Which is that supreme word the Gita declares to the bewildered warrior on the battlefield? Which paramam vachah has it to offer for the highest good of the soul now ready to receive the revelations of the Spirit? Arjuna wanted to renounce all the holdings of the world and all the trappings, all actions associated with it. He wanted to follow the path of ascetic self-abnegation, even as he saw in front of him his preceptors and his own people ready to enjoy the “holiday” of life by killing each other. Better to stay back from such a cruel and frightful sanguinary deed, ghora karma, than commit the sin of universal destruction. He desired no victory, nor empire, nor the pleasure of possession, not even the kingdom of the three worlds, trailokya rajya. But the Teacher of the Gita rebukes him in harsh terms and tells him that he should not deviate from the path of nobility and righteousness, the Aryan Path, and in every way he must uphold the dharma, the dynamism of one’s own inner truth in the conduct of daily acts. Arjuna must cast off the infirmity that has overtaken him, something which is foreign, something calamitous to him as well as to other men and to the order of society. It is necessary that he should follow the law of action pertaining to him and tremble not while engaged in the gory task.
Puzzled, Arjuna is unable to decide the sure course of action he must follow in this conflicting situation. However, at this particular moment of queer psychological weakness of his, there is yet something splendid and admirable, something wonderful within him that comes to his aid. He may not be quite aware of it or may not be directly in contact with it, with his deep and earnest inner soul; but his nature is well-prepared to receive its promptings, perceptive enough in thought and feeling and will to respond to its command and to put it into living practice. His trust in the Guide is implicit; it is pure and candid, unshakeable, and he speaks to this effect to him. In fact, he goes to
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the extent of telling him that he is his disciple and that he will follow whatever he is going to be told to do. He seeks complete refuge in him, sadhi mam tvam prapannam. Indeed, that moment of crisis turns out to be, we may as well say, the most extraordinary moment in his life, a meritorious moment. In the sequel, Arjuna is told that the doer of the works has the right to work but not the right to claim the fruit of it, that ever remaining in Yoga he must engage himself in action and that, surely, skill in works is Yoga itself. Arjuna must possess poised yogic equality and in it act according to his nature.
Thus what Arjuna had shunned to do in the beginning, ghora karma, it was exactly that he was finally made to do. In the sanguinary war he had to perforce face his kith and kin, his elders and all the revered teachers; he had to get ready to win the victory at the bidding of his Mentor. It was also pointed out to him that he could not have but done that,—his nature would not have allowed him to act or behave otherwise. The guide knows his follower very well.
The psychological crisis and ambivalence arising out of the difference between the inner and the outer nature are aspects that have thus been well focused in this episode taking place in the thick of battle. Through it the deeper sense of action has been brought out in a most dramatic way to make that drama in the individual’s and through him in the collectivity’s life a living moment, a moment of action in the truth, action in the supremacy of dharma of the being itself. It is in this totality that we must witness the mighty power of the Gita’s Theory of Karma Yoga. What is most appealing about it is its positive luminous dynamism which does not negate this world howsoever transient and sorrowful it may appear to be.
Arjuna is advised to harbour not the least doubt; he should be free and spontaneous in the conduct of his life-assigned tasks. He must be without any fear and should not have any reservation, neither in his heart nor in his mind. Instead, he must always do what is for him his sahaja karma, unencumbered and natural work performed according to his true or inner character, according to what is inborn or innate to his being. It should not be the work determined by birth, nor
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heredity nor tradition. In its universal context this sahaja karma becomes a part of our personality because of the several factors that belong to the three divisions of time in which we live; it is then that it proves to be the shaper of our destiny. Certainly, when we come to this world we do not come with nothing of our own, not just a blank sheet of paper, tabula rasa. On the contrary, we bring with us all our worthwhile achievements of the past in order to promote them further,—as much as to mould by their merit our future, the future fulfilling the promise in the glory of the spirit. We carry the encumbrances too, samskaras and karmas, which we have to tackle even while facing every prospect and every problem of life; we have to encounter them without ignoring or running away from them. Whatever is conducive for this progress and in whichever way we respond and act, it should be always in the inner freedom and inner perception of ours; it is that which becomes our sahaja karma. In it is the true excellence of our action and in it has Arjuna been enjoined to live and be. Life's gainworthy pragmatism is in it.
