If all actions are only for finding one’s Self, does it matter at all if we consider the battle of Kurukshetra a real historical battle or only an allegory? Does it matter to our practice what we think of the battle? Does it matter to the message of the Gita itself?
The full passage is as below and gives a different sense.
‘Existence is not merely a machinery of Nature, a wheel of law in which the soul is entangled for a moment or for ages; it is a constant manifestation of the Spirit. Life is not for the sake of life alone, but for God, and the living soul of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead. Action is for self-finding, for self-fulfilment, for self-realisation and not only for its own external and apparent fruits of the moment or the future. There is an inner law and meaning of all things dependent on the supreme as well as the manifested nature of the self; the true truth of works lies there and can be represented only incidentally, imperfectly and disguised by ignorance in the outer appearances of the mind and its action. The supreme, the faultless largest law of action is therefore to find out the truth of your own highest and inmost existence and live in it and not to follow any outer standard and dharma. All life and action must be till then an imperfection, a difficulty, a struggle and a problem. It is only by discovering your true self and living according to its true truth, its real reality that the problem can be finally solved, the difficulty and struggle overpassed and your doings perfected in the security of the discovered self and spirit turn into a divinely authentic action. Know then your self; know your true self to be God and one with the self of all others; know your soul to be a portion of God. Live in what you know; live in the self, live in your supreme spiritual nature, be united with God and Godlike. Offer, first, all your actions as a sacrifice to the Highest and the One in you and to the Highest and the One in the world; deliver last all you are and do into his hands for the supreme and universal spirit to do through you his own will and works in the world. This is the solution that I present to you and in the end you will find that there is no other.”
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/19/the-message-of-the-gita)
Sri Aurobindo has discussed this himself. The beginning of the Gita, its closing remarks, the middle, where we have the Vishwaroop, all indicate that the teaching, though certainly about the inner evolution of man, is yet woven around a real event. There is also the repeated extolling of Sri Krishna to fight the battle in a state of remembrance so that death itself becomes a means of emancipation. Chapter Two states clearly that Arjuna should fight and either conquer and enjoy the kingdom or else fall nobly. All this does not give the feel of a purely inner battle. Sri Aurobindo goes at great length to explain that it is not just about him but about dharma, about the life of humanity, of a civilisation that is at stake. The War and the Action are within as well as without. Sri Aurobindo goes at great length describing the war as a debt to Rudra, the inner justification of the outer War, the soul of the heroic kshatriya type warrior. If the actual action, the outer action didn’t matter, then Sri Krishna would not have insisted that Arjuna actually fights the battle. There are no doubt plenty of profound inner truths, but nowhere does the Gita teach indifference to the outer field itself.
The Gita further insists on the Guna-Karma-Swabhava and that the karma itself is an expression of the Divine Impulsion in man, Swadharma. Finally, Sri Krishna gives his own example as to why he engages in karma even though there is nothing that he needs to gain through the action itself. In other words, we should not divide what is joined in God. The inner attitude and state are no doubt important in the process of Self finding through action. But there is also the importance of expressing, manifesting, fulfilling God’s Will through the action itself. This gives the full meaning of the message of the Gita. If Self finding is all, then the logical conclusion would be cessation from action once the Self is found. But the Gita reconciles action with inner freedom, trigunatita bhava. It also speaks of yoga as a skill in action, none of which would make sense if the whole meaning of action is Self-finding.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
