Bhagavagd Gita - Session 18- Track 1808

This is verse n°4, page 220. The very first sentence says:>

śāṁkhyayogau pṛthag bālāḥ pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ |

He says, “It is only children, bālāḥ pravadanti, it is children who speak as pṛthag, as different, Sankhya and Yoga, path of Knowledge and path of Action that they are different, only children speak of it; na paṇḍitāḥ, those who are really learned, they do not say that they are different.

ekam apy āsthitaḥ samyag ubhayor vindate phalam ||4|| (V)

Even while following one, you get the fruit of both. That is it only can happen when Jnana yoga becomes Karma yoga and Karma yoga becomes Jnana yoga. That is the real truth: there is no opposition between the two.

Then He says:

yat śāṁkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṁ tad yogair api gamyate |

“What is obtained by Sankhya is also obtained by Karma yoga.”

ekaṁ śāṁkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati ||5|| (V)

“One who sees that Sankhya and Yoga are one, it is he who really perceives truly.”

It is very clear words of the Bhagavad-Gita, there are no two interpretations possible:

ekaṁ śāṁkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati ||

There is no cleavage between Action and Knowledge. In fact in the 3rd and 4th chapter, Sri Krishna makes it very clear that, “You are not a Karmayogi unless you are established in Knowledge. If you don’t perceive that the Lord is the doer, unless you know that the Lord is the doer, what is the Karma yoga you are doing?” Mere action, doing action is not Karma yoga even an ass does action. Even a clerk sitting in his Post-office goes on doing work: he is not a Karmayogi. Karma yoga arises only when you become aware, when you know that Lord is the doer: unless you do this there is no Karma yoga and the moment you know it is the path Knowledge! Unless Knowledge and Action are united together, neither Sankhya is Sankhya, nor Karma Yoga is Karma Yoga. So, we have got to say:

ekaṁ śāṁkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati ||

“One, who really perceives, truly perceives only when you see that Sankhya and Yoga are one and the same.”

It is in this context that now Sri Krishna will answer the question: saṁnyāsaṁ karmaṇāṁ. What is the meaning of “renunciation of action”? Now, this is one great theme of this chapter. The other theme of chapter n°5 & chapter n°6 is centred upon Arjuna’s question, which is located upon the fickleness of the human mind: this is another theme of Arjuna’s questioning through out the Gita. Arjuna’s says that whatever may be your teaching, your ultimate stresses upon controlling the senses and the mind: whether it is Sankhya path, or the Karma path, but your constant emphasis upon the control of the senses, and control of the mind, and how difficult it is to control the mind. Is there any method by which this mind can be controlled? This is another theme of chapter n°5 & 6. He will come across this question that, “Even if I agree that Sankhya and Yoga are one, ultimately your emphasis upon this fact that you have to control the sense, and you have to control your mind, and how difficult it is. So, tell me what is the best way of doing this, because even if you are very, very knowledgeable, ultimately you are still guided by senses, you are still driven by senses, it is so difficult to control it”.

This is the question he raised earlier also, and in 5th and 6th also he raises this question, until Sri Krishna is obliged to answer this question in detail, and says that it is true that mind is very difficult to control, and if you find that mind is very difficult in your case, then I will give you a very extreme advise, I will give you a whole system in which the whole emphasis is laid upon the control of the senses and of the mind. Therefore the 6th chapter is entitled “dhyāna yoga”: it is an answer to this very important question that since control of the senses, and control of the mind is so necessary, and since it is extremely pressing that this control becomes impossible, therefore He says that there is a method which starts with this very thing: control of the senses and control of the mind. So, 6th chapter, part of it is given to this question.

The third question that is debated in 5th & 6th chapters is related to what is called the power of Prakriti in determining everything in the world. This is connected with the power of the senses and the mind. Just as it is difficult to control of the senses and control of the mind, a larger question is: is it possible to overcome the rule of Prakriti, which is so much spread in the whole world? The whole world is nothing but a network of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. It is not only a question of senses and the mind, but everything in the world is nothing but a network of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. The question that Arjuna asks is: is it at all possible to overcome this entire rule of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas? Because if divine action is the ultimate goal of Sankhya and Yoga, which are one, and since divine action is above Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, but since Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas is nothing but the whole world, can you go out of the world, and be free from Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas? If so, what is the element in us by which we can go out of it?

prakṛitiṁ yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣyati (III, 33)

This is one of the very famous sentences of the Gita that everything is ruled by Prakriti: prakṛitiṁ yānti bhūtāni: all the creatures of the world, they are ruled, they move in the path of Prakriti. He says, “Something else than Prakriti by which this Prakriti can be ruled?” This is another question, which is debated in these two chapters.