| 12. Better indeed
is knowledge than practice ; than knowledge is meditation more esteemed
than meditation the abandonment of the fruits of actions ; on abandonment,
peace follows immediately.Knowledge is better than practice accompanied
with ignorance ; better than that knowledge is meditation (dhyana) with
knowledge ; better than meditation with knowledge is the abandonment of
the fruits of actions, From such an abandonment of the fruits of actions,
accompanied with the qualification mentioned above, cessation of samsara
and of the cause there of follows immediately ; it admits of no delay. Abandonment
of the fruit of all actions is taught as a means to Bliss in the case of
an ignorant person engaged in action, only when. unable to tread the paths
taught before, but not at first. Wherefore the act of abandoning the fruit
of all actions is merely extolled by the declaration, in this verse, of
the superiority of one over another; for it has been taught as the course
to be adopted when a man is unable to follow the paths already taught. In
what way does it (the declaration) form a mere praise ?In the Kathopanishad
(vi.14) it is said that immortality results from the abandonment of all
objects of desire; and this is a truth quite familiar to all. But all objects
of desire are fruits of actions enjoined in the sruti and in the smriti.
In the case of the enlightened person who is steadily engaged in contemplation,
peace immediately follows the abandonment of desires. Now mere abandonment
of desires constitutes a factor of even an ignorant mans abandonment of
the fruits of actions ; and because of this point of similarity, mere abandonment
of the fruits of all actions is praised with a view to create a desire to
follow the coursein the same way that, in saying that the ocean was drunk
by the brahmana sage Agastya. |
