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Mahatma Gandhi's Favorite Koan from the Bhagavad Gita [1]

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Date: 2025-01-19

Gandhi always said that his priest growing up would quote from the Hindu and Muslim scriptures as though it made no difference. There is a lot more of this about, as witness Zen Catholocism, or Sufi Sam Lewis, a Jewish/Sufi Muslim/Zen Buddhist teacher. Gandhi also is quoted saying

I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians.

referring to the Imperialism of the Church of England, as in the hymn Land of Hope and Glory.

The God who made Thee mighty

Shall make Thee mightier yet.

The point of religion to Gandhi, as to us, is to learn to be better people, but many religions have versions that treat cruelty as the point, as now with American Christian Nationalism.

Bhagavad Gita

Mahatma Gandhi memorized the last 19 verses of the second chapter, considering them as his companion in his non-violent movement for social justice during colonial rule.

Truth for our times too.

Do not make too much of the language of the Gita. It talks of “satisfaction in the self”, but it does not mean the deluded self of Buddhism. It is the essence of today’s koan—What is the divine nature of the self when all attachments are stripped away? We say it is the Unborn, Uncreated, Not made, Not formed—Buddha Nature, revealed in compassion for all sentient beings. Hindus say

That (the divine) thou art.

Jews talk about rescuing sparks of divine light, and reuniting them with the original infinite light, and about finding the path to the Tree of Life past the angel with the flaming sword. The Christian and Sufi mystics talk about divine union in love.

And so on.

Thus:

Bhagavad Gita 2:54-72

Arjuna said: What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in Transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk? The Blessed Lord said: O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of sense desire which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness. One who is not disturbed in spite of the threefold miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind. He who is without attachment, who does not rejoice when he obtains good, nor lament when he obtains evil, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge. One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws his limbs within the shell, is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge. The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness. The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them. One who restrains his senses and fixes his consciousness upon Me is known as a man of steady intelligence. While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool. One who can control his senses by practicing the regulated principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord and thus become free from all attachment and aversion. For one who is so situated in the Divine consciousness, the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such a happy state, one's intelligence soon becomes steady. One who is not in transcendental consciousness can have neither a controlled mind nor steady intelligence, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace? As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence. Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence. What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage. A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still— can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego–he alone can attain real peace. That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. Being so situated, even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.

The starting point for the Gita is a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil in human affairs. Arjuna surveys the battlefield, overcome with compassion for all of his friends and relations among the enemy forces, and almost despairing of having to kill so many of them. His charioteer, Krishna, is an avatar of Vishnu (as is, in this tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha)

who has set himself to teach Arjuna the way of selflessness, of non-attachment to desire and to achievement, of carrying out one’s duty to protect others without attachment to the results. Shakyamuni Buddha taught a similar course for lay Buddhists, advising tribes to be so strong culturally, religiously, and militarily that nobody sane would think to gain anything by attacking them.

Not all of our self-declared enemies are sane, of course, so we must be ready to do compassionate, eternal battle with them, again without attachment to results, but just because it is right.

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