Mahabharata: Vol. 5 (74 page)

¹⁹⁰
The expression used is devoid of
kamasankalpa
. Kama is desire, implying desire for the fruits of action.
Sankalpa
is will or resolution, implying the will or ego of performing action or inaction. Discarding sankalpa means discarding this ego.

¹⁹¹
Without refuge in action or its fruits, attained or unattained.

¹⁹²
Parigraha
is giving or taking of possessions, such as giving alms or receiving them. Since that has been given up, all ownership has been discarded.

¹⁹³
Realizing that the body is not the same as the atman. An alternative interpretation of performing action only for the sake of preserving the body is possible. But that is the path of renunciation, a path the Gita doesn’t approve of.

¹⁹⁴
Unsought in the sense of these being gains one hasn’t made an effort to obtain. Nor has one craved for these gains.

¹⁹⁵
Opposite feelings of happiness and unhappiness or heat and cold.

¹⁹⁶
Free from all emotions and sense of ownership.

¹⁹⁷
In this context, yajna should not be translated as a sacrifice. Yajna doesn’t mean a ritualistic sacrifice. It means action performed for union (yoga) with the paramatman.

¹⁹⁸
The action and the fruits of the action are destroyed and don’t lead to bondage, because this is inaction.

¹⁹⁹
In a yajna.

²⁰⁰
Divine yajnas are ritualistic yajnas performed for various gods.

²⁰¹
That is, everything is offered to the brahman. This may mean all action and its fruit. It may also mean the symbolic offering of the jivatman to the paramatman.

²⁰²
They control their senses.

²⁰³
They remain unattached to the senses.

²⁰⁴
Senses mean the five senses or organs of action (the mouth, hands, feet, the anus and sexual organs) as well as the five senses of knowledge (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch).

²⁰⁵
The breath of life is
prana
and this has five actions—prana (exhalation),
apana
(downward inhalation),
vyana
(diffusion through the body),
udana
(upward inhalation) and
samana
(digestive breath).

²⁰⁶
The yoga of
atmasanyama
or focusing the atman in the intellect.

²⁰⁷
The word used is
svadhaya
, meaning studying on one’s own. This is interpreted as studying the Vedas.

²⁰⁸
This shloka brings in pranayama. Prana is a general expression for the breath of life, as well as a specific term for the act of exhalation.
Ayama
means control or restraint, so pranayama is control of the breath of life. Pranayama has three components—
puraka
,
rechaka
and
kumbhaka
. Puraka is when the inhaled apana air fills up the exhaled prana air and temporarily stops its exit. Rechaka is when the exhaled prana air stops the entry of the inhaled apana air. Kumbhaka is when prana and apana are both controlled and the air is restrained inside the body. Offering the prana breath in the apana breath is therefore puraka.

²⁰⁹
Rechaka.

²¹⁰
Kumbhaka.

²¹¹
The Sanskrit says offer prana to prana. The first prana, in the plural, has traditionally been interpreted as the senses. The second prana can either be the senses or the breath of life.

²¹²
After gods have had their share.

²¹³
The Sanskrit states brahman. This is important because most translations and interpretations interpret this brahman as the Vedas and therefore suggest sacrifices prescribed by the Vedas. Not only is this interpretation forced, the Gita doesn’t generally assign such supremacy to the Vedas. Most ritual yajnas involve offerings made to the fire and Agni is therefore thought of as the mouth of the gods. In this broader definition of yajnas, probably no more than that extended metaphor is meant, when thinking of the brahman’s mouth.

²¹⁴
That is, a yajna where offerings of objects have the main focus.

²¹⁵
The knowledge.

²¹⁶
Sannyasa is sometimes interpreted as renunciation or the giving up of action and jnana yoga or the path of knowledge is therefore interpreted as this path of inaction. This chapter compares sannyasa yoga and karma yoga and argues against such a narrow interpretation of sannyasa and jnana.

²¹⁷
That is, karma yoga. Hence, practice of action.

²¹⁸
The issue arises because pursuit of knowledge (jnana yoga) has been stated to be better and this suggests renunciation (sannyasa) of action. Yet, there is an emphasis on karma yoga.

²¹⁹
That is, one doesn’t have to renounce the world or renounce action to become a sannyasi.

²²⁰
Opposite sentiments of happiness and unhappiness, love and aversion and so on.

²²¹
More literally, children.

²²²
In the Sanskrit, the word sankhya stands for knowledge or renunciation and the word yoga for action or karma yoga.

²²³
Alternatively, renunciation can only be attained with difficulty.

²²⁴
That is, sleep.

²²⁵
Open and close refers to the action of the eyelids.

²²⁶
The atman doesn’t get involved in senses, action or objects.

²²⁷
This amounts to transcending the personal ego of thinking oneself to be the performer of action.

²²⁸
Attachment to fruits of action, as well as to egos. Yogis means
karmayogi
s.

²²⁹
Alternatively, peace that results from steadfastness.

²³⁰
Recognizing that action is performed by the senses and the organs. That is, action is mentally discarded, not physically.

²³¹
The nine gates of the body are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the mouth, the anus and the genital organ.

²³²
The word used in the Sanskrit is
prabhu
, meaning lord. Depending on how lord is interpreted, the meaning can change. For instance, lord can be interpreted as the lord of all the worlds, instead of lord of the body, as we have interpreted it. For instance, in the next shloka, the paramatman or lord of the worlds is meant and the word used is
vibhu
, meaning supreme lord. Therefore, prabhu probably means the atman.

²³³
The word used is
svabhava
, meaning one’s own nature.

