Bhagavad Gita 85: The Wheel of Birth and Death · Study guide

This lesson closes the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Jnana-Vijnana Yoga, with verses 28 to 30, and then opens the eighth, Akshara-Brahma Yoga. Swami Jyotirmayananda begins with the goal the whole chapter has been moving toward: parabhakti, supreme devotion, love so profound that the soul merges with God like a river merging in the ocean. Until that goal is reached, the soul is sick with bhava vyadhi, the disease of the world process. Swamiji draws it as a wheel of six spokes: virtue brings pleasure and pleasure brings attachment; vice brings pain and pain brings aversion. The ego holds the spokes together at the center. The lesson turns on one claim drawn from this wheel: no one else brings your troubles to you. You are the architect of your destiny, so the cure is in your own hands. The cure begins with the spokes: be good and do good, use good fortune to enrich the mind, learn the difference between svadharma and paradharma, and finally live the day as a worshiper, with the world supplying the offerings. Verse 29 promises that those who take refuge in God know Brahman, the Self and all the secrets of karma. Swamiji reads it through Hanuman’s three answers to Rama, which become three stages of practice: karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga. Verse 30 names three terms and leaves them hanging. The eighth chapter opens with Arjuna asking what they mean, and Swamiji defines each in turn, with a detour through three cosmic energies. He lands on the meaning of sacrifice: the process by which the lower self is sublimated and the soul is purified until it is Brahman. If you read for one thread, follow the body. It begins as the perishable vehicle that keeps the wheel turning, and it ends as the place where the soul’s sacrifice is performed.

Where each passage begins

Verse 28: love so profound the soul merges

Verse 28 speaks of virtuous souls whose sins have come to an end, who are free of the delusion of the pairs of opposites and worship God with steadfast resolve. Swamiji calls this a subtle point about how to love God: love so profound that the soul merges with God, like a river merging in the ocean. “That attainment is the goal.” It is known as parabhakti, supreme devotion, or by another name, mukti, liberation, and it has many other names, Nirvana and Salvation among them. “All religions speak of the same goal, but they use different terms.” The difference is only one of language. And because “Things such as virtue and vice are easily talked about.” he asks for a profounder understanding of what it means to be trapped in the world of birth and death.

The wheel of birth and death

While you are trapped in that world, you have times of great joy, great sorrow and great delusion. None of these is the goal, because your goal is not in the realm of relativity; it is to be free of the cycle of birth and death. “As long as you are subject to birth and death. The soul is considered sick.” Swamiji describes the sickness as the six spokes of the wheel of the world process, the bhava chakra. You do virtuous deeds, acts of kindness and generosity. As a result, pleasant situations develop, and you become attached to the situations, people and relations that have given you so much happiness. Then the table turns. The ego, which Swamiji calls a big monkey, does good with one hand and negative things with the other. As a result of vice, of doing harm to others, painful situations develop, and from them you develop hatred and dislike. So there are six: virtue, pleasure and attachment on one side; vice, pain and aversion on the other. “And these six are like the six spokes of a wheel.” “And your ego keeps the spokes together, it is the center of the wheel.” To be cured, you have to control the entire wheel by working upon the ego. But in order to work upon the ego, you first have to change the fabric of the spokes, in a special way. The first half of the lesson is about how that change is made.

The architect of your destiny

Before giving the method, Swamiji establishes where responsibility lies. “You are the architect of your destiny.” And yet one does not have a complete comprehension of this fact. “Nobody is responsible for your torture, your pain, or suffering.” Without that understanding, people live their whole lives thinking that someone has been the cause of their trouble. “If only that someone had not been there, life would have been wonderful.” When no person can be blamed, the age itself is blamed: the trouble is caused by Kali Yuga, and when will Satya Yuga come? “All those are illusions, big delusions.” The teaching sounds severe, but it carries good news. If the spokes were turned by others, nothing could be done. Because they are turned by your own actions and reactions, they can be changed.

Be good, do good

The first step is very basic: move to punya karmas, meritorious actions, and follow the simple principle, be good, do good. Swamiji corrects himself in an instructive way: try to do more good; rather, try to do just good. Unwittingly you will still do some negative things, because this is a mixed world. “But your intention should be to always do good.” The second step concerns good fortune. When pleasant situations come, enjoy them by being thoughtful, and use them to enrich the mind. Find time for satsanga, the company of truth, and ask what the goal of life is and what it means to come closer to God. For the general masses, he says, those opportunities are wasted. When people become happy, they look for rajasika company, drinks and a noisy party. He does not say everyone does that. “You could choose to have a joyous party and a Satvik party.” So in the early stage the instruction is plain. “Keep your mind involved in sāttvika karmas as much as possible.” Seek sattvika company and avoid rajasika and tamasika influences, the restless and the dull. Continued, this puts you on another level, where you recognize the difference between svadharma and paradharma.

