{"id":2230,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2230"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:15","slug":"30-works-devotion-and-knowledge-vol-19-essays-on-the-gita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/19-essays-on-the-gita\/30-works-devotion-and-knowledge-vol-19-essays-on-the-gita","title":{"rendered":"-30_Works, Devotion and Knowledge.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nVI <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nWorks, Devotion and Knowledge <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nT<\/font>HIS
\nTHEN<\/b> is the integral truth, the highest and widest knowledge. The Divine is
\nsupracosmic, the eternal Parabrahman who supports with his timeless and
\nspaceless existence all this cosmic manifestation of his own being and nature in
\nSpace and Time. He is the supreme spirit who ensouls the forms and movements of
\nthe universe, Paramatman. He is the supernal Person of whom all self and nature,
\nall being and becoming in this or any universe are the self-conception and the
\nself-energising, Purushottama. He is the ineffable Lord of all existence who by
\nhis spiritual control of his own manifested Power in Nature unrolls the cycles
\nof the world and the natural evolution of creatures in the cycles, Parameshwara.
\nFrom him the Jiva, individual spirit, soul in Nature, existent by his being,
\nconscious by the light of his consciousness, empowered to knowledge, to will and
\nto action by his will and power, enjoying existence by his divine enjoyment of
\nthe cosmos, has come here into the cosmic rounds.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe inner soul in man is here a partial self-manifestation of the Divine,
\nself-limited for the works of his Nature in the universe, prakrtir jī<\/font>va-bhūta<\/i>. In his spiritual essence the individual is <\/p>\n

one with the Divine. In the works of the divine Prakriti he is one with him, yet
\nthere is an operative difference and many deep relations with God in Nature and
\nwith God above cosmic Nature. In the works of the lower appearance of Prakriti
\nhe seems by an ignorance and egoistic separation to be quite other than the One
\nand to think, will, act, enjoy in this separative consciousness for the egoistic
\npleasure and purpose of his personal existence in the universe and its surface
\nrelations with other embodied minds and lives. But in fact all his being, all
\nhis thinking, all his willing and action and enjoyment are only a reflection \u2014
\negoistic and perverted so long as he is in the ignorance \u2014 of the  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 322<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDivine’s being, the Divine’s thought, will, action and enjoyment of Nature. To
\nget back to this truth of himself is his direct means of salvation, his largest
\nand nearest door of escape from subjection to the Ignorance. Since he is a
\nspirit, a soul with a nature of mind and reason, of will and dynamic action, of
\nemotion and sensation and life’s seeking for the delight of existence, it is by
\nturning all these powers Godwards that the return to the highest truth of
\nhimself can be made entirely possible. He must know with the knowledge of the
\nsupreme Self and Brahman; he must turn his love and adoration to the supreme
\nPerson; he must subject his will and works to the supreme Lord of cosmos. Then
\nhe passes from the lower to the divine Nature: he casts from him the thought and
\nwill and works of the Ignorance and thinks, wills and works in his divine
\nidentity as soul of that Soul, power and light of that Spirit; he enjoys all the
\ninner infinite of the Divine and no longer only these outward touches, masks and
\nappearances. Thus divinely living, thus directing his whole self and soul and
\nnature Godwards, he is taken up into the truest truth of the supreme Brahman.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nTo know Vasudeva as all and live in that knowledge is the secret. He knows him
\nas the Self, immutable, continent of all as well as immanent in all things. He
\ndraws back from the confused and perturbed whirl of the lower nature to dwell in
\nthe still and inalienable calm and light of the self-existent spirit. There he
\nrealises a constant unity with this self of the Divine that is present in all
\nexistences and supports all cosmic movement and action and phenomenon. He looks
\nupward from this eternal unchanging spiritual hypostasis of the mutable universe
\nto the greater Eternal, the supracosmic, the Real. He knows him as the divine
\nInhabitant in all things that are, the Lord in the heart of man, the secret
\nIshwara, and removes the veil between his natural being and this inner spiritual
\nMaster of his being. He makes his will, thought and works one in knowledge with
\nthe Ishwara’s, attuned by an ever-present realisation to the sense of the
\nindwelling Divinity, sees and adores him in all and changes the whole human
\naction to the highest meaning of the divine nature. He knows him as the source
\nand the substance of all that   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 323<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

