Bhagavad Gita 3.29 - 31

Continuing my look at the verses selected for the next Mrityunjaya meeting, lets move on to verse 29:

29. Those who are deluded by the qualities of material nature become attached to material activities.

The cause of attachment to material activities is delusion brought on by misunderstanding of the qualities of material nature.

The nature of the misunderstanding was mentioned previously: the idea that we carry out actions, and that we have a a conscious free-will.

It is this delusion of our activity in the world that gives rise to us believing we have some kind of investment in what goes on. We believe, mistakenly, that we are making decisions, and we are carrying out actions, and therefore we feel a sense of responsibility and ownership for the results of those actions. We also believe that just as we make our decisions and our own choices, so do other people. So when someone else does something that contradicts our expectations and desires, we get all hot under the collar about that, too.

It is our delusional belief that we are acting and being acted up by others that leads us to this feeling of interacting with the world, when in fact our true nature is as observer of the world.

30. Dedicating all actions to Me, meditating on the Supreme Spirit, becoming free from the wising and selfishness fever, you must fight!

We all know that 'fight' is figurative, and part of the story structure of the Gita, and that what it really means that we must do our duty. We must carry out our lives by following our Dharma and our samskaras.

And we can best achieve this by dedicating al actions to Krishna (or however you choose to name your conception of the Devine). So we perform our actions, to the best of our abilities, but we do them not for ourselves, but for God. Keeping God in mind at all times, we perform our duties with no selfishness, and no formulation of wishes for the results or outcome of our actions, as our actions are not ours, they belong entirely to God.

31. Whoever constantly practices tis teaching of Mine, with pure faith and without complaint, is released from karma.

Released from karma.

I can think of two ways of interpreting this: The way for mere mortals, and the real deeper meaning that applies only to those really elevated beings we hear about on occasion.

The interpretation for mere mortals, such as myself:

Released from Karma does not really mean 'released from karma'. Karma is a natural law and applies to everyone and everything. What this means is, because you are no longer attached, you are no longer impacted emotionally, intellectually or otherwise by the events that occur to you. Stuff still happens, but you understand that it's not really you it is happening to. Stuff is happening, and it's just forces of nature acting on other forces of nature. You are not involved in it anywhere. You just observe, perform your duty with dedication to God.

But what it really mean is:
Karma is a natural law. That's like saying 'released from the laws of physics'. Hmmm.

Well, some people are that released. Some people so seriously 'grok' that they are not in this world, that they are just the observer, that they are genuinely no longer bound by it's laws.

Maharaji swallowed enough LSD give an elephant the trip of it's lifetime, but it had no effect on him at all. Because, tripping is the consequence that follows if one is subject to the laws of nature, and Maharaji was not so subjected. Te laws of physics state that you can only be in one place at one time. Maharaji was frequently seen in multiple places at the same time. He would be at a festival in Brindavan, with hundreds of devotees, and on the same day he would be in his Kainchi ashram with hundreds of others. The laws of physics say this is impossible. But Maharaji was not subject o the laws of physics.

Karma is just another such law, and in the final stage, freedom from karma ia accompanied by freedom from all limits.

This type of miracle is very rarely mentioned in the Satyananda tradition. It's not a tradition with a big focus on the sensational, but when we were in Rikhia in October, I was taling to one of the Swamis, and they mentioned something. They mentioned that at one of the big events where many people are fed at the ashram, the feast was underway, and the person managing the kitchen came to realise that people were taking much more of the sweets than had been anticipated, and there would be a considerable shortage, and not everyone would be served.

So the kitchen wallah ran to Paramahamsa-ji and said 'Paramahamsa-ji, we are running out of sweets, and there will not be enough for everyone!'

Before Paramahamsa-ji could answer, another swami ran in and said 'Paramahamsa-ji, the sweet seller from Deoghar has just arrived with two carloads of sweets. He decided to close shop today, and give them all to you!'

Paramahamsa-ji turned to the first fellow and said, 'Why are you bothering me about having too few sweets! You can see we have plenty!'