[Advaita-l] Dharma

[Kiran B.R.]

> So when you said in your previous email: "Although there is no karma
> for kRuShNa in any of the three worlds, he works. Repeat - he works."
> You actually meant: "Although Krishna NEVER works, he says 'I work' in
> a secondary sense of taking care of the living beings of the world
> through his power of Maya."

Your way of putting it is slightly different from what I meant. What I
meant was: kRuShNa has no karma in any of the 3 worlds. Yet, the
worlds perceive him to be working.

Now it is the question of labelling this "perception by others that he
works" as work or not-work.

You take the position that he does not work. 

I take the position that he works, since that is what the world (of
ajnAnis, if you will) perceives.

In fact, that is what I am asking the sanyasi of your definition to
do: Make me, an ajnAni, perceive that you're working, that's all.
Don't make me perceive that you're sitting in a cave and consuming
food grown in my fields without giving any money. Within you, count to
naught the work which I perceive you doing.

> asaktabuddhiH sarvatra jitaatmaa vigataspR^ihaH .
> naishhkarmyasiddhiM paramaam sannyaasenaadhigachchhati ..
> "He who is unattached, whose self is subdued and desireless, by
> sannyAsa he attains the supreme state of freedom from action." 
> (GItA 18.49)

What is shown in this shloka is the correct way to
parama-naishhkarmyasiddhi for those (and only for those) who have
physically given up work. The physical giving up of works is *NOT*
advertised as the *ONLY* way in which parama-naishhkarmyasiddhi can be
achieved. There is one more way, and that is the way of the karmayOgi.
He does not give up work physically, but he gives them up anyway. It
is in this sense that I call him also as a sanyAsi. It is in this
sense that BG 6.1 also calls him a sanyasi.

If someone gives up works physically without being an asaktabuddhiH,
without being a jitaatmaa, without being a vigataspRuhaH, it is wrong
- this is the meaning of the shloka above. Nowhere in this (or any
other) shloka is it stated that the asaktabuddhiH, the jitaatmaa, the
vigataspruhaH - can't be perceived to be tilling in the fields (i.e.,
doing karma).

> anaashritaH karmaphalaM kaaryan karma karoti yaH .
> sa sannyaasii cha yogii cha na niragnirna chaakriyaH .. 6.1 ..
> "He who, without depending on the fruits of action, performs his
> bounden duty, he is a Samnyasin and a Yogin: not he who is without fire
> and without action."
> 
> Note that the above verse is contradicting the dharma shAstras that lay
> down the renunciation of agnihotra for a sannyAsI. Does Krishna then
> mean that a true sannyAsI ought not to renounce works (such as
> agnihotra)? No. Krishna is saying something more - that there exist
> persons who (out of laziness or otherwise) do not perform their
> obligated dharma. These people CANNOT be called sannyAsIs. It is with a
> view to COMMENDING the Karma yogI that Krishna praises action with
> detachment to its fruits, contrasting it with those FALSE RENOUNCERS
> who reject their moral obligations out of laziness (or other wrong
> reasons, such as "pity" in Arjuna's case).

If Krishna's idea is to commend the karmayOgi, why is he "who performs
karma without depending on karmaphala" called a sanyasi?

If Krishna has your definition of a sanyasi in mind, why would he say
a sanyasi is he who performs karma without depending on karmaphala?

If Krishna's idea is to just say that false renouncers are not
sanyasis, why would he say he who performs karma without depending on
karmaphala is a sanyasi?  Why didn't he say something like "yaH
anAshritaH karmaphalaM kAryaM karma na karOti, na sa sanyAsI na sa
yOgI..."?

> The entire GItA is to primarily help Arjuna understand the difference
> between taking up sannyAsa with the right qualifications and taking up
> sannyAsa for the wrong reasons.

No. The entire gItA is to primarily help Arjuna understand what true
sanyAsa is (which is not what he is thinking of taking), and that a
true karmayOgi is not different from a true sanyAsI. This is brought
out very clearly in the following shloka:

yaM saMnyAsamiti prAhuryOgaM taM viddhi pAMDava |
na hyasanyasta saMkalpO yOgI bhavati kaSchana || (B.G. 6.2)

That which they call saMnyAsa, know that to be [karma]yOga. No one
becomes a [karma]yOgI without renouncing saMkalpa.

Cheers
Kiran

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