{"id":3206,"date":"2013-07-13T01:46:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:46:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:39","slug":"14-asceticism-and-renunciation-vol-writings-in-bengali-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/writings-in-bengali-translation\/14-asceticism-and-renunciation-vol-writings-in-bengali-translation","title":{"rendered":"-14_Asceticism and Renunciation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nAsceticism and Renunciation <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIn the preceding essay it has been said that the Discipline
\n(Dharma) spoken of in the Gita can be followed by everyone; it is open to all. And yet the supreme status in this
\nDiscipline is not a whit less than that of any other. The
\nDiscipline of the Gita is the Discipline of desireless works. In
\nthis country with the resurgence of Aryan Discipline a flood
\nof asceticism has spread everywhere. A man seeking Raja-
\nyoga cannot rest content with the life or the work of a
\nhouseholder. For the practice of his yoga he needs to make
\ntremendously laborious efforts to be able to meditate and
\nconcentrate. A slight mental disturbance or contact with the
\noutside upsets the poise of meditation or completely destroys
\nit. Difficulties of this kind one meets abundantly in home-
\nlife. Therefore it is quite natural for those who are born with
\nan urge for yoga, derived from past lives, to turn towards
\nasceticism. When such souls with an inborn yogic urge begin
\nto increase in number and by contagion to spread among the
\nyouthful generation a strong movement to asceticism, the
\ndoors are opened indeed for the good of the country, in one
\nsense; but also along with the good there arise causes for
\napprehension. It is said that the ascetic discipline is the very
\nbest, but very few are competent to follow it. The incom-
\npetent who enter the path go a certain distance and then in
\nthe midway stop short through a kind of satisfaction arising
\nfrom lethargy and inertia. One can in this way pass one’s life
\nupon earth in ease, but then one does no good to the world
\nand also it becomes very difficult for such a one to rise to the
\nhigher reaches of the world. The time and the circumstances
\nin which we are at present demand that we awaken the <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-81<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nqualities of dynamic energy (Rajas) and luminous poise
\n(Sattwa) that is to say, activity and knowledge, discarding
\nthe qualities of inertia and devote ourselves to the service of
\nthe country and the world so that we may rejuvenate the
\nmoral and spiritual strength of our land. This is our foremost
\nduty today. We have to re-create an Aryan people rich with
\nknowledge and power and wide catholicity, from out of the
\nwomb of this people weak and worn out, weighed down with
\ninertia, narrowed into selfish bounds. It is for this reason that
\nso many souls, full of strength and yogic power, are being
\nborn in Bengal. If such people attracted by the charm of
\nasceticism abandon their true law of life and their God-given
\nwork, then with the destruction of their true law the nation
\ntoo will perish. The younger generation seems" to imagine
\nthat the stage of the student (Brahmacharya) is the time
\nfixed for the acquisition of education and character. The next
\nstage as fixed is that of the householder. And when one has
\nassured the preservation of the family and the future building
\nof the Aryan race and thus freed oneself from the debts to
\nthe ancestors and also when one has paid off one’s debts to
\nsociety by the acquisition of wealth and by useful service and
\nwhen one has paid off one’s debts to the world by spreading
\nknowledge and beneficence and love and strength and finally
\nwhen one has been able to satisfy the Mother of the worlds
\nby one’s unstinted labour and high service for the good of
\nMother India, then it will not be amiss to retire from the
\nworld into the forest (Vanaprastha), and take to the ascetic
\nlife. Otherwise there arises confusion of social values and
\ngrowing dominance of the wrong law. I do not speak of
\nyoung ascetics who have been freed from all debts in a
\nprevious life; but it would be wrong for one who has not
\nmade himself ready for asceticism to take to it. Great and
\nmagnanimous Buddhism has done. no doubt immense good
\nto the country, yet no less harm, because of asceticism <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-82<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nspreading everywhere and the warrior class (Kshatriya)
\nrenouncing their appointed function; and in the end, itself
\nwas banished from the country. In the new age the new
\ndispensation must not admit this error. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIn the Gita Sri Krishna has time and again directed Arjuna
\nnot to follow asceticism. Why? He admits the virtue of
\nSannyasa and yet, in spite of the repeated questionings of
\nArjuna overwhelmed as he was with the spirit of asceticism,
\nabnegation and altruism, Sri Krishna never withdrew his
\ninjunctions with regard to the path of action. Arjuna asked,
\n"If desireless Intelligence, founded in Yoga, is greater than
\nkarma, then why do you engage me in this terrible work of
\nslaying my elders?" Many have repeated the question of
\nArjuna, some even have not hesitated to call him the worst
\nTeacher, one who shows the wrong way. In answer, Sri
