 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Thirty-eight–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 The Wise in Action
The upanishads present the supreme philosophy, the supreme ideal. The Gita, being a virtual digest of the upanishads, does the same, but it goes into the practical application of those principles, and even further into a description of the effects of that application. The Gita describes perfectly the state of the enlightened human being–at least as perfectly as human speech is able to delineate. It is these descriptions which we should study carefully, leaving aside the absurd questions that contemporary mind-gamers have come up with such as: Does a jnani have a subconscious mind–and if not, does the jnani dream?
In the Gita we find the psychology of the jnani completely expounded, and it is something that cannot possibly be observed by any other than the jnani himself. As Yogananda wrote: “He who knows–he knows. None else knows.” Our job is to become jnanis, not to figure out if someone else is a jnani. Of course, that is a lot easier on the ego than trying to be a jnani.
Krishna is now going to give us a picture of a sage in action–and yet beyond action.
“The seers say truly that he is wise who acts without lust or scheming for the fruit of the act: his act falls from him, its chain is broken, melted in the flame of my knowledge. Without lust or scheming
To act rightly–to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place–and nothing more: that is the way of the Gita. Therefore, to keep the fruit, the effect, of an act in mind as our purpose, is to deflect ourselves from the right motivation and to entangle ourselves in the net of egotism and the snare of binding deeds. Two forces impel us into this trap: kama and sankalpa–which Prabhavananda translates as “lust” and “scheming.”
Kama is desire, passion, or lust. The first meaning, that of desire, is uppermost in this part of the Gita, though people can pursue action with a blinding and binding passion, no doubt. However, it is best for us to think mostly of simple desire, since the palest shade of desire can mar our action. Also, desire can be incredibly subtle and undetectable to any but the keenest intelligence. Passion and lust, on the other hand, are extremely obvious and impossible to disguise–though many in their grip pretend that they are being dedicated, noble, and fervent in a righteous cause. Human beings can talk themselves into anything. But sensible people can see the fiend beneath the fever. Desire, though, is capable of disguising itself or hiding itself completely from all but the most perceptive. This is why tapasya and not intellectual analysis is the only sure way of uprooting this subtle enemy.
Sankalpa is wish, desire, volition, resolution, will, determination, and intention. Yes; all that. Any kind of intentions–including subconscious ones–mar action. Even the slightest wish or hope in relation to the result of an action turns it into a bond. No wonder Krishna says later on: “How hard to break through is this, my Maya!” His act falls from him, its chain is broken
But when a person becomes absolutely free of kama and sankalpa, his action slips away like a loosened bond. Even more: the binding power of the act is broken so it cannot arise in the future to be a hindrance. Someone in this state then ceases to “make” any more karma. Melted in the flame of my knowledge
Lest we think that Krishna is advocating a mere indifference on our part, a kind of disengagement or voluntary paralysis of the will, he proceeds to state that the potential bondage of the sage’s action is “melted in the flame of my knowledge.” Nothing less than enlightenment is required, for enlightenment alone can free us. The word Prabhavananda translates at this verse’s beginning as “wise” is actually budha–a buddha. Complete in the Self
“Turning his face from the fruit, he needs nothing: the Atman is enough. He acts, and is beyond action.”
Nevertheless, he does act. That is, he turns his face from the fruits of action, not even looking at them, lest like Eve, he be drawn again to desire them and fall away from the state he has so laboriously attained.
The buddha is literally Self-sufficient. “He knows bliss in the Atman and wants nothing else. Cravings torment the heart: he renounces cravings. I call him illumined.” “When a man has found delight and satisfaction and peace in the Atman, then he is no longer obliged to perform any kind of action.”
Having gone beyond the realm of action, he truly knows “the inaction that is in action, and the action that is in inaction.” Complete control
“Not hoping, not lusting, bridling body and mind, he calls nothing his own: he acts, and earns no evil.”
Here again we see that Krishna is not advocating some kind of self-effacing passivity. Rather he is showing us heroic endeavor. Certainly the wise man does not desire or will the fruits of action, but to ensure he never again falls into the old pattern of delusion he exercises absolute control over body and mind. Enlightenment is not an avoidance of body and mind and their influences, it is mastery in the fullest sense.
