{"id":3606,"date":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3606"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:56","slug":"44-swabhava-and-swadharma-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn\/44-swabhava-and-swadharma-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","title":{"rendered":"-44_Swabhava and Swadharma.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nXX <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nSWABHAVA AND SWADHARMA* <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nI<\/font>T <\/font>is then by a liberating development of the soul out of this lower
\nnature of the triple gunas into the supreme divine nature beyond the
\nthree gunas that we can best arrive at spiritual perfection and freedom. And this again can best be brought about by an anterior
\ndevelopment of the predominance of the highest sattwic quality to
\na point at which sattwa also is overpassed, mounts beyond its own
\nlimitations and breaks up into a supreme freedom, absolute light,
\nserene power of the conscious spirit in which there is no determination by conflicting gunas. A highest sattwic faith and aim newshaping what we are according to the highest mental conception of
\nour inner possibilities that we can form in the free intelligence, is
\nchanged by this transition into a vision of our own real being, a spiritual self-knowledge. A loftiest ideality or standard of dharma, a pursuit of the right law of our natural existence, is transformed into a
\nfree assured self-existent perfection in which all dependence on
\nstandards is transcended and the spontaneous law of the immortal
\nself and spirit displaces the lower rule of the instruments and members. The sattwic mind and will change into that spiritual knowledge
\nand dynamic power of identical existence in which the whole nature
\nputs off its, disguise and becomes a free self-expression of the godhead
\nwithin it. The sattwic doer becomes the Jiva in contact with his
\nsource, united with the Purushottama; he is no longer the personal doer of the
\nact, but a spiritual channel of the works of the transscendent and universal Spirit. His natural being transformed and
\nillumined remains to be the instrument of a universal and impersonal
\naction, the bow of the divine Archer. What was sattwic action becomes the free activity of the perfected nature in which there is no
\nlonger any personal limitation, any tethering to this or that quality,
\nany bondage of sin and virtue, self and others or any but a supreme
\nspiritual self-determination. That is the culmination of works uplifted <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n* Gita, XVIII. 40-48. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nPage-452<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nto the sole Divine Worker by a God-seeking and spiritual knowledge. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut there is still an incidental question of great importance in the
\nold Indian system of culture and, even apart from that antique view,
\nof considerable general importance, on which we have had some passing pronouncements already by the Gita and which now falls into its
\nproper place. All action on the normal level is determined by the
\ngunas; the action which is to be done, kartavyam karma,<\/i> takes the
\ntriple form of giving, askesis and sacrifice, and any or all of these
\nthree may assume the character of any of the gunas. Therefore we.
\nhave to proceed by the raising of these things to the highest sattwic
\nheight of which they are capable and go yet farther beyond to a
\nlargeness in which all works become a free self-giving, an energy or
\nthe divine Tapas, a perpetual sacrament of the spiritual existence. But
\nthis is a general law and all these considerations have been the enunciation of quite general principles and refer indiscriminately to all
\nactions and to all men alike. All can eventually arrive by spiritual
\nevolution to this strong discipline, this large perfection, this highest
\nspiritual state. But while the general rule of mind and action is the
\nsame for all men, we see too that there is a constant law of variation
\nand each individual acts not only according to the common laws
\nof the human spirit, mind, will, life, but according to his own nature; <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\neach man fulfils different functions or follows a different bent according to the rule of his own circumstances, capacities, turn, character,
\npowers. What place is to be assigned to this variation, this individual
\nrule of nature in the spiritual discipline? <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe Gita has laid some stress on this point and even assigned to it
\na great preliminary importance. At the very start it has spoken of the
\nnature, rule and function of the Kshatriya as Arjuna’s own law of
\naction, svadharma;<\/i>1<\/sup> it has proceeded to lay it down with a striking
\nemphasis that one’s own nature, rule, function should be observed
\nand followed,\u2014even if defective, it is better than the well-performed
\nrule of another’s nature. Death in one’s own law of nature is better
\nfor a man than victory in an alien movement. To follow the law of
\nanother’s nature is dangerous to the soul,2<\/sup> contradictory, as we may
\nsay, to the natural way of his evolution, a thing mechanically imposed
\nand therefore imported, artificial and sterilising to one’s growth
\ntowards the true stature of the spirit. What comes out of the being <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n1<\/sup> II. 31. svadharmam
\napi cāveksya. <\/i><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n2<\/sup> III. 35.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-453<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nis the right and healthful thing, the authentic movement, not what is
\nimposed on it from outside or laid on it by life’s compulsions or the
\nmind’s error. This swadharma is of four general kinds formulated outwardly in the action of the four orders of the old Indian social culture, cāturvarnya.<\/i> That system corresponds, says the Gita, to a divine
\nlaw, it "was created by Me according to the divisions of the gunas and
\nwork?,"\u2014created from the beginning by the Master of existence. In
\nother words, there are four distinct orders of the active nature, or four
\nfundamental types of the soul in nature, svabhāva,<\/i> and the work and
\nproper function of each human being corresponds to his type of
\nnature. This is now finally explained in preciser detail. The works of
\nBrahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras, says the Gita, are divided
\naccording to the qualities (gunas)<\/i> born of their own inner nature,
\nspiritual temperament, essential character (svabhāva).<\/i> Calm, self-control, askesis, purity, long-suffering, candour, knowledge, acceptance of
\nspiritual truth are the work of the Brahmin, born of his swabhava.
