Bhagavadgita -Radhakrishnan 56

The Bhagavadgita -S. Radhakrishnan

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INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
12. The Way of Action: Karma-marga


All knowledge, all striving is a means to attain to this ultimate wisdom, this last simplicity. Every act or achievement would be less than this act of being. All action is defective.[1] amkara admits that there is no objection to the performance of work until one reaches death, even after the attainment of wisdom.[2] Such a one is said to be above all duties only from the theoretical standpoint.[3] This means that in principle there is no contradiction between spiritual freedom and practical work. Though, strictly speaking, there is nothing that remains to be done by the wise sage as by God, yet both of them act in the world, for the sake of world-maintenance and progress, lokasamgraha. We may even say that God is the doer, as the individual has emptied himself of all desires.[4] He does nothing, na kiricit karoti. As he has no ulterior purpose, he lays claim to nothing and surrenders him self to spontaneity. Then God acts through him and the question of right and wrong does not arise, though it is impossible for such a one to do anywrong.[5] Poised in the serenity of the Self, he becomes the doer of all works, krtsnakarmakrtO He knows that he is only .the instrument for the work of God, mimittamatram.[6]


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References and Context

  1. ↑ Nyaya Sutra, I, I, 18.
  2. ↑ S.B., III, 3, 32; S.B.G., II, II; III, 8 and 20. There is a natural shirking from outward works by those who are afraid of being distracted from their contemplation of God.
  3. ↑ alamkaro hy ayam asmakaym yad brahmatmavagatau satyam sarvakartavyatahamh. S.B., I, x, 4.
  4. ↑ Jaiminiya Up.: Thou (God) art the doer thereof : tvam vat tasya kartasi. "We have the mind of Christ" (Car. ii, 16) ; "I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii, 20)O Tauler: "By their works they cannot go again. ... If any man is to come to God, he must be empty of all works and let God work alone." Following of Christ, 16, 17, St. Thomas Aquinas : "The works of a man who is led by the Holy Ghost are the works of the Holy Ghost rather than his own." Summa Theol., II, 1, 93, 6 and 1
  5. ↑ Cp. St. John's words: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin."
  6. ↑ XI, 33,