{"id":2262,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2262"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:27","slug":"13-the-lord-of-the-sacrifice-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\/13-the-lord-of-the-sacrifice-vol-19-essays-on-the-gita","title":{"rendered":"-13_The Lord of the Sacrifice.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n The Lord of the Sacrifice <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n W<\/font>E HAVE<\/b>, before we can proceed further, to gather
\nup all that has been said in its main principles. The whole of the Gita’s gospel of works rests upon its
\nidea of sacrifice and contains in fact the eternal connecting truth of God and the world and works. The human mind seizes
\nordinarily only fragmentary notions and standpoints of a manysided eternal truth of existence and builds upon them its various
\ntheories of life and ethics and religion, stressing this or that sign or appearance, but to some entirety of it it must always tend to
\nreawaken whenever it returns in an age of large enlightenment to any entire and synthetic relation of its world-knowledge with
\nits God-knowledge and self-knowledge. The gospel of the Gita reposes upon this fundamental Vedantic truth that all being is
\nthe one Brahman and all existence the wheel of Brahman, a divine movement opening out from God and returning to God.
\nAll is the expressive activity of Nature and Nature a power of the Divine which works out the consciousness and will of the
\ndivine Soul master of her works and inhabitant of her forms. It is for his satisfaction that she descends into the absorption of the
\nforms of things and the works of life and mind and returns again through mind and self-knowledge to the conscious possession
\nof the Soul that dwells within her. There is first an involving of self and all it is or means in an evolution of phenomena; there
\nis afterwards an evolution of self, a revelation of all it is and means, all that is hidden and yet suggested by the phenomenal
\ncreation. This cycle of Nature could not be what it is but for the Purusha assuming and maintaining simultaneously three eternal
\npoises each of which is necessary to the totality of this action. It must manifest itself in the mutable, and there we see it as
\n the finite, the many, all existences, sarvabhūtāni<\/i>. It appears to
\nus as the finite personality of these million creatures with their  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 124<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\ninfinite diversities and various relations and it appears to us behind these as
\nthe soul and force of the action of the gods, \u2014 that is to say, the cosmic
\npowers and qualities of the Divine which preside over the workings of the life
\nof the universe and constitute to our perception different universal forms of
\nthe one Existence, or, it may be, various self-statements of personality of the
\none supreme Person. Then, secret behind and within all forms and existences, we
\nperceive too an immutable, an infinite, a timeless, an impersonal, a one
\nunchanging spirit of existence, an indivisible Self of all that is, in which all
\nthese many find themselves to be really one. And therefore by returning to that
\nthe active, finite personality of the individual being discovers that it can
\nrelease itself into a silent largeness of universality and the peace and poise
\nof an immutable and unattached unity with all that proceeds from and is
\nsupported by this indivisible Infinite. Or even he may escape into it from
\nindividual existence. But the highest secret of all, uttamām rahasyam<\/i>, is the
\nPurushottama. This is the supreme Divine, God, who possesses both the infinite and the finite and in whom the personal and
\nthe impersonal, the one Self and the many existences, being and becoming, the world-action and the supracosmic peace,
\npravr<\/font>tti<\/i> <\/p>\n

and nivrtti<\/i>, meet, are united, are possessed together and in each <\/p>\n

other. In God all things find their secret truth and their absolute
\nreconciliation. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAll truth of works must depend upon the truth of being. All
\nactive existence must be in its inmost reality a sacrifice of works offered by Prakriti to Purusha, Nature offering to the supreme
\nand infinite Soul the desire of the multiple finite Soul within her. Life is an altar to which she brings her workings and the
\nfruits of her workings and lays them before whatever aspect of the Divinity the consciousness in her has reached for whatever
\nresult of the sacrifice the desire of the living soul can seize on as its immediate or its highest good. According to the grade of
\nconsciousness and being which the soul has reached in Nature, will be the Divinity it worships, the delight which it seeks and
\nthe hope for which it sacrifices. And in the movement of the mutable Purusha in Nature all is and must be interchange; for
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 125<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

