Karma This page is about action and reaction, its movement, and how to become free from the results of action.
last updated 30th July 2008
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Karma There are many ideas about karma, some influenced by total speculation, some by Buddhism, some by Hinduism, some Pagan concepts. In fact the term karma is widely used and with most accepted in its essence in everyday society to mean the result of action and reaction of any done thing. There are many aspects and views of karma, and we could say that it is according to one's karma that one gains a particular understanding of that karma. However, what we're presenting here is an understanding based on the teachings of the Vaishnava Acharyas, spiritual teachers coming down in an unbroken line of disciplic succession into the present time, from time immemorial.
The Laws of Nature: An Infallible Justice ( HDG Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad)
Karma - The
universal law of action and reaction
Bad Karma For The England Coach
by Krishna Dharma dasa
DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD
PEOPLE? by Ravindra Swarupa dasa
Why Bad Things Happen to
Good People - Audio - Vipramukhya Swami
Karma: Meaning and Definition
written by Hinduism Today Newspaper
Aspects of karma as defined in Bhagavad
Gita:
Karma Yoga chapter 3
Karma-Yoga - Action in Krishna Consciousness
chapter 5
Karma - action and reaction:
Vikarma - action with bad or binding reaction:
Akarma - action without reaction:
Some make a living in delving into speculations of what one was in a previous life. There may even be some truth in that, but the fact remains that none of that will help one in negating the reaction to those paraabda karmas (residual reactions) other than engaging in activities that are free from karma - akarma. The Buddhist understands that they must negate creating karma in order to be free from it's reaction, thus they aim for nirvana - nir meaning no and vana meaning forest, which infers action as the trees and branches of the forest are always interacting. However, just to try and stop action is not enough. The living entity is not inert, we're dynamic, and such a dynamic being needs activity. Certainly we must stop negative activity that binds us to this world, but just trying to be inactive like a green bird in a green tree, or ceasing reactionary result by theories of the sound of one hand clapping et al is neither fulfilling nor are they practical. The Buddhists make great study of different kinds of karmas but it all amounts to rearranging the deck-chairs as the Titanic slips below the waves of engulfing karmik reaction. Others like Theodora, wife of Justinian the Roman Emporer was so determined to avoid karma that she edited it out of the Bible to escape it's reaction........ (L.Mason. Reincarnation in the Early Church).
Three kinds of karma - Kriyamana karma - Prarabdha karma - Sanchita karma
Dimensions of Good and Evil by Suhotra swami 2003
Karma-mimamsha: Elevation Through the Performance of Duty, as mentioned in the Sad-darshana - The six systems of Vedic philosophy.
An insight
into Astrology and Karma:
Another insight into Astrology and
Karma from a more devotional view:
Karma and
the vegetarian diet
Vegetarianism and Beyond
- all about karma free eating:
The Cost of Meat - in terms of karma
The universal law of action and reaction:
http://www.iskcon.org/main/twohk/philo/roots/karma.htm
Laws of Nature BBT book ACBSP:
http://www.webcom.com/~ara/col/books/KR/lon.html
Reincarnation pages: by HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad
Karma and Reincarnation from the Himalayan Academy perspective:
Past Life Regression - a look at karma and reincarnation in action:
FREE - Meet Your Meat - the Video on CD-Rom, and links to P.E.T.A.
Karma and Reincarnation - Reincarnation in the Early Church by L Manson (coming soon)
Karma
- The universal law of action and reaction
http://www.iskcon.org/main/twohk/philo/roots/karma.htm
Cause and effect form the basic duality within this material world. Whatever happens has a cause and will cause other effects, both directly and indirectly. Chance doesn't exist. Everything is part of a higher cause-effect structure. Cause and effect refer to the principle of action and reaction. According to the Vedic teachings, this principle applies both on physical and nonphysical levels.
The equation Action = reaction is the basis of Newtonian physics, which restricts this formula to mechanical processes. While Newton denied any possibility of cause- effect without a physical connection, modern quantum physics indicates the universal aspects of the cause-effect principle. Pioneers like David Bohm went so far as to propose the existence of a universal quantum potential field that coordinates a hierarchy of explicit orders and thus allows synchronization of non-local physical events.
These are only abstract ideas, but they show that a closer examination of the complex system of actions and reactions, both on atomic and cosmic levels, will lead us to the conclusion that mere mechanic causality cannot explain everything. This is especially true regarding phenomena like consciousness, life, individuality, and destiny.
The Vedic version is that there is no such thing as chance. Everything happens by the arrangement of higher authorities, also known as "providence." Whatever happens has a cause and a higher purpose. However, the propounders of the materialistic world view strictly deny this. They say that cause and effect is valid within the entire universe, but only on the physical level. Life and consciousness, they say, are the products of atomic combinations under the strict laws of physics (based on causality). But they exclude life and consciousness from causality, saying that they were produced by chance and work by chance. This argument is inconsistent, one- sided, and biased.
Still, it can't be denied that the Vedic idea that nothing happens by chance is difficult for Westerners to accept. If chance doesn't exist, do we mean to say that rapes, murders, car accidents, and concentration camps happen due to predestination, that they had to happen because the causes were set for this effect?
The Vedic view of karma can shed much light on these questions. Karma refutes both the materialistic and fatalistic world view. Karma extends cause and effect from the physical level to the nonphysical levels of consciousness and destiny.
There are many misconceptions about karma. Some Christian critics argue that karma corresponds to the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," which is set up by men and denied by God. Propounders of liberalism say that all human beings have free will, that everybody has to decide for himself what is right or wrong, and that there are no absolute standards such as those suggested by karma. These misconceptions arise from misunderstanding. Let us examine what karma means.
Karma is the Sanskrit word for "action." Since the Sanskrit language is multifaceted, karma means much more than this simple translation. Derived from the root kri "to do, to plan, to execute," karma further means "that which is caused and causing," which suggests that no action is independent. Each action or event is part of a big network of causes and becomes a cause for future reactions or events. This network of karma (action) is coordinated according to the "law of karma" -- the law of action and reaction.
Most misunderstandings are due to the confusion of karma and predestination. Karma is not predestination! The Vedic understanding of karma includes both predestination and free will.
The wrong interpretation of karma can lead to amazing extremes. If you think karma is just predestination, then whatever comes can't be changed and whatever happens was sanctioned by karma. This would allow you to think, "I can exploit others for my purpose, kill them in camps, or enslave them. If I can do it, this means it was their karma, and I am not guilty, because if it wasn't their karma, I couldn't do it. But because I can, I am allowed to do it." There are many beings on Earth and beyond who think like that -- more than most humans imagine.
There are two big mistakes in this logic. First, free will exists, and second, karma is not the supreme law in this creation. Sometimes philosophers consider free will to be the ultimate controlling factor of our destiny, but although this proposition is attractive, it is wrong. The Supreme Lord, Krishna, also has His plan for the creation and sometimes causes gross annihilation of the living beings who have become too sinful and disturbing for the Earth to bear.
To understand the implications of karma, we have to understand the sublime synthesis of predestination and free will. Both aspects exist simultaneously. To conceive of this inconceivable reality, we have to consider both sides of the law of karma: the point of view of action, and the point of view of reaction.
Considering the point of view of reaction, we have to accept that whatever has happened to us was predestined, and it was sanctioned by the universal authority (God, or Vishnu, who as Supersoul is present both within the universe and within the heart of each living entity as the omnipresent witness and the universal memory). Whether we accept this point of view or not, the fact that something happened cannot be changed. We may call it chance or bad or good luck, but then we avoid the lesson that we should learn.
To learn the lesson is important because each situation forces us to react. This leads to the second aspect of karma, the point of view of action. Although the laws of karma set up and predestine the circumstance we are now in, we have free will to decide how to react in each situation. But having free will doesn't make us "free" and independent. Free will means only that we can choose how to act under the influence of a specific set of circumstances; however, we cannot control the results of our actions that come upon us according to the higher law of karma.
Human beings are not restricted to act in a specific manner. They have free will. But with this free will comes responsibility, because the way we act determines the reactions. Thus we are free to choose our future, both individually and collectively. Whatever we do creates a reaction that we must enjoy or suffer. We are constantly receiving the reactions of our previous actions that we created using our free will. Therefore we are responsible for our happiness and distress, and the material nature creates the conditions within which we enjoy or suffer. Collective karma is the aggregate of individual karma. If many people do the same thing or support or tolerate some act, then they are collectively responsible for the results and will get a collective reaction, which can be either good or bad according to the act done.
Although the law of karma is such that we are never a passive victim of predestination, we are also never free from the laws of creation, which are fixed according to the will of the creator. The Supreme Lord also has desires concerning how things shall go on in the material world. He is eager to see the living entities become happy and advance in spiritual knowledge. So sometimes He creates situations and causes things to happen that no one can avoid.
Therefore, the best thing is to live according to the will of the creator.
This is the ultimate responsibility of the human being: to learn that there
is a creator, and to learn how to use everything in harmony with the creator's
will. Then we can become free from the entanglement of the seemingly endless
network of actions and reactions. The science of getting freed from this
material network is described in the Vedic literature and is called yoga.
To understand how to practice yoga, please read the essay entitled Yoga.
© 1997 BBTI, Inc.
Bad Karma For The England Coach: On January 30 this year (1999), Britain woke up to an unusual headline in the news. "Hoddle says disabled are paying for sins of previous life," announced the more serious press, while the tabloids went for variations of "Hoddle goes mad."
The story had made headlines for two reasons: Firstly, the man in question
was
Glenn Hoddle, coach of the England football team, and secondly, his views
were held by
just about all observers to be utterly outrageous. Who did he think he
was to pass such
harsh judgement of a disadvantaged class of people? Did he have no sensitivity?
The
sports minister for Britain, Tony Banks, said Hoddle was 'from another
world.' "I have
listened carefully to Glen Hoddle's views," said Banks. "They are totally
unacceptable. If
his theory is correct, he is in for real problems in the next life. He
will probably be
doomed to come back as Glenn Hoddle."
