Chapter 20 - Elucidation of Karma, Jñāna and Bhakti Yogas

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Uddhava said:

1. Injunctions and interdictions regarding specific acts are ordained by the Vedas which are commandments of you, the Supreme Ruler. And they consider the goodness and badness of acts with reference to the good and evil consequence of those acts. (This being the case, how is it that you say that it is evil to pry into the weak points and merits, while the habit not to think of them both is good (Supra 19.45).

2. It is the Veda which distinguishes between the order of merit of different castes or social classes and stages in life, of the merit-based gradation of persons born from the marriage of the high caste man with a lower caste woman and the low-caste man with a higher caste-woman. It points out the merits or otherwise of the material, venue, age and season (proper for performing sacrifices) as well as (the acts which lead to) heaven and hell.

3. How is it possible to follow your word (the Veda) which is characterised by expressions laying down injunctions and interdictions and which leads men to liberation from Saṃsāra, unless one has the power of discrimination between the good and the evil.

4. The Veda, a form of your word, serves as an eye to manes, gods and human beings, O Supreme Ruler. It helps them to get insight into rhe ‘unseen’ (i.e. the heavenly region or liberation from Saṃsāra) and the end and means of attaining them.

5. It is through the Veda, your own command, that the notion of distinction between the good and the evil, is derived and not independently by anybody’s individual opinion or by nature. When that distinction (recognised by the Veda) is refuted by the Veda itself that (naturally) causes bewilderment.

The Lord replied:

6. With the desire of securing final beatitude (Mokṣa) to beings, three types of Yogas (courses of disciplines) have been expounded by me. They are the path of knowledge, path of (desireless) Action and path of Devotion (and they correspond to the Brahma, Karma and Upāsanā sections of the Śruti).

In no part of the Veda, any other means or path of liberation has been propounded.

7. Out of these paths the path of knowledge is meant for those recluses who are nauseated with ritualistic acts (and the ephemeral nature of the promised happiness accruing from them) and consequently have given up such Karmas. But the Path of Karma is prescribed for those who hanker after the fulfilment of their desires and are not disenchanted with such (ritualistic) acts.

8. The path of Devotion is conducive to the attainment of Liberation in the case of a person who by a lucky chance has come to cherish a devout faith in my stories (and in the efficacy of my name) etc. and who is neither disgusted with nor deeply attached to the performance of (prescribed religious) acts.^[1]

One should continue to perform (prescribed religious) actions till he does not feel disgusted.

9. A person should continue to perform the religious acts prescribed for his particular caste and stage of life till he (being disenchanted with the futility of the promised fruits from those Karmas) feels disgusted with them or till devout faith in listening to my stories (meditating upon me and such other form of Bhakti) is not engendered in him^[2]

10. O Uddhava! A person who follows the religious duties (prescribed for his particular class (Varṇa) and stage in life (Āśrama) and worships me through performance of sacrifices without cherishing any interest in the fruits thereof does not go to the heaven or hell unless he commits an act prohibited in Śāstras (either by commission or by omission).

11. If, while existing in this body (or the world), a person strictly follows the course of religious duties prescribed for him (i.e. for his particular caste and stage in life) and leads a sinless, pure life, he naturally gains pure knowledge or if he is lucky enough may find devotion engendered in him (as Devotion is superior to knowledge).

12-13. Both the inhabitants of the celestial world and the denizens of hell desire to be born (as human beings) in this world, as this life leads to the attainment of Liberation (from Saṃsāra) by means of the paths of knowledge and Bhakti which is not possible in the special bodies with which the heavenly or hellish beings are vested. A wise man should not long for heaven just as he would not desire for the infernal region. Nor should he desire to be reborn in this world, as it is due to the attachment to one’s body that he blunders (and does not attain liberation).

14. Realizing this (speciality of the human body) and being aware that though this human body is capable of attaining Mokṣa (Liberation from Saṃsāra) it is after all mortal, a person should not be negligent and exert for attaining Liberation (lit. non-return to this world) before he is overtaken by death.

15. The bi?d [bind?] (the individual soul) who has built its nest on the tree (viz. this body) which is being mercilessly hacked down by persons cruel like the god of death, feels happy in abandoning its nest and the tree, if it is not attached to it.

16. Likewise a person, knowing that life is being mercilessly hacked by day and night and trembling with fear discards all attachments and desires. And after realizing the Supreme Self he settles in the state of perfect bliss.

17. He is certainly a perpetrator of spiritual suicide who would not (even) attempt to get over the sea of worldly existence (Saṃsāra) even when he, by a lucky chance (through the grace of God), has easily obtained this excellent boat in the form of the human body which, the main spring of all good fruits^[3], is extremely difficult to procure and which is not only equipped with all accessories (useful for all purposes) and piloted by the helmsman in the form of the spiritual preceptor, but also is propelled by me like a driving favourable wind.

18. When, on foreseeing (the evil consequences of attachment to the fruits of Karmas) a person gets disgusted with actions prescribed in the Śāstras (and meant for obtaining some ulterior motive as its fruit) and thus becomes unattached and indifferent (to the fruits of the Karmas), he should control his senses and, by constant practice of directing his mind to contemplation on the Self (Ātman), steady it in meditation (on the Self).

