Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak

LOKAMANYA BAL GANGADHAR TILAK *

DR. P. NAGARAJA RAO
Vivekananda Professor of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Ethics
University of Madras

“For Tilak political oratory is action not words, action, character, will, purpose and personality.”
–LORD MORLEY

The life of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and his contribution to Indian thought are significant in many ways. He is acclaimed, rightly, at once as the father of Indian nationalism and a great commentator of India’s spiritual magna charta, the Bhagavad Gita. He was a stout opponent of cheap social reform. He was a profound Sanskrit scholar, an ardent patriot and relentless fighter in the cause of India’s freedom.

Tilak firmly believed that our political emancipation should be given priority to all other activities. He saw that the greatest evil of his times was the British Raj, which brought about Indian slavery. The sovereign remedy for all the ills of our society, he thought, was freedom, and this he considered to be the birthright (Janma-sidha hak) of all individuals. He put Swaraj in the forefront and differed from his political compeers Ranade, Agarkar, and Gokhale who held that social, educational reform should precede political freedom. Tilak was not soft, nor afraid of any opposition, however strong. He stood like a firm rock, suffered imprisonment thrice (simple imprisonment for four months in 1882, rigorous imprisonment for twelve months in 1897 and deportation to Mandalay and a final imprisonment for six years in 1908).

He held the view that it was the genius of Hinduism to believe firmly in an ideal and seek to attain it by all available means, non-violent or violent. He did not confine politics to the educational and the learned classes. He brought it down to the masses, and awakened the popular consciousness by his country-wide propaganda and celebration of national festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi.

Tilak was by training and temperament a philosopher, a scholar and a lover of mathematics. It was the imperative call arising from the helplessness of his people suffering in slavery that dragged him into politics. Speaking about this on a public occasion, Tilak said words to the following effect: “Under Swaraj I will become a professor of Mathematics and retire from political life. I detest politics. I still wish to write a book on Differential Calculus. The country is in a very bad way and so I am compelled to take part in politics as a religious duty.” Tilak became a politician only because politics was the Dharma of his times.

Even those who differed from him can never forget his rare courage, indomitable will, ardent patriotism and deep religious fervour. His noble words uttered when he was condemned to six years imprisonment were: “There are higher powers than this tribunal that rule the destinies of beings and it may be the will of Providence that the cause I represent will prosper more by my remaining in jail than my remaining free.” These inspiring words are still ringing in our memory. When on a later occasion, Gandhiji was tried for a similar offence of sedition the presiding judge observed, addressing the accused: “You will not consider it unreasonable, I think, when I say you must be classed with Tilak.” Then Gandhiji replied: “Since you have done me the honour of recalling the trial of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, I just want to say that I consider it to be the proudest privilege and honour to be associated with his great name.”

Lokamanya Tilak’s contribution to Oriental Studies through his Arctic Home of the Vedas and other works are well known. His title to undying fame is his monumental commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. He wrote the work in jail and rightly called it the Gita Rahasya. First it appeared in Marathi. It is now available to the English-knowing world in the translation of Sukthankar.

Tilak’s interpretation of the Gita set the pace for a renascent India. After Tilak, many a modern Indian thinker and philosopher like Sri Aurobindo, Gandhiji, Radhakrishnan, Vinobaji and others have interpreted the Gita. They have all followed the broad outlines of Tilak’s interpretation of the Gita’s gospel as Karma Yoga–the philosophy of activism. Tilak was the first among the moderns to proclaim that the Gita’s central teaching is activistic and not renunciation of all acts. Before Tilak there was a commentary on the Gita by the Great Bengali writer, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee; but it is incomplete. It covers only up to the 19th
verse of the fourth chapter.

Tilak with his massive scholarship and penetrating intellect and deep insight interprets Gita boldly with the help of the six traditional tatparyalingasor determinative marks of import. He points out that the context and the conclusion, the repetition and eulogy, and above all, the novelty of the text, point to Karma Yoga as the central teaching of the Gita. He differs from Sankara’s interpretation that (Sarva Karma Sannyasa) renunciation of all actions, is the chief means for Mukti or release and that Arjuna was taught Karma Yoga because he was eligible for it. Further, Tilak argues that action is necessary and is not superfluous even to the man who has realised Brahman. Active moral life and selfless service to society by hosts of Indian saints, including Sankara, is enough argument according to Tilak, against those who hold that there is no necessity for action after attainment of Jnana (Jnana uttara kriya).

