Understanding the practicality of karmany evadhikaraste (Gita 02.47)

Talk to students of University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna So I’ll speak today on the Bhagavad Gita On one of its Most quoted And probably Least understood verses This is 2.47 In the Bhagavad Gita Many of you know the verse कर्मन्नेवाधिकारस्ते मा पलेशु कदाचेन मा कर्मपलहे तुर्भुर मा ते संगोस्त्व कर्मण I’ll talk about this in three parts First is We’ll look at what the verse means Second is We’ll see What are the Common conceptions of that verse And whether they are right or wrong And third is How it applies in our life All of us We Work towards some goals Some targets So now you have come to America for studies You had a target You wanted to Practice You got G.R.A. Achieved some target You have some exams And that’s how you came here So in general It is When we set targets They Inspire us to Wholeheartedly strive At least Contribute towards that inspiration And most of us If there are not much targets Then we wouldn’t know how to optimize our performance So in that sense Targets Are important Goals are important And so If this verse is taken simplistically By the way how many of you had heard this verse before कर्मण्नेवाधिकारस्तेमाफलेशु Okay Most of you Sorry Okay right yeah So I’ll just Tell the verse कर्मण्नेवाधिकारस्ते So अधिकार Is right or authority So Krishna is telling in this verse Oh Arjuna You have the right To do your work But माफलेशु कदाचन You do not have the right To the fruit And then third thing he says is मा कर्मफल हेतुर भुर Do not think of yourself As the हेतु The cause of the कर्मफल Do not think that you have produced the result And माते संगोस्त्व अकर्मणी And don’t Be attached संगर To अकर्मणी Not do your work So what does this mean If we take it literally If a student is studying for exam So should I not aim to say Come first in the class Or should I not come to come third At least among the toppers in the class Is Krishna saying that कर्मन्नेवादि You have only a right to study You don’t have a right to the marks You don’t have a right to the grades माफलेशु कदाचन मा कर्मफल हेतुर भुर And Krishna is saying that Okay If I get marks Is it that I didn’t I am not the cause of the marks Well I studied That’s why I got the marks So what does it mean to say that I am not the cause of the marks And then If I am not to work for the marks And if I am not to think that I got the marks Then I am thinking Why should I work But Krishna is saying Don’t be attached to not doing the work So in one sense This verse might seem Almost antithetical To the modern ethos We all work for results And after we get the results You know I worked so hard So I achieved this And How does this verse Make sense at all Firstly We need to differentiate Between goals and results The Bhagavad Gita Is telling us Don’t be attached to results It is not saying Don’t set goals कर्मफल is result So what is the difference Between goals and results Goals Are set Before we do the work So when I start my studies Ok Today I got 3 hours of time And I can Study say 20 pages in one hour So I should be able to complete 60 pages This is a goal So goal setting Is something which Is regularly done in the Mahabharata If you consider the Mahabharata war Which was fought After Arjuna heard the Bhagavad Gita And then Arjuna applied the Teachings of Bhagavad Gita In the Mahabharata war In that Especially say on the 14th day When On the 13th day The Kauravas They conspired together And 6 of them attacked And killed Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu So on the 14th day Arjuna in order to avenge that He said that Does anyone know what vow he took at that time? Killed Jayadratha before Ya so Right Either Jayadratha will die Or I will die That was his plan Now this Is clearly setting a He set a goal You know by tonight I will do this So at that time Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna Hey you have forgotten the Bhagavad Gita Remember the Bhagavad Gita Don’t set goals Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna like that So Goal setting Is not something which Krishna Discourages or disapproves Goal setting Is something which is As I said It’s there in the Gita And Krishna Assists Arjuna In meeting his goal On that particular day So There is Setting of goals And there is Attachment to results So goals are what come Before we do the work And results are What come after the work So what Krishna is telling is That Don’t be attached to the results What does this mean? That means That after we have done our work If we continuously Obsess over the result Ok I have studied I gave my exams And now I am Awaiting the results If at that time I am constantly thinking Oh what will the result be? I get this much marks And this will happen If I don’t get this much marks What will happen? And we are worrying Worrying Worrying constantly That is going to simply Sap our energy So Worrying about the results After We have done our part That Simply wastes our energy And Ma karma So when you say Ma te sangostva karma Do not be attached to the results What that means In this Frame of analysis is That After the work has been done Don’t obsess over What result is going to be You have done your part Now leave it at that Now the third part If you see in this slide That ma There is a Ma karma phala hai turgur Do not think That you are the cause Of the result of work So What does it mean To not think that I am the cause of the result If we see Say on the 14th day When Arjuna eventually succeeds In Avenging the death of Abhimanyu By killing Jayadhar At that time Krishna Congratulates He appreciates He appreciates Arjuna by saying that You have achieved today O Partha That which would have been difficult Even for the Gods to achieve Even for the celestial beings They would have found it difficult To penetrate through the entire Army of the Kauravas And reach Jayadhar This is a Stupendous feat of Arjuna That you have achieved Glorious So Krishna appreciates Congratulates Arjuna So and he is saying Arjuna you have done it So then what does it mean When Krishna is telling that Don’t think of yourself As the cause of the result Here Krishna is appreciating Arjuna as having done something So again The point here is When Krishna is saying Don’t think of yourself As the cause of the result That means Don’t think of yourself As the cause