Gita Rahasya -Tilak 483

Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak

CHAPTER XIII THE PATH OF DEVOTION He does not care for symbols, or for the black or white colour of the skin, nor does He care for the difference between men and women, or castes like the Brahmins or the Candalas (tribes born of the mixture of Brahmins and Sudras). The saint Tukarama says that: — Brahmins, Ksatriyas. Vaisyas, and Sudras I and the Candalas, all have the right I As also children, women, men, I and oven prostitutes II Tuka says that he has I found by experience I That even others, who are devout I experience happiness by their good fortune II Nay ; it is a doctrine of the Gita, that " however sinful a man may be, if he surrenders himself to the Blessed Lord, wholly and solely, even at the moment of his death, the Paramesvara does not cast him off" . Seeing the word ' prostitutes ' in the above stanza, some learned persons, who parade their purity, might feel offended ; but it must be said that such persons do not understand the true principle of Religion. This doctrine has been adopted not only in the Hindu religion, but also in the Buddhist religion ; and there are stories in Buddhistic religious treatises, that Buddha initiated a prostitute by name Amrapali, as also a thief by name Angulimala ; and there is a statement even in the Christian scriptures that because one of the two thieves, who were crucified at the same time as the Lord Christ, surrendered himself to the Lord at the moment of his death, he was saved by the Christ on that account  ; and the Lord Christ has Himself said in one place that even prostitutes, who put faith in His religion would obtain, salvation . And I have shown above in the tenth chapter that the same conclusion is arrived at even from the point of view of the Philosophy of the Absolute Self (adhyatma). But, although this religious doctrine is logically unquestionable, yet, a man, the whole of whose life has been spent in doing evil actions, will, in all probability, not get the inspiration of surrendering himself wholly and solely to the Blessed Lord at the moment of his death ; and then nothing more results beyond mechanically opening the mouth in the throes of death to utter the letter ' Ra ', and then closing it for ever by uttering the next letter ' ma '. Therefore, the definite assurance of the Blessed Lord to everybody is that, if a man throughout his life, and not only at the moment of death, keeps the thought of the Blessed Lord continually in his mind, and performs all Actions pertaining to his status in life, solely with the idea of dedicating them to Him, then, whatever may be the caste to which he belongs, he is as good as Released, notwith standing that he has been performing Actions .