{"id":1396,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:32","slug":"46-swabhava-and-swadharma-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\/46-swabhava-and-swadharma-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-46_Swabhava and Swadharma.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

TWENTY<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font>                  Swabhava<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/span>
\nand Swadharma*<\/font><\/span><\/b>                 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

                I<\/font>T<\/font> is then by a liberating
\ndevelopment of the soul out of this lower nature of the triple gunas into the
\nsupreme divine nature beyond the three gunas that we can best arrive at
\nspiritual perfection and freedom. And this again can best be brought about by
\nan anterior development of the predominance of the highest sattwic quality to a
\npoint at which sattwa also is overpassed<\/span>, mounts
\nbeyond its own limitations and breaks up into a supreme freedom, absolute
\nlight, serene power of the conscious spirit in which there is no determination
\nby conflicting gunas. A highest sattwic faith and aim new-shaping what we are
\naccording to the highest mental conception of our inner possibilities that we
\ncan form in the free intelligence, is changed by this transition into a vision
\nof our own real being, a spiritual self-knowledge. A loftiest ideality or
\nstandard of dharma, a pursuit of the right law of our natural existence, is
\ntransformed into a free assured self-existent perfection in which all
\ndependence on standards is transcended and the spontaneous law of the immortal
\nself and spirit displaces the lower rule of the instruments and members. The
\nsattwic mind and will change into that spiritual knowledge and dynamic power of
\nidentical existence in which the whole nature puts off its disguise and becomes
\na free self-expression of the godhead within it. The sattwic doer becomes the
\nJiva in contact with his source, united with the Purushottama<\/span>;
\nhe is no longer the personal doer of the act, but a spiritual channel of the
\nworks of the transcendent and universal Spirit. His natural being transformed
\nand illumined remains to be the instrument of a universal and impersonal
\naction, the bow of the divine Archer. What was sattwic action becomes the free
\nactivity of the perfected nature in which there is no longer any personal limitation,
\nany tethering<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Gita, XVIII. 40-48.<\/span><\/p>\n

Page \u2013 490<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

to this or that quality, any
\nbondage of sin and virtue, self and others or any but a supreme spiritual self-determination.
\nThat is the culmination of works uplifted to the sole Divine Worker by a
\nGod-seeking and spiritual knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But there is still an incidental question of
\ngreat importance in the old Indian system of culture and, even apart from that antique
\nview, of considerable general importance, on which we have had some passing
\npronouncements already by the Gita and which now falls into its proper place.
\nAll action on the normal level is determined by the gunas; the action which is
\nto be done, kartavyam<\/i><\/span> karma<\/i>, takes the triple form of giving,
\naskesis<\/span> and sacrifice, and any or all of these three
\nmay assume the character of any of the gunas. Therefore we have to proceed by
\nthe raising of these things to the highest sattwic height of which they are
\ncapable and go yet farther beyond to a largeness in which all works become a
\nfree self-giving, an energy of the divine Tapas<\/span>, a
\nperpetual sacrament of the spiritual existence. But this is a general law and
\nall these considerations have been the enunciation of quite general principles
\nand refer indiscriminately to all actions and to all men alike. All can eventually
