Science without conscience is destruction (Bhagavad Gita 2.42 – 2.44)

Flowery speech is uttered by the unwise, who take pleasure in the eulogising words of the Vedas, O Arjuna, saying: “There is nothing else!”

Full of desires, having heaven as their goal, they utter speech which promises birth as the reward of one’s actions, and prescribe various specific actions for the attainment of pleasure and power.

For those who are much attached to pleasure and to power, whose minds are drawn away by such teaching, that determinate faculty is not manifest that is steadily bent on meditation and the state of higher consciousness.

— Bhagavad Gita 2.42-44

The ancient Indian religious scripture, the Vedas, is not just about religion and philosophy, it’s a complete manual on living, fully relevant to the civilization at that point of time. In addition to some of the deepest philosophical inquires on the nature of the Self, it has a huge ritualistic portion that prescribes specific rituals to attain specific results, like health, wealth, power, a better afterlife, etc.

The ritualistic portion of religion is helpful, but Self knowledge is essential. Self knowledge and Self-realization enables a person to understand reality and experience the oneness and connectedness of all life, so it’s the real basis of peace and morality. With Self-knowledge, one can apply the rituals in a meaningful way that’s helpful to oneself, helpful to the society and the environment. But without Self-knowledge, there is selfishness and narrow-mindedness, there won’t be right perspective. Without the right perspective, and without the right kind of wisdom, the rituals could be used in a way that’s harmful to the environment, to the society and ultimately prove to be harmful to oneself. Without knowing this, the unwise become so engrossed in materialism and obsessed with the ritualistic religion, they don’t even consider the possibility of Self-realization. To them, pleasures and material achievements is all that is there to live for, at best they think about performing some rituals to attain a more pleasurable afterlife. The wise ones are careful, they give the highest priority to Self-knowledge, Self-realization and spirituality, and use the rituals whenever needed.

We can draw a parallel between this and how we use science and technology in modern era. Scientific understanding of the material world has developed exponentially in the past century and we are able to harness the power of nature in a way that makes our lives simple and easy. Communication across the world has become easy, travel has become easy, finding knowledge has become easy, washing clothes has become easy, there is a device for everything. Nothing wrong with that, such a development is entirely welcome. When used in the right way, it can be very helpful in the evolution of consciousness in a manner that’s harmonious with the environment. But not everything is going the right way. Has our understanding of the material world matched by the understanding of the self? Self-realization, which is the real basis of inner peace and morality, is lacking. Without this kind of real morality we are still a primitive race even though we polish the outside with all kinds of technological gadgets and quote all kinds of scientific theories. And when very powerful technologies go into the hands of people who are still primitive at heart, the result could be destructive. As Eckhart Tolle puts it in his Power of Now, “Humans have learned to split the atom. Instead of killing ten or twenty people with a wooden club, one person can now kill a million just by pushing a button.” He asks, “Is that real change?”

So it’s important that wisdom prevails and we get our priorities right. Self-knowledge and Self-realization is the most important thing. One has to look inside as much as one looks outside. We have to learn to connect with each other and all of life from the level of the heart as much as we connect with each other through phones and internet and Facebook. With the right kind of perspective we can use the rituals and scientific knowledge in a way that’s helpful to ourselves and all life around us.

A Karma Yogi has one pointed mind (Bhagavad Gita 2.41)

Those who are resolute in this path (of Karma Yoga) have one pointed mind. Many-branched and endless are the thoughts of the irresolute.

— Bhagavad Gita 2.41

You feed your energies to whatever you pay attention to. A karma yogi knows this and s/he does not dissipate his/her energies. A karma yogi takes up a worthy purpose, puts all his/her attention into the purpose and gets it done.

Even physical science has plenty of examples to illustrate the power of focus and attention. When a paper is exposed to sunlight, nothing happens. But when the sun’s rays are focused using a lens into a single point of the paper, so much energy goes into the point that it burns. A piece of iron as such is nothing. But when the polarity of particles in the iron piece is aligned, it becomes a magnet.

We know that the objects of pleasure and pain vary from person to person and time to time, ultimately pleasure and pain have no reality, these are just notions of mind created by habitual responses of the mind and associations. But when we pay too much attention to the thoughts that try to convince us that the pleasure and pain are real, the reality of pleasure and pain grows in our life. When pursuit of pleasure and denial of pain becomes the dominant reality of one’s life, it’s one miserable life. A karma yogi knows this and so is focused only on the purpose at hand, he/she is not infatuated by the notions of pleasure and pain.

Swami Vivekananda says,

Take up one idea. Make that one idea our life — think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

Karma Yoga (Bhagavad Gita 2.39,40)

After impressing upon Arjuna about the wisdom concerning the Self-realization and the analytical study of the nature of the self, Sri Krishna now goes on to speak about the Yoga of unattached action (Karma Yoga).

