The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 18.3. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday 17, Mar 2024 07:10.

Chapter 18: The Yoga of the Liberation of Spirit-3.

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We have also a duty to our own self, in a similar manner. Self-control is one's own duty in respect of oneself. Austerity, tapas, is our duty from our own point of view, the opposite of the indulgence of the senses. The pampering of the ego, the mind and the senses is deleterious to the health of the personality. The more are we self-controlled, the more are we able to restrain our senses, the mind and the intellect, the larger do we become in the content of our being. Tapas is a great duty of everyone in respect of oneself. Indulgence is the violation of this duty. The more we restrain ourselves from indulgence or satisfaction of any kind, the richer we become in righteousness and virtue. The more we begin to satisfy the ego and indulge in the demands of the senses, the farther we are from righteousness. So, austerity, self-control, restraint of the senses, mind and the intellect, is our duty in regard to our own self. Charity is our duty in regard to the world outside. Sacrifice is our duty towards God. These three duties are incapable of abandonment under any circumstance.

Now, when we speak of duty, naturally we are reminded of activity of some kind. Duty is 'to do' something, in some way, in respect of something; and doing is action. The moment we think of action, we think of the actor or the agent, the performer of the action. Under ordinary circumstances, it is difficult to free ourselves from the idea of agency in an action. 'I do' is the inherent notion behind every individual, whether one performs a sacrifice, does a charity or is engaged in austerity. Whatever be the thing that we do, we cannot avoid the feeling that we are doing it. “I sacrifice, I do charity, and I perform austerities.” This is a mistake, again, and we are warned against this blunder.

We are not the doers of anything, because the so-called 'I' or 'we' is an illusion, finally; it does not exist at all, on account of the ultimate Reality which reigns above all things, eternally transcending and including all particular agents. Every event is the cumulative effect of the collaboration of many factors, and it is not caused by any particular individual.

Why go so far? Look at this little phenomenon of digesting the food that we take every day. Look at the cooperation of the limbs and organs of the body, the various physiological functions involved in the digesting of the meal that we eat. Any good physiologist will know how the whole-body functions in a systematic manner. Every cell is active. There is no part of the organism which is inactive while there is the process going on of the digesting of the food. We cannot say that the food is digested by the stomach only. 

The heart and lungs, the bloodstream, even the brain and the other organs that go to constitute this body have an important role to play in this performance of the common action known as the digestion of food. Every action is a total action and a cooperative action. There is no such thing as individual action even in this body of ours. This is only to give an example of how things work anywhere in this world.

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Continued

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