Chapter 2: Sānkhya Yoga – Yoga of Contemplation on Self / Verse 44

Explanation of Verses 2.42, 2.43 and 2.44:

Pursuit of rituals driven by desires for enjoyment here or hereafter is adverse to spiritual progress and enrichment. This is a decisive pronouncement of Krishna setting forth clearly the futility of pursuing rituals in the belief that they will lead one to lasting good and fulfilment.

Vedic performances are, by their very nature, directly opposed to the spiritual path leading to the supreme good, because the basis for pursuing the rituals is desire for worldly enjoyment. Practitioners of Vedic rituals are blinded and refuse to think or enquire about anything further, although Vedic Upanishads speak clearly about the higher vision.

As this world will be lost when the body falls, their yearning is to ensure similar prosperity in the higher worlds. Heavens and heavenly life allure them in such a psychological context.

The basic factor is that they refuse to think well and be guided by discrimination (viveka). As one distinguishes between white and black, fragrance and foul smell, the intelligence should learn to discriminate between the fleeting and the lasting, the immediately pleasant and the lastingly beneficial. But the ritualistic people refuse to take up this kind of essential introspection. So, resoluteness of intelligence never occurs to them, says Krishna categorically.

Vedic rituals are an involvemental path of desire, greed and possessiveness, whereas the spiritual path leading to Self-realization is solely based upon discrimination and inner enrichment. What helps and intensifies the process is dispassion towards the fleeting world-objects as well as the promised other-worldly enjoyments after the body falls.

In fact, this is what Arjuna confirmed in Kurukshetra: “Neither do I cherish prosperity here, nor am I attracted by enjoyments in the highest of heavens. I only want sreyas, the ultimate auspicious goal of human life.”

Is this not a conclusion his intelligence arrived at by evaluating matters properly, after he heard what Krishna said in the way of admonition? Spiritual quest is for those who have the qualities of discrimination and dispassion, which rituals cannot deliver any time.

As long as the mind craves for fleeting sensory enjoyments, it will not be able to realise the imperishable joy within, which is independent of the external objects. The earlier a seeker knows this, the better.