Talks on the Gita -Vinoba 219

Chapter 18 CONCLUSION: RENUNCIATION OF THE FRUIT OF ACTIONS LEADS TO THE GRACE OF THE LORD 103. The Right Way To Extricate Oneself From Activity 7. The question then arises, ‘if all the activities are flawed, then why should not all of them be renounced?’ This question has already been answered. Renunciation of all the actions is indeed a very attractive and fascinating idea; but how to renounce innumerable actions? Is the way of giving up rajasik and tamasik actions applicable to sattvik actions too? How to avoid sattvik actions that are flawed or impure? The curious result of saying ‘इंद्राय तक्षकाय स्वाहा' (‘Let Indra along with Takshak be offered as sacrifice in the yajna’) is that Indra, being immortal, does not die, and Takshak too escapes death and becomes stronger. Sattvik actions have a good deal of merit and a little flaw in them. When you try to sacrifice them because of that flaw, the merit in them does not die because of its inherent strength, but the flaws survive and grow behind the shield of the merit. The flaws which otherwise could have been removed, get strengthened because of such indiscreet sacrifice. If we drive away the cat because it commits the violence of killing the rats, we shall have to suffer the violence committed by the rats. If snakes are done away with because they commit violence, a lot of pests will multiply and destroy the crops, resulting in the death of thousands of people. Renunciation must, therefore, be accompanied with wise discrimination. 8. There is a story that Machchhindranath asked Gorakhnath, his disciple, to give a boy a good wash. Gorakhnath literally washed the boy like a piece of cloth by thrashing him on a washing stone, squeezed him and put him on the clothes-line for drying! Is it the way to give a boy a wash? Clothes and boys are not washed in the same way. Similarly, there is a lot of difference between renouncing sattvik actions and renouncing rajasik and tamasik actions. Sattvik actions are to be renounced in an altogether different way. Actions bereft of wise discrimination can result in something adverse and unexpected. Has not Tukaram said, ‘त्यागें भोग माइया येतील अंतरा। गम मी दातारा काय करूं।।’ (‘If I outwardly renounce the desires and passions, they will enter my heart. O Lord! What am I to do then?’) Even if one tries to make a little sacrifice outwardly, the subtle urge for indulgence remains in the mind and grows there in strength, rendering that sacrifice meaningless. If a little bit of renunciation is going to lead us to build palatial houses, it makes no sense; it would have been better to live in a hut. It is better to continue to be dressed in the coat and the turban than to wear a loin-cloth and amass wealth and wallow in worldly pleasures. That is why the Lord has prescribed an altogether different way for renunciation of sattvik actions: they are to be done, but their fruits should be severed from them. While some actions themselves are to be renounced, fruits of some other are to be severed from them. A stain on the body can be washed off; but if the natural colour of the skin is dark, what is the point in white-washing it? It is better if no attention is paid to it.