It is not possible for ordinary people to know the path of dharma by their own judgment, without the guidance of Śruti and Smṛti. Their knowledge is limited; the capability of their buddhi is sparse; their nature is fallible, owing to kāma, krodha and lobha; therefore instruction and guidance from ancestors and traditions followed by older and experienced people becomes the basis for performing dharma. They show us the highway of dharma. Any path other than this is fraught with dangers and is not safe.
yaḥ śāstra-vidhim-utsṛjya vartate kāmakārataḥ ।
na sa siddhim-avāpnoti na sukhaṃ na parāṃ gatim ॥BG 16.23
“One who transgresses the decree of śāstra and follows wherever his manas takes him will not be able to obtain the tattva. He will not experience bliss and will not attain higher worlds”.
Because the world venerates śāstra, it protects the world. The end of our peace of mind began when our people started asking “What is in śāstra?” and denounced it as a superstition. When respect for puṇya and fear of pāpa vanished from our minds, they started becoming the abode of restlessness. When educated and respectable people started sloganeering such as “What is svarga? It is a mere toy. What is naraka? A mere scarecrow”, the foundation of traditional lifestyle was hit. What shifted then is now sprinting in all directions without any control. This is the result of giving up śāstra. It is seen in every street in every village. Dharma vanished and law took its place.
From the point of view of the state of the present world, there is no other book as important as this chapter of the Gītā. If life in this world for us has to become tolerable, the first thing that is necessary is the distinction between puṇya and pāpa. Scientific advancement has encouraged the hankering for carnal pleasures. It is on the agenda of the social and political institutions of those countries also. Today’s hue and cry is about increasing the standard of living. Thus, when indulging in pleasure-mongering itself becomes the most important goal of life, earning the objects that propel us towards this goal feels like our foremost duty. From this arises and propagates the delusion that adharma is indeed our dharma. If the society has to be rescued from this great misconception, at least some people should understand the difference between daivī and āsurī qualities and should try to influence people to accept more and more daivī qualities and get rid of āsurī qualities. The daily samkalpa of Ṛṣis is -
anṛtāt-satyam-upaimi । mānuṣād-daivam-upaimi ॥
(Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa)
“I will go from falsity to truth; I will attain divinity from humanity”.
Anṛta or falsity is that which is artificial and not in our nature. Blind imitation of others is anṛta. Truth is whatever that is agreeable to our true nature. Hankering for worldly pleasures and traversing blindly in the path trod by others to attain them, without proper understanding of our svadharma is anṛta and adharma. The wonderful and deceptive splendour of the universe might pull us towards adharma. The Ṛṣis pray that they never go to the side of adharma and that they be established in svadharma.
Similarly, human desires and bonds might drag us to the path of asuras. The Ṛṣis pray to the Devas that they may never stray from the daivī path.
There is one sentence that needs to be explored in a little more detail. That is “tasmācchāstraṃ pramāṇaṃ te ।”.
Authority of Śāstra
What does our buddhi have to do if śāstra itself is the supreme authority? Should there be no freedom for independent working of the buddhi ? These questions have been answered earlier. Let us briefly recall them.
Sense objects are required for human buddhi to do its work. Where there are no senses, the buddhi cannot do anything. The manas provides material to the buddhi. Senses provide material to the manas. If the senses do not collect information, the field of the manas is empty. If the manas is unemployed, the buddhi has to be quiet too. Thus, the field where the buddhi can work is bounded. Concepts such as jīva, ātmā, Īśvara, many lives and many worlds — are far from it. Senses cannot touch those mysteries. How can the manas enter where senses do not? Thus, the supreme principle cannot be grasped by the buddhi.
Not only that, senses can trap the buddhi. They can distract the manas with pleasure and its attainment, and make it forget that there is a supreme principle beyond them that is worth striving for in our lives. Even here, the buddhi becomes weak because of its slavery to the senses. Therefore Svāmi instructs us again and again to control our senses.
It is not possible for mere buddhi to comprehend paramātmā, the most mysterious principle in life. Vedas are the only means to know the nature of something that is beyond senses. The Vedas are the words of those who have directly seen and experienced the paravastu. Without understanding that, we cannot obtain true knowledge. But is the buddhi not required there? It is certainly required. The Vedas do not carry any meaning to someone whose buddhi is not purified. It is the job of the buddhi to understand the hidden meaning in the Vedas correctly and make them his own.
Śāstras help in two ways.
They explain the subtleties of philosophy
They teach us the preparations required for bringing philosophy into our daily lives. Our understanding of philosophy is according to the preparation of our buddhi and morality. Any teaching is imparted according to the ability of the receiver. This is the scheme to be followed to grasp śāstra. The two objectives of śāstra are to develop the right aptitude and propriety of instruction.
The buddhi works in two ways
Understanding the Vedas
Using reasoning and past experiences, critically examine what has been understood and establish the concept firmly.
Our mindset towards śāstra should have two aspects. The first is śraddhā and the second is viveka. Śraddhā is belief. Just as we trust food served by our mother and the medicine given by a good doctor, we should trust and understand the instructions given by śāstra. After that, just as we would remember the food or medicine and their effect on us, we should critically re-examine our understanding by pondering upon the cause-and-effect relationship, and changing — updating our understanding of śāstra if necessary, again and again. This has to be performed by the buddhi. Thus, it does not mean “buddhir-apramāṇam (Meaning that the buddhi is not a pramāṇa.)” just because “śāstram pramāṇam” was said. It just means that mere buddhi is not enough. The buddhi is certainly required, but it is not sufficient by itself. The raw material for the working of the buddhi-machinery should come from śāstra — that is the essence of this discussion. Only buddhi can explain what has been said in the śāstra.
To be continued...
The present series is a modern English translation of DVG’s Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award-winning work, Bhagavad-gītā-tātparya or Jīvana-dharma-yoga. The translators wish to express their thanks to Śatāvadhāni R Ganesh for his valuable feedback and to Hari Ravikumar for his astute edits.
