Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Eighteen
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
How To Act
Krishna has told us how not to act, and now will tell us how to act.
“Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits. Be even-tempered in success and failure; for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga.”
Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord
The first–an all-encompassing–factor of right action is the fixing of the mind and heart on God. That is easy to say, but what does it really mean? Krishna is not wasting our time with lovely thoughts that have no substance or effect but a warmy-goody feeling. He is being eminently practical.
We must realize that he is not telling us to fix our mind on a mere concept of God or the idea that (somehow) God exists. He tells us to fix our heart on the Supreme Lord Himself. How can this be done? In only one way: by direct attention/perception of the Lord. And this is accomplished by fixing our minds on the only “thing” that is the Lord: His Name. Anything else is a mere idea or fantasy of the mind.
There are many titles of God, but only one proper Name; and Krishna tells us about It several times in the Gita.
“I am the syllable Om.”
“I am…the sacred monosyllable.”
“Among words I am the monosyllable Om.”
Om is not a symbol of God or a thought about God, It is God. What to “do” with Om is then outlined by Krishna: “Engaged in the practice of concentration, uttering the monosyllable Om—the Brahman—remembering Me always, he…attains to the supreme goal. I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast Yogi who constantly and daily remembers Me.” That is why Patanjali simply says about Om: “Its japa and meditation is the way.”
Those who continually repeat (intone) Om both in and out of meditation will certainly have their hearts fixed on and in the Supreme. Then all will go well. For “from it [the repetition and meditation of Om] result the disappearance of obstacles and the turning inward of consciousness.”
Renounce attachment to the fruits
One of the major obstacles in our life is attachment to the fruits of our actions. This, too, will disappear through our invocation of Om throughout all our acts. This is because, as Patanjali assures us, through the japa and meditation of Om our consciousness will turn inward, the inner divine eye will open, and seeing all things in their true nature, the fruits of our actions will no longer seem relevant to us.
Once we have tasted good food, bad food loses all attraction for us. Once we have “tasted” the Supreme, have touched “the hem of His garment,” external attainments will mean very little–and in time will seem nothing. But this holy indifference can only come from touching the Divine. Mental gymnastics in the form of analyzing objects of desire and recounting their defects is ultimately without worth and is even harmful, for thinking so much–even though disparagingly–about them will attach us to them and draw them to us. We detach outselves from objects by attaching ourselves to God. It is the only way–not just the best or the easiest.
Be even-tempered in success and failure
Even-mindedness in success and failure is virtually impossible to achieve by mind-gaming, and in the final analysis worthless. Here, too, it is the fixing of the consciousness on/in God that does the needful. “Be absorbed in me, lodge your mind in me: thus you shall dwell in me, do not doubt it, here and hereafter.” When a person dwells in God, what outside success or failure can mean anything to him? What desire or attachment can arise in someone who is united in consciousness to the Source of all?
So often in spiritual life we think of what we should not do, rather than be intent on what we should do. For example, in the consciousness of spirit greed cannot arise. So there is no need to go around telling ourselves: “I must not let greed enter my mind.” Instead we should be intent on remembering God, fixing our mind on Divinity through japa and meditation. Then greed will become impossible to us. Of course we must have the right spiritual practice for this to be practical. Patanjali is right: the japa and meditation of Om is the way.
It is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga
Evenness of temper is possible only when the awareness is centered in that which is perfectly stable and still. And that is only a single thing: Spirit. Everything else is changing and therefore unstable and subject to anxiety and compulsion. “Change and decay all around I see. O Thou Who changest not, abide with me,” says the song. But God always “abides” with and within us. The problem is that we do not abide in the consciousness of God. And this is what is yoga: the uniting (joining–yoga) of our mind with God. And again: a thought or symbol of God will not do. We must be united with God through Om.
“Om is the bow, the arrow is the individual being, and Brahman is the target. With a tranquil heart, take aim. Lose thyself in him, even as the arrow is lost in the target.”
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 2:48
[Go back]
2) Bhagavad Gita 7:8 [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 9:17 [Go back]
4) Bhagavad Gita 10:25 [Go back]
5) “Let him firmly hold his body, head, and neck erect and still, with the eyeballs fixed, as if gazing at the tip of his nose, and ever thinking of me.” (Bhagavad Gita 6:13) [Go back]
6) Bhagavad Gita 8:12-14 [Go back]
7) Yoga Sutras 1:28 [Go back]
8) Yoga Sutras 1:29 [Go back]
9) “Thinking about sense-objects will attach you to sense-objects; grow attached, and you become addicted; thwart your addiction, it turns to anger; be angry, and you confuse your mind; confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; forget experience, you lose discrimination; lose discrimination, and you miss life’s only purpose.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:62,63) [Go back]
10) Bhagavad Gita 12:8 [Go back]
11) Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.4 [Go back]
