A mandate for action

In determining the purpose of any treatise, we must see the question with which it opens upakrama and the conclusion to which it leads up...

In determining the purpose of any treatise, we must see the question with which it opens upakrama and the conclusion to which it leads upasamhara. The Gita opens with a problem. Arjuna refuses to fight and raises difficulties. He puts up a plausible plea for abstention from activity and for retreat from the world, an ideal which dominated certain sects at the time of the composition of the Gita. To convert him is the purpose of the Gita. It raises the question whether action or renunciation of action is better and concludes that action is better. Arjuna declares that his perplexities are ended and he would carry out the command to fight.

Right through, the teacher emphasises the need for action. He does not adopt the solution of dismissing the world as an illusion and action as a snare. He recommends the full active life of man in the world with the inner life anchored in the Eternal Spirit. The Gita is therefore a mandate for action. It explains what a man ought to do not merely as a social being but as an individual with a spiritual destiny. It deals fairly with the spirit of renunciation as well as with the ceremonial piety of the people which are worked into its code of ethics.

The Samkhya, which is another name for jnana in the Gita, requires us to renounce action. There is the well-known view that created beings are bound by karma or action and are saved by knowledge. Every deed, whether good or bad, produces its natural effect and involves embodiment in the world and is an obstacle to liberation. Every deed confirms the sense of egoism and separateness of the doer, and sets in motion a new series of effects. Therefore, it is argued, one must renounce all action and become a samnyasin. Samkara, who upholds the method of jnana as a means of salvation, argues that Arjuna was a madhyamadhikari for whom renunciation was dangerous and so he was advised to take to action. But the Gita adopts the view developed in the Bhagavata religion which has the twofold purpose of helping us to obtain complete release and do work in the world. In two places, Vyasa tells Suka that the most ancient method of the Brahmin is to obtain release by knowledge and perform actions. Isa Up adopts a similar view. It is incorrect to assume that Hindu thought strained excessively and after the unattainable and was guilty of indifference to the problems of the world. We cannot lose ourselves in inner piety when the poor die at our doors, hungry.

The Gita asks us to live in the world and save it.

Extracted from S. Radhakrishnan8217;s introduction to the Bhagavadgita