Bhagavagd Gita - Session 12- Track 1204

Very often those who are full of love, they don’t have inclination to work. If you read the stories of many Bhaktas, you will find that they will be very interested in singing songs, or Bhajans, or going to a temple, but as far as work is concerned he may be even negligent and may not do anything at all, and people might even think that he is good for nothing. But that is a mistake. His action is to be motivated by Love: it is not instinct, it is not appreciation, it is not attraction, it is not any desire that impels this child. But for the sake of Love, if something is to be done, then, that will be the real motive of his action, if you really want to make a child active, then arrange in such a way that his love begins to manifest in activities.

Usually, those who are very active, they do not like to learn much: they want to play cricket, they want to go about; fine! We should impose knowledge upon the children, but if you really want that child should take interest in knowledge, then, allow the child to do activities, but let the knowledge regarding that activity be injected into the child. If you give lectures on Eternal, he will not be interested in it at all: so that is irrelevant to the child. You should therefore give the knowledge, which is pertinent to his action. Then, gradually out of the action, a time may come, like Arjuna had to wait for such a long time to get the real knowledge.

He was so much in action, as Sri Aurobindo says, “His basic nature was pragmatic, emotional, sensitive, sensational, one who was inclined to do action on the basis of accepted ideas.” This was the first occasion when accepted ideas were all broken, and therefore, he was in need of the true knowledge, and that is why Sri Krishna gives him the first injection of Knowledge and that too because Arjuna gave the chance of speaking, because he spoke the words of wisdom. Sri Krishna picked up those words of wisdom and said, “O! You speak the words of wisdom, then I will tell you what wisdom is.” And that is how the whole procedure of Knowledge starts. And you will see how gradually the stream of Knowledge will become more and more powerful in the Bhagavad Gita as we proceed further.

But even then, Arjuna gets arrested with the questions regarding action. And when after reading the whole thing of the 2nd chapter you will find that Sri Krishna seems to be emphasising the element of concentration upon the Eternal: the Brahman. The whole thing is called Buddhiyoga: Buddhiyoga has two applications in the field of knowing the Eternal and, Buddhiyoga is applied to action in such a way that even if you do action you are not bound, but the emphasis is upon Buddhi.

That is why the very 3rd chapter starts by saying that, “O, Krishna you tell me very ambiguous words. If according to you Buddhi is more important, then why do you insist upon action so much?” Which is very clear that, that the whole 2nd chapter, the great emphasis that creates the impression in the mind of Arjuna is that all that is connected with Knowledge. That Sri Krishna has spoken of Karmayoga so much, that the emphasis that is laid in regard to samatvaṁ yoga ucyate, and that yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam, all that, has not made much impression upon him, as the fact that the buddhi should be concentrated upon the Eternal: brāhmī sthiti: mat-paraḥ, the Bhakti has hardly made any impression at all up till now, because only one word is used in the whole description. The element of Bhakti has only come once. The overall impression that is created in the mind of Arjuna is that Sri Krishna has told him that the most important thing is to make your intelligence absolutely quiet, and settled upon the Brahman.