Chapter 4

(Revision 01 Jan 25 09)
BHAGAVAD GITA
CHAPTER 04
4. 7-8 when good is affected adversely, and evil on the rise, I create myself. For the protection of good people,for the destruction of the evildoers,to establish good I happen from time to time.
PURPORT:
A literal interpretation of this will have us believe that Lord Krishna or God of your choice or religion will be born. The spirit of the verse shows and confirms the actual happening in the world.
HE or SHE or The POWER or NATURE invariably has been all the time relieving the miseries of the people in general, but of poor, simple, distressed, oppressed, & worse affected ones. Look at the Lord's mercies.
when all round distribution of knowledge was required, Gutenberg(1st printing press), Caxton(1st Bible), books for all, all scriptures available in books, on net to boot, on blogs on Wikipedia. Now no one can monopolize, hide knowledge. No Guru can say I alone know. TV channels keep beaming scriptures.
150-200yrs ago only the kings had sofa sets; but did not have ice creams, no refrigerator, no cycle, no car,no air conditioner for the Kings. Today a labourer travels by air, has A/C room, eats best of ice cream
60yrs ago we were at the mercy of post office for phone calls, today any labourer can make a conference call to four countries at zero notice.
From dusty sandy floors touring talkies, today in your drawing room, any number of films on CD
Look at the plight of the distressed ladies generally. confined to kitchen, to cowshed, often wet firewood for cooking, cow dung coated flooring, 6-10 children, living amidst large family, hardly any entertainment, could never sit in any assembly, could never mix with male crowd, could not be educated - look at them now. What super positions they occupy, and what they command in society, what power they wield as IGs, CEOs, PMs, Presidents. Males are often left only with moustache as symbol of non existing power.
All big bulls have been castrated by Power called Lord Time. Insolent & unwilling to part with knowledge of scriptures or music, such Gurus, Oppressive priests, worthless Trustees, Proud pujaries, the erstwhile kings, heavy weight Maharajas, Bigoted Brahmins who are blind even today,......such pride has bit the dust. Now all knowledge can be learnt easily and at home without much aid of Guru Maharaj; so are the scriptures, pujas, brahminical customs. Today even a slum dweller can have crores of turnover and can be a King in his area. Does not need a crown.
Look at all around you for such miracles taking place daily and you will see what the Lord meant, HE is there all the time doing these around us.

4.9 Know my divine birth and activities(including above), you will not be born again
4.10 Rid of passion, fear and anger,mind in me,depending on me, wisdom thru austerities, purified have come to me.
4.11 How men seek me, I too seek them. All follow my path
4.12 For success of their actions, men worship god. success follows quickly
PURPORT:
4.9-11 How to reach HIM; Mind always in Him, Intellect depends on Him always, when knowledge dawns with austerities, you reach Him
4.12 Understand the success quickly comes to all our desire filled actions, when we worship god indifferent forms.(so no need to be anxious about whether we will achieve fruits of our actions)
4.13 Four orders of society Lord created.
PURPORT:
Even today these orders exist in all countries although in different names. The intellectual, the warrior, the business and working class. This order can never be erased from society, since humans will all have ego to show we are different from and superior to others. So in that respect, foolish to imagine eradicating caste or class system, for it will be replaced by a similar system by different name.
4.14-18 what is action, what is non-action even the wise are confused on this.
The shlokas 19-23 clearly explain actions of a Jnani
4.19 whose all undertakings are free from desire and thoughts of the world, whose actions are burnt up by the fire of Jnan(Knowledge of Reality), he is called a Sage(Jnani) by wise.
4.20 Who has given up attachment to fruit of action, always contented, without dependence, does nothing even if he is engaged in action
4.21 Without desire, subduing his mind and body, given up all objects of enjoyment, bodily action of his does not incur sin(tie him to rebirth)
4.22 Contented with whatever got unsought, above pairs of opposites, free from jealousy,equanimous in success and failure, even if he works, does not get bound
4.23 Who is free from attachment, mind firmly established in Jnan(Knowledge of Reality), works for sacrifice, his actions melt away.
PURPORT:
Essentials for a Karmayogi:
Worldly thoughts and desire does not exist (one who is attached to body, believes the phenomenal world to be true)
Unattached to fruit of actions
Always contented,
Without dependence on the World
subduing his mind and body
given up objects of enjoyment
Mind deeply established in Knowledge of Reality
all works are only sacrifice
Fire of knowledge burns all actions
4.24 (such a karmayogi who is now a jnani) everything in the world is Brahman(God)
4.25-31 various forms of austerities and sacrifices in vogue
4.32 All sacrifices spoken of by Vedas, know they are born of actions, you shall be freed(from bondage)
4.33 Sacrifice thru knowledge is superior to sacrifice of materials, since all actions culminate in Knowledge.
All rituals like yajnas, service of the poor, to the nation, to animals etc have one goal. To come out of selfishness and purify the mind and pave way for Liberation from bondage and rebirth. All Rituals done with sincerity, and unselfishness purify the mind and prepare it for next stage of receiving Knowledge of Reality. Forever sticking to rituals as the ultimate goal is ignorance. A jnani can continue rituals for the sake of ignorant, himself remaining out of it. What we now see is that people are taken for a ride in the exotic names of various yajnas. These do fulfil the desires for which they were performed. However, the next step is not known, or thought impractical or not relevant. This the rituals like marriage, upanayanam, 60th shanti ceremonies, losing their noble intent, have become tamasic.
