Essays on the Gita

XXIIINirvana and Works in the WorldTHE UNION of the soul with the Purushottama by a Yogaof the whole being is the complete teaching of the Gitaand not only the union with the immutable Self as in thenarrower doctrine which follows the exclusive way of knowledge.That is why the Gita subsequently, after it has effectedthe reconciliation of knowledge and works, is able to developthe idea of love and devotion, unified with both works andknowledge, as the highest height of the way to the supremesecret. For if the union with the immutable Self were the solesecret or the highest secret, that would not at all be possible; forthen at a given point our inner basis for love and devotion, noless than our inner foundation of works, would crumble awayand collapse. Union utter and exclusive with the immutableSelf alone means the abolition of the whole point of view ofthe mutable being, not only in its ordinary and inferior actionbut in its very roots, in all that makes its existence possible,not only in the works of its ignorance, but in the works of itsknowledge. It would mean the abolition of all that differencein conscious poise and activity between the human soul and theDivine which makes possible the play of the Kshara; for theaction of the Kshara would become then entirely a play of theignorance without any root or basis of divine reality in it. Onthe contrary, union by Yoga with the Purushottama means theknowledge and enjoyment of our oneness with him in our selfexistentbeing and of a certain differentiation in our active being.It is the persistence of the latter in a play of divine works whichare urged by the motive power of divine love and constituted by aperfected divine Nature, it is the vision of the Divine in the worldharmonised with a realisation of the Divine in the self whichmakes action and devotion possible to the liberated man, andnot only possible but inevitable in the perfect mode of his being.