The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Chapter 17: The Meaning and Purpose of Sacrifice

gatasaṅgasya muktasya jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ,
yajñāyācarataḥ karma samagraṁ pravilīyate (BG 4.23)
brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam,
brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā (BG 4.24)
daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate,
brahmāgnāv apare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati (BG 4.25)
śrotrādīnīndriyāṇy anye saṁyamāgniṣu juvhati
śabdādīn viṣayān anya indriyāgniṣu juvhati (BG 4.26)
sarvāṇīndriyakarmāṇi prāṇakarmāṇi cāpare,
ātmasaṁyamayogāgnau juvhati jñānadīpite (BG 4.27)
dravyayajñās tapoyajñā yogayajñās tathāpare
svādhyāyajñānayajñāś ca yatayaḥ saṁśitavratāḥ (BG 4.28)
apāne juvhati prāṇaṁ prāṇepānaṁ tathāpare,
prāṇāpānagatī ruddhvā prāṇāyāmaparāyaṇāḥ (BG 4.29)
apare niyatāhārāḥ prāṇān prāṇeṣu juvhati,
sarvepy ete yajñavido yajñakṣapitakalmaṣāḥ (BG 4.30)

These verses that I have now recited from the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita highlight certain aspects of action, which was our subject. Who acts, actually? The question of action as performed by anyone arose out of the consideration of God's action as the Incarnation, which was the topic at the very commencement of the Fourth Chapter. We had occasion to go into the depths of this intricate subject of action, and found that there is an interconnectedness of the basic foundations of all things, insofar as all organisms, living beings, and even those things we call inanimate, are products of the permutation and combination of the forces of prakriti – sattva, rajas, tamas – including our bodies and minds, and all our internal apparatus we call the antakarana, the psychic organ or the psyche proper. In light of this, we concluded last time almost with a question: Who does action?

The principle teaching of the Bhagavadgita is that there are no individual actions. It is a message of right action which is constituted in such a way that segregated, isolated, pinpointed, ego-ridden psyches cannot understand. Everyone is accustomed to the idea of action associated with oneself. It is the intention of the Bhagavadgita to remove this erroneous notion, namely, that an action can be associated with any particular individual. It is so because of the fact there are no such things as particular individuals in this web of interconnected operations of sattva, rajas and tamas. Every particle of sand is connected to every star in the heavens. Such seems to be the hidden secret of natural operations and, if this is so, it is hard for us to accommodate our individual self-sense with the sense of agency in action. It appears that action takes place, and yet we cannot confidently declare that anyone is responsible for action. Action is a propulsion that arises from the very centre of the purposiveness of the cosmos, the original structure of things on which every other outer formation is founded. This is to be kept in mind whenever any idea arises: Whose idea is it?

Thoughts and actions, ideas and performances constitute human history and any kind of history. But our analysis the other day led us to a startling conclusion, namely, that not merely the bodily organs, which are the instruments of physical action, but also all the inner operations of the psyche are the products arisen out of a certain arrangement of patterns of the evolutes of prakriti. The tanmatras we mentioned – sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa, gandha – are the spatial and temporal objects of the sensations of hearing, tasting, and so on, which again are the rudiments out of which the whole physical cosmos is formed as we see it in the form of the five elements – earth, water, fire, air and ether – which again are the building bricks of even our physical bodies. Thus, whatever is in the outer world of nature seems to be in our physiological system, in this anatomical structure; and whatever is in the subtle potentials of the three gunas – sattva, rajas, tamas – seems to be the original substance out of which even our minds and intellects are made. If that is the case, who thinks, whose ideas are these, and who acts?

This question is an answer to itself. A person who walks in broad daylight does not require to be told what is in front of him. A beam of light has been thrown on our path by an analysis of this kind, and there is no need to be told who does the action. The very idea of action requires to be transmuted. We cannot use such words as activity, work, and the like, in regard to this peculiar operation that is taking place, which is not anybody's, and yet everybody's.

