Yoga expertise in Cultural life
Madhvacarya
dūreṇa hyavaraṁ karma buddhiyogāddhanaṁjaya
buddhau śaraṇamanviccha kṛpaṇāḥ phalahetavaḥ (2.49)
buddhiyukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛtaduṣkṛte
tasmādyogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (2.50)
Surely, cultural action is by far inferior to intellectual discipline
through yoga. O victor of wealthy countries. One should take shelter
in mystic insight, for how pathetic are those who are motivated by the
promise of results. (2.49)
A person who is disciplined by the reality-piercing insight discards
in each life both pleasant and unpleasant work. Therefore take to the
yogic mood. Yoga gives skill in performance. (2.50)
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These two verses are the basic advice Krishna gave to Arjuna, in
regard to how to use the proficiency gained from yoga practice in the
social involvements. Yoga practice and its application in social life
are two separate achievements for a yogi. Arjuna was an expert at yoga
practice, as his practice reached the stage of samadhi from which his
subtle body used to leave the gross one and go to the celestial
regions. But Arjuna did not understand how to apply that proficiency
to social life.
The teaching of how to do so is known as karma yoga in the Bhagavad
Gita. It means yoga + karma or yoga proficiency in terms of mood
control when dealing with mood-laden activities in the social world.
Krishna explained to Arjuna that if a yogi mastered buddhi control
through the practice of buddhi yoga, that is not as advanced as the
yogi who has applied that buddhi control while performing his worldly
duties. Yoga practice in buddhi control ( kriya yoga) is good but it
is better when a yogi learns how to use that in the social field,
since then he will not have to run away from duties but will be able
to face circumstances and function in a way which does not compound
the karmic equations.
Krishna pitied those who are motivated by the promise of results since
such persons cannot act from a position of transcendental insight and
therefore make a mess of their situation and that of others,
compounding the complications in material existence and tangling
themselves up more and more in unpleasant situations.
To discard pleasant and unpleasant work, a yogi does not run away from
unpalatable duties as Arjuna was suggesting for himself in chapter one
of the Gita, but rather a yogi ceases the vision of selecting what is
favorable and what is unfavorable and looks only to select duty
regardless of its desirable or undesirable outcome. But this holds for
the yogi only because he leans on the reality piercing insight,
something that Arjuna gained after he saw the universal form of Sri
Krishna in chapter 11 of the Gita.
By the grace of Krishna, Arjuna was shifted into that vision. For
other yogis, that will be attained through meditation practice and the
practice of the advisories which Krishna gave to Arjuna and which a
competent teacher shares with the student yogi.