Gita 05.13 – The bodily city metaphor conveys our difference from our sensory gates

Bondage thank you Bhagavad Gita 5.13 Krishna is now telling over here continuing his analysis of how Karma Yoga can keep one free from bondage and how to practice Karma Yoga all work with the mind by practicing renunciation becoming situated Sukham Vashi be situated happily Vashi is actually reside with in the city Navadwara is nine gates Vashi is the embodied soul the embodied soul can become situated in the city of nine gates not doing anything nor causing anything to be done so here Krishna is continuing his analysis and here he states he talks about mental renunciation of physical action this is further elaborating and reiterating what was talked about in 5.8 and 9 where it was said that so where one says I am not doing anything things like that no more of the truth and all that is happening is senses are coming in contact with the sense objects think of it like that so here Krishna states that Sarva Karmaani Manasa Sanyasya so karma actions which are done renounce them with the mind that means understand that I am not doing it it is understand that the senses are acting with the sense objects bodily functions have to be done and let the bodily functions be done I will not get emotionally involved in them so Sarva Karmaani Manasa Sanyasya so Krishna is not telling here Karma Sanyasya Sarva Karma Karmaani Manasa Sanyasya so there is a difference Arjuna had started this chapter talking about Karma Sanyas that should one renounce karma that was the word that had come in 4.41 which was central to why Arjuna got the question so Krishna is saying it is not that you have to do Karma Sanyasya you have to actually mentally renounce the work that means physically do the work but mentally renounce it unless there is physical possession there is no meaning to mental renunciation that means if I don't have money then to say that I am detached from money is pointless not really very pointed but here the point is that Arjuna you may have to do activities physically you are a Kshatriya you have to fight but Sarva Karmaani Manasa Sanyasya and when you do like this Aaste Sukham Vashi you will be able to Sukham Vashi you will be able to reside happily in the city very well to reside you will come back to Sukham in a few minutes so Navadware Pure Dehi so the body is compared here to the city of 9 gates Navadware Pure 9 gates of course are the 9 holes that are there in the body we have the 2 eyes, the 2 ears the 2 nostrils that is 6 and the 7th hole in the body that is the mouth and then there are the 2 excretory holes so these are considered to be 9 gates if the body is to be considered to be a city these are 9 gates to the city now it's interesting Krishna has compared till now the body to a dress in 2.23 2.22 Vasamsi Jeevanani Tha Vihaya so the old dress when we give so the body which we give up at the time of death is like an old dress that is cast away and the body that we get in a new birth is like a new dress so he has compared the body to a dress so the soul wears it around now here Krishna is comparing the body to a city in one sense the dress metaphor emphasizes the changeability we regularly change dresses and sometimes people change dresses several times in a day also but we understand that although our dress may matter in terms of appearance but even if the dress is even if the dress is changed I remain the same so the dress metaphor is good for conveying the point of the non permanent relationship between the body and the soul and the body being like the appearance for the substance of the soul the metaphor of the city conveys something deeper something different rather that actually the body's relationship with the soul is much more enduring than a normal, than a dress now we may wear a dress for a if the fashions are changing then it may be for a few months only but people may wear for 5 years, 10 years like that but sometimes people come to a city and they may live a city for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 decades sometimes an entire lifetime they may live so we come and live inside the city so vashi so the city becomes like a home for us similarly the body becomes like a home for the soul so it's much more than a home, it's like a home town or a home city which is what Krishna is using a Pura over here the point is that because the soul resides inside the body so comparing the soul to a city is fine now there is in the Srimad Bhagavatam the story of Puranjana where the body is compared to a city and the metaphor is developed quite elaborately we won't have time to develop that metaphor similar to analyze that metaphor over there but let's focus on one important point which is also mentioned over here Navadwari Pura the nine gates so usually it is when especially in the past there were cities which were acted like forts or which were having a lot of treasure and valuables then they needed to be protected so often they would have barricades of some sort maybe they were on top of a mountain and there were walls around or whatever there were entry points otherwise it was forest and it is difficult to enter through the forest so the convenient way to enter would be through the gates so now each of the gates was often heavily guarded and maybe sometimes toll would be taken so that people were allowed or not allowed to come inside now the point of saying that the body is a city with nine gates is to convey that actually things come in and out in and out of the body through the these nine gates so largely the interaction of the soul with the body happens through these gates of the interaction of the soul through the body with the world happens by the medium of the gates so we are attracted to sense objects through these gates we see something beautiful we taste something delicious we hear something melodious or we smell something fragrant we touch something soft all these are ways by which information from outside comes into the inside the city of the body and comes to us and it is usually through the senses itself that we have this interaction now in this city of nine gates the soul washi lives but we are tenants we are not owners and just as tenants can be evicted when the land owner decides that enough is enough I don't want to extend my lease to you anymore so then the tenant has to leave so like that we have to leave the body when the landlord that is the super soul super soul has not been talked about explicitly till now in the Bhagavad Gita but that is quite a standard concept in yoga Patanjali Yoga Sutra talk about how Ishwara Pranidhan, Ishwara situated in the heart so that Ishwara situated in the heart is the landlord and the soul will have to leave the body at a future unknown time and usually the soul leaves through one of the holes not only does information come in sensory information but the soul's departure also happens through one of the holes and if the soul is meant to go to a higher destination the soul has done some good karma has elevated the consciousness the soul will depart through one of the upper holes of the body that's what the Upanishads state but when the soul has not performed good karma then the soul will depart from one of the lower holes and departing from the lower holes is considered inauspicious so that is how Navadwari that is so the information coming in and eventually the soul going out that happens through the gates now Sukham Vashi Krishna says that by renouncing action you will be able to stay happily how happily because you will be aware of your spiritual nature to the extent we get attached to worldly things to that extent we cannot think of higher spiritual reality and to the extent we can't think of higher spiritual reality to that extent we stay disconnected from real happiness and we stay craving for worldly sensations which which actually never fulfill so by giving up action and by giving up action means not just giving up action per se entirely but by giving up emotional involvement in action so that's what means to renounce action mentally by giving up emotional involvement in entanglement in action you will become Sukhi the highest level of the Sukha comes when of course you become conscious of Krishna because he is the source of the highest happiness but even being aware of the Atma brings some level of happiness so here Krishna says that what this means we will discuss in the next verse because it will be elaborated in the next verse suffice it to say that here Krishna assures Arjuna if you treat this body as a city and he says we don't get very attached to the city in which we live we don't misidentify with it directly so therefore don't get too emotionally entangled so many vehicles may come into the city so many vehicles may go out of the city it's not that we bother about everything that comes in and goes out similarly don't bother too much about the sensory information coming in and going out let the senses act according to your prescribed duty but don't get emotionally entangled in it in this way you will stay happy.