Conversation 3. Karma Yoga

Bhagavad Gita with Commentaries / Conversation 3. Karma Yoga

Conversation 3. Karma Yoga

Arjuna said:

3:1. If You say, O Janardana, that the path of knowledge is superior to the path of action, then why do You encourage me to such a terrible action?

3:2 Your unclear words confuse me. Tell me certainly: how can I attain bliss?

The Blessed One said:

3:3 There are two possibilities of development, as I have said already, O sinless one: the yoga of consideration and the yoga of right action.

3:4. Man does not attain liberation from the chains of destiny by refusing action; by renunciation alone he does not ascend to Perfection.

3:5. No one can stay truly actionless even for a moment, for the properties of prakriti compel all to act.

3:6. The one who has mastered control over his indriyas, but still dreams about worldly objects, — such one deludes oneself. He can be likened to a hypocrite.

3:7. But he who has conquered his indriyas and freely performs karma yoga deserves respect.

3:8. Therefore, perform righteous actions, for action is better than inaction; being idle, one cannot support even one’s own body.

3:9. People are enslaved by action if it is not performed as sacrifice*. Perform your action as sacrifice staying free from the attachment to the “earthly”, O Kaunteya!

3:10. God created humankind together with the law of sacrifice. He said at that, “Prosper through sacrificial deeds! Let it be desired by you!

3:11. “Satisfy the Divine with your sacrificial deeds — and It will satisfy you! By acting for Its sake, you will achieve the highest good.

3:12. “For the Divine satisfied with your sacrificial deeds will grant you whatever you need in life.” The one, who receives gifts and gives no gifts in return, is verily a thief.

3:13. The righteous who live on the remains of (their) sacrificial gifts to God are liberated from sins. But those who are anxious only about their own food — they feed on sin!

3:14. Thanks to the food, the bodies of creatures grow. The food arises from rain. The rain arises from sacrifice*. Sacrifice is performance of right action.

3:15. Know that realization of destinies is performed by Brahman. And Brahman represents the Supreme. Omnipresent Brahman always supports sacrificial behavior in people.

3:16. The one who does not follow this law of sacrifice-requital, whose life therefore is full of sin, who lives following only sensual pleasures — such one lives in vain, O Partha!

3:17. Only he, who has found joy and peace in the Atman and is happy in the Atman, is alone free from the “earthly” duties.

3:18. He has no duties of doing or non-doing something in this world anymore, and in no creature he seeks patronage for realization of his purpose.

3:19. Therefore, ceaselessly perform your duties without expecting the reward. Verily, performing action thus does man attain the Supreme.

3:20. Verily, it is through action that Janaka and others attained Perfection. So, you too act remembering about the wholeness of the world.

3:21. What the best one is doing the other are doing as well: people follow his example.

3:22. There is nothing, O Partha, in the three worlds what I am required to do or what I has not achieved! Yet, I am constantly engaged in action.

3:23. For, if I had not been always acting, O Partha, then people everywhere would follow My example.

3:24. The world would be destroyed if I had cease to act. I would be the cause of mixture of the varnas and destruction of the nations.

3:25. The unwise one acts out of selfishness, O Bharata. The wise one acts without selfishness, for the good of others!

3:26. The wise one should not confuse unwise people attached to worldly activity. But he should try to bring such their activity into harmony with Me.

3:27. All actions arise from the three gunas. But the one deluded by conceit thinks: “I am the doer!”.

3:28. But he who knows the essence of discrimination of actions according to the gunas and remembers that “gunas move around in gunas” — he gets liberated from the worldly activity.

3:29. People deluded by the gunas are attached to the matters of these gunas. The wise one does not disturb such people whose knowledge is not complete yet and who are lazy.

3:30. Let Me control all actions; and you, immersed into the Atman, calm, free from selfishness and conceit, — fight, O Arjuna!

3:31 They who steadily follow My Teachings, who are full of devotion and free from envy — they can never be bound by action!

3:32. And those insane who revile My Teachings and do not follow them, who are devoid of understanding — know that they are doomed!

3:33. Wise people seek to live in harmony with prakriti. All incarnate creatures are included in it! What can opposition to prakriti give?

3:34. Attraction and distraction to (earthly) objects depends on the distribution of indriyas. Yield neither to the first nor to the second: verily, these states are obstacles on the Path!

3:35. To perform one’s own duties, even very modest ones, is better than to perform other’s duties, even the grandest ones. It is better to end the incarnation performing one’s own dharma: the dharma of others is full of danger.

Arjuna said:

3:36 What does drive man to commit sin against his will, O Varshneya? Truly, it is like he being impelled by some unknown force.

The Blessed One said:

3:37. It is lust, it is anger — scions of the insatiable, sinful guna rajas. Study them — one’s greatest enemies on the Earth!

3:38 As a flame can be veiled by smoke, as a mirror can be covered by dust, as an embryo is enveloped in amnion, so is everything in the world enshrouded in passions!

3:39. The wisdom too is enshrouded by this eternal enemy of the wise — the desire of the worldly, which is insatiable as a flame!

3:40. Indriyas, including the mind and buddhi are the field of its action. Through them, having enshrouded the wisdom, it deludes the indweller of the body.

3:41. Therefore, controlling your indriyas, O best of the Bharatas, restrain this source of sin — the foe of knowledge and the destroyer of wisdom.

3:42. They say that control over the indriyas is good. The highest of the indriyas are the indriyas of mind. But the developed consciousness is superior to the mind. And superior to a developed (individual human) consciousness is He.

3:43. Knowing that He is superior to developed (human) consciousness and being established in the Atman, destroy, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of the hard-to-conquer desire of “earthly” boons.

Thus in the upanishads of the blessed Bhagavad Gita, the Science of Eternal, the Scripture of yoga, says the third conversation between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, entitled:

Karma Yoga.