\nKrishna has explained that renunciation is greater than asceticism, to remember God and do one’s appointed work
\nwithout desire is far greater than freedom to do as one likes. Renunciation
\nmeans renunciation of desire, renunciation  of selfishness. And to learn that renunciation one need not take
\nrefuge in solitude. That lesson has to be learnt through work
\nin the field of work; work is the means to climb upon the
\npath of yoga. This world of varied play has been created for
\nthe purpose of bringing delight to its creatures. It is not
\nGod’s purpose that this game of delight should cease. He
\nwants the creatures to become his comrades and playmates,
\nto flood the world with delight. We are in the darkness of
\nignorance; that is because, for the sake of the play the Lord
\nhas kept himself aloof and thus surrounded himself with
\nobscurity. Many are the ways fixed by him which, if followed
\nwould take one out of the darkness, bring him into God’s
\ncompany. If any one is not interested in the play and desires
\nrest. God will fulfil his desire. But if one follows His way for
\nHis sake, then God chooses him, in this world or elsewhere <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 
\nPage-83 
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nas His fit playmate. Arjuna was Krishna’s dearest comrade
\nand playmate, therefore he received the teaching of the
\nGita’s supreme secret. What that supreme secret is I tried to
\nexplain in a previous context. The Divine said to Arjuna, "It
\nis harmful to the world to give up work, to give up work is
\nthe spirit of asceticism. And an asceticism without renunciation is meaningless. What one gains by asceticism one gains 
\nalso by renunciation, that is to say, the freedom from
\nignorance, equanimity, power, delight, union with Sri
\n[Krishna. Whatever the man worshipped by all does, people
\ntake that as the ideal and follow it. Therefore, if you give up
\nwork through asceticism, all will follow that path and bring
\nabout the confusion of social values, and the reign of the
\nwrong law. If you give up the desire for the fruit of action
\nand pursue man’s normal law of life, inspire men to follow
\neach his own line of activity, then you will unite with my Law
\nof life and become my intimate friend". Sri Krishna explains
\nfurthermore that the rule is to follow the right path through
\nworks and finally at the end of the path attain quietude, that
\nis to say, renounce all sense of being the doer. But this is not ‘
\nrenunciation of work through asceticism, this is to give up all
\nvital urge to action involving immense labour and effort
\nthrough the rejection of egoism and through union with the
\nDivine\u2014and transcending all gunas, to do works as an
\ninstrument impelled by His force. In that state it is the
\npermanent consciousness of the soul that he is not the doer,
\nhe is the witness, part of the Divine; it is the Divine Power
\nthat works through his body created for action by his own
\ninner law of being. The soul is the witness and enjoyer,
\nNature is the doer, the Divine is the giver of sanction. The
\nbeing so illumined does not seek to help or hinder any work
\nthat the Divine Power undertakes. Submitted to the Shakti,
\nthe body and mind and intellect engage themselves in the
\nwork appointed by God. Even a terrible massacre like that of <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-84<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nKurukshetra cannot stain a soul with sin if it is sanctioned by
\nGod, if it occurs in the course of the fulfilment of one’s own
\ndharma (Inner Law), but only a few can attain to this
\nknowledge and this goal. It cannot be the law of life for the
\ncommon man. What then is the duty for the common
\nwayfarers? Even for them the knowledge that ‘He is the
\nLord, I am the instrument’ is to a certain extent within their
\nreach. Through this knowledge to remember always the
\nDivine and follow one’s inner law of life is the direction that
\nhas been given. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n"Better is one’s own law of works, swadharma though in
\nitself faulty, than an alien law well wrought out; death in
\none’s own law <\/b> of being is better, perilous is it to follow an
\nalien law.’" <\/font><\/p>\n

\nOne’s own law of life (swadharma) means the work (.
\ngoverned by one’s own nature (swabhava); one’s own nature 
\nevolves and develops in the course of time. In the process of
\nTime man develops a general nature of his own; the works
\ndetermined by this formulation of nature is the law of that
\nage. In the process of a nation’s life-movement the nation’s
\nown nature is built up and the works determined by that
\nnature are the nation’s law of life. And in the course of the
\nlife-movement of an individual, the special nature he develops, determines the work that becomes the individual’s law
\nof life. These various laws of life are united together,
\norganised in a common ideal which is that of the Eternal
\nLaw. This law is one’s own law for all who seek to follow the
\ntrue law. As a spiritual student (brahmachari) one follows this law to gather
\nknowledge and strength. As a house- holder also one follows this law. And when
\none has completely fulfilled this law, then one becomes eligible for the
\nfinal stages, Vanaprastha or Sannyasa. Such is the eternal
\nmovement of the eternal law. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-85<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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