It is necessary to consider what is right action, what is wrong action, and what is inaction,
for mysterious is the law of action.


He who can see inaction in action, and action in inaction, is the wisest among men. He is a
saint, even though he still acts.


The wise call him a sage, for whatever he undertakes is free from the motive of desire, and
his deeds are purified by the fire of Wisdom.


Having surrendered all claim to the results of his actions, always contented and
independent, in reality he does nothing, even though he is apparently acting.


Expecting nothing, his mind and personality controlled, without greed, doing bodily
actions only; though he acts, yet he remains untainted.


Content with what comes to him without effort of his own, mounting above the pairs of
opposites, free from envy, his mind balanced both in success and failure; though he acts,
yet the consequences do not bind him.


He who is without attachment, free, his mind centered in wisdom, his actions, being done
as a sacrifice, leave no trace behind.


For him, the sacrifice itself is the Spirit; the Spirit and the oblation are one; it is the Spirit
Itself which is sacrificed in Its own fire, and the man even in action is united with God,
since while performing his act, his mind never ceases to be fixed on Him.


Some sages sacrifice to the Powers; others offer themselves on the alter of the Eternal.


Some sacrifice their physical senses in the fire of self-control; others offer up their contact
with external objects in the sacrificial fire of their senses.


Other again sacrifice their activities and their vitality in the Spiritual fire of self-
abnegation, kindled by wisdom.


And yet others offer as their sacrifice wealth, austerities and meditation. Monks wedded
to their vows renounce their scriptural learning and even their spiritual powers.


There are some who practise control of the Vital Energy and govern the subtle forces of
Prana and Apana, thereby sacrificing their Prana unto Apana, or their Apana unto Prana.


Others, controlling their diet, sacrifice their worldly life to the spiritual fire. All understand
the principal of sacrifice, and by its means their sins are washed away.


Tasting the nectar of immortality, as the reward of sacrifice, they reach the Eternal. This
world is not for those who refuse to sacrifice; much less the other world.


In this way other sacrifices too may be undergone for the Spirit’s sake. Know thou that
they all depend on action. Knowing this, thou shalt be free.


The sacrifice of wisdom is superior to any material sacrifice, for, O Arjuna, the climax of
action is always Realisation.

This shalt thou learn by prostrating thyself at the Master’s feet, by questioning Him and by
serving Him. The wise who have realised the Truth will teach thee wisdom.


Having known That, thou shalt never again be confounded; and, O Arjuna, by the power
of that wisdom, thou shalt see all these people as if they were thine own Self, and therefore
as Me.


Be thou the greatest of sinners, yet thou shalt cross over all sin by the ferryboat of wisdom.


As the kindled fire consumes the fuel, so, O Arjuna, in the flame of wisdom the embers of
action are burnt to ashes.


There is nothing in the world so purifying as wisdom; and he who is a perfect saint finds
that at last in his own Self.


He who is full of faith attains wisdom, and he too who can control his senses, having
attained that wisdom, he shall ere long attain Supreme Peace.


But the ignorant man, and he who has no faith, and the sceptic are lost. Neither in this
world nor elsewhere is there any happiness in store for him who always doubts.


But the man who has renounced his action for meditation, who has cleft his doubt in twain
by the sword of wisdom, who remains always enthroned in his Self, is not bound by his
acts.


Therefore, cleaving asunder with the sword of wisdom the doubts of the heart, which
thine own ignorance has engendered, follow the Path of Wisdom and arise!”


Thus, in the Holy Book the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Upanishads, in the Science of the Supreme
Spirit, in the Art of Self-Knowledge, in the colloquy between the Divine Lord Shri Krishna and the
Prince Arjuna, stands the fourth chapter entitled: Dnyana-Yoga or the Path of Wisdom.

FIVE: THE RENUNCIATION OF ACTION


“Arjuna said: My Lord! At one moment Thou praisest renunciation of action; at another,
right action. Tell me truly, I pray, which of these is the more conducive to my highest
welfare?


Lord Shri Krishna replied: Renunciation of action and the path of right action both lead to
the highest; of the two, right action is the better.


He is a true ascetic who never desires or dislikes, who is uninfluenced by the opposites
and is easily freed from bondage.


Only the unenlightened speak of wisdom and right action as separate, not the wise. If any
man knows one, he enjoys the fruit of both.


The level which is reached by wisdom is attained through right action as well. He who
perceives that the two are one, knows the truth.


Without concentration, O Mighty Man, renunciation is difficult. But the sage who is
always meditating on the Divine, before long shall attain the Absolute.


He who is spiritual, who is pure, who has overcome his senses and his personal self, who
has realised his highest Self as the Self of all, such a one, even though he acts, is not bound
by his acts.