As the sole cause Of the result This Krishna talks about Later in the 18th chapter In the 16th verse he says So The doer One who thinks Kevalam means alone When one thinks I alone am the doer That person’s intelligence Buddhi is not very well developed And therefore That person does not see properly The consciousness is misdirected So When We do any activity in life Say when we study for exams Our Performance matters How well we study How well we prepare It matters Performance matters But performance Is not all that matters That is an important factor But that is not The sole decisive factor So Among the various activities In the world that are prominent Sports Is highly performance driven When sports stars Sports players perform Then They can lead They can win Or they can lead their team To win To victory Depending on whether It’s an individual sport Or a team sport And yet We see that there are sports people They all Recognize That There is something Beyond their power Which They try to appease In different ways So there was one of Australian Or the Australian One of Australian cricket teams Most famous captains Whenever he would play He would have a red handkerchief In his pocket And he would keep it in his pocket In such a way that One third of it would be coming out Two third of it would be inside And Sometimes he was in the field And he would drop a catch He would look down Have I dropped the handkerchief? How did I drop this catch? And now Rationally speaking The handkerchief And the catch Had no connection And He was He was a good player But still He had that idea There was another Australian batsman He had this idea If he would go for batting And if he would get out early Instead of going to the pavilion First he would go to the restroom And if any of the Lids of the commode Would be open He would get angry Who kept this open? Because of this I got out Now What else The Commode lid Would have got to do With his batting performance But every time When he would go for batting First he would go to the Restroom And close all the commode lid Then he would go for batting And he would come back He would check that And he would shout at people So Now We may laugh at this But And now If you see It’s not that This batsman It is not that he would not practice It is not that he would not work hard He would do it all But the fact is Even in sports Sports people know that There is Some force Beyond their power Which shapes the result Which shapes the result also And in their own Idiosyncratic way They are trying to Appease that force So somebody might Keep a handkerchief Somebody might wear an anklet There was one Famous tennis player He would wear an earring Only in one ear And he would think That would be his Good luck amulet So here in sports They all recognize That There is something Beyond our control And If somehow That works out well Then I will perform So they know That they have to They have to do their part But their part alone Is not enough And this recognition Is Is not antithetical To the Ethos of sports Sports is performance driven But results in sports Are not dependent On performance alone A team may be playing Very very well And they may have won The verge of victory But if at that time Rains come And the match gets cancelled They performed But they did not get the victory That means there is Action And there is result Normally we think that The action and result The thing connecting them Is our effort So So Rather my effort Is what produces the result So now that is true But Cause and effect Are not simply A linear chain From one point to another There are Many other factors involved And If we don’t consider Those factors Then Quite often If Even after our best efforts The results don’t come We can get Excessively frustrated I worked so hard Still things didn’t work out What is the use of it Life sucks You just get frustrated With everything So What happens by this is That We Become Excessively Dejected Even devastated When Things don’t work out So when Krishna is saying Don’t think of yourself As the cause of the Result of work Don’t think of yourself as the Cause of the result That means Arjuna Don’t think that You alone Are the cause of the result You are a cause But you are not The only cause And last part is Maate Sangostva Karma That Don’t be attached To not doing your work What does this mean If a Say a cricket match is going on If a batsman is there And the batsman has to go out And bat As well as possible But sometimes It may work out The batsman is trying to bat Very well But the pitch is so terrible Despite the batsman’s Best application You just can’t Score on that pitch Barely one can Survive over there But then There are things beyond One’s control But still If the result is going to come Our action is important And to the extent We put in our action To that extent We increase The likelihood of the result But it is not Our action alone Which determines the result So any questions till now I’ll explain this further But yeah Please Sir when we say that We have to set goals Right What What is The level That we You know Is there any verse That defines that This is What we have to Like we have to Deem to be the best For the second bat So that we can We can have Multiple Goals Okay So When I said that We can set goals Then is there any verse Which tells What kind of goals We set See the Bhagavad Gita Doesn’t get into Specifics It focuses on principles In terms of principles It describes that Our actions Should be balanced That means Say if I consider weight lifting And If I have a Habit of lifting 10 kgs And suddenly if I go tomorrow And try to lift 25 kg I will injure myself From 10 kg I can move towards 11 kg 12 kg Eventually after After some amount of practice I might come to 25 kg But it is going to be A gradual growth So So Krishna says That There are three modes Of material nature Goodness, passion and ignorance These modes basically Are Are Patterns of thinking The modes are many things But for our analysis We can say they are Patterns of thinking So when People are influenced By the mode of ignorance Then They Do not Consider their capacity And they Work excessively Then Krishna says Such a karta Is not in Sattva moda Such a karta is not in goodness Such a karta can either be Such a doer Is in passion Or in ignorance So if we don’t Consider our capacity And then