Fourth Chapter: Wisdom and Sacrifice

Bhagavad-Gita Fourth Chapter

The Meaning of Knowledge:

The Yoga of Wisdom

by Michael Dolan/B.V. Mahayogi

Different forms of Sacrifice

There are different forms of religion and different ways of practicing these forms, from the simplest acts of sacrifice to complete surrender. In the end they all lead to divinity. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, “However they surrender unto Me—I reward them, as I am the ultimate goal. Everyone follows a path that leads to God in the end. And yet, everywhere there is gradation. People want success in karma, so they worship different gods. But in the end all this worship is meant for the Supreme Lord.”

Gradations of Consciousness and Society

This material world is the outcome of gradations of consciousness blended with psychological misconceptions embedded in space and time. How space and time are products of consciousness is explained in the Vedanta and Upanishads. This world is one of subjective evolution of consciousness. As consciousness becomes opaque it breaks into three primal influences called “gunas,” or modes. Just as pure light reflected through a prism breaks into different colors, our experience as conditioned souls in the material world becomes colored by these three influences or modes of nature.

Modes of Nature

Sattva-guna is the influence of truthfulness and goodness, Raja-guna, passion and creation, Tamas, ignorance, darkness, basic survival. All material is tinged by these influences; like the string theory of quantum physics they bind the reality of space and time together with perverted consciousness. Depending on the particular concentration of sattva, rajas, or tamas, our character may be molded, just as DNA molds our physical condition. Just as pure water is uncommon in nature, pure sattva, pure goodness, is difficult to find.  But there are at least four basic characters described here by Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, and these have been encoded into society as the different varnas, or classes within society.

Different Modes of Nature and Different Social Classes

Where Marx and Engels posited a “classless” society and American Democracy has promised a “dream” based on social equality, the four different classes mentioned by Kṛṣṇa here are still quite marked.

Kṛṣṇa says that the ruling class, the intellectual class, the mercantile class, and the working class follow the divisions of consciousness from sattva, rajas, and tamas. Society consciousness, as Plato pointed out, reflects individual consciousness. Society is the individual writ large. Whatever positive and negative character is encoded in individuals will be seen in the social body writ large. And so there are different social divisions; these divisions or classes will have distinct duties. Duty, karma, dharma, and sacrifice, as well as religious principles will vary according to the gradation of social class and individual consciousness.

Upanishadic Ethics in Contrast with "Western" Ideas

This is a far more subtle analysis than the Manichean universe of goodness and evil, where God and the Devil are at war, and where there can only be one correct path for everyone. The idea of moral right and wrong, or sin and piety will have gradations according to the levels of consciousness within the society. A tiger is not punished for killing and eating a deer. Animals are free from sin. Society does not treat dogs and cats as criminals when they perform abominable acts. In the same way, there must be a gradation of punishment for sin and reward for piety even in the human society. An uneducated man who uses obscene language is not punished in the same way that a highly educated woman might be for using the same language.

Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, “I have made manifest the four social divisions, brahmana, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śudra, or saintly intellectuals, kings and nobles, merchants and workers, which have been classified according to their material qualities: sattva, rajas, and tamas.”

Version of Good and Evil in Bhagavad-Gita

The version of good and evil found in Bhagavad-gita is not a question of sin and purity, darkness and light. It has more to do with color theory than black and white. The black and white world of good and bad is, in fact, an alien concept in the Mahabharata itself. The idea that we have only one life to live and that it must be lived in sin or in purity is not the version given by Krishna to Arjuna. In the Second Chapter, Kṛṣṇa has explained the nature of spiritual wisdom: The soul passes from one body to the next in an endless chain of birth and death, broken only by spiritual realization. The karmic influences that drag us and  down lift us up are not creations of the “devil” or any other such malevolent supernatural being.  As Shakespeare put it, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Heal Thyself

It is not the environment which is at fault.

Our inability to get free from birth and death results from our own attachments to the world. These attachments are not questions of sin and purity, but deeply ingrained misconceptions that must be rooted out through divine wisdom, as Kṛṣṇa stresses in this chapter, and through the process of surrender that begins with some form of sacrifice.

Our lives, then, are not black and white cases of good and evil, of heaven and hell, but more subtle permutations of our own egoistic involvement in this world of exploitation.

