Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
VEDANTA IN ACTION.
This is the title of a publication from CM which,
whilst it of course has items by Gurudev, also includes selections of writing
from other well-esteemed Gurus from the Vedantic tradition as well as leading
businessmen. Its focus is the working life. We shall be exploring these essays
for the next few weeks on Workings-day as, clearly, they pertain directly to
the premise of this section of AVBlog! As ever, you are encouraged to read back over previous
posts, to ensure full benefit.
3: Actionless Action.
Liberated While Working (Q&A with Sri Anandamayi
Ma) cont'd
"Work only begets more work;
how can one be liberated by working?"
Do
you not know this? If you can become so completely concentrated in any one
[positive] direction that you cannot help acting along that line, wrong action
becomes impossible. In consequence, action is losing its hold on you and is
bound to come to an end. How many states and stages there are. This is one of
them.
It
is only on the level of the individual that pleasure and pain exist. During
spells of severe pain, when one tosses about in burning agony, is there any
room left for concern about others? Is not the whole attention on self-pity? At
that moment of delusion, body identification reigns supreme. One exists oneself
and from here we can see how there is basis for the coming and going of the
individual in its cycle of life and death. The one who loves God is out to
destroy this identification with the body. When this has come about, delusion
is destroyed and the True Self becomes apparent. Your dwelling place at present
is where the Self manifests as not-self - with that destroyed, it is only
destruction which is destroyed. Furthermore, what is known as worldly craving
may also be characterised as the activity that takes place because the action
of Self-Revelation is absent. HE is not there, this is the crux of the matter.
You
speak of world. Jagat means that action will occur and it will bind the jiiva.
Where no question of birth and rebirth exists, no question of being bound, this
is called 'eternal'. Now, grasp this thoroughly; how can that which is
perpetual motion be bound? Does it remain in one place? Just as it does not
remain confined to any place, so it cannot be found when the mind is dissolved.
Therefore, since it never stays bound in any particular spot, can one not call
it free? What goes and what comes? Behold, it is movement as that of the ocean,
He expressing Himself. The waves are but the rising and falling of the water,
and it is the water which forms the waves, limbs of His own body - water in
essence. What is that makes the same
substance appear in different forms, as in water, ice, waves, steam? This again
is asked from a particularly plane of consciousness. Reflect and see how much
of it you grasp! No simile is ever perfect.
Who
comes? Who goes? Change, transformation - what are they? Grasp the root of all
this! Everything passes away; that is to say, death passes away - death dies.
Who goes and whither? This ceaseless coming and going, what is its essence?
Again, if there is no question of any action, no question of coming and going,
where does birth come in...where death? Ponder over this.
The
Universe is nothing but the One Self. As such, every form is He in His very own
form; that is the Self, the Eternal, revealed as form. This implies non-action.
Currently your view is "action dedicated to God alone is true action, all
the rest is useless and no action at all". In the Eternal itself though,
no concept of this kind of action exists. He Himself is action; He Himself is
form; He Himself can be with qualities (saguna) and without qualities
(nirguna). Where Iishvara or anything pertaining to Him is manifested, He
Himself appears in action, although ever remaining the non-doer. He is the
essence of everything, the Absolute Truth. He Himself is action, He the Eternal
cannot be destroyed. He alone is and
nothing but He. The one who is pure Consciousness and pure Intelligence has
many shapes and forms - yet Himself remains formless. All action undertaken in
the worldly state is Him only. Since you are limited by your diverse angles of
vision, you speak of the non-eternal and hold to the idea that the result of
action cannot endure.
Action
in which there is no possibility of bondage is indeed 'being'. Jagat is a place
of constant dying; perpetual change. On the plane of the individual and
therefore of bondage, all change pertains exclusively to movement of this kind. In order to remove this delusion, the
dedicated individual puts all effort into focused action. In order to divert
the course of his life into this direction, the average person must devote
himself to actions focused on That alone.
Think
carefully on this; you are already eternally free. Do you not know that the
rope with which you tie anything in this world; whether of iron or of gold,
chains are chains. In your innermost heart you know that you are free; that is
why your nature is to yearn for freedom. When, by someone's good fortune, He
becomes revealed as action, action will cease of its own accord. Only then can
action cease.