Posted on: 06 Nov 2020
[Following are the questions asked by devotees to Swami in the satsaṅga held on October 17, 2020]
[Śrī Anil Anthony asked: Swami, now You are giving us amazing interpretations to all the ślokas of the Gītā. Why did Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who originally gave the Bhagavad Gītā, not give the explanations and correct interpretations also for the verses? If it had been done, today people would not have misinterpreted those ślokas, right?]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! God Kṛṣṇa gave the original text without any self-commentary. The text itself was very clear, but, later on, misinterpretations developed. For example, regarding the sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work for God, it is clearly stated in the Gītā as:
Karmajaṃ buddhiyuktā hi, phalaṃ tyaktvā manīṣiṇaḥ.
The meaning of this line is: manīṣiṇaḥ = scholars; buddhiyuktā hi = having the capacity of intellectual analysis; tyaktvā = leaving; karmajaṃ phalam = the fruit of one’s work (wealth). It means that scholars having the capacity of intellectual analysis leaving (sacrificing) the fruit of their work, attain the divine goal.
But this line was misinterpreted as follows: Scholars having the capacity of intellectual analysis, leaving ‘the attachment to’ the fruit of work, attain the divine goal. Here, ‘the attachment to’ is the extra addition by the commentator, which is not there in the original text. The commentator implies that only the attachment to the fruit of one’s work should be sacrificed and not fruit of one’s work (wealth) itself! With this misinterpretation, the fruit of one’s work need not be sacrificed and can be saved. One only has to sacrifice the theoretical attachment to the fruit of work! Hence, Kṛṣṇa was very clear in the concepts preached by Him. It is the commentators who introduced twisted interpretations so that the practical sacrifice of the fruit of work, which is very inconvenient, could be avoided. Such commentators were strong followers of the monism of Śaṅkara, according to which, one is already God and one has to simply remember that he is God! On the other hand, Śaṅkara Himself sacrificed all the golden fruits rained by Goddess Lakṣmī to the poor lady, who donated just a small fruit to Him. But this fact is not remembered by anybody, while studying the philosophy of Śaṅkara!
Keywords:
| Shri Datta Swami | Why did Krishna not give the correct interpretations of the verses in the Gita? | Krishna Giita Gita Karmajam buddhiyukta hi phalam tyaktva manishinah Shankara