Gita 04.41 – Knowledge and faith can be symbiotic

Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 4.41 So, here Krishna is now continuing his instructions to Arjuna to practice Karma Yoga because that will lead to Jnana and that Jnana will not only keep him free from bondage but will lead to liberation also. So, Yoga Sanyastha Karmanam.

So, in the practice of Yoga, Sanyastha Karmanam. So, do Sanyas of Karma. Now, this is, this in the next two hours will cause Arjuna confusion and that confusion will manifest in the form of the question at the start of the fifth chapter.

Krishna is using two words over here, very close together. Yoga Sanyastha Karmanam. So, he is saying that practice Sanyas in Karma by doing Yoga.

That means Krishna is talking about Yoga as a means for renunciation in action. But Arjuna thinks of this as renunciation of action. So, Yoga enables us to do renunciation in action.

That means one does action but one is able to renounce because one has a higher understanding and a higher purpose that is higher than pursuing the fruits of that particular work. So, Yoga Sanyastha Karmanam. One becomes, one uses the Jnana to cut apart doubts.

So, previous verses said that how doubts cause problems. So, how does one deal with doubts? By acquiring knowledge. Being situated in the soul, Na Karmani Ni Badmanti, you will not be bound by Karma.

Dhananjaya, oh Arjuna, who you are the accumulator of wealth. Accumulate the wealth of karmic dispassion, of detachment from Karma. So, essentially now, this verse is, this was in the next verse, are calls for action.

In scripture, there are informative verses, there are analytical verses, there are, there are different modes of verses. So, for example, we could say that the previous two verses 39 and 40 were analytical or informative verses. One who has faith, this happens to that person.

One who doesn't have faith, this happens to that person. But there was no implicit, there was no explicit instruction in that verse. Although, we can make the implicit explicit by understanding, okay, Krishna is telling me have faith.

But the instruction is implicit. But in certain section verses, the instruction is not implicit, but explicit. And this is a verse like that.

Yoga Sanyasta Karamanam. So, by the practice of yoga, acquire a mood of renunciation while you are doing your work. And then, Dhyana Sanchinna Samsayam.

It may seem a little circular logic that Krishna has said in 3.39 that by Shraddha one acquires knowledge. But then now here he is saying use knowledge to remove doubt. Knowledge is the opposite of doubt, sorry, doubt is the opposite of faith.

So, now, this seems to be like the circular logic of what will come first, the hen or the chicken. So, Krishna is saying if you have, by faith you can acquire knowledge. But then he is saying that use knowledge to remove doubts.

Or to remove doubts, we could say the same as acquire faith. So, Krishna is saying that by faith you will acquire knowledge. And then he is saying by knowledge acquire faith.

So, what do we begin with? You know, it is not that we have zero of both of these. Whatever we have, we start with and we try to increase that. So, if we have some knowledge of scripture, we use that to study scripture further.

If we have studied some faith in scripture, we use that in understanding scripture and applying scripture. So, we use both, the knowledge side and our faith side. And rather than seeing this as the circular logic of a hen and a chicken, it is not that one has to come from the other and the other has to or the other has to come from the first.

Both are there in the heart, but they are in a dormant or a very underdeveloped right now. So, they are symbiotic rather than thinking of what will I start with? Should I start with faith or should I start with knowledge? No, we start with whatever we have and what we have will contribute to the other and the other will contribute to the first again. So, if I have some regard for Bhagavad Gita, because maybe I come from a pious family and some respect was instilled for the Gita, maybe even it is a nominal cultural respect still, I use that to start studying the Gita seriously.

And by studying the Gita seriously, my understanding will deepen. When I study the Gita seriously, then my knowledge will deepen, my understanding will deepen, the Jnana increases and as the Jnana increases, I start seeing how coherent, how profound, how magnificent this knowledge is. Then that increases my faith further.

So, in this way, they become mutually self-sustaining, mutually strengthening partners in a cycle. So, whenever we have doubts, then we can actually, especially the doubts are about core issues that are important for us, then we can study the scripture carefully and study the relevant sections of scripture or associate with those devotees who have expertise in that section and acquire knowledge thereby and thus deal with the doubts. Jnana-sanchinna-samsayam.

So, here it is referring to Jnana in a more specific sense, the Jnana that will lead to the removal of doubts. So, then in this way, by using yoga to practice renunciation in work and if one learns practicing yoga, if the doubts may hold on back, then cultivate knowledge. Krishna has already said in 4.34, go to the spiritual master.

So, ask questions and by that Jnana-sanchinna-samsayam, remove doubts and then afterward, in this way, you will become situated on the spiritual platform and then na karma nini badnante, you will not be bound by karma. Arjuna's apprehension, Arjuna's great fear was that he may become bound by karma because he is under, because he is in illusion or rather because he is acting wrongly and he will get bound by karma, papa meva shreya dasman, hatva itanatataina, Krishna has said in 1.36 that I will become bound by papa, but here Krishna is assuring Arjuna that no, if you work in this consciousness, then na nibadnante, you will not become bound. So, dhananjaya, Arjuna don't think that this war is being fought simply to acquire the wealth of the kingdom that you have lost.

You are fighting this war to attain the supreme wealth of liberation of disentanglement from material existence and the.