Gita 02.49 – Take shelter of the intelligence to ultimately take shelter of the source of intelligence

Thank you avaram karma avaram karma is inauspicious work buddhi yoga dhananjaya Arjuna dhananjaya you are conqueror of wealth so keep away the work which will deplete your wealth and for that use your buddhi and perform yoga buddhi yoga dhananjaya so yoga performed with intelligence yoga performed with an understanding of long term consequences not just short term gains or short term results buddha sharanam annichcha so take shelter of the intelligence one who is a miser the miser desires the fruits of the work there are many different points in this verse let's start from the last point a miser why is a person considered a miser when that person desires the fruits of the work because the fruits of our work are temporary whereas we are eternal and seeking craving for the temporary is a sign of poor intelligence when we are eternal and when we can aspire for the eternal when we can by following the right process attain the eternal so in this situation to crave for the temporary is an illusion is a misconception and those who keep craving for those things temporary things they are Kripan the word miserly is used in the sense that a miser has wealth but excessive attachment prevents investment and proper investment and because of that the wealth of a miser does not benefit even the miser it doesn't grow and the miser doesn't invest it properly doesn't spend it properly just accumulates it and doesn't do any good so miser is used in a generic sense to refer to a person who has an asset but doesn't use it properly so it refers specifically in a buddhi yoga buddhi or buddhav comes twice in this verse so we in the human form have the asset of buddhi with our intelligence we can attain the eternal by learning to love the eternal so thus our human life can become a catapult to raise us from the temporary level of reality to the eternal level if we can just learn to love Krishna if we can just learn to redirect our heart to the eternal that is the buddhi by desiring by making fruits at the material level such a person deprives oneself of the ultimate fruit of the eternal fruit so having an asset and not using it that is what human beings do when they seek material fruits alone and Krishna is calling such work as avaram karma inauspicious work is the work that is done with an attachment to the fruit of the work such work may or may not produce the fruit depending on whether one has the karma to get the fruit or not but it certainly causes bondage because the fruity mentality binds one to material existence and that material existence with its miseries of birth only, disease and death is avaram is inauspicious now when we practice bhakti when we chant the holy names when we try to remember and serve Krishna then at that time also we get distracted by avaram karma our bhakti is the best work that we can do but instead we often get distracted by avaram karma, inauspicious activities oh if I do this I will get this result, if I do this I will get that result and because of such result oriented activities result motivated activities we stay bound now normally because we still have a lot of passion within us usually, so its difficult for us to become completely non-fruitive oh if I am doing something I must get some result out of it so we may not be able to renounce our attachment to the result but we can surely redefine our conception of the result so that means rather than expecting some tangible gross object as a result of our endeavor if we can appreciate the value of a clear consciousness, if we can appreciate the potency of focused undistracted disposition then we will be able to see that the activity of bhakti is helpful, extremely helpful now we don't practice bhakti just to get a clear consciousness we practice bhakti because it uses Krishna because it helps us develop our relationship with Krishna because it helps us to ultimately attain Krishna to unite with Him but the result of practicing bhakti is that the effect of the lower modes goes down and the consciousness becomes clear so buddhau sharanamancha if we use our intelligence take shelter of the intelligence so that we can determinately seek the shelter of Krishna and in that act of seeking shelter we will be getting clarity of a consciousness and whatever we have to do, we will be able to do much better and much better not just in terms of doing the activity efficiently and getting the result but much better in terms of staying in a proper consciousness and growing towards Krishna through that activity and not just staying stuck at the material level and being bound in material existence so for example if we cultivate remembrance of Krishna sincerely then our heart becomes joy, bonded with Krishna and when the heart is bonded with Krishna then when we try to then when we go about doing various activities then our heart doesn't get captivated by worldly things by the promise of worldly pleasures but our heart stays connected with Krishna and whatever we are doing we also connect with Krishna and that way because we are not emotionally entangled in things we can with the greater distance from those activities we can actually do them joyfully we can do them more competently and because we are connected with Krishna we also get an innate joy irrespective of the results of that activity so that's by recognizing that we are underutilizing ourselves when we let ourselves become attached to the fruits, the material fruits of our work and the process of mantra meditation the process of bhakti yoga enables us to break free of such underutilization by offering us connection with the supremely valuable treasure Krishna and that connection brings the supreme fulfillment so thus we can use our intelligence we can take shelter of our intelligence to take shelter of the supreme lord who is the source of the intelligence, the supremely intelligent being who is using his supreme intelligence for doing the ultimate good to us and who will thus purify us and take us to his abode for a life of eternal happiness.