Though the saint sees, hears, touches, smells, eats, moves, sleeps and breathes, yet he
knows the Truth, and he knows that it is not he who acts.


Though he talks, though he gives and receives, though he opens his eyes and shuts them,
he still knows that his senses are merely disporting themselves among the objects of
perception.


He who dedicates his actions to the Spirit, without any personal attachment to them, he is
no more tainted by sin than the water lily is wetted by water.


The sage performs his action dispassionately, using his body, mind and intellect, and even
his senses, always as a means of purification.


Having abandoned the fruit of action, he wins eternal peace. Others unacquainted with
spirituality, led by desire and clinging to the benefit which they think will follow their
actions, become entangled in them.


Mentally renouncing all actions, the self-controlled soul enjoys bliss in this body, the city
of the nine gates, neither doing anything himself nor causing anything to be done.


The Lord of this universe has not ordained activity, or any incentive thereto, or any
relation between an act and its consequences. All this is the work of Nature.


The Lord does not accept responsibility for any man’s sin or merit. Men are deluded
because in them wisdom is submerged in ignorance.

Surely wisdom is like the sun, revealing the supreme truth to those whose ignorance is
dispelled by the wisdom of the Self.


Meditating on the Divine, having faith in the Divine, concentrating on the Divine and
losing themselves in the Divine, their sins dissolved in wisdom, they go whence there is
no return.


Sages look equally upon all, whether he be a minister of learning and humility, or an
infidel, or whether it be a cow, an elephant or a dog.


Even in this world they conquer their earth-life whose minds, fixed on the Supreme,
remain always balanced; for the Supreme has neither blemish nor bias.


He who knows and lives in the Absolute remains unmoved and unperturbed; he is not
elated by pleasure or depressed by pain.


He finds happiness in his own Self, and enjoys eternal bliss, whose heart does not yearn
for the contacts of earth and whose Self is one with the Everlasting.


The joys that spring from external associations bring pain; they have their beginning and
their endings. The wise man does not rejoice in them.


He who, before he leaves his body, learns to surmount the promptings of desire and anger
is a saint and is happy.


He who is happy within his Self and has found Its peace, and in whom the inner light
shines, that sage attains Eternal Bliss and becomes the Spirit Itself.


Sages whose sins have been washed away, whose sense of separateness has vanished,
who have subdued themselves, and seek only the welfare of all, come to the Eternal Spirit.


Saints who know their Selves, who control their minds, and feel neither desire nor anger,
find Eternal Bliss everywhere.


Excluding external objects, his gaze fixed between the eyebrows, the inward and outward
breathings passing equally through his nostrils;


Governing sense, mind and intellect, intent on liberation, free from desire, fear and anger,
the sage is forever free.


Knowing me as Him who gladly receives all offerings of austerity and sacrifice, as the
Might Ruler of all the Worlds and the Friend of all beings, he passes to Eternal Peace.”


Thus, in the Holy Book the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Upanishads, in the Science of the Supreme
Spirit, in the Art of Self-Knowledge, in the colloquy between the Divine Lord Shri Krishna and the
Prince Arjuna, stands the fifth chapter entitled: The Renunciation of Action.

SIX: SELF-CONTROL


“Lord Shri Krishna said: He who acts because it is his duty, not thinking of the
consequences, is really spiritual and a true ascetic; and not he who merely observes rituals
or who shuns all action.


O Arjuna! Renunciation is in fact what is called Right Action. No one can become spiritual
who has not renounced all desire.


For the sage who seeks the heights of spiritual meditation, practice is the only method,
and when he has attained them, he must maintain himself there by continual self-control.


When a man renounces even the thought of initiating action, when he is not interested in
sense objects or any results which may flow from his acts, then in truth he understands
spirituality.


Let him seek liberation by the help of his Highest Self, and let him never disgrace his own
Self. For that Self is his only friend; yet it may also be his enemy.


To him who has conquered his lower nature by Its help, the Self is a friend, but to him
who has not done so, It is an enemy.


The Self of him who is self-controlled, and has attained peace is equally unmoved by heat
or cold, pleasure or pain, honour or dishonour.


He who desires nothing but wisdom and spiritual insight, who has conquered his senses
and who looks with the same eye upon a lump of earth, a stone or fine gold, is a real saint.


He looks impartially on all – lover, friend or foe; indifferent or hostile; alien or relative;
virtuous or sinful.


Let the student of spirituality try unceasingly to concentrate his mind; Let him live in
seclusion, absolutely alone, with mind and personality controlled, free from desire and
without possessions.


Having chosen a holy place, let him sit in a firm posture on a seat, neither too high nor too
low, and covered with a grass mat, a deer skin and a cloth.