Svadharma, paradharma and the hollow tree

Svadharma is the type of activity that is in harmony with your heart: you would like to do it, and you enjoy doing it. Paradharma is work you are forced to do because you need money, a job in which you are constrained. Then all you think about is your next vacation, and you live through your life thinking of retirement, even though you are not tired. That type of life does not bring peace and rest. “It keeps your heart empty, shallow.” You may be very rich, very popular, very powerful. “But you are really internally, you are like a tree eaten up by termites.” The tree stands, but it is hollow. Instead, turn your attention to enrichment. “And enrichment implies developing certain divine qualities.” Swamiji names serenity, the control of anger by love, humility and compassion. As they develop, three planes of the personality are enriched. The first is the world of mind and senses, Bhurloka. With goodness in your heart there, you draw good people, become a source of satsanga to others, and enjoy the warmth of purer love in your relations. The second is the plane of feeling, which can rise until you see the light of God shining through the eyes of others, and “people become channels of God’s presence”. That world is transformed into devotion, bhakti yoga. The third is the plane of reasoning, enriched not by the rule of ego but by the aroma of humility, until the intellect becomes subtle, sharp and intuitive. “And that enjoyment is drawing you to God. God is the ultimate ocean.”

Living as a worshiper

Swamiji then puts the teaching another way. Through integral yoga in daily life you come to live in the world not as an individual but as a devotee. He gives the three terms of worship: pujaka, the worshiper; pujya, the one worshiped; and puja, the worship itself. You are the worshiper, God is the worshiped, “And the world provides all your worship materials.” Day by day you live in a divine temple where bells ring from the very morning and a great drama unfolds softly and gracefully. Every situation presented to you, the duties of that day, the conditions you face, hardships as well as what Swamiji playfully calls soft ships, is offered. “Consider all part of worship of God.”

Verse 29: refuge from old age and death

Verse 29 reads: those who take refuge in Me, striving for the cessation of old age and death, know Brahman fully. They have a complete knowledge of the Self and all the secrets of karma. As sadhana, spiritual practice, advances, you become enfolded with divine presence. “The world is an expression of God.” Your soul is a ray of God, and all things happen in accordance with the divine plan. God becomes your support and shelter, and then you are no longer subject to old age and death, nor to birth and death. “You do not belong to the world of mortality.” You are a soul.

Hanuman’s three answers

To show how this refuge is reached, Swamiji turns to a statement he often quotes. Rama asked Hanuman how he was related to him. Hanuman’s first answer: dehabuddhya tu daso ‘ham. “To the extent I view myself as body, I am a slave, you are the master.” Swamiji does not let the body be dismissed. You do not even know the full mystery of a pair of nails. Live in this well organized residence with surrender to God. “God made all this without making noise.” The grace that operates through your veins, nerves and arteries should touch you. Then turn to the soul. “God created the body for the evolution of the soul.” That soul is a ray of God, and all divine attributes can be developed by it. The mind, meanwhile, wanders: having read some karmic laws, it counts how many karmas are left. “I should at least have some psychic powers. At least I should fly.” Coming back to Hanuman’s statement: “You are a ray, and God is like the sun.” So go on developing divine qualities with a profound affirmation. “I am embodiment of peace. I am embodiment of truth. I am embodiment of humility.” And you love God in order to develop these.

Superimposing a virtue on God

That leads to another subtle point. Any virtue you want to develop, superimpose it on God. “And that’s not a difficult task. Because God is beyond your concepts.” If you want peace profound, like the sky in the midst of thundering clouds, bring the picture of Rama, Krishna, Jesus or Buddha before your mind, and imagine that God within you is radiating that quality. “Whatever becomes the object of your upāsanā, that begins to enter in your personality.” At the final level comes Hanuman’s third answer, atmabuddhya tvam evaham: from the standpoint of the Self, I am You. When the intellect becomes purified, there is a full revelation. “All the time you have been like a reflected sun in a bucket. And now you have come to realize that you are really the sun.” As a reflected sun you shake and are subject to troubles. As the sun, you are eternal. Swamiji gathers the answers into three points. I am an instrument in the Divine hand: therefore develop karma yoga. “I am a ray of God. God is a shining sun. I am His ray.” Therefore develop bhakti yoga, constant love of God, which implies meditation, dhyana yoga, as well. And I am that: jnana yoga, the culmination of the spiritual movement. Verse 30 then names those who know God as adhibhuta, adhidaiva and adhiyajna, and who, with minds centered on Him, realize Him even at death. Arjuna is going to ask about these, Swamiji says. “So therefore, keep in suspense.” With this the seventh chapter ends.

