Sankhya vs. Yoga

In an earlier post, I had questioned why Sankhya was said to be inter-related with Karma Yoga in the Bhagwada Gita. While I haven't found anything on that, I have been able to find a discourse between Bhishma and Yudhishthira where Bhishma answers Yudhisthira on the difference between Sankhya and Yoga. This is from an unabridged version of the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata translated by Shri Kisari Mohan Ganguli.

Yudhishthira said: It behoveth thee to explain to me, O sire, what the difference is between the Sankhya and the Yoga system of philosophy. O foremost one of Kuru's race, everything is known to thee, O thou that art conversant with all duties!

Bhishma said: The followers of Sankhya praise the Sankhya system and those regenerate persons that are Yogis praise the Yoga system. For establishing the superiority of their respective systems, each calls his own system to be the better. Men of wisdom devoted to Yoga assign proper and very good reasons, O crusher of foes, for showing that one that does not believe in the existence of God cannot attain to Emancipation. Those regenerate persons, again, that are believers in the Sankhya doctrines advance good reasons for showing that one, by acquiring true knowledge of all ends, becomes dissociated from all worldly objects, and after departing from this body, it is plain, becomes emancipated and that it cannot be otherwise. Men of great wisdom have thus expounded the Sankhya philosophy of Emancipation.

When reasons are thus balanced on both sides, those that are assigned on that side which one is otherwise inclined to adopt as one's own, should be accepted. Indeed, those words that are said on that side should be regarded as beneficial. Good men may be found on both sides. Persons like thee may adopt either opinion. The evidences of Yoga are addressed to the direct ken of the senses those of Sankhya are based on the scriptures. Both systems of philosophy are approved by me, O Yudhishthira. Both those systems of science, O king, have my concurrence and are concurred in by those that are good and wise. If practised duly according to the instructions laid down, both would, O king, cause a person to attain to the highest end. In both systems purity is equally recommended as also compassion towards all creatures, O sinless one. In both, again, the observance of vows has been equally laid down. Only the scriptures that point out their paths are different.

Yudhishthira said: If the vows, the compassion, and the fruits thereof recommended in both systems be the same, tell me, O grandsire, for what reason then are not their scriptures (in respect of the paths recommended) the same?

I have quoted only the beginning of the conversation, the rest can be followed from here.

Is there anything like "absolute dharma"?

Some basic questions people following dharmic rules, rooting for a dharmic state and having problems with our present state of affairs should engage in are:

Q 1.: How do we define dharma?

Q 2.: Is Dharma something that is radically different from the natural state of the world?

Q 3.: If that is the case, why do we strive for it, when we know that things have a tendency to revert to their natural state sooner or later?

My concept of dharma, perhaps still in its infancy, is something called righteousness. For me, among other things, it should prompt the powerful to not only let the meek survive, but to also assist them in their survival.

A system in which the powerful allow a way for the weak? Is that feasible? Because, nature does not allow such a system. It is vicious competition in nature, one species besting another. The weak have no place out there. Ours seems meant to be a place where the bigger fish eats the medium fish, the medium fish eats the smaller fish and so on.

So, is a system feasible, which staples the ability of the strong, while allows the weak to grow? Isn't it natural for the strong to gobble the weak? For how long can man made to resist his natural animal instincts? Perhaps just as long as the nation has a powerful triumvirate of legislative, executive and judiciary forces. With the absence of these three, how long can people remain dharmic?

The one argument that is laid against the above question is that in nature, one species always supports its own kind. There is never violence in one species, which is what we see in Homo Sapiens. But on a closer look, we might be proved wrong.

If this is a temporary endeavour, why should we put so much of effort into it as writing miles and miles of scriptures and spending more time teaching and even more time spreading it? Why not let the rules of nature prevail?

And say, even if we achieve such a system, how far should we go? Do the forces of dharma have to be on a constant vigil for adharma in the society? Finally:

Q 4.:Is there anything like "absolute dharma"? When can we sit down and relax, that we have created the best society? Is life a constant war?

