Page:Essays On The Gita - Ghose - 1922.djvu/159

Rh upward growth of the soul; he is not on the path which leads to the highest good. DBut the highest only comes when the sacrifice is no longer to the gods, but to tha one all-pervading Divine established in the sacrifice, of whom' the gods are inferior forms and powers, and when he puts away the lower self that desires and enjoys and gives up his personal sense of being the worker to the true executrix of all works, Prakriti, and his personal sense of being the enjoyer to the Divine Purusha, the .higher and universal Self who is the real enjoyer of the works of Prakriti. In that Self and not in any personal enjoyment he finds now his sole satis- faction, complete content, pure delight ; he has nothing to gain by action or inaction, depends ncither on gods nor men for anything, seeks no profit from any, for the self-delight is all-sufficient to him, but does works. for the sake of the Divine only, as a pure sacrifice, without attachment or desire. Thus he gains equality and be- comes free from the modes of Nature, nistraigunya ; his soul takes its poise not in the insecurity of Prakriti, but in the peace of the immutable Brahman, even while his actions continue in the movement of Prakriti. Thus is sacrifice his way of attaining to the Highest.

That this is the sense of the passage is made clear in what follows, by the affirmation of lokasangraha as the object of works, of Prakriti as the sole doer of works and the divine Purusha as their equal upholder, to whom works have to be given up even in their doing, —this inner giving up of works and yet physical doing of them is the culmination of sacrifice,-—and by the affirmation that the result of such active sacrifice with an equal and desireless mind is liberation from the bond.