\narrive by spiritual evolution to this strong discipline, this large perfection,
\nthis highest spiritual state. But while the general rule of mind and action is
\nthe same for all men, we see too that there is a constant law of variation and
\neach individual acts not only according to the common laws of the human spirit,
\nmind, will, life, but according to his own nature; each man fulfils different
\nfunctions or follows a different bent according to the rule of his own
\ncircumstances, capacities, turn, character, powers. What place is to be
\nassigned to this variation, this individual rule of nature in the spiritual
\ndiscipline?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Gita has laid some stress on this point
\nand even assigned to it a great preliminary importance. At the very start it has
\nspoken of the nature, rule and function of the Kshatriya<\/span>
\nas Arjuna’s<\/span> own law of action, svadharma;1<\/sup>
\nit has proceeded to lay it down with a striking emphasis that one’s own nature,
\nrule, function should be observed and followed,\u2014even if defective, it is better
\nthan the well-performed rule of another’s nature. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> II. 31. svadharmam<\/i><\/span> api<\/span> cāveksya<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Page \u2013 491<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Death in one’s own law of nature
\nis better for a man than victory in an alien movement. To follow the law of
\nanother’s nature is dangerous to the soul,1 <\/sup>contradictory,
\nas we may say, to the natural way of his evolution, a thing mechanically
\nimposed and therefore imported, artificial and sterilising<\/span>
\nto one’s growth towards the true stature of the spirit. What comes out of the
\nbeing is the right and healthful thing, the authentic movement, not what is
\nimposed on it from outside or laid on it by life’s compulsions or the mind’s
\nerror. This swadharma<\/span> is of four general kinds
\nformulated outwardly in the action of the four orders of the old Indian social
\nculture, cāturvarnya<\/i><\/span>.
\nThat system corresponds, says the Gita, to a divine law, it \u201cwas created by me
\naccording to the divisions of the gunas<\/span> and
\nworks,\u201d\u2014created from the beginning by the Master of existence. In other words,
\nthere are four distinct orders of the active nature, or four fundamental types
\nof the soul in nature, svabhāva<\/i><\/span>,
\nand the work and proper function of each human being corresponds to his type of
\nnature. This is now finally explained in preciser<\/span>
\ndetail. The works of Brahmins, Kshatriyas<\/span>, Vaishyas<\/span> and Shudras<\/span>, says the
\nGita, are divided according to the qualities (gunas<\/span>)
\nborn of their own inner nature, spiritual temperament, essential character (svabhāva<\/i><\/span>).
\nCalm, self-control, askesis<\/span>, purity, long-suffering, candour<\/span>, knowledge, acceptance of spiritual truth are the
\nwork of the Brahmin, born of his swabhava<\/span>. Heroism,
\nhigh spirit, resolution, ability, not fleeing in the battle, giving, lordship (īśvara-bhāva<\/i><\/span>,
\nthe temperament of the ruler and leader) are the natural work of the Kshatriya<\/span>. Agriculture, cattle-keeping, trade inclusive of
\nthe labour of the craftsman and the artisan are the natural work of the Vaishya<\/span>. All work of the character of service falls within
\nthe natural function of the Shudra<\/span>. A man, it goes on
\nto say, who devotes himself to his own natural work in life acquires spiritual
\nperfection, not indeed by the mere act itself, but if he does it with right
\nknowledge and the right motive, if he can make it a worship of the Spirit of
\nthis creation and dedicate it sincerely to the Master of the universe from whom
\nis all impulse to action. All labour, all action and function, \u00a0<\/span>whatever it be, can be consecrated by this <\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup>III. 35.<\/span><\/p>\n

Page \u2013
\n492<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

dedication of works, can convert
\nthe life into a self-offering to the Godhead within and without us and is itself
\nconverted into a means of spiritual perfection. But a work not naturally one’s
\nown, even though it may be well performed, even though it may look better from the
\noutside when judged by an external and mechanical standard or may lead to more
\nsuccess in life, is still inferior as a means of subjective growth precisely
\nbecause it has an external motive and a mechanical impulsion. One’s own natural
\nwork is better, even if it looks from some other point of view defective. One
\ndoes not incur sin or stain when one acts in the true spirit of the work and in
\nagreement with the law of one’s own nature. All action in the three gunas<\/span> is imperfect, all human work is subject to fault,
\ndefect or limitation; but that should not make us abandon our own proper work
\nand natural function. Action should be rightly regulated action, niyatam<\/i><\/span> karma<\/i>, but intrinsically one’s own,
\nevolved from within, in harmony with the truth of one’s being, regulated by the
\nSwabhava, svabhāva-niyatam<\/i><\/span>
\nkarma.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What precisely is the intention of the Gita?
\nLet us take it first in its more outward meaning and consider the tinge given to
\nthe principle it enounces by the ideas of the race and the time\u2014the hue of the
\ncultural environment, the ancient significance. These verses and the earlier
\npronouncements of the Gita on the same subject have been seized upon in current
\ncontroversies on the caste question and interpreted by some as a sanction of
\nthe present system, used by others as a denial of the hereditary basis of
\ncaste. In point of fact the verses in the Gita have no bearing on the existing
\ncaste system, because that is a very different thing from the ancient social
\nideal of caturvarna<\/i><\/span>,
\nthe four clear-cut orders of the Aryan community, and in no way corresponds
\nwith the description of the Gita. Agriculture, cattle-keeping and trade of
\nevery kind are said here to be the work of the Vaishya<\/span>;
\nbut in the later system the majority of those concerned in trade and in
\ncattle-keeping, artisans, small craftsmen and others are actually classed as Shudras<\/span>,\u2014where they are not put altogether outside the
\npale,\u2014and, with some exceptions, the merchant class is alone and that too not
\neverywhere ranked as Vaishya<\/span>. Agriculture, government
\nand service<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 493<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 are the professions of all
\nclasses from the Brahmin down to the Shudra<\/span>. And if
\nthe economical divisions of function have been confounded beyond any
\npossibility of rectification, the law of the guna<\/span> or
\nquality is still less a part of the later system. There all is rigid custom, ācāra<\/i><\/span>,
\nwith no reference to the need of the individual nature. If again we take the
\nreligious side of the contention advanced by the advocates of the caste system,
\nwe can certainly fasten no such absurd idea on the words of the Gita as that it
\nis a law of a man’s nature that he shall follow without regard to his personal
\nbent and capacities the profession of his parents or his immediate or distant
\nancestors, the son of a milkman be a milkman, the son of a doctor a doctor, the
\ndescendants of shoemakers remain shoemakers to the end of measurable time,
\nstill less that by doing so, by this unintelligent and mechanical repetition of
\nthe law of another’s nature without regard to his own individual call and
\nqualities a man automatically farthers<\/span> his own
\nperfection and arrives at spiritual freedom. The Gita’s words refer to the
\nancient system of caturvarna<\/i><\/span>,
\nas it existed or was supposed to exist in its ideal purity,\u2014there is some
\ncontroversy whether it was ever anything more than an ideal or general norm
\nmore or less loosely followed in practice,\u2014and it should be considered in that
\nconnection alone. Here too there is considerable difficulty as to the exact
\noutward significance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The ancient system of the four orders had a
\ntriple aspect; it took a social and economic, a cultural and a spiritual appearance.
\nOn the economic side it recognised<\/span> four functions of
\nthe social man in the community, the religious and intellectual, the political,
\nthe economic and the servile functions. There are thus four kinds of work, the
\nwork of religious ministration, letters, learning and knowledge, the work of
\ngovernment, politics, administration and war, the work of production,
\nwealth-making and exchange, the work of hired labour and service. An endeavour<\/span> was made to found and stabilise<\/span>
\nthe whole arrangement of society on the partition of these four functions among
\nfour clearly marked classes. This system was not peculiar to India,
\nbut was with certain differences the dominating feature of a stage of social
\nevolution in other ancient or mediaeval societies. The <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 494<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 four functions are still inherent
\nin the life of all normal communities, but the clear divisions no longer exist
\nanywhere. The old system everywhere broke down and gave place to a more fluid
\norder or, as in India,
\nto a confused and complex social rigidity and economic immobility degenerating
\ntowards a chaos of castes. Along with this economic division there existed the
\nassociation of a cultural idea which gave to each class its religious custom,
\nits law of  honour, ethical rule, suitable education and training, type of
\ncharacter, family ideal and discipline. The facts of life did not always
\ncorrespond to the idea,\u2014there is always a certain gulf found between the mental
\nideal and the vital and physical practice,\u2014but there was a constant and
\nstrenuous endeavour<\/span> to keep up as much as possible a
\nreal correspondence. The importance of this attempt and of the cultural ideal
\nand atmosphere it created in the past training of the social man, can hardly be
\nput too high; but at the present day it has little more than a historical, a
\npast and evolutionary significance. Finally, wherever this system existed, it
\nwas given more or less a religious sanction (more in the East, very little in Europe)
\nand in India a
\nprofounder spiritual use and significance. This spiritual significance is the
\nreal kernel of the teaching of the Gita. <\/p>\n

The Gita found this system in
\nexistence and its ideal in possession of the Indian mind and it recognised<\/span> and accepted both the ideal and system and its
\nreligious sanction. \u201cThe fourfold order was created by me,\u201d says Krishna,
\n\u201caccording to the divisions of quality and active function.\u201d On the mere
\nstrength of this phrase it cannot altogether be concluded that the Gita
\nregarded this system as an eternal and universal social order. Other ancient
\nauthorities did not so regard it; rather they distinctly state that it did not
\nexist in the beginning and will collapse in a later age of the cycle. Still we
\nmay understand from the phrase that the fourfold function of social man was
\nconsidered as normally inherent in the psychological and economic needs of
\nevery community and therefore a dispensation of the Spirit that expresses
\nitself in the human corporate and individual existence. The Gita’s line is in
\nfact an intellectual rendering of the well-known symbol in the Vedic Purusha-Sukta<\/span>. But what then should be the natural basis
\nand form of practice of these functions<\/span>?<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 495<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 
\nThe practical basis in ancient times came to be the hereditary principle. A
\nman’s social function and position were no doubt determined originally, as they
\nare still in freer, less closely ordered communities by environment, occasion,
\nbirth and capacity; but as there set in a more fixed stratification, his rank
\ncame practically to be regulated by birth mainly or alone and in the later
\nsystem of caste birth came to be the sole rule of status. The son of a Brahmin
\nis always a Brahmin in status, though he may have nothing of the typical
\nBrahmin qualities or character, no intellectual training or spiritual
\nexperience or religious worth or knowledge, no connection whatever with the right
\nfunction of his class, no Brahminhood in his work and no Brahminhood in his
\nnature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>This was an inevitable evolution, because the
\nexternal signs are the only ones which are easily and conveniently determinable
\nand birth was the most handy and manageable in an increasingly mechanised<\/span>, complex and conventional social order. For a
\ntime the possible disparity between the hereditary fiction and the individual’s
\nreal inborn character and capacity was made up or minimised<\/span>
\nby education and training: but eventually this effort ceased to be sustained
\nand the hereditary convention held absolute rule. The ancient lawgivers, while recognising<\/span> the hereditary practice, insisted that quality,
\ncharacter and capacity were the one sound and real basis and that without them
\nthe hereditary social status became an unspiritual falsehood because it had
\nlost its true significance. The Gita too, as always, founds its thought on the
\ninner significance. It speaks indeed in one verse of the work born with a man, sahajam<\/i><\/span> karma<\/i>; but this does not in itself
\nimply a hereditary basis. According to the Indian theory of rebirth, which the
\nGita recognises<\/span>, a man’s inborn nature and course of life
\nare essentially determined by his own past lives, are the self-development
\nalready effected by his past actions and mental and spiritual evolution and
\ncannot depend solely on the material factor of his ancestry, parentage, physical
\nbirth, which can only be of subordinate moment, one effective sign perhaps, but
\nnot the dominant principle. The word sahaja<\/i><\/span> <\/i>means that
\nwhich is born with us, whatever is natural, inborn, innate; its equivalent in
\nall other passages is svabhāvaja<\/i><\/span>.
\nThe<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 496<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 work or function of a man is
\ndetermined by his qualities, karma is determined by guna<\/i><\/span>; it is the work born of his
\nSwabhava, svabhāvajam<\/i><\/span> karma<\/i>, and regulated by his Swabhava, svabhāva-niyatam<\/i><\/span> karma<\/i>. This emphasis on an inner quality
\nand spirit which finds expression in work, function and action is the whole
\nsense of the Gita’s idea of Karma.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>And from this emphasis on the inner truth and
\nnot on the outer form arises the spiritual significance and power which the
\nGita assigns to the following of the Swadharma. That is the really important
\nbearing of the passage. Too much has been made of its connection with the outer
\nsocial order, as if the object of the Gita were to support that for its own
\nsake or to justify it by a religio<\/span>-philosophical
\ntheory. In fact it lays very little stress on the external rule and a very
\ngreat stress on the internal law which the Varna<\/span> system attempted to put into
\nregulated outward practice. And it is on the individual and spiritual value of
\nthis law and not on its communal and economic or other social and cultural
\nimportance that the eye of the thought is fixed in this passage. The Gita
\naccepted the Vedic theory of sacrifice, but gave it a profound turn, an inner, subjective
\nand universal meaning, a spiritual sense and direction which alters all its
\nvalues. Here too and in the same way it accepts the theory of the four orders
\nof men, but gives to it a profound turn, an inner, subjective and universal
\nmeaning, a spiritual sense and direction. And immediately the idea behind the
\ntheory changes its values and becomes an enduring and living truth not bound up
\nwith the transience of a particular social form and order. What the Gita is
\nconcerned with is not the validity of the Aryan social order now abolished or
\nin a state of deliquescence,\u2014if that were all, its principle of the Swabhava
\nand Swadharma would have no permanent truth or value,\u2014but the relation of a
\nman’s outward life to his inward being, the evolution of his action from his
\nsoul and inner law of nature. <\/p>\n

And we see in
\nfact that the Gita itself indicates very clearly its intention when it
\ndescribes the work of the Brahmin and the Kshatriya<\/span>
\nnot in terms of external function, not defined as learning, priest-work and
\nletters or government, war and politics, but entirely in terms of internal
\ncharacter. The language reads a little curiously to our ear. Calm,
\nself-control, askesis<\/span>,<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 497<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 purity, long-suffering, candour<\/span>, knowledge, acceptance and practice of spiritual
\ntruth would not ordinarily be described as a man’s function, work or life
\noccupation. Yet this is precisely what the Gita means and says,\u2014that these things,
\ntheir development, their expression in conduct, their power to cast into form
\nthe law of the sattwic<\/span> nature are the real work of
\nthe Brahmin: learning, religious ministration and the other outer functions are
\nonly its most suitable field, a favourable<\/span> means of
\nthis inner development, its appropriate self-expression, its way of fixing
\nitself into firmness of type and externalised<\/span>
\nsolidity of character. War, government, politics, leadership and rule are a
\nsimilar field and means for the Kshatriya<\/span>; but his
\nreal work is the development, the expression in conduct, the power to cast into
\nform and dynamic rhythm of movement the law of the active battling royal or
\nwarrior spirit. The work of the Vaishya<\/span> and Shudra<\/span> is expressed in terms of external function, and this
\nopposite turn may have some significance. For the temperament moved to
\nproduction and wealth-getting or limited in the circle of labour and service,
\nthe mercantile and the servile mind, are usually turned outward, more occupied
\nwith the external values of their work than its power for character, and this
\ndisposition is not so favourable<\/span> to a sattwic<\/span> or spiritual action of the nature. That too is the
\nreason why a commercial and industrial age or a society preoccupied with the
\nidea of work and labour creates around it an atmosphere more favourable<\/span> to the material than the spiritual life, more
\nadapted to vital efficiency than to the subtler perfection of the high-reaching
\nmind and spirit. Nevertheless, this kind of nature too and its functions have
\ntheir inner significance, their spiritual value and can be made a means and
\npower for perfection. As has been said elsewhere, not alone the Brahmin with
\nhis ideal of spirituality, ethical purity and knowledge and the Kshatriya<\/span> with his ideal of nobility, chivalry and high
\ncharacter, but the wealth-seeking Vaishya<\/span>, the
\ntoil-imprisoned Shudra<\/span>, woman with her narrow,
\ncircumscribed and subject life, the very outcaste born from a womb of sin, pāpayonayah<\/i><\/span>,
\ncan by this road rise at once towards the highest inner greatness and spiritual
\nfreedom, towards perfection, towards the liberation and fulfilment of the
\ndivine element in the human being.<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 498<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Three propositions suggest
\nthemselves even at the first view and may be taken as implicit in all that the
\nGita says in this passage. First, all action must be determined from within
\nbecause each man has in him something his own, some characteristic principle
\nand inborn power of his nature. That is the efficient power of his spirit, that
\ncreates the dynamic form of his soul in nature and to express and perfect it by
\naction, to make it effective in capacity and conduct and life is his work, his
\ntrue Karma: that points him to the right way of his inner and outer living and
\nis the right starting-point for his farther development. Next, there are
\nbroadly four types of nature each with its characteristic function and ideal
\nrule of work and character and the type indicates the man’s proper field and
\nshould trace for him his just circle of function in his outer social existence.
\nFinally, whatever work a man does, if done according to the law of his being,
\nthe truth of his nature, can be turned Godwards<\/span> and
\nmade an effective means of spiritual liberation and perfection. The first and
\nlast of these propositions are suggestions of an evident truth and justice. The
\nordinary way of man’s individual and social living seems indeed to be a contradiction
\nof these principles; for certainly we bear a terrible weight of external
\nnecessity, rule and law and our need for self-expression, for the development
\nof our true person, our real soul, our inmost characteristic law of nature in
\nlife is at every turn interfered with, thwarted, forced from its course, given
\na very poor chance and scope by environmental influences. Life, State, society,
\nfamily, all surrounding powers seem to be in a league to lay their yoke on our
\nspirit, compel us into their moulds, impose on us their mechanical interest and
\nrough immediate convenience. We become parts of a machine; we are not, are
\nhardly allowed to be men in the true sense, manusya<\/i><\/span>, purusa<\/span><\/i>, souls, minds, free children of
\nthe spirit empowered to develop the highest characteristic perfection of our being
\nand make it our means of service to the race. It would seem that we are not
\nwhat we make ourselves, but what we are made. Yet the more we advance in
\nknowledge, the more the truth of the Gita’s rule is bound to appear. The
\nchild’s education ought to be an out-bringing<\/span> of all
\nthat is best, most powerful, most intimate and living in his nature; the mould
\ninto which the man’s action<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 499<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 and development ought to run is
\nthat of his innate quality and power. He must acquire new things, but he will
\nacquire them best, most vitally on the basis of his own developed type and
\ninborn force. And so too the functions of a man ought to be determined by his
\nnatural turn, gift and capacities. The individual who develops freely in this
\nmanner will be a living soul and mind and will have a much greater power for
\nthe service of the race. And we are able now to see more clearly that this rule
\nis true not only of the individual but of the community and the nation, the
\ngroup soul, the collective man. The second proposition of the four types and
\ntheir functions is more open to dispute. It may be said that it is too simple and
\npositive, that it takes no sufficient account of the complexity of life and the
\nplasticity of human nature, and, whatever the theory or its intrinsic merits,
\nthe outward social application must lead precisely to that tyranny of a
\nmechanical rule which is the flat contradiction of all law of Swadharma. But it
\nhas a profounder meaning under the surface which gives it a less disputable
\nvalue. And even if we reject it, the third proposition will yet stand in its
\ngeneral significance. Whatever a man’s work and function in life, he can, if it
\nis determined from within or if he is allowed to make it a self-expression of
\nhis nature, turn it into a means of growth and of a greater inner perfection.
\nAnd whatever it be, if he performs his natural function in the right spirit, if
\nhe enlightens it by the ideal mind, if he turns its action to the uses of the
\nGodhead within, serves with it the Spirit manifested in the universe or makes
\nit a conscious instrumentation for the purposes of the Divine in humanity, he
\ncan transmute it into a means towards the highest spiritual perfection and
\nfreedom.<\/p>\n

