विवेचन सारांश

Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender

Sri Krishna says here: The duties of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras—are distributed according to their qualities, in accordance with their guṇas (and not by birth).
We as Gītā Sadhakas, should try to understand that it is created by Sri Krishna Himself. HE has taken the ownership of its creation. The very fact that it has been created by Prabhu Himself, it is rational and based on logic. It is also scientific.

Let us take the example of a family-
In a family duties are distributed. Children  are not asked to cook for themselves or earn money and finance their own needs. Cooking is mainly done by the ladies folk of the family. Earning money, the financial aspect is taken care by the elders of the family. Children are given the responsibility of acquiring knowledge and preserving the heritage so that the future of the domain knowledge is ensured. Some of the elder male members are entrusted with the duties of ensuring the safety aspect of the family, protect against intruders and hooligans. Very senior members look after the overall functioning of the family and teach the children the customs and traditions and that is how it is ensured that the samskaras are passed on.
Some of the male members take care of the maintenance and repair of the dwelling units.
This is how the duties are distributed in the family mainly based on individual abilities. Even when we study the structure of an organisation, we find similar divisions there also.

Responsibilities in an organisation are also divided accordingly---

• Knowledge centric 
• Safety and security centric
• Finance and wealth centric
• Service centric.

In an organisation we find departments entrusted with research and development work. There are separate security departments to take care of the safety aspect. There are exclusive finance and commercial departments and separate departments taking care of services and maintenance as well.
With the same concept Bhagavān has created the classification keeping in view the requirement of the society. It is only an extrapolation of the concept inorder to provide adequate and balanced support for the functioning of the society.

The divisions are made among the people according to the guṇas that constitute their personality, and thus different professional duties  suitable for them. The system of varṇāśhram dharma is a foundational Hindu social classification described in the  Rig-Veda.

So it is very important that we understand clearly this very foundation of our Sanatan Dharma.

Next, Sri Krishna goes on to explain the characteristics of each of these categories.

 In this sloka Bhagavān describes the characteristics of Brahmins who perform knowledge centric activities.Their personalities  are adorned with--

• śhamah -- tranquility 
• damah -- restraint, subjugation of mind and senses 
  
• tapaḥ -- austerity, enduring hardships for the discharge of one's sacred obligations.
• śhauchaṁ -- purity both internal and external
• kṣhāntih -- patience, the power to forgive the faults of others.
• ārjavam -- integrity
• jñānaṁ -- knowledge of Vedas and scriptures
• vijñānam -- wisdom
• āstikyaṁ -- belief in a hereafter, believing in life after death
• Brahmā-karma  -- work of the priestly class
  
• svabhāva-jam -- born of one’s intrinsic qualities -- realisation of the truth relating to Paramātmā.
  

Their knowledge is not used only for earning a living. It is used for a bigger goal of self realisation and liberation of the soul from the clutches of birth and death cycle.

Jnana and Vijnana--
The difference between the two are-- one is knowledge and the other is experiential knowledge.
The Brahmins acquire knowledge by reading scriptures and acquire experiential knowledge by doing tapa and Sādhanā (jñānaṁvijñānam āstikyaṁ) which takes them towards Paramātmā.


O son of Kunti, the contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are non-permanent, and come and go like the winter and summer seasons. O descendent of Bharat, one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

śhauchaṁ  refers to purity both internal and external. 
Internal peace is peace within  when there is complete absence of turbulence in the mind.

kṣhāntih refers  patience, the power to forgive the faults of others.
In this connection let us examine what Dnyaneshwar Mauli has said-- 
Despite being tortured by the members of the society, he always prayed, that let everybody get the right intellect.

In the sloka Sri Krishna describes the characteristic of Kṣatriyas--

• śhaurya --  valor
• tejo --  Strength
• dhṛitih --  Fortitude
• dākṣhyaṁ --  Skill in weaponry and also doing the right thing at the right time
• apalāyanam --  Not fleeting
• dānam -- large heartedness
• īśhvara-bhāvaśh -- leadership qualities
• kṣhātraṁ karma svabhāva-jam -- warrior and administrative work are their intrinsic born qualities

If the Ksatriya class were not there then imagine who would have protected our land and our Sanatan Dharma from the invaders. It is because of the valiant Shivaji Maharaj and other brave souls, that out religion is protected and we are sitting here and chanting Bhagavad Gītā today. 

