Gita 10.38 – Punishment may not stop wrong desiring, but it can stop wrong doing

10.38 This is Bhagavad Gita, this is the last verse which describes the list of Vibhutis of Krishna and in this list Krishna is helping Arjuna and through Arjuna all of us to see the divine in the world 10.38 Arjuna had asked Krishna at the start of the sequence how can I see you in material manifestations oh lord how can I remember you and Krishna has given various examples so here it says 10.38 Dhamma is discipline or self-control especially in terms of sense control so Dhamma usually has a physical dimension to it, Shama is mind control where we try to strive to be internally peaceful and Dhamma is the control of the senses so it refers to a certain physical level of disciplining and for that it is said among all subduers I am the rod of chastisement I am punishment so now if a person commits a mistake then usually one time we may forgive second time also we may forgive that person third time there may be some chastisement of that person fourth time there may be some severe verbal castigation and fifth time there may be physical punishment a teacher may send a child out of the class and stand outside, kneel down outside or in worst cases the child may be rusticated from the school itself so these are all ascending levels of punishment ascending levels of disciplining there can be lawlessness or lack of discipline in the class like that there can be lack of discipline in the citizens among the citizens at large and when there is this kind of lack of discipline at that time it is necessary that there be a forum, there be a means for correcting them so in Hindi there is a saying that means people who are nuts people who are dumb people who are very much distorted degraded depraved for them chastisement doesn't work for them there has to be strong reproaching so there has to be physical punishment may be required now of course there is no guarantee that physical punishment will reform people ultimately what reforms people is purification the door to reform as a key that can be used only from inside that means people have to want to reform only then they can reform but at least as far as the wrong doing is concerned a person who is stealing money and peddling taking drugs and peddling in drugs if that person is put in jail to some extent to significant extent that criminal activity is stopped of course if the jails themselves are not very well disciplined then there can be peddling of drugs even in jails but that is not so likely so at least as far as wrong doing is concerned punishment can act as a very powerful way to suppress it it may not suppress the mentality to do wrong that may require further effort further work but at least this level things happen therefore Krishna is saying that which is the foremost form of disciplining of suppressing wrong doing in terms of at least the effectiveness of stopping the wrong that is punishment I am morality among those who seek victory so victory can be sought by various means some people may pursue victory by immoral means and that is not as good as the victory that is pursued by moral means so when a person is acting morally at that time they are relying purely on their skills they are not relying on anything extraneous for gaining whatever it is for gaining the victory so usually that uprightness that competence, that commitment all that go into seeking a victory by moral means that all contributes so such a morally upright person when they win then that is very special and that attracts attention you know moral uprightness attracts attention and victory attracts attention if the two combine together that attracts special attention now this may be unusual and that's why they said that sometimes they are saying good guys always finish last but that's not necessarily the case and when the good guys do finish first that is very special so Krishna says whenever we see such people who are morally upright and they are also victorious we should see them as manifestations of him and it is by his grace that they have become so victorious it is there it is Krishna's supreme moral uprightness it is Krishna's competence and it is Krishna's power to restore victory that is all manifesting through them so those who specially attract our attention like this we can see that attraction as a pointer to recollecting Krishna so maunam chaivasmi guhyanam then he says that guhya guhya means secret and if secrets are to be kept there are different people who may keep secrets in different ways but the most effective way to keep secret is by being silent that means to keep the secret inside us some people may keep a secret maybe below a tile in their house there might be a secret hole in which they keep maybe some jewelry or some money or something like that or some people may keep a secret they may have a secret bank account which no one knows about some secret locker in which they keep their things so different people can keep secrets in different ways some people may write some information down but write that in a code format many detective novels have some clues which are often in a code format and this code has to be decoded so these are all ways in which secrets can be kept but here it is said the most effective way of keeping secret is maunam chaivasmi guhyanam maunam now if we just keep the secret within us and if we take a resolve that we will not speak the secret then the secret just cannot come out so if we keep it in a secret locker if we keep it in a secret code, if we keep it in a secret hole in the house all this can be found out but if the secret is inside us then it's almost impossible to find it out many times some soldiers they know some secrets about their army and they have fallen into the enemy camp where where they where they are likely to be tortured and then people will try to extract secrets from them then at that time they may even shoot themselves because they don't want to fall into the enemy's hands so they keep the secret with them and the secret dies with them so of course these are extreme situations but the point which has been made over here is that if a person knows something but they keep mum and then later on when that secret is revealed and somebody tells that this person knew the secret but they kept it throughout that conveys a significant amount of self control see we all humans have a tendency to attract attention towards ourselves and whatever helps us to attract attention we tend to do that so if we find that we have a secret then sharing a secret is a very effective way of attracting attention to them, to ourselves and somebody is not driven by the tendency to attract attention that is very rare and special and that is what is being highlighted here when it is said mauna is the most confidential of secrets and lastly that among the knowledgeable people I am the knowledge so this is this is self evident relatively speaking as compared to the others that different people may be outstanding in different ways you know powerful person they are characterized by their power and similarly knowledgeable person is characterized by their knowledge so whether they may be scientists they may be philosophers, they may be writers they may be biscuits they may be geniuses in various fields so they have knowledge and we need to understand that their knowledge is a manifestation of Krishna so yes we can appreciate their knowledge we can appreciate their the work they have put in acquiring that one knowledge but at the same time you can also remember that the capacity to acquire that knowledge and that knowledge itself all that has come from Krishna ultimately so therefore we can see their impressive knowledge as a appellants of Krishna and in this way we can direct our consciousness towards Krishna through all the situations.