The Lord says Jnaana Yagna is the best of all the yagnas. When we acquire such a knowledge we attain the ultimate happiness. Now the Lord talks about the steps to attain that ultimate knowledge. .
Sraddavaan Labhate jnaanam tatparah samyatendriyah !
Jnaanam labhdwaa paraam santhimachirenaadhigachhati !!
The man who is full of faith, who is devoted, and who has subdued the senses, obtains the knowledge and having obtained the knowledge, he attains the supreme peace.
We have to work hard, without any distractions if we ever want to achieve anything in life. Then only we can maximize our effort. If we just assume that we worked hard without doing so, we will be disappointed in the end. We try to find reasons out side of ourselves which could be a spurious effort. There will be some subtle differences between people who reached their goals who just missed. This is what Bhagavan trying to teach in the next verse in the form of 3 steps. This can be easily applied in every aspect of our lives.
Faith is the first step mentioned with out which no body can do anything. Here faith means not only believing in themselves but they should have unwavering belief in the scriptures, God himself, the teachings of God, and purity in the belief. Our scriptures does not want you to have blind belief and they want you to question so that we can learn properly. In the previous verses Bhagavan told us how to learn this knowledge from the great masters by prostrating, serving and with utmost faith in what they teach. You have to ask them questions to learn not to test them or to show that you are also knowledgeable.
The second one is "tatparah". which means Total devotion to what you decide to do. This is also putting our mind into what we do. Here some one needs to practice what they learned in every aspect of their life at any cost. They can not yield to circumstances. A student in school is a perfect example who works very hard to achieve good grades. Similarly a business man eats, sleeps and stays with the same thought all the time. We just have to do the same thing if we have to experience the God.
The last one is "Samyatendriyah" that means we have to learn to subdue the senses. While controlling the senses, we have to direct our mind towards our goal. Here important thing is to avoid distractions. The faith and devotion can not take us all the way if we do not have control on our senses. Self control is so essential in this path. Every distraction appears so reasonable and makes you believe that you are not doing anything wrong. But we will trip and lose sight of our goal. it is really essential that a seeker should learn to live in balance and steady state of sense control. renouncing the objects outwardly is not sufficient, we have to mentally renounce the objects. This is what is called as real sense control. This is possible only when we have the right view of this world and gaon right knowledge.
These three steps are so interrelated and we can not have any gaps in any one of them. Our effort will be a failure if we can not integrate them in our practice. If everything comes together, the right knowledge is ours. Why is it to important to gain right knowledge? Because the right knowledge will make us experience the the supreme happiness with in us.
Lastly Bhagavaan is concluding the fourth chapter by saying the following words.
The ignorant, the faithless, doubting self goes to destruction and they will not get any kind of happiness in this world or in the other. People who perform their actions by yoga, whose doubts are rent asunder by knowledge and who is poised in the self as the self are not bound by their karmas. That is why the fourth chapter is also called as Jnaana karma sanyasa yoga.
everyday we perform actions to achieve some thing and we also accomplish so much. But we do not tend to enjoy that success. Because we worry too much about other people not recognizing us. We want to see how other people view our success. We are not able to stay in the present to enjoy our accomplishment. We will always search for negativity and suffer. If we learn to understand this principle we can develop strong faith in our practice. Then there will be less distraction in what we do. This will give us perfect formula for success. Then we can experience God.
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