{"id":1411,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:38","slug":"25-nirvana-and-works-in-the-world-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\/25-nirvana-and-works-in-the-world-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-25_Nirvana and Works in the World.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n
\nTWENTY
\nTHREE<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font>Nirvana and Works in the World<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nT<\/font><\/span><\/b>HE<\/font> union of the soul with the Purushottama by a Yoga of the
\nwhole being is the complete teaching of the Gita and not only the union with
\nthe immutable Self as in the narrower doctrine which follows the exclusive way
\nof knowledge. That is why the Gita subsequently, after it has effected the
\nreconciliation of knowledge and works, is able to develop the idea of love and devotion,
\nunified with both works and knowledge, as the highest height of the way to the
\nsupreme secret. For if the union with the immutable Self were the sole secret
\nor the highest secret, that would not at all be possible; for then at a given
\npoint our inner basis for love and devotion, no less than our inner foundation
\nof works, would crumble away and collapse. Union utter and exclusive with the
\nimmutable Self alone means the abolition of the whole point of view of the
\nmutable being, not only in its ordinary and inferior action but in its very
\nroots, in all that makes its existence possible, not only in the works of its ignorance,
\nbut in the works of its knowledge. It would mean the abolition of all that
\ndifference in conscious poise and activity between the human soul and the
\nDivine which makes possible the play of the Kshara; for the action of the
\nKshara would become then entirely a play of the ignorance without any root or
\nbasis of divine reality in it. On the contrary, union by Yoga with the
\nPurushottama means the knowledge and enjoyment of our oneness with him in our
\nself-existent being and of a certain differentiation in our active being. It is
\nthe persistence of the latter in a play of divine works which are urged by the motive
\npower of divine love and constituted by a perfected divine Nature, it is the
\nvision of the Divine in the world harmonised with a realisation of the Divine
\nin the self which makes action and devotion possible to the liberated man, and not
\nonly possible but inevitable in the perfect mode of his being.\u00a0 <\/span>
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage 223<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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 But the direct
\nway to union lies through the firm realisation of the immutable Self, and it is
\nthe Gita’s insistence on this as a first necessity, after which alone works and
\ndevotion can acquire their whole divine meaning, that makes it possible for us
\nto mistake its drift. For if we take the passages in which it insists most
\nrigorously upon this necessity and neglect to observe the whole sequence of
\nthought in which they stand, we may easily come to the conclusion that it does
\nreally teach actionless absorption as the final state of the soul and action
\nonly as a preliminary means towards stillness in the motionless Immutable. It
\nis in the close of the fifth and throughout the sixth chapter that this
\ninsistence is strongest and most comprehensive. There we get the description of
\na Yoga which would seem at first sight to be incompatible with works and we get
\nthe repeated use of the word Nirvana to describe the status to which the Yogin
\narrives. <\/p>\n

The mark of this
\nstatus is the supreme peace of a calm self-extinction, śāntim nirvāna-paramām<\/i>, and, as if to
\nmake it quite clear that it is not the Buddhist’s Nirvana in a blissful
\nnegation of being, but the Vedantic loss of a partial in a perfect being that
\nit intends, the Gita uses always the phrase brahma-nirvāna<\/i>,
\nextinction in the Brahman; and the Brahman here certainly seems to mean the
\nImmutable, to denote primarily at least the inner timeless Self withdrawn from
\nactive\u00a0 <\/span>participation even though
\nimmanent in the externality of Nature. We have to see then what is the drift of
\nthe Gita here, and especially whether this peace is the peace of an absolute
\ninactive cessation, whether the self-extinction in the Akshara means the
\nabsolute excision of all knowledge and consciousness of the Kshara and of all
\naction in the Kshara. We are accustomed indeed to regard Nirvana and any kind
\nof existence and action in the world as incompatible and we might be inclined
\nto argue that the use of the word is by itself sufficient and decides the
\nquestion. But if we look closely at Buddhism, we shall doubt whether the
\nabsolute incompatibility really existed even for the Buddhists; and if we look
\nclosely at the Gita, we shall see that it does not form part of this supreme
\nVedantic teaching. <\/p>\n

