Gita 18.01 What is used to refer is not as important as what is being referred to

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 18.1 Arjuna is asking this question here and he is stating at a fundamental level the same question which he has asked at the start of the Bhagavad Gita although the question is redefined according to the different terminology over here here specific question is I want to know the truth about Sannyasa Sannyasa Situ Mahabahu Tattvam Ichchami Veditum Tattva the true nature of true understanding of Sannyasa I want to know and Tyagas Chirishikesha Pruthakkeshi Nishudhana similarly I want to know what is Tyaga now these words can refer to different things if Sannyasa refers specifically to Sannyasa Ashram then it becomes a social order but Sannyasa can also be a disposition disposition of a renunciate might be there in someone who is not a renunciate also and then there is Tyaga Tyaga can mean renunciation it can mean voluntarily giving up something for a specific purpose or a specific duration while these two terms can be seen as having independent having various meanings some of which may be overlapping for example Sannyasa as a disposition very similar to Tyaga also as not just an action but as a disposition the way Krishna uses these words later he primarily uses the word Tyaga and talks about Tyaga in three modes and then in one verse he indicates that Tyaga and Sannyasa are more or less equivalent as he is using them in the answer so rather than getting into semantics of different words let’s focus on the concepts here that are being talked about Arjuna started the Gita with the idea that fighting the war would be sinful and therefore he preferred inaction renunciation as the way to freedom from reaction now the Gita explains to Arjuna that actually there is no such thing as freedom from reaction simply by inaction rather it is by detached action that one will get freedom from reaction what causes bondage is not the action but the motivation or the intention with which the action is done and this point has been made quite clearly we see broadly speaking in the last six chapters of the Gita Arjuna is asking clarification of various terms so for example he asks about Purusha Prakthi Kshetra Kshetra Gyan in the 13th chapter then he asks about how the what are the divine demonic natures so he asks actually about what are the situations of those who are in between the divine and demonic natures in the 17th chapter so now here in the 18th chapter he is mainly asking about two terms Tyaga and Sanyasa which are used quite commonly in spiritual cultures or contexts so generally the word Sanyasa refers to somebody in the is usually used with the word Sanyasi so we can say it refers to the renounced order and Tyaga can be referred to say the lack of emotional involvement so without hair splitting over words Krishna will continue in his answer to use the frame of reference of the three modes which he has explained earlier in this chapter and thus he will advance the discussion forward his focus will not be so much on explaining on clarifying the difference between the two terms specifically but in terms of concepts so he will explain Tyaga in three modes of material nature Sattva, Rajas and Tamas so sometimes we just get too caught in words and unless we understand the concepts that are being addressed through those words we will never grow in our understanding of things terms are no doubt important because they are verbal tools for intellectual constructs within our mind which are concepts so broadly speaking Arjuna is asking that is it is renouncing actions externally or is distancing oneself from the sense objects internally by not being involved in them which of them is better and as explained in the earlier classes about chapter transitions Krishna’s focus here is not so much on giving a systematic class where things flow from one point to another but this whole session is more like a question answer session after the class is over so in the ten chapter with the chatushloki bhagavad gita Krishna’s class is more or less over and from the ten chapter onwards to the eighteen chapter question answers are going on and Krishna is expert enough that he will use the last question which is this question in the eighteen chapter 18.1 this is the last question that Arjuna asks Krishna in the Gita Krishna will expertly use this question to bring the philosophical discussion to a reverting inspiring ennobling conclusion as we will see especially in the last few verses 64 to 72 as of now Krishna’s focus is on turning the context of the Gita into a broader situation of purification of edification rather edification that will outline the process for purification and so Tyaga and Sanyasa Sanyasa Situ Mahabahu it’s interesting that the word Mahabahu is a referent that is used for both Krishna and Arjuna in the Gita 3.43 uses it for Arjuna for example evam buddheh param buddhva samstabhyatmanam atmana jai shatrum mahabahu kamarupam durasadam and similarly asamshayam mahabahu manodurnigraham chalam so there also Mahabahu 6.35 so basically the word Mahabahu refers generically to somebody who is very powerful literally it means one who has strong arms that means one who is heroic one who can fight powerfully and Krishna uses it in a laudatory way to refer to Arjuna and Arjuna also uses it in a laudatory way to refer to Krishna so the term used which we call it as referent that is not as important it’s important also but more important referent is the referred so if you consider referent that refers to the object that is referred to and if you consider referer is a person who refers to object and there is a referencing term so the referers here are Krishna and Arjuna and the referents are also Krishna when he is referring he is referring to Arjuna and Arjuna is using Mahabahu he is referring to Krishna so unless we understand the context and the concepts terms themselves we can get hung up and we can get confused so in the future sessions we will discuss what these concepts mean and how they are explained by Krishna in the integrated framework of his overall message