Gita 04.39 – Faith is the necessary but not sufficient condition for knowledge

Thank you here 4.39 in the Bhagavad Gita which is towards the conclusion of the whole chapter of the Gita Krishna is talking about how one can acquire transcendental knowledge and in this section Krishna instructs by contrasting in his 39th words he talks about the glory of faithfulness and in the 40th words he talks about the futility of faithlessness and in this way he brings about a forceful message about keeping faith so what is the crafts of this verse shraddhaaval labhate jnanam jnana knowledge can be acquired only through faith faith is a necessary but not sufficient condition for acquiring knowledge now Krishna is using the word jnana here not in a generic sense of all knowledge but in a specific sense about transcendental knowledge whose potency he has talked about in the previous verses in verse 35 he has said that this knowledge frees one from all illusion having acquired this knowledge one will not come under illusion having acquired this knowledge there is no moha there is no illusion after that you will not fall under illusion like this Arjuna but what will happen instead that all living beings without exception you will see as you will see them as my parts and parcels so here Krishna is telling that the acquisition of transcendental knowledge frees one from illusion and what is freedom from illusion in this particular context of the bhagavad gita Arjuna was concerned how I can kill my relatives so we have an eye centred vision of people but here Krishna says that you will not fall under the illusion of eye centred vision you will see everyone with a Krishna centred vision you will be able to see all living beings as my parts so first he talks about the potency of this knowledge to remove illusion and then he talks about in two verses the potency of this knowledge to remove contamination also contamination is the cause of illusion just like we are wearing spectacles and the spectacles have got some dust or some other particles then it obscures our vision so like that impurity obscures our vision so first Krishna says that the vision will be purified and then what we will see is the pure vision described in 35 then in 36 he mentions how one can acquire how that will happen how will that illusion go away he gives two metaphors to explain this in 36 and 37 … … … … even if one is the most sinful of all sinners such a person also can by the practise of Krishnamadhi in devotional service here of course Krishna is not talking about devotional service he is primarily talking about the cultivation of knowledge so even if one is the most sinful of all sinners … … … … … … … … … means with the boat so if one simply boards the boat of transindividual knowledge … one will cross over the ocean of misery so the delivering potency of this knowledge is talked about through the point that even if one is sinful still the sins will not entangle one.

The knowledge will deliver one from that sin. The next verse of Krishna is another example. yathai dhamsi sabhi dhokner bhasmasat kurute arjuna jnana agni sarva karmaan bhasmasat kurute katha So yathai dhamsi, just as fire is reduced to ashes, similarly, bhasmasat, similarly all karma will be destroyed by knowledge.

And then, after giving these two examples, now, the first verse talks about the ultimate deliverance when one will go out of misery of material existence. And they cross over the ocean of misery. But the next verse talks about how, even while one is in this world, then the sinful reaction will keep getting burnt away.

The firewood, which is so inflammable, when it is reduced to ashes, then it is no longer inflammable. Similarly, in our heart, the sinful desires that are there, which are present as seeds, they will get incinerated, incinerated, thoroughly burnt away. And thereafter, they will no longer trouble us.

So, this is the build-up. And then, in the 38th verse, Krishna talks about na hi jnanena sadrisham, pavitrami havidhite, tatsvayam yogasamsiddha, kaalena atmani vindati So, he states that, even if one is, actually, he says that there is nothing as pure as transcendental knowledge. na hi jnanena sadrisham, pavitrami havidhite, nothing as pure as transcendental knowledge.

tatsvayam yogasamsiddha Then by, as one practises yoga, and as one attains perfection in yoga, na hi jnanena sadrisham, pavitrami havidhite, tatsvayam yogasamsiddha, kaalena atmani vindati With the passage of time, one will be able to delight within oneself. Atmani vindati So, here, what is this knowledge? Krishna has not specifically told that. But he has told that one should acquire this knowledge from his spiritual master, in 4.34. Then in 4.35, he has stated that, the result of this knowledge is, tu ye na bhutanya shesha, rakshasya atmanya thomai You will see all living beings in me and as mine.

