Essays on the Gita

Equality 195accept equally all the touches of the world pleasurable or painfulwithout attachment or disturbance which is a necessary elementin the discipline of the Gita. Therefore, even if we begin with thetamasic recoil, — which is not at all necessary, — it can only beas a first incitement to a greater endeavour, not as a permanentpessimism. The real discipline begins with the movement to masteryover these things from which we were first inclined merelyto flee. It is here that the possibility of a kind of rajasic equalitycomes in, which is at its lowest the strong nature’s pride in selfmastery,self-control, superiority to passion and weakness; butthe Stoic ideal seizes upon this point of departure and makes itthe key to an entire liberation of the soul from subjection to allweakness of its lower nature. As the tamasic inward recoil is ageneralisation of Nature’s principle of jugupsā or self-protectionfrom suffering, so the rajasic upward movement is a generalisationof Nature’s other principle of the acceptance of struggle andeffort and the innate impulse of life towards mastery and victory;but it transfers the battle to the field where alone completevictory is possible. Instead of a struggle for scattered outwardaims and transient successes, it proposes nothing less than theconquest of Nature and the world itself by a spiritual struggleand an inner victory. The tamasic recoil turns from both thepains and pleasures of the world to flee from them; the rajasicmovement turns upon them to bear, master and rise superior tothem. The Stoic self-discipline calls desire and passion into itsembrace of the wrestler and crushes them between its arms, asdid old Dhritarashtra in the epic the iron image of Bhima. Itendures the shock of things painful and pleasurable, the causesof the physical and mental affections of the nature, and breakstheir effects to pieces; it is complete when the soul can bear alltouches without being pained or attracted, excited or troubled.It seeks to make man the conqueror and king of his nature.The Gita, making its call on the warrior nature of Arjuna,starts with this heroic movement. It calls on him to turn on thegreat enemy desire and slay it. Its first description of equality isthat of the Stoic philosopher. “He whose mind is undisturbed inthe midst of sorrows and amid pleasures is free from desire, from