It had been a fairly innocent statement by the unfortunate Hoddle , made
in the
course of a sports interview. Most of the interview had been about England's
footballing
prospects. But the interviewer, obviously with an eye to a hot story, knew
about
Hoddle's beliefs and questioned him accordingly. When asked about his belief
in karma,
Hoddle replied, "You and I have been physically given two hands and two
legs and
half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason.
The karma is
working from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is
not only people
with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap."
The interviewer had struck gold . That short section of his interview,
cleverly
headlined by him, made the headlines in every other newspaper. For days
afterward a
debate raged. Calls for Hoddle's sacking came from all quarters. Eventually
his
authorities bowed to the pressure and he was forced to resign.
As a believer in karma and reincarnation myself I was angered to see the
reaction
to Hoddle in the media. I felt personally insulted. Amongst a host of other
pejorative
descriptions, Hoddle's beliefs were labelled 'potty', 'crackpot' and 'barmy'.
I was
astonished at the blatant hypocrisy; on the one hand tearing Hoddle to
pieces for his
'slur on the disabled', while at the same time dismissing someone's religious
beliefs as
nonsense.
But what about those beliefs? Are they nonsense? Did Hoddle get it right?
Does the
concept of karma include the idea that those suffering disability are receiving
the results
of former sins? Surely that is a hard pill to swallow for those so afflicted.
Especially, of
course, if one has no belief that there ever was a former life. And even
if there was,
what terrible sins did I commit? Looking around me, I don't see that disabled
folk are any
more 'sinful' than others. Some seem a whole lot more pious.
Who defines sin? Who decides what reaction should follow our actions? Can
it be
changed, or is everything pre-determined? Unless you can answer all these
questions
then your belief in karma and reincarnation will be rather hollow.
Of course, even if he could answer those questions, Hoddle was given little
chance .
After his declaration of faith he was carried by the wave of indignation
to his sure fate.
But if he had been given a fair trial then he could perhaps have called
upon the evidence
of the Bhagavad-gita. It is in this ancient Vedic scripture that the teaching
of karma is
clearly described, and answers to all the above questions are offered.
Followed by hundreds of millions, the Gita is the basis of Hinduism , and
specifically
Vaishnavism, which of course accepts karma and reincarnation as its central
tenet. So
too does Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and a host of other Vedic belief systems
coming out
of the central strand of Hinduism. We're talking about almost half the
world's population
here. Surely then there must be some kind of logic to the belief.
So what does the Gita say? Well, the basic principle that every living
being is an
eternal soul, moving from life to life until it achieves ultimate liberation,
is perhaps
well-known. The Gita helps us to recognise our eternality with a simple
exercise. "As the
soul travels from childhood to youth to old age, it similarly travels to
another body after
death." In other words, reincarnation is taking place at every moment,
not just at
death-the body is constantly changing.
In adulthood we can see that our childhood body has changed completely,
but we
are still the same person . We all know the joke, 'you must have been a
beautiful
baby-but baby what went wrong?' It should thus be obvious that we, the
person, are
different from the body we inhabit. Perhaps also this is where the disabled
can take
some comfort-they know that despite their physical disability they are
no less a person
than anyone else. If a man loses an arm or a leg, he does not feel that
he has become
only three-quarters whole. He is still the same person within. It should
thus be obvious
that the body is not the self.
But now we come to the tricky bit. Why is it that some souls get a body
like, say,
supermodel Pamela Anderson, while others are consigned to a mortal frame
wracked by disease, or even that of a dog, or a worm, or a cockroach? "As
you
sow, so shall you reap", quoted Hoddle , and the Gita does not demur. It
agrees that
all our actions will produce a reaction, good or bad.
But it points out that this is a complex equation. That the "intricacies
of karma are hard
to understand even for the highly learned". In other words, while in principle
it may be
true that our suffering in this life has at its root some mistakes in this
or a former life, it
is more or less impossible to know what those mistakes were or when we
made them -
and it is not very important to know anyway.
In fact the Gita is concerned more with permanently ending all reactions
, whether
so-called good or bad. As we are eternal souls we do not belong in this
world, which is
ultimately only a place of suffering for everyone, whether able-bodied
or otherwise.
The Gita teaches us to get out of the material world . To enter the eternal
spiritual
atmosphere where we really belong, and where suffering does not exist.
And it makes it
clear that this can be achieved by anyone, regardless of their bodily condition.
All souls
are equal, the body is nothing more than the soul's temporary covering.
Perhaps Hoddle understands this well enough, I don't know. But his brief
mention of
karma has certainly given the concept a bad name. That is a shame. For
me at least,
the alternative belief of things just happening by chance, with all its
apparent unfairness
and injustices, is unacceptable. It is a belief in helplessness which can
only lead to
despair. The poor souls suffering in this life are just losers in the great
cosmic lottery.
And if we believe that, then why should we display any compassion or concern?
What
use is it anyway? One man wins and another loses-that's it. It's out of
our control and
happening purely by chance.
Even if we say no, God is there and in control, still our compassion seems
pointless if we
do not accept karma. If God is simply acting whimsically, dishing out misery
without any
rhyme or reason, then what can we do about it? Our attempts to ameliorate
the
situation can be dashed in a moment by this capricious and malevolent God.
If he wants
us to suffer, for whatever unfathomable reason, how will we ever prevent
it?
If we deny karma we are left with frightening alternatives to explain our
misery .
It may be hard to accept, but seeing suffering as the consequences of our
own acts is
the only sensible explanation. And this, after all, is the way we run our
lives. We want
to hold people responsible for their acts. Would we release a criminal
who pleaded, "But
your honour, the knife in my hand stabbed him purely by chance"? Do we
not as parents
constantly tell our children that they must accept the consequences of
their acts? Does
it not therefore make sense that the supreme authority, God, should work
by the same
principle? It seems natural to me that we should be responsible for what
we do.
I was thus surprised to see the hue and cry over Hoddle's statements .
When I
first discovered karma I felt a sense of empowerment. Accepting that my
misery was a
consequence of my own acts made me realise an important fact: I can change
those
consequences. My fate lies entirely in my own hands. I don't need to blame
events
outside my control, or my environment, or other people.
This is the only basis for real compassion . We can only do something to
help a
suffering person when we understand the cause of that suffering. Otherwise,
without
negating the root cause, our attempts to help will at best be makeshift.
Whilst it is fine
to do whatever we can to make life more tolerable for the afflicted, surely
the most
important assistance we can render is to remove the affliction-forever.
For those who are disabled or afflicted in some other way this is a philosophy
of
liberation . My actual identity is different from my external, painful
body. Whatever
mistakes I may have made in the past, which have resulted in my present
condition, I
can now act in ways that will lead to my permanent happiness. No more pain.
That goes
for all of us, disabled or otherwise. Each one of us is suffering one way
or another.
Disease, old age and death will eventually visit us all-followed by another
birth in who
knows what kind of body. But the Gita describes how we can end that cycle
for once
and for all.
I hope that poor Mr Hoddle's abrupt removal from office will at least have
stimulated some deeper thinking about what are, after all, some pretty
deep
concepts. Karma and reincarnation deserve a better press than they have
had of late.
Go to Iskcon Manchester where this page originated:
written by Hinduism Today Newspaper
Posted Sun, 19-Jun-1994 22:49:46 GMT
Karma: We Mold Our Lives Like
a Potter Fashions a Pot
Karma has quite a karma. Long after India's seers immortalized it in the Vedas, it suffered bad press under European missionaries who belittled it as "fate" and "fatalism," and today finds itself again in the ascendancy as the subtle and all-encompassing principle which governs man's experiential universe in a way likened to gravity's governance over the physical plane. Like gravity, karma was always there in its fullest potency, even when people did not comprehend it.
The early seers who brought through the Vedas were practitioners, mystics and divine oracles who put into practice the knowledge of karma. To them, Karma -- from the root kri, "to do" -- was a power by which they could influence the Gods, nature, weather, harvests and enemies through right intent and rites righteously performed. Thus by their actions they could determine their destiny. Through the ages, other realized souls explained the workings of karma, revealing details of this cosmic law and, when the tradition of writing came into vogue, recording it for future generations. In this way they established karma as perhaps the fundamental principle of Hindu consciousness and culture then and now.
Primordial and unborn, karma is anadi, "beginningless." Its Rig Veda definitions are linked to the performance of the homa, the potent fire rite that temporarily opens a window between the three worlds -- physical, subtle and causal. With Sanskrit mantras, mudras and meditative powers, Vedic priests precipitated a flow of shakti from highly evolved souls, Mahadevas, residing in inner worlds, securing the blessings of the Gods, insuring happiness for the clan. Neglecting the rites or misperforming them made negative karma and invited calamity and loss of wealth.
Communities were tight knit, and the clan prospered or suffered collectively. When one person did transgress, elders suspected not so much an individual's willful intent to do malice as malperformance of the homa. The ritual was held responsible for sustaining a spiritual force-field strong enough to ward off demonic entities that torment, confuse and misguide weak individuals. Priests assumed primary responsibility for the well-being of the community.
Indologist Herman W. Hull, author of The Vedic Origins of Karma, writes: "In the context of Vedic ritual thought, good and bad apparently refer to a valuation of action based on ritual exactitude: good being equated with the correct performance of the rite, bad with the incorrect performance." Swami Vivekananda, who spoke and wrote on karma extensively, commented on this understanding of the law: "The Vedic doctrine of karma is the same as in Judaism and all other religions, that is to say, the purification of the mind through sacrifices and such other external means."
The Upanishads (circa 1500-600 bce), the philosophic treatises of the Vedas, show how karma relates to the individual and his or her actions -- with questions of morality, responsibility, reward and retribution. They clearly command the individual to be responsibly concerned about personal conduct and not expect the priesthood alone to secure and safeguard one's karma through the performance of sacred rites. As Sage Yajnavalkya says in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: "What becomes of this man? Indeed, one becomes good by good action and bad by bad action."