Indeed, at a certain point in our growth this sahaja karma becomes swabhavic karma which is not governed by the outer qualities of Nature but, as Sri Aurobindo explains, by “a force of inner being in movement, the truth of the fourfold active power of the spiritual nature.” (Essays on the Gita, SABCL, Vol. 13, p. 506) It is in this context of the inborn or natural or innate swabhavic or swabhava-based action that we must read the supremely revelatory verses of the Gita occurring in its last chapter. While preparing the disciple for this grande finale the Teacher tells him:
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(The Gita: 18.49-56)
An understanding without attachment in all things, a soul self-conquered and empty of desire, man attains by renunciation a supreme perfection of naishkarmya. How, having attained this perfection, one thus attains to the Brahman, hear from me, O son of Kunti,—that which is the supreme concentrated direction of the knowledge. Uniting the purified intelligence (with the pure spiritual substance in us), controlling the whole being by firm and steady will, having renounced sound and other objects of senses, withdrawing from all liking and disliking, resorting to impersonal solitude, abstemious, speech, body and mind controlled, constantly united with the inmost self by meditation, completely giving up desire and attachment, having put away egoism, violence, arrogance, desire, wrath, the sense and instinct of possession, free from all I-ness and my-ness, calm and luminously impassive—one is fit to become the Brahman. By devotion he comes to know Me, who and how much I am and in all the reality and principles of My being; having thus known Me he entereth into That (Purushottama.) And by doing also all actions always lodged in Me he attains by My grace the eternal and imperishable status.
(The Message of the Gita, pp. 264-70)
Jnaneshwar’s commentary on these shlokas runs more or less on traditional lines. No doubt there are yogic and poetic descriptions and there are deep spiritual insights present everywhere; but the thrust generally remains what we may call dharmic-religious. Liberation or
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moksha has been set as a single objective in life and the recommendation is that the whole endeavour should be directed towards this alone.
But liberation should not mean riddance of the world. Certainly it is necessary that we should avoid action which more and more binds us to this mundane existence. We must go beyond this stage and make freedom the true basis of all our activities. In it will be the fulfilment of the supreme or the divine purpose in this creation. It will be anterior to the manifest spirit’s greatnesses in the conditions of mortality. Its interpreters in the Adwaitic or Monistic past unfortunately missed that such could be the real intention of the Scripture. The possibility of transcending death even here was never conceived by them, never recognised and fully worked out in the spiritual functioning of life. Actually, that question didn’t arise for them when they considered this phenomenal world to be an illusion. But the radical departure came only with Sri Aurobindo. In his hand the issue of this world’s present Brahmanlessness in search of a growing and happier Brahmanhood showed the scope, as well as the prospects, of truth-conscient depths emerging out of the dynamism of the Spirit itself. Let us, however, restrict ourselves to the exposition as we have it in Jnaneshwari. In the following we briefly paraphrase its general line of approach to connect it with the supreme Word the Gita is about to give as a benedictive assurance to the ready soul carrying out the divine task in the battle of life here.
Jnaneshwar pertinently introduces the key idea of yogic lack of difference between various kinds of work, and makes this the first condition for progress on the spiritual path. According to it among all the works there is one underlying common factor, that whatever be these works they are all intrinsically of equal significance, none too small or big, none inconsequential or particularly exceptional. Therefore by recognising their essential oneness, their equality and the sameness of their value, karmasamyadasa, the doer of works must perform them in the spirit of a yogic quest itself.
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Jnaneshwar then elaborates with a number of examples the necessity of remaining in work; but then he also adds that, while doing so, it is good to make a practical distinction between what is truly desirable or beneficial, sreyas, and what is harmful, ghataka. Whether you do works according to the dharma or not, whatever you are going to do or you ought to do, the amount of effort you will put in them is always going to be the same and in none will the labour and physical exertion be any less. Therefore your criterion for selecting an activity should be based not on the comfort you will derive from it, nor the ease of doing things; but the consideration should be fully in consonance with the quest itself. Indeed, as a pursuer of values of existence and as a seeker of the Self the grounds for selection should be psychological, more subtle in terms of proper spiritual gains. What promotes sensuous passions, what aggrandises egoistic fancies or desires will invariably carry more and more of demerit to you. Hence this papa you should scrupulously avoid, as you would avoid taking a dose of poison. The occupation that causes degradation of consciousness, that invariably leads to misery and sorrow and suffering entangles you more and more in the network of life’s thousand evils, traps you without any hope of escape from all that is sinful,—all these without any second thought must be kept at arm’s length.