I would appreciate your reply to the above questions.

The point of using scriptures.

Many visitors to this blog have often asked us, what is the need to use scriptures to understand things.

This post is meant to answer that.

Well, I do feel that is waste of human intellect, that he needs to be taught morals by someone and not learn them on his own through life experiences or follow some ideals due to personal foresight into matters of life.

On the other hand, religious scriptures are a set of codes penned down thousands of years ago. That something written so long ago should be used in today's life is another insult on human intellect. It obviously implies that mankind is not capable of thinking, that a fear of a powerful sentient being should be instilled in him to do what is good and stall from what is bad.

The objective of the blog thus seems to promote a religious theocracy.

However, that is not our intention. Most religious scriptures contain basic behavioral concepts, for example promoting a modest living, to abstain from lust, anger and greed, so on and so forth. It would be useful if the scriptures are used to generate a common concept of a good, desirable life and all the attributes necessary for it. They should be used to generate ideas of an ideal society. It is then unto us to protect it by all means, even if that means breaking the rules of Dharma for a while, for the ultimate purpose of Dharma should be the betterment and welfare of humanity in its entirety. With the focus on the goal, we should remain free from deciding the means to achieve it. And these means are decided upon by the time which we are living in, not by scriptures. Cultures world over that use the scriptures to decide the means, would stagnate.

Though started from a point of generating strength for Karmasura's personal problems, this is the new intention of the blog. To be.. among countless others out there, the ones to understand the scriptures, and use them for the welfare and upbringing of humanity.

As said in Chapter 2: 46

यवन अर्थ उदपाने
सर्वतः सम्प्लुतोदके
तवं सर्वेषु वेदेसू
ब्रह्मनास्य विजानतः |

"All purposes served by a small well can at once be served by a great reservoir of water. Similarly, all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the purpose behind them."

Although I've not read the Vedas, the purpose of the blog should be the same as that.

Maya-2: The fight against lust

A key factor generating Maya or illusions is lust. Lust, for money, power, prestige and so on are a key factor in degradation of once powerful societies, and their eventual conquest and extermination by barbarians with little social values standing at the gate. They too are guided by lust, a lust for the riches and booty that a rich society can give.

But there is a difference. The barbarians have some sort of unity between them. They are united by their lust for the opponent's wealth. On the other hand, the opponent, the rich and powerful society has fights in between itself. So, it's house is divided.

Sounds familiar?

Sounds like current affairs?

It should. The same situation has played over and over, generations after generations, centuries after centuries, millenia after millenia. It seems that mankind can never permanently evolve beyond a particular stage. The end of times (good/bad) also seems to be a rule along with the ultimate truth in the world.

Avoiding lust is simple. We must be able to draw a line, between what we can achieve, how much to achieve so as to be able to live a comfortable life without damaging the self, or the fabric of the society. For if the lust to get wealth or power grows beyond a certain extent, it will start affecting the society. It starts coming in the line of duty, and when duty is neglected for one's greed, the system starts to fail.

Breach of duty doesn't happen all of a sudden. And so doesn't lust. It happens unknowingly. It starts with a trickle. Say, one day a policeman happens to spend his day's earnings from the police station on booze. He needs to give the same amount of money to his wife who was expecting to buy something that day. He's in a fix now. For once, he accepts a bribe from a person who breaks a rule and sets him free. The cop gets the money, gives it to his wife . Case closed.

That is if he feels guilty for what he has done. The chains of duty are sometimes very feeble on people. It involves sacrifice, selfless labor, doing that extra hour to ensure that something has been done correctly. In comparison, breaking the call of duty is so attractive and soothing for the mind. Once greed/lust has been tasted, it keeps growing until it devours the man as a whole. If this is replicated on a larger scale, the whole society is at stake.

