The Gita according to Gandhi 134

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

DELUSION DESTROYED (Discourse 18) The Gita next describes the necessary factors in all action the body, the agent, various instruments, various processes, and the unseen element working to bring about the completed act. These factors show an interdependence of all Nature, show how "all substance lives by countless actions interknit". It is futile, therefore, for man to take the burden of agency on oneself. From another point of view, when there are these various factors at work which briefly described are nothing but gunas the unconditioned Atman cannot be the agent. The wise man who has woven this truth into his life and has thus annihilated all 'self' will not be held responsible for anything he does, yea even though he annihilated all the worlds (XVIII. 13-17). Now follows a description of the three gunas as they are reflected in all the things of life to show how they determine their character, and make it pure, alloyed, or impure as the case may be. Thus these three kinds of agent, act, perception, understanding, will, happiness, are described, in order that man may never bend his energies zestfully and without thought of success or failure (XVIII. 26) to rise from the impure to the pure, from selfishness to selflessness, from darkness to light.