Guest guest Posted July 11, 2002 Report Share Posted July 11, 2002 Bhagavat Gita - 2 Inevitability of action Though the answer to Arjuna's problem is given only at the end, Arjuna is prepared for it by a series of talks on the inexorable nature of work in the life of man and the utter futility of Arjuna's resolve to withdraw from a life of action. Man's body and mind are parts of Prakrti (Nature) which is dynamic in constitution. As a product of Prakrti, action is the law of life for the mind and the body, and the very process of living is impossible without it. And so, its elimination can only mean practice of idleness according to one's convenience, and he who attempts it under a false impression of his spiritual greatness, will end in rank hypocrisy and spiritual stagnation. Only one, who has overcome the body idea completely and is established in the sense that he is not the body but the immortal, ever-conscious and ever-blissful Atman, can be actionless; for, he no longer identifies himself with the body and mind, the products of Nature. Besides, from the ethical point of view, everyone with a body-consciousness has to remember that he is living in a community of similar beings governed by a cyclic law of mutual exchange of services and commodities. If he does not contribute his share to it by means of work but enjoys the benefits of others' work for the maintenence and comfort of his own body, he lives the life of an exploiter and a thief. He has no moral basis and hence no spiritual progress. Even in the case of a person who has been emancipated from identification with the body, it is better that he works. He has not the compulsion of duty as in the case of the ignorant man, but he may feel the compulsion of love, which makes one work for lokasamgraha (world-welfare). His actions are not self-centred and so have no binding effect on him. Work therefore is the law of life for the ignorant, and an expression of love for the enlightened, the work of the former being self-centred and the latter God-centred. -- --------------- Email: gokulmuthu Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/gokulmuthu/ --------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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