Set for ourselves A goal That is Going to Excessively burden And crush us In a 10 kg Lifting person Expecting to lift 25 kg That will injure us This does not mean That one should not Set lofty goals It means primarily that One should have Realistic steps forward For moving So when we Usually Many of us Suffer from depression Sometimes Now The problem often comes That Depression Is a function Of expectation So we don’t have to Depress ourselves We can depress our Expectations Now depress Our expectations It does not mean that We have to become lazy Or apathetic But it just means that We recognize that Growth In life Is always organic It cannot be Artificial or abrupt When a plant is growing I have to water it It has to seed It has to germinate It is going to take Its time to grow We cannot We cannot Artificially accelerate The growth of things So When we set goals We Understand our capacity And then From that capacity We can strive to move Upwards And rather than Trying to be the best We should focus on Trying to be Our best We live in a Competitive world So In a sense Competition can’t be avoided But still If our focus is Too much on others And how much others Are achieving Then That If we find that Others are better than us That can give us Inferiority complex Or if we are We find that We are better than others Then We may have a We may just Inflate ourselves The big ego But either way We will be very much Other centred So I consider myself Great If I can do better than others And if I can’t Then I consider myself Good for nothing So rather than Doing that Shreyan Swadharmo Viguna Paradharma Svanushtha Swadharme Nidhinam Shreya Paradharmo Bhaya Krishna says What is your duty You do that Don’t bother about What others are doing So We assess our strengths And We Try to Stay on the path of Self-improvement Moving forwards Does this answer your question? Sir Yes I think the question would be Like Suppose we get Out of this framework Where we are setting goals And we simply do something With passion Without Having any goals It wouldn’t Start well And continue So Wouldn’t just be working Something with inspiration Without having any goals Will that be better? It varies See the point is that We Have a mind inside us And the mind is Unpredictable So The same thing May inspire us today And the same thing May not inspire us tomorrow Sometimes say Psychologists say that You are in your zone At that time We just work Very very well Irrespective of Whether there is a goal or not And there can be Other times when The goal is what What Stirs us to move on So you know we When we go into a Basically When we try to achieve Anything major in our life We are To a large extent Fighting against ourselves Our own lethargy Our own indifference Our own Lack of discipline So when we are Fighting in a war No one Can go into a war With a Frozen action plan If I am going to do war We have to see How the enemy is coming What strategy they are using How they are coming Where they are strong Where they are weak And we need to have Action plan But it cannot be Absolutely frozen action plan Depending how the Enemy is coming We have to respond accordingly So that’s why When we Make a particular Way of functioning As our Absolutely standard Way of functioning That may not work Because the mind goes Through different moves At different times So we have to see Sometimes setting goals helps Sometimes Not setting goals Just Going with the flow of things That also helps So we have to see Practically how we can Best deal with the mind And That capacity To Discern How The mind is working Right now What my frame of mind is And how I should work At this stage Now that comes When we Develop our Spiritual consciousness Because Spiritual Development Helps us to see Our inner territory Better In 14.11 The Gita Krishna says that All the doors of the senses They become illumined When we are situated In goodness So we can see Inwards This thought is coming This desire is here This sort of Negativity is here And once we see Our inner territory Then we can know How to deal with it So we have to see What strategy works Yes Ok Ok So When we set goals Is it in bhakti Or is it in Our own For our self Purposes No The The practicalities of action Remain the same Whatever be the Purpose of the action My purpose may be spiritual My purpose may be material But the practicalities Of how I will act To a large extent They remain similar So If we have had In our material life If we have had Ethos of Discipline Committed work Then even in our Spiritual life Whenever we Take up any Services We take up some Responsibilities There also We will bring in Discipline ethos We will also be committed We will Honor our word And do things So In one sense There is There are these Two approaches To the material Spiritual Division One is Analysis And the other is Synthesis So analysis means That in terms of Investing our time We should Differentiate This is my material life This is my spiritual life I should have Some time for my Spiritual life So some time To come for some Satsang Some time to do Japa Some time to Study Shastra We have to For that purpose We separate So that we have Some time for Spiritual life But once we have Done that separation And given Invested time In our spiritual life Then It is not that Throughout the day We have to Constantly keep Differentiating This is material This is spiritual We focus on Trying to cultivate A mood of service Even if I am doing My professional work I can do it In a mood of service To Krishna Svakarmanaatam Abhyarcha Siddhim Indati Mana In 18.48 Krishna says that By your work Worship me So we can say that Krishna has given A certain talent Krishna has now By his arrangement We are in a particular Situation So even through my work I am serving him So we can set goals Both in our Professional Or material life And we can set goals In our spiritual life And what the Ethos of working The ethos of living That we have created We have built for ourselves That will shape Both in a similar way Does that address Your question? Thank you Any other questions? Yes ma’am Definition of Yukta Vairagya And Definition of Service to Krishna Definition of Yukta Vairagya And Which one? And The definition Yes Ok So His definition Of service The definition of Yukta Vairagya And The explanation here of Results and goals Are they similar? Ok yes