Chapter Five:
The Yog of Renunciation (Karm Sanyās Yog)
Two Paths Are One Path. AKA Having A Poo As An Act Of Devotion.
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts
(Bhagavad Gita).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the
Bhagavad Gita, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as
literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post https://bit.ly/2XAch2A
For the online Bhagavad Gita that I use, see here https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/
And now:
Karm
Sanyās Yog
“Arjun said: O
Shree Krishna, You praised karm
sanyās (the path of
renunciation of actions), and You also advised to do karm yog (work
with devotion). Please tell me decisively which of the two is more beneficial?”
I’m glad Arjun asked, because it was something that
I was wondering about in the last chapter, where Krishna was talking about a
meditative path, and also one where work is a sacred action. Last time I wasn’t
entirely sure if he was talking about the same thing in a confusing fashion,
but no, it’s good to see that there are the sanyās and yog pathways.
Ah, but hang on though, because Krishna
then says that “Only
the ignorant speak of sānkhya (renunciation of actions, or karm sanyās) and karm yog (work in devotion) as different. Those
who are truly learned say that by applying ourselves to any one of these paths,
we can achieve the results of both”.
The two paths achieve the same end, although Krishna
explains that, for most people, the Path of Renunciation can’t be achieved
until the mind is purified enough, for which the Path of Devotion is the best.
So, it’s kind of a mix and match, interweaving of the two options really. One
can, it seems, achieve “liberation from
the bonds of material energy” by following either path in isolation, but
there’s nothing wrong with using a bit of one or the other to help add to the
path you’re on.
We mostly get discussion of the karm yog, the Path of Devotion, and it sounds kind of Jedi-like – “The karm
yogis, who are of purified
intellect, and who control the mind and senses, see the Soul of all souls in
every living being. Though performing all kinds of actions, they are never
entangled”. Entangled in the material world, that is (I think it’s possibly
a wonky translation at that point).
Because the yogi
is focussing on God while doing everything including the amusingly
comprehensive list of “seeing, hearing,
touching, smelling, moving, sleeping, breathing, speaking, excreting, and
grasping, and opening or closing the eyes” (yes, you can even take a dump
in a sacred fashion), they lose a sense of self as the doer, and become closer
to the Mind of God. But, interestingly, God is not the doer of the actions
either – “Neither the sense of doership
nor the nature of actions comes from God; nor does He create the fruits of
actions. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature (guṇas)”.
It’s a more psychological effect, couched in terms
of freeing oneself from sin by the light of God (sounds Christian again,
doesn’t it?), but actually more to do with becoming grounded within oneself,
giving up the distractions of material existence and becoming aware of the
divine nature within all things.
Meanwhile, there are a few lines about the karm sanyās at the very end. The practitioners of
this basically free their mind through meditative techniques, and we get a good
description of the breathing exercises – “Shutting
out all thoughts of external enjoyment, with the gaze fixed on the space
between the eye-brows, equalizing the flow of the incoming and outgoing breath
in the nostrils, and thus controlling the senses, mind, and intellect, the sage
who becomes free from desire and fear, always lives in freedom”. Having
done yoga, and having always ended the session in the shavasana or Corpse Pose, this pure focus on breathing and leaving
the body behind is very calming.
I haven’t, I must admit, come to the realisation
that Krishna gives in the final verse – “Having
realized Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord
of all the worlds and the selfless Friend of all living beings, My devotee
attains peace”.
But then, I’m not dedicating my work to God, so I
suppose I wouldn’t see it that way. There’s some interesting cognitive
psychology going on here, though, and I hope to see some more details of the
two paths (which are really one path).
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