In this regard one safe rule of conduct a beginner should follow is to go by his own dharma, by his own law of being; he should go by it even if that law should be found wanting in any respect. He should entirely rely upon it as an injunctive and effective Word, siddha-mantra. (Jnaneshwari: 18.950) It is particularly so because this mantra has the kingly authority, purushartharaju, to help the seeker of the Self overcome every opposition and every obstacle; it has the superior endowment which can save him from every calamity or mishap. In it is uchit as well as param fulfilment, the most appropriate and supreme satisfaction of the purpose for which is taken the difficult and arduous spiritual path.
Thus engaged in proper activity you remain undisturbed and unencumbered; you indeed attain a high state of perfection. You no longer get caught in corporeal transactions of the world, dehadic
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samsara. As the wind cannot be held in a netting of wire, so do you escape all these entanglements. Your ascetic renunciation cuts you off from all complexity and enmeshment and it is that which unerroneously leads you to the experience of oneness with the spirit. True knowledge begins to dawn upon you and with the arrival of this knowledge disappears from you the sense of illusion; you become free from faulty understanding and faulty perception. Even the triple division of the doer of work, karta, the work itself, karma, and the act of doing work, karya, gets killed. At the very root of things the problem is eliminated; it is as if a pregnant animal, gabhini, herself has been slaughtered. You justly escape all the shortcomings and all long-term or immediate consequences that are incumbent in this divisive state of your approach and your perception. There is no doubt that when ignorance vanishes, with it also ceases the very act of knowing and what remains behind is the sheer calm and passive senscience.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.977)
By any reckoning this is a great achievement and it is by that that you abide in a state of unruffled and perfect actionlessness, naishkarmya siddhi. In that condition no action will bind you to the past. The way night takes her leave with the sunrise, or camphor becomes a smokeless flame when brought in contact with it, or a lump of salt just dissolves when put in water, or else as sleep and dream disappear from you when awake, so you stay free from the consequences of your actions. The sense of duality haunts you no more, even as does happy fortune help you to find a preceptor who tells you of this extraordinary gain of yours. Asceticism, the grace of the spiritual teacher or Guru, the sprouting of the seed of right discrimination, the sense of futility of the worldly existence and its illusory character, the recognition that the Eternal is everywhere and that in it ends even the urge for liberation, in which exists no more the worldly triad of knowledge-knower-known,— that is what you eventually secure; you become that.
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(Jnaneshwari: 18.1001-1006)
Such is the outstanding siddhi you get and with it you start discovering the marvellous Riches of the Self, atmariddhi.
But then in order to arrive at this marvellous realisation, tells the Yogi-Siddha, you ought to ride the swift and strong Horse of Rajayoga. Ascetic renunciation, vairagya, removal of dualities, dvandvabhava, making a cave or a thick impenetrable forest as your dwelling, keeping yourself away from the crowd, with silence only as your speech, mind fixed in deep contemplation, holding always together both meditation and union, dhyana and yoga,—with these should you unwaveringly proceed on the path. With this preparatory groundwork the Kundalini soon gets awakened. You experience the rising of the occult life-force or pranic energy from the base-centre, muladhara, and it pervading the entire subtle-physical, sukshma deha. It surges upward and, passing through the centre of subtle vision, ajna chakra, reaches the thousand-petalled lotus above the head. With it you acquire very many sharp and keen exceptional siddhis or powers. You are set on the path of progress.
That far a distance where the sight can reach when the light of the lamp is available, it is there that without delay comes to you all-round liberation in the condition of Brahmic consciousness. From you then go away pride, lust, the sense of possession, ego, haughtiness, arrogance, wrong assertiveness, self-will, ambition and all those who are the proud members of the clan. You no more make discrimination between a foe and a friend; indeed you become brahmarupa, like the Eternal. With this Selfward progress achieved, your ride on the Horse of Yoga becomes steady. You discard all the instruments of work, all the tools and means and aids, and all your accomplishments
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too; your trials and tribulations and struggles, your labour and effort and your striving,—everything gets left behind and you remain poised in the state of assured oneness. However, there is still a stamp of separateness on it; as yet this calm state of oneness does not quite obliterate your own unique and characteristic individuality: it is as if a river entering the sea were seen to be apart from the vastness of the waters stretching ahead of it. Beyond is only the ocean in its wide uniform expanse to which you have arrived, but you are as until now quite distinct from it. You get there, at the state of the supreme Brahman, but you do not become one with it; you do not as yet merge into it. An element of duality or two-ness is still present in this condition of yours.
