The End of Sorrow

by Eknath Easwaran

  Every time a great incarnation comes to us, even today, it is not to bring new truths or to establish a new religion. In fact, they do not come to teach us but to remind us of what we have forgotten – that we are neither our body nor our mind, neither our intellect nor our ego, but pure love, eternal and immutable. Any suffering inflicted on others is suffering inflicted on ourselves; any joy given to others is joy that will permeate our own consciousness.

  25. The ignorant work for their own profit, O Bharata; the wise work for the welfare of others, without thought for themselves.

  It is difficult to persuade people not to go after personal profit, pleasure, prestige, or power, because it is asking them to go against the conditioning to which they have been subjected. The word “rebel” is often misused by our modern mass media. It takes a tremendous amount of endurance and an enormous faith in the Lord within to rebel. Playing games with our appearance is not rebellion. Real rebellion is going against our selfish desires and sense cravings. One of the greatest rebels in the world, Jesus, tells us: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.” When the Buddha encourages us to seek nirvana, he is raising the banner of real rebellion. He is asking us to blow out our self-will, to extinguish our limited, selfish personality. To help others understand the truth of rebellion, it is of little avail to put pressure on them. The best way of influencing others is to show by our personal example how the spiritual life adds to the unity of the family, the peace of the neighborhood, and the security of the country. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, whom he calls Bharata, the ‘representative of India’: “If you want to influence India, remove all that is selfish, all that is calculating, all that seeks self-aggrandizement in yourself, and you will help the whole country, from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari.”

  I can testify to the incredible influence one little man, Gandhi, exercised over all of India. He lived in utter simplicity in a one-room hermitage, and yet he received everybody with the same love and respect, whether it happened to be a member of the British cabinet or a sweeper from Sevagram. When India became independent, the offices of president and prime minister were his for the asking; but he declined, saying that he wanted no reward, that he had worked for Indian independence in order to show the world how even the greatest of international problems can be solved nonviolently. On the night when all India celebrated independence, Gandhi went into prayer.

  As the result of Gandhi’s contribution, people are taking nonviolence seriously all over the world; fortunately, it has become an important force even on our campuses today. In our own lives, if we want to find the joy of living in peace, we have to establish peace first in our hearts and our homes. We start by cultivating perfect love between all the members of our family; then we extend this love to the members of our community, and by expanding our love ever so gradually, we finally bring the whole world into its embrace.

  26. By abstaining from work you will confuse the ignorant, who are engrossed in their actions; perform all work selflessly, guided by compassion.

  This is a very simple verse, yet far-reaching in its application to our lives. Sri Krishna is telling Arjuna, “You are always influencing others, not only your dear ones but also your antagonists.” On the one hand, when we hate our enemies, we are helping them hate us more; when we attack them, we are encouraging them to attack us back. On the other hand, when we forgive them, we are helping them forgive us, and when we move closer to them, we are drawing them closer to us.

  Gandhi was always at his best with those who thought they were his mortal enemies. His favorite hymn, “Vaishnavajanito,” reminds us in its refrain that he is a true lover of the Lord who returns love for hatred. All we need to do to love the Lord is love those that hate us and be compassionate with those who strike out against us. When we develop the capacity to love those whom we hate, we will be united with the Lord through his grace.

  27. All actions are performed by the gunas of prakriti; deluded by his identification with the ego, a man thinks, “I am the doer.”

  Prakriti is the word used for anything that changes, anything that is impermanent, anything that is born and will die one day. The entire physical universe is within the realm of prakriti. The body is prakriti, which means that just as it was born one day, it will die one day. The Buddha, in one of his very tender moments, will tell those around him in reference to his body, “This house was assembled one day, and it has to be disassembled one day; what is there in this to grieve about?”

  It is because we identify ourselves obsessively with the body that the very thought of dismantling the house fills us with terror. Last week, on our way to class from our home in Oakland, we saw a gracious old home which could have served a useful purpose for many decades. When we were passing by the next day it was gone. I could not help feeling a little sense of grief, because a beautiful home had been demolished. In this way we do feel a detached sense of loss when the house in which one of our dear ones lived has been dismantled. But if we can realize that we are not the house, but the dweller within it, we will lose our terrible fear of death.

  The relationship between prakriti, the body, and purusha, our real Self, may be explained with the homely metaphor of old clothes (see Gita 2:22). This coat that I am wearing is still rather new, only five years old. At the end of ten years, which is its natural span of life, when I have to discard it, I quietly take it off, throw it into the give-away box, and put on a new one. When I throw away this old jacket, I am not going to say, “My heart is broken; my old jacket is gone.” I will say, “Yes, it has served its useful purpose; now I will get a new one.”

  Another important word used in this verse is guna, which denotes the three ultimate constituents of prakriti. The first is sattva, or law; the second is rajas, or energy; the third is tamas, or inertia. In each of us there is a different combination of sattva, rajas, and tamas. No one is entirely free from sattva; there is no one who cannot be selfless. You will find some of the most objectionable characters suddenly becoming very selfless towards their pet parrot or raccoon. Everyone can suddenly reveal himself in innocence.

