{"id":1373,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:23","slug":"20-the-divine-worker-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13\/20-the-divine-worker-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-20_The Divine Worker.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span style='font-weight:700'><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">EIGHTEEN<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span><b><font size=\"4\">The Divine Worker<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:1.0in;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:1.0in;line-height:150%'>\n<b><font size=\"4\">T<\/font><\/b><font size=\"2\">O<br \/>\nATTAIN<\/font> to the divine birth, \u2013 a divinising new birth of the soul into a higher<br \/>\nconsciousness, \u2013 and to do divine works both as a means towards that before it<br \/>\nis attained and as an expression of it after it is attained, is then all the<br \/>\nKarmayoga of the Gita. The Gita does not try to define works by any outward<br \/>\nsigns through which it can be recognisable to an external gaze, measurable by<br \/>\nthe criticism of the world; it deliberately renounces even the ordinary ethical<br \/>\ndistinctions by which men seek to guide themselves in the light of the human<br \/>\nreason. The signs by which it distinguishes divine works are all profoundly intimate<br \/>\nand subjective; the stamp by which they are known is invisible, spiritual,<br \/>\nsupra-ethical. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>They are<br \/>\nrecognisable only by the light of the soul from which they come. For, it says,<br \/>\n\u201cwhat is action and what is inaction, as to this even the sages are perplexed<br \/>\nand deluded,\u201d because, judging by practical, social, ethical, intellectual standards,<br \/>\nthey discriminate by accidentals and do not go to the root of the matter; \u201cI<br \/>\nwill declare to thee that action by the knowledge of which thou shalt be<br \/>\nreleased from all ills. One has to understand about action as well as to<br \/>\nunderstand about wrong action and about inaction one has to understand; thick<br \/>\nand tangled is the way of works.\u201d Action in the world is like a deep forest, <i>gahana<\/i>, through which man goes stumbling<br \/>\nas best he can, by the light of the ideas of his time, the standards of his<br \/>\npersonality, his environment, or rather of many times, many personalities,<br \/>\nlayers of thought and ethics from many social stages all inextricably confused<br \/>\ntogether, temporal and conventional amidst all their claim to absoluteness and<br \/>\nimmutable truth, empirical and irrational in spite of their aping of right<br \/>\nreason. And finally the sage seeking in the midst of it all a highest foundation<br \/>\nof fixed law and an original truth finds himself obliged to raise<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 168<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;the last supreme question,<br \/>\nwhether all action and life itself are not a delusion and a snare and whether<br \/>\ncessation from action, <i>akarma<\/i>, is not<br \/>\nthe last resort of the tired and disillusioned human soul. But, says Krishna,<br \/>\nin this matter even the sages are perplexed and deluded. For by action, by<br \/>\nworks, not by inaction comes the knowledge and the release. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>What then is the<br \/>\nsolution? what is that type of works by which we shall be released from the<br \/>\nills of life, from this doubt, this error, this grief, from this mixed, impure<br \/>\nand baffling result even of our purest and best-intentioned acts, from these million<br \/>\nforms of evil and suffering? No outward distinctions need be made, is the<br \/>\nreply; no work the world needs, be shunned; no limit or hedge set round our<br \/>\nhuman activities; on the contrary, all actions should be done, but from a soul<br \/>\nin Yoga with the Divine, <i>yuktah<\/i>&#61481;<br \/>\n<i>kr&#61481;tsnakarmakr&#61481;t<\/i>. <i>Akarma<\/i>, cessation from action is not the<br \/>\nway; the man who has attained to the insight of the highest reason, perceives<br \/>\nthat such inaction is itself a constant action, a state subject to the workings<br \/>\nof Nature and her qualities. The mind that takes refuge in physical inactivity,<br \/>\nis still under the delusion that it and not Nature is the doer of works; it has<br \/>\nmistaken inertia for liberation; it does not see that even in what seems<br \/>\nabsolute inertia greater than that of the stone or clod, Nature is at work,<br \/>\nkeeps unimpaired her hold. On the contrary in the full flood of action the soul<br \/>\nis free from its works, is not the doer, not bound by what is done, and he who<br \/>\nlives in the freedom of the soul, not in the bondage of the modes of Nature,<br \/>\nalone has release from works. This is what the Gita clearly means when it says<br \/>\nthat he who in action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in<br \/>\ncessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment among men. This<br \/>\nsaying hinges upon the Sankhya distinction between Purusha and Prakriti,<br \/>\nbetween the free inactive soul, eternally calm, pure and unmoved in the midst<br \/>\nof works, and ever active Nature operative as much in inertia and cessation as<br \/>\nin the overt turmoil of her visible hurry of labour. This is the knowledge<br \/>\nwhich the highest effort of the discriminating reason, the <i>buddhi<\/i>, gives to us, and therefore whoever possesses it is the<br \/>\ntruly rational and discerning man, <i>sa<br \/>\nbuddhim&#257;n manus&#61481;yes&#61481;u<\/i>, \u2013 not the perplexed thinker&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 169<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;who judges life and works by the<br \/>\nexternal, uncertain and impermanent distinctions of the lower reason. Therefore<br \/>\nthe liberated man is not afraid of action, he is a large and universal doer of<br \/>\nall works, <i>kr&#61481;tsna-karmakr&#61481;t<\/i>;<br \/>\nnot as others do them in subjection to Nature, but poised in the silent calm of<br \/>\nthe soul, tranquilly in Yoga with the Divine. The Divine is the lord of his<br \/>\nworks, he is only their channel through the instrumentality of his nature<br \/>\nconscious of and subject to her Lord. By the flaming intensity and purity of<br \/>\nthis knowledge all his works are burned up as in a fire and his mind remains<br \/>\nwithout any stain or disfiguring mark from them, calm, silent, unperturbed,<br \/>\nwhite and clean and pure. To do all in this liberating knowledge, without the<br \/>\npersonal egoism of the doer, is the first sign of the divine worker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>The second sign<br \/>\nis freedom from desire; for where there is not the personal egoism of the doer,<br \/>\ndesire becomes impossible; it is starved out, sinks for want of a support, dies<br \/>\nof inanition. Outwardly the liberated man seems to undertake works of all kinds<br \/>\nlike other men, on a larger scale perhaps with a more powerful will and<br \/>\ndriving-force, for the might of the divine will works in his active nature; but<br \/>\nfrom all his inceptions and undertakings the inferior concept and nether will<br \/>\nof desire is entirely banished, <i>sarve sam&#257;rambh&#257;h&#61481;<br \/>\nk&#257;masankalpavarjit&#257;h<\/i>&#61481;. He has abandoned all attachment to<br \/>\nthe fruits of his works, and where one does not work for the fruit, but solely<br \/>\nas an impersonal instrument of the Master of works, desire can find no place, \u2013<br \/>\nnot even the desire to serve successfully, for the fruit is the Lord&#8217;s and<br \/>\ndetermined by him and not by the personal will and effort, or to serve with<br \/>\ncredit and to the Master&#8217;s satisfaction, for the real doer is the Lord himself<br \/>\nand all glory belongs to a form of his Shakti missioned in the nature and not<br \/>\nto the limited human personality. The human mind and soul of the liberated man<br \/>\ndoes nothing, <i>na ki\u00f1cit karoti<\/i>; even<br \/>\nthough through his nature he engages in action, it is the Nature, the executive<br \/>\nShakti, it is the conscious Goddess governed by the divine Inhabitant who does<br \/>\nthe work. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>It does not<br \/>\nfollow that the work is not to be done perfectly, with success, with a right<br \/>\nadaptation of means to ends: on the contrary a perfect working is easier to<br \/>\naction done tranquilly&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 170<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;in Yoga than to action done in<br \/>\nthe blindness of hopes and fears, lamed by the judgments of the stumbling<br \/>\nreason, running about amidst the eager trepidations of the hasty human will:<br \/>\nYoga, says the Gita elsewhere, is the true skill in works, <i>yogah&#61481; karmasu kau&#347;alam<\/i>. But all this is done<br \/>\nimpersonally by the action of a great universal light and power operating<br \/>\nthrough the individual nature. The Karmayogin knows that the power given to him<br \/>\nwill be adapted to the fruit decreed, the divine thought behind the work<br \/>\nequated with the work he has to do, the will in him, \u2013 which will not be wish<br \/>\nor desire, but an impersonal drive of conscious power directed towards an aim<br \/>\nnot his own, \u2013 subtly regulated in its energy and direction by the divine<br \/>\nwisdom. The result may be success, as the ordinary mind understands it, or it<br \/>\nmay seem to that mind to be defeat and failure; but to him it is always the<br \/>\nsuccess intended, not by him, but by the all-wise manipulator of action and<br \/>\nresult, because he does not seek for victory, but only for the fulfilment of<br \/>\nthe divine will and wisdom which works out its ends through apparent failure as<br \/>\nwell as and often with greater force than through apparent triumph. Arjuna, bidden<br \/>\nto fight, is assured of victory; but even if certain defeat were before him, he<br \/>\nmust still fight because that is the present work assigned to him as his<br \/>\nimmediate share in the great sum of energies by which the divine will is surely<br \/>\naccomplished. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>The liberated<br \/>\nman has no personal hopes; he does not seize on things as his personal<br \/>\npossessions; he receives what the divine Will brings him, covets nothing, is<br \/>\njealous of none: what comes to him he takes without repulsion and without attachment;<br \/>\nwhat goes from him he allows to depart into the whirl of things without<br \/>\nrepining or grief or sense of loss. His heart and self are under perfect<br \/>\ncontrol; they are free from reaction and passion, they make no turbulent<br \/>\nresponse to the touches of outward things. His action is indeed a purely<br \/>\nphysical action, <i>&#347;&#257;r&#299;ram<\/i><br \/>\n<i>kevalam<\/i> karma; for all else comes<br \/>\nfrom above, is not generated on the human plane, is only a reflection of the<br \/>\nwill, knowledge, joy of the divine Purushottama. Therefore he does not by a<br \/>\nstress on doing and its objects bring about in his mind and heart any of those<br \/>\nreactions which we call passion and sin. For sin consists not at all in the<br \/>\noutward deed, but in an impure&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 171<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;reaction of the personal will,<br \/>\nmind and heart which accompanies it or causes it; the impersonal, the spiritual<br \/>\nis always pure, <i>ap&#257;paviddham<\/i>,<br \/>\nand gives to all that it does its own inalienable purity. This spiritual<br \/>\nimpersonality is a third sign of the divine worker. All human souls, indeed,<br \/>\nwho have attained to a certain greatness and largeness are conscious of an<br \/>\nimpersonal Force or Love or Will and Knowledge working through them, but they<br \/>\nare not free from egoistic reactions, sometimes violent enough, of their human<br \/>\npersonality. But this freedom the liberated soul has attained; for he has cast<br \/>\nhis personality into the impersonal, where it is no longer his, but is taken up<br \/>\nby the divine Person, the Purushottama, who uses all finite qualities<br \/>\ninfinitely and freely and is bound by none. He has become a soul and ceased to<br \/>\nbe a sum of natural qualities; and such appearance of personality as remains<br \/>\nfor the operations of Nature, is something unbound, large, flexible, universal;<br \/>\nit is a free mould for the Infinite, it is a living mask of the Purushottama. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>The result of<br \/>\nthis knowledge, this desirelessness and this impersonality is a perfect equality<br \/>\nin the soul and the nature. Equality is the fourth sign of the divine worker.<br \/>\nHe has, says the Gita, passed beyond the dualities; he is <i>dvandv&#257;t&#299;ta<\/i>. We have seen that he regards with equal<br \/>\neyes, without any disturbance of feeling, failure and success, victory and<br \/>\ndefeat; but not only these, all dualities are in him surpassed and reconciled.<br \/>\nThe outward distinctions by which men determine their psychological attitude<br \/>\ntowards the happenings of the world, have for him only a subordinate and<br \/>\ninstrumental meaning. He does not ignore them, but he is above them. Good<br \/>\nhappening and evil happening, so all-important to the human soul subject to<br \/>\ndesire, are to the desireless divine soul equally welcome since by their<br \/>\nmingled strand are worked out the developing forms of the eternal good. He<br \/>\ncannot be defeated, since all for him is moving towards the divine victory in<br \/>\nthe Kurukshetra of Nature, <i>dharmaks&#61481;etre<br \/>\nkuruks&#61481;etre<\/i>, the field of doings which is the field of the evolving<br \/>\nDharma, and every turn of the conflict has been designed and mapped by the<br \/>\nforeseeing eye of the Master of the battle, the Lord of works and Guide of the<br \/>\ndharma. Honour and dishonour from men cannot move him, nor their praise nor<br \/>\ntheir blame;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 172<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>for he has a greater clear-seeing<br \/>\njudge and another standard for his action, and his motive admits no dependence<br \/>\nupon worldly rewards. Arjuna the Kshatriya prizes naturally honour and<br \/>\nreputation and is right in shunning disgrace and the name of coward as worse<br \/>\nthan death; for to maintain the point of honour and the standard of courage in the<br \/>\nworld is part of his dharma: but Arjuna the liberated soul need care for none<br \/>\nof these things, he has only to know the <i>kartavyam<br \/>\nkarma<\/i>, the work which the supreme Self demands from him, and to do that and<br \/>\nleave the result to the Lord of his actions. He has passed even beyond that<br \/>\ndistinction of sin and virtue which is so all-important to the human soul while<br \/>\nit is struggling to minimise the hold of its egoism and lighten the heavy and<br \/>\nviolent yoke of its passions, \u2013 the liberated has risen above these struggles<br \/>\nand is seated firmly in the purity of the witnessing and enlightened soul. Sin<br \/>\nhas fallen away from him, and not a virtue acquired and increased by good<br \/>\naction and impaired or lost by evil action, but the inalienable and unalterable<br \/>\npurity of a divine and selfless nature is the peak to which he has climbed and<br \/>\nthe seat upon which he is founded. There the sense of sin and the sense of<br \/>\nvirtue have no starting-point or applicability. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>Arjuna, still in<br \/>\nthe ignorance, may feel in his heart the call of right and justice and may<br \/>\nargue in his mind that abstention from battle would be a sin entailing responsibility<br \/>\nfor all the suffering that injustice and oppression and the evil karma of the triumph<br \/>\nof wrong bring upon men and nations, or he may feel in his heart the recoil<br \/>\nfrom violence and slaughter and argue in his mind that all shedding of blood is<br \/>\na sin which nothing can justify. Both of these attitudes would appeal with<br \/>\nequal right to virtue and reason and it would depend upon the man, the<br \/>\ncircumstances and the time which of these might prevail in his mind or before<br \/>\nthe eyes of the world. Or he might simply feel constrained by his heart and his<br \/>\nhonour to support his friends against his enemies, the cause of the good and<br \/>\njust against the cause of the evil and oppressive. The liberated soul looks<br \/>\nbeyond these conflicting standards; he sees simply what