Spirituality Studies 10-1 Spring 2024 11 Michael James The fruit of action perishing, as seed causes to fall in the ocean of action. It is not giving liberation. [10] Action is finite, so its fruit is likewise finite. Therefore, just as a fruit such as a mango ceases to exist when it is eaten, the fruit of any action will perish when it is experienced, so liberation, which is infinite and eternal, cannot be the fruit of any action. The seeds that cause us to fall in the ocean of perpetual action are viṣaya-vāsanās, “inclinations” (Sa. vāsanās) to experience “objects” or “phenomena” (Sa. viṣayas), because it is under the sway of such vāsanās that we do actions by mind, speech and body, and the more we allow ourself to be swayed by any particular vāsanā, the stronger it will become, and hence the more we will be inclined to be swayed by it. “Action” (Sa. karma) is therefore self-perpetuating, so it cannot be a means to liberation. However, if we do action without desire for any fruit but just for the love of God, our mind will thereby be purified, and the purified mind will then be able to recognise that the means to liberation is not doing but just being, as Bhagavan implies in verse 3 of Upadēśa Undiyār: Desireless action [Sa. niṣkāmya karma] done for God, purifying the mind, it will show the path to liberation. [11] It is generally said that there are four paths that lead towards liberation, namely karma, bhakti, yōga and jñāna, in which karma means the path of “desireless action” (Sa. niṣkāmya karma), bhakti means the path of “love” or “devotion”, yōga means primarily the classical “eight limbs of yoga” (aṣṭāṅga yōga) taught by Patanjali in his Yōga Sūtra, though more generally it can also include other similar paths such as various forms of Buddhist meditation and tantra practices, and jñāna (Sa. “knowledge” or “awareness”) means the path of “self-investigation” (Sa. ātma-vicāra), which is the direct means to attain ātma-jñāna (“self-knowledge”, meaning “awareness of ourself as we actually are”). As Bhagavan implies in this and subsequent verses, niṣkāmya karma is not actually a separate path but the preliminary practices of the path of bhakti, because it is only by doing actions for the love of God that we can do them without desire for their fruits. Moreover, though karma, bhakti, yōga and jñāna are all said to be paths to liberation, the only direct path to liberation is the twin path of bhakti and jñāna, whereas karma and yōga are tributaries that lead to this main river of bhakti and jñāna and thereby indirectly to liberation. In this verse the adjectival clause “done for God” (Ta. karuttaṉukku ākkum) implies “done for the love of God”, and “desireless action” (Sa. niṣkāmya karma) means actions done without any desire for their fruits. Such actions done for the love of God will purify the mind, but what purifies the mind is not the actions themselves but the love and desirelessness with which they are done, because the same actions could be done with desire for their fruits instead of for the love of God, in which case they would not purify the mind. What are the impurities in the mind that will be removed by desireless actions done for the love of God? They are viṣaya-vāsanās (Sa. “inclinations to seek happiness in viṣayas: objects or phenomena”), which are the seeds that sprout in the form of likes, dislikes, desires, attachments and so on, under whose sway we do kāmya karmas (Sa. “actions done with desire for their fruits”), thereby being immersed ever deeper in the great ocean of self-perpetuating action. To the extent that we do actions without desire to experience any viṣayas (Sa. “objects” or “phenomena”) but only for the love of God, our viṣaya-vāsanās (and consequently our likes, dislikes, desires, attachments and so on, which sprout from them) will thereby be weakened, and thus our mind will gradually become purer and clearer. Since viṣaya-vāsanās are the dense fog that clouds our mind, thereby obscuring the clear light of pure awareness that is ever shining deep within us, when our mind is purified by the gradual thinning and dispersal of this dense fog, our inner vision will thereby become clearer, enabling us to recognise that liberation cannot be achieved by doing any “actions” (Sa. karmas) but only by surrendering ourself, the doer of actions, entirely to God, which means sinking back within and dissolving in God, the light of pure awareness, “I am”, which is the source from which we have risen. This is what Bhagavan implies in this verse by saying “it will show the path to liberation” (Ta. “aḵdu gati vaṙi kāṇbikkum”). The instruments by which we do actions are mind, speech and body, so actions done by these three instruments are the three types of niṣkāmya karma that we can do for the love of God, as Bhagavan points out in verse 4 of Upadēśa Undiyār: This is certain: pūjā, japa and dhyāna are actions of body, speech and mind. One than one is superior. [12] Pūjā means “worship”, but in this context it does not mean just ritualistic worship but any “desireless action” (Sa. niṣkāmya karma) done by body for the love of God. Japa means “repetition”, namely repetition of a name of God, a prayer or a mantra (a “sacred syllable”, “word” or “group of words”, in this context one of a devotional nature). And
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