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Brothers, Arjuna, deluded by the sense of 'mine' and 'not mine', was seeking ways to evade swadharma when the situation demanded adherence to it. The First Chapter describes his vain delusion. The Second Chapter sets out to remove it. It states three basic principles: the Self is imperishable and has an all-encompassing presence, the body is transient and mortal, and swadharma should never be given up. It also spells out the idea of renunciation of the fruit of actions as a key to realise these principles. While expounding this karmayoga, three concepts have emerged - karma, vikarma and akarma. In the Fifth Chapter, we have seen two types of akarma which result from the confluence of karma and vikarma. From the Sixth Chapter onwards different types of vikarma are being explained. The Sixth Chapter tells about one-pointedness of mind necessary for spiritual pursuit.

Today, we are going to deal with the Seventh Chapter. This Chapter opens before us the gallery of a magnificent new vikarma. Moving through the broad expanse of a forest, the temple of the Goddess of nature, we are enthralled by a great many captivating scenes. It is the same with the Gita. It now unfolds before us a new vista.

Even before unfolding this vista, the Lord reveals the secret of the structure of this world which creates illusions. An artist paints a variety of pictures on the same type of paper and with the same brush. A sitarist [1] creates different ragas [2] out of the same even notes. In literature, a variety of thoughts, ideas and feelings are expressed through a few letters of the alphabet. Same is the case with the creation. We find in it innumerable objects and propensities. But all of them are products of only two things - the eternal Self and the eight-fold prakriti. [3] Anger of the angry man, love of the lover, tears of the grief-stricken, joy of the joyful, sluggishness of the slothful, enterprise of the industrious man - all these are manifestations of one and the same Cosmic energy. These differing, contrary emotions and urges spring from the same source. As the Cosmic energy within is one and the same in all, the outer bodily cover of all is also the same in nature. The Lord is telling at the very outset that the conscient Self and the inconscient prakriti are the twin sources from which all the creation has come into being.

The Self and the body, the higher and the lower prakriti are the same everywhere. Why should then man be deluded? Why should he see differences instead of unity? The face of someone whom we love attracts us, whereas that of someone whom we dislike is found repulsive; we desire to meet one person and shun the other. Why is it so? Different pictures drawn by the same artist with the same pencil on the same paper evoke different feelings. Therein lies the skill of the artist. The artist and the sitarist have such a skill in their fingers that they make you laugh or cry. In their fingers lies a magical power.

We welcome someone into our house while we shut the door on the other's face. We embrace someone as our own kith and kin and push away the other as as alien, detesting him. Such feelings arise in the mind and, at times, deflect us from the path of duty. All this is because of a delusion. If this delusion is to be avoided, the magical power in the Creator's fingers should be understood. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad gives the analogy of a drum. A drum produces variety of sounds. Some frighten us while some others induce us to dance. If we are not to be swayed this way or that and remain in full control of all such emotions, we must catch hold of the drummer. Then all the sounds of the drum would be under our control. The Lord declares, “Those who want to cross the river of maya [4] and not get drowned in it, must take refuge in Me.” In the words of Jnanadeva: ‘Yeth ek chi lila tarale, je sarvabhave majabhjale │Taya aili chi thadi sarale, Mayajal│(7.97)’. ('Only those who worship me single-mindedly and with unswerving devotion can cross this river of maya. In fact, they need not have to cross it at all; they experience that the water of maya has dried up while they are at this bank itself - that is, the mirage created by maya disappears for them here and now.')

What is this maya? It is the Lord's creative power, His art and His skill. He created this world out of the single eternal Self and the eight-fold prakriti or what the Jain terminology calls jiva and ajiva. The Lord has created this variegated world out of these two elements; out of them He is ever creating all sort of things. They evoke different sentiments and responses. If we want to go beyond them and attain true inner peace, we should reach out for the creator of them all. We should know Him. Only then can we get rid of the delusion that gives rise to divisions, antipathies and attachment.

In this Seventh Chapter, the way of bhakti is laid open before us to tell us about a singularly effective means, a great vikarma for knowing Him. To attain purity of mind, many vikarmas like yajna (sacrifice), dana (sharing, charity), japa (prayer, repeating God's Name), tapa (penance), dhyana-dharana (meditation and concentration) are prescribed. I would liken them to washing soda or soap, while bhakti is like water. Soap or washing soda is useful only in conjunction with water; by themselves they are of no use. Water, on the other hand, can cleanse even without them, although their aid does result in better cleansing. ^Adhikasya adhikam phalam’ A* It is like adding sugar to milk. How can there be purity of mind if the heart and soul are not there in yajna, meditation, penance etc.? Bhakti is nothing but such involvement of the heart and soul.

All the vikarmas stand in need of the aid of bhakti. It is the ultimate means. It is no doubt advisable that a man trained in nursing and having knowledge of different remedies should be deputed to take care of a patient; but if he lacks genuine empathy and compassion; he cannot render true service. A bullock may be strong and stout, but it would not pull a cart if it does not wish to. It will then refuse to step ahead and may even land the cart in a ditch. Work without involvement of heart and soul - without heartfelt empathy and concern - can give neither satisfaction nor strength.

Bhakti results in pure and unalloyed bliss

If we have bhakti, we could see the art of that great artist; we could see the brush with which He paints. Once we have reached the source of all creation and have tasted the rare sweetness of water from the spring at the very source, we cannot but find all other things insipid and worthless. A man who has tasted a real banana would appreciate the beauty of a painted wooden banana for a moment, and then will put it aside. He will not be much enamoured by it. A man who has tasted true joy would not be taken in by external pleasures in the material world.