is around him in the universe. All things that are he sees as at once in their
\nappearance the veils and in their secret trend the means and signs of
\nself-manifestation of that one unthinkable Reality and everywhere discovers that
\noneness, Brahman, Purusha, Atman, Vasudeva, the Being that has become all these
\ncreatures. Therefore too his whole inner existence comes into tune and harmony
\nwith the Infinite now self-revealed in all that lives or is within and around
\nhim and his whole outer existence turns into an exact instrumentation of the
\ncosmic purpose. He looks up through the Self to the Parabrahman who there and
\nhere is the one and only existence. He looks up through the divine Inhabitant in
\nall to that supernal Person who in his supreme status is beyond all habitation.
\nHe looks up through the Lord manifested in the universe to the Supreme who
\nexceeds and rules all his manifestation. Thus he arises through a limitless
\nunfolding of knowledge and upward vision and aspiration to that to which he has
\nturned with an all-compelling integrality, <\/p>\n

sarvabhā<\/font>vena<\/i>. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis integral turning of the soul Godwards bases royally the Gita’s synthesis of
\nknowledge and works and devotion. To know God thus integrally is to know him as
\nOne in the self and in all manifestation and beyond all manifestation, \u2014 and all
\nthis unitedly and at once. And yet even so to know him is not enough unless it
\nis accompanied by an intense uplifting of the heart and soul Godwards, unless it
\nkindles a one-pointed and at the same time all-embracing love, adoration,
\naspiration. Indeed the knowledge which is not companioned by an aspiration and
\nvivified by an uplifting is no true knowledge, for it can be only an
\nintellectual seeing and a barren cognitive endeavour. The vision of God brings
\ninfallibly the adoration and passionate seeking of the Divine, \u2014 a passion for
\nthe Divine in his self-existent being, but also for the Divine in ourselves and
\nfor the Divine in all that is. To know with the intellect is simply to
\nunderstand and may be an effective starting-point, \u2014 or, too, it may not be, and
\nit will not be if there is no sincerity in the knowledge, no urge towards inner
\nrealisation in the will, no power upon the soul, no call in the spirit: for that
\nwould mean that the brain has   <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 324<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nexternally understood, but inwardly the soul has seen nothing. True knowledge is
\nto know with the inner being, and when the inner being is touched by the light,
\nthen it arises to embrace that which is seen, it yearns to possess, it struggles
\nto shape that in itself and itself to it, it labours to become one with the
\nglory of its vision. Knowledge in this sense is an awakening to identity and,
\nsince the inner being realises itself by consciousness and delight, by love, by
\npossession and oneness with whatever of itself it has seen, knowledge awakened
\nmust bring an overmastering impulse towards this true and only perfect
\nrealisation. Here that which is known is not an externalised object, but the
\ndivine Purusha, self and lord of all that we are. An all-seizing delight in him
\nand a deep and moved love and adoration of him must be the inevitable result and
\nis the very soul of this knowledge. And this adoration is no isolated seeking of
\nthe heart, but an offering of the whole existence. Therefore it must take also
\nthe form of a sacrifice; there is a giving of all our works to the Ishwara,
\nthere is a surrender of all our active inward and outward nature to the Godhead
\nof our adoration in its every subjective and in its every objective movement.
\nAll our subjective workings move in him and they seek him, the Lord and Self, as
\nthe source and goal of their power and endeavour. All our objective workings
\nmove out towards him in the world and make him their object, initiate a service
\nof God in the world of which the controlling power is the Divinity within us in
\nwhom we are one self with the universe and its creatures. For both world and
\nself, Nature and the soul in her are enlightened by the consciousness of the
\nOne, are inner and outer bodies of the transcendent Purushottama. So comes a
\nsynthesis of mind and heart and will in the one self and spirit and with it the
\nsynthesis of knowledge, love and works in this integral union, this embracing
\nGod-realisation, this divine Yoga. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut to arrive at this movement at all is difficult for the
\nego-bound nature. And
\nto arrive at its victorious and harmonious integrality is not easy even when we
\nhave set our feet on the way finally and for ever. Mortal mind is bewildered by
\nits ignorant reliance upon veils and appearances; it sees only the outward human
\nbody, human mind, human way of living and catches no   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 325<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

