Verses 18.18–18.28
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं परिज्ञाता त्रिविधा कर्मचोदना | करणं कर्म कर्तेति त्रिविध: कर्मसंग्रह:
jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ parijñātā trividhā karmacodanā / karaṇaṁ karma karteti trividhaḥ karmasaṁgrahaḥ / / 18.18
Knowledge, object of the knowledge and the subject of the knowledge, the knower, are the three factors that stimulate action; the senses, the action and the performer comprise the three components of action.
ज्ञानं कर्म च कर्ता च त्रिधैव गुणभेदत: | प्रोच्यते गुणसङ् ख्याने यथावच्छृणु तान्यपि
jñānaṁ karma ca kartā ca tridhaiva guṇabhedataḥ / procyate guṇa-sañkhyāne yathāvac chṛṇu tānyapi / / 18.19
According to the science of guṇas, there are three types in knowledge, action, and performers of action. Listen as I describe them.
सर्वभूतेषु येनैकं भावमव्ययमीक्षते | अविभक्तं विभक्तेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि सात्विकम्
sarvabhūteṣu yenaikaṁ bhāvamavyayamīkṣate / avibhaktaṁ vibhakteṣu taj jñānaṁ viddhi sāttvikam / / 18.20
That knowledge by which one imperishable reality is seen in all Existence, undivided in the divided, is knowledge in the state of goodness.
पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान् | वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम्
pṛthaktvena tu yajjñānaṁ nānābhāvān pṛthagvidhān / vetti sarveṣu bhūteṣu taj jñānaṁ viddhi rājasam / / 18.21
The knowledge by which one sees different realities of various types among all beings as separate from one another; such knowledge is in the mode of aggression.
यत्तु कृत्स्नवदेकस्मिन्कार्ये सक्तमहैतुकम् | अतत्वार्थवदल्पं च तत्तामसमुदाहृतम्
yat tu kṛtsnavad ekasmin kārye saktaṁ ahaitukam / atattvārthavadalpaṁ ca tat tāmasamudāhṛtam / / 18.22
The irrational, baseless, and worthless knowledge by which one clings to one single effect as if it is everything, such knowledge is in the mode of darkness of ignorance.
नियतं सङ्गरहितमरागद्वेषत: कृतम् | अफलप्रेप्सुना कर्म यतत्सात्विकमुच्यते
niyataṁ saṅgarahitam arāgadveṣataḥ kṛtam / aphalaprepsunā karma yat tat sāttvikamucyate / / 18.23
Obligatory duty performed without likes and dislikes and without selfish motives and attachment to the fruit, is in the mode of goodness.
यत्तुकामेप्सुना कर्म साहङ्कारेण वा पुन: | क्रियते बहुलायासं तद्राजसमुदाहृतम्
yat tu kāmepsunā karma sāhaṁkāreṇa vā punaḥ / kriyate bahulāyāsaṁ tad rājasamudāhṛtam / / 18.24
Action performed with ego, with selfish motives, and with too much effort, is in the mode of aggression.
अनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसामनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषम् | मोहादारभ्यते कर्म यतत्तामसमुच्यते
anubandhaṁ kṣayaṁ hiṁsām anapekṣya ca pauruṣam / mohād ārabhyate karma yat tat tāmasamucyate / / 18.25
Action that is undertaken because of delusion, disregard- ing consequences, loss, injury to others, as well as one’s own ability, is in the mode of ignorance.
मुक्तसङ्गोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित: | सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्विक उच्यते
muktasaṅgo’nahaṁvādī dhṛtyutsāhasamanvitaḥ / siddhyasiddhyor nirvikāraḥ kartā sāttvika ucyate / / 18.26
The performer who is free from attachment, non-egotis- tic, endowed with resolve and enthusiasm, and unperturbed in success or failure is called sātvika.