Karma in Mystical Vision
The yogis of the ancient Sankhya philosophical system offered a deeply mystical vision. They scrutinized karma to profound levels of magnification and stressed its bearing on the soul of man. What they saw was a plasmic jelly pulsating within the subtle bodies of each person. Embedded in this plasma, which persists from life to life, are the seeds of all past thought and action. In each lifetime, certain of these karmic seeds are released into the nerve system with coded impulsions and tendencies affecting present actions. The effects were most commonly understood to determine three spheres of life: a) jati, family and occupation; b) ayus, health and length of life; c) bhoga, quality and enjoyment of life.
Karma as a Cosmic Building Block
To the rishi seers, karma appeared with such fundamental force and substantive reality that they perceived it as one of the thirty-six primary evolutes of form, called tattvas, which range from Parashakti, pure consciousness, to prithivi tattva, earth. Karma is number eight, called niyati tattva, a spiritual-magnetic energy form. This identification of its magnetic quality is a crucial clue to understanding how karma "comes back," rather than just "goes out." Each karma, or action, generates a vibration, a distinct oscillation of force, a vasana, or subliminal inclination that continues to vibrate in the mind. These vasanas are magnetic conglomerates of subconscious impressions. Like attracts like. Acts of love attract loving acts, malice attracts malice. And each action, karma, continues to attract until demagnetized. This is accomplished through re-experiencing it, or resolving it with understanding -- rather than compounding it with reaction -- or through other subtler spiritual means and practices.
Karma Goes Global
"What goes around comes around," sings country Western singer Willie Nelson. His ballad about "getting back what you give out" dominated US and European radio waves for years and became the West's homespun Upanishad on the Hindu concept of karma. You can hardly watch TV today without a subtle lesson in this cosmic law of cause and effect. Everywhere, karma has squeezed through the white picket fences of non-Hindu religions and irrevocably attached itself to the global ethic emerging worldwide.
But karma has suffered a chronic association with the word fate. Fate is a Western idea, derived largely from the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It means, with wide variation, that one's life has been set by agencies outside oneself. Karma is exactly the opposite. "`It is the coward and the fool who says this is fate,' goes the Sanskrit proverb," said Swami Vivekananda. "But it is the strong man who stands up and says, `I will make my fate.'"
Karma Glossary
karmabhanda: The bonds of actions, i.e., being bound to rebirth.
karmadosha: Sinful work or vice, blunder; evil consequences.
karmadushta: Corrupt in action.
karmaja: Act-born; resulting or produced from an act, good or bad.
karmajiva: Livelihood earned by work, trade, profession.
karmakshaya: Annihilation of work.
karmakshetra: Place of religious acts.
karmanirhara: The removal of bad deeds or their effects.
karmanishtha: Diligent in performing religious actions.
karmapaka: Ripening of acts, matured results of acts of former births.
karmaphala: The fruit of actions.
karmarambha: The commencement of an act.
karmashaya: "Holder of karma." Describes body of the soul.
karmasamya: Equipoise of karma.
karmasiddhi: Successful action.
karmatyaga: Abandoning worldly duties and obligations.
karmavasha: The necessary influence or repercussion of actions.
karmavidhi: Rule of action; mode of conducting ceremonies.
karmayoga: "Union through action;" selfless religious service.
kriyamana karma: Actions being made. Karma being created.
papa: Wickedness, sin, crime. Wrongful action. Demerit from wrongdoing.
prayaschitta: Penance. "Predominant thought or aim; weighing heavily on the mind."
prarabdha karma: Actions set in motion. Sanchita karma released to bear fruit in one's current life.
punya: Holy, virtuous; auspicious. Meritorious action.
sanchita karma: The entirety of all karmas of this life and past lives.
Reference: A Sanskrit English Dictionary, Sir Monier Monier-Williams.
[KARMA is pronounced as "karmuh," the "uh" being subtle.]
For a deeper understanding on Karma, check Karma Yoga.
Copyright (C) 1994, Himalayan Academy, All Rights Reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published for commercial purposes without the prior written authority of Himalayan Academy. [The publisher's request is that the material not be used in magazines or newspapers that are for sale without their permission. Redistribution electronically (for free), photocopying to give to classes or friends, all that is okay.] This copyright notice may NOT be removed, or the articles edited or changed without the prior written authority of Himalayan Academy.
DO BAD THINGS
HAPPEN
TO GOOD PEOPLE?
by Ravindra Swarup dasa
About five years ago, when we were having an altar installed in our new temple, the overseer from the marble company would regularly bring his seven-year-old son along to watch. The boy was very handsome, with jet-black hair and pale skin and long, dark eyelashes. He was well behaved and always seemed in good humor even though he could hardly walk at all. I never saw him take more than a few steps, leaning on a wall and straining his torso with an awkward twisting motion and then swinging forward a leg clamped into a large, clumsy brace.
The boy had been born crippled. While he was cheerful despite that, his father was not. His father was an angry man. "When that boy was born I stopped going to church," he told me once, as he knelt on our altar putting grout between the marble slabs. "I never did anything bad enough to deserve this. Sure, I'm not a saint, but I don't deserve this. And even if I did, what could HE have done?"
The aggrieved father, an unsophisticated marble contractor, was raising a problem that has long preoccupied Western religious thinkers, so much so that it has created a special discipline called THEODICY, a branch of theology concerned with justifying the ways of God to man. Theodicy deals with what is usually called "the problem of evil." St. Augustine cast it into the form of a dilemma: "Either God cannot or God will not eliminate evil from the world. If He cannot, He is not all-powerful; if He will not, He is not all-good." This formulation makes the logic of the problem clear: to show that the existence of a world with evil in it is compatible with the existence of a God who is BOTH all-powerful AND all-good. To deny either one of these attributes would easily explain evil, but orthodox theologians have always considered that unacceptable.
Those who find the problem of evil intractable usually deny the existence of God outright rather than settle for a God limited either in power or goodness. Would such a finite being really qualify to be called "God"? Would he be worthy of our worship?
Although philosophers and theologians have left us a huge body of technical literature on the problem of evil, it is far from a theoretical concern. It is everybody's problem, sooner or later. Suffering is universal. But oddly enough, practically as widespread is the sufferer's feeling that he has been unfairly singled out. From millions comes the outraged cry: "Why ME! What did I do to deserve this?"
It is for such people that Harold S. Kushner, a Massachusetts rabbi, has written his book WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. It is a painfully honest treatment of what the author claims is the one theological issue that reaches folks "where they really care."
Kushner's book grew out of his personal pain; his testimony commands respect. He tells how his son was afflicted from infancy with progeria, a disease that brings on rapid aging, so that Kushner saw the boy grow bald and wrinkled, stooped and frail, until he died of old age in his fourteenth year. Kushner presents the victim's point of view, and he lets us hear the real voices of people in pain. In that stark light, the standard religious justifications for our misfortunes, which Kushner lays out one by one, do indeed seem like facile verbal shuffles that don't take people's suffering seriously but simply try, however lamely, to get God off the hook.
Kushner effectively criticizes the standard answers handed out by priests, ministers, rabbis, and he offers instead his own radically unorthodox solution. His book has been a bestseller for months, and he has attracted a large and grateful following among Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. Indeed, the popularity of his view among members of America's mainstream churches and synagogues suggests something of a grassroots theological rebellion.
The most reprehensible device of theodicy, in Kushner's view, is to remove the blame from God by putting it onto the sufferer, to explain suffering "by assuming that we deserve what we get, that somehow our misfortunes come as punishment for our sins." To accept that bad things happen to us as God's punishment, Kushner says, may help us make sense of the world, give us a compelling reason to be good, and sustain our belief in an all-powerful and just Deity - yet it is not "religiously adequate."
By "religiously adequate" Kushner means "comforting." Seeing suffering as a punishment for sin is not comforting, because it teaches people to blame themselves for their misfortunes, and so creates guilt, and it also "makes people hate God, even as it makes them hate themselves."
Kushner tells us of a couple who blamed their teenage daughter's sudden death on their own failure to observe the prescribed fast on a Jewish holy day: "They sat there feeling that their daughter's death had been their fault; had they been less selfish and less lazy about the Yom Kippur fast some six months earlier, she might still be alive. They sat there angry at God for having exacted His pound of flesh so strictly, but afraid to admit their anger for fear that He would punish them again. Life had hurt them and religion could not comfort them. Religion was making them feel worse."
It is a virtue of Kushner's work to bring up anger at God up front, to talk at length about what few believers have had the courage to admit, even to themselves. Many people must be grateful that someone has recognized their real feelings and has dealt with them openly.
But the worst thing about the belief that our misdeeds cause our misfortunes, says Kushner, is that it doesn't even fit the facts. People do suffer ills they don't deserve; bad things happen to good people all the time. Kushner adamantly maintains this. To the thousands who resent life's unfair treatment, who proclaim in outrage and indignation, "I didn't do anything to deserve this!" Kushner answers, comfortingly, "That's right, you didn't."
And Kushner is not talking about saints, about people who never do wrong. Rather, he wants to know "why ordinary people, nice friendly neighbors, neither extraordinarily good nor extraordinarily bad, should suddenly have to face the agony of pain and tragedy... They are neither much better nor very much worse than most people we know; why should their lives be so much harder?"
Here, tapping into a great psychic underground of resentment, Kushner has found his following. He has been willing to openly acknowledge a vast repressed sense of betrayal, a great silenced accusation that leaks unwillingly from the hearts of the believers and wends its way up to the divine ear as the universal unvoiced antiprayer: "You didn't hold up Your end of the bargain!"
Kushner insists that the innocent suffer, and as conclusive proof he advances that grievance which has been the bane of Judeo-Christian theodicy and which occasioned his own harrowing foray into the problem of evil: the suffering and death of children.