Seated thus, his mind concentrated, its functions controlled and his senses governed, let
him practise meditation for the purification of his lower nature.


Let him hold body, head and neck erect, motionless and steady; let him look fixedly at the
tip of his nose, turning neither to the right nor to the left.


With peace in his heart and nor fear, observing the vow of celibacy, with mind controlled
and fixed on Me, let the student lose himself in contemplation of Me.


Thus keeping his mind always in communion with Me, and with his thoughts subdued,
he shall attain that Peace which is mine and which will lead him to liberation at last.


Meditation is not for him who eats too much, not for him who eats not at all; not for him
who is overmuch addicted to sleep, not for him who is always awake.

But for him who regulates his food and recreation, who is balanced in action, in sleep and
in waking, it shall dispel all unhappiness.


When the mind, completely controlled, is centered in the Self, and free from all earthly
desires, then is the man truly spiritual.


The wise man who has conquered his mind and is absorbed in the Self is as a lamp which
does not flicker, since it stands sheltered from every wind.


There, where the whole nature is seen in the light of the Self, where the man abides within
his Self and is satisfied there, its functions restrained by its union with the Divine, the
mind finds rest.


When he enjoys the Bliss which passes sense, and which only the Pure Intellect can grasp,
when he comes to rest within his own highest Self, never again will he stray from reality.


Finding That, he will realise that there is no possession so precious. And when once
established here, no calamity can disturb him.


This inner severance from the affliction of misery is spirituality. It should be practised
with determination and with a heart which refuses to be depressed.


Renouncing every desire which imagination can conceive, controlling the senses at every
point by the power of mind;


Little by little, by the help of his reason controlled by fortitude, let him attain peace; and,
fixing his mind on the Self, let him not think of any other thing.


When the volatile and wavering mind would wander, let him restrain it and bring it again
to its allegiance to the Self.


Supreme Bliss is the lot of the sage, whose mind attains Peace, whose passions subside,
who is without sin, and who becomes one with the Absolute.


Thus, free from sin, abiding always in the Eternal, the saint enjoys without effort the Bliss
which flows from realisation of the Infinite.


He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his
own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye;


He who sees Me in everything and everything in Me, him shall I never forsake, nor shall
he lose Me.


The sage who realises the unity of life and who worships Me in all beings, lives in Me,
whatever may be his lot.


O Arjuna! He is the perfect saint who, taught by the likeness within himself, sees the same
Self everywhere, whether the outer form be pleasurable or painful.


Arjuna said: I do not see how I can attain this state of equanimity which Thou has revealed,
owing to the restlessness of my mind.

My Lord! Verily, the mind is fickle and turbulent, obstinate and strong, yea extremely
difficult as the wind to control.


Lord Shri Krishna replied: Doubtless, O Mighty One, the mind is fickle and exceedingly
difficult to restrain, but, O Son of Kunti, with practice and renunciation it can be done.


It is not possible to attain Self-Realisation if a man does not know how to control himself;
but for him who, striving by proper means, learns such control, it is possible.


Arjuna asked: He who fails to control himself, whose mind falls from spiritual
contemplation, who attains not perfection but retains his faith, what of him, my Lord?


Having failed in both, my Lord, is he without hope, like a riven cloud having no support,
lost on the spiritual road?


My Lord! Thou art worthy to solve this doubt once and for all; save Thyself there is no one
competent to do so.


Lord Shri Krishna replied: My beloved child! There is no destruction for him, either in this
world or in the next. No evil fate awaits him who treads the path of righteousness.


Having reached the worlds where the righteous dwell, and having remained there for
many years, he who has slipped from the path of spirituality will be born again in the
family of the pure, benevolent and prosperous.


Or, he may be born in the family of the wise sages, though a birth like this is, indeed, very
difficult to obtain.


Then the experience acquired in his former life will revive, and with its help he will strive
for perfection more eagerly than before.


Unconsciously he will return to the practices of his old life; so that he who tries to realise
spiritual consciousness is certainly superior to one who only talks of it.


Then after many lives, the student of spirituality, who earnestly strives, and whose sins
are absolved, attains perfection and reaches the Supreme.


The wise man is superior to the ascetic and to the scholar and to the man of action;
therefore be thou a wise man, O Arjuna!


I look upon him as the best of mystics who, full of faith, worshippeth Me and abideth in
Me.”


Thus, in the Holy Book the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Upanishads, in the Science of the Supreme
Spirit, in the Art of Self-Knowledge, in the colloquy between the Divine Lord Shri Krishna and the
Prince Arjuna, stands the sixth chapter entitled: Self-Control.