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BRAHMANISM
able; it lies in no man's power to destroy it. Bodies come to an ('nd, but 'He Who Is Clothed in the Body' (saririn) is eternal, indestructible, and infinite.--Fight then, o Bhārata!" 70
Karma Yoga, the great ethical principle incorporated in this metaphysically grounded realism of the Incarnate Divine Essence, requires that the individual should continue carrying on his usual duties and activities of life, but with a new attitude of detachment from their fruits, i.e., from the possible gains or losses that they will entail. The world and its way of actualization is not to be abandoned, but the will of the individual is to be united in action with the universal ground, not with the vicissitudes of the suffering body and nervous system. That is the teaching of the Incarnate Creator and Sustainer. That is the world-balancing crux of his supreme advice to man. "The practice of worship through offerings (yajña), the giving of alms (dāna), and austerity (tapas) should not be abandoned. Indeed, these works should be performed; for worship, charity, and austerity are purifying to the wise. And yet even such selfless works as these are to be performed with a resignation of all attachment to them and their fruits; ?1 that is My best and unwavering conviction." 12 "Give thought to nothing but the act, never to its fruits, and let not thyself be seduced by inaction. For him who achieves inward detachment, neither good nor evil exists any longer here below." 73 "Consider pleasure and pain, wealth and poverty, victory and defeat, as of equal worth. Prepare then for the combat. Acting in this way thou wilt not become stained by guilt.” 74
The God himself acts-both as a macrocosm, through the
70 16. 2. 16-18.
71 In this case the fruits are the promised heavenly rewards, or advantages to be enjoyed in a time and birth to come.
72 Bhagavad Gitā 18. 5-6. 78 1b. 2. 47. 74 Ib. 2. 38.
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