This is what drove the marble contractor to take up atheism, the usual response of those who feel God has failed them. But atheism is the response Kushner wants to prevent with his book. To restore the faith of those who have been spiritually devastated by misfortune, Kushner offers his own story of how he and his wife "managed to go on believing in God and in the world after we had been hurt."
Kushner is indeed convinced that the existence of a God both all-good and all-powerful is incompatible with the evils of our world; yet he wants us to go on believing in God - but not in a God who is all-powerful. God is good, but there are limits to what He can do. God does not want us to suffer; He is as angry and upset at our misfortunes as we are. But He is also helpless.
This is Kushner's credo: "I believe in God," he says, but - "I recognize His limitations." As a result, Kushner tells us in relief, "I no longer hold God responsible for illness, accidents, and natural disasters, because I realize that I gain little and I lose much when I blame God for these things. I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die, for whatever exalted reason."
It is not hard for me to put myself in the place of Kushner or the marble contractor: I have children of my own. I can even understand why, given the kind of religion they know, Kushner can worship only a finite deity, and the marble contractor can't bear to enter a church. Nevertheless, I don't have the problem with God that they do. When bad things happen, I don't find myself calling into question either His power or His goodness.
Of course, I am a devotee of Krsna; my religious convictions are founded upon the Vedic theism revealed in the BHAGAVAD-GITA and the SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM. To espouse those convictions has been viewed by most normal Americans as a radical thing to do. But now we find that many normal Americans are willing to do something that, in its way, is more radical than what I've done. They are abandoning one of the most basic and universal theistic tenets: they are becoming worshipers of God-the-not-almighty.
I want to tell you how we handle the problem of evil. If you, like so many others, are unsatisfied with the standard Judeo-Christian theodicy, perhaps you will consider our Krsna conscious view before following Rabbi Kushner.
In the BHAGAVAD-GITA Krsna explains that you and I, like all living beings, are spiritual entities, souls. We now animate bodies made of matter, but we are not these bodies. Our involvement with matter is unfortunate, for it is the cause of all our suffering. We rightly belong in the spiritual kingdom, where life is eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. There everyone is joyously surrendered to the control of God as they directly serve Him in love. Every action is motivated exclusively by the desire to satisfy God.
But some of us perversely wished God's position for ourselves. We wanted independence so that we could try to enjoy and control others like God does. Yet we cannot, of course, take God's place; He alone has no master. But to grant our desires, God sends us to the material world, where He now controls us indirectly, through His material nature and its laws. Here we can forget God, strive to fulfill OUR desires, and have the illusion of independence.
Yet we are controlled by the laws of nature, and these force us to perpetually inhabit a succession of temporary material bodies. In ignorance, we identify ourselves with each body we enter, and we suffer again and again the pains of birth, old age, disease, and death. Life after life we transmigrate through plant, animal, and human bodies, sometimes on this planet, sometimes on far better ones, sometimes on far worse.
Once we take a human birth, our destiny is shaped by KARMA. In the BHAGAVAD- GITA (8.3) Krsna succintly defines KARMA as "actions pertaining to the development of material bodies." This means that there are actions we do now that determine our future material bodies. What kind of actions? Those motivated by material desire. We may do them directly for ourselves or indirectly for our extended self - our family, friends, community, nation, and the like. All such acts sentence us to future births in the material world, there to reap what we have sown.
KARMA is of two kinds: good and bad. Every civilized society recognizes a set of commandments that have divine authority and that regulate material enjoyment. Such commandments, for example, restrict the enjoyment of sex to marital relations and oblige the wealthy to be philantropic. They also encourage religious and charitable acts, which earn the performer merit. And they prescribe atonements for transgressors. Thus people are allowed to pursue material enjoyment, but they must observe moral and religious codes. And those who follow these codes, who live pious lives of restricted sensual pleasure, are assured of even greater enjoyment in the life to come.
If we act according to scriptural regulations, the VEDAS tell us, we will produce good KARMA and in future births enjoy the benefits of our piety. For example, if a person is born in an aristocratic family, is beautiful, well educated, or very wealthy, he is reaping the benefits of good KARMA. The VEDAS also tell us that if a person is extraordinarily pious he may be reborn on one of the higher planets in this universe, where the standard of sensual pleasure is far greater than anything we have on earth.
Conversely, there is bad KARMA. We create bad KARMA when we disregard scriptural injunctions and restrictions in our pursuit of sensual pleasure - that is, when we act sinfully. Bad KARMA brings us suffering and misfortune, such as birth in a degraded family, poverty, chronic disease, legal problems, or physical ugliness. Exceptionally bad KARMA will take us into animal bodies or down to lower planets of hellish torment.
The law of KARMA is as strict, relentless, and impartial as the grosser natural laws of motion and gravity. And, like them, it applies to us whether we know about it or not. For example, if I eat the flesh of animals even though I can live as well without it, my bad KARMA will force me to be born as an animal and to be slaughtered myself. Or if I arrange to have a child killed in the womb, I simultaneously arrange for myself to be killed in the same way, again and again, without ever seeing the light of day.
So when you and I were born we inherited, along with our blue eyes or our black hair, the consequences of our past good and bad deeds. We have a long history, and the happiness and distress our lives will bring is set. We are indeed children of destiny, hostages to fortune, but it is a destiny we created for ourselves, a fortune self-made. And in this life we are continuing to create our future.
But of all this Kushner is unaware, and he can make no sense of his suffering. He has the unshakable conviction that God owes him an agreable and happy life, that God is obliged to arrange matters for his satisfaction. But God fails, bringing on Kushner's crisis of faith. It can only be that God is either bad or weak, Kushner reasons, and then settles for weakness.
Yet in spite of Kushner, God is both all-good and all-powerful. But He does not engineer our suffering - we do. We are the authors of our KARMA. And it is our decision, not His, that brings us down into the material world, into the realm of suffering.
So the answer to the question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" is "They don't." All of us here in the material world are - how shall I put it? - NOT OF THE BEST SORT. Reprobates and scapegraces - each of us persona non grata in the kingdom of God. We are sent here because we seek a life independent of God, and He grants our desire as far as possible. But since His position is already taken, we can only play at being God while deceiving ourselves that we are independent of Him.
At the same time, the material world reform us, teaches us through reward and punishment to acknowledge God's supreme position. For by natural law we are rationed out the pleasures we desire according to our observance of the divine regulations, following the ways of good KARMA. The practice of good KARMA, then, amounts to a materially motivated religion, an observance of God's orders on the inducement of material reward. By this practice, spanning many lifetimes, I may, it is hoped, become habituated to following God's commands and reconciled to His supremacy. Thereupon I become eligible at last to take up the pure and eternal religion, in which, completely free from all material desires, I serve God in loving devotion, asking nothing in return. This religion, called BHAKTI in the VEDAS, causes my return to the kingdom of God. The acts of BHAKTI are KARMA-less: they produce no future material births, good or bad.
From the VEDAS, then, we learn of two clearly distinct religions, one pure and the other impure. Practicing good KARMA can elevate us in the material world, secure for us a vast life span on heavenly planets, and so on. In other words, it can make us first-class inmates of the material world. But BHAKTI alone can release us from the prison altogether. Even the best KARMA cannot free us from suffering, as Krsna warns in the BHAGAVAD-GITA (8.16): "From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery where repeated birth and death take place." But BHAKTI destroys all karmic reaction, extirpates all material desires, revives our pure love for God, and delivers us beyond birth and death to His abode. There we never taste temporary, material pleasure but rather relish eternal, spiritual bliss by serving Krsna and thus joining in HIS bliss.
It is a signal of virtue of the Vedic tradition that it distinguishes so clearly between the religion of good KARMA and the religion of BHAKTI and offers BHAKTI purely, without compromise. Most of us, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Jew, have been taught a kind of common karmic religion: God has put us on this earth to enjoy ourselves, and if we do so within the ordained limits, not forgetting to show God gratitude and proper respect, He will see to our success. We should ask God to meet our needs and fulfill our lawful desires, for He is the greatest order supplier. If we are observant and good, He will reward us well in this life and even better in the next.
This is the religion Kushner professed: "Like most people, my wife and I had grown up with an image of God as an all-wise, all-powerful parent figure who would treat us as our earthly parents did, or even better. If we were obedient and deserving, He would reward us. If we got out of line, He would discipline us, reluctantly but firmly. He would protect us from being hurt or from hurting ourselves, and would see to it that we got what we deserved in life."
Of course, Kushner begins to reconsider his religion when he discovers that it doesn't work. At this point, most people (like the marble contractor) become atheists. The idea of God as order supplier is thus responsible for a great deal of unbelief. But Kushner wants to preserve his faith in God, or at least in God's goodness, by denying His power.
Kushner's chief defense of his position is that it is "religiously adequate," that is, comforting. You will recall that he accused conventional theodicy of making people feel worse - causing them to feel guilty and to hate God. The explanation of suffering I have presented shouldn't make anyone feel worse. True, it says that we cause our own suffering, yet the point is not to make us feel guilty. The point is to let us know we've made some mistakes and should correct them. And why should we resent God for our suffering? Suffering comes by the law of KARMA. But KARMA is the impartial working of causal law.
Hostility toward God is what has put us under that law; it certainly won't help us get out. For His part, God is making every effort to get us out: He comes to this world from time to time to teach the path of BHAKTI, which will destroy all our KARMA, He sends His representatives throughout the world on the same mission, and He even stays with us as the indwelling Supersoul during our sojourn in the material world, ready to give us the intelligence to approach Him when we put aside our ancient enmity.
Kushner has the right instincts: he too would like people to cease their enmity toward God, and he even recognizes the ignobility of worshiping Him on the condition that He satisfy our demands. But if only we recognize God's limitations, he says, we won't be angry at Him when things go wrong in our life, nor will we worship Him for the satisfaction of our desires. Kushner thus urges the religious adequacy of his own theodicy.