There is no doubt that a difference between the two still exists at this point, the difference between the Yogin who has perfected himself to be Brahman-like and the wide immutable Brahman itself. Nevertheless, we may say that he has already qualified himself well enough so as to soon become one with it in its oneness; it will not take him much time hence to identify himself with it, to disappear in the infinity of its changeless unending peace and calm.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1090)
After having acquired this qualifying brahmabhava or brahmapana or likeness with the Brahman, you will get firmly established in happy understanding of the Self, atmabodha prasannata. In its excellence, and in its serenity, will come to you the knowledge of the Eternal. All ignorance will disappear in it and you will not see anything but that alone.
Though you may be living in the state of waking or that of dream, and you may still be possessed by inferior knowledge, not too long from this moment afterwards shall everything get dissolved in that which had until now remained unexpressed or unmanifest. But then even that unexpressed or unmanifest shall gradually wear itself out and finally disappear into the realisation of the ultimate Brahman.
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At the end of a cycle of creation, kalpa, made of one day and one night of Brahma the Creator, all gets drowned in the great Cosmic Flood and there stays neither the sea nor the river. There exist no more these differentiated entities, but is present everywhere only the Brahman. You see or experience nothing else, nothing but Brahman, the Supreme alone. Yet in reality what you actually experience is just its elemental state, its innate natural condition, sahajasthiti. It is this Brahmic state of the being which throws its own light on non-knowledge and reveals in it what that itself is.
Jnaneshwar further points out that when you arrive at such a realisation then, according to the Teacher of the Gita, you also get true devotion for Him, for the Lord of the Universe. There is no more then any division between the seer and the seen, between the object and the observer. You go much beyond the understanding that had come to you through the narrow gates of knowledge. Of this far-reaching kind is the merit of Yoga practised through Bhakti. The devotee who approaches the Lord of his Adoration with such knowledge is recognised as a Jnani Bhakta. It is the Jnani Bhakta who becomes one with Him. Those who follow exclusively the Path of Knowledge call this attainment or this siddhi as the state of self-awareness or self-recognition, svasamviditi. These Yogi-Siddhas always remain in this most exceptional and beatific realisation. Likewise, the followers of the Occult-Tantric Method, the worshippers of its presiding deity Shiva, associate this state with his dynamic Energy or the supreme executive Shakti who then takes them in her hand. They see everywhere nothing but her play, her presence and power in the building of these thousand worlds, chidvilas. But then the reward one gets through the supreme devotion to the Lord, parama bhakti, is also received by the doer of the works when in Karma Yoga he attains union with the Master of the Works.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1133)
By saying so Jnaneshwar has, we may mention en passant, almost suggested a synthesis of the various Paths of Yoga, of Bhakti,
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Karma, Jnana and Tantra. He may not have fully worked out the several details and consequences of this synthesis, but the drift of his experiences and his expression is clear enough. However, it would turn out to be a synthesis directed only towards the attainment of Brahmanlike consciousness for which perhaps this multifold synthesis may not be absolutely essential. Any one of these Paths would be perfectly all right for such a transcendental gain. Its spiritual basis would not as yet take into account its own dynamism in possibilities of the worldly manifestation. In that sense, while it would remain quite true to the intent and purport of the Gita, there would be no prospect at all of its going anywhere closer to the supreme realisation of Purushottamahood itself entering into these thousand aspects of the cosmic operation. Transcendence, and not its play in the phenomenal world, would still remain the high goal of all these yogic-spiritual endeavours.
However, let us proceed with Jnaneshwari, restricting ourselves only to the spiritual approach it is propounding for us.
The seeker on the path even as of now is merely fumbling and looking around for his way. No doubt he has renounced the little things of life; but his renunciation is still of the undiscriminating kind. He is still in the strange paradoxical condition of fettered liberation, of actionlessness which is yet encumbered with activity, of quietism loaded with intense dynamism. Partial self-abnegation is still the way of his being and the decisive spiritual change has not yet taken place in him. But then with the attainment of the state of silent and passive Brahmic consciousness everything from him will disappear and he will become truly free. When all that had so far appeared to him unapproachable will come closer, then he will not say that there is yet something that exists in the distant beyond. He will rather find that there is nothing which is not reachable. In realisation of that supreme oneness the doer of works will enjoy his works. He will enjoy them the way a well brought-up and beautiful girl enjoys, in natural elation, the young charm and exuberance of her own youth:
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(Jnaneshwari: 18.1147)
Everywhere the wave kisses the water on which it rides; the orb of the sun spreads throughout its own illumination; in the sky there is the all-pervading ether, utterly and in its entirety. “So do you become Me,”—tells the Teacher of the Gita to Arjuna. Does not in every respect an ornament enjoy the gold from which it is made? So should he live in Him. Such indeed is the perfection a karmayogin gets by following the Path of Action.
