Bhagavad Gita- 108 Talks by Swami Sandeep Chaithanya

106. What are the duties fit to be discarded?

Bhagavan assures us that ‘if you discard all duties (dharmas) and seek refuge in me, I shall redeem you from all sins; don’t worry’. This sloka, one of the most prominent in the Gita has created a lot of confusion. Some people follow it literally as an excuse to abandon all responsibilities and avoid taking up a job or taking care of the family. They believe that the Lord wants them to stay in a monastery or as a freeloader near a temple.

Dharma is the essential quality of a thing without which the thing is not. For example, if you remove the heat and light from fire, it will cease to be fire. Thus the universe is borne by Brahman. All values that take us to Brahman are dharma for us. Rejecting Brahman is not being referred here. Bhagavan advises us to ‘know me, the one and only Brahman through meditation’. Here knowing is surrendering. Gita wants us to get rid of the notion of ‘I am doing’ in the activities of our body (Sarira dharma)- seeing, hearing, thinking, etc. If I don’t have anything as ‘my own’, there is nothing to be discarded. This is akin to empowering someone who is watching the sky through the window to get out of the room enabling him to enjoy the open sky. Here there is not duality. Discarding dharma here is getting rid of the doer-ship.

A sin is the deed that would create an inferiority complex. A thought of lament “Oh, this has become my fate” is a sin. To surrender in the Lord is to live and accept a life of reality without indulging in imaginary life. This surrender is like a wave realizing that ‘I am the ocean’. This is the only aim one should entertain in life as all other prostrations are futile. Whomever we prostrate and surrender to, do it with the attitude of surrendering unto the supreme consciousness. Bhagavan didn’t ask us to surrender ourselves to a temple, a priest or an idol. To become a devotee is to realize that ‘I am not a separate entity from the universe’. Any injury to the universe is affecting me. It is my duty to preserve and to take care of this universe. When the Lord says ‘you are dear to me’, it means that the relationship between you and the nature is symbiotic. It is your love towards all beings in nature that makes you my favourite. This can be achieved only through knowledge- not merely by going to temples every morning after taking a bath and applying sandal paste on the forehead.