{"id":2250,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:23","slug":"19-equality-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\/19-equality-vol-19-essays-on-the-gita","title":{"rendered":"-19_Equality.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n  <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n S<\/font>INCE<\/b> knowledge, desirelessness, impersonality, equality,
\nthe inner self-existent peace and bliss, freedom from or at least superiority to the tangled interlocking of the three
\nmodes of Nature are the signs of the liberated soul, they must accompany it in all its activities. They are the condition of that
\nunalterable calm which this soul preserves in all the movement, all the shock, all the clash of forces which surround it in the
\nworld. That calm reflects the equable immutability of the Brahman in the midst of all mutations, and it belongs to the indivisible
\nand impartial Oneness which is for ever immanent in all the multiplicities of the universe. For an equal and all-equalising
\nspirit is that Oneness in the midst of the million differences and inequalities of the world; and equality of the spirit is the sole real
\nequality. For in all else in existence there can only be similarity, adjustment and balance; but even in the greatest similarities
\nof the world we find difference of inequality and difference of unlikeness and the adjusted balancings of the world can only
\ncome about by a poising of combined unequal weights. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nHence the immense importance attached by the Gita in its
\nelements of Karmayoga to equality; it is the nodus of the free spirit’s free relations with the world. Self-knowledge, desirelessness, impersonality, bliss, freedom from the modes of Nature, when withdrawn into themselves, self-absorbed, inactive, have
\nno need of equality; for they take no cognisance of the things in which the opposition of equality and inequality arises. But
\nthe moment the spirit takes cognisance of and deals with the multiplicities, personalities, differences, inequalities of the action of Nature, it has to effectuate these other signs of its free status by this one manifesting sign of equality. Knowledge is
\nthe consciousness of unity with the One; and in relation with the many different beings and existences of the universe it must
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 188<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tshow itself by an equal oneness with all. Impersonality is the one
\nimmutable spirit’s superiority to the variations of its multiple personality in the world; in its dealings with the personalities of
\nthe universe it must show itself in the equal and impartial spirit of its action with regard to all, however various that action may
\nbe made by the variety of relations into which it is moulded or of the conditions under which it has to take place. So Krishna
\nin the Gita says that none is dear to him, none hated, to all he is equal in spirit; yet is the God-lover the special receiver of his
\ngrace, because the relation he has created is different and the one impartial Lord of all yet meets each soul according to its way of
\napproach to him. Desirelessness is the illimitable Spirit’s superiority to the limiting attraction of the
\n\t\t\tseparate objects of desire in
\nthe world; when it has to enter into relations with those objects, it must show it either by an equal and impartial indifference in
\ntheir possession or by an equal and impartial unattached delight in all and love for all which, because it is self-existent, does not
\ndepend upon possession or non-possession, but is in its essence unperturbed and immutable. For the spirit’s bliss is in itself, and
\nif this bliss is to enter into relations with things and creatures, it is only in this way that it can manifest its free spirituality.
\n Traigunā<\/font>tī<\/font>tya<\/i>, transcendence of the gunas, is the unperturbed
\nspirit’s superiority to that flux of action of the modes of Nature which is in its constant character perturbed and unequal; if it has
\nto enter into relations with the conflicting and unequal activities of Nature, if the free soul is to allow its nature any action at all,
\nit must show its superiority by an impartial equality towards all activities, results or happenings.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nEquality is the sign and also for the aspirant the test. Where there is inequality in the soul, there there is in evidence some
\nunequal play of the modes of Nature, motion of desire, play of personal will, feeling and action, activity of joy and grief or
\nthat disturbed and disturbing delight which is not true spiritual bliss but a mental satisfaction bringing in its train inevitably
\na counterpart or recoil of mental dissatisfaction. Where there is inequality of soul, there there is deviation from knowledge,
\nloss of steadfast abiding in the all-embracing and all-reconciling   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 189<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

