Krishnas Speech at the Battleground chapter eighteen second part by Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya

When a person, finds one indestructible principle through every action whatever, he is a knower of the neutral kind. But those who look upon the diverse actions in the everyday world as they appear to be, independent of one another, are knowers of the positive type. There are some people again with whom any simple work seems to be as huge as the burden of the whole world; they are negative knowers. They do not try to understand any principle whatever underlying the world of activities. The activity done by a disinterested person is neutral. He has neither love nor hatred against it. But the work which is performed with great toil from pride and desire is positive one. When one begins a work from delusion without taking into account its positive outcome, it is a negative work. The doer in that case does not even think of whether his resources were sufficient for the undertaking. He who has no attraction for activity and its results thereof is neutral doer. He does not deem himself as the doer. But he has patience and lot of zest for work. In other words such a man never seeks a fight. But when he has to he fights with all his heart; but he does not care whether he wins or not. Fond of worldly pleasures one who looks forward to success in material world is a positive doer. He is greedy and jealous. He is unclean. Sorrow and happiness overwhelm him. One who does not do anything whole heartedly is a negative doer. He has no conscience. He tries to succeed by cheating and fraud. He is lazy. He suffers from depression. He is a slow coach. The neutral intellect can easily distinguish the desire from disinterestedness, duty from other work, fear from fearlessness and bondage from freedom. The positive intellect cannot distinguish from one another. What is vice seems to be virtue with the negative intellect. The firmness with which a person controls his mind, vital air and senses is neutral. The control of the vital air has been repeatedly advised by Krishna. It means the slowing down of the clock that is our body. The life-time of a particle depends upon its speed. The faster it moves, the slower is its clock and the longer it survives. The slowing down of the clock of the human body might mean longer longevity for the body. Those who cling to the virtues, earthly possessions and worldly enjoyments with firmness are positive. The positive doer looks forward to worldly success and heaven hereafter. He has four goals in-virtue, wealth, happiness and heaven. The four aims must go together; aiming at any one of the four goals will not do. A parallel instance can be given from the contingent world of politics and economics. Japan, for example, is much advanced in economic activity. An economic super-power must also make headway militarily and politically to keep its commercial interests in the world market secure. Or else it cannot hold fast to the pleasures of the heaven upon earth that it enjoys. A positive doer must firmly cling to his programs of changing the world. While the positive doer of the noblest type seeks to change the world, the neutral doer drives all his attention to the control of his mind. To control one's mind is a harder task than to control the world. The person who sticks to his pride, melancholy disposition, fears and delusions has the firmness of the negative type. Happiness is also of three kinds, the neutral doer abandons all pursuits in the material world for those in the mind. At the outset he has to undergo lot of difficulties. Negligence of the material consideration may mean privation and persecution. But once he conquers temptations in mind raised by Satan, ever lasting peace is promised to him. The pleasures of contact of senses with the objects are sure to be followed by pain. In the shrine of worldly delight, melancholy is the presiding deity. Such transitory happiness is the fruition attained by the positive doer. The happiness of the negative doer comes from stupefaction, sleep and indolence. Krishna reiterates that the classification of men in the society has been done on the basis of innate qualities of men with which they are born. The priest has an innate aptitude for knowledge and experience of the ineffable reality behind the show of the world. He is fond of sacrifices. He seeks to subjugate his mind. The warrior class seeks to cultivate valor, fearlessness , firmness, cleverness etc. He wants to lord over the world. He is fond of bestowing gifts. The merchant class is fond of farming and looking after dairy and poultry etc. They want to prosper in business activities. Rests of the men are fit for helping other classes in their pursuit. But no one should go against his innate tendencies. That will land him in great misery. If the warrior seeks to present himself in borrowed robes his innate warrior’s instinct will betray him and he shall not be able to live up to his aims. One must set one’s aim taking into account of one’s innate aptitudes. And every kind of work done in the right spirit leads one to the summit of bliss. One who has neutral disposition of mind cultivates an intellect absolutely disinterested in the object of senses. He has no desire at all. He has controlled his own self. He has even controlled his own vital air. In that way, he has control over his involuntary muscles. He can slow down the activities of his body even. Such a man has no activity in the worldly life. He lives in seclusion. He takes little food. He is always in a state of mind which admits of no duality or dichotomy like love and hatred, matter and spirit etc. He is on the plane of the Cosmic Being. He attains the supernal love for Krishna. He can know then who Krishna is. He becomes one with Krishna. It is curious to note that Krishna speaks of the ascetic who lives away from the society, towards the close of his speech. He gives very short account of such a person. This is because Krishna is concerned with worldly men and the battle at Kurukshetra. But however he may have been brief on his description of the ascetic, he made no bones of the fact that an ascetic is the height of man’s spiritual achievement. That man has existence on biological, vital and mental planes are obvious. But the ascetic discovers in him higher planes of knowledge. They are explored on the level of man’s subtle body. Beyond that is the plane which is attained on the level of man’s casual body. But there is beyonding still, when the body is shattered. Climbing such planes is the ascetic journey up the pipul tree towards its roots experiencing worlds after worlds having greater and greater number of dimension till he becomes one with the infinite. What we called occult powers or extra-sensory perceptions are but man’s climbing from the world of three dimensions. Once the bowl of the body is brought near the sea of the Cosmic Being, it has the disposition of the sea. Its waters can fill thousand worlds. But those who do not have that kind of intellectual aptitude should act as a deputy of Krishna. They should not bother themselves with the results of their activity. For they should think that it is Krishna who has the right to the results of the activity; they are not entitled to reap the results of their activity. If they work in this spirit, Krishna helps them to cross the endless sea of suffering. If one does not obey Krishna from pride one has to undergo untold misery.