Gita 18.49 Our spiritual evolution goes through multiple levels of perfection from engagement through disengagement to devotion

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 18.49 asatya buddhi sarvatra ksitātmā vigatas pruha naishkar me siddhim paramāṁ sannyāse nādi gacchati So, here Krishna is now transitioning from speaking about Karma Yoga to speaking about Bhakti Yoga. He has spoken till now about how it is important to do one’s duty according to one’s sabhāva, according to one’s spiritual nature, according to one’s psychophysical nature and he has said that by this one can attain perfection.
siddhim Now, in that process of attaining perfection, there are various stages. So, now he talks about how in the progressive spiritual evolution one can rise from the state of engagement with spiritual consciousness to disengagement for furthering that spiritual consciousness. Later on, Krishna will talk about Gyan Yoga or Dhyan Yoga, whichever way you want to talk about it.
The process involves both renunciation as well as meditation on higher reality. And then after that in 18.50 this hierarchy starts from 18.49 this progression, this chain of verses will move till 15.50 and then from 15.56 Krishna will give an alternative trajectory up. That is, wherever we are we can practice Bhakti Yoga and we can become purified.
But let’s look here how does the process of disconnection from the world for concentration on higher spirituality, higher spiritual reality. Let’s see how this process works. It’s interesting.
Krishna begins by asakta buddhi The intelligence needs to be detached. Normally we think of the mind that is attached, the senses that are attached to worldly objects. But there is also the intelligence that is attached because when people are very attached to certain things say an alcoholic they become very creative actually very they use their intelligence to find out some way or the other to drink.
So they may even for that matter put alcohol in their car fuel tank hide it there and then get some sips of alcohol by putting in a pipe over there and drinking. So they use their intelligence to find ways to fulfill their desires. So Krishna has said in 3.40 that indriyāṇi mano buddhir asyādiṣṭhānam uchyate etair vimohayateśha jñānam āvṛttidehinam He said that actually the senses the mind and the intelligence all of them are the sitting places of lust.
So it’s present everywhere in our entire subtle body and of course it manifests in the gross body obviously. Now what do we do in such a situation? We actually have to steadily purify ourselves and the purification begins with intellectual renunciation. That means at an intellectual level our intelligence becomes detached.
asatbuddhi sarvatra Without such detachment or at least without the intelligence being convinced that detachment is the way ahead without that conviction there is no spiritual progress that is possible. asatbuddhi sarvatra jitātmāvigataspruha jitātmā Then one controls one’s mind. The word jitātmā is used in various places of scripture and in the context we’ll have to see what the word ātmā means in different places.
bandhurātmātmanastasya yenātmahimātmanājitā The word ātmā clearly refers to the mind. So here also the word ātmā is translated as the mind. So jitātmā Now when do we need to win against someone when that person is opposing us? If somebody is our friend two armies are friendly then they don’t have to win against each other.
So that means that the mind may still have some sensual desires and inclinations within it. But we fight against them. We learn to reign them in.
jitātmā vigataspruha vigataspruha means we free ourselves from those desires. We give up those desires. Even if those desires are there, we give up the tendency to indulge in those desires.
Just because a desire is present doesn’t mean that we have to fulfill that desire. Sri Prabhupāda writes in the purport of 2.70 āpūryamānamacala-pratīṣṭham samudra-māpah praviśanti yad-vad tad-vad-kāmāyam praviśanti sarve śānti-māpno tinaka-makāmi There he writes that actually even if the desires are present, one loses the inclination to fulfill those desires. Just like advertisements will be there out there always.
But somebody who is satisfied with what they have, somebody who is purposefully engaged in some important work, they won’t have the time to look here, look there, look everywhere and waste their energy in in gazing at advertisements and craving for them. So we get this like that. One turns away from desire.
Even if those desires are present, we don’t strive to fulfill them. And then naishkarmya siddhim paramam through naishkarmya. Naishkarmya is inaction.
At different places, the word means different things. Here at this stage, naishkarmya refers to the renunciation of action. And therefore, the freedom from reaction.
Sometimes in the Bhagavad Gita the word akarma refers to not doing any action at all. And sometimes it refers to not getting any reaction. The word karma can mean both these things and therefore the word akarma can also mean those two different things.
naishkarmya siddhim paramam So by staying in the state of inaction, by becoming free from reaction, siddhim, paramam, one attains the supreme perfection. sannyasena adhigachyate through taking sannyas. sannyasena adhigachyate So that is what is going to be talked about in the subsequent verses from 50 to 55 by Krishna.
So here he is giving a quick summary, sannyasena. So this is clearly a different set of verses or different level of instruction from what was being talked about earlier. sve sve karmanya bhirata sam siddhim labhate na raha That by doing one’s work one can attain perfection.
So that is also perfection. If one gets the word perfection siddhi or success siddha that success can refer to various levels of success. By practicing karma yoga if one stays karmically disentangled and becomes spiritually inclined that is success.
Similarly by practicing by thereafter by practicing the process of jnana to move towards a higher level of perfection. Here Krishna uses the word siddhim paramam mishkarme siddhim paramam So not just a perfection but a paramam, the transcendental perfection, the supreme perfection. So there can be levels of perfection.
So the Bhagavatam also talks about muktanam kisiddhanam and even people who are siddha for them also there are few among them who are devoted to the Lord. And Krishna also says in the Bhagavad Gita 7.3 that manushyanaabhyah saishu kashchit yathate siddhaye yathatam api siddhanam kashchin maam vetti tattvata haam kashchin maam vetti tattvata haam But the few know me in truth and he says there are among thousands few endeavor to know me and yathatam api siddhanam that even those who are siddha So here siddha refers to a particular level of perfection those who those who have attained some kind of perfection, it can refer to the self-realization in that context in 7.3 Then understanding oneself as atma but even among those who know themselves as atma they may not attain only few among them know Krishna that means siddhi is an intermediate perfection, siddhanam is not the ultimate perfection siddhanam is one level of perfection and beyond is beyond it is the higher level of perfection where kashchin maam vetti tattvata haam to know me is the highest perfection Krishna sees and Krishna will talk about that theme that how, here he is saying they will attain the supreme perfection siddhim paramaam and 18.55 he will talk about how through bhakti bhaktya maam viyanati yavan yash chasmi tattvata haam so bhakti is the supreme perfection and there are levels of perfection and by properly understanding the various levels we all can move towards the progressive journey upwards from where we are towards perfection for a student who is in say school the perfection is to graduate through school to pass with honors, high honors, whatever for a person who is already in college for that person in college the perfection may be to graduate through college with a degree, for a person with a PhD program for them the perfection is to get the PhD so just as in education there can be multiple levels of perfection there are multiple levels of perfection in spiritual evolution also and here Krishna is talking about the transition from the perfection at the level of karma yoga through through jnana yoga ultimately the paramaam siddhim will be attained through bhakti yoga as we mentioned in 18.55 thank you Hare Krishna