So far, the wisdom of Self-realization has been declared to you. Now listen to the wisdom of Yoga, endowed with which, O Arjuna, you shall break through the bonds of Karma. (Bhagavad Gita 2.39)

We have seen so much about the unreality of pleasure and pain. Actions motivated by pleasure and pain only lead us to bondage. Unattached action is the only way out of this bondage.

What is pleasure and what is pain?

Let us try to understand this more deeply. What is pleasure? What is pain? Why does the mind run after pleasure and run away from pain? What is unattached action? Let me try to explain as much as I have understood based on my limited experience and study. You don’t have to agree with this explanation, but try to understand, experiment and validate it for yourself. Feel free to disagree, add up, clarify.

Have you ever observed your mind and your thoughts when you are happy? Have you observed that when you are truly happy, the mind is undisturbed and peaceful, there are no thoughts, you are totally aware in the present moment?

And have you observed your mind when you are in pain? When you are in pain, the mind is disturbed and uncontrollable. It is very difficult to focus the mind when it is in pain, it is very difficult to be in the present moment.

So, happiness is when your mind is undisturbed and in a state of awareness in the present moment. Pain is distraction of the mind. When you are in pain, you step out of the present moment. Conversely, when you step out of the present moment, you experience pain.

But does the state of your mind and your ability to be aware in the present moment depend upon some external object you think to be pleasurable (or painful)? This belief that ‘pleasure comes from external object’ just a habitual response we have built up over time, right? It’s just a habitual response, just a conception of mind. It cannot be real because the notions of pleasure and pain vary from person to person, from time to time. When you realize that pleasure and pain are not real, they are just notions of the mind, you break away from your dependence on the external object in order to be happy, you get back to the wisdom that happiness is the true nature of your Self.

Craving is pain

Eckhart Tolle says, “Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.”’ When the mind is caught up in the ignorance that pleasure (and pain) depends on the object outside, it is ever distracted. An ignorant mind cannot stay in the present moment. It always craves after more pleasure, it always runs after something that it thinks will bring more pleasure. It is here, but wanting to be ‘there’. When there is craving, the mind has stepped out of the present moment and naturally it is painful. All you need to do to be happy again is to get back to your Self, accept the present as it is, get back to the undisturbed state of awareness and presence. But the ignorant mind erroneously thinks that the pain will go away only when the object of craving is attained.

Eventually, the object of craving comes into your life sooner or later. When this happens, you are momentarily happy because having got the object of pleasure, the craving stops, the disturbance of the mind is gone, the mind gets back to the present moment. But the mind is still ignorant and it still attaches pleasure with the object outside. So the happiness lasts only for a limited period of time. All things pass, this too shall pass. When the object of pleasure is gone, the mind due to its ignorance gets disturbed again, feels the pain again, and thinks the pain is because it has lost the object while the reality is that pain has come because the mind has stepped out of the present moment. The craving starts once again. The cycle of pleasure and pain continues.

Lost in the cycle of pleasure and pain and ignorance…

The mind is caught up in this cycle of pleasure and pain as long as there is ignorance of attaching pleasure with an external object. As the cycle repeats itself again and again, the ignorance gets strengthened, it becomes extremely difficult to get out of this vicious cycle. When we are caught up in it for too long, the ignorance permeates so deep, almost to the core of our being that it becomes an addiction, we are at the mercy of the object that we have attached pleasure with.

When we are caught up in this cycle of pleasure and pain and ignorance, all our actions are governed and dictated by the pleasure principle. We have lost control. Actually, what we have been talking so far is very simplistic, in reality it is much more complex. There are many many external objects we depend upon for our happiness in various degrees. So the mind is always distracted, it runs after one object and suddenly it runs after another. It is tossed up and down by hundreds and thousands of different motives. Very miserable state.

In order to get out of this misery, we simply need to shed the ignorance, we need to understand that pleasure does not come from the object outside, happiness is the true nature of the Self. But it’s not that easy for many of us. It’s easy for the mind to understand conceptually, but when the ignorance has penetrated much deeper into the layers of habits, emotions, beliefs, reality and even coded into the DNA of the physical body, it is very very difficult to root out the ignorance.

Karma Yoga, the yoga of unattached action

Fortunately for us, the Bhagavad Gita proposes a method that can help us break out of this bondage. It’s called Karma Yoga, the Yoga of unattached action. Counter attack… simply stated, you don’t allow your actions to be dictated by the pleasure principle. You just do what needs to be done for the good of the world irrespective of whether the action brings pain or pleasure. Pleasure should never be the motive of your work. The motive should always be do good for the world. You should never care about the rewards you may get, perform good actions just for the sake of doing it. Never let the conceptions of pleasure and pain control your actions. As you go on this way you get more and more control over your actions and your life, your mind becomes more and more focused, you become less and less controlled by the pleasure principle.

