 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Forty-three–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 Freedom (Moksha)
Those of us born in America were virtually baptized in the word Freedom. But freedom means many things, some of them specious in the case of dictatorial governments and individuals. Freedom has many levels. Some are satisfied with the freedom to buy whatever color or length of shoelace they want. Others with a freedom to do wrong that is not freedom at all but license. According to the development of the individual, so will be his concept of freedom and the kind of freedom he desires. Krishna speaks to those ready to graduate from earthly experience, saying:
“United with Brahman, cut free from the fruit of the act, a man finds peace in the work of the spirit. Without Brahman, man is a prisoner, enslaved by action, dragged onward by desire.” Sivananda gives a more literal version: “The united one (the well poised or the harmonized), having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the eternal peace; the non-united only (the unsteady or the unbalanced), impelled by desire and attached to the fruit, is bound.” Nevertheless, Prabhavananda gives exactly the intended import of the Sanskrit.
Those who have united their consciousness with Brahman are immediately freed from the law of cause and effect, of action and reaction. Karma ceases to exist for them. They are not compelled to act by past karma, nor do their present actions produce any karma that would result in a future compulsion to action. This is true freedom. Acting in full awareness of Spirit, they have perfect peace. Although moving within this world, the center of their consciousness is in the transcendental realm of Inaction.
No matter how spiritually advanced someone may be, until the attainment of absolute liberation, until he is irrevocably established in the consciousness of Brahman and living ever in the state of Brahma Nirvana, like everyone else caught in the net of Maya (Delusion), he “is a prisoner, enslaved by action, dragged onward by desire,” no matter how subtle or tenuous that bondage, action, or desire might be. But of the liberated-in-life, the jivanmukta, Krishna says: “Happy is that dweller in the city of nine gates whose discrimination has cut him free from his act: he is not involved in action, he does not involve others.” Yet he may to outward appearance seem to be the most active of men.
The saints
Often we see that the saints accomplish much more than ordinary people. Not only that, their influence on others may last through centuries, maintaining and ever-increasing the works they began in their lifetime. This is only natural for, being one with God, they possess His creative powers and abundance. Consider the present-day “kingdoms” of Krishna, of Buddha, and of Jesus. (I am speaking of their kingdoms within the hearts of human beings, not the institutionalization done in their names, though that often is perfectly good and in keeping with their spiritual missions.)
We admire, even revere, many great men and women of our human history, but the majority of them are only memories. In contrast, the Saint and Masters are living presences; the very thought of them brings us into subtle contact with them, awakening our inner consciousness, inwardly drawing us toward the higher levels of existence in which they dwell. The mere sight of their forms produces a positive change in our consciousness–at least in the consciousness of those who are willing to be changed. Moreover, any action we do in response to their influence on us will not create karma for us. Krishna has already assured us that “work is holy when the heart of the worker is fixed on the Highest.” If we act in conformity with their teachings and as a result of their inspiration, that action will liberate rather than bind us.
The source of delusion
Now Krishna introduces a major topic: the source of delusion. It is interesting how psychopathic people can become when confronted with their folly and evil. “Not I–but…!” they shriek, blaming anyone and anything for their error. Everybody is “in on the act” but them. In Genesis we see how Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed not only Eve but hinted that God was responsible. “Why does God do this?…Why does God allow this?” is a common protest. Few are those who understand that they–and they alone–bear the responsibility for their actions and their reactions. But now in this fifth chapter of the Gita the liberating truth is being given to us.
“Do not say: ‘God gave us this delusion.’ You dream you are the doer, you dream that action is done, you dream that action bears fruit. It is your ignorance, it is the world’s delusion that gives you these dreams.”
The truly comforting part of this verse is the word “dream.” All relative existence is a dream. We are co-dreamers with God. God dreams the cosmos, and we dream our involvement within it. No matter now horrendous and magnificent the dream may be, at the moment of awakening it will be revealed as nothing but ideas–creative ideas, but still just ideas. Only the two realities–God and the spirit–will remain. Blessed cessation, blessed peace and freedom. So when confronting the truth about delusion we need not be horrified or devastated by the fact that it comes from us. After all, even God dreams–why not us? God dreams rightly, but we dream wrongly. First we correct our dreaming, begin dreaming rightly along with God, and then we awaken. No more dream, no more delusion. Only Truth.