  The second guna, rajas, is predominant in many of us in the modern world. It is energy, restlessness, desire. This energy and restlessness, when directed inward, can help us progress rapidly on the spiritual path.

  The third factor is tamas, which is inertia or lethargy. “What does it matter? Let the world go” – this is the attitude of tamas. Such an attitude is the opposite of spiritual wisdom. Everything matters on the spiritual path; it is little things, when put together, that amount to a great change. We may feel that we are small people, but working together, we are tremendous. In the realization that each of us can make a definite contribution to the world about us, tamas disappears. Gandhi, inspired by the Gita, tells us that evil has no existence of its own. We support it; that is why it exists. His program of noncooperation was based on his conviction that evil would cease to exist if we would withdraw our support from it. This knowledge enables us to transform tamas into rajas, rajas into sattva, and finally to go beyond all three gunas.

  Our real Self, the Atman or purusha, exists outside the realm of change and the three gunas. It is ever pure, ever free. But, deluded by self-will, we remain unaware of the Atman and identify ourselves with the mind and body, which are subject to change. It is helpful, even when we cannot realize it completely, to remind ourselves that we are not the mind. It is the mind that is angry, it is the mind that is afraid, it is the mind that is selfish, not our real Self. That is why the Buddha says, “Take the mind and throw it out.” It is very easy to say this, but extremely difficult to do. Yesterday I saw a boy at the ashram playing with a new toy. I asked him what he was playing with, and he explained: “It’s a yo-yo. You just can’t get rid of the thing!” This is the ego; you throw it anywhere and it will come back to you. No amount of saying “I am going to throw this far away” will eliminate the ego.

  The surest way of reducing self-will is
to begin to put the welfare of those around us first, to love others more than we love ourselves. We must not love only those who love us; we must learn to love our enemies as well. It is good to forgive those who have offended us. As St. Francis says, he who has not learned to forgive has lost the greatest source of joy in life. If, through the practice of meditation and the repetition of the mantram, we can forgive others from the depths of our being and transform our attitude towards them into selfless love, we will immediately be able to forgive our own mistakes and drawbacks. The more we forgive others, the more the Lord, who is within, forgives us.

  28. But the illumined man or woman understands the domain of the gunas and is not attached. Such people know that the gunas interact with each other; they do not claim to be the doer.

  29. Those who are deluded by the operation of the gunas become attached to the results of their action. Those who understand these truths should not unsettle the ignorant.

  The theory of the three gunas tells us about the nature of our desires. When we have desires which require urgent satisfaction, none of us, no matter what he tries to do, can divest himself of the belief that he is these desires. If only we could jump out of this little circle of desires and look at any one desire, we would realize that it is not ours at all, because our real nature is ever full. Our real nature, the Atman, can admit of no desire, and when we say “I desire this,” “I cannot be happy without this,” we are making statements which are metaphorical. When I first arrived here from India, I was not used to automobiles. I have some acquaintance with them now, but the phrases that people use about automobiles used to strike me as rather puzzling. When I first heard someone saying, “I am out of gas,” I did not understand that he was talking about his car. Most of our statements which begin with “I desire” are in this category. This is what Sri Krishna is sending deep into Arjuna’s consciousness. When we say, “I desire money, material possessions, pleasure, power,” Sri Krishna says we are the victim of our own language.

  The Lord tells Arjuna that when the senses and sense objects see one another, they are just drawn to each other. You and I have no part in this; we are neutral. This is such a compassionate, humorous, and factual observation, and Arjuna is so enraptured by it, that he begins to understand that we actually do not participate in any selfish desire or sensory attraction. We wrongly identify ourselves with these desires because we have been conditioned to do so in our home, by our friends, and by the mass media.

  Attraction and aversion are closely related; they are the extremes of a pendulum. We are tied to what we hate; we cannot help thinking about people we hate. Naturally we think about those whom we love, but we also dwell on those we hate. As long as we believe we are our desires, we have to be a party in the quarrel of attraction and aversion, very often on the wrong side. But as our mind becomes less and less agitated through the practice of meditation, we shall see, to our great surprise, that we are just spectators. Once we understand this, we are free from the clamor of the senses, and they can no longer drag us into their quarrel of attraction and aversion.

  When the senses and sense objects draw each other, do not be afraid that you will be swept away. Your desires may look towering, but through the grace of the Lord of Love within, you can learn to master even the greatest of them. In trying to release yourself from your involvement in the attraction and repulsion between the senses and sense objects, it is necessary to be very vigilant for a long time. It is by yielding to small desires that you are drawn gradually into greater desires. Today, for example, we took our nieces to the circus, and when we went in, everyone had a carton of popcorn. Someone very unsophisticated – someone, say, from a village in India – seeing that everyone has a ticket in one hand and popcorn in the other, might actually think that you couldn’t be admitted without popcorn. Our nieces had some, and to keep them company, I ate a little also. Then, after eating the popcorn, I got thirsty. I hadn’t expected this. But the salesboys, who had expected it, were right there selling cold drinks; and later, outside, the cigarette merchant was waiting too.

