"We are happy to present before our readers the first volume of a three--volume work, Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita---a verse by verse exposition of the Gita by Swami Ranganathanandaji, President of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. This commentary was originally given as a series of Sunday discourse, from 1988 to 1990, at the 1200 capacity Vivekananda Hall of the Ramakrishna Math, Hydrabad (India), and it regularly drew an overflow audience consisting of a cross-section of the city population, including many youths.

These lectures, delivered extempore, were recorded, and the audio and video cassettes have reached homes. in various parts of India and abroad. The nature of the subject as well as its treatment by the speaker and his method of delivery, invariably held the attention and sustained the interest and enthusiasm of a large and varied audience
. . . ."

--From the Preface of Universal Message of the Bhagavad-Gita, Vol. 1, by Swami Ranganathananda, published July, 2000, by Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, India.

To order this three-volume set, please visit or contact the Vedanta Center nearest you.

Na kartritvam na karmani lokyasya srijati prabuh;
Na karma phala samyogam svabhavastu pravartate ---5.14.

'Neither agency, nor actions does the Lord create for the world, nor (does HE bring about) the union with the fruit of action. It is nature that does it all.' ---5-14.

The divine personality, the supreme divine Being, 'did not prescribe any agency of action', na kartritvam. Na karmani, 'nor actions'. Lokasya srijati prabhuh', 'neither of these was prescribed by the divine Lord for humanity'. Then how does this action go on? Svabhavastu pravartate, 'nature does it all'. As in the case of the animals, it is nature that is impelling us; nature that is outside has found a place within us also. Man is an outpost of external nature in many respects. Our digestive system, our reactions, are all the work of nature. So, svabhavastu pravartate, 'svabhava or nature is acting in you and in me' as well as in the outer world. Here svabhava means nature. That plain nature outside induces us to eat, drink, to rear families. All that is svabhava acting through the human being. God did not tell me to do this or that. This svabhava or nature has entered into us and become part of our constitution. Impelled by it we do all these things. That is the truth about the human being.

I had occasion to refer to the book, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, by Karl Jung, the famous Zurich psychologist. He also makes a distinction between our actions impelled. by nature, and our actions impelled by our own higher nature. Vedanta alone speaks of a higher dimension of nature, para prakriti apart from the apara prakriti, ordinary nature. The first is intelligence and the second is non-intelligence. Vedanta speaks of the dominance of the intelligent principle, para prakriti over the apara prakriti or svabhava, as the instrument of human freedom, as the goal of human evolution. Here Sri Krishna clearly puts it, svabhavastu pravartate, 'svabhava or ordinary nature is acting in all of us'. It is like this: Somebody abuses me and I immediately give him a slap. What has happened? svabhava has taken charge and acted in me. I have another svabhava, intelligence or para prakrti, by which I can check it. That svabhava is silent, not functioning yet. Everything is svabhava, or apara prakrti.

. . .A human being is a combination of two natures: the external nature, and the higher nature, i.e., intelligence. The higher nature functions as a subordinate of external nature in most people. It cannot express itself because the other nature, apara prakriti, is very dominant in most people. That is ordinary human life out of which comes crime, delinquency, etc. But whenever that nature is slowly controlled, and the higher nature finds manifestation, then slowly spiritual culture comes. We evolve into better and still better human beings. Real civilization itself is the product of a little dominance of this higher nature over that lower nature. This is the meaning of Sri Krishna's telling us here, na kartritvam na karmnani lokasya srijati prabhuh. 'Prabhu, the divine Master of the world, did not prescribe either agency of action, or action, to any individual here.' Then he says, na karma phala samyogam, 'nor the bringing out the union with the fruit of action'. Then how does life go on? Svabhavastu pravartate. 'Svabhava is acting'.

Having said this, the lesson we have to learn is that, that svabhava, which is external nature, apara prakriti, which has found lodgement in our system, we shall control it, we shall go beyond it by expressing our true nature as pure intelligence, because we are a combination of both, what we call in Vedantic language, cit-jada-granthi. Every human being is a knot of cit and jada. cit means consciousness. jada. means inert nature. Both are there in a human being. In external nature it is all jada.. But when you come to living beings, you are in the realm of consciousness as well. And that too, with respect to a human being, a higher form of consciousness called self-consciousness, the consciousness of the self as 'I, I, I' gets manifested. No animal can experience 'I'; only the human being has this awareness of being a subject and not an object. That is why we are asked to treat every human being as a subject and never as an object. Generally, when we exploit others, we treat them as objects. But when moral sense comes we think, 'no, everybody must be treated as a subject. I am a subject, you are also a subject. I should treat you as a subject and not as an object'. That is called moral sense. To see the subject in a social object is called moral sense. Human being is a social object, unlike material objects like tables and chairs. This human being, therefore, has a uniqueness. He or she has a subjective dimension also. So, we treat him or her as a subject, and never always as an object. In the treatment of ethics by the German philosopher Kant, you will find this idea. That is ethical sense according to Kant and according to Vedanta. By manifesting our higher nature, let us control and dominate that svabhava or lower nature; the jada svabhava is to be controlled by the cit svabhava.

