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BRAHMANISM
father, as a Brahman or as a warrior, in the performance of the orthodox rituals, in dispensing charity, or in whatever else the work of virtue may chance to be. "One should not give up the activity to which one is born (sahajam karma: the duty incumbent on one through birth, caste, profession), even though this should be attended by evil; for all undertakings are enveloped by evil, as is fire by smoke." "7
The earthly plane is the sphere of imperfection, by definition as it were. Perfection, stainless purity, is to be reached only through disentanglement from the manifest sphere of the gunas 78 -a spiritual progress that dissolves the individual, the mask of the personality and all the forms of action that pertain to it, in the undefiled, undifferentiated, anonymous, absolutely changeless realm of the Self. Meanwhile, however, the duties and obligations of the life into which one was born are those that are to be clung to. "Better one's own life-task and duty (dharma), though worthless and destitute of qualities (vi-guņa), than the duty of another well-performed. He who performs the activities (karma kurvan) dictated by his inborn nature [which are identical with those of his place in society] incurs no stain." "
Even a person born into an unclean caste (a sweeper, an undertaker, for example) should hold to the inherited career. By performing the work as well as possible, in the ordained way, he becomes a perfect, virtuous member of society; breaking loose and intruding upon other people's duties, on the other hand, he would become guilty of disturbing the sacred order. Even the harlot, as we have seen,80 though indeed within the hierarchy of society she is far below the state of the virtuous housewife, nevertheless, if she fulfills to perfection the moral code of her despicable profession, participates in the trans-in
77 Ib. 18. 48.
78 For the gunas, cf. supra, pp. 295-297.
79 Bhagavad Gitā 18. 47.
80 Supra, pp. 161-162.
| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |