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1198
GÍTA-RAHASYA OR KARMA-YOGA
nowe W.
mivo
v
ironsmith, the potter, or even the butcher, who sells flesh. And, if it is said that Release cannot be obtained unless Action is abandoned, then, all these people will have to give up their respective business, and become ascetics! People, who adhere to the Path of Abandonment of Action (karma-sainyāsa) do not attach much importance to this; but, the vision of the Gītā is not narrow like that. Therefore, the Gītā says that, it is not proper for a person to give up the profession which has befallen him as a result of his status-in-life (adhikāra), and take up the profession of somebody else, on the ground that it is better. Whatever profession is taken, there is bound to be some weak point or other in it. For instance, that "kşānti (forgiveness), which is considered to be specially proper for a Brahmin (18. 42), has attached to it the great fault that "a person, who is forgiving, is looked upon as weak” (Ma. Bhā. Sān. 160. 34); and it is a misfortune that one has to sell: flesh, if he follows the business of a butcher (Ma. Bhā. Vana. 206); but it is not proper, on that account, to give up these Actions. When once one has accepted a particular Action as one's own, for whatever reason one may have done so*, one must perform it, unattachedly, however difficult or undesirable it might be; because, the greatness or smallness of a man does not depend on the profession he follows; and his worth, from the spiritual point of view, depends on the frame of mind with which he follows that profession or performs 'that Action (GI. 2. 49). Though a man, having a peaceful mind and having realised the Unity, which underlies the entire creation, may be a merchant or a butcher, whether by caste or by profession, yet, if he follows his profession with a desireless frame of mind, he is as much entitled to Release, and is as great as the Brahmin, who is engaged in ablutions and religious duties, or the brave warrior, Not only is this so, but it is clearly stated in stanza 49, that the Release
This is difficult to understand. There can be only onereason for accepting the Action, namely, that it is Sastra-ordained? (niyata Translator.
