Gita 12.11 To be self-situated, begin with selflessness

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external action by shifting that internal motivation from the ephemeral to the eternal. Krishna is continuing, describing how He is dealing with, how one can approach Him at various levels.

And in that connection, He states over here that we can approach Him even at the level of selflessness. He has talked about three previous levels. Just be absorbed in Him, that was 12.8. Strive to think of Him, that was 12.9. And a level lower was work for Him, 12.10. Now He's moving forward and He's stating that if one cannot do that, if one cannot work for Him also, then what can they do? And then the person can just renounce the fruits of work.

And in this way, one can become Atmavan, self-situated. So sometimes material and spiritual life are seen as opposite. And at one level, that is true, because the soul and the body are different.

But the soul and body are together right now. And the soul, even for its spiritual realization, needs the body. And when we strive to move towards spiritual realization, Bhakti Yoga is a direct process, because we connect with the whole of which we as souls are parts, that is Krishna.

But if somehow somebody is not able to connect, that does not mean that they are permanently irredeemably disqualified. No, even if in whatever they're doing, they cultivate selflessness, then that itself is a way by which they can progress upwards. By becoming self-situated, they can actually become self-situated by becoming selfless, which is a striking paradox, because normally, we think of these two as opposed to each other, as different.

Now, generally, we think of to be selfless is to have less for myself. Say, if I have some delicacy, some sweets, some chocolate, some cake, some dessert, which if I am selfless, and I give it to someone else, then I won't have it for myself. So when we become selfless, it seems as if we will have less for the self.

But that's not necessarily true. And that is indicated here in this verse, where it is stated that we all can become Atmavan. The word Atmavan is very striking, that Atma is the soul, Van is usually the suffix that indicates possession.

So, Dhanavan is the person who possesses Dhan. Buddhiman, the same, just because of the conjugation of words, but the Van has become Mar, one who is intelligent. Ballavan, one who has strength.

So here it is said Atmavan, one who has the Atma. Now, actually speaking, we may say, this doesn't make sense. What does it mean to have the Atma? We are the Atma, isn't it? So, actually, we are the Atma, but we don't always remember that we are the Atma.

So if we could just remember that, we could move onwards in our life towards self-realization. So, we can take possession of our possession only when we first have awareness of our possession. Now, if a person has inherited some property somewhere far away, but that person doesn't even come to know that they have inherited it, then they cannot gain it.

But if they are to, first they come to know about it, and then they can go about, follow the process for gaining it. So, similarly, we need to progress towards gaining realization of whatever it is that we wish to achieve, of becoming aware that, oh, this I have already, then we can take possession of that. So, Atmavan.

So, many people do not even know that they have a spiritual side, leave alone to know that they are the souls. Even if we come to know, theoretical knowledge is not enough. We want to get practical realization.

And that realization comes by taking shelter of Krishna. And if we can't take shelter of Krishna, then we can go beyond. And so, if we can't take shelter of Krishna, then even if we are able to just come out of selfishness, that is also a step forward.

That is also a means by which we can move closer to Krishna and we can take one step in our spiritual evolution. That's, of course, not the ultimate perfection. It's a long way away from that perfection, but it is at least a step towards that perfection.

So, Karma-phala-tyaga. When we do something, we always want the credit for that thing. And if we can just learn to distance ourselves from that infatuation with the material things and with possessing material things for our own enjoyment, then we can move steadily toward growing in our spiritual life and ultimately attaining Krishna.

So here, the essential point of this verse is that we see even a basic level selflessness, where one is charitable for a good cause and sees a poor person and gives some charity to them. And there may not be any God-consciousness directly in that, but it can be a step towards God-consciousness. And in that way, we're just doing the tyaga of the karma.

And such a person can by that move towards becoming Atmavaan, move towards becoming self-situated, situated in realizing one's spiritual identity. And indeed, for a soul who is in illusion, this is a major step forward. Although it's still a very long way to go towards realizing Krishna and attaining Krishna, but still it's a significant step forward.

And Krishna is very inclusively in this section, encouraging the soul, wherever it is, to take steps forward towards Krishna, to steer towards one's spiritual evolution, which will culminate in Krishna.