{"id":39,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=39"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:30","slug":"41-from-the-karma-yogin-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/41-from-the-karma-yogin-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-41_From The Karma Yogin.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nSECTION
\n<\/span>SEVEN<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nFROM THE "KARMAYOGIN"<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAll the articles collected in this section first
\nappeared in the weekly review, the Karmayogin <\/i>(1909-10), except the last
\ntwo \u2014 Hathayoga <\/i>and Rajayoga \u2014 <\/i>which came out in The Standard Bearer <\/i>
\n(1920-21)<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nKarmayoga<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nW<\/font>E <\/font>
\n<\/b>
\nHAVE <\/b><\/font>
\nspoken of Karmayoga as the
\napplication of Vedanta and Yoga to life. To many who take their
\nknowledge of Hinduism secondhand this may seem a doubtful
\ndefinition. It is ordinarily supposed by "practical" minds that
\nVedanta as a guide to life and Yoga as a method of spiritual communion are
\ndangerous things which lead men away from action to abstraction. We leave aside those who regard all such
\nbeliefs as mysticism, self-delusion or imposture; but even those
\nwho reverence and believe in the high things of Hinduism have
\nthe impression that one must remove oneself from a full human
\nactivity in order to live the spiritual life. Yet the spiritual life
\nfinds its most potent expression in the man who lives the ordinary
\nlife of men in the strength of the Yoga and under the law of the
\nVedanta. It is by such a union of the inner life and the outer
\nthat mankind will eventually be lifted up and become mighty and divine. It is a
\ndelusion to suppose that Vedanta contains no inspiration to life, no rule of conduct, and is purely metaphysical
\nand quietistic. On the contrary, the highest morality of which
\nhumanity is capable finds its one perfect basis and justification
\nin the teachings of the Upanishads and the Gita. The characteristic doctrines of the Gita are nothing if they are not a law
\nof life, a dharma<\/i>, and even the most transcendental aspirations
\nof the Vedanta presuppose a preparation in life, for it is only
\nthrough life that one can reach to immortality. The opposite
\nopinion is due to certain tendencies which have bulked large in
\nthe history and temperament of our race. The ultimate goal of
\nour religion is emancipation from the bondage of material Nature
\nand freedom from individual rebirth, and certain souls, among
\nthe highest we have known, have been drawn by the attraction
\nof the final hush and purity to dissociate themselves from life and
\nbodily action in order more swiftly and easily to reach the goal.
\nStanding like mountain-peaks above the common level, they have
\nattracted all eyes and fixed this withdrawal as the highest and<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013<\/font> 343<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmost commanding Hindu ideal. <\/b> It is for this reason that Sri
\nKrishna laid so much stress on the perfect Yogin’s cleaving to
\nlife and human activity even after his need of them was over,
\nlest the people, following, as they always do, the example of their
\nbest, turn away from their dharma<\/i> and bastard confusion reign.
\nThe ideal Yogin is no withdrawn and pent-up force, but ever
\nengaged in doing good to all creatures, either by the flood of the
\ndivine energy that he pours on the world or by himself standing
\nin the front of humanity, its leader in the march and the battle,
\nbut unbound by his works and superior to his personality.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nMoreover the word Vedanta is usually identified with the
\nstrict Monism and the peculiar theory of māyā<\/i> established by the
\nlofty and ascetic intellect of Shankara. But it is the Upanishads
\nthemselves and not Shankara’s writings, the text and not the
\ncommentary, that are the authoritative Scripture of the Vedantin.
