Date: July 15, 2025
Part 9: ज्ञानकर्मसंन्यासयोगः – The Yoga of Knowledge – 2
Continued from Part 8
The Avatāra and the Dharma
As the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, focusing on Jñāna Yoga, the Yoga of Knowledge, unfolds further, we get a deeper understanding of the work of the Divine when it descends in human form. The Avatāra descends in human form to give a dharma, a method of inner and outer living, — a way, a rule and law of self-moulding by which a human being can grow upwards and inwards towards divinity. But this ascent is not a mere individual or isolated phenomenon, limited to a few human beings here and there.
Sri Aurobindo explains that this path of ascension which the Avatāra gives to humanity is “like all in the divine world-activities a collective business, a work and the work for the race”. It is given to assist the human march, to hold it together in its great crises and “to break the forces of the downward gravitation when they grow too insistent”. The Avatāra descends
“…to uphold or restore the great dharma of the Godward law in man’s nature, to prepare even, however far off, the kingdom of God, the victory of the seekers of light and perfection, sādhūnām, and the overthrow of those who fight for the continuance of the evil and the darkness.”
~ CWSA, Vol. 19, pp. 159-160
On a deeper, spiritual level this external Avatārhood is a sign, in the symbol of a human life, of the eternal inner Godhead making himself manifest in the field of our own human mentality and corporeality so that we can grow into unity with that and be possessed by it. In other words, the divine manifestation of an Avatāra in human form signifies and reveals that that which has been done in the outer human life of earth, may be repeated in the inner life of all human beings.
Through the practice of Jñāna Yoga, one who knows the right truth of the Divine’s Avatārhood, the descent of the Divine in Krishna’s human body, and the Avatār’s divine work, is released from the circle of rebirth and reaches the Divine’s Abode, says Sri Krishna to Arjuna. Such a person is full of Divine-consciousness. Delivered from like-dislike, and fear and wrath, such beings take refuge in the Divine. Purified by an austerity of knowledge they are always identified with the Divine’s nature of being.
It must be noted that the way to reach the real knowledge and the real liberation as declared by Sri Krishna in these verses is not exclusive but inclusive of all paths. This is also so because of the universal nature of the Divine Avatārhood.
“For the Divine takes up into his universality all Avatārs and all teachings and all dharmas…Nor does it matter essentially in what form and name or putting forward what aspect of the Divine he comes; for in all ways, varying with their nature, men are following the path set to them by the Divine which will in the end lead them to him and the aspect of him which suits their nature is that which they can best follow when he comes to lead them; in whatever way men accept, love and take joy in God, in that way God accepts, loves and takes joy in man.”
~ ibid., pp. 174-176
Action as Sacrifice
Connecting the path of knowledge with the path of action, Sri Krishna, in the next few verses reiterates the true understanding of the way of works. So thick and tangled is the way of works in the world, like a deep forest, gahana, he says, that even the sages have been perplexed and deluded as to what is action, what is wrong action, and what is inaction. He speaks of the action by which one is released from all ills.
The one who in action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in cessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment, says Sri Krishna. The reference here is to the Sānkhya distinction “between the free inactive soul, eternally calm, pure and unmoved in the midst of works, and ever active Nature operative as much in inertia and cessation as in the overt turmoil of her visible hurry of labour.” (p. 178). True rationality and the highest effort of the discriminating reason, the buddhi, can help one see this distinction.
A bewildered thinker who continues to judge life and works by the external, uncertain and impermanent distinctions of the lower reason remains perplexed. A liberated person, being free from the will of desire and knowing that the Divine is the lord of all his works, undertakes all types of works but his works are burned up by the fire of knowledge.
The mind of such a person remains without any stain from action, calm, silent, unperturbed, clean and pure. Such a worker has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of his/her works. Ever satisfied and without any kind of dependence, such human beings continue to engage in action as per their nature.
Such a person is a many-sided universal worker and works for the good of the world, for God in the world. With no personal hopes, he or she does not seize on things as personal possessions. He or she heart and self under perfect control, performs action as an instrument alone, and therefore, does not commit sin. An important point to note here is that as per Sri Aurobindo, sin is not an externally imposed moralistic notion; rather the correct meaning of sin is the misapplication of natural faculties.
The works of a yogin who is above the dualities, is perfectly equal in attitude towards failure and success, has his mind, heart and spirit firmly founded in self-knowledge, and is free from attachment and envy, are dissolved and thus do not bind him.
The liberated yogin has the knowledge of entire unity of the Brahman. He or she knows that the Brahman is the manifest doer, the deed and the object of works; Brahman indeed is also the knower, the knowledge and the object of knowledge.
Brahman is the universal energy into which all the action is poured, the consecrated energy of the giving is also Brahman, whatever is offered is only some form of the Brahman, and the giver of the offering is the Brahman itself in man. Thus the action, the work, the sacrifice is itself the Brahman in movement, in activity. And the goal to be reached by sacrifice is also Brahman. It is with this knowledge the liberated man engages in action as sacrifice.