But the Gita’s<\/span> teaching here has a still profounder significance if
\nwe take it not as a detached quotation self-contained in meaning, as is too
\noften done, but as we should do, in connection with all that it has been saying
\nthroughout the work and especially in the last twelve chapters. The Gita’s
\nphilosophy of life and works is that all proceeds from the Divine Existence, the
\ntranscendent and universal Spirit. All is a veiled manifestation of the
\nGodhead, Vasudeva<\/i><\/span>, yatah<\/span> pravrttir<\/span> bhūtānām<\/span>
\nyena<\/span> sarvam<\/span> idam<\/span> tatam<\/span><\/i>, and to unveil the
\nImmortal within and in the world,<\/p>\n

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\n

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 to dwell in unity with the Soul
\nof the universe, to rise in consciousness, knowledge, will, love, spiritual
\ndelight to oneness with the supreme Godhead, to live in the highest spiritual
\nnature with the individual and natural being delivered from shortcoming and
\nignorance and made a conscious instrument for the works of the divine Shakti is
\nthe perfection of which humanity is capable and the condition of immortality and
\nfreedom. But how is this possible when in fact we are enveloped in natural
\nignorance, the soul shut up in the prison of ego, overcome, beset, hammered and
\nmoulded<\/span> by the environment, mastered by the mechanism
\nof Nature, cut off from our hold on the reality of our own secret spiritual
\nforce? The answer is that all this natural action, however now enveloped in a veiled
\nand contrary working, still contains the principle of its own evolving freedom
\nand perfection. A Godhead is seated in the heart of every man and is the Lord
\nof this mysterious action of Nature. And though this Spirit of the universe,
\nthis One who is all, seems to be turning us on the wheel of the world as if
\nmounted on a machine by the force of Maya, shaping us in our ignorance as the
\npotter shapes a pot, as the weaver a fabric, by some skilful mechanical
\nprinciple, yet is this spirit our own greatest self and it is according to the
\nreal idea, the truth of ourselves, that which is growing in us and finding
\nalways new and more adequate forms in birth after birth, in our animal and
\nhuman and divine life, in that which we were, that which we are, that which we
\nshall be,\u2014it is in accordance with this inner soul-truth that, as our opened
\neyes will discover, we are progressively shaped by this spirit within us in its
\nall-wise omnipotence. This machinery of ego, this tangled complexity of the
\nthree gunas<\/span>, mind, body, life, emotion, desire,
\nstruggle, thought, aspiration, endeavour<\/span>, this locked
\ninteraction of pain and pleasure, sin and virtue, striving and success and
\nfailure, soul and environment, myself and others, is only the outward imperfect
\nform taken by a higher spiritual Force in me which pursues through its
\nvicissitudes the progressive self-expression of the divine reality and
\ngreatness I am secretly in spirit and shall overtly become in nature. This action
\ncontains in itself the principle of its own success, the principle of the
\nSwabhava and Swadharma<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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\n

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The
\nJiva<\/span> is in self-expression a portion of the Purushottama<\/span>. He represents in Nature the power of the
\nsupreme Spirit, he is in his personality that Power; he brings out in an
\nindividual existence the potentialities of the Soul of the universe. This Jiva
\nitself is spirit and not the natural ego; the spirit and not the form of ego is
\nour reality and inner soul principle. The true force of what we are and can be
\nis there in that higher spiritual Power and this mechanical Maya of the three gunas<\/span> is not the inmost and fundamental truth of its
\nmovements; it is only a present executive energy, an apparatus of lower convenience,
\na scheme of outward exercise and practice. The spiritual Nature which has
\nbecome this multiple personality in the universe, parā<\/i><\/span> prakrtir<\/span> jīva-bhūtā<\/span><\/i>,
\nis the basic stuff of our existence: all the rest is lower derivation and outer
\nformation from a highest hidden activity of the spirit. And in Nature each of
\nus has a principle and will of our own becoming; each soul is a force of
\nself-consciousness that formulates an idea of the Divine in it and guides by
\nthat its action and evolution, its progressive self-finding, its constant
\nvarying self-expression, its apparently uncertain but secretly inevitable growth
\nto fullness. That is our Swabhava, our own real nature; that is our truth of
\nbeing which is finding now only a constant partial expression in our various
\nbecoming in the world. The law of action determined by this Swabhava is our
\nright law of self-shaping, function, working, our Swadharma. <\/p>\n

This principle
\nobtains throughout cosmos; there is everywhere the one Power at work, one
\ncommon universal Nature, but in each grade, form, energy, genus, species,
\nindividual creature she follows out a major Idea and minor ideas and principles
\nof constant and complex variation that found both the permanent dharma of each
\nand its temporary dharmas<\/span>. These fix for it the law
\nof its being in becoming, the curve of its birth and persistence and change,
\nthe force of its self-preservation and self-increasing, the lines of its stable
\nand evolving self-expression and self-finding, the rules of its relations to
\nall the rest of the expression of the Self in the universe. To follow the law
\nof its being, Swadharma, to develop the idea in its being, Swabhava, is its
\nground of safety, its right walk and procedure. That does not in the end chain
\ndown the soul to any present formulation, but <\/p>\n

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\n

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 rather by this way of development
\nit enriches itself most surely with new experiences assimilated to its own law
\nand principle and can most powerfully grow and break at its hour beyond present
\nmoulds to a higher self-expression. To be unable to maintain its own law and
\nprinciple, to fail to adapt itself to its environment in such a way as to adapt
\nthe environment to itself and make it useful to its own nature is to lose its
\nself, forfeit its right of self, deviate from its way of self, is perdition, vinasti<\/i><\/span>, is
\nfalsehood, death, anguish of decay and dissolution and necessity of painful
\nself-recovery often after eclipse and disappearance, is the vain circuit of the
\nwrong road retarding our real progress. This law obtains in one form or another
\nin all Nature; it underlies all that action of law of universality and law of
\nvariation revealed to us by science. The same law obtains in the life of the
\nhuman being, his many lives in many human bodies. Here it has an outward play
\nand an inward spiritual truth, and the outward play can only put on its full
\nand real meaning when we have found the inward spiritual truth and enlightened
\nall our action with the values of the spirit. This great and desirable
\ntransformation can be effected with rapidity and power in proportion to our
\nprogress in self-knowledge. <\/p>\n