That is called the human being's spiritual evolution. Out of that will come tremendous peace and harmony in the world. The human being will be the saviour of the whole world. Otherwise, if he or she is subject to the jada svabhava within, the human being will as well be the author of destroying the whole of nature and the whole of humanity. That is the situation in the world today. Most people are subject to the jada svabhava. They want to live according to that svabhava, which I had referred to in the first volume in relation to the American youth movement as impulse release philosophy. Release all your impulses as they come. Don't check them, don't discipline them. That jada svabhava must be allowed to work freely. That is a dangerous philosophy that is going on now practically all over the world. We have to reverse it. Let the other higher svabhava begin to function in you. There is something very precious in you. You are free, you are free. jada nature is not free, but you are free. You are a mixture of freedom and no-freedom. Assert the freedom part in you.

In this connection, I would like to mention one of the many experiences I had during my 18 months lecture tour of North and South America in 1968-69, one of which was at Portland Radio on 31 January, 1969. America was then passing through the Hippy and drop-out movement. Mr. Fenwick, of the drop-out type, was the interviewer. It was the most illuminating experience which I have recorded in my book, A Pilgrim Looks at the World. (Vol. 2, pp. 27-29: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai)

'The interview began with his introduction of me to the listeners. As happens in all cases where yogis and spiritual teachers, especially from India, are interviewed, the introduction starts on a light note. So introducing me to the listeners, Mr. Fenwick said: Oh, here is another Swami in front of me! He is so and so, etc., etc. But, within a minute, the whole aspect changed, as I gently changed the subject into the problem of man in modern civilization and other serious topics. Mr. Fenwick immediately caught the inspiration of the new situation and shouted into the microphone: Oh, this is a new type of Swami! Please listen to what he says! All flimsiness vanished immediately and, from then on, it was earnest and serious discussion till the end.

'And in the course of the next few minutes of the interview, I had occasion to refer to the need for a measure of self-discipline on the part of modern man. No sooner had I uttered the word 'discipline', than Mr. Fenwick interrupted me and protested loudly into the microphone: Oh Swami, we don't believe in all this discipline! What is there to discipline? We believe in being spontaneous, natural. 'He uttered these words in a triumphant manner and with a touch of hilarity. But I was not put out, but at once grasped the whole background of thought behind his remark, and said: Mr. Fenwick, you were highly appreciating, just a few moments ago, Pundit Ravi Shankar's beautiful sitar music. How fascinating, how spontaneous, how natural, is his music! You had said. That is fine, I said, and continued: But did you ever stop to think even for a moment, Mr. Fenwick, that behind that spontaneity and naturalness of Ravi Shankar's music, there lie years and years of hard discipline? Did you ever give a thought to that? 'As soon as I had put it that way, Mr. Fenwick became excited and literally burst into the microphone to say: That is a wonderful idea! I had never thought of it that way! This is something new! I do realize the importance of discipline from that point of view. And he exclaimed into the microphone: All of you, listen to what the learned Swami from India has to say!

'By this time, the scheduled 20 minutes period was ending; but his interest in the discussion, on the other hand, was just mounting; and he asked me sweetly, and in the hearing of his listeners, for, the whole programme was a live transmission: Swami, are you tired? Can we continue the interview? No, I am not tired at all, I replied; I am ready to go on as long as you like. At this, he was happy, and announced it into the microphone, and the interview ended only at midnight!