\nShankara’s, great and temporarily satisfying as it was, is still
\nonly one synthesis and interpretation of the Upanishads. There
\nhave been others in the past which have powerfully influenced
\nthe national mind and there is no reason why there should not
\nbe a yet more perfect synthesis in the future. It is such a synthesis
\nembracing all life and action in its scope that the teachings of Sri
\nRamakrishna and Vivekananda have been preparing. What is
\ndimly beginning now is a repetition on a wider stage of what
\nhappened once before in India, more rapidly but to smaller issues,
\nwhen the Buddha lived and taught his philosophy and ethics to
\nthe Aryan nations. Then as now a mighty spirit, it matters not
\nwhether Avatar or Vibhuti, the full expression of God in man or
\na great outpouring of the divine energy, came down among men
\nand brought into their daily life and practice the force and impulse of utter spirituality. And this time it is the full light and
\nnot a noble part, unlike Buddhism, which, expressing Vedantic
\nmorality, yet ignored a fundamental reality of Vedanta and was
\ntherefore expelled from its prime seat and cradle. The material
\nresult was then what it will be now, a great political, moral and
\nsocial revolution which made India the Guru of the nations and
\ncarried the light she had to give all over the civilised world,
\nmoulding ideas and creating forms which are still extant and a
\nliving force. Already the Vedanta and the Yoga have exceeded<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013<\/font> 344<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ntheir Asiatic limit and are beginning to influence the life and practice of America and Europe; and they have long been filtering
\ninto Western thought by a hundred indirect channels. But these
\nare small rivers and underground streams. The world waits for
\nthe rising of India to receive the divine flood <\/b> in its fullness.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nYoga is communion with God for knowledge, for love or
\nfor work. The Yogin puts himself into direct relation with that
\nwhich is omniscient and omnipotent within man and without
\nhim. He is in tune with the infinite, he becomes a channel for the
\nstrength of God to pour itself out upon the world whether
\nthrough calm benevolence or active beneficence. When a man
\nrises by putting from him the slough of self and lives for others
\nand in the joys and sorrows of others; \u2014 when he works perfectly
\nand with love and zeal, but casts away the anxiety for results and
\nis neither eager for victory nor afraid of defeat; \u2014 when he devotes
\nall his works to God and lays every thought, word and deed as an
\noffering on the divine altar; \u2014 when he gets rid of fear and hatred,
\nrepulsion and disgust and attachment, and works like the forces
\nof Nature, unhasting, unresting, inevitably, perfectly; \u2014 when he
\nrises above the thought that he is the body or the heart or the
\nmind or the sum of these and finds his own and true self; \u2014 when
\nhe becomes aware of his immortality and the unreality of death;<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2014 when he experiences the advent of knowledge and feels himself passive and the divine force working unresisted through his
\nmind, his speech, his senses and all his organs; \u2014 when having
\nthus abandoned whatever he is, does or has, to the Lord of all,
\nthe Lover and Helper of mankind, he dwells permanently in Him
\nand becomes incapable of grief, disquiet or false excitement, \u2014 
\nthat is Yoga. Pranayam and Asanas, concentration, worship,
\nceremonies, religious practice are not themselves Yoga but only
\na means towards Yoga. Nor is Yoga a difficult or dangerous
\npath, it is safe and easy to all who take refuge with the Inner
\nGuide and Teacher. All men are potentially capable of it, for
\nthere is no man who has not strength or faith or love developed
\nor latent in his nature, and any one of these is a sufficient staff
\nfor the Yogin. All cannot, indeed, reach in a single life the
\nhighest in this path, but all can go forward; and in proportion as
\na man advances he gets peace, strength and joy. And even a little<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013<\/font> 345<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof this dharma<\/i> delivers man or nation out of great fear.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIt is an error, we repeat, to think that spirituality is a thing
\ndivorced from life. "Abandon all," says the Isha Upanishad,
\n"that thou mayest enjoy all, neither covet any man’s possession.
\nBut verily do thy deeds in this world and wish to live thy hundred
\nyears; no other way is given thee than this to escape the bondage
\nof thy acts." It is an error to think that the heights of religion are
\nabove the struggles of this world. The recurrent cry of Sri
\nKrishna to Arjuna insists on the struggle; "Fight and overthrow
\nthy opponents!", "Remember me and fight!", "Give up all thy
\nworks to me with a heart full of spirituality, and free from craving, free from selfish claims, fight! let the fever of thy soul pass
\nfrom thee." It is an error to imagine that even when the religious man does not give up his ordinary activities, he yet becomes
\ntoo sattwic, too saintly, too loving or too passionless for the
\nrough work of the world. Nothing can be more extreme and
\nuncompromising than the reply of the Gita in the opposite sense,
\n"Whosoever has his temperament purged from egoism, whosoever suffers not his soul to receive the impress of the deed, though
\nhe slay the whole world yet he slays not and is not bound."
\nThe Charioteer of Kurukshetra driving the car of Arjuna over
\nthat field of ruin is the image and description of Karmayoga;<\/font><\/p>\n

for the body is the chariot and the senses are the horses of the
\ndriving and it is through the bloodstained and mire-sunk ways
\nof the world that Sri Krishna pilots the soul of man to vaikuntha<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Svalpamapyasya
\ndharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013<\/font> 346<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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