Knowing Things as They Are – Liberating
Action and Binding Action
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 5 The Brahma
Sutras as a Moksha Shastra by Swami Krishnananda
Regarding the attainment of
final liberation, the Brahma Sutras raise certain questions as to the means to
be adopted for this attainment. What is the attainment? It is obvious that the
search of the soul is for union with what is omnipresent. The soul is not
seeking for unity with another finite being, whatever be the largeness of that
finitude. Anything that is limited by space, time and causation ceases to be an
eternal being; and that which is eternal should surpass the limitations of the
time process and exceed the limitations of space, and cannot be bound by causal
processes.
A question arose oftentimes,
whether what we do as activity or karma can be considered as a means to moksha. The Brahma Sutra has two
answers to this question. Firstly, no action can lead to the Universal Being.
It is in the Bhagavadgita that we hear of a message of this kind. Na veda yajñādhyayanair na dānaiḥ na ca kriyābhir na tapobhir
ugraiḥ evaṁrūpaḥ śakya ahaṁ nṛloke (Gita 11.48): Not yajna, not study, not scripture,
not tapasya, not charity, not anything
that you do can be regarded as a means enough to enable you to pursue this
Universal Being. Nāhaṁ vedair na tapasā na dānena na
cejyayā śakya evaṁvidho draṣṭuṁ dṛṣṭavān asi māṁ yathā (Gita 11.53):
Nothing that you do can enable you to touch that boundaryless Absolute because
anything you consider as your action or performance is what is happening
outside you. The action, the performance, the work that you do is not going on
inside you. You are not working inside your body; it is outside. Therefore, it
ceases to be a part of the Self. The self can become fit enough to realize the
Universal Self only when it has started developing within itself the
characteristics of universality even in a small percentage.
There is a contradiction
between external activity and universal experience. But there is a concession
given to activity. Karma can purify the mind. This is the insistence of the
Bhagavadgita. Do work. No one can sit quiet without doing something or the
other. Na hi kaścit kṣaṇam api jātu tiṣṭhaty akarmakṛt
(Gita 3.5). There are actions which bind, and there are actions which do not
bind. There are actions that lead to the purification of the mind. There are
actions which are the consequence of a liberated experience. God acts, and human beings also act, but they
are two different kinds of action. There is a freedom in the activity of a liberated
spirit; there is bondage in the activity of an individual. The limited person
is obliged, compelled to do work, whereas the free person is spontaneous in the
performance of work. The overflow of the perfection of an individual may look
like a performance of work, like the emanation of light from the Sun, but if
action is a drudgery like a servant working for the master, that may be
considered as binding. So there is liberating action, and also binding action.
Any action that is universalized or has even a tendency to get universalized,
is liberating in its nature. Any action that is tending towards one’s own
selfish individuality and personal enjoyment can be regarded as binding.
Thus, the Brahma Sutra has two
things to say about karma. It is binding if it is motivated by personal,
egoistic enjoyment; it is liberating if it is a self-purificatory process and a
gesture of goodwill. Everything can bind a person from one point of view, but
everything can also liberate a person, from another point of view. The world
can become a chain to imprison us, or it can be means to the liberation of the
soul and act like a ladder to the Supreme Being.
Excerpts from:
Knowing Things as They Are – (Liberating Action and
Binding Action) - Chapter 5 The Brahma
Sutras as a Moksha Shastra by Swami Krishnananda
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