Page 162 - Hinduism
P. 162

Heterodox) had their origin and the Bhagavad-Gita is their epitome.
This work contains the essence of Indian teaching about the duties of life as well as spiritual obligations. Everyone has his allotted duties of various kinds. Sin arises not from the nature of the work itself but from the disposition with which the work is performed. When it is performed without attachment to the result, it cannot tarnish the soul and impede its quest. True Yoga consists in the acquisition of experience and the passage through life in harmony with the ultimate laws of equanimity, non-attachment to the fruits of action, and faith in the pervasiveness of the Supreme Spirit. Absorption in that Spirit can be attained along several paths; and no path is to be preferred exclusively and none to be dismissed as useless. These doctrines have been interpreted as marking a movement which lays stress on the personality of God and His accessibility to devotion. While following the Hindu ideal of the Ashramas, the Gita emphasizes the importance of knowledge, charity, penance and worship, and does not decry life as evil. It states that the embodied beings cannot completely relinquish action and says that he, who relinquishes the fruit of action, is a true relinquisher.
IX.9 The Dharma Sastras
Treatises on ethical and social philosophy known as the Dharma Sastras were compiled about the same
162
 





























































































   160   161   162   163   164