Chapter 4
Core of the Teaching
Misconceptions of Karma Yoga Cleared
▀ ▄ ▀ The true meaning of the Doctrine of Works as per Gita
3 Doctrine of Works कर्मयोग (...... cont. from previous Note 4.2)
The actual reality which rejects this exclusivity (assigned to the Doctrine of Works)
Undoubtedly, the Gita is a Gospel of Works.
However, the term ‘Works’ relates to the works which culminate in knowledge, that is in spiritual realisation and quietude.
It is of works which is motivated by devotion, that is, a conscious surrender of one’s whole self first into the hands and then into the being of the Supreme. Gita not at all refers to the works as they are understood by the modern mind.
It is not at all an action dictated
▀ by egoistic and altruistic,
▀ by personal, social and humanitarian motives, principles and ideals.
Wrong persistence of its supporters
Yet precisely this is what the present day interpretations seek to make of the Gita.
We are told continuously by many authoritative voices that the Gita proclaims with no uncertain sound the gospel of
▀ Human action
▀ The ideal of disinterested performance of social duties,
It may even go the extent of promoting
▀ The quiet modern ideal of social service
Interestingly, in respect to above theories, Gita seems to oppose rather than support the ordinary ascetic and quietist tendency of Indian thought and spirituality.
The right perspective
Very obviously and even on the very surface of it, the Gita does NOTHING of the kind. This is purely a modern misreading, a reading of the modern mind into an ancient book. It is an interpretation of the present-day European or Europeanised intellect into a thoroughly antique as well as a thoroughly Oriental and Indian teaching.
What Gita teaches is not the human but a divine action. It is not the performance of social duties, but the abandonment of all other standards of duty or conduct for a self-less performance of the Divine Will working through our nature.
It is not social service, but the action of the Best, the God-possessed, the Master-men. It is done impersonally for the sake of the world. It is done as a sacrifice to Him who stands behind man and Nature. To put it differently, the Gita is not a book of practical ethics but of spiritual life.
Modern Philosophy and the Doctrine of Gita
The modern mind has just recently emerged as the European mind. It has now abandoned the philosophic idealism of the highest Graeco-Roman culture from which it started. It has also abandoned the Christian devotionalism of the Middle Ages. There it has been replaced or transformed into a practical idealism and social, patriotic and philanthropic devotion.
It has got rid of God or kept Him only for Sunday use.
It has erected in His place man as its deity and society as its visible idol. At its best it is having practical, ethical, social, pragmatic, altruistic and humanitarian philosophy.
･ﾟﾟ･:.｡..｡.:ﾟ::✼✿ - *▀ ▄ Chapter Four - Core of the Teaching ▄ ▀ ✿✼:ﾟ:.｡..｡.:･ﾟﾟ･
End of Note Three
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