Bhagavad Gītā – Chapter 18 Notes

 

This is the longest chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā. Krishna repeats his earlier statement that action is a necessary good, but that tranquillity can only be achieved when we are detached from the fruits of our actions.  He explains that renunciation is the relinquishing of those actions which are prompted by desire, whereas non-attachment is the relinquishing of the fruits of our actions.

 

This does not mean that we should renounce all action.  Certain actions, such as sacrifice, charity and austerity should always be performed, as they are uplifting and purifying.  What we should renounce is attachment to the fruits of action. (18.1-10)

 

Krishna analyses knowledge, action and agent in terms of the guṇas (18.20-28).  He does the same with understanding, determination and happiness (18.29-38), and with the social classes, stressing that each person can become perfect, provided he performs his own work well (18.47-48).  By attaining this perfection, we also attain Brahman, although there are many preconditions for attaining this state (18.50-57).  We cannot avoid acting, even for a second, because it is the Lord abiding in the heart which animates us in the first place (18.61).

 

Krishna’s final teaching is a repetition of an exhortation to Bhakti Yoga: “Fix your mind on Me, worshipping Me, sacrificing to Me, I promise, for you are dear to Me” (18.65).

 

 

Notes from Radhakrishnan’s commentary on BG

 

1 The Gãtà insists not on renunciation of action but on action with renunciation of desire.  This is true sa§nyàsa.  In this verse, sa§nyàsa is used for the renunciation of all works and tyàga for the renunciation of the fruits of all works.  Not by karma, not by progeny or wealth but by tyàga or relinquishment is release obtained.

The Gãtà urges that the liberated soul can remain in service even after liberation and is opposed to the view which holds that, as all action springs from ignorance, when wisdom arises, action ceases.  The teacher of the Gãtà considers the view, that he who acts is in bondage and he who is free cannot act, to be incorrect.

2 Inertia or non-action is not the ideal.  Action without any selfish desire or expectation of gain, performed in the spirit that “I am not the doer, I am surrendering myself to the Universal Self” is the ideal set before us.  The Gãtà does not teach the complete renunciation of works but the conversion of all works into niùkàma karma or desireless action.

6 The teacher is decidedly for the practice of Karmayoga.  Actions are not to be set aside: only they have to be done without selfish attachment or expectation of rewards.  Salvation is not a matter of outward action or inaction.  It is the possession of the impersonal outlook and inner renunciation of ego.

14 The kartà or the agent is one of the five causes of action.  According to the Sà§khya doctrine, puruùa or the self is a mere witness.  Though, strictly speaking, the self is akartç or non-doer, still its witnessing starts the activities of prakçti and so the self is included among the determining causes.

daivam: providence: represents the non-human factor that interferes and disposes of human effort.  It is the wise, all-seeing will that is at work in the world.  In all human actions, there is an unaccountable human element which is called luck, destiny, fate or the force accumulated by the acts of one’s past lives.  It is called here daiva.  The task of man is to drop a pebble into the pond of time and we may not see the ripple touch the distant shore.  We may plant the seed but may not see the harvest which lies in hands higher than our own.  Daiva or the superpersonal fate is the general cosmic necessity, the resultant of all that has happened in the past, which rules unnoticed.  It works in the individual for its own incalculable purposes.

Belief in daiva should not be an excuse for quiescence.  Man is a term of transition.  He is conscious of his aim, to rise from his animal ancestry to the divine ideal.  The pressure of nature, heredity and environment can be overcome by the will of man.

 

17 The freed man does his work as the instrument of the Universal Spirit and for the maintenance of the cosmic order.  He performs even terrific deeds without any selfish aim or desire but because it is the ordained duty.  What matters is not the work but the spirit in which it is done.

 This passage does not mean that we can commit crimes with impunity.  He who lives in the large spiritual consciousness will not feel any need to do any wrong.  Evil activities spring from ignorance and separatist consciousness, and from consciousness of unity with the Supreme Self only good can result.

 

24 The consciousness of suffering, the sense that we are doing something disagreeable, that we are passing through grim suffering and toil takes away from the value of the act.  To feel consciously that we are doing something great, that we are sacrificing something vital is a failure of the sacrifice itself.  But when the work is undertaken for the cause, it is a labour of love and sacrifice itself is not felt as a sacrifice.  Doing unpleasant things from a sense of duty, feeling the unpleasantness all the time is of the nature of “passion,” but doing it gladly in utter unself-consciousness, with a smile on the lips, as Socrates drank hemlock, is of the nature of “goodness.”  It is the difference between an act of love and an act of law, an act of grace and an act of obligation.

 

39 Happiness is the universal aim of life.  Only it is of different kinds according to the modes which dominate our nature.  If the tamas predominates in us, we are satisfied with violence and inertia, blindness and error.  If rajas prevails, wealth and power, pride and glory give us happiness.  True happiness of human beings lies not in the possession of outward things but in the fulfilment of the higher mind and spirit, in the development of what is most inward in us.  It may mean pain and restraint but it will lead us to joy and freedom.

 

39 Man’s outward life must express his inward being; the surface must reflect the profundity.  Each individual has his inborn nature, svabhàva, and to make it effective in his life is his duty, svadharma….  If each individual does what is appropriate to him, if he follows the law of his being, his svadharma, then God would express Himself in the free volitions of human beings.  All that is essential for the world will be done without a conflict.  But men rarely do what they ought to do….  The problem that human life sets us is to discover our true self and live according to its truth; otherwise we would sin against our nature.  The emphasis on svabhàva indicates that human beings are to be treated as individuals and not as types.

 

42 It is not a question of identical opportunities for all men to rise to the highest station in social life, for men differ in their powers, but a question of giving equal opportunities for all so that they may bring their respective gifts to fruition….  Individuals of varying capacities are bound together in a living organic social system.

 

47 See III, 35.  It is no use employing our minds in tasks which are alien to our nature.  In each of us lies a principle of becoming, an idea of divine self-expression.  It is our real nature, svabhàva, finding partial expression in our various activities.  By following its guidance in our thought, aspiration and endeavour, we progressively realize the intention of the Spirit for us.

 

49 The Gãtà repeats that restraint and freedom from desire are essential to spiritual perfection.  Attachment to objects, a sense of ego, are the characteristics of our lower nature.

 

59 The desire “not to fight” will only be the expression of his surface nature; his deeper being will lead him to fight.  If he casts down his arms for fear of suffering and holds back from the fight, and if the war proceeds without him, and he realizes that the consequences of his abstention would be disastrous to humanity, he will be impelled to take up arms by the remorseless pressure of the Cosmic Spirit.  He should try therefore to further and co-operate with the cosmic evolution instead of denying and opposing it.

 

63 God is seemingly indifferent, for He leaves the decision to Arjuna’s choice.  His apparent indifference is due to His anxiety that each one of us should get to Him of his own free choice.