Yukta Vairagya Is the principle that We should not Renounce those things Which can be used In Krishna’s service Ya so we could say That’s a good way Of looking at it Now goals Can help us To focus Goals can help us To become absorbed So in that sense Ya we Goals are Favourable In the process of working So we should not Renounce goals at all So in that sense The two can be Integrated Now I’ll come to As we move forward In the class I’ll come to the Specific Context in which Krishna is speaking To this And how it applies To Arjuna And how it applies To the flow of the Gita A little later But it is Compatible Considering Yukta Vairagya And whole setting As an example of that So any other questions Or should I move ahead? So Now I discussed Till now about So Krishna is not Just recommending Here something Utopian He is telling us That we Is giving us Broad guidelines By which We can Focus Our energy On that Which is In our power And not Let our energy Get dissipated On that Which is not In our power So before I do My work I have The power To concentrate I have The power To organize I have I have The power To inspire Myself I have The power To put in my best So that all Krishna is not Telling us to Not do that But What Krishna is telling us Once we have done the work Then Whether the results Are going to come or not That is not In our power So don’t Get caught In that And When we are doing The work also If the results Come We are not The sole Creators Of the result So We are A part of the Process that produces the result But we are not The sole Producers Organizing this We can Avoid both Getting inflated We get the results And we can also Avoid getting deflated If we don’t Get the results And in this way We can Stay Purposefully Focused On what we are doing And in the context Of the Bhagavad Gita Itself Arjuna At the start Of the Gita Is facing A conflict The conflict Is That He has To decide Between Two Dharmas He has A duty There is His Kula Dharma And there is His Kshatriya Dharma Kula Dharma Is You could say His duty To his dynasty So he is a part Of the Kuru dynasty And Opponents The sons Of Dhritarashtra They are also A part Of the same dynasty So normally They are called As Kauravas But actually Technically speaking Even the Pandavas Are Kauravas Because the Pandavas Are also Descendants in the Kuru dynasty But because The Kauravas Themselves Dhritarashtra And his brothers They were The rulers For a significant Amount of time On the Of the Kuru throne That’s why They are called As the Kauravas But technically Speaking Both of them Are A part Of the Same dynasty So now Normally If somebody is In our own family We try to help them We try to Assist them So Should Arjuna Be fighting a war Against people Of his own dynasty So according to His Kula Dharma He felt that I should not be Fighting against My own relatives But according to His Kshatriya Dharma He was also a warrior Kshatriya Dharma The duty is that Kshatriya Basically means Kshata Trayate Iti Kshatriya Those who protect From hurt They are called As Kshatriyas So Kshatriyas are The martial Guardians of society They are meant To protect society From law breakers Now Duryodhana And his And his people They had become So brazen That You know They had They had Publicly Tried to dishonor Draupadi In In a In a royal Assembly Now If people Who could be So debauched In public They got Power They could have Wreck Havoc On the Citizens Now after Duryodhana Did all that For the next 13 years He did not Let his Evil nature Show much He did not Exploit the Citizens Too much Why? Because at that Time His Hold on the Throne Was not so Secure He knew the Pandavas Are going to Come back And he wanted to Gain popularity Among the citizens And the courtiers So he was He was during That time A reasonably Good administrator But as soon As the threat To his power Would have gone off Now all His Unethical Nature Would have Come out And he would Have become A big tyrant So as Kshatriyas It was the Duty of Arjuna To protect His citizens From such An ungodly ruler So he had This conflict Between the Kula Dharma And the Kshatriya Dharma Which is My duty Which is my More important Duty What should I be doing So in Today’s Language Often it is Called as You know We have Different roles So I mean We may have One role As a student Another role As a son Or a daughter We may have Another role As say If we are In some Club in our College And as a Member of that Club We may have Some role So sometimes These different Roles They come in Conflict Should I be Doing this Or should I be Doing this Or should I be Doing this So Arjuna Had not Just a small Conflict about Should I go here Or should I go here Relatively inconsequential But he had Should he fight In this war Fighting would Mean killing Not fighting He himself Would be killed And not only He would be killed His own Loved ones Would also be Killed And the Then the Whole Kingdom Would either way Be in trouble So he did not See any way out And that’s why He was thinking What should I do And his His confusion Led to Indecision Yod cheti Govindam Uktvatu Shrim Babu Vaha O Arjuna O Govinda I will not Fight Saying this Visrujya Sasar Chapam Shoka Samvigna Manasa In 1.46 In the Bhagavad Gita It is described that Arjuna Put aside His bow Saying that I will not Fight Visrujya Sasaram Chapam Gave up His bow And arrow So here One important point To recognize that Indecision Is also A decision Indecision Is also A decision When I say I will not do anything At that time also I am doing something What am I doing I am doing The activity of not doing anything So In one sense We can never be indecisive So If say I have come to a fork On a road And I don’t know Whether I should go left Or right I say I just wait So in terms of Going forward I am being indecisive But in terms of Doing something I am doing something So What am I doing I am doing nothing I am waiting So In doing nothing Is also doing something In that sense So Indecision Is also a decision Arjuna said I don’t know what to do Na chaitad vidmah Kataranno gariyo Yadva jayema Yadi vano jayeyu Yaaneva hatva Najeevishamas Tevasthita Pramukhe Dhartarastra In 2.6 he says I don’t know Whether I should kill them Or I should be killed by them I don’t know Whether I should win Or I should just give up And He is indecisive over here But then he says Na yo cheti govindam Uktva tu