{"id":3634,"date":"2013-07-13T01:50:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:50:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:06","slug":"23-nirvana-and-works-in-the-world-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\/23-nirvana-and-works-in-the-world-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","title":{"rendered":"-23_Nirvana and Works in the World.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nNIRVANA AND WORKS IN THE WORLD <\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nT<\/font><\/b>HE UNION<\/font> of the soul with the Purushottama by a Yoga of the
\nwhole being is the complete teaching of the Gita and not only the
\nunion with the immutable Self as in the narrower doctrine which follows the
\nexclusive way of knowledge. That is why the Gita subsequently, after it has effected the reconciliation of knowledge and
\nworks, is able to develop the idea of love and devotion, unified with
\nboth works and knowledge, as the highest height of the way to the
\nsupreme secret. For if the union with the immutable Self were the
\nsole secret or the highest secret, that would not at all be possible; for then at a given point our inner basis for love and devotion, no less
\nthan our inner foundation of works, would crumble away and collapse. Union utter and exclusive with the immutable Self alone
\nmeans the abolition of the whole point of view of the mutable being,
\nnot only in its ordinary and inferior action but in its very roots, in all
\nthat makes its existence possible, not only in the works of its ignorance, but in the works of its knowledge. It would mean the abolition
\nof all that difference in conscious poise and activity between the
\nhuman soul and the Divine which makes possible the play of the
\nKshara; for the action of the Kshara would become then entirely a
\nplay of the ignorance without any root or basis of divine reality in it.
\nOn the contrary, union by Yoga with the Purushottama means the knowledge and
\nenjoyment of our oneness with him in our self-existent being and of a certain differentiation in our active being. It is
\nthe persistence of the latter in a play of divine works which are urged by the
\nmotive power of divine love and constituted by a perfected divine Nature, it is the vision of the Divine in the world
\nharmonised with a realisation of the Divine in the self which makes action and
\ndevotion possible to the liberated man, and not only possible but inevitable in the perfect mode of his being. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut the direct way to union lies through the firm realisation of the immutable Self, and it is the Gita’s insistence on this as a first <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-209 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nnecessity, after which alone works and devotion can acquire their
\nwhole divine meaning, that makes it possible for us to mistake its
\ndrift. For if we take the passages in which it insists most rigorously
\nupon this necessity and neglect to observe the whole sequence of
\nthought in which they stand, we may easily come to the conclusion
\nthat it does really teach actionless absorption as the final state of the
\nsoul and action only as a preliminary means towards stillness in the
\nmotionless Immutable. It is in the close of the fifth and throughout
\nthe sixth chapter that this insistence is strongest and most comprehensive. There we get the description of a Yoga which would seem
\nat first sight to be incompatible with works and we get the repeated
\nuse of the word Nirvana to describe the status to which the Yogin arrives. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe mark of this status is the supreme peace of a calm self-extinction,
\nśāntim nirvāna-paramām,<\/i> and, as if to make it quite clear
\nthat it is not the Buddhist’s Nirvana in a blissful negation of being,
\nbut the Vedantic loss of a partial in a perfect being that it intends,
\nthe Gita uses always the phrase brahma-nirvāna,<\/i> extinction in the
\nBrahman; and the Brahman here certainly seems to mean the Immutable, to denote primarily at least the inner timeless Self withdrawn from active participation even though immanent in the externality of Nature. We have to see then what is the drift of the
\nGita here, and especially whether this peace is the peace of an absolute inactive cessation, whether the self-extinction in the Akshara
\nmeans the absolute excision of all knowledge and consciousness o\u00a3
\nthe Kshara and of all action in the Kshara. We are accustomed indeed to regard Nirvana and any kind of existence and action in the
\nworld as incompatible and we might be inclined to argue that the use
\nof the word is by itself sufficient and decides the question. But if we
