জ্ঞানকাণ্ড কর্মকাণ্ড, কেবলি বিষের ভাণ্ড,
অমৃত বলিয়া যেবা খায় ।
নানা যোনি সদা ফিরে, কদর্য ভক্ষণ করে,
তার জন্ম অধঃপাতে যায় ॥ ৯৪ ॥
jñāna-kāṇḍa karma-kāṇḍa, kebali biṣera bhāṇḍa,
amṛta baliyā yebā khāya |
nānā yoni sadā phire, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare,
tāra janma adhaḥ-pāte yāya || 94 ||
Those who follow jñāna-kāṇḍa and karma-kāṇḍa only drink pots of poison, thinking them to be nectar. They continually rotate through various wombs, eating all kinds of abominable foods. The human birth itself is the cause of their downfall.
Pots of Poison
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya has described true success in life through his instruction to perform yugala-bhajana under the shelter of sādhu and śāstra, free from attachment to the mortal human form. Karmīs and jñānīs may think, “But can human life not be blessed with the right to heavenly happiness and the joy of liberation through the practices mentioned in the jñāna-kāṇḍa and karma-kāṇḍa of the Vedas?” Although in verse ninety-two Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya described earthly life, heaven, hell and liberation all as a great calamity for the jīva, still, due to the likelihood of such a question, he again says, jñāna-kāṇḍa karma-kāṇḍa, kebali biṣera bhāṇḍa, amṛta baliyā yebā khāya. Generally, the Vedas are divided into two parts: karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa. The part that discusses yajñas and other rituals is called the karma-kāṇḍa. The part bearing the philosophical Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads is the jñāna-kāṇḍa. The pūrva-mīmāṁsā and uttara-mīmāṁsā philosophies were composed with the help of the karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa. According to the karma-mīmāṁsā doctrine created by Maharṣi Jaimini, it is karma that is being taught in the Vedas; talk of jñāna is unnecessary. The Jaimini-Sūtra says, āmnāyasya kriyārthatvāt ānarthakyam atad-arthānām. “Because karma is being propounded in the Vedas, any statements other than those concerning rituals are irrelevant. The entire Veda is composed of precepts and prohibitions. Therefore, wherever statements like satyaṁ jñānam anantaṁ brahma* are seen in the Upaniṣads, they are merely words of praise.”
On the other hand, in the brahma-mīmāṁsā created by Maharṣi Bādarāyaṇa we see that it is jñāna that is being taught in the Vedas. Although Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya refuted the doctrine of combined karma and jñāna,** Śrīpāda Rāmānuja has taught that the desire to obtain brahma-jñāna arises after first having knowledge of karma. When a person realizes the transient and meager fruits of performing numerous rituals, meaning when he understands that even though he has performed many laborious fire sacrifices and so on, when his puṇya (accumulated virtue) decays, he falls from the pleasurable heavens and is reborn into the mortal world. Then he feels remorse for his actions and wants to understand the eternal brahma in order to obtain everlasting peace. Śruti also says, nirvedam āyān nāsty akṛtaḥ kṛtena, meaning that mokṣa or liberation is not obtained through karma or action. After considering this, a person devoted to brahma will become indifferent to the world.
Śrīpāda Bodhāyanācārya, the author of a commentary on vedānta, has said, vṛttāt karmādhigamād anantaraṁ brahma-vividiṣā. After a person gains knowledge of karma, the desire to know brahma arises. The brahma-mīmāṁsā (Śārīraka-Sūtra) combined with Jaimini’s karma-mīmāṁsā is complete in sixteen chapters: twelve chapters of pūrva (earlier or karma)-mīmāṁsā and four of uttara (later or brahma)-mīmāṁsā. Actually, both mīmāṁsās are one śāstra, but are divided into two topics, karma and brahma, and are known by these names.
In Śrī-Bhagavad-Gītā, Śrī Bhagavān recommends that people perform selfless karma-yoga to purify their hearts and minds. The jīva, whose ignorance has no beginning, cannot refrain from action for even a moment; he is compelled to act. Moreover, he must act in a way that does not create bondage again. This has been referred to in the Gītā as yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam. If a person performs his daily and occasional duties as directed by Śrī Bhagavān, having no desire for the fruits of such actions, those very actions will bring success to such a jīva averse to Śrī Bhagavān. He is given the most auspicious result of all, meaning he is brought to a state of eagerness for Bhagavān. Bhakti will then gradually blossom in his heart, which has been corrupted by the saṁskāras of beginningless actions.
