Copernican Reversal: The Giitaakaaras Reformulation of Karma

·期刊原文

Copernican Reversal: The Giitaakaara's Reformulation of Karma

Richard De Smet, S. J.

A Philosophy East and West

Vol.27 No.1 (January 1977) pp.53-56

Copyright By University of Hawaii Press

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The originality of the Giitaakaara's doctrine of karma has often been stated. The intention of this article is to demonstrate it on the basis of his adoption of monotheism as the cornerstone of his teaching and of his consequently new analysis of karma.

THE PREVIOUS CONCEPTIONS OF KARMA

The date of the Bhagavacigiitaa cannot be fixed absolutely but we may not be far wrong in situating it during the first post-A`sokan century, that is, roughly around 200 B.C. Scholars have provided a number of extrinsic reasons which converge toward such dating, and I have recently shown the intrinsic consistency which accrues to Giitaa-hermeneutics within the historical perspective opened up by It.[1] It means in particular that the GiItaAkaara's religiophilosophical landscape comprised not only the Vedas and Upani.sads, early Saa^mkhya and Yoga, ritualistic Brahmanism and var.na-dharma, but also Buddhism, Jainism (though we find only two probable allusions to it in the (Giitaa), the Naaraaya.na sects (Ekaantins, Bhaagavatas, and Paa~ncaraatras), the Rudra sect of the Paa`supatas (`Svetaa`svatara Upani.sad is quoted at least in XIII, 13) and the cult of Sa^nkar.sa.naK.r.s.na of the Mathura region. This implies that he must have been familiar with the different conceptions of karma which were upheld in this diversity.

The Vedic Conception

Karma, here, is the ritual act, essentially the yaj~naa (sacrifice), which consists in feeding and praising the devas so that they may be strong and happy in pursuing their task of maintaining .rta. .Rta (truth, fixed ideal pattern) is the ideal state of the universe in good running order; it can be altered damageably by an.rta. Karma, therefore, has an objective cosmic end: the preservation of .rta and overcoming of an.rta. As integral to yaj~na, this end does not depend on any particular desire (kaama) of the sacrificer (yajamaana) and the sacrifice while having an assured cosmic result remains ni.skaama (alien to desire). It is simply prescribed by the Vedic command (codanaa).

However, certain sacrifices are optional (kaamya). They are to be performed only if someone desires a particular fruit (phala), say heaven (svargakaamo yajeta). In this case, the sacrifice is preceded by desire (sakaama), and its outcome is a subjective end, the phala.

Accordingly, we have the two following schemata:

Vedic Schema A

codanaa
→ ritual karma
→ cosmic .rta
　

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Vedic Schema B

kaama
→ ritual karma
→ individual phala

The Upani.sadic Conception

This is a new conception in which karma is no longer sacrifice, but any human action qualifiable as good or bad is followed by pleasant or unpleasant rebirth (punarjanma). It appears as an importation from K.satriya wisdom (confer, Chaand. V, 3) which, at least for a time, remains esoteric (B.rh. 111,2,12) and reaches no great height of sophistication. ''According as one acts ... so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes bad. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, evil by evil action" (B.rh. IV, 4,5). This is an elementary observation common enough to all religions. But an important analysis follows immediately: "As is man's desire, such is his resolve (kratu); as is his resolve, such is the deed he does; whatever deed he does, that he attains" (ibid.). And the supporting `sloka adds the following further precisions : (i) that the mind thus becomes attached (sakta) to the object of the desire that has been acted upon, (ii) that consequently the migrating subtle self(li^nga) moves fettered with the result of that action, and (iii) after death comes again to this world for renewing the same type of desired action. These are the links between kaama and punarjanma (confer, ibid. IV, 4, 6). Chaand V, 10, 7-8 details the types of rebirth to be expected, and `Svet. V, 11, 12 makes it clear that the variety of the doer's attachments commands a succession of diverse rebirths. Ka.tha. V, 7 and Kau.sii. I, 2 mention that rebirth is not only according to deeds but also according to knowledge (yathaa vidyam or yathaa `srutam), but this insight is not exploited further. Let us now schematize all this:

Schema C

kaama
→ kratu
→ ethical karma
→ sakti
→ punavjanma

The Jaina Conception

The Jainism of Mahaaviira appears historically against a background of materialistic `Srama.nism. For the Lokaayatas, actions are only manifestations of the mutability of matter which is determined by necessity (niyati) and chance (sa^ngati). Their fruits are equally material and determined. Man's alleged freedom is a mere epiphenomenon. He is really without personal power of free decision and without moral responsibility. Virtue and sin, merit and demerit are empty words; penance and other endeavors toward liberation (mok.sa) are absurd. No action (kriyaa) of man can change his destiny to which death puts a ineluctabie stop. Thus the materialists' akuiyaavaada denies any transmaterial efficacy of action.

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The Jina's kriyaavaada, on the contrary, affirms it but remains embroiled in physicalism. The jiiva or true self is of itself purely spiritual but actually imprisoned in a material organism (including senses, voice, and mind) of ajiiva or physical matter, Actions of senses, voice and even mind are but displacements of a subtler matter called karma. It is a kind of atomic dye-stuff which infiltrates (aa`srava) into the jiiva, colors it from black to white passing through the intermediaries, blue, grey, yellow and pink, and thus infects it with a karmic body (kaarma.na-kaaya), which conditions its rebirth. Its liberation (nirvaa.na), however, can be attained through a process of ''dekarmanization," which hastens its complete dematerialization. This process is twofold: first, checking the inflow of new karma (sa.mvara) and, second, causing the accumulated karma to fall off(nirjaraa). Accordingly, the discipline prescribed consists of twelve types of austerities (tapas), five mahaavratas (great vows), which put a check to five types of vicious actions (violence, false speech; theft, sexual indulgence, and greedy possession), three restraints (gupti), and ten pious duties (dharma). Thus the influence of passions (ka.saaya) comes to an end and all karma is extruded. The ideal is to abstain from all possible actions. The Jaina schema is as follows:

Schema D

Jiiva in ajiiva
→ ka.saaya
→ kriyaa
→ karma
aa`srava
→ kaarma.na
`sariira
→ punar-
janma

The Buddhistic Conception

It has been said--without tenderness to Jainism--that Jina like a wounded dog gnawed the arrow of karma embedded in his living self, thus increasing his torture, whereas the lionlike Buddha went straight to the hunter T.r.s.naa and killed him. Buddha, indeed, sought for the root cause of existential misery in order to suppress it. He found it in the triple thirst (t.r.s.naa) for pleasure, for existence and for nonexistence, whose very quenching ever leads to renewed frustration. T.r.s.naa, indeed, engenders attachment (upaadaana) out of which arises karma and the whole of active existence (bhava), which terminates in old age (jaraa) and death (mara.na), only to reappear in a new birth. On reflection, however, t.r.s.naa itself appears to be conditioned by sensation (vedanaa), following upon sense-contact (spar`sa), and contact is conditioned by the six senses (.sa.daayatana), which depend on the psychophysical organism (naama-ruupa). In a nonmaterialistic theory of rebirth, the conceiving of that organism appears to be conditioned by a consciousness or individuated mass of knowledge (vij~naana), itself consequent upon accumulated impressions (sa.mskaara), deriving from karmic experiences which finally imply a basic ignorance (avidyaa).

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Such is the sophisticated statement of Consequential Origination (pratiityasamutpaada) which, it is said, sums up the Buddha's whole doctrine (dharma). Its recurrent concatenation of twelve conditidning-conditioned elements may be simplified as follows:

Schema E

avidyaa of previous birth
→ sa.mskaaras
→ vij~naana
→ naamaruupa of new birth
→ spar`sa
→
→ vedanaa
→ t.r.s.naa
→ upaadaana
→ Karma
→ du.hkhabhava
→
→ punarjanma

The knowledge of this sequential chain leads to niv.rtti, the relinquishing of activity. The Buddhist should first abandon evil actions and practice virtuous behavior (`siila), but as soon as possible, he should devote himself, preferably as a recluse, to concentration (samaadhi or dhyaana) and the acquisition of wisdom (prajnnaa). An essential part of this wisdom will be anaatma-vaada, that is, the conviction that belief in a jiiva-like aatman is totally absurd since human existence is perfectly explained by pratiitya-samutpaada without any recourse to such anentity. This will bring about perfect stillness.

The conceptions of karma analyzed so far may be called horizontal. Except perhaps for codanaa in schema A, they include no vertical, transcendent element but remain at the level of the physical or psychological factors. On that level, there appears no way of freeing karma from the determinism implied especially in schema C and D or man from his bondage to karma, except the sterilizing decision to withdraw from one's social and other duties and even from all activity.

