Unstructured Notes /Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita:
Last Updated: February, 10th 2024
Translations:
- Barbara Stoler-Miller (BM)
- Laurie L. Patton (LP)
The Habit of Decisiveness — Reading Discourse Six
It is hard to commit. It always has, but now in the age of information without meaning, in an age where we carry possibility in our pockets staying a course is harder than ever. Why? It takes time. It cannot be rushed. Emotions are fickle. One day you feel a wind at your back, charging forward. You were made for this, you think. The next a crushing weight on your chest. It could be from the most incidental reactions. You think you need to change. You cannot focus. By you I mean me.
The practitioner of yoga who is content with discernment and wisdom unmoving, with sense conquered to whom a lump of clay, a stone and a piece of gold are the same, is said to be joined to yoga — LP(6.8)
Here the “discernment and wisdom” are about what matters. In order to be unmoved by the winds of desire and of emotions we have to see that clay, stone, gold (outcomes) are the same. One does do yoga but is joined to it. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit “to yoke”. To be joined to yoga is to be pulled by it. Later describing meditation:
when one directs the mind to a single point actions of the senses and thoughts controlled, sitting oneself onto the seat, one should join to yoga in order to purify the self — LP (6.12)
In the Gita meditation and action in the world can be the same. Meditation as a practice is training. The wisdom here is in the first two lines. The mind needs an anchor. A point of focus. A drifting mind, idle is at the mercy of its conditioning.
Yoga is not about eating too much, nor is it about not easting at all. It is not about the practice of sleeping too much not is it about keeping awake.
Yoga is not self-discipline or self-punishment.
For one who is joined to yoga yoga destroys all pain - in food and sport, in the undertaking of action, and in sleeping and awakening.
What does it mean to be joined?
One is said to be joined in this way, when one’s thought is restrained; … beyond longing and all desire
One is like a lit lamp that does not flicker, standing without wind — LP (6.16-19)
To not flicker. I love the definition of commitment, because to flicker in the winds of emotion prevents you from commitment. It is the product of a mind not focused, of a self not joined to yoga.
Key words to look at in Sanskrit:
- “unmoving” — Is it similar to flicker?
- Longing and desire — how are they different?
Philosophy and Spiritual Discipline
The Fourth Discourse (LP): Verse 19-20
Insightful ones call that one a pandit who has winnowed all aims and desire from all endeavors and whose action is burned in the fire of wisdom
To winnow is an interesting verb that suggests the removal of aim and desire from action (willful action) is a gradual process that one can begin now. I’ve always enjoyed the imagery of wisdom as a “purifier” (see below) and something that’s subtractive. Unlike the accumulation of information or knowledge, wisdom is winnowing. It’s a focus of attention by disregarding the infinity of the other stuff that doesn’t matter. Wisdom is a “knife” that severs the “doubt” from your heart. Doubt of what? Perhaps that wisdom lies outside of the self (atman).
When one has let go of clinging to the fruits of action, always content and independent even when turning toward action, that one does nothing at all
Doing and acting. The phrase “turning toward action” suggests that it is an orientation (of life) rather than a moment. Doing, on the other hand, is more of a moment of willful. It’s filled with self-awareness about the thing performed. Perhaps one “acts” here without the intentionality of doing but of duty.
BM:
Page 37, Verse 39-40
No effort in this world is lost or wasted; a fragment of sacred duty saves you from great
This understanding is unique in its innercore of resolve; [ … ] diffuse and pointless are the ways irresolute men understand
Page 42, Verse 70-72
As the mountainous depths of the ocean are unmoved when waters rush into it, so the man unmoved when desires enter him attains a peace that eludes the man of many desires
When he renounces all desires and acts without craving, possessiveness or individuality, he finds peace.
Q: What does it mean to act without individuality?
The Fourth Teaching — Knowledge (BM) Page: 53-54
“I desire no fruit of actions, and actions do not defile me; one who knows this about me is not bound by action […] What is action? What is inaction? […]
A man who sees inaction in action and action in inaction has understanding among men, disciplined
The wise say a man is learned when his plans lack constructs of desire, when his actions are burned by the fire of knowledge.
Abandoning attachment to fruits of action, always content, independent, he does nothing at all even when he engages in action
He incurs no guilt if he has no hope, restrains his thought and himself, abandons possession and performs actions with his body alone
- Discerning “action” from “inaction” is not trivial. “Acting” does not equal “doing.”
Q: Knowledge as “purifier”?
What is the ontological status of knowledge? What does it mean to be knowledgeable? In a Western context, knowledge is always understood as additive. This idea is embedded into the language. We “gain” and “possess” knowledge as if it were a material quantity stored in our brain, like books on a shelf. Memory is a look-up operation on this table.
However, here, knowledge has a purifying/subtractive quality. Much like the philosophical role of critique, it is the clearing of false/unhealthy beliefs.
In the introductory section, Laurie Patton’s section on the gunas, the three qualities of the universe sattva. The term isn’t just truth but its ‘quality.’ The quality is one of lightness. This is an interesting contrast where I’ve heard truth often described as a burdensome weight — something that is crushing.
Q: What is the relationship between knowledge and action? On one end, knowledge arises from action but also directs it.
Content with whatever comes by chance, beyond dualities, free from envy, impartial to failure and success, he is not bound even when he acts.
Thanks for a great conversation, Aditya! I’m still slightly amused that you remember your IB score (and irked you beat me by a point, haha), but IB does that. I’ve made enemies on flights over my defense of TOK. I also just read that you, too, enjoy techno. De Witte’s recent track, Pria is disturbingly good. Cheers, Arman