\nHeroism, high spirit, resolution, ability, not Peeing in the battle, giving, lordship (īśvara-bhāva,<\/i> the temperament of the ruler and leader)
\nare the natural work of the Kshatriya. Agriculture, cattle-keeping,
\ntrade inclusive of the labour of the craftsman and the artisan are the
\nnatural work of the Vaishya. All work of the character of service falls
\nwithin the natural function of the Sudra. A man, it goes on to say,
\nwho devotes himself to his own natural work in life acquires spiritual
\nperfection, not indeed by the mere act itself, but if he does it with
\nright knowledge and the right motive, if he can make it a worship
\nof the Spirit of this creation and dedicate it sincerely to the Master of
\nthe universe from whom is all impulse to action. All labour, all action
\nand function, whatever it be, can be consecrated by this dedication
\nof works, can convert the life into a self-offering to the Godhead
\nwithin and without us and is itself converted into a means of spiritual
\nperfection. But a work not naturally one’s own, even though it may
\nbe well performed, may look better from the outside when judged by
\nan external and mechanical standard or may lead to more success
\nin life, is still inferior as a means of subjective growth precisely because it has an external motive and a mechanical impulsion. One’s
\nown natural work is better, even if it looks from some other point of
\nview defective. One does not incur sin or stain when one acts in the
\ntrue spirit of the work and in agreement with the law of one’s own
\nnature. All action in the three gunas is imperfect, all human work is <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-454<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nsubject to fault, defect or limitation; but that should not make us
\nabandon our own proper work and natural function. Action should
\nbe rightly regulated action, niyatam karma,<\/i> but intrinsically one’s
\nown, evolved from within, in harmony with the truth of one’s being,
\nregulated by the Swabhava, svabhāva-niyatam karma.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nWhat precisely is the intention of the Gita? Let us take it first in its
\nmore outward meaning and consider the tinge given to the principle it
\nenounces by the ideas of the race and the time\u2014the hue of the cultural
\nenvironment, the ancient significance. These verses and the earlier
\npronouncements of the Gita on the same subject have been seized
\nupon in current controversies on the caste question and interpreted by
\nsome as a sanction of the present system, used by others as a denial of
\nthe hereditary basis of caste. In point of fact the verses in the Gita
\nhave no bearing on the existing caste system, because that is a very
\ndifferent thing from the ancient social ideal of caturvarna,<\/i> the four
\ndear-cut orders of the Aryan community, and in no way corresponds
\nwith the description of the Gita. Agriculture, cattle-keeping and trade
\nof every kind are said here to be the work of the Vaishya; but in the
\nlater system the majority of those concerned in trade and in cattle-keeping, artisans, small craftsmen and others are actually classed as
\nSudras\u2014where they are not put altogether outside the pale,\u2014and,
\nwith some exceptions, the merchant class is alone and that too not
\neverywhere ranked as Vaishya. Agriculture, government and service
\nare the professions of all classes from the Brahmin down to the Sudra.
