The Bhagavad Gita 2:39

Gita  2:39

You have heard the intellectual explanation of yoga. Now hear the principles of yoga, by ardent practice you shall rid yourself of the bondage of karma.

He is speaking hear of Sankhya yoga which is a traditional system of analytical study within Hindu philosophy. It is one of the six branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy. Now Krishna is going to start teaching us about yoga, in all it’s forms. Most westerners have a singular idea of what yoga is, but the Bhagavad-gita will describe different yoga systems. Yoga actually means “to unite”, it’s a path or discipline which leads to union with God or the spirit force within us, and within the universe. So when yoga is mentioned time and again throughout the Bhagavad-gita it means to unite or link with the supreme, The differences within yoga, only refer to which method to use to obtain this linking to the supreme.

This verse also mentions yoga as a way to free yourself from the bondage of karma. Although karma will be talked about extensively this is about the first time it is mentioned here. It is very important to understand. It will probably take the entire Bhagavad-gita to really understand the concept. But I’d like you to start getting a good idea of what it is. Karma is actually the idea that for every action there is a reaction. Karma is built into the material world it can be understood as easily as if you touch fire you will get burned. This is predetermined and nothing will change it. There are many similar and easy to follow actions and reactions in the material world, but there are also innumerable reactions to things that we will not see. A few verses back Krishna mentioned sinful reaction, this is referring to a karmic reaction. Just about every action in this material world will cause a reaction, well the concept of karmic bondage is you have to be here to receive that reaction. So it makes sense that as a living breathing being we are all always acting, so it goes to follow that you’re always receiving a reaction. When you die you still have all types of reactions coming to you, so you have to come back again and again to receive your reactions, but of course while your here you have to act, collecting more reactions, and so on and so on, that is the bondage of karma. Krishna will try to teach us how to break this seemingly unbreakable cycle of karma and karmic reaction and bondage.