FREEDOM - 4

So Karma-Yoga says, first destroy the tendency to project this tentacle of
selfishness, and when you have the power of checking it, hold it in and do not
allow the mind to get into the ways of selfishness. Then you may go out into
the world and work as much as you can. Mix everywhere, go where you please;
you will never be contaminated with evil. There is the lotus leaf in the water;
the water cannot touch and adhere to it; so will you be in the world. This is
called "Vairâgya", dispassion or non-attachment. I believe I have told you that
without non-attachment there cannot be any kind of Yoga. Non-attachment is
the basis of all the Yogas. The man who gives up living in houses, wearing fine
clothes, and eating good food, and goes into the desert, may be a most attached
person. His only possession, his own body, may become everything to him; and
as he lives he will be simply struggling for the sake of his body. Nonattachment
does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our external
body, it is all in the mind. The binding link of "I and mine" is in the mind. If we
have not this link with the body and with the things of the senses, we are nonattached,
wherever and whatever we may be. A man may be on a throne and
perfectly non-attached; another man may be in rags and still very much
attached. First, we have to attain this state of non-attachment and then to work
incessantly. Karma-Yoga gives us the method that will help us in giving up all
attachment, though it is indeed very hard.
Here are the two ways of giving up all attachment. The one is for those who do
not believe in God, or in any outside help. They are left to their own devices;
they have simply to work with their own will, with the powers of their mind
and discrimination, saying, "I must be non-attached". For those who believe in
God there is another way, which is much less difficult. They give up the fruits
of work unto the Lord; they work and are never attached to the results.
Whatever they see, feel, hear, or do, is for Him. For whatever good work we
may do, let us not claim any praise or benefit. It is the Lord’s; give up the fruits
unto Him. Let us stand aside and think that we are only servants obeying the
Lord, our Master, and that every impulse for action comes from Him every
moment. Whatever thou worshippest, whatever thou perceivest, whatever thou
doest, give up all unto Him and be at rest. Let us be at peace, perfect peace,
with ourselves, and give up our whole body and mind and everything as an
eternal sacrifice unto the Lord. Instead of the sacrifice of pouring oblations into
the fire, perform this one great sacrifice day and night — the sacrifice of your
little self. "In search of wealth in this world, Thou art the only wealth I have
found; I sacrifice myself unto Thee. In search of some one to be loved, Thou
art the only one beloved I have found; I sacrifice myself unto Thee." Let us
repeat this day and night, and say, "Nothing for me; no matter whether the
thing is good, bad, or indifferent; I do not care for it; I sacrifice all unto Thee."
Day and night let us renounce our seeming self until it becomes a habit with us
to do so, until it gets into the blood, the nerves, and the brain, and the whole
body is every moment obedient to this idea of self-renunciation. Go then into
the midst of the battlefield, with the roaring cannon and the din of war, and you
will find yourself to be free and at peace.
Karma-Yoga teaches us that the ordinary idea of duty is on the lower plane;
nevertheless, all of us have to do our duty. Yet we may see that this peculiar
sense of duty is very often a great cause of misery. Duty becomes a disease
with us; it drags us ever forward. It catches hold of us and makes our whole life
miserable. It is the bane of human life. This duty, this idea of duty is the
midday summer sun which scorches the innermost soul of mankind. Look at
those poor slaves to duty! Duty leaves them no time to say prayers, no time to
bathe. Duty is ever on them. They go out and work. Duty is on them! They
come home and think of the work for the next day. Duty is on them! It is living
a slave's life, at last dropping down in the street and dying in harness, like a
horse. This is duty as it is understood. The only true duty is to be unattached
and to work as free beings, to give up all work unto God. All our duties are His.
Blessed are we that we are ordered out here. We serve our time; whether we do
it ill or well, who knows? If we do it well, we do not get the fruits. If we do it
ill, neither do we get the care. Be at rest, be free, and work. This kind of
freedom is a very hard thing to attain. How easy it is to interpret slavery as duty
— the morbid attachment of flesh for flesh as duty! Men go out into the world
and struggle and fight for money or for any other thing to which they get
attached. Ask them why they do it. They say, "It is a duty”. It is the absurd
greed for gold and gain, and they try to cover it with a few flowers.
What is duty after all? It is really the impulsion of the flesh, of our attachment;
and when an attachment has become established, we call it duty. For instance,
in countries where there is no marriage, there is no duty between husband and
wife; when marriage comes, husband and wife live together on account of
attachment; and that kind of living together becomes settled after generations;
and when it becomes so settled, it becomes a duty. It is, so to say, a sort of
chronic disease. When it is acute, we call it disease; when it is chronic, we call
it nature. It is a disease. So when attachment becomes chronic, we baptise it
with the high sounding name of duty. We strew flowers upon it, trumpets
sound for it, sacred texts are said over it, and then the whole world fights, and
men earnestly rob each other for this duty's sake. Duty is good to the extent that
it checks brutality. To the lowest kinds of men, who cannot have any other
ideal, it is of some good; but those who want to be Karma-Yogis must throw
this idea of duty overboard. There is no duty for you and me. Whatever you
have to give to the world, do give by all means, but not as a duty. Do not take
any thought of that. Be not compelled. Why should you be compelled?
Everything that you do under compulsion goes to build up attachment. Why
should you have any duty? Resign everything unto God. In this tremendous
fiery furnace where the fire of duty scorches everybody, drink this cup of
nectar and be happy. We are all simply working out His will, and have nothing
to do with rewards and punishments. If you want the reward, you must also
have the punishment; the only way to get out of the punishment is to give up
the reward. The only way of getting out of misery is by giving up the idea of
happiness, because these two are linked to each other. On one side there is
happiness, on the other there is misery. On one side there is life, on the other
there is death. The only way to get beyond death is to give up the love of life.
Life and death are the same thing, looked at from different points. So the idea
of happiness without misery, or of life without death, is very good for schoolboys
and children; but the thinker sees that it is all a contradiction in terms and
gives up both. Seek no praise, no reward, for anything you do. No sooner do
we perform a good action than we begin to desire credit for it. No sooner do we
give money to some charity than we want to see our names blazoned in the
papers. Misery must come as the result of such desires. The greatest men in the
world have passed away unknown. The Buddhas and the Christs that we know
are but second-rate heroes in comparison with the greatest men of whom the
world knows nothing. Hundreds of these unknown heroes have lived in every
country working silently. Silently they live and silently they pass away; and in
time their thoughts find expression in Buddhas or Christs, and it is these latter
that become known to us. The highest men do not seek to get any name or fame
from their knowledge. They leave their ideas to the world; they put forth no
claims for themselves and establish no schools or systems in their name. Their
whole nature shrinks from such a thing. They are the pure Sâttvikas, who can
never make any stir, but only melt down in love. I have seen one such Yogi
who lives in a cave in India. He is one of the most wonderful men I have ever
seen. He has so completely lost the sense of his own individuality that we may
say that the man in him is completely gone, leaving behind only the all
comprehending sense of the divine. If an animal bites one of his arms, he is
ready to give it his other arm also, and say that it is the Lord's will. Everything
that comes to him is from the Lord. He does not show himself to men, and yet
he is a magazine of love and of true and sweet ideas.