Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak
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CHAPTER XI
RENUNCITATION AND KARMA-YOGA
In short, although Action (Karma) is not necessary for obtaining Release, yet, the Glta has declared the path of desirelessly and continuously performing Action as the best path of all, for other co-existent reasons, namely, because it is, in the first place, unavoidable, and secondly because, it is essential for the maintenance of the world. Or, the ultimate octrine of the Glta is that the union of Action and Spirit- ual Knowledge is the best, and that mere Action or mere .Spiritual Knowledge is each one-sided, according to the state- ment of Manu that: "krtabuddhisu kartarah karlrsu brahma-vadimh" [1]. Really speaking this chapter ought to end here. But, it is necessary to say something here about the quotations given above in various places for showing that the doctrine laid down by the Gita has the authority of the Srutis and the Smrtis; because, many persons have come to the conclusion that all the Upanisads support Renunciation (samnyasa or nivrtti ) by reading the doctrine-supporting commentaries on the Upanisads. I do not say that the Path of Renunciation is not supported by the Upanisads at all. It is stated in the Brhadaranyakopanisad (4. 4. 22), that after they have Realised that the Parabrahman is the only Reality, "some Jnanins do not any more entertain in their hearts the desire for children (putraisana), or the desire for wealth (vittaisana), or the desire for higher worlds (lokaisana), and saying: 'what have we to do with children? the whole world is our Self (Atman)', they go about the world contentedly, and earn their livelihood by begging". But it is nowhere stated in the Brhadaranyaka that all persons who have Realised the Brahman should follow this path. Nay, .there is a statement in this very Upanisad that that king Janaka, to whom this advice was given, had reached the highest peak of the Knowledge of the Brahman, and had become immortal. But, it is nowhere stated that he had, like Yajnavalkya, given up the world and taken Samnyasa. There- fore, it becomes quite clear that the Brhadaranyakopanisad accepted both the Desireless Karma-Yoga of Janaka and the Path of Abandonment of Action followed by Yajnavalkya, as alternative paths; and the author of the Vedanta-Sutras has come to the same conclusion [2]. The Kathopanisad lias gone even further than this, and, as I have- stated before in the fifth chapter, it says, according to me, that the Desireless Karma- Yoga is the only proper path of life. |
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