Human Character

Yoga of Renunciation' (sannyasa), says the renunciation means not renunciation of actions, but renunciation of desire for the fruit of actions, and this means that there will still be three kinds of actions in the life of the renouncer (sannyas), namely gift (dana), voluntary sacrifice (yajna), and strictness of life (tapas).

The question of causation in actions is then taken up, and it is stated that five things contribute to the result in every case, viz. the man himself, his body, the tools and limbs he uses, the functions employed, and lastly fate or the unseen. The last is always expected to play a part, so that, as Burns said, 'The best laid schemes of mice and men aft gang agley', and on the other hand the bungler may have 'luck'. The effect of the last of these ingredients has long been woven into the Hindu character, so that people are not fo surprised or disappointed or distressed as the Westerner when things go wrong, or unduly elated when they go right. There is also no resentment about it, for the unexpected and uncalculated is credited to the effects of past actions (the law of karma), whether good or bad.

People are classified according to character and occupant lion (caste), and an oft-repeated formula is adducted:

Better is one's own dharma, (though) imperfect, than the dharma of another, well performed. In doing the activity marked out by one's own form of existence one acquires no fault.

Then comes the climax, the statement that he whose buddhi is unattached to anything, who is self-governed and has given up longing attains by sannyasa to the supreme perfection beyond all activity. 'Always doing actions, and resorting to me, by my grace he obtains the eternal unchanging goal.

The Teacher concludes, leaving his pupil perfectly free, saying that the deepest knowledge has now been communicated, and ending: 'Having reflected upon it completely, then act as you will. Can it be that this has been heard by you, O Arjuna, with one-pointed attention? Can it be that your confusion, caused by ignorance, has been dispelled?

However, its roots above and its branches below. The disciple will cut this tree down with the axe of non-attachment, saying: I go even to that original spirit from whom the ancient manifestation was extended.'

The teacher now tells how the situation for each one of us has come about:

A share of myself, having become an eternal living being in the world of living beings, attracts the sense organs, of which are manas is the sixth, which are situated in Nature.

(This) master (zshwara), who (thus) obtains a body and who also goes beyond it (at death), having grasped these (senses) goes his way, just as the wind (takes) scents from their resting places.

Having governed the ear, the eye, the organs of touch and taste and smell, and the manas, he makes use of the objects of sense.

The deluded do not perceive him (thus) joined with the qualities (gymnast, whether he is departing or staying still, or enjoying (the senses). They see whose eye is knowledge.

Yogis, striving, also see him, instated in themselves. The inattentive, who have not disciplined themselves even though striving,