They have protected us from invaders. No invaders dared to enter Shivaji's kingdom. Such was his bravery and gallantry.
The Ksatriya class  is fully responsible for the security of the society and they had demonstrated it time and again. In the borders Army is protecting the country on account of which we all are freely moving and enjoying our days. 
Sourya or velor does not mean demonstrating one's strength or hit someone. In real sense it means protecting people from the attack of enemies. 
Ksatriya king's  'teja' or brilliance was like radiance of the sun. Their bravery is like the light and energy of the sun. It get displayed automatically and serves all people like how the sun gives light to every being.
We all know the story of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and how he escaped from the clutches of Aurangzeb. Shivaji Maharaj and Sambhaji Maharaj both were captured by Aurangzeb. They both escaped from the clutches of Aurangzeb applying their wit. Their escape was not a matter of valor rather it was a play of wit and fortitude (dhṛitih).

Thus one has to be very cautious so as to what one does. We have to do right things. But doing the right things at the right time is more important. Doing the right thing at the right time is dākṣhyata.
During his journey to Bijapur, Afzal khan created umpteen number of huddles and disturbances for Shivaji. Everytime Shivaji  Maharaj manoeuvred the huddle applying his intellect, his dākṣhyata.

If we analyse this sloka and the traits of Ksatriya described, we find Shivaji had all the qualities in him. He used to do the right things at the right time. 
One might say everybody should do right things at the right time. Why only Kṣatriyas?
The answer to  this is when a Brahmin misses out something, he can always recapture it. If the Vaisya incur a financial loss, he can always recover it. But Ksatriya can not afford to miss doing the right thing at the righttime as it is a question of life and death for him.
Not only his own life, he is responsible for the life of others to whom he is providing protection. That is the reason why dākṣhyata is such an important aspect of Ksatriya's characteristics.

The other important aspect is apalāyanam -- Not fleeting.
After listening patiently to all his complains Bhagavān said to Arjun,"no matter whatever may be the cause but you can not flee the battle ground.

hato vā prāpsyasi swargaṁ jitvā vā bhokṣhyase mahīm
tasmād uttiṣhṭha kaunteya yuddhāya kṛita-niśhchayaḥ
If you fight, you will either be slain on the battlefield and go to the celestial abodes, or you will gain victory and enjoy the kingdom on earth. Therefore arise with determination, O son of Kunti, and be prepared to fight.

An episode from Mahabharat--
Virata's son Uttar wanted to flee the battle ground when Kauravas attacked him. This happened during the one year incognito exile of pāṇḍavas where in Arjun was disguised as Brihannala, the dance and music teacher of Uttara, the daughter of Matsya king Virata. During this war Arjun in the guise of Brihannala charioteered Uttar. Seeing all the brave Kaurava warriors, Uttar wanted to runaway from the battle field. At that point Arjun gave him the courage to fight and solicited him not to abandon the battle field. In that war although Arjun was only the charioteer but practically fought the war from behind keeping Uttar in his front. He almost fought single handedly with all the Maharathis of Kauravas and defeated them. Sri Krishna was also not present by his side to guide him.
One can well imagine his valor. He never lamented or felt discouraged. He was the mightiest warrior of his time and did his karma accordingly.
The next important characteristics of Ksatriya is-- Danam means charity. One can do charity only if one is large hearted.

In the 17 th chapter 20th sloka Bhagavān has said---
dātavyam iti yad dānaṁ dīyate ‘nupakāriṇe
deśhe kāle cha pātre cha tad dānaṁ sāttvikaṁ smṛitam

Charity given to a worthy person simply because it is right to give, without consideration of anything in return, at the proper time and in the proper place, is stated to be in the mode of goodness.

In olden days charity was a part of karma. The great kings used to view charity as one of their functions and they performed it meticulously. They did it as their dharma and not with any expectation unlike present days.
The ancient temples like Somanath temple, Padmanabhaswamy temple have huge treasures. All these were donated by great people like Ahilya Bai Volker and other eminent kings. 
In south the Chholas, the Kakatiyas, the Vijayanagar empire donated huge amounts in the form of gold and money to the temples. 
Another aspect of the characters of Ksatriya's is "īśhvara-bhāva". They ensure that everybody in their kingdom stay safe. 

In the next sloka Sri Krishna describes the qualities of Sudras.
 