existence is one and its divisions must found themselves on some law of mutual dependence, each growing by each and living by
\nall. Where sacrifice is not willingly given, Nature exacts it by force, she satisfies the law of her living. A mutual giving and
\nreceiving is the law of Life without which it cannot for one moment endure, and this fact is the stamp of the divine creative
\nWill on the world it has manifested in its being, the proof that with sacrifice as their eternal companion the Lord of creatures
\nhas created all these existences. The universal law of sacrifice is the sign that the world is of God and belongs to God and that
\nlife is his dominion and house of worship and not a field for the self-satisfaction of the independent ego; not the fulfilment of the
\nego, \u2014 that is only our crude and obscure beginning, \u2014 but the discovery of God, the worship and seeking of the Divine and the
\nInfinite through a constantly enlarging sacrifice culminating in a perfect self-giving founded on a perfect self-knowledge, is that
\nto which the experience of life is at last intended to lead. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut the individual being begins with ignorance and persists
\nlong in ignorance. Acutely conscious of himself he sees the ego as the cause and whole meaning of life and not the Divine. He
\nsees himself as the doer of works and does not see that all the workings of existence including his own internal and external
\nactivities are the workings of one universal Nature and nothing else. He sees himself as the enjoyer of works and imagines that
\nfor him all exists and him Nature ought to satisfy and obey his personal will; he does not see that she is not at all concerned
\nwith satisfying him or at all careful of his will, but obeys a higher universal will and seeks to satisfy a Godhead who transcends her
\nand her works and creations; his finite being, his will and his satisfactions are hers and not his, and she offers them at every
\nmoment as a sacrifice to the Divine of whose purpose in her she makes all this the covert instrumentation. Because of this
\nignorance whose seal is egoism, the creature ignores the law of sacrifice and seeks to take all he can for himself and gives only
\nwhat Nature by her internal and external compulsion forces him to give. He can really take nothing except what she allows him
\nto receive as his portion, what the divine Powers within her yield  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 126<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nto his desire. The egoistic soul in a world of sacrifice is as if a thief or robber who takes what these Powers bring to him and
\nhas no mind to give in return. He misses the true meaning of life and, since he does not use life and works for the enlargement
\nand elevation of his being through sacrifice, he lives in vain. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOnly when the individual being begins to perceive and acknowledge in his acts the value of the self in others as well as the power and needs of his own ego, begins to perceive universal
\nNature behind his own workings and through the cosmic godheads gets some glimpse of the One and the Infinite, is he on
\nhis way to the transcendence of his limitation by the ego and the discovery of his soul. He begins to discover a law other than
\nthat of his desires, to which his desires must be more and more subordinated and subjected; he develops the purely egoistic into
\nthe understanding and ethical being. He begins to give more value to the claims of the self in others and less to the claims
\nof his ego; he admits the strife between egoism and altruism and by the increase of his altruistic tendencies he prepares the
\nenlargement of his own consciousness and being. He begins to perceive Nature and divine Powers in Nature to whom he owes
\nsacrifice, adoration, obedience, because it is by them and by their law that the workings both of the mental and the material
\nworld are controlled, and he learns that only by increasing their presence and their greatness in his thought and will and life can
\nhe himself increase his powers, knowledge, right action and the satisfactions which these things bring to him. Thus he adds the
\nreligious and supraphysical to the material and egoistic sense of life and prepares himself to rise through the finite to the Infinite.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut this is only a long intermediate stage. It is still subject to the law of desire, to the centrality of all things in the conceptions and needs of his ego and to the control of his being as well as his works by Nature, though it is a regulated and
\ngoverned desire, a clarified ego and a Nature more and more subtilised and enlightened by the sattwic, the highest natural
\nprinciple. All this is still within the domain, though the very much enlarged domain, of the mutable, finite and personal. The
\nreal self-knowledge and consequently the right way of works   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 127<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

