{"id":3625,"date":"2013-07-13T01:50:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3625"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:50:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:02","slug":"30-works-devotion-and-knowledge-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\/30-works-devotion-and-knowledge-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","title":{"rendered":"-30_Works Devotion and Knowledge.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nWORKS, DEVOTION AND KNOWLEDGE <\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nT<\/font>HIS THEN<\/font> is the integral truth, the highest and widest knowledge.
\nThe Divine is supracosmic, the eternal Parabrahman who supports
\nwith his timeless and spaceless existence all this cosmic manifestation
\nof his own being and nature in Space and Time. He is the supreme
\nSpirit who ensouls the forms and movements of the universe, Paramatman. He is the supernal Person of whom all self and nature, all
\nbeing and becoming in this or any universe are the self-conception
\nand the self-energising, Purushottama. He is the ineffable Lord of
\nall existence who by his spiritual control of his own manifested Power
\nin Nature unrolls the cycles of the world and the natural evolution of
\ncreatures in the cycles, Parameshwara. From him the Jiva, individual
\nspirit, soul in Nature, existent by his being, conscious by the light of
\nhis consciousness, empowered to knowledge, to will and to action by
\nhis will and power, enjoying existence by his divine enjoyment of the
\ncosmos, has come here into the cosmic rounds. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe inner soul in man is here a partial self-manifestation of the
\nDivine, self-limited for the works of his Nature in the universe, prakrtir jīva-bhūtā.<\/i> In his spiritual essence the individual is one with
\nthe Divine. In the works of the divine Parkriti he is one with him,
\nyet there is an operative difference and many deep relations with
\nGod in Nature and with God above cosmic Nature. In the works of the lower
\nappearance of Prakriti he seems by an ignorance and egoistic separation to be quite other than the One and to think, will,
\nact, enjoy in this separative consciousness for the egoistic pleasure
\nand purpose of his personal existence in the universe and its surface
\nrelations with other embodied minds and lives. But in fact all his
\nbeing, all his thinking, all his willing and action and enjoyment are
\nonly a reflection\u2014egoistic and perverted so long as he is in the ignorance\u2014of the Divine’s being, the Divine’s thought, will, action and
\nenjoyment of Nature. To get back to this truth of himself is his
\ndirect means of salvation, his largest and nearest door of escape from <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-285<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nsubjection to the Ignorance. Since he is a spirit, a soul with a nature
\nof mind and reason, of will and dynamic action, of emotion and
\nsensation and life’s seeking for the delight of existence, it is by turning all these powers Godwards that the return to the highest truth
\nof himself can be made entirely possible. He must know with the
\nknowledge of the supreme Self and Brahman; he must turn his love
\nand adoration to the supreme Person; he must subject his will and
\nworks to the supreme Lord of cosmos. Then he passes from the
\nlower to the divine Nature: he casts from him the thought and will
\nand works of the Ignorance and thinks, wills and works in his divine
\nidentity as soul of that Soul, power and light of that Spirit; he enjoys all the inner infinite of the Divine and no longer only these
\noutward touches, masks and appearances. Thus divinely living, thus
\ndirecting his whole self and soul and nature Godwards, he is taken
\nup into the truest truth of the supreme Brahman. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nTo know Vasudeva as all and live in that knowledge is the secret.
\nHe knows him as the Self, immutable, continent of all as well as
\nimmanent in all things. He draws back from the confused and perturbed whirl of the lower nature to dwell in the still and inalienable
\ncalm and light of the self-existent spirit. There he realises a constant
\nunity with this self of the Divine that is present in all existences
\nand supports all cosmic movement and action and phenomenon. He
\nlooks upward from this eternal unchanging spiritual hypostasis of
\nthe mutable universe to the greater Eternal, the supracosmic, the
\nReal. He knows him as the divine Inhabitant in all things that are,
\nthe Lord in the heart of man, the secret Ishwara, and removes the
\nveil between his natural being and this inner spiritual Master of his
\nbeing. He makes his will, thought and works one in knowledge with
\nthe Ishwara’s attuned by an ever-present realisation to the sense of
\nthe indwelling Divinity, sees and adores him in all and changes the
\nwhole human action to the highest meaning of the divine nature. He
\nknows him as the source and the substance of all that is around him
\nin the universe. All things that are he sees as at once in their appearance the veils and in their secret trend the means and signs of
\nself-manifestation of that one unthinkable Reality and everywhere
\ndiscovers that oneness. Brahman, Purusha, Atman, Vasudeva, the
\nBeing that has become all these creatures. Therefore too his whole
\ninner existence comes into tune and harmony with the Infinite now
\nself-revealed in all that lives or is within and around him and his <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-286<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nwhole outer existence turns into an exact instrumentation of the
\ncosmic purpose. He looks up through the Self to the Parabrahman
\nwho there and here is the one and only existence. He looks up
\nthrough the divine Inhabitant in all to that supernal Person who in
\nhis supreme status is beyond all habitation. He looks up through the
\nLord manifested in the universe to the Supreme who exceeds and
\nrules all his manifestation. Thus he arises through a limitless unfolding of knowledge and upward vision and aspiration to that to which
\nhe has turned with an all-compelling integrality, sarvabhāvena.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThis integral turning of the soul Godwards bases royally the Gita’s
\nsynthesis of knowledge and works and devotion. To know God thus
\nintegrally is to know him as One in the self and in all manifestation
\nand beyond all manifestation,\u2014and all this unitedly and at once. And
\nyet even so to know him is not enough unless it is accompanied by an
\nintense uplifting of the heart and soul Godwards, unless it kindles a
\none-pointed and at the same time all-embracing love, adoration, aspiration. Indeed the knowledge which is not companioned by an
\naspiration and vivified by an uplifting is no true knowledge, for it
\ncan be only an intellectual seeing and a barren cognitive endeavour.
\nThe vision of God brings infallibly the adoration and passionate
\nseeking of the Divine,\u2014a passion for the Divine in his self-existent
\nbeing but also for the Divine in ourselves and for the Divine in all
\nthat is. To know with the intellect is simply to understand and may be an effective starting-point,\u2014or, too, it may not be and it will not be if there is no sincerity in the knowledge, no urge towards inner
\nrealisation in the will, no power upon the soul, no call in the spirit: for that would mean that the brain has externally understood, but
\ninwardly the soul has seen nothing. True knowledge is to know with
\nthe inner being, and when the inner being is touched by the light,
\nthen it arises to embrace that which is seen, it yearns to possess, it
\nstruggles to shape that in itself and itself to it, it labours to become
\none with the glory of its vision. Knowledge in this sense is an awakening to identity and, since the inner being realises itself by consciousness and delight, by love, by possession and oneness with whatever
\nof itself it has seen, knowledge awakened must bring an overmastering impulse towards this true and only perfect realisation. Here that
\nwhich is known is not an externalised object, but the divine Purusha,
\nself and lord of all that we are. An all-seizing delight in him and a
\ndeep and moved love and adoration of him must be the inevitable <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-287<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nresult and is the very soul of this knowledge. And this adoration is no
\nisolated seeking, of the heart, but an offering of the whole existence.
\nTherefore it must take also the form of a sacrifice; there is a giving
\nof all our works to the Ishwara, there is a surrender of all our active
\ninward and outward nature to the Godhead of our adoration in its
\nevery subjective and in its every objective movement. All our subjective workings move in him and they seek him, the Lord and Self,
\nas the source and goal of their power and endeavour. All our objective
\nworkings move out towards him in the world and make him their
\nobject, initiate a service of God in the world of which the controlling
\npower is the Divinity within us in whom we are one self with the
\nuniverse and its creatures. For both world and self, Nature and the
\nsoul in her are enlightened by the consciousness of the One, are inner
\nand outer bodies of the transcendent Purushottama. So comes a synthesis of mind and heart and will in the one self and spirit and with
\nit the synthesis of knowledge, love and works in this integral union,
\nthis embracing God-realisation, this divine Yoga. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut to arrive at this movement at all is difficult for the ego-bound
\nnature. And to arrive at its victorious and harmonious integrality is
\nnot easy even when we have set our feet on the way finally and for
\never. Mortal mind is bewildered by its ignorant reliance upon veils
\nand appearances; it sees only the outward human body, human mind,
\n.human way of living and catches no liberating glimpse of the Divinity
\nwho is lodged in the creature. It ignores the divinity within itself and
\ncannot see it in other men, and even though the Divine manifest
\nhimself in humanity as Avatar and Vibhuti, it is still blind and ignores
\nor despises the veiled Godhead, avajānamti mām mūdhā mānusīm
\ntanum āśritam.<\/i> And if it ignores him in the living creature, still less
\ncan it see him in the objective world on which it looks from its prison
\nof separative ego through the barred windows of the finite mind. It
\ndoes not see God in the universe; it knows nothing of the supreme
\nDivinity who is master of these planes full of various existences and
\ndwells within them; it is blind to the vision by which all in the
\nworld grows divine and the soul itself awakens to its own inherent
\ndivinity and becomes of the Godhead, godlike. What it does see
\nreadily, and to that it attaches itself with passion, is only the life of
\nthe ego hunting after finite things for their own sake and for the
\nsatisfaction of the earthly hunger of the intellect, body, senses. Those
\nwho have given themselves up too entirely to this outward drive of <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-288<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nthe mentality, fall into the hands of the lower nature, cling to it and
\nmake it their foundation. They become a prey to the nature of the
\nRakshasa in man who sacrifices everything to a violent and inordinate satisfaction of his separate vital ego and makes that the dark
\ngodhead of his will and thought and action and enjoyment. Or they
\nare hurried onward in a fruitless cycle by the arrogant self-will, self-sufficient thought, self-regarding act, self-satisfied and yet ever unsatisfied intellectualised appetite of enjoyment of the Asuric nature.
