Passage 5

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In plain words

When we have made the good arise in our heart, we need not take account of a single thing.

Next, the fifth. Gatavyathaḥ. That means we need not grieve over what has gone by. One whose mind is troubled cannot take part in any task. This trouble of the mind does man no good at all. There is no use in our grieving over something that passed long ago. We must not worry about something that is to come some day. So, forgetting the past and the future, we must develop our aim in the present itself. This itself is the root cause of all the sorrows in the world today. Leaving what is, wishing for what is not, grieving over what has gone by, man brings on himself a sorrow that is not there. What is gone is gone. However hard you try, it will not come forward again. And the future lies waiting in the womb of time, in a state unknown to us. This future is not visible to us. For you to strive for what cannot be seen is sheer madness. Keep the present in view and take part in the work with purity of Manas. Past and future are both held within the present itself. Whatever you have eaten, that is the belch you now bring up. Whatever you are eating now, that same belch will come to you in the future. So the future and the past are both in the present itself. So you must keep the present rightly in view and take part in the work with a sacred feeling. So there is no need to suffer over what is past. The way we have walked we have already seen, as we came along it. We must look at the road ahead, and not look at what has gone by. We must not brood either over what has gone by or over the future. He who, not brooding over these two, keeps the present alone as his aim and takes part in sacred works, is supremely dear to God.

Next, the sixth. Sarvārambha-parityāgī. That means we must not do any work at all with show. As long as show and Ahaṅkāra remain, show does not die. Unless show dies, purity of citta does not come. One without purity of citta cannot do sacred works. So it is through sacred works alone that purity of citta is gained. 'Karma is for the purification of the citta.' So men must do only those karmas that bring about purity of citta.