But nobody should not act and abandon his own duty. If one gives up actions, then one will not find success. Initially he has no command over knowledge and it is appropriate to focus on action. One whose heart is purified by action achieves a unified intellect. Moreover, that yoga is declared to be conducive to the state of immortality.
I will describe another yoga. Hear about it, Protector of the Earth, as it is superb. A man should see with equal vision an animal, a son, a friend, an enemy, kinsman and a good friend. With detachment he should have the same attitude towards joy, pain, patience, elation and fear, sickness, carnal enjoyments, victory and defeat, acquisition and loss of wealth. In gain and loss and in death, he is the same and sees Me within and outside all things. Who sees Me always in Surya, Soma, water, fire, Siva, Shakti, in the heavenly musicians, humans and the lower creatures, he is the knower of yoga, it is said. And within the brahmin, in the heart, in the great river, in the sacred ford, in the sacred place, in the removal of evil, in Visnu, in all the gods, and Yaksas and Uragas.
After comprehensively removing the senses from their own objects by means of discrimination, the intellect assumes impartiality in regard to everything. I consider this to be yoga, Protector of the Earth. Through the discrimination of the self by the self the intellect of that man, attached to his own duty, emerges by the power of providence. Hence it is that yoga that is said to be real yoga. United with the intellect, a man now abandons both action and non-action. After that, he should continually practice yoga. Yoga is prosperity in what is enjoined in the sastras.
After giving up the results both action and non-action, a man of integrity, his senses conquered, is freed from bondage and birth and goes to the salubrious place. When a man’s intellect will overcome the turbidity of ignorance, then he gradually becomes dispassionate towards the words of the Vedas and so forth. When the intellect of that person whose mind diverges from the three Vedas becomes stable and rests on the Supreme Self, then he attains yoga. When a wise man gives up all the desires in his mind, dear king, wholly satisfied with himself in his own self, then his intellect is said to be firm.
The man who has no desire in respect of any of his friends and who is not agitated when encountering pain, and who is without fear, pain or passion, is then said to have a firm intellect. Just as the tortoise contracts its limbs, so too should a person absorbed in yoga withdrawal his own senses from their objects. The objects of the senses disperse for the embodied person who fasts. He comes to be without passion and when passion disappears he will see Brahman.
On assuming the steadiness of the yogi, the learned person always strives for yoga (because the senses which become agitated can at any time forcibly draw away the mind). The man who is self-controlled and has brought the senses under control will always be absorbed in Me. Whoever has their senses restrained is considered to be one who has attained intelligence.
For the person who reflects on the objects of the senses, attachment to them arises. Desire then arises and anger increases from that. From anger ignorance arises, then loss of memory. From loss of memory, there is a failure in correct thinking. From that, his spiritual life is ruined.
Without hatred, passion and the objects of the senses, that man should act through the senses. The heart, which is free from the control of the senses, increases its satisfaction. When one is satisfied there will be a casting away of the three kinds of pain. And the person who has situated himself within wisdom will have a peaceful heart. Without peace, there is no correct thinking. And without that, there is no contemplation, there is no peace, and without peace where does happiness come from? Since the mind follows the senses, which are like horses wandering after their objects, it will, therefore, destroy correct thinking, like the wind destroys a boat in water.
What is night for all beings, he never slumbers. What is day for all beings, that is his night, Protector of the earth. Just as rivers come to the ocean from everywhere, so one who has material desires will never have peace. Therefore, after the man has completely blocked the senses from everything in the world, they flee from their objects and his intellect is then firm. After giving up all thoughts of ‘Me-ness’ and ‘I- ness’, he should give up all his desires and should then focus on intuitive knowledge. From intuitive knowledge he will become liberated.
Protector of the Earth, you are he who knows the wisdom of Brahman because of fate, and after obtaining yoga you will become liberated by your nature.”
Om. This is the truth. This is called ‘The Essence of Sankhya Yoga’ in the conversation between Lord Ganesha and King Varenya in the Uttarakhanda of the blessed and great Ganesha Purana in the learned treatise on the immortality of yoga, in the blessed Ganesha Gita which is the essence of the Upanisads.’
Chapter 2
Varenya said, ‘Lord, you have declared yoga in knowledge and yoga in activity as being two spiritual paths . After contemplating the two, tell me which one produces the best result.’
Gajanana said, ‘In this world of moving and non-moving beings these two were initially declared by me, dear King, in respect to the yoga of the intellect for those of the Sankhya school and the yoga of prescribed actions for those who discharge duties in the world. By not undertaking prescribed actions a man becomes inactive. He gains no success simply by abandoning his duties, King. No one ever remains inactive even for a moment. He is subject to the cosmic forces produced from nature and is compelled to act. But by continually restraining the senses, the man who performs actions remains fixed in consciousness. But because of one’s attachment to sense objects, the fool declares this as stupid behavior.
Having first restrained all of the senses with the mind, he should undertake his duties as the yoga of action by means of the senses. Because he has no material desires, he is superior, King. Action, done without attachment, is superior to non-action. Even the maintenance of the body will not be achieved by inaction. And those who have not offered the results of their actions to Me are bound by them. The imperishable soul should, without attachment, always perform his duties and offer the results to Me. Then any actions performed for Me will never bind one to this world. Action contains unconscious psychic impressions and forcibly binds the embodied soul.