\nBut to live persistently in this separative ego-consciousness and make
\nthat the centre of all our activities is to miss altogether the true self-awareness. The charm it throws upon the misled instruments of the
\nspirit is an enchantment that chains life to a profitless circling. All
\nits hope, action, knowledge are vain things when judged by the divine and eternal standard, for it shuts out the great hope, excludes the
\nliberating action, banishes the illuminating knowledge. It is a false
\nKnowledge that sees the phenomenon but misses the truth of the
\nphenomenon, a blind hope that chases after the transient but misses
\nthe eternal, a sterile action whose every profit is annulled by loss and
\namounts to a perennial labour of Sysiphus.1<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe great-souled who open themselves to the light and largeness
\nof the diviner nature of which man is capable, are alone on the path
\nnarrow in the beginning, inexpressibly wide in the end that leads to
\nliberation and perfection. The growth of the god in man is man’s
\nproper business; the steadfast turning of this lower Asuric and
\nRakshasic into the divine nature is the carefully hidden meaning of
\nhuman life. As this growth increases, the veil falls and the soul comes
\nto see the greater significance of action and the real truth of existence.
\nThe eye opens to the Godhead in man, to the Godhead in the world; it sees inwardly and comes to know outwardly the infinite Spirit,
\nthe Imperishable from whom all existences originate and who exists
\nin all and by him and in him all exist always. Therefore when this
\nvision, this knowledge seizes on the soul, its whole life-aspiration
\nbecomes a surpassing love and fathomless adoration of the Divine and
\nInfinite. The mind attaches itself singly to the eternal, the spiritual,
\nthe living, the universal, the Real; it values nothing but for its sake,
\nit delights only in the all-blissful Purusha. All the word and all the
\nthought become one hymning of the universal greatness, Light,
\nBeauty, Power and Truth that has revealed itself in its glory to the <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-289<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nhuman spirit and a worship of the one supreme Soul and infinite
\nPerson. All the long stress of the inner self to break outward becomes
\na form now of spiritual endeavour and aspiration to possess the
\nDivine in the soul and realise the Divine in the nature. All life becomes a constant Yoga and unification of that Divine and this human
\nspirit. This is the manner of the integral devotion; it creates a single
\nuplifting of our whole being and nature through sacrifice <\/b> by the
\ndedicated heart to the eternal Purushottama.2 <\/sup><\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThose who lay a predominant stress on knowledge, arrive <\/b> to the
\nsame point by an always increasing, engrossing, enforcing power of
\nthe vision of the Divine on the soul and the nature. Theirs is the
\nsacrifice of knowledge and by an ineffable ecstasy of knowledge they
\ncome to the adoration of the Purushottama, j\u00f1āna-yaj\u00f1ena yajanto
\nmām upāsate..<\/i> This is a comprehension filled with Bhakti, because
\nit is integral in its instruments, integral in its objective. It is not a
\npursuit of the Supreme merely as an abstract unity or an indeterminable Absolute. It is a heart-felt seeking and seizing of the Supreme and
\nthe Universal, a pursuit of the Infinite in his infinity and of the Infinite in all that is finite, a vision and embracing of the One in his
\noneness and of the One in all his several principles, his innumerable
\nvisages, forces, forms, here, there, everywhere, timelessly and in time,
\nmultiply, multitudinously, in endless aspects of his Godhead, in beings without number, all his million universal faces fronting us in the
\nworld and its creatures, ekatvena prthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham.<\/i> This knowledge becomes easily an adoration, a large devotion, a vast self-giving, an integral self-offering because it is the
\nknowledge of a Spirit, the contact of a Being, the embrace of a supreme and universal Soul which claims all that we are even as it
\nlavishes on us when we approach it all the treasures of its endless
\ndelight of existence.3<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe way of works too turns into an adoration and a devotion of
\nself-giving because it is an entire sacrifice of all our will and its
\nactivities to the one Purushottama. The outward Vedic rite is a
\npowerful symbol, effective for a slighter though still a heavenward
\npurpose; but the real sacrifice is that inner oblation in which the
\nDivine All becomes himself the ritual action, the sacrifice and every
\nsingle circumstance of the sacrifice. All the working and forms of <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n2<\/sup> IX. 13-14.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-290<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nthat inner rite are the self-ordinance and self-expression of his power
\nin us mounting by our aspiration towards the source of its energies.