By fulfilling one's own duty, born of his innate qualities, human being can attain perfection.
Abhiratah  means fulfilling or remaining devoted.
Remaining devoted to his karma is a way of worshiping Paramātmā.
"Work is worship"-- This concept Bhagavān has emphatically spelt out in many previous slokas. Again in this sloka HE is reiterating the same.
Such people  who constantly pursue their own duties never envying others attain perfection("sansiddhiṁ labhate").
This is karma-yoga and karma-yogis will achieve same amount of perfection in God realisation as the bhakti-yogis or jnana-yogis achieve. They will have similar accomplishments.

Paramātmā who is the creator of the entire universe also pervades the entire universe. The concept that Paramātmā pervades all of us in HIS unmanifested form is little difficult to comprehend. Although some of us do comprehend and understand but it is difficult to explain the concept to the children. While explaining the children we simply say Bhagavān stays up in the space. 
It is not that Paramātmā created this universe and then remained separate from us in HIS own abode-- Vaikuntha in space. HE is not separated from us. HE pervades all of us.
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam -- by whom all this is pervaded.
By performing one's own natural occupation, one worships the creator who is everywhere. We all come into being from HIM. By  performance of our own work, we can easily attain HIM.


Let us understand it with an example. When we worship Bhagavān in the form of a deity in our puja room, we offer HIM with the best fruits and Prasad which we cook for HIM with lots of love and care.Then when the same Bhagavān is present everywhere all around us although we cannot see HIM, we should also offer HIM our best deeds or karma.
sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarchya means "worshiping through one's natural occupation".

There is no prescribed time limit for worshiping Bhagavān. What should be the ideal time for which we should worship? May be for 1 hour, 2 hours or three hours. Sri Krishna says one can worship ME, 24 hours by offering his own karma or deeds.
As we offer fruits and flowers to the deities so also we should offer our karma to HIM. That will become the cause for our upliftment. 
When we are offering flowers and fruits our hands automatically pick up the best flowers and fruits and we offer those to our deity. Similarly when we are offering our karma, we should offer the best of our karmas to HIM.
If we do some bad karmas we can not offer those to Bhagavān. Thus slowly we will be restrained from doing wrong deeds.
Automatically we will try and perform all our works to the best of our knowledge. Then slowly tendency to get detached from the fruits of the deeds or action will develop within us.
Practical utility of this sloka--
Now a days very often we find children uttering the words that they are getting bored. Then if we attract their attention to this sloka, they will get rejuvenated and start taking interest again in their work as  they start considering it as an offering to Paramātmā.
Even we the elders many times feel demotivated to work. At that time we can remind ourselves of this sloka and we will get the right energy and enthusiasm to work.

The Pasaydan is a prayer by Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj which is found in the final chapters of Dnyaneshwari. The opening verses are--

Which means--

It asks the Divine to bless all beings with joy and foster friendship among all living creatures.

It is better to do one’s own dharma, even though imperfectly, than to do another’s dharma, perfectly. By doing one’s innate duties, a person does not incur sin.
Dharma here means karma or duties.
One always feels that the other person's work is better. One feels the other person works less for his fat salary or he does not have to sit for long hours in front of the computer, so on and so forth.
The complains are endless.The neighbour's garden always looks greener.
We all have the habit of finding faults with our own conditions.
Sweets served in the plates of the person sitting next appears bigger and sweeter.
We have to develop the habit to shun such thoughts. Instead we should always think that my karma(svadharma) is good for me and I need not dare to do other's work.
When we do our svadharma (prescribed occupational duties), there is a two-fold advantage.
1.It is in tune with our disposition. Hence, it is as natural to our personality as flying is to a bird and swimming is to a fish. 
2. Since it is comfortable to the mind, it can almost be done involuntarily, and the consciousness becomes free to be engaged in devotion.
An Example--

A wealthy person had an aquarium in his house. He saw others upgrading their belongings. He also thought as he is wealthy and can afford, he should also upgrade his aquarium. He being an wealthy person, if he has to go for an upgradation of his aquarium, then he should feel it either with milk which is a costly material than water or even with ghee which is still costlier. He did accordingly. Then results were obviously disastrous.
One should not do any thing by seeing others. One should restrict himself to whatever suits to his condition.
Similarly the duties which is ours, we should restrict ourselves only to that and not go for other's occupation even if it appears more alluring.

