The Gita’s Ethics (A Critical Study)

by Arpita Chakraborty | 2017 | 59,351 words

This essay studies the Ethical Teachings of the Gita, as presented in the Mahabharata in the form of a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. Ancient Indian ethics as evolved from the Vedas developed through the Upanisads, the Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and finally reached the Dharma-Shastras such as the Manusmriti. As the means to liberation, the e...

5. Unity of Paths

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Man is a complex of reason, will and emotion, and so seeks the true delight of his being through all these. He can reach the end by knowledge of the Supreme Reality, or by love and adoration of the Supreme Person, or by the subjection of his will to the divine purpose. There is the impulse in him forcing him to get beyond his little in these directions. It is the harmonious efficiency of the several sides of our life by which truth is attained, beauty created and conduct perfected. The Gita is emphatic that no sides of conscious life can be excluded. The several aspects reach their fulfillment in the integral divine life. God himself is sat, cit, and ananda, reality, truth, and bliss. The absolute reveals itself to those seeking for knowledge as the eternal light, clear and radiant as the sun at noon-day in which there is no darkness; to those struggling for virtue as the eternal righteousness, steadfast and impartial; and to those emotionally inclined as eternal love and, beauty of holiness. Even as God combines in Himself wisdom, goodness, and holiness, so should men aim at the integral life of spirit. The obstructions of the road are not operative when we reach the end. It is true that in the finite life of the individual there seems to be some kind of antagonism between contemplation and action. The Gita says that this is only a sign of our imperfection.

When Krishna is asked about the particular method to be adopted, he clearly says that we need not worry about this question, since the different pathways are not ultimately distinct, but lead to the same goal, and are found together in the end though they cross and recross one another on the road. Man does not function in fractions. Progress is correlated and not dissociated development. Knowledge, feeling and will are different aspects of the one movement of the soul. The Gita is not biased in favour of any one way-action, devotion, or knowledge. Its aim, like that of the whole epic literature, is to explain every one of them and to reconcile them. According to the Gita, no way by itself is possible without the others. The way of action, which has to be self-less, or non-egoistic, is not possible without knowing why we should practice self-surrender and love. Knowledge will be useless, unless our mind is attached to God; for attachment is identification expressed in the determined effort to follow the path of reality or God. Krishna says that the yogi who is always contended, who has self control, who is determined and resolute, and who has surrendered his mind and reason to God, is his true devotee. (xii, 14). But such a yogi is and can be resolute, when he knows what reality is. There is no specific mention of any one of the ways in preference to the others. The Gita tries to harmonize the different ideals of life current at the time and correct their extravagances. The Gita synthesizes them all and shows the exact place and value of each of them. Jnana, karma and bhakti or knowledge, action, devotion are the paths whereas the goal is yoga, i.e, self realization, realization of the divine or merger with the divine.

Since devotion is inherent in knowledge and action both, the Gita recognizes only two types of sraddha or faith,’

jnana-yogena sankhyanam karma-yogena yoginam

Path of knowledge for the discerning and the path of action for the vibrant and active (iii, 3).

Treading on either of these paths is a constant and relentless process.

Jnana as the method of attaining spiritual reality is distinct from jnana as the spiritual intuition, which is the ideal. Samkara correctly observes that moksa, or direct perception of God, is not an act of service or devotion, or for that matter cognition. However much it may be led up to by it. It is an experience or direct insight into truth. It is to attain truth the different paths are tried.

The Gita is not wholly consistent in its evaluation of the different routes to reality.

“Try to know me. If you cannot contemplate me, practice yoga. If you cannot equal to this, try to serve me by dedicating all your works to me. If even this is found hard, do your duty regardless of consequences, giving up all desire for fruits “(xii, 9-11).

Again:

“Better indeed is wisdom than constant practice; meditation is better than wisdom, renouncing the fruit of action is better than meditation, on renunciation follows peace” (xii, 12).

Each of the method is preferred sometimes or other (vi, 46, vii, 16, xii, 12).

In the mind of the author any method will do, and what the method is left to the individual‘s choice.

“Some by meditation, others by reflection, others by action, and others by worship ….. Pass beyond death” (xiii, 2425, xviii, 54-56).

dhyanena'tmani pasyanti kecid atmanam atmana anye
samkhyena yogena karmayogena ca'pare (xiii, 24)

“By meditation some perceive the self in the self by the self; others by the path of knowledge and still others by the path of works”.

The three fold yoga, thus, marks the three successive stages in the progressive realization of release. Karma and jnana are preliminaries to bhakti which is a direct path to release. Besides this triadic process of human sadhana, Ramanuja emphasizes vairagya and the role of grace of God. Krishna has declared that the different pathways are not ultimately distinct though they appear to be so (vii, 21). He has shown the exact place and value of each and thus he has preached the effectiveness of the combined effort.

Thus Gita teaches niskama karma from different angles. Truly speaking, niskama karma in its ideal form can be performed only by a true jnani.

To quote Tilak again,

“…..Though there may be an opposition between knowledge and desireful action, no kind of opposition can exist between knowledge and desire less action.^[1]

There is not the least difference between a true jnani and a true bhakta. This knowledge is not merely an intellectual knowledge. Thus jnana and bhakti cannot remain without one another. Karma, jnana, bhakti have difference only in the lower sense of the term. From a higher point they all are expressions of a single spiritual perfection.

Thus we have seen that the author of the Gita recognizes the claims of jnana, karma, bhakti, dhyana, making them all useful in the different stages of the spiritual development of a sadhaka. Constituted as we are, we are bound to do action, but it is necessary for us while doing action that our attitude must be one of a devotee, i.e., we must surrender all our actions to God and thus see in all activities that it is not I but the God through me who is acting. One in whom thinking predominates sees this as prakrti doing all the actions while the soul is passive observer. Thus in the highest sense work, worship and wisdom all are one.

