The above video-clip of a brief excerpted talk by Swami Ranganathananda-ji is an excellent summary of the Upanishad ideal of living conveyed to us in the Swamiji’s inimitable style.
Swami ji conveys the important message that adhyatma Vidya —- i.e. the cultivation of the Knowledge of the inner spirit — is also very much a science in and by itself , but then it is not science in the sense in which we ordinarily think of science .
Most of us pass through life without trying to gain even a modicum of knowledge about this science. Which is why the general human condition is so miserable and unhappy right across the world .
In the Bhagavath Gita , Arjuna tells Krishna that he is in the grip of such misery and is utterly confused in life and about its purpose. He beseeches Krishna to give him guidance with the knowledge of that unique science — the knowledge of how to shake off mental sloth… what one may describe as spiritual philistinism … “kaarpannya dosham” Bg. 2.7
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः
पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसम्मूढचेताः ।
यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे
शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥ ७ ॥
karpanya-dosopahata-svabhavah
prcchami tvam dharma-sammudha-cetah
yac chreyah syan niscitam bruhi tan me
sisyas te ‘ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam
“Krishna, Now I feel lost and confused about my duty. I have lost all composure because of my miserly weakness ( “kaarpannya dosham”). In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.”
The fascinating point to note above is Arjuna’s phrase “miserly weakness”! It is an intriguing expression. What is meant by that expression … “kaarpannya dosham “? What and why has “miserliness” got to do with this situation?
A miser is one who selfishly hoards his possessions, isn’t he?
Now, Possession need not necessarily always be only of physical objects like money , wealth etc … We can be misers of our energies too …
In life we all try to expend our physical and mental energies only on acquiring material objects and realising non-material aims and goals which we desire and covet dearly. We pursue our earthly aims single mindedly. But in doing so , we are very careful about how we spend our energy … We will try our best not to waste it lackadaisically … So, we can say that we become very miserly with our energies. We strain ourselves to somehow conserve and hoard it.
What Swami Ranganathanananda in the video-clip is trying to convey is that it is the very same miserliness attitude —- “kaarpannya dosham” — most men also show towards adhyathma Vidya.
We humans expend all our life energies only on trying to gain knowledge about every other field of inquiry in the world except the science of the self itself… We will have all the time and allocate all energy — or go all out to make enough and even more time and energy than necessary — for every other goal and ambition in life except for cultivating atma Vidya … Why? Because of the false notion that “oh, but this life is short , why waste energy in fruitless pursuit of some wooly, wishy-washy science that bears no promise of fruit to us in any practical or material sense ?”
Now, that attitude, that outlook on life is exactly what “kaarpannya dosham”, the miserly weakness” of the man that the Bhagavath Gita calls “krippannan”. He is the man who Arjuna does not what to be. He is the sort of man who lives his life as a spiritual philistine … and simply passes away in the end without ever having wanted to seek to know its essence and higher purpose. And that is exactly the type of the man whom Swami Ranganathananda is, in fact, speaking to in the above video-clip .
🙏
Sudarshan Madabushi