act, think, or feel, the
irrepressible personality is sure to be the central figure. This, as
will appear on reflection, is that which prevents every individual from
filling his proper sphere in existence, where he only is exactly in
place and no other individual is. The realization of this harmony is
the practical or objective aspect of the GRAND PROBLEM. And the
practice of morality is the effort to find out this sphere; morality,
indeed, is the Ariadne's clue in the Cretan labyrinth in which man is
placed. From the study of the sacred philosophy preached by Lord Buddha
or Sri Sankara, paroksha knowledge (or shall we say belief?), in the
unity of existence is derived, but without the practice of morality that
knowledge cannot be converted into the highest kind of knowledge, or
aproksha jnanam, and thus lead to the attainment of mukti. It availeth
naught to intellectually grasp the notion of your being everything and
Brahma, if it is not realized in practical acts of life. To confuse
meum and teum in the vulgar sense is but to destroy the harmony of
existence by a false assertion of "I," and is as foolish as the anxiety
to nourish the legs at the expense of the arms. You cannot be one with
all, unless all your acts, thoughts, and feelings synchronize with the
onward march of Nature. What is meant by the Brahmajnani being beyond
the reach of Karma, can be fully realized only by a man who has found
out his exact position in harmony with the One Life in Nature; that man
sees how a Brahmajnani can act only in unison with Nature, and never in
discord with it: to use the phraseology of ancient writers on
Occultism, a Brahmajnani is a real "co-worker with Nature." Not only
European Sanskritists, but also exoteric Yogis, fall into the grievous
mistake of supposing that, in the opinion of our sacred writers, a human
being can escape the operation of the law of Karma by adopting a
condition of masterly inactivity, entirely losing sight of the fact that
even a rigid abstinence from physical acts does not produce inactivity
on the higher astral and spiritual planes. Sri Sankara has very
conclusively proved, in his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, that such
a supposition is nothing short of a delusion. The great teacher shows
there that forcibly repressing the physical body from working does not
free one from vasana or vritti--the inherent inclination of the mind to
work. There is a tendency, in every department of N