Gita 04.15 – Follow the successful to be successful

Bondage. Thank you Bhagavad Gita 4.15 Krishna is telling over here that Arjuna, please Arjuna, follow those who have acted wisely in the past knowing this do your work as has been done in the past by the seekers of liberation therefore you should work like that purvai purvataram krutam as those in the past have acted initially the words might seem tautological that the same thing is being repeated but actually there is a significant difference even first half is saying that in the past those who were seekers of liberation acted thus acted in this knowledge having acquired this knowledge those who were seekers of liberation acted in the past so therefore you should also act as those who in the past have acted now the important thing to recognize in such a situation is that the emphasis on following the predecessors Krishna can refer here to the predecessors to either imam vivasvateyogam proktavanah mauvayam vivasvan vana vipraha evam paramparapraptam that was mentioned in 4.1 and 2 imam vraja vishayogita so the saintly kings of the past and it can also refer to 4.10 where Krishna states bhutah bahogyan tapasah bhutah madbhav magatah that many in the past have been purified with austerity of knowledge and have attained me so here the important thing is that this is a time tested process Krishna is saying and therefore you can follow the successful to be successful one of Arjuna's prominent concerns was that fighting in the war would cause bondage and he doesn't want to be bound by karma especially by sinful karma so of course purva evam purvairapimokshabhi this can also refer to the third chapter where it was stated that karmanaiva samsiddhi mastika janakadaya lokasangraha mevapi sampashyam kartum arhasi in 3.19 Krishna stated that janaka and others just by doing their duty they attain perfection by doing karma itself they attain perfection so here Krishna is essentially telling Arjuna you don't have to renounce attachment to work and work with detachment this is how people in the past have worked so evam now what does evam refer to over here thus usually this is a connecting preposition which focuses on linking the past in a summarizing sort of way with what is going to come in the future in a text so in the previous verses Krishna has stated that those who understand my transcendental position and work accordingly they don't become bound so here we see the significant difference between what Krishna has said in 3.19 or even 4.1 to 4.10 especially 3.19 and 4.12 and here 4.15 that is the jnatva evam jnatva kutam karma that knowledge which is to be had is not just knowledge of how I am different from the body and therefore I needn't be entangled in the body rather the knowledge he is talking about is the knowledge of Krishna's transcendental position and our connection with his transcendental position to the extent we connect ourselves with Krishna to that extent we will be able to rise above material consciousness so the key point of the discussion here is that Krishna is saying knowledge will purify and knowledge will disentangle not only will, it has disentangled in the past it has liberated in the past when Krishna said in 4.10 many have become purified by knowledge about me that is Krishna is spiritual, Krishna is transcendent, Krishna is liberated so they also get liberated so Krishna is reiterating that point for emphasis here and in between from 11 to 14 he has talked about his position and his transcendental position and his reciprocal disposition so that means that Krishna is not motivated by any selfish concerns as are people who are in material consciousness and when people recognize that Krishna is transcendental and by entering into a devotional mood while trying to do one's work to serve him by that mood we also gradually get in transcendence so this is just this section where Krishna talks about himself from 4.5 to 4.14 is a preview of what will come in the middle chapters of Bhagavad Gita, 7 to 12 which is the bhakti section which focuses primarily on Krishna here Krishna talks about himself primarily because Arjuna has asked a question in 4.5 actually Arjuna asked this in 4.4 and Krishna responded by when Arjuna asked Sun God is senior to you, how could he have known how could you have instructed him so Krishna told about his eternal transcendental supreme position and he is linking that back with the topic of karma yoga here in this verse 4.15 so karma yoga also gradually leads to liberation ultimately culminates in bhakti and bhakti yoga much more swiftly and easily leads to liberation so bhakti yoga is not the focus right now that will be the focus in the middle 6 chapters but still because Krishna in response to Arjuna's question has talked about his own position so therefore he also says that understanding his position is the means for getting liberation and many have got liberation in this year after speaking this Krishna will return back to the topic of karma yoga from 4.16 onwards so 3.19 primarily talks about liberation through karma yoga 4.10 talks about liberation through bhakti yoga and 4.15 by repeating about the role of knowledge even can be a summarization of what has been talked immediately in the preceding 5 verses or it can refer to the general philosophical knowledge about working in detachment that has been talked till now in the Gita either way Krishna says that acting in knowledge acting in knowledge of the soul's transcendental position and ultimately of Krishna's transcendental position that is the time-honored, time-tested way to gaining liberation thank you.