  In the second line of this verse, Sri Krishna is reminding us, through Arjuna, that we should not disturb people by preaching at them; it is much easier to influence others through our personal example. When Gandhi was observing his day of silence, someone once asked him for a message. He just wrote, “My life is my message.” This is true of us also. We are always influencing those around us by our daily life, and when we try to lead the spiritual life, putting those around us first, we cannot help but win them over in the end.

  30. Completely absorbed in the Atman, without expectations, and free from the fever of the ego, fight your self-will, performing all actions for my sake.

  You may remember in the first chapter where Arjuna, like you and me, says, “Why should I govern my passions, why should I reduce my self-will?” and refuses to fight. Sri Krishna now tells him, “You are not well now; you are suffering from the fever of self-will. But when your fever has subsided, get ready to fight. Do your very best: meditate regularly, try to restrain your senses, and put the welfare of those around you first.” In other words, Sri Krishna reminds us, we are all likely to make mistakes on the spiritual path, and we can be overcome by regret. But rather than regretting our mistakes, it is much more useful to forget the past and keep marching forward with renewed enthusiasm.

  Sri Ramakrishna often refers to the fever of the ego from which all of us suffer to some degree. In many of us it is only a little above normal – ninety-nine degrees. We get on very well in life; we are loved and respected. But when the temperature begins to rise above one hundred, we become more and more dangerous, not only to ourselves but to the family and community in which we dwell. When we suffer from this fever, we become blind to the needs of those around us and to the unity of life.

  Adhyatmacetasa means completely absorbed in the Atman. This complete absorption can happen to all of us as our meditation deepens through the grace of the Lord. We may be enabled to go through all of the last eighteen verses of the second chapter of the Gita, for example, without our mind wandering once, without falling asleep once. This indicates that we have reached a profound state of concentration in which there is unbroken continuity of meditation. When such a state is attained, those verses have become an integral part of our consciousness, and the proof of it will be seen in our life. When suffering comes, we are not agitated, because we are equal to it. All our compassion, which has been misspent on ourselves, now goes to the person who has caused us sorrow. When desires come, we do not identify ourselves with them; we are masters of our desires. If they are selfless, we welcome them; if they are selfish, we defy them with equal joy. We have gained freedom from selfish attachments, fear, and anger.

  Nirashi means having no expectations; it is only when you have expectations that you have disappointments, get frustrated, become insecure, and try to manipulate others. Here Sri Krishna is giving Arjuna very strong counsel. He says, “Whatever I give, accept it gratefully: say yes if it is joy, say yes if it is sorrow. Then you will be free.” Gradually you will find that as you detach yourself from the results of your actions and stop worrying about results, you are able to concentrate better on your work. “If you want to give your best in any selfless service,” the Lord says, “choose the right goal, use right means, and don’t think about results; leave them to Me.”

  31. Those who live in accordance with these divine laws with an unwavering sense of purpose, firmly established in faith, are released from karma.

  The teaching which Sri Krishna gives to Arjuna contains the divine laws of existence, which are inscribed deep in our consciousness, written in the very cells of every creature. It is because these laws are within us that we suffer so much when we try to break them. As someone wisely said, we cannot break God’s laws; we can only break ourselves against them. Here the appeal of the Gita lies not in forcing us, saying thou shalt or thou shalt not, but in presenting us with two alternatives: one leading to abi
ding joy, unassailable security, and an enormous capacity for contributing to the welfare of others, and the other leading to sorrow, insecurity, and the suffering of those around us. The Lord tells Arjuna, “If you cannot shake yourself free from the fever of the ego, you will become a curse on the face of the earth. But if you can turn your back upon your own pleasure, profit, and prestige, and devote yourself to enriching your family, community, and world, you will become a great blessing to all.”

  Thus all of us have the choice, in whatever country we live, whatever position we occupy, to live for ourselves or to live for others. The choice is left entirely to us. If we live for others, we live in complete harmony with the laws of life, bringing joy to those around us and to ourselves. If we live only for ourselves, as most of us are conditioned to do, we will plunge ourselves and all those around us into misery.

  With the words mucyante te ‘pi karmabhih, “they also are released from karma,” Sri Krishna makes a promise, a promise that has been fulfilled in the lives of many who have surrendered to the Lord. When we devote ourselves completely to the service of all, our families’ needs are provided for by the Lord, who knows how to look after them better than we do. Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that if he will throw himself wholeheartedly into the service of mankind, he will be released from the responsibility of working for personal needs; these become the Lord’s responsibility.