'Continuing the theme, I said: Mr. Fenwick, I also appreciate naturalness and spontaneity. Human life should be natural, spontaneous. But I discern two types or two levels of spontaneity and naturalness; one lies below discipline, and the other lies above discipline. And, for the next several minutes, he was an absorbed listener, putting an occasional question or re-stressing a point I had made, as I was expounding this theme in the light of Vedanta and twentieth-century biological thought. 'The animal is spontaneous and natural, I continued; the cow or horse eases itself wherever it stays or moves. That is one type of naturalness. But do we not subject a human child to a bit of toilet discipline? That is the first lesson we give to all children,'followed by other disciplines first given to children by parents from outside, then given by children to themselves, so that they may rise to the level of human nature and develop the human way. All culture is the product of discipline of the impulses; and culture is specifically a human phenomenon; animals have no culture. By such judicious discipline, guided by reason and love of truth, man manifests the higher and higher aspects of nature, first the human, then the divine, from within oneself. And the whole of such discipline of impulses, and the manifestation of the divine within, can be as natural and spontaneous a process as the expression of impulses at the organic level, when we understand the wide range of the meaning of the words 'nature' and 'natural'.

'Two types of people, I continued, do not need discipline or do not experience tension and struggle, and are perfectly natural and spontaneous; and I quoted the following well-known verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam, the greatest book on bhakti, or pure love of God, in the Indian tradition, to explain the point (III. vii. 17):

Yasca mudhatamo loke yasca buddheh param gatah;
Tavubhau sukham edhete klisyatyantirito janah.

'Two types of people experience happiness and are free from all tension, namely, the uttermost fool among men (in whom the struggle for humanness has not yet commenced), and the one who has gone beyond buddhi, intellect or reason, (in the experience of the Atman, the infinite divine Self, and the transcendence of both animal and human nature). All others, in between, are in varying stages of tension and struggle.'"

That is how Vedanta tells people that, don't take things as they are. You can make them better and still better. There is a progress from this to that. You can be the architect of your own destiny. No animal can be the architect of its own destiny. Nature is the architect there. In our case, svabhava is not our architect, nature is not our architect. We are the architect, we can reshape our lives. This must be constantly kept in view. Because we forgot it after the independence of India, jada nature is acting in its own way in India. Raw humanity, just selfish; quarrelling, fighting, killing, everything just as we do in a wild state. That is a great misfortune. Human dignity doesn't find expression there. I can easily kill anyone or, if I am a cannibal, I can eat him or her also. But in civilization, at least we don't eat human beings. Swami Vivekananda said, the old cannibals ate human beings; today we do not do so, but we cheat each other. The same cannibalism in a new way. That has to go. When you free yourself from that jada svabhava, that svabhava which has got into your psycho--physical system beyond which is the Atman, begins to find expression in you. Try to find its expression. A little expression is there when the baby develops the consciousness of 'I' and expresses, 'I want it, I want it'. That 'I' is like the tip of a tremendous rock that is below the water level. Only the tip you see. That is all we consider as this 'I'.

But that is not its true dimension. That dimension is infinite. That 'I' is really one with all. That is the truth which is going to be told by the Gita a few slokas (verses) later, that this concept of yoga will lead you to that realization. We are essentially one. There is only one Atman in all of us; that truth is going to be told. And therefore, let this 'I' be treated as the tip of a big rock projecting above the water level. Unless you probe deeper, you won't see that immense dimension. That little ego is the visible part of something immense namely, the infinite immortal Atman. Depending only on the little tip, the ego creates all the mischief in human life. Treat it as a simple initial datum. Try to find its true dimension. As you begin to dive into it, you will find the ego is expanding and expanding, and ultimately, realizing that, 'I am one with all. We are all essentially one.' Then something great will happen. That is how this chapter is going to give us a profound message of human unity and equality. How we shall live in society as the equal of all? What a beautiful concept! Equality is an inspiring concept. We are one, we are all equal. So, that is being given to us a few verses later in this very chapter.

All these teachings are not just dogmas. This is meant to be thought about, meant to be applied, meant to be checked up, meant to be verified. The science of yoga in the Gita is a verifiable science. That is what we are asked to do. Let us see how this will function in our case. No misty ideas are here. Everything is clear; dealing with the human being, his or her possibilities, and how he or she can unfold these possibilities.

1. Universal Message of the Bhagavad-Gita -- Vols. 1-3
2. Vedanta and the Future of Mankind
3. Science and Religion
4. Swami Vivekananda: His Humanism
5. Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence
6. The Essence of Indian Culture
7. Christ We Adore
8. An Introduction to the Study of the Gita
9. The Message of Upanisads
10. Eternal Values for a Changing Society -- Vols. 1-4, and many others. . .

For more information contact: The Vedanta Society of New York.

To order any of these books contact the Vedanta Center nearest you.

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