oneness of the Brahman and unity of things. By his equality the Karmayogin knows in the midst of his action that he is free.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIt is the spiritual nature of the equality enjoined, high and universal in its character and comprehension, which gives its
\ndistinctive note to the teaching of the Gita in this matter. For otherwise the mere teaching of equality in itself as the most
\ndesirable status of the mind, feelings and temperament in which we rise superior to human weakness, is by no means peculiar
\nto the Gita. Equality has always been held up to admiration as the philosophic ideal and the characteristic temperament of
\nthe sages. The Gita takes up indeed this philosophic ideal, but carries it far beyond into a higher region where we find ourselves
\nbreathing a larger and purer air. The Stoic poise, the philosophic poise of the soul are only its first and second steps of ascension
\nout of the whirl of the passions and the tossings of desire to a serenity and bliss, not of the Gods, but of the Divine himself in
\nhis supreme self-mastery. The Stoic equality, making character its pivot, founds itself upon self-mastery by austere endurance; the
\nhappier and serener philosophic equality prefers self-mastery by knowledge, by detachment, by a high intellectual indifference
\nseated above the disturbances to which our nature is prone, <\/p>\n

udāsīnavad āsīnah<\/i>, as the Gita expresses it;
\nthere is also the religious or Christian equality which is a perpetual kneeling
\nor a prostrate resignation and submission to the will of God. These are the
\nthree steps and means towards divine peace, heroic en <\/p>\n

durance, sage indifference, pious resignation, titiksā<\/i>,
\nudā<\/font>sī<\/font>natā<\/font><\/i>,
\nnamas <\/i>or nati<\/i>. The Gita takes them all in its large synthetic manner and weaves them into its upward soul-movement, but
\nit gives to each a profounder root, a larger outlook, a more universal and transcendent significance. For to each it gives the
\nvalues of the spirit, its power of spiritual being beyond the strain of character, beyond the difficult poise of the understanding,
\nbeyond the stress of the emotions. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe ordinary human soul takes a pleasure in the customary
\ndisturbances of its nature-life; it is because it has this pleasure and because, having it, it gives a sanction to the troubled play
\nof the lower nature that the play continues perpetually; for the  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 190<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n Prakriti does nothing except for the
\npleasure and with the sanction of its lover and enjoyer, the Purusha. We do not recognise
\nthis truth because under the actual stroke of the adverse disturbance, smitten by grief, pain, discomfort, misfortune, failure,
\ndefeat, blame, dishonour, the mind shrinks back from the blow, while it leaps eagerly to the embrace of the opposite and pleasurable disturbances, joy, pleasure, satisfactions of all kinds, prosperity, success, victory, glory, praise; but this does not alter
\nthe truth of the soul’s pleasure in life which remains constant behind the dualities of the mind. The warrior does not feel
\nphysical pleasure in his wounds or find mental satisfaction in his defeats; but he has a complete delight in the godhead of
\nbattle which brings to him defeat and wounds as well as the joy of victory, and he accepts the chances of the former and
\nthe hope of the latter as part of the mingled weft of war, the thing which the delight in him pursues. Even, wounds bring him
\na joy and pride in memory, complete when the pain of them has passed, but often enough present even while it is there and
\nactually fed by the pain. Defeat keeps for him the joy and pride of indomitable resistance to a superior adversary, or, if he is of a
\nbaser kind, the passions of hatred and revenge which also have their darker and crueller pleasures. So it is with the pleasure of
\nthe soul in the normal play of our life. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe mind recoils by pain and dislike from the adverse
\nstrokes of life; that is Nature’s device for enforcing a principle <\/p>\n

of self-protection, jugupsā<\/font><\/i>, so that the vulnerable nervous and bodily parts of us may not unduly rush upon self-destruction
\nto embrace it: it takes joy in the favourable touches of life; that is Nature’s lure of rajasic pleasure, so that the force in the
\ncreature may overcome the tamasic tendencies of inertia and inactivity and be impelled fully towards action, desire, struggle,
\nsuccess, and by its attachment to these things her ends may be worked out. Our secret soul takes a pleasure in this strife and
\neffort, and even a pleasure in adversity and suffering, which can be complete enough in memory and retrospect, but is present
\ntoo behind at the time and often even rises to the surface of the afflicted mind to support it in its passion; but what really
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 191<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