²³⁴
The great truth can also be interpreted as the paramatman.

²³⁵
Throughout this shloka, that means the paramatman.

²³⁶
More literally, those beings do not return.

²³⁷
The word used is
shvapaka
, which means dog-eater or someone who cooks food for dogs. This is usually equated with
chandala
or outcaste.

²³⁸
This is not very clear. We have translated
sarga
, which can also mean creation, as the earth. The sense probably is that one can win or overcome this earth, with its birth and death, in this world itself, without waiting for future worlds.

²³⁹
Those whose minds are established in equality.

²⁴⁰
That is, pleasure through the senses.

²⁴¹
This world or this body.

²⁴²
Inside means in the atman.

²⁴³
Because the brahman exists all around.

²⁴⁴
This is kumbhaka.

²⁴⁵
The free sage is doing the knowing. In this shloka, the subject is not explicitly stated. And it is also the free sage who attains peace.

²⁴⁶
There was a reference to dhyana or meditation earlier and this takes the discussion forward.

²⁴⁷
The word used is sannyasi.

²⁴⁸
The word used is
niragni
. Agni (the fire) is associated with prescribed rites and sacrifices and niragni is someone who has given up the sacred fire, that is, these rites and rituals. Such a person is a mendicant who lives by alms.

²⁴⁹
Tranquillity in the sense of self-possession. The word used is
shama
and this has also been translated as inaction. In that case, inaction is the means for a person who has ascended to yoga.

²⁵⁰
Realizing the essence of the atman is the core of yoga. One should use one’s own self or atman to understand the true nature of the atman. Then the self or atman becomes the true atman’s friend. Otherwise, it is the true atman’s enemy.

²⁵¹
Specifically, controlled the senses.

²⁵²
Transcending emotions like attachment and aversion.

²⁵³
Union between the paramatman and the jivatman is the core of yoga. But here, the word paramatman is used in the sense of the jivatman.

²⁵⁴
The words jnana and vijnana are both used. Both mean knowledge. But as mentioned earlier, jnana is knowledge obtained through instruction and vijnana is knowledge obtained through self-realization and introspection.

²⁵⁵
The words suhrida and mitra are both used. As mentioned earlier, suhrida is a well-wisher and a mitra is someone with whom one works together.

²⁵⁶
Udasin
and
madhyastha
both refer to disputes. Udasin is someone who is neutral to the dispute and madhyastha is someone who tries to arbitrate.

²⁵⁷
We have translated bandhu as friend. As mentioned earlier, a bandhu is someone from whom one cannot bear to be separated and generally means a relative.

²⁵⁸
Such a person.

²⁵⁹
Without receiving and giving objects.

²⁶⁰
Kusha is sacred grass. On a bed of kusha grass, will first be placed the hide (
ajina
) of an animal (like a tiger) and then on top of that, a piece of cloth (
chaila
) to get the seat.

²⁶¹
Tip of one’s nose is the literal translation. Some say, tip or top of the nose is to be interpreted from the bottom up, so it means the middle of the eyebrows. Others say the tip means the sky ahead of the tip of the nose.

²⁶²
The sentence sounds incomplete in the English rendering. But the description is of a state when yoga is achieved.

²⁶³
The yogi.

²⁶⁴
The sentence sounds incomplete in the English rendering. Again, that is when yoga is achieved.

²⁶⁵
The subject is suppressed in the Sanskrit. It is the yogi, practising yoga.

²⁶⁶
The word hopelessness requires clarification. Hopelessness can result because one may practise yoga for a long time without getting close to liberation.

²⁶⁷
The two words sankalpa (wish) and kama (desire) are almost synonymous and the Gita often uses them interchangeably. However, this shloka draws a difference between the two, suggesting that desire results from wishes.

²⁶⁸
That is, thinking about nothing else. What has been described is also called raja yoga or
samadhi
yoga. This has eight components—
yama
(the practice of moral virtues),
niyama
(purity in habits, study and practice of austerities),
asana
(posture), pranayama (the control of breath),
pratyahara
(withdrawal of the mind),
dharana
(concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (merging with the paramatman).

²⁶⁹
This can also be translated as without ignorance.

²⁷⁰
Because of the realization that there is no difference between one’s own self and someone else.

²⁷¹
In every being.

²⁷²
Of the mind.

²⁷³
Restraining the mind is as difficult as restraining the wind.

²⁷⁴
The word both needs explanation. Such a person is denied liberation because he has deviated from yoga. At the same time, he is deprived heavenly pleasures because he hasn’t followed that path either.

²⁷⁵
The word used is tata.

²⁷⁶
Even if this falls short of the complete yoga of liberation or deviates from the path.

²⁷⁷
There are many such worlds (lokas) and it will be incorrect to think of this only as heaven (
svarga
). The Gita will have more details later.

²⁷⁸
The subject is suppressed in the Sanskrit.

²⁷⁹
About liberation.

²⁸⁰
To the path of yoga.

²⁸¹
The word used in the Sanskrit is
shabdabrahma
, as opposed to the paramatman, brahman or
parabrahma
. Shabdabrahma is the ritualistic elements of the Vedas, the karma kanda. A person who wishes to know about yoga does better than someone who practises rituals alone.

²⁸²
Those who are learned in the sacred texts alone.

²⁸³
Those who perform action like sacrifices for the purpose of attaining heaven.

²⁸⁴
The first six chapters constitute almost a distinct sub-component of the Gita. Although this first sub-component also has a mix of jnana yoga and even bhakti yoga, the emphasis is on karma yoga. With the seventh chapter, we move to the second sub-component and there is a switch in emphasis to bhakti yoga.