A second place, apart from the specimen of corruption described above, where lust is particularly discerning is Indian politics. It is known by all that for far too long, politicians have indulged in the lust for the power. Coalition politics is a natural outcome of this lust. Parties with like ideologies but differing in matters of governance unite after the elections to form the government. In this, they let governing the nation on the backburner. Policy making becomes insanely difficult since the policy has to cater to all the members of the coalition. Time taken to form the policy also increases dramatically as a result. Moreover, ideologies of political parties that are not the interest of the majority populace of the nation are enforced into decision making only because that party has got some seats in the Lok Sabha. Another place where one finds lust in the 'largest democracy' is when we find regional parties mushrooming in states instead of having few large national political parties that rule the nation.

These regional parties are (IMO only) born when a national party doesn't give local candidates a preference over their loyalists. Again, lust for power and nepotism from the national party come into question over here. Now what happens is that the regional party might not have very vast resources compared to a national party with nation wide reach and a larger number of fund-raisers. So how do they set out getting votes? They then resort to caste based politics by propping up somebody from a majority caste of the region. Caste issues then triumph over public issues. Throw in religion based politics, quota demands, and voila! we get a lip smacking recipe for disaster.

These are the enemies within the Indian state that our nationalist minded folk have to root out. We might explore the solutions for the above impasse in another post.

As far as barbarians at the gate are concerned, India is safe only as they have their own troubles to tend to. The moment they convince each other to unite for the booty, for our resources, we'll be done.

Consider as well the following dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna about solving the problems of lust. The focus is on controlling the senses, knowing that mind and intelligence are above the senses. I wish that no call of duty is averted just for the short term comfort of the senses. It would only bring long term disaster.

1)

Chapter 3:
३६
अर्जुन उवाचा
अथ केना प्रयुक्तो ’यम्
पापं करती पुरुषः
अनिच्चान्न अपि वर्स्नेया।
"Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrishni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?"

३७
श्री-भगवान उवाचा
कम ऐसा क्रोध ऐसा
रजो-गुना-समुद्भावः
महासनो महा-पाप्मा
विद्ध्य इनाम इह वैरिनाम।
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world।"

३८
धुमेनावृयते वह्निर
यथादार्सो मलेना का
यथोल्बेनाव्रतो गर्भास
तथा तेनेदम अव्र्तम ।
"As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust।"

३९
अव्र्तम जनानाम एतेना
ज्नानिनो नित्य-वैरिना
कम-रूपेण कौन्तेय
दुस्पुरेनानालेना का।
"Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire।"

४०
इन्द्रियानी मनो बुद्धिर
अस्याधिस्थानाम उच्यते
एतैर विमोहयाटी ऐसा
जनानाम अव्र्त्य देहिनाम।
"The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him."

४१
तस्मात् त्वं इन्द्रियान्य आदौ
नियम्य भारतार्सभा
पाप्मानं प्रजाही ही इनाम
जनाना-विज्नना-नासनम।
"Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization।"

४२
इन्द्रियानी परानी अहुर
इन्द्रियेभ्याह परम मनः
मनसस तू पारा बुद्धिर
यो बुद्धेह परतास तू सह।
"The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence।"

४३
एवं बुद्धेह परम बुद्ध्वा
सम्स्ताभ्यात्मनाम आत्मना
जाही सत्रुम महा-बहो
कम-रूपम दुरासदम।
"Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust."

Maya (It's Maya all around-2)

In the last post, I talked about how Maya can cloud the human mind. And one of the few ways to come out of Maya can be to create awareness among the people. And leaving the ambiguity of my previous posts, today I am going to talk only in the context of India.

On one matter the people of India seem to be relatively well united as compared to other matters. That the current condition of India is because of the continuing sack of the nation by the political elite. More than any other human population in the world, it is the political elite of India that has the ostrich syndrome, the temerity to hide the head in the sand, which it has been found recently, is not even done by ostriches. At best, it is a tactic by the bird to hide from the predators, but yet its head remains outside the sand and it will take flight upon seeing predators, often causing injuries by its powerful kicks which might even cause death.

Sorry for going OT for some time, but had to show that even the bird is better than our political elite and causes damage when provoked. In the context of India, it is needed that:

1) People are told that merely voting the government into power is not going to work. You have to be after the politicians till the time they do not retire from politics (which anyway happens only when they die). For this, they should be made aware of the 'Rights To Information' act of the government. As far as my understanding of this is concerned, the act is there to provide the people an answer of the government's policies regarding various matters, and our preference shoud be most importantly on matters like national security, education, employment and other public welfare.

2) People are made aware of their fundamental duties and rights. They should also be made aware of the structure of the government and its functioning. Rather than understanding that they just have to vote, they should be given a crash course in Civics to understand the structure of the government. After all, doesn't any worker, no matter what the skill level, know how to operate a machine? I bet that there are people out there who do not know how the government functions. Perhaps even I do not know it very well. If democracy is a government run by the people, for the people and of the people, they should also know how to operate it.

3) People should be made aware that voting, even by sheer impulses if not through intuition, is better than not voting at all. Politicians must be made aware that the only way that they are going to get elected and have power is to serve the people. I wonder, that inspite of the difficulties that India faces, why is there still not a 100% voting turnout? Or even in the mid nineties? Even in today's frustrated times, voting turnout is 60% or 70% and so on. Another worrying idea seems that some people who came up with ideas such as "Don't vote 09 campaign". Such defeatist initiatives should be ignored at the least, and stopped at the best by co-operation among the people.

4) Leaving the dogma of the Hindu/Jain/Buddhist/Zoroastrian/Jewish/Muslim/Christian caste system behind, whoever is in power needs to be told shamelessly that he/she/it has to serve the people like a kshatriya (a warrior). There is nothing to be shameful in it. It is simply impossible to lead the nation by being something else than a kshatriya. Leading the nation involves following the righteous path, doing what is necessary and not doing bits of everybody's will. A person must be ready to call someone's bluff and I do not see that happening in any other way then being bold, courageous and war-like, characteristics which are supposed to be found in a kshatriya.

Moreover, on occasions like today, people should force their supposed-to-be 'kshatriya' leaders to start aggressive posturing and actions, and make Pakistan face the retributions rather than to fold up on themselves. And now, there's also evidence implicating that nation in the Mumbai strikes. After all, as the great seer of the Bhagwada Gita says:

Chapter 2:
३२
यद्र्च्चाया कोपपन्नाम
स्वर्ग-द्वारं अपव्र्तम
सुखिनः क्षत्रियाः पर्थ
लभन्ते युद्धं इद्र्सम।
"O Partha, happy are the kshatriyas to whom such fighting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets."

३३
अथ सत त्वं इमं धर्म्यम
संग्रामं न करिश्यसी
ततः स्व-धर्मं किर्तिम का
हित्वा पापं अवप्स्यासी।
"If, however, you do not perform your religious duty of fighting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter."

३४
अकिर्तिम कापी भूतनी
कथायिस्यन्ति ते ’व्यायाम
सम्भावितस्य काकिर्तिर
मरनद अतिरिच्यते।
"People will always speak of your infamy, and for a respectable person, dishonor is worse than death."

Dishonor seems to be the preference of India's leaders. And dishonor seems to be the preference of our people, over death, which is going to happen anyway when they elect such people to power or do not respond when such leaders are hoisted on to us from the powers beyond our reach. So, we end up getting both dishonor and death, while those responsible for the terror and carnage at the Taj that visited us get their supposed rewards in heaven for their 'martyrdom'.

"Splendid" is the only thing I can say of the current government's response to this provocation. The least we can do right now is to boot out the Congress and their allies in the next election so ruthlessly as to make an example before the other parties for them to understand what would happen of them when they do not follow the people's wishes.

Its maya all around.