\nThe Divine Inhabitant becomes himself the flame and the offering,
\nbecause the flame is the Godward will and that will is God himself
\nwithin us. And the offering too is form and force of the constituent
\nGodhead in our nature and being; all that has been received from him
\nis given up to the service and the worship of its own Reality, its own
\nsupreme Truth and Origin. The Divine Thinker becomes himself
\nthe sacred mantra; it is the Light of his being that expresses itself
\nin the thought directed Godward and is effective in the revealing
\nword of splendour that enshrines the thought’s secret and in the
\nrhythm that repeats for man the rhythms of the Eternal. The illumining Godhead is himself the Veda and that which is made known
\nby the Veda. He is both the knowledge and the object of the knowledge. The Rik, the Yajur, the Sama, the word of illumination which
\nlights up the mind with the rays of knowledge, the word of power
\nfor the right ordaining of action, the word of calm and harmonious
\nattainment for the bringing of the divine desire of the spirit, are
\nthemselves the Brahman, the Godhead. The mantra of the divine
\nConsciousness brings its light of revelation, the mantra of the divine
\nPower its will of effectuation, the mantra of the divine Ananda its
\nequal fulfilment of the spiritual delight of existence. All word and
\nthought are an outflowering of the great OM,\u2014OM, the Word, the
\nEternal. Manifest in the forms of sensible objects, manifest in that
\nconscious play of creative self-conception of which forms and objects
\nare the figures, manifest behind in the self-gathered superconscient
\npower of the Infinite, OM is the sovereign source, seed, womb of
\nthing and idea, form and name,\u2014it is itself, integrally, the supreme
\nIntangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self-existent
\nabove all manifestation in supernal being.4<\/sup> This sacrifice is therefore at once
\nworks and adoration and knowledge.5<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nTo the soul that thus knows, adores, offers up all its workings in
\na great self-surrender of its being to the Eternal, God is all and all is the Godhead. It knows God as the Father of this world who
\nnourishes and cherishes and watches over his children. It knows God <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n4<\/sup>AUM,\u2014A the spirit of the gross and external, Virat, U the spirit of the
\nsubtle and internal, Taijasa, M the spirit of the secret superconscient omnipotence, Prajna, OM the Absolute, Turiya.\u2014Mandukya Upanishad.<\/i>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\n5<\/sup> IX. 16-7. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-291<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nas the divine Mother who holds us in her bosom, lavishes upon us
\nthe sweetness of her love and fills the universe with her forms of
\nbeauty. It knows him as the first Creator from whom has originated
\nall that originates and creates in space and time and relation. It
\nknows him as the Master and ordainer of all universal and of every
\nindividual dispensation. The world and fate and uncertain eventuality
\ncannot terrify, the aspect of suffering and evil cannot bewilder the
\nman who has surrendered himself to the Eternal. God to the soul
\nthat sees is the path and God is the goal of his journey, a path in
\nwhich there is no self-losing and a goal to which his wisely guided
\nsteps are surely arriving at every moment. He knows the Godhead
\nas the master of his and all being, the upholder of his nature, the
\nhusband of the nature-soul, its lover and cherisher, the inner witness
\nof all his thoughts and actions. God is his house and country, the
\nrefuge of his seekings and desires, the wise and close and benignant
\nfriend of all beings. All birth and status and destruction of apparent
\nexistences is to his vision and experience the One who brings forward, maintains and withdraws his temporal self-manifestation in its
\nSystem of perpetual recurrences. He alone is the imperishable seed
\nand origin of all that seem to be born and perish and their eternal
\nresting-place in their non-manifestation. It is he that burns in the heat
\nof the sun and the flame; it is he who is the plenty of the rain and its
\nwithholding; he is all this physical Nature and her workings. Death
\nis his mask and immortality is his self-revelation. All that we call
\nexistent is he and all that we look upon as non-existent still is there
\nsecret in the Infinite and is part of the mysterious being of the Ineffable.6<\/sup><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nNothing but the highest knowledge and adoration, no other way
\nthan an entire self-giving and surrender to this Highest who is all,
\nwill bring us to the Highest. Other religion, other worship, other
\nknowledge, other seeking has always its fruits, but these are transient
\nand limited to the enjoyment of divine symbols and appearances.