\nlook closely at Buddhism, we shall doubt whether the absolute incompatibility really existed even for the Buddhists; and if we look
\nclosely at the Gita, we shall see that it does not form part of this supreme Vedantic teaching. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe Gita after speaking of the perfect equality of the Brahmanknower who has risen into the Brahman-consciousness,
\nbrahmavid brahmani sthitah,<\/i> develops in nine verses that follow its idea of
\nBrahmayoga and of Nirvana in the Brahman. "When the soul is no
\nlonger attached to the touches of outward things," it begins, "then
\none finds the happiness that exists in the Self; such a one enjoys an
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-210<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nimperishable happiness, because his self is in Yoga, yukta,<\/i> "by Yoga
\nwith the Brahman." The non-attachment is essential, it says, in order
\nto be free from the attacks of desire and wrath and passion, a freedom
\nwithout which true happiness is not possible. That happiness and that
\nequality are to be gained entirely by man in the body: he is not
\n<\/b>to
\n<\/b>suffer any least remnant of the subjection to the troubled lower nature to remain in the idea that the perfect release will come by a
\nputting off of the body; a perfect spiritual freedom is to be won here
\nupon earth and possessed and enjoyed in the human life, prāk śariravimoksanāt.<\/i> It then continues, "He who has the inner happiness and
\nthe inner ease and repose and the inner light, that Yogin becomes
\nthe Brahman and reaches self-extinction in the Brahman, brahmanirvānam."<\/i> Here, very clearly, Nirvana means the extinction of the
\nego in the higher spiritual, inner Self, that which is for ever timeless,
\nspaceless, not bound by the chain of cause and effect and the changes
\nof the world-mutation, self-blissful, self-illumined and for ever at
\npeace. The Yogin ceases to be the ego, the little person limited by the
\nmind and the body; he becomes the Brahman; he is unified in consciousness with the immutable divinity of the eternal Self which
\n<\/b>is
\n<\/b>immanent in his natural being. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut is this a going in into some deep sleep of samadhi away from
\nall world-consciousness, or is it the preparatory movement for a dissolution of the natural being and the individual soul into some absolute Self who is utterly and for ever beyond Nature and her works,
\nlaya, moksa?<\/i> Is that withdrawal necessary before we can enter into
\nNirvana, or is Nirvana, as the context seems to suggest, a state which
\ncan exist simultaneously with world-consciousness and even in its
\nown way include it? Apparently the latter, for in the succeeding verse
\nthe Gita goes on to say, "Sages win Nirvana in the Brahman, they
\nin whom the stains of sin are effaced and the knot of doubt is cut
\nasunder, masters of their selves, who are occupied in doing good to
\nall creatures, sarva-bhūta-hite ratāh."<\/i> That would almost seem to mean
\nthat to be thus is to be in Nirvana. But the next verse is quite clear
\nand decisive. "Yatis<\/i> (those who practise self-mastery by Yoga and
\nausterity) who are delivered from desire and wrath and have gained
\nself-mastery, for them Nirvana in the Brahman exists all about them,
\nencompasses them, they already live in it because they have knowledge of the Self." That is to say, to have knowledge and possession
\nof the self is to exist in Nirvana. This is clearly a .large extension <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-211<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nof the idea of Nirvana. Freedom from all stain of the passions, the
\nself-mastery of the equal mind on which that freedom is founded,
\nequality to all beings, sarva-bhūtesu,<\/i> and beneficial love for all, final
\ndestruction of that doubt and obscurity of the ignorance which keeps
\nus divided from the all-unifying Divine and the knowledge of the
\nOne Self within us and in all are evidently the conditions of Nirvana
\nwhich are laid down in these verses of the Gita, go to constitute it and are its spiritual substance. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThus Nirvana is clearly compatible with world-consciousness <\/b>and with action in the world. For the sages who possess it are conscious
\nof and in intimate relation by works with the Divine in the mutable
\nuniverse; they are occupied with the good of all creatures, sarvabhūtahite.<\/i> They have not renounced the experiences of the Kshara Purusha, they have divinised them;
\nfor the Kshara, the Gita tells us, is
\nall existences, sarvabhūtāni,<\/i> and the doing universal good to all is
\na divine action in the mutability of Nature. This action in the world.
\nis not inconsistent with living in Brahman, it is rather its inevitable
\ncondition and outward result because the Brahman in whom we find
\nNirvana, the spiritual consciousness in which we lose the separative
\nego-consciousness, is not only within us but within all these existences, exists not only above and apart from all these universal happenings, but pervades them, contains them and is extended in them.
\nTherefore by Nirvana in the Brahman must be meant a destruction
\nor extinction of the limited separative consciousness, falsifying and
\ndividing, which is brought into being on the surface of existence by
\nthe lower Maya of the three gunas, and entry into Nirvana is a
\npassage into this other true unifying consciousness which is the heart
\nof existence and its continent and its whole containing and supporting, its whole original and eternal and final truth. Nirvana when we
\ngain it, enter into it, is not only within us, but all around, abhito
\nvartate,<\/i> because this is not only the Brahman-consciousness which
\nlives secret within us, but the Brahman-consciousness in which we
\nlive. It is the Self which we are within, the supreme Self of our
\nindividual being but also the Self which we are without, the supreme
\nSelf of the universe, the self of all existences. By living in that self
\nwe live in all, and no longer in our egoistic being alone; by oneness
\nwith that self a steadfast oneness with all in the universe becomes the
\nvery nature of our being and the root status of our active consciousness and root motive of all our action. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-212<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nBut again we get immediately afterwards two verses which might
\nseem to lead away from this conclusion. "Having put outside of himself all outward touches and concentrated the vision between the eyebrows and made equal the
\nprāna<\/i> and the apāna<\/i> moving within the
\nnostrils, having controlled the senses, the mind and the understanding, the sage devoted to liberation, from whom desire and wrath
\nand fear have passed away is ever free." Here we have a process of
\nYoga that brings in an element which seems quite other than the
\nYoga of works and other even than the pure Yoga of knowledge by
\ndiscrimination and contemplation; it belongs in all its characteristic
\nfeatures to the system, introduces the psycho-physical askesis of Rajayoga. There is the conquest of all the movements of the mind,
\ncittavrttinirodha;<\/i> there is the control of the breathing, Pranayama; there is the drawing in of the sense and the vision. All of them are
\nprocesses which lead to the inner trance of Samadhi, the object of
\nall of them moksa,<\/i> and moksa<\/i> signifies in ordinary parlance the renunciation not only of the separative ego-consciousness, but of the
\nwhole active consciousness, a dissolution of our being into the highest Brahman. Are we to suppose that the Gita gives this process
\n<\/b>in
\n<\/b>that sense as the last movement of a release by dissolution or only
\nas a special means and a strong aid to overcome the outward-going
\nmind? Is this the finale, the climax, the last word? We shall find
\nreason to regard it as both a special means, an aid, and at least one
\ngate of final departure, not by dissolution, but by an uplifting to
\nthe supracosmic existence. For even here in this passage this is not
\nthe last word; the last word, the finale, the climax comes in a verse
\nthat follows and is the last couplet of the chapter. "When a man has
\nknown Me as the Enjoyer of sacrifice and tapasya (of all askesis and
\nenergisms), the mighty lord of all the worlds, the friend of all creatures, he comes by the peace." The power of the Karmayoga comes
\nin again; the knowledge of the active Brahman, the cosmic supersoul,
\nis insisted on among the conditions of the peace of Nirvana. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nWe get back to the great idea of the Gita, the idea of the Purushottama,\u2014 though that name is not given till close upon the end,
\nit is always that which Krishna means by his "I" and "Me," the
\nDivine who is there as the one self in our timeless immutable being,
\nwho is present too in the world, in all existences, in all activities, the
\nmaster of the silence and the peace, the master of the power and the
\naction, who is here incarnate as the divine charioteer of the stupendous <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-213<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nconflict, the Transcendent, the Self, the All, the master of
