The Essence of Dharmam - 4. Swami Krishnananda

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Wednesday, March 31, 2021. 11:26.AM.
(Spoken on February 11th, 1973)
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Now, the attitude of connecting one person with another person is not samanya dharma, or an ultimately justifiable attitude. I am not an instrument of your pleasure in any manner whatsoever; therefore, you cannot regard yourself as a purpose, and myself as an instrument towards the fulfilment of that purpose. So the moralist’s canon is that that attitude alone can be regarded as justifiable, good and moral or ethical which regards a thing as an end in itself, and not as a means to something else. It is true that we use things as a means, but towards a higher end. When you use a particular person or a thing as a means to a certain fulfilment, even that is towards the fulfilment of an end which is in view, and not merely for the fulfilment of the character of one’s being the means.

The third principle of morality is that the urge for doing good is a categorical imperative. A categorical imperative is a philosophical jargon which simply means a ‘must’ or an ‘ought’ that urges itself forward from within ourselves without anyone telling us. We need not be told what is good. Our conscience will tell us what is good. That inward urge towards the rectitude of a particular action, the pricking of the conscience, as they generally say, is a good test of morality and ethical conduct.

All these tests ultimately depend upon the integrality of the cosmos. I began by saying that every action bears a relevance to the structure of the universe, and the structural pattern of the universe is, therefore, the determining factor of the conduct of every intelligent being. Now, the universe being an end and not a means, and every part of it being connected with it in such a way that nothing can be regarded as a means, our activities also become ends in themselves when they are spiritualised. As a matter of fact, the karma yoga doctrine of the Bhagavadgita is nothing but regarding action as an end in itself, and not as a means to some other purpose.

When an action brings a result which is different from the structure of the action, then it is unspiritual and undivine. When an action is an end in itself, it need not produce a result. What we do is the purpose in itself. This is a peculiar structure of action which is promulgated in the Bhagavadgita, and which is difficult for the human mind to understand. We cannot understand what karma yoga is, however much we may wrack our head. Karma yoga is not simply unselfish action. How can we perform unselfish action? When action is unselfish in the true sense of the term, it will produce no result. If it produces no result, why do we do it?

To be continued ...

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