रागी कर्मफलप्रेप्सुर्लुब्धो हिंसात्मकोऽशुचि: | हर्षशोकान्वित: कर्ता राजस: परिकीर्तित:
rāgī karmaphalaprepsur lubdho hiṁsātmako ‘śuciḥ / harṣaśokānvitaḥ kartā rājasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ / / 18.27
The performer who is impassioned, who desires the fruits of work, who is greedy, violent, impure, and affected by joy and sorrow, is called aggressive.
अयुक्त: प्राकृत: स्तब्ध: शठो नैष्कृतिकोऽलस: | विषादी दीर्घसूत्री च कर्ता तामस उच्यते
ayuktaḥ prākṛtaḥ stabdhaḥ śaṭho naiṣkṛtiko ‘lasaḥ / viṣādī dīrghasūtrī ca kartā tāmasa ucyate / / 18.28
The performer who is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, wicked, malicious, lazy, depressed, and procrastinating is called ignorant or tamasic.
In these verses Kṛṣṇa explains the nature of man, the human. Kṛṣṇa has already said that the final performer is not man, nara, but the Divine, Nārāyaṇa. Even so the human is still the subject, the medium that we are dealing with. All the frailties that we have are inherent in our nature. These are the guṇas or attributes that define our behavior. These attributes control our thoughts, words and actions. One is not all the time, from birth to death, in one guṇa or attribute. The guṇas are of three kinds: satva, rajas and tamas. Satva is defined as calm, peaceful, spiritual and good, etc. This is generally the attribute of spiritually inclined persons.
Rajas is translated as aggressive, passionate and active, etc. This is the primary attribute of kings, warriors and business people. Tamas is lazy, ignorant and passive, etc. Tamas is seen as the inactive component that many of us experience at times. It is the active component of those who live to eat and sleep. In these verses Kṛṣṇa beautifully defines in detail the qualities and effectsoftheseguṇasuponus.Hispurposeindoingthisistomakeusaware of what happens within us. Majority of the time we are ignorant of ‘why’ we react the way we do. As the Master explains in these words, and once we understand and cognize how we react, we can move to the next level of completion and shift to a superior attribute.
If we find our own answer for the ‘why’ we will become spiritually enlightened! Yes, all of us must be rājasic or aggressive, part of the time to accom- Mokṣa Sannyāsa Yogaḥ Drop Everything And Surrender 1283 plish things. Even so, if we can act aggressively without greed, anger or fear affecting us, as well as acting without attachment, we are in the sātvic space, although superficially we seem to be in the rājasic space. Swami Vivekananda says beautifully, ‘First of all, the beaten and broken consciousness which has fallen into tamas, inertia, let it come to the awakening state of rajas, activism. Then it can be guided into sātvic, spiritual balance.’
Kṛṣṇa defines a sātvic person as one who sees the collective consciousness, the whole, in parts. He understands that he is not alone and not an island, rather he is linked with everyone and everything in this Universe. He understands his connection with the cosmic energy. A satvic person is not focused on himself, he is focused on enriching others. Because he completes with his root patterns, He realizes that his survival and possessions, the ‘I’ and ‘mine’, are meaningless. His activities are selfless, without expectation of praise or reward, and without attachment to the process or result. Such a person is not affected by the seeming success or failure of what he undertakes because there is no feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ involved in his actions.
It is not that difficult to move into a sātvic state. True, you may not be able to stay there all the time, but once you understand how this state completes you, you try more and more to stay there. To be in the sātvic state is to understand that past and future are mere illusions. They do not exist. Past is gone, never to return. Why worry? Future is a mirage. All you can do is activate your present moment. That is all you can do. The present moment determines your future. Once you focus on the present, your space of completion increases manifold and you drop expectations and attachment.
