Some
have thought that BUDDHI in the last verse refers to knowledge as contrasted
with work, apparently on the ground that it is only for the Jnanin that leaving
both the good and the bad is possible. But the
In
any case it must be more than clear that “equanimity” is the only Yoga thought
of in the Gita. We have shown in the preceding pages how all the four Yoga lead
to this ideal Yoga and how as such they are not really so many distinct path,
but are really inter-related. This explains why the Gita begins with Jnana and
introduces Karma Yoga and finally concludes with Dhyana Yoga in one place,
while it begins with Karma Yoga and treating of the other two Yogas concludes
with the Jnana Yoga in another place. We may select here a passage in the last
chapter of the Gita, where this inter-relation is more clearly suggested than
elsewhere in the work.
It is this peculiarity of the Gita
that has baffled many a commentator, who started with a preconceived theory
that the Gita wanted to establish a particular Yoga as supreme. As it is not
the purpose of the present attempt to critically examine any of these theories,
we may simply repeat here again the observation made in the introductory
remarks that none of these exclusive theories can find any support in the Gita.
According to the Gita, we may repeat, the ideal Yoga is equanimity and whatever
leads up to that Yoga is itself a Yoga.
It is now time to formulate an
answer to the main question with which we started the present discussion. “What
is the value of the Gita as a guide to practical life?” If by practically we
mean a teaching to be reconciled to our present life which merely sanctions the
way in which we live in the world, however gross may be its defects, then the
Gita, to be plain, is absolutely of no value as a guide. For, the teachings are
antagonistic to most of our conceptions of life. People of the ordinary frame
of mind are, it is to be feared, mostly opposed in their trend of thought to
the doctrines of the Gita. They believe in competition, in the theory that
might is right, that the pleasurable is necessarily the eternal destiny of
mankind and that one’s interest is identical with one’s duty. If this be the
practical life, it may be confessed at once, the Gita is at best indifferent to
it, but is certainly no guide to those that wish to lead such a life. But there
is another kind of practical life. Instead of trying to reconcile the ideal
with our present life, we might try to gradually improve ourselves till we
approach the ideal. This ideal, however high it may be, must not be an
impossible one. In this sense the ideal of the Gita is quite practical. Brahma-
Vidya is its ideal, the realisation that Brahman or the Absolute is the self of
us all. As observed elsewhere in the course of our discussion, everyone is
consciously or unconsciously striving to attain the Highest Truth or Brahman.
Owing to our not having an exact conception of what this ideal is are caused
the different courses of action we take towards the realisation of it. Every
man is therefore really following the path of Brahman, whatever course of
conduct he may have chosen for himself and he is in the long run destined to
take up deliberately the path of Brahman (IV- 11). Hence the realisation of
Brahman becomes the ultimate goal of every one of us. Yoga or perfect
equanimity is the one condition of actualising it. It goes without saying,
therefore, that the teachings of the Gita offer the surest foundation for
morality. While moral principles are only recommended in other sacred books
without offering any philosophical basis for the same, the Gita is not only
pre-eminently ethical in its nature, but supports it on the surest foundation
of Brahma Vidya. We have had already occasion to note this in connection with
Jnana Yoga . And it is this feature of the Vedatnta that has been specially
appreciated by foreign admirers like Dr. Paul Deussen. This scholar says “
People have often reproached the Vedanta with being defective in moral and
indeed the Indian genius is too contemplative to speak much of works, but the
fact is, nevertheless, that the highest and purest morality is the immediate
consequence of the Vedanta. The Gospel fix quite correctly as the highest law
of morality : Love your neighbour as yourselves.” But why should I do so, since
by the order of nature I feel pain and pleasure only in myself, not in my
neighbour. The answer is not in the Bible (this venerable book being not yet
quite free of Semitic realism) but it is in the Vedas, is in the great formula
“तत्वमसि (Tat twam asi),” which gives in three words metaphysics and moral
together.
If we remember the circumstances
that led to the teaching of the Gita, how Arjuna, a fighting king, was taught
things by Sri Krishna also a Kshatriya, in a battlefield, and how Arjuna is
exhorted at every stage not to neglect his duty and how at the same time the
highest philosophical truths are taught him as the one penance for all evils of
this world, we can measure he extent of practicality of the philosophy and
religion of the Gita. According to the Gita there are not two worlds- one of
practical life and another of religious life, but there is one undivided life,
and the truths of philosophy and religion are to be felt and realized here or
nowhere. Accordingly it says
Practice
of these constitutes Tapas. He must be devoted to God and willing to obey the
injunctions. In a word, no special qualification is demanded except a sincere
wish to improve oneself. Provided with this qualification one may practice the
discipline from where he is placed by nature.
Thus the Gita is one of the highest
practical value to those who wish to get over difficulties in this life-
difficulties which are the results of wickedness and evil,- and to those who
wish to improve themselves as well as their environment. We might with perhaps
even more propriety quote the very expressions which have been applied to
European mysticism and say “its teachings hold just as good in the family, in
the market, in the Senate, in the study, aye in the battlefield itself, and
teach (man) the way to lead in whatever station of life he may be placed a
truly man like because a truly God –like life.”