Chapter eight: the imperishable Brahman

The eighth chapter is called Akshara-Brahma Yoga. “Kshara means perishable, Akshara imperishable.” Its subject is “Brahman that is immutable, imperishable, timeless, spaceless.” and the attainment of that Brahman: how to flow as a river until you are completely enfolded by the ocean. The chapter opens with Arjuna’s questions. “Puruṣottama means best of souls”, he explains of the name Arjuna uses. What is Brahman? What is adhyatma? What is karma? What are adhibhuta and adhidaiva? Who is adhiyajna here in this body? And how are You to be known at the time of death by those who are self-disciplined? If these points are known properly, Swamiji says, life becomes a concentrated process of aradhana, worship. “Using mystical language, you become Radha.” Krishna is always there, and you dance your way to union with Him.

Adhibhuta, adhidaiva, adhiyajna

Swamiji takes the last three terms first. Adhibhuta, the world of elements, is God’s perishable nature: in this context, the body and the self identified with it. “As body you are constantly perishing”. Adhidaiva is the Purusha, the soul that evolves through this body. “Soul is the divine factor.” “And for the evolution of the soul, the body has been created.” Adhiyajna is the soul that takes up sadhana and allows itself to be purified. The purified soul realizes Aham Brahma Asmi, I am Brahman. “It is led to its shuddha avastha. Its pure state.” Here Swamiji reads verse 5, which answers Arjuna’s last question. Whoever leaves the body remembering God at the time of death attains His being. “There’s no doubt about this.”

Akshara, adhyatma and karma

Then he returns to verse 3, which he had slipped by: the supreme Brahman is Akshara. He connects it to Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. “He tells Gargi that this entire world is governed by Akshara.” “Wind blows under His control. Death goes after people under His control.” Akshara is Brahman, the Absolute. The next stage is “Brahman as the creator involved in projecting the world.” That stage is adhyatma, Brahman in its saguna state, with attributes. The activities that arise at this cosmic level are called karma, and here karma means svabhava. “That’s the very nature of things.”

Three shaktis and the inner sacrifice

The universe, he explains, is a blend of three energies. Kriya shakti is action through the senses and body. Iccha shakti is feeling, sentiment and will. Jnana shakti is activity arising out of knowledge. Durga Devi presides over the first, Lakshmi Devi over the second, Sarasvati Devi over the third. “These three Devis keep up the whole cosmos and their activities under control.” All these shaktis arise out of Brahman spontaneously, “like the breath flows through your nostrils.” Out of this setting comes the jiva, the soul working through a body that perishes. That soul is adhidaiva. “Evolving soul is a ray that goes on gathering more and more divine qualities.” And adhiyajna is the soul purified through yajna, sacrifice. “Sacrifice means that process that allows the negative to be sublimated into positive.” The lower self is described as an animal. “You sacrifice that animal, it is sublimated, higher Self develops.” “Absolutely purified soul is Brahman.” So the wheel of the first half meets its answer in the second. “In order to attain this, sādhanā has to be done until death.” Swamiji closes with a promise rather than a warning. “It will be a life of immense blessing.”

Terms in this lecture

parabhakti — supreme devotion; love of God so profound that the soul merges with Him
mukti — liberation from the cycle of birth and death
bhava vyadhi — the disease of the world process; the soul’s sickness while subject to birth and death
bhava chakra — the wheel of the world process, with six spokes held together by the ego
punya karma — meritorious action
satsanga — the company of truth and of those devoted to it
sattvika, rajasika, tamasika — pure, restless and dull, the three qualities of company and action
svadharma — activity in harmony with one’s heart
paradharma — work done under constraint, against one’s nature
Bhurloka — the plane of mind and senses
pujaka, pujya, puja — the worshiper, the one worshiped, and worship itself
sadhana — spiritual practice
upasana — devoted meditation on an ideal, by which its qualities enter the personality
Akshara — the imperishable; the supreme Brahman
adhyatma — Brahman as creator, projecting the world; the saguna state
adhibhuta — the perishable nature; the world of elements and the body
adhidaiva — the soul, the divine factor, evolving through the body
adhiyajna — the soul purified through sacrifice
yajna — sacrifice; the sublimation of the negative into the positive
kriya shakti — the energy of action, presided over by Durga
iccha shakti — the energy of feeling and will, presided over by Lakshmi
jnana shakti — the energy of knowledge, presided over by Sarasvati
shuddha avastha — the pure state of the soul

Questions for reflection

When something goes wrong, whom do you first think of as its cause, and what would change if the answer were your own spoke of the wheel?
What is your last stretch of good fortune being spent on: enriching the mind, or something that wastes it?
Which virtue would you most like to develop, and what would it mean to see it first in God?

Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7, Jnana-Vijnana Yoga, verses 28 to 30, and Chapter 8, Akshara-Brahma Yoga, verses 1 to 5. Lecture 85 by Swami Jyotirmayananda, Yoga Research Foundation. Swamiji’s recorded lectures are free to watch on his YouTube channel.

This study guide is drawn from the archived teachings of Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda.