Just before the start of the epic Mahabharata War, Bhagavan Krishna shared the profound insightful teachings of the Bhagavad Geeta with Arjuna. He revealed a path of self-awareness, guiding us toward a better understanding of our true nature. This journey is demanding, yet through trust in the divine, we glimpse a way to inner peace and ultimate freedom. Here, we explore these guiding steps:
Step 1. Understanding raaga and dvesha
Krishna states that both pleasure and pain are temporary. Our physical body too is perishable. Only our soul is eternal, moving from one body to another (rebirth). People who run after the pleasures of the body can never get moksha (मोक्ष, freedom from an endless cycle of rebirths). The reason is that a thought for any material object leads to attachment, and then a desire for it. Its unfulfillment causes anger and then a delusion which weakens the intellect. The discrimination between right and wrong is lost and the person is finished.
A wise man who lives through both pleasure and pain, treating them alike becomes eligible for amrita (अमृत, bliss). Thus, a wise person should devote himself to becoming a sthita-pragnya (the skill to keep the mind even in all circumstances). Krishna elaborates that control over the senses can be developed by experiencing worldly objects without any raaga (राग, attachment) or dvesha (द्वेष, dislikes). Such a person gets peace of mind and knowledge of the divine (आत्म-ज्ञान, atma-gnyana). All the pleasures effortlessly flow into such a person, like when river waters joining an ocean cause it no trouble.
Arjuna asks if knowledge is superior then why should he perform the karma (action) of violence?
Step 2. The only 2 paths to moksha
Krishna explains that Saankhya (सांख्य) and Yoga are the only 2 paths to moksha. Saankhya is the path of gnyana and Yoga is the path of karma. Karma-yoga means to perform selfless actions as per one’s swadharma (duty), not getting attached to its results but offering them to God.
The path of Saankhya is adopted by a sannyasi (renunciate). But anyone who thinks sannyasa (renunciation) means inaction is a hypocrite of mistaken intelligence. No one can even maintain his body or remain alive without doing any work.
Krishna states in Bhagavad Geeta 3.8:
“Karma jyayo hyakarmanaha”
Meaning, “Action is superior to inaction”
Step 3. Means to regulate your senses as per Saankhya
To reach Paramatma (the Supreme Soul), the practitioners of Saankhya regulate their senses with these karmas (actions):
- Yagnya (fire rituals for the collective well-being of society)
- Ritualistic worship (a step towards higher forms of devotion)
- Fasting (moderate, physical tapasya to reduce physical karma-phala)
- Daana (दान) (Wealth is transient. Daana purifies the mind if done respectfully at the right time to the right person, and without any expectations)
- Abhyasa (study of the Vedic scriptures calms the mind)
- Practice of yoga
- Pranayama (measured inhalation and exhalation regulates the senses)
- Mauna (verbal tapasya to reduce verbal karma-phala)
- Chanting of mantra-jaapa
- Swadhyaya (conscious study of oneself)
- Dhyana (meditation on God, because you become what you think)
Krishna highlights the importance of satsanga (सत्संग). Touching the feet of sages, serving them, asking them questions with a noble heart, and listening to them, grants atma-gnyana (knowledge of the divine soul). Such knowledge acts as a raft to transport a person across the sea of a wayward existence. There is no happiness for the doubting soul in this world or the next.
A gnyani (knowledgeable scholar of Saankhya) does not distinguish between a Brahmana, a chandala, or an animal. Free from opposites of raaga and dvesha, he intends the welfare of all beings. His desires and sins are destroyed, and he finds happiness within.
Answering Arjuna’s query, Krishna endorses that both sannyasa and Karma-yoga reach moksha in due course and are not different. He clarifies that Saankhya (sannyasa) is a little more difficult as it needs high levels of persistent tapasya, yoga, pranayama, and dhyana.
Step 4. Bhakti is mandatory
Krishna emphasizes that no effort is wasted for his Bhakta (devotee) who is making a sincere effort towards moksha. His next birth would be in the family of the wise and devoted yogis. Such a striving Bhakta who has taken refuge in Krishna is superior to a Gnyana-yogi or Karma-yogi. (This means that Bhakti is unavoidable for a seeker on either path of Saankhya or Yoga).
Krishna loves his true devotee whose mind is steadfast in him. Such a Bhakta who dedicates all actions to him and takes refuge in him gets freedom from the cycle of rebirths. Whoever a person thinks of during death, attains him. So, Krishna’s devotees always perform dhyana (contemplation of God) to remain absorbed in his thoughts.
