Bhagavagd Gita - Session 7- Track 709
All of us therefore, as long as we are in ignorance we are in basic conflict. We are identifying ourselves with whatever is predominant in Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, in the Prakriti, although behind this, there is always an inner feeling, which proceeds from our real Nature. Discovery of our real Nature even though entangled into Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas is the basic work of man. Not to regard ourselves to be Sattwic, Rajasic and Tamasic, but to discover our real Self, our true Nature, Satchitananda nature, and the nature, which proceeds from our real work? This is our task. And Karmayoga is fundamentally a process of this discovery.
Question: There is nothing called as destiny?
Answer: Destiny is the work that you are supposed to do in the world. Right from the beginning, you are given a task to be done in the world, which nobody else will do. It is your specific work. It is…imagine you are like…a god. When you are directing a drama you are like God. You tell so many actors and assign to each one the acting that he has to do according to a character. You have assigned to each one, whatever he is supposed to do. Imagine these actors are very unintelligent, and the work you are assigning to them they don’t understand very well, they crudely do their acting, then as a director what do you do? You constantly trained them and said, “Look, ‘this’ is not your role, ‘this’ is your role.”
This is what we are supposed to do in this world. We are all crude actors in this world. God has given a work to us, and we are acting in a haphazard manner, and therefore we don’t succeed very often because we are doing all haphazard. We have a destiny to the extent to which we are able to bring out our Swabhava, and put it rightly into our outer nature, and surmount Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, or even to make Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas act according to our Swabhava, even more Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, even though we are overpowered by it, even to make ‘that’ act according to our real Swabhava: this is one of the most important tasks of Karmayoga.
Therefore, this Karmayoga cannot be done mechanically: this Karmayoga requires subtlety, you have got to be awakened; you have got to do well intelligently that is why it’s called ‘Yoga of intelligent will’. It is Yoga of Buddhi. If you don’t apply Buddhi, if you don’t apply your consciousness, then this Yoga cannot be performed.
What is the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher? Bad teacher teaches mechanically. A good teacher is one who takes into account every child, and sees what is his Swadharma, what is his Swabhava, and how the child has got entangled into some other qualities, which are not according to Swabhava, and therefore, he is not able to do rightly what he is supposed to do. To put every child on the level in which his Swabhava really manifests that is the real task of the mother, of the father, of the friends, of the teachers. Every individual is to be helped in that line.
This Swabhava concept is very important in Karmayoga. When we say: “All actions have to be offered to the Divine”, we have to make a statement saying: “All actions have first to be analysed”. We have to see levels of actions; we have to see what is really actions proceeding from true Swabhava and what is proceeding on account of our entanglement with Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. How to match these two and how gradually to allow the Swabhava to come out? Swabhava is something, which is irresistible. Even for the time being, it may become resisted, it may become obstructed. But true Swabhava is something that will definitely manifest in the given time and obstructions are removed, then there is no need to tell somebody now do this or do that. Swabhava automatically, it is a tremendous force because behind, it is a will of the Divine. The Divine has given that work, and the moment all the obstruction are removed, that Swabhava will manifest automatically.
This is why Sri Krishna also tells Arjuna that, “Even if you want to run away from the battlefield, you will come back because it is your Swabhava, you cannot resist it, and you will come back. When all your Prakriti, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, will all be quiet and you will really be yourself, automatically you’ll run into the battlefield and do your work.”