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Renunciation Through Wisdom, 1. Bhagavāner-kathā - Knowledge of the Supreme

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His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

The Formula for Peace

Lord Krṣṇa, seeing the distressful condition of the living entities and forseeing their bleak future, spoke the scripture known as Bhagavad-gītā, which contains unequivocal instructions for mankind. These instructions are like the cooling showers of peace on the blazing forest fire of material existence. Ordinary human activities are quite different from the activities recommended in the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā; understanding this difference is essential for us. In our times we find many fruitive workers who claim to be karma-yogīs but in fact are seen to enjoy the fruits of their labor. What is needed is not this false karma-yoga but genuine buddhi-yoga, which Lord Kṛṣṇa several times explains in the Bhagavad-gītā. Buddhi-yoga means "devotion to the Supreme Lord." The Lord says in the Gītā (10.10), "To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me." Elsewhere in the Gītā (18.55) the Lord says, "One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service." Therefore, since buddhi-yoga is the means to attain the Supreme Lord, then buddhi-yoga is nothing other than devotional service. The Supreme Lord is attained through loving devotional service. This fact is well known. Hence the Lord is also known as bhakta-vatsala, "He who is especially inclined toward His devotees."

The course of action one chooses through executing buddhi-yoga is the very means for mankind to attain lasting peace. Such a course of action will enable man to find rest "in the dispensation of providence." We can clearly understand the essence of buddhi-yoga from the Bhagavad-gītā (Chapter 2.39-40):

Thus far I have described this knowledge to you through analytical study. Now listen as I explain it in terms of working without fruitive results. O son of Pṛthā, when you act in such knowledge you can free yourself from the bondage of works. In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.

The attainment of peace through the process of sāṅkhya-yoga is for the modern man almost impossible. But peace is easily available through the process of buddhi-yoga, or loving devotional service to the Supreme Lord. And this peace is of the highest nature: it far exceeds the happiness experienced through any other process. Activities that are directly connected to devotional service blossom and develop unhindered by anything external. The amount of devotional activity one performs always remains intact; it is a permanent spiritual gain for the performer, never to be rendered futile. Even a little execution of devotional service is enough to save one from the greatest type of fear.

The process of pure devotional service is one. At the same, time the Gītā points out how to execute buddhi-yoga through jñāna, or analytical study, and karma, or fruitive action. When buddhi-yoga is executed in conjunction with fruitive activity, it is known as karma-yoga. Similarly, when it is executed in conjunction with analytical study, then it is called jñāna-yoga. And when buddhi-yoga, or devotional service, transcends both karma-yoga and jñāna-yoga and becomes completely unalloyed, that devotion is called pure bhakti-yoga, or loving devotional service to the Supreme Lord.

The fruitive activities one performs in this world, whether according to social norms or Vedic standards, give different results. Again, by experiencing the fruits of those labors, one creates new sets of activities and their concomitant results, which in turn give rise to newer sets of activities and their results. All these activities and their results cannot automatically be labeled karma-yoga. We can see that the process of performing fruitive actions and experiencing their results is like a mammoth tree sprouting endless branches and twigs. Can the performer of actions who experiences the endless fruits of that mammoth tree ever enjoy peace and benediction? No. Therefore it is said, "In the dispensation of providence, mankind cannot have any rest." Even in this lifetime, one who performs fruitive work is totally entangled in the cycle of karma as he sits on the tree of material existence. As a result, the soul must enter 8,400,000 species and suffer the threefold miseries, never finding any rest or peace.

Yet people find it impossible to renounce fruitive activities. Even the so-called sannyāsīs who make a show of renouncing such activities must still perform many activities, at least to relieve their hunger. Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, seeing the condition of the sannyāsīs during his time, commented, "One takes on many different garbs just to fill one's stomach." And trying to give up all activities is no solution. When Śrī Arjuna, a warrior, wanted to forsake his duty of fighting a war, the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, advised him, "Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one's physical body without work." (Bhagavad-gītā 3.8)

A person should never give up his prescribed duty without scriptural authorization, for this will cause chaos in the world. Since it is impossible to maintain the body without activities, it is impossible to totally renounce activities. On the other hand, the tree of material entanglement, which thrives on fruitive activities and their results, can never bring forth any hope for peace. It is for this reason that the Supreme Lord has explained how one is to perform activities:

Work done as a sacrifice for Viṣṇu has to be performed; otherwise work binds one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kuntī, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in this way you will always remain free from bondage. (Bhagavad-gītā 3.9)

It is another kind of "dispensation of providence" when the fruits of actions do not bind one. To perform all activities only as a sacrifice for the satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu is true freedom from the results of activities, or the real art of karma-yoga. Through this process of karma-yoga one is freed from the shackles of fruitive results and one's inherent eternal loving devotion for the Supreme Lord gradually manifests. This type of karma-yoga is also referred to as desireless actions, or naiṣkarmya, or in other words activities performed without expectation of any sense gratification. One who works in this way offers all the results of his actions to the Supreme Lord instead of enjoying them himself.

All of us must try to earn whatever money is required to maintain ourselves and our family. Money buys food, and food maintains our body. Without sufficient food, the body becomes weak and useless, and then it cannot generate further means for its sustenance. Which is the cause and which the effect is very difficult to establish. Such is the cycle of fruitive activities. Our material existence birth after birth consists of going round the great cycle of fruitive activity. If, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord or His pure representative, a fortunate soul caught in the midst of this turning wheel can understand his distressful condition, he begins to perform activities that will free him from this bondage.

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