From this stanza onwards we have a slight hint about the technique of Karma Yoga as explained in the Geeta. In the introduction we have stated that the second chapter is almost a summary of the whole Geeta; later on, we shall see how the Path of Devotion also is, in brief, indicated in this very chapter.
In this stanza we have Krishna’s first direct statement on the technique of Self-Perfection and, as such, a very careful study of it will be extremely fruitful to all students of the Geeta.
The three pairs of opposites mentioned here are distinct experiences at the three levels of our mortal existence. PAIN AND PLEASURE are the “intellectual” awareness of experiences unfavourable and favourable; GAIN AND LOSS conceptions indicate the “mental” zone where we feel the joys of meeting and the sorrows of parting; and CONQUEST AND DEFEAT indicate the “physical” fields wherein at the level of the body, we ourselves win or let others win. The advice that Krishna gives is that one must learn to keep oneself in equilibrium in all these different vicissitudes at the respective levels of existence.
If one were to enter the sea for a bath, one must know the art of sea-bathing or else the incessant waves will play rough on the person, and may even sweep him off his feet and drag him to a watery grave. But he who knows the art of saving himself — by ducking beneath the mighty waves, or by riding over the lesser ones — he alone can enjoy a sea-bath. To hope all the waves to end, or to expect the waves not to trouble one while one is in the sea is to order the sea to be something other than itself for one’s convenience! This is exactly what a foolish man does in life. He expects life to be without waves — but life is ever full of waves. Pain and pleasure, gain and loss, conquest and defeat must arise in the waters of life or else it is complete stagnation — it is almost death.
If life be thus a tossing stormy sea at all times, and it should be so, then we, who have entered life, must know the art of living it, unaffected either by the rising crests, or by the sinking hollows in it. To identify ourselves with any of them is to be tossed about on the surface, and not to stand astride like a light-house, which has its foundations built on the bed-rock of the very sea. Here Krishna advises Arjuna, while inviting him to fight, that he should enter the contest and keep himself unaffected by the usual dissipasting mental tendencies that come to everyone, while in activity. This equanimity of the mind alone can bring out the beam of inspiration, and give to one’s achievements the glow of a real success.
It is very well-known that in all activities, inspired work gathers to itself a texture of divine perfection which cannot be imitated or oft-repeated. Be he a poet, or an artist, a doctor or a speaker, irrespective of his profession, whenever an individual is at his best, his master-piece is always accepted by all as a ‘work of inspiration.’ When we thus work with the thrilled ecstasy of an unknown mood called ‘inspiration,’ the ideas, thoughts and activity that come out of us have a ringing beauty of their own, which cannot be otherwise mechanically repeated by us. Thus, Da Vinci could not repeat for a second time and copy on another piece of canvas the enigmatic smile of his Mona Lisa; Keats’ pen could no more re-capture for a second time the song of the Nightingale in its flight; Beethoven could never again beat out of his faithful piano a second Moonlight Sonata; Lord Krishna himself, after the war, when requested by Arjuna to repeat the Geeta, admitted his inability to do so!!
To the Western mind and understanding, ‘inspiration’ is an accidental and mysterious happening over which the mortal has no control at all, while to the eastern Rishis, inspired living is the real godly destiny of man, when he lives in perfect unison with the Self within him. A balanced life, wherein we live as unaffected witnesses of even our own mind and intellect, is the realm of self-forgetfulness, where, instead of becoming inefficient, our profession gathers the scintillating glow of a new dawn. This extra aura in any achievement is that which raises an ordinary success to an ‘inspired achievement. ‘
The Yogis of ancient Hindu-lore discovered a technique, whereby the mind and intellect could be consciously brought to a steadiness and poise, and this technique is called Yoga. The Hindus of the Vedic period knew it, practised it, lived it; and with their incomparable achievements, they provided, for their country, the golden era of the Hindus.
The philosophy of a country like India, in the Vedic period, must necessarily be Theistic, but it has its applications in all walks of life. If it fails in its all-round application, it cannot be a philosophy. A theory of life which has no universal application, can at best, be appreciated as the noble opinion of an individual, which may have its own limited application, but it can never be accepted as a philosophy.
In the entire scheme of Bhagawan’s arguments so far, he has provided Arjuna with all the necessary reasons which a healthy intellect should discover for itself, before it comes to a reliable and dependable judgement upon the outer happenings. A mere spiritual consideration should not be the last word in the evaluation of all material situations. Every challenge should be estimated from the spiritual stand-point, as well as from the intellectual stand-point of reason, from the emotional level of ethics and morality, and from the physical level of tradition and custom. If all these considerations, without any contradiction, indicate a solitary truth, then that is surely the Divine Path that one should, at all costs, pursue.
Arjuna came to the delusory mis-calculation of the situation because he evaluated the war only from the level of his sentiments. The opposing forces were teeming with his own relations and to kill and exterminate them was indeed against the ethical point-of-view. But, this emotionalism overpowered him, and at this moment of his total inward chaos, he completely lost sight of the other considerations that would have helped him to regain his balance. He surrendered, as a mind should, to Krishna, the inner discriminative capacity. Therefore, the Lord, having undertaken to guide Arjuna, provides him with all the available data gathered from different points of view. Throughout the Geeta, Krishna plays the part of the “discriminative intellect” in an individual, a true charioteer in the Upanishad-sense of the term.
After thus placing all the possible points of view upon the problem — the spiritual, the intellectual, the ethical and the traditional for Arjuna’s consideration — Krishna concludes in the earlier stanza that Arjuna must fight. In this stanza Krishna tries to explain how he should conduct himself in this undertaking. It has been said that he should fight the war with perfect detachment from all anxieties which generally come to an individual, when he identifies himself with the non-Self (Anatma) — at the level of his intellect with the concept of pain and pleasure, at the level of his mind with the fears of gain and loss and at his body-level with the restlessness of conquest and defeat.
Equanimity in all such mental challenges is a factor that ensures true success in life. We have explained earlier how the human mind is to be kept open, while working in its given field of life, so that, while living in the midst of life’s battle, it can exhaust the vasanas that are already in it. This purgation — catharsis of the Soul — is the compelling purpose for which every living creature has arrived on the platform of manifested life. Viewed thus, each individual living creature — plant, animal or man — is but a bundle of vasanas.
The equanimity in the face of all situations, advised here, is the secret method of keeping the mind ever open for its outflow. When it gets clouded by the ego-sense and the egoistic desires, then the out-flow is choked, and new tendencies start flooding in. The ego is born when an individual starts getting upset at all these pairs-of-opposites (Dwandwas) such as joy and sorrow, etc. The attempt to keep equanimous is successful, only if action is detached from the ego. Thus, mental purification — vasana-catharsis — is the benign result of real living and right action: and this is Yoga. This is explained, in the next chapter of the Geeta, in all detail as Karma Yoga.
The philosophical theory of truth was described in the very opening of the Lord’s message, and, in order to drive home those conclusions into the practical-mind of a man-of-action, Arjuna, Lord Krishna gave arguments from the stand-point of the common man. Ultimately, he concluded that Arjuna must fight and explained in what attitude he should fight. Practical religion consists in living the philosophy one has understood.
HEREAFTER, THE SCHEME OF THE GEETA IN THE CHAPTER IS TO EXPLAIN THE TECHNIQUES OF LIVING THE VEDANTIC PHILOSOPHY, IN AND THROUGH KARMA YOGA. HENCE SAYS THE LORD:
