Category Archives: pancha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 15, Chapter 18

03 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in chapter 18 verse 15, ete, hetavaha, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, karma, naraha, nyaayyam, pancha, praarabhate, shareeravaangmanobhihi, tasya, vipareetam

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shareeravaangmanobhiryatkarma praarabhate naraha |
nyaayyam vaa vipareetam vaa panchaite tasya hetavaha || 15 ||
 
Whatever action is begun by a person, with the body, speech and mind, either per scripture or the opposite, these five are its causes.
 
shareeravaangmanobhihi : with body, speech and mind
yat : whatever
karma : action
praarabhate : begun
naraha : person
nyaayyam : per scripture
vaa : either
vipareetam : opposite
vaa : or
pancha : five
ete : these
tasya : its
hetavaha : causes
 
Let us quickly recap the concepts from the previous shloka. Any action that we perform has five components behind it. The body provides the foundation for the action. The instruments comprise the five organs of sense and the five organs of action. The energy system of the body, the praana, provides the fuel needed to perform the action. The individual notion, the ego, provides the motive behind the action. The daivam, Ishvara, ensures that the universe supports the performance of the action.
 
To drive home this point, Shri Krishna adds that there is no action that is beyond the realm of these five factors. In other words, the five factors are the material cause as well as the efficient cause or intelligence behind an action. Since a robot can perform any task that it is programmed with, it is easy to understand that the five factors are the material cause of the action. But when we say that they are also the intelligence behind the action, it is a little difficult to swallow. Our true self, the eternal essence, has nothing whatsoever to do with the action. The mind generates thoughts and the body performs actions.
 
Now, another point is taken up in the shloka. It is the very same five factors that can perform an action in conformance with the universe and its laws, as well as action that goes against the universe and its laws, also termed as a sinful action. The way a person looks at the world, as well as the nature of his intelligence, determines whether he will perform an action lawfully or sinfully. The entire process of action is analyzed in detail later in the chapter. This overview of the factors behind an action is concluded here, setting us up for the most important teaching of the Gita, taken up next.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 13, Chapter 18

01 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by in 18.13, chapter 18 verse 13, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, kaaranaani, kritaante, mahaabaaho, nibodha, pancha, proktaani, saankhye, sarvakarmanaam, siddhaye

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panchaimaani mahaabaaho kaaranaani nibodha me |
saankhye kritaante proktaani siddhaye sarvakarmanaam || 13 ||
 
Learn these five factors for the accomplishment of all actions, O mighty armed, which are spoken of in the Saankhya in which actions culminate.
 
pancha : five
imaani : these
mahaabaaho : O mighty armed
kaaranaani : factors
nibodha : learn
me : from me
saankhye : Saankhya
kritaante : culmination of actions
proktaani : said
siddhaye : accomplishment
sarvakarmanaam : all actions
 
Shri Krishna begins describing the true nature of action with this shloka. Typically we tend to think we are responsible for initiating, executing and completing every action, from the simplest action like drinking a cup of tea, to a complex action like planning the construction of a 100 storey building. He says that there are other factors are play which are responsible for the accomplishment of all actions, as denoted by the Saankhya or Vedaanta. He also conveys to Arjuna that a new topic has started, by calling out his name.
 
In the fourth chapter, we came across a shloka which stated that all actions in their totality culminate in knowledge. There are two components to this knowledge. The first is that the self, the eternal essence, the aatmaa, is actionless, since there is no possibility of change or modification in something that is changeless. This leads us to the second component of knowledge, which is as follows. If I, the self, am not performing action, something else must be doing so. As long as we are not fully convinced that something else is performing actions, we will hold on to the notion that we are doing so.
 
A naive person sits in a bus and thinks that he is driving it. You have to convince him that he is not driving it, but it is the bus driver that is driving it. In the same way, Shri Krishna gives us a detailed analysis of action and its components, such that we may come to the right conclusion. We are naive in thinking that the I, the self performs action when the Saankhya, the Vedaanta tells us that we do not. Once we come to this conclusion, we will automatically renounce the doership of action, and consequently, free ourselves from the chain of action and reaction.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 5, Chapter 13

05 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in 13.5, ahankaaraha, avyaktam, buddhihi, chapter 13 verse 5, dasha, ekam, eva, indriyaani, indriyagocharaahaa, mahaabhootaani, pancha

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mahaabhootaanyahankaaro buddhiravyaktameva cha |
indriyaani dashaikam cha pancha chendriyagocharaahaa || 5 ||
 
The great elements, the ego, the intellect, the unmanifest, and also the ten senses, and the one, and five objects of senses.
 
mahaabhootaani : great elements
ahankaaraha : ego
buddhihi : intellect
avyaktam : unmanifest
eva : also
cha : and
indriyaani : senses
dasha : ten
ekam : one
cha : and
pancha : five
cha : and
indriyagocharaahaa : objects of senses
 
Nowadays, most computers have the ability to go into sleep mode, where all the running programs are saved in a file on the disk in such a way that they are brought back to life as soon as the computer is switched on again. Similarly, when the universe comes into existence, its entire state is restored from avyaktam, the unmanifest “file” containing the sum total of every unfulfilled desire. We then begin to see faint outlines of the universe, just like the computer first draws the outlines of the windows on the screen. This state is known as buddhi. We finally see the universe in full colour, in all its glory, just like we see a fully painted screen on our computer. This state is known as ahankara. This fully painted screen is created by combining three colours – red, blue and green – in various ways.
 
Similarly, the entire universe is created by combining the five great elements – space, air, fire, water and earth – in various ways. As humans, we are also comprised of those same five great elements. But, each of us looks and behaves differently than the other due to the difference in our “programming” – the avyakta, also known as vaasanaas or unfulfilled desires. Also, there is something within us that give us the ability to think, feel and act, which we do not see in inert objects. This is the inner instrument or the antahakarana. It is comprised of the buddhi or intellect which plans and decides, the ahankaara or ego which creates a sense of agency or I-ness and the mind which thinks and feels, referred in the shloka as “ekam” or the one.
 
The mind receives stimuli from five sense organs – ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose which run after their objects – sound, touch, form, taste and smell, respectively. The mind also controls five organs of action – mouth, hands, legs, genitals and bowels. The five elements, the five sense organs, their five corresponding sense objects, the five organs of actions, the mind, the intellect, the ego and the unmanifest – these make up the twenty four categories of the universe mentioned in the Saamkhya school of philosophy.
 
In just one shloka, Shri Krishna has explained the entire process of cosmic creation and its building blocks, as well as the specific factors that enable humans to think, feel and act. Plants and animals are also made up of similar building blocks, although not as fully expressed as in humans. Whenever we develop anxiety or frustration that this world is becoming too complex to understand, we can refer to this shloka and understand that at its core, the world is quite simple. Also, whenever we develop the mistaken notion that we are independent and do not need anything from this world, this shloka shows us our oneness with the world. Now this shloka only provides a static view of the world. How do we account for all the dynamism, the movement, the give and take between one human being and the rest of the world? This is explained in the next shloka.