Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak
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CHAPTER XIII
THE PATH OF DEVOTION
Just as the bullet in a gun cannot be fired without the help of gunpowder, so also can the knowledge acquired merely by Intelligence not redeem any one without the help of mental qualities like Love, Faith, etc.; and this principle was fully known to our ancient Rsis. For example, it is stated in the Chandogya that in order to prove to Svetaketu that the imperceptible and subtle Parabrahman is the fundamental cause of the visible world, his father, asked him to bring the fruit of a banian tree (vata-vrksa), and to see what was inside. When Svetaketu had cut open that fruit and seen inside, he said : "there are innumerable minute seeds or grains inside." When his father again said to him : " take one of those seeds, and tell me what is inside it ", Svetaketu replied : " I see nothing inside the seed ". To that his father replied : "O my son, this tremendous banian tree (vata-vrksa) has sprung from that nothing which you see inside" ; and his father has ultimately said to him, " sraddhasva ", i. e., "put faith in this", that is, "do not merely keep this idea in your Mind, and say 'yes' to my face, but go beyond it ; in short, let this principle be impressed on your heart, and let it be translated into your actions" [1]. If Faith is ultimately necessary in order to obtain the definite knowledge that the Sun is going to rise to-morrow morning, then it undoubtedly follows that after having gone by the cart-road of Intelligence as far as possible for completely Realising the eternal, unending, all-causing, all-knowing, independent, and vital Principle, Which is the root of the entire universe, one has to go further, at least to some extent, by the foot-path of Faith and Affection. That woman whom a man looks upon as venerable and worshipful, because she is his mother, is looked upon by others as an ordinary woman, or according to the scientific camouflage of words of Logicians, she is "garbhadharanaprasavadi stritva- samanyavacchedakavacchinnavyaktivisesah. Prom this simple example, one can easily understand the difference brought about. by pouring the Knowledge acquired by mere inference, into' the mould of Faith and Affection ; and for this very reason, it is stated in the Gita that "the most excellent Karma-Yogin from among all, is the one who has Faith" [2]; and, as has been stated above, there is also a theorem of the Philosophy of the Absolute Self that, " acintyah khalu ye bhavah na tams tarkena cintayet ", i. e., "the form of those objects which,. being beyond the organs, cannot be imagined, should not be determined merely by the help of inference ". |
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