Maya. Illusion. The very word we want to avoid, yet get trapped in. Maya arises from ignorance of the real world, and us believing what we are told to. The dictionary meaning of the word maya comes out as:

maya
n. Hinduism
1) The power of a god or demon to transform a concept into an element of the sensible world.
2) The transitory, manifold appearance of the sensible world, which obscures the undifferentiated spiritual reality from which it originates; the illusory appearance of the sensible world.

Sometimes I feel, that the whole world lives on Maya. Following are two kinds of maya I wanted to stress on relating to current events in the world:

(A). Maya is the opium, that lulls us into thinking that all is well, that we can handle this life very easily. Time passes, nothing happens for a while, and then.. Bang! one catastrophe comes by and we wake up from our sleep. We realize that our ways were wrong and we need to amend them. Finger-pointing takes place, heads roll, correction protocols are established, the problem is rectified, and things start working.

But will this be the last time a catastrophe happens? No.. for with times of peace, people's intellect is again lulled into thinking that all is well. Maya strikes his/her velvety arrow into people's heads, soothes them, relaxes them, tells them that that evil man/woman/disease/problem is gone and all is now well. But for how long? Nobody thinks about that.

(B). The bottom line is, that the 'maya' is caused by a false sense of safety and comfort that most (all?) people get into. But apart from the above, there is another kind of 'maya', the maya that arises from despair, the maya that takes the form of intense paranoia of the stranger. This maya arises when everything is going wrong, and we still don't know what is happening. It arises because mankind has an extraordinary urge to simplify things for himself. When we write numbers in decimals, we strike off the third one. At best we would be striking off the fourth or the fifth one. It ain't going any further for us. When we are adding one to a very great number, we might neglect one sometimes. Assumptions are also made in science to make things simpler, and better for the quirky human mind. And now when things start getting complex, he is in a twist, possible theories keep mounting. He can't get the solution, for he can't understand the problem without simplifying it. In this frenzy, knee-jerk reactions are bound to occur, as man starts knocking off things on a random basis. Enemies morph into friends, and friends into enemies.

For example, under normal circumstance, when there is a lack of evidence of a crime, we let go of the person, perhaps warn him of the consequences of trying it out again and so on. But there is a group of people, who are so mentally sick and tired of their own failure in their lives (or who indulge in this because they are paid for it.) that they would slur the system for it. The more such rabble is piled on the system, the more ineffective it becomes. Not directly, as professionalism of the professional remains intact no matter what is being said about him.. but in terms of trust. The above said people follow the apothegm of - "A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth." And as trust of the system corrodes, people grow more mistrustful of the institution, although there are only a few bad apples. Heck, even if there are more bad apples, loss of trust would mean that even if there is one good person, people will avoid the system and not engage it even if it is needed.

And then, when real catastrophe occurs, we have utter chaos. Now the people don't know whom to trust, where to hide their crown jewels. Whom to speak for, whom to speak against? They are lost.. until there come a time when they start reforming the system on their own, trying to take on the enemy, both within and outside, by themselves instead of cribbing about both at the same time.

Can you recognise the two places in (A) and (B)? (A) is the rest of the world, that maya is the 'normal' maya, that which may arise from success. (B) are places like India, this maya is of despair, where the government is of the mob, looting people of opportunities along with money, and in return, giving nothing. The 'real catastrophe' that I am talking about in the last para of (B) is the recent attack on Mumbai.

Besides, here are some of my observations of what miscellaneous illusions the people of the world are in today:

1) The government of the country really really cares for them and will go out of its way to support the people, without there being any pressure on them out of pure nationalistic spirit.

2) That by not going out to vote for a candidate, they are showing their resentment against the system.

3) That by going out to vote, they have finished their responsibility and can go around their daily lives with heads held high and strutting their stuff.

4) That by being good, ill - fate will not befall them.

5) That appeasing violent rageboys, they will solve the problem.

6) That the righteous always deserve to win, with no thought of what kind of tactics are needed.
etc.. etc..

A few choicest quotes from the BG on maya and its effects.

