The Inner Essence to be learnt
from Bhagavad-gita for a meaningful life
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Arjuna, the mighty warrior becomes thus confused and surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead as His disciple. Thereafter, the Supreme Personality of Godhead begins His teachings about the fundamental difference between the temporary material body and the eternal living being. Subsequently, the Lord makes him understand about the process of transmigration of the eternal living being (from one material body to another), the selfless-activities performed in the form of prescribed duties (for the pleasure of the Supreme) and the characteristics of a self-realized person.
Bg. 2.1 – Saïjaya said to Dhåtaräñöra:: Seeing Arjuna become overwhelmed with compassion, his eyes full of tears and his mind overcome with grief, Madhusüdanah (Kåñëa) spoke the following words.
Bg. 2.2, 3 – The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: In the hour of crisis from where these lamentations have come upon you, O Arjuna? It does not befit a man, who knows the actual goal of life nor it leads you to higher destination but to infamy.
Bg. 2.4, 5 – O Madhusüdana! How can I counter-attack my worshipable elders like Grandfather Bhéñma and Dronacharya with my arrows? It would be better to live by begging than to live at the cost of their lives. Eventhough they are yearning for worldly-gains, they are our superiors. If they are murdered, then everything we may enjoy will be tainted with blood.
- According to one’s acquired consciousness (due to the reactions of his past activities), he gets a particular type of material body and gets inclined to a particular type of prescribed duty such as brähmaëa (the intelligent class), kñatriya (the administrative class), vaiçya (the producer class) or çüdra (the laborer class). [Note: Doctor, Engineer, Farmer, Teacher, Administrator, Warrior, Lawyer, Laborer, etc., as per the context of modern civilization. Please refer conclusion for detailed understanding.] When these prescribed duties are performed with genuine heart without any negligence and without any tinge of ulterior motivation (by keeping the Supreme Lord at center), one never incurs any kind of sin; rather, he progresses towards perfection.
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Bg. 2.6, 7 – I am unable to understand which one is better, O Kåñëa – conquering them? or being conquered by them? I am totally confused about my prescribed duties because of my miserly weakness and I have lost altogether my composure. In this condition, I am asking You for certain what is better for me. I am taking the complete shelter of You as a surrendered disciple, please instruct me.
Bg. 2.8 – I am not understanding how to drive away this grief which is drying up my senses and it cannot be dispelled even if I win a prosperous and unrivaled kingdom like demigods.
Bg. 2.9, 10 – (Speaking thus) Guòäkeçaù (Arjuna) said, “O Govinda! I shall not fight”, and he became silent. At that time smiling in the midst of both the armies the Supreme Personality of Godhead spoke to grief stricken Arjuna as follows.
Bg. 2.11 – The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Though you are speaking like a learned, you are lamenting for something not worthy of grief. One who is learned, laments neither for the living nor for the dead.
Bg. 2.12 – Certainly, never was there a time when I did not exist or you or all these kings, and never in the future will any of us cease to be. [Note: The living being (soul) never dies, only the material body repeatedly takes birth and dies.]
Bg. 2.13 – As the (embodied-fallen-conditioned) living being transmigrates in the current material body from the childhood to youth and to the old age, similarly at the time of death it transmigrates into another material body. One who is learned, does not get bewildered by such a change.
Bg. 2.14 – The appearance of happiness and distress (because of the reactions of one’s past activities) are like the appearance and disppearance of summer and winter seasons, O Kaunteya. They are experienced, O Bhärata, only because of one’s sense perception. You should learn to tolerate them, without being disturbed.
- One good thing regarding the reactions of one’s past activities is that they appear (now in this life) in the form of prescribed duties. That is why they should be performed with utmost care to purify one’s existence. Otherwise, it is not so easy to get rid (of the crocodile jaw) of the reactions of one’s past activities.
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Bg. 2.15 to 22 – As one wears a new clothes by giving up his old one, similarly the fallen-conditioned living being accepts a new material body by giving up his current one.
- The fallen-conditioned living being is forced to accept a temporary material body one after another, up till he achieves all-perfection. After achieving his perfection, he proceeds back to his original home, the spiritual world. [Note: The material world which we are living at present is like a school. It educates us through the process of repeated birth and death based on our own actions and its reactions. That is why this material world is called mrityu-loka.]
Bg. 2. 23 to 36 – By considering your specific duty, as a kñatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting against the irreligious principles, adharma. If you fail to perform your prescribed duty of fighting, then certainly you will incur sin. People will always speak of your infamy and for a respectable person dishonor is worse than death. The great warriors who have highly honored your name & fame, will think that you have left the battlefield out of fear. What can be more painful than this?