liberating glimpse of the Divinity who is lodged in the creature. It ignores the
\ndivinity within itself and cannot see it in other men, and even though the
\nDivine manifest himself in humanity as Avatar and Vibhuti, it is still blind and
\nignores or despises <\/p>\n

the veiled Godhead, avajānanti mām mūdhā mānusīm tanum
\nāśritam<\/i>. And if it ignores him in the living creature, still
\nless can it see him in the objective world on which it looks out from its prison
\nof separative ego through the barred windows of the finite mind. It does not see
\nGod in the universe; it knows nothing of the supreme Divinity who is master of
\nthese planes full of various existences and dwells within them; it is blind to
\nthe vision by which all in the world grows divine and the soul itself awakens to
\nits own inherent divinity and becomes of the Godhead, godlike. What it does see
\nreadily, and to that it attaches itself with passion, is only the life of the
\nego hunting after finite things for their own sake and for the satisfaction of
\nthe earthly hunger of the intellect, body, senses. Those who have given
\nthemselves up too entirely to this outward drive of the mentality, fall into the
\nhands of the lower nature, cling to it and make it their foundation. They become
\na prey to the nature of the Rakshasa in man who sacrifices everything to a
\nviolent and inordinate satisfaction of his separate vital ego and makes that the
\ndark godhead of his will and thought and action and enjoyment. Or they are
\nhurried onward in a fruitless cycle by the arrogant self-will, self-sufficient
\nthought, self-regarding act, self-satisfied and yet ever unsatisfied
\nintellectualised appetite of enjoyment of the Asuric nature. But to live
\npersistently in this separative ego-consciousness and make that the centre of
\nall our activities is to miss altogether the true self-awareness. The charm it
\nthrows upon the misled instruments of the spirit is an enchantment that chains
\nlife to a profitless circling. All its hope, action, knowledge are vain things
\nwhen judged by the divine and eternal standard, for it shuts out the great hope,
\nexcludes the liberating action, banishes the illuminating knowledge. It is a
\nfalse knowledge that sees the phenomenon but misses the truth of the phenomenon,
\na blind hope that chases after the transient but misses the eternal, a sterile
\naction whose every   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 326<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nprofit is annulled by loss and amounts to a perennial labour of Sisyphus.1<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe great-souled who open themselves to the light and largeness of the diviner
\nnature of which man is capable, are alone on the path narrow in the beginning,
\ninexpressibly wide in the end that leads to liberation and perfection. The
\ngrowth of the god in man is man’s proper business; the steadfast turning of this
\nlower Asuric and Rakshasic into the divine nature is the carefully hidden
\nmeaning of human life. As this growth increases, the veil falls and the soul
\ncomes to see the greater significance of action and the real truth of existence.
\nThe eye opens to the Godhead in man, to the Godhead in the world; it sees
\ninwardly and comes to know outwardly the infinite Spirit, the Imperishable from
\nwhom all existences originate and who exists in all and by him and in him all
\nexist always. Therefore when this vision, this knowledge seizes on the soul, its
\nwhole life-aspiration becomes a surpassing love and fathomless adoration of the
\nDivine and Infinite. The mind attaches itself singly to the eternal, the
\nspiritual, the living, the universal, the Real; it values nothing but for its
\nsake, it delights only in the all-blissful Purusha. All the word and all the
\nthought become one hymning of the universal greatness, Light, Beauty, Power and
\nTruth that has revealed itself in its glory to the human spirit and a worship of
\nthe one supreme Soul and infinite Person. All the long stress of the inner self
\nto break outward becomes a form now of spiritual endeavour and aspiration to
\npossess the Divine in the soul and realise the Divine in the nature. All life
\nbecomes a constant Yoga and unification of that Divine and this human spirit.
\nThis is the manner of the integral devotion; it creates a single uplifting of
\nour whole being and nature through sacrifice by the dedicated heart to the
\neternal Purushottama.2<\/font><\/sup> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThose who lay a predominant stress on knowledge, arrive to the same point by an
\nalways increasing, engrossing, enforcing power of the vision of the Divine on
\nthe soul and the nature. Theirs is the sacrifice of knowledge and by an
\nineffable ecstasy <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 Gita, IX. 11-12.      2 IX. 13-14.  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 327<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

of knowledge they come to the adoration of the Purushottama,
\nj\u00f1āna-yaj\u00f1ena yajanto mām upā<\/font>sate<\/i>. This is a comprehension
\nfilled with Bhakti, because it is integral in its instruments, integral in its
\nobjective. It is not a pursuit of the Supreme merely as an abstract unity or an
\nindeterminable Absolute. It is a heartfelt seeking and seizing of the Supreme
\nand the Universal, a pursuit of the Infinite in his infinity and of the Infinite
\nin all that is finite, a vision and embracing of the One in his oneness and of
\nthe One in all his several principles, his innumerable visages, forces, forms,
\nhere, there, everywhere, timelessly and in time, multiply, multitudinously, in
\nendless aspects of his Godhead, in beings without number, all his million
\nuniversal faces fronting <\/p>\n

us in the world and its creatures, ekatvena prthaktvena bahudhā<\/font>
\nviśvatomukham<\/i>. This knowledge becomes easily an adoration, a large
\ndevotion, a vast self-giving, an integral self-offering because it is the
\nknowledge of a Spirit, the contact of a Being, the embrace of a supreme and
\nuniversal Soul which claims all that we are even as it lavishes on us when we
\napproach it all the treasures of its endless delight of existence.3<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe way of works too turns into an adoration and a devotion of self-giving
\nbecause it is an entire sacrifice of all our will and its activities to the one
\nPurushottama. The outward Vedic rite is a powerful symbol, effective for a
\nslighter though still a heavenward purpose; but the real sacrifice is that inner
\noblation in which the Divine All becomes himself the ritual action, the
\nsacrifice and every single circumstance of the sacrifice. All the working and
\nforms of that inner rite are the self-ordinance and self-expression of his power
\nin us mounting by our aspiration towards the source of its energies. The Divine
\nInhabitant becomes himself the flame and the offering, because the flame is the
\nGodward will and that will is God himself within us. And the offering too is
\nform and force of the constituent Godhead in our nature and being; all that has
\nbeen received from him is given up to the service and the worship of its own
\nReality, <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 IX. 15.  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 328<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nits own supreme Truth and Origin. The Divine Thinker becomes himself the sacred
\nmantra; it is the Light of his being that expresses itself in the thought
\ndirected Godward and is effective in the revealing word of splendour that
\nenshrines the thought’s secret and in the rhythm that repeats for man the
\nrhythms of the Eternal. The illumining Godhead is himself the Veda and that
\nwhich is made known by the Veda. He is both the knowledge and the object of the
\nknowledge. The Rik, the Yajur, the Sama, the word of illumination which lights
\nup the mind with the rays of knowledge, the word of power for the right
\nordaining of action, the word of calm and harmonious attainment for the bringing
\nof the divine desire of the spirit, are themselves the Brahman, the Godhead. The
\nmantra of the divine Consciousness brings its light of revelation, the mantra of
\nthe divine Power its will of effectuation, the mantra of the divine Ananda its
\nequal fulfilment of the spiritual delight of existence. All word and thought are
\nan outflowering of the great OM, \u2014 OM, the Word, the Eternal. Manifest in the
\nforms of sensible objects, manifest in that conscious play of creative
\nself-conception of which forms and objects are the figures, manifest behind in
\nthe self-gathered superconscient power of the Infinite, OM is the sovereign
\nsource, seed, womb of thing and idea, form and name, \u2014 it is itself, integrally,
\nthe supreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self-existent
\nabove all manifestation in supernal being.4<\/font><\/sup> This sacrifice is therefore at once
\nworks and adoration and knowledge.5<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nTo the soul that thus knows, adores, offers up all its workings in a great
\nself-surrender of its being to the Eternal, God is all and all is the Godhead.
\nIt knows God as the Father of this world who nourishes and cherishes and watches
\nover his children. It knows God as the divine Mother who holds us in her bosom,
\nlavishes upon us the sweetness of her love and fills the universe with her forms
\nof beauty. It knows him as the first Creator from
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 AUM, \u2014 A the spirit of the gross and external, Virat, U the spirit of the
\nsubtle and internal, Taijasa, M the spirit of the secret superconscient
\nomnipotence, Prajna, OM the Absolute, Turiya. \u2014 Mandukya Upanishad<\/i>.
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n5 IX. 16-17.  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 329<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

whom has originated all that originates and creates in space and time and
\nrelation. It knows him as the Master and ordainer of all universal and of every
\nindividual dispensation. The world and fate and uncertain eventuality cannot
\nterrify, the aspect of suffering and evil cannot bewilder the man who has
\nsurrendered himself to the Eternal. God to the soul that sees is the path and
\nGod is the goal of his journey, a path in which there is no self-losing and a
\ngoal to which his wisely guided steps are surely arriving at every moment. He
\nknows the Godhead as the master of his and all being, the upholder of his
\nnature, the husband of the nature-soul, its lover and cherisher, the inner
\nwitness of all his thoughts and actions. God is his house and country, the
\nrefuge of his seekings and desires, the wise and close and benignant friend of
\nall beings. All birth and status and destruction of apparent existences is to
\nhis vision and experience the One who brings forward, maintains and withdraws
\nhis temporal self-manifestation in its system of perpetual recurrences. He alone
\nis the imperishable seed and origin of all that seem to be born and perish and
\ntheir eternal resting-place in their non-manifestation. It is he that burns in
\nthe heat of the sun and the flame; it is he who is the plenty of the rain and
\nits withholding; he is all this physical Nature and her workings. Death is his
\nmask and immortality is his self-revelation. All that we call existent is he and
\nall that we look upon as non-existent still is there secret in the Infinite and
\nis part of the mysterious being of the Ineffable.6<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nNothing but the highest knowledge and adoration, no other way than an entire
\nself-giving and surrender to this Highest who is all, will bring us to the
\nHighest. Other religion, other worship, other knowledge, other seeking has
\nalways its fruits, but these are transient and limited to the enjoyment of
\ndivine symbols and appearances. There are always open for our following
\naccording to the balance of our mentality an outer and an inmost knowledge, an
\nouter and an inmost seeking. Outward religion is the worship of an outward deity
\nand the pursuit of an external beatitude: its devotees purify their conduct from
\nsin and attain <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 IX. 17-19.  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 330<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nto an active ethical righteousness in order to satisfy the fixed law, the
\nShastra, the external dispensation; they perform the ceremonial symbol of the
\nouter communion. But their object is to secure after the mortal pleasure and
\npain of earthly life the bliss of heavenly worlds, a greater happiness than
\nearth can give but still a personal and mundane enjoyment though in a larger
\nworld than the field of this limited and suffering terrestrial nature. And to
\nthat to which they aspire, they attain by faith and right endeavour; for
\nmaterial existence and earthly activities are not the whole scope of our
\npersonal becoming or the whole formula of the cosmos. Other worlds there are of
\na larger felicity, svargalokam viśā<\/font>lam<\/i>. Thus the Vedic ritualist of old learned the exoteric
\nsense of the triple Veda, purified himself from sin, drank the wine of communion
\nwith the gods and sought by sacrifice and good deeds the rewards of heaven. This
\nfirm belief in a Beyond and this seeking of a diviner world secures to the soul
\nin its passing the strength to attain to the joys of heaven on which its faith
\nand seeking were centred: but the return to mortal existence imposes itself
\nbecause the true aim of that existence has not been found and realised. Here and
\nnot elsewhere the highest Godhead has to be found, the soul’s divine nature
\ndeveloped out of the imperfect physical human nature and through unity with God
\nand man and universe the whole large truth of being discovered and lived and
\nmade visibly wonderful. That completes the long cycle of our becoming and admits
\nus to a supreme result; that is the opportunity given to the soul by the human
\nbirth and, until that is accomplished, it cannot cease. The God-lover advances
\nconstantly towards this ultimate necessity of our birth in cosmos through a
\nconcentrated love and adoration by which he makes the supreme and universal
\nDivine the whole object of his living \u2014 not either egoistic terrestrial
\nsatisfaction or the celestial worlds \u2014 and the whole object of his thought and
\nhis seeing. To see nothing but the Divine, to be at every moment in union with
\nhim, to love him in all creatures and have the delight of him in all things is
\nthe whole condition of his spiritual existence. His God-vision does not divorce
\nhim from life, nor does he miss anything of the fullness of life; for God
\nhimself becomes the spontaneous   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 331<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

bringer to him of every good and of all his inner and outer getting
\n and having, yoga-ksemam vahā<\/font>myaham<\/i>. The joy of heaven and <\/p>\n

the joy of earth are only a small shadow of his possessions; for as he
\ngrows into the Divine, the Divine too flows out upon him with all the light,
\npower and joy of an infinite existence.7<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOrdinary religion is a sacrifice to partial godheads other than the integral
\nDivinity. The Gita takes its direct examples from the old Vedic religion on its
\nexoteric side as it had then developed; it describes this outward worship as a
\nsacrifice to other
\n godheads, anya-devatāh<\/i>, to the gods, or to the divinised Ancestors, or to elemental powers and spirits,
\ndevā<\/font>n, pitrn,
\nbhūtāni<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Men consecrate their life and works ordinarily to partial powers or
\naspects of the divine Existence as they see or conceive them \u2014 mostly powers and
\naspects that ensoul to them things prominent in Nature and man or else reflect
\nto them their own humanity in a divine exceeding symbol. If they do this with
\nfaith, then their faith is justified; for the Divine accepts whatever symbol,
\nform or conception of himself is present to the mind of the worshipper, yā<\/font>m
\nyām tanum śraddhayā arcati<\/i>, as it is said elsewhere,
\nand meets him according to the faith that is in him. All sincere religious
\nbelief and practice is really a seeking after the one supreme and universal
\nGodhead; for he always is the sole master of man’s sacrifice and askesis and
\ninfinite enjoyer of his effort and aspiration. However small or low the form of
\nthe worship, however limited the idea of the godhead, however restricted the
\ngiving, the faith, the effort to get behind the veil of one’s own ego-worship and
\nlimitation by material Nature, it yet forms a thread of connection between the
\nsoul of man and the All-soul and there is a response. Still the response, the
\nfruit of the adoration and offering is according to the knowledge, the faith and
\nthe work and cannot exceed their limitations, and therefore from the point of
\nview of the greater God-knowledge, which alone gives the entire truth of being
\nand becoming, this inferior offering is not given according to the true and
\nhighest law of the sacrifice. It is not founded on a knowledge of the supreme
\nGodhead in his integral
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 IX. 20-22.  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 332<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nexistence and the true principles of his self-manifestation, but <\/p>\n

attaches itself to external and partial appearances, \u2014 na mām
\nabhijānanti tattvena<\/i>. Therefore its sacrifice too is limited in its
\nobject, largely egoistic in its motive, partial and mistaken in <\/p>\n

its action and its giving, yajanti avidhi-purvakam<\/i>. An entire
\nseeing of the Divine is the condition of an entire conscious self-surrender; the
\nrest attains to things that are incomplete and partial, and has to fall back
\nfrom them and return to enlarge itself in a greater seeking and wider
\nGod-experience. But to follow after the supreme and universal Godhead alone and
\nutterly is to attain to all knowledge and result which other ways acquire, while
\nyet one is not limited by any aspect, though one finds the truth of him in all
\naspects. This movement embraces all forms of divine being on its way to the
\nsupreme Purushottama.8<\/font><\/sup> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis absolute self-giving, this one-minded surrender is the devotion which the
\nGita makes the crown of its synthesis. All action and effort are by this
\ndevotion turned into an offering to the supreme and universal Godhead. "Whatever
\nthou doest, whatever thou enjoyest, whatever thou sacrificest, whatever thou
\ngivest, whatever energy of tapasya, of the soul’s will or effort thou puttest
\nforth, make it an offering unto Me." Here the least, the slightest circumstance
\nof life, the most insignificant gift out of oneself or what one has, the
\nsmallest action assumes a divine significance and it becomes an acceptable
\noffering to the Godhead who makes it a means for his possession of the soul and
\nlife of the God-lover. The distinctions made by desire and ego then disappear.
\nAs there is no straining after the good result of one’s action, no shunning of
\nunhappy result, but all action and result are given up to the Supreme to whom
\nall work and fruit in the world belong for ever, there is no farther bondage.
\nFor by an absolute self-giving all egoistic desire disappears from the heart and
\nthere is a perfect union between the Divine and the individual soul through an
\ninner renunciation of its separate living. All will, all action, all result
\nbecome that of the Godhead, work divinely through the purified and illumined
\nnature and no <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 IX. 23-25.  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 333<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

longer belong to the limited personal ego. The finite nature thus surrendered
\nbecomes a free channel of the Infinite; the soul in its spiritual being,
\nuplifted out of the ignorance and the limitation, returns to its oneness with
\nthe Eternal. The Divine Eternal is the inhabitant in all existences; he is equal
\nin all and the equal friend, father, mother, creator, lover, supporter of all
\ncreatures. He is the enemy of none and he is the partial lover of none; none has
\nhe cast out, none has he eternally condemned, none has he favoured by any
\ndespotism of arbitrary caprice: all at last equally come to him through their
\ncirclings in the ignorance. But it is only this perfect adoration that can make
\nthis indwelling of God in man and man in God a conscious thing and an engrossing
\nand perfect union. Love of the Highest and a total self-surrender are the
\nstraight and swift way to this divine oneness.9<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe equal Divine Presence in all of us makes no other preliminary condition, if
\nonce this integral self-giving has been made in faith and in sincerity and with
\na fundamental completeness. All have access to this gate, all can enter into
\nthis temple: our mundane distinctions disappear in the mansion of the All-lover.
\nThere the virtuous man is not preferred, nor the sinner shut out from the
\nPresence; together by this road the Brahmin pure of life and exact in observance
\nof the law and the outcaste born from a womb of sin and sorrow and rejected of
\nmen can travel and find an equal and open access to the supreme liberation and
\nthe highest dwelling in the Eternal. Man and woman find their equal right before
\nGod; for the divine Spirit is no respecter of persons or of social distinctions
\nand restrictions: all can go straight to him without intermediary or shackling
\ncondition. "If" says the divine Teacher "even a man of very evil conduct turns
\nto me with a sole and entire love, he must be regarded as a saint, for the
\nsettled will of endeavour in him is a right and complete will. Swiftly he
\nbecomes a soul of righteousness and obtains eternal peace." In other words a
\nwill of entire self-giving opens wide all the gates of the spirit and brings in
\nresponse an entire descent and self-giving of the Godhead to the human being,
\nand that at
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 IX. 26-29.  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 334<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nonce reshapes and assimilates everything in us to the law of the divine
\nexistence by a rapid transformation of the lower into the spiritual nature. The
\nwill of self-giving forces away by its power the veil between God and man; it
\nannuls every error and annihilates every obstacle. Those who aspire in their
\nhuman strength by effort of knowledge or effort of virtue or effort of laborious
\nself-discipline, grow with much anxious difficulty towards the Eternal; but when
\nthe soul gives up its ego and its works to the Divine, God himself comes to us
\nand takes up our burden. To the ignorant he brings the light of the divine
\nknowledge, to the feeble the power of the divine will, to the sinner the
\nliberation of the divine purity, to the suffering the infinite spiritual joy and
\nAnanda. Their weakness and the stumblings of their human strength make no
\ndifference. "This is my word of promise," cries the voice of the Godhead to
\nArjuna, "that he who loves me shall not perish." Previous effort and
\npreparation, the purity and the holiness of the Brahmin, the enlightened
\nstrength of the king-sage great in works and knowledge have their value, because
\nthey make it easier for the imperfect human creature to arrive at this wide
\nvision and self-surrender; but even without this preparation all who take refuge
\nin the divine Lover of man, the Vaishya once preoccupied with the narrowness of
\nwealth-getting and the labour of production, the Shudra hampered by a thousand
\nhard restrictions, woman shut in and stunted in her growth by the narrow circle
\nsociety has drawn around her <\/p>\n

