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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
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.