Essays on the Gita

98 <strong>Essays</strong> on the Gitaof Nature-force assuming the forms of our subjectivity in theevolving consciousness of animal and man, we shall see thatthe Sankhya system squares well enough with all that modernenquiry has elicited by its observation of material Nature. In theevolution of the soul back from Prakriti towards Purusha, thereverse order has to be taken to the original Nature-evolution,and that is how the Upanishads and the Gita following andalmost quoting the Upanishads state the ascending order of oursubjective powers. “Supreme, they say,” beyond their objects“are the senses, supreme over the senses the mind, supremeover the mind the intelligent will: that which is supreme overthe intelligent will, is he,” — is the conscious self, the Purusha.Therefore, says the Gita, it is this Purusha, this supreme causeof our subjective life which we have to understand and becomeaware of by the intelligence; in that we have to fix our will. Soholding our lower subjective self in Nature firmly poised andstilled by means of the greater really conscient self, we can destroythe restless ever-active enemy of our peace and self-mastery,the mind’s desire.For evidently there are two possibilities of the action of theintelligent will. It may take its downward and outward orientationtowards a discursive action of the perceptions and thewill in the triple play of Prakriti, or it may take its upwardand inward orientation towards a settled peace and equalityin the calm and immutable purity of the conscious silent soulno longer subject to the distractions of Nature. In the formeralternative the subjective being is at the mercy of the objectsof sense, it lives in the outward contact of things. That life isthe life of desire. For the senses excited by their objects create arestless or often violent disturbance, a strong or even headlongoutward movement towards the seizure of these objects andtheir enjoyment, and they carry away the sense-mind, “as thewinds carry away a ship upon the sea”; the mind subjectedto the emotions, passions, longings, impulsions awakened bythis outward movement of the senses carries away similarly theintelligent will, which loses therefore its power of calm discriminationand mastery. Subjection of the soul to the confused play