The 4.33 clearly states that Jnana Yajna is superior to all material yajans and yet the ignorance of lack of contemplation on such shlokas is such that we refuse to even acknowledge the truth of these shlokas, let alone practicing these. The Great Swami Chinmayananda of Sandeepani for over 4 decades conducted Jnanayajnas, where only jnana was focused upon and never on non essential marketing items like 20ft cutouts etc. In the coming decades, jnanayajnas when they focus on money earning marketing techniques, the jnana yajna becomes a ritual and the central purpose becomes unknown.
4.34 Understand that when you approach illumined souls, and to them serve, prostrate, enquire to learn, they will instruct you the Knowledge.
PURPORT: It looks to me all humility has taken shelter at the feet of Dalailama leaving not much for us. By and large we are prone to pride, haughtiness, insolence. Some exalted souls have a cantankerous nature. Our humility is often a mask.Our listening is blocked by our ego. We seem to show humility only when we are desperate and need immediate help.
Very difficult to get illumined souls and when we get them we wont recognise them or do not feel the need for them. Such is our fate. One rare earnest disciple of the high order seeks, he meets and will do all the right things to the Guru and gets the Knowledge of Reality.
4.35 Having once obtained this Knowledge, you will never be deluded. With that you will see the entire creation in you and then in Me.
PURPORT:
The beggar now having understood that he is the lost Prince or rich man's son, will never again go to beg. The tiger cub which had a false notion that it was a lamb, once realizes its true nature, never again returns to the lamb's life. A complete transformation, like waking up from the dream. Once you see yourself continuously as the nature of soul, you will see part, nay yourself the whole universe and in the Paramatman(oversoul). Test of this experience is a complete eradication of the reality of the phenomenal world, or a total silence of the mind which creatures this world.
4.36 Even though you are the worst sinner, with knowledge as raft will cross all the sins.
4.37 As the fire reduces the fuel to ash, the Fire called Knowledge reduces all actions to ash.
PURPORT:
All dreams vanish with the coming to a waking life. No youth worries about his childhood mistakes. No man once successful in life worries about his mistakes and failures of youth. Once the True nature is known, all fears, prejudices, attachments, complexes all of which are body related, vanish leaving no trace, like water in the mirage. Sins? what sins? ignorance of True nature, you will now say.
4.38 (Consequently)There is no purifier like Knowledge. With success in Karmayoga in due course, you yourself will experience this.
PURPORT:
In common parlance, Karmayoga is attributed to any and everyone. Esp when someone dies, even a smuggler once, obituary Photo caption was a Gita shloka on Karmayoga. Even in ordinary conversation people praise some rich donars as Karmayogi. To be a Karmayogi each of the 9 points enunciated in shlokas 19-23 (see above) must be fulfilled. In addition, a Karmayogi is always happy, never irritable, never anxious, never stressed, never tense, and is non different from a Jnani and Bhakta of the highest order. Naturally such a karmayogi in due course, find himself in no need to be in action(karma), since he has already drunk the phenomenal world.
4.39 The one who has unshakable faith, who is on IT, is in control of his senses, will attain to Knowledge, and then immediately to supreme peace.
PURPORT:
Complete Faith eliminates 'future' doubts. This is possible only when you surrender your intellect so that it does not play tricks with you later. When you are on IT, nothing else short of liberation you aspire. If the body mind and intellect exist, senses also drag us in various directions. Negation constantly of the body and the world of phenomenon, is the way to control senses. The peace is an outcome of total distancing from body and its desires. This peace is Supreme, for the transformation on account of dissolution of mind is final and irreversible.
4.40 The ignorant, devoid of faith, possessing doubts, is lost (spiritually). Neither this world for him, nor the other world, not even happiness for the doubting person.
4.41 One in Karmayoga dedicating his actions, whose doubts have torn to shreds by Knowledge, always immersed in Atma, actions do not bind him
4.42 Therefore with Knowledge destroy this doubt in your heart born of ignorance, be in Karmayoga and fight.
PURPORT:
The supreme importance of Total Faith is shown here by saying what happens to one who lacks faith and entertains doubts. He is trapped into cycle of birth and death, since he cannot come out of bondage of actions good or bad. The present system of education has forced us to doubt everything, especially very foundations of our culture, heritage, scriptures. The doubts are so powerfully entrenched, we refuse to even listen and judge for ourselves the Knowledge left by the great Maharshis.
Once we understand their legacy, we will be dumbstruck at their superhuman nay, divine tireless work, preservation for posterity, presentation and 'live-talks with us from that great antiquity.
Chosen few in this age, who are fortunate on whom the Goddess Saraswati smiled