Step 5. Understanding Prakriti
Krishna declares that he permeates the entire cosmos. All beings rest in him. Krishna adds that at the end of the kalpa (aeon), all that exists merges in his Prakriti. Then at the start of a new kalpa, under his direction, his Prakriti births all the living and non-living beings. (Thus, some call Prakriti as Adi Shakti or the primordial nature).
Prakriti also manifests as an individual human body which is known as kshetra (field or unit) too. A kshetra’s (temporary body) lower Prakriti is made up of:
- Pancha mahabhuta (the 5 gross elements including earth, water, fire, air, and space)
- karmendriya (the 5 organs of activity including hands, legs, tongue, excretion, and procreation)
- gnyanendriya (the 5 sense organs including skin, ears, eyes, nose, and tongue; and their respective perceptions of touch, sound, sight, smell, and taste)
- manas (one’s mundane mind)
- buddhi (intellect)
- ahamkara (ego or a sense of Doership)
A body’s higher Prakriti is chitta. (Chitta is the deeper mind that directs the lower Prakriti. Chitta is an individual’s consciousness. Sanskara-s are the attributes of a chitta). Thus, chitta gives the kshetra (body) its desires, likes, dislikes, pleasures, pains, chetana (perception), and fortitude.
Kshetra can also be described as maya (a delusion that makes one think that every object on this Earth is permanent). Maya consists of 3 guna-s (attributes) including sattva (goodness), rajas (feverish activity), and tamas (faults) which decide a person’s swabhava (character). (As a simplification, in humans Prakriti is kshetra, the same as maya, and the 3 guna-s).
Step 6. Knowing Purusha
Like the universe, each human is a combination of Prakriti (body including chitta) and Purusha (soul within). In each entity, Purusha is the same as Kshetragnya or the jeevatma (the individual’s soul which is different from his chitta and its sanskara-s). Kshetragnya is the knower of the kshetra. Krishna declares that he is the Kshetragnya inside all kshetra-s, meaning each jeevatma is a part of him (Paramatma, the Supreme Soul).
Krishna further elaborates that Prakriti and Purusha are both beginningless. Prakriti births all the entities of the universe with their likes and dislikes. All their later deeds are performed by Prakriti, while Purusha (jeevatma) experiences its pleasures and pains. When Purusha attaches itself to Prakriti (desires, memories, likes, dislikes), there is rebirth. When the jeevatma (Purusha) leaves the physical body, it takes the chitta (higher Prakriti) with it, like the wind carries the aromas. But the ignorant cannot see this.
Krishna states that the predominant guna decides where and how one will be reborn.
Step 7. Atma-gnyana, differentiating between jeevatma and chitta
A sannyasi (renunciate) believes that, not him (his soul) but his senses are doing all his physical, verbal, and mental actions. (Senses, the lower Prakriti, are directed by chitta, the higher Prakriti).
When the soul becomes a witness (awareness of his acts, words, and thoughts), it realizes that the 3 guna-s govern a human life. Moksha is when you transcend the 3 guna-s. To rise above the 3 guna-s, the sadhaka (seeker):
- Remains unaffected by the presence or absence of the 3 guna-s
- Becomes a witness
- Treats alike both pleasure and pain; or praise and insult
- Does tyaga of the ownership of efforts
- Karma-Yoga
- Bhakti Yoga (activities dedicated to God)
When a person does dhyana (meditation) on Krishna, his chitta (consciousness) becomes as still as a flame in a windless room. In this tranquillity, the soul sees the soul and there is foremost peace. Then, he is unaffected by the heaviest of sorrows.
Krishna cautions that the sannyasi must never stop kartavya (duty-bound activities), purificatory yagnya-s, daana, and tapasya.
Purusha becomes the drashta (witness) only after seeing Prakriti as the sole doer of all karmas. A person who understands this slight difference between kshetra (Prakriti) and Kshetragnya (Purusha) reaches Paramatma (the Supreme Soul).
Krishna concludes that Bhagavad Geeta’s gnyana is only for a tapasvi and his devotee.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank Dr. Arvind Kaushik for his valuable inputs.
(Note: This article is an excerpt from the pocket book ‘Bhagavad Geeta made simple’ by Gaurang Damani.)
Feature Image Credit: istockphoto.com
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