Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research Trust, Pondicherry ISBN: 978-93-85391-51-4
About Explanations of Essays on the Gita: Volume Five
In these transcribed talks from 2012, the author examines Chapters 19 to 22 of Essays on the Gita. The subjects are equality, equality and knowledge, the determinism of Nature, and what lies beyond the modes of Nature. Explaining Sri Aurobindo’s vision of equality and liberation in Essays on the Gita, he notes that equality is not a state of indifference or withdrawal but the soul’s calm poise, an equality of spirit, when faced with life’s complexities and difficulties. Works done without desire, with equality, as an offering to the Divine, bring self-knowledge, drawing one closer to the Divine. Although it appears that man is bound by the determinism of Nature and the three gunas, he can rise to a higher consciousness, free from ego and desire, where it is the Divine Will that acts through him. The final chapter deals with sorting out the thorny issue of fate and free will. Although our free will is an illusion, we must, as Krishna insists to Arjuna, still choose to act. The message of the Gita is to act while remembering the Divine, offering all our actions to the Divine.