self-expansion, those too, pā<\/font>pa-yonayah<\/i>, on whom their past <\/p>\n

Karma has imposed even the very worst of births, the outcaste, the Pariah, the
\nChandala, find at once the gates of God opening before them. In the spiritual
\nlife all the external distinctions of which men make so much because they appeal
\nwith an oppressive force to the outward mind, cease before the equality of the
\ndivine Light and the wide omnipotence of an impartial Power.10<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe earthly world preoccupied with the dualities and bound to the immediate
\ntransient relations of the hour and the moment is for man, so long as he dwells
\nhere attached to these things
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 IX. 30-32.  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 335<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

and while he accepts the law they impose on him for the law of his life, a world
\nof struggle, suffering and sorrow. The way to liberation is to turn from the
\noutward to the inward, from the appearance created by the material life which
\nlays its burden on the mind and imprisons it in the grooves of the life and the
\nbody to the divine Reality which waits to manifest itself through the freedom of
\nthe spirit. Love of the world, the mask, must change into the love of God, the
\nTruth. Once this secret and inner Godhead is known and is embraced, the whole
\nbeing and the whole life will undergo a sovereign uplifting and a marvellous
\ntransmutation. In place of the ignorance of the lower Nature absorbed in its
\noutward works and appearances the eye will open to the vision of God everywhere,
\nto the unity and universality of the spirit. The world’s sorrow and pain will
\ndisappear in the bliss of the All-blissful; our weakness and error and sin will
\nbe changed into the all-embracing and all-transforming strength, truth and
\npurity of the Eternal. To make the mind one with the divine consciousness, to
\nmake the whole of our emotional nature one love of God everywhere, to make all
\nour works one sacrifice to the Lord of the worlds and all our worship and
\naspiration one adoration of him and self-surrender, to direct the whole self
\nGodwards in an entire union is the way to rise out of a mundane into a divine
\nexistence. This is the Gita’s teaching of divine love and devotion, in which
\nknowledge, works and the heart’s longing become one in a supreme unification, a
\nmerging of all their divergences, an intertwining of all their threads, a high
\nfusion, a wide identifying movement.11<\/font><\/sup>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 IX. 33-34.   <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 336<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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