Bhagavagd Gita - Session 3- Track 307

Question: Action done with Buddhiyoga and a steady mind is it not most of the time successful?

Answer: Yes, of course. But, the point is: remember, Sri Krishna does not say, ‘that you should not act’, He only says, “do not cling to the enjoyment of the fruits of action”. In fact, the secret of every effective action is Karmayoga. You cannot effectively act if you are not doing Karmayoga.

Question: And, another thing, as you said, ‘to resort to Buddhiyoga that is outcome of a certain development?

Answer: That is right.

Question: That will be done by evolution only?

Answer: That is right. You cannot give this advice to one who is not already on the level where he can make a transition from Rajas to Sattwa, or who is already in Sattwa. This advice, Sri Krishna gives to Arjuna because Arjuna is already Sattwic. That is why this advice is given to him.

Question: The recoil was Sattwic?

Answer: True! Because Sattwa is never free from Rajas and Tamas, but he was predominantly Sattwic. That is why this whole question arises because he is in search of Dharma: he is asking: ‘what is right? What is wrong?’ Only a Sattwic mind asks this question! Rajasic mind does not ask this question! Tamasic mind does not ask this question! His recoil was Tamasic, but his question is not Tamasic.

Question: But does that not mean that Gita is relevant only to a certain extent of the intellectually developed?

Answer: You know, your question is so important, because we often say that Gita is relevant to our times, and is relevant to the people of the world, and it is true that since this whole teaching is addressed to Arjuna who was a master man, who was a representative of humanity at that time, he was Vibhuti, he was Sattwic; therefore this kind of teaching is relevant to him. How can we say it is relevant to everybody? And yet towards the end of the Bhagavad Gita, when you come to the close of the Gita, Sri Krishna says, “What is true to one man can be true to the whole of humanity, provided that some body ‘really’ wants”. That is the only condition toward the end which is left out: that anybody…say even if a man is very wicked, and evil, if he turns resolutely, then he will be liberated and uplifted; therefore it is…although it is given to Arjuna, who is Sattwic in his mentality, and therefore we might say it is relevant to Sattwic people in the world, and you cannot teach everybody, but Sri Krishna towards the end says that, “even if a man is wicked, even if he is mūḍha, but if he turns resolutely, then this teaching will be relevant to him”, because then he will be uplifted. And in that sense therefore, you might say that the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is relevant to anybody who ask the question sincerely: everybody in the world therefore, anybody who sincerely want, whatever his present situation, whatever he has done in the past, if today he says, “I really want a true solution”, then this teaching will be relevant.

When your action become steady, is real action, and no more reaction, no more inaction, no more partial action, but a real action, that is steadiness of action, it becomes real Karmayoga. When Buddhiyoga was really Buddhiyoga, when Buddhi becomes steady, similarly action becomes steady. But this action becomes steady by what power?