\nevery individual being. He is the enjoyer of all sacrifice and of all
\ntapasya, therefore shall the seeker of liberation do works as a sacrifice
\nand as a tapasya; he is the lord of all the worlds, manifested in Nature and in these beings, therefore shall the liberated man still do
\nworks for the right government and leading on of the peoples in these
\nworlds, lokasamgraha;<\/i> he is the friend of all existences, therefore
\nis the sage who has found Nirvana within him and all around, still
\nand always occupied with the good of all creatures,\u2014even as the
\nNirvana of Mahayana Buddhism took for its highest sign the works
\nof a universal compassion. Therefore too, even when he has found
\noneness with the Divine in his timeless and immutable self, is he still
\ncapable, since he embraces the relations also of the play of Nature,
\nof divine love for man and of love for the Divine, of bhakti. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThat this is the drift of the meaning, becomes clearer when we
\nhave fathomed the sense of the sixth chapter which is a large comment on and a full development of the idea of these closing verses of
\nthe fifth,\u2014that shows the importance which the Gita attaches to them.
\nWe shall therefore run as briefly as possible through the substance of
\nthis sixth chapter. First the Teacher emphasises\u2014and this is very significant\u2014his often repeated asseveration about the real essence of
\nSannyasa, that it is an inward, not an outward renunciation. "Whoever does the work to be done without resort to its fruits, he is the
\nSannyasin and the Yogin, not the man who lights not the sacrificial
\nfire and does not the works. What they have called renunciation
\n(Sannyasa), know to be in truth Yoga; for none becomes a Yogin
\nwho has not renounced the desire-will in the mind." Works are to
\nbe done, but with what purpose and in what order? They are first
\nto be done while ascending the hill of Yoga, for then works are the
\ncause, kāranam.<\/i> The cause of what? The cause of self-perfection, of
\nliberation, of nirvana in the Brahman; for by doing works with a
\nsteady practice of the inner renunciation this perfection, this liberation, this conquest of the desire-mind and the Yoga-self and the lower nature are easily accomplished. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut when one has got to the top? Then works are no longer the
\ncause; the calm of self-mastery and self-possession gained by works
\nbecomes the cause. Again, the cause of what? Of fixity in the Self,
\nin the Brahman-consciousness and of the perfect equality in which
\nthe divine works of the liberated man are done. "For when one does<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-214<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nnot get attached to the objects of sense or to works and has renounced
\nall will of desire in the mind, then is he said to have ascended to the
\ntop of Yoga." That, as we know already, is the spirit in which the
\nliberated man does works; he does them without desire and attachment, without the egoistic personal will and the mental seeking
\nwhich is the parent of desire. He has conquered his lower self,
\nreached the perfect calm in which his highest self is manifest to him,
\nthat highest self always concentrated in its own being, samāhita,<\/i> in
\nSamadhi, not only in the trance of the inward-drawn consciousness,
\nbut always, in the waking state of mind as well, in exposure to
\nthe causes of desire and of the disturbance of calm, to grief and pleasure, heat and cold, honour and disgrace, all the dualities,
\nśītosnasukhaduhkhesu tathā mānāpamānayoh.<\/i> This higher self is the
\nAkshara, kūtastha,<\/i> which stands above the changes and the perturbations of the natural being; and the Yogin is said to be in Yoga
\nwith it when he also is like it, kūtastha,<\/i> when he is superior to all
\nappearances and mutations, when he is satisfied with self-knowledge, when he is equal-minded to all things and happenings and
\npersons. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut this Yoga is after all no easy thing to acquire, as Arjuna indeed shortly afterwards suggests, for the restless mind is always liable
\nto be pulled down from these heights by the attacks of outward things
\nand to fall back into the strong control of grief and passion and inequality. Therefore, it would seem, the Gita proceeds to give us in addition to its general method of knowledge and works a special process
\nof Rajayogic meditation also, a powerful method of practice, abhyāsa,
\n<\/i>a strong way to the complete control of the mind and all its workings.