But it is far from adequate. Kushner's problem is that he cannot overcome the conditioning of karmic religion. He needs something more spiritually powerful than good instincts to free him from the implicit hostility toward God, the unconscious, deep-seated unwillingness to serve Him unconditionally, that binds the conditioned soul to KARMA.
Kushner is still hostile. Because God did not satisfy his demands, Kushner must think of Him as ineffectual and weak. Kushner once thought of God as a parent who always gratifies our desires. But now Kushner's views Him as needing our forgiveness - for having failed as a parent: "Are you capable of forgiving and loving God even when you have found out that He is not perfect, even when He has let you down and disappointed you by permitting bad luck and sickness and cruelty in His world, and permitting some of those things to happen to you? Can you learn to love and forgive Him despite His limitations... as you once learned to forgive and love your parents even though they were not as wise, as strong, or as perfect as you needed them to be?"
Kushner asserts that his hostility toward God is no more, but what he has really done is simply change the form in which it is expressed - from rage to condescension. And this idea of God will only support our unwillingness to acknowledge His supremacy, and thus it will help keep us in the material world, where we will continue to suffer. Thus Kushner's theodicy will not make us feel better; it will only make us feel worse.
Furthermore, if we think God weak and ineffectual, it is certain that we will not be able to surrender to Him fully and serve Him without any personal consideration. The condition that makes such service and surrender possible is His promise of complete protection. "Declare it boldly," Krsna tells His disciple Arjuna, "My devotee never perishes." (Bg. 9.31) Because we can depend upon God completely, we can surrender to Him completely: "Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Therefore you have nothing to fear." (Bg. 18.66)
If we accept Kushner, we will always have to look out for ourselves; we will have to act for our own sake, and so we will remain involved with KARMA. Our service to God will never be total and unconditional. Indeed, as long as we insist on taking care of ourselves, God will leave us to our own devices.
But if we accept Krsna, if we give up independent action and depend completely on God, devoting all our effort to His service, He will take complete care of us. We shouldn't expect God to remove all inconvenience, but if difficulty comes we should simply tolerate it, recognizing that our residual bad KARMA is playing itself out, and continue to expect God's mercy.
God will minimize the karmic reaction due us, but the ultimate way He protects us is by bestowing spiritual consciousness upon us and destroying the ignorance by which we identify ourselves with matter. Krsna describes that consciousness in the BHAGAVAD-GITA (6.22-23): "In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses... Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken even in the midst of the greatest difficulty. This, indeed, is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact." God frees us not so that we can goof off, not so we can get some "reward," but so that we can serve Him wholeheartedly, without any other concern.
So if we accept Krsna, we can solve the problem of evil. That solution doesn't lie in rejecting either the goodness or the power of God, but rather in taking advantage of that goodness and power to perform pure devotional service - and in that way end all our suffering forever.
A seminar given at London's Bhaktivedanta Manor on November 13, 2000.
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Vikarma - action with bad or binding reaction:
Akarma - action without reaction:
Bhagavad Gita 3.1
arjuna uväca
jyäyasé cet karmaëas
te
matä buddhir janärdana
tat kià karmaëi ghore
mäà
niyojayasi keçava
SYNONYMS
arjunaù uväca—Arjuna
said; jyäyasé—better; cet—if; karmaëaù—than fruitive
action; te—by You; matä—is considered; buddhiù—intelligence;
janärdana—O Kåñëa; tat—therefore; kim—why; karmaëi—in
action; ghore—ghastly; mäm—me; niyojayasi—You are engaging; keçava—O
Kåñëa.
TRANSLATION
Arjuna said: O Janärdana, O
Keçava, why do You want to engage me in this ghastly warfare, if
You think that intelligence is better than fruitive work?
PURPORT
The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Çré Kåñëa has very elaborately described
the constitution of the soul in the previous chapter, with a view to delivering
His intimate friend Arjuna from the ocean of material grief. And the path
of realization has been recommended: buddhi-yoga, or Kåñëa
consciousness. Sometimes Kåñëa consciousness is misunderstood
to be inertia, and one with such a misunderstanding often withdraws to
a secluded place to become fully Kåñëa conscious by chanting
the holy name of Lord Kåñëa. But without being trained
in the philosophy of Kåñëa consciousness, it is not advisable
to chant the holy name of Kåñëa in a secluded place,
where one may acquire only cheap adoration from the innocent public. Arjuna
also thought of Kåñëa consciousness or buddhi-yoga, or
intelligence in spiritual advancement of knowledge, as something like retirement
from active life and the practice of penance and austerity at a secluded
place. In other words, he wanted to skillfully avoid the fighting by using
Kåñëa consciousness as an excuse. But as a sincere student,
he placed the matter before his master and questioned Kåñëa
as to his best course of action. In answer, Lord Kåñëa
elaborately explained karma-yoga, or work in Kåñëa consciousness,
in this Third Chapter.
Bg 3.2
vyämiçreëeva väkyena
buddhià mohayaséva
me
tad ekaà vada niçcitya
yena çreyo ’ham äpnuyäm
SYNONYMS
vyämiçreëa—by equivocal;
iva—certainly; väkyena—words; buddhim—intelligence; mohayasi—You are
bewildering; iva—certainly; me—my; tat—therefore; ekam—only one; vada—please
tell; niçcitya—ascertaining; yena—by which; çreyaù—real
benefit; aham—I; äpnuyäm—may have.
TRANSLATION
My intelligence is bewildered by
Your equivocal instructions. Therefore, please tell me decisively which
will be most beneficial for me.
PURPORT
In the previous chapter, as a prelude
to the Bhagavad-gétä, many different paths were explained,
such as säìkhya-yoga, buddhi-yoga, control of the senses by
intelligence, work without fruitive desire, and the position of the neophyte.
This was all presented unsystematically. A more organized outline of the
path would be necessary for action and understanding. Arjuna, therefore,
wanted to clear up these apparently confusing matters so that any common
man could accept them without misinterpretation. Although Kåñëa
had no intention of confusing Arjuna by any jugglery of words, Arjuna could
not follow the process of Kåñëa consciousness—either
by inertia or by active service. In other words, by his questions he is
clearing the path of Kåñëa consciousness for all students
who seriously want to understand the mystery of the Bhagavad-gétä.
Bg 3.3
çré-bhagavän uväca
loke ’smin dvi-vidhä niñöhä
purä proktä mayänagha
jïäna-yogena säìkhyänäà
karma-yogena yoginäm
SYNONYMS
çré-bhagavän
uväca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; loke—in the world;
asmin—this; dvi-vidhä—two kinds of; niñöhä—faith;
purä—formerly; proktä—were said; mayä—by Me; anagha—O sinless
one; jïäna-yogena—by the linking process of knowledge; säìkhyänäm—of
the empiric philosophers; karma-yogena—by the linking process of devotion;
yoginäm—of the devotees.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme Personality of Godhead
said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two classes
of men who try to realize the self. Some are inclined to understand it
by empirical, philosophical speculation, and others by devotional service.
PURPORT
In the Second Chapter, verse 39,
the Lord explained two kinds of procedures—namely säìkhya-yoga
and karma-yoga, or buddhi-yoga. In this verse, the Lord explains the same
more clearly. Säìkhya-yoga, or the analytical study of the
nature of spirit and matter, is the subject matter for persons who are
inclined to speculate and understand things by experimental knowledge and
philosophy. The other class of men work in Kåñëa consciousness,
as it is explained in the 61st verse of the Second Chapter. The Lord has
explained, also in the 39th verse, that by working by the principles of
buddhi-yoga, or Kåñëa consciousness, one can be relieved
from the bonds of action; and, furthermore, there is no flaw in the process.
The same principle is more clearly explained in the 61st verse—that this
buddhi-yoga is to depend entirely on the Supreme (or more specifically,
on Kåñëa), and in this way all the senses can be brought
under control very easily. Therefore, both the yogas are interdependent,
as religion and philosophy. Religion without philosophy is sentiment, or
sometimes fanaticism, while philosophy without religion is mental speculation.
The ultimate goal is Kåñëa, because the philosophers
who are also sincerely searching after the Absolute Truth come in the end
to Kåñëa consciousness. This is also stated in the Bhagavad-gétä.
The whole process is to understand the real position of the self in relation
to the Superself. The indirect process is philosophical speculation, by
which, gradually, one may come to the point of Kåñëa
consciousness; and the other process is directly connecting with everything
in Kåñëa consciousness. Of these two, the path of Kåñëa
consciousness is better because it does not depend on purifying the senses
by a philosophical process. Kåñëa consciousness is itself
the purifying process, and by the direct method of devotional service it
is simultaneously easy and sublime.
Bg 3.4
na karmaëäm anärambhän
naiñkarmyaà puruño
’çnute
na ca sannyasanäd eva
siddhià samadhigacchati
SYNONYMS
na—not; karmaëäm—of prescribed
duties; anärambhät—by nonperformance; naiñkarmyam—freedom
from reaction; puruñaù—a man; açnute—achieves; na—nor;
ca—also; sannyasanät—by renunciation; eva—simply; siddhim—success;
samadhigacchati—attains.
TRANSLATION
Not by merely abstaining from work
can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one
attain perfection.
PURPORT
The renounced order of life can
be accepted when one has been purified by the discharge of the prescribed
form of duties which are laid down just to purify the hearts of materialistic
men. Without purification, one cannot attain success by abruptly adopting
the fourth order of life (sannyäsa). According to the empirical philosophers,
simply by adopting sannyäsa, or retiring from fruitive activities,
one at once becomes as good as Näräyaëa. But Lord Kåñëa
does not approve this principle. Without purification of heart, sannyäsa
is simply a disturbance to the social order. On the other hand, if someone
takes to the transcendental service of the Lord, even without discharging
his prescribed duties, whatever he may be able to advance in the cause
is accepted by the Lord (buddhi-yoga). Sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya träyate
mahato bhayät. Even a slight performance of such a principle enables
one to overcome great difficulties.
