19 Essays on the Gita VOLUME 19 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1997 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTEDININDIA Essays on the Gita Publisher’s Note The first series of Essays on the Gita appeared in the monthly review Arya between August 1916 and July 1918. It was revised by Sri Aurobindo and published as a book in 1922. ThesecondseriesappearedintheAryabetweenAu- gust1918andJuly1920.In1928SriAurobindobrought out an extensively revisededition in book form. Forthepresentedition,thetexthasbeenthoroughly checked against all previous editions and against the manuscripts of the revisedArya. CONTENTS FIRST SERIES I Our Demandand Needfromthe Gita 3 II The Divine Teacher 12 III The Human Disciple 20 IV The Core of the Teaching 29 V Kurukshetra 39 VI Man and the Battle of Life 47 VII The Creedof the Aryan Fighter 57 VIII Sankhya and Yoga 68 IX Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta 81 X The Yoga of the Intelligent Will 94 XI Works and Sacrifice 105 XII The Significance of Sacrifice 114 XIII The Lord of the Sacrifice 124 CONTENTS XIV The Principle of Divine Works 134 XV The Possibility and Purpose of Avatarhood 145 XVI The Process of Avatarhood 158 XVII The Divine Birth and Divine Works 168 XVIII The Divine Worker 177 XIX Equality 188 XX Equality and Knowledge 200 XXI The Determinism of Nature 212 XXII Beyond the Modes of Nature 224 XXIII Nirvana and Works in the World 234 XXIV The Gist of the Karmayoga 247 SECOND SERIES Part I — The Synthesis of Works, Love and Knowledge I The Two Natures 263 II The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge 278 CONTENTS III The Supreme Divine 289 IV The Secretof Secrets 301 V The Divine Truth and Way 311 VI Works, Devotion and Knowledge 322 VII The Supreme Word of the Gita 337 VIII God in Power of Becoming 355 IX The Theory of the Vibhuti 366 X The Vision of the World-Spirit —Time the Destroyer 377 XI The Vision of the World-Spirit —The Double Aspect 388 XII The Way and the Bhakta 396 Part II — The SupremeSecret XIII The Field and its Knower 409 XIV Above the Gunas 421 XV The Three Purushas 435 CONTENTS XVI The Fullness of Spiritual Action 450 XVII Deva and Asura 463 XVIII The Gunas, Faith and Works 477 XIX The Gunas, Mind and Works 493 XX Swabhava and Swadharma 507 XXI Towards the SupremeSecret 526 XXII The Supreme Secret 540 XXIII The Core of the Gita’s Meaning 562 XXIV The Messageof the Gita 572