Aphorisms of the Truth - by Bhaktivinode Thakur part 36

In Bhagavad-gita (18.7-8) the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains:
"Prescribed duties should never be renounced. If, by illusion, one gives up his prescribed duties, such renunciation is said to be in the mode of ignorance.
"Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome, or out of fear, is said to be in the mode of passion. Such action never leads to the elevation of renunciation."

In Srimad Bhagavatam (11.12.1) the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains:
"My dear Uddhava, by associating with My pure devotees one can destroy one's attachment for all objects of material sense gratification. Such purifying associating brings Me under the control of My devotee. One may perform the astanga-yoga system, engage in philosophical analysis of the elements of material nature, practice non violence and other principles of ordinary piety, chant the Vedas, perform penances, take to the renounced order of life, execute sacrificial performances and dig wells, plant trees and perform other public welfare activities, give in charity, carry out severe vows, worship the demigods, chant confidential mantras, visit holy places, or accept major and minor disciplinary injunctions, but even by performing such activities one does not bring Me under his control."

In Bhagavad-gita (18.9 and 18.11) the Supreme Personality of Godhead again explains:
"But he who performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces all attachment to the fruit, his renunciation is of the nature of goodness, O Arjuna."
"It is indeed impossible for an embodied being to give up all activities. Therefore it is said that he who renounces the fruits of action is one who has truly renounced."

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You are your body, right? You are chemical in essence ... right? At least, that’s what one of America’s most influential scientists claims:
I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules called Carl Sagan. You are a collection of almost identical molecules with a different collective label.*
Like Sagan, most people believe that they are their body. So if you ask them who they are, they think and respond in terms of bodily labels.
“I’m Susan. I’m blond, 29 years old, a mother, and still 36-24-36!”
“I’m Henry. I’m a white American male and proud of it!”
“I’m John. I’m a lawyer. I’m 40 years old and getting older every day.”
“I’m Alice. I’m a female student. I’m fat and I’m a Methodist.”
Name, race, age, sex, religion, nationality, occupation, height, weight, and so on—all these are bodily labels. Therefore if you consider your body to be yourself, you automatically identify yourself with such labels. If your body is fat and ugly, you think, “Woe is me! I am fat and ugly.” If your body is 60 years old and female, you think, ”I am a 60-year-old female.” If your body is black and beautiful, you think, “I am black and beautiful.”
But is the body really the self? Are you really your body?


Science of Identity Foundation - Siddhaswarupananda
*Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), p. 127.



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In Bhagavad-gita (4.20-21) the Supreme Personality of Godhead again explains:
"Abandoning all attachment to the results of his activities, ever satisfied and independent, he performs no fruitive action, although engaged in all kinds of undertakings.
"Such a man of understanding acts with mind and intelligence perfectly controlled, gives up all sense of proprietorship over his possessions, and acts only for the bare necessities of life. Thus working, he is not affected by sinful reactions."

In Bhagavad-gita (6.17 and 18), the Supreme Personality of Godhead again explains:
"He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working, and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.
"When the yogi, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in transcendental, devoid of all material desires, he is said to have attained yoga."

In Srimad Bhagavatam (1.2.8-10) Srila Suta Gosvami explains:
"The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labour if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.
"All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.
"Life's desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one's works."

In Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.255) Srila Rupa Gosvami explains:
"When one is not attached to anything but at the same time accepts anything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is not as complete in his renunciation."

Aphorisms of the Truth - by Bhaktivinode Thakur part 35

In the next sutra the author explains the meaning of the word 'yukta' (appropriate) in the phrase 'yukta-vairagya' (appropriate renunciation).

Sutra 38
One kind of renunciation beings liberation, and another kind of renunciation brings bondage.

Commentary by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
In this sutra the author explains the meaning of the word 'yukta' (appropriate in the phrase 'yukta-vairagya' (appropriate renunciation). Renunciation is of two kinds: 1. yukta-vairagya (appropriate renunciation) and 2. phalgu-vairagya (false renunciation). Proper renunciation is performed when, without being attached to the results of one's work, and acting purely and in a saintly manner, one offers the results of his work to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This kind of renunciation brings liberation from the bondage of repeated birth and death. In Bhagavad-gita (6.1) the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains:
"One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic."

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“Who am I?” Maybe you’ve never even asked yourself this question. You might think you already know who you are. Unfortunately, however, it’s likely that you don’t know who you are at all. And if you don’t know your real identity, you’re in trouble. You’ll spend your life in a kind of dream state—you’ll falsely identify yourself as something or someone you aren’t. Then, on the basis of this false identification, you’ll determine the goals of your life and the purpose of your existence. You use these goals to gauge whether you are making “progress” in life, whether you are a “success.” And you are aided and abetted in this delusion by a complex network of relationships with other dreamers. Of course, at death (and sometimes before), the whole thing turns into a nightmare.
So knowing who you are is a very practical necessity. The question “Who am I?” is not a philosophical football meant to be kicked around coffeehouses by pseudo-intellectuals. It’s a real-life question. Nothing is more important and more relevant than to know who you are.


Siddhaswarupananda – Jagad Guru Speaks


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Other instructions like this may be seen in many verses of Bhagavad-gita. False renunciation, on the other hand, is dry, makes the heart hard, makes one proud, is petty, is likened to the renunciation practiced by monkeys living in the forest, and brings the sufferings of repeated birth and death in the material world as its true result. In the Sruti-sastra it is said:
"Not by mere renunciation does one attain liberation."

In Bhagavad-gita (18.8) the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains:
"Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome, or out of fear, is said to be in the mode of passion. Such action never leads to the elevation of renunciation."

In Bhagavad-gita (3.6) the Supreme Personality of Godhead again explains:
"One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense-objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender."

In Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.256) Srila Rupa Gosvami explains:
"When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts anything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is not as complete in his renunciation."