The Gita after
\nspeaking of the perfect equality of the Brahman-knower who has risen into the
\nBrahman-consciousness,<\/p>\n

\nPage 224<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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\nbrahmavid brahmani sthitah<\/i>, develops in nine verses
\nthat follow its idea of Brahmayoga and of Nirvana in the Brahman. \u201cWhen the
\nsoul is no longer attached to the touches of outward things,\u201d it begins, \u201cthen
\none finds the happiness that exists in the Self; such a one enjoys an
\nimperishable happiness, because his self is in Yoga, yukta<\/i>, by Yoga with the Brahman.\u201d The non-attachment is essential,
\nit says, in order to be free from the attacks of desire and wrath and passion,
\na freedom without which true happiness is not possible. That happiness and that
\nequality are to be gained entirely by man in the body: he is not to suffer any
\nleast remnant of the subjection to the troubled lower nature to remain in the
\nidea that the perfect release will come by a putting off of the body; a perfect
\nspiritual freedom is to be won here upon earth and possessed and enjoyed in the
\nhuman life, prāk śarīra-vimoksanāt<\/i>.
\nIt then continues, \u201cHe who has the inner happiness and the inner ease and
\nrepose and the inner light, that Yogin becomes the Brahman and reaches
\nself-extinction in the Brahman, brahma-nirvānam<\/i>.\u201d
\nHere, very clearly, Nirvana means the extinction of the ego in the higher
\nspiritual, inner Self, that which is for ever timeless, spaceless, not bound by
\nthe chain of cause and effect and the changes of the world-mutation,
\nself-blissful, self-illumined and for ever at peace. The Yogin ceases to be the
\nego, the little person limited by the mind and the body; he becomes the
\nBrahman; he is unified in consciousness with the immutable divinity of the
\neternal Self which is immanent in his natural being. <\/p>\n

But is this a
\ngoing in into some deep sleep of samadhi away from all world-consciousness, or
\nis it the preparatory movement for a dissolution of the natural being and the
\nindividual soul into some absolute Self who is utterly and for ever beyond
\nNature and her works, laya, moksa<\/i>?
\nIs that withdrawal necessary before we can enter into Nirvana, or is Nirvana, as
\nthe context seems to suggest, a state which can exist simultaneously with
\nworld-consciousness and even in its own way include it? Apparently the latter,
\nfor in the succeeding verse the Gita goes on to say, \u201cSages win Nirvana in the
\nBrahman, they in whom the stains of sin are effaced and the knot of doubt is
\ncut asunder, masters of their selves, who are occupied in doing good to all
\ncreatures, sarvabhūta-hite ratāh<\/i>.\u201d
\nThat would almost seem to<\/p>\n

 Page 225<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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mean that to be thus is to be in
\nNirvana. But the next verse is quite clear and decisive, \u201cYatis (those who practice
\nself-mastery by Yoga and austerity) who are delivered from desire and wrath and
\nhave gained self-mastery, for them Nirvana in the Brahman exists all about
\nthem, encompasses them, they already live in it because they have knowledge of the
\nSelf.\u201d That is to say, to have knowledge and possession of the self is to exist
\nin Nirvana. This is clearly a large extension of the idea of Nirvana. Freedom
\nfrom all stain of the passions, the self-mastery of the equal mind on which
\nthat freedom is founded, equality to all beings, sarvabhūtesu<\/i>, and beneficial love for all, final
\ndestruction of that doubt and obscurity of the ignorance which keeps us divided
\nfrom the all-unifying Divine and the knowledge of the One Self within us and in
\nall are evidently the conditions of Nirvana which are laid down in these verses
\nof the Gita, go to constitute it and are its spiritual substance. <\/p>\n