\nIn this process the Yogin is directed to practise continually union
\nwith the Self so that that may become his normal consciousness. He is
\nto sit apart and alone, with all desire and idea of possession banished
\nfrom his mind, self-controlled in his whole being and consciousness.
\n"He should set in a pure spot his firm seat, neither too high, nor yet
\ntoo low, covered with a cloth, with a deer-skin, with sacred grass,
\nand there seated with a concentrated mind and with the Workings of
\nthe mental consciousness and the senses under control he should
\npractise Yoga for self-purification, ātma-viśuddhaye."<\/i> The posture he
\ntakes must be the motionless erect posture proper to the practice of
\nRajayoga; the vision should be drawn in and fixed between the eyebrows, "not regarding the regions." The mind is to be kept calm and <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-215<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nfree from fear and the vow of Brahmacharya observed; the whole
\ncontrolled mentality must be devoted and turned to the Divine so
\nthat the lower action of the consciousness shall be merged in the
\nhigher peace. For the object to be attained is the still peace of Nirvana.
\n"Thus always putting himself in Yoga by control of his mind the
\nYogin attains to the supreme peace of Nirvana which has its foundation in Me,
\nśāntim nirvāna-paramām matsamsthām."<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThis peace of Nirvana is reached when all the mental consciousness
\nis perfectly controlled and liberated from desire and remains still in
\nthe Self, when, motionless like the light of a lamp in a windless
\nplace, it ceases from its restless action, shut in from its outward motion, and by the silence and stillness of the mind the Self is seen
\nwithin, not disfigured as in the mind, but in the Self, seen, not as it
\nis mistranslated falsely or partially by the mind and represented to us
\nthrough the ego, but self-perceived by the Self, svaprakāśa.<\/i> Then
\nthe soul is satisfied and knows its own true and exceeding bliss, not
\nthat untranquil happiness which is the portion of the mind and the
\nsenses, but an inner and serene felicity in which it is safe from the
\nmind’s perturbations and can no longer fall away from the spiritual
\ntruth of its being. Not even the fieriest assault of metal grief can
\ndisturb it; for mental grief comes to us from outside, is a reaction to
\nexternal touches, and this is the inner, the self-existent happiness of
\nthose who no longer accept the slavery of the unstable mental reactions to external touches. It is the putting away of the contact with
\npain, the divorce of the mind’s marriage with grief, duhkha-samyogaviyogam.<\/i> The firm winning of this inalienable spiritual bliss is Yoga,
\nit is the divine union; it is the greatest of all gains and the treasure
\nbeside which all others lose their value. Therefore is this Yoga to be
\nresolutely practised without yielding to any discouragement by difficulty or failure until the release, until the bliss of Nirvana is secured as an eternal possession. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe main stress here has fallen on the stilling of the emotive mind, the mind of desire and the senses which are the recipients of outward
\ntouches and reply to them with our customary emotional reactions; but even the mental thought has to be stilled in the silence of the self-existent being. First, all the desires born of the desire-will have to be
\nwholly abandoned without any exception or residue and the senses
\nhave to be held in by the mind so that they shall not run out to all
\nsides after their usual disorderly and restless habit; but next the mind <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-216<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nitself has to be seized by the buddhi and drawn inward. One should
\nslowly cease from mental action by a buddhi held in the grasp of
\nfixity and having fixed the mind in the higher self one should not
\nthink of anything at all. Whenever the restless and unquiet mind
\ngoes forth, it should be controlled and brought into subjection in the
\nSelf. When the mind is thoroughly quieted, then there comes upon
\nthe Yogin, the highest, stainless, passionless bliss of the soul that has
\nbecome the Brahman. "Thus freed from stain of passion and putting
\nhimself constantly into Yoga, the Yogin easily and happily enjoys the
\ntouch of the Brahman which is an exceeding bliss." <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd yet the result is not, while one yet lives, a Nirvana which puts
\naway every possibility of action in the world, every relation with beings in the world. It would seem at first that it ought to be so. When
\nall the desires and passions have ceased, when the mind is no longer
\npermitted to throw itself out in thought, when the practice of this
\nsilent and solitary Yoga has become the rule, what farther action or
