The Bhagavad Gita: The Path of Nonattached Action

On the field of Dharma

on the firld of kuru

assembled together

desiring to fight

were my armies

and indeed those

of bthe pandu-

how did they act o Sanjaya? 1.1 (seed mantra)

"The Lord's Great Love Song"

POWER POINT LINK

Key Points

• SYNTHETIC & REVOLUTIONARY TEXT
• Philosophical Foundations of Hindu Philosophy
• Hard to put a firm date but about 400-100 BC
• Elitism of Yoga at the time from Brahminical Traditions & for men at the time of its writing
• Ascetics rather than lay people were capable of enlightenment. 
• No place for “householders” BEFORE the Baghavad Gita
• Opens up enlightenment to all
• Harmonizes all of the yogic paths
• Harmonizes many philosophies, jnana, advaita, Upanishads, etc.
• KRISHNA is imparting the GITA…not just about personal consciousness.
• REVOLUTIONARY TEXTS as it opens up many approaches to yoga---no intermediary needed now…PERSONAL & DIRECT & SIMPLE (no clergy needed, no complexity in this path) DEPARTURE FROM EARLIER TRADITIONS
• Clear and unambiguous descriptions of YOGA
• 2^nd chapter: evenness (equanimity) sanmatyam yoga ucyate “yoga is evenness” 
• skill in action (practical & quotidian) yogah karmasu kausalam 
• dhuhka sam yoga viyogam: “the separation from contact with pain”--trascendence
• 3 approaches
• JNANA YOGA “Yoga of knowledge” through teachings and direct experince
• KARMA YOGA “the approach of action toward development”
• BHAKTI YOGA “human emotion as a means of transcendence”
• Context
• Part of the Mahabharata—great epic with the Pandavas & Karunas probably actual events historically 800-600 BC. 
• Gita given in the context of this great battle between good & evil & life & death---meant to be applicable in day to day situations as well as a SYMBOLIC way as a deeper dialogue
• Krishna (divinity/Self) and Arjuna (common man)---dialogue any of us ca have with our higher consciousness (INTERNAL) as well as between guru and disciple (EXTERNAL) .
• Narrated by a minister (Samjaya) to a BLIND KING: symbolic of spiritual blindness—shows the QUALITIES that a person needs to HEAR (vision one needs to perceive).
• BATTLEFIELD (field of Dharma)…where right and wrong are decided. 
• Arjuna is asked to move his chariot where he can see (between the two armies) who he has to kill and they are people that he loves.
• About to act
• His moment of choice—symbolism…internal battle between higher understanding and lower tendencies that Arjuna has to face as well. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL dilemmas.
• What is he going to do…THIS IS ARJUNA”S DILIEMA…crisis…it is in a time of crisis that we are tested, that learning really happens.
• Argument: battle between two things that are right: dharma & ahimsa (nonviolence). Not all decisions are Black & White. Two things can be right. 
• ARJUNA REFUSES TO FIGHT: not what a warrior does…what is Krishna’s teaching technique? How does Arjuna find his way to enlightenment?
• Chapter2: You must fight! It is your duty (sva-dharma) but Arjuna repeats his dilemma.
• Arjuna now says…YOU TEACH ME…now the teachings can begin…UPANISHADIC LEARNING,,,need to be ready. (How and when are we ready to relate to our higher wisdom)?
• Chapter 2 has ALL THE TEACHINGS that will be developed in the rest of the chapters
• CHAPTER 2:
• The Self…is the first teaching by Krishna. The solution is only found by taking a higher perspective. (IMPORTANT IN YOGA…SEEK the SELF first). Lesser commentators start with the lowest and build up slowly…in other texts.
• Shankara: in a prison, how would you improve things? The only solution is to find the key…not improve the prison. The answer to the human condition is to find the higher self.
• All the wisdom we seek is already within us
• Krishna laughs…because from his perspective, there is humor. 2:11now you are grieving for nothing…but you are not wise…2:12 the SELF is eternal, you are dealing with the relative, there will never be time when we do not exist. 2:13, there is death, but there is reincarnation. A wise person remembers the truth always. 2:14…realm of the senses provides experiences which ate pleasurable & and painful. 2:15 a wise person can rise above the realm of the senses. CORE OF GITA.
