| Thou says, perplexed, It hath been asked before By singers and by sages,
"What is act, And what inaction?" I will teach thee this,
And, knowing, thou shalt learn which work doth save Needs must one
rightly meditate those three- Doing,- not doing,- and undoing. Here
Thorny and dark the path is! He who sees How action may be rest,
rest action-he Is wisest 'mid his kind; he hath the truth! He doeth
well, acting or resting.
Freed In all his works from
prickings of desire, Burned clean in act by the white fire of truth,
The wise call that man wise; and such an one, Renouncing fruit of
deeds, always content. Always self-satisfying, if he works, Doth
nothing that shall stain his separate soul, Which- quit of fear and
hope- subduing self- Rejecting outward impulse-yielding up To body's
need nothing save body, dwells Sinless amid all sin, with equal calm
Taking what may befall, by grief unmoved, Unmoved by joy,
unenvyingly; the same In good and evil fortunes; nowise bound
By bond of deeds.
Nay, but of such an one, Whose crave is
gone, whose soul is liberate, Whose heart is set on truth- of such
an one What work he does is work of sacrifice, Which passed
purely
into ash and smoke Consumed upon the altar! All's then God! The
sacrifice is Brahm, the ghee and grain Are Brahm, the fire is
Brahm, the flesh it eats Is Brahm, and
unto Brahm attained he Who, in such office, meditates on Brahm.
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