\nThere are always open for our following according to the balance of
\nour mentality an outer and an inmost knowledge, an outer and an
\ninmost seeking. Outward religion is the worship of an outward deity
\nand the pursuit of an external beatitude: its devotees purify their
\nconduct from sin and attain to an active ethical righteousness in <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-292<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\norder to satisfy the fixed law, the Shastra, the external dispensation; they perform the ceremonial symbol of the outer communion. But
\ntheir object is to secure after the mortal pleasure and pain of earthly life the bliss of heavenly worlds, a greater happiness than earth can
\ngive but still a personal and mundane enjoyment though in a larger
\nworld than the field of this limited and suffering terrestrial nature.
\nAnd to that to which they aspire, they attain by faith and right
\nendeavour; for material existence and earthly activities are not the
\nwhole scope of our personal becoming or the whole formula of the
\ncosmos. Other worlds there are of a larger felicity, svargalokam
\nviśālam.<\/i> Thus the vedic ritualist of old learned the exoteric sense
\nof the triple Veda, purified himself from sin, drank the wine of
\ncommunion with the gods and sought by sacrifice and good deeds the
\nrewards of heaven. This firm belief in a Beyond and this seeking of
\na diviner world secures to the soul in its passing the strength to attain
\nto the joys of heaven on which its faith and seeking were centred: <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nbut the return to mortal existence imposes itself because the true aim
\nof that existence has not been found and realised. Here and not
\nelsewhere the highest Godhead has to be found, the soul’s divine
\nnature developed out of the imperfect physical human nature and
\nthrough unity with God and man and universe the whole large truth
\nof being discovered and lived and made visibly wonderful. That
\ncompletes the long cycle of our becoming and admits us to a supreme
\nresult; that is the opportunity given to the soul by the human birth
\nand, until that is accomplished, it cannot cease. The God-lover advances constantly towards this ultimate necessity of our birth in cosmos through a concentrated love and adoration by which he makes the
\nsupreme and universal Divine the whole object of his living\u2014not
\neither egoistic terrestrial satisfaction or the celestial worlds\u2014and the
\nwhole object of his thought and his seeing. To see nothing but the
\nDivine, to be at every moment in union with him, to love him in all
\ncreatures and have the delight of him in all things is the whole condition of his spiritual existence. His God-vision does not divorce him
\nfrom life, nor does he miss anything of the fullness of life; for God
\nhimself becomes the spontaneous bringer to him of every good and
\nof all his inner and outer getting and having, yoga-ksemam vahāmyaham.<\/i> The joy of heaven and the joy of earth are only a small
\nshadow of his possessions; for as he grows into the Divine, the Divine <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-293<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\ntoo flows out upon him with all the light, power and joy of an infinite existence.7
\n<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nOrdinary religion is a sacrifice to partial godheads, other than the
\nintegral Divinity. The Gita takes its direct examples from the old Vedic
\nreligion on its exoteric side as it had then developed; it describes this
\noutward worship as a sacrifice to other godheads, anyadevatāh,<\/i> to
\nthe gods, or to the divinised Ancestors, or to elemental powers and
\nspirits, devān, pitrn, bhūtāni.<\/i> Men consecrate their life and works
\nordinarily to partial powers or aspects of the divine Existence as they
\nsee or conceive them\u2014mostly powers and aspects that ensoul to them
\nthings prominent in Nature and man or else reflect to them their
\nown humanity in a divine exceeding symbol. If they do this with
\nfaith, then their faith is justified; for the Divine accepts whatever
\nsymbol, form or conception of himself is present to the mind of the
\nworshipper, yām yām tanum śraddhayā arcati,<\/i> as it is said elsewhere, \u2014and meets him according to the faith that is in him. All sincere
\nreligious belief and practice is really a seeking after the one supreme
\nand universal Godhead; for he always is the sole master of man’s
\nsacrifice and askesis and infinite enjoyer of his effort and aspiration.