attracts the soul is the whole mingled weft of the thing we call life with all its disturbance of struggle and seeking, its attractions
\nand repulsions, its offer and its menace, its varieties of every kind. To the rajasic desire-soul in us a monotonous pleasure,
\nsuccess without struggle, joy without a shadow must after a time become fatiguing, insipid, cloying; it needs a background
\nof darkness to give full value to its enjoyment of light: for the happiness it seeks and enjoys is of that very nature, it is in
\nits very essence relative and dependent on the perception and experience of its opposite. The joy of the soul in the dualities is
\nthe secret of the mind’s pleasure in living. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAsk it to rise out of all this disturbance to the unmingled
\njoy of the pure bliss-soul which all the time secretly supports its strength in the struggle and makes its own continued existence
\npossible, \u2014 it will draw back at once from the call. It does not believe in such an existence; or it believes that it would not be
\nlife, that it would not be at all the varied existence in the world around it in which it is accustomed to take pleasure; it would
\nbe something tasteless and without savour. Or it feels that the effort would be too difficult for it; it recoils from the struggle of
\nthe ascent, although in reality the spiritual change is not at all more difficult than the realisation of the dreams the desire-soul
\npursues, nor entails more struggle and labour in the attainment than the tremendous effort which the desire-soul expends in its
\npassionate chase after its own transient objects of pleasure and desire. The true cause of its unwillingness is that it is asked to
\nrise above its own atmosphere and breathe a rarer and purer air of life, whose bliss and power it cannot realise and hardly
\neven conceives as real, while the joy of this lower turbid nature is to it the one thing familiar and palpable. Nor is this lower
\nsatisfaction in itself a thing evil and unprofitable; it is rather the condition for the upward evolution of our human nature out of
\nthe tamasic ignorance and inertia to which its material being is most subject; it is the rajasic stage of the graded ascent of man
\ntowards the supreme self-knowledge, power and bliss. But if we <\/p>\n

rest eternally on this plane, the madhyamā<\/font>
\ngatih <\/i>of the Gita, our <\/p>\n

ascent remains unfinished, the evolution of the soul incomplete.  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 192<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nThrough the sattwic being and nature to that which is beyond the three gunas lies the way of the soul to its perfection.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe movement which will lead us out of the disturbances of the lower nature must be necessarily a movement towards
\nequality in the mind, in the emotional temperament, in the soul. But it is to be noted that, although in the end we must arrive
\nat a superiority to all the three gunas of the lower nature, it is yet in its incipience by a resort to one or other of the three
\nthat the movement must begin. The beginning of equality may be sattwic, rajasic or tamasic; for there is a possibility in the
\nhuman nature of a tamasic equality. It may be purely tamasic, the heavy equability of a vital temperament rendered inertly irresponsive to the shocks of existence by a sort of dull insensibility undesirous of the joy of life. Or it may result from a weariness
\nof the emotions and desires accumulated by a surfeit and satiety of the pleasure or else, on the contrary, a disappointment and a
\ndisgust and shrinking from the pain of life, a lassitude, a fear and horror and dislike of the world: it is then in its nature a mixed
\nmovement, rajaso-tamasic, but the lower quality predominates. Or, approaching the sattwic principle, it may aid itself by the
\nintellectual perception that the desires of life cannot be satisfied, that the soul is too weak to master life, that the whole thing is
\nnothing but sorrow and transient effort and nowhere in it is there any real truth or sanity or light or happiness; this is the
\nsattwo-tamasic principle of equality and is not so much equality, though it may lead to that, as indifference or equal refusal. Essentially,
\nthe movement of tamasic equality is a generalisation of Nature’s <\/p>\n

principle of jugupsā <\/i>or self-protecting recoil extended from the shunning of particular painful effects to a shunning of the whole
\nlife of Nature itself as in sum leading to pain and self-tormenting and not to the delight which the soul demands.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIn tamasic equality by itself there is no real liberation; but it can be made a powerful starting-point, if, as in Indian asceticism,
\nit is turned into the sattwic by the perception of the greater existence, the truer power, the higher delight of the immutable Self
\nabove Nature. The natural turn of such a movement, however, is towards Sannyasa, the renunciation of life and works, rather
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 193<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

than to that union of inner renunciation of desire with continued activity in the world of Nature which the Gita advocates. The
\nGita, however, admits and makes room for this movement; it allows as a recoiling starting-point the perception of the defects
\nof the world-existence, birth and disease and death and old age and sorrow, the historic starting-point of the Buddha,
\njanma mrtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duhkha-dosānudarśanam<\/i>, and it accepts the <\/p>\n