ishtim babuha In 2.9 he says I cannot fight I put aside my blood So Here The The conflict which Arjuna has Which makes him indecisive About which specific course of action he should follow That conflict is what Krishna addresses in the Bhagavad Gita So in this light Let’s look at Once again So what Krishna is telling Arjuna is that Arjuna you are thinking that If you fight And If you Win Then you will be killing your relatives And then you are thinking that Oh I will be responsible for the bad karma Of killing them And then I will get the reactions I will get the papa for killing them And therefore you are thinking maybe I should not fight And then you are thinking that If you fight you will kill them But actually It is not that your fighting alone will be the cause of their death Will be the cause of their death So in this light So do not fight thinking that By this fighting I will get the kingdom And then when I have the kingdom I will think oh You know I got the kingdom But I killed my relatives for getting the kingdom What kind of victory is this In English the word is It is called a pyrrhic victory Pyrrhic means that The prize for getting that is so big That the victory also becomes like a defeat So it is He is thinking that You will think like this Don’t think about all this Since you do your duty And don’t be attached to the results Right now Think of what is the best for you to do And then what will come about Don’t bother about that Don’t think that You are going to kill those relatives Actually When he says You don’t think that You are going to be the cause of their death What it means is That The Kauravas Have already done Grievous bad karma And because of which Their death is destined And that Krishna reveals in the 11th chapter When he shows in the Virat Rupa How all the Kaurava soldiers are going to die eventually He says Do not think that You are going to be the cause of the results And do not be attached to not doing your work Why? Because You are a Kshatriya You have to do your duty as a Kshatriya So now in this case What Krishna tells Arjuna In this context of detachment When he says Do not be attached to the results What he means by this is That Oh Arjuna What is in What is in your power What is important for you Is Doing your duty As a martial guardian society You have to do the duty of protecting Your citizens And while doing that Even if Some untoward things happen Know that You alone are not responsible for that So The Bhagavad Gita’s Flow As it moves forwards It concludes with In 18.66 it says So he says Give up all varieties of religion And just surrender to me So what this means is That In this world We may have There can be indecision about it But The conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita is that We Rather than getting caught in this Or this Or this We focus On Seeing that All the ways in which we act in this world They are ultimately meant to serve God And he focus on Trying to Cultivate that mood of service to Krishna And whatever Enables us to best serve him We do that So In the case of Arjuna He had Is my Kul Dharma important Or is my Kshatriya Dharma important So Arjuna is not even going to decide that So what Krishna tells is Don’t bother Should I do this Or should I do that Just don’t bother about all these dharmas Focus on Focus on surrendering to me And now surrendering to me doesn’t mean That When Krishna says So he is not saying this means you become adharmic When he is saying that If you give up all dharma Doesn’t mean you become sinful or immoral What he is saying is You may have this conflict about different roles Just focus on You strive to serve Focus on trying to serve me And once you do that For in For my service to For your service to me In the mood of service if you act You will get that clarity Should I be doing this Or should I be doing that So when we are Caught in When we are caught in the nitty gritties of things Often we miss the big picture But When we cultivate that Mood of Relating with Krishna Of trying to serve Krishna Then our consciousness rises upwards See for example say If I am at this road And then there are There is that fork Should I go here or should I go here Now if I am here I am not able to see where is this road going to go How much far ahead can I go But say If at that point there is a helicopter comes And the helicopter lifts me up In the helicopter I see Oh This is going to be a whole expressway Which just goes on and on And this just takes me to the city Which is right here Oh and I want to go to the city Then immediately it becomes clear I should go here So when I am at that level itself Then I can’t see very far But if I have risen up Then I can see far And the Consequences Of the choices Become clear to me Similarly When we are too caught in Should I be doing this Or should I be doing that Then at that time We just go over this Oh but the advantage of this is like this Advantage of this is like this Disadvantage of this is like this This mind goes round and round Like this fan goes round and round The mind just goes round and round and round Now if you see The fan Goes round and round and round And still goes nowhere So like that Our mind often goes around, round and round and round and it goes nowhere. So, when that happens, you know, this option, this option, this option, this option… So, at that time, okay, stop! I’m not going to bother about this. Just not bother about this means not that I’m irresponsible, but right now, I’m not going to spend any more time thinking about this.
Let me take a step back and let me try to connect with Krishna. So, when I chant the holy names of Krishna, when I study the Bhagavad Gita, when I Get that deeper understanding that ultimately, wherever I am, I’m meant to serve Krishna. When we have that mood, that raises our consciousness upwards.
And once our consciousness is risen up, then we get the clarity. Okay, if I do this, this is going to happen, this, this will happen. Of course, we never get to see the whole future, but still, relatively speaking, things become clearer for us.
And then we can make a sounder decision. So, the Bhagavad Gita, in that sense, in this verse, in 2.47, as well as in 18.66, the point is, when we are too caught with the results, when we see life in very reduced terms, if I get it, I’m successful. If I don’t get it, I’m a failure.
