Gita series – part 23. Bhagavad Gita Chapter II - Verses– 46 and 47:
Krishna continues. “When large water bodies are flooded, there is no use of small water bodies like wells. In the same way for the one who has realized the Brahman, Vedas are of no purpose to him. You are merely entitled to perform your duties and not to the results arising out of such actions. Neither consider yourself responsible for the fruits of your karmas nor allow yourself to the attachment of inactivity” (verses 46 and 47). The Upanishads stress importance to the realization of the Brahman. Each Upanishad follows different paths to reach the single destination. Once the destination is reached, we do not bother about the path through which we have traversed to reach the destination. In the same way, for those who have realized the Brahman, Vedas do not mean anything. Knowledge of Vedas and other scriptures are necessary to realize the Brahman. Though none of these could describe the Brahman, at least they help us to know what Brahman is not by means of any descriptive analysis, but by means of negation and affirmation theories.
But unfortunately scriptures provide too many forms of gods and goddesses making ritual worship meaningless. Jesus stresses the importance of knowing the Brahman. ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you’ (Mathew 6.33). In fact Jesus says that our primary task is to realize God and His auspicious qualities. Realising the Brahman has to be necessarily the ultimate goal in one’s life. Due to the deceptive interpretations of Vedas, the ignorant fail to notice the subtle message they convey. Realizing the Brahman is nothing but p process of merging individual consciousness with the cosmic consciousness. Krishna says once this is achieved, nothing else has any value to such a person. When major water bodies like rivers and lakes are filled with flood water, who will go to a well for fetching water? When the ultimate is realized, there is no necessity for Vedas, Upanishads, blogs like manblunder, etc. Krishna advises that one has the right perform actions (karmas) and not to the results accruing out of such actions. In fact no one should claim the fruits arising out of actions. Pain and misery arise only because of our ignorance in claiming the fruits of karmas. The root cause of karmas is the soul. It is the soul or purusha that induces the mind through the sensory organs to perform karmas. We have on several occasions found that law of the Lord is law of karma. Unless and until the mind is trained and refined to consider that the results of actions do not belong either to the body or to the soul and that the actions are performed by the will of God, the soul continues to suffer from karmic accretions.
The non-performance of an action also is against the will of God. Ego is mainly responsible in making a person not to perform an action, which he ought to have performed. The situation can be compared to the duties of a public servant. The public servant has been appointed by the government to perform certain actions and if he fails to do so, he is punished. If he discharges his duties in an excellent way, he cannot claim credit and the credit should go to the government. Same is the situation in man-God relationship. God has destined a person to perform certain action and if the action has not been performed, it tantamount to disobeying God’s command, like a public servant disobeying orders of the government. In both these cases there will be punishment. It is to be understood that whatever action we are supposed to do is always the will of God. At the height of ignorance, we seek material gains and prosperity for the actions done by us at the instance of God. When you are destined to feed a street dog today, you will be made to feed the dog. You cannot assume that by feeding the dog, your karmas will go away. In this case you were merely an instrument in carrying out the orders of God. How then you can claim the beneficial results of feeding a hungry dog. In our life we can always observe that we do not get what we desire and we blame our fate for this.
What one is destined to get, he will surely get it at the right time and right place. When we begin to realise the fact that both good and bad effects of an action do not belong to us, it is a clear indication that we are moving in the right direction. Ignorant can be broadly classified into two groups. The first group is always interested in earning money for his comforts without realising the fact that at the time of death the wealth does not accompany him. The second group functions under the deceptive interpretation of Vedas. They go with external rituals and perform such rituals with ego, pomp and vanity. Though God is willing to have a look at this man, the doer does not become eligible to get final liberation. This is because of his ego and self-esteem. The realised person does not differentiate between him and God. He is fully aware of the fact that whatever actions he performs are at the will of God and as such the fruits of actions do not belong to him. When one wants to satisfy his ill-founded ego, he will never have spiritual freedom.
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November 20, 2024 09:11 AM
Thank you for explaining it beautifully!!