effort of those whose self-discipline is motived by a desire for
\nrelease, even in this spirit, from the curse of age and death, <\/p>\n

jarā-marana-moksāya mām āśritya yatanti ye<\/i>. But that, to be of <\/p>\n

any profit, must be accompanied by the sattwic perception of a higher state and the taking delight and refuge in the existence of <\/p>\n

the Divine, mām āśritya<\/i>. Then the soul by its recoil
\ncomes to a greater condition of being, lifted beyond the three gunas and free
\nfrom birth and death and age and grief, and enjoys the immortality of its self-existence, janma-mrtyu-jarā-duhkhair vimukto<\/i> <\/p>\n

‘mrtam aśnute<\/i>. The tamasic unwillingness to accept the pain <\/p>\n

and effort of life is indeed by itself a weakening and degrading
\nthing, and in this lies the danger of preaching to all alike the gospel of asceticism and world-disgust, that it puts the stamp of
\na tamasic weakness and shrinking on unfit souls, confuses their understanding, buddhibhedam janayet<\/i>, diminishes the sustained aspiration, the confidence in living, the power of effort which the
\nsoul of man needs for its salutary, its necessary rajasic struggle to master its environment, without really opening to it
\n\u2014 for it
\nis yet incapable of that \u2014 a higher goal, a greater endeavour, a mightier victory. But in souls that are fit this tamasic recoil
\nmay serve a useful spiritual purpose by slaying their rajasic attraction, their eager preoccupation with the lower life which
\nprevents the sattwic awakening to a higher possibility. Seeking then for a refuge in the void they have created, they are able to
\nhear the divine call, “O soul that findest thyself in this transient and unhappy world, turn and put thy delight in Me,”
\nanityam<\/i> <\/p>\n

asukham lokam imam prāpya bhajasva mām<\/i>. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nStill, in this movement, the equality consists only in an equal
\nrecoil from all that constitutes the world; and it arrives at indifference and aloofness, but does not include that power to
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 194<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\naccept equally all the touches of the world pleasurable or painful without attachment or disturbance which is a necessary element
\nin the discipline of the Gita. Therefore, even if we begin with the tamasic recoil,
\n\u2014 which is not at all necessary, \u2014 it can only be
\nas a first incitement to a greater endeavour, not as a permanent pessimism. The real discipline begins with the movement to mastery over these things from which we were first inclined merely to flee. It is here that the possibility of a kind of rajasic equality
\ncomes in, which is at its lowest the strong nature’s pride in self-mastery, self-control, superiority to passion and weakness; but
\nthe Stoic ideal seizes upon this point of departure and makes it the key to an entire liberation of the soul from subjection to all
\nweakness of its lower nature. As the tamasic inward recoil is a <\/p>\n

generalisation of Nature’s principle of jugupsā <\/i>or self-protection from suffering, so the rajasic upward movement is a generalisation of Nature’s other principle of the acceptance of struggle and effort and the innate impulse of life towards mastery and victory; but it transfers the battle to the field where alone complete victory is possible. Instead of a struggle for scattered outward
\naims and transient successes, it proposes nothing less than the conquest of Nature and the world itself by a spiritual struggle
\nand an inner victory. The tamasic recoil turns from both the pains and pleasures of the world to flee from them; the rajasic
\nmovement turns upon them to bear, master and rise superior to them. The Stoic self-discipline calls desire and passion into its
\nembrace of the wrestler and crushes them between its arms, as did old Dhritarashtra in the epic the iron image of Bhima. It
\nendures the shock of things painful and pleasurable, the causes of the physical and mental affections of the nature, and breaks
\ntheir effects to pieces; it is complete when the soul can bear all touches without being pained or attracted, excited or troubled.
\nIt seeks to make man the conqueror and king of his nature. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Gita, making its call on the warrior nature of Arjuna,
\nstarts with this heroic movement. It calls on him to turn on the great enemy desire and slay it. Its first description of equality is
\nthat of the Stoic philosopher. “He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and amid pleasures is free from desire, from
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 195<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

whom liking and fear and wrath have passed away, is the sage of settled understanding. Who in all things is without affection
\nthough visited by this good or that evil and neither hates nor rejoices, his intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom.” If one
\nabstains from food, it says, giving a physical example, the object of sense ceases to affect, but the affection itself of the sense, the
\nrasa<\/i>, remains; it is only when, even in the exercise of the sense, it can keep back from seeking its sensuous aim in the object,
\nartha<\/i>, and abandon the affection, the desire for the pleasure of taste, that the highest level of the soul is reached. It is by using
\nthe mental organs on the objects, “ranging over them with the <\/p>\n

senses,” visayān indriyaiś caran<\/i>, but with senses subject to the
\nself, freed from liking and disliking, that one gets into a large and sweet clearness of soul and temperament in which passion
\nand grief find no place. All desires have to enter into the soul, as waters into the sea, and yet it has to remain immovable, filled
\nbut not disturbed: so in the end all desires can be abandoned. To be freed from wrath and passion and fear and attraction
\nis repeatedly stressed as a necessary condition of the liberated status, and for this we must learn to bear their shocks, which
\ncannot be done without exposing ourselves to their causes. “He who can bear here in the body the velocity of wrath and desire,
\n is the Yogin, the happy man.” Titiksā<\/i>, the will and power to
\nendure, is the means. “The material touches which cause heat and cold, happiness and pain, things transient which come and
\ngo, these learn to endure. For the man whom these do not trouble nor pain, the firm and wise who is equal in pleasure
\nand suffering, makes himself apt for immortality.” The equal-souled has to bear suffering and not hate, to receive pleasure and
\nnot rejoice. Even the physical affections are to be mastered by endurance and this too is part of the Stoic discipline. Age, death,
\nsuffering, pain are not fled from, but accepted and vanquished by a high indifference.1<\/font><\/sup> Not to flee appalled from Nature in her
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 <\/p>\n

Dhīras tatra na muhyati<\/i>, says the Gita; the strong and wise soul is not perplexed, troubled or moved by them. But still they are accepted only to be conquered, <\/p>\n

jarā-marana-moksāya yatanti<\/i>. <\/p>\n

 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 196<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nlower masks, but to meet and conquer her is the true instinct of the strong nature,
\npurusarsabha<\/i>, the leonine soul among men.
\n Thus compelled, she throws aside her mask and reveals to him
\nhis true nature as the free soul, not her subject but her king and
\n lord, svarāt<\/font><\/i>, samrā<\/font>t<\/font><\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut the Gita accepts this Stoic discipline, this heroic philosophy, on the same condition that it accepts the tamasic recoil,
\n\u2014 it must have above it the sattwic vision of knowledge, at its root the aim at self-realisation and in its steps the ascent to the
\ndivine Nature. A Stoic discipline which merely crushed down the common affections of our human nature,
\n\u2014 although less
\ndangerous than a tamasic weariness of life, unfruitful pessimism and sterile inertia, because it would at least increase the power
\nand self-mastery of the soul, \u2014 would still be no unmixed good, since it might lead to insensibility and an inhuman isolation
\nwithout giving the true spiritual release. The Stoic equality is justified as an element in the discipline of the Gita because it
\ncan be associated with and can help to the realisation of the
\nfree immutable Self in the mobile human being, param drstvā<\/i>, and to status in that new self-consciousness,
\nesā brā<\/font>hmī<\/font>
\nsthitih<\/i>. <\/p>\n

“Awakening by the understanding to the Highest which is beyond even the discerning mind, put force on the self by the
\nself to make it firm and still, and slay this enemy who is so hard to assail, Desire.” Both the tamasic recoil of escape and
\nthe rajasic movement of struggle and victory are only justified when they look beyond themselves through the sattwic principle
\nto the self-knowledge which legitimises both the recoil and the struggle.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe pure philosopher, the thinker, the born sage not only relies upon the sattwic principle in him as his ultimate justification,
\nbut uses it from the beginning as his instrument of self-mastery. He starts from the sattwic equality. He too observes the transitoriness of the material and external world and its failure to satisfy the desires or to give the true delight, but this causes in
\nhim no grief, fear or disappointment. He observes all with an eye of tranquil discernment and makes his choice without repulsion
\nor perplexity. “The enjoyments born of the touches of things are   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 197<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