Bg. 2.37, 38 – O Kaunteya, either you will achieve a glorious death and achieve a higher destination or you will achieve victory in battle and achieve the kingdom. Therefore, with full of determination stand-up and fight without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat – thus by doing so you never incur sin.
Bg. 2.39 – O Pärtha, I have explained to you till now in terms of säìkhya-yoga, the analytical study of activities. From now I am going to explain in terms of performing the activities without having any desires for fruitive results.
Bg. 2.40, 41 – On this path of pure devotional service, O Arjuna, there is no loss or diminution and even a little advancement can save oneself from the most dangerous fear of material existence.
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Bg. 2.42 to 44 – Of those whose mind is too attached to sense enjoyment and heavenly opulence, for them the firm determination for pure devotional service does not take place. [Note: Performing one’s prescribed duties without any negligence and without any tinge of ulterior motivation (by keeping the Supreme Lord at center) which eventually leads him to love of God is actually the path of pure devotional service. – From Srila Bhaktivinod Thakura’s Rasikaraïjana]
Bg. 2.45, 46 – Vedas, in general, deal with the subject matter of three modes of material nature (i.e. the subject matter of action and its reactions), O Arjuna; you be transcendental to them and be always situated on the platform of pure devotional service. Always be free from dualities and anxieties (for gain and safety) and be established in the self.
- The three modes of material nature is nothing but a power that governs us at every step of our life (based on the reactions of our past activities). Under the control of three modes of material nature, every action that we perform determines our level of consciousness and finally, at the time of death whatever state of consciousness we may have accordingly we receive our next material body (either it may be a higher or lower form of human life or it may be any other form out of 84 lakhs species [Note: In the Padma Purana it is clearly stated that there are 84 lakhs of varieties of material bodies, out of which 9 lakhs varieties are the aquatic bodies, 20 lakhs varieties are the bodies of trees, 11 lakhs varieties are the insect bodies, 10 lakhs varieties are the bodies of birds, 30 lakhs varieties are the animal bodies and 4 lakhs varieties are the human bodies.]
Bg. 2.47 – O Arjuna, you have the privilege to perform your prescribed duties but you do not have the privilege to enjoy the results of your labor (it can be utilized only for fullfiling your needs but certainly not for sense enjoyment). Never ever become attached to the end results of your labor, for they are stringently controlled by the three modes of material nature (based on the reactions of your past activities). Also, never ever become attached to not performing your prescribed duties.
- Bewildered by the influence of false ego, the fallen-conditioned living being thinks himself as the doer of his activities. But actually those are performed by the three modes of material nature (based on the reactions of his past activities). – Bg. 3.27
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Bg. 2.48 to 53 – Keep all the materialistic fruitive activities, O Dhanaïjaya, at far distance by performing your prescribed duty devotedly without any negligence and without any tinge of ulterior motivation. One who has desire to enjoy the fruits of his labor is miser.
Bg. 2.54 – Arjuna inquired: O Keshava! What are the behaviours of those whose mind and intelligence are thus fixed?
Bg. 2.55 – The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pärtha, one who has given up his desires altogether for sense gratification and one whose mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, he is said to be in pure consciousness.
Bg. 2.56, 57 – As long as the fallen-conditioned living being possesses a material body, is sure to experience the dualities of material existence like happiness and distress, good and bad, success and failure, etc (due to the reactions of his past activities). One who does not get affected by these dualities by neither praising them nor hating them, is said to be fixed firmly in perfect knowledge.
Bg. 2.58 to 61- As a tortoise retracts its limbs within its shell, similarly one who retracts his senses from its objects, is said to be fixed firmly in perfect consciousness.
- In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam it is clearly mentioned that the four most detestable sinful activities performed for one’s sense enjoyments are meat eating, intoxication, illicit sex (i.e. relationship outside marriage) and gambling (i.e. easy-earnings). [Note: Easy-earnings are considered to be the worst amongst all, which will bring (sooner or later) other three sinful activities also.]
Bg. 2.62 to 70 – As the ever-full steady-ocean does not get disturbed by the incessant flow of rivers, similarly one who does not get disturbed by the incessant flow of his desires (which occurs because of the reactions of his past activities), he alone can attain peace; not who strives to satisfy them.
Bg. 2.71, 72 – [After giving up all of his desires (for sense enjoyment)] One who lives without any sense of proprietorship and false ego, he alone attains real peace. If one is thus situated even at the time of death he attains the kingdom of God.
