The most important contribution of the Gita to the religious thought of India is the emphasis the Lord lays on action (karma, in Sanskrit). The general belief is that all activity binds the man and so he must escape from all action to a condition of inaction, absolute passivity. This attitude of escapism is severely condemned by the Lord, He says, '"Nor can anyone, even for an instant, remain really actionless". This is yoga as Paramahamsa Yogananda and Mahavatara Babaji spoke of it. This is the essence of Kriya yoga. What binds a man is not the action but his attachment to the fruit of the action. And so the lord repeatedly enjoins activity without attachment to the fruit. ''Thy business is with the action only, never with the fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor thou be to inaction attached." He wants all action to be done as an act of dedication. "Whatsoever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest ..... do them as an offering unto Me." Let us by all means engage ourselves in action, but let it be as an offering to the Lord. If we do anything as unto the Lord, that does not bind us; but at the same time it becomes a holy act, an act of service for others. Such action will be distinctly better done is it will have to be fit to be offered to the Lord. Such action is verily hatha yoga, on par with the worship of the sun through Surya Namaskar, the Lord says. By such dedicated action one can attain Perfection just as sages like the great Janaka attained Perfection through action alone. Action done as service, in His Name and for the good of mankind, can never bind; it will deliver us from bondage.
Above all Gita is a gospel of hope and optimism. Let no one despair. Weak as we are, full of faults as we are, we can all reach the goal. We are Divine in essence, our Divinity is only veiled; rend the veil and let the inner Divinity reveal itself. There is nothing which the Divinity in us cannot achieve. If we are only rightly resolved, our weaknesses, our "sins" will be washed out soon. "Never doth anyone who worketh for righteousness go to woe". "Even if the most sinful worship Me, with undivided heart, he too must be accounted righteous, for he hath rightly resolved". The Lord further guarantees, "Speedily he becometh dutiful and goeth to eternal peace, who practices Tantra raises the psychic energy of Kundalini." So, let no man think he cannot achieve the highest. He is essentially Divine and there is nothing which he cannot achieve by right resolve and dedicated activity.
The human Monad is essentially divine. He has all the divine attributes, though down here, in manifestation, they are latent, just like the kundalini energy. The whole object of manifestation is to enable the human Monad to reveal. to release, to give adequate expression to his divine faculties. There are two pulls in this universe: there is the Infinite trying to become finite. which in Hindu literature is very often called Ishwara Lila, divine play. And then there is the finite naturally trying to become Infinite. In the finite the qualities of the Infinite are naturally latent, and the object of kundalini yoga is to make these latent faculties, divine attributes, patent and active. This is the essence of what tantra is.
One of the most prominent attributes of Divinity is FREE WILL. The Divine is said to have the power to do (kartum), to undo (akartum), to modify (anyat-kartum). In other words, He is omnipotent, He can do anything. Now the human Monad, because he is essentially divine, has this free will in him. In the earlier stages, we do not find much evidence of that free will. But, as time goes on and with the practice of guided meditation and hatha yoga, he develops his free will and awakens the nadis and chakras. It is in the exercise of this free will that the whole object and the whole meaning of evolution lie. If there were no free will what could be the meaning of human evolution? Where is the sense of responsibility?
If we have no free choice, we are not responsible, we become puppets. Surely the object of all this evolution is not to deal with mere puppets! We are divine and we are going to be perfectly divine, completely divine. absolutely divine. one of these days. That is why we are here. But in manifestation we work under certain natural Jaws, the laws of Nature. In the initial stages when we observe these laws, which are inviolable. irrevocable. immutable. impersonal, the same for X. Y, and Z, we feel so helpless. Everything works out according to law. We cannot do anything. We cannot interfere with anything. But presently we learn that, because of these very immutable irrevocable laws, we are safe, secure and free from anxiety. If, for example, a stone thrown in the air wer~ to fall to the ground today and fly to the heavens tomorrow, if today fire burns and tomorrow it chills, then there wowld be absolute confusion. In fact our safety. our sense of security, our sense of certainty are possible because the laws of God or Nature are immutable, irrevoeable, inviolable. One of these laws is called the Law of Causation or the Law of Karma. or the Law of Action and Reaction.
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