Bhagavagd Gita - Session 19- Track 1905

Therefore the supreme secret, secret of secrets, the supreme secret is contained only in the last six chapters. That is why we say: sarvadharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja,( XVIII, 66). That statement is the culminating point of the Bhagavad Gita. You arrive at an action, where even svabhāva, svadharma, all that also is given up. You simply arrive at that point where the Divine Himself, which is anantaguṇa, the Divine, which is completely free Himself, from whom all Dharma starts but who is not bound by any Dharma; from whom Dharmas may start, He may divide, He may decide, He may determine that this is for you the right thing or the bad thing, He may decide the norms, but He Himself is free from all norms. He is completely free. That is why it is said, ‘the divine action is simply the action of Grace’, and Grace by definition is that which does not depend upon anything; it is simply Grace: prasādais prasāda, you cannot say that if you do this, then you will get prasāda. The Divine’s pleasure is automatic, it is spontaneous, He simply decides freely, not because you are so virtuous: it is not that He gives a reward of your virtue and says, “Because you are virtuous I now grace you and you attain to Me.” The Divine is not bound by it; He may decide that He will be bound by it. He may so decide, He may tell you, “If you do this, I will give you this”, but He is not bound. He is prasāda; He can select anybody.

Even Valmiki who is a robber by His grace suddenly can become a saint. A complete transfiguration of personality can occur immediately. As Sri Krishna says towards the end of the Gita, “Even caṇḍāla, even an outcaste”, that is to say the lowest kind and mean kind of man who is full of sins, “If he turns to Me, he becomes liberated”. And even if he says, “If he turns to Me”, there is a secret of it: nobody can turn to the Divine unless Divine Himself decides that, “Now he should turn to Me”. So, as Sri Aurobindo says: “He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite.” Already, otherwise you cannot even choose Him. The very fact that you are now turning to the Divine means Divine has decided already that prasādahas to be given to ‘this one’. Therefore, prasādais always free, but that secret is given in the last 6 chapters. At the moment we are only told that Jnana, and karma both the processes are one and the same. And the culmination of this is of this idea is to be found in the 6th chapter.

As I told you we should study these two chapters simultaneously to some extent, so I shall also return again…

Now, 6th chapter, in the beginning, the very first 3 or 4 are a continuation of what He said here, in the first 5 verses of the 5th chapter. What he says,

śrībhagavān uvāca, Sri Krishna Himself says:

anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ |

sa saṁnyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ ||1|| (VI)

He says: “One who is not dependent on karmaphalaṁ, on the fruits of action, and yet kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ, one who does action even when he is not dependent upon the fruits of action, sa saṁnyāsī ca yogī, he is at once the pursuer of the path of Knowledge and the pursuer of the path of Action, because in both the cases, he is the real Sannyasi.” Who is Sannyasi? “na niragnir na cākriyaḥ, do not think that he is Sannyasi who is ākriyaḥ, one who becomes free from…one who renounces action, do not say he is renounced. One who does not keep Agni in his house therefore he is…he has renounced, do not think so.”

These two are not the qualifications of Sannyasa, which normally was thought at that time. That one who sits down under the tree, does no action at all or he is under Sannyasa, that wrong notion, He said, you throw it away. One who does not keep any fire in his house, therefore he is Sannyasi, don’t keep that idea. You can be cākriyaḥ, you can have Agni in your house, and yet you become Sannyasi, how?

anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ |

You do action, even if you are doing actions, but one who does not depend upon the fruits of actions, he is the real Sannyasi; he is the real Karmayogi. So, both are the…same definition is given, therefore it is one and the same: sa saṁnyāsī ca yogī ca, he is the yogi and he is the Sannyasi. The essential point is na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati, it what is repeated here:

anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ |

is another definition of na kāṅkṣati na dveṣṭi nirdvandvo: one who does not do any action for the fruit of action that arises only when na kāṅkṣati, when he does not desire, when he does not envy anybody, and when he becomes free from all dvandvo. So, the first sentence is the same as what was given earlier: na kāṅkṣati na dveṣṭi.

Question: That means 5th chapter with Arjuna’s question replies in 6th chapter, n°1.

You might say that 5th chapter first five, answers his question; first 4 verses. First question is Arjuna’s question, first verse. The next 4 verses are the answers. But that answer is fully again reaffirmed in the 6th chapter: that is why the two chapters are to be read together. Because the rest of the 5th chapter enunciates further the nature of divine action. Having done all that again in the 6th chapter, reiterates the conclusion that he has already arrived at in the 5th chapter. He is like a good teacher who again repeats, so it is again reaffirmed.