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Important Verses:
O Pärtha, as I am the Supreme Lord there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems neither I need anything nor I want anything – yet I am engaged carefully in all of My prescribed duties. (Bg. 3.22)
Arjuna inquired: O Värñëeya! What actually is inducing one to indulge in sinful activities even unwillingly as if he is engaged by force? (Bg. 3.36)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is certainly lust, O Arjuna, which is born out of mode of passion which is acquired from the reactions of one’s past activities. Lust is the (all-devouring) greatest sinful enemy, which gets transformed into wrath later. Therefore, O Bharata-åñabha, you should curb this great symbol of sin by controlling your senses from the very beginning of life, and thus kill this enemy, which is the destroyer of knowledge and self-realization. (Bg. 3. 37 & 41)
Even if you are considered as the most sinful of all sinners, still when you get situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to transcend the ocean of material existence. As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, similarly the fire of transcendental knowledge burns all the reactions of one’s past activities to ashes, O Arjuna. (Bg. 4.36, 37)
Act of self sacrifice (in the form of one’s occupation), charity (in the form of one’s ashram) and spiritual austerity (in the form of one’s sädhana) are not to be given up. Infact, the act of self sacrifice, charity and spiritual-austerity purifies even the great personalities. But, they must be performed without any expectation of results, as a matter of responsibility, O Pärtha. This is My final opinion. (Bg.18.5-6) [Note: As the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself says here (this is his final opinion), this is the essence of the entire Bhagavad-gita.]
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Have you heard My words with an attentive mind, O Pärtha Whether your ignorance is now dispelled, O Dhanaïjaya? (Bg. 18.72)
Arjuna said to Lord Kåñëa: O Achyuta! Now my illusion has gone and I have regained my memory by Your mercy. Now I am fixed firmly and free from all doubts and prepared to act according to Your instructions (Bg. 18.73)
Wherever there is Yogeçvaraù (Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead) and wherever there is Dhanur-dharaù (Arjuna, the pure devotee), certainly there will be opulence, victory, extraordinary-power, determination and morality. (Bg. 18.78)
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Conclusion: (as per Bg. 18.5-6)
Eventhough one’s prescribed duties can be many but still they can be categorised into three.
- The prescribed duties which are related to one’s occupation (Varna)
- Brähmaëa, Kñatriya, Vaiçya or Çüdra. [Doctor, Engineer, Farmer, Teacher, Administrator, Warrior, Lawyer, Laborer, etc., as per the context of modern civilization.]
- The prescribed duties which are related to one’s family (Ashram)
- The prescribed duties which are related to one’s parent, children, parents-in-law and others (like saintly persons, interdependent living beings (i.e. all the living beings), etc). [Note: Devotional service is not a set of ritualistic activities; it is an act of responsibility (which is executed by both the body and the self i.e., the body should get engaged in performing the prescribed duties and simultaneously the self should get engrossed in love of God).]
- The prescribed duties that are related to one’s spiritual-austerity (Sädhana)
- As per the level of one’s consciousness, the platform of his sädhana varies : viräö-rüpa, säyujya, sälokya, särñöi, särüpya, sämépya, çänta, däsya, sakhya, vätsalya, çåìgära and çåìgära-audärya. [The most simplest and easiest form of sädhana for this age, the kali-yuga, for all is congregationally singing the holy names of the Supreme Lord with unlimited attachment like the inhabitants of Vrindavan.]
When one performs these three catagories of prescribed duties without any negligence and without any tinge of ulterior motivation (by keeping the Supreme Lord at center), he is considered to be in devotional service. Eventually, when his devotional service gets matured and merges into love of God, he is said to be in pure devotional service (which is discussed elaborately in Çré Chaitanya Charitamrita).
Çré Chaitanya Charitamrita (Madhya lila 128, 129) states,
sädhu-saìga, näma-kértana, bhägavata-çravaëa
mathurä-väsa, çré-mürtira çraddhäya sevana
sakala-sädhana-çreñöha ei païca aìga
kåñëa-prema janmäya ei päìcera alpa saìga
When these five primary limbs of devotional service are performed with unlimited attachment like the inhabitants of Vrindavan in any one of the following relationship with Kåñëa namely çåìgära, vätsalya, sakhya or däsya, one will certainly transcend the bodily conception of life and achieve the pure love of Kåñëa in this very life time. This is the essence of Çré Chaitanya Charitamrita. – CC Adi lila 3.11
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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare