{"id":2038,"date":"2013-07-13T01:39:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:39:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:04","slug":"10-khulna-speech-vol-08-karmayogin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/08-karmayogin\/10-khulna-speech-vol-08-karmayogin","title":{"rendered":"-10_Khulna Speech.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
<\/p>\n

\nKhulna Speech <\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nGENTLEMEN, today I will speak a few words on the Gita. The main object of that philosophy is found in the Vedanta, which is the basis of Hindu thought and life, and according to the Vedanta, life is dominated by
\n\t
\n
\nmaya<\/font><\/i> or
\n\t<\/font>
\n
\n\tavidya<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. We are driven into action because we are ignorant
\n\tof our true selves, of the true nature of the world. We identify ourselves with our bodies, our desires, our sorrows, and not our
\n\tspirits. We lose ourselves in our happiness, griefs and pleasures. <\/p>\n

\nBy these motives we are driven into action. This life is a chain of bondage which keeps us revolving. We are surrounded on all sides by forces which we cannot control. As man has a
\n\tperpetual desire for freedom, he is driven by forces he cannot control. Under the influence of these forces within or without,
\n\taction takes place. The object of Hindu philosophy is to make man no longer a slave, but to escape from bondage and to make
\n\thuman beings free. Hindu philosophy tries to go into the root
\n\t
\n\tof things. What is the real beginning of
\n<\/font>
\n
\nmaya<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>? . . . . Whatever
\n\twe may try, from the nature of the world we cannot escape from bondage. There is a knowledge, by attaining which we can
\n\tbecome free. <\/p>\n

\nIn the Gita we find that Srikrishna unites the Vedanta philosophy with the philosophy of Sankhya. Modern science denies that man has a soul. Science considers only the laws of nature. It regards nature as material, and man as merely a product of nature. It says man is a creation of natural forces. All his actions
\n\tare results of fixed laws, and he has no freedom. According to the Sankhya, man has a soul and is essentially the Purusha <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nDelivered at Khulna, Bengal, on 25 June 1909. Noted down by police agents and<\/font><\/i>
\n\t<\/font>
\nreproduced in a Government of Bengal confidential file. A note preceding the report of<\/font><\/i>
\n\tthe speech says that “about three-fourths of it have been taken down”. The text needed<\/font><\/i>
\n\t<\/font>
\nemendation in many places.<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nPage-48<\/p>\n

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\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\nand not matter. The spirit does not act. The soul is calm and motionless. Prakriti is always shifting and changing, and under her influence all actions take place. Prakriti acts.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nMan can only free himself by recognising that he is the Purusha. Srikrishna adopts this theory of Sankhya in the Gita, and he also adopts the philosophy of Vedanta. He says that man has an immortal soul, but there is also a universal soul. Man is merely part of God. He is merely a part of something
\n\tthat is eternal, infinite, omniscient and omnipotent. This eternal power is what really exists, and in all that we see, hear, feel,
\n\tit is He alone who exists. It is He alone whom we feel and
\n\t
\n\tsee. Parameshwara builds up this world by His
\n<\/font>
\n
\nmaya<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. He is
\n\tthe master of the great illusion which we call
\n\t
\nmaya<\/font><\/i><\/font>. This He made to express Himself, the One. All these things around us
\n\tare transitory. Within us is that which cannot change, which is eternally free and happy. If man feels himself miserable, it is
\n\tbecause he in his ignorance allows himself to be dominated by
\n\t
\n\tegoism (<\/font>ahankara<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>). He thinks that he is all. He does not realise that God is the master of this
\n\t
\nlila<\/font><\/i><\/font>. He thinks that it is I who act, I who am the lord of my body, and because he thinks so, he is
\n\tbound by his action. By these forces he is driven from birth to birth. The great illusion is that this body which he inhabits is
\n\thimself; next he identifies himself with the mind and thinks it is I who think, see and feel. In reality, according to the Gita, God is within the heart of every creature.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe second thing you have to recognise is that you are only a part of Him, who is eternal, omniscient and omnipotent.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nHis first answer to Arjuna is that the feeling which has come upon him is not the pure feeling. It is a feeling of egoism. Still Arjuna does not understand how that can be.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nHow can it be my
\n\t
\ndharma
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>to kill my own brothers and relations? How can it be to slaughter my nation and house?
\n\tSrikrishna answers according to the spirit of Hindu ideas. He
\n\tsays that it is your
\n<\/font>
\n
\ndharma<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>, because you are a Kshatriya. This is a
\n
\n\tdharma
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>of a particular kind. The duty of the Kshatriya is not the same as that of the Brahmin, and that of the Shudra is not equal to that of the Kshatriya. If a Shudra adopts the
\n
\ndharma<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nPage-49<\/p>\n

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\n

\nof a Brahmin, he brings about the confusion of all laws and leads to the destruction and not to the betterment of mankind.
\n\tIt is nature which teaches you your own
\n\t
\ndharma<\/font><\/i><\/font>. This is your
\ndharma<\/i>. If you shrink from upholding the cause of virtue, truth
\n\tand justice, out of a feeling which is inconsistent, you are guilty, you bring in confusion, you encourage yourself to give up your
\n\tduty. <\/p>\n

\nStill Arjuna is not satisfied. Srikrishna goes still deeper. He says that the whole of our life is determined by
\n\t
\n
\nmaya
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>which is of three kinds
\n\u2013<\/font>sattwa<\/font><\/i>,
\n\t<\/font>
\nrajas<\/font><\/i>, and
\n\t<\/font>
\ntamas<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. Their nature is this.
\n\t
\nSattwa
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>
\n\tleads to knowledge,
\n<\/font>
\n
\nrajas
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i>
\n\tleads to action, and
\n<\/font><\/font>
\n
\ntamas<\/font><\/i><\/font> leads to inaction and ignorance. These are the qualities of nature which govern the world. The
\n
\nswabhava
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>which leads you to work is determined by the three
\n<\/font>
\n
\ngunas<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. Action is determined
\n\tby
\n
\n\tswabhava<\/font><\/i><\/font>. All action leads to bondage and is full of defects. What you call virtue or virtues, they have defects in themselves.
\n\tThe virtue of Brahmins is a great virtue. You shall not kill.
\n\t
\n\tThis is what <\/font>
\n\t
\n\tahinsa
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i>
\n\tmeans. If the virtue of
\n<\/font>
\nahinsa
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font><\/font>comes to the
\n\tKshatriya, if you say I will not kill, there is no one to protect the country. The happiness of the people will be broken down. Injustice and lawlessness will reign. The virtue becomes a source of misery, and you become instrumental in bringing misery and
\n\tconflict to the people. Your duty to your family seems to conflict with your duty to society, that of society to the nation, and that
\n\tof the nation to mankind. How shall we follow the path which leads to salvation? It is difficult to say what is right and what is
\n\twrong. How to decide it then? There is one way: do action in
\nyoga<\/i>, and then you rise above ignorance, and sin cannot touch
\n\tyou, and you rise above all that hampers you and binds you.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n\tWhat is <\/font>
\n\t
\n\tyoga<\/font><\/i>? Not a certain process. When we think of
\n\t<\/font>
\nyoga<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>,
\n\twe think of a man who shuts himself up in a cave and subjects himself to certain practices. He frees himself from all bondage.
\n\tBut Srikrishna uses
\n
\nyoga
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>in a different sense. He says: Do action in <\/font>
\n
\n\tyoga<\/font><\/i>. The first element is
\n\t<\/font>
\nsamata<\/font><\/i>.
\n\t<\/font>
\nSamata
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font><\/font>means you shall
\n\tlook with equal eyes upon happiness and misfortune, praise and blame, honour and dishonour, and success and failure. You shall regard none of these, but with a calm and unshaken mind<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nPage-50<\/p>\n

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\n

\nyou should proceed with the work which you are given to do, unshaken by the praise or censure of the world. The man who
\n\thas this
\n
\n\tsamata
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>has no friends and no enemies. He looks upon all with equal feelings, because he has knowledge, because he has
\n\tlooked into himself, then out into the world. He finds himself everywhere and all in himself. He finds himself in all because
\n\tGod is in all. Whether he looks at the high or low, he sees no difference and sees that in every creature there is Narayana. He sees that he is only an
\n\t
\nansha
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>of one who is in every particle of matter. If there be any differences, they are only temporary and
\n\toutward. He is only that through which Vasudeva carries on
\n\this <\/font>
\n
\n\tlila<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. He is not anxious to know what will happen tomorrow,
\nbecause the action is not guided by laws. The man who has communion with God has no reason to be guided by laws, because
\n\the knows God is alone and all. He is not troubled by the fruits of his action. “You have the right to action, to work, but not
\n\tto the fruit. Work and leave the result to me. Those men whom you shrink from slaying are already slain. These men would all
\n\tperish. Therefore the fruit is already obtained beforehand by me. Your anxiety for the result is ignorance.” The destiny of the
\n\tworld is fixed. When a man has to do anything he must know that the fruits are with God. Man is to do what God wills.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n
\nYoga
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>
\n\tmeans freedom from
\n<\/font>
\n
\ndwandwa<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. The Yogin is free from the bondage of pleasure and pain, of anger and hatred and attachment, of liking and disliking, because he looks with equal eyes on all. He does not shrink from misfortune or misery,
\n\thappiness or unhappiness. He rises above the bondage of the body, because no man can give him pleasure or pain, because he
\n\thas his own source of strength, of delight and happiness. This
\n\t
\n\tis the freedom which the Gita says the
\n<\/font>
\n
\nyoga
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>
\n\t<\/font>gives, the freedom
\n\twhich we ordinarily mean by
\n\t
\n
\nmukti<\/font><\/i><\/font>. This is the freedom which the Gita promises. He says if you act in
\n<\/font>
\n
\nyoga<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>, you rise above
\n\tgrief and pain, even above all things. You are free from fear or sin, because you do not act for yourself. You do not act because
\n\tyou will get pleasure, but for the sake of God; that is how you
\n\t
\n\tare to reach <\/font>
\n\t
\n\tyoga<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. If you wish to be happy, you must give up
\n\tall your works to God. You must do all your work for His<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nPage-51<\/p>\n

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\n

\nsake, and therefore sin does not touch you. It is only because of selfishness that sin touches you. If you realise that Narayana is in all, it follows that you lose the smaller, the individual limited self. You look to wider things. You see yourself in the family, in
\n\tthe community, race, humanity, and all things in the world. You forget yourself altogether. You work for the race and others,
\n\tfor mankind. It is not God’s work when you follow after your selfishness. The Gita says: “Your welfare is God’s business.” If you work for Him you have no fear, because God stretches out
\n\t
\n\tHis hand of mercy to you. It is to that which the
\n\t<\/font>
\n
\nyoga
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>
\n\t<\/font>leads.
\n\tThe teaching of the Gita, if it is followed, delivers you from all possibility of sin, of sorrow. He says: “Take refuge in me. I shall free you from all evil. Do everything as a sacrifice to me.” That is the goal towards which you move. The name of Hari will free you from all evil. <\/p>\n

\nThis is the way in which Srikrishna has solved the problem put by Arjuna. Arjuna says: “It is my duty to fight for justice, it is my duty as a Kshatriya not to turn from Dharmayuddha, but I am perplexed, because the consequences will be so terrible. The people I am to slay are dear to me. How can I kill them?”
\n\tKrishna says: “There is no doubt an apparent conflict of duties, but that is the nature of life. Life is itself a problem, a very
\n\tentangled thread, which it is impossible to undo. But it is I who do all these things, I who am leading you to the fulfilment of your duties. Leave it to me. If you do your duty, it is a thing which I am bringing about. You are not doing it from selfishness. It is a
\n\tthing necessary for my purpose. It is a thing which is decreed, already done, but it is now to be effected in the material world.
\n\tWhatever happens, it happens for the best. I now give you my
\n\t
\n\tknowledge, the key to
\n<\/font>
\n
\nyoga<\/font><\/i><\/font><\/font>. I remove the veil of ignorance from
\n\tyou. I give you the meaning of
\n\t
\nyoga<\/font><\/i><\/font>.” In the Gita Srikrishna gives certain rules by which a man may hold communion with God. <\/p>\n

\nThe Gita says that man is not a bundle of outward cares and griefs, of things that do not last. Man is a garment which is put off from time to time, but there is within us something which is omniscient and eternal and cannot be drowned.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nPage-52<\/p>\n

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\n

\nSrikrishna gave Arjuna the
\n\t<\/font>
\n
\ndivya chakshu<\/i><\/font>, with which he saw the Vishwarupa. He now sees Vasudeva everywhere. He sees within him things that cannot be seen by the mysteries of science. With this knowledge comes to him that force.
\n\t<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\nHow can I act, yet be free from bondage? The Gita says that the man who has knowledge has to do exactly what other men do. He has to live as a man in his family, race and nation. But there is a difference which is internal and not external. By
\n\tthe internal difference he acts in communion with God; others act in pursuance of their desires. He knows by experience how
\n\ta man can act when he is free from desire. This force of action is the force of God Himself. He is not troubled by the result of
\n\taction; he gets eternal bliss. <\/p>\n

\n
\n\tThis is the whole teaching of the Gita. It is
\n<\/font>
\n
\nyoga
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/font>
\n\t<\/font>which gives
\n\tutter perfection in action. The man who works for God is not shaken by doubts.\n\t<\/p>\n

\nThe teaching of the Gita is a teaching for life, and not a teaching for the life of a closet. It is a teaching which means perfection of action. It makes man great. It gives him the utter strength, the utter bliss which is the goal of life in the world.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

\nPage-53<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Khulna Speech   GENTLEMEN, today I will speak a few words on the Gita. The main object of that philosophy is found in the Vedanta,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-08-karmayogin","wpcat-44-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038","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=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}