| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
 |
| Discourses On Gita |
| CONCLUSION - THE FULFILLMENT OF FRUIT - THE GRACE OF THE LORD |
| If
a man spends his energies on resisting the actions which come to him
naturally with the current, if he swims against the current, he will
in the end succumb to weariness and be swept off by the stream. He
should try to cross the stream with the help of actions which flow
with the current. Then, little by little, actions will cease on
their own accord. Even without renunciation of action, activity will
fall off. Action will not leave us, but activity will disappear.
11. Between action and activity there is a difference. For example, there is a big commotion somewhere, and we want to stop it. A policeman shouts at the top of his voice, "SILENCE!" To put end to the noise there, he had to perform the intense action of shouting aloud. Another person comes up there and merely lifts his finger. With only this, the people become quiet. A third person has but to come there, and stillness descends. One had to exert himself and perform an action, the action of the second was a gentle gesture; the action of the third was subtle. The activity becomes progressively less; but all three alike do the work of calming the people. As inward purity grows, the effort in the action becomes less. From effort to gentleness, from gentleness to subtlety, and from subtlety to nothingness. Action is one thing, effort or activity is another. Action is that which is most desired by the doer - this is the definition of action. The grammarian Panini says, "kartub iipsitatamam karma." That is, in a sentence, "that which the subject - the karta, (the doer) - most desires to encompass is the object - the karma, (the action)." |
|
|
