Om Namo Bhagavathe
Vaasudevaayaa!
Krishna having introduced the concepts of
Sankhya Yoga or Cosmic Wisdom to Arjuna, now sets out to explain the nuances of
Karma Yoga and the benefits that accrue to a practitioner of Karma Yoga.
“Oh Arjuna! Once started, karma Yoga
never ceases to yield fruits. Even if it is stopped midway for any reason, the
practitioner would not get to any loss. Even if one practices Karma Yoga a
little bit, it would be good enough to protect him from the fearful cycle of
births and deaths” (2/40)
Here Krishna means to say that, if one starts
practicing karma yoga with full knowledge, it starts yielding fruits. Even if
it gets stopped midway for any reason, no harm comes and it still helps the
practitioner to cross the cycle of births and deaths. Here karma yoga is
synonymous with doing actions with detachment-detachment to the fruits of such
actions. This statement therefore encourages practitioners of karma yoga to
keep working on it without fear of losing it midway.
Krishna now explains the difference between
the focused mind of a karma yogi and frittered attention of a someone caught in
sensory matters.
“Oh Arjuna! A karma Yogi focuses his
unwavering and discriminating intellect on the practice of karma yoga. As against
this, one who is not focused, has his intellect frittered away on various
sensory matters” (2/41)
The Karma Yogi has his discriminating
intellect highly focused on Aatman or self-enlightenment. All actions of such
karma yogi are channelized in this direction. With detachment, he continues to
do actions to the best of his competence. As against this, one whose intellect
is frittered away on various worldly matters, runs after them in pursuit of
sensory pleasures that are transient in nature. To quote an example, the rays
of the Sun if focused through a lens become highly energized and burn a hole to
a paper. But the same Sun rays if not focused, but distributed on various
items, do not exhibit this kind of power. So is the power of a karma yogi.
Now Krishna goes to explain the nature of
people with an unfocused mind.
“Oh Arjuna! Those who are interested
in that part of Vedas which lay out the path to heavenly pleasures and which emphasize
on the greatness of attaining such heavenly pleasures, those who have sensory
desires and thirst for worldly comforts, get easily trapped by their
temptations and fail to focus on Aatman and the liberating self-enlightenment” (2/42,43,44)
In Vedas, there are 3 parts. The first one deals
with karma kanda or the chapter of ritualistic actions with the objective of satisfying
worldly desires. The second one is Upasana Kanda which deals with Dhyana and Tapas.
The third one is Gyan Kanda or the section of ultimate knowledge.
The people referred above focus only on the
first part and perform all such ritualistic actions that promise worldly comforts
and heavenly pleasures. Gita doesn’t speak well of such people and considers them
as the ignorant lot. These are not focused on Moksha or liberation.
Spirituality doesn’t give importance to Swarga
or heaven. It is said that those who leave behind the desire for heaven, shall
only get qualified to attain moksha. For the layman, heaven could be the
ultimate objective and goal. But it is not so for a Gyani.
For a Gyani, even swarg is also destructible. A
person is entitled to heaven till such time the fruits of his good deeds last. Once
these are expended, he will fall down to earth for taking a rebirth. So, such
desires take one away from Moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and
deaths.
So ay action done with an underlying desire leads
to bondage and traps him in the cycle of mortality. So, through karma yoga,
Krishna exhorts doing Nishkama Karma or actions with detachment to the fruits
of such actions. So, one desirous of moksha shall not get trapped by the sweet
words of promise of heaven by the practitioners of karma kanda, but shall
associate themselves in the company of Gyanis, karma Yogis and ascetics and
shall stay focused on Aatman and self-enlightenment.
***