• Your conflict is about KILLING 2:17, but the consciousness is indestructible, so you cannot kill 2:18…he who imagines that he is killing or being killed, neither understands the truth of the matter. DOES THIS MEAN THE GITA EXTOLS KILLING?
• Can we do anything that we want? (debate)
• Is VIOLENCE okay? (debate)
• Krishna is trying to CHANGE ARJUNA’S PERSPECTIVE first and foremost so that Arjuna can make a correct decision. But, in the context of the epic, Arjuna must fight to eliminate evil. You can only face the most difficult questions from the HIGHEST possible place (SELF) then act.
• Ghandi: when you attain the state of consciousness…try to be violent! Ghandi thought that it was impossible.
• Krishna says that violence may be possible to attain a higher cause, but only if moved from the QUIET OF INNER WISDOM (not passion)
• 2:39: criticizes rituals of the UPANISHADS (rituals) without any knowledge of the self. The FRUIT OF THESE IS ALWAYS RELATIVE. Vedic rituals are without knowledge of the SELF (among others). Through intuition you can free yourself from the “bonds of Karma (action-rituals).”
• Even a little bit of this “yoga” protects you from great danger
• Directions one can go in are endless 2:42…without knowledge of the self, all these PATHS 2:44 they never achieve that deep insight of meditation. ALL PATHS pursued without wisdom are less than truth.
• 2:45—all the earlier traditions are about the 3 gunas…you have to be without (beyond) these 3 gunas (physical universe)
• raja (light), tamas (dark), satva (balanced)
• as long as we move in the realm of action we can not escape the three gunas (consequences) 
• “be without the 3 gunas”---HOW?
• Learning right action, discriminative wisdom and love in our hearts…that is what the rest of the Gita elaborates.
• KARMA (How do you handle action)? What we do defines us and action is UNAVOIDABLE “inaction is action”.
• Mind & body are bursting with action…tremendous energy of mind, body, emotions…what do we do with all of that? In that place beyond the three gunas we are free of this.
• Chapter 2:47: Your concern is with actions, not with their fruits.” “Never act just driven by the fruits of actions & never be driven by inaction” DETACHED ACTIONS- un-impassioned. CAN WE DO THIS???? (in another part of the Gita we are supposed to be concerned with the welfare of the world). TOTAL uncaring is inhuman…so, what is he saying? Your competence (authority) is the actions themselves, BUT NOT THE RESULTS. 
• 2:48: “being established in YOGA, perform your actions” Look to act from the highest perspective. “after giving up attachment to results.” STAY CENTERED (yogastam)
• jnana then ties in with karma & bhakti
• Chapter 9 (bhakti): 
• The whole universe is created by me and all beings are created by me…look at this power) Put your heart into it. Love is not just an EMOTION but a condition where we experience ONENESS with someone or something else. Why should this love not be expanded to everything (what I have created)?
• 9:20-21: There are people who are only interested in a religious life without an understanding of the SELF.
• 9:22: With devotion (total) all is attained, not with religiosity.
• Yoga is the skill to use all of our facilities to attain the higher self.
• Chapter 12:
• 12:1: Arjuna asks about all this: So some worship you with devotion and some their internal self (mediation), which is best?
• 12:2: those who have devotion are most with me, 12:3-4: those that meditate also, 12:5, but those that seek the impersonal take much more effort. (THAT MEDITAION SHIT IS HARD!) Devotion is the quick way (kundalini) How can one with a FORM (embodied) relate to the formless?
• Chapter 18: Arjuna gets it!
• Now my confusion is gone! Now my doubts are gone and I will do what you say. The Gita is Arjunas learning process. We can view the repetition in this light!

One acts according to one's own nature,

even a person of knowledge.

for beings

follow their nature--

what shall repression accomplish? 3.33

better is one's own dharma

even if imperfect

than another's dharma

followed perfectly

better is death in following

ones own dharma

for anothers dharma brings danger 3.3