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do not tend to purify the soul and even the pleasures which they secure are shortlived and do not purify the soul. This is one thing. Another thing is, this sort of action creates a division between man and man, for in such cases where the aim of one man clashes with aims of the other man, there is bound to be a conflict which is supposed to be source of a breach of peace. The most important defect in such actions is that it keeps the man or the doer tied down to worldly prospects and does not help to make it pure in order to rise up to higher and purer regions. These are the natural defects of the Sakāma Karma which prevailed in the Vedic age. Śrīkļşņa raised his voice against this Sakāma Karma in ancient India and pleaded very strongly in favour of Nişkāma Karma i. e. disinterested action or action which aims at self-purification and attainment of supreme truth. In order to keep free from the evil effects of Sakāma Karma, there rose a school in ancient India that raised their voices against the performance of action altogether. These people represented the extreme Samnyāsis who were recluses of some sort or the other. Srikrýpa found that the two currents were contradictory to each other. The current followed by the householders is in favour of Sakāma Karma in a householder's life which leads to heaven and rebirth. The other current is that of the recluses who have left their houses in search of Supreme Truth and are deadly against the performance of any Karma at all. Both these currents were really anti-social. Śrīkss a suggested a path which lies midway between the two opposite currents. He said that the true path lies between these extremes. He was not in favour of renunciation of positive life and search for wisdom in caves and forests. He also was deadly against the poisonous effect of desire in all human activities, in consistency with the metaphysical background which pleads for Uttama Puruşa or Puruşottama i.e. Paramātmā as combining together, the opposite elements of Kșara Purușa as well as Akşara Puruşa, so he suggested that the best elements of two courses should be brought together in a single path which he named Nişkāma Karmayoga. He said that Karma should be retained, so also renunciation and, for this he suggested the renun
