Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Yesterday we noticed how variegated the way of spiritual practice can be, as designated as the different forms of yajna which are described in a few verses in the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. A yajna is a sacrifice, an offering, and the offering can be a visible material something, or it can be an offering by way of an inward contemplation. Sreyan dravyamayad yajnat jnana-yajnah parantapa, sarvam karmakhilam partha jnane parisamapyate (4.33): Better than material offering is the offering through knowledge. Jnana yajna is superior to dravya yajna. The imparting of knowledge is a greater service than giving a lot of money to a person as charity, because all value is centred in the extent of knowledge that we have of ourselves, of the world, and finally of God – of life and death.

Every activity culminates finally in knowledge. Sarvam karmakhilam partha jnane parisamapyate: Every activity directs itself to a state where activity itself ceases and, in the end, all action finds itself in a state of abolition of all necessity for action. The movements of the rivers cease when they reach the ocean, which is their destination. There is no further movement in any direction after the rivers reach the ocean. Until that time, there is intense activity. Hence, all activity is an obligation that arises on account of the consciousness getting lodged in the physical body’s individuality, and it ceases to be an action when it assumes a super-individual dimension.

The flowing of a river is an action, the blowing of the wind is an action, the bursting of a volcano is an action. Do we find a difference between these actions and our actions? The difference is the extent of personality-consciousness, ego-consciousness, individuality-consciousness involved. If our actions have an impact upon another person, it produces a nemesis by way of a reaction; but if Ganga overflows and demolishes millions of villages in Bihar, no reaction will be set up against Ganga. If tornadoes blow, tear out trees, make the ocean rise up and destroy all kinds of life, the wind will not have any nemesis or reaction to its action. If a volcano kills millions, it will not have any karma reacting upon it. But if we do anything – if we destroy a village or break something – we will get the nemesis thereof.

The cause of nemesis, or reaction, is the extent of the individual consciousness that we maintain; and jnana is the total abolition of individual consciousness. Knowledge here does not mean academic learning in a college. It is not gathering of information through books. It is an insight into the very substance of all things. It is Realisation that we call knowledge. Knowledge here means identity of consciousness with being. Even if a professor knows much about how the stars are formed, how the sun moves, how the solar system works, he cannot be said to have a true knowledge of these things because knowledge is identical with the being thereof. A true knowledge of the sun would mean becoming the sun itself, and to know the stars would be to become the stars themselves. As no professor of knowledge has that acquisition of insight by which he can become one with that which he teaches, all professorial and academic learning keeps us away from the object of true knowledge.

Here the knowledge that is referred to in the Bhagavadgita, wherein all actions are supposed to melt down, is not the ordinary learning of any kind of academician. It is not panditya or scholarship, but is the very being of the object getting identified with the knowledge of the object. Sat becomes chit. Existence becomes Awareness. Knowledge is identified with the being of the very object that we know. It is this kind of knowledge that is spoken of as a highly exalted achievement, wherein all actions melt and cease forever.

All material offerings are inferior in comparison to the greatest of offerings of one’s own consciousness into the very object of consciousness. Jnana yajna is higher than dravya yajna or any kind of yajna involving objects which are material in their nature. Yathaidhamsi samiddho’gnir bhasmasat kurute’rjuna, jnanagnih sarva-karmani bhasmasat kurute tatha (4.37): As a blazing fire reduces firewood into ashes, all karmas are reduced to ashes by this blazing fire of knowledge.

Arjuna is stupefied. “What is being told to me now? It was told that I should take up arms and fight. That was the beginning, and that is the import of the very teaching itself. What is the relation between my being asked to fight in the battlefield, and now being told that everything that I do melts in the highest knowledge which identifies itself with the object of knowledge?” Great doubts slowly arise even in Arjuna, the best of students.

