... beyond limitation by qualities though formulating the power of his being through infinite quality. This is the Purushottama to whom the sacrifice has to be offered, not for any transient personal fruit of works, but for the soul's possession of God and in order to live in harmony and union with the Divine. In other words, man's way to liberation and perfection lies through an increasing impersonality... the unenlightened soul. The real renunciation—for renunciation, sannyāsa , there must be—is not the fleeing from works, but the slaying of ego and desire. The way is to abandon attachment to the fruit of works even while doing them, and the way is to recognise Nature as the agent and leave her to do her works and to live in the soul as the witness and sustainer, watching and sustaining her, but not attached ...
... nt Shakti.¹ Here too, in this movement by which the soul divests itself gradually of the obscure robe of the ego, there is a Page 158 progress by marked stages. For not only the fruit of works belongs to the Lord alone, but our works also must be his; he is the true Lord of our action no less than of our results. This we must not see with the thinking mind only, it must become entirely ...
... am the doer of the fourfold works and creator of its fourfold law, yet I must be known also as the non-doer, the imperishable, the immutable Self. "Works affect me not, nor have I desire for the fruit of works;" for God is the impersonal beyond this egoistic personality and this strife of the modes of Nature, and as the Purushottama also, the impersonal Personality, he possesses this supreme freedom ...
... of the transcendent Shakti. 2 Here too, in this movement by which the soul divests itself gradually of the obscure robe of the ego, there is a progress by marked stages. For not only the fruit of works belongs to the Lord alone, but our works also must be his; he is the true lord of our actions no less than of our results. This we must not see with the thinking mind only, it must become entirely ...
... world-wide Ignorance that we have to enlighten and eliminate. In the field of action desire takes many forms, but the most powerful of all is the vital self's craving or seeking after the fruit of our works. The fruit we covet may be a reward of internal pleasure; it may be the accomplishment of some preferred idea or some cherished will or the satisfaction of the egoistic emotions, or else the pride... the consciously felt will of the Eternal remains as the sole driver of our action and the sole originator of its initiative. Page 104 Equality, renunciation of all desire for the fruit of our works, action done as a sacrifice to the supreme Lord of our nature and of all nature,—these are the three first Godward approaches in the Gita's way of Karmayoga. Page 105 ... present preoccupation is with a Yoga, integral in its aim and complete movement, but starting from works and proceeding by works although at each step more and more moved by a vivifying divine love and more and more illumined by a helping divine knowledge. The greatest gospel of spiritual works ever yet given to the race, the most perfect system of Karmayoga known to man in the past, is to be ...
... Yoga, Karmayoga ? It is non-attachment, it is to do works without clinging with the mind to the objects of sense and the fruit of the works. Not complete inaction, which is an error, a confusion, a self-delusion, an impossibility, but action full and Page 108 free done without subjection to sense and passion, desireless and unattached works, are the first secret of perfection. Do action thus... opposite of knowledge; its seed is desire and its fruit is bondage. That is the orthodox philosophical doctrine, and Krishna seems quite to admit it when he says that works are far inferior to the Yoga of the intelligence. And yet works are insisted upon as part of the Yoga; so that there seems to be in this teaching a radical inconsistency. Not only so; for some kind of work no doubt may persist for... His cosmic works or His individual action. That is what the Gita teaches and desirelessness is only a means to this end, not an aim in itself. Yes, but how is it to be brought about? By doing all works with sacrifice as the only object, is the reply of the divine Teacher. "By doing works otherwise than for sacrifice, this world of men is in bondage to works; for sacrifice practise works, O son of Kunti ...
... of God and lifting up of our works to him is felt to be beyond the power of the limited mind, because in its forgetfulness it turns to the act and its outward object and will not remember to look within and lay our every movement on the divine altar of the Spirit. Then the way is to control the lower self in the act and do works without desire of the fruit. All fruit has to be renounced, to be given... too is excelled by a silent complete concentration on the Truth so that the consciousness shall eventually live in it and be always one with it. But more powerful still is the giving up of the fruit of one's works, because that immediately destroys all causes of disturbance and brings and preserves automatically an inner calm and peace, and calm and peace are the foundation on which all else becomes perfect... spiritual nature,—this is the new inner principle of works which is to transform the old ignorant action. A knowledge which embraces oneness with the Divine and arrives through the Divine at conscious oneness with all things and beings, a will emptied of egoism and acting only by the command and as an instrumentation of the secret Master of works, a divine love whose one aspiration is towards a close ...