Sacrifice vs. Exploitation

The world of exploitation that we find ourselves so deeply ensconced in is a product of our own ego perception, as Kṛṣṇa has explained in the Second Chapter. Our own perverted consciousness develops within a symphony of colors and influences, gunas, that captivate us birth after birth. If insanity is a question of repeating the same action again and again, expecting a different result, wisdom is breaking with the cycle. Like the donkey, fooled by the carrot on a stick, we march on and on in an illusory world of our own perception in ignorance, passion, and goodness.  But Kṛṣṇa advises Arjuna to free himself from this attachment with the wisdom of divine knowledge and through the practice of detached sacrifice leading to devotion. The Upanishadic version is not the black and white Judaeo-Christian dichotomy, but a deeper Hegelian dialectic of gradations and hues, of antitheses and synthesis. The modes of material nature or gunas described in the Bhagavad-Gita are not black demons who seduce us into wrong action as opposed to white angels who would lead us into salvation; the gunas or modes of nature are products of the evolution of consciousness governed by our own egoistic determination to exploit, and to continue our karmic voyage.

Black and White world vs. Living Color

Kṛṣṇa’s language is thick with deep meaning. cāturvarṇyaṃ mayā sṛṣṭaṃ guṇakarmavibhāgaśaḥ This is not a black and white world, but a world of colorful influences, modes, gunas. We live not in a world of absolute shadow or light; Three colors produce the myriad of hues perceived by our eyes.

In the same way the interchange of consciousness under different blends of goodness, passion, and ignorance influence and color our world. The very classes of society which are in constant conflict are a product of this interchange.

This subtle analysis must influence our understanding of karma, Kṛṣṇa teaches. If we take into consideration all these influences, it becomes difficult to determine ethical value in a particular situation. Is an action good or bad? It’s hard to say. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that even the learned are confused in determining the difference between between ethical and unethical action. Truly pure action is action in sacrifice, free from selfishness. The realized souls can see this. A realized souls sees that some are bound to act through their past karma. They avoid taking things personally. They know that they are seeing inaction in action. Kṛṣṇa says, “One who sees inaction in  action and inaction is truly wise.” In other words, it takes a wise man to understand the difference between karma  and akarma. One who acts purely through sacrifice incurs no karma; there will be no reaction to his dedicated acts. The wise know him to be a worker whose karma is burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.

Kṛṣṇa points out that in every act there’s an touch of goodness, a shade of darkness, a tone of passion. Even the mode of goodness is rarely free from impurities, just as a tiny drop of ink turns a glass of milk to black.

Transcendental Nature of Divinity

And, yet, God Himself is unaffected by the modes of material nature. There are those who worship the Law of God or the Laws of Nature. They say that God created the universe and the laws that govern it. Having done so he is also bound by the law. We must know the law and follow the law, since the law binds even God himself.

But Kṛṣṇa once again explains to Arjuna that he is “By Himself and For Himself.” He is not bound by the laws of material nature even if they depend on Him. He says, “Although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I never do any karma. I exist outside karma, being the unchangeable. I am unaffected by karma. Nor am I interested in the fruits of karma. One who understands this truth about Me will also become free from karma.”

One may find Kṛṣṇa’s assertion of divinity for Himself, off-putting. But a suspension of disbelief here is the only way to properly consider His argument. If God were speaking about Himself, He would speak as did Kṛṣṇa. If you accept Jehovah or Yahweh, or Allah as divinity, you might find that the principle holds true: God Himself is unaffected by karma.

Kṛṣṇa explains: “All the liberated souls in ancient times acted with this understanding and so attained liberation. Therefore, as the ancients, you should perform your duty in this divine consciousness.

“The enlightened soul acts with this understanding: Abandoning all attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisfied and independent, he does no karma although involved in different actions. Such a soul, steeped in this divine wisdom, acts with mind and intelligence controlled. He gives up all sense of proprietorship over his possessions and works without selfishness, only accepting what is necessary to keep body and soul together. Thus working, he is not affected by karma, good or bad.

He who is satisfied with whatever is readily available, who is free from the dualities of pleasure and pain, love and hate, anger and indifference, who has no envy, who is steady both in success and failure, never becomes caught up in karma, even while working in this world.

In this way, one who is detached, and enlightened becomes free from karma.”

In other words, a person who is fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature.