Whatever method we may pursue, wisdom, love or service, the end reached is the same, union of soul with the highest. When the mind is purified and egoism is destroyed, the individual becomes one with the Supreme. If we start with the service of man, we end by becoming one with the Supreme, not merely in work and consciousness, but in life and being. Love culminates in the ecstasy of devotion, where soul and God become one. Whatever route we approach by, we end in seeing, experiencing and living the divine life. This is the highest form of religion or life of spirit, called jnana in the wider sense of the term.

Since the union of ksetra and ksetrajna does not take place independently, as believed by the Sankhya system, but solely through the intention and will of God in the Gita, it is appropriate that the chapter ends with the stress of the Divine grace which alone can enable the contemplative through the synthesis of jnana and bhakti to surpass the gunas and become fit for brahmanhood. Ramanuja quotes xiv, 19 which say that when the wise man sees no active agent other than the gunas and knows what is beyond the gunas he attains to God’s being. Man, he says, cannot rise beyond the gunas through mere realization of the difference between atman and prakrti. His conscience is constantly obstructed by the stream of desires flowing in his mind from beginning less time. Through bhaktiyoga are can be overcome the almost invincible gunas. As there is complete merger in Brahman through bhakti, wisdom melts away and the gunas disappear even as the fire is extinguished when the fuel is burnt out.

It is clear in Aurobindo’s interpretation that the concepts of karma, jnana, and bhakti are treated not as compartmentalized or competing elements but complementary paths. Neither karma nor jnana nor bhakti alone, as exclusivist ways, will push man to the highest state of paramesvara, nor will they make him an effective channel and instrument of the divine.

For such a pursuit, all these attributes have to be coalesced together-

‘Integral self-finding through action, integral self-becoming through knowledge and integral self-giving through love^[2].

This integrated life, not mere desirelessness, is the highest teaching of the text, a life where desire less karma unites with desire less jnana, and bhakti into one ‘integrated truth’.

‘Love completes the triple cord of the sacrifice, perfects the triune key of the highest secret uttamam rahasyam’^[3]

First, it is through knowledge that man realizes the unity of the self, paramatman, and all existence, and perceives the body as presenting the lower nature. This knowledge begins with discerning and differentiating between the lower prakrti and the self, which leads to spiritual vision. This illumination helps him to outgrow egobased actions, to grow into one’s being and see all existence without exception in the self. True knowledge will, therefore, by its very nature break obstacles to reflect itself in universal love expressed in dedicated and detached service. Knowledge does not contradict karma; both are reciprocal and inevitably interdependent. Second, that which is gained by knowledge will persist through karma in the form of submission of the entire will, thought, and action to the will of divine. This submission is not passionate but supported by knowledge and bhakti. Third, knowledge thus gained in the first movement and the submissive spirit obtained in the second step will find their fulfillment in devotion. Bhakti does not imply lip-worship or infirm praise of God; it is boundless love and faith in the divine will. Bhakti supported by knowledge and action will take the form of sacrifice. This was how Aurobindo understood the Gita’s synthesis of karma, jnana, and bhakti in the integrated life. So comes a synthesis of mind, heart and will in one self and spirit and with it the synthesis of knowledge, love and works in this integral union, this embracing God-realization, this divine yoga.^[4]

The meaning of the term bhakti, as used in the Gita, is different from its common understanding. In popular language that word means devotion with a predominantly emotional element in it. In the Gita it is primarily used in the sense of single-minded devotion by contemplation and concentration. It is the purging of the mind of all unsteady forces and fixing it steadfastly on the goal to be attained, that constitutes the essence of bhakti. If the divine element in man is to be realized, it cannot be done by mere knowledge of scriptural text books, or by doing sacrificial rites and ceremonies but by ananya i.e, single-minded introspective meditation and by selfless actions as offering to the divine will. The essence of bhakti lies in devotion to the ideal of self-realization or self-surrender by which the self is purged of its lower and animal qualities and its innate higher nature becomes strong enough to direct our mental faculties.

The jnani attains his original state as an individual self by engaging himself in various activities such as praising the glory of the Lord, chanting his names, saluting Him and so on. He always in bhakti (xiii, 24).

matkarmakrn matparamo madbhaktah sangavarjitah
nirvairah sarbhutesu yah sa mam eti pandava (xi,55)

“He who does work for Me, he who looks upon Me as his goal, he who worships Me, free from attachment, who is free from enmity to all creatures, he goes to Me, O Pandava (Arjuna)”.

Krishna is the Gita says:

“Whatever the way in which they approach Me, in the same way do I resort to them. O son of Partha (Arjuna), in all ways, men tread paths leading to Me. (iv, 11).

The essence of the quoted verse is this: There may be many paths to tread; but the destination is one only. God is the only one goal to be reached. Man is a complex of reason, will and emotion, and so seeks the true delight of his being through all these. Vinoba Bhave compares the harmonization of the three yogas to “Triveni”, that is, the confluence of three rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati.^[5]

Commenting upon the fusion of different paths in this text, Franklin Edgerton has made the following observation:

“The Gita’s religion is a compromise between the speculation of intellectuals and the emotionalism of popular religion. So the notion of bhakti, devotion, enters into its scheme of salvation by a side door, without at first displacing the old intellectual theory of salvation by knowledge. At least it is rationalized in this way. It is represented that by devoted love of God one can attain knowledge (of God), and so indirectly the salvation which comes through this knowledge”^[6]