Bhagavagd Gita - Session 10- Track 1011

In Ch II, verse n.39, the second part of the argument begins:

eṣā te ’bhihitā sāṅkhye buddhir yoge tvimāṁ śṛṇu |
buddhyā yukto yayā pārtha karma-bandhaṁ prahāsyasi ||39|| (II)

“I have told you the Buddhi applied in Sankhya, (that is in the path of Knowledge, and there you come to know the Eternal), the same Buddhi you apply in the field of Action, and when you apply that Buddhi in the field of Action, then, karma-bandhaṁ, even if you do action, you’ll be free from action.”

That is the mastery; that is the wonder of that field; here there is only wonder of seeing; but here the wonder will be that even when you act, you will not be acting; you will be free from action. Then only you will become free from grief. Therefore I will reveal to you such a thing, that, karma-bandhaṁ prahāsyasi. This is the starting point of the Karmayoga, but based, founded upon Knowledge.

Comment: I don’t understand properly, vyavasāyātmikā buddhi Verse 41.

Let us do II, n°41. Because this is the starting point of Karmayoga is this:

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana |
bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca buddhayo ’vyavasāyinām ||41|| (II)

You understand intelligence, intelligent will. Those who do the action properly, rightly, freely, without any bondage at all, omnipotently, they will see the characteristic of Buddhi. That Buddhi will be completely established, un-flickering, unwavering, absolutely immobile: vyavasāyātmikā, means that which is engaged, concentrated.

The Buddhi has to be concentrated: without the concentration there is no power to action. Just as Reality is foundational, that which is eternal, fixed, even so, your intelligence must be fixed in the Eternal. So long as your will is not fixed in the Eternal, there is no Karmayoga at all. Those who think Karmayoga can be done without Knowledge, according to the Gita, that is wrong. Karmayoga must be established in Jnanayoga, it is the foundation. When the Buddhi is absolutely engaged in the Eternal, then it becomes vyavasāyātmikā buddhi: Buddhi which is engaged. Otherwise, our intelligent will is a-vyavasāyākā: it is full of disengagement, it is scattered.

If you look at our psychology, our psychology is a scattered psychology, fretting psychology, moves here, then moves there, then flees to another, and then pursues still further, and there is no stability at all. The basis of Karmayoga is to attain to sthira buddhi: that intelligence is absolutely established. When the intelligence is not established it becomes bahuśākhā: multiple branching. This is what we are all the time caught in.

What is Karmayoga? Karma which is entangled into hundred and one, or thousand and one, or millions and millions of things in which we are capable of entangling ourselves, without knowing where we are, and how we are, and what for we are, we are simply engaged in one action after the other, and one action leads to another, and that leads to another, and we find ourselves suddenly into a terrible situation, as Arjuna was caught in, such a terrible situation. And then you say ‘I want to come out of it’, and then you cannot come out of it. This net is such a net that even if you want to come out of it, it is impossible.

The grief, you cannot tear it away saying: ‘Oh, now it is thrown out’. Even if you want to throw it away, you cannot throw it away, grief is such a powerful element in our normal condition of bahu-śākhā. Where the intelligence is not stable, grief is the only consequence, because Ananda is connected only with the Eternal. Unless you are entangled with the Eternal alone, then only Ananda will be there. In bahuśākhā, in the fleeting intelligence, you will never have: this is the starting point of Karmayoga that your intelligent will must be first of all founded in the Eternal. If it is not so, it is bahu-śākhā; and if it is multi-branched, you can never have peace; you can never be free out of it.