lies beyond; for the sacrifice done with knowledge is the highest sacrifice and that alone brings a perfect working. That can only
\ncome when he perceives that the self in him and the self in others are one being and this self is something higher than the
\nego, an infinite, an impersonal, a universal existence in whom all move and have their being,
\n\u2014 when he perceives that all the
\ncosmic gods to whom he offers his sacrifice are forms of one infinite Godhead and when again, leaving all his limited and
\nlimiting conceptions of that one Godhead, he perceives him to be the supreme and ineffable Deity who is at once the finite and
\nthe infinite, the one self and the many, beyond Nature though manifesting himself through Nature, beyond limitation by qualities though formulating the power of his being through infinite quality. This is the Purushottama to whom the sacrifice has to
\nbe offered, not for any transient personal fruit of works, but for the soul’s possession of God and in order to live in harmony and
\nunion with the Divine. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIn other words, man’s way to liberation and perfection
\nlies through an increasing impersonality. It is his ancient and constant experience that the more he opens himself to the impersonal and infinite, to that which is pure and high and one and common in all things and beings, the impersonal and infinite in
\nNature, the impersonal and infinite in life, the impersonal and infinite in his own subjectivity, the less he is bound by his ego and
\nby the circle of the finite, the more he feels a sense of largeness, peace, pure happiness. The pleasure, joy, satisfaction which the
\nfinite by itself can give or the ego in its own right attain, is transitory, petty and insecure. To dwell entirely in the ego-sense
\nand its finite conceptions, powers, satisfactions is to find this world for ever full of transience and suffering,
\nanityam asukham<\/i>;
\nthe finite life is always troubled by a certain sense of vanity for this fundamental reason that the finite is not the whole or the
\nhighest truth of life; life is not entirely real until it opens into the sense of the infinite. It is for this reason that the Gita opens its
\ngospel of works by insisting on the Brahmic consciousness, the impersonal life, that great object of the discipline of the ancient
\nsages. For the impersonal, the infinite, the One in which all  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 128<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nthe impermanent, mutable, multiple activity of the world finds above itself its base of permanence, security and peace, is the
\nimmobile Self, the Akshara, the Brahman. If we see this, we shall see that to raise one’s consciousness and the poise of one’s
\nbeing out of limited personality into this infinite and impersonal Brahman is the first spiritual necessity. To see all beings in this
\none Self is the knowledge which raises the soul out of egoistic ignorance and its works and results; to live in it is to acquire
\npeace and firm spiritual foundation. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe way to bring about this great transformation follows
\na double path; for there is the way of knowledge and there is the way of works, and the Gita combines them in a firm
\nsynthesis. The way of knowledge is to turn the understanding, the intelligent will away from its downward absorption in the
\nworkings of the mind and the senses and upward to the self, the Purusha or Brahman; it is to make it dwell always on the one
\nidea of the one Self and not in the many-branching conceptions of the mind and many-streaming impulses of desire. Taken by
\nitself this path would seem to lead to the complete renunciation of works, to an immobile passivity and to the severance of the
\nsoul from Nature. But in reality such an absolute renunciation, passivity and severance are impossible. Purusha and Prakriti
\nare twin principles of being which cannot be severed, and so long as we remain in Nature, our workings in Nature must
\ncontinue, even though they may take a different form or rather a different sense from those of the unenlightened soul. The real <\/p>\n

renunciation \u2014 for renunciation, sannyasa<\/i>, there must be \u2014 is
\nnot the fleeing from works, but the slaying of ego and desire. The way is to abandon attachment to the fruit of works even
\nwhile doing them, and the way is to recognise Nature as the agent and leave her to do her works and to live in the soul
\nas the witness and sustainer, watching and sustaining her, but not attached either to her actions or their fruits. The ego, the
\nlimited and troubled personality is then quieted and merged in the consciousness of the one impersonal Self, while the works
\nof Nature continue to our vision to operate through all these “becomings” or existences who are now seen by us as living
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 129<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

