Studying the Bhagavad Gita
by Alex Rau
I recently wrote a letter to a friend in which I made reference once again to the Bhagavad Gita. My apologies to my friend while I borrow this reference.
Why this fascination with the Gita? It is a very ancient text, from a time far removed from our complex technological age. Indeed, the Mahabharata of which the Gita is but a small part, is one of the oldest literary & philosophical treatises extant in the world. And it’s message is as alive and fresh as if it were written for today’s times.
“No man ever rests a moment inactive. Every man is involuntarily urged to act by the qualities which spring from nature....(Therefore) perform the proper actions.....All actions performed other than as sacrifice unto God make the actor bound by the action. Abandon, then, all selfish motives, and in action perform thy duty for Him alone” (1)
Here above is a key. We are human and we are complex composite beings. We cannot cease to act. Does our heart stop beating because we tell it; can we decide not to breathe? No. That of which we are made acts whether we will it or not. But who is the master?
The avatar Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 7:24). This is the King James version. I checked two other translations, the word being given in one as “wealth” and “money” in the other. “Mammon” is of Aramaic origin, and according to Webster’s New Third International Dictionary, means “material wealth or possessions”, a definition that will serve our purpose here. I believe Jesus’ meaning had a broader application than just shekels and a new cloak. This mammon referred to encompasses not just the thing itself but the very desire for the thing. Our attachment to this material existence.
In his preface to Notes on the Bhagavad Gita (2), the distinguished Indian scholar, T. Subba Row makes mention of the ten or so names Arjuna is called by Krishna, one in particular being especially significant: “Nara”, which means simply - “man”. The explanation of this, he says, is that Arjuna stands as the symbol for all men, or rather, the real monad in man, and Krishna ( or “Christ-na” as H. P. Blavatsky variously puts it ), as the Logos or divine spirit or savior in man. Our choice as presented by Krishna or Christ is clear. Do we serve the divine Self, the Iswara within or do we follow the impulses of the material animal self, ever bound by our lower desires?
There is a seemingly valid argument which comes up here. So persuasive is it that during H. P. Blavatsky’s time as she reports in an article entitled The Dual Aspect of Wisdom (3) published September 1890 in her magazine Lucifer, the eminent Cardinal Newman of the Church of England was quoted as saying that a practical application of the doctrines presented by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount would mean utter ruin for his country in less than three weeks! Subba Row addresses this argument most ably by reminding us that Krishna says in the Gita that while not every person’s duty as a citizen and family member allows him or her to lead an ascetic life, it is the mental renunciation of desire which is far more powerful in changing ones life than any physical withdrawal from the world. The most wretched and solitary hermit in his cave can still be bound in thought to what he has left behind. We all must do our duty - whether it be washing the temple steps or caring for our family. It is how we do that duty that matters - where is our heart?
There is another biblical reference that I believe has application here. Jesus says “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s” (Matthew 23:21). He was holding a Roman coin stamped with Caesar’s profile, the immediate interpretation being give your due to the system for the material largesse received from or through it, but give your allegiance to God. By “paying our karmic taxes”, so to say, we are doing our duty by that which is the material aspect of us. We give back in kind that which we take. We do not deny the physical nature and its qualities. These qualities which Krishna speaks of springing from nature urging us into action are inherent to these bodies in which we work. But do we use them for the fulfillment of selfish desires or as an offering to the god within?
Some philosophies teach the world is illusion, that when perfection is reached, all of this will pass away. If this were so, then what of Gautama Buddha? He was a man who achieved perfection in a physical state and yet turned away from nirvana to show the rest of us the Way. Not until the body had reached the age of 80, did the celestial Buddha within Gautama enter nirvana, leaving behind the bodhisattva, the illuminated human, to teach for another two decades. (4)
The world is not illusion in the sense that is does not exist. It is transitory, a reflection of the One Ultimate Reality. That it is cyclical is evident in the duality we see around us: day-night, winter-summer, birth-death. When the Night of Brahma reigns, all is asleep in the heart of the One. As Brahma breaths out, day dawns and the universe comes into manifestation. For a time, it grows more and more material adding veil upon veil obscuring the core. At a pivotal point in man’s evolution, mind is awakened. No longer is he an unself-conscious animalistic being governed solely by the lower nature. Now he has choice. With his growing level of understanding comes accountability for his actions. Ultimately he must decide what is his true path.
This is the choice with which Arjuna is faced. In the epic, he stands upon a battlefield, family and kin arrayed on both sides. The symbology here is two-fold because the opposing army represents not only those close to Arjuna / Nara / Man, those who feel threatened by the newly striving spiritual aspirant, but also all those lower tendencies and desires which have been up till now a driving force in his material life. We see a similar teaching in the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:34 - “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.”
Though there will come a time for all of us when we must make the “final” choice, all along the way our paths are made up of opportunities to perform right action. In chapter VI, Devotion by Means of Self-Restraint, Krishna tells Arjuna: “He should raise the self by the Self; let him not suffer the Self to be lowered; for the Self is the friend of self, and in like manner, self is its own enemy.” The meaning of this is that we may look to our inner divinity for guidance, not expecting it to lower itself to our level, but always striving to reach it by selfless aspiration. And understanding that the very nature of the lower self is such that it will work to drag us down further into materiality.
Arjuna asks Krishna what happens to the person who tries to live a good life but because of his weakness wanders from the discipline. Krishna answers that no good is ever lost. The person will eventually be born again in circumstances where he or she will become reacquainted with the knowledge had before, and so the striving begins again until perfection is attained.
Quoting William Q. Judge in his “Essays on the Gita” (1a) :
“When we ( begin to ) feel that there is no separation between us and any other creature, and that our higher self is leading us through all the experiences of life to the end that we shall recognize the unity of all, then, instead of continually acting contrary to that aspect of the higher self, we try to acquire the right belief and aspiration. Nor need we be deterred, as some are, by the extreme difficulty of eliminating the selfish desire for progress. That will be the task during many lives, and we should begin it voluntarily as soon as it is known, instead of waiting for it to be forced in upon us through suffering and many defeats.”
Notes to text.
1. Bhagavad Gita, chapter III, “Devotion Through the Right Performance of Action”, Recension by William Q. Judge, Combined with his (1a) Essays on the Gita. 1978, Theosophical University Press
2. Notes on the Bhagavad Gita, T. Subba Row, 2nd Ed., Theosophical University Press
3. Reprinted in Studies in Occultism, 1980, Theosophical University Press, Collected Writings Volume 12, 1980, Theosophical Publishing House & Theosophical Articles, Volume 2, 1981, Theosophy Company.
4. Fountain-Source of Occultism, G. de Purucker, 1974, Theosophical University Press