Category Archives: sannyaasaha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 7, Chapter 18

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by in 18.7, chapter 18 verse 7, karmanaha, mohaat, niyatasya, parikeertitaha, parityaagaha, sannyaasaha, taamasaha, tasya, upapadyate

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niyatasya tu sannyaasaha karmano nopapadyate |
mohaattasya parityaagastaamasaha parikeertitaha || 7 ||
 
Indeed, the giving up of an obligatory action is not appropriate. Giving it up out of delusion is declared to be taamasic.
 
niyatasya : obligatory
tu : indeed
sannyaasaha : giving up
karmanaha : action
na : not
upapadyate : appropriate
mohaat : out of delusion
tasya : it
parityaagaha : to give up
taamasaha : taamasic
parikeertitaha : is declared
 
Shri Krishna moved the discussion on karma yoga ahead by categorizing the three types of tyaaga, which means giving up or renunciation. He says that when we give up an obligatory action, when we do not perform an obligatory action out of delusion, out of incorrect or error prone knowledge, such renunciation is known as taamasic tyaaga or taamasic renunciation. He says that such behaviour is inappropriate and is not in line with the teachings of karma yoga. Not doing one’s duty is forbidden in karma yoga.
 
Where do one’s obligatory duties come from? They come from one’s stage in life or aashrama, and one’s profession or varna. A householder is obliged to attend to the needs of his spouse, his parents and his children. If he does not attend to his sick parents, or does not help with his child’s homework, it is termed as taamasic behaviour. A businessman should strive to generate healthy profits from his business, and donate a portion of his wealth to charity. Not doing so is also considered taamasic.
 
Moha or delusion can create all kinds of negative tendencies in us, as we have seen in prior chapters. It can cause heedlessness and carelessness where we do not pay proper attention to the task at hand. It can cause laziness and idleness where our body becomes inert and dull, where we do not want to get up from bed. It is hard to get oneself out of a state of moha. Unless someone who is not taamasic intervenes, we will remain in a state of tamas for a long time.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 6, Chapter 5

09 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in 5.6, aaptum, ayogataha, brahma, chapter 5 verse 6, duhkham, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, mahaabaaho, munih, nachirena, sannyaasaha, tu, yogayuktaha

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sannyaasastu mahaabaaho duhkhamaaptumayogataha |
yogayukto munirbrahma nachirenaadhigachchati || 6 ||

For renunciation, O mighty-armed, is difficult to attain without yoga. The contemplative person established in yoga swiftly attains the eternal essence.

sannyaasaha : renunciation
tu : for
mahaabaaho : O mighty-armed
duhkham : difficult
aaptum : to obtain
ayogataha : without yoga
yogayuktaha : established in yoga
munih : contemplative person
brahma : eternal essence
nachirena : swiftly
adhigachchati : attains

In this shloka, Shri Krishna says that for a seeker that has not fully exhausted his desires, bypassing the first stage of karmayoga will make attainment of the eternal essence difficult. The best option is to start with karmayoga, because like the yoga of knowledge, it too will yield the same result of self-realization.

To understand this, let us examine a different question: Why are there so few PhDs in the world? It takes a certain kind of person to obtain a PhD. One has to be ready to spend most of their life in a lab. One has to do what it takes to get their experiment right. They have to survive on their petty stipend for several years. And all this is for the sole objective of discovering something that benefits mankind.

Similarly, not many people can minimize their worldly activities so much that they retire to an ashram to gain knowledge from a teacher. For most of us, the pull of our desires is so strong that we will continue to work in this world. Therefore, liberation has to come from our actions, not through renunciation.

Furthermore, Shri Krishna also mentions a caveat about action. One should not perform actions just like that. Karmayoga advocates thoughtful action, where one thinks before one acts. The biggest obstacle in moving forward spiritually is our ego. It creates selfish desires that move us towards the material world. So when we performs actions thoughtfully, in other words, when we ensure that our actions are performed without attachment towards the result, our selfish desires automatically get slowly eliminated.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 2, Chapter 5

06 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in 2.5, akrmayogaha, chapter 5 verse 2, karmasannyaasaat, karmayogascha, nihshreyasakarau, sannyaasaha, tayoh, tu, ubhau, vishshyate

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Shree Bhagavaan uvaacha:
sannyaasah karmayogashcha nihshreyasakaraavubhau |
tayostu karmasannyaasaatkarmayogo vishishyate || 2 ||

Shree Bhagavaan said:
Both renunciation of action and the yoga of action confer ultimate bliss. But, between the two, the yoga of action is superior than renunciation of action.

sannyaasaha : renunciation of action
karmayogashcha : yoga of action
nihshreyasakarau : confer ultimate bliss
ubhau : both
tayoh : between those two
tu : but
karmasannyaasaat : than renunciation of action
karmayogaha : yoga of action
vishishyate : superior

Advice, given by a teacher to a student, takes into account the student’s stage in his learning progression. Shri Krishna, the teacher, replies to Arjuna’s question by saying that for someone with Arjuna’s proclivity, karma yoga or the yoga of action is a better path than karma sannyaasa or the renunciation of action.

By making this statement, Shri Krishna reiterates the teaching imparted to Arjuna in the beginning of the third chapter, when Arjuna had asked a similar question. Shri Krishna throughout the Gita has stressed that we can attain self-realization while staying in the world and performing our duties. Like Arjuna, we often get tempted to renounce the world, especially when we are going through a tough time in our life. But as we have seen earlier, if we retreat from the world but have not fully addressed our ego and our selfish desires, we will still be thinking about the material world in the confines of the cave or the ashram we have retreated into.

Therefore, having taken into account Arjuna’s mental make-up, knowing fully well that like us, Arjuna still had a lot of desires, Shri Krishna deemed that karma yoga was the right path for Arjuna, and that he was not well-suited to becoming a monk.

Now, does the follower of karma yoga attain the same result that the follower of renunciation attains? He addressed this point in the upcoming shlokas.