Advaita and Gita Discipline according to Rajaji

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The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has published many books on Hindu Religion and

Culture. The book on "Bhagavad Gita" by Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) summarizes

Gita in 120 pages. Rajaji was a great patriot and a close associate of Mahatma

Gandhi. He had served India in various capacities, the first Indian

Governor-General of India, the Chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Governor of West

Bengal and the Home Minister of India. Both Rajaji and Mahatma Gandhi lived

according to the doctrine of Gita. In Chapter 13 of his book, Rajaji

describes Advaita and Gita-Discipline and I have reproduced the chapter below:

 

"A Question may be raised at this stage by those who have only heard of or

have a superficial acquaintance with the doctrine of Advaita. If the Soul's

separate existence is the result of illusion and God alone exists, why should

there be this toilsome effort at so-called liberation? Why should we not rest

content with knowing the truth that God alone exists? This might well be so,

were the illusion a mere optical illusion. The Maya has wrought its effect not

only on the eyes but on every one of our senses and on our minds and has

produced attachments, passions and turmoil of the soul. Rubbing the yes alone

will not do. We must wake up every atom of our being to the reality because

the illusion goes to the depth of our very being. Again, it is not enough to

know that we should wake up. It is necessary actually to wake up. This real

and thorough awakening of our being is called liberation, and the process is

just the same whether it proceeds on this basis of waking up from an illusion,

or is deemed a process of self-purification and liberation of the soul as a

real and separate entity.

 

Sense-enjoyments and attachment thereto confirm and add to the illusion. It is

necessary to get rid of them in order to dispel the Maya. The knowledge gained

from the teacher, that God and Soul are one, but ignorance born of Maya, may

be an aid in the process of liberation or waking up, but that by itself is not

enough. The need for personal effort to free oneself from passions and

attachments diminishes as one approaches the goal of true enlightenment, and

diminishes in the measure of our progress toward it.

 

Whether the individual soul be treated as a result of Maya, liberation

consisting, then, in the removal of the illusion that brought about the idea

of individual existence, or whether it be considered that the individual soul

is really a separate entity beginning-less, free and clothed in matter, which

must work out its salvation by fitting itself for being received by God - in

either case, the process to be gone through is identical. If the Soul's

separate existence is an illusion, attachment to the objects of

sense-enjoyment, and lust, greed and anger add to the illusion and must be

avoided. With real disillusionment, sins, and attachments must automatically

cease. Conversely, a pure life and unselfish performance of duties and

serenity of mind lead to realization of the truth behind the veil. Whether

attachments have not ceased, we may take it that the knowledge is unreal, and

that only lip service is being rendered to theory, and the illusion within is

increasing, not diminishing. True Jnana can come, and great illusion be

dissolved only by the same process as has been prescribed for liberation from

Karma on the basis of the soul being a separate spiritual entity according to

the Dvaita Philosophy. Thus it is that the Gita is book of Life for all,

irrespective of differing creeds as to the ultimate nature of the individual

Soul."

 

In Conclusion, I want to repeat the following quotation that struck me: "It is

not enough to know that we should wake up. It is necessary that we should wake

up." Let us Wake Up!