THE GIITAAKAARA'S REFORMULATION OF KARMA

In the time of the Giitaakaara, India is the prey of deep tensions regarding karma. Brahmanic society demands that the old pattern of Vedic and secular duties be adhered to, but the new `Sramanic dharmas continue to undermine its sanaatana dharma through their ideal of nonviolence (ahi^msaa), monastic renunciation (sa^nnyaasa) and actionlessness (nai.skarmya). This rivalry of dharmas has brought about utter uncertainty and confusion. Ki.m karma? Kim akarma? Kavayo 'py atra mohitaa.h: What is action? What is actionlessness? In this

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matter even the sages are perplexed (BhG. IV, 16). Can they be redefined so as to bring about a reconciliation? Can they be taken up into a vaster framework in which they will lose their contrariety? It is to accomplish this task that the Giitaakaara composes the Bhagavadgiitaa.

The Divine Paradigm of Karma

The horizontal analyses of karma had been worked out on the sole data of man's psychological experience of his own action. But the essential nature of action as such cannot be unveiled unless all types of action, even the most universal, are taken into account. The genius of the Giitaakaara is patent in his assumption of K.r.s.na-monotheism, which provides him with the archetype and paradigm of all actions, the universal and transcendent activity of the Lord.

1.Whatever the noblest does, that too will others do: the standard (pramaa.na) that he sets all the world will follow. In the three worlds there is nothing that I (K.r.s.na) need do, nor anything unattained that I need to gain, yet work [is the element] in which I move. For if I were not tirelessly to busy Myself with works, then would men everywhere follow in my footsteps. If I were not to do my work, these worlds would fall to ruin, and I should be a worker of confusion, destroying these creatures.

2.I generated the system of the four var.nas imparting them distinguishing qualities and duties (karma); know Me as the creator of this and yet as the changeless non-doer. Works do not affect Me. I have no yearning for fruits of work (karmaphala). IV, 13-14)

3.These works neither bind-nor-limit Me: as one indifferent I sit among these works, detached. (IX, 9) These three core-passages express the essence of divine activity: (1) it is the norm and model (pramaa.na) of all worldly actions; (2) its field is not God Himself but the three worlds, the whole universe; (3) its goal and purpose is the preservation of the universe from ruin and the maintenance of its orderly course, including the structural organization of human society; (4) though purposeful, it yields no phala, that is, no personal fruit intended to be gained by its agent; (5) hence, it is perfectly ni.skaama, unconditioned by desire and nonbinding; (6) thus it arises from no need or compulsion but only from the Lord's free kindness toward the world of his making; (7) it does not alterate his immutability because it creates in him neither attachment nor limit nor bondage and neither increase nor decrease; (8) therefore, he remains the ideal udaasin (indifferent), in whom is found the reconciliation of karma and akarma : though truly Doer, he is through his changelessness the Non-Doer.

The explanation of the manner of the Lord's activity is heavily Saa^nkhya but monotheized Saa^nkhya. The Lord acts harmoniously through His power

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and intelligence, that is, in Giitaa terms, through His maayaa and yoga. Maavaa in its chief Vedic sense of 'extraordinary, wonderful, and even creative power' is an excellent term to denote the Lord's mysterious omnipotence. In the Giitaa, it also takes on secondary connotations so as to imply that divine power is uncanny, hard to know, hard to transcend, unrevealing, veiling but not illusory for it is identified with the quite realistic prak.rti. Prak.rti is not simply material nature, for this is only inferior (aparaa) prak.rti characterized by its three gu.nas or complementary (though contrary) functions. Higher (paraa) prak.rti is jiiva-bhuutaa (VII, 5), that is, become or manifested as Jiivas (souls) also called dehis, `sariiris, puru.sas. This twofoldness of prak.rti does away with the Saa^nkhya dualism of puru.sa and prak.rti. As twofold, it is also designated as mahadbrahman, 'great brahman' and this is said to be the womb in which K.r.s.na plants the seed from which derives the origin of all beings (XIV, 3). These notions are amplified, for example, in VII, 4-15 in which K.r.s.na reasserts his independence: "Know that all states of being, of whatever gu.na of prak.rti they be constituted, proceed from Me; but I am not in them, they are in Me" (VIV, 12). Indeed, "Prak.rti is Mine," says the Lord (for example, IV, 6) and he often speaks of his aatma-maayaa, his own divine Power.

