Pandharichi Wari

 

त्रैगुण्यविषया वेदा निस्त्रैगुण्यो भवार्जुन ।

निर्द्वन्द्वो नित्यसत्त्वस्थो निर्योगक्षेम आत्मवान् ॥ 45॥

trai-guṇya-viṣhayā vedā nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna

nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho niryoga-kṣhema ātmavān 

As I was concluding my thoughts on verse 28 of chapter 2, there came a consideration about a rare phenomenon of a mind that dodges attachment in the manifest world. A mind that is able to stop moving and literally doing nothing but immersed in just existing. A mind that is able to feel, yet not react. And that brought me to verse 45.

Krishna’s initial attention was to stabilize Arjun’s shaken emotions and lift him from grief. But that wasn’t the end of it. Recover from grief, fight the war like a brave soldier and then submit to old age and death like anyone else…. that certainly wasn’t the end game in Krishna’s mind. 

Krishna’s intention was to make Arjun realize that he and Krishna are not two but a single entity. And that this entity is neither born nor can die. 

Just like Krishna and Arjun are one, by Krishna’s logic, Krishna and anyone and anything in the universe is also one. Every visible form is a manifestation of Krishna.

Then why did Krishna pick Arjun to reveal this fact? 

Out of thousands of people in the world we meet in a lifetime very few are able to understand us in a meaningful way. The chances are better when there is deep affection and trust between two people, although that is not an absolute requirement. Sometimes the inherent ability to understand each other brings people closer and creates affection. 

What is more important is the desire to understand the other person. Perhaps Arjun had a genuine desire to understand Krishna’s viewpoint. And that made Krishna eager to tell him everything that mattered. 

When what you have to say is entirely different from what the universal populace firmly believes in, you would not care to blabber it out to a random audience. You would rather stay silent and keep it to yourself. Until the day when someone specifically comes seeking to know what you know. And you get a sense that they are capable of understanding what you have to share. 

It was perhaps the highlight of Krishna’s life to find a perfect opportunity in Kurukshetra and the right candidate in Arjun to give away the highest truth. 

Yet, just the occasion or ideal candidate are not enough to instantly convey such radical ideas. Existing ideas that stand in opposition to the new perspective first need to be removed. So theory can be transferred instantly but transformation cannot happen as quickly.

The existing ideas are what normally a man of the world would be inclined to think. To seek good things in life, enjoy them and keep working for them. It is indeed brave for anyone to suggest that such thinking is to be dismissed. The natural reaction to such suggestion would be what would remain to live for and strive for if not for good things? It’s like planting a dynamo under everything you see worth living for. That’s probably the reason not too many minds lend serious attention to everything that is said in the Bhagwad Gita. It threatens their basic beliefs. It negates what they have always known and driven to work for. So they bite on bits and pieces, taking a few things and leaving some out. If one looks at it carefully, there is something for every person who is at a different level of evolution than another.

Those for whom shame, guilt, defamation matters, these dangers are cited in chapter 2 verses 33-36 as discouragement for abandoning duty.

For someone who may not necessarily bother about what people think, Krishna has said in verse 37, that fighting the war that is before you is in your best interest. If you die, you will go to heaven and benefit the good life there. If you win the war, the earth will be yours to enjoy. Either way there is promise of a good life. People who live for a good life accept this verse and disregard what follows after that. 

Why? 

The few verses leading up to this 45th verse in the second chapter really create an earthquake in the minds of intelligent people who can more acutely feel the impact of the radically different view. These verses essentially disapprove a mental culture to live for enjoyment. 

There are many things here that turn existent beliefs upside down. It strikes down the ritualistic portions of the Vedas, the very text that lays down means to achieve material things for a good life. 

Then it labels the people who are motivated to follow these rituals with a goal of achieving results as lowly or inferior. 

That includes hopes for heavenly life and earthly comforts. 

To expect such comforts is condemned.

That itself would turn away majority of people. If not for good things to look forward to, why would anyone strive to work? What incentive would they have?

Peace.

Finding one’s true self. 

These can easily seem like vague and imaginary things, leave alone valuable things to achieve.

But here’s the even more controversial claim the philosophy makes. Instead of the true self defined by consciousness and bliss being imaginary, it proclaims that the world of matter is imaginary. Objects are illusory. And indulging and seeking pleasure from them is delusional. 

You either trust one side or another. Most people can’t wrap their heads around the idea that what they have known, seen and felt all their lives is imaginary or an illusion. Therefore the natural thing for them is to disregard the advise to stop working for a good life. They say if I am going to work I expect to get the rewards for my work. Or why would I work? Why would the ancient Vedas lay down specific rituals for specific returns if this was forbidden?

Valid points.

So the advice in this 45th verse is reserved for the rare ones who are willing to bet everything they know so far and trust in Krishna enough to give it serious thought. They are ones who show readiness to dive deep, fully into it, and find for themselves if it delivers the promise of peace and finding of one’s true self. And they value these over any objects or comforts in the world. 

This can happen in one of few scenarios. When the person is absolutely miserable with the suffering in the world. Or if they have enjoyed everything and reached a level of complete satisfaction and desire nothing more out of the world. Third category may be the intellectuals who are simply incurably curious to find out this dimension of existence. Lastly the men of faith in God and saints. All four categories combined, such people are rare. Even out of these, only a fraction go far enough and are fully prepared( mentally) to relinquish everything to reach the final stage. And of these, even fewer embrace that final stage permanently. 

So what is Krishna saying here? 