Bg 3.5
na hi kaçcit kñaëam
api
jätu tiñöhaty akarma-kåt
käryate hy avaçaù
karma
sarvaù prakåti-jair
guëaiù
SYNONYMS
na—nor; hi—certainly; kaçcit—anyone;
kñaëam—a moment; api—also; jätu—at any time; tiñöhati—remains;
akarma-kåt—without doing something; käryate—is forced to do;
hi—certainly; avaçaù—helplessly; karma—work; sarvaù—all;
prakåti-jaiù—born of the modes of material nature; guëaiù—by
the qualities.
TRANSLATION
Everyone is forced to act helplessly
according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature;
therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.
PURPORT
It is not a question of embodied
life, but it is the nature of the soul to be always active. Without the
presence of the spirit soul, the material body cannot move. The body is
only a dead vehicle to be worked by the spirit soul, which is always active
and cannot stop even for a moment. As such, the spirit soul has to be engaged
in the good work of Kåñëa consciousness, otherwise it
will be engaged in occupations dictated by illusory energy. In contact
with material energy, the spirit soul acquires material modes, and to purify
the soul from such affinities it is necessary to engage in the prescribed
duties enjoined in the çästras. But if the soul is engaged
in his natural function of Kåñëa consciousness, whatever
he is able to do is good for him. The Çrémad-Bhägavatam
(1.5.17) affirms this:
tyaktvä sva-dharmaà caraëämbujaà
harer
bhajann apakvo ’tha patet tato yadi
yatra kva väbhadram abhüd
amuñya kià
ko värtha äpto ’bhajatäà
sva-dharmataù
“If someone takes to Kåñëa consciousness, even though he may not follow the prescribed duties in the çästras or execute the devotional service properly, and even though he may fall down from the standard, there is no loss or evil for him. But if he carries out all the injunctions for purification in the çästras, what does it avail him if he is not Kåñëa conscious?” So the purificatory process is necessary for reaching this point of Kåñëa consciousness. Therefore, sannyäsa, or any purificatory process, is to help reach the ultimate goal of becoming Kåñëa conscious, without which everything is considered a failure.
Bg 3.6
karmendriyäëi saàyamya
ya äste manasä smaran
indriyärthän vimüòhätmä
mithyäcäraù sa
ucyate
SYNONYMS
karma-indriyäëi—the five
working sense organs; saàyamya—controlling; yaù—anyone who;
äste—remains; manasä—by the mind; smaran—thinking of; indriya-arthän—sense
objects; vimüòha—foolish; ätmä—soul; mithyä-äcäraù—pretender;
saù—he; ucyate—is called.
TRANSLATION
One who restrains the senses of
action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself
and is called a pretender.
PURPORT
There are many pretenders who refuse
to work in Kåñëa consciousness but make a show of meditation,
while actually dwelling within the mind upon sense enjoyment. Such pretenders
may also speak on dry philosophy in order to bluff sophisticated followers,
but according to this verse these are the greatest cheaters. For sense
enjoyment one can act in any capacity of the social order, but if one follows
the rules and regulations of his particular status, he can make gradual
progress in purifying his existence. But he who makes a show of being a
yogé while actually searching for the objects of sense gratification
must be called the greatest cheater, even though he sometimes speaks of
philosophy. His knowledge has no value, because the effects of such a sinful
man’s knowledge are taken away by the illusory energy of the Lord. Such
a pretender’s mind is always impure, and therefore his show of yogic meditation
has no value whatsoever.
Bg 3.7
yas tv indriyäëi manasä
niyamyärabhate ’rjuna
karmendriyaiù karma-yogam
asaktaù sa viçiñyate
SYNONYMS
yaù—one who; tu—but; indriyäëi—the
senses; manasä—by the mind; niyamya—regulating; ärabhate—begins;
arjuna—O Arjuna; karma-indriyaiù—by the active sense organs; karma-yogam—devotion;
asaktaù—without attachment; saù—he; viçiñyate—is
by far the better.
TRANSLATION
On the other hand, if a sincere
person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-yoga
[in Kåñëa consciousness] without attachment, he is by
far superior.
PURPORT
Instead of becoming a pseudo transcendentalist
for the sake of wanton living and sense enjoyment, it is far better to
remain in one’s own business and execute the purpose of life, which is
to get free from material bondage and enter into the kingdom of God. The
prime svärtha-gati, or goal of self-interest, is to reach Viñëu.
The whole institution of varëa and äçrama is designed
to help us reach this goal of life. A householder can also reach this destination
by regulated service in Kåñëa consciousness. For self-realization,
one can live a controlled life, as prescribed in the çästras,
and continue carrying out his business without attachment, and in that
way make progress. A sincere person who follows this method is far better
situated than the false pretender who adopts show-bottle spiritualism to
cheat the innocent public. A sincere sweeper in the street is far better
than the charlatan meditator who meditates only for the sake of making
a living.
Bg 3.8
niyataà kuru karma tvaà
karma jyäyo hy akarmaëaù
çaréra-yäträpi
ca te
na prasiddhyed akarmaëaù
SYNONYMS
niyatam—prescribed; kuru—do; karma—duties;
tvam—you; karma—work; jyäyaù—better; hi—certainly; akarmaëaù—than
no work; çaréra—bodily; yäträ—maintenance; api—even;
ca—also; te—your; na—never; prasiddhyet—is effected; akarmaëaù—without
work.
TRANSLATION
Perform your prescribed duty, for
doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical
body without work.
PURPORT
There are many pseudo meditators
who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional
men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake
of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Kåñëa did not
want Arjuna to become a pretender. Rather, the Lord desired that Arjuna
perform his prescribed duties as set forth for kñatriyas. Arjuna
was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for
him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for
the householder kñatriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the
heart of a mundane man and free him from material contamination. So-called
renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord,
nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one’s body
and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously,
without purification of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the
material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording
it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratification. Such
polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed
duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist,
renouncing work and living at the cost of others.
Bg 3.9
yajïärthät karmaëo
’nyatra
loko ’yaà karma-bandhanaù
tad-arthaà karma kaunteya
mukta-saìgaù samäcara
SYNONYMS
yajïa-arthät—done only
for the sake of Yajïa, or Viñëu; karmaëaù—than
work; anyatra—otherwise; lokaù—world; ayam—this; karma-bandhanaù—bondage
by work; tat—of Him; artham—for the sake; karma—work; kaunteya—O son of
Kunté; mukta-saìgaù—liberated from association; samäcara—do
perfectly.
TRANSLATION
Work done as a sacrifice for Viñëu
has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this material world.
Therefore, O son of Kunté, perform your prescribed duties for His
satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.
PURPORT
Since one has to work even for the
simple maintenance of the body, the prescribed duties for a particular
social position and quality are so made that that purpose can be fulfilled.
Yajïa means Lord Viñëu, or sacrificial performances. All
sacrificial performances also are meant for the satisfaction of Lord Viñëu.
The Vedas enjoin: yajïo vai viñëuù. In other words,
the same purpose is served whether one performs prescribed yajïas
or directly serves Lord Viñëu. Kåñëa consciousness
is therefore performance of yajïa as it is prescribed in this verse.
The varëäçrama institution also aims at satisfying Lord
Viñëu. Varëäçramäcäravatä puruñeëa
paraù pumän/ viñëur ärädhyate (Viñëu
Puräëa 3.8.8).
Therefore one has to work for the
satisfaction of Viñëu. Any other work done in this material
world will be a cause of bondage, for both good and evil work have their
reactions, and any reaction binds the performer. Therefore, one has to
work in Kåñëa consciousness to satisfy Kåñëa
(or Viñëu); and while performing such activities one is in
a liberated stage. This is the great art of doing work, and in the beginning
this process requires very expert guidance. One should therefore act very
diligently, under the expert guidance of a devotee of Lord Kåñëa,
or under the direct instruction of Lord Kåñëa Himself
(under whom Arjuna had the opportunity to work). Nothing should be performed
for sense gratification, but everything should be done for the satisfaction
of Kåñëa. This practice will not only save one from the
reaction of work, but also gradually elevate one to transcendental loving
service of the Lord, which alone can raise one to the kingdom of God.
Bg 3.10
saha-yajïäù prajäù
såñövä
puroväca prajäpatiù
anena prasaviñyadhvam
eña vo ’stv iñöa-käma-dhuk
SYNONYMS
saha—along with; yajïäù—sacrifices;
prajäù—generations; såñövä—creating;
purä—anciently; uväca—said; prajä-patiù—the Lord
of creatures; anena—by this; prasaviñyadhvam—be more and more prosperous;
eñaù—this; vaù—your; astu—let it be; iñöa—of
all desirable things; käma-dhuk—bestower.
TRANSLATION
In the beginning of creation, the
Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along
with sacrifices for Viñëu, and blessed them by saying, “Be
thou happy by this yajïa [sacrifice] because its performance will
bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”
PURPORT
The material creation by the Lord
of creatures (Viñëu) is a chance offered to the conditioned
souls to come back home—back to Godhead. All living entities within the
material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness
of their relationship to Viñëu, or Kåñëa,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us
understand this eternal relation, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gétä:
vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyaù. The Lord says that the
purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said:
patià viçvasyätmeçvaram. Therefore, the Lord
of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viñëu.
