You will find various classes of men in this world. First, there are the Godmen,
whose self-abnegation is complete, and who do only good to others even
at the sacrifice of their own lives. These are the highest of men. If there are a
hundred of such in any country, that country need never despair. But they are
unfortunately too few. Then there are the good men who do good to others so
long as it does not injure themselves. And there is a third class who, to do good
to themselves, injure others. It is said by a Sanskrit poet that there is a fourth
unnamable class of people who injure others merely for injury's sake. Just as
there are at one pole of existence the highest good men, who do good for the
sake of doing good, so, at the other pole, there are others who injure others just
for the sake of the injury. They do not gain anything thereby, but it is their
nature to do evil.
Here are two Sanskrit words. The one is Pravritti, which means revolving
towards, and the other is Nivritti, which means revolving away. The "revolving
towards" is what we call the world, the "I and mine”; it includes all those things
which are always enriching that "me" by wealth and money and power, and
name and fame, and which are of a grasping nature, always tending to
accumulate everything in one centre, that centre being "myself". That is the
Pravritti, the natural tendency of every human being; taking everything from
everywhere and heaping it around one centre, that centre being man's own
sweet self. When this tendency begins to break, when it is Nivritti or "going
away from," then begin morality and religion. Both Pravritti and Nivritti are of
the nature of work: the former is evil work, and the latter is good work. This
Nivritti is the fundamental basis of all morality and all religion, and the very
perfection of it is entire self-abnegation, readiness to sacrifice mind and body
and everything for another being. When a man has reached that state, he has
attained to the perfection of Karma-Yoga. This is the highest result of good
works. Although a man has not studied a single system of philosophy, although
he does not believe in any God, and never has believed, although he has not
prayed even once in his whole life, if the simple power of good actions has
brought him to that state where he is ready to give up his life and all else for
others, he has arrived at the same point to which the religious man will come
through his prayers and the philosopher through his knowledge; and so you
may find that the philosopher, the worker, and the devotee, all meet at one
point, that one point being self-abnegation. However much their systems of
philosophy and religion may differ, all mankind stand in reverence and awe
before the man who is ready to sacrifice himself for others. Here, it is not at all
any question of creed, or doctrine — even men who are very much opposed to
all religious ideas, when they see one of these acts of complete self-sacrifice,
feel that they must revere it. Have you not seen even a most bigoted Christian,
when he reads Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia, stand in reverence of Buddha,
who Preached no God, preached nothing but self-sacrifice? The only thing is
that the bigot does not know that his own end and aim in life is exactly the
same as that of those from whom he differs. The worshipper, by keeping
constantly before him the idea of God and a surrounding of good, comes to the
same point at last and says, "Thy will be done," and keeps nothing to himself.
That is self-abnegation. The philosopher, with his knowledge, sees that the
seeming self is a delusion and easily gives it up. It is self-abnegation. So
Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana all meet here; and this is what was meant by all the
great preachers of ancient times, when they taught that God is not the world.
There is one thing which is the world and another which is God; and this
distinction is very true. What they mean by world is selfishness. Unselfishness
is God. One may live on a throne, in a golden palace, and be perfectly
unselfish; and then he is in God. Another may live in a hut and wear rags, and
have nothing in the world; yet, if he is selfish, he is intensely merged in the
world.
