The sea smites his own barren breast because he has no flowers to offer to the moon.
- Rabindranath Tagore.
Without a sense of values, which is a knowledge of the way in which life finds its fulfilment, there can be no true wisdom.
- N Sri Ram
Unity is the deepest underlying fact of all. When from that Unity there goes forth the Word or impulse which is bodied in the manifested universe, it seems as if the Unity is lost, but in reality it is only hidden.
- N Sri Ram.
No more noisy, loud words for me -
Such is my master's will.
Henceforth I deal in whispers.
The speech of my heart
Will be carried on in
Murmurings of a song.
Men hasten to the King's market.
All the buyers and sellers are there.
But I have my untimely leave
In the middle of the day,
In the thick of work.
Let then the flowers
Come out in my garden,
Though it is not their time
And let the midday bees
strike up their lazy hum.
Full many an hour have I spent
In the strife of the good and the evil,
But now it is the pleasure of my playmate
Of the empty days to draw my heart on to him;
And I know not why is this sudden call
To what useless inconsequence.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali Verse 89)
...That is the historical lesson; and what is the lesson of the allegory? Conflict, evidently, between the lower manas, and the unfolding mind symbolized by Arjuna, and Kama, the passionate nature symbolized by the relatives, headed by Duryodhana embodying all the ties of the past. Arjuna stands for the lower manas, unilluminated, doubtful, wavering, questioning, vacillating, unsure of itself, always asking questions, and when answered, not understanding the answer, always puzzled as to what is really the best.
The Teacher comes down heavily: "Nor this world, not that beyond, nor happiness, is there for the doubting self." A self that is ever doubting and cannot make up its mind; who, the moment a question is decided, sees all the arguments on the other side and wants to begin over again to go through the whole, makes no progress. It is the exaggeration of the virtue of caution and prudence, the exaggeration of the a virtue which turns into a vice.
Better act and make a mistake, and thus learn to do better in the future than ever hesitate to act at all. For the paralysing doubt prevents you from gaining the lessons which experience alone can teach. This hesitation comes out strongly in all Arjuna's arguments. The urging to decisiveness comes out strongly in the words of the Teacher.
...Then comes the vision of the Supreme, that which alone takes away the taste for the pleasures yielded by the objects around us; only the Supreme is seen, when the fuller life suffuses the lesser, does the attractiveness of the life and the senses depart (ii, 59). Then manas arises triumphant, illuminated, with the light of the Self, clear, radiant, decided; the delusion is destroyed, and the warrior is the conqueror of his foes.
...In the battle he must plunge alone; by his strong right arm, by his own unflinching will, by unwavering courage, that battle must be fought to the bitter end. He feels himself utterly isolated. And in that isolation, that loneliness, it is that he must find the Self. There, in the midst of the struggle, when all are against him, the glory of the Self shines forth upon him, and he knows verily that he is not alone; in spite of the wounds, the blood from which was blinding him, in spite of the dinted armour, the soiled garments, and the broken weapons, the warrior soul stands undaunted to the end.
...The self without, must vanish before the Self within is realized. That is the experience of every warrior soul. that is the experience that everyone must pass through as he treads the path that leads to the Supreme; only in that uttermost loneliness of desolation can Arjuna, or any other, find the Self.
Fear you not, then, you would-be warriors, when friends blame and turn aside; fear you not even when elders condemn, when youngsters despise, when equals scorn; go undaunted, unflinching, for the Self is within you.
You may make many mistakes, for the Self is embodied - mistakes belong to the body; and remember that they are the body, not the Spirit within, and, by the suffering which follows those very mistakes, the grosser matter is burned up and the Self becomes more manifest. Go on fighting, struggling, full of courage, with brave and undaunted heart, and, at the end of your battle on Kurukshetra, for you too shall dawn the Self in his majesty, destroyed shall be your delusions also, and you shall see your Lord as he is.
