IV: 42

Chapter 4, Verse 42

"Therefore, with the sword of wisdom,
Kill the doubt born of ignorance
That lies in your heart.
Be one in harmony and in Yoga
And arise, great warrior, arise!"

Sri Aurobindo:

"Arjuna, still in the ignorance, may feel in his heart the call of right and justice and may argue in his mind that abstention from battle would be a mistake entailing responsibility for all the suffering that injustice and oppression bring upon people and nations, or he may feel in his heart the recoil from violence and slaughter and argue in his mind that the shedding of kinsmen's blood is a mistake that nothing can justify. Both of these attitudes might appeal with equal emphasis to virtue and reason. The wise look beyond these conflicting standards. They simply see what the supreme Self demands from them as needful for the bringing forth of the evolving Dharma. They have no personal ends to serve, no personal loves nor hatreds to satisfy, and no rigidly fixed standards of action behind which to stand defiant when the infinite beckons."

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

"Yoga is a method of union, a way of uniting all that is divided in our consciousness, uniting all of life into the divine ground that is one. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that if you repeat Gita Gita Gita, it becomes Tagi Tagi Tagi, which means 'one who has renounced.' Krishna does not ask us to renounce our loved ones nor the world, but rather to renounce separateness, which is the only barrier between us and the Lord of Love enshrined in our hearts."

Sri Krishna Prem

"As long as there is any clinging to a separate self, so long will there be fear for that self, since all that is separate must one day cease to be. Only the wisdom which knows the Self as one in all can silence the whispering of fear and cleave the fog of doubt. Only those shall live who fear not to die, and such fearlessness can be theirs alone who have united themselves to the light and have offered up their egos in worship of the Self."

Re: "clinging..."

From "Illusions," by Richard Bach:

"And he said unto them, 'Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and to sickness, to riches and to poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these, and not another.' A mill-man spoke, saying, 'Easy words for you, Master, for you are guided as we are not, and need not toil as we toil. A person has to work for a living in this world.' The Master answered, 'Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all, young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the rocks on the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last, "I am tired of this clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will." The other creatures laughed at him and called him a fool. But the one heeded them not, and taking a deep breath let go and the current lifted him free from the bottom. The creatures downstream to whom he was a stranger cried, "See the miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah come to save us all!" And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure." But they cried the more, "Savior!" all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left by themselves making legends of a Savior.' "