The secret of right action || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Month of Awakening, 16.2.20, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India  Context:  ~ How to act without expecting Karmaphalam? ~ What is Yagya? ~ What is real meaning of sacrifice? ~ What is real understanding? ~ What is Nishkamkarm?  श्रेयान्द्रव्यमयाद्यज्ञाज्ज्ञानयज्ञः परन्तप।  सर्वं कर्माखिलं पार्थ ज्ञाने परिसमाप्यते   ॥ The sacrifice of knowledge is superior to materials sacrifice.  O Arjuna, all actions and everything else culminate in knowledge.  ~Shreemad Bhagvad Gita (Chapter 4, Verse 33)  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Then the questioner says, Acharyaji Pranam, from verse 25 to 33 of chapter 4,

00:18Shri Krishna speaks of the following sacrifices to Gods. Sacrifice of self

00:26which is the ego, aham. Sacrifice of organs of senses. Sacrifice of objects of

00:32senses. Sacrifice of functions of senses. Sacrifice of wealth. Sacrifice by

00:37austerity. Sacrifice by study of scriptures. Sacrifice by restraint of

00:42breath and sacrifice of diet. So, a lot of verses have been quoted.

01:00Acharyaji, what is really meant by a sacrifice or yagya and what is really

01:06meant by jnana yagya that Krishna says is greater than all the other

01:11sacrifices or yagya. Please also help us understand the meaning of verse 33 that

01:19says all actions in their totality culminate in knowledge. No, no, that's not

01:26what verse 33 says. Not culminate in knowledge. Dissolve in knowledge. The word

01:37used is parisamapyate. Parisamapyate. Ending. Samapti. The word aapta. Aapta

01:50means highest. A climax. Samapta means having truly attained the climax. That is

02:05samapti. Having truly attained the climax. That is samapti. So, when it is said

02:15here that all actions in their totality culminate in knowledge, what is meant is

02:22that real understanding gives you a dissolution of all actions. All actions

02:38dissolve in understanding. What does that mean? What is it that actions leave

02:44behind? Their fruits. Their residues. But in understanding, actions do not leave

02:56behind any residue. Because in understanding, you do not act for the

03:03sake of the residue. The action itself is chosen so wisely that it will not leave

03:09behind any fruit, any clutter, any dirt, which simply means nishkamkaram. You do not

03:23act for the sake of the result. That's the mark of wisdom or understanding. You

03:31just act. Therefore, action leaves you with no obligations, no achievements, nor

03:42any heartbreaks. What is an achievement? What is a feeling of elation? What is

03:54this euphoria on the success of an action? It is the fruit of action, right? I acted

04:06and my action achieved the target it was directed at. So, now I am feeling elated.

04:18This is a residue of action. The action has left me with elation. Elation is a

04:27residue of action. Similarly, what is disappointment or heartbreak? The action

04:38did not fetch me what I wanted from it. So, what has the action left me with?

04:45Despair, sadness. What is this sadness? It is a residue or fruit of the action. Both of

04:57these residues come only to those who act in order to get something. Get

05:02something for whom? To whom is the euphoria? To whom is the sadness? To the

05:09actor. So, happiness or sadness come to you only when you act for the sake of

05:17your own gratification. When you do not act for the sake of your own personal

05:23benefit or gratification, then action leaves you with neither happiness nor

05:30sadness. You are free of the action. That's what Krishna is saying here. Your

05:33action has attained closure. Your action has attained fulfillment. What if you are

05:44left with bitterness after the action? What will that lead to? That will lead to

05:49the next action. So, you are not liberated. You are still under the obligation to

05:57act one more time because the action has left you with bitterness. What if the

06:04action leaves you with a sense of accomplishment? Again, you will be

06:11tempted to act one more time. You see, I got something. Can't I repeat my success?

06:19So, you see, you are not liberated. You are not liberated because you are again

06:23obligated to act one more time and you have created future for yourself. So, you

06:28are caught in the cycle of time. If you want to act one more time, what do you

06:33require? If you want to act one more time, you require one more time. You require

06:40time and if you require time, then you are still caught in the clockwork.

06:46You are not free of time. You are still in Kaal Chakra. You are still in Kaal Chakra.

06:53Kaal is time and Kaal is death and you will be afraid. Getting it?

07:10Now, the questioner is saying what is meant by a sacrifice and what is meant

07:15by Gyan Yagya? Sacrifice obviously means giving up or offering. At the root of

07:28sacrifice is realization. What realization? Because the questioner says

07:37what is sacrifice and what is Gyan Yagya and why is Gyan Yagya higher than all

07:42other sacrifices? So, we'll consider sacrifice and we'll consider what is

07:48Gyan or realization. What is at the root of all sacrifice? When would you

07:55sacrifice something for something else?

07:59Seeing that the thing that you have is of lower value than what you would get

08:11post sacrificing it. So, in that sense it is actually just a trade-off but it's a

08:19very wise trade-off. It's a bargain in wisdom. You are giving up something that

08:26has a lower value and having given this thing up, you attain something that has

08:32a higher value. This is Yagya. Yagya says of what use is this little self to me?

08:41I give this up. Having given this self up, what do I get? I get the greater self, the

08:47real self, the pure self. I have given up the false self, the little self, the ego.

08:53Having given up the ego, I attain something immensely bigger. So, it's a

08:58profitable bargain. A small thing has been given and something big has been

09:02attained. Similarly, sacrifice of organ of senses, objects of senses, function of

09:07senses, wealth, this, that. Basically, we are talking of a value system here. We

09:14must know how to assess, how to evaluate. We must know what is the right value of

09:19one thing vis-a-vis another thing and we must know the truth and freedom are the

09:25most valuable. Therefore, anything can be sacrificed for their sake. Hence, and then

09:32only, this becomes obvious. This thing falls in place. I can give up my wealth.

09:40If giving up of wealth brings freedom to me, I can give up my knowledge. I can

09:48give up senses, pleasures, ego, concepts. All these things I can give up and then

09:57in between, some of the verses have also talked of the way of giving up. Three

10:03ways have been listed here by the questioner. Sacrifice through austerity,

10:07sacrifice through study of scriptures, sacrifice through pranayama, restraint of

10:12breath. So, these are the three ways of giving up. There is stuff that you give

10:17up and there are ways in which you give up. So, three ways are also listed here.

10:22What is central is the intention to give up and remember that giving up in the

10:32spiritual sense is not charity. Giving up in the spiritual sense is good business.

10:40You have given a smaller thing up and attained something far bigger,

10:49infinitely more profitable. In fact, that's one way to define joy. Do not call

11:02joy as freedom from pleasure. Just call joy as higher pleasure. Now, if you call

11:15joy as higher pleasure, then it becomes possible to sacrifice the lower pleasures

11:20for the sake of the higher pleasure called joy. Otherwise, spirituality

11:30remains very scary to people who have been spoken to in the language of

11:39renunciation. Give this up, give that up. The ego asks, but why? All I have is this

11:4810 rupee note and you are asking me to give it up. You have to, in the same

11:57breath, tell him that by giving up this 10 rupee note, you will indeed get

12:02something that is worth rupees 500 and you have to really demonstrate it. He

12:11must be able to see it in his life that by giving up on smaller pleasures or

12:19the so-called good things of life, he has now attained a state that is far higher,

12:29a state that he would not like to exchange in return for anything.

Category

Transcript

Recommended