When you happen to be in such a state you discover that, really, you do not possess words to speak; you become mute, fall speechless. You further recognise that this speechlessness itself is the best form of adoration of the Lord who is there in each and every expression of his. All divisions and differences vanish and you get a sight that goes farther than the objects of sight, even far beyond the very act of seeing. You always remain firm and steadfast in the Self. You may liken this condition of yours to that of a compressed sky which was as if fixed in space, that space itself having become it. The general language of the doer of the work, he thinking himself to be different from the work he is engaged in, is no more applicable there. In fact, such a work or work done in such a state cannot even be called work, Karma; you are actually engaged in non-work. Your doing nothing then turns out to be a great worship, mahapuja, of the Lord.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1179)
You move in meditation, you praise him, you see him everywhere, you chant his name,— that indeed is samadhi, that is the true adwaita, self-absorption and non-duality.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1181)
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At this stage, then, to speak of Brahman or Soul or God is to strike incongruity. Even the act of refraining from speech or holding back any description, that itself becomes its eloquent description. Saying nothing about it is after all an extensive commentary on it and in those very terms do you describe it. The notion of knowing as well as non-knowing becomes meaningless. It is in such knowledge that you then take your position. In it understanding understands understanding, bliss embraces bliss, happy spirit lives in nothing but happy spirit. When you are in this state you see that benefit adds to benefit and all gains grow together only to increase and augment them further. Wonder and the sense of utter disbelief drown themselves in themselves and lustre gathers itself within itself. Peace becomes peace, rest finds rest, experience gets intoxicated with experience. It is then that to you comes this pure and blameless I-ness; even as do you attend with proper care the green healthy creeper of Karma Yoga, so does it come to you with its fruit. “O Arjuna,” assuringly reveals the Teacher, “just as this karmayogin sets Me like a jewel of senscience in his diadem so do I, in an intimate manner of household exchange of gifts, put this mighty emperor in My crown.” Imagine an immense and spread-out temple, or a majestic palace of Karma Yoga, and you will discover that of it liberation or moksha is a high-rising tower; above it stretches only the skylike expanse of this remarkable doer of works. Such is the oneness reached.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1214-20)
Thus in this karmayogin the stream of knowledge and the stream of devotion have joined the stream of work. It will now be soon that the swift triple stream will reach the ocean of the blissful One.
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Therefore, when this simple and easy path of Karma Yoga is available for the Oneness-seeker there is no need for anyone to undertake harsh austerities, no vows need be made, no elaborate and formalised rites observed, no rituals performed. It is through work that the karmayogin worships; out of that worship and devotion comes to him knowledge which in turn further increases his devotion for the supreme Being.
Significant and yogically charged as these verses of Jnaneshwar are, they also prepare the needed ground for the definitive word or the highest truth the Teacher is about to give to his chosen disciple. But, before that is done, Arjuna as the doer of the works must give up everything; in carrying out his actions all the laws of conduct, his imperfect will, his egoistic life-motivations, his desires, his ideas and notions of things, personal prejudices and preferences he must abandon. Further, and most importantly, he should simply take refuge in the supreme Being alone. Solely in it is there for him the deliverance from sin and evil and grief; in it is the Dharma of all the dharmas. This great and salutary helpful Dharma shall undoubtedly prove to him, even in the transactions of the world, most benign; it shall be the righteous and hence the best conduct. This course of action indeed has its own precious reward. Arjuna must constantly live in it, in that inalienable union obtained through Dharma; that is the kind of integral and fulfilling Yoga he must ever practise.
Then, as a happy desirable culmination of this practice Arjuna is enjoined to renounce all his actions and all the dharmas, all that is prompted by the quick and nature-grown awareness. Instead, he must resort to the Yoga of Intelligence, Buddhi Yoga, and in his heart he must ever remain one with the Lord of Yoga, Yogeshwara. Grace of the Lord of Yoga shall take him safely through the difficult and perilous passage of life; in it shall be every fulfilment of his spiritual pursuit. In it will disappear all illusion. There will be no more the unavailing egoism. His earlier stupidity and stubbornness, his refusal to do his innate-natural, the appointed swabhava-based work, shall not come in the way of his progress. What Arjuna has to do is to let him go himself freely into the activity of his true and fundamental character. He should also feel assured that his whole action is as natural and
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spontaneous as is the surging of the Ganges towards the sea. It shall give him serenity and supreme peace. He shall forever abide united with the Lady of Tranquillity and, like a person of high and noble bearing, he shall always hold in his possession the kingdom of the Self. Thus shall he come to that place where birth is born, and rest is in the rest, and experience gets further enriched in the experience itself.