But, when we have the higher perspective, that life is a journey in which through every decision, I can keep growing. So, then we don’t get too caught in one thing, we see the bigger picture. And then we are able to move forward more steadily.
And in that sense, the Gita’s message for decision making is that before we make a decision with any specifics, should I do this or should I do that, we focus on reaffirming our decision about the universals. The universal is that whatever I do, the purpose of my life is to connect with God, to serve God, to go closer to God. And once we reaffirm that through our devotional practices, through our meditation, through our scriptural study, then our inner screen becomes clear.
I’ll conclude with one example. Just like right now when we are coming in a car. So, when we are coming in the car, if it’s raining outside, then the windshield that is there, it becomes filled with water.
And we can’t see at that time. Then what we need to do is, we need to have that water cleaned away. Water wiped away.
To the extent the water is wiped away, we are able to see. Now, if I say that I want to go fast, I don’t have time to wipe the windshield. Suppose, say, the mechanical instrument with which I am cleaning the windshield that has got damaged.
So, I have to use a cloth or something like that to clean it. I say, I don’t have time for that. Well, with the windshield covered with water, the faster I go, the greater danger I am courting.
I might hit into something. I might have an accident. Or even if that doesn’t happen, if the windshield is covered, well, how do I know whether I am going on the right track also? I don’t just think I am going very fast, but where am I going? So, there is this, once an airplane, they made an announcement.
We have good news and we have bad news. The good news is that our plane is in very good, they had just emerged from a storm. And they said, we have good news.
Our good news is that the fuel and the engine of our plane is in good condition and we are moving very fast. But the bad news is that in the storm, our compass got destroyed. So, we don’t know where we are going.
So, we are going very fast, but we don’t know where we are going. So, sometimes, if we get just too caught in the nitty-gritties of things, I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to do that, I have to do that. So, we just get so caught and we are moving very fast, but we lose out in the bigger picture.
So, when we take time off our spiritual practices, what we are doing is, we are taking time to clean the windshield. Then, we may have to spend little time over there, but afterwards again we can move fast. When we move fast, we are clear about where we are moving.
And then, our movement becomes more purposeful and eventually it becomes more successful. So, thank you very much. I will summarize and then if you have any questions, we can discuss.
So, I talked in two parts. First part was, I talked about the meaning of this verse, The verse is not telling us that be apathetic about your work, don’t care about the results or be lethargic. It is not an irrational verse which is completely antithetical to the modern ethos.
Its point is that we focus our energy on that which is in our control and don’t bother about that which is not in our control. So, setting goals, it helps us to maximize our efforts. But after we have done our efforts, worrying about the results, that only depletes our efforts in whatever we are doing next.
So, that’s why Bhagavad Gita is not against setting goals, but it is against being attached to the results. And then it says that don’t think of yourself as the cause of the fruit. What it means is, don’t think that you alone are the cause of the fruit.
You are one cause, but there are other causes involved also. We discussed about even sports players, how they have their own idiosyncratic superstitions about what will enable them to get the results. This comes because the sports players, they know that performance matters, but performance is not all that matters.
And whatever else is there, which they don’t know, they try to appease in some ways. And then Bhagavad Gita is telling us the detachment from results is what will enable us to maximize the performance and it will also protect us from undue emotional turbulence if the results don’t come out. Because recognize that I alone am not determining the results.
I have done my part and there are other factors. If they work out wonderfully, if they don’t work out, it doesn’t matter. I have done my part and I am growing onwards in my life.
And then we applied that whole discussion to the Bhagavad Gita’s context. Arjuna’s conflict was between his Kula Dharma and his Kshatriya Dharma. Should I protect my dynasty members or should I act as a martial guardian of society? And in that his indecision was also a decision.
And in that sense, we always do something. So we can’t just do nothing. Because even doing nothing is doing something.
So then we discussed how do we decide. The Bhagavad Gita at one level is telling Arjuna, do your Kshatriya Dharma and fight. So in that context, the verse says that don’t think that you are the cause of the death of your relatives.
Actually by their own karma, they are which is trying to die. So you are not the cause of that and don’t be attached to the results when you are doing the work. Don’t think you are fighting so that you will get a kingdom.
You are fighting because it is your Kshatriya duty. As a martial guardian of society, to do what you can to protect your citizens from dharmic rulers, from tyrannical rulers. And don’t be attached to not doing your work because then you are not acting as a Kshatriya.
You are not playing your role in society. And then when there is a conflict over multiple roles, the Bhagavad Gita’s answer is that focus on the connection with God. So ultimately all the roles that we are playing, they are meant to connect us with God.
So when we focus on connecting with God, that gives us a bigger picture. It’s like if I am at a fork and I don’t know where to go, if I could rise up and see where the roads are going in a long run, then I can make a more informed decision. So like that when we connect with Krishna through devotional practices, that raises our consciousness upwards.
And then whatever roles we are having in life, which role to focus on, which role to pass on, all those things become clear to us. And otherwise if we work, if we just get too caught in work, I have to do this, do this, do this, do this. I have so much to do.
