Gita 04.16 – Don’t simplistically equate dictionary meaning with scriptural meaning

Them in the fix of material existence.

Thank you. So, he is speaking about how one can act in a way by which one can attain liberation. So, he speaks here, kim karma, what is karma, kim akarmeti, what is akarma, kavaya pyatramohitah, kavaya, kavaya is the wise people, even the great philosophers, wise people, atramohitah, even api, even they, atra in this, mohitah, they are denuded.

Now, if we take this word simplistically, karma to mean action and akarma to mean inaction. And if action simply means moving around in the sense of activity and akarma means inactivity, then actually, there is nothing for a wise person to be bewildered about in that. Even an ordinary child can tell, oh, this person is, if somebody is sitting on a chair, and the chair is rocking around, moving around, this person is moving.

And somebody is sitting stationary on the chair, this is not moving. So, from the literal point of view, understanding the difference between karma and akarma is something which even a child can do. So, here, when Krishna is using the word karma and akarma, not simplistically in terms of activity and inactivity.

But rather, it is in terms of action that produces reaction and action that doesn't produce reaction. So, karma here is a generic referent to any kind of action that produces reaction, good or bad, and akarma is the kind of action which does not produce reaction. So, the Bhagavad Gita uses the word akarma in two different senses.

Sometimes it uses the word akarma to refer to inactivity. For example, in 2.47, So, here, do not be attached to akarmani, to not doing one's work. So, here Krishna is quite clear that he says, don't do inactivity.

So, akarmani means not doing inactivity. There akarma, if we see, it clearly refers to inactivity, because there if we say non-reactive work, work that does not produce any reaction, then there is no, it is meaningless in that context, not be attached to work that produces no reaction. No, actually, that work that produces no reaction is itself the ultimate purpose for which the Gita is spoken.

So, why should one be detached from that? So, there what akarma refers to inactivity, but here akarma refers not to inactivity, but non-reactive work. So, Krishna is saying which work will be reactive and which work will be non-reactive. Understanding this difference is something which bewilders even the Kavya.

Therefore, we need to look at words in their proper context to understand their meanings. Sometimes if we translate words from one language to another without understanding the semantics, the meanings involved, then it might be, the translation might be okay from a dictionary point of view, but it will be a disaster from the meaning point of view. So, for example, may be sometimes the computers just use dictionaries and by using dictionaries that and by looking at usages of words, computers try to translate a word from one language to another.

So, now, one example that is often given in the history of computing about how errors can happen if there is no semantic comprehension is that there is a biblical statement that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So, what that essentially means is that the heart, the soul that is willing to progress towards God, but the flesh that in the body is weak and the body succumbs to temptation and drags one down. So, when translated into Russian and re-translated back, one possible translation which will be okay with the dictionary, but not, but a disaster with the meaning is the vodka is good, but the meat is rotten.

So, what has happened? The spirit is translated as a form of wine and in the Russian it becomes vodka and flesh has become meat. So, whereas the first statement is a principle for living, especially for spiritual living. The second statement is a description of the dinner menu or of a meal menu basically.

So, it is such a huge semantic divorce between these two sentences that can happen. So, we cannot just comprehend scriptures simply by memorizing dictionary. We have to enter into the context and especially we also need to associate with those who have entered into the context deeply and then we can understand the import of the scripture better.

So, the why is not about simply who is moving and who is not moving, but about what kind of work is reactive, what kind of work will be reactive and what kind of work will not be reactive. And Krishna says that I will speak about that knowledge of karma. And by knowing this one will become free from auspiciousness.

This particular line will come again in the Gita also in 9.1 So, inauspiciousness is because of ignorance and knowledge removes that inauspiciousness. Now, it is not any kind of knowledge, it is a specific kind of knowledge which removes inauspiciousness. Just as a person is sick, not knowing what the sickness is, not what the medicine is, is inauspicious because that sickness will worsen and the person may even die.

But knowing the disease and knowing the cure is auspicious. So, Krishna is saying similarly all living beings are infected by the disease of karma and they are suffering. Now, what exactly is the disease and what exactly is the medicine, that has to be understood and that Krishna says, I will speak that.

That subject I will speak. So, here Krishna will give a further analysis of the process of Karma Yoga. He has talked about it in 3.35. He talked about it and then there was a diversion somewhat because of Arjuna's two questions.

First is, what is it that impels us to sin? That was 36 and 37 to 43 then was Krishna's answer about analyzing lust and how to control lust. And in fourth chapter when Krishna started giving all the history of spiritual knowledge, Arjuna asked a question about how Krishna, you could have spoken to the sun god. That was 4.4. And then Krishna gave knowledge about his position from 4.5 to around 4.50. And now Krishna is seamlessly bringing the subject from knowledge about himself to knowledge about Karma Yoga and taking it in a deeper level and explaining it.