Excerpts from The Essence of Bhagavad Gita 5.0

Namaste Divine Soul,

Sharing the next part of excerpts from “The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita” Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda, as remembered by his disciple Swami Kriyananda.

With due respect and uprightness towards the scripture, no tempering has been done with the original material and the excerpts have been put as it is from the holy book.

– Actionless cannot be attained by mere inaction. One who forsakes work, in the name of divine aloofness from activity, cannot reach perfection.

– No one can remain Actionless for even a moment; all are compelled by nature, whether willingly or unwillingly, to be active, driven by the gunas of nature.

– The person who restrains his organs of action, but in whose mind rotates the thoughts of sense objects, is regarded as a hypocrite, and is Self- deluded.

– That man, however, succeeds Supremely, who disciplines his senses by an effort of mind, remains inwardly non-attached, and engages his organs of activity in God-reminding activities.

– For inner freedom, the will must give its active consent to release inward: It is useless to beat the body to force it into submission.

– Sense- control is never a question of bullying the senses. What must be done is withdraw the energy from them. The will acts directly upon the flow of energy. Yogananda stated, “The greater the will, the greater the flow of energy”. The direction of that flow can be inward as well as outward–upward as well as downward.

– Krishna speaks of inner non-attachment. Depriving oneself of material things may, and often does, feed the hidden fires of attachment!