Thus Nirvana is
\nclearly compatible with world-consciousness and with action in the world. For
\nthe sages who possess it are conscious of and in intimate relation by works
\nwith the Divine in the mutable universe; they are occupied with the good of all
\ncreatures, sarvabhūtahite<\/i>. They
\nhave not renounced the experiences of the Kshara Purusha, they have divinized them;
\nfor the Kshara, the Gita tells us, is all existences, sarvabhūtāni<\/i>, and the doing universal good to all is a
\ndivine action in the mutability of Nature. This action in the world is not
\ninconsistent with living in Brahman, it is rather its inevitable condition and
\noutward result because the Brahman in whom we find Nirvana, the spiritual
\nconsciousness in which we lose the separative ego-consciousness, is not only within
\nus but within all these existences, exists not only above and apart from all
\nthese universal happenings, but pervades them, contains them and is extended in
\nthem. Therefore by Nirvana in the Brahman must be meant a destruction or
\nextinction of the limited separative consciousness, falsifying and dividing,
\nwhich is brought into being on the surface of existence by the lower Maya of
\nthe three Gunas, and entry into Nirvana is a passage into this other true
\nunifying consciousness which is the heart of existence and its continent and
\nits whole containing and supporting, its whole original and <\/p>\n

\nPage 226<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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eternal and final truth. Nirvana
\nwhen we gain it, enter into it, is not only within us, but all around, abhito<\/i> vartate<\/i>, because this is not only the Brahman-consciousness which
\nlives secret within us, but the Brahman-consciousness in which we live. It is
\nthe Self which we are within, the supreme Self of our individual being but also
\nthe Self which we are without, the supreme Self of the universe, the self of
\nall existences. By living in that self we live in all, and no longer in our
\negoistic being alone; by oneness with that self a steadfast oneness with all in
\nthe universe becomes the very nature of our being and the root status of our
\nactive consciousness and root motive of all our action. <\/p>\n

But again we get
\nimmediately afterwards two verses which might seem to lead away from this
\nconclusion. \u201cHaving put outside of himself all outward touches and concentrated
\nthe vision between the eyebrows and made equal the prāna<\/i> and the ap\\āna
\n<\/i>moving within the nostrils, having controlled the senses, the mind and the
\nunderstanding, the sage devoted to liberation, from whom desire and wrath and
\nfear have passed away is ever free.\u201d Here we have a process of Yoga that brings
\nin an element which seems quite other than the Yoga of works and other even
\nthan the pure Yoga of knowledge by discrimination and contemplation; it belongs
\nin all its characteristic features to the system, introduces the
\npsycho-physical askesis of Rajayoga. There is the conquest of all the movements
\nof the mind, cittavrttinirodha<\/i>;
\nthere is the control of the breathing, Pranayama; there is the drawing in of
\nthe sense and the vision. All of them are processes which lead to the inner trance
\nof Samadhi, the object of all of them moksa<\/i>,
\nand moksa <\/i>signifies in
\nordinary parlance the renunciation not only of the separative
\nego-consciousness, but of the whole active consciousness, a dissolution of our
\nbeing into the highest Brahman. Are we to suppose that the Gita gives this
\nprocess in that sense as the last movement of a release by dissolution or only
\nas a special means and a strong aid to overcome the outward-going mind? Is this
\nthe finale, the climax, the last word? We shall find reason to regard it as
\nboth a special means, an aid, and at least one gate of a final departure, not
\nby dissolution, but by an uplifting to the supracosmic existence. For even here
\nin this passage this is not the last word; the last word, the finale, <\/p>\n

\nPage 227<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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the climax comes in a verse that
\nfollows and is the last couplet of the chapter. \u201cWhen a man has known Me as the
\nEnjoyer of sacrifice and tapasya (of all askesis and energisms), the mighty
\nlord of all the worlds, the friend of all creatures, he comes by the peace.\u201d
\nThe power of the Karmayoga comes in again; the knowledge of the active Brahman,
\nthe cosmic supersoul, is insisted on among the conditions of the peace of
\nNirvana. <\/p>\n