You just do what is needed. You respond to reality. You respond to the now. You are in satva. You fall into a rājasic state when you distinguish between ‘you’ and ‘I’, between this and that. There is no differentiation. Your mind, the ego, creates this differentiation. Your root thought patterns, saṁskāras overpower your complete cognition and bring up this delusory cognition of differentiating between you and others. A rājasic person does everything expecting a reward. He is selfish, aggressive and impatient. When he does not get what he wants, he is upset. Failure is a blow to his ego. A rājasic person can never be happy and complete. Please understand, almost all of you are driven by rajas.
This is the predominant attribute in modern society. Rich or poor, intelligent or foolish, educated or uneducated, almost everyone compares himself with the next person and wants what the other person has. As long as you are driven by your desires, and not complete with what you have, you are in rajas. Too much of society has entered into human beings. You all have become social beings, you are no more human beings. You just have a set of manuals – at what age what is expected of you, at what age what are you supposed to do, and where are you supposed to be, how are you supposed to be talking, what are you supposed to be thinking, how are you supposed to be behaving.
See, by default society is incomplete. So you are put in that rājasic space. Only if you are conscious, you can attract the space of completion. Please listen! The pure space, satva seems to be a little heavy, little too much of joy! You feel you can’t afford it. It is like you don’t want to own the whole ocean, you want to own only the beach. Because only in the beach you can put a fence and ensure that others can’t enter into it. Ocean you can own, but not possess. Please understand, owning is different and possessing is different. All of us can own the whole world; that is not a problem at all.
But we can’t possess it, that is where the problem starts. Owning is different and possessing is different. The whole village owns the village temple, but you possess your house. We not only own our house, we possess it and make sure that others don’t enter. We don’t want to own the ocean, we want to possess the ocean. When we want to possess, we know that we can’t possess the ocean. Not only we can’t deny entry to other human beings, we can’t deny entry to other animals. There are millions of animals below. Mokṣa Sannyāsa Yogaḥ Drop Everything And Surrender 1285 When we want to possess that is where the problem starts.
Rajas corrodes you. It eats up your soul. There is no boundary to possessing, no end to greed and no limit to fear. These are the driving forces of rajas. Rajas is about trying to attain what you don’t have, trying to eliminate and possess what you want to have, not being complete with what you have, not being complete about where you are and not being complete and happy when you are in the present moment. You are either constantly in the future, imagining what you would like to be and what you would like to possess, or you are in the past thinking about how you could have done better.
Rajas is living in a fantasy world of possessing. Satva is living in a reality world of owning and also letting others own. Listen! If you want to own, you can own the whole world. See, unfortunately, only if you eliminate others, you feel that you are victorious, which is not right. This is a basic wrong understanding. Please get it! I want you to know a very important fact. Never, ever will you be free by your efforts to be free. Freedom will happen to you only by the right knowledge about freedom, never by your efforts towards freedom. Listen! Never your effort towards freedom is going to give you freedom.
It is only the knowledge about the freedom that will give you freedom. Get it! So, the basic mistake that eliminating others is the only way you can possess or own is wrong! To own, you don’t need to eliminate others. But because of this pattern, just because you want to eliminate others, you are ready to settle down with a few acres of beach. You are ready to forego the whole ocean! It is exactly with the same patterns, it is only with these patterns you define your identity. Without patterns, it is like you in the ocean. In tamas one is fully in delusion, in the delusory cognition of incompletion.
One sticks to root thought patterns, incomplete knowledge or inadequate cognition and conditions without making an effort to verify the answer of the ‘why’, whether they are right or wrong, appropriate or not, harmful or not. Listen! If one does not find the answer for ‘why’ and eats somebody else’s answer, one can even be made as a religious terrorist. Religious zealots are in tamas. There is no difference between them; only their objectives are different. Both are dogmatic, violent and totally selfish. They adopt any means, even criminal, to achieve their objectives. Tamas does not just mean inactivity, laziness and procrastination. Yes, it is all that; however, it also includes mindless action performed without realizing that one is part of a whole. The ego is so enlarged that it believes it is the whole. It believes nothing else of significance exists; others are of no consequence. Meanings Of Life