The Message of the Gita - Note 4

Gita Second Series Part 2 Chapter 24

The Message of the Gita

Note 4

…… contd from Note 3

The Divine Teacher continues in his message :

“Let us understand as to what and how this knowledge is made real and living to the mind, heart and life [1]? This is the knowledge which will have to be admitted by the understanding and supported by the soul’s faith. It is the knowledge of the supreme Soul and Spirit in its oneness and its wholeness. It is the knowledge of One who is eternal, beyond Time and Space. It is beyond name and form and world. It is high beyond his own personal and impersonal levels. At the same time, it is also the source of all. It is the One whom all manifests in manifold Nature and her multitude of figures. It is the knowledge of him as an impersonal eternal immutable Spirit, the calm and limitless thing we call Self. He is infinite, equal and always the same. He is unaffected and unmodified and unchanged. He  keeps this attribute even amid all this constant changing and all this multitude of individual personalities. And even amid all the soul powers and Nature powers. And even amid all the forms and forces and eventualities of this transitory and apparent existence.

On the other hand, it is also exactly OPPOSITE of what is described above. It is the knowledge of him at the same time as the Spirit and Power who seems ever mutable in Nature. He is the Inhabitant who shapes himself to every form and modifies himself to every grade and degree and activity of his power. He is also the Spirit who, becoming all that is even while he is for ever infinitely more than all that is. He dwells in man and animal and thing, subject and object. He dwells in soul and mind and life and matter. In fact, he dwells in every existence and every force and every creature.

“It is not by insisting only on this or that side of the truth that you can practice this Yoga. There are multitude of ways to approach him. The Divine whom you have to seek, the Self whom you have to discover, the supreme Soul of whom your soul is an eternal portion, is simultaneously all these things[2]. You have to know them simultaneously in a supreme oneness. You have to enter into all of them at once and in all states and all things see Him alone. If he were solely the Spirit mutable in Nature, there would be only an eternal and universal becoming.  If you limit your faith and knowledge to that one aspect, you will get stuck in your personality and its constant changeful figures. You will be tied to the revolutions in Nature if you were to base your understanding on such a foundation.

“But you are not merely a succession of soul moments in Time.  There is an impersonal self in you which supports the stream of your personality. It is one with God’s vast and impersonal spirit. These are the two opposite poles of your existence. Both are true. But your real existence is even beyond this. It is incalculable beyond this impersonality and personality. It is dominating these two constant poles of what you are here. You are eternal and transcendent in the Eternal Transcendence.

“Let us look at it from different perspective. If we assume that only truth is that of an eternal impersonal self that neither acts nor creates, then there is no real basis to your soul or the world. In such a case, the world and your soul would be illusions without any real basis. If you limit your faith and knowledge to this one lonely aspect, then the renunciation of life and action is your only resource. But God in the world and you in the world are realities. It is NOT an ILLUSION. The world and you are true and actual powers and manifestations of the Supreme. Therefore accept life and action and do not reject them. Be one with God in your impersonal self and essence. Be an eternal portion of the Godhead. Turn to God by the love and adoration of your spiritual personality for its own Infinite. Make of your natural being what it is intended to be - an instrument of works, a channel, a power of the Divine. Anyway, that it always is in its truth – whether you are conscious or not of this knowledge. At present you are acting unconsciously and imperfectly through the lower nature. It is doomed to a disfigurement of the Godhead by your ego. Therefore AWAKE and be AWARE of your true nature. Do not let it be distorted by your ego. Make it consciously and perfectly a power of the Divine in his supreme spiritual nature. Make it a vehicle of his will and his works. In this way you will live in the integral truth of your own being. You will possess the integral God-union, the whole and flawless Yoga.

………… to continue

………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 557

[2] 558

The Message of the Gita - Note 3

Note 3                                                                                    …… contd from Note 2

The ignorance of inner things hides the real soul and self of us from our intelligence[1]. It is caused by a false identification and by an absorption in our outward mechanism of mind, life and body. When the active soul of man draws back from this identification with its natural instruments, then all is changed to it. He needs to see and live in the entire faith of its inner reality. Then life and existence take on another appearance. The action takes a different meaning and character. Our being then becomes no longer this little egoistic creation of Nature. It becomes the largeness of a divine, immortal and spiritual Power.  [2]Our consciousness no longer remains limited and struggling mental and vital creature. It becomes an infinite, divine and spiritual consciousness. Similarly, our will and action exceed the limitations of this bounded personality and its ego.  It then becomes a divine and spiritual will and action. It is the will and power of the Universal, the Supreme, the All-Self and Spirit acting freely through the human figure.