Here Sri Krishna explains the same with examples.
Sri Krishna says even if there are some defects in your Svadharma, even then do not relinquish it. This is because pursuing your own profession is any day better than adopting other's profession.
From far everything looks nice and green. Only when you go near  that means you start doing the new job you know its downside.
HE gives the beautiful example of fire and smoke. To start with fire is always veiled by smoke (dhūmenāgnir ivāvṛitāḥ).
Similarly your duties may have some flaws initially.

Example of Vir Savarkar--
The glaring examples are our freedom fighters. Their jobs were not easy. They had mountains of troubles stored in them.
But the freedom fighters stood steadfast in their duties. They had the option of deserting the operation but they never did that.
Vir Savarkar was offered lucrative jobs in England by the Britishers but he never accepted them and stuck to his Svadharma of working for the freedom of his motherland.
The path he chose for himself was fraught with difficulties. Proceeding in that path, he had to undergo rigorous jail term, fight battles in the court against Britishers. Despite severe difficulties he stuck to his own karma and did not abandon it.

Sri Krishna tells us in the next sloka  how  one should do his own karma.

One should do his duty remaining unattached (asakta-buddhiḥ).
Our intellect should remain unattached to material results.
Normally we always get attached to something or the other-- either to the environment around, or an ideology, or to people around. Bhagavān says remain unattached everywhere (sarvatra). By remaining unattached one can perform better. Focus on the work will remain steady.

• vigata-spṛihaḥ -- free from desires
• naiṣhkarmya-siddhiṁ -- state of action lessness
• paramāṁ -- highest
• sannyāsen ādhigachchhati -- attain by the practice of renunciation

One can remain unattached only when one is free from desires (vigata-spṛihaḥ)by controlling his senses.

There are four categories of people residing in this earth.

• 1. They need to do work but they do not do any work. They are nowhere close to jnana and bhakti but still they do not make any efforts to acquire these traits.
• 2. They need to do work and they do their work meticulously. They try to acquire knowledge by reading scriptures and doing other spiritual activities.
• 3. People who have already done their duties and have had received knowledge and hence do not do work any more.
• 4. They are the people who have acquired highest knowledge. They have nothing more left to achieve or receive. They need not work any longer. But still they continue pursuing their activities for the betterment of the society. They work for the benefit of others. They uplift the downtrodden people.

This 4th category of people are Mahatmas who still do their work by remaining in an actionless state (naiṣhkarmya-siddhiṁ).
They are the people whose intellect is unattached everywhere, who have mastered the mind, and are free from desires by the practice of renunciation and they attain the highest perfection of freedom from action.

Some of the examples of such people who worked relentlessly for the society are--

• Param Pujya Gurudev Sri Govinda Giri Maharaj 
• Samarth Ramdas Swamy

This state can be reached even amidst the flow of the world by detaching ourselves from events and outcomes, and simply focusing on doing our duty.

Sri Krishna has demonstrated this to us through HIS own life's activities. Throughout HIS life HE remained engaged in work although it was absolutely not necessary for HIM to do. 

HE has explained the same in the sloka 22 of chapter 3--The Karma-Yoga.
na me pārthāsti kartavyaṁ triṣhu lokeṣhu kiñchana
nānavāptam avāptavyaṁ varta eva cha karmaṇi 3.22
Next HE explains what happens thereafter.

Once Siddhi is attained what happens thereafter is explained.
Thereafter one attains Brahmā-Tattva or  Paramātmā Himself.
Sri Krishna has explained to us systematically step by step---

• what is karma
• How the karma should be done
• How to remain unattached to the karma
• Not only doing the karma but doing it selflessly, for the benefit of others.

The purpose of understanding the whole process of karma results in the purification of the mind.
Now HE explains the result of all these--
One, who has attained perfection (of cessation of actions), can also attain Brahmān by being firmly fixed in transcendental knowledge.

The internal state become pure and clean-- Chitta-Suddhi. It becomes transparent and completely desireless. From here one goes to one eternal state of blissfulness and that is the Brahmā-Tattva.

Questions and Answers

Srinivas ji
Q: What is the meaning of  'samāsenaiva kaunteya' and  'niṣhṭhā jñānasya yā parā'
A: 'samāsenaiva' means briefly or in short. Here Sri Krishna is summarising what all HE had said before.

'niṣhṭhā jñānasya yā parā' means -- One can also attain Brahmān by being firmly fixed in transcendental knowledge.After explaining what is karma and how it should be done Sri Krishna further states what happens when one reaches the action less state (naiṣhkarmya-siddhiṁ). One then attains Brahma-Tattva.