Bhagavad Gita - Hoofdstuk 18

Het finale hoofdstuk (1) van "Bhagavad Gita As It" Is is een zware pil om te vatten.
...dus jij blijft zoeken naar een mooie tabel, of mind-map, (2) met de STRUCTUUR van dit hoofdstuk.
Tot zolang pruts je maar verder met jouw nota's uit "Surrender Unto Me: An Overview of the Bhagavad-Gita" van Bhurijana Dasa

Arjuna's question

What's the difference between

"tyAga": renunciation of the FRUITS of one's activities
sannyAsa (renounced order of life, renunciation of materially motivated activities)

...and HOW to perform it?

either: niSkAma-karma-yoga: work while remaining detached from the fruit of work
or: directly renounce all activities (in order to start performing jnAna-yoga)

Krsna's answer

Full renunciation (i.e. without doing any work / performing any action) is impossible. (BG 18 TEXT 5 & TEXT 11). So it's imperative to understand better what is ACTION !

5 CAUSES for (the accomplishment of all) action:

adhistAnam : place of action (the body)
kartA: performer, soul (who, when absorbed in material consciousness, acts through false ego)
karaNam: various senses
ceSTA: many different kinds of endeavour
Daivam: ParamAtmA, Supersoul's sanction, as the supercause

I.e. you yourself are just ONE of the 5 causes of each action !

Ref. Srila Baladeva VidyAbhUSana: "we are doers - our actitvities do spring from our own free will(power) - but our endeavour is not the independent cause of actions !"

Actions's three MOTIVATORS:

jnAna: knowledge
jNeya: object of knowledge
knower

Action's three CONSTITUENTS (NL: bestanddelen)

senses
work (i.e. again: action - fractal reasoning ?!)
doer, performer of action

...with a closer look to the three kinds of

motivator: knowledge (BG 18.20-22)
constituent: action (BG 18,23-25)
constituent: performer of action (BG 18,26-28)
budhhi: understanding, intelligence (BG 18,30-32)
dhrti: determination, i.e. what makes the intelligence firm in its decision (BG 18,33-35)
happiness (BG 18,36-39)

...according to the three different modes of material nature.

Every man, from any of the four varNas, can become perfect by following his QUALITIES of work (BG 18,41-44), as following (BG 18,45-49):

TEXT 46: By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work.
TEXT 47: It is better to engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed according to one’s nature are never affected by sinful reactions.
TEXT 48: Every endeavor is covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work born of his nature, O son of Kuntī, even if such work is full of fault.
TEXT 49: One who is self-controlled and unattached and who disregards all material enjoyments can obtain, by practice of renunciation, the highest perfect stage of freedom from reaction.

Srila Baladeva ViydyAbhUSana comments: "Krsna confirms that all prescribed duties, of any varna, contain faults / defects. One should therefore cleanse away the faulty part of one's duty by offering the duty to the Supreme Lord. And for the sake of self-realization one shold serve - giving full attention to that part of this duty which gives rise to knowledge." I.e. rather than renouncing the work born of one's nature, one should worship the Lord through his work ! I.e.

Detachment and devotion while working
instead of renunciation of the activity

will cancel the defects inherent in the work.

...while anything done for personal sense gratification is a cause of bondage !

From above elaborated recapitulation of "NISKAMA-KARMA-YOGA", Krsna then proceeds towards the next steps on the yoga ladder:

JNANA-YOGA combined with vairagya (ref. TEXT 49-53),
culminating in BRAHMA-BHUTA (TEXT 54),
and those few who understand that it makes sense to proceed still further from that level (while the influences of advidya & vidya cease to act), do attain BHAKTI YOGA (TEXT 55-66).

The purport of TEXT 57 stresses:

'When one acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he does not act as the master of the world. Just like a servant, one should act fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. A servant has no individual independence. He acts only on the order of the master. A servant acting on behalf of the supreme master is unaffected by profit and loss. He simply discharges his duty faithfully in terms of the order of the Lord...

The Sanskrit word mat-paraḥ is very important in this verse. It indicates that one has no goal in life save and except acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. And while working in that way, one should think of Kṛṣṇa only: "I have been appointed to discharge this particular duty by Kṛṣṇa." While acting in such a way, one naturally has to think of Kṛṣṇa. This is perfect Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
One should, however, note that after doing something whimsically he should not offer the result to the Supreme Lord. That sort of duty is not in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

One should act according to the order of Kṛṣṇa. This is a very important point.'

Interestingly, for TEXT 66 ("Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear"), the purport makes clear there is no need to follow the step-by-step approach:

'one may think that unless he is free from all sinful reactions he cannot take to the surrendering process. To such doubts it is here said that even if one is not free from all sinful reactions, simply by the process of surrendering to Śrī Kṛṣṇa he is automatically freed. There is no need of strenuous effort to free oneself from sinful reactions.

One should unhesitatingly accept Kṛṣṇa as the supreme savior of all living entities. With faith and love, one should surrender unto Him.'

And it's also useless to worry or hesitate in this regard:

'The particular words used here, mā śucaḥ, "Don't fear, don't hesitate, don't worry," are very significant. One may be perplexed as to how one can give up all kinds of religious forms and simply surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, but such worry is useless.'

The message of the entire Bhagavad-Gita is summed up by Srila Prabhupada in the final paragraph of the last verse (TEXT 78):

'The living entity in his original position is pure spirit. He is just like an atomic particle of the Supreme Spirit. Thus

Lord Kṛṣṇa may be compared to the sun, and
the living entities to sunshine. Because the living entities are the marginal energy of Kṛṣṇa, they have a tendency to be in contact either with the material energy or with the spiritual energy. In other words, the living entity is situated between the two energies of the Lord, and because he belongs to the superior energy of the Lord, he has a particle of independence. By proper use of that independence he comes under the direct order of Kṛṣṇa. Thus he attains his normal condition in the pleasure-giving potency.'

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