Gita Rahasya -Tilak 117

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER V THE CONSIDERATION OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS (SUKHA-DUHKHA-VIVEKA) All of these desires, motives, or arrangements do not ultimately produce pain ; nor does the Gita ask you to give them up. But if one goes much further than that, and allows his mind to be afflicted by the. ATTACHMENT (asakti), ambition, pride, self-identification, or insistence of MINE-NESS (mamatva ), which exists in the.- mind of the doer with reference to the result of the Action in the shape of the feeling that : "whatever action is performed by ME is performed by ME with the intention that ' I ' should: necessarily get a particular benefit from a particular act of MINE "; and if thereafter there is any obstruction in the- matter of getting the desired result or benefit, the chain of misery starts. If this obstruction is inevitable and is an act of Pate, man only suffers from despair ; but, if it is the handi- work of another person, it gives rise later on to anger or even- hate, and this hate leads to evil action, and evil action leads to- self-destruction. This attachment, in the shape of MINE- NESS, for the result of the Action, is also known as 'phatasa " ( hope of benefit ), ' samga ' ( fondness ), ' ahamkara-buddhi' ( egoism ), and ' kama ' ( desire ) ; and in order to show that the- chain of unhappiness in life really starts at this point, it is: stated in the second chapter of the Gita, that Desire springs, from Attachment for objects of pleasure, Anger ( krodha ) from. Desire, Mental Confusion (moha) from Anger, and ultimately,, the man himself is destroyed . When I have thus established that Actions in the gross material world, which are lifeless in themselves, are not themselves the root of unhappiness, but that the true root of unhappiness is the Hope for result, Desire, or Attachment with which man performs those Actions,, it naturally follows that in order to prevent this unhappiness, it is quite enough if a person, by controlling his mind, gives up. the Attachment, Desire or Hope of result entertained by him towards the objects of pleasure ; and it follows logically that it is not necessary to give up all objects of pleasure, or Actions, or Desires as prescribed by the Samnyasa school. Therefore, it is next stated in the Gita, that that man who- partakes of the objects of pleasure he comes across in the world,, with a desireless and unattached frame of mind, without entertaining any hope of result, is the true ' sthitaprajna ',( steady-in-mind ).