Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)

rev ealed Him self even to those whom he has chosen ■^^TTE^ thelfigure of Krishna becomes, as it were the symbol of the divine dealings with humani^ Through our egoism and ignorance we are moved, thinking that ^elar^fhe doers of the work, vaunting drourselves as the real causes of the result, and t^t which moves us we see only occasionally a^s some vague or even some human and earthly fountain of knowledge, aspiration, force, some Principle or Light or Power which we acknowledge and adore wLfHoiit knowing what it is until the occasion arises that forces us to stand arrested before the Veil. And the action in which this divine figure moye^ is the whole wide action of man in life, not merely the imerjife|but all this obscure course of the world which we can judge only by the twilight of the human reason as it opens up dimly beforejour uncertain advance the little span in front. iThis is the distinguisWng feature^ of the Gita that k is the cuMmaE^ of such an action which gives yise to_ite teazling and assigns that prominence and bold relief to the gospel of works which it enunciates with an emphasis and force we do not find in other Indian Scriptures. Not only in the Gita, but in other passages of the Mahabharata we meet with Krishna declaring emphatically the n^e^ty of aSiafiu bur it Is here that he reveals its secret and the divinity behind our worJ^j^

The syinKBc companionship of Atjun a and Krishna, the human and theldmnelouiris expressed elsewhere in Indian thought! in_the heavenward THE DIVINE TEACHER jourai^ of Indra and Kut^ seaited in gne_.clmriot, in the figure of the two birds upon one tree in the Upanisha^, in the twin fibres of Nara and Narayana, the seers who do tapasyd together for the knowledge. But in^_all threejt is the idea of the divine knowledge _m which, as the GiS says, all action culminates that is in view ; here it is instead tne acHon^ivliich leads to that knowledge and in which the divine Knower figures himself. Arjuna and Krishna, this human and this divine, stand together not as s^rs in the peaceful hermitage of meditationi^^'ilt arfighter andJipMeTbr the feiiis in tEe^ clamorous Hind,” in the midst of the hurtling shafts, in the chariot of battle. \The '^acherjQf the Gita ^therefore no^gnly^ the Ggd^iij j^ii who un- veils himself in the word of knowledge, ^t the God in man who moves our whole world of actionr"l^ and for whomjall our h umanity exists and stru^les and labours, towards whom alLhuii^ life travels and progresses. " He is the secret Mast c£jiLwQrks and sacrifice andlhe Friend of the human peonies. m THE

HUMAN DISCIPLE Such then divine Teacher of the Gita, the eternal Avatar, the Divine who has descended into the human consciousness, the Lord seated within the heart of all beings,\He who guides from behind the veil all our thought and action and heart’s seeking even as He directs from behind the veil of visible and sensible forms and forces and tendencies the great universal action of the world which He has mani- fested in His ow n being/ ; /All the strife of our up- ward endeavour and seeking finds its culmination and ceases in a satisfied fulfilment when we can rend the veil a nd get behind our apparent self to this real Self, realis^pur whole being in this true Lord of our being,'”can give up our per^imlity to and into this one real Person; merge our ever-dispersed and ever-converging mental activities into His plenary light, <^e^up our errant and struggling will and energies into His v^t, luminous and undivided Will, lit oncelinpunce and satisfy all our dissipated oiitward-moving desires and emotions in the pleni- tude of His self-existent Bliss. fThis is the world- Teacher of whose eternal knowledge all Mother highest teaching is but the various reflection and THE HUMAN DISCIPLE partial word, this the Voice to which the hearing of our soul has to awaken.\