Bhagavad Geeta: The Gospel of Non-Attachment

Bhagavad Geeta: The Gospel of Non-Attachment

The essence of true culture lies in its being based upon a spiritual sense of values and a spiritual outlook on life. The assertion of the essential divinity of man is the heart of Indian culture. The civilisation of India rests on inner refinement, on the nurture and unfoldment of the spiritual spark in man. India is a land of spirituality and the aspiration of every true Indian is for Atma-Svarajya or freedom in the highest divinity of the Self attainable through the conquest of the internal and the external nature. Self-realisation is the goal of the people of India. The Bhagavad-Gita is a universal scripture and it is the true articulate expression of the genuine cultural heritage of India. The Gita is a gospel of non-attachment, the immortality of the Soul and the ultimate freedom of the Self in the Absolute. It is the sacred teachings on the all-inclusive inwardness of the Spirit. The indispensability of non-attachment follows from the fact of the oneness of existence. Sri Krishna asserts that second to Him naught else exists (VII. 7). The truth being an undividedness of life, attachment to outward forms obviously means clinging to falsehood and a breach of truth, the inevitable result of which is misery. “Those pleasures which are contact-born are only wombs of pain” (V. 22). Anaasakti marks the spirit of real renunciation and right activity that does not bind the doer to its fruits. Real culture tends to freedom and it is the glory of the seers of India that with their deep wisdom they realised the freedom of the immortal Self within and proclaimed this truth to the world.

Desirelessness and inward peace mark the distinctive features of culture in India. Knowledge which characterises real culture is not mere learning but wisdom with an ethical background. The extent to which one has succeeded in moral discipline determines the quality of his knowledge. Knowledge does not end with mere understanding but culminates in realising the deepest truth of life. Such a cultured life is not possible without freedom from prejudice and attachment in thought and action. “As the ignorant act with attachment to action, so should the wise act without attachment, with a view to promote the welfare of the world” (III. 25). Perfect detachment is not possible without the knowledge of the ultimate unreality of things which one generally comes in contact with and which act as the causes of attachment towards them. The Indian mind has detected the error in the commonplace view of life held by those who yield to the dictates of their mind and the senses and has brought into light the fact of the transitoriness of physical life amidst the objects of sense. All philosophy starts from the consciousness of pain and suffering and the inadequacy of life in the sense-world. The Viveki seeks emancipation from imprisonment in earthly life and does not pin his faith to things that perish. The Gita points out that this world is ‘Anityam’, ‘Asukham’, ‘Duhkhalayam’ and ‘Asasvatam’. When this discrimination dawns in a person, he becomes desireless and is not attached to anything. The fullness of God within reveals the pettiness of life outside, and the seeker of perfection clings not to fleeting appearances. Culture in India is synonymous with the blossoming of the faculty of religious and spiritual consciousness without which man is very little superior to creatures with mere instinct. The Gita enjoins renunciation of belief in and desire for outward forms and exhorts that no man who is mindful of eternal peace should think or act with a selfish motive or with any particular phenomenal end in view. “Established in Yoga, perform actions, casting off attachment” (II. 48). To act, thus, without ‘Sanga’ and to be inwardly unified with God even while acting in the world is what the Gita stresses upon as the art of right living and the way to peace both here and hereafter. Every bit of effort that is put forth towards the achievement of this end has its own indestructible effect. “There is no destruction of effort here; nor is there the production of contrary result. Even a little (practice) of this Dharma delivers one from great fear” (II. 40). No attempt is a waste; every effort shall lead to a corresponding effect, for the Soul is essentially immortal.

Source: All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

(Sri Swami Sivanandaji is a world-renowned Saint of the Advaita Vedanta and Yoga Darshanas. A medical doctor (Surgeon) by profession, he founded the Divine Life Society which today has hundreds of centres worldwide. Swamiji has written over 200 books and is the Deeksha Guru of World Famous Swami Chinmayanandaji).