Gita Rahasya -Tilak
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CHAPTER X
THE EFFECT OF KARMA AND FREEDOM OF WILL
I have bo far explained the manner in which a human being reaches three different states after his death, having regard to his Karma, according to the ancient tradition of the Vedic religion. It is true that Release is attained only by the devayana path out of these three; yet, this Release is attained only ultimately, after rising step by step through the various stages of the arcira li(pitryana) path. This path has also the other names of krama-mukti' (gradual Release); and, in as much as ultimate Release is attained by going to the sphere of the Brahman after the fall of the body, that is, after death> it is also called 'videha-mukti' (body less Release); but the pure philosophy of the Absolute Self asks why it should be necessary for the man, in whose mind the Realisation of the identity of the Brahman and the Atman is continually present, to go anywhere else to reach the Brahman, or to wait for death. The Knowledge of the Brahman which is acquired by the worship of symbols like the Sun etc. taken for worship, that is to say, by the worship of the qualityful Brahman, is, in the beginning, a little incomplete; because, thereby the mind conceives the ideas of the sphere of the Sun, or of the sphere of the Brahman, and there is a risk of these ideas remaining fixed in the mind, to a greater or less extent, even at the moment of death. It is, therefore, proper to say that in order to remove this defect and attain Release, such persons 'must go by the devayana path [1]; because, it is a firm doctrine of the philosophy of the Absolute Self that every man reaches after death a 'gati' (goal) which is consistent with' the desire or 'krau' present in his mind at the moment of death [2]. But, the man, in whose mind there does not exist the Dualistic differentiation between the Brahman and his own Atman resulting from the worship of a qualityful Brahman, or for any other reason [3], has evidently not to go anywhere else for attaining the Brahman, in as- much as he is perpetually Brahman-natured, It is for this', reason that Yajnavalkya has told Janaka in the Brhadaranyaka [4] that the vital airs (prana) of the man who has become totally desireless, as a result of the pure Realisation of the Brahman, do not go anywhere else — "na tasya prana utkramanti brahmaiva san brahmapyeti"; — and that such a person is always full of the Brahman and merged in the Brahman; and there are statements both in the Brhadaranyaka and the Katha Upanisads that such a person "ATRA brahma samasnute" [5], i. e., . "Realises the Brahman HERE"; and on the authority of these Srutis. it is stated in the Sivagita, that it is not necessary to leave one's place in order to obtain Release.
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