A common space for harmonic peacemakers

IV: 23

Chapter 4, Verse 23

"When the bonds have been broken,
And the mind is rooted in wisdom,
Everything that is done
Becomes worship.
How can such actions
Bring evil?"

Sri Aurobindo:

“The Divine motivates, inspires, and determines the entire action. The human soul is the pure and silent channel of his power; that power in Nature executes the divine movement. These are the works of liberated souls, for in nothing do they act from a personal motive. These are the actions of the accomplished Karma Yogis. They rise from a free spirit and disappear without modifying it, like waves that rise and disappear on the surface of immutable depths.

Their liberation does not at all prevent them from acting. Only, they know that it is not they who are active, but the modes, the qualities of Nature, the triple-strand of her Gunas. By itself, this idea might lead to a doctrine of the mechanical determinism of Nature and the perfect aloofness of the soul; but the Gita effectively avoids this fault by its illuminating idea of the Purushottam. The reposing of works in the Impersonal becomes a means of getting rid of the personal egoism of the doer, but the end we are to give up all our actions to that great Lord of all in a spirit of worship.”

Krishna Prem:

"When it becomes clear that every material manifestation is an aspect of the Supreme Self, a wave on the sea, it will be evident that there must be a way of action which does not bind the soul. This is the realization that is beginning to dawn in Arjuna's heart. He sees, though as yet but with his mind, for there is still a road to be traversed before the vision will permeate his whole being that the action, the actor and the act are all so many manifestations of the stainless Eternal, and that if all action is offered as worship into the consuming fire of that Supreme Self, there can be no bondage; for the root cause of the bondage is the ignorance which makes a dualism and a multiplicity where there is, on the deepest level, but one."

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

"When we serve others in peace, in love, and in wisdom, our lives become divine, and everything we do becomes worship of the higher power."

A friend:

"Prabhupad said, 'We worship everything.' The divine mood is a mood of service."

[Thank you. Your use of the word "mood" resonates with me, for a mood is a feeling, a movement away from the head and towards the heart, so that there may be a joining, a yoking, a Yoga. The heart/mind becomes "rooted in wisdom."]