And first we
\nhave to see that the Swabhava means one thing in the highest spiritual nature
\nand takes quite another form and significance in the lower nature of the three gunas<\/span>. There too it acts, but is not in full possession of
\nitself, is seeking as it were for its own true law in a half light or a
\ndarkness and goes on its way through many lower forms, many false forms,
\nendless imperfections, perversions, self-losings<\/span>,
\nself-findings, seekings<\/span> after norm and rule before it
\narrives at self-discovery and perfection. Our nature here is a mixed weft of
\nknowledge and ignorance, of truth and falsehood, of success and failure, of
\nright and wrong, of finding and losing, of sin and virtue. It is always the
\nSwabhava that is looking for self-expression and self-finding through all these
\nthings, svabhāvas<\/i><\/span> tu<\/span> pravartate<\/span><\/i>, a truth which should teach us universal
\ncharity and equality of vision, since we are all subject to the same perplexity
\nand struggle. These motions belong, not to the soul, but to the nature. The Purushottama<\/span> is not limited by this ignorance; he governs
\nit from above and guides<\/p>\n

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\n

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 the soul through its changes. The
\npure immutable self is not touched by these movements; it witnesses and
\nsupports by its intangible eternity this mutable Nature in her vicissitudes.
\nThe real soul of the individual, the central being in us, is greater than these
\nthings, but accepts them in its outward evolution in Nature. And when we have
\ngot at this real soul, at the changeless universal self sustaining us and at
\nthe Purushottama<\/span>, the Lord within us who presides
\nover and guides the whole action of Nature, we have found all the spiritual
\nmeaning of the law of our life. For we become aware of the Master of existence
\nexpressing himself for ever in his infinite quality, anantaguna<\/i><\/span>, in all beings. We
\nbecome aware of a fourfold presence of the Divinity, a Soul of self-knowledge
\nand world-knowledge, a Soul of strength and power that seeks for and finds and
\nuses its powers, a Soul of mutuality and creation and relation and interchange
\nbetween creature and creature, a Soul of works that labours<\/span>
\nin the universe and serves all in each and turns the labour of each to the
\nservice of all others. We become aware too of the individual Power of the
\nDivine in us, that which directly uses these fourfold powers, assigns our
\nstrain of self-expression, determines our divine work and office and raises us
\nthrough it all to his universality in manifoldness till we can find by it our
\nspiritual oneness with him and with all that he is in the cosmos. <\/p>\n

The external
\nidea of the four orders of men in life is concerned only with the more outward
\nworking of this truth of the divine action; it is limited to one side of its
\noperation in the functioning of the three gunas<\/span>. It
\nis true that in this birth men fall very largely into one of four types, the
\nman of knowledge, the man of power, the productive vital man, the man of rude labour
\nand service. These are not fundamental divisions, but stages of
\nself-development in our manhood. The human being starts with a sufficient load
\nof ignorance and inertia; his first state is one of rude toil enforced on his
\nanimal indolence by the needs of the body, by the impulsion of life, by
\nnecessity of Nature and, beyond a certain point of need, by some form of direct
\nor indirect compulsion which society lays upon him, and those who are still
\ngoverned by this tamas<\/span> are the Shudras<\/span>,
\nthe serfs of society who give it their toil and can contribute nothing or very
\nlittle else in <\/p>\n

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\n

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 comparison with more developed men
\nto its manifold play of life. By kinetic action man develops the rajasic<\/span> guna<\/span> in him and we get a
\nsecond type of man who is driven by a constant instinct for useful creation,
\nproduction, having, acquisition, holding and enjoying, the middle economic and
\nvital man, the Vaishya<\/span>. At a higher elevation of the rajasic<\/span> or kinetic quality of our one common nature we get
\nthe active man with a more dominant will, with bolder ambitions, with the
\ninstinct to act, battle, and enforce his will, at the strongest to lead,
\ncommand, rule, carry masses of men in his orbit, the fighter, leader, ruler,
\nprince, king, Kshatriya<\/span>. And where the sattwic<\/span> mind predominates, we get the Brahmin, the man with
\na turn for knowledge, who brings thought, reflection, the seeking for truth and
\nan intelligent or at the highest a spiritual rule into life and illumines by it
\nhis conception and mode of existence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>There is always in human nature something of
\nall these four personalities developed or undeveloped, wide or narrow, suppressed
\nor rising to the surface, but in most men one or the other tends to predominate
\nand seems to take up sometimes the whole space of action in the nature. And in
\nany society we should have all four types,\u2014even, for an example, if we create a
\npurely productive and commercial society such as modern times have attempted,
\nor for that matter a Shudra<\/span> society of labour, of the
\nproletariate<\/span> such as attracts the most modern mind
\nand is now being attempted in one part of Europe and advocated in others. There
\nwould still be the thinkers moved to find the law and truth and guiding rule of
\nthe whole matter, the captains and leaders of industry who would make all this productive
\nactivity an excuse for the satisfaction of their need of adventure and battle
\nand leadership and dominance, the many typical purely productive and
\nwealth-getting men, the average workers satisfied with a modicum of labour and
\nthe reward of their labour. But these are quite outward things, and if that
\nwere all, this economy of human type would have no spiritual significance. Or
\nit would mean at most, as has been sometimes held in India, that we have to go
\nthrough these stages of development in our births; for we must perforce proceed
\nprogressively through the tamasic<\/span>, the rajaso-tamasic<\/span>, the rajasic<\/span> or rajaso-sattwic<\/span> to the sattwic<\/span>
\nnature, ascend and fix<\/p>\n

