Gita Simplified & with stories : Chapter 5

What is this chapter about

• Path of Renunciation
• Karam Sanyas Yoga 

Renunciation does not mean give everything up & sit in a corner or going away to mountains, it means understanding that Nature / God is the planner & having things executed via you. Knowledge helps one understand that you are here on Earth as God wants you to do certain things.

This chapter is about comparing Sankhya & Karam Yoga to dispel Arjun's confusion between the two.

Summary of chapter

• Sanyas means giving up (worldly things & personal motives), but a karamsanyasi is the one who gives up for himself and continues to work for the society, understanding that God designed for him to do so.
• Karamyog prepares one for Self knowledge. And Self Knowledge leads to renunciation
• In this chapter Krishna says that following Karam Yoga with focus on God is the easier of the 2 paths, though both reach same goal.
• Sanyas seems easy, but giving up everything and just contemplating and reaching God is not for everyone. 
• Sankhya Yoga demands that we see world as Mithya & be contemplative. Karam Yoga demands we live in world and all actions are informed.
• Karamyoga is path of action, practises with discipline and mental renunciation.
• Joy starting with sense object via sense organ is short lived and will lead to some suffering.
• Happiness from within is longer term and towards liberation
• Being unattached to action and doing it to the best ability as service to God and his creation , gives inner joy and leads to liberation. 
• Action is superior to contemplation. 
• There are only 13 types of action

1. seeing
2. hearing
3. touching
4. smelling
5. walking
6. winking
7. sleeping
8. eating ( and 4 ways to consume : gulp, drink, suck, chew)
9. emitting
10. breathing
11. grasping
12. conversing
13. giving up

Shlokas references

• Only 29 shlokas
• 5.10 Being unattached like water on Lotus leaf
• Seeing God in one & all (5.18). We tend to be biased & judgemental.( once this understood, garuntee to reach God)
• 5.19:  When there is no doubt in mind regarding Brahman, sameness in all, then cycle of bith & death breaks
• 5.22 : Happiness from sense objects is temporary & leads to sorrow
• 5.24 When illuminated from within , is liberation.
• 5.26 : realised soul

Key message from the chapter 

• Giving up the DOERship attitude is important
• Attitude for the action binds and forms karma, not the action itself
• When joy is felt within and not dependent on anything, it is true & everlasting joy
• To live with inner joy and constant connection to God is liberation : liberation from desires, attachments, sorrows, fear, anger, lust.... 

Summary in poetry 

Renunciation and Action, ways are two

            Which one is better, guide me through

Superior to renunciation

I say it is unattached action

With subdued senses and life so pure

Anyone can reach ME, this is for sure

Even wise men perform deed

To purify their souls indeed

Ever clear in their equal vision

They are ever on their mission

A story related to the message : Adi Sankaracharya

Adi Sankarāchārya (or Sankara) is the author and promoter of non-dualistic philosophy of Vedanta. It states that entire universe is nothing but an expansion of God. He was born in the state of Kerala in the year 788 A.D. By the age of eight, he had learned all four Vedas, and by the age of twelve, was well versed in all Hindu scriptures. He is believed to be Lord Shiva in human form.

He certainly was a Self-realized man. But at first, he had the feeling of duality, of high and low caste. His faith in the absolute God (Brahma) was not very firmly established in his heart.

One day, he was going to the Shiva temple in the holy city of Banāras after bathing in the holy Gangā river. He saw an untouchable, a butcher, carrying a load of meat. The butcher came on his way and tried to touch Sankara's feet in respect.

Sankara shouted angrily: “Get out of the way! How dare you touch me? Now I have to take a bath again.”

“Holy sir,” said the butcher, “I have not touched you, nor have you touched me. The pure Self cannot be the body or the five elements out of which the body is created.” (There are more details in Chapter 13.)

Then Sankara saw the vision of Lord Shiva in the butcher. Lord Shiva had Himself come to Sankara to firmly implant the non- dualistic philosophy in him. Sankara was a much better person from that day by the grace of Lord Shiva.

This story illustrates that equality with all beings is difficult to practise all the time. To have such a feeling is the mark of a truly God-realised person or a perfect Samnyāsi.

A poem that relates to 5.22 "Even This Will Pass Away."  http://www.spiritualeducation.org/library/poem/this_will_pass_away

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