Arjuna may think that he would not engage himself in the Battle of Kurukshetra,—as it happened in that sudden and impuissant mood in which he was caught, the enervate mood of despondency and weakness unusual to a warrior and a hero. But then, at the same time, with his Kshatriya build-up he would not find it acceptable to stay away from it. His fighter qualities or prakriti dharma as well as his soul qualities or swabhava dharma moulded for performing brave gallant actions would not even allow him to remain aloof from and unconcerned with the demands of society whose one pillar of strength he was. His valour, daring, fearlessness, commitment as an exceptional soldier to what is in hand, his conquering spirit,—these would not let him rest in non-action. It is necessary for him to recognise his own prakriti dharma and swabhava dharma and accordingly shape the course of his life. Howsoever much he may like not to be concerned about these issues, the imperative of his birth as a warrior he just cannot obliterate or dismiss: Arjuna cannot but fight. Not only the external circumstances of war and life and society, but Prakriti herself would make him do what he ought to do.
But then what is really important is that, in order to derive full spiritual gains out of it, he must convert this unavoidable situation or this rare excellent occasion, this very action into an opportunity. He must make it an aspect of soul-prompted and soul-guided endeavour. By making the action a spiritual action he would greatly progress on the path of Karma Yoga. The key to it lies in the manner of doing the action, the manner that does not bind one to the mundane nothing, to the daily inconsequential humdrum, not even to the rewards and fruits of action. What is to be well understood by him is that by performing such an action in the freedom of the spirit and by offering it to the
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Master of Works, Arjuna must become a true karmayogin. He must surrender himself to the Lord of his soul because, very truly, it is at his bidding that for him whatever has to happen is going to happen. The lower Nature under whose sway Arjuna presently is should not be allowed to determine the attitude and disposition, the manner of his work. Instead, he must go far beyond it; indeed, he must take this opportunity to acquire a yogic poise. Such should be his approach in all the works and in all the dealings.
With this background ready, and as a culminating part of the exhortation, the Teacher of the Gita is now on the verge of disclosing to his chosen disciple the great secret of active life. To receive that secret, the supreme revelation, paramam vachah, the disciple has by now been well prepared, in every respect. He is told that he, for his sempiternal good, should attend carefully to what he will be soon advised to do:
Make your attention keen and receptive, amply wide, and hearken to what exactly I am going to tell to you. Get these simple and direct straight words fixed in you. Let their import be determined in a positive and certain manner in you.
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1341)
The supreme word or paramam vachah is going to be spoken. The secret of all the occult secrets, sarvaguhyatamam, the lofty truth of spiritual life in action, the great decisive injunction, the most excellent divine assurance is presently going to be made,—so that the well-prepared disciple, who is actually the ready Soul of Man, establishes himself firmly in the dynamism of the Spirit’s multifoldly fulfilling freedom.
But then what exactly does the Avatar of the Gita desire his fond dear friend and brave warrior on the battlefield, his constant human disciple, to hear that he may so obey him? What is the pre-eminent secret, the secret of secrets, the most esoteric foundation for
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the Godward endeavour that he asks him to build? After getting the experience of the selfsameness everywhere, of the unique oneness which is sans action, sans duality, sans associations, sans sorrow and suffering, the experience of the ultimate passive Brahman, what indeed can remain there for the liberated soul to achieve? Arjuna is to make his mind and his heart an exclusive home for the dwelling of the Lord. His ears have to be eager and fully attentive to hear his praise and his glories, ever and always. He should see and experience the all-pervasive presence in his inner and outer dealings, in each and every transaction of life. And all this he should do the way air associates itself, in every respect, with the entire sky. That presence is the shelter or refuge for all creatures, a place of residence, a habitation for each and every thing, sarva vastuché vasouté. All the while and in all circumstances Arjuna is to live and move in it, act in it, talk about it. It is likely that he still sees the lurking two-ness between himself as a disciple and his Teacher, between Man and the supreme Being, between Nara and Narayana. But then that two-ness, he is told, happens to be there only on account of the nature of the bodily existence, dehadharma, which, with its dissolution, will also get dissolved. By worshipping the supreme Being in every creature and in every object, in every senscient and insenscient entity, Man will realise that the supreme Being is indeed present in each and every thing, that there is nothing else but he alone. Man will have the knowledge of the Self; the sense of ego and of me-ness shall fade away from him. Arjuna has already made extraordinary progress and has well qualified himself to receive the supreme word from the Teacher. In it the Avataric mission shall be fulfilled.
