The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 8.7 Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, January 24, 2021. 09:27. AM.
Chapter 8: The Yoga of Action-7.

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“The properties move among the properties: gunah guneshu vartante.” It is not we that touch an object, it is not the sense organs that crave for a thing outside, it is the gunas that are trying to commune with the gunas that are outside. It is one wave in the ocean dashing against another wave, as it were, in the very same ocean. In this ocean of forces known as sattva, rajas and tamas, the individuals are like waves, and every object is such a wave. One wave collides with another wave due to the affinity one has with another on account of the basic similarity of structure, which is the ocean at the bottom.

Our actions, our activities, our duties, whatever they are, are not really our actions, our duties, our performances. They are the performance of the Cosmic Powers, sattva, rajas and tamas. They are doing all things in an impersonal manner, for a universal purpose. And we, unnecessarily, ask for a credit for this impersonal activity of someone else! We are the result of the commingling or the permutation and combination of sattva, rajas and tamas in some degree, and all the objects of the senses also are of a similar nature. Thus, the whole universe is working without any sense of individuality within itself. It is doubtful if the universe is aware that we exist at all as isolated pieces.

But we are hardboiled ‘persons’ demanding total independence of our individuality. This is perhaps the meaning of the Biblical story of the Fall of the angel from the Garden of Eden. It is the assertion of the individuality; Lucifer became Satan. The angel has become the individual with a flint-like egoism asserting independence from God and claiming equal rights with God Himself. This is the travesty of affairs in the history of the individual. One who knows this secret cannot be bound by action. But people have no awareness of the inner meaning of action.

In the verses of the Third Chapter we have the basic principles of Karma Yoga stated, how we have to conduct ourselves in this world. We have to move in the world not as human beings at all. A true Yogi, in the sense of the Bhagavadgita at least, is not a human being. A spiritual seeker conceived in the light of the Bhagavadgita is a spark from the divine conflagration of God-Being, seeking union with its universal Selfhood, or absolute comprehensiveness, and our conduct has to be in consonance with this great purpose of our existence here. Our existence in this world is teleologically conditioned by the purpose of the cosmos, and we are here for the fulfilment of this great purpose, the divine design that is behind the entire panorama of Nature.

To be continued  ....

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