Gita 03.20 – Examples make the conceptual tangible

Thank you karmanai vahi samsiddhim astitajanakadayah lokasangrahamevapi sampashyankartum arhasi bhagavad gita 3.20 karmanai vahi samsiddhim by karma one can attain samsiddhi, perfection karmanai vahi samsiddhim astitajanakadayah janaka and others have attained like this lokasangrahamevapi lokasangrah means for setting the example for others for the welfare of others sampashyankartum arhasi sampashyankartum that this is what you should do kartum arhasi please do this so what exactly is Krishna telling over here that it behooves you to do this so the consistent message of Krishna has been that you should practice karma yoga Arjuna and he is saying that normally the conventional idea for attaining perfection was that one should renounce the world, go to the forest and thereby attain perfection by renouncing the world and situating oneself in inaction and thereby freeing oneself from karmic bondage but Krishna is telling Arjuna that is not the only way there are examples of people who by doing their prescribed duties have attained perfection so janakadayah so he gives the example of janaka adayah is others so now janaka was the ruler of mithila the kingdom where mother Sita appeared so what is being said in this verse is that actually this great person janaka maharaj he attained liberation just by doing his duty so karmanai vahi samsiddham now what does it mean if we take karma here to refer only to material duties now material duties don't lead to spiritual perfection samsiddhi what is the perfection that is being talked about it's not material perfection it's spiritual perfection it's liberation so we do have to do our material duties well but material duties don't lead to spiritual liberation so the word karma it's ambit has to be expanded so that we understand what is happening when Krishna is using the word karma he is using it not in the sense of karmakanda for fruitive action but he is using it in the sense of karma yoga detached action but the principle is he did act it was not that he renounced action karmanai vahi samsiddhim astita janakadayah Krishna assures that there are examples of success on this path when we want to take up any product or we want to do any particular course we want to know has anyone else been successful in doing this has this worked out for them and when we find that oh it has worked out for others then we feel inspired oh maybe it will work for me also let me try it out so in general we want to see the track record of things before we decide whether we will do a particular thing or not so here that track record is being explained is being illustrated is being exemplified through Janaka Maharaj so now in general this is a very important principle that Krishna is telling that when any when we want to advocate anything when we want to promote anything the best testimony comes through living examples now if you see in today's ad world the there are endorsements that are commercially bought so say a particular brand of clothes a particular mobile or whatever there are famous people who endorse those things and when they endorse those things then others purchase them and others enjoy them others think that oh this is a glamorized product I will take this these sort of advertisements are also using the same principle of actually showing by of tapping the power of example there is abstract and the principles in Chandra are abstract examples are concrete and in every field to attain mastery one needs to internalize certain principles but those principles in themselves are often difficult to communicate and difficult to grasp so when they are conveyed through examples then those principles become easier to be transmitted and received so for example if for a particular thing say if a sports team is playing in a particular place say India is playing in Australia and Indian batsmen are not able to bat properly over there getting out quickly then some experienced cricketer commented may say that oh they should bat like so and so batsmen in the past the way he was batting he would play this kind of balls he would leave this kind of balls he would focus on these kind of shots he would avoid those kind of shots whatever so the point is that cricket may itself seem like a frivolous example but it is an example which many people can relate with the principle is the point here is that actually the principle say the principle is one should play bat safely that is the principle then what does safe batting mean that has to be explained and that is explained through examples or for that matter if somebody says that one should be one should deal with conflicts by minimizing violence so now that for that when we say minimizing violence somebody gives the example Mahatma Gandhi so Martin Luther King was also inspired by that example so the point again is what when we talk about minimizing violence or cultivating non-violence there has to be example for that and that example conveys things so similarly Krishna now is going to give several examples he has told that the work with detachment is what is desirable and karam manai vahi samsiddhim astita janaka dayah janaka he also attained perfection now if you look at the life of Janaka Maharaj he is not the central character in the Ramayana in fact he practically in in Valmiki's Ramayana he doesn't reappear after the initial khandas when Sita gets married so in some later retellings of Ramayana Janaka Maharaj is also there in the forest in Chitrakoot when Bharat comes to plead with Ram to come back but we don't get much knowledge about Janaka Maharaj from the Ramayana neither about Janaka Maharaj the father of Sita or about others who are also sometimes known as Janaka so the word Janaka can also be a generic describer it can be a title for the kings of a particular dynasty but whichever way we don't get much information about Janaka Maharaj so what exactly made him so remarkable that Krishna chose to quote him by name in the Bhagavad Gita the many aspects to that in the Puranic lore there is a story of Janaka Maharaj of how he was responsible in his kingly responsibilities at the same time he was also committed in his devotional responsibilities how he managed that material spiritual balance so it is described that when he when the Lord would be heard Krishna Katha would be heard everyday he would come to hear and the Kathakar would wait for the king to come now some of the Brahmins and others who were there they felt why should the Lord's Katha wait for some king the king should come on time but the king would often be late and then after the king would come the Katha would start and one day while the Katha was going on suddenly a fire broke out in the near the king's palace now the king's palace was in the center and in the center also were Brahmin's quarters so when they heard that oh a fire has broken out near their houses all the Brahmins just leapt up from the Katha and ran away the king heard it when the king got the news he told the ministers what to do go and take care of this and he turned back and continued hearing so later on the sages understood that this was the detachment of Jain Maharaj that when he had to do his worldly duties he did his worldly duties sometimes if the work required he got a little late in coming but once he came for his spiritual duties he focused on his spiritual duties that was hearing Krishna Katha and he left things he did the needful and then he focused on his Krishna Katha so this was an example of a balanced and focused approach to his various duties and thus by doing his worldly duties in a spirit of detachment and devotion he attained perfection and similarly Krishna is telling Arjuna that you too Arjuna can attain perfection if you act in a.