the supreme Self<br \/>\ndemands from him as needful for the maintenance or for the bringing forward of<br \/>\nthe evolving Dharma. He has no personal&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 173<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;ends to serve, no personal loves<br \/>\nand hatreds to satisfy, no rigidly fixed standard of action which opposes its<br \/>\nrock-line to the flexible advancing march of the progress of the human race or<br \/>\nstands up defiant against the call of the Infinite. He has no personal enemies<br \/>\nto be conquered or slain, but sees only men who have been brought up against<br \/>\nhim by circumstances and the will in things to help by their opposition the<br \/>\nmarch of destiny. Against them he can have no wrath or hatred; for wrath and<br \/>\nhatred are foreign to the divine nature. The Asura&#8217;s desire to break and slay<br \/>\nwhat opposes him, the Rakshasa&#8217;s grim lust of slaughter are impossible to his<br \/>\ncalm and peace and his all-embracing sympathy and understanding. He has no wish<br \/>\nto injure, but on the contrary a universal friendliness and compassion, <i>maitrah&#61481; karun&#61481;a eva<\/i> ca:<br \/>\nbut this compassion is that of a divine soul overlooking men, embracing all<br \/>\nother souls in himself, not the shrinking of the heart and the nerves and the<br \/>\nflesh which is the ordinary human form of pity: nor does he attach a supreme importance<br \/>\nto the life of the body, but looks beyond to the life of the soul and attaches<br \/>\nto the other only an instrumental value. He will not hasten to slaughter and<br \/>\nstrife, but if war comes in the wave of the Dharma, he will accept it with a<br \/>\nlarge equality and a perfect understanding and sympathy for those whose power and<br \/>\npleasure of domination he has to break and whose joy of triumphant life he has<br \/>\nto destroy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>For<br \/>\nin all he sees two things, the Divine inhabiting every being equally, the<br \/>\nvarying manifestation unequal only in its temporary circumstances. In the<br \/>\nanimal and man, in the dog, the unclean outcaste and the learned and virtuous<br \/>\nBrahmin, in the saint and the sinner, in the indifferent and the friendly and<br \/>\nthe hostile, in those who love him and benefit and those who hate him and<br \/>\nafflict, he sees himself, he sees God and has at heart for all the same equal<br \/>\nkindliness, the same divine affection. Circumstances may determine the outward<br \/>\nclasp or the outward conflict, but can never affect his equal eye, his open<br \/>\nheart, his inner embrace of all. And in all his actions there will be the same<br \/>\nprinciple of soul, a perfect equality, and the same principle of work, the will<br \/>\nof the Divine in him active for the need of the race in its gradually<br \/>\ndeveloping advance towards the Godhead.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 174<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;Again, the sign<br \/>\nof the divine worker is that which is central to the divine consciousness<br \/>\nitself, a perfect inner joy and peace which depends upon nothing in the world<br \/>\nfor its source or its continuance; it is innate, it is the very stuff of the<br \/>\nsoul&#8217;s consciousness, it is the very nature of divine being. The ordinary man<br \/>\ndepends upon outward things for his happiness; therefore he has desire;<br \/>\ntherefore he has anger and passion, pleasure and pain, joy and grief; therefore<br \/>\nhe measures all things in the balance of good fortune and evil fortune. None of<br \/>\nthese things can affect the divine soul; it is ever satisfied without any kind<br \/>\nof dependence, <i>nityatr&#61481;pto nir&#257;&#347;rayah&#61481;<\/i>;<br \/>\nfor its delight, its divine ease, its happiness, its glad light are eternal<br \/>\nwithin, ingrained in itself, <i>&#257;tmaratih<\/i>&#61481;,<br \/>\n<i>antah&#61481;sukho&#8217; ntar&#257;r&#257;mas<br \/>\ntath&#257;ntarjyotir eva yah&#61481;<\/i>. What joy it takes in outward things<br \/>\nis not for their sake, not for things which it seeks in them and can miss, but<br \/>\nfor the self in them, for their expression of the Divine, for that which is<br \/>\neternal in them and which it cannot miss. It is without attachment to their<br \/>\noutward touches, but finds everywhere the same joy that it finds in itself,<br \/>\nbecause its self is theirs, has become one self with the self of all beings,<br \/>\nbecause it is united with the one and equal Brahman in them through all their<br \/>\ndifferences, <i>brahmayogayukt&#257;tm&#257;<\/i>,<br \/>\n<i>sarvabh&#363;t&#257;tmabh&#363;t&#257;tm&#257;<\/i>.