Page:Essays On The Gita - Ghose - 1922.djvu/237

Rh still under the delusion that it and not Nature is the doer of works ; it has mistaken inertia for liberation; it does not see that even in what seems absolute inertia greater than that of the stone or clod, Nature is at work, keeps unimpaired her hold. On the contrary in the full flood of action the soul is free from its works, is not the doer, not bound by what is done, and he who lives in the freedom of the soul, not in the bondage of the modes of Nature, alone has release from works. This is what the Gita clearly means when it says that he who in action can see inaction and can see dCthll still continuing in cessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment among men. This saying hinges upon the Sankhya distinction between Purusha and Prakriti, between the free inactive soul, eternally’ calm pure and unmoved in the midst of works, and ever active Nature operativé as much in inertia and cessa- tion as in the overt turmoil of her visible hurry of labour. This is the knowledge which the highest effort of the discriminating reason, the buddhi, gives to us, and therefore whoever possesses it is the truly rational and discerning man, sa buddhimdin manushyeshu,—not the perplexed thinker who judges life and works by the ex- ternal, uncertain and impermanent distinctions of the lower reason. Therefore the liberated man is not afraid of action, he is a large and universal doer of all works, - kv'itsna-karma-ky'it ; not as others do them in subjection to Nature, but pmsed in the silent calm of the soul, tranquilly in Yoga with theDivine. The Divine is the lord of his works, he is only their channel through the instru- mentality of his nature conscious of and subject to her Lord. By the flaming intensity and purity of this knowledge all his works are burned up as in a fite and