Chapter 14:
५

सत्त्वं राजस तम इती
गुनाह प्रकृति-संभवः
निबध्नन्ति महा-बहो
देहे देहिनम् अव्ययम

"Material nature consists of three modes—goodness, passion and ignorance. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes."

८

तामस त्व अज्नना-जम विद्धि
मोहनं सर्व-देहिनम्
प्रमादालस्य-निद्रभिस
तन निबध्नती भरता

"O son of Bharata, know that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul."

This is how maya was defined by the great Seer of the Bhagwada Gita.

So, how do we solve maya? By definition, it comes by ignorance. And the cure thus lies in removing ignorance. Spread of knowledge, a clear demarcation of how much we can tolerate, and rising up ourselves to correct things on our own if our legal appointees are not upto the task are but a few steps. Consider the 11th from the same chapter.

११

सर्व-द्वारेसू देहे ’समं
प्रकासा उपजायते
जनानाम यदा तदा विद्याद
विव्र्द्धाम सत्त्वं इत्य उत।

"The manifestations of the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge."

And we should not wait for any auspicious occasion to start our plans. The time is right here, right now. As has been repeated in the Gita, that all has been decided by the Almighty already, we just need to get up and be his tool.

It's a grey world.

Friends.. this is a twisted version of an original post made on my 1st blog. Trying to see if there can be any matching between this and the Bhagwada Gita. Please comment honestly if you find it wrong.

IT’S A GREY WORLD

(An interview takes place between Mr. X and Mr. Y. Discussing about some philosophies, they finally come to this topic.)

Mr. Y: So after all these topics.. let's discuss what it means to be a good human being.

Mr. X: Honestly speaking, I don't believe in this nonsense of right and wrong.

Mr. Y: What do you mean? Dharma, Adharma.. all this stuff have no importance to you?

Mr. X: No they don't.

Mr. Y: So.. departing from the event under discussion for a while, would you please allow our viewers an insight into your line of thoughts?

Mr. X: Sure

Mr. X: (Facing the camera) Generally speaking.. there is nothing like right or wrong in this world. All people do what they think is right. Human rights activists, gay rights activists, environmentalists, feminists, evangelists, thieves, murderers, terrorists, rapists.. whatever category that may come to your mind, they will only do what they believe is right.

Mr. Y: So you would club all groups of people into being right?

Mr. X: (Facing the interviewer) Exactly,.. like how would you define something as right or wrong? When we some event in the society.. how do we know which side to take? At this instant, somebody would answer that this is defined in this religious scripture or that. But pray how, did the writers of those scriptures got the idea as to what to classify as right or wrong?

(Back to the camera) The thing is, that this too comes from our selfish mindset of self satisfaction. What I think is that something which is right to us, is something that satisfies us,.. something that gives us pleasure or something that is proven to be good for us. Like, remaining healthy, maintaining cordial relations and so on. Whatever does not satisfy us, does not give us pleasure.. we relegate it to being wrong.

Mr. Y: But religion defines for us these things clearly..

Mr. X: (Interrupts) Remember that almost all major religions were written by consent of the majority of the society.. and most of the religions we see today had started before the advent of materialism. Which is why we see a distinction between our religious ideas and what is required of us in the industrialised, globalized world of today.

And in those days, (before the industrial age) a majoriy of people would have abhorred stealing, kidnapping, telling lies, and so on and so forth. These have been propagated down the generations, although somewhat diluted these days. What we recognize as good today, is nothing but the will of the majority imposed on the minorities or a will of the powerful imposed on the masses. What is bad today is what is/was abhorred by the majority in the bygone days. Heck, most of our constiutional laws are based on ideas of the ancients..

So in a nutshell.. I would say that as far as right and wrong is considered.. there is nothing like that. You cannot divide the world into two parts, white and black.. good and evil respectively. It is all mixed up, in shades of grey. This must be the right way.. for as you see.. both good and evil are selfish forces to some extent or the other. Both are in an eternal struggle, to impose one group's interests over the other. The world is a constant battle of groups with self interests, and this can be easily seen if we remove our rose - glassed goggles.

