12. The Gita

The Gita as it is popularly known represents a distinct current of thought in the Indian tradition. Its distinctness consists in its propounding a new ethics, not a new metaphysics. It accepts as final the Upanishadic metaphysics of brahman.

A new ethical order

In Upanisadic age the individual good defined in terms of the realization of one’s true self. All the four stages of life were in one way or other concerned with preparing oneself for this good. The first two stages- brahmacharya and grihastha-were conceived as preparatory to the other stages of vanaprastha and samnyasa. Even these two later stages were regarded as directly conducive to the highest good-namely self-realization.

The Gita does not accept this scheme. The fact is that nowhere in the entire Gita do we encounter even a remote reference to it. Instead it propounds another scheme the details of which are given below.

The fundamental characteristic of the new ethical order is that it is based on the concept of the social, and not of the individual, good. The highest goal, no doubt, selfrealization, as in the Upanisads, but it is regarded as possible of attainment through the performance of one’s duty as conducive to the establishing of a sound ethical order. And this means, in other words, total rejection of the Upanisadic order based on the notion of the individual good. And with this goes the older notion of society.

The Gita provides a fine specimen of the synthesis of both Vedic and Upanisadic paths. It accepts the Vedic view that karma is to be performed, but rejects the other part thereof, namely, that it should be undertaken for the sake of its results.

On the other hand, the Gita retains the Upanisadic view that renunciation must be a necessary constituent of every man’s active life. But it teaches that this could best be practiced when one performs one’s action without the desire for the fruit thereof. It is, then, not renunciation of karma, but renunciation in karma that brings out the true ethical ideal worthy of realization by every man. What is, therefore, to be renounced is not karma but its fruit. What causes bondage is not mere action but the desire for its fruit. A life of activity is fully compatible with man’s desire for salvation. Quietism or inertia is, therefore, condemned by the Gita in no unequivocal terms. Thus looked at, karma-yoga provides a synthesis, with its own meaning and implication. And it is this that consist the uniqueness of the Gita as an ethical treatise.

The difference between Gita and other schools of Indian philosophy seems to be that-

While all the schools of Indian philosophy concerned with morality concept except Carvaka all most all the schools deals with the concept of ethical virtues like ahimsa, asteya, brahmacarya, then some physical and mental exercise. The Gita also give stress on all these but Gita is more concerned with giving a standard for judging what action is to be performed then telling which action is to be performed. The Gita asks the individual to find out what his duty is and perform action accordingly. The Gita is much more concerned with the duties related to one’s aptitude.

The Gita is basically an ethical treatise, a gospel of duty. According to the Gita one’s natural desire, instincts, drivers etc should not be crushed but are rather required to be brought under the control of the mind.

While all the schools of Indian philosophy concerned with morality, but great importance has been attached to social consolidation in the Gita. Man should pursue his duties of his own volition. To be deviated from duty or to do it under obligation is immoral.

The Gita’s ethics synthesized both social and individual interests.

Niskama Karmayoga is the Supreme means not only from spiritual view point but also from practical and worldly viewpoints.

The ethics of the Gita finds a midway between the two extreme of enjoyment and renunciation.

Indian ethics has always seen the practical necessity of graded ideals for the developing moral and spiritual life of man. This, says Krishna in effect, is my answer to you if you insist on joy and sorrow and the result of your actions as your motive of action. I have shown you in what direction the higher knowledge of self and the world points you; I have now shown you in what direction your social duty and the ethical standard of your order point you, swadharmam api chavekshya. Whichever you consider, the result is the same. But if you are not satisfied with your social duty and the virtue of your order, if you think that leads you to sorrow and sin, then I bid you rise to higher and not sink to a lower ideal (ii,31).

The Gita has this uniqueness that, unlike other great religious books of the world, it does not stand apart as a work by itself. It is given as a episode in an epic history of India and of a great war fought in it. This episode focuses on a critical moment in the soul of one of the leading personages of this epic history, Mahabharata. It is also a moment of the crowning action of his life, where he faces a work which is terrible, violent and sanguinary. And he is confronted with a critical choice when he must either recoil from it altogether or carry it through to its inexorable execution. The criticality of the situation forces this great leader, Arjuna, to raise some of the deepest questions that compel an answer at the deepest level. The answer that we find in the Gita is, therefore, important not merely in the light of general philosophy or ethical doctrine, but it has also a bearing upon a practical crisis and the application of the highest knowledge to human life.

An impartial study of the Gita will show that it contains many sided thought, manifests a synthetic grasp of different aspects of the ethical and spiritual life, and that it takes one to some of the highest.

The setting in which the teaching of the Gita emerges is typical. The setting is that the Kurukshetra, the field of battle, which is also the battle of life, the battle that we face in our life, visibly or invisibly, in our own times.

It insists on the performance of social duty, the following of the dharma for the man who has to take his share in the common action; it accepts ahimsa as a part of the highest spiritual-ethical ideal; it recognizes also the ascetic renunciation as an effective way, if not as a solution of the problem, yet as a way of coming out of the problem. But the Gita goes boldly beyond these conflicting positions. It asserts the compatibility of a complete human action and a complete spiritual life lived in reunion with the highest states of knowledge and consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo sums up the entire core of the teaching in the following words:

“The first step is karmayoga, the selfless sacrifice of works, and here the Gitas insistence is on action. The second is jnanayoga, the self–realization and knowledge of the true nature of the self and the world, and here the insistence is on knowledge; but the sacrifice of works continues and the path of works becomes one with but does not disappear into the path of knowledge. The last step is bhaktiyoga, adoration and seeking of the supreme Self as the Divine Being, and here the insistence is on devotion; but the knowledge is not subordinated, only raised, vitalized and fulfilled and still the sacrifice of works continues; the double path becomes the triune way of knowledge, work and devotion. And the fruit of the sacrifice, the one fruit still placed before the seeker, is attained, union with the divine Being and oneness with the supreme divine Nature.”^[1]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sri Aurobindo: Collected Works, Vol.13, Centenary Edition, p.35