Dialogue Between Self and Soul

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Sri Krishna:

 

18:7 Actually it is wrong to renounce any duty that is

appropriate for you to do. Such (so-called)

renunciation comes from ignorance of reality (tamas).

 

18:8 Abandoning a duty because it is (or may be)

difficult or painful is rajasic detachment and does

not bring about merit.

 

18:9 Pure (sattvic) non-attachment is carrying out

your responsibilities simply because it is right that

you do so - while at the same time renouncing

attachment to the fruits of your efforts.

 

18:10 After you renounce all personal attachments, you

will be filled with purity and clearly discern the

nature of dispassion (tyaga). Then all remaining

doubts will fall away, and you will feel neither

aversion nor attraction toward unpleasant or pleasant

work.

 

RD: I think it is difficult today to discern what my

true duty is. I think it is very easy to lose sight of

my personal duty (dharma) based on the dictates of

society. That's why I rave against the norms of my

culture, the failed myths. Maybe they are only failed

because I believed them to start with. The mind has to

be able to discriminate properly (reject the myths) in

order to discern the true path.

 

Nisargadatta: It is alway the false that makes you

suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values

and ideas, the false relatioships between people.

Abondon the false and you are free of pain.

 

RD: This is the " neti, neti " approach of Jnana Yoga

and Vedanta. " Not this, not this " . My mind becomes

clearer and stronger when I negate what I perceive to

be unreal (that is, anything that is temporary,

fleeting, impermanent). I don't want to put my faith

there. Yet my attention is focused mostly on external

things.

 

Nisargadatta: It is the mind, bewildered by wrong

ideas, addicted to thinking " I am this " , " I am that " ,

that fears loss and craves gain and suffers when

frustrated. It is only when you realize fully the

immense sorrow of your life that you revolt against it

that a way out can be found.

 

RD: Then what is the path? What is my duty?

 

Nisargadatta: Just turn away from all that occupies

the mind; do whatever work you have to complete, but

avoid new obligations; keep empty, keep available,

resist not what comes uninvited. A quiet mind is all

you need. You haven't left your house, yet you are

looking for a way home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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