He is telling a trusting Arjun that the Vedas are full of promises for wonderful things and these things obviously attract people towards them. Everything in the world is influenced by or composed out of the three gunas or identifiable qualities namely sattva( purity, goodness,material knowledge), rajas( passion, activity) and tamas( inertia, ignorance). 

Put all three aside because they all deal with material life of objects.

In the two preceding verses( 43,44) Krishna points out the consequences of pleasures from objects. People get lured by the promises of pleasures and so absorbed in acquiring things that their minds lose focus on what is important. Such minds get entangled in pleasure and useless for meaningful purposes.

Objects are deceptive and the pleasure they promise is illusory. It creates increasing thirst and yet never reaches full satisfaction.

Restrain your mind from such temptations, Krishna cautions Arjun. Dodge the gunas. Become nis-traigunya! Steady in that place where the gunas can’t reach you, can’t disturb your equanimity. 

What causes movement in the mind commonly? Attempt to acquire something that it senses is lacking or needed and protecting what it fears may be taken away. Train the mind to refrain from these thoughts. Let what has to come, come and what has to go, go. Neither strive nor resist for these goals of yoga (acquire) and (hold).

All these things are easier said than done. Why? The root cause for the mind to be accustomed to acquiring and holding is because its identity is tied into the physical body. The physical body dictates needs, needs become wants, wants become habits, habits become compulsions and compulsions take on the ugly form of greed. From greed arises the indiscretions to steal what belongs to another. 

The last part of the advice to Arjun in this verse 45 is settle down in the Self. Trace your true identity. Who you are. And permanently be there. 

This atmawan bhava is the most important order Krishna has given to anyone who wants lasting peace and freedom.

What does it mean to be atmawan? To be the naked consciousness without identifying with the physical body. Break loose from the identification with the physical body because that’s the primary folly. All other errors are subsequent to this primary error.

Often, the mind has to correct the problems in reverse order. Give up the tendency to steal what belongs to someone else. Stealing can occur in any form and to any degree. From stealing ideas, works, credits, jobs, land, wealth, people, one can lay false claims to anything that is not rightfully theirs.  So the first step is to identify these missteps and rectify them. That will shed light on the tendency of greed that was the cause behind the stealing habit. Once you identify greed, you need to work on reducing that. This will disclose your compulsiveness. When you work on correcting the compulsion, you will stumble upon the barrier created by habit. As you try to undo the habit you will be faced with the challenge to differentiate between want and need. In a bid to keep wants aside and focus on essential needs you may be ready to enquire whose needs are these anyway? What part of those needs are minimum? 

These are the principles of shama and dama! Control of body and mind. 

Thus keeping material needs to barest minimum the mind will be spared to do the serious enquiry “ who am I?” 

A mind that will thus slow down from the unnecessary exercise of fulfilling unnecessary wants and desires will be able to continue the self enquiry and realize its naked consciousness nature. 

It is hardly ever an instantaneous experience of knowing who you are. There is often a lot of undoing that is necessary. Each individual’s “world” is nothing but the network of extensions developed over many lifetimes to fulfil needs and wants arising from the body. These wants remain embedded within the mind as desires and desires outlast the body. It continues as a perpetual cycle. Desires assume the form of a new body. 

It is worthwhile to step back for a moment and think. What is a desire afterall? Energy trapped into imagination of a specific form. The form may be a person or a place or an object or a circumstance. For example a desire to be someone’s daughter or life partner. A desire to own a big house. Desire to travel around the world. Desire to become the President. Desire to find a cure for cancer. Desire to be rich. Desire to end poverty. It can be anything. The physical manifestation is simply a mechanism for the expression of the energy of that desire. 

When a rare individual like Arjun is inspired to find his eternal self he must sooner or later expend all desires and extinguish the energy of his mind to disengage from the physical manifestation. That’s when the imagination ends and pure existence is unveiled for him. 

It is by no means an easy task. 

Systematic preparations to reach this stage are laid down in the Bhagwad Gita. 

The Self or Pure Conscious Nature is Krishna himself. The long preparatory journey is the pilgrimage. Some who claim to be pilgrims leave their homes and reach the outskirts of their town. Some walk to the nearest town. Others go still some distance. Yet others go midway. Some reach the outskirts of Krishna’s hometown. Some walk up to his temple. Some enter the temple. Some enter the shrine. Very few stand in the center of the shrine in Krishna’s shoes. 

It is a mysterious pilgrimage. Starts with the physical body and ends with pure consciousness. 

The next verse in the second chapter gives an idea about how it feels to finally make it to the conscious center within oneself. 

यावानर्थ उदपाने सर्वत: सम्प्लुतोदके ।
तावान्सर्वेषु वेदेषु ब्राह्मणस्य विजानत: ॥ 46॥

yāvān artha udapāne sarvataḥ samplutodake
tāvānsarveṣhu vedeṣhu brāhmaṇasya vijānataḥ

Whatever purpose the water of a well would serve when there is flooding all around, similar would be the utility of all the pleasures promised by the Vedas once the Self is found. 

The experience of every pleasure happens within the conscious center. The mind erroneously believes it is coming from contact with an external object or situation. Once you have discovered the center where happiness resides and is experienced, chasing external sources becomes futile and unnecessary. One gains everything. That “everything” has no form. That’s why it remained elusive until this point. It becomes a eureka moment for those who dared to make the entire journey, from form to formless, simply by trusting the word of a good mentor.

If one understands just verse 45 and 46 totally, the entire substance of the Gita will be grasped.