The message of the Godhead in man, the Avatar, the divine Teacher is as follows :

“This is the great change and transfiguration. Only the select few are called for this venture by me. These men are those who can turn their will away from the ignorance of the natural instruments. They need to focus it on the soul’s deepest experience, its knowledge of the inner self and spirit. They need to dwell on its contact with the Godhead and its power to enter into the Divine. The elect are all who can accept this faith and this greater law.

For a human being whose intellect is always attached to its own cloud-forms and half-lights of ignorance, this Path is extremely difficult. They get lost in the obscurer habits of man’s mental, nervous and physical parts. On the other hand, once a man is able to turn his gaze inwards and be in constant contact with his true soul, the Path becomes easy and sure. This is because then it gets identical with the true truth of man’s being. It is the authentic movement of his inmost and supreme nature.

“ This change is a very great one. It is an enormous transformation. It cannot be done without an entire turning and conversion of your whole being and nature. For this to happen, it is necessary to have a complete consecration of your self, nature and life to the Highest and to nothing else but the Highest. All life and activity must be held only for the sake of the Highest. Nothing should be accepted except as it is in god and a form of God. It should be done only for the sake of the Divine. There will be needed an admission of a new truth.  There has to be an entire turn and giving of your mind to a new knowledge of self and others. There will be a new vision of the world and God and soul and Nature. It is a knowledge of oneness and of universal Divinity. It will at first be an acceptance by the understanding mind. Thereafter it becomes in the end a vision, a consciousness, a permanent state of the soul and a frame of its movements.

“There will be needed a will that shall turn this new knowledge, vision and consciousness into a motive of action. It will surely be its sole motive. It must not be a grudging action which is  limited and  confined to a few necessary operations of Nature. It should also not be limited to the few things that seem helpful to a formal perfection, pertinent to a religious turn or to an individual salvation. [3]It must be an all encompassing action of human life which is taken up by the  spirit based in equality. It need to be done for the sake of God and the good of all creatures. There will be needed an uplifting of the heart in a single aspiration to the Highest. It should be single love of the Divine Being, a single God-adoration. And there must be a widening too of the calmed and enlightened heart to embrace God in all beings. There will be needed a change from his present state of the habitual and normal nature to a supreme and divine spiritual nature. There will be needed in a word a Yoga. It shall be at once a Yoga of integral knowledge, integral will and its works, integral love, adoration and devotion. It will be a Yoga of an integral spiritual perfection of the whole being as well as of all its parts, states, powers and motions.

………… to continue

………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 555

[2] Page 556

[3] Page 557

The Message of the Gita - Note 2

Note 2                                                                                       …… contd from Note 1

From the perspective of the outer appearance the truth of existence centers around Nature or Prakriti[1]. Nature is a Force that operates as the whole law and mechanism of being. It creates the world which is the object of our mind and senses. Going backwards towards the root cause, it also creates the mind and senses. It uses them as a means of relation between the creature and the objective world in which he lives. In this outer appearance man seems to be a creature of Nature. All of his soul, his mind, his life and his body is a creature of Nature. He is differentiated from others by a separation of his body, life and mind – especially by his ego-sense. This subtle mechanism seems to be specially constructed for him for a purpose. It’s purpose is to enable Man to confirm and to centralize his consciousness with a sense of strong separateness and difference. Each part of Man’s existence is very evidently determined by the law of his nature. This includes his soul of mind and its action as well as the functioning of his life and body. He can not escape from this law. He can not function in any other manner. He has a feeling of freedom arising out of his personal will, the will of his ego. However in reality it amounts to nothing. This is because his ego is nothing else but a sense. This sense causes an error and it makes him falsely identify himself with the creation that Nature has made of him. This creation is constructed of varying mind and life and body of Man. In other words, his ego is itself a product of the working of Nature. It does NOT have an independent existence outside of his Nature. There is no final reality to it. In a similar manner, his will is itself a product of Nature. He must act according to his Nature – though with a false impression of a free will. In reality he has no freedom to act.

This is the reality of man’s ordinary consciousness of himself[2]. This is his faith in his own being. He is a creature of Nature. His is a separate ego establishing whatever relations with others and with the world. He may be making whatever development of himself, satisfying whatever will, desire, idea of his mind. All this is in reality restricted to what is permissible in the circle of Nature and consonant with her intention or law in his existence.

