*📜Chapter 4 : Gyan Yoga📜*

*📜Chapter 4 : Gyan Yoga📜* Divinity is creating that awe in you. Honouring divinity in various forms for specific reasons, using Divinity for a specific cause, is what people do for obtaining definite results. Even in a cathedral there are specific places--one altar for compassion, one for mercy, one for healing etc. In the same way, if you go to Hindu temples, the same Paramatma, the same God is adored in different forms for attaining different definite results. It is the same wheat but when you make a pancake, you do it differently; and if you make noodles it is different; for pasta, it is different and for pizza, it is different. You are using the same flour, but you use it in different ways to create different results, different tastes. So different devatas (angels) or different rituals, people follow to attain different results, they worship in different manners. All these actions give quick results in the world because your focus is on achieving that particular result. *It is not just dreaming. *Along with the dream you have to act also. This is very clearly mentioned.* Earlier Krishna talked about dreaming--you must dream; as you sow so shall you reap. But it is not enough to merely sow; you have to water it again, nurture it and act on it, *Action combined with the dream will give good results.* *_chātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛiṣhṭaṁ guṇa-karma vibhāgaśhaḥ tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhyakartāram avyayam (4.13)_* This is the most controversial statement. Krishna himself was controversial and this is even more controversial because it talks about the fourfold caste system. "This fourfold caste system was created by Me, by distribution of different nature and action. Though I am the author there of, know Me to be Actionless and Changeless. I am the author, yet I am beyond action and there is no change in me". Now, anywhere in the world you go, you will find these four castes. One is the intellectual class of people. The second is the warrior or protector class-- police, military and security agencies. The third is the business community. They are not interested in how planets work or how aerodynamics or thermodynamics work-they are only interested in how much money they can make. The business people are only interested in the economy. In fact, the economics is for the planet, but what has happened is that the economists think that the planet is for the economy. That's where problems began. So the third type are the business people. The fourth is the labour force the serving class, working class or labour class. They are not bothered about business - how much money will you make, what to sell and what to give and even what to produce. They just do their job get their money and then they sit at home. These four classes are found in the world--it depends on their tendency Guna means the qualities and the work they do. You go to any part of the world there are four different aspects you find. Even here, there is a Chamber of Commerce - only those who are involved in commerce will get entry. And there are trade unions. A doctor cannot go and enrol in a trade union. You have to be qualified to be part of a trade union. Similarly, someone who is in the labour union cannot go and enrol in the doctors' club or engineers' club. This is a natural formation of groups according to their profession and their characters. It is present all over the world, whether it is Russia, Australia or even among the tribal or uneducated people - they form these groups, four different classes. It only represents the work that they are doing. It is not from birth at all - that is where the whole mistake has happened. Because the professions became hereditary - they were passed down from parents, generation after generation, the same family, they got stuck. They thought only if you are born into a particular family of doctors can you become a doctor. If you are born into the family of a politician, only then can you become a politician. This sort of rigidity happened later on and that's when the caste system took a very ugly shape in India. Lord Krishna said, "Though the spirit is responsible for action and the quality it exhibits, still the spirit is free from the action or the quality it still remains untouched by it. "That is, in one corner of your heart, you are the same. Here, he spoke like a communist. The communists say that everybody is the same, everybody is equal. Krishna said, " Yes, your actions are different, your qualities are different, but though it is created by the Self, yet the Self is completely untouched by this and is pure." So, at different times it can change it's qualities and can change its action. This is to tell you that you don't have to be a doctor all your life, or a labour union leader all your life. Any moment you want to change, you can change. You can take a different profession, you can change your action. You can change the qualities that you exhibit eg. from being a working class person to a businessman. Similarly, a businessman can become an employee eg. someone sells his business and becomes an employee of his own business. How could