\nHowever small or low the form of the worship, however limited the
\nidea of the godhead, however restricted the giving, the faith, the
\neffort to get behind the veil of one’s own ego-worship and limitation
\nby material Nature, it yet forms a thread of connection between the
\nsoul of man and the All-Soul and there is a response. Still the response, the fruit of the adoration and offering is according to the
\nknowledge, the faith and the work and cannot exceed their limitations, and therefore from the point of view of the greater Godknowledge, which alone gives the entire truth of being and becoming,
\nthis inferior offering is not given according to the true and highest
\nlaw of the sacrifice. It is not founded on a knowledge of the supreme
\nGodhead in his integral existence and the true principles of his self-manifestation, but attaches itself to external and partial appearances,
\n\u2014na, mām abhijānanti tattvena.<\/i> Therefore its sacrifice too is limited
\nin its object, largely egoistic in its motive, partial and mistaken in
\nits action and giving, yajanti avidhi-pūrvakam.<\/i> An entire seeing of
\nthe Divine is the condition of an entire conscious self-surrender; the
\nrest attains to things that are incomplete and partial and has to fall
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-294<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nback from them and return to enlarge itself in a greater seeking and
\nwider God-experience. But to follow after the supreme and universal
\nGodhead alone and utterly is to attain to all knowledge and result
\nwhich other ways acquire while yet one is not limited by any aspect,
\nthough one finds the truth of him in all aspects. This movement
\nembraces all forms of divine being on its way to the supreme Purushottama.8
\n<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThis absolute self-giving, this one-minded surrender is the devotion
\nwhich the Gita makes the crown of its synthesis. All action and effort
\nare by this devotion turned into an offering to the supreme and
\n‘ universal Godhead. "Whatever thou doest, whatever thou enjoyest,
\nwhatever thou sacrificest, whatever thou givest, whatever energy of
\ntapasya, of the soul’s will or effort, thou puttest forth, make it an
\noffering unto Me." Here the least, the slightest circumstance of life,
\ndie most insignificant gift out of oneself or what one has, the smallest
\naction assumes a divine significance and it becomes an acceptable
\noffering to the Godhead who makes it a means for his possession of
\nthe soul and life of the God-lover. The distinctions made by desire and
\nego then disappear. As there is no straining after the good result of
\none’s action, no shunning of unhappy result, but all action and result
\nare given up to the Supreme to whom all work and fruit in the
\nworld belong for ever, there is no farther bondage. For by an absolute
\nSelf-giving all egoistic desire disappears from the heart and there is
\na perfect union between the Divine and the individual soul through
\nan inner renunciation of its separate living. All will, all action, all
\nresult become that of the Godhead, work divinely through the purified and illumined nature and no longer belong to the limited personal ego. The finite nature thus surrendered becomes a free channel
\nof the Infinite; the soul in its spiritual being, uplifted out of the
\nignorance and the limitation, returns to its oneness with the Eternal.