However, at the same time, there is something in man’s consciousness which does not fall in with the rigidity of this formula. He has a faith which progressively grows with the development of his soul.  This faith is in another and an inner reality of existence – penetrating the outer appearance. In this inner reality the truth of existence is no longer Nature but Soul and Spirit. It is Purusha rather than Prakriti. Nature herself is only a power of Spirit. Prakriti is a Force of the Purusha. A Spirit, a Self, a being which is one in all is the true Master of this World. This world is only a partial manifestation of his soul. This Spirit is the upholder of Nature and her action. It is the giver of the sanction by which alone her law becomes imperative. It is her force and it makes her ways operative. The Spirit immanent in Nature is the Knower. He illuminates Nature and makes her conscient in us. This Will is the immanent and superconscient force which inspires and motives the workings of Nature. The soul in man is a portion of this Divinity. It shares his nature. Our nature is our soul’s manifestation. It operates by its sanction. It embodies its secret self-knowledge and self-consciousness. Its will of being in her motions and forms and causes changes in existence.

………… to continue

………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 554

[2] Page 555

The Message of the Gita - Note 1

Gita Second Series Part 2 Chapter 24

The Message of the Gita

Note 1

The message of the Gita[1], in the words of Sri Krishna, can be summarized as follows :

The secret of all life and existence can be found in the secret of action. It is an ERROR to assume that the Nature – Prakriti is purely a mechanical system. Nature is not, as is depicted in the popular folklore, a Wheel of Law entangling the soul of man – whether for a moment or for ages. This is NOT true, proclaims the Divine Teacher. Nature should be viewed as a constant manifestation of the Spirit. Life is not merely for the sake of life alone. It is for the Divine in us. The living soul of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead. The real purpose of Action is not just for its own external and apparent fruits – either for the current moment or for the future. The secret of Action can be found when we treat it as a process of self-finding, self-fulfillment and of self-realisation.

We need to understand the inner law of being. The real truth of works lies in the Supreme and not just the manifested nature of the self. In the outer nature, this truth can be represented only incidentally and imperfectly. Here in outer nature, it is often disguised by ignorance. It is immersed in the outer appearances of the mind and its action. On the other hand, the Supreme Truth is the faultless and largest law of action. This law is to find out the truth of your own highest and inmost existence. It is to LIVE in it. It is NOT necessarily to be found in following any outer standard or Dharma. Till we are able to realize this truth, our life becomes for us a life of imperfection, of difficulty and of struggle. Our life becomes a riddle. The right Path is in discovering your true self and living according to its real truth and its true reality. Only when we follow this Path can we expect to solve the riddle of life. It is then that the struggle and difficulty is over-passed. Our action then gets perfected in the security of the discovered self. Our life then turns into a divinely authentic action.

The command given is Know Your Self. Know your self to be God. Know that it is one with the self of all others. Know that your soul is a portion of God. Live in what you know. Live in the self. Live in your supreme spiritual nature. Be united with God and Godlike. All your actions should be offered in the Yadnya to the ‘Highest and the One’ in you. It is also to be offered to the ‘Highest and the One’  in the world. Offer all of you and of your actions to the Divine so that the supreme and universal Spirit can act through you.

Lord says that THIS is the solution I present to you. In the end your will find that it is THE ONLY WAY – there is no other.

Let us now understand the Gita’s view of the fundamental opposition on which it founds its position[2]. First of all, let us accept that this finding of the true self, this knowledge of the Godhead within US and within ALL is easy said than done. What’s more, even after we get to this knowledge with our intelligence, we encounter still higher difficulty. It is extremely difficult to turn this knowledge into the stuff of our consciousness and the whole condition of our action.

To understand this better, we need to realize that all our action is basically determined by the effective state of our being. The effective state of our being in turn is determined by the state of our constant self-seeing will and active consciousness. What we ARE TODAY is deeply influenced by our sraddha - our faith.   Our faith is made up of what we see and believe with our whole active nature. What we believe ourselves to be. What we understand about our relations with the world.

However, the consciousness of man is of double kind. It corresponds to a double truth of existence. We have a truth of the inner reality and a truth of the outer appearance. Whether the man will be a mind dwelling in human ignorance or a soul founded in divine knowledge will depend upon  his living in outer or inner reality.

………… to continue

………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 553

[2] Page 554