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\n

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 ourselves in an inner
\nBrahminhood, brāhmanya<\/i><\/span>,
\nand then seek salvation from that basis. But in that case there would be no
\nlogical room for the Gita’s assertion that even the Shudra<\/span>
\nor Chandala<\/span> can by turning his life Godwards<\/span> climb straight to spiritual liberty and
\nperfection.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The fundamental truth is not this outward
\nthing, but a force of our inner being in movement, the truth of the fourfold active
\npower of the spiritual nature. Each Jiva possesses in his spiritual nature
\nthese four sides, is a soul of knowledge, a soul of strength and of power, a
\nsoul of mutuality and interchange, a soul of works and service, but one side or
\nother predominates in the action and expressive spirit and tinges the dealings
\nof the soul with its embodied nature; it leads and gives its stamp to the other
\npowers and uses them for the principal strain of action, tendency, experience.
\nThe Swabhava then follows, not crudely and rigidly as put in the social
\ndemarcation, but subtly and flexibly the law of this strain and develops in
\ndeveloping it the other three powers. Thus the pursuit of the impulse of works
\nand service rightly done develops knowledge, increases power, trains closeness
\nor balance of mutuality and skill and order of relation. Each front of the fourfold
\ngodhead moves through the enlargement of its own dominant principle of nature
\nand enrichment by the other three towards a total perfection. This development
\nundergoes the law of the three gunas<\/span>. There is
\npossible a tamasic<\/span> and rajasic<\/span>
\nway of following even the dharma of the soul of knowledge, a brute tamasic<\/span> and a high sattwic<\/span> way of
\nfollowing the dharma of power, a forceful rajasic<\/span> or
\na beautiful and noble sattwic<\/span> way of following the
\ndharma of works and service. To arrive at the sattwic<\/span>
\nway of the inner individual Swadharma and of the works to which it moves us on
\nthe ways of life is a preliminary condition of perfection. And it may be noted
\nthat the inner Swadharma is not bound to any outward social or other form of
\naction, occupation or function. The soul of works or that element in us that is
\nsatisfied to serve, can, for example, make the life of the pursuit of
\nknowledge, the life of struggle and power or the life of mutuality, production
\nand interchange a means of satisfying its divine impulse to labour and to
\nservice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>And in the end to arrive at the divinest<\/span> figure and most<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 dynamic soul-power of this
\nfourfold activity is a wide doorway to a swiftest and largest reality of the
\nmost high spiritual perfection. This we can do if we turn the action of the
\nSwadharma into a worship of the inner Godhead, the universal Spirit, the
\ntranscendent Purushottama<\/span> and, eventually, surrender
\nthe whole action into his hands, mayi<\/span> sannyasya<\/span> karmāni<\/i><\/span>. Then as we get beyond the limitation of the
\nthree gunas<\/span>, so also do we get beyond the division of
\nthe fourfold law and beyond the limitation of all distinctive dharmas<\/span>, sarvadharmān<\/i><\/span> parityajya<\/span><\/i>. The Spirit takes up the individual into the
\nuniversal Swabhava, perfects and unifies the fourfold soul of nature in us and
\ndoes its self-determined works according to the divine will and the
\naccomplished power of the godhead in the creature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Gita’s injunction is to worship the Divine
\nby our own work, sva-karmanā<\/i><\/span>;
\nour offering must be the works determined by our own law of being and nature.
\nFor from the Divine all movement of creation and impulse to act originates and
\nby him all this universe is extended and for the holding together of the worlds
\nhe presides over and shapes all action through the Swabhava<\/span>.
\nTo worship him with our inner and outer activities, to make our whole life a
\nsacrifice of works to the Highest is to prepare ourselves to become one with
\nhim in all our will and substance and nature. Our work should be according to
\nthe truth within us, it should not be an accommodation with outward and
\nartificial standards: it must be a living and sincere expression of the soul
\nand its inborn powers. For to follow out the living inmost truth of this soul
\nin our present nature will help us eventually to arrive at the immortal truth
\nof the same soul in the now superconscious<\/span> supreme
\nnature. There we can live in oneness with God and our
\ntrue self and all beings and, perfected, become a faultless instrument of
\ndivine action in the freedom of the immortal Dharma.<\/p>\n

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