causes of sorrow, they have a beginning and an end; therefore the sage, the man of awakened understanding,
\nbudhah<\/i>, does not <\/p>\n

place his delight in these.” “The self in him is unattached to the
\ntouches of external things; he finds his happiness in himself.” He sees, as the Gita puts it, that he is himself his own enemy
\nand his own friend, and therefore he takes care not to dethrone himself by casting his being into the hands of desire and passion, <\/p>\n

nātmānam avasādayet<\/i>, but delivers himself out of that imprisonment by his own inner power, uddhared
\nātmanātmānam<\/i>; for
\nwhoever has conquered his lower self, finds in his higher self his best friend and ally. He becomes satisfied with knowledge,
\nmaster of his senses, a Yogin by sattwic equality, \u2014 for equality is Yoga, samatvam yoga ucyate<\/i>, \u2014 regarding alike clod and stone and gold, tranquil and self-poised in heat and cold, suffering and
\nhappiness, honour and disgrace. He is equal in soul to friend and enemy and to neutral and indifferent, because he sees that these
\nare transitory relations born of the changing conditions of life. Even by the pretensions of learning and purity and virtue and
\nthe claims to superiority which men base upon these things, he is not led away. He is equal-souled to all men, to the sinner and
\nthe saint, to the virtuous, learned and cultured Brahmin and the fallen outcaste. All these are the Gita’s descriptions of the sattwic
\nequality, and they sum up well enough what is familiar to the world as the calm philosophic equality of the sage.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhere then is the difference between this and the larger equality taught by the Gita? It lies in the difference between
\nthe intellectual and philosophic discernment and the spiritual, the Vedantic knowledge of unity on which the Gita founds its
\nteaching. The philosopher maintains his equality by the power of the buddhi, the discerning mind; but even that by itself is a
\ndoubtful foundation. For, though master of himself on the whole by a constant attention or an acquired habit of mind, in reality he
\nis not free from his lower nature, and it does actually assert itself in many ways and may at any moment take a violent revenge for
\nits rejection and suppression. For, always, the play of the lower nature is a triple play, and the rajasic and tamasic qualities are
\never lying in wait for the sattwic man. “Even the mind of the  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 198<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nwise man who labours for perfection is carried away by the vehement insistence of the senses.” Perfect security can only be
\nhad by resorting to something higher than the sattwic quality, something higher than the discerning mind, to the Self,
\n\u2014 not
\nthe philosopher’s intelligent self, but the divine sage’s spiritual self which is beyond the three gunas. All must be consummated
\nby a divine birth into the higher spiritual nature. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAnd the philosopher’s equality is like the Stoic’s, like the world-fleeing
\nascetic’s, inwardly a lonely freedom, remote and aloof from men; but the man
\nborn to the divine birth has found the Divine not only in himself, but in all
\nbeings. He has realised his unity with all and his equality is therefore full of
\nsympathy and oneness. He sees all as himself and is not intent on his lonely
\nsalvation; he even takes upon himself the burden of their happiness and sorrow
\nby which he is not himself affected or subjected. The perfect sage, the Gita
\nmore than once repeats, is ever engaged with a large equality in doing good to
\nall creatures and makes that his occupation and delight, sarvabhū<\/font>tahite<\/i> ratah<\/font><\/i>. The perfect Yogin is no solitary musing on the Self in his <\/p>\n

ivory tower of spiritual isolation, but yuktah<\/font>
\nkrtsna-karma-krt<\/i>, <\/p>\n

a many-sided universal worker for the good of the world, for God in the world. For he is a
\nbhakta<\/i>, a lover and devotee of
\nthe Divine, as well as a sage and a Yogin, a lover who loves God wherever he finds Him and who finds Him everywhere;
\nand what he loves, he does not disdain to serve, nor does action carry him away from the bliss of union, since all his acts proceed
\nfrom the One in him and to the One in all they are directed. The equality of the Gita is a large synthetic equality in which all is
\nlifted up into the integrality of the divine being and the divine nature.
\n   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 199<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

XIX   Equality   SINCE knowledge, desirelessness, impersonality, equality, the inner self-existent peace and bliss, freedom from or at least superiority to the tangled interlocking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-19-essays-on-the-gita","wpcat-47-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","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=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}