Chapter-III The Yoga of Knowledge ( Sankhyayoga)

 

Chapter-III

The Yoga of Knowledge ( Sankhyayoga)

Basically this chapter is about Sankhya yoga or Yoga of Knowledge. Beginning with the conversation between Arjuna and Lord Krishna regarding Arjuna’s faint heartedness, it is followed by the description of Sankhyayoga ( The Yoga of Knowledge), and the account of Kshatriya’s duty to fight evil or vice objectively and the description of Karamyoga ( The Yoga of Selfless Action) and the description of the symptoms of a man of stable mind and description of glories of such a man.

Arjuna was overwhelmed with pity, eyes full of tears and sorrow when Lord Krishna asked him the reason why he has been overburdened by infatuation at this critical time which is shunned by noble souls as it can get him neither heaven after death nor fame while living. Krishna urges him not to submit before this unmanliness and shedding off cowardice rise up and take weapons. Arjuna asks Sri Bhagwan as to how can he shoot arrows at the symbol of reverence of his life- Bhishma and his teacher Acharya Drona. It is better to lead a life of a beggar on alms as even the victory will not allow him to enjoy the luxuries of pleasures of life with the hands dipped in the blood of his own kinsmen, and teachers even though it is still uncertain whether this battle would begin or not or who will emerge victorious in this battle. The sons of Dhratrashtra, whom he does not want to kill are standing before his arrows in the battlefield. In this moment of dilemma and crisis Arjuna turns towards Lord Krishna to counsel him as to what is good and what is vice as he has totally surrendered himself to Him. Even if he gets undisputed authority with prosperous kingdom of the whole world and even suzeranity over gods but he does not see any method to drive away the grief at the thought of killing his own teacher and relatives that is drying his senses. Then Arjuna telling Lord Krishna that he will not fight fell silent. Sri Bhagwan replied grief stricken Arjuna that he grieving over those who do not deserve to be grieved upon and yet he considers himself wise as wise people do not express grief over the dead and the living. They have stable mind and maintain the same composure during the times of joy and grief. The truth is that everybody is immortal as the soul is immortal. There was no time when you or me and these warriors you are beholding did not exist, nor are they going to perish for ever. They will exist as soul is immortal. Just as there are different stages of life- boyhood, youth and old age in a body, similarly a soul abides in a body till it is worn out by disease and old age and then leaving it continues its journey by taking up another body. So let there be no delusion about it that only body dies in the mind of a wise man. Wise people who behave alike in in pain and pleasures, joy and sorrows, happiness and grief are not perturbed by these passing phases of life. They become eligible for immortality. Unreal cannot exist and real cannot disappear this fact has been comprehended well by sages and seers of truth. Everybody in the universe is perishable except that who pervades the whole universe and who is its creator, sustainer and even destroyer. No power can destroy this indestructible material. All these bodies believing to be imperishable will end certainly one day while the soul, which is indefinable, and that is often identified with perishable body will be eternal and live for ever. So Krishna exhorts Arjuna to fight. He tells further that both of them are ignorant fools one who thinks that soul is capable of killing something or a soul can be killed as soul can neither kill nor get killed. It is neither born nor does it die, nor dies it come into existence after birth as it is unborn, everlasting, eternal and perhaps ancient as ancient as the creator of the universe. Even though the body is killed soul remains for ever. The man who has understood this fact that soul is imperishable, eternal and free from birth and death can easily comprehend that he cannot kill anyone of get killed by anyone. As a man sheds off old and worn out clothes and takes new attire similarly a soul shedding off old and diseased body takes up a new body. As soul is immortal so it cannot be cut by any weapon, nor can it be consumed by fire, nor can it be drowned by water and nor can it be parched by wind. It is immortal, omnipresent, immovable, constant and everlasting. So Krishna tells Arjuna not to grieve over these souls as they are unmanifest and immutable. And even if he believes these souls to be subject to constant death and birth he should not grieve as death is certain for every being who is born and this death is only of body and not of soul who transmigrates into fresh body in the same way as a person discards old clothes and takes new one. As death is certain, sure, inevitable and unavoidable so he should not grieve over it. As death is certain and rebirth is inevitable for the dead, so Arjuna should not feel sad over the things that are certain to happen. Before birth beings are not manifest to human senses and after death they return to unmanifest again. So they are manifest only in the phase between life and death, so what is there to lament. Sri Bhagwan tells Arjuna that this soul dwelling in the bodies of all can never be killed, so he should not mourn for any one. Besides considering your own duty too you should not waver, for there is nothing more welcome for a man of warrior class than a righteous war. Happy and pleased are such Kshatriyas who get such an unsolicited opportunity for fighting a war as it opens doors to heaven,if killed in battlefield. If you will refuse to fight this righteous war, then running away from duty will tarnish his reputation and he will incur sin. People will also pour undying infamy on on him and infamy brought on a man enjoying popular respect is worse than death. The warrior chiefs also who thought highly of him will despise him thinking that it was that drove him from battle and battlefield. And his foes will disparage his might and will speak unbecoming words which will be far more distressing than this situation. So rise up Arjuna and fight if you will die, you will get heaven,and if wins then the sovereignty of the world. Treating victory and defeat, gain and loss,pleasure and pain alike get ready for the battle as in fighting he will not incur sin. Krishna tells Arjuna that this attitude of mind has been elaborated from the view of Jnanyoga ( The Yoga of Knowledge).