In connection with this power, he also speaks of his yoga (VII, 25, X, 7; and so on). This we must understand according to the definition of yoga (whose linguistic prototype is the Buddhistic upaya-kau`sala, the Buddha's 'cleverness in using means') which he gave in II, 50. "yoga is skill in works"(yoga.h karmasu kau`salam). His yoga, therefore, is the wisdom which imbues the exercise of his power in creating, preserving, energizing, and directing all his creatures.

In particular, he is the changeless Source of all change, the originating Principle of all creaturely actions. Hence, no creature is the absolute author of its own actions, whatever be the individual way in which it channelizes the divine influx. The Lord is the true Agent, the creature the mere occasion (nimitta-maatram: XI, 33); and this, not only because his prak.rti constrains all (XVIII, 59) while he supervises it (IX, 10), but because "in the region of the heart of all contingent beings dwells the Lord, twirling them hither and thither by his uncanny power (maayaa) [like puppets] mounted on a machine" (XVTII, 61). This easily misunderstood statement does not aim at denying these beings' freedom--does not K.r.s.na appeal to Arjuna's freedom, especially in XVIlI, 63, and is not the whole Giitaa a schooling to freedom?--but at setting forth forcefully the vertical dimension of creaturely action by which it is rooted in God's own action.

This is the Copernican revolution wrought by the Giitaakaara. Whereas his predecessors used to see worldly activity as centered on man and revolving around him, he centers it on the one sovereign God. And eagle-eyed, he focuses on his Lord's work to reinterpret man's work.

Such is, then, the schema of divine Karma :

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Schema F

free ni.skaama kindness
→ Yoga Maayaa =Prak.rti
→ divine universal Karma
→ Loka-sa.mgraha

↓

creaturely karmas

The Recentering of Human Karma

Once we know the divine paradigm which presents clearly the ideal essence of karma and are aware that our activity can only be an unavoidable chanelling of divine activity, it becomes possible and imperative to conform our actions to that model and to purify them from all accretions which mar their pure essence.

In leading man toward this awareness and conversion, the Giitaakaara is not abrupt but, as a good pedagogue, starts from the view of action which previous speculations have made the common one in his time. This view is essentially that karma is necessarily conditioned by an antecedent kaama and ineluctably followed by a corresponding individual phala to be requited in this or in a subsequent birth (punarjanma). Hence, all actions bind, good ones to a pleasant fruit, bad ones to a painful one (see VI, 41-45 for dharmic works; IX, 20-21 for Vedic works; XVI, 19-21 for sinful deeds.)

This general view can be refined in the manner of the Buddha's pratiityasamutpaada as in the following teaching:

Let a man but think (dhyaaya) of the objects of the senses, attachment (sa^nga) to them is born; from attachment springs desire (kaama); from desire is anger (krodha) born; from anger comes bewilderment (sa.mmoha); from bewilderment wandering of the mind (sm.rti-vibhrama); from wandering of the mind destruction of the intellect (buddhi-naa`sa); once the intellect is destroyed the man is lost. (II, 62-63)

In thus situating clearly the role of kaama and krodha, the Giitaakaara agrees with Aristotle and the European schoolmen's doctrine regarding desire (concupiscentia) and anger (iracundia) as originative of all passions, as well as with many modern psychologists' focusing on libido and aggressiveness.

Since, then, kaama-krodha is "the eternal foe (nityavairi.na) of the wise man (III, 39) he must in order to overcome it learn where it lurks. Senses, mind and intellect, they say, are the places where it lurks; through these it smothers wisdom, fooling the embodied self. Therefore, restrain the senses first. (III, 40-41)

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Then, control your mind, restrain your imaginations, hold thought well in check. Thus become unflickering like a lamp standing in a windless place. (summed up from VI, 10-19)

Thirdly, if you are controlled by the intellect, you will put away the bond of karma. (II, 39)

This triple control constitutes yoga which is "the unlinking of the link with suffering" (VI, 23). Since it results not only in "mind undismayed" (anirvi.n.na cetas) but also in "firm resolve" (ni`scaya) (ibid.), it is not only buddhi-yoga but also karma-yoga.

