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	<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> <b>
	<span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><font size="4">Here or 
    Otherwhere</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>

  <p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>A </span><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>QUESTION</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> is often asked of us whether it is
possible to do Yoga while remaining in the world. Some declare outright that it
is not possible: world and Yoga are, like oil and water, absolutely different
things, they do not go together. World means, to put it plainly, earning money
and raising family. Well, these two are the very opposite of Yoga, for they
involve, at their best, desire and attachment and, at their worst, dishonesty
and deceit, lust and libertinage. There is the other school, on the contrary,
that pronounces that a Yogic life must be lived in the world if it is not your
intention to leave that world altogether and seek and merge in the Beyond, the
otherwhere, the immutable transcendent Brahman. It is quite possible for one to
be in the very midst of the worldly forces and yet remain unshaken by them.
Therefore it has been said: When the causes of disturbance are there and still
the mind is not disturbed – hat indeed is the sign of a wise steadiness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>It can, however, be asked, what then
is meant by being in the world? If it means merely sitting quiet, suffering and
observing nonchalantly the impacts of the world – something in the manner
described by Matthew Arnold in his famous lines on the East –, well, that stoic
way, the way of indifference is a way of being in the world which is not very
much unlike not being in the world; for it means simply erecting a wall of separation
or isolation within one's consciousness without moving away physically. It is a
psychological escapism. But if by living in the world we should mean
participating in the movements of the world – not only being but becoming, not
merely standing as a witness but moving out as a doer –then the problem becomes
different. For the question we have to ask in that case is what happens to our
duties – life in the</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:27.0pt;
border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Page- 92<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>world being a series of duties, duty to oneself
(self-preservation), duty to the family (race-preservation), duty to the
country, to humanity and, finally, duty to God (which last belongs properly to
the life in Yoga). Now, can all these duties dwell and flourish together? The
Christ is categorical on the point. He says, in effect: Leave aside all else
and follow Me and look not back. Christ's God seems to be a jealous God who
does not tolerate any other god to share in his sovereign exclusiveness. You
have to give up, if you wish to gain. They who lose life shall find it and they
who stick to life shall as surely lose it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>But is not The Gita's solution
somewhat different? Sri Krishna urges Arjuna to be in the very thick of a
deadly fight, not a theoretical or abstract combat, but take a hand in the
direst man-slaughter, to &quot;do the deed&quot; (even like Macbeth) but
yogically. Yes, The Gita's position seems to be that – to accept all life
integrally, to undertake all necessary work (<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:
normal'>kartavyam karma</i>) and turn them Godward. The Gita seeks to do it in
its own way which consists of two major principles: (1) to do the work,
whatever it may be, unattached – without any desire for the fruit, simply as a
thing that has to be done, and (2) to do it as a sacrifice, as an offering to
the supreme Master of works.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>The question naturally turns upon
the nature and the kind of work –whether there is a choice and selection in it.
Gita speaks indeed of all works, <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>krtsna-karmakrt</i>,
but does that really mean any and every work that an ignorant man, an ordinary
man steeped in the three Gunas does or can do? It cannot be so. For, although
all activity, all energy has its source and impetus in the higher consciousness
of the Divine, it assumes on the lower ranges indirect, diverted or even
perverted formulations and expressions, not because of the inherent falsity of
these so-called inferior strata, the instruments, but because of their
temporary impurity and obscurity. There are evidently activities and impulsions
born exclusively of desire, of attachment and egoism. There are habits of the
body, urges of the vital, notions of the mind, there are individual and social
functions that have no place in the spiritual scheme, they have to be
rigorously eschewed and eliminated. Has not the Gita said, this is desire, this
is passion born of the quality of Rajas? . . . There is not much meaning in
trying to do these<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:27.0pt;
border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Page-93<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>works unattached or to turn them towards the
Divine. When you are unattached, when you turn to the Divine, these 'Simply
drop away of themselves. Yes, there are social duties and activities and
relations 1bat inevitably dissolve and disappear as you move into the life
divine. Some are perhaps tolerated for a period, some are occasions for the
consciousness to battle and surmount, grow strong and pass beyond. You have to
learn to go beyond and new-create your environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>It was Danton who said, one carries
not his country with him at the sole of his shoe. Even so you cannot hope to
shift bodily your present social ensemble, place it wholesale in the divine
life on the plea that it will be purified and transformed in the process.
Purification is there indeed, but one must remember purification literally
means burning and not a little of the past and present has to be burnt down to
ashes.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:27.0pt;
border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Page-94<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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