ए यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस् तथैव भजाम्य् अहम्

मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः ४.११
कांक्षन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं यजन्त इह देवताः
क्षिप्रं हि मानुषे लोके सिद्धिर् भवति कर्मजा ४.१२
चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः
तस्य कर्तारम् अपि मां विद्ध्य् अकर्तारम् अव्ययम् ४.१३
न मां कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा
इति मां योभिजानाति कर्मभिर् न स बध्यते ४.१४
एवं ज्ञात्वा कृतं कर्म पूर्वैर् अपि मुमुक्षुभिः
कुरु कर्मैव तस्मात् त्वं पूर्वैः पूर्वतरं कृतम् ४.१५
किं कर्म किमकर्मेति कवयोप्य् अत्र मोहिताः
तत् ते कर्म प्रवक्ष्यामि यज् ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेशुभात् ४.१६
कर्मणो ह्य् अपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः
अकर्मणश् च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गतिः ४.१७
कर्मण्य् अकर्म यः पश्येद् अकर्मणि च कर्म यः स
बुद्धिमान् मनुष्येषु स युक्तः कृत्स्नकर्मकृत् ४.१८
यस्य सर्वे समारम्भाः कामसंकल्पवर्जिताः
ज्ञानाग्निदग्धकर्माणं तम् आहुः पण्डितं बुधाः ४.१९
त्यक्त्वा कर्मफलासङ्गं नित्यतृप्तो निराश्रयः
कर्मण्य् अभिप्रवृत्तोपि नैव किंचित् करोति सः ४.२०
निराशीर् यतचित्तात्मा त्यक्तसर्वपरिग्रहः शारीरं
केवलं कर्म कुर्वन् नाप्नोति किल्बिषम् ४.२१
यदृच्छालाभसंतुष्टो द्वन्द्वातीतो विमत्सरः
समः सिद्धाव् असिद्धौ च कृत्वापि न निबध्यते ४.२२
गतसङ्गस्य मुक्तस्य ज्ञानावस्थितचेतसः
यज्ञायाचरतः कर्म समग्रं प्रविलीयते ४.२३
ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्म हविर् ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम्
ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना ४.२४

ye yathā māṃ prapadyante tāṃs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ 4.11

kāṃkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṃ siddhiṃ yajanta iha devatāḥ

kṣipraṃ hi mānuṣe loke siddhir bhavati karmajā 4.12

cāturvarṇyaṃ mayā sṛṣṭaṃ guṇakarmavibhāgaśaḥ

tasya kartāram api māṃ viddhy akartāram avyayam 4.13

na māṃ karmāṇi limpanti na me karmaphale spṛhā

iti māṃ yobhijānāti karmabhir na sa badhyate 4.14

evaṃ jñātvā kṛtaṃ karma pūrvair api mumukṣubhiḥ

kuru karmaiva tasmāt tvaṃ pūrvaiḥ pūrvataraṃ kṛtam 4.15

kiṃ karma kimakarmeti kavayopy atra mohitāḥ

tat te karma pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣyaseśubhāt 4.16

karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṃ boddhavyaṃ ca vikarmaṇaḥ

akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṃ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ 4.17

karmaṇy akarma yaḥ paśyed akarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ sa

buddhimān manuṣyeṣu sa yuktaḥ kṛtsnakarmakṛt 4.18

yasya sarve samārambhāḥ kāmasaṃkalpavarjitāḥ

jñānāgnidagdhakarmāṇaṃ tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṃ budhāḥ 4.19

tyaktvā karmaphalāsaṅgaṃ nityatṛpto nirāśrayaḥ

karmaṇy abhipravṛttopi naiva kiṃcit karoti saḥ 4.20

nirāśīr yatacittātmā tyaktasarvaparigrahaḥ śārīraṃ

kevalaṃ karma kurvan nāpnoti kilbiṣam 4.21 

yadṛcchālābhasaṃtuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ

samaḥ siddhāv asiddhau ca kṛtvāpi na nibadhyate 4.22

gatasaṅgasya muktasya jñānāvasthitacetasaḥ

yajñāyācarataḥ karma samagraṃ pravilīyate 4.23

brahmārpaṇaṃ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam

brahmaiva tena gantavyaṃ brahmakarmasamādhinā 4.24