This is very significant, this is not just the knowledge, where one sees all living beings as merged in Brahman or anything like that. It's a devotional vision, where one sees all living beings in relationship with Krishna. Now that relationship will be specified later in 15.7, when Krishna says, mamai vamsho jiva loke, jiva bhutah sanatana And further, Krishna also states that, they are all my parts and parcels, that's what he says in that verse.

And here also that is indicated when it is stated that, thomai, they belong to me. Now, moving forward, coming to the verse which we are discussing now, we discuss this background to understand from the context, what is the knowledge that is being referred to. It's not just all of the knowledge of say, what we call general knowledge that one may acquire by reading newspapers or surfing the net or memorising facts.

It is neither nor any specific specialised knowledge of any technical complicated thing. Such knowledge has its value. And in one sense, the principles which Krishna talks about apply to the acquisition of any form of knowledge.

We'll discuss that point in a few minutes. Krishna is specifically talking about transcendental knowledge. And that's why he says in the next two points that, how is this knowledge acquired? One has faith.

Through the faith one acquires knowledge. And faith alone is not enough. One has to be devoted, committed to that knowledge.

And one expression of that commitment is and controls one's senses. And then he describes Krishna, you want to avoid war, you want to have peace. How will you contact? After you acquire knowledge, then you will get the supreme peace.

Without much passage of time. So let's see what this refers to. Going back.

See the verse is Knowledge is acquired by faith. Now, nowadays, because social media has led to the creation of an sort of citizen news reporting mechanism. So many times, the official handouts of the origin of events is challenged, countered and falsified many times.

So, for example, a few years ago, there was a major road accident. Not a road accident, it was a rail accident. In one of the flagship super fast trains which China had advertised widely as the symbols of their extraordinary success in technology and in prosperity.

In order that the public media, in order that the public not come to know about this disaster, the disastrous accident where one train collided with another train on a bridge and both of them fell off the bridge into a valley below. So, the Chinese media, Chinese government, far from focussing on giving relief, of course, they tried to offer relief whatever was possible, but then they had their relief providing agencies just scuttle all the evidence of the disaster by burying the reference of the crashed trains. Now, what was the reason for this? They wanted to avoid negative PR.

Now, of course, there were citizens who were nearby and netizens especially, people who were active on the net also through social media and then they had photographs and they had videos of the whole event, not only of the debris, but also of the government agency attempts to do away with the signs of the debris by either burying it or disposing it off in some other ways. So, I gave this example to illustrate the point that when we acquire knowledge also, how do we acquire it? Even for something as ordinary as day-to-day events, we depend on, we put faith in the reliability of the reporting agencies to know what is actually the truth. So, those who have faith in the government will accept the government's version of truth and those who have faith in the citizens' reporting of events, they will accept the citizens' reports of truth.

But either way, both have to depend on truth, both have to depend on faith. Now, often, the media nowadays is paid and rather than reporting news, the media creates news in the sense that whatever is reported by the media becomes news. So, चद्धावा लभते जानम् that we go to college or school, we initially start with faith that there is that this particular institute and those who are appointed to teach a subject in this particular institute, they have the requisite abilities to share that knowledge.

So, faith is not the opposite of knowledge, rather it is the prerequisite for knowledge. Prerequisite. I have to have faith in whoever is going to teach me.

Somebody may say, I will be an autodidact. I will teach myself. But then, even for teaching myself, I have to read some books.

And when I am reading my books, what am I doing essentially? I am accepting as authority, I am reposing faith in the author of that book. So, चद्धावा लभते जानम् For acquiring knowledge, faith is vital. अनिन तत्परह संयत एंद्रियः संयत एंद्रियः This refers to the point that we are all संयत, we all require control of our senses.

Because if there is no control of the senses, then you cannot even acquire material knowledge. You have to speak of spiritual knowledge. That means, why is that? Students, when they want to study, the student is too distracted by all the temptations of the campus culture, sexual allurements, parties, movies, drinking, gossiping, flirting, dating, ragging.

And of course, nowadays, there are digital distractions especially. Most addictive among them is porn addiction. But apart from that, there are just screen addiction where people want to constantly be on Facebook or other social networks where they are practically addicted.

Hitting buttons and doing something, this or that. So then, सत्परह संयत एंद्रियः संयत एंद्रियः So if one doesn't have some level of sense control, then one cannot do anything. It's expensive.

One cannot do anything constructive. One cannot do anything worthwhile. Even if say somebody is working on social media itself and one's whole job is say increasing either the viewership or optimising social optimising the search engine or whatever.

So even if one is wanting to increase one's presence within the media of distraction. Now these are social media often become the weapons of mass distraction. But even for working on building these weapons of mass distraction, one has to have some concentration.

So one has to focus on one particular site and building up the content for that site and only then will one be able to move forward and make as much content as possible and serve the constructive purpose that is required. Otherwise one will stay caught up in doing little bit of this, little bit of that, little bit of that and not be able to do anything else. So in our context we could say that Sanyata Indriyaha refers simply to the ability to be able to regulate one's senses so that one can focus on the necessary subject in which one is trying to acquire knowledge.

Tatparaha Tatparaha refers to one's commitment to the subject that one is studying. Those who don't have this commitment can't really sustain themselves for long. They may to some extent acquire some expertise but for sustained performance one needs a deep interest and dedication to the subject.

Although modern society especially modern science functions on the foundation of objectivity. Objectivity meaning that the whole idea is one should be dispassionate and objectively study subject. So that is true but even to study the subject one needs interest in the subject and that interest is in and of itself subjective.

It depends on one's individual choice and inclination whether one will have interest in a particular subject or not. So one scientist may have interest in physics and he will hold that physics itself is a universe. What to speak of physics? Quantum physics itself is a universe.

So one may study one particular particle and devote one's life to studying that particular fundamental particle. So the essential point recognises that one needs taparaha one needs a certain level of interest to be able to study any subject. Without interest taparaha one cannot study anything.

Now the key is what is the nature of one's subject to study. So different people can study different subjects. No doubt.

But and these three principles in one sense can apply to study of any subject. Shaddhabal one has to start with faith then one has to have an active commitment to understanding that subject more and more. And after that one has to detach oneself from other subjects.

And then one can acquire some proficiency in that subject. But beyond that it's important also to recognise that one cannot just automatically acquire the ultimate fruit by studying any subject. So, the supreme peace cannot come merely by studying any subject at one's arbitrary choice.

For attaining the supreme peace one requires to study the supreme subject. The supreme subject is the supreme reality that is Krishna. How does the study of Krishna give param shanti? Because one understands that it is Krishna who is the supreme reality.

It is Krishna who is the goal of all of our existence. It is Krishna who is the overseer of all the events of life. It is Krishna who is the benevolent well-wisher of all of us.

Then it becomes relatively easier for us to see the ups and downs of life as opportunities, as plans of Krishna to help us come closer to him. And by understanding this we can keep going closer and closer to Krishna eventually. So, how do we get peace? When I am sick, at that time just by imagining something Oh, I am alright, everything will be alright.

I won't become healthy. And I won't become free from pain. I won't become peaceful.

But while I am sick, if I focus on understanding, on first of all entrusting myself to a doctor and then understanding how the doctor is treating me, then I will become peaceful. Because I will know that I am in competent hands, hands that are working actively to cure me. So, similarly, if we understand that by acquiring spiritual knowledge that Krishna is in control and that Krishna wants our ultimate well-being, then we will be able to offer ourselves to him completely.

And by entrusting ourselves to him, we will get peace. The Bible also talks about peace, the peace that passeth all understanding. It is not a peace that can come by merely just by some intellectual analysis and acceptance.

Yes, we can do intellectual analysis and acceptance. But beyond that, acceptance itself is an act of volition. It's an act of our choice.