Buddhi-yoga is that which makes a man "controlled by the intellect" (buddhiyukta). 'Intellect-will' would be a better rendering of buddhi, for "buddhi is really single and its essence is determination (vyavasaaya)" (II, 41), that is, intellectual judgement and also decision of the will. Through buddhi-yoga or j~naana-yoga, man disentangles this faculty from doubts, distracting thoughts, and erroneous beliefs to fix it exclusively on the true view of reality especially concerning self and karma. This culminates in samatva, a sameness-and-indifference with regard to all pairs of opposites (dvandva) which reflects the equalmindedness of God as Udaasin. "That yogii is called integrated (yukta) to whom clods of earth, stones, gold are the same" (VI, 8). With that sameness, there comes serenity, unity of vision and peaceful joy (confer, VI, 27-29).

Karma-yoga, however, is higher. It integrates the samatva obtained through buddhi-yoga but expresses itself in man's voluntary resolution to devote himself to ni.skaama karma for it is karmasu kau`sala, "wisdom in actions" (II, 50). "More excellent is he who with the mind controls his organs of action and, through these organs themselves by which he acts, embarks on karma-yoga, remaining detached" (III, 7). Thus, indeed, he acts like God, without phalakaama and only for the universal good.

For action alone are you qualified, and never at all for its fruits. Let not your motive be the fruit of works, nor your attachment be to inaction. (II, 47)

When all a man's emprises are free from desire and will [for fruits], his works burned up in wisdom's fire, then wise men call him learned.

When he has cast off attachment to the fruits of works, ever content, on none dependent, though he engages in work, in fact he does not work at all. (IV, 19-20)

So far the karma-yogii appears only as an imitator of the Lord. He confines his work to the pure essence of action as contemplated in its divine model. He does not yet realize his work as an instrumental collaboration with the primary Agent of all works. To lead to that, let us first confront a difficulty.

Karma-yoga demands such a purification that it seems to be well-nigh impos-sible, at least for the majority of men. Selfish passions are so strong that no dint of abstinence can succeed in eradicating them. "The objects of the senses

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turn away from the soul who ceases to feed on them, but the taste for them remains!" (II, 59). What a sad and true observation! But an answer is given immediately: "Even this taste fades away when the Other [or the Supreme] (Para) is seen." Further on, K.r.s.na explains what this means. The yogii must be "intent on Me" (11, 61), "his thoughts on Me" (VI, 14), "trusting-and-loving Me" (VII, 16),''putting his trust in Me" (VII, 29), "musing upon Me always ...fixing mind and intellect on Me", (VIII, 7), in short, "winning Me by a bhakti directed to none other" (VIII, 22). Self-love and selfish likings can be transcended surely by a higher love, the exclusive love of bhakti for the supreme Lord. And this love is so sweet that it is easy and makes karma-yoga easy. "How easily am I won by him who bears Me in mind unceasingly, thinking of nothing else" (VIII, 14).

To the karma-yogii who has become a bhakta of the Lord, the vertical dimension of human works opens up completely because, communing now in love constantly with the Lord, he turns up all his deeds into acts of worship and sacrifice. Sacrifice, together with alms-giving, austerity, and duties of one's var.na (svadharma), is the first of the dharmic works "never to be abandoned" (VIII, 5 and 47). K.r.s.na, indeed, is the "recipient and Lord of all sacrifices" (IX, 24). Already in IV, 25-30, he has enlarged considerably the category of sacrifice (yaj~na). But now he opens it out so completely that it engulfs all human doings:

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice or give away in alms, whatever penance you may perform, offer it up to Me. (IX, 27)

This offering up of all actions to the Lord appears to be a qualification to be added, as it were, extrinsically, to the intrinsic nature of actions. But it seems to be that only from the standpoint of the horizontal analyses of action. From the standpoint of the Giitaakaara's vertical analysis, it is nothing but a codforming of human action with its true essence as dependent totally upon the absolute Agent who stands in everyone as primordial Inciter, inner Ruler, and innermost AAtman. The knower of adhyaatma-vidyaa (X, 32) knows the adhyaatmam, that is, what pertains to what is inside man', namely, to this innermost Agent who, 'consorting with material Nature which is his' (4, 6), initiates all actions. Owing to this knowledge, he does not simply 'renounce' (sa^mnyaasa) action altogether but 'casts it off' (sa^mnyaasa) on the Lord with no thought that 'this is mine' (nirmama) and no hope or desire for a fruit that he would claim as his own (niraa`sii). The substance of this explanation of the sacrificial dimension as intrinsic to every human action is found in the following `sloka compared to other relevant texts:

Having cast off (sa^mnyaasya) all your actions on Me, with your thought [focused] on the adhyaatmam, having become free of the hope [for fruits] and of the thought that 'this is mine, throw yourself into the fight, your fever gone. (I1I, 30)

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The sacrificial dimension brings about three results: (1) it makes man devote himself to his duties; (2) it makes his actions totally ni.skasma; (3) it ushers in the culmination of his bhakti as loyal and loving service to his Lord. This is the kind of bhakti which, K.r.s.na says, is characteristic of the princes (IX, 32).