For ages in India a crippling passivity and indifference has been cultivated due to the degenerative influence, especially, of ignorant sannyasis who have held a completely wrong idea about their own way of life–a wrong idea which they hold up to non-monastics as an ideal to also follow. Shamefulness has become a virtue, cowardice touted as courage, and ineffectiveness as “skill in action.” Yet the Gita has all the time stood in virile contrast to this effete cowardice and cultivated incompetence. Swami Vivekananda devoted his life to arousing his countrymen to abandon the horrible morass into which they were complacently sinking. Still the illusion prevails. No wonder many in India feel that they need to shake off religious influence to become self-respecting and worthy human beings. This is a sad misconception, for as Vivekananda remarked upon returning to India after his first trip abroad, India’s problem is not the practice of its religion but the fact that it has not rightly been practiced. The deadening effect of the false “brahmarishis” has blinded not only India but the world to the way of the “rajarishis” advocated by Krishna.
Controlling body and mind the wise realizes that they are the Self. Nothing is “his own” for the Self transcends all “things.” Thus he acts and incurs no karma. Symptoms of control
Now comes a verse that the foolish have used to bolster their advocacy of passivity and worthlessness–of spiritual and mental novocaine:
“What God’s Will gives he takes, and is contented. Pain follows pleasure, he is not troubled: gain follows loss, he is indifferent: of whom should he be jealous? He acts, and is not bound by his action.” I will not waste your time pointing out what this does not mean. Others will do that gladly–and solely.
Ideal as Prabhavananda’s translation usually is, for this verse I think it will be better to use that of Swami Swarupananda:
“Content with what comes to him without effort, unaffected by the pairs of opposites, free from envy, even-minded in success and failure, though acting, he is not bound.” Content
“Content with what comes to him without effort.” That is, he is content with whatever occurs or comes to him as a result of his prarabdha karma–the karma that is presently manifesting as this particular life. This karma is spontaneous, occurring automatically, therefore it is “without effort.”
The wise man accepts that which comes to him because it is his own action coming to fruition. He does not desire or anticipate the fruits of his present actions, but he thoroughly accepts the advent of the results of his past actions that have created this life and determined its quality and events. Does this mean he is merely passive, with a “What can I do?” attitude? Not at all. He understands that his prarabdha karma is not some kind of reactive payback for past deeds, but that its purpose is his learning, his evolution. Karma is a real lesson in living. We accept it, but we also study it and learn what it is saying to us. Otherwise we will fail the lesson and have to keep taking it over and over until we do learn. The adage that history repeats itself because we do not learn from it applies to our personal life as well.
The intelligent individual understands that all our life is a learning session, that pleasant karma is not to just be enjoyed or unpleasant karma endured or avoided. Rather, it is to be learned from. We must get involved with our karma and use it for our betterment. Karma is not fate; it is opportunity. Only when we live accordingly can we be considered worthy of human birth. Meeting karma head-on is the way to master it and profit from it. This requires our full acceptance of it, but with the right understanding of it. Unaffected
“Unaffected by the pairs of opposites.” Whatever comes or goes is a matter of his own previous choices–so the yogi views all phenomena, not preferring one or the other. This is because he sees value in both the pleasant and the unpleasant, seeing neither of them as undesirable. They are part of his life-script which he must read and comprehend. Everything is for his betterment. Consequently he looks to the wisdom to be gained and not the superficial external experience. Free
“Free from envy.” He is free from envy or greed because whatever comes to him is a matter of his own doing. Who will he envy? Can he be jealous of someone who had the good sense to order the right things from the storehouse of life? He could have the same if he had been wiser, and he can get anything he wants in the future. He need only use life more competently. No wonder Buddha kept emphasizing the need for “skillful action.” It is pointless to attempt transcending this life until we have lived it worthily. Many yogis come to naught because they think yoga is a means of escape from the lessons of life. Until we learn, we do not graduate to a higher grade. “Those who are too good for this world are adorning some other,” as Swami Sriyukteshwar often pointed out. Until then, here we will stay. Even-minded
“Even-minded in success and failure.” This is not because he shrugs and says: “Oh, well, that is my karma,” and bumbles on without a sense of responsibility. Yes, indeed, it is his karma, whether of the present or the past, and the result reveals how well or how poorly he acted. He may not desire certain results of his actions, but he definitely gets their message. Success and failure are only symptoms of wisdom or folly. He astutely evaluates the root of his consciousness, seeing his actions as the branches and leaves of that root. His work is with the root–the rest will follow suit when the right quality has been attained. Effects have value only as indicators of the nature of the cause. He knows this, and is intent only on the rectification of the cause–his state of awareness. Not bound
“Though acting, he is not bound.” For he does not look at the results of action, but of the Witness of the acts. The Self is never touched or bound by action. Centering his consciousness in the truth of his being through diligent practice of meditation, he is freed from karmic effects.