Karmayoga ( The Yoga of Selfless Action)

Now hear it from the point of view of Karmayoga ( Selfless action). Krishna feels certain that with this attitude of mind Arjuna will be able to throw off the shackles of Karma completely. In this path of disinterested action ( Niswarth Karma) there is no loss of effort, nor is there any fear of contrary result, even a little practice of this discipline saves one from the terrible fear of birth and death. In this Yoga the intellect is determinate and directed singly towards one ideal, whereas the intellect of the undecided and ignorant men moved by desire, wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims. Those who are full of worldly desires and devoted to the letter of Vedas, who look upon heaven, as the supreme goal and say that there is nothing beyond heaven are unwise. They utter flowery speeches recommending many rituals of various kinds for the attainment of pleasure and worldly power cannot attain the determinate intellect concentrated on God.

Krishna tells Arjuna that Vedas deal with the evolutes of three Gunas ( Sattvik, Rajas, and Tamas) modes of Prakriti ( Nature) worldly achievements and the modes to achieve such achievements. He advises Arjuna to remain indifferent to these enjoyments and their means, rising above the opposites like pleasure and pain, triumph and loss and the like, established in the Eternal Existence ( God) absolutely unconcerned the supply of wants and and the preservation of what has already been achieved and self control. A Brahman, who has attained enlightenment has the same use for all Vedas like a man who stands at the brink of a sheet of water overflowing on all the sides has for a small reservoir of water. He tells Arjuna that your right is to work only , and not to the fruit thereof. Be not instrumental in making your actions bear fruit, nor let your attachment to inaction. Sri Bhagwan tells Arjuna to perform his duties in this Yoga, renouncing every attachment, and even tempered in success and failure. This evenness of temper is Yoga. Action with a selfish motive is far inferior to this Yoga as poor and wretched are those who are instrumental in making their actions bear fruit. Endowed with equanimity, one sheds in this life both good and evil. So strive for the practice of this yoga of equanimity skill in action lies in the practice of this Yoga. Wise man possessing an equipoised mind renouncing the fruits of actions and freed from the shackles of birth, attain the blissful supreme state. When the mind has crossed more of delusion; one can grow indifferent to the enjoyments of this world and the next that has been heard of as well as to those that are yet to be heard of. When one’s intellect,confused by hearing conflicting statements will rest, steady and undistracted ( in meditation) on God, one can then attain everlasting union with God or Yoga. Pandava Prince Arjuna asks Lord Krishna about the definition and marks of a God realised soul, stable of mind and established in perfect tranquillity of mind ( Samadhi). How does the man of stable mind speak out, sits or walks. Sri Bhagwan replying to Arjuna’s query says when one thoroughly dismisses all cravings of the mind, and is satisfied in the self through the joy of self then he is called stable of mind. The sage, whose mind remains unperturbed amid sorrows, whose thirst for pleasures has altogether disappeared, and who is free of passion, anger and fear can be called as stable of mind. He who is unattached to everything, and meeting with good and evil, neither rejoices nor recoils has a stable mind. When like a tortoise one draws in its limbs from all directions , he withdraws his senses from sense objects his mind is stable. Sense objects turn away from him, who does not enjoy them with his senses but the taste for them persists. This relish also disappears in the case of a the man of stable mind when he beholds the supreme. If man is of turbulent nature then the senses of even a wise man, who is practising self control, forcibly carry away his mind. Hence, having controlled them all and collecting his mind one should sit for meditation devoting oneself heart and soul to God (me). He, whose senses are mastered is known to have a stable mind. The man dwelling on sense objects develops attachment for them; from all attachments springs desires, and from unfulfilled desire ensues anger. From anger arises infatuation, from infatuation confusion of memory, loss of reason, and loss of reason leads to complete ruin. But the self controlled Sadhaka while enjoying various sense objects through his senses, which are disciplined and free from likes and dislikes attain placidity of mind. With the attainment of such placidity of mind, all his sorrows come to an end; and the intellect of such a person of tranquil mind soon withdrawing itself from all sides, becomes firmly established in God. He, who has not controlled his mind and senses can have no reason; nor such an undisciplined person think of God. The unthinking man can have no peace of mind. .As the wind carries away the boat upon the waters, even so of the senses moving among sense objects, the one to which mind is joined takes away his discrimination. Therefore he whose senses are completely restrained from their objects is said to have a stable mind. That which is night to all beings, in that state ( of divine knowledge and supreme bliss) the God realised Yogi keeps awake, and that ( the ever changing transient worldly happiness) in which all beings keep awake is right to the seer. As the waters of different rivers enter the ocean which though fall on all sides, remain undisturbed, likewise he who in all enjoyments merge themselves attain peace, not he who hankers after such enjoyments. He who has given up all desires,and moves free from attachment, egoism and thirst for enjoyment attains peace. Such is the state of God realised soul. Having reached that state, he overcomes delusion. And established in that state, even at the last moment attains Brahmic Bliss.