The Science of Religion for Mankind - Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta: Yatharth Geeta

CHAPTER 16: THE YOG OF TELLING THE DIVINE FROM THE DEMONIACAL

CHAPTER 16: THE YOG OF TELLING THE DIVINE FROM THE DEMONIACAL

Yogeshwar Krishn has a unique style of posing a problem. He first indicates the peculiarities of the issue in order to compel attention to it, and then elaborates and explains it. His treatment of action may be cited as an instance of this. In Chapter 2 he exhorted Arjun to act. He then suggested to him in Chapter 3 that he ought to undertake the ordained action. Elucidating its nature he pointed out that the performance of yagya is action. Subsequently, before describing the nature of yagya he dwelt upon its origin as well as upon what it has to offer us. In Chapter 4, he resorted to more than a dozen ways to unravel the nature of yagya, the doing of which is action. It is now that the meaning of action is made clear: that in the true sense it denotes yogic contemplation and worship which are accomplished by the operation of the mind and senses.

In similar fashion Krishn named the treasure of divinity and the accumulated hoard of demoniacal impulses in Chapter 9. After stressing their main features he told Arjun that men with demoniacal nature regard him but as a contemptible mortal. He has after all a human body and it is in this form that he has attained to his supreme state. But they who are evil and ignorant refuse to adore him. Blessed with the treasure of divinity, on the other hand, his devotees meditate upon him with single-mindedness. However, the nature of divine and demoniacal impulses has not yet been made clear. It is only in the present chapter that this task is undertaken and the first to be presented are attributes of the treasure of divinity.

1. “The Lord said, ‘Fearlessness, inner purity, steadfastness of yog for knowledge, charity, continence, yagya, study of scriptures, penance, and uprightness,… ’”

Total absence of fear, inner sanctity, constant endeavour and meditation to acquire the truth, complete self-surrender, subduing of the mind and senses, conduct of yagya (as laid down by Krishn in Chapter 4), offering sacrifice to the fire of self-restraint as well as to the fire of the senses, offering pran and apan as oblation to each other, and last of all the process of worship that entails sacrificing oneself to the fire of knowledge which is achieved by the inner workings of the mind and senses rather than by the yagya that is performed with oilseeds, barley-grains and an altar (Krishn accepts no such ceremonial act or sacrificial rite as yagya), meditation upon the Self which is the discipline that prompts one towards the identical Supreme Spirit, penance that moulds the mind along with the senses in accordance with the cherished goal, and integrity of the mind and heart as well as of the body and its senses, are some of the traits that characterize pious men.

2. “Nonviolence, truthfulness, abstinence from anger, renunciation, tranquillity, absence of malice, compassion for all beings, disinterestedness, tenderness, modesty, abstinence from futile effort,… ”

True nonviolence is salvaging of the Soul, for degrading the Soul is violence. As Krishn has avowed, he will be the destroyer of all mankind and generator of varnsankar if he does not carry out his task conscientiously. Since the character (varn) of the Self is that of God, his straying about amidst nature is varnasankar: this is injury to the Soul and his deliverance is nonviolence in the true sense.

Truthfulness is not speaking what is apparently real or pleasing. Is it truth when we say that these clothes belong to us? There can be, in fact, no more blatant a lie than this. If we are not masters of our own persons that are mutable, or changeable, how can the clothing that but covers them belong to us? The Yogeshwar himself has spoken of the nature of truth to Arjun in asserting that there is no death of what is true in all the three divisions of time- past, present, and future. The Self alone is true; he is the supreme truth. This is the truth we have to fix our eyes on. Some other attributes of a righteous man are abstinence from anger, surrender of whatever one has, renunciation of desire for the rewards of good as well as of evil action, absence of fickleness, avoidance of undesirable acts that are contrary to the aspired-for goal, feeling of mercy for all beings, non-attachment to objects even when the senses are associated with them, feeling of tenderness, shame at straying from the object, and keeping away from futile effort.