\nAnd if the economical divisions of function have been confounded
\nbeyond any possibility of rectification, the law of the guna or quality
\nis still less a part of the later system. There all is rigid custom, ācāra,
\n<\/i>with no reference to the need of the individual nature. If again we
\ntake the religious side of the contention advanced by the advocates of
\nthe caste system, we can certainly fasten no such absurd idea on the
\nwords of the Gita as that it is a law of a man’s nature that he shall follow without regard to his personal bent and capacities the profession
\nof his parents or his immediate or distant ancestors, the son of a
\nmilkman be a milkman, the son of a doctor a doctor, the descendants
\nof shoemakers remain shoemakers to the end of measurable time,
\nstill less that by doing so, by this unintelligent and mechanical repetition of the law of another’s nature without regard to his own
\nindividual call and qualities a man automatically farthers his own
\nperfection and arrives at spiritual freedom. The Gita’s words refer to <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-455<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe ancient system of caturvarna,<\/i> as it existed or was supposed to exist
\nin its ideal purity,\u2014there is some controversy whether it was ever
\nanything more than an ideal or general norm more or less loosely
\nfollowed in practice,\u2014and it should be considered in that connection alone. Here too there is considerable difficulty as to the exact outward significance. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe ancient system of the four orders had a triple aspect; it took a
\nsocial and economic, a cultural and a spiritual appearance. On the
\neconomic side it recognised four functions of the social man in the
\ncommunity, the religious and intellectual, the political, the economic
\nand the servile functions. There are thus four kinds of works, the
\nwork of religious ministration, letters, learning and knowledge, the
\nwork of government, politics, administration and war, the work of
\nproduction, wealth-making and exchange, the work of hired labour
\nand service. An endeavour was made to found and stabilise the whole
\narrangement of society on the partition of these four functions among
\nfour clearly marked classes. This system was not peculiar to India, but
\nwas with certain differences the dominating feature of a stage of
\nsocial evolution in other ancient or mediaeval societies. The four functions are still inherent in the life of all normal communities, but the
\nclear divisions no longer exist anywhere. The old system everywhere
\nbroke down and gave place to a more fluid order or, as in India, to a
\nconfused and complex social rigidity and economic immobility degenerating towards a chaos of castes. Along with this economic division there existed the association of a cultural idea which gave to
\neach class its religious custom, its law of honour, ethical rule, suitable
\neducation and training, type of character, family ideal and discipline.
\nThe facts of life did not always correspond to the idea,\u2014there is
\nalways a certain gulf found between the mental ideal and the vital
\nand physical practice,\u2014but there was a constant and strenuous endeavour to keep up as much as possible a real correspondence. The
\nimportance of this attempt and of the cultural ideal and atmosphere it
\ncreated in the past training of the social man, can hardly be put too
\nhigh; but at the present day it has little more than a historical, a past
\nand evolutionary significance. Finally, wherever this system existed,
\nit was given more or less a religious sanction (more in the East, very
\nlittle in Europe) and in India a profounder spiritual use and significance. This spiritual significance is the real kernel of the teaching of
\nthe Gita. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-456<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Gita found this system in existence and its ideal in possession
\nof the Indian mind and it recognised and accepted both the ideal and
\nsystem and its religious sanction. "The fourfold order was created by
\nMe," says Krishna, "according to the divisions of quality and active
\nfunction." On the mere strength of this phrase it cannot altogether
\nbe concluded that the Gita regarded this system as an eternal and universal social order. Other ancient authorities did not so regard it; rather they distinctly state that it did not exist in the beginning and
\nwill collapse in a later age of the cycle. Still we may understand from
\nthe phrase that the fourfold function of social man was considered as
\nnormally inherent in the psychological and economic needs of every
\ncommunity and therefore a dispensation of the Spirit that expresses
\nitself in the human corporate and individual existence. The Gita’s line
\nis in fact an intellectual rendering of the well-known symbol in the
\nVedic Purusha-Sukta. But what then should be the natural basis and
\nform of practice of these functions? The practical basis in ancient
\ntimes came to be the hereditary principle. A man’s social function and
\nposition were no doubt determined originally, as they are still in freer,
\nless closely ordered communities by environment, occasion, birth and
\ncapacity; but as there set in a more fixed stratification, his rank came
\npractically to be regulated by birth mainly or alone and in the later
\nsystem of caste birth came to be the sole rule of status. The son of a
\nBrahmin is always a Brahmin in status, though he may have nothing
\nof the typical Brahmin qualities or character, no intellectual training
\nor spiritual experience or religious worth or knowledge, no connection
\nwhatever with the right function of his class, no Brahminhood in his
\nwork and no Brahminhood in his nature. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThis was an inevitable evolution, because the external signs are the only ones which are easily and conveniently determinable and birth
\nwas the most handy and manageable in an increasingly mechanised,
\ncomplex and conventional social order. For a time the possible disparity between the hereditary fiction and the individual’s real inborn
\ncharacter and capacity was made up or minimised by education and
\ntraining: but eventually this effort ceased to be sustained and the
\nhereditary convention held absolute rule. The ancient lawgivers,
\nwhile recognising the hereditary practice, insisted that quality, character and capacity were the one sound and real basis and that without
\nthem the hereditary social status became an unspiritual falsehood
\nbecause it had lost its true significance. The Gita too, as always, founds <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-457<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nits thought on the inner significance. It speaks indeed in one verse of
\nthe work born with a man, sahajam karma;<\/i> but this does not in itself’
\nimply a hereditary basis. According to the Indian theory of rebirth,
\nwhich the Gita recognises, a man’s inborn nature and course of life
\nare essentially determined by his own past lives, are the self-development already effected by his past actions and mental and spiritual
\nevolution and cannot depend solely on the material factor of his
\nancestry, parentage, physical birth, which can only be of subordinate
\nmoment, one effective sign perhaps, but not the dominant principle.
