Resources

In the Knowledge Austerity, nothing is to be thought of or enquired into; rather, the very thinking and enquiring processes are to be dissolved into their own source, into the Self. This is actually an inner, subtle, refined process – an austerity in which mind and intelligence alone are employed. This is the real jñāna-sādhanā.

Dear and blessed souls:

Harih Om Tat Sat.

Krishna has just explained how one whose mind is ever established in wisdom (jñānāvasthita-cetasaḥ) always has his attention directed towards the welfare of all people. Such a person is no more a selfish individual; he is not striving only for himself and his family.

Perceive Brahman everywhere

Krishna proceeds to summarise the discussion in the next verse (4.24). Brahman, the Supreme Reality, is existence, knowledge and bliss (sat-cit-ānanda). Brahman is the source as well as the sustenance of everything. Brahman is equally the goal and refuge for all at all times. The entire Vedas speak of Brahman alone. The universe has evolved from Brahman and subsists on Brahman. It is the single goal of all actions and performances, ritualistic and secular.

To attain Brahman, the easy and direct way is to consider everything as Brahman. Nothing exists besides Brahman. Everything is Brahman’s own expression or extension. It is the be-all and end-all for all seekers. Being so, the devout seeker should verily nurture comprehensive Brāhmic thoughts and attitudes at every moment. Each thought, word and deed should be soaked in this spirit. When a Brāhmic attitude enraptures the mind, the outcome will be instantaneous and wholesome.

Sacrifice is Brahman alone – attitude behind the act

The pursuit becomes a sublime and wholesome yajña, wherein the ‘havis’ – the boiled rice offered into the blazing fire – is Brahman. The ladle with which it is offered is also Brahman. The fire into which the havis and ghee are poured is Brahman. The one who makes the offering – the sacrificer – is equally Brahman. When thus all the four factors are alike Brahman, the offering cannot but reach Brahman.

Reaching is not a physical process or outcome. How? Brahman is omnipresent. Therefore what verily counts is the perceiving mind with its overwhelming attitude – its quality, attunement and wholesomeness. The mind is imbued so much, and so well with Brahman that the material offered, the instrument used for offering, the whole activity – all become wholly Brāhmic. Naturally the outcome becomes Brahman. This is the pūrṇavāda, the argumentation based upon total Oneness, the sole principle that leads in full the quest for the Supreme Reality.

Oneness in thought, feeling, attitude or goal has an immediate, lightning effect on the mind, intelligence and ego. It surely wards off undesirable influences and fills the mind with desirable ones. This process is subtle, but indispensable. As Krishna pointed out in the second chapter while describing the Sthita-dhī, the seeker begins to move without the onslaught of desires (nispṛhaḥ), dropping possessiveness and ego. The mind, as a result, becomes serene, placid and beatific (2.71).

Brahma-karma-samādhi

The phrase brahma-karma-samādhi is especially noteworthy. The activity – namely sacrifice – itself becomes Brāhmic by dint of the full-fold Brāhmic attitude that covers all its limbs. Mind and its attitude alone verily shape the quality and worth of activities and consequently their results and outcomes. This is how brahma-karma-samādhi works.

It is just like transforming every action one does into a total and wholesome worship, as described in 12.6, and worshipping the Omnipresent Lord with all the acts that one performs, as laid down in 18.56. The mind should undergo a thorough expansion, imbibing adequate depth and refinement in its devotional orientation. This is certainly possible through selective and dedicated introspection.

Many-fold sacrifices

To emphasise how singular, wholesome and ultimate the thought and identification with the supreme Brahman are, Krishna, in the next six verses, points to the variety of popular and conventional yajñas, sacrifices. Every form of sacrifice is only a means to reach the great outcome, namely to realize Brahman and feel one’s full identity with it. In reality, this is an inner pursuit and process, resting solely upon one’s mind and intelligence.

No external organ or material truly has anything to do with it. But alas, people are so deluded that no one cares to think of what he does, and whether it is really effective in attaining what is to be attained. Naturally, this ignorance gives rise to a variety of indulgences, with the vain hope that they will take the performer to the desired goal.

Outer ritual and inner offering

Thus, we come to the next verse (4.25). Staunch yogic practitioners understand that all they do should be based upon mind and intelligence alone. Materials are inert; of what use are they in producing any real experience or knowledge? By ‘spiritual’ is meant something ‘supra-material’. So they feel that the sacrifice they perform must also be totally spiritual in nature, content and purpose. Yet, not being able to grasp this deep and subtle inner refinement, many others take to conventional and customary sacrifices wherein various materials are offered into the fire, visualising plural heavenly deities as recipients.

By doing so they derive a kind of satisfaction that they are doing something exclusive, and they hope their purpose will be fulfilled thereby – a belief current in any complex society. Krishna does not ignore them. See the dexterity of the Sadguru! He does not devalue the ignorant but encourages them to evolve. Therefore, he includes them first in the list of sacrificers.

Goal of inner attainment

In contrast, those with a measure of discrimination feel that Brahman is the sole goal of human life and whatever they do must be with a view to strengthen and fulfil this goal of inner attainment. Employing their mind and intelligence, they contemplate upon Brahman, considering it to be the supreme fire, and into that fire they offer the products of their mind and intelligence. This marks an amazing shift from the delusional clinging to sensory objects to attention to one’s own inner mind and understanding.

Shift from the external to inner process

In the next verse (4.26) Krishna strikes an evolved note: he does not refer to any external gross object; instead, he emphasises that our senses alone produce their respective objects – sight (colour and shape), sound, smell, taste and touch. Being so, the sacrifice, he says, should be of the sensory functions and not of gross external objects. On the one hand, Krishna teaches that the senses – the ear, the eye and so on – should be sacrificed into the fire of restraint; on the other hand, the sensory objects – sound, sights, smells, tastes and touches – should be offered into the fire of the senses. Neither objects nor fire, in this case, is external and gross. 

Know with discrimination that there is no object in the world besides what the senses in your body generate and preserve. To think of objects as existing independently outside, is a delusion. So, the real sacrifice to be conceived and performed is not outside, using any external agency such as a material fire; it is an interior process enacted by the mind itself. 

Fire of self-restraint – the final austerity

Thus, we come to the next verse (4.27). Krishna incorporates here not only the senses and their objects but also prāṇa and its activities. This is clearly a subtler and more inward step. Both sensory and prāṇic activities are to be equally employed in this sacrifice. Where will you offer them? Krishna says, ātma-samyama-yogāgnou – in the fire of the yoga of self-restraint. Here nothing is to be thought of or enquired into; rather, the very thinking and enquiring processes are to be dissolved into their own source, into the Self. 

This constitutes an inner, deep, refined restraint and sublimation. Reflect well upon this to grasp the message and realize its full impact. This is actually an inner, subtle, refined process called knowledge-austerity – an austerity in which mind and intelligence alone are employed. Again, it is the knowledge about this that becomes the force and the means to accomplish it. The seeker must be progressively more enlightened in order to perform this kind of sacrifice. Needless to say, this is the real jñāna-sādhanā.