We get back to
\nthe great idea of the Gita, the idea of the Purushottama, \u2013 though that name is
\nnot given till close upon the end, it is always that which Krishna means by his
\n\u201cI\u201d and \u201cMe\u201d, the Divine who is there as the one self in our timeless immutable
\nbeing, who is present too in the world, in all existences, in all activities,
\nthe master of the silence and the peace, the master of the power and the
\naction, who is here incarnate as the divine charioteer of the stupendous
\nconflict, the Transcendent, the Self, the All, the master of every individual
\nbeing. He is the enjoyer of all sacrifice and of all tapasya, therefore shall
\nthe seeker of liberation do works as a sacrifice and as a tapasya; he is the
\nlord of all the worlds, manifested in Nature and in these beings, therefore
\nshall the liberated man still do works for the right government and leading on
\nof the peoples in these worlds, lokasamgraha<\/i>;
\nhe is the friend of all existences, therefore is the sage who has found Nirvana
\nwithin him and all around, still and always occupied with the good of all
\ncreatures, \u2013 even as the Nirvana of Mahayana Buddhism took for its highest sign
\nthe works of a universal compassion. Therefore too, even when he has found
\noneness with the Divine in his timeless and immutable self, is he still
\ncapable, since he embraces the relations also of the play of Nature, of divine
\nlove for man and of love for the Divine, of bhakti. <\/p>\n

That this is the
\ndrift of the meaning, becomes clearer when we have fathomed the sense of the
\nsixth chapter which is a large comment on and a full development of the idea of
\nthese closing verses of the fifth, \u2013 that shows the importance which the Gita
\nattaches to them. We shall therefore run as briefly as possible through the
\nsubstance of this sixth chapter. First the Teacher emphasises \u2013 and this is
\nvery significant \u2013 his often repeated asseveration about the real essence of
\nSannyasa, that it is an <\/p>\n

\nPage 228<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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inward, not an outward
\nrenunciation. \u201cWhoever does the work to be done without resort to its fruits,
\nhe is the Sannyasin and the Yogin, not the man who lights not the sacrificial
\nfire and does not the works. What they have called renunciation (Sannyasa),
\nknow to be in truth Yoga; for none becomes a Yogin who has not renounced the
\ndesire-will in the mind.\u201d Works are to be done, but with what purpose and in
\nwhat order? They are first to be done while ascending the hill of Yoga, for
\nthen works are the cause, kāranam<\/i>.
\nThe cause of what? The cause of self-perfection, of liberation, of nirvana in the
\nBrahman; for by doing works with a steady practice of the inner renunciation
\nthis perfection, this liberation, this conquest of the desire-mind and the
\nego-self and the lower nature are easily accomplished. <\/p>\n

But when one has
\ngot to the top? Then works are no longer the cause; the calm of self-mastery
\nand self-possession gained by works becomes the cause. Again, the cause of
\nwhat? Of fixity in the Self, in the Brahman-consciousness and of the perfect
\nequality in which the divine works of the liberated man are done. \u201cFor when one
\ndoes not get attached to the objects of sense or to works and has renounced all
\nwill of desire in the mind, then is he said to have ascended to the top of Yoga.\u201d
\nThat, as we know already, is the spirit in which the liberated man does works;
\nhe does them without desire and attachment, without the egoistic personal will
\nand the mental seeking which is the parent of desire. He has conquered his lower
\nself, reached the perfect calm in which his highest self is manifest to him,
\nthat highest self always concentrated in its own being, samāhita<\/i>, in Samadhi, not only in the trance of the
\ninward-drawn consciousness, but always, in the waking state of the mind as
\nwell, in exposure to the causes of desire and of the disturbance of calm, to
\ngrief and pleasure, heat and cold, honour and disgrace, all the dualities, śitosna-sukhaduhkhesu
\ntathā mānāpamānayoh<\/i>. This higher self is the
\nAkshara, kūtastha<\/i>, which
\nstands above the changes and the perturbations of the natural being; and the
\nYogin is said to be in Yoga with it when he also is like it, kūtastha<\/i>, when he is
\nsuperior to all appearances and mutations, when he is satisfied with
\nself-knowledge, when he is equal-minded to all things and happenings and
\npersons. <\/p>\n

\nPage 229<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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 But this Yoga is
\nafter all no easy thing to acquire, as Arjuna indeed shortly afterwards
\nsuggests, for the restless mind is always liable to be pulled down from these
\nheights by the attacks of outward things and to fall back into the strong
\ncontrol of grief and passion and inequality. Therefore, it would seem, the Gita
\nproceeds to give us in addition to its general method of knowledge and works a
\nspecial process of Rajayogic meditation also, a powerful method of practice, abhyāsa<\/i>, a strong way to the
\ncomplete control of the mind and all its workings. In this process the Yogin is
\ndirected to practise continually union with the Self so that that may become
\nhis normal consciousness. He is to sit apart and alone, with all desire and
\nidea of possession banished from his mind, self-controlled in his whole being
\nand consciousness. \u201cHe should set in a pure spot his firm seat, neither too
\nhigh, nor yet too low, covered with a cloth, with a deer-skin, with sacred
\ngrass, and there seated with a concentrated mind and with the workings of the
\nmental consciousness and the senses under control he should practise Yoga for
\nself-purification, ātmaviśuddhaye<\/i>.\u201d
\nThe posture he takes must be the motionless erect posture proper to the
\npractice of Rajayoga; the vision should be drawn in and fixed between the
\neye-brows, \u201cnot regarding the regions.\u201d The mind is to be kept calm and free
\nfrom fear and the vow of Brahmacharya observed; the whole controlled mentality
\nmust be devoted and turned to the Divine so that the lower action of the
\nconsciousness shall be merged in the higher peace. For the object to be attained
\nis the still peace of Nirvana. \u201cThus always putting himself in Yoga by control
\nof his mind the Yogin attains to the supreme peace of Nirvana which has its
\nfoundation in Me, śāntim nirvānaparamām
\nmatsamsthām.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

This peace of
\nNirvana is reached when all the mental consciousness is perfectly controlled
\nand liberated from desire and remains still in the Self, when, motionless like
\nthe light of a lamp in a windless place, it ceases from its restless action,
\nshut in from its outward motion, and by the silence and stillness of the mind
\nthe Self is seen within, not disfigured as in the mind, but in the Self, seen,
\nnot as it is mistranslated falsely or partially by the mind and represented to
\nus through the ego, but self-perceived by the Self, svaprakāśa<\/i>. Then the soul is satisfied and knows its own <\/p>\n

\nPage 230<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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true and exceeding bliss, not
\nthat untranquil happiness which is the portion of the mind and the senses, but
\nan inner and serene felicity in which it is safe from the mind’s perturbations
\nand can no longer fall away from the spiritual truth of its being. Not even the
\nfieriest assault of mental grief can disturb it; for mental grief comes to us
\nfrom outside, is a reaction to external touches, and this is the inner, the
\nself-existent happiness of those who no longer accept the slavery of the
\nunstable mental reactions to external touches. It is the putting away of the
\ncontact with pain, the divorce of the mind’s marriage with grief, duhkha-samyoga-viyogam.
\nThe firm winning of this inalienable spiritual bliss is Yoga, it is the divine
\nunion; it is the greatest of all gains and the treasure beside which all others
\nlose their value. Therefore is this Yoga to be resolutely practised without
\nyielding to any discouragement by difficulty or failure until the release,
\nuntil the bliss of Nirvana is secured as an eternal possession. <\/p>\n

The main stress
\nhere has fallen on the stilling of the emotive mind, the mind of desire and the
\nsenses which are the recipients of outward touches and reply to them with our
\ncustomary emotional reactions; but even the mental thought has to be stilled in
\nthe silence of the self-existent being. First, all the desires born of the
\ndesire-will have to be wholly abandoned without any exception or residue and
\nthe senses have to be held in by the mind so that they shall not run out to all
\nsides after their usual disorderly and restless habit; but next the mind itself
\nhas to be seized by the buddhi and drawn inward. One should slowly cease from
\nmental action by a buddhi held in the grasp of fixity and having fixed the mind
\nin the higher self one should not think of anything at all. Whenever the
\nrestless and unquiet mind goes forth, it should be controlled and brought into
\nsubjection in the Self. When the mind is thoroughly quieted, then there comes
\nupon the Yogin the highest, stainless, passionless bliss of the soul that has
\nbecome the Brahman. \u201cThus freed from stain of passion and putting himself
\nconstantly into Yoga, the Yogin easily and happily enjoys the touch of the
\nBrahman which is an exceeding bliss.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet the
\nresult is not, while one yet lives, a Nirvana which puts away every possibility
\nof action in the world, every relation with beings in the world. It would seem
\nat first that it ought to <\/p>\n

