Daily Shlokas: Dec.8, 2015

Bg 2.42

yām imāṁ puṣpitāṁ vācaṁ pravadanty avipaścitaḥ

veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥ

Bg 2.43

kāmātmānaḥ svarga-parā janma-karma-phala-pradām

kriyā-viśeṣa-bahulāṁ bhogaiśvarya-gatiṁ prati 

Bg 2.44

bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ tayāpahṛta-cetasām

vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ samādhau na vidhīyate    

Translation: 

42. Flowery speech is uttered by the unwise, taking pleasure in the eulogising words of VEDAS, O Partha, saying, "There is nothing else. "

43. Full of desires, having heaven as their goal, they utter flowery words, which promise new birth as the reward of their actions, and prescribe various specific actions for the attainment of pleasure and Lordship.

44. For, those who cling to joy and Lordship, whose minds are drawn away by such teaching, are neither determinate and resolute nor are they fit for steady meditation and SAMADHI.   

Commentary Excerpts:

Vyasa was one of the first daring revolutionaries in Hinduism who ever came up to win back the Hindu culture from the decadence it had fallen into, in his time. The Bible of the Revolution that he created was the Geeta.

His vigorous criticism is reflected in the words of Krishna when he characterises the ritualistic portion of the Vedas as "the flowery words of the unwise." We have to live mentally in the orthodox atmosphere of that age to appreciate the daring with which Vyasa then had put up this criticism so strongly.

The ritualistic sections of the Vedas address those who are deeply attached to pleasure and power, whose discriminative power --- the capacity to distinguish the Real from the Unreal --- is stolen away from them, for they are concerned about the results and rewards of Karma. They were involved in the ritualism as such; not concerned with the Higher, to reach which these are but the means.

These Karmas, which promised the performer a POST MORTEM heavenly existence, with supra-sensuous carnal pleasures, are to be undertaken and laboriously pursued. In all these activities man's inner personality has no time or chance to get integrated and evolved, and, therefore, from the spiritual stand-point, Vyasa feels that they are methods of impotent religion. The ritualist gets involved in the means, without aspiring for the Real Goal!

Thus, as an expounder of the TRANSCENDENTAL and the INFINITE, Krishna is here laughing at those who mistake the means for the end; the ritualistic portion is the means and the Vedantic portion dealing with realisation through meditation is the end. The Karma Kanda prepares the mind to a single-pointedness, when it is pursued without specific desires (Nishkama), and such a prepared mind alone is fit for steady contemplation over the Upanishadic declarations.

The passage is concluded with the declaration that such persons, tossed about by their desires, shall never discover and experience of tranquillity in their inner life.

Sources: vedabase.com;  The Holy Geeta