mistakes to be avoided, any true Karma Yogin, striving upon the Path of Yoga, will find it impossible to practise it. But when we analyse this further with our understanding of the Upanishads, we can easily solve the riddle.
All the above nerve-racking mistakes belong to the delusory ego-centre. When we analyse closely the stuff of which the ego is made we can easily find that it is a bundle of ‘MEMORIES OF THE PAST AND HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR THE FUTURE.’ The dead moments, that are no more, constitute the past. The future is unborn, and does not yet belong to us. To live in the ego, therefore, is to live either in the burial grounds of dead moments, or in the womb of time where the unborn future now rests. In all these pre-occupastions, we lose the immediate moments given to us to act, to strive, to earn, and to achieve. It is this unintelligent squandering of the wealth of present chances, through our broodings and imaginations, that is hinted at here by the genius of Vyasa when he says, “Act, established in equanimity, abandoning attachment.”
Thus, in complete self-forgetfulness, to get intoxicated with the activities undertaken in the present, is to live vitally, fully and entirely with all the best that is in us. To dissolve ourselves thus — our past, our future, our hopes, our fears — into the fiery contents of the PRESENT is to work in inspiration. And inspired work ever promises the greatest returns.
An artist, who is at work, forgetting himself in the very ecstasy of his work, is an example. One need not, for that matter, be a great artist even. One who is working interestedly with all his mind and intellect on any piece of work will not be aware, immediately, of any chance intruder. It will take time for the artist to come down from the realms of his joyous mood to the crystallisation of the ego in him to recognise the intruder, understand his enquiry and give him an intelligent answer.
In all inspired activity, the worker forgets himself in the work that he is doing. In all such activities, when the worker has gained almost a self-forgetfulness, he will not care for the success or failure of his activity because, to worry for the results is to worry for the future, and to live in the future is not to live in the present. Inspiration is the joyous content of thrilled ecstasy of each immediate moment. It is said that this content of a moment in itself is “the entire Infinite Bliss.”
“Established thus in equanimity, renouncing all ego centric-attachments, forgetting to worry over the results of success or failure in the activities, act on,” — says, in effect, Krishna to Arjuna; and he adds that the great Yoga is to work thus with equipoise in all situations.
Moksha Sanyasa Yoga – The Yoga of Liberation Through Renunciation
CHAPTER XVIII
(Verse 23)
नियतं सङ्गरहितमरागद्वेषतः कृतम् ।
अफलप्रेप्सुना कर्म यत्तत्सात्त्विकमुच्यते ॥ १८-२३॥
An “action” which is ordained, which is free from attachment, which is done without love or hatred, by one who is not desirous of the fruit, that action is declared to be SATTWIC (pure).
Having so far explained the three types of “knowledge,” Krishna now classifies “actions” (Karma) under the same three heads. A Sattwic “action” is the best, productive of peace within and harmony without the field of activity, and therefore, it is the purest of the three types of “action.” It is an obligatory action (Niyatam), a work that is undertaken for the work’s own sake, in an attitude that work itself is worship. Such activities chasten the personality and are ever performed in a spirit of inspiration. Inspired activities naturally surpass the very excellence the actor or the doer is ordinarily capable of. Such an activity is always undertaken without any attachment (Sanga-rahitam) and without any anxiety for gaining any definite end. It is a dedicated activity of love, and yet, it is not propelled by either love or hatred.
The missionary work undertaken by all prophets and sages are examples in point. We too can recognise the same type of work, which we unconsciously perform on some rare occasions. A typical example that can at this moment be remembered is an individual nursing his own wounded limb. As soon as, say, your left toe strikes against some furniture in the house and gets wounded, the entire body bends down to nurse it. Herein, there is neither any special love for the left leg nor any particular extra attachment for it, as compared with other parts of the body. To an individual the whole body is himself, and all parts are equally important; he pervades his whole body.
In the same fashion, an individual with a Sattwic intellect that has recognised the All-pervading One, lives in the Consciousness of the One Reality that permeates the whole universe, and therefore, to him the leper and the prince, the sick and the healthy, the rich and the poor are so many different parts of his own spiritual personality only. Such an individual serves the world in a sense of self-fulfilment and inspired joy.
Summarising, a Sattwic Karma is a humane action, performed without any attachment, and not motivated either by likes (Raga) or dislikes (Dvesha), and undertaken without any desire to enjoy the results thereof. The “action” itself is its fulfilment; a Sattwic man acts, because to remain without doing service is a choking death to him. Such a man of Sattwic “action” alone is a true Brahmana.