Then it’s like I am driving a car very fast, but I am not cleaning the windshield. So I will not know where I am going and I will be courting danger also. So if we take time out to raise our consciousness by connecting with God, then we will have clear understanding of what is important for us and we will be able to move forward purposefully and successfully.
So any questions, comments? Yes, please. What is Pandavas asking? No one mentioned Pandavas. Krishna tells all of them, Pandavas, that you go to Himalayas.
You want to know how to go to Himalayas. See not even human beings. This is what I read.
So this one conflict comes in my mind that this is one point where Krishna is telling Pandavas, you do your duty, you don’t bother about the results. You do your duty. And you know at the end of the Yuga, you should get more deluded with the scene of killing human beings.
So please explain this conflict. So Krishna initially tells the Pandavas to fight and then later he tells that now you should renounce and go to the Himalayas because you are burdened by sin of killing humans. So I had different instructions at different times.
Actually, either in the Mahabharata or in the Srimad Bhagavatam, nowhere does Krishna tell the Pandavas that you should renounce the world because you are burdened by sins. In fact, if you look at the sequence of events, it is Krishna who departs from the world before the Pandavas. So there is no situation where Krishna will give the instruction to the Pandavas.
And the Pandavas feel that at that time they realized that we had come to assist Krishna in his plan. Krishna has done his plan, he has completed his mission, he has left. So now let us also leave.
So there is no mention there of the Pandavas being burdened by sins because of which they renounce the world. And even if they were burdened by sins, renunciation was not the only solution. They could have done some yajnas, they could have earned some punya by which they could have counterbalanced things or whatever.
So the reason why the Pandavas renounced the world was because they had come with Krishna as a part of his plan and when Krishna had departed, that phase of his plan was over and the Pandavas also departed. And with respect to the point of different instructions being given at different times. Specifically here, actually no instruction is given by Krishna but still the principle of different courses of action being chosen at different times.
The principle over there is that actually the Pandavas had a role to play initially. When they had that role to play, it’s like we all go through different phases in life and at different phases we have different duties. So in the initial phase of their life, their duty was, they were young so they had their part to play.
They had to rule, they had to administer dharma. But then when they departed, they had become relatively speaking middle aged by that time and then Abhimanyu’s son Parikshit had become more or less competent to become the successor. So they saw that ruling the world is not our eternal responsibility.
Although maintaining dharma is our responsibility, now that is not our eternal responsibility. It’s just like if there is a marathon relay races where one particular runner runs for say a certain number of kilometers or a certain distance and then they give the torch to someone else and then that next person runs. So like that the Pandavas had run the relay race in their service to Krishna and when Krishna departed, they basically handed over the torch to Parikshit and then Parikshit started running.
They felt now we have done our part and we are now departing. So it was not because of sinful reactions but it was because they had the understanding of the broader plan of the Lord and they understood that our role now here is over. That’s why they renounced the world.
Is it clear? Yes. So if a butcher has no alternative for livelihood and then the butcher kills and offers the results to Krishna, then does Krishna accept? So there is the circumstantial and there is the transcendental. Circumstantial means we are all at different times in our life in different circumstances and we cannot change those circumstances immediately or sometimes even for a long time we may not be able to change the circumstances.
And there is the transcendental. Transcendental means that which is beyond the specific circumstances. So Bhakti itself is transcendental.
Bhakti is the connection of the human heart with the divine heart and this connection does not depend on anything material. That connection can be established by anyone anywhere. It’s like sometimes if we do kirtans, you know, if we are going on the public kirtans, at that time even a person who is alcoholic, that person may also just come and start dancing.
They can do that. So in that sense Bhakti does not depend on anything material. But for what? For starting.
Not for sustaining. If you want to sustain, practice Bhakti in a sustained way, we need to have an overall regulated life. And that is what enables us to go on studying Bhakti.
So in that sense, whatever situation a person is in, if they want to connect with Krishna, they should be encouraged. They should never be discouraged. No matter what kind of wrong activities they are doing, they should be encouraged to connect with Krishna.
And now when we talk about Krishna accepting, does Krishna accept or not, that is not like a digital logic of 1 or 0. It is within Krishna’s relationship, there can be multiple degrees of acceptance. If we consider 9.25 and 26 in the Bhagavad Gita, 9.25 is… or rather 9.26 and 27. 9.26 is… There Krishna is saying that those who offer with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I’ll accept it.
The next verse is… So in 9.26 he is saying that whatever you eat, whatever work you do, whatever you give away in charity, all of it you give to me. Now in this verse, there is no part in the verse which says Krishna says I’ll accept it. In the previous verse he says I’ll accept it.
But here he is not saying I’ll accept it. At the same time he is also saying you do this, you should offer it to me. That means it is not that Krishna doesn’t say I’ll accept it, that means he is rejecting it.
But rather there because it is offered with devotion, he naturally accepts it. He joyfully accepts it. Here also that act of offering connects with Krishna.
So in that sense any act of offering anything to Krishna is a level of connection with Krishna which is better than no connection. At the same time, if one is involved in some activity which is severely karmically culpable, then that will affect the consciousness. So bhakti itself is transcendental in the sense that anybody anywhere can connect with Krishna.