\nThe word sahaja<\/i> means that which is born with us, whatever is natural, inborn, innate; its equivalent in all other passages is svabhāvaja.
\n<\/i>The work or function of a man is determined by his qualities, karma
\n<\/i>is determined by guna;<\/i> it is the work born of his Swabhava, svabhāvajam karma,<\/i> and regulated by his Swabhava, svabhāva-niyatam
\nkarma.<\/i> This emphasis on an inner quality and spirit which finds expression in work, function and action is the whole sense of the Gita’s
\nidea of Karma. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd from this emphasis on the inner truth and not on the outer
\nform arises the spiritual significance and power which the Gita assigns
\nto the following of the Swadharma. That is the really important bearing of the passage. Too much has been made of its connection with
\nthe outer social order, as if the object of the Gita were to support that
\nfor its own sake or to justify it by a religio-philosophical theory. In
\nfact it lays very little stress on the external rule and a very great
\nstress on the internal law which the Varna system attempted to put
\ninto regulated outward practice. And it is on the individual and
\nspiritual value of this law and not on its communal and economic or
\nother social and cultural importance that the eye of the thought is
\nfixed in this passage. The Gita accepted the Vedic theory of sacrifice,
\nbut gave it a profound turn, an inner, subjective and universal
\nmeaning, a spiritual sense and direction which alters all its values.
\nHere too and in the same way it accepts the theory of the four orders
\nof men, but gives to it a profound turn, an inner, subjective and universal meaning, a spiritual sense and direction. And immediately the
\nidea behind the theory changes its values and becomes an enduring
\nand living truth not bound up with the transience of a particular
\nsocial form and order. What the Gita is concerned with is not the
\nvalidity of the Aryan social order now abolished or in a state of
\ndeliquescence,\u2014if that were all, its principle of the Swabhava and <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-458<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nSwadharma would have no permanent truth or value,\u2014but the relation of a man’s outward life to his inward being, the evolution of his
\naction from his soul and inner law of nature. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd we see in fact that the Gita itself indicates very clearly its
\nintention when it describes the work of the Brahmin and the Kashatriya not in terms of external function, not defined as learning,
\npriest-work and letters or government, war and politics, but entirely
\nin terms of internal character. The language reads a little curiously
\nto our ear. Calm, self-control, askesis, purity, long-suffering, candour,
\nknowledge, acceptance and practice of spiritual truth would not
\nordinarily be described as a man’s function, work or life occupation.
\nYet this is precisely what the Gita means and says,\u2014that these things,
\ntheir development, their expression in conduct, their power to cast
\ninto form the law of the sattwic nature are the real work of the Brahmin: learning, religious ministration and the other outer functions
\nare only its most suitable field, a favourable means of this inner development, its appropriate self-expression, its way of fixing itself
\ninto firmness of type and externalised solidity of character. War, government, politics, leadership and rule are a similar field and means
\nfor the Kshatriya; but his real work is the development, the expression
\nin conduct, the power to cast into form and dynamic rhythm of
\nmovement the law of the active battling royal or warrior spirit. The
\nwork of the Vaishya and Sudra is expressed in terms of external function, and this opopsite turn may have some significance. For the
\ntemperament moved to production and wealth-getting or limited in the
\ncircle of labour and service, the mercantile and the servile mind, are
\nusually turned outward, more occupied with the external values of
\ntheir work than its power for character, and this disposition is not so
\nfavourable to a sattwic or spiritual action of the nature. That too is
\nthe reason why a commercial and industrial age or a society preoccupied with the idea of work and labour creates around it an
\natmosphere more favourable to the material than the spiritual life,
\nmore adapted to vital efficiency than to the subtler perfection of the
\nhigh-reaching mind and spirit. Nevertheless, this kind of nature too
\nand its functions have their inner significance, their spiritual value
\nand can be made a means and power for perfection. As has been
\nsaid elsewhere, not alone the Brahmin with his ideal of spirituality,
\nethical purity and knowledge and the Kshatriya with his ideal of
\nnobility, chivalry and high character, but the wealth-seeking Vaishya, <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-459<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe toil-imprisoned Sudra, woman with her narrow, circumscribed and
\nsubject life, the very outcast born from a womb of sin, pāpayonayah,
\n<\/i>can by this road rise at once towards the highest inner greatness and
\nspiritual freedom, towards perfection, towards the liberation and fulfilment of the divine element in the human being. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThree propositions suggest themselves even at the first view and
\nmay be taken as implicit in all that the Gita says in this passage. First,
\nall action must be determined from within because each man has in
\nhim something his own, some characteristic principle and inborn
