Gita 04.31 – Happiness in this world and the next don’t have to be mutually exclusive

Thank you bhagavad-gita 4.31 naayam lokostya yajnasya kuto anyah kuru sattama naayam lokostya naayam in this world lokostya anyah anyah means in the other world naayam lokostya paro, paro sorry, not anyah, paro is the other world kuto anyah kuru sattama kuto anyah naayam lokostya yajnasya naayam lokostya paro that is a usage which will come later in this chapter in 4.40 when Krishna talks about the doubting souls neither in this world nor in the next world will they be happy Krishna gives a similar message here but using different words there the 4.40 the focus will be on shraddha here the focus is on yajna naayam lokostya yajnasya those who do not perform yajna, ayajnasya so for them there is no happiness naayam loko in this word kuto anyah and what to speak of in the next world kuru sattama or best of the gurus so kuto anyah is a word in the form of a rhetorical question so how can there be happiness in the next world what can what happiness they can have in the next world it's a very interesting question in the sense that normally it is said that those who that we can give up happiness in this world so that we can have happiness in the next world that is the path of renunciation the path of jnana the path of vairagya where one lives a life of abnegation in this world by which one can become disentangled from material existence and then when one attains the spiritual platform then there is happiness so normally the happiness in this world and happiness in the next world are considered to be mutually exclusive so if you get happiness in this world then you won't get happiness in the next world because the person who engages in gross sense gratification person will often do wrong activities and those wrong activities lead to a wrong destination now on the other hand if somebody doesn't engage in sense gratificatory activities keeps regulated that person can attain an auspicious destination because of the purification that comes by living a regulated life so if that is the case that by purification one attains elevation then and that sorry by regulation one attains purification and by purification one attains elevation and by elevation there is higher gratification and higher satisfaction because at this level at the spiritual level there is eternal happiness it's far greater happiness because there is contact with the highest eternal spiritual reality so the point which is important for us to consider is that some people give up happiness in this life so that they can in this world so that they can have a happiness in next world and there are others who are so enamored by the pleasures of this world that they don't think about the next world at all and therefore they may get happiness in this world but then they lose happiness in the next world so these are normally in many conventional religious narratives the happiness of this world and the happiness of next world are considered to be mutually exclusive but rather this verse is talking something entirely different it says that you know if they don't have happiness even in this world what then to speak of the next and normally we use what then to speak of something else when the two are related when two objects are related with the first being like the foundation of the second or first being a lower thing and second being a higher thing so for example you know I if I say that he doesn't have enough money to purchase even one BHK flat what to speak of a so that means what that's what is given the first category and the second category are both similar but the second category is much bigger so but the two are in the same category so normally we think of happiness in this world and happiness in the next world I'm not I'm not doing the same category but as two in different categories that so why is Krishna using the why is Krishna sort of placing them in the same category here by stating that they won't have happiness in this world or happiness in the next world or what to speak of in the next world so for this we have to go a little deeper if we look back in the third chapter Krishna has said in 3.9 onwards 3.10 primarily he said that yajna is the principle by which our needs can be fulfilled and also our Shreya long-term destination can be obtained so yajna praja swishtva purovache prajapatihi anena prasavishyatvam eshavastu ishta kama dhok that he said that if you perform yajna properly then that person can actually attain an eternal destination that person can get the worldly things anena prasavishyatvam by this you will become prosperous in this life eshavastu ishta kama dhok it's like this be your desire fulfiller then the principle of yajna be your desire fulfiller and then it says deva devan bhavetanena te devabhavayantuham parasparambhavayantaham shreya paramavapsitham so it was said that you satisfy your devatas and devatas satisfy you and this way shreya paramavapsitham that you can attain the shreya you can attain the long-term guru eternal guru you can attain shreya param actually refers to the ultimate guru shreya itself is long-term and param is supreme so supreme long-term guru that is actually the spiritual well-being not just material well-being so in the process of yajna there is an internal pushing mechanism by which the person's consciousness gets elevated and the person ultimately moves towards ultimate liberation so the point to understand here is that Krishna is talking about yajna as foundational for happiness in this world as well as the next world now in this world also we see that there is a cause effect correlation in the broad level students who don't study don't get good marks in exams students who study they do well in their careers there can be exceptions no doubt so some people who may have done a lot of good karma in their previous life even if they do all kinds of nefarious activities may stay may not get caught in this life and sometimes some people who are upright campaigners for truth and morality for truth and integrity they may get sidelined they may get marginalized they may get caught so the important point is they may get victimized sometimes scapegoated so the point is that sometimes you will not see a correlation between action and reaction in this world and that is because we have to understand that past life karma is also coming into the picture but in a general sense we do see this correlation between action and reaction so dharma produces artha and by artha kama can be fulfilled so now Krishna is saying that if one does not do punya one will not get happiness even in this lifetime we may not see this in Kali Yuga immediately at a physical level sometimes you may see people are living godlessly and still they seem to be materially prosperous they seem to be quite well to do but actually the more we are distanced from God the more we are mentally agitated so these people cannot be happy because they are turned away from Krishna the more a person is turned away from Krishna the more that person is in rajoguna and tamoguna and the more that person is in rajoguna and tamoguna the more that person has an agitated mind which cannot be peaceful which cannot be happy so although people may have prosperity people may have comfort but we shouldn't think comforts and prosperity as necessarily equivalent with happiness people can be living in luxurious lifestyle and still be so frustrated that they commit suicide or they get into depression so the important point is to recognize that if one is not doing yajna if one does not have a connection with the absolute truth one cannot have any real peace although one can make a show of happiness there will not be any real peace or real happiness there and certainly when one is not doing yajna whatever stock of good karma one has that is getting exhausted and one is also acquiring bad karma so because of the reaction to the bad karma one will surely get reactions either in this life or certainly in the future life and in that way how can there be happiness for such a person so now in this verse Krishna doesn't use the word happiness specifically but it's implicit because the quest for happiness is the most fundamental and defining quest among all human quests and nayam lokostya yajnasya so by yajna one will not have happiness even in this lifetime because one will stay disconnected disoriented and dissatisfied due to the disharmonization with the absolute truth and beyond that because of the bad karma that one is doing one is definitely going to get no happiness in the future very little if any happiness in the future life but one is increasing the stockpile of bad karma which will rebound on that person in the next lifetime and in this way Krishna in these two verses 30 and 31 through two contrasting trajectories one is that those who do yajna they will attain brahma sanatana and those who do not do yajna they will get happiness neither in this or next life in this way Krishna encourages Arjuna to perform yajna.