Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak
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CHAPTER VI
THE INTUITIONIST SCHOOL AND THE CONSIDERATION OF THE BODY AND THE ATMAN
(ADHIDAIVATA-PAKSA AND KSETRA-KSETRAJNA-VICARA) There may be numerous matters about which one has to think, discriminate, and come to a conclusion. In commerce, war, civil or criminal legal proceedings, money-lending, agriculture, and other trades, there arise any number of occasions on which one has to discriminate. But, on that account, the vyavasayot- mika buddhih in each case does not become different. The function of discrimination is common to all these cases; and therefore, the buddhih (Reason) which makes that dis- crimination or decision must also be one only. But in as much as the buddhih is a bodily faculty (sarira-dharma) just like the Mind, it can be sattviki, rajasi, or tamasi according to previous Actions, hereditary impressions, or education or for other reasons; and therefore, a thing which might be acceptable to the buddhih of one person may be looked upon as unacceptable to the buddhih of another person. But on that account, we cannot say that the organ of buddhih is different in each case. Take for instance, the case of the eye. Some people have squint eyes, while others have half -closed eyes, and others one eye only, and some have dim vision, while others have a clear vision. But, on that account, we do not Say that the eye is a different organ in each case, but say that the organ is one and the same. The same argument must be applied to the case of the buddhih. That same buddhih which differentiates between rice and wheat, or between a stone and a diamond, or which distinguishes between black and white, or sweet and bitter, also discriminates between what is to be feared and what not, what is good and what evil, what is profitable and what disadvantageous, what is righteous and what unrighteous, or what doable and what not-doable, and comes to a final decision in the matter. However much we may glorify it in ordinary parlance by calling it a 'Mental Deity' yet from the philosophical point of view, it is one and the same vyavasayatmika buddhih (pure Reason). That is why in the 18th Chapter of the Gita, one and the same buddhih has been divided into the three kinds of sattviki, rajasi, and tamasi and the Blessed Lord first says to Arjuna :— pravrttim ca nivrttim ca karyakarye bhayabhaye I bandham moksam ca ya vetti buddhih sa Partha sattviki II [1] that is, "that buddhih which ( properly ) understands which- Action should he begun and which not, which is proper to be performed and which not, what should be feared and. what not what leads to bondage and what to Release (moksa), is the- sattviki buddhih " ; and then He goes on to say : — yaya dharmam adharmam ca karyam cakaryam eva ca I ayathavat prajanati buddhih sa Partha rajasi ll |
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