The secret of right action || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00 Then the questioner says, "Acharyaji, Pranam.

00:13 From verse 25 to 33 of chapter 4, Sri Krishna speaks of the following sacrifices to Gods.

00:25 Sacrifice of self, which is the ego, aham.

00:29 Sacrifice of organs of senses.

00:31 Sacrifice of objects of senses.

00:33 Sacrifice of functions of senses.

00:35 Sacrifice of wealth.

00:36 Sacrifice by austerity.

00:38 Sacrifice by study of scriptures.

00:41 Sacrifice by restraint of breath.

00:43 And sacrifice of diet."

00:46 So a lot of verses have been quoted.

00:58 Acharyaji, what is really meant by a sacrifice or yagya and what is really meant by jnana

01:07 yagya that Krishna says is greater than all the other sacrifices or yagya.

01:14 Please also help us understand the meaning of verse 33 that says, "All actions in their

01:22 totality culminate in knowledge."

01:25 No, no, that's not what verse 33 says.

01:30 Not culminate in knowledge.

01:33 Dissolve in knowledge.

01:37 The word used is parisamapyate.

01:45 Ending.

01:46 Samapti.

01:48 The word apt.

01:49 Apt means highest.

01:50 A climax.

01:51 Samapt means having truly attained the climax.

02:05 That is samapti.

02:09 Having truly attained the climax.

02:12 That is samapti.

02:13 So when it is said here that all actions in their totality culminate in knowledge, what

02:22 is meant is that real understanding gives you a dissolution of all actions.

02:37 All actions dissolve in understanding.

02:41 What does that mean?

02:43 What is it that actions leave behind?

02:46 Their fruits.

02:50 Their residues.

02:53 But in understanding, actions do not leave behind any residue.

02:59 Because in understanding, you do not act for the sake of the residue.

03:05 The action itself is chosen so wisely that it will not leave behind any fruit, any clutter,

03:14 any dirt, which simply means nishkama karma.

03:22 You do not act for the sake of the result.

03:26 That is the mark of wisdom or understanding.

03:30 You just act.

03:33 Therefore action leaves you with no obligations, no achievements, nor any heartbreaks.

03:45 What is an achievement?

03:46 What is a feeling of elation?

03:53 What is this euphoria on the success of an action?

04:02 It is the fruit of action.

04:05 I acted and my action achieved the target it was directed at.

04:14 So now I am feeling elated.

04:19 This is a residue of action.

04:23 The action has left me with elation.

04:26 Elation is a residue of action.

04:32 Similarly what is disappointment or heartbreak?

04:37 The action did not fetch me what I wanted from it.

04:41 So what has the action left me with?

04:45 Despair, sadness.

04:49 What is this sadness?

04:51 It is a residue or fruit of the action.

04:56 Both of these residues come only to those who act in order to get something.

05:02 Get something for whom?

05:06 To whom is the euphoria?

05:07 To whom is the sadness?

05:08 To the actor.

05:10 So happiness or sadness come to you only when you act for the sake of your own gratification.

05:20 When you do not act for the sake of your own personal benefit or gratification, then action

05:27 leaves you with neither happiness nor sadness.

05:30 You are free of the action.

05:32 That's what Krishna is saying here.

05:33 Your action has attained closure.

05:37 Your action has attained fulfillment.

05:43 What if you are left with bitterness after the action?

05:46 What will that lead to?

05:47 That will lead to the next action.

05:54 So you are not liberated.

05:55 You are still under the obligation to act one more time because the action has left

06:00 you with bitterness.

06:03 What if the action leaves you with a sense of accomplishment?

06:09 Again you will be tempted to act one more time.

06:15 You see I got something.

06:17 Can't I repeat my success?

06:20 So you see you are not liberated.

06:21 You are not liberated because you are again obligated to act one more time and you have

06:27 created future for yourself.

06:28 So you are caught in the cycle of time.

06:31 If you want to act one more time, what do you require?

