Gita 05.01 – Understand meanings of terms from context, not from preconception

Bhagavad Gita 5.1 sanyasam karmadam krishna punaryogam cha shamsasi yashreya etayorekam tanme gruhisu nishchitam sanyasam karmadam krishna Arjuna is speaking 5.1 5th chapter is called as Karma Yoga Action in Krishna Consciousness in Sanskrit it is referred to as Karma Sanyasa Yoga in both Sanskrit as well as the English nomenclatures or atleast in these particular nomenclatures different Acharyas have named the Bhagavad Gita differently, the chapters differently so in this particular framework of naming 3rd and 5th chapters have similar names and their content is also similar they both begin with the question of Arjuna and the question is what a similar theme the same dialectic is going on should one practice should one do action or should one embrace renunciation in the pursuit of knowledge now if Arjuna has already asked the question in the 3rd chapter and Krishna has already answered the question then why does Arjuna ask the question again because at one level we could say it is the defining question that has started this whole discussion and Arjuna wants a clear answer to that but that is at one level true, at another level there is also a specific prompt for Arjuna's question Arjuna has heard Krishna in the 4th chapter and in the 4th chapter 4.41 and 4.42 create an ambiguity for Arjuna actually if you see in the whole 4th chapter there is no direct reference to the war so although Krishna when he talked about in the 4th chapter of the spirit of yajna permeating all activities that was implied to convey to Arjuna that the spirit of yajna should pervade your activity of fighting as a Kshatriya also but Arjuna did not get it and especially in the 4.41 Arjuna gets a contrary impression and then in 4.42 Krishna gives the same instruction then Arjuna feels there is a contradiction so he is saying he says first you recommended karma sannyasa and then you are recommending yoga so at this stage in the Bhagavad Gita yoga refers to karma yoga karma yoga which involves action not just ashtang yoga which involves meditation the word yoga is a generic word as it is used in the Bhagavad Gita to refer to a process by which we connect with the absolute truth and Krishna doesn't use the word yoga in the sense of gyan rather Krishna contrasts yoga with jnana in 3.3 when he says jnana yoga is a sankhya and karma yoga is a yoginam so he calls he uses the word yoga in both verses but then he calls karma yogis as yogis and he refers to jnana yogis as sankhya nam those who are practitioners of sankhya not as practitioners of yoga why? they are also jnana yogis and Krishna recognises that implicitly by using the word yoga to refer even to them jnana yoga but in this particular context Krishna is using yoga to refer to the active form of connection with the absolute truth connection with spiritual reality and he reserves or uses the word yoga to refer to that active form of connection and that active form of connection is karma yoga initially and it will become bhakti yoga eventually as the flow of the gita progresses now in the specific context that we are discussing here Arjuna is saying first you praised renunciation of work then you praised yoga which involves doing work as per Arjuna Arjuna has also got the usages got the senses the ways in which Krishna is using the word so he is also using the word yoga the way Krishna used it to refer to active pursuit of the yogic connection that means karma yoga so then he says he has given two instructions of Krishna which seem contradictory to me therefore the among these two the one which is of the long term good please speak that definitely time and time again Arjuna has asked for and he has asked for one path so this indicates that Arjuna is a sincere and serious seeker he is not simply seeking an answer that will confirm his opinion and such confirmation using an answer simply as a means to confirm one's own stand if one has that attitude that attitude is easily facilitated by any ambiguity in the teacher's answer Arjuna doesn't want to use such ambiguity to just boost up his own position he wants to actually know what is the truth therefore he asks this question please tell me one thing what should I do Ekam so now let us look in the context of this particular question what prompted this question apart from Arjuna's dilemma should I fight or should I not fight which has prompted the discussion of the whole Gita this particular question with its particular wordings what has prompted that if you look at it its 4.41 primarily 4.41 states so especially 4.41 a can be read in two different ways yoga is the process of yoga there can be many yogas what is the yoga that Krishna is referring to look at that Arjuna looks at the later parts of the verse in that particular line next line so if you just look at those two words it means give up work practice the yoga of giving up work and remove your doubts by jnana and in this way act now of course if you look at the full verse it is not that Arjuna is recommending sanyas of work because immediately he says in this way you will be situated in the self and if you are situated in the self then you will not be bound by karma you will not be bound now the question here comes up that if Krishna had asked Arjuna to do karma sanyas then its implicitly understood that okay if there is no action if there is renunciation then there will be no reaction so but Krishna is telling over here that there will be no karmic bondage you will be situated in the soul so what is going on if one renounces work then there is no further assurance required that one will not be bound because that is Arjuna's conception already that action causes bondage and renunciation of action is the path to liberation so Krishna is using the three words yoga sanyas karmaanam as a as a triple compound as a three word compound and what it means is practice yoga by working in the mood of renunciation sanyas karmaanam so its not yoga karma its not sanyas karma or karma sanyas it is sanyas karmaanam that means in the practice of yoga give up your work give up your action for a higher cause and this becomes clear if we look at the next verse also 4.42 is asmadagyanasambhutam vritstham gyanaseenatmanah chittvainam samshayam yogam atishtho tishtbharatam asmadagyanasambhutam that which has been born of knowledge vritstham gyanaseenatmanah the knowledge that is the situated in your heart knowledge that is like a sword can destroy the doubts that are there in your heart chittvainam samshayam yogam so like the with the sword of knowledge destroy ignorance now is this a statement referring only to the inner war he definitely refers to the inner war but is the scope limited only to the inner war that's a natural and valid question and krishna answers that by stating atishtho tishtbharatam or krishna gives an answer to that question atishtho vritstho rise bharatam therefore rise and prepare yourself for the fight so krishna very clearly unambiguously by using uttishtha he makes it clear what he wants arjuna to do at the same time krishna also wants to continue elaborating and he uses terminology that is slightly complex which naturally will lead to the continuing of the discussion so krishna wants to go deeper and we'll see in the fifth chapter all the themes are similar whether one should practice karma or whether one should practice jnana but the discussions run much deeper and we'll see how this happens and how this chapter concludes with renunciation but without any frustration with the recommendation of renunciation not in action but not of action but in action suffice it to say at this stage that the seeming contradiction between 4.41 and 42 41 where krishna asks arjuna to do yoga karma sannyasa whereas actually krishna has told him to practice to practice yoga in the mood in yoga as if to visualize that he is practicing yoga and then visualize the same characters within the practice of yoga and try to visualize their connection so krishna has not told arjuna to renounce work and certainly not the work of kshatriya as a fighter over here but he miscruise it like that this which understanding involves indicates the subtlety, the complexity of the relationship that we have to hold that we have to deal with in our situation so here krishna is unambiguous, unsubmissive he doesn't publicly directly chastise or minimize anyone coming from karma anyone coming from karmically implicated background instead by encouraging everyone to practice yoga whatever be their situation they can all move towards perfection this universal logic of yoga bhakti will be mentioned as the gita moves onwards in its flow thank you bhagavad gita 5.3.