Now, it was told that action binds, but there are specific actions which do not bind. Actions which are of the nature of yajna, sacrifice or consecration, are liberating. Every other action is binding. In this world all action binds, other than that action which is of the nature of a sacrifice. This was discussed in detail earlier in one of our sessions. This is to be remembered once again. Every action is binding other than that which is performed in the spirit of a sacrifice, and we went into the details of the meaning of what sacrifice means. If you can remember it, well and good. If you have not remembered it, what I am saying now will have no meaning. These are hard things to remember. They are like the ocean and a sweep of every blessed thing. Unless you are contemplative and practical in your daily life, whatever has been told here will be like water poured on a hard rock. This is a continuation of what I said earlier, so it is necessary for you to remember what sacrifice means.

We are now moving in the very direction of the same subject, with a new orientation given to it. Action which is of the nature of consecration and sacrifice does not bind, and to some extent we have understood what sacrifice is, what consecration is. Now it is clinched by a few verses. He who is free from every kind of attachment: gatasaṅga; and one who is thus free from involvement of every kind: muktasya; he whose mind is rooted in this awareness of this vast operation of interconnected action, which is what we mean by 'the mind getting established in knowledge': jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ. It is not knowledge in the sense of book learning; it is an enlightenment or an insight into the very nature of things, a seeing into the very bowels of nature and understanding one's vital relationship with the structure of every blessed thing. That insight is jnana. He whose mind is established in that kind of insight of knowledge automatically does action as a sacrifice. His action becomes yajñāyācarataḥ karma. Then what happens to the action of that person? It melts as waters of a river become one with the ocean: samagraṁ pravilīyate. It appears as if you go as a salt doll into a vast sea to measure its depths and lose yourself there, becoming one with the salty ocean.

In a similar manner, we enter into the spirit of the activity of the whole universe and we no more do, and we cannot say who does. Here, doing and being become one. Action and existence are identical at a particular level of experience. Our existence, our being, our living is different from what we do. We can exist without doing in a physical sense, in a social sense, sometimes in a psychological sense. Our existence does not seem to be the same as our activity. Even without activity, I can exist in some way, but in this sense we cannot separate existence and action in that condition of interconnectedness of all operations. That is the case because the very existence of the so-called agent of action gets united with the operation.

Many a time we have heard it said that work is worship. It is written on placards and we read it in textbooks, but the meaning of it might not be clear to all people. Unless the contemplation in the mind becomes the same as the action that we perform, worship cannot be work and work cannot be worship. Our idea and our doing have to be identical, but rarely is it practicable for earthbound human individuals to identify their contemplative aspect with their operative aspect. Doing seems to be an expression of a part of our personality. Not only do we not melt into action when we actually perform actions, but even the whole of our personality does not engage itself in action. We are not entirely engaged in action in the totality of our personality at any time. Such a kind of call never comes except when we are drowning in water, or we are dying. Normally, we never operate wholly in all the levels of our being at any moment. Such an occasion does not normally arise. So on the one hand, the whole of our personality, root and branch, does not rise into action whenever we do anything. On the other hand, we do not melt in action. We maintain our hard, flint-like personality. We are persons. I am what I am, and my action is different from what I am.

So our actions cannot be called karma yoga, they cannot be liberating, inasmuch as we have not become one with our action. Therefore, actions cannot be worship, however much we may write it on the walls. So yoga is a difficult thing to practice. It is the communion of our being with the very operation of our being. This is what is meant by saying that action and existence are identical at a particular level. God's existence and God's activity are the same. To be is to act, and to act is to be. There is no difference between these two operations. But that action is of a different nature. That is why it is liberating. It is not the action that we can contemplate in our minds, the movement of hands and feet. It has not a purposive individually motivated action in a direction given in space and time. It is a total action.

It was very hard even for a mighty mind like Arjuna to grasp what it could be, so he went on raising questions again and again as to how knowledge and action can be combined. “They seem to be different things. My mind does not feel competent to absorb this teaching. The idea of an action cannot be action, knowledge cannot be working, and thought is not the same as doing. The object is not the subject; we cannot understand how they can be identified, much less considered as having any kind of relationship between them.”