19. If, the mind, while being made to concentrate steadily (on the Self) begins to stray (towards objects of sense) immediately and thus becomes unsteady, the Yogī should be vigilant and try to bring it back under control by conciliatory method (by making some slight allowance to its inclination).

20. Exercising control over breath and subduing one’s senses, he should not remain negligent about the vagrancy of his mind but watch it vigilantly and with his reasoning capacity reinforced with Sattva, he should bring his mind under control.

21. Like unto a horseman breaking an unmanageable horse by allowing its inclination in the beginning (and tightly bridling it just at the proper moment), the established method of repeatedly withdrawing the mind (by the above-mentioned conciliatory process) by knowing its natural inclination, is regarded to be (the proper path to) the highest Yoga.

22. With a thorough understanding of the (fundamental) principle of the Sāṅkhya system (of thought), he should contemplate the chain of causation in the evolution (from Prakṛti creating the Mahat—subtle elements—gross elements—his own body) and in the involution (the reverse of the above process from his body to Prakṛti) of all objects, till his mind becomes serene.

23. The mind of a person who is disgusted with the world (due to pondering over the evolution and involution given in the Sāṅkhya philosophy) and becomes renunciated and contemplates repeatedly the teaching of his preceptor, becomes free from all evil thoughts (such as identification of the body with the Self.)

24. It is by means of the path of Yoga like Yama (selfcontrol) and others and by the knowledge gained by thorough investigation of the ultimate principles (viz. Sat—being and a-sat non-being) or^[4] by worship and propitiation of my images or symbolic representations, that the mind should be made to Contemplate on me, the Supreme Soul which is the only object.

25. If (per chance) a Yogi happens to commit an iniquity through mistake or lapse on his part, he should burn down that sin by the process of Yoga (like meditation of the Lord, repeating the Lord’s name, etc.) but should never resort to other expiatory rites.

26. Firm devotion and strict observance of duties prescribed for one’s own class in society (Varṇa) and stage in life (Āśrama) has been called a merit (the opposite of which is obviously demerit or sin). An action—an inborn tendency of living beings to do something—is impure by nature. A distinction between merit and demerit (or virtue and fault) has been drawn (with a view to make people avoid the wrong course). A restriction has been imposed on actions (Karmas), as it is intended that all attachment (to worldly objects) be given up.

27. When devout faith in my stories is awakened, a person becomes disenchanted with all the acts (religious rites, sacrifices, etc. enjoined by the Vedas). He knows that they (i.e. the rewards promised as a result of those karmas) are full of miseries, but is not able to renounce them (due to a wavering state of mind).

28. Under such circumstances, he should cherish faith in me and with a firm resolution should worship me, full of love and devotion. Even while he continues to enjoy objects of pleasure (or has a longing for them), he should damn them as sources of misery.

29. A sage who constantly worships me according to the Path of Devotion expounded by me previously, finds that all the deep-rooted (and hence apparently in-eradicable) desires in his heart disappear, as I am established therein.

30. The very moment, I, the Soul of all, am realized, the knot (of ahaṃkāra) in the heart is snapped; all his doubts are cut asunder, and all his Karmas are exhausted.

31. Hence neither spiritual wisdom (jñāna) nor renunciation (vairāgya) is a general pre-condition for attaining the Final Beatitude (mokṣa) (in the Path of devotion) if the Bhakti- Yogin (the follower of the path of devotion) has intense devotion to me and has his mind firmly fixed in me.

32-33. What is secured by performing prescribed Vedic Karmas or by undergoing austere penance or by spiritual knowledge or from dispassion or by following the path of Yoga or by pious liberal donations as also by other means of attaining spiritual bliss—all this my devotee fully and easily realizes by the path of Bhakti whether it be svarga (Heaven) or mokṣa or even my abode.

34. But pious people who arc wise and absolutely devoted to me desire nothing, even if absolute liberation from which there is no return to Saṃsāra, is conferred on them by me.

35. Desirelessness is, therefore, the highest and the most efficacious way to attain the summum bonum. Hence real devotion is engendered in him who longs for no blessings and solicits nothing.

36. Merit and sin resulting from the commission or omission of the enjoined or interdicted acts are not binding on those who are absolutely devoted to me, are even-minded and have realized me who am transcendental to reason.

37. In this way, those who follow these paths proclaimed by me, attain to the blessed abode of mine, which the learned know as the Supreme Brahman.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Padaratnāvalī believes that gods belong to this category.

[2]:

Padaratnāvalī thinks that the Path of Karma is expounded in this verse as the performance of Karmās is a must till spiritual knowledge dawns or devotion is engendered in the mind. It is the Karma-path which purifies the mind and renders one eligible for the path of knowledge or devotion.

[3]:

The human body is called Ādya as it alone is eligible to realize Brahman and a being can attain god-head through this body only out of eighty four lakhs of species—EK.

[4]:

‘or’ shows the independence of the path of Devotion—Bhāvāratha Dīpikā