All karmas get burnt to ashes in this great knowledge. Yoga-sanyasta-karmanam jnana-samcchinna-samsayam, atma-vantam na karmani nibadhnanti dhananjaya (4.41): He who has renounced all attachment through the identification of himself with all things, he who has dispelled all doubts through this knowledge which has been described just now, and he who is established in the consciousness of Self, him no karma can bind. That is the meaning of this pithy verse, yoga-sanyasta-karmanam jnana-samcchinna-samsayam, atma-vantam na karmani nibadhnanti dhananjaya.

He who is a knower and a yogi, he who is established in the Self, him no action can bind.

Tasmad ajnana-sambhutam hrit-stham jnanasinatmanah, chittvainam samsayam yogam atishthottishtha bharata (4.42) is the last verse of the Fourth Chapter. “Therefore I am telling you, Arjuna, dispelling this ignorance that has been born of misconception, cutting aside all doubts with this knowledge; with the sword of insight, establish yourself in yoga. This doubt that is harassing the heart of everybody and compels everyone to see things in a wrong fashion, dispel this ignorance with the sword of knowledge – jnanasinatmanah. Remove all doubts of every kind. ‘What kind of relation have I with myself?’ ‘What is my relation to the world?’ ‘What is my relation to God?’ ‘What is the relation of the world to God?’ Remove all these doubts in one stroke with the insight which is known as knowledge or highest wisdom. Get up! Be bold! Bravo, O hero Arjuna!”

“My Lord, what are you telling me? You say that jnana is the highest. I understand what you say. But sometimes you say, ‘You must act. All actions melt in knowledge.’ If that is the case, where comes the necessity for me to hear from you the instruction that I must act?” Sannyasam karmanam krishna punar yogam ca samsasi, yac chreya etayor ekam tan me bruhi sunischitam (5.1). “Sometimes you say jnana, sometimes you say karma. Between these two, which is better for me?”

Jyayasi cet karmanas te mata buddhir janardana, tat kim karmani ghore mam niyojayasi kesava (3.1). If buddhi, understanding, is the root of all activity as is mentioned in the Second Chapter – if buddhi, or knowledge, is extolled as far superior to all actions – where is the need for action? This question is raised in the beginning of the Third Chapter. Now a similar question is being raised in the beginning of the Fifth Chapter. “When you say knowledge is supreme and all actions melt in knowledge, I would certainly be tempted to acquire that knowledge where all necessity to act will melt and actions will get burned.”

A disciple went to a Guru, “Maharaj, who is greater: a disciple or a Guru? The Guru said, “Guru is greater.” “Then please make me a Guru.” This is the kind of question that Arjuna raised after hearing the discourse on the inter-relationship between yoga and sankhya, jnana and karma. In the language of the Bhagavadgita, sankhya means knowledge. It is also known as jnana. Here yoga means action, karma, or rather the application of knowledge. Karma here means applied knowledge. Just as there is applied physiology, applied physics, applied chemistry, etc., applied knowledge is yoga which is karma.

“What is this question you are raising once again after having heard so much that I have been telling you for days together?” Loke’smin dvi-vidha nishtha pura prokta mayanagha, jnana-yogena sankhyanam karma-yogena yoginam (3.3). In light of what we have already studied in the Fourth Chapter, there is some repetition in the Fifth Chapter. The Fourth and Fifth Chapters deal with the same theme, so sometimes there appears to be a repetition and an overemphasis of certain things.

The verse in the Third Chapter was loke’smin dvi-vidha nishtha pura prokta mayanagha, jnana-yogena sankhyanam karma-yogena yoginam: “I have mentioned to you that there are two ways or approaches to Reality: jnana and karma.” Now in the Fifth Chapter Sri Krishna again speaks practically the same words. Sankhya-yogau prithag balah pravadanti na panditah, ekam apy asthitah samyag ubhayor vindate phalam (5.4): “Only children think that sankhya and yoga are two different things. Therefore, childish is your query whether jnana is superior or karma is superior, or whether you have to resort to knowledge or resort to action. I have mentioned to you that these two are inseparable.”