Arjuna is promised that by following step by step the spiritual Path of Action, Karma Yoga, he shall obtain closeness to the supreme Being. Indeed, in its happy benignancy he shall finally obtain him. By doing works and offering these to him the doer of the works shall get the knowledge of him and by that knowledge become one with him.
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(Jnaneshwari: 18.1381-84)
Having arrived at this state any doubt regarding desirable or undesirable works, as to what is to be done and what to be shunned, that kind of clumsy uncertainty which haunted and disturbed him so far will no longer trouble him in any way. Arjuna is now told in a most assuring manner to leave everything in the hands of the Master of Works who ever guides the karmayogin and who controls all his actions:
(The Gita: 18.66-67)
Become My-minded, My lover and adorer, a sacrificer to Me, bow thyself to Me, to Me thou shalt come, this is My pledge and promise to thee, for dear art thou to Me. Abandon all Dharmas and take refuge in Me alone. I will deliver thee from all sin and evil, do not grieve.
(Essays on the Gita, SABCL, Vol. 13, p. 536)
Jnaneshwar’s exposition of these most important shlokas of the Gita runs as follows:
Desire is the cause of unhappiness, slander and fault-finding give rise to sin, ill-fortune and want of luck lead to utter helplessness; in that way, and out of ignorance, are born for life’s progress dharma and adharma, misconduct and gainful conducive action. These are the ones which, when fallen under their sway, cause heaven and hell to take birth in us. Therefore, tells the Teacher to Arjuna, by dismissing all these notions of things, these unavailing ideas, prejudices, misconceptions, individual preferences, this ignorance itself, should he take refuge solely in him. He should take refuge in the supreme Being by
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surrendering to him alone, that surrender being in full awareness and knowledge of everything. That is indeed sharanam, true protection and shelter for him,—living in him without dissolving himself in him. In that manner, and without abolishing their two-ness, did Krishna make Arjuna one with him, dwaita na modita kele apana aise arjuna:
(Jnaneshwari: 18.1421-22)
The sea got mingled with the Sea and rose to the sky.
Everywhere is the presence of the Lord himself, the universe filled by Narayana alone. In this way, through Bhakti Yoga, does the true Karma Yoga lead the doer of the works to the knowledge of the Eternal in whom is complete liberation. This is the most ancient and cherished primordial knowledge proclaimed by the Gita.
Indeed it is this knowledge which we call the Gita, the Knowledge of the Spirit, of the Self, the Knowledge of the Eternal. It is actually the Song of the supreme Lord, bhagavadgita. It puts the aspirant firmly on the forward-leading path and dispels everything that is retrograde. Its greatness is such that in it are founded the Vedas themselves. In this statement of Jnaneshwar there is a great and very unusual perception which again bespeaks his unique spiritual attainments. The supreme secret of the Gita has been truly revealed in its supreme greatness.
The message has been given, the supreme word uttered. The bewildered soul of man facing the battle of life, and meeting the conflicts of values in its daily conduct, has been divinely assured that now everything for him will be taken care of. He is not to have any fear and he is not to grieve. He is only to take refuge in him alone who is the Lord of the Universe. Such is the promise and pledge made by him, the Bhagavan of the Gita. Arjuna shall attain oneness with him
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and in his eminence and suzerainty win all, by his grace move for ever in his happy tranquil delight. That is the truest deliverance from this mundane existence and its thousandfold entanglements and evils, deliverance for doing action in the Spirit’s freedom. Indeed, it will lead the doer of the works to perfection in the “light and splendour of a divine and infinite nature.” After giving up works altogether, whatever he shall be doing in this state will be the muktasya karma, the action that will not bind him to anything. Such is the secret of Karma Yoga by which the seeker of the Self will discover the Self, realise the Self, fulfil himself in the Self. That is the finest boon and the noblest victory offered by the Yoga of the Gita to the human soul, the Aryan spirit living and acting in the nobility of life. That is the merit of the Yoga of the Gita which holds spiritual transformation as its most desirable siddhi or attainment.
