Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)
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while the works of Nature continue to our vision to operate through all these “becomings” or pv istpnres who are now seen by us as living and acting and moving, under her impulsion entirely, in this one infinite Being ;_ our own finite-jexistence is seen and felt to be only, one of these andjts workings are seen and felt to be those _of_Naturex. not "bf our real self which is the silent, impersonal unity. The ego claimed them as its own doings and therefore we thought them ours ; but the ego is now dead and henceforth they are no longer ours, but Nat ure’s. We have a chiev ed by th e slayii^ of ego imperso nality in our being and consci ous ness ; we have achieved the renunciation of_ desire impersonaHty in Ae WQrl^ ^.out nature,. We arc See notJinly ioJnaC-tion,.but in action ; our liberty does not depend on a physical and temperamental immobility and vacancy, nor do we fall from freedom directly we act. Even in a full current of natural action the impersonal soul in us remains calm, still and free.
The libe ration, given by this perfect im- personality is real, is complete, is indispensable ; but is it the last word, the end of the whole matter? All life, all world-existence^ we have said, is the sacrifice offered by Na^ture to th e Purusha, the one and secret soul in Nature, in whom all her workings take place ; but its real se nse is obscured, in us by ego, bv desire , by our limited, active, multiple personality. We have risen out of ego and desire and limi^ personality and by impersonality, its THE LORD OF THE SACRIFICE great corrective, we have found the impersonal Godhead ; we have identified our being with the one self and soul in whom all exist. The sacrific e of works conti nues, conducted not by ourselves any longer, but by Nature, — Nature operating through the finite part of our being, mini senses, body — but in OUT infinite being. But to_wh om t hen is t his sac rifice^ offered and with what object? For the impersonal has no activity and no desires, no object to be gained, no dependence for anything on all this world of creatures ; it exists for itself, in its own self-delight, in its own immutable, eternal being. We may have to do works without desire as a means in order to reach this impersonal self-existence and self-delight, but, that movement once executed, the ol^ect of works is finished^; the sacrifi ce is no l onger needed. Works may even then conti nu e becaus e h^ture continues and _her activities ; ^t there i^ no lon ger a ny further ob je ct in these wor^. The sole reason for our continuing to act after liberation is purely negative ; it is t he compulsion of N ature on ou r £niti^ parts of mind and body. But if that be all, then, first, works may well be whittled down and reduced to a minimum, may be confined to what Nature’s compulsion absolutely will have from our bodies ; and secondly, even if there is no reduction to a minimum, — since action does not matter and inaction also is no object, — then the nature of the works also does not matter. ^^£juna, once having attained knowl edge, may con tinue to fight out the battle of Kurukshetra, foUdwihg Im
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