Bhagavagd Gita - Session 22- Track 2211

And what is the 3rd sentence? The 3rd sentence is:

yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (II, 50)

“Efficiency, proficiency of action is Yoga.”

You apply these 3 propositions and your whole spirit of action will change.

1) karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana (II, 47). This is the first sentence: “You have right to action, but not to the fruits of action”. If with this consciousness you perform an action, your spirit will be changed.

2) samatvaṁ yogam ucyate (II, 48). “Develop equality of mind while doing action”, your sprit will be changed.

3) yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (II, 50). And “Do every action with thoroughness, perfection.” That also will change your state of consciousness.

These 3 propositions when you combine together, the spirit of action will be changed. And when the spirit is changed, you will be uplifted. The whole aim is to uplift you from where you are. Where you are Sri Krishna says, “Where you are you cannot find a solution to your problem, you have to uplift yourself: upliftment can be done by Buddhi, that is one way; the other way is join Buddhi with Karma, but Karma not merely by doing Karma, but apply these 3 propositions. When these 3 propositions are applied, then the spirit of your action will be changed and you will be uplifted. Now, this is the teaching of the 2nd chapter.

In the 3rd chapter, we have a further expansion: you go farther. What is the farther point? The farther point is that you realise that you have no right even to action also. In the 2nd chapter you were told that you have a right to action but not to the fruits; but this is only the first teaching. In the 3rd chapter you are told that aham karomi, “I am doing, I am doing” is also a falsity. You have no right even to action! Not only do you give up the results of action, but now Sri Krishna says, “Give up action also”. And how do you give up action? You have no right to action therefore how do you do it? You refer action to whom…from where the action proceeds. Action does not belong to you, then, it belongs to whom? It belongs to the supreme Lord. So Sri Krishna says, “Whatever action you do, you do yajña , as a sacrifice.” This is the secret. This is the second step of Karmayoga. First is the giving of the fruits of action; the next is: now give up action itself: in what way? As a sacrifice to the Lord.

Now, here comes also a greater knowledge: knowledge of the Lord, which was up till now not referred to. In the 2nd chapter the Lord is not yet referred to, except only once. In the 3rd chapter now, the introduction of the idea of the Lord comes in. As you become ripper, even the knowledge also becomes ripper. In Buddhiyoga, you had only seen that which is eternal and that which is not eternal. But now, you see much more; you see the Eternal from whom action proceeds. It is a greater perception, a greater knowledge. So, just as you rise in your spirit of action, you also rise higher in knowledge. And the two are again synthesised: Knowledge and Action.

What is yajña is then explained by Sri Krishna in the 3rd chapter; and He explains that the whole world is yajña , the whole world is created by yajña . When you complete your movement of yajña , which is again explained in the 4th chapter, that yajñas are of many kinds, but the highest yajña is the yajña of knowledge: when you know the Supreme, when you come to know the Reality itself, and then you offer everything to the Lord that is the climax of Karmayoga.

Then what happens? divyam janma divyam karma; then arises the divine birth. You are really seated, you are really uplifted into the higher status; and then, you are able to act. From the higher level the action proceeds. Now, action no more proceeds from you. All actions that you had is already (orthography???krisna appanam), is already given as an offer to the supreme Lord. Now, whatever action proceeds, the actions proceeds only from Him. The climax of Karmayoga is to make God do, instead of you doing anything. Once you know that it is the Divine who is acting, then all your arguments, Sri Krishna says to Arjuna (one word???), the argument “if I do this, this will be the result, if I do this, that will be the result”, you are no more doing anything. Allow the supreme Lord to act, and He will work out whatever is His will. To discover the Divine’s will, to be the instrument of the Divine’s will, and to allow the Supreme to work through us, we, remaining like a flute, or we, remaining like a bow of the arrow, we, remaining as an instrument, then the divine action will proceed from you. No more your ordinary action. Your ordinary action is made of Prakriti: Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. But when you have given to the Lord, then divya karma will start, it will not be Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas: it will be Sachchidananda’s action. In every action there will be purity and that which is truthfulness, and that which is fully conscious and full of delight. So, in the 4th chapter, the Karmayoga is described fully; but Karmayoga which is synthesised with the Knowledge.

5th and 6th chapters are only elucidation of lingering doubts, which remain. That of ‘what is the place of Sannyasa in all this process’, because this is the question which was very prominent at that time, in the time of Arjuna’s questioning. Sannyasa had become more and more fashionable, and people were being drawn away from action into Sannyasa, into renunciation. Therefore this question is very prominent through out the whole book. What is Sannyasa? So, Sri Krishna says, “The real Sannyasa is not ‘coming out of action’; the real Sannyasa is the giving up of desire”. Once you give up, it is real Sannyasa, whether you do this or do that: do all actions without desire that is the real Sannyasa.

And that is why Sri Krishna says that, “Whether…the distinction between Jnanayoga and Karmayoga itself ceases”: what is Sankhya, is Karma, is Yoga, and what is Yoga is Sankhya; only the starting point is different. In the process of Knowledge you take resort to Buddhi. In Karmayoga you take resort to Karma; but having resort to Karma, in Karmayoga you apply Buddhi. And it is only when you reach the climax of Jnana that you really reach the climax of Action. In Jnanayoga also when you reach the Knowledge of the One, then you find that ‘that One’ is himself Purushottama, and this is explained in the 6th chapter and says, ‘to see oneself in all, and all in oneself; and to see oneself in Him, or in the Reality, in mayi, in Me, and Me in everybody…ultimately arriving at a stage of complete devotion’, that is the supreme condition, in which Karma, Jnana, and Bhakti are all reconciled: this is the condition of Karmayoga. This is the elucidation in chapters n°5 & 6.