06:35 If you want to act one more time, you require one more time.

06:39 You require time.

06:40 And if you require time, then you are still caught in the clockwork.

06:45 You are not free of time.

06:48 You are still in Kaal Chakra.

06:50 You are still in Kaal Chakra.

06:52 Kaal is time and Kaal is death.

06:57 And you will be afraid.

07:00 Getting it?

07:01 Now the questioner is saying what is meant by a sacrifice and what is meant by Gyan Yagya?

07:18 Sacrifice obviously means giving up or offering.

07:26 At the root of sacrifice is realization.

07:32 What realization?

07:36 Because the questioner says what is sacrifice and what is Gyan Yagya and why is Gyan Yagya

07:41 higher than all other sacrifices?

07:45 So we will consider sacrifice and we will consider what is Gyan or realization.

07:53 What is at the root of all sacrifice?

07:54 When would you sacrifice something for something else?

08:02 Seeing that the thing that you have is of lower value than what you would get post sacrificing

08:15 it.

08:16 So in that sense it is actually just a trade-off.

08:18 But it's a very wise trade-off.

08:22 It's a bargain in wisdom.

08:24 You are giving up something that has a lower value and having given this thing up you attain

08:31 something that has a higher value.

08:35 This is Yagya.

08:36 Yagya says, "Oh, of what use is this little self to me?

08:41 I give this up.

08:42 Having given this self up, what do I get?

08:45 I get the greater self, the real self, the pure self.

08:49 I have given up the false self.

08:52 The little self, the ego.

08:54 Having given up the ego, I attain something immensely bigger.

08:57 So it's a profitable bargain.

09:00 A small thing has been given and something big has been attained.

09:04 Similarly, sacrifice of organ of senses, objects of senses, function of senses, wealth, this,

09:10 that.

09:11 Basically, we are talking of a value system here.

09:14 We must know how to assess, how to evaluate.

09:17 We must know what is the right value of one thing vis-a-vis another thing.

09:22 And we must know that truth and freedom are the most valuable.

09:27 Therefore, anything can be sacrificed for their sake.

09:31 Hence and then only this becomes obvious.

09:37 This thing falls in place.

09:39 I can give up my wealth.

09:42 If giving up of wealth brings freedom to me, I can give up my knowledge.

09:47 I can give up senses, pleasures, ego, concepts.

09:55 All these things I can give up.

09:57 And then in between, some of the verses have also talked of the way of giving up.

10:03 Three ways have been listed here by the questioner.

10:05 Sacrifice through austerity, sacrifice through study of scriptures, sacrifice through pranayama

10:11 or restraint of breath.

10:13 So these are the three ways of giving up.

10:16 There is stuff that you give up and there are ways in which you give up.

10:20 So three ways are also listed here.

10:23 What is central is the intention to give up.

10:29 And remember that giving up in the spiritual sense is not charity.

10:35 Giving up in the spiritual sense is good business.

10:41 You have given a smaller thing up and attained something far bigger, infinitely more profitable.

10:57 In fact, that's one way to define joy.

11:02 Do not call joy as freedom from pleasure.

11:10 Just call joy as higher pleasure.

11:14 Now if you call joy as higher pleasure, then it becomes possible to sacrifice the lower

11:19 pleasures for the sake of the higher pleasure called joy.

11:27 Otherwise, spirituality remains very scary to people who have been spoken to in the language

11:39 of renunciation.

11:41 Give this up, give that up.

11:43 The ego asks, but why?

11:46 All I have is this 10 rupee note and you are asking me to give it up.

11:53 You have to in the same breath tell him that by giving up this 10 rupee note, you will

12:01 indeed get something that is worth rupees 500.

12:08 And you have to really demonstrate it.

12:11 He must be able to see it in his life that by giving up on smaller pleasures or the so-called

12:21 good things of life, he has now attained a state that is far higher, a state that he

12:30 would not like to exchange in return for anything.

12:38 Thank you.

12:53 [Music]

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