The task may seem enormous, but we just need to give it a start. Start small, just start helping people without any expectations. You don’t have to go too far, just start by unselfishly helping your friends and people in your family. Just do things that needs to be done and does good to the world, refuse to be controlled by pleasure, but always know that such unattached action will ultimately do good to you by helping you take complete control of your life. When you taste even a little bit of the superior pleasure of breaking away from ignorance and wrong beliefs, no getting back. The momentum builds up slowly and steadily. It’s the beginning of the end of your ignorance. Even a little bit of this Karma Yoga does not go waste. As Lord Krishna says,

In this, there is no loss of effort, nor is there production of contrary results. Even a little of this practice protects one from great fear. (2.40)

Okay, but does this mean we should not enjoy life, should we always remain stone faced? Not at all. Appreciate the beauty of life, smile, laugh, enjoy. Enjoy things as they come along, but gracefully let go when they go away. Accept the present moment for what it is. Enjoy life, but don’t lose yourself. The trick is to be aware all the time and catch the mind when it’s about to fall into the trap of ignorance.

Work for work’s sake (Bhagavad Gita 2.38)

Having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same, engage yourself in battle for the sake of battle; thus you shall not incur sin.

—Bhagavad Gita 2.38

Pleasure and pain are not real. These are just notions of the mind. Without this realization the mind is always busy running after something that it thinks would be pleasurable or running away from things it finds painful. With the mind running here and there we won’t be able to perform any meaningful work. Besides, our understanding gets clouded, we lose our priorities and all immoral acts proceed from the ignorance of the fact that pleasure and pain exist only in the mind, not in the thing outside.

So when you rise above pleasure and pain, you won’t do anything inappropriate or sinful. There is no question of acting out of selfishness. No harming someone else just for the sake of gaining pleasure or losing pain because you know pleasure and pain don’t exist outside. When selfishness gets out of the way, all work you do would be for the greater good of the world. And the mind remains calm, there is no pleasure to run after, there is no pain to run away from, the mind is always focused on the work on hand. A calm and focused mind just does what needs to be done irrespective of chances of success or failure. Such a mind that works for work’s sake always turns out high quality work.

But can this level-headed-ness in success and failure be practical? Well, we should just try as much as we can, try for trial’s sake! If you want a practical example you should get to know MS Dhoni, who has this ‘ability to remain level-headed, at the height of success or depths of failure’. MSD is the current captain of the Indian cricket team and one of the most successful captains in Indian cricket.

Duty consciousness (Bhagavad Gita 2.31-37)

After speaking about the impermanence of physical existence and the immortality of the Self, Sri Krishna now reminds Arjuna about his duty.

Even if you consider your own duty, you should not hesitate because there is nothing better for a Kshatriya than a righteous war. (Bhagavad Gita 2.31)

Happy are the Kshatriyas, O Arjuna, who are called upon to fight in such a battle that comes of itself as an open door to heaven! (2.32)

We have seen in the very beginning that the duty of Arjuna as a skilled warrior is to fight this war, defeat the evil Kauravas and protect the people of the kingdom. Nothing less than that.

But what is your duty and my duty? What are we supposed to be doing in this world?

One way of looking at this: taking into account the circumstances of your life and your skills and abilities, do whatever the work on hand to the best of your abilities without getting distracted and without giving in to infatuations. As Swami Vivekananda says, “By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may even reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honoured duties in life and in society.”

Another way I look at it: We see Bhagavad Gita preach the oneness of existence, that you are not the physical body and your true nature is the immortal Self which is also the Self of all beings and entities in existence. Knowing that there is nothing other than yourself in existence, and dropping all ideas of ‘me’ and the ‘other’, dropping all separation and selfishness, do the most appropriate thing you can do that brings good to your world. Whatever work that takes you towards realization of oneness of life is appropriate and whatever work that takes you back towards the idea of separation and selfishness is inappropriate.

Sri Krishna continues his attempts to wake up Arjuna from his slumber…

But if you don’t engage in this righteous war, forfeiting your duty and honour, you shall incur sin. (2.33)

Moreover, the world will speak ill about you forever. For a man of honour, dishonour is worse than death. (2.34)

The great warriors, who hold you in great estimation, will think that you withdraw from the battlefield out of fear. Your value will go down. (2.35)

Your enemies will speak many unkind and fabricated words and insult your ability. What’s more painful than this? (2.36)

Even if we don’t understand all the philosophies, we should shed our lethargies and get on with the work on hand at least for the sake of not losing our honour.

If you are killed on the battlefield you attain heaven, or if you are victorious in the battle you enjoy the earth. Rise therefore, O son of Kunti, and fight with determination. (2.37)

Failure is not an option. If you die in your attempt to do good, you get to heaven. If you succeed in your attempts to do good you enjoy heaven on earth. That is it.