Gita for Youth - Samkhya Yoga - Selfless Action

Intellect and selfless action

Krishna further said, “Hear me now explaining the principles of another discipline, the Yoga of intellect. This teaching will enable you to gain freedom from the evil effects of any action. Such intellect even in small measure will protect you from great fear and tribulations.”

Krishna then explained the concept of single minded intellect. The single minded intellect is for one who is determined and steady in his goal. For others who are engaged in too many selfish thoughts or selfish actions, such intellect does not appeal. Selfish actions are followed by people who rejoice in the doctrines of Veda which prescribe ways for attaining heaven and material prosperity. In pursuit of material happiness such people often abandon the path of steadiness of mind and intellect and thus suffer.

Veda, or the entire mass of revealed knowledge, has two parts – one is called Karma Kanda, the other is called the Jnana Kanda. Karma Kanda deals with the rites and rituals for attaining material prosperity and heavenly abode, while Jnana Kanda talks about Supreme Knowledge which leads to liberation. The Lord describes here the people who are obsessed with the rites and rituals for gaining selfish ends.

During the period in which Mahabharata events took place, the spiritual wisdom had declined and attaining heavens by performing sacrifices and rituals as prescribed in Vedas was the main objective for the three upper castes. Also Brahmins encouraged sacrifices, rites and rituals as the charities would confer upon them material benefits. So the emphasis was on the first three of the four Vargas or paths - Dharma or virtue, Artha or Material Prosperity and Kama or fulfillment of desires. The fourth - Moksha or emancipation (from all sorrows, tribulations and earthly life) was considered as too difficult or unattainable. In Gita, Sri Krishna addresses this misconception. The path of Moksha has been the primary emphasis of all Avataras or divine incarnations. Lord Buddha's primary message is how to attain Nirvana or liberation from bondage, Jesus has emphasized on attaining kingdom of heaven, a state not very different from that of Mukti or Moksha, Sri Ramakrishna's whole gospel is centred around realization of God and Mukti. Direct realization of divinity and Mukti is the central tenet of the Upanishads.

Any selfish action brings suffering in its wake. Any pleasure brings pain and unhappiness. Only one who is able to rise above pleasure and pain can possess this single minded intellect. Such a person is pure and selfless and to him doctrines of Veda prescribing material prosperity are as useless as tiny water tanks in a place where water is plentiful. This intellect also leads one to selfless action, an action which does not seek the results or fruits of it.

This is one of the central tenets of Gita, that action for action’s sake should be one’s goal, not the fruits therein. As we have to perform worldly duties, we must act, but without desiring the results of such actions. Therefore the fear of failure or joy of success should never be the motive of acting, nor should one give up work being fearful of consequences, as Arjuna was going to do. One should be steadfast in this intellect and should act without attachment to the fruits of action, being composed under prosperity and adversity.

In Swami Vivekananda's words, only a selfless action is an action in which we actually relinquish the fruits. Any selfish action is bound to be driven by desire and therefore is unworthy of being qualified as "action prescribed in Gita". If Arjuna fights the battle, not for name, fame or fortune, nor for recovering lost kingdom, and nor for avenging the injustice, but simply as a duty which needs to be complied with, he will be acting selflessly. However this course is dangerous as any nefarious act (for instance mass killings perpetrated by fundamentalists and bigots) can be justified as duty. But the difference lies in attitude. In one, Sraddha or devotion is the main driver which automatically achieves a virtuous end and where one gracefully accepts any consequence. The other one which results in monstrous calamities, is driven by fear and hatred and such fundamentalists will never gracefully accept their defeat and destruction of their cause. In eighteenth chapter of Gita we'll learn that while former activities are driven by a knowledge which is pure or Sattvik, the latter are driven by one which is Tamasik or quality of darkness. There is actually a very thin red line between these two qualities of nature as they are the opposite ends of the same spectrum which often appear equal to an unaccustomed eye (e.g high wavelengths and low wavelengths are both invisible to the naked eye). 

This state of composure, non attachment and lack of desire is called Yoga. One who works merely for fruits is a pitiable wretch as he/she is far inferior to the one who is steadfast in intellect, who is able to shun any desire and the associated miseries (of non fulfillment of the desire) and happiness (of fulfillment of the desire). Yoga enables one to be far more efficient in action as by renouncing the fruits one is able to work devotedly, free of anxiety.

Sages, propelled by such selfless actions, could liberate themselves from the shackles of life and death and attain bliss. Such people can transcend all confusions associated with Vedas (Sruti or one that is heard), discriminate the sugar from sand, and can remain steadfast despite injunctions from scriptures like the Vedas on ways for attaining material progress and heavenly merits.

Intellect based on selfless action, renunciation of the desire for fruits of the action will enable a person to find everlasting peace. Free from the shackles of the desire for the fruits of good action, viz. material prosperity, good things, and heaven in the afterlife, such people of steady intellect never suffers from any anxiety on account of not getting what they want, as they do not have any want. Such persons can fight a war and kill people but never beget sin as they fight for the sake of eternal duty without any desire for victory or defeat, name, fame, recognition, fortune or any other selfish motive.