\npower of his nature. That is the efficient power of his spirit, that
\ncreates the dynamic form of his soul in nature and to express and
\nperfect it by action, to make it effective in capacity and conduct and
\nlife in his work, his true Karma: that points him to the right way of his
\ninner and outer living and is the right starting-point for his farther
\ndevelopment. Next, there are broadly four types of nature each with
\nits characteristic function and ideal rule of work and character and the
\ntype indicates the man’s proper field and should trace for him his
\njust circle of function in his outer social existence. Finally, whatever
\nwork a man does, if done according to the law of his being, the truth
\nof his nature, can be turned Godwards and made an effective means
\nof spiritual liberation and perfection. The first and last of these
\npropositions are suggestions of an evident truth and justice. The
\nordinary way of man’s individual and social living seems indeed to
\nbe a contradiction of these principles; for certainly we bear a terrible
\nweight of external necessity, rule and law, and our need for self-expression, for the development of our true person, our real soul, our
\ninmost characteristic law of nature in life is at every turn interfered
\nwith, thwarted, forced from its course, given a very poor chance
\nand scope by environmental influences. Life, State, society, family, all
\nsurrounding powers seem to be in a league to lay their yoke on our
\nspirit, compel us into their moulds, impose on us their mechanical interest and rough immediate convenience. We become parts of a machine; we are not, are hardly allowed to be in the true sense,
\nmanusya, purusa,<\/i> souls, minds, free children of the spirit empowered to develop
\nthe highest characteristic perfection of our being and make it our
\nmeans of service to the race. It would seem that we are not what we
\nmake ourselves, but what we are made. Yet the more we advance in
\nknowledge, the more the truth of the Gita’s rule is bound to appear,
\nThe child’s education ought to be an out-bringing of all that is best, <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-460<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nmost powerful, most intimate and living in his nature; the mould into
\nwhich the man’s action and development ought to run is that of his
\ninnate quality and power. He must acquire new things, but he will
\nacquire them best, most vitally on the basis of his own developed
\ntype and inborn force. And so too the functions of a man ought to
\nbe determined by his natural turn, gift and capacities. The individual
\nwho develops freely in this manner will be a living soul and mind and
\nwill have a much greater power for the service of the race. And we are
\nable now to see more clearly that this rule is true not only of the
\nindividual but of the community and the nation, the group soul, the
\ncollective man. The second proposition of the four types and their
\nfunctions is more open to dispute. It may be said that it is too simple
\nand positive, that it takes no sufficient account of the complexity of
\nlife and the plasticity of human nature, and, whatever the theory or its
\nintrinsic merits, the outward social application must lead precisely to
\nthat tyranny of a mechanical rule which is the flat contradiction of
\nall law of Swadharma. But it has a profounder meaning under the
\nsurface which gives it a less disputable value. And even if we reject
\nit, the third proposition will yet stand in its general significance.
\nWhatever a man’s work and function in life, he can, if it is determined from within or if he is allowed to make it a self-expression of
\nhis nature, turn it into a means of growth and of a greater inner perfection. And whatever it be, if he performs his natural function in the
\nright spirit, if he enlightens it by the ideal mind, if he turns its action
\nto the uses of the Godhead within, serves with it the Spirit manifested
\nin the universe or makes it a conscious instrumentation for the purposes of the Divine in humanity, he can transmute it into a means
\ntowards the highest spiritual perfection and freedom. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut the Gita’s teaching here has a still profounder significance if
\nwe take it not as a detached quotation self-contained in meaning, as
\nis too often done, but as we should do, in connection with all that
\nit has been saying throughout the work and especially in the last
\ntwelve chapters. The Gita’s philosophy of life and works is that all
\nproceeds from the Divine Existence, the transcendent and universal
\nSpirit. All is a veiled manifestation of the Godhead, Vasudeva, yato pravrttir
\nbhūtānām yena sarvam idam tatam.,<\/i> and to unveil the Immortal within and in the world, to dwell in unity with the Soul of the
\nuniverse, to rise in consciousness, knowledge, will, love, spiritual delight to oneness with the supreme Godhead, to live in the highest <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-461<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nspiritual nature with the individual and natural being delivered from
\nshortcoming and ignorance and made a conscious instrument for the
\nworks of the divine Shakti is the perfection of which humanity is
\ncapable and the condition of immortality and freedom. But how is
\nthis possible when in fact we are enveloped in natural ignorance, the
\nsoul shut up in the prison of ego, overcome, beset, hammered and
\nmoulded by the environment, mastered by the mechanism of Nature,
\ncut off from our hold on the reality of our own secret spiritual force?
