Page:Essays On The Gita - Ghose - 1922.djvu/278

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ESSAYS ON THE GITA

Equality too there will be with regard to the action of others upon us. Nothing that they can do, will alter the inner oneness, love, sympathy which arises fromr the perception of the one self in all, the Divine in all beings. Buta resigned forbearance and submission to them and their deeds, a passive non-resistance, will be no necessary part of the action; it cannot be, since a constant instrumental obedience to the divine and uni- versal Will must mean in the shock of opposite forces that fill the world a conflict with personal wills which seck rather their own egoistic satisfaction. Therefore Arjuna is bidden to resist, to fight, to conquer; but, to fight without hatred or personal desire or personal enmity or antagonism, since to the liberated soul these feelings are impossible. To act for the lokasangraha, im- personally, for the keeping and leading of the peoples on the path to the divine goal, is a rule which rises necess- arily from the oneness of the soul with the Divine, the universal Being, since that is the whole sense and drift of the universal action. Nor does it conflict with our oneness with all beings, even those who present them- selves here as opponents - and enemies. For the divine goal is their goal also, since it is the secret aim of all, even of those whose outward minds, misled by ignor- ance and egoism, would wander from the path and resist the impulsion. Resistance and defeat are the best out- ward service that can be done to them. By this percep- tion the Gita avoids the limiting conclusion which might have been drawn from a doctrine of equality imprac- ticably overriding all relations and of a weakening love without knowledge, while it keeps the one thing essential unimpaired. For the soul oneness with all, for the heart