The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-4. Part-5.

.4.The Cosmic Manifestation : 5.


There is a transcendental type of activity which the human mind in its present state cannot understand, and that is the significance behind the great gospel of the karma yoga of the Gita. Karma yoga can be said to be a transcendental action. It is not my action or your action; it is not activity in a commercial sense. It is an activity which is commensurate with the law of the cosmos. It is, again, an activity which is based on samkhyabuddhi—we have not to forget this point. The enlightenment of the samkhya, to which we made reference earlier, is the basis of this action called ‘yoga’ in the Bhagavadgita.


The karma yoga of the Gita is therefore divine action, in one sense. It is not human action, because the human sense of values gets overcome, transcended in the visualisation of the involvement of the seer in the seen universe. Every thought becomes a kind of universal interpretation of things, and every action becomes a universal action. That action is divine action, and universal action is God acting—the two are not separate—and this action cannot produce reaction. Therefore there is no bondage in performing this kind of action.


Why does it not produce any reaction? Because the force of action is not separate from the result of the action; it is not even separate from the process of action. Brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma-karma- samadhina: The performer, the process of performance and the aim to which it is directed are basically connected by a link of—we may call it prakriti, we may call it purusha, we may call it Brahman—whatever is the name we give to it, there is a sum and substance which is at the root of all things. So karma yoga is an uplifted action of a highly transformed character based on the visualisation of God Himself, as it were, of the universal nature of the life that we live.

To be continued  ...