The jñānī, after resolving to attain brahma-sāyujya,*** continuously performs jñāna-sādhana. When by the spontaneous mercy of a great soul he gets a taste of bhakti or bhajana-rasa, he then realizes, brahmānando bhaved eṣa cet parārdha-guṇī-kṛtaḥ, naiti bhakti-sukhāmbhodheḥ paramāṇu tulām api. “If the joy of brahma were multiplied a hundred thousand billion times, it would not equal even a drop of the ocean of devotional happiness.” He then abandons his infatuation with brahmānanda and becomes a pure bhakta. In this way, to lead all the karmīs and jñānīs to the temple of bhakti, the Vedas have given instructions in karma and jñāna for those who are thus qualified. Therefore, the real intention of the benevolent Vedas or the Veda-knowing sages is to establish all jīvas on the bhakti-mārga, the path of true benefit for them. Unable to comprehend the hidden intention of the Vedas, those who consider karma, jñāna and so on to be different ways of bringing auspiciousness to mankind remain engaged in their respective sādhanas and do not accept the shelter of bhakti. They continue performing acts of great delusion, drinking pots of poison, thinking them to be nectar. Instead of getting joy, they get burning poison; instead of immortality, they are swallowed by the gaping mouth of repeated birth and death. These jīvas are truly deceived by māyā.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.14.1-2, Śrī Uddhava Mahāśaya asked Śrī Kṛṣṇa the following:
vadanti kṛṣṇa śreyāṁsi bahūni brahma-vādinaḥ |
teṣāṁ vikalpa-prādhānyam utāho eka-mukhyatā ||
bhavatodāhṛtaḥ svāmin bhakti-yogo’napekṣitaḥ |
nirasya sarvataḥ saṅgaṁ yena tvayy āviśen manaḥ ||
“O Kṛṣṇa! The ṛṣis who propound the Vedas have described various types of beneficial sādhanas for human beings, including karma, jñāna, yoga and bhakti. Please tell me, are all of them equally important or is one primary?
“O Lord! Through bhakti-sādhana, the mind abandons all attachment to sense-objects and becomes absorbed in you. Your assertion of bhakti-yoga’s preeminence is not universally accepted; please comment on this.” In response to Śrī Uddhava Mahāśaya’s questions, Śrī Kṛṣṇa replied,
kālena naṣṭā pralaye vāṇīyaṁ veda-saṁjñitā |
mayādau brahmaṇe proktā dharmo yasyāṁ mad-ātmakaḥ |
………………
man-māyā-mohita-dhiyaḥ puruṣāḥ puruṣarṣabhaḥ |
śreyo vadanty anekāntaṁ yathā-karma yathā-ruci ||
“O Uddhava! By the influence of time, the teachings of the Vedas were lost in the universal dissolution. At the beginning of the next creation, I taught them to Brahmā in the form of bhakti-yoga, the religion born of my own nature. O best of men! Those whose minds are infatuated by my illusory māyā declare karma, jñāna or other sādhanas to be the most auspicious, according to their own taste and past actions.”
Such deluded people drink poison in the form of karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa as though it were a pot of nectar: nānā yoni sadā phire, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. Even though the karmīs rarely attain svarga (the heavens), after enjoying life there, they again enter the worldly condition and rotate through various wombs. Born from pigs and so on, they always eat impure foods. Even though the jñānīs consider themselves to be jīvan-mukta,**** actually, kebala jñāna mukti dite nāre bhakti bine (Śrī-Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, Madhya 22.21). “Without bhakti, jñāna alone cannot give liberation.” Therefore, they fail to get mukti. Those who think they are liberated must also enter the worldly state again, taking low births wherein they must eat abominable foods. In fact, tāra janma adhaḥ-pāte yāya. Their attainment of a human body meant for performing hari-bhajana, which is difficult to attain even for the gods, becomes itself the cause of their downfall.
*Brahma is truth, knowledge and eternity.
**“The jnāna-karma-samuccaya-vāda that is refuted by Śrī Śaṅkara is the theory which holds that karma should continue to be performed even after the realization of the identity of the individual self and Brahman, in order to attain liberation. Such a combination of jñāna and karma is what was advocated by Bhartṛprapañca and his followers. They held that, though karma by itself cannot lead to mokṣa, karma combined with jñāna can.” From advaita-vedānta.org.
***Absorption in the divine essence
****One who is free from worldly attachment even while living in the world