<br \/>\nIt does not rejoice in the touches of the pleasant or feel anguish in the touches<br \/>\nof the unpleasant; neither the wounds of things, nor the wounds of friends, nor<br \/>\nthe wounds of enemies can disturb the firmness of its outgazing mind or<br \/>\nbewilder its receiving heart; this soul is in its nature, as the Upanishad puts<br \/>\nit, <i>avran&#61481;am<\/i>, without wound or<br \/>\nscar. In all things it has the same imperishable Ananda, <i>sukham aks&#61481;ayam a&#347;nute<\/i>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>That equality,<br \/>\nimpersonality, peace, joy, freedom do not depend on so outward a thing as doing<br \/>\nor not doing works. The Gita insists repeatedly on the difference between the<br \/>\ninward and the outward renunciation, <i>ty&#257;ga<\/i><br \/>\nand <i>sanny&#257;sa<\/i>. The latter, it<br \/>\nsays, is valueless without the former, hardly possible even to attain without<br \/>\nit, and unnecessary when there is the inward freedom. In fact <i>ty&#257;ga<\/i> itself is the real and<br \/>\nsufficient Sannyasa. \u201cHe should be known as the eternal Sannyasin who neither<br \/>\nhates nor desires; free from the dualities he is happily and easily<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 175<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>released from all bondage.\u201d The<br \/>\npainful process of outward Sannyasa, <i>duh&#61481;kham<br \/>\n&#257;ptum<\/i>, is an unnecessary process. It is perfectly true that all<br \/>\nactions, as well as the fruit of action, have to be given up, to be renounced,<br \/>\nbut inwardly, not outwardly, not into the inertia of Nature, but to the Lord in<br \/>\nsacrifice, into the calm and joy of the Impersonal from whom all action<br \/>\nproceeds without disturbing his peace. The true Sannyasa of action is the<br \/>\nreposing of all works on the Brahman. \u201cHe who, having abandoned attachment,<br \/>\nacts reposing (or founding) his works on the Brahman, <i>brahman&#61481;y&#257;dh&#257;ya<\/i> <i>karm&#257;n&#61481;i<\/i>, is not stained by sin even as water clings<br \/>\nnot to the lotus-leaf.\u201d Therefore the Yogins first \u201cdo works with the body,<br \/>\nmind, understanding, or even merely with the organs of action, abandoning<br \/>\nattachment, for self-purification, <i>sangam<\/i><br \/>\n<i>tyaktv&#257;tma&#347;uddhaye<\/i>. By<br \/>\nabandoning attachment to the fruits of works the soul in union with Brahman<br \/>\nattains to peace of rapt foundation in Brahman, but the soul not in union is<br \/>\nattached to the fruit and bound by the action of desire.\u201d The foundation, the<br \/>\npurity, the peace once attained, the embodied soul perfectly controlling its<br \/>\nnature, having renounced all its actions by the mind, inwardly, not outwardly,<br \/>\n\u201csits in its nine-gated city neither doing nor causing to be done.\u201d For this<br \/>\nsoul is the one impersonal Soul in all, the all-pervading Lord, <i>prabhu<\/i>, <i>vibhu<\/i>, who, as the impersonal, neither creates the works of the<br \/>\nworld, nor the mind&#8217;s idea of being the doer, <i>na kartr&#61481;tvam na karm&#257;n&#61481;i<\/i>, nor the coupling of<br \/>\nworks to their fruits, the chain of cause and effect. All that is worked out by<br \/>\nthe Nature in the man, <i>svabh&#257;va<\/i>,<br \/>\nhis principle of self-becoming, as the word literally means. The all-pervading<br \/>\nImpersonal accepts neither the sin nor the virtue of any: these are things<br \/>\ncreated by the ignorance in the creature, by his egoism of the doer, by his<br \/>\nignorance of his highest self, by his involution in the operations of Nature,<br \/>\nand when the self-knowledge within him is released from