Gita Rahasya -Tilak 326

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER XI RENUNCITATION AND KARMA-YOGA This question of Arjuna is not something new. In the Yoga-Vasistha (5. 56. 6), Rama has asked the same question to Vasistha, and in the Ganesagita (4. 1) the king named Varenya has asked the same question to Ganesa ; and it even appears from the works of Aristotle that this question had been raised in very ancient times in Europe in Greece, -where philosophical ideas first originated. This same question hag been raised at the end of the book on Ethics written by this well-known Greek philosopher (10. 7 and 8) ; and he has, in the first instance, expressed his opinion that true happiness consists in a scient spending his life in the quiet contemplation on philosophy instead of in the ups and downs of life (samsara) or of political activity. Yet, in the book written by him subsequently on Politics (7. 2. and 3), Aristotle himself says : — some philosophers are engrossed in thoughts of philosophy and others in political activities ; and if one considers which of these two modes of life is better, one must say that both the paths are to a certain extent proper ; nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that Non-Action is better than Action, * because, 'happiness is nothing but Action; and one may safely say that the acquisition of true nobility consists to a considerable extent of Action founded on Knowledge and the principles of Ethics. From the fact that Aristotle has made two different statements in two different places, the importance of the clear statement in the Gita that "karma jyayo hy akarmanah" ACTION IS SUPERIOR TO NON-ACTION-becomes clear to the reader. Augusta Comte, a well-known French philo- sopher of the last century says in his book on Material Philosophy that :— "it is misleading to say that it is better to spend one's life in the contemplation of philosophy ; and the philosopher, who adopts such a course of life, and abandons the doing of whatever public welfare it is possible for him to do, must be said to misuse the material which is at his disposal". On the other hand, the German philosopher Schopenhauer has maintained that in as much as all the activities of the world, nay, even keeping alive itself, is painful, the true duty of every human being in this world is to learn philosophy and to destroy all this Action as early as possible.