Gita 03.07 – Regulation is more conducive for advancement than renunciation

Thank you this is Bhagavad Gita 3.7 Krishna is telling Arjuna to practice Karma Yoga and he is saying he is comparing the person who controls the senses who restrains the senses and acts like a renunciate a false renunciate whom he has mentioned in 3.6 Krishna is comparing that with a regulated householder so with the senses one controls with the mind does Niyam so by regulating the Karmendriya one practices Karma Yoga the person who is detached is one who is detached means is much better so what Krishna is speaking over here is that detachment is as manifested through detached action is better he is given 3 reasons to avoid the path of inaction that is it is impossible it is itself not fruitful and it can become adharmic now let's look at the components of this verse to understand better Niyamya Aravate Arjuna Niyamya Aravate that means Niyama there is a rule with which one controls the point is not just to control the senses but to use certain rules to control the senses Karmendriyai Karma Yogam and Karmendriyai Karma Yogam means that one practices Karma Yoga so the Bhagavad Gita is a world engaging book not a world rejecting book and in general in any society marriage and the married order is the foundation of the social fabric for a spiritual society the renounced order is the inspiration that means even those who are in this world and who aspire eventually to get out of this world they need some living inspiration and they get from the renounced order so in that sense the renounced order is the inspiration but the householder order is the social foundation social, financial and other things in the foundation so if we look in the, there is sometimes the polemic which order is better is the renounced order better or the householder order better but such a confrontationalist approach to the order, to orders misses the cooperative nature of the spiritual endeavour as is envisioned in one ashram so that means cooperative nature is how because there are four ashrams and the ashrams are progressive so from Brahmacharya one can go to Ugrahastha, one can go to Sanyas so from Brahmacharya one can go to Sanyas directly Jabal Upanishad says that whenever one gets the inspiration to renounce, one should renounce that means if a Brahmachari feels like renouncing, the Brahmachari can also become a Sanyasi, of course one has to have the determination the will for purification, things like that, that we will discuss later in the flow of the Gita, but here the important point is that actually both ashrams reinforce each other for any society to function, the prime mover of the society are going to be the householders not only do they keep the society moving by doing the various activities in the society, but they also keep the generations moving, generation after generation, society goes on through the householder order and although in one sense in India the renounced order has been very much respected there was a renounced order in the Catholic Church but because of the excessive abuses and malpractices done by many Catholic monks including even the Pope the Christian reformation that happened they rejected monkhood entirely and that's why among the Protestants there is no monkhood so in some religious traditions the renounced order is not there or is downplayed, it's interesting that although the renounced order was always given a significant importance in the Indian culture, but still India was materially prosperous it was so prosperous that millennia, century decade after decade, century after century millennia after millennia invaders came to India to gain its prosperity now who is creating this prosperity at a philosophical level you could say that because Indians were Dharmic, so Dharma produces Artha that is true, but along with that we also have to understand that Dharma when it manifests it has instruments, those instruments are living human instruments so it was the householders who were working, India has natural resources quite richly but still those natural resources also have to be used properly so the point of all this is that actually Indian society functioned and functioned prosperously because the householders were diligent so their diligence not only led to prosperity but there was also enormous morality in society that morality was a result of the sense of responsibility with which the householders maintained the society so Karma Yoga where one works in the spirit of detachment what does it do now is it that all Indians throughout generations were Karma Yogis, no, many of them were Karma Kandis also who aspired to do Punya so that they could get Artha and Karma either in this world or in the next world but Karma Yoga was also considered an ideal and many people aspired for it but how many lived on it that is a different issue but the important point to recognize is that they all aspired for it and that aspiration eventually led to many people aspired for it and that aspiration kept things in a moral balance when there is excessive greed when there is a desire for Artha and Karma without the check and balance of Dharma and Moksha that leads to unsustainable growth which eventually leads to misery which eventually leads to suffering so the solution is that we need to recognize the holistic system now we will see later that in this chapter how even a Karma Yogi at the external level acts like a Karma Kandhi that means follows the system of Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha externally although the desires are not there for Artha and Karma so here Krishna after giving the reasons why a premature renunciation is not good the converse of them apply here that if one performs Karma Yoga that's one's duty now actually just doing one's duty creates slowly an ethos of selflessness because although we could say working for a family is extended selfishness because it's my family but still even working for a family requires that I don't work for myself I am working for something more than myself and that is the beginning of progress at one level so I work for family, I work for my society, I work for my community I work for my Varna and in that way the circle of selflessness grows so the Paradharma is where the circle of helplessness expands the most and it comes to embrace, it comes to go reach Krishna who is the source of everything and in that way the circle of love embraces everything that is a very lofty level but that progress towards that lofty level happens through step by step and Krishna says that by doing by acting with detachment by working with detachment you will grow in your spiritual realization and by thus growing in your spiritual realization you will ultimately avoid the danger of becoming Adharmic avoid the danger of trying to do something which is impractical that is being inactive but rather by acting according to your nature you will grow steadily in your realization, in your wisdom and in your.