The primary focus of the Bhagavad Gita is Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Action. Yet Krishna tells us that the whole things is a dream, a product of ignorance. Even so, the dream is of importance, because through this dreaming we develop and expand our consciousness. The dream is not worthless and is certainly not evil or wrong. It is our loss of control and the resulting confusion and bondage that is wrong. The correct perspective on this is necessary for our controlling the dream and enabling ourselves to awaken from it.
If we ingest hallucinogenics we will have hallucinations. If we abstain, they will cease. If we “ingest” the world and come to think we are part of it, we will only dream more and more, each dream becoming more distorted and misery-producing. When we draw back into our pure consciousness and begin to live in abstinence from the hallucinogenic of the world, we will begin to see through the veil into the Reality behind it. Eventually the veil melts away and we find ourselves face-to-face with The Real. Until then we are the source of the trouble.
Swabhava
This truth is expressed even more clearly in a very literal translation of this verse: “The Lord Does not create either the agency [means of action] or the actions of people, nor the union of action with its fruit. But inherent nature [swabhava] produces all that.”
It is very comfortable for most translators to use the word “nature” with a capital N. They are children of Adam, Hindu though they be, throwing the blame on the creation–and therefore the creator. The word swabhava does not mean Prakriti, but the inherent disposition, nature, or potentiality of each one of us, our inherent state of mind, our state of inner being. An apple tree bears apples and a grapevine bears grapes. It is a matter of manifesting the inner nature, the swabhava of the plant.
Our entire life is a manifestation of our swabhava. This is unsettling if our life is unsatisfactory or overtly negative. We pity ourselves and enlist the sympathy of others, but we are living and projecting a lie. It is our inner nature that is being revealed by the outer. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can certainly judge it by its contents. So it is with our life. That is its purpose: to reveal the character and quality of our inner condition through outward appearances. We should read the message and learn. Otherwise there is no alleviation from life to life. We are the problem and we are the solution.
Since our swabhava is the root of the dilemma, Patanjali says that a necessary practice for the yogi is swadhyaya–self-study, self-analysis. Only if we come to know the truth about our inner nature will we be able to intelligently work on it. We must first know the facts about our false self before we can uncover and know our true Self.
Divine indifference
It is embarrassing and painful to see and acknowledge our faults and wrongs, but Krishna helps us in that department, also.
“The Lord is everywhere and always perfect: what does He care for man’s sin or the righteousness of man? The Atman is the light: the light is covered by darkness: this darkness is delusion: that is why we dream.”
Obviously a perfect being cannot be shaken from his perfect equilibrium. Just as a human being could hardly be upset or angered at the action of an ant in the front yard, neither can God be affected by the deeds of anyone. After all, God has manifested this universe for the purpose of our acting therein and learning the way of right action and to freedom from action. Consequently, whatever we do is for our interest only. As Krishna will say later in the Gita: “My face is equal to all creation, loving no one nor hating any.”
It is we who must become concerned over the question of sin and virtue–and for the right reason: liberation. What has God to do with it? What is our dream to Him? We are dreaming because the Light that is our Self is covered by our ignorance in the form of a self-perpetuating dream. The wise know that human beings choose to be either self-deluded or self-illumined.
The end of darkness/ignorance
“When the light of the Atman drives out our darkness that light shines forth from us, a sun in splendor, the revealed Brahman.”
The Self and Brahman being one, when the Self is revealed so also is Brahman revealed–not outside us as an object, but from within us as the Source of our very existence. To find God, then, we must look within. As Saint Nectarios of Aegina, a twentieth-century Greek Orthodox saint, said: “If you cannot find God in your heart you will never find Him.” As Krishna continues:
“The devoted dwell with Him, they know Him always there in the heart, where action is not. He is all their aim. Made free by His Knowledge from past uncleanness of deed or of thought, they find the place of freedom, the place of no return.”
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 5:12 [Go back]
2) The human body. [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 5:13 [Go back]
4) Bhagavad Gita 3:26 [Go back]
5) “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:9-13) [Go back]
6) “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:13-15) [Go back]
7) Bhagavad Gita 5:14 [Go back]
8) Bhagavad Gita 5:15 [Go back]
9) Bhagavad Gita 9:29 [Go back]
10) Bhagavad Gita 5:16. “But, to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun, knowledge reveals the Supreme [Brahman].” (Sivananda) [Go back]
11) Bhagavad Gita 5:17 [Go back]
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