\nrelation with the world of outward touches and mutable appearances
\nis any longer possible? No doubt, the Yogin for a time still remains in
\nthe body, but the cave, the forest, the mountain-top seem now the
\nfittest, the only possible scene of his continued living and constant
\ntrance of Samadhi his sole joy and occupation. But, first, while this
\nsolitary Yoga is being pursued, the renunciation of all other action is
\nnot recommended by the Gita. This Yoga, it says, is not for the man
\nwho gives up sleep and food and play and action, even as it is not for
\nthose who indulge too much in these things of the life and the body; but the sleep and waking, the food, the play, the putting forth of effort
\nin works should all be yukta.<\/i> This is generally interpreted as meaning that all should be moderate, regulated, done in fit measure, and
\nthat may indeed be the significance. But at any rate when the Yoga
\nis attained, all this has to be yukta<\/i> in another sense, the ordinary sense
\nof the word everywhere else in the Gita. In all states, in waking and
\nin sleeping, in food and play and action, the Yogin will then be in
\nYoga with the Divine, and all will be done by him in the consciousness of the Divine as the self and as the All and as that which supports and contains his own life and his action. Desire and ego and
\npersonal will and the thought of the mind are the motives of action
\nonly in the lower nature; when the ego is lost and the Yogin becomes
\nBrahman, when he lives in and is, even, a transcendent and universal
\nconsciousness, action comes spontaneously out of that, luminous <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-217<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nknowledge higher than the mental thought comes out of that, a
\npower other and mightier than the personal will comes out of that to
\ndo for him his works and bring its fruits: personal action has ceased,
\nall has been taken up into the Brahman and assumed by the Divine, mayi samnyasya karmāni.<\/i> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nFor when the Gita describes the nature of this self-realisation and the result of the Yoga1 which comes by Nirvana of the separative
\nego-mind and its motives of thought and feeling and action into the
\nBrahman-consciousness, it includes the cosmic sense, though lifted
\ninto a new kind of vision. "The man whose self is in Yoga, sees the
\nself in all beings and all beings in the self, he sees all with an equal
\nvision." All that he sees is to him the Self, all is his self, all is the
\nDivine. But is there no danger, if he dwells at all in the mutability
\nof the Kshara, of his losing all the results of this difficult Yoga, losing
\nthe Self and falling back into the mind, of the Divine losing him
\nand the world getting him, of his losing the Divine and getting back
\nin its place the ego and the lower nature? No, says the Gita; "He
\nwho sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, to him I do not get lost,
\nnor does he get lost to me." For this peace of Nirvana, though it is
\ngained through the Akshara, is founded upon the being of the Purushottama, mat-samsthām,<\/i>
\nand that is extended, the Divine, the Brahman is extended too in the world of
\nbeings and, though transcendent of it, not imprisoned in its own transcendence. One has to
\nsee all things as He and live and act wholly in that vision; that is the perfect fruit of the Yoga. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut why act? Is it not safer to sit in one’s solitude looking out upon
\nthe world, if you will, seeing it in Brahman, in the Divine, but not
\ntaking part in it, not moving in it, not living in it, not acting in it,
\nliving rather ordinarily in the inner Samadhi? Should not that be the
\nlaw, the rule, the dharma of this highest spiritual condition? No, again; for the liberated Yogin there is no other law, rule, dharma than
\nsimply this, to live in the Divine and love the Divine and be one with
\nall beings; his freedom is an absolute and not a contingent freedom,
\nself-existent and not dependent any longer on any rule of conduct, law
\nof life or limitation of any kind. He has no longer any need of a
\nprocess of Yoga, because he is now perpetually in Yoga. "The Yogin
\nwho has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings,
\nhowever and in all ways he lives and acts, lives and acts in Me." The <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n1<\/sup> yoga-ksema vahāmyaham.<\/i>
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-218<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nlove of the world spiritualised, changed from a sense experience to a
\nsoul-experience, is founded on the love of God and in that love there
\nis no peril and no shortcoming. Fear and disgust of die<\/i> world may
\noften be necessary for the recoil from the lower nature, for it is really
\nthe fear and disgust of our own ego which reflects itself in the world.
