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Aldous Huxley, following Leibnitz, has called the Perennial Philosophy because they appear in every age and civilization: (1) there is an infinite, changeless reality beneath the world of change; (2) this same reality lies at the core of every human personality; (3) the purpose of life is to discover this reality experientially: that is, to realize God while here on earth.
Krishna says as much to Arjuna over and over: “I am the Self in the heart of every creature, Arjuna, and the beginning, middle, and end of their existence” (10:20).
karma, the web of cause and effect; samsara, the cycle of birth and death; moksha, the spiritual liberation that is life’s supreme goal.
Just as the world dissolves into a sea of energy, the mind dissolves into a river of impressions and thoughts, a flow of fragmentary data that do not hold together.
In profound meditation, they found, when consciousness is so acutely focused that it is utterly withdrawn from the body and mind, it enters a kind of singularity in which the sense of a separate ego disappears. In this state, the supreme climax of meditation, the seers discovered a core of consciousness beyond time and change. They called it simply Atman, the Self.
The word dharma means many things, but its underlying sense is “that which supports,” from the root dhri, to support, hold up, or bear. Generally, dharma implies support from within: the essence of a thing, its virtue, that which makes it what it is.
On a larger scale, dharma means the essential order of things, an integrity and harmony in the universe and the affairs of life that cannot be disturbed without courting chaos. Thus it means rightness, justice, goodness, purpose rather than chance.
we never really encounter the world; all we experience is our own nervous system.
In Hindu myth this is the dawn of the Day of Brahma (8:17–21), a period of explosive expansion not unlike the Big Bang of modern cosmology. At this instant of creation, thrown into imbalance, prakriti differentiates itself into three basic states or qualities of primordial energy.
This attitude frees us completely. Whatever comes – success or failure, praise or blame, victory or defeat – we can give our best with a clear, unruffled mind. Nothing
“Whatever you eat, whatever worship you perform, whatever you give, whatever you suffer”: everything is to be done and given and endured and enjoyed for the sake of the Lord in all, not for ourselves. Manmana: this is the refrain of the Gita.
True renunciation is giving up all desire for personal reward” (18:11). Meister Eckhart explains,
One who is free from selfish attachments, who has mastered himself and his passions, attains the supreme perfection of freedom from action. Listen and I shall explain now, Arjuna, how one who has attained perfection also attains Brahman, the supreme consummation of wisdom.
Sri Krishna begins by reminding Arjuna of his immortal nature: his real Self, the Atman, never dies, for it is never born; it is eternal. Thus the Gita does not lead us from stage to stage of spiritual awareness, but begins with the ultimate premise: the immortal soul is more important than the passing world.
“Yoga is evenness of mind”: detachment from the dualities of pain and pleasure, success and failure. Therefore “yoga is skill in action,” because this kind of detachment is required if one is to act in freedom, rather than merely react to events compelled by conditioning.
More specifically, the word kama refers to any gratification of the ego or the senses that entangles us in the world of samsara, and thus draws us away from the core of our being, the Self.
At the very close of the chapter, Krishna introduces the idea that it is not enough to master all selfish desires; it is also necessary to subdue possessiveness and egocentricity. If this ultimate bourne can be passed, then the seeker will know the true, immortal Self within.
The impermanent has no reality; reality lies in the eternal. Those who have seen the boundary between these two have attained the end of all knowledge.
You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. 48 Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself – without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.
They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of “I,” “me,” and “mine” to be united with the Lord. 72 This is the supreme state.
Avatara literally means descent: Vishnu is believed to descend and incarnate himself on earth from age to age to reestablish divine law (dharma). Without
The wise never act with selfish attachment to the fruit of their labor; they give their best in fortune and misfortune alike. Such people act in freedom.
The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results;
Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them.
They are free, without selfish attachments; their minds are fixed in knowledge. They perform all work in the spirit of service, and their karma is dissolved.
Krishna warns Arjuna that a life of work, even successful work, cannot be fulfilling without Self-knowledge.
When all these sensory and emotional tides have ceased to flow, then the spirit is free, mukta – at least for the time being. It has entered the state called samadhi.
yoga means “integration of the spirit.” In this sense, yoga means wholeness or the process
becoming whole at the deepest spiritual level.
Karma yoga, he says, is the path for those who wish to climb the mountain of Self-realization; for those who have reached the summit, the path is shama, the peace of contemplation.
So long as they are motivated only by self-centered desires they must be born again and again, and their spiritual evolution either stands still or they make very little progress.
Step by step Krishna has led him to an understanding of the real purpose of his life – to know who he is and to know also who Krishna is. In
his teacher and friend. In answer to the question, “Who are you?” Krishna’s reply is the verse (11:32) that burst into Robert Oppenheimer’s mind when he saw the atomic bomb explode over Trinity in the summer of 1945: “I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds. . . .” But the word kala means not just death but time, which eventually devours all.
Out of compassion you have taught me the supreme mystery of the Self. Through your words my delusion is gone. 2 You have explained the origin and end of every creature, O lotus-eyed one, and told me of your own supreme, limitless existence.
You are the supreme, changeless Reality, the one thing to be known. You are the refuge of all creation, the immortal spirit, the eternal guardian of eternal dharma.
The consummation of this knowledge was to know that the Self within was one with Brahman, the ultimate reality pervading all things. This was encapsulated in the statement Tat tvam asi, “You are that” – that imperishable being, that immortal Reality. Brahman, the nameless, formless Godhead, could be known only in the superconscious state.
“This body of mine is my field. I sow good thoughts and actions, and in my body I reap the results.” The Buddha explains, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts; it is made of our thoughts.”
Verse 32 explains this mystery by drawing a comparison with akasha, the subtlest element recognized by the ancient philosophers. Akasha is space itself. Just as space pervades the cosmos, yet remains pure even in the midst of impure things, so the Self remains completely pure, even though it dwells in all things. Though it seems to live in the land of mortals and to undergo change and death, the real knower in every creature is deathless, “hidden in the heart.”
Those who know truly are free from pride and deceit. They are gentle, forgiving, upright, and pure, devoted to their spiritual teacher, filled with inner strength, and self-controlled. 8 Detached from sense objects and self-will, they have learned the painful lesson of separate birth and suffering, old age, disease, and death.
This is true knowledge, to seek the Self as the true end of wisdom always. To seek anything else is ignorance. 12 I will tell you of the wisdom that leads to immortality: the beginningless Brahman, which can be called neither being nor non-being.
From sattva comes understanding; from rajas, greed. But the outcome of tamas is confusion, infatuation, and ignorance. 18 Those who live in sattva go upwards; those in rajas remain where they are. But those immersed in tamas sink downwards.
Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, “Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer.” 12 Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.
enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. 15 I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity.” This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. 16 Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell.