\nThe answer is that all this natural action, however now enveloped in
\na veiled and contrary working, still contains the principle of its own
\nevolving freedom and perfection. A Godhead is seated in the heart of
\nevery man and is the Lord of this mysterious action of Nature. And : though this Spirit of the universe, this One who is all, seems to be
\nturning us on the wheel of the world as if mounted on a machine
\nby the force of Maya, shaping us in our ignorance as the potter shapes
\na pot, as the weaver a fabric, by some skilful mechanical principle,
\nyet is this spirit our own greatest self and it is according to the real
\nidea, the truth of ourselves, that which is growing in us and finding
\nalways new and more adequate forms in birth after birth, in our
\nanimal and human and divine life, in that which we were, that which
\nwe are, that which we shall be,\u2014it is in accordance with this inner
\nsoul-truth that, as our opened eyes will discover, we are progressively
\nshaped by this spirit within us in its all-wise omnipotence. This machinery of ego, this tangled complexity of the three gunas, mind,
\nbody, life, emotion, desire, struggle, thought, aspiration, endeavour,
\nthis locked interaction of pain and pleasure, sin and virtue, striving
\nand success and failure, soul and environment, myself and others, is
\nonly the outward imperfect form taken by a higher spiritual Force
\nin me which pursues through its vicissitudes the progressive self-expression of the divine reality and greatness I am secretly in spirit
\nand shall overtly become in nature. This action contains in itself
\nthe principle of its own success, the principle of the Swabhava and. Swadharma. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Jiva is in self-expression a portion of the Purushottama. He represents in Nature the power of the supreme Spirit, he is in his
\npersonality that Power; he brings out in an individual existence the
\npotentialities of the Soul of the universe. This Jiva itself is spirit and
\nnot the natural ego; the spirit and not the form of ego is our reality
\nand inner soul principle. The true force of what we are and can be is <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-462<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthere in that higher spiritual Power and the mechanical Maya o\u00a3 the three gunas is not the inmost and fundamental truth of its movements; it is only a present executive energy, an apparatus of lower
\nconvenience, a scheme of outward exercise and practice. The spiritual
\nNature which has become this multiple personality in the universe, parā  prakrtir jīva-bhūta,<\/i> is the basic stuff of our existence: all the rest is lower derivation and outer formation from a highest hidden activity
\nof the spirit. And in Nature each of us has a principle and will of
\nour own becoming; each soul is a force of self-consciousness that.
\nformulates an idea of the Divine in it and guides by that its action
\nand evolution, its progressive self-finding, its constant varying self-expression, its apparently uncertain but secretly inevitable growth to
\nfullness. That is our Swabhava, our own real nature; that is our truth
\nof being which is finding now only a constant partial expression in our
\nvarious becoming in the world. The law of action determined by this
\nSwabhava is our right law of self-shaping, function, working, our
\nSwadharma. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThis principle obtains throughout cosmos; there is everywhere the
\none Power at work, one common universal Nature, but in each grade,
\nform, energy, genus, species, individual creature she follows out a
\nmajor Idea and minor ideas and principles of constant and complex
\nvariation that found both the permanent dharma of each and its temporary dharmas. These fix for it the law of its being in becoming, the
\ncurve of its birth and persistence and change, the force of its self-preservation and self-increasing, the lines of its stable and evolving
\nself-expression and self-finding, the rules of its relations to all the rest
\nof the expression of the Self in the universe. To follow the law of its
\nbeing, Swadharma, to develop the idea in its being, Swabhava, is its
\nground of safety, its right walk and procedure. That does not in the
\nend chain down the soul to any present formulation, but rather by
\nthis way of development it enriches itself most surely with new
\nexperiences assimilated to its own law and principle and can most
\npowerfully grow and break at its hour beyond present moulds to a
\nhigher self-expression. To be unable to maintain its own law and
\nprinciple, to tail to adapt itself to its environment in such a way
\nas to adapt the environment to itself and make it useful to its own
\nnature is to lose its self, forfeit its right of self, deviate from its
\nway of self, is perdition, vinasti,<\/i> is falsehood, death, anguish of decay and dissolution and necessity of painful self-recovery often after <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-463<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\neclipse and disappearance, is the Vain circuit of the wrong road retarding our real progress. This law obtains in one form or another
\nin all Nature; it underlies all that action of law of universality and
\nlaw of variation revealed to us by Science. The same law obtains in.
\nthe life of the human being, his many lives in many human bodies.