In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam also (2.4.20) Çréla
Çukadeva Gosvämé describes the Lord as pati in so many
ways:
çriyaù patir yajïa-patiù
prajä-patir
dhiyäà patir loka-patir
dharä-patiù
patir gatiç cändhaka-våñëi-sätvatäà
prasédatäà me
bhagavän satäà patiù
The prajä-pati is Lord Viñëu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajïas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Viñëu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajïa, the conditioned souls gradually become Kåñëa conscious and become godly in all respects. In the Age of Kali, the saìkértana-yajïa (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Saìkértana-yajïa and Kåñëa consciousness go well together. Lord Kåñëa in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Çrémad-Bhägavatam (11.5.32) as follows, with special reference to the saìkértana-yajïa:
kåñëa-varëaà
tviñäkåñëaà
säìgopäìgästra-pärñadam
yajïaiù saìkértana-präyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaù
“In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of saìkértana-yajïa.” Other yajïas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this Age of Kali, but the saìkértana-yajïa is easy and sublime for all purposes, as recommended in Bhagavad-gétä also (9.14).
Bg 3.11
devän bhävayatänena
te devä bhävayantu vaù
parasparaà bhävayantaù
çreyaù param aväpsyatha
SYNONYMS
devän—demigods; bhävayatä—having
pleased; anena—by this sacrifice; te—those; deväù—demigods;
bhävayantu—will please; vaù—you; parasparam—mutually; bhävayantaù—pleasing
one another; çreyaù—benediction; param—the supreme; aväpsyatha—you
will achieve.
TRANSLATION
The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices,
will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods,
prosperity will reign for all.
PURPORT
The demigods are empowered administrators
of material affairs. The supply of air, light, water and all other benedictions
for maintaining the body and soul of every living entity is entrusted to
the demigods, who are innumerable assistants in different parts of the
body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their pleasures and displeasures
are dependent on the performance of yajïas by the human being. Some
of the yajïas are meant to satisfy particular demigods; but even in
so doing, Lord Viñëu is worshiped in all yajïas as the
chief beneficiary. It is stated also in the Bhagavad-gétä that
Kåñëa Himself is the beneficiary of all kinds of yajïas:
bhoktäraà yajïa-tapasäm. Therefore, ultimate satisfaction
of the yajïa-pati is the chief purpose of all yajïas. When these
yajïas are perfectly performed, naturally the demigods in charge of
the different departments of supply are pleased, and there is no scarcity
in the supply of natural products.
Performance of yajïas has many
side benefits, ultimately leading to liberation from material bondage.
By performance of yajïas, all activities become purified, as it is
stated in the Vedas: ähära-çuddhau sattva-çuddhiù
sattva-çuddhau dhruvä småtiù småti-lambhe
sarvagranthénäà vipramokñaù. By performance
of yajïa one’s eatables become sanctified, and by eating sanctified
foodstuffs one’s very existence becomes purified; by the purification of
existence finer tissues in the memory become sanctified, and when memory
is sanctified one can think of the path of liberation, and all these combined
together lead to Kåñëa consciousness, the great necessity
of present-day society.
Bg 3.12
iñöän bhogän
hi vo devä
däsyante yajïa-bhävitäù
tair dattän apradäyaibhyo
yo bhuìkte stena eva saù
SYNONYMS
iñöän—desired;
bhogän—necessities of life; hi—certainly; vaù—unto you; deväù—the
demigods; däsyante—will award; yajïa-bhävitäù—being
satisfied by the performance of sacrifices; taiù—by them; dattän—things
given; apradäya—without offering; ebhyaù—to these demigods;
yaù—he who; bhuìkte—enjoys; stenaù—thief; eva—certainly;
saù—he.
TRANSLATION
In charge of the various necessities
of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance of yajïa
[sacrifice], will supply all necessities to you. But he who enjoys such
gifts without offering them to the demigods in return is certainly a thief.
PURPORT
The demigods are authorized supplying
agents on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viñëu.
Therefore, they must be satisfied by the performance of prescribed yajïas.
In the Vedas, there are different kinds of yajïas prescribed for different
kinds of demigods, but all are ultimately offered to the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. For one who cannot understand what the Personality of Godhead
is, sacrifice to the demigods is recommended. According to the different
material qualities of the persons concerned, different types of yajïas
are recommended in the Vedas. Worship of different demigods is also on
the same basis—namely, according to different qualities. For example, the
meat-eaters are recommended to worship the goddess Kälé, the
ghastly form of material nature, and before the goddess the sacrifice of
animals is recommended. But for those who are in the mode of goodness,
the transcendental worship of Viñëu is recommended. But ultimately
all yajïas are meant for gradual promotion to the transcendental position.
For ordinary men, at least five yajïas, known as païca-mahä-yajïa,
are necessary.
One should know, however, that all
the necessities of life that the human society requires are supplied by
the demigod agents of the Lord. No one can manufacture anything. Take,
for example, all the eatables of human society. These eatables include
grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, sugar, etc., for the persons in the mode
of goodness, and also eatables for the nonvegetarians, like meats, none
of which can be manufactured by men. Then again, take for example heat,
light, water, air, etc., which are also necessities of life—none of them
can be manufactured by the human society. Without the Supreme Lord, there
can be no profuse sunlight, moonlight, rainfall, breeze, etc., without
which no one can live. Obviously, our life is dependent on supplies from
the Lord. Even for our manufacturing enterprises, we require so many raw
materials like metal, sulphur, mercury, manganese, and so many essentials—all
of which are supplied by the agents of the Lord, with the purpose that
we should make proper use of them to keep ourselves fit and healthy for
the purpose of self-realization, leading to the ultimate goal of life,
namely, liberation from the material struggle for existence. This aim of
life is attained by performance of yajïas. If we forget the purpose
of human life and simply take supplies from the agents of the Lord for
sense gratification and become more and more entangled in material existence,
which is not the purpose of creation, certainly we become thieves, and
therefore we are punished by the laws of material nature. A society of
thieves can never be happy, because they have no aim in life. The gross
materialist thieves have no ultimate goal of life. They are simply directed
to sense gratification; nor do they have knowledge of how to perform yajïas.
Lord Caitanya, however, inaugurated the easiest performance of yajïa,
namely the saìkértana-yajïa, which can be performed
by anyone in the world who accepts the principles of Kåñëa
consciousness.
Bg 3.13
yajïa-çiñöäçinaù
santo
mucyante sarva-kilbiñaiù
bhuïjate te tv aghaà
päpä
ye pacanty ätma-käraëät
SYNONYMS
yajïa-çiñöa—of
food taken after performance of yajïa; açinaù—eaters;
santaù—the devotees; mucyante—get relief; sarva—all kinds of; kilbiñaiù—from
sins; bhuïjate—enjoy; te—they; tu—but; agham—grievous sins; päpäù—sinners;
ye—who; pacanti—prepare food; ätma-käraëät—for sense
enjoyment.
TRANSLATION
The devotees of the Lord are released
from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for
sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily
eat only sin.
PURPORT
The devotees of the Supreme Lord,
or the persons who are in Kåñëa consciousness, are called
santas, and they are always in love with the Lord as it is described in
the Brahma-saàhitä (5.38): premäïjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaù sadaiva hådayeñu vilokayanti. The santas, being
always in a compact of love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda
(the giver of all pleasures), or Mukunda (the giver of liberation), or
Kåñëa (the all-attractive person), cannot accept anything
without first offering it to the Supreme Person. Therefore, such devotees
always perform yajïas in different modes of devotional service, such
as çravaëam, kértanam, smaraëam, arcanam, etc.,
and these performances of yajïas keep them always aloof from all kinds
of contamination of sinful association in the material world. Others, who
prepare food for self or sense gratification, are not only thieves but
also the eaters of all kinds of sins. How can a person be happy if he is
both a thief and sinful? It is not possible. Therefore, in order for people
to become happy in all respects, they must be taught to perform the easy
process of saìkértana-yajïa, in full Kåñëa
consciousness. Otherwise, there can be no peace or happiness in the world.
Bg 3.14
annäd bhavanti bhütäni
parjanyäd anna-sambhavaù
yajïäd bhavati parjanyo
yajïaù karma-samudbhavaù
SYNONYMS
annät—from grains; bhavanti—grow;
bhütäni—the material bodies; parjanyät—from rains; anna—of
food grains; sambhavaù—production; yajïät—from the performance
of sacrifice; bhavati—becomes possible; parjanyaù—rain; yajïaù—performance
of yajïa; karma—prescribed duties; samudbhavaù—born of.
TRANSLATION
All living bodies subsist on food
grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance
of yajïa [sacrifice], and yajïa is born of prescribed duties.
PURPORT
Çréla Baladeva Vidyäbhüñaëa,
a great commentator on the Bhagavad-gétä, writes as follows:
ye indrädy-aìgatayävasthitaà yajïaà
sarveçvaraà viñëum abhyarcya tac-cheñam
açnanti tena tad deha-yäträà sampädayanti,
te santaù sarveçvarasya yajïa-puruñasya bhaktäù
sarva-kilbiñair anädi-käla-vivåddhair ätmänubhava-prati
bandhakair nikhilaiù päpair vimucyante. The Supreme Lord, who
is known as the yajïa-puruña, or the personal beneficiary of
all sacrifices, is the master of all the demigods, who serve Him as the
different limbs of the body serve the whole. Demigods like Indra, Candra
and Varuëa are appointed officers who manage material affairs, and
the Vedas direct sacrifices to satisfy these demigods so that they may
be pleased to supply air, light and water sufficiently to produce food
grains. When Lord Kåñëa is worshiped, the demigods, who
are different limbs of the Lord, are also automatically worshiped; therefore
there is no separate need to worship the demigods. For this reason, the
devotees of the Lord, who are in Kåñëa consciousness,
offer food to Kåñëa and then eat—a process which nourishes
the body spiritually. By such action not only are past sinful reactions
in the body vanquished, but the body becomes immunized to all contamination
of material nature. When there is an epidemic disease, an antiseptic vaccine
protects a person from the attack of such an epidemic. Similarly, food
offered to Lord Viñëu and then taken by us makes us sufficiently
resistant to material affection, and one who is accustomed to this practice
is called a devotee of the Lord. Therefore, a person in Kåñëa
consciousness, who eats only food offered to Kåñëa, can
counteract all reactions of past material infections, which are impediments
to the progress of self-realization. On the other hand, one who does not
do so continues to increase the volume of sinful action, and this prepares
the next body to resemble hogs and dogs, to suffer the resultant reactions
of all sins. The material world is full of contaminations, and one who
is immunized by accepting prasädam of the Lord (food offered to Viñëu)
is saved from the attack, whereas one who does not do so becomes subjected
to contamination.
