Knowledge and Action

Divine Life Society Publication: The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda

The path of knowledge is an absolutely indispensable must. It is the absence of knowledge that is the root cause of all sorrow. It is the failure to perceive the imperishable nature of the human spirit that is the cause of all attachment, grief and delusion. Without knowledge you will make a total mess of your whole life and reduce yourself to a miserable predicament.

But then, the acquiring of this right knowledge is not incompatible with engaging in right activity. They are not mutually opposed to each other; they are not mutually exclusive of each other. On the contrary, in truth, they have to go hand in hand. Knowledge has to support and supplement action and all activity should be full of knowledge.

Knowledge-filled activity and action-oriented knowledge is the message and the sadhana of the second chapter of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. If in ignorance you engage in action, you are finished. You are heading for trouble, inviting trouble. And having theoretical knowledge, if you neglect right action, you will put a stop to your evolution. Action is God's plan for man for moving towards perfection. Action constitutes the inner dynamics of human evolution, collective as well as individual.

There is a trite but very wise saying: "To rest is to rust." Action is like honing something to keep it sharp, incisive. Knowledge blooms forth into experience only when it is transferred into action, when it is practised. Knowledge is meant to be practised. And, therefore, if you are not to get caught in the circle of action and reaction, then action is as necessary for knowledge as knowledge is necessary for right action. Being in the midst of activity, if you do not want to be bound by activity, knowledge is the only way. It is the key.

Therefore, Sankhya Yoga and Karma Yoga are not opposed to each other. They are mutually supportive; they are not incompatible. On the contrary, they are two facets of the one process of the progressive evolution of the human soul towards the fullest unfoldment of knowledge through knowledge-infilled activity. The Yogi who thus synthesises within himself both Sankhya Yoga and Karma Yoga is the realdaksha (expert). He is the one who will succeed.

For, such a Yogi, by elevating normal secular activity into a higher dimension of the Spirit and transforming it into sublime spiritual activity, thus synthesising karma and jnana, has learned the art and science of making life itself a process of liberation. Just as the subdual of all mental vrittis while practising a technique is termed Yoga, the same Yoga becomes defined as yogah karmasu kausalam (Yoga is skill in action) when one is in the field of active day-to-day living. You act with the awareness that the three gunas are doing their dharma; whereas I, the trigunatita atma tattva (Self beyond the three gunas), am really nishkriya (actionless). "I am the silent, detached, unaffected witness of all activity. How can action bind me! But I am not a passive witness. I shine my wisdom upon all the limbs, all thoughts, and thus illumined with wisdom, they engage in action."

Spiritual Calendar (Sivananda Ashram):

July 31 – Guru Poornima

Aug 8 - 52nd Anniversary of the Punya Tithi Aradhana of His Holiness Sri Swami Sivananda Maharaj

Excerpts from: Knowledge and Action - The Gita Vision by Sri Swami Chidananda