\nHere it has an outward play and an inward spiritual truth, and the
\noutward play can only put on its full and real meaning when we have
\nfound the inward spiritual truth and enlightened all our action with
\nthe values of the spirit. This great and desirable transformation can
\nbe effected with rapidity and power in proportion to our progress in
\nself-knowledge. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd first we have to see that the Swabhava means one thing in
\nthe highest spiritual nature and takes quite another form and significance in the lower nature of the three gunas. There too it acts, but
\nis not in full possession of itself, is seeking as it were for its own
\ntrue law in a half light or a darkness and goes on its way through
\nmany lower forms, many false forms, endless imperfections, perversions, self-losings, self-findings, seekings after norm and rule before it
\narrives at self-discovery and perfection. Our nature here is a mixed
\nweft of knowledge and ignorance, of truth and falsehood, of success
\nand failure, of right and wrong, of finding and losing, of sin and
\nvirtue. It is always the Swabhava that is looking for self-expression
\nand self-finding through all these things, svabhāvas tu pravartate,<\/i> a
\ntruth which should teach us universal charity and equality of vision,
\nsince we are all subject to the same perplexity and struggle. These
\nmotions belong, not to the soul, but to the nature. The Purushottama
\nis not limited by this ignorance; he governs it from above and guides
\nthe soul through its changes. The pure immutable self is not touched
\nby these movements; it witnesses and supports by its intangible eternity this mutable Nature in her vicissitudes. The real soul of the
\nindividual, the central being in us, is greater than these things, but
\naccepts them in its outward evolution in Nature. And when we have
\ngot at this real soul, at the changeless universal self sustaining us
\nand at the Purushottama, the Lord within us who presides over and
\nguides the whole action of Nature, we have found all the spiritual
\nmeaning of the law of our life. For we become aware of the Master
\nof existence expressing himself for ever in his infinite quality, anantaguna,<\/i> in all beings. We become aware of a fourfold presence of the
\nDivinity, a Soul of self-knowledge and world-knowledge, a Soul of <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-464<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nstrength and power that seeks for and finds and uses its powers, a
\nSoul of mutuality and creation and relation and interchange between
\ncreature and creature, a Soul of works that labours in the universe and
\nserves all in each and turns the labour of each to the service of all
\nOthers. We become aware too of the individual Power of the Divine
\nin us, that which directly uses these fourfold powers, assigns our
\nstrain of self-expression, determines our divine work and office and
\nraises us through it all to his universality in manifoldness till we can find by
\nit our spiritual oneness with him and with all that he is in the 
\ncosmos. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe external idea of the four orders of men in life is concerned
\nonly with the more outward working of this truth of the divine action; it is limited to one side of its operation in the functioning of the
\nthree gunas. It is true that in this birth men fall very largely into one
\nof four types, the man of knowledge, the man of power, the productive vital man, the man of rude labour and service. These are not fundamental divisions, but stages of self-development in our manhood.
\nThe human being starts with a sufficient load of ignorance and
\ninertia; his first state is one of rude toil enforced on his animal indolence by the needs of the body, by the impulsion of life, by necessity
\nof Nature and, beyond a certain point of need, by some form of
\ndirect or indirect compulsion which society lays upon him, and
\nthose who are still governed by this tamas are the Sudras, the serfs
\nof society who give it their toil and can contribute nothing or very
\nlittle else in comparison with more developed men to its manifold
\nplay of life. By kinetic action man develops the rajasic guna in him
\nand we get a second type of man who is driven by a constant instinct
\nfor useful creation, production, having, acquisition, holding and enjoying, the middle economic and vital man, the Vaishya. At a higher
\nelevation of the rajasic or kinetic quality of our one common nature
\nwe get the active man with a more dominant will, with bolder ambitions, with the instinct to act, battle, and enforce his will, at the
\nstrongest to lead, command, rule, carry masses of men in his orbit,
\nthe fighter, leader, ruler, prince, king, the Kshatriya. And where the
\nsattwic mind predominates, we get the Brahmin, the man with a turn
\nfor knowledge, who brings thought, reflection, the seeking for truth
\nand an intelligent or at the highest a spiritual rule into life and
\nillumines by it his conception and mode of existence. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThere is always in human nature something of all these four <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-465<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\npersonalities developed or undeveloped, wide or narrow, suppressed
\nor rising to the surface, but in most men one or the other tends to
\npredominate and seems to take up sometimes the whole space of
\naction in the nature. And in any society we should have all four types,
\n\u2014even, for an example, if we could create a purely productive and
\ncommercial society such as modern times have attempted, or for that
\nmatter a Sudra society of labour, of the proletariate such as attracts
\nthe most modern mind and is now being attempted in one part of
