EACH IS GREAT IN HIS OWN PLACE - 2

Such is the central idea of Karma-Yoga. The Karma-Yogi is the man who
understands that the highest ideal is non-resistance, and who also knows that
this non-resistance is the highest manifestation of power in actual possession,
and also what is called the resisting of evil is but a step on the way towards the
manifestation of this highest power, namely, non-resistance. Before reaching
this highest ideal, man's duty is to resist evil; let him work, let him fight, let
him strike straight from the shoulder. Then only, when he has gained the power
to resist, will non-resistance be a virtue.
I once met a man in my country whom I had known before as a very stupid,
dull person, who knew nothing and had not the desire to know anything, and
was living the life of a brute. He asked me what he should do to know God,
how he was to get free. "Can you tell a lie?" I asked him. "No," he replied.
"Then you must learn to do so. It is better to tell a lie than to be a brute, or a log
of wood. You are inactive; you have not certainly reached the highest state,
which is beyond all actions, calm and serene; you are too dull even to do
something wicked." That was an extreme case, of course, and I was joking with
him; but what I meant was that a man must be active in order to pass through
activity to perfect calmness.
Inactivity should be avoided by all means. Activity always means resistance.
Resist all evils, mental and physical; and when you have succeeded in resisting,
then will calmness come. It is very easy to say, "Hate nobody, resist not evil,"
but we know what that kind of thing generally means in practice. When the
eyes of society are turned towards us, we may make a show of non-resistance,
but in our hearts it is canker all the time. We feel the utter want of the calm of
non-resistance; we feel that it would be better for us to resist. If you desire
wealth, and know at the same time that the whole world regards him who aims
at wealth as a very wicked man, you, perhaps, will not dare to plunge into the
struggle for wealth, yet your mind will be running day and night after money.
This is hypocrisy and will serve no purpose. Plunge into the world, and then,
after a time, when you have suffered and enjoyed all that is in it, will
renunciation come; then will calmness come. So fulfil your desire for power
and everything else, and after you have fulfilled the desire, will come the time
when you will know that they are all very little things; but until you have
fulfilled this desire, until you have passed through that activity, it is impossible
for you to come to the state of calmness, serenity, and self-surrender. These
ideas of serenity and renunciation have been preached for thousands of years;
everybody has heard of them from childhood, and yet we see very few in the
world who have really reached that stage. I do not know if I have seen twenty
persons in my life who are really calm and non-resisting, and I have travelled
over half the world.