Tilak brings out fully the profound genius of the author of the Gita and his doctrine of Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is the spiritual path open to all. It is natural to men and organic to life. Life is sustained and is characterised, all through, by activity. Act we must, and there is no choice to escape it. “There is no freedom from action, there is only freedom in action.” All action, Tilak points out, is not Karma Yoga. Most of our activities are prompted by either natural instincts or impulses, or rational utilitarian consideration. We are either slaves of our passions or of our fancies. We are often swayed by the lure of false, fleeting pleasures, petty thoughts and selfish desires. The Gita wants us to rise above these considerations and act in a spirit of divine dedication. The activities of a person at the levels ofinstinct, emotion and utility are those of a bound soul and not of a free one.

Karma Yoga insists on the necessity of an active moral life, consciously lived. It implies an active element transcending the biological life. From the inorganic we move on to the organic, from the organic to the sentiment and from the sentiment to the rational. From the rational, again, we must rise to the spiritual. Gita’s Karma Yoga aims at this. Karma Yoga is not mere mechanical activity. It does not ask us to sink to the level of animals, or of stocks and stones. It does not permit us to return or to run away from the social agonies of the age to the seclusion of mountain-tops and monasteries.

The Karma Yogi’s life is not an endless series of perishing sensations directed to the satisfaction of personal desire. It is not the pursuit of a pleasant, glamorous social life, nor a game of getting the glittering prizes of public life. It is not getting and spending, nor laying waste our powers. It implies a higher level of life. The central motive that guides all the activities of the Karma Yogin is his God-centered existence which is the base line of support to maintain his divine centre of gravity. He is established in God. None of his activities are God-eclipsing. He does not live a life of blind, unregenerate impulses or emotions. His devotion and dedication to God bring about the necessary transformation in his life.

The Karma Yogi gives up his all to the Lord. He puts himself as a willing, pliable instrument in his hands. He totally negates his egoity and sense of agency. He also does nothing with a view to secure any secular fruits. His deeds are all for (Iswara Preeti) God-love. This is described as Nishkama Karma. The non-desire for the fruits of actions makes the actions devotional in their results. It helps to preserve the Karma Yogi’s peace of mind. There is always the possibility of one resorting to unscrupulous means, if one is too much obsessed by the desire for the fruits of action. The Karma Yogi is an active dedication to God. He does all actions as His work. Karma Yoga is not a gospel of despair. It is an exhortation to be active. It always implies an element of renunciation, in the interest of a higher ideal. It is neither purposeless renunciation, nor motiveless activity.

Karma Yoga does not imply the practice of a strict formal code of morals. We are asked to act according to our (svabhava) temperamental make-up. Each is to act in the way that is suited to him. All are not forced into the same procrustean bed. But we have to remember: “The essence of all things is the Spirit.” We are asked to live the full life, not by thwarting our impulses, but by training them and harnessing them to the Spirit. What ever desires the Karma Yogi may have are not opposed to social good of Dharma. The Lord has declared in the Gita, “ I am the desire that is not opposed to Dharma” –(VII-II). The Karma Yogin looks upon human life on earth as the training ground for man in the art of soul-making. He does not look upon life as a vale of tears, or as a snare to run away from. “Samsara is a succession of spiritual activities for the art of the liberation of man.” He regards the world as the Karya Kshetra.

Tilak interprets the Gita in a manner that puts Karma Yoga in its proper place. He compares the moral theory of the Gita to those of the European ethicists like Aristotle and Kant; Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; Martineau and Green; Spencer and Sidgwick. This throws into light the unique message of the Gita and discloses its non-dogmatic, rational and universal nature of the scripture. According to Tilak, Jnana, Bhakti and Dhyana all lead to Karma Yoga. Not formal work fixed by an external rule, but desireless, dedicated work controlled by the liberated intellect is the essence of the Gita teaching. Tilak was the pioneer who raised the Gita teaching. Tilak was the pioneer who restored the Gita to its true greatness and claimed for it the well-deserved status of a world scripture. Tilak by his supreme dedication and unconquerable will laid the foundation of India’s freedom. Without it Gandhiji could not have raised the edifice. He is rightly acclaimed as the Father of Indian Nationalism. In his politics he believed that one must vary his strategy in the light of the opponent’s nature, available resources and the temper of the people.

* Aug. 1 is the Lokamanya’s Punyatithi.