Awaken and one loses oneself

Karma Yoga

Chapter 3, Verse 12

 

iṣṭān-bhogān-iha vo devā 

dāsyante yajñā-bhāvitāḥ 

tair-dattān apradāyaibhyo 

yo bhuṅkte stena eva saḥ

 

The gods, pleased by sacrifice, will bestow on you the enjoyments you desire. One who enjoys the bounty of the gods without offering them anything in return, is verily a thief.

 

“The gods, pleased by sacrifice, will bestow on you the enjoyments you desire.” Krishna says, “When you are doing your service with an attitude of selflessness, God will look after you. He will send His devas. He will care for you, without you even asking. He will nourish you like He nourishes the animals, the birds. In the Bible, Christ also says to surrender to God and don’t worry about life. He who looks after the birds, feeds the birds on time. He who looks after the animals, gives the food to the animals. Aren’t humans more important in His eyes? So one should not worry. In the state of sacrifice, in the state of doing one’s duty without worry, without doubt, God will look after one; He will take care of the existence of His bhakta. For one who is surrendered, there is no need to worry about the outer needs. This is like parents: whatever they do for a child when the child is small, they don’t expect to get something equal in return and say, “Okay, when you were a baby, we spent 100,000 Euros on you so, I expect you to return it to me!” No, that doesn’t happen! In such a state of mind, one is free.  

The verse also says, “One who enjoys the bounty of the gods without offering them anything in return,” – (as is one’s duty) – “is verily a thief”. Here ‘thief’ doesn’t mean somebody who is stealing. There is a balance in the universe. This balance is about giving and taking, not just about taking, taking, taking! Otherwise you become greedy like Jara. And when there is an imbalance in just giving or in just taking, one has to re-balance it. This is where misery starts. The one who is always taking becomes very greedy. One is like a thief who just steals, steals and steals and in that state, attachment, greed and so on, awaken and one loses oneself. Then one doesn’t have any good merit. One can’t free oneself.

Bhagavad Gita