\nEurope and advocated in others. There would still be the thinkers
\nmoved to find the law and truth and guiding rule of the whole matter,
\nthe captains and leaders of industry who would make all this productive activity an excuse for the satisfaction of their need of adventure and battle and leadership and dominance, the many typical
\npurely productive and wealth-getting men, the average workers satisfied with a modicum of labour and the reward of their labour. But
\nthese are quite outward things, and if that were all, this economy of
\nhuman type would have no spiritual significance. Or it would mean
\nat most, as has been sometimes held in India, that we have to go
\nthrough these stages of development in our births; for we must perforce proceed progressively through the tamasic, the rajaso-tamasic,
\nthe rajasic or rajaso-sattwic to the sattwic nature, ascend and fix ourselves in an inner Brahminhood,
\nbrahmanya,<\/i> and then seek salvation
\nfrom that basis. But in that case there would be no logical room for the
\nGita’s assertion that even the Sudra or Chandala can by turning his
\nlife Godwards climb straight to spiritual liberty and perfection, <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe fundamental truth is not this outward thing, but a force of our
\ninner being in movement, the truth of the fourfold active power of
\nthe spiritual nature. Each Jiva possesses in his spiritual nature these
\nfour sides, is a soul of knowledge, a soul of strength and of power, a
\nsoul of mutuality and interchange, a soul of works and service, but
\none side or other predominates in the action and expressive spirit and
\ntinges the dealings of the soul with its embodied nature; it leads and
\ngives its stamp to the other powers and uses them for the principal
\nstrain of action, tendency, experience. The Swabhava then follows,
\nnot crudely and rigidly as put in the social demarcation, but subtly
\nand flexibly the law of this strain and develops in developing it the
\nother three powers. Thus the pursuit of the impulse of works and
\nservice rightly done develops knowledge, increases power, trains
\ncloseness or balance of mutuality and skill and order of relation. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-466<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nEach front of the fourfold godhead moves through the enlargement of
\nits own dominant principle of nature and enrichment by the other
\nthree towards a total perfection. This development undergoes the
\nlaw of the three gunas. There is possible a tamasic and rajasic way of
\nfollowing even the dharma of the soul of knowledge, a brute tamasic
\nand a high sattwic way of following the dharma of power, a forceful
\nrajasic or a beautiful and noble sattwic way of following the dharma
\nof works and service. To arrive at the sattwic way of the inner individual Swadharma and of the works to which it moves us on the ways
\nof life is a preliminary condition of perfection. And it may be noted
\nthat the inner Swadharma is not bound to any outward social or
\nother form of action, occupation or function. The soul of works that
\nis satisfied to serve or that element in us can, for example, make the
\nlife of the pursuit of knowledge, the life of struggle and power or
\nthe life of mutuality, production and interchange a means of satisfying its divine impulse to labour and to service. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd in the end to arrive at the divinest figure and most dynamic
\nsoul-power of this fourfold activity is a wide doorway to a swiftest
\nand largest reality of the most high spiritual perfection. This we can
\ndo if we turn the action of the Swadharma into a worship of the inner
\nGodhead, the universal Spirit, the transcendent Purushottama and,
\neventually, surrender the whole action into his hands, mayi sannyasya
\nkarmāni.<\/i> Then as we get beyond the limitation of the three gunas,
\nso also do we get beyond the division of the fourfold law and beyond
\nthe limitation of all distinctive dharmas, sarvadharmān parityajya.
\n<\/i>The Spirit takes up the individual into the universal Swabhava, perfects and unifies the fourfold soul of nature in us and does its self-determined works according to the divine will and the accomplished
\npower of the godhead in the creature. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe Gita’s injunction is to worship the Divine by our own work,
\nsva-karmanā;<\/i> our offering must be the works determined by our own
\nlaw of being and nature. For from the Divine all movement of
\ncreation and impulse to act originates and by him all this universe is
\nextended and for the holding together of the worlds he presides over
\nand shapes all action through the Swabhava. To worship him with
\nour inner and outer activities, to make our whole life a sacrifice of
\nworks to the Highest is to prepare ourselves to become one with
\nhim in all our will and substance and nature. Our work should be
\naccording to the truth within us, it should not be an accommodation <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-467<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nwith outward and artificial standards: ‘it must be a living and sincere
\nexpression of the soul and its inborn powers. For to follow out the
\nliving inmost truth of this soul in our present nature will help us
\neventually to arrive at the immortal truth of the same soul in the
\nnow superconscious supreme nature. There we can live in oneness
\nwith God and our true self and all beings, and perfected, become a
\nfaultless instrument of divine action in the freedom of the immortal
\nDharma. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-468<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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