Best question ever asked

Atha kena prayukto’yam papam carati purushah,

anicchann api varsneya balad iva niyojitah (3.36).

Knowingly, as it were, people commit mistakes. Though they are learned and have an insight into the knowledge of the scriptures,

they are likely to take the erroneous path.What is the reason
behind this mistake that human beings are subjected to?”

Karmayoga Explained - 3

 

Very difficult is this peculiar intricate way in which karma works. There is no such thing as karma sitting outside on a tree. It is not a thing whose existence we can visualise somewhere. Just as we consider diseases to be a peculiar maladjustment of the physical functioning of the body, rather than a thing that is sitting outside the body and existing separately there, so also the karma is not sitting outside, waiting to harass us.

Karma is the peculiar automatic reaction set up by the cosmic forces in proportion to the action performed by an individual. The reaction will be exactly in proportion to the action that we perform. In a way it, looks like tit for tat, In a crude way, we may say it is like that.

स्थित प्रज्ञ (steady wisdom)

One is said to have steady wisdom if he completely frees himself from desires of the mind and heart and is realistically satisfied within himself, no more having the longing for material pleasures.

जिस काल में यह पुरुष मन में स्थित सम्पूर्ण कामनाओं को भली भांति त्याग देता है और आत्मा से आत्मा में ही संतुष्ट रहता है, उस काल में वह स्थित प्रज्ञ कहा जाता है ।

  reference: http://thegita.net

The Bhagawadgita is not a religious scripture

The Bhagawadgita is not a religious scripture, because its intention is not to cater to a side of our nature or a part of our expectation in life, but the whole of what we need and what we are.
......The Philosophy of Bhagawadgita 

कर्मयोग रहस्य - 1

न मां कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा ।
 इति मां योऽभिजानाति कर्मभिर्न स बध्यते । 4-14
"कर्मों के फल में मेरी अभिलाषा नहीं है ,इसलिए मुझे कर्म  लिप्त नहीं करते - इस प्रकार जो मुझे तत्व से जान लेता है , वह भी कर्मों से नहीं बंधता।" 
 मनुष्य  जब प्रकृति के साथ संबंध जोड़ कर प्राकृत  वस्तुओं की कामना करता है तब जो क्रिया होती है वह कर्म है , तादात्म्य टूटने पर वही कर्म अकर्म हो जाता है ,क्रियामात्र रह जाता है.उसमे फल जनकता नहीं रहती ; परन्तु प्रकृति या शरीर से अपनी पृथकता का अनुभव न होने से वे क्रियाएँ 'कर्म' बन जाती हैं। 

Karmayoga explained -2

Why is it that we should act? And why is it that we should not expect the fruits of action?

This will be clear to us if we analyse the reason behind our action, and the reason why the fruits will not accrue as we desire. Our actions are obligatory on our part on account of our involvement in this psychophysical organism which is controlled by the movement of the gunas of prakriti; therefore, as long as prakriti moves, as long as the gunas rotate and revolve in this cosmical process of creation and evolution, for that long we also will be involved in that action. So our activity is a why is it that we do not get the result that we expect? The answer to this question is not in the Second Chapter. The answer is in a verse which is in the Eighteenth Chapter:

adhisthanam tatha karta karanam ca prithag-vidham,

vividhas ca prithak cesta daivam caivatra pancamam (18.14).

When we do something, we have a very narrow notion of what result will follow from our action. The narrow notion arises on account of our limitation to body and social conditions, and our completely ignoring our cosmical relation. The fruit accrues according to the sanction of the

involvement of ourselves in the cosmic structure, notwithstanding the fact that we have  individually, so-called, initiated the action. The action that we perform is not a stereotyped movement in a very simple manner, as we think. All action is very complicated. It involves many factors. When we take a morsel of food, how many organs in our body act? It is not just that we throw something and it goes into the pit. The entire organism rises up into action. Even if it is only one raisin that we are putting into our mouth, the entire mechanism starts acting. Similarly, any action that we perform sets intomotion the whole rotation of prakriti, and it will act and react according to its laws.

Karma yoga explained -1

कर्मणयेवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।  

“You have a right to perform your prescribed action,but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results your activities,and never be associated to not doing your duty.”

 From a cursory point of view, this looks like a very hard teaching, like a cruel employer telling the labourer to work hard without expecting any wages. But does God say that we should go on working and He will give us nothing? God is not a cruel master. The principle behind the obligatory duty incumbent upon every individual is the involvement of every individual in the structure of the universe, The whole universe is one single body, of which the limbs are the modes of prakriti, and of which the soul is the all-pervading purusha: yena sarvam idam tatam (2.17).

आत्मा का रहस्य

देही नित्यमवध्योऽयं देहे सर्वस्य भारत।

तस्मात्सर्वाणि भूतानि न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि॥

हे भारत, हर देह में जो आत्मा है वह नित्य है, उसका वध नहीं किया जा सकता।

इसलिये किसी भी जीव के लिये तुम्हें शोक नहीं करना चाहिये॥

गीता और निष्काम कर्म

जिस पुरुष के अन्त:करण में ‘मैं कर्ता हूँ’ ऐसा भाव नहीं है तथा जिसकी बुद्भि सांसारिक पदार्थो में और कर्मों में लिपायमान नहीं होतीं, वह पुरुष इन सब लोकों को मार कर भी वास्तव में न तो मारता है और न पाप से बंधता है ।

He who is free from the bondages of selfishness, and is rid of all ill thoughts, and desires, even if he kills others in this world, he is not actually killing them (because he, in effect, is carrying out his prescribed duty which is actually the predetermined will of God). This person is not bound to this world by his actions in any way whatsoever, O Arjuna.

Gita and escapism

न कर्मणामनारम्भान्नैष्कमर्यं पुरुषोऽश्नुते ।
न च संन्यसनादेव सिद्धिं समधिगच्छति ।।

मनुष्य न तो कर्मों का आरम्भ किये बिना निष्कर्मता को यानी योगनिष्ठा को प्राप्त होता है और न कर्मों के केवल त्याग मात्र से सिद्धि यानी सांख्यनिष्ठा को ही प्राप्त होता है ।।

Man does not attain freedom from action (culmination of the discipline of action) without entering upon action; nor does he reach perfection (culmination of the discipline of knowledge) merely by ceasing to act.

Benefits of Reading the Gita

Benefits of Reading the Gita are as follows:

Chapter 1: Capacity of observation

Chapter 2: Karya Siddhi: Success in work

Chapter 3: Easy Delivery of a baby

Chapter 4: Good Children

Chapter 5: Success of good deeds

Chapter 6: All good things

Chapter 7: Good marriage of child

Chapter 8: Removal of sorrow

Chapter 9: Removal of disease

Chapter 10: Removal of poverty

Chapter 11: Driving away ghosts

Chapter 12: Increasing devotion

Chapter 13: Self Realisation

Chapter 14: Removal of family conflicts

Chapter 16: Removal of ill-fame, insults and suspicion

Chapter 17: Eliminating problems brought on by planetary problems

Chapter 18: Removal of mental problems and sadness.

What is Yoga?

योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि संगं त्यक्त्वा धनन्जय।
सिध्यसिध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते॥ 

Remaining steadfast in yoga, oh Dhananjaya (Arjuna), perform actions, abandoning attachment, remaining the same to success and failure alike. This evenness of mind is called yoga. 

Gita in a sentence

Gita is a simple system of  the balancing of forces for the purpose of resolving all conflicts.