and acting and moving, under her impulsion entirely, in this one infinite Being; our own finite existence is seen and felt to be
\nonly one of these and its workings are seen and felt to be those of Nature, not of our real self which is the silent, impersonal
\nunity. The ego claimed them as its own doings and therefore we thought them ours; but the ego is now dead and henceforth
\nthey are no longer ours, but Nature’s. We have achieved by the slaying of ego impersonality in our being and consciousness;
\nwe have achieved by the renunciation of desire impersonality in the works of our nature. We are free not only in inaction,
\nbut in action; our liberty does not depend on a physical and temperamental immobility and vacancy, nor do we fall from
\nfreedom directly we act. Even in a full current of natural action the impersonal soul in us remains calm, still and free.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe liberation given by this perfect impersonality is real, is complete, is indispensable; but is it the last word, the end of the
\nwhole matter? All life, all world-existence, we have said, is the sacrifice offered by Nature to the Purusha, the one and secret
\nsoul in Nature, in whom all her workings take place; but its real sense is obscured in us by ego, by desire, by our limited, active,
\nmultiple personality. We have risen out of ego and desire and limited personality and by impersonality, its great corrective,
\nwe have found the impersonal Godhead; we have identified our being with the one self and soul in whom all exist. The sacrifice
\nof works continues, conducted not by ourselves any longer, but by Nature, \u2014 Nature operating through the finite part of our
\nbeing, mind, senses, body, \u2014 but in our infinite being. But to whom then is this sacrifice offered and with what object? For the
\nimpersonal has no activity and no desires, no object to be gained, no dependence for anything on all this world of creatures; it
\nexists for itself, in its own self-delight, in its own immutable eternal being. We may have to do works without desire as a
\nmeans in order to reach this impersonal self-existence and self-delight, but, that movement once executed, the object of works is
\nfinished; the sacrifice is no longer needed. Works may even then continue because Nature continues and her activities; but there
\nis no longer any further object in these works. The sole reason  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 130<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nfor our continuing to act after liberation is purely negative; it is the compulsion of Nature on our finite parts of mind and body.
\nBut if that be all, then, first, works may well be whittled down and reduced to a minimum, may be confined to what Nature’s
\ncompulsion absolutely will have from our bodies; and secondly, even if there is no reduction to a minimum,
\n\u2014 since action does
\nnot matter and inaction also is no object, \u2014 then the nature of the works also does not matter. Arjuna, once having attained
\nknowledge, may continue to fight out the battle of Kurukshetra, following his old Kshatriya nature, or he may leave it and live the
\nlife of the Sannyasin, following his new quietistic impulse. Which of these things he does, becomes quite indifferent; or rather the
\nsecond is the better way, since it will discourage more quickly the impulses of Nature which still have a hold on his mind owing to
\npast created tendency and, when his body has fallen from him, he will securely depart into the Infinite and Impersonal with no
\nnecessity of returning again to the trouble and madness of life in this transient and sorrowful world,
\nanityam asukham imām<\/i> lokam.<\/i>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf this were so, the Gita would lose all its meaning; for its first and central object would be defeated. But the Gita insists
\nthat the nature of the action does matter and that there is a positive sanction for continuance in works, not only that one quite
\nnegative and mechanical reason, the objectless compulsion of Nature. There is still, after the ego has been conquered, a divine
\n Lord and enjoyer of the sacrifice, bhoktaram yaj\u00f1atapasām<\/i>, and
\nthere is still an object in the sacrifice. The impersonal Brahman is not the very last word, not the utterly highest secret of our
\nbeing; for impersonal and personal, finite and infinite turn out to be only two opposite, yet concomitant aspects of a divine
\nBeing unlimited by these distinctions who is both these things at once. God is an ever unmanifest Infinite ever self-impelled to
\nmanifest himself in the finite; he is the great impersonal Person of whom all personalities are partial appearances; he is the Divine
\nwho reveals himself in the human being, the Lord seated in the heart of man. Knowledge teaches us to see all beings in the
\none impersonal self, for so we are liberated from the separātive   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 131<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

ego-sense, and then through this delivering impersonality to see <\/p>\n

them in this God, āt<\/font>mani atho mayi<\/i>, “in the Self and then in Me.” Our ego, our limiting personalities stand in the way of our
\nrecognising the Divine who is in all and in whom all have their being; for, subject to personality, we see only such fragmentary aspects of Him as the finite appearances of things suffer us to seize. We have to arrive at him not through our lower
\npersonality, but through the high, infinite and impersonal part of our being, and that we find by becoming this self one in all
\nin whose existence the whole world is comprised. This infinite containing, not excluding all finite appearances, this impersonal
\nadmitting, not rejecting all individualities and personalities, this immobile sustaining, pervading, containing, not standing apart
\nfrom all the movement of Nature, is the clear mirror in which the Divine will reveal His being. Therefore it is to the Impersonal
\nthat we have first to attain; through the cosmic deities, through the aspects of the finite alone the perfect knowledge of God
\ncannot be totally obtained. But neither is the silent immobility of the impersonal Self, conceived as shut into itself and divorced
\nfrom all that it sustains, contains and pervades, the whole all-revealing all-satisfying truth of the Divine. To see that we have
\nto look through its silence to the Purushottama, and he in his divine greatness possesses both the Akshara and the Kshara;
\nhe is seated in the immobility, but he manifests himself in the movement and in all the action of cosmic Nature; to him even
\nafter liberation the sacrifice of works in Nature continues to be offered.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe real goal of the Yoga is then a living and self-completing union with the divine Purushottama and is not merely a
\nself-extinguishing immergence in the impersonal Being. To raise our whole existence to the Divine Being, to dwell in him (mayyeva<\/i>
\nnivasisyasi<\/i>), to be at one with him, unify our consciousness <\/p>\n

with his, to make our fragmentary nature a reflection of his perfect nature, to be inspired in our thought and sense wholly
\nby the divine knowledge, to be moved in will and action utterly and faultlessly by the divine will, to lose desire in his love and
\ndelight, is man’s perfection; it is that which the Gita describes as  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 132<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nthe highest secret. It is the true goal and the last sense of human living and the highest step in our progressive sacrifice of works.
\nFor he remains to the end the master of works and the soul of sacrifice.
\n  
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 133<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

XIII   The Lord of the Sacrifice   WE HAVE, before we can proceed further, to gather up all that has been said in its…<\/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-2262","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\/2262","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=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}