\nThe Divine Eternal is the inhabitant in all existences: he is equal
\nin all and the equal friend, father, mother, creator, lover, supporter
\nof all creatures. He is the enemy of none and he is the partial lover
\nof none; none has he cast out, none has he eternally condemned, none
\nhas he favoured by any despotism of arbitrary caprice: all at last
\nequally come to him through their circlings in the ignorance. But
\nit is only this perfect adoration that can make this indwelling of
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-295<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nGod in man and man in God a conscious thing and an engrossing
\nand perfect union. Love of the Highest and a total self-surrender are 
\nthe straight and swift way to this divine oneness.9 <\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe equal Divine Presence in all of us makes no other preliminary
\ncondition, if once this integral self-giving has been made in faith and
\nin sincerity and with a fundamental completeness. All have access to
\nthis gate, all can enter into this temple: our mundane distinctions
\ndisappear in the mansion of the All-lover. There the virtuous man is
\nnot preferred, nor the sinner shut out from the Presence; together by
\nthis road the Brahmin pure of life and exact in observance of the law
\nand the outcast born from a womb of sin and sorrow and rejected of
\nmen can travel and find an equal and open access to the supreme
\nliberation and the highest dwelling in the Eternal. Man and woman
\nfind their equal right before God; for the divine Spirit is no respecter
\nof persons or of social distinctions and restrictions: all can go straight
\nto him without intermediary or shackling condition. "If" says the divine Teacher "even a man of very evil conduct turns to Me with a
\nsole and entire love, he must be regarded as a saint, for the settled
\nwill of endeavour in him is a right and complete will. Swiftly be becomes a soul of righteousness and obtains eternal peace." In other
\nwords a will of entire self-giving opens wide all the gates of the spirit
\nand brings in response an entire descent and self-giving of the Godhead to the human being, and that at once reshapes and assimilates
\neverything in us to the law of the divine existence by a rapid transformation of the lower into the spiritual nature. The will of self-giving forces away by its power the veil between God and man; it
\nannuls every error and annihilates every obstacle. Those who aspire
\nin their human strength by effort of knowledge or effort of virtue or
\neffort of laborious self-discipline, grow with much anxious difficulty
\ntowards the Eternal; but when the Soul gives up its ego and its works
\nto the Divine, God himself comes to us and takes up our burden. To
\nthe ignorant he brings the light of the divine knowledge, to the
\nfeeble the power of the divine will, to the sinner the liberation of
\nthe divine purity, to the suffering the infinite spiritual joy and
\nAnanda. Their weakness and the stumblings of their human strength
\nmake no difference. "This is my word of promise," cries the voice of
\nthe Godhead to Arjuna, "that he who loves Me shall not perish." \u2022
\nPrevious effort and preparation, the purity and the holiness of the <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-296<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nBrahmin, the enlightened strength of the king-sage great in works
\nand knowledge have their value, because they make it easier for the
\nimperfect human creature to arrive at this wide vision and self-surrender; but even without this preparation all who take refuge in the
\ndivine Lover of man, the Vaishya once preoccupied with the narrowness of wealth-getting and the labour of production, the Shudra hampered by a thousand hard restrictions, woman shut in and stunted in
\nher growth by the narrow circle society has drawn around her self-expansion, those too,
\npāpa-yonayah,<\/i> on whom their past Karma has
\nimposed even the very worst of births, the outcaste, the Pariah, the
\nChandala, find at once the gates of God opening before them. In
\nthe spiritual life all the external distinctions of which men make
\nso much because they appeal with an oppressive force to the outward mind, cease before the equality of the divine Light and the
\nwide omnipotence of an impartial Power.10<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe earthly world preoccupied with the dualities and bound to
\nthe immediate transient relations of the hour and the moment is for
\nman, so long as he dwells here attached to these things and while he
\naccepts the law they impose on him for the law of his life, a world of
\nstruggle, suffering and sorrow. The way to liberation is to turn from
\nthe outward to the inward, from the appearance created by the material life which lays its burden on the mind and imprisons it in the
\ngrooves of the life and the body to the divine Reality which waits
\nto manifest itself through the freedom of the spirit. Love of the world,
\nthe mask, must change into the love of God, the Truth. Once this
\nsecret and inner Godhead is known and is embraced, the whole being
\nand the whole life will undergo a sovereign uplifting and a marvellous
\ntransmutation. In place of the ignorance of the lower nature absorbed
\nin its outward works and appearances the eye will open to the
\nvision of God everywhere, to the unity and universality of the spirit.
\nThe world’s sorrow and pain will disappear in the bliss of the All-blissful; our weakness and error and sin will be changed into the
\nall-embracing and all-transforming strength, truth and purity of the
\nEternal. To make the mind one with the divine consciousness, to
\nmake the whole of our emotional nature one love of God everywhere,
\nto make all our works one sacrifice to the Lord of the worlds and all
\nour worship and aspiration one adoration of him and self-surrender,
\nto direct the whole self Godwards in an entire union is the way to
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-297<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nrise out of a mundane into a divine existence. This is the Gita’s
\nteaching of divine love and devotion, in which knowledge, works and
\nthe heart’s longing become one in a supreme unification, a merging of
\nall their divergences, an intertwining of all their threads, a high
\nfusion, a wide identifying movement.11 <\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-298<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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