They are not limited. They are not permanently blocked from connecting with Krishna or irrevocably blocked from connecting with Krishna. But they cannot sustain that connection for long unless they also come to the mode of goodness.
So if we have to tell someone, first of all we should just encourage them to start the positive activity of bhakti as much as possible, as soon as possible. And then we should inform them about the regularity parts of bhakti also. And maybe we assist them in trying to change that situation so that eventually they might be able to do it better.
They might be able to follow the regularity principles better. So we shouldn’t be judgmental with anyone. And we shouldn’t reject anyone if they are interested in coming closer to Krishna.
At the same time, we also need to in a sensitive and mature way help people to come to a higher level of practicing bhakti. Did I answer your question? Any other questions? Should we stop here? We have an online audience. Let me see if I can answer your question.
Sure. Hello Krishna online audience. Do you have any questions? One question Prabhu.
Just imagine there is an action. With respect to 2nd chapter 47 verse, how can we understand bhakti? Can you explain it to us? Yeah, sure. Let me switch off the phone.
So in the light of 2.47, how do we understand the 4th chapter verse of seeing action in action? And in action in action. So actually this verse is This is 4.18 in the Bhagavad Gita. One who sees action in inaction.
If you look at it literally and akarmanya karmanya karmaya pasya akarmani cha karmaya One who sees inaction in action. So before we understand what this verse means, the earlier verse before that is So what is action and what is inaction, even the wise people are bewildered about this. And that I will explain to you.
4.16 and 4.17 it says So now if you look at the verse literally that what is action and what is inaction, even the wise are bewildered about this. So now if you say, actually if somebody is sitting at one place or that person is walking here and there, now you don’t need a wise person to understand that difference. A child can understand.
So when wise Krishna is saying that even the wise are bewildered about what is karma and what is akarma. So here Krishna is not talking in terms of the literal meanings of the words of action in action, action and inaction as referring simply to physical activity and physical inactivity. That is not the meaning of the word over here.
The meaning is primarily in terms of the karmic consequences of actions. So if I consider say karma and akarma. So one meaning of karma is action and the opposite of that will be inaction, means activity and inactivity.
But another meaning of the word karma is action that is karmically culpable, action that will bring a reaction. And in that context akarma will mean action that will bring no reaction. So to give a military example, say if there is a war going on.
At one particular place the soldiers are active, they are fighting. Maybe at another part of the border they are inactive. That may be a part of the military strategy or whatever.
So here they are active, here they are inactive. Now this is the literal meaning of the word action and inaction. But in another context, say that same military person, when that army officer, he or she fights on the war field and they kill someone over there.
They are doing it in service of the nation. So they will actually be not held accountable for having killed someone. In fact, if they fight heroically, they may get awards for that.
But if that same person comes back to their local village or local town and gets angry with someone and takes out a gun and shoots them, there they are going to be punished because they are doing it on their own behalf. So the activity of shooting is the same, but when it is done on behalf of the nation, there is no reaction. No negative reaction.
But when it is done on one’s own impulse, there is reaction. So when Krishna is telling over here, he is using the word karma and akarma. So the word karma and akarma can mean literally physical activity or physical inactivity or the karma and akarma can also mean action which is going to produce a reaction and action which is not going to produce a reaction.
There are these four broad or rather two sets of meanings possible. So what this verse means is, So when Arjuna, you fight, you do karma, but you are not doing it on your own behalf. You are doing it in the mood of service.
You have been told to do this and that’s why you are doing it. So that is soldier who is shooting, but that soldier because they are not shooting on their own behalf, they are shooting for the sake of the country, so they will not get any, they will not be legally culpable for that. कर्मन्य अकर्मया पश्चेत अन्धाने अकर्मनी च कर्मया So if the enemy is attacking and the soldiers do nothing to defend their own boundary and then the enemy overruns and captures the territory.
They say we did not do anything. By not doing anything, you did a big blunder. You are soldiers, you are meant to defend over there.
So अकर्मनी च कर्मया By inaction, you become culpable. So what Krishna is telling over here is, if we connect this with कर्मन्य वादिकारस्ते माः फलेशु कदाचेन, माः कर्मपल हेतिरवे माः ते संगोस्तो कर्मणी then last line is माः ते संगोस्तो कर्मणी Do not be attached to not doing your work. So that means you can correlate with अकर्मन्य कर्मयः पश्चेत So do not be attached to not doing anything, Arjuna, because if you don’t do anything, you will be karmically culpable.
You are like a soldier who doesn’t do anything when the enemy is attacking. And on the other hand, कर्मन्य वादिकारस्ते माः फलेशु कदाचेन If you are working without attachment to the work, that means you are not working on your own behalf for your own aggrandizement, then कर्मण्य अकर्मण्य पश्चेत You will be doing action but you will not get bound. So the message of 2.47 and 4.18 are in that sense, they are consistent.
That work but don’t work on your own selfish accord, work in a mood of service. Does it answer the question? Anybody else have questions? Thank you very much.