... Lord of the universal sacrifice, yajñeśwara, as an individual contribution to the sum total of the collective evolutionary effort. "The essential of the sacrifice of works is the surrender of all desire for the fruit of our works, of all attachment to the result for which yet we labour, for so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered to our ego and not to the Divine... PRACTICE OF KARMAYOGA KARMAYOGA consists in offering all the movements of our physical being, particularly the works done by our body, to the omnipresent Master of our being. Its primary rule, as the Gitâ insists, is the renunciation of all desire for the fruit of our action, and all preference even. in the choice of action. Action has to be done in the beginning as a sacrifice to the... spiritual tapas. The rule of the performance of all action without :any desire for fruit, niskāma karma, is a very effective means of purification, particularly of the prāna. Every work must be done as an offering, as a sacrifice, in a spirit of consecration, as a service,—not only the important works of life, but every little thing that one does, even every little movement of the body. The ...
... contrary subject to the restless and discursive action of the mind, dispersed in outward life and works and their fruits. "Works are far inferior," says the Teacher, "to Yoga of the intelligence; desire rather refuge in the intelligence; poor and wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their works the object of their thoughts and activities." We must remember the psychological order of the... poise in Yoga. You are shrinking from the results of your works, you desire other results and turn from your right path in life because it does not lead you to them. But this idea of works and their result, desire of result as the motive, the work as a means for the satisfaction of desire, is the bondage of the ignorant who know not what works are, nor their true source, nor their real operation, nor... , with a wrong intelligence and therefore a wrong will in these matters, that man is or seems to be bound by his works; otherwise works are no bondage to the free soul. It is because of this wrong intelligence that he has hope and fear, wrath and grief and transient joy; otherwise works are possible with a perfect serenity and freedom. Therefore it is the Yoga of the buddhi, the intelligence, that ...
... into it." (M C W, Vol. 14, p. 36) And about this right spirit and attitude Sri Aurobindo has this to say: "The essential of the sacrifice of works must be there and the essential is the surrender of all desire for the fruit of our works, the renunciation of all attachment to the result for which yet we labour. For so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered... return from his practice of Yoga or from his ardent seeking after the Divine. 'The Divine for the Divine's sake' should be the constant motto of his life. The vital self's craving for some desired! fruit of his actions should be entirely renounced by the sadhaka of the Path. Wealth, position, honour, victory, good fortune or any other fulfilment of desire, the accomplishment of some preferred idea... Aurobindo has so forcefully reminded us: "A Yoga of works, a union with the Divine in our will and j acts — and not only in knowledge and feeling — is... an indispensable, an inexpressibly important element of an integral Yoga. The! conversion of our thought and feeling without a corresponding con-1 Version of the spirit and body of our Works would be a maimed j achievement." (The Synthesis of ...
... attached clinging to the fruit of our works, to the action itself or to its personal initiation or rajasic impulse. In that sense Tyaga, not Sannyasa, is the better way. It is not the desirable actions that must be laid aside, but the desire which gives them that character has to be put away from us. The fruit of the action may come in the dispensation of the Master of works, but there is to be no egoistic... the renunciation of works as well as into works. A renunciation with attachment to inaction, saṅgo akarmaṇi , would be equally a tamasic withdrawal. And to give them up because they bring sorrow or are a trouble to the flesh and a weariness to the mind or in the feeling that all is vanity and vexation of spirit, is a rajasic renunciation and does not bring the high spiritual fruit; that too is not... universal and eternal the highest ideal law of his nature or the will of the Master of works in his secret spirit. He will not do action for the sake of any personal result or for any reward in this life or with any attachment to success, profit or consequence: neither will his works be undertaken for the sake of a fruit in the invisible hereafter or ask for a reward in other births or in worlds beyond ...
