Essays on the Gita

190 <strong>Essays</strong> on the Gitaoneness of the Brahman and unity of things. By his equality theKarmayogin knows in the midst of his action that he is free.It is the spiritual nature of the equality enjoined, high anduniversal in its character and comprehension, which gives itsdistinctive note to the teaching of the Gita in this matter. Forotherwise the mere teaching of equality in itself as the mostdesirable status of the mind, feelings and temperament in whichwe rise superior to human weakness, is by no means peculiarto the Gita. Equality has always been held up to admirationas the philosophic ideal and the characteristic temperament ofthe sages. The Gita takes up indeed this philosophic ideal, butcarries it far beyond into a higher region where we find ourselvesbreathing a larger and purer air. The Stoic poise, the philosophicpoise of the soul are only its first and second steps of ascensionout of the whirl of the passions and the tossings of desire to aserenity and bliss, not of the Gods, but of the Divine himself inhis supreme self-mastery. The Stoic equality, making character itspivot, founds itself upon self-mastery by austere endurance; thehappier and serener philosophic equality prefers self-mastery byknowledge, by detachment, by a high intellectual indifferenceseated above the disturbances to which our nature is prone,udāsīnavad āsīnaḥ, as the Gita expresses it; there is also thereligious or Christian equality which is a perpetual kneeling ora prostrate resignation and submission to the will of God. Theseare the three steps and means towards divine peace, heroic endurance,sage indifference, pious resignation, titikṣā, udāsīnatā,namas or nati. The Gita takes them all in its large syntheticmanner and weaves them into its upward soul-movement, butit gives to each a profounder root, a larger outlook, a moreuniversal and transcendent significance. For to each it gives thevalues of the spirit, its power of spiritual being beyond the strainof character, beyond the difficult poise of the understanding,beyond the stress of the emotions.The ordinary human soul takes a pleasure in the customarydisturbances of its nature-life; it is because it has this pleasureand because, having it, it gives a sanction to the troubled playof the lower nature that the play continues perpetually; for the