this dark envelope,<br \/>\nthat knowledge lights up like a sun the real self within him; he knows himself<br \/>\nthen to be the soul supreme above the instruments of Nature. Pure, infinite,<br \/>\ninviolable, immutable, he is no longer affected; no longer does he imagine himself<br \/>\nto be modified by her workings. By complete identification with the Impersonal<br \/>\nhe can, too, release himself&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 176<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;from the necessity of returning<br \/>\nby birth into her movement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>And yet this<br \/>\nliberation does not at all prevent him from acting. Only, he knows that it is<br \/>\nnot he who is active, but the modes, the qualities of Nature, her triple Gunas.<br \/>\n\u201cThe man who knows the principles of things thinks, his mind in Yoga (with the<br \/>\ninactive Impersonal), `I am doing nothing&#8217;; when he sees, hears, touches,<br \/>\nsmells, eats, moves, sleeps, breathes, speaks, takes, ejects, opens his eyes or<br \/>\ncloses them, he holds that it is only the senses acting upon the objects of the<br \/>\nsenses.\u201d He himself, safe in the immutable, unmodified soul, is beyond the grip<br \/>\nof the three gunas, <i>trigun&#61481;&#257;t&#299;ta<\/i>;<br \/>\nhe is neither sattwic, rajasic nor tamasic; he sees with a clear untroubled<br \/>\nspirit the alternations of the natural modes and qualities in his action, their<br \/>\nrhythmic play of light and happiness, activity and force, rest and inertia.<br \/>\nThis superiority of the calm soul observing its action but not involved in it,<br \/>\nthis <i>traigun&#61481;&#257;t&#299;tya<\/i>,<br \/>\nis also a high sign of the divine worker. By itself the idea might lead to a doctrine<br \/>\nof the mechanical determinism of Nature and the perfect aloofness and<br \/>\nirresponsibility of the soul; but the Gita effectively avoids this fault of an<br \/>\ninsufficient thought by its illumining supertheistic idea of the Purushottama.<br \/>\nIt makes it clear that it is not in the end Nature which mechanically<br \/>\ndetermines its own action; it is the will of the Supreme which inspires her; he<br \/>\nwho has already slain the Dhritarashtrians, he of whom Arjuna is only the human<br \/>\ninstrument, a universal Soul, a transcendent Godhead is the master of her<br \/>\nlabour. The reposing of works in the Impersonal is a means of getting rid of<br \/>\nthe personal egoism of the doer, but the end is to give up all our actions to<br \/>\nthat great Lord of all, <i>sarvabh&#363;tamahe&#347;vara<\/i>.<br \/>\n\u201cWith a consciousness identified with the Self, renouncing all thy actions into<br \/>\nMe, <i>mayi sarv&#257;n&#61481;i karm&#257;n&#61481;<br \/>\nsamnyasy&#257;dhy&#257;tmacetas&#257;<\/i>, freed from personal hopes and<br \/>\ndesires, from the thought of `I&#8217; and `mine&#8217;, delivered from the fever of the<br \/>\nsoul, fight,\u201d work, do my will in the world. The Divine motives, inspires,<br \/>\ndetermines the entire action; the human soul impersonal in the Brahman is the<br \/>\npure and silent channel of his power; that power in the Nature executes the<br \/>\ndivine movement. Such only are the works of the liberated soul, <i>muktasya karma<\/i>, for in nothing does he<br \/>\nact from a personal inception; such are&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 177<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>the actions of the accomplished<br \/>\nKarmayogin. They rise from a free spirit and disappear without modifying it,<br \/>\nlike waves that rise and disappear on the surface of conscious, immutable<br \/>\ndepths. <i>Gata-sangasya muktasya j\u00f1&#257;n&#257;vasthita-cetasah&#61481;,<br \/>\nyaj\u00f1&#257;y&#257;caratah&#61481; karma samagram pravil&#299;yate.<\/i>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Page 178<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EIGHTEEN The Divine Worker &nbsp; TO ATTAIN to the divine birth, \u2013 a divinising new birth of the soul into a higher consciousness, \u2013 and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","wpcat-31-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}