you do that? Because there is something in you that is a witness, which is different from this and which is not connected to the action or the quality. Lord Krishna said, "I am that space" or "You are that space". Your Self is untouched by your action or the qualities that you exhibit. That is to say that you have enormous capability of exhibiting many other characters and qualities and doing many other actions as well. Infinite possibilities are there, and at the same time, you acknowledge the tendencies of your limited sphere of actions and qualities. Acknowledge that "Okay, my tendency is to do business or my tendency is to do a job, or my tendency is to be a fighter, warrior; my tendency is to be a teacher or a wise person or to go into research". "And thereof know Me to be actionless and changeless." It is the changeless aspect in us that gives strength to the changing aspect in us. There are so many things changing around us. If your focus is only on the changing aspect, you will be shattered. That causes fear, anxiety and nervousness. When we realise that "There is something in me that doesn't change, that doesn't get tainted or touched by anything whatsoever," then enormous confidence, strength, dawns in oneself. This is a big clue for management experts, to show that the way to gain that inner strength and confidence is by attending to that aspect in you that does not change. When you know that there is something that never changes, nothing matters to you. Then you will say, "So what!" But when you think everything is going to crumble and the heaven is going to fall on your head, that's when you are shattered. Arjuna was shattered and he needed to hear that nothing really matters. "You have the strength. Nothing will happen to you, you will never get destroyed. You are the changeless spirit. Krishna said this in so many ways. *Day 76* *evaṁ jñātvā kṛitaṁ karma pūrvair api mumukṣhubhiḥ kuru karmaiva tasmāttvaṁ pūrvaiḥ pūrvataraṁ kṛitam (4.15)* "Knowing this, do your action, do your work. That is how people who sought liberation in the past have also done." Usually, if a liberated person says this and does this, you say, "Oh, for you it's okay, you are Guruji. You can do it, but I am a common man, an ordinary person. How will I do all that? I cannot be free from anxiety and fear. Only wise people can claim to be free from fear." No, no, don't escape by saying such things! He says even seekers in the past -mumuksubhih - have done this. Men and women are led by examples, not just by principles of philosophy. Philosophies are there in abundance. So many books are there, so many schools of thought but they don't move people. What really moves a person is a living example, or examples of those who lived in the past. So, Krishna had to tell him, "Even seekers in the past have done actions and have been successful by knowing that there is something in you that doesn't change. It doesn't matter whatever you do. Keep doing, continue your action." "Like those people of the past, you continue doing action. Having known this, the ancient seekers, even after freedom, performed actions. Therefore, you too perform actions as the ancients did." *Day 77* *_kiṁ karma kim akarmeti kavayo ’pyatra mohitāḥ tat te karma pravakṣhyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣhyase ’śhubhāt (4.16)_* Arjuna asked Krishna, “Okay! You tell me to do action. Now what should I do, what should I not do? What is inaction?What is special action?” Even the wise are confused at times. It is only when you get confused that you are bothered. “Okay, I want to act but I don’t know what to do! How to go about it? What is right? What is not right?” Krishna said, “I am going to tell you… Even the wise, the intelligent get perplexed. Therefore, I shall tell you what action is, knowing which you shall be free from evil.” *_karmaṇo hyapi boddhavyaṁ boddhavyaṁ cha vikarmanah_* *_akarmaṇaśh cha boddhavyaṁ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ (4.17)_* _Arjuna_ was already confused whether to fight the war or not. He did not want to fight the war, because all his friends, his relatives, his brothers, his teachers - all were on the other side, and he felt it was wrong to fight against them. Again, for the sake of the country, for the nation, to uphold righteousness, and to protect the people, his duty was to fight. In this big confusion, he did not know what to do. Then _Krishna_ said, “I know your confusion.” You know this is a good action, but there is also a wrong thing happening because of it; and that is a wrong action but there is something good coming out of it. In all this confusion what is it that you have to do _Krishna_ said,*“ He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction, he is wise among men, and he is a yogi, an accomplisher of everything.”* Do you need anything more to get confused, if you are not yet? _Krishna_ is not a convincer ; he is a ‘confuser’! He can confuse anybody holding any conviction. He confused _Arjuna_ further, saying, “One who sees action in inaction and inaction in action, he is the wisest of all.” *But the subtlety of this verse is a mind boggling truth.* *To be continued...* *🌺Jai Gurudev🌺*