Gita 18.02 Devotional attachment is the best way to avoid worldly attachment

Transcript

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no matter where we may be presently. Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 18.02 shri bhagwan vacha kamyanaam karmanaam yasam sanyasam kava yo viduh sarva karma phala tyaagam praahus tyaagam vichakshanaam Krishna will first answer a specific question of Arjuna about the difference between sanyas and tyaagam and then he will move forward using the word tyaagam.
So kamyanaam karmanaam yasam sanyasam kava yo viduh. So Krishna doesn’t use the word sanyasa specifically here to refer to sanyasa ashram although it can refer to that also. In sanyasa ashram, in the traditional context there are many different duties which different people are expected to do and kamyanaam karma refers to the kamya karma that is done.
There is work that is done with fruitive intention. So for example, there is there are certain yajnas which are done with for by those who have certain desires. So parents who don’t have a child may do a putra kameshti yajna to get a child.
So there is kamya and nitya karma. Nitya karma is the activity that we are always expected to do irrespective of whether we are doing, whether we are in the engaged order or the renounced order. So right in the first verse of the sixth chapter Krishna has said that na karmanaam anarambha nishkarmiyam purushoshnute nija sanyasa na deyo siddhim samadhigachyate.
He has said that it is not by avoiding work, one can avoid, one cannot get nishkarmiya nor can simply by taking sanyasa one can attain perfection or that is in third chapter anashruta karmakaram. So Krishna has talked about this theme in the third chapter as well as the sixth chapter niragnir na cha kriyaha. So it is not simply by external renunciation of actions that one actually becomes renounced.
Krishna stress when he is saying kamyanaam karmanaam nyasam sanyasam kaviyo viduhum. The wise call it as sanyas. His stress is that even those who are sanyasis they don’t give up all activities.
In sanyasis for example have to eat food and for eating their food they need to get something from somewhere. Unless they get something and then now they have to make some endeavor to get something from somewhere. They have to go and ask for alms.
They have to do it in a responsible respectable way which is also a part of their duty. So they have to do Gayatri for example and sarva karma phala tyaga prahus tyagam chakshana. And then Krishna is talking about tyaga as giving up emotional entanglement in the results.
So overall if the word sanyas is used to refer to sanyasa ashram then Krishna says in the sanyasa ashram the kama karma has to be given up. Then that particular thing is something which is to be done by the sanyasis. But all orders, people in all ashrams, all social positions or spiritual positions can become tyagis in the sense of they can give up the attachment to the fruits of the work.
Sarva karma phala tyagam. So to the extent they can give up attachment to the fruits, to that extent they can become positively situated, they can become elevated, they can become liberated. So the key thing here is recognizing that every one of us has our own situations to deal with and renounced order may not be possible for everyone.
But the renounced disposition can be possible if especially we cultivate a higher attachment. If we learn to become attached to Krishna, the supreme reality, then that attachment can help us overcome our lower attachments. That can help us to get over the obsession of the mind with the results.
We cannot remain thoughtless. We can refer to without any mature thought, without proper thought. So we can act thoughtlessly.
That means there is no conscious deliberation. So even when we act thoughtlessly, we are not actually thoughtless. The word thought can refer to two different things.
It can refer to reason, deliberation or subject and it can also refer to a unit of activity or perception at the mental level. A thought came in my mind. So not every thought deserves our thought.
Thought can refer to just something which comes, something which just comes in our mind. We don’t have to think about it. Not every thought is worthy of our thought.
So by understanding that we can, by filling our consciousness with higher spiritual attachment, that spiritual attachment to Krishna, by that we can resist the lures that captivate us and that prevent us from making spiritual progress. So whatever activities we do, Krishna has talked about how to do them all with your consciousness devoted to me. And when you act like this, then matparamo, you will make me my ultimate goal.
Krishna has talked about this in 11.55. And that same theme, he is going to repeat as the thought of the 18th chapter progresses. At this stage, his focus is more on differentiating physical distancing from the world or worldly engagement to emotional distancing from captivation with the results, from obsession with the results. And in the broader context of the Bhagavad Gita, this boils down to Krishna’s consistent message to Arjuna that you do not have to give up your action as a Kshatriya to avoid karmic entanglement.
You simply have to give up the disposition that you are the soul doer, that you are the enjoyer. By understanding that we are parts of the whole and we are meant to act in a mode of service to the whole, we focus our consciousness more on our connection with the whole than with externals. And by focusing on that higher connection, every one of us can avoid the bondage that leads to distress.
How that can be done in the framework of the three modes will henceforth be explained in the future verses by Krishna to Arjuna. As of now, first Krishna will talk about how there are differing opinions about whether all actions are to be given up or only some actions are to be given up. He will refer to those differing opinions and then he will give his conclusive position on that issue.