Mr. Y: So,.. what would you say a common man must choose? You have even nullified the purpose of being good and linked it to selfishness.

Mr. X: To propagate peace and order in the world, I have to say this. Every human is there for a cause in this world. And his choices must serve the cause he intends to live his life for. But at the same time, he must also greet the choices of other humans with respect, and not be intellectually smug about his goodness. Be choosy, of neither goodness nor badness, but only observe the intent. Inspite of different opinions.. he must show love and peace to all humans.. after all, all are made of the same matter but for their views and he should share his views among the deprived sections of the society with an intention of selfless reform without walking over any sentiments. It is after all,.. a grey world.

Epilogue: And then friends.. we come to my favourite shloka again.

२ - ४७
कर्मन्य एवाधिकरस ते
म फलेसू कदकाना
म करमा-पहला-हेतुर भुर
म ते संगो ’सत्व अकर्मणि।
"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action। Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty."

An answer to "The Ashwattha Tree Riddle"

Hello friends,
I believe it is time for me to provide an answer for the question I had posed in my previous post:
"Is the Bhagavat Geeta, against the Vedas since it asks to cut the Ashvattha tree, the leaves of which are the Vedas themselves?"
Before I provide one answer to this question (there could be others, far far better that mine), let me tell you that when the answer struck me, my first reaction was to bow to this wonderous land called Bhaarat, that has produced such a culture and such Mahatmas (and we call just one man now-a-days as the "Mahatma", how much have we fallen!). Hopefully, the esteemed readers would realise the greatness and gravity of what I am going to say. So, here goes:

Vedas are no doubt the important and fundamental (well, as fundamental as leaves are, to a tree) philosophical constructs of the Indian philosophy, but they can be understood or chanted only through the indriyas (senses). In this sense, they are only equal to something called "shadba brahman"--The state that has attributes, and is just below complete perfection.So what?
The point is, we are looking at something beyond the indriyas, the state which has no attribute, no qualities, completely neutral, i.e., a state that is nowhere near to anything we see, hear, touch, feel, smell, or taste. We need to aspire for that "totality of nothingness".
When a person becomes "Vedavit" (this word occurs at the end of the first verse), he has no need of either chanting, or understanding the Vedas-- he "knows" the crux of them. In this state, just as a snake sheds its skin when it has to grow, even the mighty and lofty Vedas, which are but a layer and just instruments to help towards that way to perfection, just wither away like leaves on a tree in autumn, when the person has grown to that state.
Then, in such a state, the presence of that cosmic tree called the wordly "samsaara" is an impediment to attain that moksha. Hence, it needs to be cut.

Fine! But there is one more thing that I struck me here. Just imagine-- can Islam exist without Holy Quran, or christianity without the Bible? These personality cults are stuck within their own "koopasthamandookas" and keep revolving around the the personae and books that they themselves have created. On the contrary, just imagine our culture: You take any book-- the puraNas, dharma shastras, geeta, even the Vedas-- everyone of them point to the fact that they are not a central or "indispensable" part of the sanaatana dharma. Thats because we dont worship books or persons in the way they do. They are only a part of our belief system, not central. The real Sanaatana Dharma exists within us. We are the puraNas, shaastras, and the Vedas ourselves.

We need to awaken to this fact and arise as a nation.

Purushottama Yoga: The Ashvattha Tree And the Vedas

Hello friends,

Firstly, apologies for breaking the flow of Attila's thought and beginning an already discussed chapter in the Geeta, but please allow me to defend my decision to do so: Ever since my childhood, the fifteenth adhyaaya of the Geeta was fed into my ears through the everyday chantings of my grandfather. Hence, my natural inclination is to begin any discussion about Geeta from the fifteenth chapter: "Purushottama Yoga". (edited by Attila) I feel that given our lives today, we need--
a) a sneek preview of how deep was our ancestors' philosophy,
b) to know how to interpret what was written thousands of years ago by our seers, and
c) to stimulate those sleeping cells in our minds responsible for higher thinking. A nation devoid of the knowledge of the ultimate truth cannot survive for long.

