Evolution is not a Revolution. The climb is steep ,slow and tough. The enemy is invisible and fights from within. The enemy is your own negative tendencies!
The path of perfection is up and down, progressing, slowly but surely, “walking on a razor’s edge” as the kathopanishad calls it. Vigilant is the climber, yet he slips and falls, only to pull himself up. Every fall is very hard and hurtful. Arjun asks Krishna in the Geeta the question we all ask. If a person dies before reaching perfection, or he falls from spiritual practice, does he not get destroyed and lose both, the sensuous pleasures of this life and the promised divine bliss of perfection hereafter?
“The Hindus do not accept any divine prerogative even for their Gods by which they can bypass the individual intellect and the rules of logic”, writes Swami Chinmayanandaji. The intellectual honesty in Arjun is well honoured by Krishna as he replies.
Every action culminates in its result. The result is not different from the action but follows the action like a shadow, as the inexorable law of cause and effect comes into play. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The pressure of past tendencies is so strong that it can devastatingly propel one into a morally wrong action. It sends him into a helpless fall from moral perfection. Shattering his peace and poise it leaves behind hopelessness. What then is the gain?
Krishna assures Arjun that “My devotee never gets destroyed”, but after he drops the old body, takes on a new body in the home of the pure and the well-to-do, and all his past efforts get carried over for him to continue. Swami Chinmayanandaji assures the student, “where will you fall my child? From His shoulder into His lap!”
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission New Delhi.
Email: prarthnasaran@gmail.com