But Richard, the entire Gita is the Lord telling Arjuna to act! Krishna is not
telling the gunas to act! In fact He's telling Arjuna to be without the gunas
and act!
Maybe we can agree that it's a paradox...
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 9:54 PM, "'Richard J. Williams'
pundits...@gmail.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
On 6/17/2014 8:43 PM, Share Long sharelon...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
>SoundofStillness, I used the concordance to Maharishi's Gita translation and
>checked the references under "effort." Chapter 4, vs 12 to 15 seem useful wrt
>to your question. In vs 12, Maharishi makes the point that animals depend on
>the force of evolution to move upward. But humans have freedom of action and
>therefore development "depends upon how he acts and what he does." Also in vs
>12 Maharishi introduces the idea that the Lord gives rise to all action AND at
>the same time is separate from it. this is elaborate on in the next few verses.
>
>
According to MMY in CBG: "The authorship of action does not in
reality belong to the "I". It is a mistake to understand that "I" do
this, "I" experience this and "I" know this. All action is performed
by the three gunas born of Nature." - MMY on BG - V: 14; 1967, p.
259.
The implications of these passages indicate that the nature of the
mind is appreciated as it is, separate from activity. The "goal" of
TM does not consist in achieving anything or reaching anything, but
simply in recognizing what already is the case, that the "I" is
essentially uninvolved with activity. Here, the ONLY criterion is
internal: the Self cognized as independent of action.
"But he who knows the truth about the divisions of the gunas and their actions,
O mighty armed, knowing that it is the gunas which act upon the gunas, remains
unattached." MMY on BG - V: 27; 1967, p. 220
>
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>On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 6:01 PM, "'Richard J. Williams' pundits...@gmail.com
>[FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>On 6/17/2014 1:07 PM, soundofstilln...@ymail.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
>
>
>>From my minimalist way of understanding, Shyam Ranganathan is suggesting, as
>>he did in his translation and commentary of the Yoga sSutra that Purusha =
>>Person indeed does have "Agency" according to the great philosopher Maharishi
>>Patanjali.
>>
>
>
>>"The Sankhya Karika appears to
state that it is nature that
brings about freedom, while
Patañjali’s view seems to be
that it is persons that are
the explanation of freedom (I
write about this in my
introduction to my
translation). The relevant
points of comparison are the
Sankhya Karika 17, 44–45,
62–64, where the person is
>>described as irrelevant to the
process of liberation, and
Yoga Sutra I.21, IV.18, and
IV.29 where persons and their
self improvement are treated
as instrumental to liberation
. . ."
>>
>>http://indianphilosophyblog.org/2014/03/07/moral-standing-and-yoga/
>>
>>"irrelevant to the process of
liberation" sayest the Sankhya
Karika
>>
>>"persons and their self
improvement are treated as
instrumental to liberation"
sayest the Yoga Sutra
>>
>>Letting go for a moment (or
two) everything you've read,
thought and talked about,
concentrated on, contemplated
. . . and based on your
Person(al) experience of tens
of thousands of hours of
meditation, what sez you?
>>
>>Do Purusha(s) = You have
agency regarding their/Your
realization, enlightenment and
liberation?
>>
>>Or as the Sankhya Karika and
Vedanta suggest, from my
understanding, Purusha,
Person, Pure Awareness,
>>is but the observer with no
capacity to act at all.
>>
>>And what did Maharishi have to
say?
>
>In commenting on Bhagavad Gita,
Maharishi has brought our attention to
the existence of the gunas, whose
concern is action, which, in every case,
is the result of the interplay of three
constituents born of nature - eternal
becoming, termed prakriti in the Gita.
Rajas, sattva and tamas - these three
propensities regulate the state of
action and are relative to each other
and to all that exists in the phenomenal
world. That is, nature, which is
everything, is subject to the law of
causation - cause and effect. It is the
gunas, without exception, that govern
all action-reaction in the material
world, according to the rishis.
>
>However, Maharishi has also called our
attention to the fact that nature,
governed by the three gunas, is entirely
separate from the transcendental field -
the field of Being, termed Purusha in
the Gita.
>
>Work cited:
>
>
>"On the Bhagavad Gita"
>By Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
>II., v. 45, p. 126 VI., v. 1, p. 384
>>
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