Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)
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The difficulty which Arjuna feels in under- standing any possible synthesis of these oppositions is an indication of the hard line that was driven in between these two systems in the normal ideas of the time. The Teacher sets out by reconciling y^As and the Yoga of the intelligence : the latter, he says, is far superior to mere works ; it is by the Yoga of the BuddM, by knowledge raising man om_pf the ordinary human mind and its desires into the purity and equality of the Brahmic condition free from all desire that works can be made accept- able. Yet are works means of salyatipn, but works thus purified by knowledge. Filled with the notions of the then prevailing culture, misled by the emphasis which the Teacher lays upon the ideas proper to Vedantic SanTchya, conquest of the.&ens^, withdrawal from mind intp„the Self, ascent into tlie Bromic condition, extinction of . our lower jgej^p^^ity in the Nirvana of impersonality, — ^for the ideas proper to Yoga are as yet subordinated and largely held back, — Arjuna is perplexed and asks,/“If thou boldest the intelligence to be greater than works, why then dost thou appoint me to a terrible work? Thou seemest to bewilder my fiitelligence with a confused and mingled speech ; tell me then decisively that one thing by which I may attain to my souFs weal.”
In answer Krishna affirms that the Sankh ya goes by knowledg e and renunciatio n, the Yoga~^ wqrksLl but the rea l renunciatio n is i mpossible w ithout without \ Ayrks do ne as a sacrffice. done with equality and without desire of the fruit, with the perception that it is. Nature which does th e actio ns and not the^ s^l ; but immediately afterwards lie declares that the sacrifice of knowledge is the highest, alPwork finds its consum.mation in knowledge^ by the fire of knowledge all works are burnt up ; therffore by Yoga works are renounced and their bondage over- come for the man who is in possession of his Self. Again Arjuna is perplexed ; here are desireless wgrl^- the.4)rmciple of Yoga, and renunciation of works, the principle pf Sankhya, put together side beside as if part of one method, yet there is no evident reconciliation between them. For the kind of reconciliation which the Teacher has already given, — in outward inaction to see action still persisting and in apparent action to see a real inaction since the soul has renounced its illusion of the worker and given up works into the hands, of the Master of sacrifice, — is for the prsigical mind of Arjuna too slight, too subtle and expressed almost in riddling words ; he has not caught their sense or at least not penetrated into their spirit and reality. Therefore he asks again, “Thou declarest to me the renunciation of works, O Krishna, and again thou declarest to me Yoga ; which one of these is the better way, that tell me with a clear decisiveness.”
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