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

Plirusl ^ ThSefore, sayTTlie Gita, it is this Purush a, this supreme cause of pur -subjective life which we have to understand and become aware of by the intelligence ; in that we have ^ fix pur_w^^^^^ So hol ding _ pur low®:^ subjecdve^ selL j p N ature firmly poised and stilled by means of the greater iFealiy conscient self, we can destroy the restless ever-active enemy of our peace and self-mastery, the mind’s desire.

For evidently theje-are^wo possibilides pf.jthe action of the intelligent will. It may take its_down- wiieCand outward orientation towards, a discursive action of the perceptions and the will in t l^_t^le p^,. of JPxakriti, or it may, take _its up ward and iajyard^prientation towards a_.seuled_ peace and equality in the calm and immutable purity joLtlie conscious*. jilent soul no longer subject to the distractions of Nature. In the former alternative the subjective being is at the mercy of the objects of sense, it lives in the outward contact of things. That life is the life of desire. For the senses excited by their objects create a restless or often violent disturbance, a strong or even headlong outward movement towards the seizure of these objects and their enjoyment, and they carry away the sense- mind, '‘as the winds carry away a ship upon the sea” ; the mind subjected to the emotions, passions, longings, impulsions awakened by this outward movement of the senses carries away similarly the intelligent will, which loses therefore its power of calm discrimination and mastery. Subjection of the soul to the confused play of the three gunas of Prakriti in their eternal entangled twining and wrestling, ignorance, a false, sensuous, objective life of the soul, enslavement to grief and wrath and attachment and passion, are the results of the down- ward trend of the buddhi, — the troubled life of the ordinary, unenlightened, undisciplined man. Those who like the Vedavadins make sense-enjoyment the object of action and its fulfilment the highest aim

THE YOGA OF THE INTELLIGENT WILL of the soul, are misleading guides. The inner subjective self-delight independent of objects is our true aim and the high and wide poise of our peace and liberation. Therefore, it is the upward and inward orienta- tion of the intelfigenf 15111 that we must resolutely cTioose with a settled concentration and perseverance, vyavasdya ; we must fix it firmly in the calm self- knowledge of the Purusha. The first movement must be obviously to get rid of desire which is the whole root of the evil and suffering ; and in order to get rid of desire, we must put an end to the cause of desire, the rushing out of the senses to seize and enjoy their objects. We must draw them back when they are inclined thus to rush out, draw them away from their objects, — as the tortoise draws in his limbs into the shell, so these into their source, quiescent in the mind, the mind quiescent in intelligence, the intelligence quiescent in the soul and ^its self-knowledge,^ observing the action of {^ature, but not subject, to .h, not desiring anything that the objective life can give.