\nPage 231<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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be so. When all the desires and
\npassions have ceased, when the mind is no longer permitted to throw itself out
\nin thought, when the practice of this silent and solitary Yoga has become the
\nrule, what farther action or relation with the world of outward touches and
\nmutable appearances is any longer possible? No doubt, the Yogin for a time
\nstill remains in the body, but the cave, the forest, the mountain-top seem now
\nthe fittest, the only possible scene of his continued living and constant
\ntrance of Samadhi his sole joy and occupation. But, first, while this solitary
\nYoga is being pursued, the renunciation of all other action is not recommended
\nby the Gita. This Yoga, it says, is not for the man who gives up sleep and food
\nand play and action, even as it is not for those who indulge too much in these
\nthings of the life and the body; but the sleep and waking, the food, the play,
\nthe putting forth of effort in works should all be yukta<\/i>. This is generally interpreted as meaning that all should be
\nmoderate, regulated, done in fit measure, and that may indeed be the
\nsignificance. But at any rate when the Yoga is attained, all this has to be yukta<\/i> in another sense, the ordinary
\nsense of the word everywhere else in the Gita. In all states, in waking and in
\nsleeping, in food and play and action, the Yogin will then be in Yoga with the
\nDivine, and all will be done by him in the consciousness of the Divine as the
\nself and as the All and as that which supports and contains his own life and
\nhis action. Desire and ego and personal will and the thought of the mind are
\nthe motives of action only in the lower nature; when the ego is lost and the
\nYogin becomes Brahman, when he\u00a0 <\/span>lives in
\nand is, even, a transcendent and universal consciousness, action comes
\nspontaneously out of that, luminous knowledge higher than the mental thought
\ncomes out of that, a power other and mightier than the personal will comes out
\nof that to do for him his works and bring its fruits:\u00b9 <\/span>personal action has ceased, all has been taken up
\ninto the Brahman and assumed by the Divine,
\nmayi sannyasya karmāni<\/i>. <\/p>\n

For when the
\nGita describes the nature of this self-realisation and the result of the Yoga
\nwhich comes by Nirvana of the separative ego-mind and its motives of thought
\nand feeling and action into the Brahman-consciousness, it includes the cosmic
\nsense, <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/span>yoga-ksemam vahāmyaham<\/font><\/i>.<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage 232<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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though lifted into a new kind of
\nvision. \u201cThe man whose self is in Yoga, sees the self in all beings and all beings
\nin the self, he sees all with an equal vision.\u201d All that he sees is to him the
\nSelf, all is his self, all is the Divine. But is there no danger, if he dwells
\nat all in the mutability of the Kshara, of his losing all the results of this difficult
\nYoga, losing the Self and falling back into the mind, of the Divine losing him
\nand the world getting him, of his losing the Divine and getting back in its
\nplace the ego and the lower nature? No, says the Gita; \u201che who sees Me
\neverywhere and sees all in Me, to him I do not get lost, nor does he get lost
\nto Me.\u201d For this peace of Nirvana, though it is gained through the Akshara, is
\nfounded upon the being of the Purushottama, matsamsthām<\/i>,
\nand that is extended, the Divine, the Brahman is extended too in the world of
\nbeings and, though transcendent of it, not imprisoned in its own transcendence.
\nOne has to see all things as He and live and act wholly in that vision; that is
\nthe perfect fruit of the Yoga. <\/p>\n