... and antipathies, and seeking always after fruit s of act ion which interest his person al ego. So, in his present stat e of ignorant egoistic con sciousness, surrendering to the Divine should not mean the cessation of activities. It is he who has to choose the actions and try to do those actions in a perfect way but with a different attitude. All works should be performed as a consecrated offering... must be there and the essential is the surrender of all desire for the fruit of our works. the renunciation of all attachment to the result for which yet we la page-92 bour. For so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered not to the Divine, but to our ego. We may think otherwise, but we are deceiving ourselves; we are making our idea of the Divine, our sense... all works in whom we believe but whom we do not yet know, the principle is the same." (p. 209) Yes, "the principle is the same" and it is this underlying principle supporting all action of the sadhaka, which will turn an ordinary mundane worker into a self-surrendered aspirant. But what is this principle? Let us listen to Sri Aurobindo: "The essential of the sacrifice of works must ...
... heavens, the laws of being abide Page 412 unfailing like water resting on a mountain. Thou supreme and manifest in thy being, O Varuna, do thou give increase to my works, letme not,OKing, taste the fruit of the works of another. Many more are the dawns that have yet to dawn on me; in them all, O Varuna, do thou govern our souls (or, our lives). From whatsoever fear, O King, enemy or friend... didst open the luminous sun to the doer of works (or to Kutsa), the destroyer of works remained very much oppressed by thee on thy left side. और्णवाभं । ऊर्णवाभि is a spider; और्णवाभं must be either spiderish or the web of the spider. सव्यतः । The side away from knowledge; the right is of Page 404 knowledge, the left of power & its works. O hero, hold in thy thought the flashing... स्पृशंतः ।। धियं । कर्म ।। प्रशस्तिं । प्रकृष्टशंसनं स्तोत्रं ।। धीमहि । त्वयि निदधीमहि ।। Sy. May we intelligent live in thy heart, O Indra, may we enjoy the work touching thee with a desire for the fruit of the sacrifice. Desiring protection we place the hymn of praise in thee; may we be at once for thy giving of wealth. अपि । Here a preposition, Greek έπί = in, upon. सपंतः । सप् to attain, touch ...
... this long path is to consecrate all our works as a sacrifice to the Divine in us and in the world; this is an attitude of the mind and heart, not too difficult to initiate, but very difficult to make absolutely sincere and all-pervasive. The second step is to renounce attachment to the fruit of our works; for the only true, inevitable and utterly desirable fruit of sacrifice—the one thing needful—is... and narrow path of Yoga because of the impatience of both heart and mind and the eager but soon faltering will of our rajasic nature. The vital nature of man hungers always for the fruit of its labour and, if the fruit appears to be denied or long delayed, he loses faith in the ideal and in the guidance. For his mind judges always by the appearance of things, since that is the first ingrained habit... love. Conscious always and in everything, in ourselves and in others, of the Master of Works possessing, inhabiting, enjoying through this Force that is himself, becoming through it all existences and all happenings, we shall have arrived at the divine union through works and achieved by that fulfilment in works all that others have gained Page 253 through absolute devotion or through pure ...
... accomplish works in the spirit of sacrifice, therefore, the world becomes Page 43 imprisoned in the chains of works; accomplish the works as Sacrifice, O son of Kunti, free from attachment.' (3.9) "This is the first step of the argument. Let us analyse the situation further. Works have behind them two important propelling forces : i) Desire for the enjoyment of the fruit of the Works;... science of Yoga of Works, Karma Yoga, science of Yoga of Knowledge, Jnanayoga, and science of Yoga of Divine Love, Bhaktiyoga. Why are these yogas so-called? Why, for instance, is Karmayoga so called?" I answered as follows: "Yoga of Works is so called because it employs a method of utilising all the elements of works for Page 39 achieving the perfection of works. The goal is perfection... processes of work, knowledge and emotions are united. Even if one begins with works alone, the method gradually widens out in such a way, that works culminate in knowledge and the crown of the union Page 40 of works and knowledge is perfection of love. Similarly, if we begin with knowledge, the method illumines works also, and knowledge finds its fulfillment in execution of the highest will ...
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.