Gita Rahasya -Tilak 353

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER XI RENUNCITATION AND KARMA-YOGA that is, "all these activities are going on for the benefit of the gods, of the ancestors, of all created beings (bhuta), and of my guests, and not for myself". It need not be said that if noble souls like Janaka and Sri Krsna do not come forward for the benefit of the world, when no duty of any kind is left for their . own benefit, or when they have no desire to obtain any particular thing for themselves, this world will become desolate — "utsideyur ime lokah" . Some people say that there is not much of a difference between the doctrine of the Gita that the desire for the fruit must be given up, and that if it is not necessary to give up desires of all kinds, and the doctrine of the Destruction of Desire; because, as there is no stimulus left towards Action, whether it is Desire which is destroyed, or the hope for the fruit which is destroyed, the ultimate result of Karma being given up, follows in either case. But, this objection is based on ignorance, that is to say, it is raised because the true meaning of the words 'hope for fruit' (phalasa) has not been understood. Giving up the hope for fruit, does not mean giving up all kinds of Desire, or entertaining the desire that nobody should get the fruit of one's Action, or that if somebody gets it, he should not enjoy it. As has been stated by me above in the fifth chapter, the words 'phalasa’ 'sanga' or 'harm' have been used in the Gita to indicate the ATTACHMENT (asakti) or INSISTENCE (agraha) that, ' I am doing this parti- cular Action in order that the fruit of it must accrue to ME '. But, though one does not entertain the AMBITION, or the INSISTENCE, or the vain Attachment, that the fruit should be obtained, it does not follow that the desire, and also the enthusiasm, to do a particular thing which has fallen on one's shoulders, as a duty, should also disappear with this insistence. It is true that those persons, who do not see anything in this world except their own benefit, and who are continually steeped in performing Actions merely by the ambition of reaping some fruit or other, will not believe that it is possible to perform Actions, giving up the hope for fruit. But, the same is not the case with those persons, whose mind has- become equable, and is in a state of Renunciation as a result of Knowledge. In the first place, the belief that the fruit which one obtains for a particular Action, is the fruit of that Action, is itself wrong. If there is not the assistance of the liquidity of water, or of the heat of fire, it will not he possible for man to cook anything, in spite of all his efforts; and the possessing or not possessing of these qualities by fire etc. is not something, which is within the control of man, or subject to his efforts.