yadṛcchālabhasantuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ |
samaḥ siddhāvasiddhau ca kṛtvāpi na nibadhyate ||4.22||
The one who is happy with whatever comes by chance, who is unaffected by the opposites, free from jealousy, and even-minded with reference to success and failure, is not bound even though performing action.
yadṛcchālabhasantuṣṭah - one who is totally happy with whatever comes by chance even in terms of basic necessities. This verse also describes a sannyasī-jñānī who does karma only for sustenance of the physical body, and even this minimum karma is done without scheming. Therefore he/she is unaffected by any situation given.
vimatsaraḥ - one who is free from jealousy. Matsara - jealousy is one of the six-fold problems of human being, they are:
1. kāma - desire
2. krodha - anger
3. lobha - greed
4. moha- false value
5. mada - feeling of being worthless
6. matsara - jealousy
Lord Krsna takes jealousy to represent all six. Whenever incompleteness is there (which is the fundamental issue for samsara), desire - kāma is bound to come for a person in order to be happy and secure. And whenever there is kāma, anger - krodha is possible, because when someone or something stands in between one and one's desire, then anger will be there. Furthermore when one attached to the object of enjoyment, lobha - greed arises. Having false value - moha is another problem. It is usually grown into us from family and society. They are very difficult to remove, because value is something rooted firmly. The feeling of being worthless - mada occurs when one doesn't believe in one's own capacity. Then one will have jealousy if feeling of inferiority is there.
Next Lord Krsna uses a Vedic ritual as example to unfold the self-knowledge.
brahmārpaṇaṃ brahma havirbrahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam |
brahmaiva tena gantavyaṃ brahmakarmasamādhinā ||4.24||
The means of offering is Brahman. The oblation is Brahman, offered by Brahman into the fire, which is Brahman. Brahman indeed is to be reached by him who sees everything as Brahman.
In the previous section, the nature of ātmā being akartā - non-doer is highlighted, and in daily transaction, body-mind-sense-complex is actively doing karma. This body-mind-sense-complex is me, without identify with it, I can't fulfil my roles as per my prārabdha. But I am not the body-mind-sense-complex, because my well being doesn't depend on their wellbeing and their modification. If our understanding is only up to this point, it doesn't solve our problem, instead it will create another problem. Because we will think only me is the truth of the entire world, and all problems are rest on the world. With this thinking we tend to blame the world. Therefore we also need to understand I ātmā am the only ātmā of all. There is only one ātmā pervades everything in this world. Just like we see many spaces, but actually there is only one space. The space is as though divided by names and forms. And all these names and forms do not have independent existence on their own, because of the presence of I the consciousness, everything become exist and conscious. They are not different from me, but I am not limited by them.
What Lord Krsna conveys here is that every kāraka- aspect involve in action is Brahman. Brahma-arpaṇaṃ - brahman is the means by which the oblation is offered. In the context of the fire ritual, a wooden spoon is used to pour ghee as the offering into the fire. The wise person see the wooden spoon itself is Brahman. Brahma-havih - the oblation itself is brahman. This offering for the fire (agni-devata) which is brahman - brahma-agnau, by brahman itself - brahmaṇā hutam. When one sees the doer of action, all factors of action, and the receiver of action all are the same one and only brahman - brahmakarmasamādhinā, he indeed is the brahman who is to be reached - brahmaiva tena gantavyaṃ, by the seeker of moksa.
When jñānī sees everything as brahman, it doesn't mean he/she only sees one form (everything looks the same), but he/she can see the fact that everything is non-separate from brahman, just as when we see a clay pot, the clay is not missed, or we see a golden ornament, the gold is not missed. When all the names and form are different, but the wise doesn't miss the true nature of all are one and non-different ātmā, which is himself/herself. Therefore jñānī is a whole-person, seeing nothing is separated from him/her, what else should he/she achieve? We always wish to achieve what is not yet achieved and it must be something different from me. When the oneness is seen, one achieves what all is to be achieved.