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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