Rising well above the tamasic or inert mechanical actions, crossing the stage of actions governed by the egoistic-vitalistic impulses and determinations which are held under her sway by the lower Prakriti, discarding the inferior determinants, doing things without recoiling in any way and doing them with skill even while attending to their minute details, stationing himself in the Spirit and performing works in its tranquil freedom and finally making all works a Yajna, a sacrifice to the Master of Works, does the karmayogin really come to the state of perfect felicity of taking refuge completely in the Divine. Here is for him the crowning achievement of the Yoga of the Gita. In the words of Sri Aurobindo this is what the Teacher of the Gita tells Arjuna:
All this personal effort and self-discipline will not in the end be needed, all following and limitation of rule and Dharma can at last be thrown away as hampering encumbrances if thou canst make a complete surrender to Me, depend alone on the Spirit and Godhead within thee and all things and trust to his sole guidance. Turn all thy mind to Me and fill it with the thought of Me and My presence. Turn all thy heart to Me, make thy every action, whatever it be, a sacrifice and offering to Me. That done, leave Me to do My will with thy life and soul and action; do not be grieved or perplexed by My dealings with thy mind and heart
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and life and works or troubled because they do not seem to follow the laws and Dharmas man imposes on himself to guide his limited will and intelligence. My ways are the ways of a perfect wisdom and power and love that knows all things and combines all its movements in view of a perfect eventual result; for it is refining and weaving together the many threads of an integral perfection. I am here with thee in thy chariot of battle revealed as the Master of existence within and without thee and I repeat the absolute assurance, the infallible promise that I will lead thee to Myself through and beyond all sorrow and evil. Whatever difficulties and perplexities arise, be sure of this that I am leading thee to a complete divine life in the universal and an immortal existence in the transcendent Spirit.
(Essays on the Gita, SABCL, Vol. 13, pp. 537-38)
The supreme Mantra is given to the seeker soul:
An omniscient consciousness will take up our knowledge and our ignorance, our truth and our error, cast away their forms of insufficiency, sarva-dharman parityajya, and transform all into infinite light. An almighty Power will take up our virtue and sin, our right and wrong, our strength and our weakness, cast away their tangled figures, sarva-dharman parityajya, and transform all into its transcendent purity and universal good and infallible force. An ineffable Ananda will take up our petty joy and sorrow, our struggling pleasure and pain, cast away their discordances and imperfect rhythms, sarva-dharman parityajya, and transform all into its transcendent and universal unimaginable delight. All that all the Yogas can do will be done and more; but it will be done in a greater seeing way, with a greater wisdom and truth than any human teacher, saint or sage can give us. The inner spiritual state to which this supreme Yoga will take us, will be above all that is here and yet comprehensive of all things in this and other worlds, but with a spiritual transformation of all, without limitation, without bondage, sarva-dharman parityajya. The infinite existence, consciousness and delight of the Godhead in its calm silence and bright boundless activity will be there, will be its essential, fundamental, universal stuff, mould and character.
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And in that mould of infinity, the Divine made manifest will overtly dwell, no longer concealed by his Yogamaya, and whenever and as he wills build in us whatever shapes of the Infinite, translucent forms of knowledge, thought, love, spiritual joy, power and action according to his self-fulfilling will and immortal pleasure. And there will be no binding effect on the free soul and the unaffected nature, no unescapable crystallising into this or that inferior formula. For all the action will be executed by the power of the Spirit in a divine freedom, sarva-dharman parityajya.
(Ibid., pp. 540-41)
We may thus say that, according to Sri Aurobindo, the Mantra of the Gita is the Mantra of Spiritual Transformation. The yogic vision and intuition of Jnaneshwar also comes pretty close to it, which is quite surprising when we remember that his Shankarite thoughts and metaphysics pertain essentially to the passive Brahman alone, the quiescent Eternal devoid of any activity. The Yogi stands taller in him than the Adwaitic Thinker.
In this context we may also note in retrospect that the highest siddhi or perfection, that of the spiritual transformation held for us by the Gita, is characteristic of the Overmind working in life here in the mortal world, mrityuloka. Overmind dynamism in the hierarchy of the Planes of Consciousness comes from the topmost plane standing above the mental consciousness in its widest sense. Which also means that the Gita itself is an utterance of the supreme transcendent being standing on the Overmind plane, Krishna as the Overmind Avatar. In the evolutionary process of the Earth his chief concern was to establish this dynamism, it leading to the completest possible spiritual transformation. Until this work is done the absolute dynamism of the Absolute that comes only with the Supermind or the gnostic Truth-Consciousness, Vijnana proper, has to wait for its Avatar to arrive. To the yogic Jnaneshwari, true to the vision and work of the Gita, no hint of him is available.
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