CHAPTER
18a
Renunciation
according the qualities and the causes of
karma
(1)
Aylen
said: 'O man of grip and master of the senses, I'd
like to know what the truth of the renounced order is
and what I, apart from that order, should understand
of renunciation, o devil slayer.'
(2) The
fortunate one said: 'What the learned know as the
renounced order, entails that one gives it up to lust
for the karma; men of wisdom speak of renunciation
when the profit motive in all endeavors is forsaken.
(3) The one group of thinkers says that karma is an
evil thing and that it therefore must be given up,
while others stress that, in this matter, the works of
sacrifice, charity and penance never may be given up.
(4) To be clear about this matter of renunciation, o
best of the Many dynasty, one in fact speaks of three
kinds, o tiger among men. (5) Indeed must acts of
sacrifice, charity and penance never be given up, for
even the greatest souls find purification in that
sacrifice, charity and penance. (6) But no doubt must
with all these actions one performs out of duty, the
association with their results be given up; that, o
son of Alice, is my final and best statement about
it.
(7) To
renounce in karmic matters then never implies that one
forsakes prescribed duties; such a renunciation led by
illusion, is declared to be of ignorance. (8) He who
gives up out of fear, or because a certain workload
might be too troublesome or a discomfort maybe to the
body, is most certainly a renouncer in the grip of
passion, someone who never gets the point of
renunciation. (9) When one for a fixed period of time
works for a result and combines that with a forsaking
of the profit motive at other times, is such a
renunciation Aylen, to my opinion, of goodness. (10)
He who, intelligent enough, cutting with the doubts,
is of the forsaking, but never hates it to suffer some
stress in working for a result, nor gets attached to
the pleasure of exercising his skills in it, is
absorbed in goodness. (11) Surely is it for the one
embodied impossible to be completely renounced in all
his activities, but one is said to be a renouncer when
one is a renouncer of the fruit of one's labor. (12)
When one turns away from the world are there, for the
ones who were not of renunciation, the three kinds of
karmic consequence of finding things going to hell,
reaching to heaven or having a mixture of these, but
this is never the case for those belonging to the
renounced order.35
(13) Take
it from me that, as the analytic conclusion, there are
these five causes, o man of grip, which are said to
serve the perfection of all activities: (14) The
locality, the person, the material means, the avenues
taken and that what fate arranges.36
(15) Whatever work a person engages in
physically, in speech or in mind, doing the right or
the wrong thing, is of these five causes. (16) So,
anyone who thinks that the individual soul at work
would be the only agent, is, foolishly not using his
intelligence, not seeing matters as they are. (17)
Someone who is not lead by the ego nor is looking for
someone else gets never entangled and is, even if he
out here led someone else to his demise, never the one
who can be designated as the cause.
(18) What
impels to action are the three factors of the knower,
the knowledge and the known, while the worker, the
working and the senses at work are the three agents to
which the karma adds up. (19) One says that concerning
the knowledge, the work and the performer there are as
well three different qualities in terms of the
different modes; also hear what they all are.
(20) That
knowledge by which one of the living beings, despite
of their being divided in countless numbers, sees
their imperishable ground as one and undivided, you
should know to be of goodness. (21) But that knowledge
by which one perceives the living being, because of
its being divided over different conditions, as being
different in all these life forms, must be considered
as being of passion. (22) And when one is fixed on one
thing as if that would be all, is that type of
knowing, being all too easy, unfounded and
unrealistic, said to be of darkness.
(23) That
work which is scheduled, and which, free from
attachment, like or dislike, is performed without a
desire for some result, is said to be of goodness.
(24) But proceeding with ego in great effort to
achieve results, is one's work said to be of the mode
of passion. (25) One's work is said to be of the mode
of ignorance when one, motivated for attachments,
self-willed, in disregard of possible consequences,
destructive and distressful to others, engages with
illusion.
(26) A
worker, free from attachment and conceit of ego, who
qualified, with resolve, and unwavering in
accomplishment and failure, does the best he can, is
said to be of the mode of goodness. (27) A worker who,
insisting on results, is led by joy and sorrow and
who, impure in his motives, is avaricious and of a
violent nature, is declared to be of passion. (28) Of
the worker in the mode of ignorance one says that he,
being materialistic, obstinate and deceitful, is not
connected and that he, in his anti-social attitude, is
lazy, morose and procrastinating.
(29) O
winner of the wealth, now hear me describing in detail
how, according the different modes, the individual
types of intelligence and conviction differ as well in
three respects.
(30) O
son of
Alice, that understanding is of goodness which knows
of progress as well as of arrest, which knows what
should and what should not be done, what is to be
feared and not to be feared, and what is of bondage
and what of liberation. (31) That intelligence, o son
of aunt Alice, which does not precisely know what
belongs to the original nature and what goes against
that nature, nor what would be right or what would be
wrong, is an intelligence in the mode of passion which
is not seeing things that precise. (32) O son of
Alice, that intelligence in which, covered by
illusion, everything goes awry and one that what is
unrighteous takes for something righteous, is of
ignorance.
(33) O
son of
Alice, that conviction which, constant in the practice
of yoga, has the activity of the mind, the breath and
the senses under control, is a resolve that is of
goodness. (34) But that conviction, Aylen, by which
one, holding on to one's religiousness, sensuality and
material business38,
insists on one's advantage, is a determination, o son
of Alice, in the mode of passion. (35) That
determination in which one unintelligently never gives
up the sleeping, fearing, lamenting, drooping as also
the presuming, is of the mode of ignorance, o son of
Alice.
(36) But
now hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness
that one enjoys in fortitude, o best of the Many
descendants, and from which being steadfast the end of
one's sorrow is found. (37) That happiness which in
the beginning is like poison but in the end compares
to nectar, is, having sprouted in the soul by the
grace of intelligence, of the mode of goodness so one
says. (38) That happiness which results from the
contact one by the senses has with the sense objects,
and which in the beginning is just like nectar but in
the end is like poison, is a form of happiness known
to belong to the mode of passion. (39) That happiness
which from the beginning to the end is founded on
self-deception, sloth, laziness and misunderstanding,
is said to be of ignorance.
(40)
Nor on
earth, nor among the godlike in the higher spheres, is
there anyone who is free from the influence of these
three qualities inherent to the material of
nature.
