GITA 4.22

GITA 4.22

Sri Krishna played miracles at Gokulam, Nandagrama and Brindavan. Kamsa, determined to kill SriKrishna, dispatched one after another Demons to all these places. Sri Krishna killed everyone of them. The last of the demons was Kesi, who came in the disguise of a horse. We are at Kesi ghat, where Kesi was killed by Sri Krishna. This demon was large and sage Narada was scared that he might cause problem, but Sri Krishna effortlessly put His hand into the horse's mouth and killed him.

Sri Krishna killing Kesi

Kesi Ghat

Sri Jugal Kishore Temple in Kesi Ghat

Sri Jugal Kishoreji

 Here we can see the sculpture and building skills of Rajputs. The King of Bharatpur has built temple. This place is suitable for bathing and offering rites to deceased elders of the family. Now the 20th sloka:

tyaktva karma-phalasangam
nitya-trpto nirasrayah
karmany abhipravrtto ’pi
naiva kincit karoti sah

Abandoning all attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisfied and independant, he performs no fruitive action, although engaged in all kinds of undertakings.

"Abandoning all attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisfied with atman, he is regarded to perform no action , although engaged in all kinds of undertakings."

Though one does Karma yoga which consists of many karmas, he is considered to have not done. This is the meaning of this sloka. To understand this, consider an example. A child slaps its father. The father does not complain that the child has beaten. Seeing this, an adult neighbour, comes and gently beats the same father. The father gets angry and asks why the neighbour does the same. The father is angry and chides the neighbour. He replies that since he saw the father taking the slap of the child lightly, he thought that anyone could beat the father and getaway. Why this difference? Because when the child beats, it does not have any feeling like enmity or hatred and so it was not considered as beating. Whereas, when the neighbour does, his enmity or hatred is considered, and even a gentle pat is considered as beating. Therefore, any action is weighed against the background or intention. Then it is concluded whether the action was done or not done. Here, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that while doing a karma, he can be considered as not doing that karma. A person practicing Gyana yoga has certain advantages and disadvantages. Similarly, a person doing Karma yoga has some advantages. Advantage for a Karma yogi is that he can continue to do what he has been doing, like earning, maintaining family,etc. But while doing all these, one collects the papa and punya for each action. This is a disadvantage. While a Gyana yogi is not doing any action and so he does not incur any papa or punya. This is a great advantage. But we consider as disadvantage of Gyana yoga is the control of senses and the organs.Sri Krishna gives us a method to have the advantages of both. That is we will continue to do our karma but the papa/ punya of the actions will not be incurred. To get this, we have to discard the attachment to the karmas. That is we should do the karma without any desire on its results. So, all our routines, like office going or performing pooja, will become karma yoga, if we do them with atman gyana. By detaching ourselves with the results for inferior benefits, the actions will not get papa/punya. This is what in the last sloka He told that the Gyana fire, burnt away all papa and punya of the karma. Karma phala sangham = the desire in the results of our karma, tyaktva = abandoned or discarded, nitya trpta = satisfied with ever lasting atman gyana, nirasraya = with no desire on the body [that is sensual pleasures], karmany = in the various actions, abhipravrattopi= even when actively involved, naiva kinchit = even a small action will not be considered, karoti sa = he will not have done. That is, a person even when actively doing his assigned duties, does with no attachment to the inferior results of those actions, is said to have done no action, however small it is, which could incur papa/ punya, and so he is deemed to have done no action and so will not incur papa/ punya. This implies that we can do our duties without greed and with serving others. We have to reduce our requirements and think about Atman. By slightly altering, every small work we do can become Karma yoga. 

                                                                                                       (continued)