This is a learning process for myself as well, as I am new to this world of Srimad Bhagavad Geeta. So let us help each other out in this quest for knowledge and truth.

By its very definition, this chapter deals with qualities and attributes of Purushottama or the "supreme person" or the "best among the humans". This is a very important chapter and it reveals the nature of the ultimate truth. Since this is one of the smallest chapters of the Geeta, it is profitable to memorise both the chants and the meaning. Right now, I would like to discuss the symbolism of the imperishable "Ashvattha tree" (with the inputs and blessings from my Guruji) mentioned in the first three verses of this chapter:

ऊर्ध्वमूलम् अध:शाखम् अश्वत्थम् प्राहुरव्ययम्
छांदान्सि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित्

Meaning: With roots at the top (in heaven), branches below, and with chhandaas (meters of vedic hymns) as its leaves stands the imperishable (avyayah= a-vyayah, i.e., that which cannot be spent) Ashvattha tree (Peepal tree, Ficus religiosa). He who knows this is "vedavit", i.e., knower of the truth in the Vedas.

अधश्चोर्ध्वं प्रस्तुतातस्य शाखा गुणप्रवृद्धा विषयप्रवाला:
अधश्च मूलानि अनुसंततानि कर्माणु बन्धीनि मनुष्य लोके

Meaning: The branches of that tree spread upwards and downwards (Urdhva and adah) and its shoots of sensuality (vishaya) sprout according to the gunAs. The roots spread downwards into the world of humans thereby producing karmas and its reactions.

न रूपमस्येह ततोपलभ्यते नान्तो न चादिर्न च सम्प्रतिष्ठा
अश्वत्थमेनं सुविरूढमूलं असंगशस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्वा

Meaning: Within this world, that inverted form of the Ashvattha tree cannot be seen--Neither its end, nor its beginning, nor its foundations. (So), sever this tree, strongly rooted in attachment, with the sharp sword of detachment (to attain the blissful state from where there is no need to return to the cycle of birth and death).

To start the discussion, lets begin with the obvious things-- what we already know from the straight meaning of the verses:
We know that
1) there is an imperishable fig tree that has roots above and branches below with leaves being the vedic meters,
2) the branches of the tree spread upwards, sideways or downwards depending upon the gunas (satva, rajas, and tamas) of the individual,
3) the roots of the tree spread according to the karmas, or the actions (good or evil) of the individual,
4) we cant see it, and one who sees it as it is, is the knower of the vedic truth (sort of like Neo in The Matrix who can see the source code),
5) one needs to cut this tree (with the sharp axe of detachment), to attain salvation.

The Ashvattha Tree, or the Peepal tree grows only in south Asia and it belongs to the Ficus family of trees. It is considered the best of the trees with many medicinal and spiritual properties in the Sanatana Dharma and Sri Krishna himself declares "I am Ashvattha among the trees." The symbolism behind being inverted is that this tree is the cosmic tree of life, so it was born in the heaven, and is continuously growing downwards into the world of mortals. This kind of symbolism is one of the common traits in many religions, possibly a central seed of thought was carried many millennia ago to many civilisations.

So the Ashvattha tree is the way in which the samsaara, or the dream of the Supreme Being (according to Sri Adi Sankara's Advaita philosophy), called the "mundane life" manifests itself as. He who performs righteous deeds causes the branches to grow upwards, and he who performs evil ones is further entangled in the roots of his actions and has the branches moving downwards.

Now there is a problem here: since one needs to cut this tree, the obvious conclusion here is, this Ashvattha tree---certainly not good! But then, the very first verse calls the leaves of this tree to be "chhandaah" , the vedic meters (or the Vedas themselves). Hmm! So does this imply that the Geeta, or rather Sri Krishna, is against the Vedas?

This would be a nice riddle to meditate upon. I eagerly await the responses of the learned readers.