The Wheel of Fortune/Chapter 19
THE CHARKA IN THE GITA
In the last issue I have endeavoured to answer the objections raised by the Poet against spinning as a sacrament to be performed by all. I have done so in all humility and with the desire to convince the Poet and those who think like him. The reader will be interested in knowing, that my belief is derived largely from the Bhagavadgita. I have quoted the relevant verses in the article itself. I give below Edwin Arnold's rendering of the verses from his Song Celestial for the benefit of those who do not read Sanskrit.
Work is more excellent than idleness;
The body's life proceeds not, lacking work.
There is a task of holiness to do,
Unlike world-binding toil, which, bindeth not
The faithful soul; such earthly duty do Free from desire, and thou shalt well perform
Thy heavenly purpose. Spake Prajapati In the beginning, when all men were made,
And, with mankind, the sacrifice—Do this! Work! Sacrifice! Increase and multiply
With sacrifice! This shall be Kamadhuk, Your 'Cow of Plenty', giving back her milk
Of all abundance. Worship the gods thereby; The gods shall yield ye grace. Those meats ye crave
The gods will grant to Labour, when it pays Tithes in the altar-flame. But if one eats
Fruits of the earth, rendering to kindly heaven, No gift of toil, that thief steals from his world."
Who eat of food after their sacrifice Are quit of fault, but they that spread a feast All for themselves, eat sin and drink of sin. By food the living live; food comes of rain.
And rain comes by the pious sacrifice, And sacrifice is paid with tithes of toil;
Thus action is of Brahma, who is one, The Only, All—pervading; at all times
Present in sacrifice. He that abstains To help the rolling wheels of this great world,
Glutting his idle sense, lives a lost life, Shameful and vain.
Work here undoubtedly refers to physical labour, and work by way of sacrifice can only be work to be done by all for the common benefit. Such work—such sacrifice can only be spinning. I do not wish to suggest, that the author of the Divine Song had the spinning wheel in mind. He merely laid down a fundamental principle of conduct. And reading in and applying it to India I can only think of spinning as the fittest and most acceptable sacrificial body labour. I cannot imagine anything nobler or more national than that for say one hour in the day we should all do the labour that the poor must do, and thus identify ourselves with them and through them with all mankind. I cannot imagine better worship of God than that in His name I should labour for the poor even as they do. The spinning wheel, spells a more equitable distribution of the riches of the earth.