Once again we see the value of Vyasa presenting the teachings of the Gita in the context of the Mahabharata War. Krishna is urging Arjuna to engage in battle, assuring him that if he does so rightly we will incur no negative karma–instead he will be released from the karma that brought him to Kurukshetra, the Field of Dharma. If this is true of warfare, how can we hesitate to engage optimistically in our comparatively easy and insignificant karma struggles? The result
“When the bonds are broken his illumined heart beats in Brahman: his every action is worship of Brahman: can such acts bring evil?” Having posited such a question, Krishna proceeds to answer it with a remarkable assertion: “Brahman is the ritual, Brahman is the offering, Brahman is he who offers to the fire that is Brahman. If a man sees Brahman in every action, He will find Brahman.”
Though Prabhavananda speaks of action as “worship of Brahman,” in Sanskrit its is actually “undertaking action as sacrifice.” Therefore the next verse speaks of our entire life as sacrifice (yajna).
Brahman is the ritual. All action whatsoever is a manifestation of the power of God. Everything that is done is God. This is because the entire realm of relative existence is not a “thing” at all–at no time does it have a material, objective existence. Rather, it is the Thought of God, the Divine Thinker, the Dream of God, the Divine Dreamer. It is a motionless movement within the Consciousness that is God. Thus everything is God in the most literal and most absolute sense. The “ritual” of evolution within relative existence is Brahman Itself. There is nothing else.
Brahman is the offering. Everything that we deal with in our evolutionary journey, whatever we employ to further the expansion of our consciousness, whatever we offer to God in our attempt to ascend to the Absolute–all that is Brahman alone.
Brahman is he who offers…. All the waves of the ocean are the ocean. Every sentient being, every spark of individualized consciousness, is Brahman. Those who seek Brahman are Brahman. That is, Brahman is their essential, inseparable nature. None but Brahman worships and seeks Brahman. None but Brahman finds Brahman.
…to the fire that is Brahman. Again, the entire range of dynamic, seemingly ever-changing field of evolutionary life is Brahman alone. It is Brahman that is the transmuting fire of the cosmos. Brahman is Itself the Eternal Phoenix that is perpetually consumed by itself and produced from itself in never-ending cycles that are themselves “the fire that is Brahman.”
If a man sees Brahman in every action… Even if at the time it is mostly intellectual rather than purely intuitive, we must strive to “see through” all action to Brahman, the Ground of All Being.
…he will find Brahman. “Utterly quiet, made clean of passion, the mind of the yogi knows that Brahman: his bliss is the highest. Released from evil his mind is constant in contemplation: the way is easy, Brahman has touched him, that bliss is boundless. His heart is with Brahman, his eye in all things sees only Brahman equally present, knows his own Atman in every creature, and all creation within that Atman. That yogi sees me in all things, and all things within me. He never loses sight of me, nor I of him. He is established in union with me, and worships me devoutly in all beings. That yogi abides in me.”
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 4:19 [Go back]
2) Bhagavad Gita 7:14 [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 4:20 [Go back]
4) “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” (Genesis 3:6) [Go back]
5) Bhagavad Gita 2:55 [Go back]
6) Bhagavad Gita 3:17 [Go back]
7) Bhagavad Gita 4:18 [Go back]
8) Bhagavad Gita 4:21 [Go back]
9) Bhagavad Gita 4:22 [Go back]
10) Bhagavad Gita 4:23 [Go back]
11) Bhagavad Gita 4:24 [Go back]
12) Bhagavad Gita 6:27-31 [Go back]
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