- Annie Besant (Hints on the study of the Bhagavadgita)
- Rabindranath Tagore.
Without a sense of values, which is a knowledge of the way in which life finds its fulfilment, there can be no true wisdom.
- N Sri Ram
Unity is the deepest underlying fact of all. When from that Unity there goes forth the Word or impulse which is bodied in the manifested universe, it seems as if the Unity is lost, but in reality it is only hidden.
- N Sri Ram.
No more noisy, loud words for me -
Such is my master's will.
Henceforth I deal in whispers.
The speech of my heart
Will be carried on in
Murmurings of a song.
Men hasten to the King's market.
All the buyers and sellers are there.
But I have my untimely leave
In the middle of the day,
In the thick of work.
Let then the flowers
Come out in my garden,
Though it is not their time
And let the midday bees
strike up their lazy hum.
Full many an hour have I spent
In the strife of the good and the evil,
But now it is the pleasure of my playmate
Of the empty days to draw my heart on to him;
And I know not why is this sudden call
To what useless inconsequence.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali Verse 89)
...That is the historical lesson; and what is the lesson of the allegory? Conflict, evidently, between the lower manas, and the unfolding mind symbolized by Arjuna, and Kama, the passionate nature symbolized by the relatives, headed by Duryodhana embodying all the ties of the past. Arjuna stands for the lower manas, unilluminated, doubtful, wavering, questioning, vacillating, unsure of itself, always asking questions, and when answered, not understanding the answer, always puzzled as to what is really the best.
The Teacher comes down heavily: "Nor this world, not that beyond, nor happiness, is there for the doubting self." A self that is ever doubting and cannot make up its mind; who, the moment a question is decided, sees all the arguments on the other side and wants to begin over again to go through the whole, makes no progress. It is the exaggeration of the virtue of caution and prudence, the exaggeration of the a virtue which turns into a vice.
Better act and make a mistake, and thus learn to do better in the future than ever hesitate to act at all. For the paralysing doubt prevents you from gaining the lessons which experience alone can teach. This hesitation comes out strongly in all Arjuna's arguments. The urging to decisiveness comes out strongly in the words of the Teacher.
...Then comes the vision of the Supreme, that which alone takes away the taste for the pleasures yielded by the objects around us; only the Supreme is seen, when the fuller life suffuses the lesser, does the attractiveness of the life and the senses depart (ii, 59). Then manas arises triumphant, illuminated, with the light of the Self, clear, radiant, decided; the delusion is destroyed, and the warrior is the conqueror of his foes.
...In the battle he must plunge alone; by his strong right arm, by his own unflinching will, by unwavering courage, that battle must be fought to the bitter end. He feels himself utterly isolated. And in that isolation, that loneliness, it is that he must find the Self. There, in the midst of the struggle, when all are against him, the glory of the Self shines forth upon him, and he knows verily that he is not alone; in spite of the wounds, the blood from which was blinding him, in spite of the dinted armour, the soiled garments, and the broken weapons, the warrior soul stands undaunted to the end.
...The self without, must vanish before the Self within is realized. That is the experience of every warrior soul. that is the experience that everyone must pass through as he treads the path that leads to the Supreme; only in that uttermost loneliness of desolation can Arjuna, or any other, find the Self.
Fear you not, then, you would-be warriors, when friends blame and turn aside; fear you not even when elders condemn, when youngsters despise, when equals scorn; go undaunted, unflinching, for the Self is within you.
You may make many mistakes, for the Self is embodied - mistakes belong to the body; and remember that they are the body, not the Spirit within, and, by the suffering which follows those very mistakes, the grosser matter is burned up and the Self becomes more manifest. Go on fighting, struggling, full of courage, with brave and undaunted heart, and, at the end of your battle on Kurukshetra, for you too shall dawn the Self in his majesty, destroyed shall be your delusions also, and you shall see your Lord as he is.
- Annie Besant (Hints on the study of the Bhagavadgita)
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