CHAPTER THREE

urjoona

 

O “If indeed to Thy mind Thought is mightier than action, O Janardan, vexer of the host, wherefore then dost thou yoke me to a dark and fearful deed? ‘Tis as if thou wouldst bewilder me with mixed and tangled speech, therefore speak decidedly one clear thing which shall guide me to my highest welfare.”

 

krishna

                            

“Two are the ways of devotion in this world; already have I declared it to thee, O sinless one: the devotion of the men of the Sankhyas is by single­ness in knowledge, by singleness in works is the devotion of the men of Yoga. Not by refraining from works shall a man taste actionlessness, and not by renouncing of the world shall he reach perfection. For verily no man even for a moment remains without doing, since each is made to do whether he will or not by the moods of his essential nature. He who coerceth the organs of action, and sitteth remembering in his heart the things in which the senses work, is a man deceived in spirit, him they call hypo­crite, but whosoever governeth the senses with his mind, O Urjoona, and entereth on Yoga in works using the organs of action without attachment, is distinguished above all beings. Do thou works that the law demands of thee, for action is mightier than inaction; yea, without works the very maintenance of thy body cannot be. ‘Tis by doing works in other spirit than as a sacrifice, that this world of creatures falleth into bondage to its ? works; but do thou practise works as a sacrifice, O son of County, with a. mind free from the yoke of attachment. For with Sacrifice the Father, of old, created all people and said unto them, “By Sacrifice shall ye beget offspring; lo, the chosen joys of your desire, they shall be to you the milk of her udders. Cherish you the gods with Sacrifice, and the gods shall cherish in turn; thus by cherishing each other shall ye attain to your highest welfare. Cherished with sacrifice the gods shall bestow on you the joys you most desire”; and he is no better than a thief who enjoyeth what they give, and giveth not to them again. The good who eat the remnants of the Sacri­fice are delivered from all their transgressions, but the accursed eat and drink sin who cook their food but for their own selfish bellies. From food all creatures are born, and from rain is the birth of food, but rain ariseth from the Sacrifice and Sacrifice hath its root in works; works know to be 

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 born of the Eternal, for by the imperishable word of the Eternal they were brought into being. Therefore is the Eternal everywhere and in all things; yea. He hath His home for ever in the heart of the Sacrifice. This is the wheel that God hath set going, and who goeth not with it, whose days are a wickedness, whose delight and ease are in the senses, liveth his life in vain, O son of Pritha. But for the man whose whole pleasure is in the spirit and who satisfies his longing with the Spirit, yea, who is utterly content with the Spirit, for him there is no needful action. For, indeed, he hath no end at all to gain by doing neither any by not doing, he hath no dependence for end or aim on any in even this whole world of creatures. Therefore, with­out attachment do ever the work before thee, since by doing works with­out attachment man reacheth the Highest. ‘Twas by works alone that the men of old reached to utter perfection, even Junak and the rest. Moreover, even if thou lookest to the right government of the world, thou shouldest be doing. What they see their Greatest do, even that the rest of the folk will practise, and the standard that the Best setteth up, the world will surely follow. Behold, O Partha, there is nought at all in the three worlds that I must do. There is nothing I have not, or that I yet need to win, and still I move in the path of works. For verily were I not to move sleeplessly in the path of works, — lo, men follow utterly the way wherein I tread, O son of Pritha, — then would all these worlds sink and perish were I not to do works, and I should become the creator of bastard confusion and the slayer of all these creatures. That which the ignorant do with attachment to the work, O Bharata, the wise man should do without attachment, wishing only to keep the world in its traces. Let him not be the cause of division and con­fusion of mind in the ignorant who are attached to their works, but let him, knowing all, set them to all the works of this world by doing works in Yoga. Lo, works are done but by the modes of Nature in their inevitable working, but the spirit of man is deceived by the sense of separate existence and he sayth in himself, “I, even I, am the doer”. But he who knoweth to the core how the workings of the modes are parcelled out, believeth that the modes work in and upon the modes, and suffereth not attachment to seize him. But most men who are deceived by the modes of Nature cling) to her mode-workings; these men of dull brains, these imperfect knowers, let not the perfect knower cause to swerve and stumble.

\Reposing all thy works upon Me and with thy heart spiritually inclined, be desireless, be selfless; then arise, fight, O Urjoona, let the fever of thy soul pass from thee. For men who with faith and without carping 

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follow this my Word are released, they also, from bondage to their works; but they who carp at and follow not this my word, know of them that all their knowledge is a delusion; their intellect is nought, they are lost men, Urjoona. Lo, even the wise man who knoweth can but act according to his own essential nature; for to their nature all creatures come at last, and what shall coercing it avail ? Only in the field of each and every sense Jove and hate are there, and ever they lie in ambush; let not the Spirit of man fall into their clutches, for they are his adversaries in his great journey. Better is it, the rule of thine own life ill done, than to follow an alien rule well-accomplished. Yea, death in the path of one’s own nature is better:

it is a fearful and perilous thing to follow the law of another’s being.”

 

urjoona

 

“Who then is this by whom man is impelled that he worketh sin in the world, yea, though he will it not, O Varshneya, if forced to it by very vio­lence?”                         

 

krishna

 

“It is craving, it is wrath, the child of Rajoguna, mode of Passion. Know him for Fiend, the Enemy of Man’s soul here on earth, a great devourer, a mighty sinner. As a fire engirt with smoke, as a mirror covered with dust, as the unborn child with the caul, so is the universe by him enveloped. By him knowledge is besieged and girt round, O son of Coonty, by this eternal enemy of the wise, this insatiable fire of desire and passion. The senses, the soul and the overmind, these three are the places of his session, with these he cloudeth over knowledge and bewildereth the embodied spirit. Therefore in the beginning constrain the senses, O Lion of the Bharatas, and slay that accursed with the sword of Knowledge and Discern­ment. High, say the wise, reign the senses, but the heart is higher than they; and the overmind is higher than the heart; he who is higher than the overmind, that is He. Thus when thou hast understood him who is higher than the overmind, slay thy enemy, O strong-armed, even that terrible and invincible one whose shape is passion.” 

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