Food grains or vegetables are factually
eatables. The human being eats different kinds of food grains, vegetables,
fruits, etc., and the animals eat the refuse of the food grains and vegetables,
grass, plants, etc. Human beings who are accustomed to eating meat and
flesh must also depend on the production of vegetation in order to eat
the animals. Therefore, ultimately, we have to depend on the production
of the field and not on the production of big factories. The field production
is due to sufficient rain from the sky, and such rains are controlled by
demigods like Indra, sun, moon, etc., and they are all servants of the
Lord. The Lord can be satisfied by sacrifices; therefore, one who cannot
perform them will find himself in scarcity—that is the law of nature. Yajïa,
specifically the saìkértana-yajïa prescribed for this
age, must therefore be performed to save us at least from scarcity of food
supply.
Bg 3.15
karma brahmodbhavaà viddhi
brahmäkñara-samudbhavam
tasmät sarva-gataà brahma
nityaà yajïe pratiñöhitam
SYNONYMS
karma—work; brahma—from the Vedas;
udbhavam—produced; viddhi—you should know; brahma—the Vedas; akñara—from
the Supreme Brahman (Personality of Godhead); samudbhavam—directly manifested;
tasmät—therefore; sarva-gatam—all-pervading; brahma—transcendence;
nityam—eternally; yajïe—in sacrifice; pratiñöhitam—situated.
TRANSLATION
Regulated activities are prescribed
in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated
in acts of sacrifice.
PURPORT
Yajïärtha-karma, or the
necessity of work for the satisfaction of Kåñëa only,
is more expressly stated in this verse. If we have to work for the satisfaction
of the yajïa-puruña, Viñëu, then we must find out
the direction of work in Brahman, or the transcendental Vedas. The Vedas
are therefore codes of working directions. Anything performed without the
direction of the Vedas is called vikarma, or unauthorized or sinful work.
Therefore, one should always take direction from the Vedas to be saved
from the reaction of work. As one has to work in ordinary life by the direction
of the state, one similarly has to work under direction of the supreme
state of the Lord. Such directions in the Vedas are directly manifested
from the breathing of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is said, asya
mahato bhütasya niçvasitam etad yad åg-vedo yajur-vedaù
sämavedo ’tharväìgirasaù. “The four Vedas—namely
the Åg Veda, Yajur Veda, Säma Veda, and Atharva Veda—are all
emanations from the breathing of the great Personality of Godhead.” (Båhad-äraëyaka
Upaniñad 4.5.11) The Lord, being omnipotent, can speak by breathing
air, for as it is confirmed in the Brahma-saàhitä, the Lord
has the omnipotence to perform through each of His senses the actions of
all other senses. In other words, the Lord can speak through His breathing,
and He can impregnate by His eyes. In fact, it is said that He glanced
over material nature and thus fathered all living entities. After creating
or impregnating the conditioned souls into the womb of material nature,
He gave His directions in the Vedic wisdom as to how such conditioned souls
can return home, back to Godhead. We should always remember that the conditioned
souls in material nature are all eager for material enjoyment. But the
Vedic directions are so made that one can satisfy one’s perverted desires,
then return to Godhead, having finished his so-called enjoyment. It is
a chance for the conditioned souls to attain liberation; therefore the
conditioned souls must try to follow the process of yajïa by becoming
Kåñëa conscious. Even those who have not followed the
Vedic injunctions may adopt the principles of Kåñëa consciousness,
and that will take the place of performance of Vedic yajïas, or karmas.
Bg 3.16
evaà pravartitaà cakraà
nänuvartayatéha yaù
aghäyur indriyärämo
moghaà pärtha sa jévati
SYNONYMS
evam—thus; pravartitam—established
by the Vedas; cakram—cycle; na—does not; anuvartayati—adopt; iha—in this
life; yaù—one who; agha-äyuù—whose life is full of sins;
indriya-ärämaù—satisfied in sense gratification; mogham—uselessly;
pärtha—O son of Påthä (Arjuna); saù—he; jévati—lives.
TRANSLATION
My dear Arjuna, one who does not
follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the Vedas
certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for the satisfaction of
the senses, such a person lives in vain.
PURPORT
The mammonist philosophy of “work
very hard and enjoy sense gratification” is condemned herein by the Lord.
Therefore, for those who want to enjoy this material world, the above-mentioned
cycle of performing yajïas is absolutely necessary. One who does not
follow such regulations is living a very risky life, being condemned more
and more. By nature’s law, this human form of life is specifically meant
for self-realization, in either of the three ways—namely karma-yoga, jïäna-yoga,
or bhakti-yoga. There is no necessity of rigidly following the performances
of the prescribed yajïas for the transcendentalists who are above
vice and virtue; but those who are engaged in sense gratification require
purification by the above mentioned cycle of yajïa performances. There
are different kinds of activities. Those who are not Kåñëa
conscious are certainly engaged in sensory consciousness; therefore they
need to execute pious work. The yajïa system is planned in such a
way that sensory conscious persons may satisfy their desires without becoming
entangled in the reaction of sense-gratificatory work. The prosperity of
the world depends not on our own efforts but on the background arrangement
of the Supreme Lord, directly carried out by the demigods. Therefore, the
yajïas are directly aimed at the particular demigods mentioned in
the Vedas. Indirectly, it is the practice of Kåñëa consciousness,
because when one masters the performance of yajïas one is sure to
become Kåñëa conscious. But if by performing yajïas
one does not become Kåñëa conscious, such principles
are counted as only moral codes. One should not, therefore, limit his progress
only to the point of moral codes, but should transcend them, to attain
Kåñëa consciousness.
Bg 3.17
yas tv ätma-ratir eva syäd
ätma-tåptaç ca
mänavaù
ätmany eva ca santuñöas
tasya käryaà na vidyate
SYNONYMS
yaù—one who; tu—but; ätma-ratiù—taking
pleasure in the self; eva—certainly; syät—remains; ätma-tåptaù—self-illuminated;
ca—and; mänavaù—a man; ätmani—in himself; eva—only; ca—and;
santuñöaù—perfectly satiated; tasya—his; käryam—duty;
na—does not; vidyate—exist.
TRANSLATION
But for one who takes pleasure in
the self, whose human life is one of self-realization, and who is satisfied
in the self only, fully satiated—for him there is no duty.
PURPORT
A person who is fully Kåñëa
conscious, and is fully satisfied by his acts in Kåñëa
consciousness, no longer has any duty to perform. Due to his being Kåñëa
conscious, all impiety within is instantly cleansed, an effect of many,
many thousands of yajïa performances. By such clearing of consciousness,
one becomes fully confident of his eternal position in relationship with
the Supreme. His duty thus becomes self-illuminated by the grace of the
Lord, and therefore he no longer has any obligations to the Vedic injunctions.
Such a Kåñëa conscious person is no longer interested
in material activities and no longer takes pleasure in material arrangements
like wine, women and similar infatuations.
Bg 3.18
naiva tasya kåtenärtho
näkåteneha kaçcana
na cäsya sarva-bhüteñu
kaçcid artha-vyapäçrayaù
SYNONYMS
na—never; eva—certainly; tasya—his;
kåtena—by discharge of duty; arthaù—purpose; na—nor; akåtena—without
discharge of duty; iha—in this world; kaçcana—whatever; na—never;
ca—and; asya—of him; sarva-bhüteñu—among all living beings;
kaçcit—any; artha—purpose; vyapäçrayaù—taking
shelter of.
TRANSLATION
A self-realized man has no purpose
to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason
not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living
being.
PURPORT
A self-realized man is no longer
obliged to perform any prescribed duty, save and except activities in Kåñëa
consciousness. Kåñëa consciousness is not inactivity
either, as will be explained in the following verses. A Kåñëa
conscious man does not take shelter of any person—man or demigod. Whatever
he does in Kåñëa consciousness is sufficient in the discharge
of his obligation.
Bg 3.19
tasmäd asaktaù satataà
käryaà karma samäcara
asakto hy äcaran karma
param äpnoti püruñaù
SYNONYMS
tasmät—therefore; asaktaù—without
attachment; satatam—constantly; käryam—as duty; karma—work; samäcara—perform;
asaktaù—unattached; hi—certainly; äcaran—performing; karma—work;
param—the Supreme; äpnoti—achieves; püruñaù—a man.
TRANSLATION
Therefore, without being attached
to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by
working without attachment one attains the Supreme.
PURPORT
The Supreme is the Personality of
Godhead for the devotees, and liberation for the impersonalist. A person,
therefore, acting for Kåñëa, or in Kåñëa
consciousness, under proper guidance and without attachment to the result
of the work, is certainly making progress toward the supreme goal of life.
Arjuna is told that he should fight in the Battle of Kurukñetra
for the interest of Kåñëa because Kåñëa
wanted him to fight. To be a good man or a nonviolent man is a personal
attachment, but to act on behalf of the Supreme is to act without attachment
for the result. That is perfect action of the highest degree, recommended
by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Çré Kåñëa.
Vedic rituals, like prescribed sacrifices,
are performed for purification of impious activities that were performed
in the field of sense gratification. But action in Kåñëa
consciousness is transcendental to the reactions of good or evil work.
A Kåñëa conscious person has no attachment for the result
but acts on behalf of Kåñëa alone. He engages in all
kinds of activities, but is completely nonattached.
Bg 3.20
karmaëaiva hi saàsiddhim
ästhitä janakädayaù
loka-saìgraham eväpi
sampaçyan kartum arhasi
SYNONYMS
karmaë&aum