Daily Shlokas: Nov. 30, 2015

Bg 2.38

sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau
tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi

Translation:

38. Having made --- pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat --- the same, engage in battle for the sake of battle; thus you shall not incur sin.

Commentary Excerpts:

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Sources: vedabase.com;  The Holy Geeta