GITA 5.8

GITA 5.8

Sarvopanishado gaavo dogdhaa gopaalanandanah;
Paartho vatsah sudheer bhoktaa dugdham geetaamritam mahat.

gita sugita kartavya, kim anyaih sastra vistaraih 
ya svayam padmanabhasya, mukha-padmad vinihsrta

We have now arrived at another important Divya desam in Pandya region. Of the 18 Divya desams in Pandya region, we are at Sri Kallazhagar temple in Thirumaliruncholai. This place is called Malirunkunram, Maliruncholai, Vrishabadri, etc. This place is mentioned in the ancient sangam literature like Paripadal and Silappadikaram. Puranas acclaim the greatness of this Kshetram. Six of the Ten Alwars have sung in praise of this place.

 Today's [27th November, 2007] lecture is from this temple. Sri Krishna has stated that Karma yoga yields the same result as Gyana yoga would, and does it quicker and easier. Now the Seventh sloka:

yoga-yukto vishuddhatma
vijitatma jitendriyah
sarva-bhutatma-bhutatma
kurvann api na lipyate

One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses, is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled.

" A Karma yogi gets purity of mind, control of mind and control of senses. For him all living beings are alike him and the actions he is doing never affect him"

Here all benefits accrue to a Karma yogi, are listed like a staircase. Yoga yukta = one who is practicing Karma yoga, visuddhatma = gets purified mind without any blemish, vijitatma = wins his mind, meaning has full control of mind, jitendriya = and so, all sense organs are controlled. By practicing Karma yoga, the mind is serene and pure, mind gets controlled and all organs get controlled. Such a person's next level is sarva bhuta = all living beings, atma bhuta = equal to himself, kurvannnapi= even when he is doing his karma, na lipyate = is not affected [by any confusion which are opposing his Atman sakshatkaram]. This way the Karma yogi attains Moksham very easily. The Lord here is called Sri Kallazhagar, which means Beautiful Thief. Since He steals our hearts, He is called like that. By stealing our minds, they do not drift away from devotion. What is purity of mind? Was it polluted? Raga- dvesha and kama-krodha are the ones which pollute our minds. When our minds get pure, we should be away from likes and dislikes, happiness and sorrow. With such impurities we develop hatred on some and unwanted liking on others. Continuous practice of Karma yoga gets all these impurities cleared. This can be explained by a small story. A person lived in a place and in front of his house there was a huge rock. One day, God came in his dreams and ordered him to shift the rock. Waking up, he tried his best, but the rock was huge and could not move it. He went on trying daily, for almost a month. Neighbours laughed at him for his useless pursuit. Again God appeared in his dreams. He lamented at his efforts going in vain. God pacified him and said that He wanted to test whether the person would follow his advice resolutely and God never needed the person's help to move the rock, which God moved it effortlessly. The person asked then why He asked him to do that work. Was there any advantage for the person? Person's duty was to follow what was ordered and result was with God. The person asked whether that meant he did not get any benefit? God replied and told him to look at a mirror. When he did that he could not believe that his body was trim and sleek, because of the exercise. Similarly,Karma yoga has been ordained by the Lord. It is not necessary to show how the mind gets purified, one can nevertheless feel such a change taking place. The result of Atman sakshatkaram will accrue with His blessings, automatically. It is like standing on the first step of an escalator. When mind gets pure, it does not get drifted and so gets controlled. He succeeds in controlling sense organs also. He is able to see the Atman, which is same in all and so he sees all as equal. Such a person does karma and the papa of any karma never affects him. That is, he is not confused by Atman body relationship. He sees only Atman everywhere and not the bodies. A person A beats another B. B complains to the police and investigating, the police finds, A is insane and so lets off A without any punishment. That is A's action was done without mind involved and so the action was not considered as wrong. This is only to illustrate, that when mind is not involved in the karma we are doing, the papa will not stick to it. Because, the mind is engaged in Atman and not worried about trivial results.

                                                                                  (continued)