But why act? Is
\nit not safer to sit in one’s solitude looking out upon the world, if you will,
\nseeing it in Brahman, in the Divine, but not taking part in it, not moving in
\nit, not living in it, not acting in it, living rather ordinarily in the inner
\nSamadhi? Should not that be the law, the rule, the dharma of this highest
\nspiritual condition? No, again; for the liberated Yogin there is no other law,
\nrule, dharma than simply this, to live in the Divine and love the Divine and be
\none with all beings; his freedom is an absolute and not a contingent freedom,
\nself-existent and not dependent any longer on any rule of conduct, law of life
\nor limitation of any kind. He has no longer any need of a process of Yoga,
\nbecause he is now perpetually in Yoga. \u201cThe Yogin who has taken his stand upon
\noneness and loves Me in all beings, however and in all ways he lives and acts,
\nlives and acts in Me.\u201d The love of the world spiritualised, changed from a
\nsense-experience to a soul-experience, is founded on the love of God and in
\nthat love there is no peril and no shortcoming. Fear and disgust of the world
\nmay often be necessary for the recoil from the lower nature, for it is really
\nthe fear and disgust of our own ego which reflects itself in the world. But to
\nsee God in the world is to fear nothing, it is to embrace all in the being of
\nGod; <\/p>\n

\nPage 233<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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 to see all as the Divine is to
\nhate and loathe nothing, but love God in the world and the world in God. <\/p>\n

But at least the
\nthings of the lower nature will be shunned and feared, the things which the
\nYogin has taken so much trouble to surmount? Not this either; all is embraced
\nin the equality of the self-vision. \u201cHe, O Arjuna, who sees with equality everything
\nin the image of the Self, whether it be grief or it be happiness, him I hold to
\nbe the supreme Yogin.\u201d And by this it is not meant at all that he himself shall
\nfall from the griefless spiritual bliss and feel again worldly unhappiness,
\neven in the sorrow of others, but seeing in others the play of the dualities
\nwhich he himself has left and surmounted, he shall still see all as himself,
\nhis self in all, God in all and, not disturbed or bewildered by the appearances
\nof these things, moved only by them to help and heal, to occupy himself with
\nthe good of all beings, to lead men to the spiritual bliss, to work for the
\nprogress of the world Godwards, he shall live the divine life, so long as days
\nupon earth are his portion. The God-lover who can do this, can thus embrace all
\nthings in God, can look calmly on the lower nature and the works of the Maya of
\nthe three gunas and act in them and upon them without perturbation or fall or
\ndisturbance from the height and power of the spiritual oneness, free in the
\nlargeness of the God-vision, sweet and great and luminous in the strength of
\nthe God-nature, may well be declared to be the supreme Yogin. He indeed has
\nconquered the creation, jitah
\nsargah. <\/i><\/p>\n

The Gita brings
\nin here as always bhakti as the climax of the Yoga, sarvabhūtasthitam yo mām bhajati ekatvam āsthitah<\/i>;
\nthat may almost be said to sum up the whole final result of the Gita’s teaching
\n\u2013 whoever loves God in all and his soul is founded upon the divine oneness,
\nhowever he lives and acts, lives and acts in God. And to emphasise it still
\nmore, after an intervention of Arjuna and a reply to his doubt as to how so
\ndifficult a Yoga can be at all possible for the restless mind of man, the
\ndivine Teacher returns to this idea and makes it his culminating utterance.
\n\u201cThe Yogin is greater than the doers of askesis, greater than the men of
\nknowledge, greater than the men of works; become then the Yogin, O Arjuna,\u201d the
\nYogin, one who seeks for and attains, by works and knowledge and askesis or by
\nwhatever other <\/p>\n

\nPage 234<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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means, not even spiritual
\nknowledge or power or anything else for their own sake, but the union with God
\nalone; for in that all else is contained and in that lifted beyond itself to a
\ndivinest significance. But even among Yogins the greatest is the Bhakta. \u201cOf all
\nYogins he who with all his inner self given up to Me, for Me has love and
\nfaith, śraddhāvān bhajate<\/i>,
\nhim I hold to be the most united with Me in Yoga.\u201d It is this that is the
\nclosing word of these first six chapters and contains in itself the seed of the
\nrest, of that which still remains unspoken and is nowhere entirely spoken; for
\nit is always and remains something of a mystery and a secret, rahasyam<\/i>, the highest spiritual mystery
\nand the divine secret. <\/p>\n

\nPage 235<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TWENTY THREE  Nirvana and Works in the World   THE union of the soul with the Purushottama by a Yoga of the whole being is…<\/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-1411","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\/1411","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=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}