GITA 4.36

GITA 4.36
Achinvata: kusumam anghri sarOruham tE
yE bhEjirE bata! vanaspatayO latAvA |
adyApi tatkulabhuva: kuladaivatam mE
brundAvanam mama dhiyam ca sanAthayanti ||

This is a sloka (52) in Athimanushastavam by Koorattalwan. "Hey! Sri Krishna, when You were alive in this World, your hands must have touched many trees, plants and flowers. Your feet trod on this land. I was not fortunate to have been here at that time. But now, I am able to be in touch with that land and others, which might have had contact with you", says Koorattalwan. Like that, we are in  an important place in the Govardan Parikrama - Kusum Sarovar.

Kusum sarovar means flower pond. Sri Krishna used to come here with Gopikas and they would pluck flowers and decorate each other. Kings of Rajasthan and Bharatpur have built beautiful buildings on this pond. Sri Krishna used to decorate Radha (Rani) here. It is like Sri Ranganatha used to decorate Sri Ranganayaki Thayar in Chandra Pushkarini in Srirangam, as described by Parasara Bhattar! Sukhacharya and Uddhava prayed that they should be born as a flower or plant in this place, so that they could have the touch of Sri Krishna! We can imagine how beautiful this place would have been in those days, when Sri Krishna used to come here and spend time with Gopikas! This is the starting point of Govardhan Parikrama. 

We will now return to sloka 33 of Chapter 4. It was told that Gyana filled Yagna is superior to Karma filled Yagna. Even in our domestic life, we see employment involving brain is more rewarded than mere hard labour. This leads us to some questions. Firstly, it appears Sri Krishna is considering Gyana Yoga superior to Karma Yoga. At the end of this Chapter, Sri Krishna is going to tell Arjuna that Gyana Yoga is superior and so Arjuna should get up and get ready to fight. This appears to be contradictory! Because Gyana Yoga involves no action and fighting is full of action. Now, we will see one sloka (3.8) in Chapter 3, one sloka 18 in Chapter 4 and this sloka 4.33. If we look at them together we may get confused! In sloka 3.8, He said that Arjuna should perform his duty and none can escape from doing some work. There the word akarma was interpreted to mean Gyana Yoga and it was told there that Karma Yoga was superior to Gyana Yoga. This appears to clearly contradict present sloka 4.33! This apart, in sloka 4.18, it was told that Arjuna should look at Gyana in Karma and Karma in Gyana. Seeing all these together, one may get confused. We have to interpret all these properly, to get the confusion clarified. There is no second thought in Sri Krishna's determination that Karma Yoga is superior to Gyana Yoga. In this sloka 4.33, what Sri Krishna tells is that in the Karma Yoga, there are two sub divisions viz. the action or material part, and the other is Gyana part. In fighting, the bow and arrows and sword all form materials. With those Arjuna should do his Karma or fighting. While fighting, however, he should think that he was not fighting for any cheap or inferior objective. He should know that he would be destroying the bodies and not the souls, which are eternal. That Soul is  superior to body. By fighting, he should think that he would be establishing Dharma and rescuing people from wicked forces, and so Arjuna would get Atman sakshatkaram. It is this Gyana part in Karma Yoga, is what Sri Krishna praises in sloka 4.33. Thus in this sloka we should understand that Sri Krishna does not talk about Gyana Yoga and so, we should not conclude that He was praising Gyana Yoga in preference to Karma Yoga. A person tries to help his parents by massaging their legs. If massaging was the only intention, even a machine could do that. But when the son does the massaging, the father and mother are pleased. Thus the service intention of the son is more important than the massaging activity. That is why it is often told that many activities should not become mere rituals, with intentions being low. There are many rituals in many of our day-to-day activities. In a marriage there are a number of rituals like going round the sacred fire, etc. If we know the significance of all these, they become the Gyana of those rituals. Therefore, Sri Krishna emphasises the superiority of the significance or the Gyana part of each of our activity, including Karma Yoga.

                                                                                                              (continued)