-5th chapter: verses 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on July 31, 2020.
-5th verse: “The spiritual destination reached by men of Jnanam (knowledge) can also be reached by practitioners of karma-yoga. Both paths take us to the same goal.”
-A person who is lazy should first learn to be active. At the next stage, he can do his duties with a sense of surrender, offering his actions and results to God. This is called Karma-Yoga. Karma-yoga will take him to the next stage of Chitta-shuddhi (inner purity), which leads to Jnana-prapti (knowledge of Brahman), which leads to Moksha (liberation).
-A person who follows Jnanam is a karma-yogi of the highest order, practicing renunciation of his actions and results, and offering them to God. It stems from his awareness that there is a Divine Reality present everywhere, and everything is a manifestation of that Reality.
-The royal path of spiritual evolution is always in front of us. We can continue to do our normal duties, but we can start doing them with freedom from selfishness and greed. Then our normal responsibilities become a path for us to progress spiritually.
-6th verse: “Renunciation of action is very difficult for those who have not already gone through the path of karma-yoga. One has to practice karma-yoga to be able to renounce later.”
-Karma-yoga purifies the mind and helps the person reach a stage where he can practice renunciation. A person who wants to be a monk cannot continue in the life of renunciation, unless his mind is previously trained and purified with karma-yoga. Real renunciation is nothing but giving up ahamkara (false ego) and kama (desires).
-7th verse: “A person whose mind is purified by selfless devotion to his duties, whose ego is sublimated, whose senses are under control – such a person realizes the highest spiritual truth. He realizes that his own Self is present in everything.”
-A person whose mind becomes pure and whose ego gets refined, he becomes broad minded and tolerant. He experiences spiritual unity (Sarva-bhutatma-bhutatma), seeing everyone in his own Self and his own Self in others.
-The path of Bhakti (devotion) is another way of reaching the same spiritual destination. In this path, one practices complete self-surrender to God, thinking of Him in every action and every moment, and with complete faith that God will protect Him.
-For the highest devotee of God, there are no injunctions for or against, and he goes beyond do’s and don’ts. Whatever he does is for the good of others. He sees himself in everyone and everyone in himself.
-8th & 9th verse: The knower of truth (Tattwa-vit), centered in Atman, thinks that his senses are moving among sense objects, but he is not involved. He thinks thus even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing, speaking, excreting, grasping, and opening/closing the eyelids.”
-This state of non-involvement is a natural state for a highly evolved mystic. It is not something that a beginner should pretend to have reached. A beginner should direct his senses to creative channels and associate with holy company. The final state comes unasked – one does not choose it. The highest renunciation comes naturally to us in our spiritual evolution.
-10th verse: “Those who do their actions without attachment, offering their actions and results to God – they are not affected by anything. They are like a lotus leaf that lives in water, but never gets wet”.
-When we perform selfish actions, attached to the results, we are enslaved – worried about the results. The path to freedom is to work with full enthusiasm but without obsessive attachment to results of our actions.
-If we work like a servant of God, then we can work as if we are the master. If we work thinking that the work is ours, then we end up working as slaves/servants. A loyal servant who works for a good master, works with total freedom – he knows that the master is worrying about the results of his undertakings.