Once, some people told a philosopher, "Sir, there is festive lighting of lamps in the city today. Let us go and watch it." The philosopher said, "What is it after all? Only an arrangement of a lot of lamps in rows, is it not? I can visualize it from here itself." In an arithmetical progression like 1+2+3 ..., figures can be written upto infinity. But there is no need to write all the numbers if the difference between two succeeding numbers is known. Likewise one can visualize the arrangement of lamps in rows. What is there to be so excited about it? But man does enjoy such things. He squeezes a lemon in water, adds sugar, sips the drink and smacks his lips in delight! It is as if the tongue has nothing else to do than to taste different things. From different ingredients man creates a variety of food products and finds all the pleasure in eating them! When I was a. child, I once went to see a movie. I had taken a mat with me so that I could go to sleep whenever I wanted. I could watch the dazzling pictures barely for a few moments. My eyes got tired and I went to sleep, asking my companion to wake me up when the show was over. Instead of going out in the open and watching the moon and the stars and enjoying the peace and serenity of nature, people go to congested theatres and excitedly applaud the dance of the bright moving pictures there. I just failed to understand that!

Why is man so devoid of joy that he seeks and finds some sort of momentary arid illusory joy in the dance of those lifeless figures? Evidently, there is no real joy in life; that is why people go in for such artificial amusements. Once I heard drums beating next door. On enquiry, I learnt that it was to celebrate the birth of a son. Now, what is there so special about it that it should be announced to the world with the beat of drums? People even dance with joy and invite singers to sing on such occasions. Is it not childish? It is as if the world is famished of joy. Just as in the famine people rush in a frenzy at the sight of a few eatables, they jump at the slightest opportunity like the birth of a child or a cinema or a circus show, because they are starved of joy.

But is this true joy? Waves of music enter the ears and strike the brain. Different forms enter the eyes and strike the brain. The impact of such sensations is the only source of joy for the poor fellows. Some stuff their noses with snuff, some smoke tobacco, and the kick they get thereby is a source of tremendous joy to them. Their joy knows no bounds when they lay their hands on a cigarette butt! Tolstoy has written that a man may even commit murder under the influence of tobacco. It too is a kind of intoxication.

Why does man lose himself in such pleasures? Not knowing the real thing, he is infatuated with the shadows. His pleasures are confined to those derived from the five senses. Had he got a sense-organ less, he would have thought that there are only four types of pleasures. If tomorrow a man with six sense-organs comes down from Mars, such people would feel dejected at the thought that they can have pleasure only from five sense-organs instead of six and envying the man from Mars they would exclaim, "What a handicap we human beings suffer from!"

How can man, with just five senses comprehend fully the meaning of creation in all its aspects? Restricted to five senses, he makes his choices within those limits and derives joy from what the senses offer him. He considers the braying of a donkey inauspicious. But is it not possible that an encounter with a man could be equally inauspicious for a donkey? You think that the braying will spoil or harm something that you are going to do. But is it not true that you could also be causing harm to others? When I was a student at Baroda, a group of European singers, once came to our college. They were good singers and were trying their best. But I, being thoroughly bored, was waiting for an opportunity to slip out. I was not used to listening to that sort of music. I could not appreciate it. Singers from our country may face similar response in Europe. What is sweet music to the ears of one is just noise for the other. It means that the joy it gives is not real joy; it is rather an illusory joy. Until we experience real joy, such illusory joy would enthrall us. So long as he had not tasted real milk, Aswatthama [5] used to drink water mixed with flour, believing it to be milk. Once the true nature of things is revealed to you and you experience the true joy therein, everything else will pale into insignificance.

Bhakti is the best way to discover true joy. As we advance on this path, we shall discover the ingenuity of the Creator. Once we have grasped that divine vision, attraction for other fancies will recede. Then nothing trivial will attract us. The whole world will then be found filled with one undifferentiated joy. There may be hundreds of sweetmeat shops, but the sweets they sell are of the same kind. So long as we have not tasted the real thing, we go on pecking a sweetmeat here and a sweetmeat there like restless sparrows, and still remain unsatisfied. Once I was reading Tulsidas' Ramayana in the early morning hours. Moths had gathered near the lamp. A house-lizard came there. What interest it could have in the Ramayana? It was happy at .the sight of the moths. I waved it away when it was about to pounce on a moth, but its attention was still rivetted on that moth. I asked myself, "Would you eat a moth? Does your mouth water at its sight?"  The sight of a moth was not mouth-watering for me; and the house-lizard had no inkling of the great joy in the Ramayana. It could not taste the sweetness of the Ramayana. Our condition is like that house-lizard. We are engaged in a multitude of enjoyments; but how nice will it be if we could taste the true joy! The Lord has shown us the way of bhakti as the means to taste the true joy.

[Reproduced with kind permission of Paramdham Publication, Pavnar from   Chapter 7 of ‘Talks on The Gita’ by Sant Vinoba Bhave, 16th edition (Jan 2005)]

Notes:

1.Sitar is a stringed Indian musical instrument.

2.Modes of Indian classical music

3.'Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, reason and ego - these are the eight-fold divisions of My Nature' - Gita. 7.4. The Sankhya philosophy believes in two eternal principles: prakriti and Purusha. Prakriti is the primordial matter or material Nature which consists of three gunas or constituents viz sattva, rajas and tamas. Purusha is the inactive, pure conscious Being and it is without gunas.

4.Maya is the creative power of the Lord which creates illusions. It is the maya which makes us forget that we are Divine. It is the veil that hides the Real from us.

5.Ashwatthama was the son of Dronacharya, the teacher of Kauravas and Pandavas in the Mahabharata, On account of acute poverty, his mother used to give him, in the name of milk, grain flour mixed with water.

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