Bhagavagd Gita - Session 10- Track 1007

Very often when you are established in Knowledge, you become so quiet, that you cease to act. Therefore Sri Krishna says: “In manifestation if you simply cease to act, that is not correct, you must act.” In manifestation go on acting; even if you remain, if you think that you are quiet, you are breathing at least, which is an action. You cannot cease to act, therefore act rightly. And act rightly means, what is the right action? And action which is founded in Knowledge, and which is crowned in Bhakti, that is the right action. You applied the right propositions, right hierarchy, and you will get complete satisfaction from all the statements of the Bhagavad Gita.

Otherwise, people think that Bhagavad Gita contradicts itself at certain important places: He says, “Jnanayoga is the highest”, then He says, “Karmayoga is the highest”, then He says, “Bhaktiyoga is the highest”. But you must read carefully in what context what is the highest. In foundation, Action is not highest; in foundation Knowledge is the highest.

Therefore, since the foundation is to be made in the beginning, He starts with Sankhya and speaks of the highest Knowledge. He establishes the very basis of Knowledge first and even says that Knowledge is far superior to Action: it is perfectly correct there is nothing wrong about it at all, but action is far superior to inaction; and the crowning of action is Bhakti.

That is why also if you see the whole structure of the Bhagavad Gita, it can be divided into three parts: the first “six chapters”, the second “six chapters” and the last “six chapters”. In the first six chapters, there is the synthesis of Knowledge and Action on the basis of Knowledge as foundation and Karma is a manifestation of that Knowledge: that is how the two are reconciled. And the crowning which is Bhakti is stated very briefly; if you read the first six chapters there are only a few places where Bhakti is mentioned, but at a very crucial place.

If you read for example Chapter II the verse n°61: In the first sentence you will find the word matparaḥ. There is the word matparaḥ: mat means Me. You do all your actions matparaḥ, devoted to Me. This is the only place in the 2nd chapter where Bhakti is indicated; otherwise the whole chapter is connected with Jnana and Karma. Very rarely you will find the reference to Bhakti in the first six chapters. It does not mean there is no place for Bhakti; it is reserved for a crowning position.

In the next six chapters, there is the synthesis of Knowledge and Love; and there you find plenty of Bhakti. Because that is the crowning movement, which is described there, where Knowledge and Action reach the crowning point in Bhakti. And that which is the crowning point becomes a real motivation of Action; therefore Action is the crowning movement of the crowning motivation. This is the main substance of the last 6 chapters.

When you are fully absorbed, founded in Knowledge, and when your motivation has reach the climax of Love, then what do you want to do? It must manifest in highest Action. And what is the highest Action? The highest Action is to become one in every way with the highest. And what is the highest? Highest is always Satchitananda, it is that which never dies, and which is constantly motivated to act with Ananda.

That Ananda, which never dies, manifests constantly, incessantly; therefore the last six chapters Sri Krishna says: “Become like Me. In all your actions, in all your movements become like Me, Satchitananda.” Therefore the Action will be: “You will be like the Divine in every way”, sarvabhāvena, (that is a very important term in the Bhagavad Gita) sarvabhāvena, in very mode of your being, in every mode of feeling, in every mode of action sarvabhāvena.

The other word is sādharmya; “You attain to the very law of My being in action, as I am, so you become, completely identified”: that is the meaning of Love. The crowning of Love is to be like your beloved in every possible manner. And since the Divine is constantly stable, and constantly powerfully acting, your highest condition is what? To be constantly stable, and to be constantly dynamic.

In all these two states, the fundamental motive, the crowning thing is Ananda, in which there is no grief possible at all. Therefore, “Be like Me, therefore you will be free from grief, be like Me therefore you will not think of that which is not stable, you will constantly be founded in that which is stable and ‘Be like Me', therefore, like that you will be always acting. Act victoriously, without any grief and without losing your foundation.” That is the highest of which Sri Krishna will speak at the end.

But this is the starting point:

nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ | (II, 16)

Without this foundation there is no Bhagavad Gita.

Therefore, this is one of the most important fundamental sentences of the Bhagavad Gita.

Question: Asat that is perishable, that is body, and Sat is Atma which is Parmatma and that is permanent?

Answer: No, there is a distinction between ‘that-which-is’ and ‘that-which-is-not”’. The body is neither is nor...Asat here is “what-which-does-not-exist-at-all”, not even in body form. Here the distinction is very clear of between ‘existence’ and ‘non-existence’. He has yet not spoken of ‘phenomenon’. He has only distinguished between “that-which-exists” and “that-which-does-not-exists”