The difficulty of this kind arises because we cannot think beyond our skins. The purification necessary for the practice of yoga can be well appreciated here. The minds of people like us are not purified enough. Therefore, we are unable to even receive this teaching. The meaning of it is not clear. How is such a thing possible? It is because the mind is not transparent yet; it is turbid. It has more of rajas and tamas. It is motivated by external motion and stagnation, which is tamas. The transparency we call sattva has not yet adequately manifested itself in us. Most of the time we are agitated, anxious, and confounded more than tranquil, sober and composed in ourselves. Hence, this teaching on a theme which is the pinnacle of composure cannot easily be received by a distracted mind. So the Bhagavadgita does not end here. It goes on until a stage is reached where it becomes absolutely necessary to be face to face with the entire setup of the cosmos. Until we actually see what is in front of us, we will not be able to understand the kind of life that we live in this world.

So a person is free who is capable of doing action as a sacrifice. What is this sacrifice? Though we have gone into the analysis of this matter, the final word about it is now said in a single verse. Brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā: The wave in the ocean is the ocean. Another wave in the ocean which collides with this wave is also the ocean. The force that compels one wave to collide with another wave is also the force of the ocean. The end result of the coming together of two waves in the colliding of two waves is also the ocean. The rising of the waves is the activity of the ocean. The subsiding of the waves is also the activity of the ocean. Everything is the single body of this one substance called the ocean.

The performer of the action is not you, is not me, is not anybody. It is so because the performer is the psychophysical organism, normally speaking, but we have now understood that neither the psyche nor the body is anybody's property. It is a borrowed value, as it were. It is part of all things in this world. Hence, it is something like all the bricks in a building being shaken when one of them is shaken. Much more is the connection here than the connection of one brick with another. It is difficult to analogically explain what the circumstance is. Imagine that there is a living connection between one brick and another in this building. Actually, a living connection is not there between one brick and another; there is only a mechanical connection, but we have to imagine for the purpose of this context that there is life operating between one brick and another. If you shake one brick, naturally the whole building shakes, so the operation of a single brick is the operation of the whole building. Thus, the performer of the action is not any person, is not any individual, because the motive force for any action which is either the body or the mind, or both put together, comes from that of which the psyche and the body are made, that out of which everything else is also made, that which is the matrix of the cosmos. Therefore, you may say that any movement of any particular individual, any event that takes place anywhere, is the action of the whole universe.

The result that may follow from the performance of an action is also a redounding method, process, adopted by the very same performer, which is not you, which is not me. And the force that is responsible for the operation of this kind is also that very same matrix constituted of the three gunas. The offering, the offerer, the process of offering, the consequence of offering – all these are one single mass of operation. Therefore, there is no individual performer of an action. Hence, it is unbecoming on the part of anyone to expect the fruit of an action for one's own self. Here is the crux of the matter of the whole teaching of the Bhagavadgita. You cannot expect the fruit of an action, because the fruit is not the result of the performance of any particular individual. It is the total outcome of the exuberance of total action; therefore, in the same way as the action is not yours, the fruit also is not yours.

Now again, I come to the point. All these are hard nuts to crack. Our brains are not so made as to remember all these little things. This is the essence of this verse, brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā. In a ritualistic fashion, as it were, this verse is framed. The oblation is Brahman, the Absolute. The offerer of the oblation is the Absolute. The consequence, the result, the fruit, if any, is the Absolute. The entire process is the Absolute. And to make it a little homely, I brought the illustration of the ocean rumbling within itself. Every little shake of a ripple on the surface of the sea is due to the action of the very bowels of the whole ocean, and this illustration will give some idea as to how the cosmos acts.

Now, the great teacher becomes more and more realistic as he proceeds further. As a very good psychologist, a very good schoolmaster, he does not want to bore you with very tough teachings, metaphysical doctrines and scientific expositions. He comes to certain simple, intelligible and homely examples of right action, yajna, sacrifice, meditation, yoga.

Daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate, brahmāgnāv apare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati. When you worship a god, it is work that you do, and conversely you may say, your work is the worship of your god. All persons in the world cannot think identically. Though the aim of all life is a common goal, the ways or paths leading to this common goal may not be a single beaten track because of the variety in the inner constitution of the minds of people. So different types of yajnas, sacrifices, performances, right actions are now delineated in a few of the forthcoming verses.

When you contemplate a god, a divinity, in the fashion of a religious devotee, you are working, and you are also meditating, and also you are performing a sacrifice. Or when you contemplate yourself as a Self of all people, you are doing a meditation and also performing a sacrifice. When you withdraw the sense organs from the objects outside in the process called abstraction, or technically pratyahara, you are doing a great sacrifice and also a worship at the same time. When you see one Divinity present in all things, the one substance, the water of the ocean being seen everywhere and all the parts of the ocean – wherever you cast your eyes, you see the same substance everywhere, thus beholding a uniformity of basic structure in all things – and when you move your sense organs in the direction of objects, then also you are performing a sacrifice and you are doing a yoga. You are actually performing a worship.

When you restrain your breath by the process of inhalation, and also restrain it during the time of exhalation, these are what are called kumbhakas in yogic language. Kumbhaka is the retention of the breath. It can be done after inhalation or exhalation, or without either. When you perform these deliberately, you are also performing a sacrifice. And when you give in charity to a deserving person in a proper manner, in a proper place and in circumstances which are conducive, you are doing a sacrifice. When you live an abstemious, austere life, taking from the world the minimum facilities and not indulging in sensory or mental satisfactions unnecessarily, as an austere tapasvin, you are performing a sacrifice. And when you concentrate your mind on one thing only and never allow the mind to think anything else, that is also a kind of sacrifice. When you study a holy scripture and betake yourself to that kind of holy exercise every day, that also is a sacrifice. When you behold no externality – no space, time and objects, and not yourself also – and melt yourself into the sea of the cosmos in an insight into the totality of things, you are performing a sacrifice. And when you live the frugal life of a simple person, not demanding any notification by people or even recognition or a word of thanks, wanting nothing from anybody, when you are satisfied with the circumstances in which you are placed, satisfied with anything that comes of its own accord without begging and asking, everything makes you content and you are the most satisfied person in the world under any given circumstance, you are doing a great sacrifice.

Now, inasmuch as these little things are also sacrifices, they are steps to God. They are graduated processes of melting down individual personality and egoism, and communing it with the substance of the whole cosmos. In any manner, you may perform your sacrifice. No one can be happy in this world unless one performs some sacrifice. Selfish people cannot be happy here. It is so because the world is not meant for selfish people. Again, it is so because the world is not selfish. You are a citizen of this universe. You are vitally connected with the entire operation of the universe. As the intention, the purpose and the motivation of cosmic activity is entirely unselfish, there is no place for selfishness in this world. A selfish person is a misfit here in this creation. He will be cast out by the winds of righteousness and justice. The righteousness of the kingdom of God will operate. You will be kicked out in one minute by this justice of the cosmos. So anyone who is not capable of being even a little unselfish is totally unfit to live in this world. This world is not meant for the person who is selfish. You cannot even live on this earth. You cannot be alive in this world by being selfish, what to speak of gaining entry into the heavens.

So the world, whether of this visible panorama before us or of the invisible realms, or any world whatsoever, is not for you. You become unfit everywhere, a nobody, a nothing and good for nothing, if your stand is selfishness. Why is it so? Because you know very well the world does not operate on the principle of selfishness. This is so because individuality is not the rule of law of cosmic operations. Hence, the Bhagavadgita rings this message into our ears that to the extent it is practicable under the circumstances of our knowledge and capacity, we have to perform sacrifice. We have to be unselfish. We have to give not only what we have, but also give ourselves away, which is the real sacrifice. We give ourselves away to such an extent that we no more exist as what we are. We exist as That which really is. This is the culmination of the sacrifice to which we will be led by the forthcoming messages of the Bhagavadgita.