I share my notes from the retreat on the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 5) which I attended recently.
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 5
The Yoga of Renunciation
The Chapter starts with a question dealing with what Sri Krishna has said in the previous two chapters. Arjuna finds some confusing elements in those teachings and so he asks Sri Krishna: ‘you have praised sannyāsa or renunciation of action and you also praise karma-yoga, the path of detached action. Please tell me for certain which of these two is the better?’
Sri Krishna gives the clear answer that both lead to supreme Bliss; but of the two, performance of action is superior to renunciation of action. Sri Krishna then goes on to explain why that is so? A performer of action, who has no personal likes or dislikes and is free from the pairs of opposites, is like a sannyasi, who formally renounces worldly duties. One who is truly established in one, gains the fruit of both.
Action generally creates bondage; how then can one devoted to action attain Brahman? Actions performed without attachment and free from the consciousness of “I” and “me” and as a servant or agent of God and for His sake do not bind but lead to the purification of the mind.
The characteristics of the knower of Brahman and the transitory nature of happiness derived from contact with sense objects is described. Sensual pleasures have a diminishing value. Sri Krishna cautions us that the pleasures arising from external contacts are only wombs of sorrow — such pleasures are short lived. Like fire the mind is insatiable. It craves for more and more. Its desires are endless. By seeking external pleasures we only fan the flames of desire, leading to greater sorrow. True happiness, therefore, does not lie in the world outside. It is found in the Self within through mental detachment from the world.
Lust and Anger are the two greatest enemies of the path to Self-realisation. These are very strong emotions. They can destroy one’s life, and bring unhappiness to others.
What kind of aspirant attains Brahman? is described in verses 24, 25, and 26. The whole subject of meditation is then compressed in the two verses, verse 27 and 28. This provides an introduction to the next chapter (chapter 6) on Yoga of Meditation.
And the final verse, verse 29 tells us what an aspirant realises through meditation? The deeper we go in meditation, the better will be our external life, our work, and our inter-personal relationships.
Lessons to live by. The Bhagavad Gita is really wonderfully practical, in that Arjuna faces many of the same situations (mentally, emotionally, as well as physically), as we do.
