Gita Rahasya -Tilak 304

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER X THE EFFECT OF KARMA AND FREEDOM OF WILL On the other hand, this control of the organs has been prescribed in order that one should be able to perform one's activities in life with a desireless frame of mind, and the advice of the Gita is, that while control of the organs is being practised, one must simultaneously, continually, and according to one's own abilities, practise the desireless Karma-Yoga, and not wait till one has acquired complete control over the organs. According to the Maitryupanisad and the Mahabharata, one «an acquire equability of Reason within sis months, if one is intelligent and determined . But, a doubt is likely to be raised here, that this sattvika, equable, and Self -devoted frame of the Mind, which has been described by the Blessed Lord, may not be acquired by some, as a result of their inherent nature, even in six years, to say nothing of six months; and that, if this practice remains incomplete, not only will perfection or Release not be reached in this life, but the practice will have to be started from its very commencement in the next birth ; and, if the practice in this next birth also remains incomplete, as in in the previous births, such a person will never acquire perfection. And, on that account, it is also likely to be believed that one must learn to acquire the non-subjective and non-objective mental absorption ( nirvikalpa-samadhi) by practising the Patanjala Yoga before starting the practice of the Karma-Yoga. Arjuna was beset by this very doubt, and he has in the sixth chapter of the Gita sked Sri Krsna, what a man should do in these circumstances. To this question, the Blessed Lord has replied that, as the Atman is immortal, the impressions received by it in this life through the Subtle Body, whatever they may be, are not destroyed ; and that such a 'yogabhrasta (apostate from Yoga), that is, one who has abandoned the Karma-Yoga without having completely acquired it, starts his efforts in the next birth from the point where he has left off in this birth; and that, in this way, gradually "anekajanmasamsiddhas tato yati param gatim" i. e., "he ultimately acquires perfection after many births, and obtains Release". The statement in the second chapter that "svalpam apy asya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat" , i. e., "even a little practice of this method, that is, of the Karma-Yoga, redeems a person from great danger", is with reference to this proposition.