A last question remains to be solved. If the Lord is the universal Agent and man only his nimitta, is this very conversion of Arjuna from akarma to a bhakta's sacrificial service of ni.skaama-karma dependent essentially upon Arjuna's free decision helped externally by the Lord's advice or on the Lord's sovereign grace transforming him from within?

The relationship between grace and freedom is not explored in depth by the Giitaakaara but the sovereignty of divine grace (prasaada) is made quite clear in the Giitaa:

To these men who are ever integrated and commune with Me in love I give (dadaami) that buddhiyoga by which they may draw nigh to Me.

Out of compassion (anukampaa-'rtham) for those same men, I, standing [within them] in [my] mode of being as their AAtman (aatma-bhaava-stha), dispel with the shining lamp of wisdom the darkness born from ignorance. (X, 10-11)

Let [the man who has gained my highest bhakti through buddhi-yoga] do all manner of works continually, putting his trust in Me; by my grace (matprasaadaat) he will attain to an eternal, changeless state. (XVIII, 56)

Divine grace descends from the same free bounty as creative and world-maintaining activity. But it is of another order for it is salvific. Its aim is no longer loka-sa.mgraha, the keeping together of the orderly world and society of man, it is mok.sa, the human self's salvation. Its first great manifestation is the self-descent of God who generates himself into a human birth "for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the setting up of dharma (dharma-sa.msthaapan' aarthaaya)" (IV, 8). In his human form, he teaches personally the salvific way which blends harmoniously buddhi, ni.skaama karma, and bhakti into the complete yoga which he makes real as a gift of his grace (dadaami) growing within the self of those who receive it. This gift chases away ignorance, self-conceit, selfish desire, and anger. It fosters samatva, selfless work, the sacrificial dimension, loyal service, and exclusive bhakti. Thus it frees man from rebirth and leads him to blissful immortality, infinite joy, and supreme bhakti (mad-bhakt.m-paraam: XVIII, 54). Of the receivers of his grace, K.r.s.na says: "In whatsoever way they surrender to Me, in that same way do I return their love (bhajaami)" (IV, 11): "They come to Me... they come to my own mode of being (mad-bhaava)" (IV, 10); "Who sees Me everywhere, who sees the All in Me, for him I am not lost, nor is he lost to Me" (VI, 30), "To him I am exceedingly dear and he is dear (priya) to Me" (VII, 17); "Through his bhakti, he comes to know Me as I am ... and enters Me forth with" (VIII, 55); "You will come to Me, I promise you truly, for you are dear to Me" (XVIII, 65).

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CONCLUSION

The demonstration we promised is now over. As Copernicus reversed the secular point of view of man who saw his earth as the center of the cosmos around which the sun and the stars revolved, and taught him the truth that the earth and the other planets were really revolving around the central sun, so also the Giitaakaara, through the mouth of Lord K.r.s.na, reversed the secular man-centered conception of karma and taught Arjuna the saving truth that all our actions are rooted in the transcendent activity of God which they are meant to channelize, imitate, and conform with. This vertical doctrine liberates man from the false antinomy of karma-rebirth or akarma-nirvaa.na. It invigorates him for the noble activity of ni.skaama-karma. It reveals to him the possibility of communing with God in reciprocated bhakti. It places him within the truth of his dependent karma, thus allowing all his actions to rise to the perfection of sacrificial offerings. And it makes him a recipient of divine grace and a sure candidate for paraa bhakti and a mok.sa of ineffable bliss in the loving intimacy of the one God, Father and Friend of all.[2]

NOTES

1.Confer,R.V.De Smet,"The Giitaa in Time and Beyond Time," in Kulkarni,(ed., The Ciitaa and the Bible (Delhi: S.P.C.K.), 1975.

2.Whenever possible, the quotations from the Giitaa conform with the translation established by R.C.Zaehner, The Bhagavad-Giitaa (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1969), but care for stricter accuracy, clarity or emphasis has demanded modifications in a number of cases.