Gita 04.40 – Don’t let doubts deprive you of happiness

Thank you.

अग्यस्चाशद्धानस्च संशयात्माविनश्यति नायं लोको सतिनपरो नसुखं संशयात्मनः Bhagavad Gita 4.40 अग्यस्चाशद्धानस्च अग्यस्च one who is not in knowledge अशद्धानस्च one who does not have faith संशयात्मा one who has doubts विनश्यति person destroyed नायं लोको सति not in this world, नपरो not in the next world नसुखं संशयात्मनः there will be no happiness for संशयात्मनः the doubting soul so Krishna uses the word संशयात्मा twice actually in the same verse just as he had earlier used the word बस्म twice in 4.36 यथे धामसि समितो अग्ञेर बस्मसात कुरुते अर्चुन ज्याना अग्ञे सर्वकर्मानि बस्मसात कुरुते तथा so बस्मसात so the emphasis of a certain word if it is repeated twice in a particular in the same verse then it's it's intentional to convey the importance of that word and the importance of the idea conveyed by that word so similarly here संशयात्मा the doubting person doubting person Krishna is using the word twice in the same verse to reproach this kind of person so we have it again in the second line and the fourth line as it was in 4.36 so that was 4.37 actually not 36 sorry now Krishna is again adopting the same mode of instructing by contrasting as it adopted in 3.31, 32 3.31 was about faith and its auspicious results as was the first was here 4.39 and 3.32 was about lack of faith and its inauspicious results and similarly here also 4.40 is about lack of faith let's compare these two verses so one who does not have एत्वेत दब्भिषु यन्तो one who is envious नानुतिष्ठन्तिमेमतब् one does not situate oneself in Krishna's words सर्वज्ञाननि मूधामस्तान all the knowledge whatever knowledge that person may have gets deluded मूधामस् विद्धिनष्टान अचेतसः and the person is ruined destroyed so अचेतसः because of a misdirected consciousness now again here as I mentioned the focus is on Krishna and his instructions and so in the negative side it is envy towards Krishna because of which one doesn't follow want to follow the instructions of a particular person so Krishna says those who are out of envy don't follow my instructions they may have knowledge but that knowledge gets deluded because Krishna is the purpose of knowledge वेदाईश्च सर्ववई अहमेविद्धि 15.15 से पहुनाम जिन्वनाम अन्ते ज्ञानवान्माम प्रपदिते 7.19 states so Krishna is the purpose of knowledge and those who do not surrender to Krishna do not acquire any knowledge so that purpose of the knowledge gets defeated and विद्धिनष्टान they are ruined similarly Krishna is saying over here that सम्शयात्मा विनश्चति will be ruined and what is the ruin Krishna talks about over here he says that person will not get happiness either in this or the next world so it's an inauspicious destination so as contrasted with those who have faith and attain liberation these people don't get liberation and in fact stay on in material existence so this is in one sense the conclusion of this verse 4.40 is similar to 4.31 where Krishna stated नायं लोकोस्ते नपरो no नायं लोकोस्ते यग्यस्य कूतो अन्यः कूरु सत्तमा there also he had said that if one is not doing यग्या then there is no happiness in this world also what to speak of the next world so something similar Krishna is saying there is no happiness in this life or the next life for the doubting soul so here Krishna is talking about in the first two lines A and B of 4.40 he is talking about two categories of people three categories अग्यश्च those who don't know about him at all अश्रंदधानश्च those who know but they do not put faith in him and some शयात्मा those who know those who put faith but then they don't put whole faith and they keep letting themselves be eroded by doubts internally विनश्यति people will be lost Krishna is saying why should one be like this where one let oneself be eroded by doubt now the question here may come up that what exactly is the difference now yes there are some people who are outright atheists they are अग्यश्च there are others who are exposed to Krishna but they project him as a mythological figure or merely a historical person or just maybe a sectarian conception of God these people are अश्रंदधानश्च शयात्मा those who have doubts about things what happens to those people who have doubts they cannot attain any auspicious result now doubt itself is not bad but doubt which is unreasonable is bad Krishna when he talks he gives a reasoned and scripture based analysis about why Karma Yoga is the best process for Arjuna and he addresses Arjuna's question also quite candidly so to after getting proper scriptural understanding after being adequately explained the concepts and the answers to one's questions if after that one still persists in not using in not seeking spiritual knowledge or in not living according to spiritual knowledge then actually that person is ruining oneself it's like a patient who has been explained the diagnosis been explained the prescription and has seen other patients getting cured and still that person thinks oh why should I maybe this will not work for me what is the need for me to take this medicine that is most unfortunate that is something which is very sad so one has to be careful now if you have doubts what do we do we can't just wish away our doubts we can deal with them in different ways this itself is a full class I won't go into that but quickly speaking first is if we had core doubts about the very central process of process that we are following about the holy name about remembrance of Krishna about bhakti yoga then one should study scripture associate with learned devotees and get the questions answered and if we have doubts about issues that are not very directly relevant to us say for example if we talk about the fifth canto cosmology how do I understand all those conceptions of celestial bodies and all that so that is a peripheral doubt and we can put it in a can't understand but not urgent mode a box sometimes in group meetings or in some management sessions sometimes they are put in car park put them for looking at later we don't let our practice of bhakti be checked by this we understand ok this is not very important for me it's not that just like when I start taking a medicine it's not that I have to understand everything about this particular decision about the medicine what is most important for me I understand similarly it's not that just because we want to start living according to scripture we have to understand every single thing in scripture right at the beginning no we should based on understanding the basics we start practicing the basics and as we understand scripture more and more we will be able to practice it more and more also so and we will be able to understand it more and more contextualize it reason through it and accept it in intelligible way so in between some doubts we can resolve by deeper study and questioning discussing with devotees some doubts we may just have to put them in the car park saying that I may not be able to understand this in the near future but it don't not very important and other doubts we can keep by our studying by discussing sometimes if we have some specific doubts about specific subjects we can go to some specialist devotees and get the questions answered and in that way we can keep moving onwards in our spiritual life so we can doubt our doubts instead of doubting our beliefs doubt our doubts means ok this is a doubt which is ultimately come from my mind and my mind I know is misleading so why should I give so much credence to it as compared to the word of god whatever idea the human mind may come up with human mind's ideas are always limited or always distorted or can be fallible not always distorted but they can be distorted they are fallible so I will not lose I will choose I will choose to have more faith in revelation than in my own speculation and gradually as we become purified then our mind will also start seeing things properly and will stop misleading us we will be able to go beyond doubts so here Krishna contrasts and instructs the fruits of the auspicious results of having faith and the inauspicious results of choosing doubts this is how he is now moving towards the conclusion of this section on Jnana and towards this chapter also the conclusions the concluding two verses we will discuss in our next two talks.