So, when a patient uses the intelligence to understand okay, this is the pain, this is the cause of the pain and this is the treatment the doctor is going to take and by this treatment, this is how the disease will be cured. Then when we understand this and then the patient entrusts oneself to the doctor, the pain may not go immediately. There is a pain of the disease and there is a pain of the unease.

By unease, I refer to the mental anxiety. This ease, as we know the word comes from lack of ease. But it has acquired largely a connotation of some sort of disorder.

Often a physical disorder, sometimes psychological disorder. But basically, there is something which is wrong which needs to be cured by some particular process. That is a disease.

Now, a disease has to disease is unavoidable and it's not curable immediately. But unease can be removed by knowledge, by understanding, by acceptance. So, unease refers to the anxiety, the worry, the misery that is caused by the uncertainty of what is going to happen.

But once we entrust ourselves in the hands of Krishna, then we know that being the competent doctor, supremely competent doctor, he will take care of us. And because he will take care of us, when we surrender ourselves to him, that he enables us to march forward in our devotional love for him. In attaining him with our intelligence and with our devotion and by attaining him, we attain the supreme happiness.

How do we attain the supreme happiness? We are not talking here about ultimately when we return back to the kingdom of Krishna. That is true. But even before that, when we focus on trying to serve him, we focus on learning to love him, then by that also we move forward closer and closer to him.

And even here, just like a doctor doesn't give just a medicine to cure the patient. The doctor also gives painkillers. And the painkillers are also important in their own way for the treatment of the patient.

Similarly, for us also the painkillers are important. And one of the painkillers, painkillers are harmful when they are taken as a part of, as a replacement for the treatment. But if they are taken as a complement for the treatment, as a complement, that means in addition, okay, in the long term pain will be cured by the medicine.

But the short term, immediate pain will be cured by the painkilling medicine. And when one does that, then in that way one can transcend one's misery to some extent at least. One may use some physical means for transcending the misery, but that is okay.

If that gives one the patience and the strength to persevere with the medicine. Similarly, the miserable situation in our life may continue. But if we understand and accept Krishna's benevolent nature, then that in and of itself helps us to go beyond misery.

To go beyond anxiety. Because we know that we are in safe hands. Going back to the earlier example of the ocean and a boat in the ocean.

जान प्लवे नहीं वाँ So, 36 verse. Here if you see, when a storm is there, even the best of ships will be tossed and shaken. But when there is a competent captain who knows how to deal with that ship, how to navigate the ship during the storm, then that person will take one across even through that danger.

So, similarly, we will be taken across through that danger by the practise of devotion with knowledge. So, for Arjuna now, there is going to be a storm on the Kurukshetra war. And at that time, how is one going to deal with that storm? It is by fixing the mind on Krishna.

And that is what Arjuna is being recommended here by Krishna that fix the mind. How do you fix the mind? The specific point of fixing the mind on him will be mentioned more specifically a little later, especially in the 6th and 7th chapters, more directly. But here also the point which Krishna mentions is that by faith you will attain Shanti.

By faith one will acquire knowledge, knowledge of Krishna's glory, Krishna's benevolence. And then that knowledge will lead to Achirena Digachaki. That will lead to peaceful existence.

Krishna will be, a person will be able to stay peacefully, calmly, determinately. Now Krishna uses the word Achirena. Interestingly, in the previous verse, the word that was used was Kaalenaam.

Kaalenaatmani vindate he. It will take time to attain the result. But here Krishna is saying Achirena.

So now, it seems contradictory. It will take time and not a long time. So what does it mean? Krishna has many understandings.

One understanding is that if we look from the perspective of eternity, then one lifetime is really nothing. And in that sense, it's Achirena. We'll soon get the result.

And Kaalenaam. Achirenaam. So in this way, one will be able to move forward and attain life's supreme destination.

And that is the ultimate goal, the ultimate perfection of life. To attain that supreme destination. It is that which will be attained by Krishna, by Krishna's mercy, in this world.

Slowly, steadily, by moving forward in one's life.