\nBut to see God in the world is to fear nothing, it is to embrace all in
\nthe being of God; to see all as the Divine is to hate and loathe
\nnothing, but love God in the world and the world in God.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut at least the things of the lower nature will be shunned and
\nfeared, the things which the Yogin has taken so much trouble to
\nsurmount? Not this either; all is embraced in the equality of the self-vision. "He, 0 Arjuna, who sees with equality everything in the
\nimage of the Self, whether it be grief or it be happiness, him I hold to
\nbe the supreme Yogin." And by this it is not meant at all that he
\nhimself shall fall from the griefless spiritual bliss and feel again
\nworldly unhappiness, even in the sorrow of others, but seeing in
\nothers the play of the dualities which he himself has left and surmounted, he shall still see all as himself, his self in all, God in all and,
\nnot disturbed or bewildered by the appearances of these things, moved
\nonly by them to help and heal, to occupy himself with the good of
\nall beings, to lead men to the spiritual bliss, to work for the progress
\nof the world Godwards, he shall live the divine life, so long as days
\nupon earth are his portion. The God-lover who can do this, can thus
\nembrace all things in God, can look calmly on the lower nature and
\nthe works of the Maya of the three gunas and act in them and upon
\nthem without perturbation or fall or disturbance from the height and
\npower of the spiritual oneness, free in the largeness of the Godvision, sweet and great and luminous in the strength of the Godnature, may well be declared to be the supreme Yogin. He indeed has
\nconquered the creation, jitah sargah.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe Gita brings in here as always bhakti as the climax of the Yoga,
\nsarvabhūtasthitam yo mām bhajati ekatvam āsthitah;<\/i> that may almost
\nbe said to sum up the whole final result of the Gita’s teaching-whoever loves God in all and his soul is founded upon the divine oneness,
\nhowever he lives and acts, lives and acts in God. And to emphasise
\nit still more, after an intervention of Arjuna and a reply to his doubt
\nas to how so difficult a Yoga can be at all possible for the restless mind
\nof man, the divine Teacher returns to this idea and makes it his
\nculminating utterance. "The Yogin is greater than the doers of askesis, <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-219<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ngreater than the men of knowledge, greater than the men of works; become then the Yogin, 0 Arjuna," the Yogin, one who seeks for and
\nattains, by works and knowledge and askesis or by whatever other
\nmeans, not even spiritual knowledge or power or anything else for
\ntheir own sake, but the union with God alone; for in that all else
\nis contained and in that lifted beyond itself to a divinest significance.
\nBut even among Yogins the greatest is the Bhakta. "Of all Yogins he
\nwho with all his inner self given up to Me, for Me has love and
\nfaith, śraddhāvān bhajate,<\/i> him I hold to be the most united with Me
\nin Yoga." It is this that is the closing word of these first six chapters
\nand contains in itself the seed of the rest, of that which still remains
\nunspoken and is nowhere entirely spoken; for it is always and remains
\nsomething of a mystery and a secret, rahasyam,<\/i> the highest spiritual
\nmystery and the divine secret. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-220<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

XXIII   NIRVANA AND WORKS IN THE WORLD   THE UNION of the soul with the Purushottama by a Yoga of the whole being is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","wpcat-90-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}